There Are No Girls on the Internet - SignalGate Jeopardized Her Husband's Life - Her Viral Response Struck a Chord

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00:01:05.020 I survived nine months in captivity,

00:01:07.980 and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive

00:01:11.700 what should have destroyed them.

00:01:13.700 I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the Survivor Files.

00:01:17.400 Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable,

00:01:21.100 abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced.

00:01:24.740 These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive.

00:01:28.800 Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:01:36.960 The internet is our best shot at holding these cowards accountable.

00:01:47.140 There are no girls on the internet as a production of iHeartRadio and Unbossed Creative. 0.79

00:01:55.260 I'm Bridget Todd, and this is There Are No Girls on the Internet.

00:02:00.960 Remember SignalGate?

00:02:03.120 It's been a minute and a lot has happened, so here's a quick refresher.

00:02:06.960 The president's national security team got caught using Signal, a private messaging app,

00:02:11.980 to discuss sensitive military operations.

00:02:14.480 Top-tier secrets, stuff that should only really be discussed on the Pentagon's ultra-secure

00:02:19.940 billion-dollar communication systems.

00:02:21.960 But instead of following protocol, Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and others were chatting on Signal.

00:02:32.080 Now, I want to be clear. Signal, the app, did nothing wrong.

00:02:36.580 We're huge fans of the Signal app here at There Are No Girls on the Internet.

00:02:39.820 It's run by a nonprofit led by Meredith Whitaker, who I deeply admire.

00:02:43.780 This was user error, plain and simple.

00:02:46.700 So how did we even find out?

00:02:48.480 Well, it wasn't through a leak or a hack or a whistleblower.

00:02:51.960 No, no, no, no, no. Someone accidentally added the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, Jeffrey

00:02:57.400 Goldberg, to the group chat. I have to be honest, it's the kind of fat-fingered mistake I find kind

00:03:03.360 of relatable personally, but I am not handling national security. And it gets worse. After the

00:03:10.120 scandal, Waltz was photographed using an unofficial signal knockoff called TM Signal, made by a company

00:03:16.600 called TeleMessage, which was recently bought by, I kid you not, a company called Smarsh.

00:03:22.760 That's a name that definitely inspires confidence. Now, unlike Signal, TM Signal stores messages on

00:03:29.060 central servers, insecurely. Kind of the opposite of Signal's whole thing. Since this story broke,

00:03:35.720 hackers have breached those servers multiple times. One hacker told 404 Media that TeleMessage

00:03:41.660 had not bothered to implement basic digital security practices, and that the whole thing

00:03:46.180 only took about 15 minutes to break into.

00:03:48.720 Now, this is not just political drama.

00:03:51.520 It's about real lives.

00:03:53.740 Like those of America's 3 million service members.

00:03:56.880 People like the husband of my friend, Kendall Brown,

00:03:59.700 a digital strategist and content creator.

00:04:02.300 Service members can't always speak out,

00:04:04.760 but Kendall can. 0.92

00:04:06.700 She makes it her business to use the internet 0.97

00:04:09.040 to speak up for service members like her husband.

00:04:11.700 weirdly he in some ways i think he lives vicariously through me online that i'm able to 0.72

00:04:21.720 say all of this shit and he cannot so i think in some way like i've i've never made a video related 0.73

00:04:29.620 to the military without running it by him first and i have yet to make one that he doesn't agree 0.99

00:04:35.960 with. So in some ways, I feel like I'm being his mouth for him. Beyond the logistics of what

00:04:41.940 happened with SignalGate, Kendall's reaction went deeper. She was pissed off. Here's a little of

00:04:48.520 what Kendall had to say in her now viral TikTok about SignalGate. As someone whose husband is

00:04:54.720 currently deployed in the Middle East, not far from Yemen, I'm going to warn you now, this is 0.97

00:04:58.800 going to be the angriest fucking video I have ever made in my entire life because there are not 0.96

00:05:02.420 adequate words in the English language for me to fully fucking communicate to you right now how 0.99

00:05:07.060 fucking furious I am. I can only really describe the tone of that video as like righteous, 0.96

00:05:14.980 righteous anger, like very, I don't know, like, yeah, it lit a fire in me. And I do think that

00:05:22.680 there's something about seeing a video like that right now where every day I am seeing content that

00:05:27.460 enrages me and it's easy to sort of get numb to it but something about your video really broke

00:05:33.880 through so what was going through your mind when you first saw this news about the signal chat

00:05:39.820 oh i was big mad like i it was the kind of mad where i feel like all thoughts left my head

00:05:50.940 entirely and it was just left with this like buzzing noise uh it was you know a lot of the

00:05:56.840 the content that i post online there is at least some amount of like forethought to it uh this was

00:06:02.560 not one of those times i literally just got my phone started recording and immediately was just

00:06:09.660 honestly practically screaming into my phone definitely yelling almost to the level of

00:06:15.860 screaming um and just honestly it was i just i was so mad i had to get it out there and i knew 0.97

00:06:25.260 that this is one of those topics that the people in power get away with this shit specifically 0.90

00:06:33.400 because they know the people most impacted active duty service members literally cannot say anything 0.97

00:06:40.200 publicly and so the overwhelming majority of americans have no way of connecting emotionally

00:06:47.820 with the topic and so you know most democrats most leftists can look at the story and be like

00:06:54.560 yeah, logically, this is bad, but they can't feel the emotion of how scary it is, how infuriating

00:07:05.140 it is. And I think it's really important for people to connect to the emotions of it. I think

00:07:11.940 that's one of our biggest flaws on the left is that we get like really absorbed into the like

00:07:18.580 facts and we're going to fact check you to death. And somehow if we just tell you enough facts,

00:07:22.800 you're going to be on our side and that's just not how humans work so um yeah i i try to show

00:07:32.580 up emotionally in most of my content but especially when i'm talking about a subject that i know most

00:07:38.260 people just have no i mean most people not only haven't served they don't have a loved one that

00:07:46.480 like a close immediate loved one that has served and so there's just there's no way to connect to

00:07:54.720 that and we live in a society where media has depicted military service as this like romantic

00:08:04.580 you know oh it's the sacrifice and everyone that does it is so ready to lay down their lives and

00:08:11.600 just oh and the reality is like most the people in the military are just poor people that needed

00:08:20.680 a path out of poverty or out of whatever rural hellhole they were born in and like they just

00:08:29.900 want to do their job and go home at the end of it they're just normal people so um i think even

00:08:39.100 for people on the left. Like I said, it can just be really hard to connect to it emotionally. So

00:08:43.860 there have been times where I've recorded rants where I haven't posted, but because, you know,

00:08:50.240 I'll watch it back and I'll be like, ooh, okay, I was a little too far on that one. I need to like

00:08:54.420 bring it down a few knots. But this was not one of those times. Kendall's righteous anger struck

00:09:00.060 a chord. Her video racked up over 3 million views and sparked headlines across the country, 0.60

00:09:05.800 like Military Wife Rips Hegsass for Risking Husband's Life in Viral Video.

00:09:12.440 So I just went ahead and I was like, let's do it.

00:09:17.580 So I just went ahead and posted it.

00:09:19.000 And I genuinely, I was expecting there to be people that were angry about it.

00:09:25.000 I wasn't expecting there to be as much of a positive response to it that there was.

00:09:32.200 What was the response like?

00:09:33.220 so on twitter it was basically just immediately uh launched into like a week and a half of

00:09:42.640 thousands of people calling me fat essentially like that was the primary response is oh well 0.99

00:09:48.700 you're a fat bitch essentially uh and then instagram was a little bit of both i just got 0.99

00:09:57.240 to the point where I started oscillating back and forth between I'm not going to look at any of the 1.00

00:10:03.160 comments screw them I said what I said and I'm just whatever they can have their feelings and

00:10:08.340 I don't have to listen to them to then oscillating back to no you know what I am going to read the

00:10:14.440 comments and I'm going to go in and I'm going to be mean back to them because none of these 0.98

00:10:18.420 motherfuckers know how to make a funny insult so uh I really for the first week that's mostly what 0.98

00:10:25.200 i was doing just because it was fun to me uh and then weirdly on instagram was first of all 0.99

00:10:33.680 instagram was like right in the middle in terms of how people responded to it but that was also

00:10:37.700 where i started hearing from a ton of military spouses a ton of active duty service members

00:10:44.840 reaching out to me and being like oh my god thank you like we can't say this or we didn't know how 0.95

00:10:49.960 to say this and um so once i started getting those messages i didn't give a shit what they 0.54

00:10:55.400 were saying on twitter at that point because like the people that responded by telling me 0.51

00:11:00.380 how repulsive they thought i was like they clearly have no idea what it's like for military families 0.94

00:11:07.300 so um who gives a shit about their opinions when the actual military families are reaching out to 0.95

00:11:13.320 me and saying that they're grateful military families cannot always be as outspoken as kendall 0.95

00:11:18.420 is, but sometimes they are. Take what happened back in February. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth

00:11:24.420 announced a series of hard-line changes banning trans people from joining the military, halting

00:11:30.060 gender-affirming care for service members, and restricting certain books in the Department of

00:11:33.700 Defense schools. Soon after, during a visit to a U.S. military base in Germany, he was met with

00:11:39.740 unexpected pushback. About two dozen military families, mostly young people, gathered to make

00:11:45.940 their voices heard. They booed, heckled, and even chanted D-E-I, D-E-I, you know, basically saying

00:11:54.020 you, Pete Hegseth, are the D-E-I hire. You know, it has to be a real specific kind of dynamic where

00:12:01.480 if you are a service member or somebody close to a service member, you can't always say your

00:12:06.720 opinion about things. Or, you know, even if you are not a service member yourself, if you're close

00:12:12.760 to one that comes with its own kind of baggage that might be very silencing so in ways do you

00:12:18.280 feel like you're able to sort of be the person who you know explains the emotionality behind

00:12:24.920 this situation for folks who sometimes really can't yeah i think so um but i'm also honestly

00:12:31.820 i'm really inspired by a so even like a lot of people have been saying like oh what you said

00:12:40.460 being willing to say that and like take that risk is really brave. But I was actually inspired by

00:12:46.400 the bravery of there was a group of middle school age kids who have a parent that is active duty

00:12:53.580 military and is stationed in, I want to say it's stuttered Germany. It's one of the German bases.

00:13:02.680 And right at the very beginning of like right after Pete Hegseth had been confirmed, he went to this military base.

00:13:13.540 And not only was he met by a couple of dozen active duty military families, like when he was getting off the plane, they were standing there protesting him and yelling at him about how he has been attacking the concept of DEI.

00:13:29.660 But also, when he visited the middle school that's on base, there was like a fifth grader that led a walkout of all of the students in response to him.

00:13:41.040 It's impressive for sure, but not without risk.

00:13:44.200 For service members and their families, speaking your mind comes at a high cost.

00:13:49.460 i don't think people understand how big of a risk you're taking as a military family member

00:13:56.360 especially when you're deployed when you're stationed overseas because anything that you

00:14:04.860 do on base is held against your sponsor so your active duty service member i have seen families

00:14:13.120 get kicked off of base housing entirely because of something their kid did so like you know where 0.98

00:14:20.080 i'm where we live there was a kid usually it's like you know shitty teenagers being shitty 0.88

00:14:26.560 teenagers and like vandalizing something and if they figure out who did it that whole family has

00:14:31.400 to move off of base housing so like it is very very serious so the fact that

00:14:37.860 these kids were brave enough to do that knowing that like the stakes are even higher when you're

00:14:45.980 at a base overseas because if you get kicked out out of base housing on an overseas base where the 0.96

00:14:52.000 fuck are you going to live you know and we we already know that these this is an administration 0.91

00:14:58.200 that is willing to strand people overseas like they did to a bunch of the us aid employees that 1.00

00:15:07.380 were stationed overseas and then they were just like well not only are we eliminating your job

00:15:11.940 we're also not going to pay to fly you back so have fun figuring out how to get home from sudan

00:15:17.480 or wherever so um it was a huge risk that they took um and so i was very inspired by them

00:15:28.000 and I recognize that I'm in a very fortunate spot this like weird intersection of you know I work

00:15:39.820 in communication so I have the ability to put together an argument at a level that maybe not

00:15:45.120 a lot of people have been trained to be able to do I also because I work in comms and because I

00:15:51.140 work in politics I have from the very beginning kept my digital online footprint separate from

00:16:00.000 my husband so like I don't have to worry about oh god if I say something now I have 10 years

00:16:07.540 of posting about him constantly that they could connect me to um and I'm really lucky that I have

00:16:16.060 a partner that is like yeah girl go get him you know like he understands that my career and my

00:16:25.160 activism is really important to me and as long as I'm not just blatantly setting out to ruin his

00:16:33.000 career he is very accepting of the fact that like this is a calculated risk that I am taking

00:16:38.840 so yeah all that together I think just put me in a very fortunate spot where I could

00:16:46.020 be that mouthpiece to try and put it in people's face um and yeah as long as i'm in this position

00:16:54.440 and i can do that i'm going to continue to do that because i think

00:16:58.500 the military industrial complex has gotten away with a lot for a really long time and a huge part

00:17:06.520 of that is because the people with with the most knowledge and ability to like push back on it are

00:17:13.720 also the people who are most often silenced. That silencing that you spoke to is so real for

00:17:20.760 so many issues. And I think the powers that be kind of depend on the people who are closest to

00:17:25.720 the harm, who can speak to the harm most clearly and saliently, also being silent. And then the

00:17:32.360 people who can speak up, fully putting myself in this camp, are sometimes really only able to do

00:17:38.500 so from this incredibly heady or logistical place. But they're speaking about something that is

00:17:43.280 deeply human and emotional at its core. Why do you think it's so easy to sort of skip over the

00:17:48.320 human emotionality of these stories in favor of things like facts and figures? That's a really

00:17:53.180 good question. I think it's probably a couple of factors because it's certainly not just like the

00:18:00.760 things impacting military service members that we do that to, right? Like just look at like the

00:18:06.740 entire conversation about gaza right like we get really focused because it's we can't understand

00:18:13.440 what it's like to be living there we can't like i have no way of even trying to put myself into

00:18:21.400 that position so it's just i think it's partially that it's an easier leap in people's brains um

00:18:29.120 i also think that again it is partially just a democratic and leftist impulse that we always

00:18:40.440 jump to the like facts of the case and the logistics like we want to know everything and

00:18:45.520 we're just if we can just get you to see that you're being hypocrites we can finally get you

00:18:49.460 to stop um so i think that's partially it and i also think that there's some element to it that

00:18:58.740 is the american people i think have been groomed to do that somewhat like it's beneficial to the

00:19:05.460 trump administration if we skip over the emotion of it because it's a lot easier for the press

00:19:12.280 secretary of for the white house to get up there and be snide and dismissive and like mocking 1.00

00:19:19.500 of reporters when they ask questions related to the logistics it's a lot harder for her to be

00:19:27.140 dismissive and snide if the emotion of it is put in their face and um yeah so i think the the trump

00:19:37.960 administration wants us to do that they've been grooming us to do that i also think that the

00:19:43.180 media is kind of complicit in it um because when you have a media that is so overwhelmingly a

00:19:52.780 certain type of person a certain socioeconomic status of person like they can only convey the

00:20:00.700 emotion of the experiences that they understand themselves and there aren't a lot of service

00:20:07.820 members or military spouses that go on to become reporters and so there it's just most of the media

00:20:17.620 doesn't have the ability to write about it in the same way that, like, most of the media has

00:20:21.720 no idea about how to write about the emotion of Gaza or the emotion of being an undocumented

00:20:29.320 immigrant. And so they don't. And so we get further groomed into not thinking about it or caring about 1.00

00:20:36.860 it. Let's take a quick break.

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00:21:32.300 If your bookshelf and your For You page are equally important to your personality, welcome home.

00:21:38.220 This is Prose Society, the weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for thought daughters,

00:21:44.400 pop culture obsessives and anyone who thinks pride and prejudice and love island deserve the

00:21:48.980 same level of discourse i'm eli rallo and every week we're connecting the dots between books

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00:22:21.600 little too much you're in the right place listen to pro society on the iheart radio app apple

00:22:27.640 podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts see you between the pages when i was 14 years old

00:22:34.660 I was kidnapped and held captive for nine months.

00:22:38.340 I survived, and I've spent my life exploring

00:22:40.940 how other people survive what should have destroyed them.

00:22:44.680 I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the Survivor Files.

00:22:48.400 I just remember this low, taunting voice next to my ear 0.96

00:22:53.040 saying, shut up, don't say anything.

00:22:56.480 Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable. 0.97

00:23:00.640 I knew if he woke up, without a doubt,

00:23:04.060 he was going to hurt me. I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed,

00:23:10.200 and I just started screaming. They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. But

00:23:17.160 these aren't stories about what's taken from them. They're stories about what it takes to

00:23:22.420 make it out alive. Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app,

00:23:28.700 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:23:34.060 And we're back.

00:23:40.200 The invasion of Iraq was my political awakening as a young person.

00:23:44.780 My favorite cousin had enlisted a few years earlier,

00:23:47.120 and when President Bush announced that we were going to war,

00:23:49.800 I honestly thought we had to stop it so that he wouldn't be deployed.

00:23:53.580 Eventually, he was deployed.

00:23:55.600 But this was also the beginning of my time online.

00:23:58.580 I was on message boards looking for protests,

00:24:00.720 trying to find folks who were organizing.

00:24:02.820 Now, these days, everybody says they were against the Iraq War.

00:24:06.820 But that's not how I remember it.

00:24:08.880 What I remember is that if you were anti-war, like I was,

00:24:11.900 people would say, oh, so you don't support the troops?

00:24:15.320 Support our troops kind of became this slogan that basically meant

00:24:18.760 you could not criticize U.S. military policy.

00:24:21.540 Because if you did, you were somehow against the very people risking their lives.

00:24:26.320 That was 2003.

00:24:28.300 Today, it feels like things have really changed.

00:24:31.380 I feel like there was a time, especially for the Republican Party, where the troops were these, like, exalted people and that you had to support the troops.

00:24:38.480 You could not question the troops.

00:24:39.920 Just like you were saying this, like, massive hero narrative that these are people who are risking their lives and we have to do everything to support them, including not questioning what the government is doing with regards to service members.

00:24:50.840 And today, seeing Republican leaders be so flippant about those very same service members

00:24:56.600 when dismissing the fact that they needlessly endangered their lives with signal gate,

00:25:00.940 that just a few years ago we were saying were the most important people that you had to support the troops, 0.98

00:25:05.280 it just really makes clear that maybe they didn't really give that much of a shit about service members and their families. 0.95

00:25:10.680 Yeah, there's actually a specific moment in our history as a country that I would point to 0.95

00:25:17.280 as being the moment where that shift started to happen um and it was during a republican

00:25:25.080 primary debate for the presidential race uh in 2008 somewhere around there if anybody wants to

00:25:34.280 watch what i'm talking about it's literally featured in an episode this is embarrassing

00:25:37.520 to cite but it's also featured in an episode of the newsroom uh so there's a moment where

00:25:44.500 they are you know they have questions that are being asked by general like normal people and

00:25:51.820 they have a soldier who is currently he was stationed he was deployed to either afghanistan

00:25:58.660 or iraq like as he was asking this question they were video videoing him in and he

00:26:05.140 says because this is when don't ask don't tell was still a thing and so he says you know i am

00:26:12.740 a gay service member and all i want to do is serve my country like i this is very important to me i

00:26:21.900 want to continue to serve i want to continue to put my life on the line and of course this is

00:26:27.380 when there was like active war so putting your life on the line like really had weight to it at

00:26:32.420 the moment at that time and um you know i want to know are there any anyone on this stage any

00:26:39.980 candidate that would be willing to do away with don't ask, don't tell so that service members like

00:26:47.100 me don't have to hide who I am in order to serve my country. And not a single person on that stage

00:26:55.860 responded with any empathy towards him, with any respect for his service, and the overwhelming

00:27:04.820 majority of the audience booed him. In 2010, when I was deployed to Iraq, I had to lie about

00:27:09.840 who I was because I'm a gay soldier and I didn't want to lose my job. My question is, under one of

00:27:16.100 your presidencies, do you intend to circumvent the progress that's been made for gay and lesbian

00:27:21.440 soldiers in the military? Before he had even finished asking this question, the audience

00:27:27.760 was booing him. And I genuinely think that's the moment when it started to shift. And I think

00:27:35.100 that a huge part of that shift is because the Republican Party only wanted to focus on the

00:27:41.460 emotional side of things when they could be assured that military service members and their

00:27:50.860 families were a silent audience that they could tokenize without any risk of them pushing back

00:27:59.420 in the same way that the conservative party still tokenize it like talks about like oh the unborn

00:28:06.160 babies and this is why we're so you know because they know unborn babies like literal zygotes

00:28:11.680 cannot speak up and be like hey actually we do support women's right to choose so

00:28:16.460 uh i think that was part of it once they realized that like at any moment if we invoke the military

00:28:24.900 and try to romanticize their service somebody in that audience could stand up and be like you 0.99

00:28:32.700 motherfucker how dare you invoke our service when you are sending us to die you know just like the 0.99

00:28:40.840 guy that threw his shoes at at George W. Bush like and that's why you know in addition to my 1.00

00:28:49.180 original SignalGate video, I had, I recorded myself when I called and talked to Senator Mark

00:28:55.200 Wayne Mullins' office, since he's my senator. Kendall recorded herself calling her Oklahoma

00:29:01.580 Senator, Senator Mullins. And let's just say her anger comes through loud and clear. Quick heads

00:29:08.180 up, there is a lot of strong language in what you're about to hear. And so help me God, if I

00:29:13.420 have to quit my fucking job to make sure that I can drive to every fucking campaign and public 0.99

00:29:19.640 event that the senator has for the rest of his career. I will make it my life's work to destroy 1.00

00:29:26.120 his career by making sure that every fucking Oklahoman knows how few fucks he gave about my 1.00

00:29:32.540 husband's life and the lives of other active duty service members. But I do want to make it very 0.99

00:29:38.120 clear. And I hope that you will take down this message and relay it to the senator to help

00:29:42.540 encourage him to actually be a man and make sure that I get a call set up when I reach out to the

00:29:48.100 scheduler. I want you to let him know that if he doesn't reach out to me, I'm recording every single

00:29:53.980 time that I have called his office and left a voicemail or spoke to an intern like you. I am

00:29:58.720 recording all of those. And if I don't hear back from him, I will be sending them to every possible

00:30:03.720 newsroom, both in Oklahoma and nationally, to let them know that the senator is too much of a coward 0.58

00:30:09.640 to call back the wife of one of the service members in his constituency that was put at

00:30:16.120 risk. 0.99

00:30:16.840 And so help me God, if I have to quit my fucking job to make sure that I can drive to every 0.99

00:30:22.880 fucking campaign and public event that the senator has for the rest of his career, I 0.99

00:30:27.540 will make it my life's work to destroy his career by making sure that every fucking Oklahoman 1.00

00:30:34.360 knows how few fucks he gave about my husband's life and the lives of other active duty service 0.99

00:30:40.520 members. If I had known that video was going to go viral, side note, I would have cursed 0.97

00:30:48.200 significantly less. I'm a little embarrassed that I cursed this much on the phone to a U.S.

00:30:54.200 senator's office. But I straight up said, like, I don't care if I have to quit my job and make it

00:31:03.040 my life's work to destroy Senator Mullen's career, I will do it. I will drive to every

00:31:09.700 fucking campaign of it he has for the rest of his life and be in the audience and be there to remind 0.99

00:31:16.640 people of how few shits he gave about my husband's life and about the lives of other service members. 0.99

00:31:22.100 And I want not even just Republicans, I want all politicians to have that fear at all times. 0.94

00:31:33.560 I want them to know at any moment if you tokenize someone, whether it's over their military service or you're tokenizing DACA recipients or whatever it is, I want them to know at any moment someone could stand up in the audience and remind everyone at your event of the actual humans behind what you are talking about.

00:31:56.460 And I think if we could get politicians to feel that fear again on every topic, I think politics in our country would look a lot different.

00:32:07.960 Yes, make politicians afraid again. And this is why I love your content, because as you say on your TikTok, you're telling the stories of men in power and reminding you not to respect them and showing people the layers of ways that they have screwed people that they supposedly say they care about.

00:32:28.040 they've not upheld, you know, anything looking like accountability to the people that they have

00:32:33.260 been elected to serve. I don't know. I just I really appreciate that about your content,

00:32:36.920 that it's like about shifting our understanding of like who works for who, who should be afraid

00:32:42.200 of who. I think that's the magic of the Internet. You know, like think about how many videos

00:32:46.920 we've seen over the years of constituents trying to confront their elected official in Congress

00:32:53.780 on any topic, whether it's military, health care, whatever. And almost without fail,

00:33:01.420 those clips end with that member of Congress getting into the congressional member only

00:33:08.200 elevator and then the doors slowly sliding shut in front of their face and protecting them from

00:33:14.820 actually having to have that hard conversation with their constituent. And I think the magic of

00:33:21.900 the internet is that it can it can knock those sliding elevator doors down they can't run from

00:33:31.300 their constituents in the same way that they can in real life and obviously you know there's there's

00:33:38.980 other ways that they can dodge that when it's the internet right they can just pretend that they

00:33:43.460 don't see it or whatever but um i think that's where i'm trying to utilize my content to prevent 0.52

00:33:53.800 them from even being able to do that like mark wayne mullen cannot fucking pretend that he has

00:33:59.140 not seen my videos and i know he can't pretend that because there have been national reporters 0.90

00:34:04.700 that have called his office and asked him for comment on them there's not a chance in hell

00:34:09.920 That man has not seen every video I have ever made about him. And I just, I, if I could like snap my fingers and have any wish come true, I would love to be able to like dedicate significant portions of my time and of my life to being able to train other people on how to do what I'm doing right now.

00:34:39.540 I don't want to be the one person that's seen as like, ooh, she's doing this thing. I want there to be so many people doing the same exact thing that no one ever again thinks that what I'm doing is special or remarkable.

00:34:56.720 Like, if I could completely drive myself out of a job as a content creator by getting enough people, other people to be doing the same thing, I would.

00:35:07.220 Because I really think that the internet is our best shot at holding these cowards accountable.

00:35:19.540 More after a quick break.

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00:36:11.820 When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and held captive for nine months.

00:36:17.660 I survived, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them.

00:36:24.180 I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are The Survivor Files.

00:36:27.800 I just remember this low, taunting voice next to my ear saying, 0.96

00:36:33.240 shut up, don't say anything.

00:36:35.980 Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable. 0.98

00:36:40.420 I knew if he woke up, without a doubt, he was going to hurt me.

00:36:44.860 I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed,

00:36:49.620 and I just started screaming.

00:36:51.960 They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced.

00:36:56.400 But these aren't stories about what's taken from them.

00:36:59.860 They're stories about what it takes to make it out alive.

00:37:03.480 Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:37:11.920 If your bookshelf and your For You page are equally important to your personality, welcome home.

00:37:17.860 This is Prose Society, the weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for thought daughters, pop culture obsessives, and anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse.

00:37:30.340 I'm Eli Rallo, and every week we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and the conversations everyone can't stop having.

00:37:37.440 I'm going to have to look up this story.

00:37:39.340 I'm obsessed.

00:37:40.080 So obsessed.

00:37:40.580 From best-selling authors and your favorite book talk creators to the latest pop culture moments, nothing is off the table.

00:37:46.980 It's like if you can hide some real messages inside compelling characters, then that is a Trojan horse.

00:37:54.900 Whether you're looking for literary deep dives, smart pop culture conversations, or a community of readers who love to think a little too much, you're in the right place.

00:38:04.060 Listen to Pro Society on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:38:10.060 See you between the pages.

00:38:17.420 Let's get right back into it. 0.99

00:38:20.060 Rather than just preaching to the choir, Kendall has an entire series on how to talk to conservatives.

00:38:25.340 In a digital climate that often prioritizes dunks and clapbacks, Kendall's taking a different approach,

00:38:31.260 using the Internet to have the kinds of conversations that might actually change hearts and minds.

00:38:35.900 It's not about giving someone like me a quick dopamine fix.

00:38:39.040 or a smug sense of superiority.

00:38:41.620 For her, it's about connection, persuasion,

00:38:44.420 and doing the harder work of actually reaching across divides.

00:38:47.760 I feel like you're able to occupy this very specific lane

00:38:51.260 where you're able to speak to people that might not be there yet

00:38:55.380 and train other people on how they can do the same.

00:38:58.420 Is that intentional with your sort of content strategy here?

00:39:01.940 Yes, very much so.

00:39:03.120 So first of all, okay, so this gets dangerously close to a topic

00:39:07.780 that i could rant about for hours uh but i think genuinely one of the most destructive things that

00:39:15.100 that has happened in content creation writ large over the last several years and one of the most

00:39:22.940 destructive things that tiktok specifically has groomed people into doing is is viewing

00:39:32.420 political content as solely through the lens of those like clap back videos that lots of people 0.98

00:39:40.840 do right like i'm gonna find a conservative doing the dumbest fucking video i can and then i'm gonna 0.95

00:39:46.780 take it and i'm gonna respond to them i'm gonna be smug and snide and i'm gonna tell you why they 1.00

00:39:52.560 are the dumbest piece of shit ever and then i'm gonna get a hundred thousand likes on it i'm gonna 0.99

00:39:57.540 make thousands of dollars but have i moved the needle in any way on any issue no absolutely not 1.00

00:40:03.960 so i have to tell you this comes up on the show like this i i am right there with you i feel like

00:40:10.980 that kind of content has made our entire discourse especially online so much worse it's so harmful

00:40:18.860 and the thing that gets me about it is that like it is so like it's like when you eat a bunch of

00:40:25.880 mcdonald's and it tastes so good and then it's so empty in the end like it is so hollow and shallow

00:40:33.400 but it's it's so like it scratches an itch i wish i didn't have and i think i'm seeing the results

00:40:40.040 of that writ large on our on our social media discourse do you know what i mean like i'll just

00:40:45.020 say yes i agree with you 100 yeah yeah i mean and that's the thing like when i say this about this

00:40:50.620 content i am not in any way judging people that consume that content because hell i consume that

00:40:55.440 content there are times where i really enjoy that content you know especially when we're in a society

00:41:01.380 where it can feel like you are just like screaming into a void and being like how are not how are

00:41:08.740 there so many people that think this is normal in any way so like watching somebody get put in their

00:41:14.720 place can feel satisfying but first of all those people are not getting put in their place most of

00:41:22.320 the people being featured in those videos are thrilled when they get featured in a leftist

00:41:28.300 clapback video because all it does is drive up their engagement these are just dollar tree

00:41:35.200 like store brand tommy lauren's in the same way that tommy lauren used to intentionally piss people

00:41:43.220 off in order to increase her stardom at least she was like actually trying to reach like 0.99

00:41:51.360 you know actually being on television these people are settling for like i just want to get

00:41:56.420 10 000 views on my tiktok video and make a hundred dollars off of it but like it's the same

00:42:02.440 general process right and like they just the two sides feed off of one another and it's just this

00:42:14.200 like circular i mean it's honestly it's just an a digital and political human centipede they're 0.99

00:42:23.700 just regurgitating the same shit into each other's mouth over and over and over again 0.75

00:42:27.940 like not to be too graphic but like that's what's happening and so not only does that content not 0.99

00:42:35.260 move the needle, I genuinely believe it pushes us further apart. It increases the divide.

00:42:45.660 And then politicians respond to that widening divide by panicking and being like, oh, well,

00:42:52.800 now we have to compromise on our values so that we can chase after that other side that's moving

00:42:58.020 further away from us. And then that's how you get politicians like John Fetterman just out there

00:43:03.960 calling himself a Democrat and doing all the Republican things. And like, I genuinely believe

00:43:10.000 we don't have to compromise on any of our values. We just have to figure out how to talk about our

00:43:16.620 values in a way that appeals to a conservative morality system. And so that's what I'm now

00:43:26.260 focusing a lot of my content on doing is trying to help people learn that like you know uh i use

00:43:34.020 the moral foundation theory that jonathan hate came up with where he said like there's six

00:43:39.160 different foundational blocks that people build their morality off of and people on the left tend

00:43:45.880 to focus on two of those six people on the right tend to focus on three of the six and then the

00:43:52.000 sixth one both sides like and so i think the biggest issue we have with leftist messaging

00:43:58.560 right now is we're talking about these values in a way that appeals to our morality system not

00:44:06.420 theirs and we can talk about it in a way that appeals to i mean like for example immigration

00:44:13.500 like we're talking about it from the perspective of like this you know you have to be fair it is

00:44:19.200 like horrific and unfair to think about deporting a DACA recipient to a country that they have never

00:44:25.860 called home they might not even speak about the speak that language you know all and all of that's

00:44:31.060 true all of that's true and in a perfect world at least in my opinion that would be enough to

00:44:36.760 convince people but the reality is we don't live in a perfect world and there's 50 of the country 0.79

00:44:42.440 that doesn't give a shit that it's not fair but if we can talk about it from the perspective of 0.96

00:44:47.780 what that DACA recipient means to our country like you know they're big into patriotism and 0.97

00:44:56.500 if we can talk about immigration from the perspective of like we are this incredible

00:45:01.460 nation that is welcoming these people in like these are people that believe in our way of life

00:45:08.760 so strongly that the they just want to be a part of it you know and if we can talk about those

00:45:17.760 values in that way then we can actually start to like narrow that divide a little bit and hopefully

00:45:25.400 win some of those people over because unfortunately talking at them endlessly from our perspective

00:45:35.480 and especially creating videos where we're making fun of them and like you know making money off of

00:45:43.600 being snide towards them, that's not going to pull them in. That is not going to get them to

00:45:49.640 change their mind on anything. Okay, if you're like me, this might be the moment where you're

00:45:55.200 thinking, why is it on me to change these people's minds? Pendle gets that. She really does.

00:46:01.200 I understand the criticism that probably a lot of people would have for my strategy by saying,

00:46:09.040 like, you know, these are people that have been super bigoted. They've been so racist. They've

00:46:14.700 been so homophobic and transphobic and all of the phobics. Like, I don't want to have to be nice to 0.68

00:46:20.420 them. I don't want to have to do that labor. And I think that's totally fair for people to say,

00:46:25.640 particularly more than any other group of people. I think black women 100% get to say like, you know

00:46:32.320 what, motherfuckers, the 92% is tired. So like, you do your jobs. We're going to be doing our 1.00

00:46:38.120 thing fuck you so like i get that but any person on the left that has a skin tone like mine 1.00

00:46:47.100 absolutely the fuck not like you don't get to do what is fun or easy right now 1.00

00:46:53.420 we have work to do to repair the shit that we stood by as it got broken and so 0.98

00:46:58.820 i just i want more people to start looking at their content more content creators in 0.91

00:47:07.960 particular to start looking at their content from the perspective of what impact is this actually

00:47:12.880 having beyond the check that i get from tiktok on the 15th of every month and i'm really really

00:47:21.500 worried about what's going to happen if more content creators don't start doing that because

00:47:27.740 i get why they don't right like my content where i'm talking about here's how to talk to a

00:47:35.680 conservative about universal health care or immigration or whatever it doesn't perform

00:47:40.180 anywhere nearly as well as uh you know these clap back videos it also doesn't perform nearly

00:47:47.560 as well as like my emotional videos that have gone viral and so to use your metaphor of the

00:47:57.640 mcdonald's right you eat it and you don't feel satisfied it is a little bit of a chicken and

00:48:02.960 egg situation where it's like okay we can keep telling these content creators to create more

00:48:10.160 useful content we can keep telling mcdonald's you need to sell more vegetables but if people

00:48:16.520 keep going into mcdonald's and only buying the french fries eventually mcdonald's is going to 0.99

00:48:22.120 be like we can't do like you motherfuckers said you wanted vegetables and then none of you bought 0.99

00:48:27.040 vegetables and so we're going back to just selling french fries and i think that there is a 0.99

00:48:33.400 responsibility on the side of people who are consuming content to start really trying to

00:48:40.080 work against our our own impulses that we've been groomed to have to where like you know hell i have

00:48:48.500 adhd anytime i see like a 10 minute long video on tiktok i'm like oh my god what are you lecturing 0.53

00:48:54.060 minutes shut up can you not tell me in like 45 seconds come on guys but like I'm really trying

00:49:02.600 to fight that impulse more often now because I recognize if I just scroll on I'm doing I'm being 0.80

00:49:11.820 the person standing outside of McDonald's yelling at them for not selling me vegetables when I wasn't

00:49:16.720 buying vegetables and so um i think it has to be an effort on both sides of the process both the

00:49:24.440 creation and the consumption um and i think if we don't fix it

00:49:29.080 uh i i don't know where we'll be in a few years in our country because 0.72

00:49:37.020 right now the right is kicking our ass online and we have to figure out a way to fix it i've had a

00:49:45.740 personal sort of quandary, you know, after Trump was elected, I was really getting a lot of 0.98

00:49:53.420 schadenfreude. I always say that word wrong from like, oh, no, like I never thought the leopard

00:49:59.180 was going to eat my face. And something about that, those that content was like clearly feeling

00:50:04.600 a need for me. And then someone was like, you know, you know, so I live in D.C. and when all

00:50:09.400 when federal workers were all being fired and like targeted, people were saying like, oh,

00:50:15.160 a lot of those federal workers were Trump voters. And so they're, you know, they're getting what

00:50:18.620 they asked for. Maybe they didn't think it was going to be them. And someone was like, you know,

00:50:22.060 we kind of need these people. Like if the people who are speaking up and being like, dang, I feel

00:50:26.180 like I got, you know, taken for a ride by Trump, somebody that I put my faith in and I trusted and

00:50:31.380 he turned on me. I understand. Nobody understands the impulse to laugh at those people more than

00:50:36.700 me. And I am sad to say that I have. But at a certain point, don't we want people who are

00:50:42.460 able to see that they made a mistake and are able to call out that like they they were misled

00:50:47.840 I feel angry that these people abdicated their responsibility to put effort into who they voted

00:50:54.360 for and be a thoughtful consumer of you know American democracy but sort of just stroking

00:51:02.340 my rage boner when I when they speak up about it isn't getting us anywhere don't we kind of like

00:51:08.020 like isn't it sort of what we want for them to be talking about like oh yeah I'm this I was

00:51:11.980 just let i got it wrong right yeah well and the weird thing is is honestly i hate to break it to

00:51:19.580 other people on the left we're not always great at guessing which people were trump supporters i

00:51:27.020 can't even tell you how many leftists i've had come into my comments especially on instagram 0.99

00:51:32.120 and be like well you got what you wanted you got what you voted for so fuck you and i'm like uh my 0.99

00:51:39.120 friend I not only voted for Kamala Harris I literally worked for her campaign I could not 1.00

00:51:44.800 have been more Kamala like pro Kamala in this election cycle if I tried right but like all

00:51:51.960 they see is you're talking about the military you're married to somebody in the military

00:51:56.380 obviously you must be on the right and like that's bad because like if you're being like

00:52:04.860 if you're pushing me away as somebody that's like dedicating my life to trying to win things for our

00:52:11.080 side of the aisle how are people that are actually on the right that are like conceding that they

00:52:16.480 messed up how are they going to respond to those kind of comments you're only going to push them

00:52:20.460 back into the cult but i will also say i do understand like the need for that like i can't

00:52:30.120 even tell you how many Francesca Ramsey videos I've watched of her with her ukulele singing

00:52:35.440 about the leopards eating their face and so I get it and I think we can still have that content it's

00:52:41.660 just a matter of making sure it's targeting the people that actually deserve it and that aren't

00:52:50.840 just everyday people so like I will watch every possible video of Dave Portnoy being sad about 1.00

00:52:59.060 losing 20 million dollars like fuck that guy fuck you Dave Fortnoy like I don't feel sorry for him 0.99

00:53:06.240 he deserves it and like everyone should laugh at him in the same way that like there is not a song 1.00

00:53:12.180 in the world that you could set that video of Richard Spencer getting punched in the head

00:53:16.620 to that I wouldn't stop and watch it like four times in a row every time forever my favorite

00:53:22.640 video like but there's a difference between dave portnoy and richard spencer and like random single 0.88

00:53:32.580 mom of three working you know as a assistant manager at a ross dress for less and living in a

00:53:39.420 prefab uh trailer park you know like she doesn't need to be mocked because ultimately she got 0.98

00:53:49.600 tricked she got hoodwinked that does not excuse whatever horrible shit she has said or even 0.97

00:53:57.160 continues to say to other people online particularly marginalized communities but 0.98

00:54:03.800 if she is coming out and saying hey i screwed up i realized i screwed up when i went to get

00:54:12.280 my groceries and i found out my food stamps got cut off or whatever like we can have discussions 0.52

00:54:18.920 with her later about her other problematic shit that she's doing but when she first says hey guys 0.90

00:54:27.520 i think we screwed up i think our response should be yes 0.97

00:54:33.160 welcome welcome to our side now how can we help you go convince 10 of your friends that they also

00:54:42.900 screwed up because it's not just about making sure we don't push her back into the cult it's

00:54:48.280 about recognizing that the people that are in her life are going to listen to her all day long

00:54:55.720 and like take that that is going to mean more to them than you could show them every single video

00:55:03.260 I have ever made and it's not going to convince them as much as her talking to them and so we

00:55:09.380 need to stop pushing people back into the cult and we need to start giving them the tools necessary

00:55:15.120 and empowering them to start being the pipeline out of that for the people in their life

00:55:24.040 like there's a reason why the alt-right pipeline is so attractive to people it's because it's easy

00:55:32.220 to go down and everyone's nice to you along the way and everyone like tells you how smart you are

00:55:40.700 for, like, getting into the pipeline in the first place.

00:55:43.300 So, like, we need to start building the pipeline

00:55:46.000 going the opposite direction.

00:55:50.040 More after a quick break.

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00:56:11.700 Run a business and not thinking about podcasting?

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00:56:34.940 Streaming, radio, and podcasting.

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00:56:39.700 That's iHeartAdvertising.com.

00:56:42.060 If your bookshelf and your For You page

00:56:44.040 are equally important to your personality,

00:56:46.480 welcome home.

00:56:48.000 This is Prose Society,

00:56:50.100 the weekly podcast that's part book club,

00:56:52.640 part group chat for thought daughters,

00:56:54.420 pop culture obsessives,

00:56:55.620 and anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice

00:56:57.420 and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse.

00:57:00.460 I'm Eli Rallo, and every week,

00:57:02.160 we're connecting the dots between books,

00:57:04.160 the internet, and the conversations

00:57:05.580 everyone can't stop having.

00:57:07.580 I'm going to have to look up this story.

00:57:09.480 I'm obsessed.

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00:57:11.160 From best-selling authors

00:57:12.200 and your favorite book talk creators

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00:57:16.020 nothing is off the table.

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00:57:20.380 inside compelling characters,

00:57:23.080 then that is the Trojan horse.

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00:57:37.120 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:57:40.100 See you between the pages.

00:57:42.180 When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and held captive for nine months.

00:57:47.980 I survived, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them.

00:57:54.440 I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the Survivor Files.

00:57:57.900 I just remember this low, taunting voice next to my ear saying, 0.99

00:58:03.540 Shut up. Don't say anything. 0.99

00:58:06.480 Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable.

00:58:10.760 I knew if he woke up, without a doubt, he was going to hurt me.

00:58:15.320 I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed, and I just started screaming.

00:58:22.760 They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced.

00:58:26.580 But these aren't stories about what's taken from them.

00:58:29.700 There's stories about what it takes to make it out alive.

00:58:33.840 Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

00:58:47.340 Let's get right back into it.

00:58:50.340 As someone who is so good at putting your opinions out into the world using social media,

00:58:55.100 even when there's this like chilling effect to do so even when you're like you know dog piled for

00:59:01.440 doing so what keeps you doing it like what keeps you logging on and and and continuing to put your

00:59:07.020 ideas out there um i mean part of it is okay this is going to sound really weird but i i weirdly

00:59:17.060 think having depression has made it a lot easier to do this and survive it because

00:59:23.980 i know i am at the end of the day if i have to lay down and close my eyes to go to sleep

00:59:31.900 and my options are either i'm going to be thinking about the fact that i said nothing i did nothing

00:59:39.880 our democracy is sliding further into fascism more people are being hurt more innocent people

00:59:47.580 are being deported to an El Salvadorian concentration camp because I said nothing

00:59:52.240 that is a lot harder for me to live with than if I do say stuff and when I lay down at night

01:00:01.380 and I close my eyes the last thing that I'm thinking about is how you know Steve 04756 on 0.99

01:00:08.760 Twitter thinks that I'm a fat bitch. Like, I will sleep soundly knowing that Steve thinks I'm a fat 1.00

01:00:16.100 bitch. I will not sleep soundly knowing that I did nothing and I said nothing and things got worse. 0.99

01:00:24.460 When you go to sleep at night, what will prevent you from getting a good night's sleep? And it's

01:00:28.640 not like riling up shithead Steve 0556 on Twitter. It's actually doing something, saying something,

01:00:36.300 speaking up yeah and on top of that you know like just as a little added bonus for myself like you

01:00:43.360 know as I'm doing this content like the main videos that's for everyone the part I'm doing for

01:00:50.900 me is when I'm responding to those insults and being funnier than they could ever possibly hope

01:00:58.260 that's the part that's just for me that's my little treat and so the fact that I get to go

01:01:04.200 to sleep at night knowing that I did something I said something and yeah Steve thinks I'm a fat 0.96

01:01:10.700 bitch but also Steve's going to sleep tonight knowing that I made a very funny joke about his 0.98

01:01:17.580 bald spot and that's gonna eat at him that's the like oh I sleep very well when I get to know 0.99

01:01:24.740 because like oh my god I the I think the thing that blew my mind the most this entire experience

01:01:32.680 has been you know tens of thousands of insults later not a single one of them has been funny

01:01:39.120 no i'm a deeply insultable person i mean jesus christ i cut my own bangs y'all my bangs look 0.96

01:01:49.020 like shit 100 of the time they are uneven and janky like you could make a hundred jokes about 0.96

01:01:58.800 that that would be so much funnier than just calling me a cow so I just in the same way that 0.98

01:02:07.660 I want the left to get better at talking about our values and winning people over I just want

01:02:13.300 conservatives to get funnier because Jesus Christ if I'm gonna have to interact with you

01:02:17.940 I at least want it to be funny and I can take a good insult as long as it's funny so please

01:02:24.100 please just learn from me develop the ability to insult someone in a way that's funny

01:02:30.440 step your game up steve 0564 on twitter or if they really wanted to be smart they could hire

01:02:37.800 you as a digital strategist you would write for them the money would go right into your pocket

01:02:42.440 and then the insults would improve yeah i i mean i've thought about creating a tiktok series that's

01:02:47.860 like comedy 101 for conservatives because like i mean it's it's not even their fault like when

01:02:55.140 the best example of conservative comedy that you have is like stephen crowder and greg gutfeld

01:03:01.760 no wonder you're not funny come on jesus so they're just regurgitating the things that those

01:03:09.120 two say and it's like it wasn't funny when they said it it's extra not funny when y'all are

01:03:16.760 repeating it so just conservatives if you're listening to this please for the love of god

01:03:22.380 just please please get better at comedy speaking from the perspective of someone that's not only

01:03:30.360 a content creator but is also a digital strategist i think one of the things that the right did

01:03:36.940 during this last election cycle that the left did not did not do enough of and also did not

01:03:46.720 do nearly as well as the right is having a strategy where non-political content creators

01:04:00.000 were getting content out to their audiences about politics whether that was them talking

01:04:09.740 about it themselves or them just quietly reposting stuff from other people and

01:04:16.260 i i think that we need to accept like the party as a whole needs to accept but also like anyone

01:04:28.840 that cares about the direction of our country needs to accept there are only so many people

01:04:34.560 who are going to willingly watch explicitly political content the reality is the majority 0.92

01:04:40.920 of people do not give a shit about political content will never watch it and 0.56

01:04:47.040 i think simultaneously while yes the part that the piece of the puzzle that i am doing i think 0.91

01:04:56.180 is very important in training people to talk to conservatives i think equally important

01:05:01.200 is empowering content creators in radically different spaces whether it's true crime

01:05:08.700 or makeup tutorials or mukbangs or whatever i think that the the obstacles that we are facing

01:05:19.060 are monumental enough that just getting political content creators to do the right thing and to say

01:05:26.900 the right things and like do our part is not going to be enough so if you are a content creator

01:05:36.280 of any type at all i would very much encourage you to try and figure out what is the piece of

01:05:44.360 this puzzle that i can be playing it doesn't have to look like creating political content

01:05:48.960 and i would be happy if there's any content creator that hears this that wants to do that

01:05:54.440 and isn't sure how to please reach out to me i will help you figure out a way and oh my god if

01:06:00.560 you work for any political campaign on the left at all please make that a part of your strategy

01:06:09.160 and if you need help figuring out how to make that a part of your strategy please reach out to me 0.98

01:06:13.600 because like i mean as stupid as it was trump's strategy of talking to like aiden ross and the 0.98

01:06:23.280 brothers and all of that that was a hugely influential into his win and we have to do that 0.98

01:06:29.960 or we are going to keep losing so i can't tell you how many people that i've interviewed

01:06:36.560 from all different spectrums of like content or digital strategy who are all saying the left needs

01:06:42.540 to be making huge investments with content creators podcasters i firmly like i mean this

01:06:48.340 like literally i think we have trump in office again because of podcasters like i i think that

01:06:54.500 podcasters shifted the landscape of our political fabric and we need to just like understand that

01:07:01.860 and get on board it's not too late but we have a lot of ground to make up for and now is the time

01:07:05.820 yes oh yeah we coasted for so long and this is not even the only time that we've done this like

01:07:10.700 i mean i've been doing digital strategy for long enough that and i know you were also around and

01:07:16.920 seeing this like when digital first became a thing oh we were like we were confident we were

01:07:23.200 like the republicans are never going to catch up with us we are so much better at the internet than

01:07:27.740 they are what a time to be alive that was a that was a great feeling but it was a not an impulse

01:07:34.960 that we should have listened to because oh no we we were so confident that we were at the

01:07:40.740 you know front of the pack that we just slowed down to a leisurely stroll and they just

01:07:47.960 ran right past us and we caught up and then the same thing is happening now with like podcasts

01:07:56.360 and things like that so yeah I think you are right about podcasts we have to we just have to stop

01:08:03.160 congratulating ourselves on how good we are at certain things and start focusing on getting 0.96

01:08:07.960 better at the stuff that they are clearly kicking our ass on. 0.99

01:08:37.960 producer. I'm your host, Bridget Dodd. If you want to help us grow, rate and review us on Apple 0.98

01:08:42.880 Podcasts. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, check out the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

01:08:47.960 or wherever you get your podcasts.

01:08:49.060 i survived nine months in captivity and i've spent my life exploring how other people survive what

01:09:09.160 should have destroyed them i'm elizabeth smart and these are the survivor files every week i'm

01:09:15.620 with survivors who lived through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly

01:09:21.140 silenced. These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to The Survivor Files

01:09:27.600 with Elizabeth Smart on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

01:09:33.880 If your bookshelf and your For You page are equally important to your personality,

01:09:38.080 welcome home. Pro Society is a weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for

01:09:43.620 anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse.

01:09:47.960 Each week, we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and pop culture with your

01:09:52.160 favorite writers, book talk creators, and plenty of overthought opinions. Listen to Pro Society on

01:09:59.440 the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Hoda Kotb, host of the

01:10:05.860 podcast Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb. You know, I'm always searching for inspiration and useful tools

01:10:12.460 to maximize joy.

01:10:13.880 Like when my friend Henry Winkler

01:10:15.380 offered advice to aspiring actors

01:10:17.860 and really anybody hoping to stand out.

01:10:20.820 You're not hired just to fill time and space.

01:10:23.640 You're hired to fill the space with you.

01:10:26.520 Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb

01:10:28.880 on the iHeartRadio app,

01:10:31.060 Apple Podcasts,

01:10:32.220 or wherever you get your podcasts.

01:10:34.980 Our hometown is not a test tube.

01:10:37.620 90 miles northeast of Nashville,

01:10:39.660 a battle for the future of America

01:10:41.360 plays out in one small town.

01:10:43.680 Developers with right-wing ties

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01:10:47.340 We need cities on a shining hill.

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01:10:54.620 of a social experiment and fights back.

01:10:57.580 Guess you didn't move in 1.00

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01:11:00.300 Listen to Our Town 1.00

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