All About The Joy
All About The Joy is a weekly hang-out with friends in the neighborhood! We share insight, advice, funny-isms and we choose to always try and find the positive, the silver lining, the "light" in all of it. AATJ comes from the simple concept that at the end of the day we all want to have more JOY than not. So, this is a cool place to unwind, have a laugh and share some time with friends!
All About The Joy
White House Demolition, Missing Guardrails & Who Really Pays
A historic wing falls under the wrecking ball while the government sits frozen and the real story isn’t the rubble, it’s the missing guardrails. We dig into how a fast-tracked White House East Wing demolition bypassed the usual preservation process and why a proposed 90,000-square-foot ballroom could dwarf the White House and reshape what the People’s House symbolizes. From the National Capital Planning Commission to the GSA, we walk through the norms designed to protect public trust - and what it means when those norms get ignored.
We also talk about money and influence. If taxpayers aren’t paying, who is? Corporate sponsorship inside federal space changes the stakes from stewardship to access, and that’s a shift worth questioning. Alongside the outrage are signs of civic health: No Kings protests, peaceful crowds in big cities and small towns, and a shared hunger for hope and accountability. That energy matters when leadership feels stale. We challenge the enablers who look away, the aging power structures that struggle with tech and AI, and the culture that confuses longevity with legitimacy.
Listeners asked how to argue less and understand more. We share our media diet: baseline facts from Reuters and AP, deep dives from subject experts, and a habit of going to primary sources. We outline practical media literacy - verify claims in multiple credible outlets, separate fact from framing, and use tools like Perplexity as a starting point, not a verdict. When conflicts get personal, model clarity, set boundaries, and refuse bait. You can hold love and truth at the same time.
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Music By Geovane Bruno, Moments, 3481
Editing by Team A-J
Host, Carmen Lezeth
DISCLAIMER: As always, please do your own research and understand that the opinions in this podcast and livestream are meant for entertainment purposes only. States and other areas may have different rules and regulations governing certain aspects discussed in this podcast. Nothing in our podcast or livestream is meant to be medical or legal advice. Please use common sense, and when in doubt, ask a professional for advice, assistance, help and guidance.
Hey everyone, welcome to All About the Joy. This is Culture and Consequence with Carmen and Andrea. There was this guy on TikTok. I forget his name, but he's really popular. It doesn't matter, but he's like, honey, you need to blend. Like you gotta blend it in. And he was like showing him. And then he was like, he had the picture next to him. And he's like, look at look at this line here. Blend, honey. Blend. So funny. I was dying.
Andrea:Yeah, that that was probably one of the funnier signs I saw from No Kings was like, he can't even blend his own makeup. That's how incompetent he is.
Carmen Lezeth:Even his, and and I know this is fucking petty shit. Oh, by the way, um, I've gotten quite a few emails about my swearing. And you're swearing. I know, I know. I didn't even put those in the list of questions we're gonna answer because I'm like, listen, let me just say straight up, this is gonna be a swearing episode, even more, because I'm pissed. But if you don't know us by now, we are people who swear. And I the emails are stupid, like they're just stupid. You're wasting time, like, whatever. It doesn't make me feel bad, it empowers me to swear even more, you fuck tards. Like, so I'm so over it.
Andrea:Anyway, I mean, we we touched on this once before, too, right? Like, there's actually studies that say people who swear more are more intelligent. So I'm just putting that out there.
Carmen Lezeth:Speaking of stupid, um it's just a weird ism. Like it's a weird thing to tell someone not to do something that they're just going to end up doing over and over again. Like, do you not know psychology at all? And if you're curl like you're pearl clutching, is that what they say? Pearl, then you shouldn't be watching this show. I'm not trying to move people away from the show, but it's a weird ism to be complaining about. You know, you're not being no one's forcing you.
Andrea:And this is the way that we talk with each other. That doesn't mean that we're walking around like at the grocery store in the post office, you know. I am no. Why am I feeling fucking high, bitch? Go.
Carmen Lezeth:I mean, like, that's not what we're doing. Look, it I think that's the other part of it too, right? I'm using it as an exclamation point or whatever. You know what? I don't need to fucking look. You know what? I'll give a fuck.
Andrea:It's a way to blow off some steam, it's a way to like be emphatic about something, and um, we have a lot of steam to blow off. We have a lot of things to be emphatic about.
Carmen Lezeth:All right, let's get to our topics, whatever. Like, because that's normally what we do when we're on the phone. We just Andrea, it's time to talk about our topics.
Andrea:These are the four things that I had for us to discuss today. I have my research ready to go. So let's start.
Carmen Lezeth:I know. So I think we're gonna, well, first I should say that we are 23 days into still the government shutdown. I think that's an important thing to uh just remind people in case you do not know. And we were going to talk about the White House demolition situation. And I'll let you go first. I don't know.
Andrea:I really thought about I've been thinking about this really all week because I knew that we were gonna talk about it, and I'm just like, I got nothing. Like, what can you fucking say? This is the craziest motherfucking shit I have ever motherfucking seen. Like, we have established, clearly, thoroughly established that I am like the least patriotic American on the planet, right? Never will I do any of the symbolic shit. I will never have a flag, wear a flag. I I don't even I don't even stand up for the what the song the national anthem. Yes, I sit. I'm like, fuck that. No, I don't salute the flag, I don't do the pledge of allegiance. When I was a teacher, I'm just saying I didn't have my kids do the pledge of allegiance. So anyway, my point was that something required here in LA? Really? Yes, it was. It is, yes, yeah. Um, I was even my daughter told me that they had to do it at school once a week, and I was like, I'll write you a note, girl. Because uh uh, but she was like, Oh no, it's fine.
Carmen Lezeth:People are I just I just want everyone to know that I don't have the same feelings.
Andrea:She doesn't have the same feeling. I'm just saying, I am establishing the fact that I don't do the symbolic shit. Right. Okay, right. Seeing what is happening at the White House has fucking broken my heart. Yeah. I like I'm actually embarrassed about how upset I am about it.
Carmen Lezeth:That's actually awesome. I love it. It's good.
Andrea:I mean, like, there's the like, how fucking dare you? Yeah, first of all, of course, it's the East Wing where the first ladies' offices are established primarily by Eleanor Roosevelt. So there's all this history there. And as you mentioned in the start, like um, this is all somehow happening in the midst of a government shutdown. No, no, no, we we need a ballroom though. We do need a ballroom. We do need a ballroom. And I mean, just on the most basic level, try adding in some new like plumbing or an addition to your house and see how fucking long it takes you anywhere in this country. Like, I it's just uh I don't really have articulate words. I have a lot of swear words that I could throw out, which I already have, but like I don't even know. I don't know, and and and why, why is aren't like the press and like the the like why aren't people just screaming about this?
Carmen Lezeth:I just don't well I do think people are like I just turned off the news and they've been talking about it like agnosium at this point um because our attention span is so small, but they are you know because now the pictures are out, right? The it's it's the because they tried to barricade what was happening, which is so weird in this day and age of like, you know, drones and everything else, but they're able to see the actual destruction and they're showing live shots of that happening and the destruction, the complete demolition of the East Wing will be done by Sunday, is uh it then it's mostly already down. I mean, I was just watching it, and so I'll I'll say the opposite part. Um, and then I'm gonna talk a little bit about why this matters in even a bigger way. Because I because I think what's more important here, look at it's a fucking building. I'm I'm okay. Like at the end of the day, I don't give a fuck. There are people who are still being taken by ice, there are other things right now to me that are more important, but I I will say this it is not what is happening literally that's bothering me. It's all the people who are justifying it and all the people who keep supporting him, even though he is straight up lying to you again. And here's the difference. Look at I went and pulled, because you know me, I went and pulled all of the times that the White House has been redone, reconstructed, where things have been demolished and fixed or whatever. I did because I wanted to see, I wanted to understand what the hoopla was. There's so many reasons why this is bad. And before you start talking about Barack Obama changing the tennis courts to a basketball court, that's just bullshittering. He did do that, but he did it through the actual commission that and he talked to the art historians and he went through it, takes like a year to even have that conversation. Let me just say one thing that's really important here. I I just look, I just want you to see all the notes I took on this fucking bullshit. Because I, you know what, like you, okay. So here's here's the difference. I am extremely patriotic. I always have been. I love my country. And one of the things we were going to talk about later, but we'll just infuse it here is one of the things about the No Kings um protests that happened on Saturday. I was lucky to go to two. There was one here near my apartment where I like, like, I stepped out of my house. It was right there. And then I went um and checked out another part of Los Angeles, and that is what makes America great. That's what we're missing is the hopefulness, the optimism, the joyfulness, the happy, the that is the part that makes America great. And I don't care what you think about Barack Obama, but that moment when he was elected, everybody had that feeling. Well, except you fucktards again, the fuctards. We're just gonna start calling you guys the fuctards. Yeah, but we're missing that's what we're missing is that joy and that happiness. So it's happening at the White House right now, and the reason why it matters is because he didn't go through the right processes. No, and and this idea that he keeps telling everyone that we need, I want you to hear this. We need a ballroom. We don't need nobody needs a ballroom. We don't need a ballroom, but he keeps saying that. And let me just give you some stats here. So a football field is 57,600 square feet. Okay, 57,000 square feet. Let's just leave it there. The White House itself is 55,000 square feet. The White House itself, okay. The east wing that he just demolished is 60,000 square feet. Okay, so it's a little bit bigger than the White House. This ballroom that he's going to build is 90,000 square feet. So that's a football field and a half. It's going to dwarf the actual White House. There is no commission, right? There is no, what's it called? It's the National Capital Planning Commission, um, the GSA, which is the government services admission, and usually the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who will turn around and work with the president to preserve the history of the place, to help come up with the right plans. He is building this bullshittery without doing any of that. And he keeps saying it's not going to cost the taxpayers any money. First of all, bullshit. And secondly, why do we want corporate, like if we want a fucking ballroom, we should pay for it. But he knows we don't want a ballroom. So instead, all of these fucking corporate fucking corporations are going to end up having their names slapped all over the ballroom. And I'll end with this little part. I hope, because it's not going to be done for four years. It might he said they think it's going to be done in four years because whatever, but this is another little in indication that he thinks he ain't motherfucking leaving that place. Yeah, for sure. But I'ma say when President Newsom or President whoever the fuck is next, because I think that's where we're going, or the guy from Chicago, what's the guy's name from Illinois? Pritzer. I don't care who it is. Yeah. President next in line, who we know is going to be a white male. It's true. Hopefully, we had a Nazi tattoo. Yeah, exactly. Oh my god, who had the Nazi tattoo? Well, we don't even have to go there. It doesn't matter. Yeah. I said the other day, and I wasn't kidding. I can't wait for that motherfucking ballroom to be rededicated to Barack Obama. I just think that would be like the fucking Michelle Obama. And they're making it to like all offices or sciences or whatever.
Andrea:Like I'm just hoping that's what happens. They just look like uh, you know, inner city DC schools have proms there.
Carmen Lezeth:Exactly. Like and make it like just the place where like community happens, like and just, you know, take I mean all the gold in that office is so disgusting.
Andrea:Yeah, he just wants it to be like, you know, like somebody with golden poop shit all over it. And that's I know it's so weird.
Carmen Lezeth:So yeah, I just um I was shook by the football field analogy because it didn't it made more sense to me when I realized like it's going to also dwarf the White House completely and it's going to be ugly.
Andrea:I mean, you know, speaking of hope, as you said that's not Gavin's style, they don't like that. I can only hope that we never get to the point where we have to see all the gold shit and that it's you know, I mean, I don't know what you do when it's already start, you know, like I I don't know. I just Well it's demolished already, so no no no. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm hoping that he will be gone one way or another, uh, before it's finished, before we get to the you know, gold leaf stage, and that it's uh not ever completed.
Carmen Lezeth:Right. Well, some professionals are saying there's no way, like, even on the best of schedules, there's no way it would be completed in four years. But there'd have to be like no delays, no issues, and that rarely happens. But you know, people are already suing. Like, I know I'm I'm shy. But you know what? Um I don't mean this in a bad way, but it's nice to hear you say that it did kind of break your heart to see it.
Andrea:It did, it really did. And it, I mean, you know, there's sort of the metaphor of it all, like he's just doesn't give a shit going in and destroying our cultural heritage and everything that kind of the country is supposed to stand for, all of those kinds of things, you know what I mean? There's just a lot of a lot to it, and it's I again just go back to like what will it take? Is there anything? Is there anything this person can do that will actually get people to be like, oh shit, that's far.
Carmen Lezeth:Well, I mean, it's okay, and that goes into the next thing I wanted to talk about. I didn't put it on the list, but it's kind of like I'm not even mad at Trump because Trump is like a child on so many levels to me. Like he's, you know, he's like, I want to do this, I want to do that. But at some point, people say, No, no, you cannot do that. I'm more upset with all these motherfuckers who are in office and know better, who are not stopping him at all, at all. You know, I say this with no respect whatsoever. Mitch McConnell, who is 83 years old, who fell the other day in the Russell Senate building. You know, I'm like, this is also the other part of it. Mitch McConnell, I blame for most all of the bullshittery we are in today. I don't even blame Donald Trump because he was the first person that when Barack Obama became president was just like, my our only job is not to let him be be re-elected again. He had already started this bullshittery. You know what I mean? I'm tired of old people. I said it, old people, you need to stop thinking you can be in office forever. You're 83 years old, you can barely speak, and you're fucking bumbling around the goddamn. I know people mad at me. I don't care. I don't have a big constituency of old people on my show.
Andrea:The ego on these people is shocking, really. Look at there are some things I can't do anymore.
Carmen Lezeth:And I like there are things I cannot do anymore. I cannot stay up past nine. I can't do it. You know what I mean? Although, in all fairness, we all know I've never been able to stay up. I'm like, that's not new, people. But I really can't. I like I can't pull all-nighters. I can't. There are things I can't do, so you work around that. You don't force yourself to do it anyways because you're gonna make bad decisions. But it's like Nancy Pelosi, all these motherfucking people like enough already. Move the fuck on. Yeah, ageism. We're probably gonna get slapped with some type of something on YouTube. Ageism.
Andrea:Remember, remember, I know you remember, and this is really sad, but like remember several years ago, there was an old guy, apparently really lovely family man, who drove his car into the farmer's market and killed people?
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Andrea:Take the motherfucking keys away, people. Like, there are things you cannot do anymore. You need to be at home enjoying your grandchildren or watching Jeopardy or whatever the fuck old people do, be in your garden, walk your dog. I don't know. We're gonna be old soon, too. But but but look at my chickens, I'm ready to go.
Carmen Lezeth:I don't Andrea has chickens for those who don't know. That's a whole other story. We're not talking about it now because I I I'm done with that shit. But anyways, but here's my thing is like, I think it's because we demonize getting older on every level. So getting old means X, Y, Z in this country, and it's like, oh, you need to get like 15 facelifts and look like you're 10 when you're actually 58 or something. You know what I mean? Like you have to keep looking as young as possible, as youthful as possible, because being old sucks. And I think that's part of the problem. Yeah, but we need term limits or something because I'm I want I want Gen Z, I want millennials, I want young people in office. I want young people in office.
Andrea:Yeah, this ain't it. These people are gonna be dead in five years, they're walking around dead now. Well, and then it's like they're making decisions that affect the lives of people who are cannot access power because they are in the way.
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah, and they don't know, and I look at I I'm kidding around about the ageism thing, but I know this is what this is coming across. I just think that if you are not a person who has compassion and empathy, this is what you do because it's all about your ego, it's all about you. But these people do not know the internet, they don't understand AI, they don't understand technology, they don't know what TikTok is, they don't, and they're just bullshitting their way through. And when have we ever been okay with allowing people to bullshit their way through? Uh, don't talk about this current administration. I'm just saying, like, in anything that you do, would you be like, oh yeah, that astronaut bullshitted their way through? Let's just let them do it. You know what I mean? But for some reason, in fucking every political thing we do in Congress or whatever, we allow these people who are clearly not with it, walking around the halls of Congress, falling all over the place, their aides picking them up, speaking for them, like you're voting for them then. Then you're voting for them then. You're not actually being represented. Your constituencies are not being represented by who they voted for, you know? And it's like, it's just, I'm so sick of it. But I think that's also part of the problem.
Andrea:Absolutely. Look, I mean, uh, there's enough rage to go around for sure. You know, I don't let Donald Trump off at all. But yes, there's a lot of enabling from all kinds of people who have their own agendas, right? They have their own reasons for wanting to be close to power, trying to get their own foot in the door so that they can have their day in the sun. I mean, all of that kind of stuff.
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah. Well, whatever. I'm over it. All right, let's answer some questions. I'm done. I'm done. Okay, so I didn't pick any of the bad emails that we seem to keep getting about swearing.
Andrea:The swearing thing.
Carmen Lezeth:Yeah, that was one. There was another one that was kind of nasty, but I was it was more like funny. I was like, okay. Uh, she's married, and I'm not interested, is basically the answer to that. I was like, you weird. Yeah, I'll tell you about it in the green room. All right, so these are two emails we got. So we'll do the first one and I'll let you in. Wait, did we finish everything we were gonna talk about with those two things? Yeah, yeah, okay. Oh, yeah. Well, I I think I kind of just said it because I kind of just said it like that was the good part for me about No Kings, was just, and it was kind of heartwarming. There were a couple of instances here where um some Trump supporters were trying to start something, and the police like they just pulled up on a motorcycle. No, no, this was the horses, they just came up with the horses and like just look at them, and they just turned around and walked away. Like, so that was kind of an interesting thing because it was really peaceful everywhere around the country and around the world. It was a peaceful event, kind of cool.
Andrea:Yeah, I mean that that's I I did not attend, I was at a family birthday party with whatever. She does not love our country. It was lovely. As I said last time, you have to find your joy in different places. Uh, but I had fun um at my birthday party. But um wait, your birthday party party. No, I was like, no, okay, I know what was my cousin's daughter's four-year-old, you know. So it was a sweet little kid birthday party.
Carmen Lezeth:And listen, your priorities are your priorities. I care about our country, so I am dedicated to the cause. Okay, you know what's so funny? You who's you're usually the one out there protesting. Ah, this is how we know we in trouble. Because when do I protest?
Andrea:Never, never. I'm out there at the ice protests.
Carmen Lezeth:Um, you know, yeah, but I didn't I don't protest, so you know we you in trouble, girl.
Andrea:Yeah, we in trouble. No, but I I just want to say that it's like, you know, as someone who didn't participate live, it was really nice to kind of come back at the end of the day and look and see number one, how many people participated and how many places over seven million. I love, love, love seeing like the small towns where they're like, you know, we have 300 people in this town and 150 were out there, you know. Like I love that. And it does, it just gives you hope. And I think, you know, a lot of people who say whatever they say about these protests, I think it is important to see that many people who are like, okay, yes, this is the United States, this isn't France, where we, you know, it's very concentrated and we can like shut down the entire capital or whatever, but we can all come out and and actually say we're not all right with this. And I think it does give a lot of people hope.
Carmen Lezeth:And I'm gonna say something else that's gonna piss off a lot of people because that's what I do nowadays. Culture and consequence, Carmen pissing everyone off. Um, it was also a sea of white people, and I loved to see it. And I have to say, especially because I live here and there's not a huge population of people of color, it was beautiful to see thousands of people. And I'm like, oh my god, this is my entire neighborhood. Like it was just amazing to see that. So uh it, yeah, it was beautiful, it was very American. That is what you do as an American when you disagree with something. You protest and you let your voices be heard. And anyone who thinks otherwise is a fascist. I don't know how else to say it. Is that clear? I think that sums it up well. I said, I think that sums it up well. I think that sums it up well, too. So, all right, let's get to our questions. Okay, so the first one should I say the person's name? No, well, first name. I I won't say their name. Okay, this is from somebody from Chicago, and they said, You talk with a lot of clarity, but I gotta ask, how do you deal when folks you love just don't see things the same way, like real disagreements, not just debates, but stuff that hits deep. How do you keep the peace without losing yourself?
Andrea:So I I saw that question and I thought about it for a little bit. Like, I don't have anyone in my life uh who I have those kinds of strong disagreements with. I mean, I think that there probably are some people in my extended, extended family who I don't really have any real relationship with who are probably Trump voters.
Carmen Lezeth:Um, but I don't okay, but I'm gonna bring up something. Sorry, I'm gonna put you out on this. But you have people you've had to work with in different states who are avid Trump supporters because I remember you calling me and so how did you deal with that as a professional?
Andrea:Maybe we could well, as a professional, there I'm there to do a job, and I have a certain approach that I take to that job, and so I I tend to look at it as like, all right, if I sort of, you know, infuse my philosophy really and my approach into this person, maybe that's helpful. Like I'm I'm not gonna have any kind of political discussion with anyone at work, it's certainly not in the context that I'm working with them, but I I feel like I just try to use the skills that I have to work with them and and as I said, to just use my approach to things and explain my reasoning, which is all a part of my you know own personal philosophy that I live by and that I, you know, the way that I work. So that's that's really the way that I deal with it, is just almost like modeling, I guess, would be the best way to say it.
Carmen Lezeth:I've had experiences with people in my life. I have family members who are Trump supporters or were Trump supporters. I don't know what they believe now, but um, and I've had so I'll give you an example what happened. I posted something on Facebook years ago during the first administration, and a family member went off on me, and I blocked them and then had a full-on conversation with them. And my whole thing is like, I don't care what you believe, is my Facebook page. I didn't call you to have a conversation about it, you know, I mean, because I know what you believe, you know what I mean? So, um, and we've we've rectified or we've reconciled since then, and I think you know who I'm talking about, but um, I think it's hard because especially when you love someone, like you love them, and you know in your heart of hearts that there's nothing you can do to dissuade them. They have to believe and do what they need to do and find their bumps away, you know, along the way. You know, it's the same thing with the Palestinian Israel thing. For those of you who don't know, I was married to an Israeli. So I have a different viewpoint because of that side of the family of the Israeli situation. And then to hear the kind of hatred or the anger towards Palestinians for me is really hard. I have compassion and empathy for the Palestinian people. I think you can hold more than one thought at a time. You know what I mean? But if you're going to be so vile and so angry and so pissed off, I don't want to talk to you because I I can't relate and I ain't gonna change your mind. And it's kind of the same thing with the Trump thing. First of all, I'm not gonna ask you your opinion because I don't want to know your opinion. If I want to have a conversation with you, I will reach out. But I already had an inkling. You know what I mean? But if you're gonna confront me, I will confront your ass. I've done it at work too. Like, here's the thing I work with people who have property and relatives in Texas. I tell people this all the time. I have conversations with people all the time, and I'm like, here, here is my point of view. You can believe what you want, but we're done with this now, you know. One of my clients, I think I told you, was trying to get me into because he wanted to fight. And I was like, I'm sorry, what? Like, I don't like you can tell when somebody's just like, I want your opinion, I want to talk to you about it, or it kind of slips or something. Um, or whereas it's somebody's trying to instigate a fight. And when he was trying to instigate a fight, I was like, that's not what you hired me to do. And then I just close off because I got my check because I get paid a month before my actual work. I ain't stupid about that shit. I will walk away. And that's what I threatened him with. I think I'm very confrontational that way. Um, I think what I hate most, Andrea, is people who say, I don't do politics. I don't, well, politics is doing you, bitch. Link. I don't care if you don't do politics, it's happening to you. And and that's exactly what happened in Nazi Germany. And I don't give a fuck, you people who are like, stop using Hitler. It's not Hitler. Yes, this is how it starts. This is how it happens. This is exactly the trajectory. I had to study in school his fucking Mein Kampf book, right? Did you read that too? Like, you just need to read it, read people, read. Hitler built the ballroom too, by the way.
Andrea:Just saying.
Carmen Lezeth:Yes, but they don't, you know what it is? That's what I'm saying, is like when people don't talk, I wish people would stop talking about what they don't know. You don't have to know everything about politics. That's very different. You don't have to know or whatever, but then but don't act as if it's not happening to you. And you not wanting to talk about it or not having an opinion on it or not having any oomph to it is not acceptable in what we're doing today and what's happening to it's not. You may disagree in the entire but I think it's absolutely not okay.
Andrea:Yeah, I mean, well, like you have an opinion about your life, right? Do you have opinions about your healthcare costs? Do you have opinions about your how much your food costs? Do you have opinions about how easy or difficult it is for you to vote? I mean, it all counts. Like you said, it's do and you.
Carmen Lezeth:You know, it is. I just I I I get annoyed. I understand that not everyone's going to be confrontational like me, and and and I'm not saying anyone has to be. I do it because I don't have anything to fear. And I'm not saying other people do. I'm like, I'm not asking anybody their opinion about politics. Like, I'm not going to go up to someone and be like, you know what? I was thinking, can we have a conversation about politics? I've never done that with anybody. But if you jump in my DMs. Let's define it. Poke the bear, right? I'm just saying, if you jump and tell me something, I'm going to come back with facts. And I think that's the part too that pisses me off about people, especially people I know who talk too much about politics and they don't know what the fuck they're talking about. There is a difference between facts and opinion. So let me give you a fact and then let me show you an opinion. Okay. A fact is we breathe in air as human beings to live. That's a fact. That's a fact. That's a fact. It might be your opinion that we breathe in hay. But that's an opinion. That's not a fact. I don't know where I'm coming up with hay. I think I'm thinking of the cattle ranchers who are having a really hard time after they voted for Donald Trump. That was all over the news today, too. Whatever. But I know. So many people will try to say, well, that's your opinion. No. Fact. Fact over here. I am never spewing an opinion unless I tell you, you know what? This is my opinion, girl. You know? Yeah. And I have to say it exactly like that now. But I think that's the other part of it too.
Andrea:Yeah, for sure. And I think that's from the start. We didn't even talk about this, but I think from the start of this podcast, we both came with our research because we know we have our opinions, and we're like, okay, well, if we're gonna talk about that, I need to make sure that I've got some data behind it.
Carmen Lezeth:Right. Like I don't have a reference for fucktards. I I don't. Like that's my opinion. You know what I mean? Like that's not, I mean, it could be a fact, but it's not. Yeah. Yeah, that's true. I mean, I think that's the other part of it too, is I think people, and this might be a lot of the Democrats' fault, by the way. Everybody should vote. Everybody has to vote. No, everyone should learn of what's going on. Like, I know. I see, I I would get slimmed by the Democratic Party, but I think there's that other part of it. Like, everybody should be registered, and everyone should. And I think if you're part of this, what once was a magnificent possibility, it because it isn't to me anymore, right? I hope we can see the kernels of it through the protests or whatever, but um, you should be at least basic level understanding of how it works. You should know what the Senate is, what the House of Representatives are. You should know who the Supreme Court justices are, at least what they do. You should know who represents you in the House of Representatives. You know, you should be able to name the president, the vice president. I don't know what I like. The Secretary of State. Do you know who the second he's such a fucking idiot? Sadly I do. Sadly, I do know who that is. Right. I just like you should be able to have the if you oh, here's a good one. I didn't know we were gonna go here, but I'm on fighting now. Okay, wait. You should be able to pass the same test every immigration person who comes into this country has to pass to become an actual citizen. And I'll tell you right now that everyone that you keep thinking is a quote unquote illegal status human being in this country probably knows more about politics than you do. They might know it in Spanish, but they know more about this country than you do.
Andrea:Because they have to in order to navigate it. 100% agree.
Carmen Lezeth:All right. Well, I hope we answered that question, didn't we? We went a little on topic. I thought we answered it. Okay, for Darnell or whatever, from person from Chicago. Okay, ready for the next one? Yep. Yep. Okay. Um, this one is from your state, Iowa. Didn't you go to Iowa? My state. Not your state. Aren't you in Iowa? I don't know. I feel like work in Iowa. Oh, that's what I call it your state. My state. You're embracing Iowa. Andrea's from Iowa. She's not.
Andrea:She is not.
Carmen Lezeth:Okay. I love how you both dive into politics without sounding like cable news. Oh my god, that's hilarious. But I'm curious, where do you get your information from? Are there specific journalists, outlets, or even podcasts you trust to help you cut through the noise? That's a great question. Do you want to go first, Andrea?
Andrea:I will. I will say I do not watch any news on television or and I don't listen to any news podcasts at all, except this one. Except this one. So um I have over the years curated kind of people that I follow. I think it's, I think follow maybe like 50 people. Um, and that's generally where I get my news sources from. Also, I read a lot of books, so big fan of the library. So I I get into a lot of books. Um, you know, for local news, I'm really loving LA taco right now. They used to be like, you know, where to get the best tacos in LA, which is information, absolutely, 100%. And, you know, over the years it started to morph into more of a news organization. And definitely, since all of the ice rates happened, that's basically all they're doing at this point. Um, but there's, let's see, a couple that I really love, I may not get the pronounce pronunciation correct. Um, so there's Ellie Mastal, he writes for the nation and on criminal justice and con law, anytime there's a Supreme Court case, he you know, writes about it definitely during like oral arguments and things like that. Um, I also want to say that if I am reading an article, which is sort of by definition an opinion piece, right? You're getting someone's, you're getting it in information interpreted, interpreted through someone. Um, I will always try to go to the source. So if it's a case or something like that, I will actually go and read the case so that I can kind of form my own opinion in addition to reading sort of what someone thing about it. Talia Laven, and she's she's written a couple of books. One, her most recent one is Wild Faith about Christian nationalism, and then um, what's the other one? Culture Warlords about white nationalism. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.
Carmen Lezeth:Um, yeah.
Andrea:Um, let's see.
Carmen Lezeth:I have not read the second one she mentioned.
Andrea:Yeah. Um, I like Jacob Soboroff from MSNBC.
Carmen Lezeth:Um, everybody loves Jacob Soborov, and he is an incredible journalist, and he's been handling. I'm sorry, I had to interject because I love him. And he should get whatever he's getting in the future, pull it's whatever it is, because his what he's been doing for this country is incredible. And he's been uh handling all the ice raids, not handling, but he's been dealing with all of the people who are suffering through all this. Go ahead. I'm sorry.
Andrea:He's an LA guy, so you know, I love him local reporting as well. I follow a couple of journalism professors because I think that's really helpful because they are like journalists with a capital J and are very interested in you know fair reporting and things like that. So there's this guy, Bill Gruskin, um, another guy, Jay Rosen. So those are, you know, I had there's a lot of others. Um well you said it's 50, so I'm like, we're not going through the whole 50. Yeah, like been bin uh Erinreich, who uh is Barbara Aaronreich's son. Oh Aaron Reich wrote a fantastic book, Nicol and Dimed, which was turned into a play, which was started by our esteemed hostess. So yeah, he he does some writing.
Carmen Lezeth:I was in the theater production of Nicol and Dimed, right? Oh, I didn't I didn't realize that was the connection there. That's interesting.
Andrea:Okay, and and then there's a handful of others. Another uh that a couple that I want to mention is uh Nicole Hannah-Jones, who uh was the creator of the 1619 project, which is a book, uh podcast, a show on Hulu, and all, you know, it's um a curriculum, all of that. Really, really important work there. And one of my sort of longtime favorites who's passed on now, uh David Graber, who why are we bringing him up if he's passed on? Well, I'm just saying he's he wrote books. He wrote a book called Debt, the the first 500 5,000 years. He wrote another book called Um Uh Bullshit Jobs. He was uh kind of he was in the Occupy Wall Street movement and all that kind of stuff. But anyway.
Carmen Lezeth:So I agree. I think what I want to say, and thank you for doing that list because I think it's an important thing. But I the here's what I want to share. People are no longer following networks or newspapers. Like this idea that the New York Times is like this is a fight I've had with so many people, that the New York Times is the be all. No, it's not. And it hasn't been for years. And then I'll get the argument from people like, oh, but they have so many resources. Yes, just because you have money and resources does not make you a good human being, person, or corporation. So a lot of people, especially in the older generation, but even in our generation, are still fixated on this idea that you need to follow organizations and corporations, and you cannot do that anymore, nor do you need to. Most of the great journalists right now are independent and are on Substack, you know, and they're really shining. And so I'm gonna name some names of so I follow a professor as well, and he has written for the New York Times, but I love him, Eddie Galad Jr., he's amazing. He is definitely what you would say more left-leaning, but he also comes with receipts, also has written a great book on Baldwin. You know what I mean? Like we can go down the list of that, but he's one of my favorites because he's so passionate and his empathy is off the charts, just about everything in the world. I'm gonna name some other people that she will cringe up, but Tim Miller from The Bulwark, he is a Republican who I know. I'm giving people other options.
Andrea:I have read some of his stuff.
Carmen Lezeth:I do, you know, he's actually really good. He's a staunch Republican who has now like completely thrown his his hat into like the there's his he's uh never Trumper, though. There's no doubt about it. But he does come to it from a different point of view, and I really like listening to him. Um he's also very calm, you know, he's very calm. Uh Nicole Wallace, I talked about her before. I like listening to her. She's also a former GOP person. She worked for George W. Bush. Um, I catch her show once in a while on MSNBC because I'm usually working uh when it's on live, but I do like to catch her. Um and I'm gonna name some other possibilities because you know these names. There are people who have walked away from network television, from cable network, because they either got fired, like Don Lemon and uh what's the other guy? Costa, I forget his name, Jim Costa from CNN. He was being regulated from his Saturday show to like a Sunday night show, and he was like, Yeah, no, I'm done. They have been unleashed on Substack, and it is an incredible thing to watch. And you start to realize how constrained all of these journalists are because they work for these big companies, unless they have the kind of power of like a Rachel Matta or Nicole Waller. You know what I mean? Like, but it's fascinating to now see them unleashed. And I'm not saying you have to follow them or whatever, but if you want to see what the difference is with some names of people you used to maybe you've heard of before, and now see them on their own, it's cray cray. It's crazy awesome fun. I I think Don Lemon is now, I never used to like him. Now I'm like, okay, there's that's a journalist. Like it's it's an incredible thing. And he's doing a lot of opinion too, there's no doubt about it. Um, I also wanted to give a shout out to some, like, if you're going to go for organizations that are newspapers, like I do get alerts from specific places, and then you do your investigative stuff yourself. But the best ones, as far as I'm concerned, and they are more center, they're more in the middle, they're not left-leaning. Reuters, the Associated Press, and the BBC. Those are the ones that I get uh news alerts from. Um, and I think that they still are more center and they're less. I mean, I think everything's an opinion. I think this idea that journalism was ever some objective bullshitery is why we're in the trouble we're in now. But you do get both both sides, and you do get just information. I'm gonna plug one more thing, two more things. If you want to double check things, and this is actually free, you can get a subscription, but you don't need to. It's AI. Perplexity AI is like this is how I'm explaining it. I am not an AI expert, it's how I'm explaining it to regular folk. Perplexityai.ai is uh like just a fantastic, bumped up, more impressive Google search. And what they do is within seconds not only give you the information you're looking for, but also give you all the references at the bottom. And that's what I love. Because then I can go and check, oh, wait, where did they get this information from? You know, so that's also a good way to double check your sources if you want to. But remember, AI is not always perfect. So you want to go double check your sources. But perplexity AI is like one of my favorites right now. And the last thing I'll say, whether you like Rachel Maddow or not, the thing about Rachel Maddow that I would encourage everyone to watch at least once is her ability to not just storytell, like she's a great storyteller, but how she builds a story for you to understand what's going on. So when it comes to historical things, war things, whatever it is, like she is on point and she always has that legalese and that ability. You want to not always follow people because of their ideology. Like, that's why I used to listen to Sean Hannity and you know, Larry Elder and all these people, not because I believed in what they said, but because I wanted to learn why they were saying what they were saying. What was their evidence behind it? You know, be curious, be a human being who wants to know the layers, and then you can speak from a place of knowledge and not just your opinion.
Andrea:Yeah, I mean, I I think that's the most important point here. I mean, I named off a bunch of people, I'm fully aware that that is a bubble, right? No, no, no. That was the answer.
Carmen Lezeth:I mean, that was the answer to the question. Who do you think?
Andrea:Yeah, I mean, but I'm just saying, like, I understand uh that I'm I'm not looking at sources who are even really that center, you know, much less more to the right, right? So I understand that the news I'm getting, you know, the information that I'm getting is filtered through a certain lens. And that's why I mentioned, and you've mentioned, like going to the source material, so you can read it yourself and form your own opinion. I think it's still valid and a perfectly good thing to do to go ahead and read the full article and hear what people are saying and how it's being framed, but understand it is being framed.
Carmen Lezeth:I think that's the problem, right? Is people will say, oh no, I I don't want like, first of all, there's no grandiose thing in saying you don't listen to network news. Like, I don't know why that's become a thing. I I don't watch network news. Well, somebody's fucking watching it. You know what I mean? Like, and there's nothing wrong with that. That's not what the issue is. You getting your resources from YouTube videos also problematic. So you telling me that you watch YouTube videos is not an answer to how well informed you are because I don't know who the you don't have to listen to us either. Like, you know what I mean? Like, we anybody can buy a mic and have a camera and tell you whatever they want with a forceful way of saying it. I know the power of my voice. I know that I can tell people a fucking lie and they'll believe it. Here's the difference, though, is first of all, I would never do that because I have empathy and compassion. I would never use my power for bad or ill will. But just understand that just because somebody screams it or says it loudly or has a mic and has a computer and looks really pretty, or you think they're hot, or whatever it is, that does not mean that they are legit or that they are right or that they are on point. Where are their resources? Can you find three other places that say the same shit? This is why every time somebody dies, like I got the notification that that Robert Redford died, I was like, Yeah, that didn't happen. You know what I mean? I got three other sources because I was not believing nobody. You know what I mean? That's what you have to start doing as a person in this day and age with all the technology and all the information at your fingertips. You need to be that into it. If you're gonna spew that shit out of your mouth, you need to be that into it. That you figure it out.
Andrea:You get critical thinking, critical thinking, right?
Carmen Lezeth:Let me just say I'm having a great conversation on Sunday. So please come visit. And we talk all about critical thinking with an educator and somebody who is trying to transform the education system, doing more of a hybrid model of using school and in-home teaching. And we talk about critical thinking. So that was a great segue.
Andrea:We didn't even know about that.
Carmen Lezeth:So that was good. Yeah, so check that out on Sunday in the private lounge at 12 p.m. Pacific, 3 p.m. Eastern. Um, andrea, thank you. That was a fun conversation. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, so uh thanks everyone. Remember, at the end of the day, it really is all about the joy, and we'll see you next week. Bye. Thanks for stopping by, All About the Joy. Be better and stay beautiful, folks. Have a sweet day.
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