Welcome to this weekend walk a shot podcast to on Saturday, March 15th, 2025.
Congratulations to all this locals that survived the big wind storm last night.
It woke me up at like one in the morning and was really quite powerful, but fortunately it was very fleeting.
It didn't last very long, thankfully. So that was the end of it. And there was a lot of a certain hype.
And I know it was worse further south in Chicago land and even further south than the country.
But we are here in all doing well.
And my guest again is Deanna Traust of Washington DC based truth in common.
And in the first podcast, we had talked about she had shared some local moments as a DC resident of the impacts of the proposed Trump administration layoffs and cuts to a key federal programs.
And as well as diagnosing where a lot of the misinformation is coming from and what some of the mega people are following religiously and what we can do to combat it.
And in this episode, we're going to focus more locally. And before we do that, I want to comment.
So last week's show school board candidate Samuel DeMico was a no show and I'd.
So I dedicated my first podcast on some politics that were rather disturbing a postcard going out to 15th Aldermanic District residents.
So basically a smear campaign of four time incumbent Cory pain about some legal issues he's had within the past few years and it wasn't done by his opponent has done by the democratic committee of walk a shot county and in a very poor taste because we always criticize the right for this kind of smear campaigns and.
And now they've, with this there's a potential that the danger of making our local elections very partisan and that that's not what we need that's not how we do things and walk a shot so very still very upset.
Cory's candidate.
Rico Camacho is my guest next week and we're going to give him an opportunity to address that and see if he shares my critique or strong criticism of what what it happened in terms of that postcard campaign as well as focus on why he's running, which is what we should be talking about.
Sam had reached out to me to a few days later and his cell phone was damaged and so that he wasn't able to communicate with me about his inability to participate in hopes he can be on a future show it's hopefully we can try to squeeze him in before the April first election so but enough of that back with Diana here and I want to start the first podcast with this quote and I think it's probably better in the second podcast since we're thinking locally.
This was a quote from a Jake Gyllenhaal movie called enemy he plays a history professor and it's about dictatorships and he says control it's all about control every dictatorship has one obsession and that's it in ancient Rome they gave the people bread and circuses they kept the populace busy with entertainment but other dictatorships use other strategies to control ideas the knowledge how do they do that they lower education.
They limit culture sensor information they censor any means of individual expression and it's important to remember this this is a pattern that appears that repeats itself throughout history and my guess and I both believe that history is repeating itself here in the US something we never thought would happen.
And given our upbringing and full disclosure Diana and I are classmates from one of the best public high schools in the whole country and the data is there to support that and so we're big believers in the power of education to build a more informed and a more skilled population to make this country in this world better.
And so so now Diana we're shifting the discussion and I know this is a big part of your craft your work is what can we do to address misinformation in our neighborhoods and communities and and how can we have civil discord with our neighbors and promote and defend the small hour and small D you know Republican democratic values that we believe make America great.
That's sort of the million dollar question isn't it and I appreciate you're asking you know our model it truth and common focuses on kind of restoring access for people to quality information so they can find the fact they need and then also kind of coaching them a little bit in how they can have respectful conversation now.
Okay it's you know when we started in late 2022 I had no sort of obviously idea that the need would grow to this level but i'm glad to be able to be doing it so the first thing I'd say is recognize so there's a lot of cynicism toward quality source of information right now there's actually a great podcast on the gray area podcast which is a box property sort of a philosophical podcast that talks about the.
The this notion of cynicism and how can be damaging to our pursuit of democratic ideals okay so pushing through our cynicism around quality source of information mainstream media is really important because frankly it's all we have sort of telling us what's going on and media is doing an incredible job trying to track things.
So there's quality sources like nonprofit sources like PBS and mpr there's you know quality new.
Yeah exactly which is honestly one of the things that scares me the most because so many communities depend on those sources without a lot of other options very very challenging to think about those threats support public media please.
So there's those kinds of writers you know people like the guardian the associated press you can download the app and turn on notification there's a lot of ways to track things on the national level but important is to track things on the local level as well local media is more trusted and it's less polarizing as a source for local communities because it doesn't get sort of stuck in opinion journalism at night on television.
As much and it's tracking what's going on in your local community so supporting your local news outlets knowing who owns them for example is it a billionaire owner is a corporate owner is it a hedge phone owner is it a nonprofit knowing those things is important so re engaging with those are super important and we can get into the dialogue piece as well.
Yeah now I'm glad you mention that because it's our local newspapers called the Wakusha Freeman which was maybe one of the oldest newspapers in the whole state one of its reporters was the Adora Yalman's who was president of the Wisconsin women's suffrage suffrage movement who is very was probably the reason why Wisconsin was the first state to ratify the 19th amendment giving women the right to vote.
But when you look at the editorial section it definitely is a very pro conservative even pro mega bias in spite of the newspapers traditions of objectivity and inferred journalism although I guess when it comes to local sports and some of the other issues.
You can say the reporting is a little more objective but I think there's another thing paradox is that the local Fox News outlets I've encountered also seem to be fairly objective in terms of the reporting on the really local stuff so that is you know a bit re refreshing refreshing for sure Fox local affiliates are not the same as Fox News National not the same we've had a we had an amazing reporter from a Fox affiliate in Baltimore come and speak and.
You know really one so many people over by showing that she was not you know a hyper partisan person reporting on you know nothing but fires and car crashers and hopefully the Wakusha Freeman you know obviously is a fleptical hopefully it's including a balance of viewpoints and not just exclusively conservative but you know obviously it needs to reflect the community hopefully some balance and hopefully it's just marking opinion journalism as different from fact based journalism because.
Especially in the air so social media we get it all mixed up any of those YouTube kind of influencers that people are seeing on Instagram or the tiktokers whatever so many you know some of its fact based but so many are just spewing from their own you know whatever viewpoint and trying to get engagements that pays them that you just have to be really really skeptical about non sort of established.
source of information tons of great new sub stacks that's all terrific to especially when it's run by a trained journalist yeah but you just have to be a little skeptical of those other kinds of things and this may sound like a silly question but is it worth the effort to contact our.
Our federal legislators are congress congressman and senators at the federal level to share our concerns and into try to affect change.
Most of the voices i've seen commenting on that have said yes now it there's also a massive volume probably unprecedented volume it with most you know in most lawmakers offices right now but in a sense it doesn't matter I keep hearing over and over.
Being it doesn't matter that you shouldn't shy away just because there's that huge volume I keep I keep hearing over and over that it does matter we've been emailing here when our budget was under threat like I mentioned in the last segment you know we already don't have representation and congress here in DC we pay high high high taxes and we couldn't stomach so and and it appeared to work.
Because we now have at least there's a chance of that being removed from the continuing resolution so I do think it works and it does matter hopefully lawmakers are you know what we've seen a few town halls online that's another way to get to the community talking you got to respect anyone who's running a town hall right now we're whatever they're partisan affiliation because they're probably getting.
Into shouting that some matches no matter what but we democracies about we as citizens having a voice so you know we use it sure yeah absolutely so I think the same can be said for our local government we need people to be contacting the local legislators and maybe even consider running for office or even serving as a citizen and one of the committees in our city government.
That would be great and you know what another thing that happens when we're at a time of kind of anxiety and uncertainty and instability is people tend to and I'm not saying it's not sometimes justified but kind of point to leaders and bring that cynicism to how they're doing their jobs meaning I mean right now few leaders can sort of there's no getting it right it's a really unprecedented time.
And in many cases damned if you do and damned if you don't yeah so just it's this is very difficult because it ends up being sort of a channel where people can voice their ages so you know step this person should step down etc but just know that you know in broad strokes leaders are working as hard as they can to navigating to navigate a completely unprecedented time.
And sure you know levy levy your criticisms in a respect the way where you can but just know that they that in many cases they're trying pretty hard and it's really rough when you are could be under attack for anything you say in public at all that's a real tough dynamic to push through.
Okay, what's it going to say oh so another thing too is as it really hits us you know hardest in our our wallets our pocketbooks is you know I my wife and I want a small business and we are you know be a lot of small business owners in this area and I think there's got to be a certain amount of concern anxiety when it comes to well there's tax time but then there's also
with tariffs and everything else a lot of that trickles down to small business and so you know what can what can small business owners do to advocate for for their businesses which again they're a big part of local economies and then what they support a lot of local charities a lot of school related functions faith based functions things that are really important to us on our society.
Well I think you know stick to the facts if promises were made to cut that cost we're going to go down or inflation was going to go down and that is not the reality then each of us in our spheres should be spotlighting that I mean you know we can't sort of exist in oh well land this might change right already costs are quite high if they go higher right
but then that does affect small businesses it's affects economies affects communities and I'm right there with you so I think we have to but you can do so in a you know honestly I keep thinking when I hear leaders she see leaders speaking online you can do so if you stick to the facts you kind of side step the emotional reality that might get yourself triggered an engagement that might diminish your words in a sense like you know have make it more difficult for people to embrace your words because you're sort of you know
you know tapping into emotional pathways if you kind of stick as a business owner right stick to the facts what is affecting your bottom line how does your your defects on your bottom line affect your community how is it affecting your customers I mean I think being and then having the courage to if people say well that's a part of sin you know you're you're you shouldn't be talking about political things well the effect on your bottom line is not a political thing it is the effect on your bottom line of the word your livelihood in your communities livelihood right.
So really avoiding that claims that you're falling into partisan traps when you're not because we just have to talk about what's going on yeah well I always thought that that was fodder for anybody that was I guess I consider myself progressive I'm not a registered Democrat but I do tend to support democratic candidates but the argument you always have from the right is the impact on their pocketbooks
their pocketbooks on their businesses on the local economy like all these things that are important and they certainly are important and you would believe that what's a lot of what mega is investing mega or everyone say all those kind of forces on the right are investing resources in our very costly to the bottom most everyone's bottom line is there a way to kind of articulate that in a better way than I just have for most people have
well you know early on I thought who's setting up a benchmark where we can track all prices and how they're increasing or decreasing right I'm sure people are doing that and that's you know that's a particular thing but you can also if you focus on where information on these topics is being weaponized for example newsguard is a very important source that I rely on I know the people there and they just wrote about the fact that
there are now claims that the Biden administration killed millions of millions of chickens to drive up the price of avian of of eggs coming into to hand you know the the Trump administration a terrible situation with regard to that particular price point and that's just straight up false often you know used to pollute social media spaces and mislead people and confuse them.
So just knowing where these moments of manipulation are happening helps give us that little bit of healthy skepticism to say like yeah that doesn't sound quite right.
So that's one way but notice that it is the economy so wherever you if you see claims about the economy that seem that just seems off note that it's it may be something that's been weaponized by others to try to mislead you.
Sure sure so I know we're approaching like three minutes left so I want to really give you the floor here diana and like what what have I not covered what are we missing here what do you want listeners to know about.
You know how we can address misinformation how we can for those who no matter what side of the spectrum on they still want a democratic a government of the people like what.
What are some tactics people should be implying or where should where should they be looking for better news sources.
Well I I want to talk a little bit about the dialogue piece so I said to someone recently no change ever happened in the bubble right you know we we we you know there's going to be a march in DC whatever he's like where's the big march in DC we market marches in DC it's on April 6th by the way follow indivisible as I think organizing entity if you'd like.
There's one today to visit you can stand my you know route by we have a couple of free rooms upstairs we nice I was part of a housing movement for the women's march actually nice okay anyways so that's happening but.
We have to sort of try to push through our past our comfort level to to engage in those conversations across viewpoint difference where we can I want to also acknowledge that it feels very hard and that it might even be a little hard it's going to feel harder than it.
It's going to feel harder than it really is but if you can find someone whose viewpoint is different from you and you engage in a dialogue over time that is going to be you'll find common ground most likely it will be an enriching situation for both of you and it will help us move together as a society.
We're you know I think that saying oh it's going to unify you know not not quite now but it starts with those conversations and bringing your listening skills into that conversation is what is the most important thing not going and thinking oh I'm going to convince this person in my point of view that will not.
But if you really try listening not interrupting the start with that notice when you interrupt people and then really just recognize that they're seeing very different information then you can maybe get around to talking about issues in a way that is not.
Conflict written but in fact is constructed sure you're glad you mentioned at the end of because my.
I have a good friendship with one of our school board members is a woman named Kelly Piazik who's you know our politics are very much opposite in every way and I know that she's and she'll admit to that she's got her detractors for sure but we share a common bond when it comes to the issue of mental health you know it's in her professional capacity.
She's a vice president of research that's the exact title but for Rogers behavioral health which is one of the leading behavioral mental health.
Networks if you will around the country their main campus is here in the US and she.
We share a lot of common ground in that because we know that mental health is a national problem and we're able to build a dialogue on that that we can address these other issues here and.
Max to tell me i'm running out of time so i'm going to give you the last say here diana what what else would you like to share here about.
And then I said we'll continue this on a future podcast.
I really appreciate that on honestly you know there's there's engaging in that dialogue with Kelly yourself was it Kelly yeah yeah Kelly and then there's actually showcasing like if you and Kelly got on this.
You know like people also gain confidence when they see other community leaders that have the point difference talking with each other.
And everybody needs to understand that again a low level of contract actually the conflict meaning low like just disagreement is a constructive thing that's a good thing no change happened by everyone being a hundred percent agreement all the time it's just difficult now because we feel that our values are.
Under attack in some cases and you do have to protect yourself but recognizing that a little a little bit of disagreement is actually a good thing it can really help our communities and then just showing whenever we can showcase especially lawmakers working together across the island.
That's all good and people do really want to talk I hear it all the time every day people want to be able to talk to their neighbors again so.
Yeah and real quick if you'll indulge me another minute here Max is that I saw in the news lot of Gavin Newsom California governor is getting some criticism about his podcast because he had Steve Bannon on and he's he's interested in having oh the bow tie guy from Fox News no.
Yeah the conservative spinster and Newsom described him as fascinating and I was getting all this criticism and it's just like you know guys you keep your friends closer enemies closer we want to learn more about them we want to learn what their mind craft is and and also identify opportunities are we have something in common so we can we can save this this noble experiment that's been going on for almost 250 years and you know what your thoughts on that.
I don't disagree with his tactic at all you actually Steve Bannon was in large part.
Tucker Carlson is a strategy.
Yes.
Steve Bannon was interviewed by oh I'm forgetting Ross do thought of the New York Times.
There's a strategy right out there for all of us to hear.
It's really important that we understand that he's very transparent he will tell you what it's a great war.
Target low information voters and flood the zone with insert swear word you know I mean the falsehoods that are spreading with the help of yes Russia and the KGB.
Russia state media are in large part wide people are so confused misled so it's good to hear the strategy so then we can help understand how to navigate accordingly so I hope he'll have you know a bounce of voices not just people on the right but I don't disagree.
It's a good interviewer you know and honestly we need we need people on the left is we've got strong leaders on the right we need strong leaders on the left.
Yeah absolutely.
I think confirmation bias wants us to our confirmation bias wants us to we want to hear to see our viewpoints in headlines we want to see our viewpoints all the time that's confirmation bias that feels emotionally comforting.
But that's not really always the case right yep so this has been really great.
I really appreciate you joining us deanna trials with truth and common and yes let's plan on scheduling some more podcast to shed some more light on again how we can become brothers and sisters and fellow Americans again during these very difficult times so I want to thank my producer the mighty max Martin soon as always for doing exceptional work.
And deanna I know you've got a lot to do on a busy Saturday there in our nation's capital and yes please check out truth in common.
To learn more about deanna trowest and her noble mission of just really becoming helping people become better informed citizens there's a newsletter you can sign up for as well and again truth in common.
Thanks for joining us on this week and walk us up don't forget to check out our podcast page at civic media.
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Thanks again for joining us remember that safety is everyone's responsibility mental health is everyone's right and have a great same Patrick stay weekend and see ya.