Wild juxtapositions: Paw Patrol and Eminem as a grandpa (Ep.27)
Sneak peek of Episode 27
Show notes and sneak peek
Laura and Kori finally are able to connect and recap after several months of life moving at the speed of a million WTFs per hour. 🙂Last time we chatted, Joe Biden was campaigning for president, Hurricane Helene hadn’t hit Appalachia yet, and Eminem wasn’t a grandfather.
In our personal lives, we chat about Kori's work with the National School Climate Center, her beloved housecleaner, preschool adjustments. Laura shares a funny story about one of her unnamed children playing the recorder and hitting a surprise note. She also talks about parenting a child who’s best friend sustained a serious injury. So many questions to answer and emotions to process. We quickly talked about the Mayor of New York’s indictment, the Diddy indictments and the weird connection to Costco baby oil, a recent Saturday Night Live cold open, how we’re rewatching movies from our childhood without kids (and noticing how much has changed socially in our lifetime) and of course, we get to the big stuff.
We point out the ridiculousness of sending billions to Israel (under a Democratic president) to purchase bombs used in a genocide while the Republican party can’t seem to find it in their hearts to vote to fund FEMA. This juxtaposition of values, investments, and lack of investment really smacks us in the face. Helene really shows us how quickly and unexpectedly we could become climate refugees - and yet the immigration crisis continues and politicians dehumanize folks who are displaced, seeking a better life - even legally! (see Haitians in Springfield, Ohio). We see how communications devices are turned into explosive devices in Lebanon as Israel attacks a sovereign nation, yet we (rightly) balk when Putin invades Ukraine. We have no coherent foreign policy and it’s so hard to stomach the hypocrisy. Same in our presidential election. We have someone with 34 felonies, twice impeached, and a convicted rapist practically tied with a woman of color who’s uniquely qualified. All this to say - vote - and look into your early voting options so you know your vote is in!
We shift to the topic of school shootings and the regular practice of lockdown drills for our little ones - and yet this topic was missing from the presidential debate?!? Kori and Laura disagree about the saliency and likelihood of change related to common sense gun reform. We pivot though to the need to see the big picture and identify the connections between the conflicts and injustices in the world. Where there is a threat to power, there is violence and oppression. Prison systems, Sudan and Congo, Israel, the NRA and guns in schools, successful Black enclaves like in Central Park. It’s all a manifestation of colonialism and white supremacy in our world.
We end in a call to look for the juxtapositions of our policies and our proclaimed values. What do we do and what do we say we care about? We remind listeners that our futures, as humans, are tied. Whatever we permit against one group of people will eventually be used against us. See the current injustices as canary in the coal mine. Find ways to resist. Use your voice, intentionally pursue joy, and exercise empathy and compassion every chance you get.
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Resources
And an awesome Street Corn Tacos recipe, courtesy of Kroger!
Transcript
[00:00:00] Kori: Oh, I lost my earbud. Oh no, come back. Where did they go? Come back. Oh, good luck. Can I
[00:00:06] Laura: be on the floor trying to find this thing?
[00:00:08] Kori: Can you hear me? No, it's I can hear me. Yeah, can you hear me? I hear you. Okay, good. I hear you. Yeah. In Paw Patrol. Paw Patrol. Like the movies. Paw Patrol. Paw Patrol, be there on the double.
Yeah, yeah, whenever you're in trouble. Chase, Marley, I don't know, all their names. It's been a while. But there's like Mayor Humdinger. Yes. Is like a cat person. Yes. Right? And so he goes to Adventure City to become the mayor and now dogs are banned. And he's kidnapping all the dogs.
[00:00:36] Laura: Well, I have stepped away from Paw Patrol for a hot minute.
These plots are advancing.
[00:00:40] Kori: Mm hmm. It's the, it's the second movie. They are kidnapping all of the dogs because he's a cat person. And so he wants to get all the dogs out of the city,
[00:00:50] Laura: off the street. Are the writers of Paw Patrol in the allegory business and trying to warn us about November? What the hell?
Hey, welcome to Pushing Past Polite, where we talk about what matters and make the world more just. I'm Laura. I'm Kori. We're so glad
[00:01:17] Kori: to be together.
[00:01:18] Laura: Yes. I mean, don't worry about our friendship. We have certainly still seen each other and connected and talked over these last few months, but there's just not been time to record y'all.
[00:01:26] Kori: No.
[00:01:27] Laura: Life is moving. Life is moving. A million WTFs per second. School, school
[00:01:33] Kori: life is like a whole thing. The activities. I've been to more birthday parties
[00:01:38] Laura: between
[00:01:39] Kori: July. I got one tonight.
[00:01:43] Laura: Now you have a new line item in your budget called birthday parties, both for your child and for other childs. Other childs.
[00:01:51] Kori: I gotta go get, get the child, child's gifts today. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:01:56] Laura: Can I tell you something that I started doing now? Again, your, your boys are still little, but they have little friends who like something to open. My kids are medium age here where they're digging gift cards. I just buy a stack of gift cards at one time and keep them in my house because inevitably somebody will bring home an invitation or it'll get found in the bottom of the backpack and it's like, it's this Saturday or it's today.
Can we go? Yes. Get you a card. Get you a card.
[00:02:22] Kori: That's what I, that's what I need to do. I keep like, you know, just blank cards. Yeah. So if I need to just like do a quick, uh, happy birthday note. Yeah. Throw some stickers on it or something. Yeah. Smart. Um, to make it festive. But I like this idea of gift cards because I think even with all the giving we do for our staff, like the teachers and and friends and, you know, like giving.
Somebody had a rough day. You found out your teacher
[00:02:46] Laura: was out sick for the weekend. Bam. Grab a card. Yeah. Grab a card. I also buy, um, generic to your point, like sort of blank cards, but not like occasion blank cards. So I have a whole box of kid themed birthday cards. I have a whole box of sympathy. I have a whole box of birthday and all.
[00:03:02] Kori: Yeah. Okay. I need to get there. Actually, maybe you could do that for me. Let's have a, let's set a budget. And um, I think we should lean it. Yeah, let's do that. Thanks, Laura. Ship to your house. I'm on it. I'm on it. Yeah, ship to your house. LifeWife services at my fingertips. God, we have
[00:03:16] Laura: so much to talk about.
Okay, so. Let's just kind of do like a time back, time machine, like a way back time machine to the last time we talked, if you recall, think about how far we've cut, like we were still talking in summer, before summer, and Joe Biden was still the candidate, right? Like, hello, a lot has happened. Yeah. Don't think we'd had an assassination attempt yet, maybe one, certainly not two.
[00:03:39] Kori: Yeah.
[00:03:40] Laura: Um, did we have
[00:03:42] Kori: two, actually? Yeah.
[00:03:46] Laura: I
[00:03:46] Kori: feel like there's so little information about it that like,
[00:03:49] Laura: Yep. Okay. Um, this is pre hurricane Helene, which has now happened and certainly other hurricanes and storms that don't get as much attention. Pre both of our vacations. Pre beginning of school. So all of that. Um, Yeah, that's just, just a little in a nutshell, like we have to almost like we've had, we've had how many birthdays in, in our homes?
Plenty. Plenty. Since, right?
[00:04:17] Kori: It's
[00:04:17] Laura: like the girls.
[00:04:19] Kori: The girls. Jay had a birthday.
[00:04:22] Laura: That's a lot.
[00:04:22] Kori: So like we've, we've aged up people in our homes. We
[00:04:26] Laura: leveled up. We've done well visits. We've done all the things. We've done well
[00:04:30] Kori: visits. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:04:32] Laura: Yeah. So just. an acknowledgement that we've been gone for a hot second and we're probably going to pepper in these pieces as we go.
Um, but some of this is just like a catch up episode because so much has happened. So much. And can I also point out something else I noticed this morning on social media? What's that? Um, Eminem is a grandfather, like Eminem's child is having a child. Yeah. You didn't know that? No. How old are we? How old are we?
We're that old. Eminem is a grandfather? Yeah. I mean, technically, I guess if you're 20 when you have a kid, and then your kid's 20 when they have a kid, you're 40 and a grandparent, but, oh, wow.
[00:05:09] Kori: Yeah.
[00:05:10] Laura: Wow. Um, that kind of blew my mind. I
[00:05:12] Kori: mean, Snoop Dogg is a grandfather several times over. Yeah, but he's,
[00:05:16] Laura: he, I don't see him as a peer.
He was a cool look up to adult when I was a kid. I mean, but
[00:05:20] Kori: he's like your husband's age.
[00:05:23] Laura: Oh, God. I'm married. I'm married. I'm just,
[00:05:25] Kori: I mean, I'm just saying, like, Is that true? Is he really? Yeah, he's like, Is 50s? Yeah,
[00:05:31] Laura: he's not that old. He's lived a life. My fresh faced baby husband has not lived a life like that man has probably lived a life, but so noted.
[00:05:40] Kori: Um, Snoop Dogg is 52. Damn! They are peers. They are I told you! You're absolutely right. Oh, wow. Yeah. So, I mean, so that's what I'm saying. I'm not, like, that surprised by, uh, Eminem, Marshall Mathers.
[00:06:06] Kori: Eminem is 51. What? Yes. He and Snoop are, like, the same. Clearly. Yeah.
[00:06:14] Laura: I misjudged all of this.
[00:06:16] Kori: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're like, he's like a decade ahead of us.
[00:06:20] Laura: Thank God. Let's keep him there.
[00:06:21] Kori: Yeah.
So, but I mean, that, that is, makes it feel a little different, right? Yeah. Being 51 and a grandfather as opposed to being 45, 42 and a grandfather. Yeah.
[00:06:28] Laura: No, thank you. I feel better. You're welcome. I'm not missing anything. I'm just where I'm meant to be in the universe. Yes. We're all good. Yes. We're all good.
[00:06:38] Kori: Okay. What's new with you? Uh, what's new with me? It, this is, we've been just like on a running, running cycle. And, um, I mean, what I came back from vacation and the following week I did three, six hour full day trainings. Wow. The following week. And then, um, two weeks later I did another set of trainings. We, I, we've launched a course that I'm facilitating with the National School Climate Center.
And that started on Tuesday night. I have been out of my house almost every night this week, and you know for me, that is like a ste ruggle. Big deal. Big deal. And so, like, getting home at 7 or 8 or finishing, like, my day at 7 or 8 in the evening is, you know, not my jam. But that's been like every time yesterday I was a zombie in the morning and I had to just like Dan was like, do you need to go lay down?
Yeah, I do. I just like laid down for just like 10 minutes, you know, um, and then we have another thing tonight and then another thing tomorrow night. Are these school related or are these
[00:07:46] Laura: life?
[00:07:47] Kori: So yeah, some of it. Yeah. So it's like the, I was teaching on Tuesday. That was the first class. The other days were school related events.
Um, and then tonight is a birthday gathering for one of my son's friends, their little crew of boys that we hang with. Um, tomorrow there's an event. I don't know if I'm going or not. I think Daniel's going. I don't, I just, I don't know. I think Daniel's going. So it's going to be like a special night with me and the boys kind of thing.
So I'm trying to figure out what we're going to do. My parents are in town. You know, we're just like, we've just been, Oh my gosh, this is going to be like the silliest, but like one of the best pieces of news. I got my house, my uh, housekeeper, um, my cleaning woman back.
[00:08:35] Laura: Aww. When you say back, what happened?
Well, you know. Isn't it that she didn't come when you moved to this house? Because it was a service area?
[00:08:43] Kori: She came, she came, no, she comes this far. She came a couple of times when I first moved here. It was just like, our schedules weren't matching up, you know? Jay was still very small, and so he was sleeping a lot more, and napping, and, and, you know, so she would start her work, and then I would be like, Can you not vacuum up here?
Because I need it when the baby down kind of thing. And then I was also kind of doing some traveling, and so I kept having to cancel on her. And I didn't like doing that because this is her livelihood. And so if she needed to create the space in her schedule for somebody else, I wanted to give her the opportunity to do that.
Right. And so she did. And so then I just like, over these last, I think two years, I've like, just periodically sent her a message like, Hey, do you have any, right, basically. And so she finally did. We, she came on Monday and it feels. So great. Oh, that's wonderful. It's like, her kids are older, her son has graduated from college, her daughter's now in middle school, um, she has a helper, so she's not doing it all by herself, and she is just excellent.
[00:09:56] Laura: Oh,
[00:09:57] Kori: and that's
[00:09:57] Laura: so nice, that's a, that's such a gift to yourself. It really is. And you don't
[00:10:00] Kori: have
[00:10:01] Laura: a baby upstairs
[00:10:01] Kori: napping, cause they're at school. Cause they're all in school, yeah, so that's another big thing, and Jay was crying every day for the first almost three weeks. And now he's good. He jumps out and he's happy and, um, G is happy.
And
[00:10:18] Laura: like, they're good. I'm so glad to hear that, by the way. I know we were, we had been talking about it and like, is this too much for him? Are we pushing too fast? When you're in that middle of the transition, it's hard to know. Do we push forward? Do we pull back? You did the right thing. Yeah.
[00:10:32] Kori: Yeah. You should see how just he's developed, like his communication is off the charts.
Mm
[00:10:40] G: hmm.
[00:10:40] Kori: Um, Nessa came and, and, um, visited and She was like, I just saw him two months ago, and it's a
[00:10:50] Laura: totally different world. Totally different world. Oh, wonderful. Totally
[00:10:54] Kori: different world. He's, he has all these associations. You know, my parents are here. So he's like, do you love your mom and your dad? Those are your parents.
You are my parent. Oh my gosh. That's my brother. We
[00:11:08] Laura: did a unit on families. Yes. And I have all kinds of new vocabulary. Oh, that's fabulous. To label my life. That's precious. Oh, I'm so proud. You didn't, you did great. It's pretty great. It's pretty sweet to just observe and he's proud and excited. Yeah. It's like a rocket ship, man.
Once they, once they get around other peers and have responsibilities and a place to be, it is
[00:11:34] Kori: Yeah,
[00:11:34] Laura: lights on all over the place and
[00:11:37] Kori: she just started getting a little like a little sheet of homework each night And so now he's like, okay, I'm ready to do my homework now You know, he's every day and mamacita will help him with his homework.
[00:11:50] Laura: So That's a little early for homework. Sorry side note. It's just like one long as he doesn't mind it Yeah. As long as he's excited about it, just a heads
[00:11:59] Kori: up. And it's re it's literally reinforcing, like, I was way behind, I didn't realize that that's what it was, right? They're like, oh, we're sending some work home.
I didn't realize what it actually was. So I was like, okay, cool.
[00:12:09] Laura: One day. Uh huh. When I have time. And yeah.
[00:12:12] Kori: Never. And then in my group chat with the other moms that I talk with, they were like, yeah, they started sending home homework. I was like, that's what those blank sheets, sheets are. Do
[00:12:23] Laura: you, can you help me with the Pythagorean theorem?
You're like, Oh shit, what have we missed? Lord, what have we missed?
[00:12:29] Kori: Mm hmm. Good. As long as it's something
[00:12:31] Laura: he takes, he takes joy in and it's part of his routine. That sounds great. And
[00:12:34] Kori: it's reinforcing like his day. So like I was trying to get him to work on the L sheet and he was like, we didn't do L's today.
We did F's. So I'll do the out of here with your L's. L's, okay? Get the F in here. Get that F in here. You need to take
[00:12:49] Laura: that L and leave. And leave. And leave that F front and center. Because I know what an F and L sound like. So cute. So cute. So, so, so cute. Yeah. Um, one of my kids started playing recorder. I will na I will not name which child.
And of course they play Hot Cross Buns. Remember that song?
[00:13:06] Kori: Yes. Pretty little, uh
[00:13:08] Laura: huh. hot cross. Okay. Uh huh. My, so this child was eating dinner the other night and humming hot cross buns. Uh huh. And when at the end, do do do do do do do do do hot cross, she ripped a fart on the word buns. Of course she did.
So loud. So we know which child it is. Okay. Fine. I can't wait. She ripped a fart on the word buns. And we laughed. Yeah. Oh my God. I said, did you plan that? She goes, I knew it was coming, but I didn't know it was going to come on that word. The timing would be so good. Come on. Then we had street corn tacos that night and street corn tacos came out of her face all over me.
It was, you were laughing so hard. I didn't care. It was amazing. It was amazing. I have a great recipe for street corn tacos if you want. Great. Yes, I do. Thank you. Straight corn chicken tacos. Sorry to clarify. Let's do it on it, on it, on it. Um, I also had a challenging parent, new parenting experience, and I'm not trying to center us or ourselves in this story because it was much more traumatic for another family.
But one of my baby's best friends experienced traumatic brain injury, and it was really touch and go there for a little while, for a couple of days. Um, When I first found out, I'm like, do I even tell her? I need information. Cause she's going to have questions. A lot of questions. And I am amazed, but here we are probably about a month out and this little girl just returned to school and she is herself, the mom brought lunch for the two of them for my baby and her baby and they had lunch together in a quiet room cause she's still recovering from her concussion.
Yeah. Incredible. Just the sweetest. She's coming tonight for a sleepover. It is to go from like, I don't know how to talk about this really difficult thing with my child to let's celebrate your friend is back was just quite the journey.
[00:14:50] Kori: And just like. I learned a huge learning journey, right? Of navigating that, supporting your child through their emotions and questions and ideas and supporting that other family.
Yes. Through that very, very, very frightening that had to have been frightening. Oh my God.
[00:15:07] Laura: I mean, I was, my heart was in my throat. And it's not my child, right? I care about this little girl for sure, but I just can't imagine. Yeah. I mean, I think back to the one or two little hospital experiences we've had with our kiddos and how scary that felt at the time.
Yeah. And this is, you know, next level stuff. So yeah, totally. So happy. So, so, so happy to see the girls back together again. It's pretty lovely. Nice. Um, yeah. Eminem. I know I wrote down, I was like, what are the things do I want to make sure I talk about Eminem, hot cross buns. and traumatic brain injury. So if somebody ever finds that sticky note somewhere, you'd be like, what is going on?
[00:15:42] Kori: How does this, how does she go together? Right. Right. Right. Did, was there an intervention for this? Uh, Eminem, hot cross buns, traumatic brain injury. Is she okay?
[00:15:52] Laura: Is she okay? We are worried. We are worried. She's
[00:15:55] Kori: telling us something. Is there
[00:15:56] Laura: something she wants us to know? Um, what do we want to talk about today?
There's so much going on in the world. Domestically, abroad, we've got people hurting and suffering in Western North Carolina.
[00:16:09] Kori: Did you hear that they, that they're talking about, we gave them a check for 750. Who is they? FEMA? That's what the vice president said that FEMA gave. And then did you see that FEMA is in a like 8 billion deficit, but we're, but That's almost the exact amount of money we, we approved in our sales to Israel.
[00:16:33] Laura: Now again, I'm not one, I want to, I want to pause and say, I'm not one who's big on this America first, America first, America first stuff, right? So I'm not trying to take that anthem here and say, we got problems here because sometimes it is a both end, right? Sometimes we do need to invest in foreign policy, but
[00:16:49] Kori: we, we've sent billions and billions and billions.
They've gotten billions already. And it's that that money is
[00:16:55] Laura: being used to fund a genocide. This is not just like, Hey, let's for the sake of world peacekeeping or for the sake of development in an ally nation, we're going to do this. No, we are literally there's blood and a military offensive. Yes, a genocide in a whole another sovereign nation.
We're about to start a regional. Well, we're, we're involved whether we, whether our troops are there or not. We're supplying all the weapons. So we're, we're all over it. We're writing the fucking checks. Yeah. We're writing the checks. And so in against that, our people are getting 750. That's right. That's right.
So against that backdrop, I particularly find this offensive. Yes. Right? I'm not saying we never invest elsewhere. It's only about our people. I'm not saying that. But to know this against this backdrop, this juxtaposition.
[00:17:45] Kori: It's
[00:17:45] Laura: like my mom,
[00:17:46] Kori: I remember being a teenager and we, like, you know, both of us grew up in the church, right?
The, the, the extent to which we were acculturated into that society might be a little bit different, but we were both up in there, right? And so I remember going, yeah, I remember going on a youth retreat and back in those days we had a Suburban. And I was trying to make room for somebody and I like pulled out something of mine to put something of theirs in and I was going to go find another, try to find another space for something of mine.
And my mom was like, you don't ever put yourself out to accommodate somebody else. Right? It's like, if there isn't room in the vehicle for their stuff, then they need to find another space for it to be, but you don't take your stuff out of your vehicle to accommodate somebody else. And I feel like that's kind of what's happening here.
It's like we're taking our tax dollars out of our country to support a genocide and the people who are experiencing real life, natural disasters don't have access to anything.
[00:18:52] Laura: And the fact that most of this is going to fall under flooding and not be covered in homeowners insurance. House. Because, you know, again, who thinks if you're not in a floodplain and you're not living on the coast, you're not required to get flood insurance.
Let me tell you what went on my to do list this week investigating that now again, can we afford it? I have no idea what it would be, but if it's a nominal little add on, you better believe I'm adding it.
[00:19:15] Kori: Yeah. Um,
[00:19:16] Laura: and I, you know, I, in no way am I trying to say like, I'm smarter than these people for anticipating this in no way.
How? How? 300 miles in from the coast. Would you think this would be, you know, ground zero for this? An issue, something that
[00:19:29] Kori: you have to deal with at all. The stories
[00:19:31] Laura: are heartbreaking.
[00:19:33] Kori: And also, how would you think that no one would show up? Except we have a pattern. Our, our government has a pattern of doing this, of not showing up.
Like, look at Hawaii, Lahaina. Those people are still displaced. Mm hmm. Right? It was the same kind of thing. We, they got that one shit, that one time. Well, and
[00:19:52] Laura: I don't know that our government isn't showing up. I saw, uh slide this morning about all the Republican and Democratic governors of place of these states that are impacted, thanking the federal response.
I don't know, but I am, you know what I do know if I was a family or an individual who had lost everything, whatever it was, wouldn't be enough.
[00:20:09] Kori: Right.
[00:20:10] Laura: Right. So I just want to say like that feeling of it's not enough is very valid and real amidst all this destruction. And that's not to say that our government isn't doing anything.
I don't know. I just am not saying they're not
[00:20:21] Kori: doing. Anything, but I would say we can put
[00:20:24] Laura: that eight billion to use over here. Couldn't we? That's all I'm saying. Yeah, that's all I'm saying. And then also to knowing what I know about Appalachia, you know, this is an area that has experienced some back to back devastations and opioid crisis and disinvestment from jobs leaving and woof.
I mean, how do you rebuild this? Right? Yeah. Yeah. It's breaking my heart and hearing all the human interest stories that relate to this. The people, you know, the individual stories of a 75 year old, I'd heard on the daily, the New York times daily, a 75 year old man clinging to a tree for hours, but, and the rescue comes, but they can't put a raft in, into these raging waters.
Right. You know, just wild stuff, wild
[00:21:08] Kori: stuff. But climate change is real. I mean, yeah, we're living through it. We're seeing it 300 miles in from the coast is flooded. Suddenly you
[00:21:20] Laura: are potentially a climate refugee. Yeah. So as we think about how we treat people who need to come to this country, who need for relief and, and, and, uh, Uh, like relief from oppression, relief from climate disasters, whatever, yet for the grace of God would go I, right?
Yeah. This can happen anywhere to anyone. We thought democracy was a sure thing. Look at who's not, look at who's challenging for office right now and what he says he would do. Yeah. We could be political refugees in a moment. Yeah. We
[00:21:49] Kori: are humans together. Or we could be refugees because someone comes and bombs us because we're providing bombs that are bombing other people.
Mm hmm. We're
[00:21:57] Laura: angering a good bit of the world, aren't we? Yeah. Yeah. With some capability. With some capability. Because we need that APEC money for our Yes. For our, uh, reelection. Our whatever. Our whatever. Give me a fucking break.
[00:22:08] Kori: Right. I was like looking, because you know, I'm in that DMV area and I was like watching those huge planes fly low.
Wow.
[00:22:21] G: Wow. Wow.
[00:22:21] Kori: Over. I'm like that is a weapons transfer.
[00:22:24] Laura: Holy shit. Wow.
[00:22:28] Kori: And you're seeing more and more of them.
[00:22:32] Laura: I also want to take a moment and say I do not equate Judaism with the state of Israel. And Zionism. And Zionism. I do not equate every Israeli citizen with being in lockstep with Netanyahu. I just want to, again, there needs to be nuance in every conversation.
And I also do
[00:22:47] Kori: not equate people who are naming the genocide and who are For liberation to be anti semitic or terrorists or
[00:22:56] Laura: terrorists or
[00:22:57] Kori: any of that
[00:22:58] Laura: agree.
[00:22:58] Kori: Yeah,
[00:22:59] Laura: because there are people on all sides that are advocating for the right thing. Yes.
[00:23:03] Kori: Yeah. Meanwhile, the mayor of New York has been indicted.
Diddy has been indicted.
[00:23:08] Laura: Costco. Who knew Costco was going to come up in the news of that way? Oh, I didn't hear about that. Oh, Diddy's parties, they would get skids of baby oil from
[00:23:17] Kori: God's
[00:23:18] Laura: goat.
[00:23:19] Kori: I know, I heard that there were like, basically pallets of baby oil, but did you hear one of the reasons they had them?
[00:23:26] Laura: I don't want to know. Do
[00:23:27] Kori: I want to know? I don't think you want to know.
Laura: Costco's like, get our name off of this. Get our name off of this. Discontinue all baby oil from here on out.
It's a
[00:24:05] Kori: list of people who are. Getting intermingled and being named and like, it is like, holy macaronis
[00:24:16] Laura: what y'all be doing in your free time.
[00:24:18] Kori: Yeah, but also it's like, this is a really, like a distraction, like, come on. This is just, there's so many other important things and this is showing up so much in every space, right?
Like, there are so many feeds, you can find something.
[00:24:37] Laura: Yeah, I'm not paying attention to that. Apparently it's not bombarding me. And I think I need, I officially, after this conversation, know all I need to know.
[00:24:44] Kori: Yes, you do good.
[00:24:46] Laura: I can turn that off. Turn that chapter.
[00:24:47] Kori: Yes, because yeah, yeah. It's like people who I follow on social.
are now being like named, right? So it's like they're, because I follow some of those people, it's showing up in my feed because it's like hashtagging their names
[00:25:04] G: and
[00:25:05] Kori: stuff.
[00:25:06] Laura: Oops. Oops. Oops. Um, speaking of in my feed, I got. the cold open of Saturday Night Live this week with Maya Rudolph playing Kamala with Jim Gaffigan, the comedian playing Tim Walz.
He was more Tim Walz than Tim Walz. That's hilarious. Um, Oh God, it was fantastic. Uh, Andy Samberg as Doug Emhoff. My favorite line of the whole thing was, um, Kamala said, it's like, of course, Maya does everything about the inflection and the hand motions perfectly, which I cannot do. But she said, it's like I tell Doug when he leaves his glasses at the Chili's.
We are not going back. It was so funny. It was so funny. That's great. Yeah, and then there was the, it was the, Concept of the cold open was the Trump rally and the Kamala rallies and contrasting them. And then so the Trump rally, you see him speaking behind bulletproof glass. Then they introduced JD Vance and they moved the bulletproof glass.
Yeah. It's okay. You're good. You know, he really wasn't a great pick after all. I'm not trying to say anybody should hurt anyone, but Oh Lordy. Okay. So yeah, I think we could find that budget shortfall real quick. Couldn't we for FEMA? I feel like it. I mean, it's not hard. If I go through with a highlighter, yeah, I am.
Ooh, bam.
[00:26:24] Kori: Ooh,
[00:26:25] Laura: there's this so weird.
[00:26:27] Kori: So weird. It's like a bill. It's just a random number. And we just happened to find it just happened to be spending it here and not have it here. Take a little x, draw a line, a little arrow
[00:26:39] Laura: over here. And let me just initial that for you. Right, right, right. Okay. 10 for 24 finished.
Don updated budget approve. We fixed it.
[00:26:49] Kori: Yeah.
[00:26:49] Laura: We fixed it. Yeah.
[00:26:51] Kori: Ugh. Mm hmm. And the death tolls are just rising. I know. It's just like every day. Every day. And the thought of people missing
[00:26:58] Laura: in this context where you don't have cell service and you don't have food and you don't have
[00:27:02] Kori: Or the thought of your cell being the bomb.
Yeah.
[00:27:07] Laura: Making the connection in case people don't know, Israel planning a long term, long term planning on this attack to distribute pagers and phones that would turn into explosive devices, killing, I think it was Hundreds
[00:27:21] Kori: of people. Yeah.
[00:27:23] Laura: Often in Or injuring hundreds. In civilian
[00:27:25] Kori: situations. High civilian dense populations or areas.
Mm hmm. Mm
[00:27:31] Laura: hmm. So, so, okay, so let's take that. If Israel has that kind of capability. for going after its enemies. It's enemies is loosely, right? We'll say it's enemies, like, I don't know that they really got everybody they intended to get, and instead a lot of other children died, which is still pretty goddamn terrible, but this is on brand.
If we can do that, why are we indiscriminately dropping bombs on schools, on hospitals, on refugee camps? Yep. On, on places of worship. Churches.
[00:27:58] Kori: Mosques. Universities. Schools. And orphanages. Orphanages. Um, what do you call, like, the U. N. has, like, you know, the places where they're organizing food and Like a relief area.
Yeah, work relief areas. Yeah. Relief spaces. World Central
[00:28:18] Laura: kitchen. Mm hmm.
[00:28:19] G: Mm hmm.
[00:28:20] Kori: It's like moreeverybody has died in this conflict than any other conflict ever. Like more doctors, more journalists, more, uh, aid workers, more
[00:28:32] Laura: all of one type of people. Our communities need all kinds of professions to survive. And
[00:28:37] Kori: when you, and when you destroy all the infrastructure, like literally you just are making these spaces completely unlivable. It's just, it's, it's like, it's, it has been too much for 11 months. Agree. It's just too much. And the red line keeps moving.
[00:29:06] Laura: It's such a joke.
[00:29:07] Kori: There isn't one. There is not one. There is just no line. There has been talk of a red line. Right, there isn't one, because like, there is a ground offensive moving into a sovereign nation, and we are okay with that, and we're condemning Iran.
What's happening here? If that was Russia or China doing that, we would just be, uh, lost our fucking minds. Heck, it is Russia
[00:29:32] Laura: doing that.
[00:29:33] Kori: Yes, and we are. So we have the juxtaposition. I think that's the other part that's actually mind boggling. It's like, we literally have this, these two narratives happening simultaneously.
This
[00:29:45] Laura: is our policy. No, this is our policy. This is our policy. Nope, not over here. Look over here. Bird.
[00:29:49] Kori: Squirrel. Yeah, right, right, right, right, right. You know what? We're going to have them investigate that. I'm not really aware of that happening. We're going to have them look into it.
[00:29:57] Laura: I like that scene to carry forward.
Juxtapositions. We've got foreign policy with no coherent theme, other than just whatever our interests are in murder. Yep. Yep. Right? And then at the same time, juxtapositions on our ticket. I'm not saying any one person has all the answers. I am not thrilled with positions of either candidate to a hundred degree, a hundred percent.
But let me tell you something, voting is like mass transit. You get as close as you want to go, and my choice is clear, but we've got some, a black woman who is a black Asian American woman who is accomplished out the wazoo, who is qualified up and down this ticket, and a really good decent human being as her vice president.
And then we've got somebody with 34 felonies. So far, he tried to overthrow democracy, who's a rapist, and he picks this smooth talking guy who used to call him Hitler a year ago. That's our juxtaposition. I saw a meme and it was people from other countries looking at the American election saying it's like 49%, 49%, 1 percent undecided or whatever, and or 2 percent undecided.
And the choice is like a puppy for everyone or eternal diarrhea.
[00:31:06] Kori: Hmm.
[00:31:07] Laura: Why are we tied? Look at this juxtaposition.
[00:31:10] Kori: Yeah.
[00:31:11] Laura: How can this be? Mm hmm. Mm hmm. How can this literally, on FiveThirtyEight. com, looking at the stats and running models, how can it be that there is literally an equal chance either one will win?
Because some people
[00:31:21] Kori: hate puppies that much. Well, I'll take your puppy. Yeah, but no. I'll raise the
[00:31:25] Laura: puppy for you.
[00:31:26] Kori: I don't know. I think all the puppies should be dead. And so, I would rather choose diarrhea, and so all the puppies, so all the puppies will be dead.
[00:31:36] Laura: Because I'm a cat person. Mm hmm. Yeah. Right.
What the
[00:31:38] Kori: fuck?
[00:31:39] Laura: Right? Um, quick reminder, early voting is happening in many, many, many states, all but I think five. I'll have to look up what I, what I researched. I don't know that you're in the early voting window for every state, but I'm pretty sure we're getting there. We're five weeks out at the time of this recording.
I have already voted. I can't tell you now, mind you, my vote is not enough. I need to put some work in as well. And I plan to, um, but I can't tell you the, Deep breath of relief for me, just knowing that my vote was in and was counted. It was huge because I always worry, what if I get COVID? What if, you know, what if I said something happens that would keep me from going on election day?
Now, I don't think much could keep me, but God forbid, right? You're in a car accident, whatever. So I just wanted to get it done and know that it was finished. Um, so it's finished.
[00:32:25] Kori: Yeah. We're Maryland is in a, Early voting
[00:32:29] Laura: window. Yep.
[00:32:30] Kori: Yep.
[00:32:30] Laura: Most are. So find out, look up your jurisdiction and find out, Google you the name of your county or city, plus early voting.
You will find locations, you will find times, all of that. Oh my gosh, my baby is, my dog is dreaming under the desk really loudly. That's so funny. It must be good. Must be good. She's dreaming of early voting. Right. Um, okay, early voting. We need to fix the budget and slide that eight bill right on over to Appalachia and everybody else.
The Georgia shooting at a school first week back after Labor Day. That's how you know what season it is in America. School's back in session. Go pick your pumpkins and get a bulletproof vest for your kiddo. And
[00:33:11] Kori: so many police departments are out here just like, yeah, you know over the summer we were training in schools.
I'm like, is this really what we are doing? That we're We would rather perpetuate all this trauma and harm
[00:33:29] Laura: on our children, on
[00:33:31] Kori: our children,
[00:33:32] Laura: my children who have another lockdown drill today, you know, second, third of the year.
[00:33:36] Kori: It was happening up here too, not in the, not in the school where my children attend, but in the middle school nearby that my nephew goes to and um, my nanny's son goes to.
And there were some days they just stayed, kept him home from school because it was happening every day. There was like a week. That it was like happening every day. There was a lot of copycats and
[00:33:56] Laura: internet threats following that Georgia shooting. Yeah, exactly. We had to, it was terrifying. I actually gave, I love our school district dearly.
It's very, um, while the school board is a hot mess of crazies, I am, uh, very, very grateful for the staff that provide steady leadership there, and I actually met with them and said, hey, in terms of communications for parent stress, and kids stress. Like, here's some things that maybe you do a little differently.
And they were super receptive. It was a great conversation, but you know that question, a question about gun safety, uh, especially in schools was completely missing from the presidential debate. Yup. That was a journalist choice. That was not the campaign's fault, but either campaign's fault for that matter.
It's rare that I'd give a pass to Trump, but here we go. Right. Um, But it was brought up in the presidential debate. I'm sorry, the vice presidential debate, October 1st.
[00:34:46] Kori: And uh, Here's the thing, Laura. What? Here's how I feel for real, on the real tip. It's like, I'm literally on the real tip. Is that a phrase I need to know?
Yeah. It could be done. We're supposedly in there right now, right? So like in office, like what is there to debate? We are in office right now. We could, our, the Democrats could be. Advancing legislation could be signing executive orders around this thing. So it's like, why aren't we? We don't have the house.
We don't have the house, but it's like, there is executive action, remember? Well, the Supreme Court said that the president could do whatever they want.
[00:35:31] Laura: Remember that? No, I mean, that's about immunity of crime. That's not saying that they have absolute authority to do whatever they want legislatively. This, I don't know, I don't know if an executive order would fix this.
I don't know. I'm not opposed to trying. I'm sure as hell not opposed to trying, but I know that a party that wears AR 15 buttons In their holiday cards and they're all packin heat and they keep sabotaging these bills
[00:35:55] Kori: over and over again. But that's my point. It's like, why aren't we trying something more drastic?
Pushing and
[00:36:01] Laura: pushing and pushing.
[00:36:02] Kori: That's all I'm saying. I'm pretty sure it's
[00:36:03] Laura: tabled. I'm pretty sure it's there. I don't know. I'm not saying. But, but, okay, so vote accordingly. Which party is talking about this in a way that sits well with your spirit as a parent?
[00:36:12] Kori: Nobody. Cause it should be done. Nobody gives a shit about our kids.
This has been going on for far too long. There's been Democrats in office, Republicans in office, Democrats in office, Republicans in office. This has been going on since we were kids. I know, I know. So, like, nobody gives a shit.
[00:36:28] Laura: Oh, and again, I'm not giving a free pass to Democrats on this. There could be more done, for sure.
There
[00:36:33] Kori: has, we have had the House. Like, it's like, we have, we have been through cycles where we could have done this. But we didn't. That's all I'm saying. So it's like, the gun, the gun debate, I feel like is another just distraction because it's one of those things that nobody actually gives a shit about because it's about money.
If it can't, if, if people really wanted to do something about it, it's the same argument every time. It's like, we just need common sense gun legislation. They've been saying that for 15 years. There have been opportunities to do it. And we have not taken advantage of those opportunities when we have had the power
[00:37:16] Laura: to
[00:37:16] Kori: do
[00:37:16] Laura: it.
[00:37:16] Kori: I hear you.
[00:37:17] Laura: I do have to push back. There was the ban on assault weapons for years and years and years and then it was overturned. Yes. So there was improvement. To say that apart, to say that people haven't done anything I don't think is right. But when was the ban on assault weapons? I need to look it up.
I need to Google. It was earlier. It was like in Early 2000s. Early aught. Early aughts, maybe? I, I think I, I say this to say, I, I plan on holding my legislators accountable. Whoever we, we put in office. But when the answers you get from what's his face? It
[00:37:49] Kori: was 94 to 2004. There you go. That was 20 years ago.
20
[00:37:55] Laura: years ago. But when Walz says, let's just get better locks on the doors, and Tim Walz actually admits that it's the guns. To me, I, I have to, I have to vote that way. I have to vote that way and then hold them accountable to your point to do more.
[00:38:15] Kori: I just, I think of it as a non issue is what I'm saying.
[00:38:18] Laura: I can't go there.
I can't be that cynical. I can't. I can't like, I can't wake up every day and send my kids to school if I felt that way. It's
[00:38:26] Kori: not a non issue for me. What choice do you have? I'm saying to them that it's all lip service and that it's one of those things that like, it doesn't matter what they say because they're not actually going to do anything about it.
That's how I feel. Like, they could say all That's what I'm saying. That's what I mean by That's what I mean by a non issue. It's like, if it was a priority, it would have been addressed. If our children mattered, it would be resolved. But instead, we're building cop cities, and we're policing, and we're trying to tr we're training police to have do active shooter drills.
We're traumatizing our children over and over and over again. We have our children pulling bodies into their classrooms. We're having our children, uh, experience this over generation, generation, gener after generation, like, If it was a priority, it would have been handled. I don't disagree. And it's not.
[00:39:14] Laura: I don't disagree that more could have been done.
I just know that this is something that galvanizes especially suburban women. I hope it's enough.
[00:39:26] Kori: Because we're all sending our kids to school. It's fucking terrifying. But we've all been sending our kids to school for 20 years is my point. That's
[00:39:32] Laura: my point. I don't disagree with you that it's gone on too long.
There is no question. There is no question that I wish there was more political will across everywhere to do more, but to say that we just have to accept it because they're not going to do anything is not something I can live with. That's where I am.
[00:39:49] Kori: I, I, I hear you. I know. And I hear you too. It's just like, yeah, I, I have no energy in that part of the debate because it's like, they're not going to actually do anything.
I'd rather focus on other things that they're talking about that. Show me who they are, because they've already shown me many times who they are in this respect. So, it's like, for me, the debates in general just felt like performance. They absolutely are performance. It's just performance. They are not the best
[00:40:16] Laura: way to get a sense of, because there's, you can lie, and there's minimal, J.
D. Vance said, I thought you weren't going to fact check me. He said the quiet part out loud. I'm not saying that every debate performance on the other side is perfect either, but it is designed to be a TV event for ratings. It's
[00:40:34] Kori: just theater. Yeah. So it's like, I don't, I don't care. I know. I know.
[00:40:39] Laura: Here I am biting my nails
[00:40:40] Kori: off.
It's just theater. Cause I, I wanted to see what you're actually going to do and you're showing me what you're going to do, you know,
[00:40:52] Laura: anyway, where do we want to pivot next as we round out our time? You know?
[00:40:58] Kori: I want to say that I think that this is a time in the world where, I don't know, I don't know if we're, I feel like we're still too focused on the narrow and we're not thinking enough about the whole.
[00:41:15] Laura: You're always my big picture person. I'm your details girl. Tell me what you're thinking. What are you seeing that we're not seeing?
[00:41:22] Kori: All these things are happening, are interrelated, right? They're connected. And so it's like. If someone is shipping billions of dollars of weapons to kill children over there, why do we think that anybody cares about children over here?
If we're allowing corporations to not have any consequences for, uh, child labor, horrendous conditions. In Sudan and the
[00:41:48] Laura: Congo.
[00:41:49] Kori: In Sudan, in the Congo, then why would we expect that those same people who are legislating here would have that concern about the children that are here? If we are willing. To continue to maintain, like, the confusion and imbalance and fund these, like, rebel groups to keep countries destabilized so that we can continue to, um, exploit our way,
[00:42:20] Laura: yes.
[00:42:20] Kori: exploit their resources, then like, why do we think that it, it is happening here? We're exploiting, we have a prison system that exploits black and brown people primarily, right? Like we have all these institutions in these United States. That are mirroring and mimicking the stuff that we're seeing out there because it's the same behaviors.
And so it's always interesting to me to hear the way in which if it's not like if someone doesn't know enough about it or it's not impacting them directly, then it's like a non issue. But like, it's like we're just next and that's how I see it. It's like if We've already bombed our own country, right? A black town in Philly.
We have drowned and burned out and beyond that, like Rosewood, like there's lists and lists and lists. Central Park used to be a black town. Dulles Airport used to be a black town, right? We've been doing this to people here forever. And so, like, the idea That America is better than that, to me, all of this stuff that's happening, it's like this is America.
All the things are happening globally. It's like this is America.
[00:43:50] Laura: This is a manifestation of colonialism and white supremacy in, around the world, and our dominance around the world. I know this is an audio medium, but Kori is very vehemently shaking her head vertically in a direction that means we agree.
[00:44:08] Kori: Affirmation and agreement. Yeah. A little worried
[00:44:10] Laura: about our neck, actually. Ruck stack.
[00:44:12] Kori: Yeah. I mean, like, why isn't Puerto Rico, why was Puerto Rico never made a state? Not that they want to be one, right? But like, we exploit that land and that property. We have full benefits. Without the
[00:44:26] Laura: responsibility and letting them vote.
[00:44:28] Kori: Yeah. Right? Like, that kind of stuff. We're living it. It's, it's happening. So, like, I don't know, I, I, I feel like there, there needs to be a pulling out of Not just self and the things that are only impacting me like the black women Mortality rate has been an issue forever But now it's so much more prominent because of the Roe v.
Wade thing that's impacting white women so much more.
[00:44:56] Laura: Mm hmm That's why it's getting a spotlight and you're seeing why it's getting
[00:44:59] Kori: all it's way more attention than it had been But it's been an issue in our community literally forever The, the current practices of, like, current gynecological practices were stolen and then practiced on Black women without their consent or permission.
[00:45:18] G: Yep. Yep.
[00:45:20] Kori: So it's like, to me, it's, it's like these things that were, these atrocities that we're seeing all over the globe are here. If you're not choosing to see it, you don't, and you, many people don't choose to see it until something related to their personal experience is at stake. So when all these Black women and Black babies were dying, nothing.
When, when the, there was a war on drugs when it was Black folks using drugs. It's a health, it's a health crisis when White folks are using drugs, right? It's a, it's a national emergency.
[00:46:00] G: Mm hmm. That.
[00:46:04] Kori: That piece, it's like, these are the same examples of the kinds of desperate ways that we view people on a global scale.
So
[00:46:12] Laura: it's a call maybe to, to look for the juxtaposition, the way we treat one versus our policy here, our policy here. What we care about here, what we say we care about here.
[00:46:22] Kori: And the same, and yes, it's like just how we're seeing the different perspective on how Russia is treating Ukraine, and Israel, and Lebanon, and Syria, and in Gaza, right?
Same kinds of behaviors, different kind of narrative and response. from our government, right?
[00:46:42] Laura: Or different behaviors, or sometimes different behaviors, to your point, about action and inaction, right? Or outrage versus Yeah, but I'm
[00:46:50] Kori: saying like, Israel and Russia are exhibiting the same behaviors. Right? Yes.
And, but our government. I thought you meant our
[00:46:57] Laura: behaviors were the same.
[00:46:58] Kori: Sorry. No, no, no. Like, they're exhibiting the same kind of behaviors, but our response to those behaviors are extremely different. Right? Black women have been dying. Babies have been dying for decades. And mothers. Yeah. And mothers. Yeah.
Women, mothers, right? But it's like, now that this is impacting white women more significantly with these abortion bans, now there's a different response.
[00:47:24] Laura: So it's a call for us to look inward and look at the juxtaposition.
[00:47:29] Kori: And also try to just see how, how when people are sharing their experiences, that like it should matter to you, even if it doesn't directly impact you.
Even if their skin color is
[00:47:40] Laura: different, their race is different, their religion is different. This is what I was saying is,
[00:47:45] Kori: we're next. There's always the thing that's we're next. So it's like, no one was paying attention to the, that's why I started with the black women's, uh, maternity mortality rate, right?
Because it's like, now you were next white ladies. Now we're now like everybody's having this experience in certain states, but we could have been advocating and fighting for this all more intentionally pointing to the data About what Black women were experiencing, but we weren't.
Yes. And now you're next. Now you're on the chopping block. And people are right to And people are
[00:48:28] Laura: surprised by that. I think that's the thing is, whenever there's, when something is done against a people group, whatever it is, by whomever, we are tied, our, our, our futures are tied.
[00:48:39] Kori: Yeah.
[00:48:40] Laura: And so, you know, whatever the it is, is it, you know, removal of rights?
Is it, you know, harm done to bodies, bombs being dropped on them, disenfranchisement? And if we're allowing it
[00:48:51] Kori: for one people group, then we're giving permission for it to happen be weaponized against any. Against anybody. Including our own. Exactly. And that's the point. That's what I'm getting at. Right?
It's like, we have to have that, that sense of collection, of being a collective, that if we can stamp this as being acceptable for anyone.
[00:49:11] Laura: Then it's acceptable for, for everyone. For everyone. Or anyone.
[00:49:15] Kori: Yeah, and we are anyone, right? We're part of that anyone, everyone.
[00:49:20] Laura: Yes.
[00:49:21] Kori: You know what I mean? That's the piece.
I wish more people could kind of just pull out and, and feel and see that like what's happening to them is happening to me.
[00:49:31] Laura: Yeah, it's the canary in the coal mine, right? This should be, this should be a very clear and dangerous signal to you. What's our call to action today? Apart from this, like, I think it's like, find
[00:50:07] Kori: your collective,
[00:50:08] Laura: like, you
[00:50:08] Kori: know,
[00:50:09] Laura: there are things that, cause this is really easy to get completely shut down over by the way.
Is it? Yeah, and I'm not faulting you, forgive me for interrupting you. It's really easy to say, this shit is going down everywhere and we are just, humanity is fucked. Look, it's really easy to park a car in that parking lot.
[00:50:27] Kori: Yeah, yeah, no, it's like the thing that's weird is, I mean, maybe I sound cynical, but I'm actually really hopeful.
Say more on that for the love. Because like, I have hope in humans and people, right? But the truth of what's happening is the truth. And so, if saying it makes me cynical, then that's. Like, sure, but the reality for me is that in being able to be in conversation with people about it, in being able to see how people are mobilizing around particular issues and supporting one another, in being able to see how messages are being elevated and shared, and to see that there is energy, outrage, sadness, fear, pain, angst, Right?
That people are feeling stuff is actually hopeful because the thing that gives you, that makes me feel stuck is when you look around and you're, and you see that everyone's just accepting what it is.
[00:51:31] Laura: Yeah. No, no emotional reaction. No mention.
[00:51:35] Kori: Right. And so it's like, I need there. I need to see the compassion, the compassion movement to take more flight,
[00:51:42] G: the
[00:51:42] Kori: empathy movement to take more flight.
Right? It's like, those babies in that rubble are our babies. Yes. Right? Those families are our families. Those are our friends. Those are our people. Because they all, we all belong to each other. And there is such a tiny group of people who are orchestrating, manipulating, profiting from our lack of connectedness.
Right? That, that lack of compassion for people over there. I've been noticing, and we've been watching some like older movies, and the things that I've been noticing in these movies are anti Arab sentiment, uh, misogyny at extremely, and sexism in like very high levels, and racism, right? Racist tropes just like embedded just out there.
So evident. Right? And then you wonder how people's mindsets have been shaped over these times. Shaped over time. And you're looking at these TV shows and these movies from the 80s and the 90s that we grew up on and you're like, dang, it's so obvious now, but it was not obvious to me then. It's like, this
[00:53:02] Laura: didn't age well.
Yeah. Uh huh. We've, it's funny you say that. I'm curious what you've been watching. Um, we watched a league of their own with the kiddos recently, which again, like has its redeeming. What I'm doing with these things is we pause the movies and we talk about it. What do you, and or I'll say on the front end, Hey, listen.
I want you to be looking for evidence of X, Y, and Z. And then when you see it Some of
[00:53:24] Kori: them we've just turned off.
[00:53:25] Laura: Yep.
[00:53:26] Kori: I said Right? I'll say, tell me pause it,
[00:53:29] Laura: and let's talk about it. Flag me, say mom, pause it, and then we'll bring it up. And it's almost like a, it's, it's not a game, but it's like a, um It's like trying to find the,
[00:53:38] Kori: the Easter egg, right?
That's right. Like a where's Waldo in the
[00:53:41] Laura: movie.
[00:53:42] Kori: Yeah. Noticing. It's, it's Yeah. You're helping them to notice. Yes. You're, you're, you are, um exercising their muscle of noticing that kind of stuff. Disrupting. So if they can recognize it in the movies where it's designed to be subtle, then they'll recognize it in real life where it's also subtle.
[00:54:02] Laura: Yes.
[00:54:02] Kori: Yes. Right? Except for when it's blatant. Like, Back to the Future, Biff, he's Trump.
[00:54:08] G: Mm.
[00:54:08] Kori: Nothing redeeming about him. Hm. In any of those movies. Hm. Nothing redeeming about him at all. He is, uh, A rapist, right? He's trying to assault one I don't know the movie
[00:54:20] Laura: well enough, but I'll trust you. I believe you. So, I'll just
[00:54:22] Kori: say, yeah.
So, he Uh, Michael J. Fox is the main character, right? And Biff is like the, he's just a bully. He tries to assault Lorraine in every single movie. Lorraine is Michael J. Fox's mom. Okay. In every, and Biff is like her peer. They went to high school together. Got it. Okay. That's what I was missing was the character name.
I know the general plot. Yeah. And then, um, what is Michael J. Fox's? Uh, McFly. Marty McFly. And then George McFly is Marty's dad. Right? And so, um, George McFly is a peeping Tom.
[00:54:57] G: Ugh. You're like, boys, don't look at this.
[00:55:00] Kori: Yeah, like, this is boys will be boys behavior, right? Biff is a bully, and he tries to, in every single movie, he is abusive toward Lorraine.
Every movie. He tries to sexually assault her. In multiple movies, he hits her, like, physically assaults her. In movies, and, and then she's like just the alcoholic who's just drinking away all of her pain.
[00:55:25] Laura: Pain. Yeah. Yeah. And that was huge in pop culture for us. Huge in pop culture.
[00:55:32] Kori: But it's Trump, right? He's revered and loved on and treated with respect and feared in a lot of ways.
But, like, he gets to continue to exist. He never has anything redeeming about him. The only thing is, like, in one timeline, he, like, ends up being the helper, right? He ends up working for George McFly because George McFly stands up to him in this one timeline in high school. But he's still a bully. Even when he is in this more, you know, reserved kind of role.
[00:56:10] Laura: His subordinate role. Yeah. He's still, he's still who he is. He's still, um, Linda, my mentor always says, if I can't, if I can't feel good about any character in a show or a movie, it's going off. Yeah. That's a good litmus test for this. So noted, this is going to come off our family must watch list. Like in terms of going back in the archives.
[00:56:30] Kori: Yeah. I mean, but it, or not because it's, it speaks to so many things, right? It's like,
[00:56:37] Laura: Or we use it with the watching and noticing and disrupting. Yes.
[00:56:41] Kori: Yes. Yeah. Anyway, thank you. I love you. I love you too. I, like, like I said, I am actually hopeful, right? Because I get to talk to people like you, like I've been, I've been in, in conversation with my own parents, with people in my community watching.
People using cooking, love, support for one another to find solidarity through all kinds of atrocity. Dancing as a form of hope. Speaking and singing as a form of hope. Right? Like as a form of resistance.
[00:57:16] G: Joy as resistance. To oppression.
[00:57:18] Kori: Joy as resistance. Even in the darkest hour. And so that makes me hopeful but I need there just to be more mobilization and movement into compassion.
Because the more people who can feel empathic and compassionate toward those who are being harmed, the more you're going to feel moved to do something.
[00:57:41] Laura: I just, I get these. And this is a little bit of a pivot, but I promise I'm tying this up with the same idea. I'm with you. Uh, Bank of America, every once in a while, sends me these surveys as a customer and they want it.
The survey I did yesterday was about, uh, I get it for Amazon points. Cause you know, need my, need my stuff. Need your stuff. Not that I live. Bezos. But, um, the question, the theme of this survey was on parenting and the expectations in society. And so many of the questions were framed negatively, like parents don't, you know, which of these do you agree with?
Parents don't discipline their kids, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. Or what were the priorities? What are the prioriti if you had to pick five in this long list, what do you believe parenting should be or is now in society? And how is that different than years ago? And so to your point about hopefulness, I see my friends and people in my community talking about, you know what?
Your feelings are valid. Yes. Or what can we do? What's a way we can show kindness to this family that just experienced something tragic? Or like, I'm seeing that and to that point, I do feel more hopeful about our children's generation than even, than certainly than our parents.
[00:58:49] Kori: Yeah, but it's like, but we need to, we needed to, to translate that hope into action, right?
Because that's how people felt about Gen X people, right? Like their parents were the adults or no, their parents were the kids in the integration period, right? Who were screaming at black kids. As they were integrating schools and they came through like in their youth in a more connected way to people of different backgrounds, but as they continue to get older, that divergence happened.
Right? And, and the status quo was maintained because the status quo is easy. It's comfortable.
[00:59:32] Laura: So we need to build, continue to build kids empathy muscles, which I think we're doing a good job of doing, and then think about how to leverage that towards future change.
[00:59:39] Kori: Yes. There you go. Exactly. We got there.
That's it. There it is. Ding. There it is. Right? It's like the old turkey timer in the oven. But also in the process, do it ourselves, right? It's like, don't wait for them.
[00:59:50] Laura: No, that's right. That's exactly right. Do it together.
[00:59:53] Kori: Do it together.
[00:59:54] Laura: That's what I want my legacy to be with them for sure.
[00:59:57] Kori: Yeah. We got there.
We
[00:59:59] Laura: did. We did. Just took us an hour. Well, we haven't talked in a while. So come on. We're flexing our muscles back again. Yeah. Yeah.
[01:00:07] Kori: Oh, man. I love you. Well, it was wonderful talking with you as usual.
[01:00:11] Laura: I miss Keith. I hope he feels better. I hope he feels better. We want to send him some soup. He's not feeling so hot today.
Uh, we might do some DoorDash later, whether he likes it or not. And, um, Thank you for listening. Thanks for joining us until next time. Talk about what matters. Make the world more just. I'm Kori. I'm Laura. Talk to you again
[01:00:30] Kori: soon.
[01:00:31] Laura: Take care.
[01:00:32]Kori: Bye.
Kori: Thanks for listening to Pushing Past Polite. We encourage you to go deeper in your trusted spaces and find new space for good conversation.
Laura: You'll find episodes, transcripts, and lots of other goodies at our website, pushingpastpolitepodcast.com. You can also connect with us on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok at Pushing Past Polite.
Kori: Pushing Past Polite is an independent podcast with Kori and Laura from Just Educators. Our cover
Laura: art was designed by Rachel Welsh De Iga of De Iga Design, and our audio is produced by Keith at Headset Media. Until next time, don't get stuck talking about the weather. Push past polite.
Kori: See you next time.
Little Dude: Bye bye.
Laura: Jay, you did perfect!
