Episodios

  • Tupac Shakur and the political soul of hip-hop

    Tupac Shakur and the political soul of hip-hop
    Jul 11 2025
    Episode Summary  Politics is a battle over elections and policies, but underneath it’s really a battle over stories, the cultural myths that shape our sense of identity, power, and possibility. And few stories loom larger in the American imagination than the saga of Tupac Shakur, the rapper and actor whose influence continues to resonate across the globe nearly 30 years after his death.It’s easy to see why. The problems of poverty, racism, capitalism, and inequality are as present today as they were when Tupac and other early hip-hop musicians began telling stories that no one else would.Talking about all of this with me today is Dean Van Nguyen. He’s the author of a new biography of Tupac Shakur called “Words for My Comrades: A Political History of Tupac Shakur” that highlights the political legacy that was lost when the emcee was gunned down in the streets of Las Vegas in 1996. While today’s rap industry has largely been absorbed by the capitalism its pioneers once resisted, the radical spirit Tupac embodied still echoes—sometimes in unexpected places.One of those places is Donald Trump’s political movement. In a bizarre turn, Trump has increasingly styled himself as a hip-hop folk hero—and, surprisingly, more than a few rappers have gone along with it. This is a conversation about symbolism, masculinity, memory, and resistance.The video of this episode is available, the transcript is below. Because of its length, some podcast apps and email programs may truncate it. Access the episode page to get the full text.Theory of Change and Flux are listener supported. We need your help to keep going. Please subscribe to stay in touch!Related Content—A flashback look at how Donald Trump reached out to hip-hop stars to push his 2024 message —Nicki Minaj, Snoop Dogg, and toxic gravitation: How reactionaries bond over mutual narcissism 🔒—Why the decline of the black church is helping Republicans reach new voters—Doja Cat and the lies we tell ourselves about sex and race—Many Black Americans don’t like Democrats, but they loathe Republicans even more, which disdain will prove stronger?Audio Chapters00:00 — Introduction05:53 — Tupac’s continued global resonance09:14 — The origins of hip-hop and its commercialization11:35 — Tupac’s legacy of contradictions18:41 — The Black Panthers’ influence on Tupac’s mother23:50 — Masculinity and gender within hip-hop29:06 — Gender and sexuality in the Black Panther Party35:56 — Obama and Trump in rap39:12 — Former Panthers still have hope for the future despite Trump41:31 — Trump’s 2024 campaign reached out heavily to hip-hop artists46:22 — ‘Coolness’ as a non-political voter persuasion method50:22 — How Van Nguyen brought oral history into his book58:19 — Eazy-E, another political West Coast emcee 01:01:55 — The meanings of ‘thug life’Audio TranscriptThe following is a machine-generated transcript of the audio that has not been proofed. It is provided for convenience purposes only.MATTHEW SHEFFIELD: And joining me now is Dean Van Nguyen. Hey, Dean. Welcome to Theory of Change.DEAN VAN NGUYEN: Thank you. Thanks for having me.SHEFFIELD: Yeah. So this book is, it's a really important book, actually, I think especially because it's connecting a lot of ideas that got started during the life of Tupac Shakur, obviously by him, but also by other people.And he's a guy that continues to remain relevant despite having been killed decades ago. And you write in the introduction of the book that you see him as America's last revolutionary figure. Tell us about that.VAN NGUYEN: I think America actually isn't a nation that tends to create these. Figures. It's been a, a stable political, system for quite a while now. So I think when you see where Tupac's icon has resonated mostly across the world, and it tends to be in countries that have histories of colonialism and colonial oppression and anti-colonial uprising such as my own country, which is Ireland and nations that have suffered brutal dictatorships and have had uprisings against that and things of that nature.So he, I think his icon has grown to, to be almost this, almost like avara figure where he. He represents [00:04:00] ideals, like to see his image ignites certain feelings within people or certain ideas within people of, revolution and resistance. And I don't think there's actually too many Americans as you could actually say that about.Yeah, I think if you got, like there was, of the, figures in the book as well who's icon, who's I comparing to a little bit is like Bob Marley. Che Guevara. So, yeah, I think I, I can't really think of anyone who's come since him that really matches that, that that symbol that he's become, side of the us.SHEFFIELD: If we expand outside of the us other non-American figures can you think of people after Tupac generally that are, that widely known and recognized as revolutionary icons?​I think he's certainly, I think, the...
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    1 h y 10 m
  • Encore: Pentecostalism is taking over the world of Christianity

    Encore: Pentecostalism is taking over the world of Christianity
    Jul 4 2025
    Episode SummaryWe’ve talked a lot on Theory of Change about the political manifestations of fundamentalist Christian viewpoints in American politics, but the religious origins of these ideas are also important to understand. And right now there is no bigger force within American Christian fundamentalism than Pentecostalism, a movement of unaffiliated churches that together represent the fastest growing Christian sect in the world.But Pentecostalism is a broad movement with no centralized authorities handing down doctrines and many church organizations with history of labeling themselves as Pentecostalism now are refusing to do so. To the extent that many people know anything about Pentecostalism, it’s through ministers who are famous for scandals or for their feel-good music.Joining the program to talk in much greater depth about Pentecostalism, its origins, and its rapid growth is Elle Hardy. She’s a freelance journalist whose book Beyond Belief: How Pentecostal Christianity is Taking Over the World was published recently.A transcript of the edited audio follows. It’s computer-generated so may have some errors.(This episode previously aired on June 7, 2022.)TranscriptMATTHEW SHEFFIELD: Thanks for being here today.ELLE HARDY: Thanks for having me.SHEFFIELD: All right. So, as I said in the intro, I think a lot of people are aware that Pentecostalism exists, but in terms of what it believes or more particulars about it, I think people generally, unless you’re adjacent to it don’t know a lot about it. When did Pentecostalism get started? It got started in the United States and it’s been growing all over the world, but just tell us a little bit about the early history and what you found with that.HARDY: The person who is essentially considered the founder of Pentecostalism, William J. Seymour, the son of freed slaves from Louisiana. He had a revival called the Azusa Street Revival in 1906 in Los Angeles, and that’s considered the founding moment of Pentecostalism.But I actually think that his mentor, who was a white man in Kansas actually probably has a better claim. Pentecostalism was really coming out of the very American nature of religion in the late 19th century, where Mormonism and other things came from. It was people moving across the country, that frontier culture bringing in new ideas. But it really came out of Methodism, and it was really about harnessing a, for want of a better word, the power of the Holy Spirit.And it was new and radical and it was speaking to people’s needs at the time. And it’s speaking to people’s needs now. And that’s really what is behind this explosive growth. It speaks to people’s needs here now. And largely from, 1901-1906 through to now, it’s the idea of health and wealth. It’s the idea that you can have a good life in this life too.So it really is the faith of the global working poor, and when it started with William J Seymour, these were pretty radical ideas, it was speaking in tongues, it was having the Holy Spirit descend upon you. So you’re born again, accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior and have a full immersion baptism usually, but then they filled again with the Holy Spirit and that comes comes through things such as you got the nine gifts of the holy spirit. Prophecy, miracles, healing, and most notably speaking in tongues.And that’s what the Pentecostals were really keen on. And that’s what they’re most famous for today, even though definitely not as many people speak in tongues anymore.SHEFFIELD: But just for those who don’t know what that concept is, what is the idea of speaking in tongues?HARDY: So it means that you’re filled with the Holy Spirit and that spirit is speaking through you in a language that you don’t understand, or that you might only understand in that moment.The original Pentecostals thought that they were being given the tongues to go and preach and convert people in foreign lands. That’s what happened in the Bible. That’s where the Day of Pentecost comes from, when the Holy Ghost 50 days after Jesus rose from the dead, the Holy Ghost came down to the disciples and gave them his gift of tongues to go out and convert people in foreign lands.And so the original Pentecostals thought that’s what they were getting. They thought they were speaking in Chinese. And a lot of them set sail for places like China and died horrible deaths of dysentery and other things because they were so ill-prepared. They really thought that they’d been given this gift and the end of days were coming and they had to come out and help all these poor people who hadn’t heard the good news.These days, it’s much more of a personal commune with God or, God speaking through you or a personal conversation that you’re having. And it definitely doesn’t have that power over people anymore. But often because it is a part of that conversion process– and the conversion being born again is really significant for ...
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    55 m
  • Why it matters that pluralism was the biggest innovation of the Renaissance

    Why it matters that pluralism was the biggest innovation of the Renaissance
    Jul 1 2025
    Episode Summary  We live in an uncertain age, one in which wealthy and powerful forces are working tirelessly to overthrow democracy, turn back the clock on human progress and destroy the middle class. The sheer magnitude of the West’s crisis of democracy can be overwhelming, however, and that’s why in this episode, I wanted to take more than a few steps back to explore the Renaissance, a period of world history that is much discussed in popular media, but often in a way that overshadows the real people and their actual intentions. Where did the Renaissance come from and what exactly were the people who made it hoping to achieve with their efforts? And are there any lessons that we can take from that time period for today?These are very big topics, needless to say, and I could think of no better person to discuss them with than Ada Palmer. She’s a historian who teaches at the University of Chicago, and she’s written a fantastic review of the entire time-period called “Inventing the Renaissance,” which also discusses the historiography of one of humanity’s most written-about eras.Besides this and other history books, Ada writes science fiction as well, which we get into at the very end of our conversation in the context of what lessons modern people can take from the Renaissance.The video of our conversation is available, the transcript is below. Because of its length, some podcast apps and email programs may truncate it. Access the episode page to get the full page.Theory of Change and Flux are listener supported. We need your help to keep going. Please subscribe to stay in touch!Related ContentAncient Greek Skepticism is surprisingly relevant in the social media ageInside the demon-haunted world of Christian fundamentalismAuthoritarian epistemology is as old as humanity itself 🔒The forgotten story of how the “religious left” birthed American superpowerIn the digital age, reactionary Catholicism is making a comebackAudio Chapters00:00 — Introduction05:53 — Tupac’s continued global resonance09:14 — The origins of hip-hop and its commercialization11:35 — Tupac’s legacy of contradictions18:41 — The Black Panthers’ influence on Tupac’s mother23:50 — Masculinity and gender within hip-hop29:06 — Gender and sexuality in the Black Panther Party35:56 — Obama and Trump in rap39:12 — Former Panthers still have hope for the future despite Trump41:31 — Trump’s 2024 campaign reached out heavily to hip-hop artists46:22 — ‘Coolness’ as a non-political voter persuasion method50:22 — How Van Nguyen brought oral history into his book58:19 — Eazy-E, another political West Coast emcee 01:01:55 — The meanings of ‘thug life’Audio TranscriptThe following is a machine-generated transcript of the audio that has not been proofed. It is provided for convenience purposes only.MATTHEW SHEFFIELD: So your book is called Inventing the Renaissance; before we get into the stories that you tell in the book, let’s just get into the larger question of the myth of the golden age. Because I think a lot of people may not be aware that a lot of this was kind of concocted by Protestant fundamentalists, which was then ironically picked up by atheists. There's a bit of an irony there.ADA PALMER: Yeah, I mean it's a myth that begins and has its earliest roots in the Renaissance itself and the invention in 14, 12, 14, 15, basically of history into three parts with ancient, middle, and then modern, which begins in the Renaissance itself, gets reinvented very heavily in the 18th century and the 19th century, and then many times [00:03:00] in the 20th century.Because once you have the idea that there is a golden age, you want to be able to claim that what you're doing is like that golden age, with the Renaissance, what we really mean by the Renaissance is the theory that there's some transitional phase at which the way things were pre-modern world suddenly gets changed by the arrival of something that changes it and makes the world start moving toward modern.And world begins to become more modern somewhere in the 14 hundreds or 13 hundreds or 15 hundreds, depending on when you center the Renaissance. And eventually it's to us. so the myth of the Renaissance is really about claiming what defines modern and then claiming that it comes in at a certain point and that this modern process is somehow good.Right. And that the Middle Ages are somehow bad, or the pre-modern world is somehow not as good or not as correct or not on the right path and trajectory of progress that [00:04:00] modernity is on leads to the utility of being able to claim it. And if you can say, X caused the Renaissance and we are continuing X, then that makes we good.And in the 18th century and in the 19th century, there kept being moments when people could claim X caused the Renaissance and then for some reason X stopped dominating in Italy and Spain and where the Renaissance sort of started.But we, whoever we ...
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    1 h y 10 m
  • Ten years of Trumpism: America’s lost decade

    Ten years of Trumpism: America’s lost decade
    Jun 23 2025
    This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit plus.flux.communityEpisode Summary  It seems forever ago, but it has officially been 10 years since Donald Trump announced that he was running as a Republican presidential candidate in 2015. A lot of terrible things have happened since that time, but if you think in terms of the issues that have propelled Trump politically, his two presidencies have been a “lost decade” for his own supporters.Trump done almost nothing to help the people he promised: Food costs are higher than ever before, unauthorized immigration has remained low, and health care is still out of reach for far too many people. Instead of trying to create his own policies to bring jobs to blighted heartland areas, Trump and Republicans are trying to close rural hospitals, terminate disaster-preparedness funding, and cancel the green jobs programs that former president Joe Biden enacted that mostly benefit Republican-voting areas.Despite promising to be a completely different kind of politician, Trump has been a total pawn of the far-right activists who began flooding into the Republican Party in 1964. Less than six months into his second term, aside from his tariff obsessions, Trump’s policies are barely different from those of George W. Bush, right down to the Middle Eastern wars, the billionaire welfare handouts, and the harsh cuts to anti-poverty programs.At the same time, however, in the past ten years, Democrats have also barely changed a thing. Despite losing multiple times to Trump and his congressional allies, the national Democratic Party has continued to be governed as a gerontocracy, and instead of copying Republicans’ billion-dollar investments in advocacy media, Democrats have instead spent almost all of their funds on old-school television ads and door-knocking efforts, hoping that Americans will magically make the connection between Republicans and their very unpopular policies.All of this got me thinking about doing a podcast episode to mark the political milestone, and after reading the Trump 10-year retrospective that Paul Campos posted at the Lawyers, Guns, and Money blog, I realized I needed to invite him and his colleague Erik Loomis onto the program for a live-streamed discussion of the topic which we recorded June 19th, two days before Trump decided to launch airstrikes against Iran.The video of our conversation is available. The full audio and transcript are available only to paying subscribers.Theory of Change and Flux are listener supported. We need your help to keep going. Please subscribe to stay in touch!Related Content—Donald Trump was never anti-war, and only lazy journalists and naive supporters thought otherwise—Why MAGA is the ultimate ‘globalist’ movement—January 6th was only the beginning of Trump’s insurrection against America, his attacks on California are his next major step—How labor unions preserved collective memory and why their decline has hurt Democrats so much (Erik’s first TOC appearance)—Why understanding a Nazi legal theorist can help you understand Trump’s domestic political strategies—How atheist technologists like Elon Musk are learning to love the fundamentalist Christian RightAudio Chapters00:00 — Ten years of Trumpism as America's 'lost decade'07:59 — The historical context of Trump's rise11:18 — Why Republicans are both isolationist and imperialist19:21 — Democratic leaders haven't changed a bit in response to Trump28:18 — Right-wing media and the doomed quest a 'liberal Joe Rogan'39:04 — Republicans spend billions on ecosystems, Democrats do not48:09 — Economic vs. social justice is a false and damaging choice58:50 — ConclusionMembership BenefitsIn order to keep Theory of Change sustainable, the full audio and transcript for this episode are available to subscribers only. The deep conversations we bring you about politics, religion, technology, and media take great time and care to produce. Your subscriptions make Theory of Change possible and we’re very grateful for your help.Please join today to get full access with Patreon or Substack.If you would like to support the show but don’t want to subscribe, you can also send one-time donations via PayPal.If you're not able to support financially, please help us by subscribing and/or leaving a nice review on Apple Podcasts. Doing this helps other people find Theory of Change and our great guests. You can also subscribe to the show on YouTube.About the ShowTheory of Change is hosted by Matthew Sheffield about larger trends and intersections of politics, religion, media, and technology. It's part of the Flux network, a new content community of podcasters and writers. Please visit us at flux.community to learn more and to tell us about what you're doing. We're constantly growing and learning from the great people we meet.
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    10 m
  • As Evangelicalism grows increasingly unhinged, where is Mormonism going?

    As Evangelicalism grows increasingly unhinged, where is Mormonism going?
    Jun 21 2025
    Episode Summary  Over the years on this program, I’ve often said that the political differences dividing Americans are really just artifacts of much deeper epistemic divides. In the episode before this one, we explored how those differences manifest psychologically—but psychology alone cannot explain why so many people feel so alienated that they willingly support political leaders like Donald Trump whom they acknowledge to be deceptive and chaotic.The truth is that most of Donald Trump’s supporters back him because they feel like their religious viewpoints are being shunted aside by scientific and educational progress that they cannot refute or even understand. The tension between recalcitrant belief and modernity has always been the core conflict motive of Christian fundamentalism, but how this works specifically in terms of doctrines varies widely across epistemic communities. That’s why in this episode, we’re going to focus on just one faith tradition, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, more commonly known as the Mormons. Our guide to Mormon epistemology is going to be Luna Corbden, the author of a book called “Recovering Agency: Lifting the Veil of Mormon Mind Control,” which discussed various cultural and linguistic methods that the church used on its members to keep them coming back for more. In a lot of ways, not much has changed within LDS Mormonism since Corbden published in 2014, but some things have—and they’re revealing some deeper divisions between the institutions of the Latter-Day Saint Movement and its longtime rival of Evangelical Protestantism.The transcript of this audio-only conversation is below. Because of its length, some podcast apps and email programs may truncate it. Access the episode page to get the full page.Theory of Change and Flux are entirely community-supported. We need your help to keep going. Please subscribe on Substack or Patreon and get unlimited access.Related Content—The long and tangled history of Mormonism and Evangelical Protestantism—Religious authoritarians have always been at war with democracy, regardless of whether anyone else realized it—The Christian right was a theological rebellion against modernity before it became a political movement—How Mormons, evangelicals, Native Americans, and tourists mix in the state of Idaho—Salt Lake Tribune cartoonist Pat Bagley on politics, Utah, and being an ‘emeritus Mormon’—Luna Corbden on the Mormon Stories PodcastAudio Chapters00:00 — Introduction04:06 — Challenges of free will and information control14:08 — Mormonism created new doctrinal controversies while solving for classical Christian dilemmas20:12 — Centralization and doctrinal evolution in Mormonism26:47 — Intellectual Mormonism’s conflicted epistemology35:42 — Sweeping embarrassing doctrines under the rug doesn’t make them disappear40:01 — Scientific claims and the Book of Mormon44:40 — Spiritual polygamy remains an actual practice in today’s Mormonism53:49 — Former Mormons and active progressive Mormons are reconciling58:42 — Reclaiming self-worth and autonomyAudio TranscriptThe following is a machine-generated transcript of the audio that has not been proofed. It is provided for convenience purposes only.MATTHEW SHEFFIELD: So we're going to have a discussion here about Mormonism and Epistemology and all that. But before we get into it, I did want to talk a bit about your book specifically and what you meant by agency, because for people who are not familiar with Mormonism, the term of agency is a core doctrine and something that is very important.So what does Mormonism mean by the concept of agency?LUNA CORBDEN: Yeah, It is a core doctrine to, or what they call the plan of salvation or in recent, the, recent thing they call it is the plan of happiness. When I was still in it was the plan of salvation. And the idea is that in the war of heaven, Jesus and Satan both stood up and had a different plans for the, future progress of their brothers and sisters, spiritual humanity at that point.And Jesus wanted to send everybody down. We can make our own choices, and if we made the wrong choices, we'd have to be punished for them for some reason. And then Satan was like, we're Lucifer. we'll actually just force everyone to make the right choices and then that way we can save everyone and no one has to be punished.And there was a huge war in heaven over that. And Lucifer's obviously the bad guy, and he got cast out and we ended up in this. That's the. How Mormonism solves the problem of evil, which is not something they talk about in Mormonism, but you get out of it and you're like, oh, that's how they're solving the problem of evil is basically free will. It's basically free.Will we have the ability to choose good versus evil? We need evil in order to be able to choose good, because if our only choice was good, then it's not really a choice, and that's really central. So the idea is we ...
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    1 h y 7 m
  • The Big Beautiful Lie: Jessica Fulton on What the 2025 Budget Bill Really Means for Black Households

    The Big Beautiful Lie: Jessica Fulton on What the 2025 Budget Bill Really Means for Black Households
    Jun 20 2025
    In this episode of The Electorette, host Jen Taylor-Skinner speaks with Jessica Fulton, senior fellow with the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, about the 2025 budget bill—rebranded by conservatives as the "Big Beautiful Bill"—and the devastating consequences it could have for Black households. Rooted in the Joint Center’s policy brief, Centering Black Households in the 2025 Tax Debate, the conversation exposes how proposals like extending the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act would continue to funnel wealth to high-income, disproportionately white households—while offering temporary, shallow benefits to working-class families. Jessica explains how policies that sound equitable on the surface—like tax deductions for tipped workers, child tax credits, and overtime exemptions—actually reinforce economic exclusion. Together, they explore how tax policy has long been used as a tool of racialized wealth-building and why understanding these “wonky” details is essential to building a more equitable economy. They also touch on the dangers of cutting Pell Grants, dismantling agencies that support Black-owned businesses, and using budget reconciliation to pass policies that will have generational consequences. This episode is a powerful call for greater transparency, stronger advocacy, and inclusive policymaking that truly supports all families—not just the wealthiest. Episode Chapters: (00:00) Tax Code, Wealth, and Racial Inequality The Federal Tax Code perpetuates racial inequality, with implications for Black households, through policies like the 2025 Budget Bill. (12:23) Tax Policy and Racial Disparities Changes to child tax credit privilege higher-income households, exclude poorest families, and perpetuate systemic inequities. (23:56) Tax Policy and Worker Income Nature's financial burdens on low-income workers, tax treatment of tips and overtime pay, and erosion of worker protections. (27:28) Tax Policies and Working Class Disadvantages Tax policies can privilege certain workers, have political motivations, and create disparities between demographic groups. (39:47) Tax Code and Racial Disparities Examining how race affects taxation and economic disparities, and the importance of understanding and challenging these systems. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    43 m
  • Things Do Not Have to Be This Way: Dismantling American Patriarchy with Anna Malaika Tubbs

    Things Do Not Have to Be This Way: Dismantling American Patriarchy with Anna Malaika Tubbs
    Jun 18 2025
    Author and scholar Anna Malaika Tubbs joins The Electorette to discuss her powerful new book, Erased: What American Patriarchy Has Hidden from Us—a sweeping, incisive examination of how American patriarchy was built to exclude, erase, and control. In this conversation, Anna unpacks the nation’s gendered social order, from its origins in the Constitution to its modern-day consequences in law, politics, motherhood, and racial injustice. Drawing on personal experience, global perspective, and deep historical research, Anna explains how stories like that of Sacagawea—an Indigenous girl forced to guide the Lewis and Clark expedition—have been co-opted to prop up a false narrative of inclusion. She also traces how the legacy of patriarchal power lives on in institutions like the Supreme Court, and how it has shaped political identities and movements across generations. Anna Malaika Tubbs is a Cambridge Ph.D. candidate in Sociology and a Bill and Melinda Gates Cambridge Scholar. Erased is the follow-up to her debut The Three Mothers, and was an instant New York Times bestseller, a USA Today national bestseller, and named an Amazon Best Book of the Year (So Far) for 2025. This conversation explores what it means to be seen, to be heard, and to reclaim stories that were never told truthfully to begin with. Episode Chapters (00:00) American Patriarchy With Anna Malaika Tubbs American patriarchy, its impact on society, and reimagining narratives through personal and historical lenses. (12:31) Deconstructing American Patriarchy Through History Sacagawea's story is used to serve agendas, revealing erasure of matriarchal and non-binary identities and shared struggles of marginalized groups. (22:13) American Patriarchy and Women's Resistance Black women challenge American patriarchy, influenced by Supreme Court decisions, advocating for inclusive reproductive justice. (37:09) Black Feminist Motherhood and Reproductive Justice Black feminism, motherhood, and American patriarchy are discussed, with emphasis on accessible reproductive choices and dismantling societal norms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    47 m
  • More Than a Seat: Amanda Edwards on Legacy, Leadership, and the Fight for Texas’s 18th Congressional District

    More Than a Seat: Amanda Edwards on Legacy, Leadership, and the Fight for Texas’s 18th Congressional District
    Jun 12 2025
    In this episode of The Electorette, Amanda Edwards, candidate for Texas’s 18th Congressional District, joins host Jennifer Taylor-Skinner for a powerful conversation about legacy, leadership, and what it means to truly serve. A native of Houston’s 18th District, Edwards shares her deep personal ties to the community and reflects on the seat’s profound history—once held by trailblazers like Barbara Jordan and Sheila Jackson Lee. Edwards discusses the impact of Governor Greg Abbott’s delay in calling a special election, which has left nearly 800,000 residents without representation during a time of crisis. From federal budget cuts to hurricane preparedness, she outlines why this moment demands urgent, community-centered leadership. The conversation also delves into the disconnect between elected officials and constituents, with Edwards highlighting her commitment to restoring trust and accountability. She shares personal stories—like her father’s battle with cancer and her post-Harvey recovery work—and lays out her vision for building policies that support education, economic opportunity, and reproductive justice. Edwards makes a compelling case for re-engaging disillusioned voters and ensuring that representation is not just symbolic, but truly transformative. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    45 m