As happens to a 42 year old, Laura hurt her shoulder doing absolutely nothing, and the Unisom she took 30+ hours ago to help her sleep off the pain is still lingering at the time of recording. :)

Kori and Laura discuss the fatigue and weight of the every day amidst the chaos of the present historical moment. Thus we encourage you to check in on your people - even the hormone gremlins going through IVF. Change your mood by talking to your friends, have a getaway weekend, and binge a dumb show like Love is Blind.

We learn a new word, “cloffice” and a new pronunciation for licorice (lick-ur-iss - I mean what?). And Kori admits to hating the taste of anise. Gift accordingly. ;)

Keith discusses the federal workforce purges and the trio reflects on what a piece of trash you have to be to use your 2 year old son as a human shield, like Elon does. The U.S. Department of Education’s LinkedIn profile is now full of propaganda. Join Laura there any given weekday to antagonize injustice on their posts. Seek out information and community to support you at this time. Curate your feeds with folks who understand law, history, civil rights, immigration rules, epidemiology, education policy, vaccinations, etc.

Amazon is selling ICE costumes, and people are impersonating federal officers to terrorize immigrant communities. Highly illegal by the way. And speaking of terror, how about that town hall meeting in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho? A woman was stripped of her free speech rights in a public forum inviting speech, and then she was assaulted and potentially kidnapped by unidentified private security at the direction of a political rival. The silence in that room was shocking - and this is how the Nazis took power in 30 days. We cannot comply ahead of time, but instead need to prepare ourselves for what we will do in circumstances like this. As Kori says, “If you stay ready, you ain't got to get ready.”

How will YOU interrupt fascism when you have the chance? Practice and prepare now so you don’t live with regret for what you could have said and done. Lean in to your strengths and areas of expertise.

Get prepared - and share this episode with people in your life that would benefit. Talk about it together! Give us a review on your podcast app, engage with our posts on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube so other folks can find us.

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Who needs to hear how to reclaim their power? Share this episode with people in your life that would benefit (pushingpastpolitepodcast.com) and talk about it together! Give us a review on your podcast app, engage with our posts on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube so other folks can find us.

Dr. Lisa Mazzio, Clinical Psychologist and Owner of Watermark Psychological Services in Norfolk, Virginia joins us as our second ever pod guest! Not only has she known Laura for over 25 years (!!), but she specializes in providing therapy to folks in high control relationships. Does that sound like it meets our political moment or what?

Lisa shares what she’s seeing broadly across her therapy sessions and shares that it feels very similar to counseling during covid where everyone felt like they were in a pressure cooker. Lisa reads a powerful quote from The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene and we see how the president is trying to strategically suspend us in terror. We discuss the fight, flight, freeze, and fawn responses folks are exhibiting and how bombardment limits freedom of thought. It makes you overwhelmed and it tempts you to get small. But, as Ezra Klein recently said in his podcast, “Don’t Believe Him!”

Kori prompts us to investigate why some folks believed him in the first place, sharing that if you thought YOU were safe at the expense of others, you’re now in danger. Marginalized folks know this lesson all too well. If we don’t look out for all of humanity, we are all vulnerable.

We dive into how to manage the overwhelm and still stay active. Divide up the work. Find one thing you really care about - listen to your anger - and invest your energy there - and find like minded friends to take on the other parts. Then share and learn together. And don’t underestimate the power of real world, in person, local action. Show up to your local community center and ask how you can help. You’ll get out of yourself and gain perspective.

We also talk about how we’re processing the current state of our nation with our children by prioritizing freedom of thought, developmentally appropriate access to information, and encouraging them to support their opinions with facts. While the world is FAFO (effing around and finding out), we want to reclaim the term and be the Fun Aunties Fighting Oppression - working shoulder-to-shoulder in our friend groups, in raising our children, and at our community centers!

Sidenote: Words are hard for Laura today. Please forgive her. She’s fine. ;) And Lisa, come back again soon!

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2025 is no joke y’all, and community is CRITICAL to survival. You know one way to build community? Share this episode with a like-minded friend from our website (pushingpastpolitepodcast.com) and talk about it! Give us a review on your podcast app, engage with our posts on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube so other folks can find us.

On Episode 33, we start by talking about all the things the new administration doesn’t want you to hear about, like bird flu, a raging tuberculosis outbreak, how firing the FAA director and freezing hiring of air traffic controllers likely contributed to a deadly plane crash, the operation of a concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay that will likely include the internment of our own citizens (WWII history repeating itself), challenging the citizenship for indigenous people. This is how hate works. You think that the “others” are fine to direct hate towards, but it’ll eventually be your turn. There is no protection from it.

People are stunned by the flurry of activity - timed perfectly to make us stay home, be compliant, and then they can even blame things on the previous administration.

Keith shared about his challenging work in communications on federally-funded projects and the real impact a funding freeze has and might continue to have on his colleagues. Gutting federal departments is a way to make his homies rich, awarding federal contracts to them instead.

Kori, Keith, and Laura plot their hopefulness on a continuum. Keith is most despairing, Laura is in the middle, and Kori is most hopeful. Probably b/c her entire 42 years of lived experience as a Black woman in America have prepared her for injustice. Kori points out that white folks are socialized to be nice, be polite, don’t talk about that here or now - or ever. And that’s a big part of what got us here - our unwillingness to confront harmful thinking and behaviors.

Being on the receiving end of harmful policy is pretty new for most white folks, so while they may feel stunned, scared, and hopeless, Kori gives us all the pep talk we need. This isn’t the time to be tired. Take a lesson from our Black, trans, differently-abled brothers and sisters and keep moving. Drink that Red Bull if you need it, but get out there and fight - and live in spite of injustice. Channel your inner Brave Heart. Paint that face. Let’s effing go! Look for the helpers and BE one of them! Listen to your patriotic songs and know that this is YOUR time.

If the events of the past few weeks have opened your eyes in new ways, you are welcome here. Check out our catalog of 32 other podcast episodes and join us in Pushing Past Polite in your communities.

P.S. And can we say how ahead of our time our fangirling of Costco was? I mean damn. Love you, COSTCO. Now more than ever. And three cheers for the Bravo Cinematic Universe sweatshirt Laura wore for this recording. Takes us way back to our friendship origin story and the conversation where we debate Bravo v. Marvel.

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