Swing State of Mind- Episode One

Swing State of Mind- Episode One (Click to access podcast)

Ezzie Perez,Catherine Kuzas, Sean McGranahan

December 6, 2024

 

The Swing State of Mind Podcast is hosted by Ezzie Perez (CSSW ‘26). This first installment is co-hosted by Catherine Kuzas and Sean McGrannahan. Ezzie is currently located in Charlottesville, Virginia. She is a social work MSW candidate especially focused in the preservation of DEI and combatting mass incarceration. Catherine is on a gap year and hopes to pursue a PhD in Chemistry. She has most recently worked as a research assistant and instructor at the University of Virginia. Sean is currently teaching music lessons, working on a strawberry farm, and pursuing bluegrass music. His work can be found @sheep_and_goats_official.

 

Ezzie Perez: Hey guys, welcome to the first edition of Swing State of Mind podcast. My name is Ezzie, and I’m a Masters candidate at the Columbia School of Social Work. I am joined today by my two co-hosts, Sean McGranahan and Catherine Kuzas. Sean McGranhan has a background in Psychology and Computer Science, but is currently pursuing a career in the arts and audio production with a focus in bluegrass. Catherine has a background in biochemistry, and her latest research project focused on the kinetics of a metabolic enzyme. So, I want to just open up our discussion by getting kind of a temp check. Catherine, do you want to share about how you’re feeling post-election, what questions are on your mind, and what do you think should be on people's minds as we move forward?

 

Catherine Kuzas: Oh wow. That’s a loaded question. I have a lot of bad feelings post-election as a woman, also as a woman in a STEM field, also as a queer woman. On one hand, the rise of a Christian-right-facist wing in the U.S. has basically made me feel scared for the future of my reproductive health, and my own personal healthcare, as well as the healthcare of my friends and loved ones. But also, my job security being someone currently in the job market with the new [Donald] Trump cabinet official picks being mostly targeted towards eradicating the current state of the U.S. biomedical industry. So, a lot of bad thoughts, Ezzie.

 

Ezzie: Thank you for your vulnerability. Sean, let’s get a temp check from you, and maybe any potential responses to what Catherine brought up.

 

Sean McGranahan: Yeah, usually with elections like these I get very fired up beforehand and once the results get in I’m like, “O.K.” And I sort of feel less–less fearful of the future than I expected I would. I just think that things have a tendency of not being as dramatic as–or sensational–as we tend to portray them in the media, and as bad as I expect, maybe, a Trump presidency round two will be, I don’t think it will shake the foundation of America like it seemed to do the first time. I think he’s going to go out with more of a whimper, than a bang.

 

Ezzie: So you shared with me that you voted for Kamala [Harris] this go around. Did you vote for Trump in 2020?

 

Sean: Yes, I did.

 

Ezzie: And, so, now you're thinking of the potential bad things in a Trump presidency, and Cat named a few, are there any things that you’re particularly fearful of or that come to mind for you when you fear Trump presidency?

 

Sean: Sure, you know, I think in 2o20 I got swept up in the idea that this man was different. He was just a different breed than the types of politicians we had seen before, and that was interesting to me. And, you know, I ignored a lot of the negative aspects of his character because I was like, “Well, you know, everyone has their skeletons, and he seems to want to wear them on his sleeve.” I guess his reaction to losing started to turn some gears in my head like, “O.K., well maybe he shouldn’t have won in the first place.” And then, watching his campaign this year, how he sort of fumbled–he just sort of seemed to embarrass himself at every step of the way, and yet still seemed to walk away with the victory—was confusing. And I’m not entirely sure–like, again I have actual reasons why I think he won, but I still can’t seem to reconcile that in my head.

 

Ezzie: O.K., so it’s sounding more like a fear for the preservation of democracy and peaceful transition of power. But I think you said something really important about him not being like a traditional politician, and I think that speaks to the rise in anti-intellectualism that we’re seeing across the board where they feel like–the American people that is–feel like the Democratic party is too elitist and doesn’t represent the issues of the common man. And we’re seeing this in the Trump proposed policy. And now there’s a bill proposed in Congress to abolish the Department of Education. So, Cat, I’m wondering how you’re feeling about this, and I know you’re someone who’s wanting to pursue academia, and your research probably is specifically being targeted–well, actually I would say all research is because they’re also wanting to target the humanities and any social sciences–so, thoughts on that?

 

Catherine: Well, so not my research, not anything I did for undergrad, but the field I want to go into virology and vaccine research is directly being targeted right now. Which, every field is, but I feel like that is specifically a reactionary response to COVID too. Because people don’t want to just admit like, “Hey, a pandemic happened,” and so we have to blame everyone else for everything and all the people that actually research this because–I feel like a large chunk of Trumpism is yeah he’s a different type of politician but at the end of the day he’s kind of just a populist. He says what everyone wants to hear to every individual person. Like, he will look you in the eyes and say exactly what you want to hear and what every demographic wants to hear at every different point at every different place he goes to. And, I feel like that’s partly why we’re seeing so many things like he’s saying he’ll cut the Department of Education but he’s also saying he loves education. He says he loves vaccines but also he puts RFK Jr. in charge of the Department of–or as Secretary of Health and Human Services I think it was. But he just does things like that all the time if that makes any sense. And I feel like that’s more the root of it and people take advantage of the fact that he’s kind of not really that bright and not that functional and that’s why we end up here.

 

Ezzie: I’m wondering if you can say more about people taking advantage of that.

 

Catherine: I feel like the people–he’s so easily bought out because he doesn’t really–he’s either gone senile or he’s just like not the brightest for lack of a better word. And so people tend to literally just talk to him and manipulate him. And I–he might just be a racist old grandpa but also [laughs]--sorry, Donald–or he’s just very easily purchased and very easily manipulated, and that’s the problem. Is–he’ll kind of just sign anything that–someone will basically tell him he’s smart and he will sign that piece of paper. And so you have a lot of people that have really negative intentions in this country basically like leaning on him. Like Matt Gaetz, who literally just wants to get pardoned because he was trafficking young girls on Venmo.^[1]

 

Ezzie: I think that’s a great point. I definitely appreciate what you brought up, and i t brings me to something that I have been wanting to talk about. Sean, I wanted to know your thoughts on this new proposed Department of Government Efficiency, Elon Musk being a top Trump advisor in the foreseeable future. What comes to mind for you on [the] proposed DOGE?

 

Sean: I guess–like–the first phrase that sort of popped in my head was just, like, “yes-men.” Yeah, and Elon shouldn’t be–shouldn’t be in politics the way he’s characterized in the media and the way he portrays himself just as a human being. He’s–I think he’s a very interesting character and for a while I believed him to be the future of maybe the tech world. But the more I start to research him and his ventures, the less I’m even sure about that. He’s, like Trump, somewhat of a failed businessman. And, of course, he has a ton of money, so I guess that’s kind of subjective. But he just sort of buys companies and then says, “Alright. I’m going to hire a bunch of people to do–to make this crazy idea that I have, and then they’re just going to figure it out. And when you look into the type of thing–like the type of work environment that he sets for his employees, it’s very–it’s very callous way to–to–I don’t want to say–yeah, it’s a very–he’s very callous in how he treats his employees, you know. He’s like, “Alright. We’re going to make this cybertruck. And that cybertruck is going to have all these cool crazy features that I want in it. The glass is going to be unbreakable. It’s going to look a certain way, and you guys are just going to figure it out.” And, you know, part of the reason we haven’t had cars like the cybertruck on the road–like legally on the road–is because those kind of designs are . . . I don’t want to say stupid. [Laughter.] I do want–I do want to say stupid–but like they just–I don’t know–they just seem to–they seem–it seems that Elon’s cybertruck works in spite of the fact that it is what it is. I don’t know if that makes sense. Like, it should not be a thing. The cybertruck should not exist, and yet it exists regardless of what anyone thinks. And everytime I see a cybertruck–I used to get really excited, I used to go, “Oh, that’s cool”--and now it just pisses me off for some reason.

 

Catherine: You get excited?

 

Sean: No, it pisses me off.

 

Ezzie: Okay, I think that’s–

 

Sean: No, no, I sort of lost the plot.

 

Ezzie:   Cat, I saw you nodding over there. What were your thoughts on Elon being the top Trump advisor this year?

 

Catherine: First, I want to say one about the cy–I mean it kind of–okay. There’s a really great video on YouTube right now. I forget who it’s by, but this guy that is like a truck reviewer got a cybertruck^[2] and he thought it was like held together by duct tape, and then Tesla tried to sue him. But he’s also–he’s right-wing and was a Tesla fanboy, so it’s completely unbiased, so I highly recommend everyone watches that. But–this kind of ties into the cybertruck point–Elon–and also my point about people just buying out Donald Trump because he doesn’t really have any political allies anymore–is Elon is someone that would massively benefit from full lack of regulation because Elon himself is really not . . . He pays good scientists–like exactly what Sean was saying–to make his things for him, so–and then he has these crazy visions and he wants to do dumb things to basically play out like a sci-fi movie. And the–he–to put him in charge of like–DO–I hate that he called it DOGE, pardon my french–which also is just another unregulated form of currency that he made a meme. He just likes to meme. The cybertruck is a thing that literally would benefit from lack of regulation on the road because if a cybertruck–it’s made out of stainless steel, it has pointy edges–if it runs over a pedestrian, that pedestrian will be literally flattened. There’s–and also I think he did something weird with the airbags, if I’m remembering correctly, I’m not an engineer. But it’s just–there are so many weird regulatory things with the cyber truck that are currently out there. So, he just wants everything to be unregulated so that he can basically just play around with his market and produce these products that he wants, to have his little vision of the world. And so he is like the type of person that would massively benefit from basically just having everyone listen to everything he wants to do and just having full regulation. Because things like regulation prevent him from . . . like, I don’t know, tweeting that he’ll buy Twitter and then not actually buying Twitter, and then being forced to spend $40 billion to purchase a dying company. Without regulation, he wouldn’t have to do that. I’m just saying, it makes a little sense that he became a Trump supporter. That’s all.

 

Sean: Yeah, and kind of piggybacking off that comment about Twitter, he–so I’m pretty sure–he wasn’t able to–like he doesn’t have actual money. All of his money is in stocks and stuff like that. And so when he goes and needs to purchase something that’s . . . what was it? You said like $40 billion? Jeez. When he has to do that, he has to go and ask a bunch of banks for that money. And every bank in America was like [laughs], “Okay, no.” So he needs to go offshore–to find offshore banks–foreign banks to come in and lend him the money. The thing with that is that they expect a–like a very quick return on their investment. So that’s why you saw all of those weird little things Elon was doing to try to make more money like making the check mark cost like–what is it? It was like a subscription service, it was like $10? Yeah, ridiculous. And stuff like that. And, you know, he’s in the talks he’s trying to buy–I think he was trying to buy Hasbro?^[3] Or something like that. And I remember seeing this video about–this guy was like, “Okay, so if Elon buys–buys like Hasbro, he’ll own”–and this guy is like a Dungeons & Dragons dude, that’s not me but–but he was–it was an interesting thread. Everyone’s a little disgruntled with Dungeons & Dragons right now, apparently, and they’re like, “Well, if Elon buys Hasbro, and has Dungeons & Dragons, then what he’s going to do–he’s going to try to monetize it in a way–because he’s going to need to–he’s going to do the same thing he did with Twitter, so he’s going to monetize it in a way that sort of destroys the value of the game, and then toss it to the side when he doesn’t need it anymore or if he hasn’t made any of his money back. And then someone will buy it for pretty cheap that actually loves the game and then will infuse it with life again.” And maybe that’ll happen. Maybe Twitter’s value will go down so much that that’ll happen with Twitter and we might be back to where we were in like . . . pre-Elon. But, you know, I’ve never liked Twitter, since day one. I got a Twitter account when I was 18, and I haven’t looked at it since. I just–it just makes me sad. It just makes me depressed, and I–so I have–I don’t really have that much of a stake in his Twitter venture, but I can see how destructive it’s already been. Which is ironic considering that he–his whole thing was, “Maybe we–well we’re going to make Twitter a place for free speech.” But, clearly, what he’s saying and what he’s doing are somewhat at odds with each other because he has a lot of his financial interests at heart over the will of the people. As long as the will of the people fights against what–what keeps him rich.

 

Ezzie: Yeah, excellent. I want to throw in my own Elon Musk story. I read this New York Times article^[4] about his secret compound  where he has like a bunker where he has his baby mommas–some of them, not Grimes unfortunately, or I guess fortunately. Baby mommas, kids, he’s–and then like this is his preventative measure because he’s scared about the declining birth rate in the U.S. Have you seen this? No. Yeah, so he’s taking it into his own hands. He’s going to have as many kids as it takes to save the U.S. birth rate, and he’s tweeting about it constantly. I just–I hadn’t known because I don’t really keep up with Elon like that, but he’s really invested in this. And I don’t know. I guess we can talk about the coercion of adults in the U.S. to have kids in a very troublesome economy, or we can go back to what Sean was saying earlier about free speech.

 

Catherine: Oh, I get to come on right after the Elon thing. I’m assuming you guys saw the Taylor Swift tweet right?

 

Ezzie: Can you explain it?

 

Catherine: [Laughs.] Well, Elon decided that it would be a great idea to–and the only thing I want to add with Twitter is I don’t think Twitter will collapse, or like rebound in the way that Sean was saying. Not to disagree with you, Sean, sorry. But just specifically because Elon seems to be trying to turn it into an AI right-wing bot farm, and like literally is basically trying to create an AI misinformation platform. Yeah, but no one wants Truth Social, no offense, Donald. Which–I personally just believe Truth Social is a financial stock scheme, not to sound like a conspiracy theorist on a publication. But he–Donald Trump posted an AI edited picture of Taylor–of like Swifties for Trump during the election. And so Taylor Swift then had to publicly come out with her political viewpoint on the election because Donald Trump was basically, I think he posted twice trying to claim that Swifties would vote for Trump etc, etc. Which was just odd. Well, then Elon tweeted basically saying like, “Fine, Taylor”--well, after she came out and posted on Instagram with her political opinions, Elon tweeted like, “Fine, Taylor, I’ll give you a baby,” or something. Which–and like threatened to impregnate her–it’s publicly there and like–personally, I think that’s public sexual harassment. I think a lot of people agree with that sentiment. Sean is currently looking up this comment. This is real. I think it’s been removed off the platform, but I just wanted to throw that in there because I think it really shows Elon being a weirdo.

 

Ezzie: No, yeah, I see that. I think that is definitely something we need to take into account. Oh! I’m seeing it! It says, “Fine, Taylor, dot..dot..dot  you win. Another ellipses, I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life.” That’s September 11th, 2024 on @elonmusk on X.^[5] I’m not really sure what he meant by that, apparently this is also Sean’s first time hearing about this. Sean, had you heard of the AI generated Swifties for Trump merch? Because I honestly thought that those were like–they were like fanmade–like I didn’t think that, you know, the Trump campaign themselves was putting that out.

 

Sean: I mean, if this has anything–I do remember–so Taylor was dating . . . football–yeah, Travis Kelce, and was friends with Tavis Kelce’s . . . was it . . . sister? Wife! Wife! And she’s like a Trump supporter.

 

Ezzie: Wait, hang on, you’re saying Jason Kelce’s wife is a Trump supporter?

 

Catherine: Patrick Mahomes.

 

Ezzie: Patrick Mahomes! Patrick Mahomes’s wife is a Trump supporter, yeah, Brittany?

 

Sean: Brittany, yeah, I couldn’t think of her name.

 

Ezzie: Okay, so Taylor Swift is friends with Brittany, and Brittany’s a Trump supporter.

 

Sean: They had beef for some–I think after she posted her views on X, then there was some perceived friction between them. I don’t know of any–I don’t know the story very well. I just vaguely remember this happening.

 

Catherine: I also vaguely remember it, but I also vaguely remember I think Brittany Mahomes was so weirded out by the Elon Musk comments I think she walked back her Trump support publicly.^[6]

 

Ezzie: Good for her. Good for the Chiefs.

 

Catherine: Well, yeah, most women–which I think might also tie into that whole–I don’t know if you guys saw that massive study that came out basically saying that women are becoming more left leaning as men are becoming more right leaning.

 

Ezzie: Yeah, we are.

 

Catherine: I think this might maybe play a role into that too. Most women don’t like when men make comments like this about them. And so–like–someone who leaned conservative as a woman debating her entire political belief because a comment like this was made about her friend tracks. For just how girls like to be treated. And I feel like most guys see that–some men see that and just thought it was funny, and I think it might say a lot about gender disparity in the country.

 

Ezzie: That’s a good and interesting point because there was a lot of talk about Trump winning with college aged men. Sean, what have you observed in terms of the young male turning more conservative?

 

Sean: Well, I am a practicing Catholic and so I exist in a lot of those spaces as well. And there is a lot of pressure on like more–on a very traditional Catholic man to vote for Trump. It almost seems like you would be liable–or committing a pretty grave sin. Like, no one is going to say that, but that seems to be, like, the sort of mindset. Like if I–I can think of a handful of Catholic friends that I have that if I admitted that I voted for Kamala that they would probably treat me a little bit differently than if I maintained the Trump narrative. And so I could blame–I’d probably blame a bit of that on a lot of my opinions, at least with the last election. But yeah there is–again, there is a very strong push towards red and I think a lot of it has to do with–I mean a lot of–in religious circles, a lot of it is single issue voters. Mainly on like issues of abortion. I think that’s really the big one. Maybe on immigration to an extent. But, you know, looking at this election, I think–you know, I think Kamala ran a very center-right campaign. Like, she basically avoided any conversation around intersectionality politics. She–I mean she campaigned with Liz Cheney, she talked about securing the border, she talked about–I think she talked about gun rights. And, you know, I don’t think she even–because Roe got overturned by the Supreme Court, like I don’t know what she–how much of an influence on abortion she could actually have. And when she’s in office, just judging by the campaign she had, if she would actually do anything, at all. And so thinking about things like that, I would say she basically ran a campaign pretty similar to–I mean not exactly, but pretty similar to . . . my gosh, I know his name. Obama versus  . . . Mitt Romney! Yeah. Wow, I’m so sorry. Yeah, I think she ran a campaign pretty similar to things that Mitt Romney might–Mitt Romney might run. You know, and,  you know, most Christians would vote for a voter like that. So it was always interesting to me that Trump was the guy. I think it does have to do with the types of conversations that people have online and people put at the forefront of their minds. They feel like, Christians feel like they need to fight like I said abortion. They have this weird relationship with gender and sexuality that I think the original message of Christian churches are somewhat being distorted. And sort of sensationalized to the point where people in the church are even like, “Yeah, we need to just get rid of all of that. We need to level the playing field.” And, I don’t know–it–as someone who lives in America, I mean–I feel like we shouldn’t have a Christian–like a Christian state. Like it shouldn’t be–I mean the whole point of America–I mean freedom of religion, sure. But like the point of that was so everyone could practice what they wanted whether you wanted to be religious, whether you wanted to be a different religion than your neighbor, whatever. And it feels like we’re barreling towards this sort of uniform religious ideology, in America. Which I thoroughly disagree with.

 

Ezzie: Yeah, that was a lot to go off of. Yeah. Gosh, I kind of want to bring it back because I want to give Cat a chance to talk about the rise in this more conservative shift, and I think we’re seeing online a lot of tradwife content influence for both men and women. But we’re particularly seeing the–I guess the buzz with men–to want a quote, unquote “traditional life.”

 

Catherine: Yeah, a lot of tradwife content–tradwives are fascinating because they turn the fascination–the fetishization, but sometimes in a sexual manner but not in the sexual manner in the context I’m using it in, so this applies I guess in both cases. But fetishization of, like, traditional 1950’s americana aesthetic of the household with like a–they turn that into a brand, and most people think that they’re just–the ones on the internet at least, are kind of like staying at home making bread all day. They are making millions of dollars off of staying at home making bread all day and publishing and editing content. Like that is a job. They are not stay at home moms. And they’re influencing people into thinking that that is the aesthetic of a stay at home mom and that is what stay at home moms do all day. And they are also leaving out the lens that being a stay at home mom in the modern economic system is a financial privilege because it costs a lot to functionally have a nice big house with four or five kids and just fully have someone not working. So they’re literally just capitalizing off of that. So I feel like when most people–when they think about the tradwife aesthetic that is being pushed by like more of this kind of shift towards conservative values, American right, etc., most people just kind of honestly being more poor and like we are all kind of financially struggling right now in America. And class disparity is growing larger, and we no longer have the ability to just sustain six people off of one person’s salary unless they are close to 1%. So I feel like it kind of might be more about that and we are just like not touching on that when we discuss, like, the shifts towards, like, fascination with tradwifes. I don’t know if that was cohesive.

 

Ezzie: Absolutely. I think it speaks to a general dissatisfaction and wanting to go back to a time where, you know, people weren’t relying on everyone working 40 hours. Because there is like the invisible labor of the household that has primarily been a woman’s responsibility. And I guess to kind of bring it back to a spiritual place, I know you’re a practicing Christian, Sean, I know that like sometimes that comes with beliefs that there is value in having someone in the home to take care of the children and how that work is just as important as, you know, going out and bringing home a paycheck. And so, I think you mentioned a good point where a lot of people felt like Kamala didn’t have strong–like any strong specific agenda items on her platform. It was more so just being the person who was against Trump. So I feel like, maybe, from my perspective, abortion was not an issue that was, like, on the ballot because, like you said, at the federal level she couldn’t really do much. So, I guess I’m just wondering, if that is the case, and abortion was not on the ballot, why do you think Chrisitian voters–Catholic voters were pushed to–kind of–vote for Trump?

 

Sean: Yeah this is . . . really–it’s really tricky. I–I think there are a lot of factors. One might be the–this growing sentiment of dissatisfaction with the current state of things. I think a lot of people will look at Joe Biden’s presidency compared to Kamala’s and go, “Well, I don’t want that again.” I think a lot of people in Christian circles will just vote with the masses and there’s a growing number of people in, you know, lower income–blue collar work that don’t have, you know, college degrees and, you know, it’s been said a lot of the time that getting a college degree will lead you to success. But what sort of comes off of that is this idea that college degrees equal almost like social respect too. And so those groups feel invalidated now that, you know, they're doing all of this hard labor day in and day out, they don’t have that degree, and they’re making way less money than the people at the top that don’t have to put in as much effort into the lives that they live. From their point of view, it’s like–it’s all just this glamour and fame–and where am I going with this? I’m going to get distracted again. But–yeah, and there’s this idea that, again, the Democratic party–and you mentioned this–seems to now prioritize, or have shifted its focus to the elite white collar professional group–groups of people. And–and are sort of catering to them. I mean, just go to any college campus and the vibes are very left-wing. It’s just–it just seems to be that that’s a thing. And so if you’re–if you’re looking at the state of the world and the kinds of people the Democrats–the Democrats seem to push up you kind of feel inclined to vote against–vote for the guy who started saying, “Hey, we’re actually going to do something about workers–blue collar workers. We’re going to get you where you want to go.” And maybe it’s empty promises but it doesn’t really–it doesn’t really matter. You know, my dad will always kind of call MAGA-ites–I don’t know–he calls them maggots. Yeah, oh man. But he’ll always say that they’re in a cult, right? And they have their charismatic leader who they follow blindly like lemmings over a cliff. And so at a certain point, maybe you started with a very strong reason to vote for him–and maybe that’s worn away as the years gone on–but it really doesn’t matter because everyone like . . . if you don’t vote–if you don’t seem to vote for your party, then you’re looked at by your party as almost a traitor, and so maybe there’s a little bit of a social aspect to this two party system we’ve got. I mean, there is. I don’t know.

 

Ezzie: Yeah, I think that makes sense. But I worry that it is kind of a harmful rhetoric to think that the Democratic party is only serving the interests of the elites–but I think it’s definitely a sentiment that’s, like, held by people, to some extent. Which is–it’s hard to–to explain to someone that, like, when you move into a more educated space, like a university, that you still have people’s best interests in mind because there is that privilege and that disconnect there. So I’m not sure how we can reconcile the two truths of the gaps in privilege while also maintaining the idea that, like, this turn away from intellectualism and education and the push to abolish the Department of Education is dangerous and harmful to American politics in the long run.

 

Catherine: Yeah, I don’t . . . on the Democrats and Republicans and the Democrats becoming the party of the elites, I feel like they honestly have been. Which–not that they’re not–I’m obviously a Democrat, but they have kind of created this aesthetic of themselves of being the hyper-educated elites and it’s just because they do not communicate as effectively as they should. They tend–I feel like they tend to speak pretentiously.

 

Ezzie: Well, I think there’s a difference also between speaking pretentiously and, like, speaking with intention, which is something that the Republican party never does. And that’s why Donald Trump–well, not “never does.” I actually did like a lot of Republicans before Trumpism happened but it’s just, like, a shame that you can just get on a debate stage and say that people are eating cats and dogs nowadays.^[7]

 

Catherine: Yeah, I fully agree with everything Ezzie just said. The eating cats and dogs thing was insane. I feel like we as a general public just kind of brushed that comment aside and then moved on with our day. Which is insane. The man said that an entire immigrant group–the man said that an entire immigrant group eats peoples’ pets. Without any evidence. And then got into a fight with the moderator about it. And we–like we as a country really need to reflect because we just kind of all have–like no one’s talking about this for the past two months. Why is no one talking about this anymore?

 

Ezzie: I want to know why people aren’t talking about when JD Vance said, “You guys said you weren’t going to fact check!”^[8] And I also wanted to bring back something that you said, Sean, about Kamala and guns. Because it wasn’t like, “Oh, I think she mentioned gun control.” She also got on stage and was like, “I’m a gun owner!” And then she did interviews and was like, “Me and Tim Walz are both gun owners. I have a glock.” And unfortunately–and maybe to the detriment of Gen Z, they just turned these audios into memes instead of talking and advocating for anything. And I think that also, something we failed to touch on is like because of her–to such like a moderate platform, she ended up displeasing a lot of faithful Democrats, especially in regards to issues in the middle east. So that’s something to be further studied there. But I want to end this on a more positive note, so I want to know, in these times of uncertainty, what are you guys doing for your mental health and how would you recommend someone else kind of keep their mental health in check as the Trump appointments continue to roll in?

 

Sean: Honestly, I love to detox from social media for long periods of time. Because then when I plug back in it’s like, “Oh yeah, that’s what’s going on.” But those detox moments allow me to sort of, you know, live life as if the issues that are constantly rattling around in my head are sort of–and maybe this isn't the healthiest way to deal with my problems–to sort of pretend they don’t exist and hope they go away. But–

 

Ezzie: Yeah, I don’t know if the solution here is to just block all forms of information from accessing us.

 

Sean: But I do think that like . . .  you know . . . at least limiting–limiting what types of media you consume–I think there’s a big problem with people actively–there’s this disparity with people who actually do research and then people who have news fed to them.

 

Ezzie: Yeah, I totally see, and then you’re in the echochamber and then you get the empathy fatigue, eventually. And it all starts to kind of–it kind of–it doesn’t have as great of an impact on you because you’re just in the trenches all the time and you’re like, “This is just what life is now.”

 

Sean: With algorithms and stuff like that, let’s say you’re on TikTok, and you start watching one political video and then another, and then another. The algorithm is going to keep showing you that and then your echochamber is just going to get louder.

 

Ezzie: Absolutely, that’s definitely not going to help with the uncertainty and despair. I think that’s true. I think setting screen time limits–maybe we all just need to have some moments to ourselves and connect with–and be present.

 

Catherine: This also kind of goes with, I guess screen time. I got back into reading and it’s so nice because I get a little bit of a break from–I don’t know–getting the news notifications, having someone text me upset about another court–appointee, not court appointee but just another appointee to office. Not seeming some other random thing someone’s saying that’s problematic. And I just get my little break, I just have my little book, I’m in my little head. It’s like I’m in 5th grade again. It’s so nice. Am I maybe reading a lot more sci-fi because it gives me some weird post-apocalyptic itch that I feel right now? Yeah. But like it’s really nice to just not have that in my face all the time. And also my therapist agrees that it might even be a good idea. So I would say everyone should get offline.

 

Ezzie: Yeah, that’s real. I’m surprised none of you guys said making music because I know you guys are both musicians. Mine–my self-care thing is singing. I know we talked about–I just saw Wicked, and I’ve never seen Wicked. So this was my first exposure to all the stuff because I’m not like a theater geek. So that’s my new self-care is singing loudly in my car, and I’m Elphaba.

 

Catherine: Do you sing Defying Gravity?

 

Ezzie: I lied. I’m not Elphaba, I’m Glinda. So I’m not singing Defying Gravity. I am holding space for Defying Gravity though. That is something that’s happening in my car. [Laughs.] Well, this has been the Swing State of Mind podcast. Thank you guys so much for listening and we’ll be back with more.

 

^[1]Steakin, W. (2024, November 20). Gaetz sent over $10K in Venmo payments to 2 women who testified in House probe, records suggest. ABC News. https://abcnews.go.com/US/gaetz-10k-venmo-payments-2-women-testified-house/story?id=116019367

^[2] WhistlinDiesel. (2024, August 2). WhistlinDiesel Cybertruck Durability Test #1 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK_EJ3DyiiA

^[3] Wieland, R. (2024, November 29). Could Elon Musk become the master of dungeon masters by buying Hasbro? Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/robwieland/2024/11/29/could-elon-musk-become-the-master-of-dungeon-masters-by-buying-hasbro/

^[4] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/29/business/elon-musk-children-compound.html

^[5] Elon Musk [@elonmusk]. (September 11, 2024). https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1833728804579111268?lang=en

^[6] Adegoke, F. (2024, September 17). Brittany Mahomes “Deeply bothered” by Donald Trump’s attack on Taylor Swift, questions her support. Yahoo Entertainment. https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/brittany-mahomes-deeply-bothered-donald-011511180.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAABcor2CdRg

^[7] Ulloa, Jazmine. “‘They’re Eating the Cats’: Trump Repeats False Claim about Immigrants.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 11 Sept. 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/09/10/us/politics/trump-debate-immigrants-pets.html.

^[8]Grynbaum, Micheal M. “CBS Sought the Middle Ground on Fact-Checking. Vance Jumped into the Gap. - The New York Times.” New York Times, 1 Oct. 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/10/01/us/politics/cbs-debate-fact-checking-vance.html.

 

What is this reference? I might just not know this one lol

 

the Bee movie! also a common misconception that bee flight defies the laws of aviation; apparently their wings are really unique

 

@ecp2159@columbia.edu @gr2735@columbia.edu Oh, that makes a lot more sense- I've never seen the movie lol. Do you we think we need a reference for this or that the general audience will understand?