TRUST ME I KNOW WHAT I'm DOING

As always, thank you for listening to the show and for rating and kindly reviewing and following on the socials. It’s very much appreciated, and I’m so grateful. I’ve mentioned this before, but it deserves repeating; that one of our biggest demonstrations of trust in a free society is with our vote. So with general elections coming up in 2024 in both the US and in India, exercising your power through organizing, openly discussing, exchanging ideas respectfully, learning, and ultimately voting are all privileges and imperatives. So it was terrific to share a conversation with the first Indian-American woman to serve in the US Congress, representing the 7th district in the state of Washington, Pramila Jayapal. Pramila was born in India, and immigrated here when she was just a teenager to go to college and then get her graduate degree. She spent twenty years working internationally and domestically in global public health and development and as an award-winning national advocate for women’s, immigrant, civil, and human rights. Pramila entered life as an elected official as a Washington State Senator representing much of Seattle in 2015. And then, 2 years later, she was elected to the US House of Representatives and has served as one of the few naturalized citizens in Congress. Pramila has been an active leader, serving on the Judiciary, and Education, and Workforce committees. Her signature has been advocating to bridge inequities and support vulnerable communities, working for fair wages, broader health care access, climate justice, LGBTQ equality, and improved housing. Pramila is also notably the Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which represents nearly 50% of the entire Democratic caucus in the House, and she is known for sharing her views boldly and fighting for her values. Now I learned more about her work last fall when I was spreading the word about the #SaveOurHearts campaign to support the South Asian Heart Health and Research Act, which she introduced last year, and so we were able to catch up and talk about a broad range of things actually right after the Super Bowl, where we both shared that ironically neither the anxiety of a close game nor eating nachos were helping either of our hearts. But I also wanted to know if viewing the Super Bowl, an incredibly American display of consumerism and excess was at all challenging, given the backdrop of deep struggles of many in the community who represent issues that she cares so deeply about…