Alex Cascio & Landon Reid talk about the BS that Gen Z & Young Millennials have to deal with in the US!

Today, I'm joined by two of my absolute favorite influencers, Landon Reid and Alex Cascio to discuss various topics related to the experiences and frustrations of younger generations. We touch on issues such as the challenges of finding affordable housing, the impact of credit scores, the lack of enthusiasm for driving among young people, and the need for gun control.

We also discuss the barriers to running for office and the need for election reform. The conversation covers topics such as voter registration, gerrymandering, the importance of voting, and the impact of racism and money in society.

Alex Cascio:
Instagram: @the_casalmon
TikTok: @casalmon

Landon Reid:
Instagram: @and_mayhem_ensued
TikTok: @and_mayhem_ensued

Takeaways

• The younger generation faces challenges in finding affordable housing and dealing with high credit scores.
• There is a lack of enthusiasm for driving among young people, which can be attributed to the cost of driver's training and the high expenses associated with owning a car.
• Gun control is a pressing issue, and there is frustration with the prioritization of guns over the lives of children.
• Running for office is difficult due to economic constraints and gatekeeping, and there is a need for election reform to make the process more accessible.
• There is a call for more young people to get involved in local politics and join county Democratic clubs to have a voice in endorsements and decision-making. The importance of checking voter registration and advocating for fair voting practices
• The impact of gerrymandering on elections and the need for redistricting reform
• The significance of voting and the potential for change, even in heavily red or blue areas
• The role of racism and money in shaping societal issues
• The influence of social media and online presence in sharing ideas and connecting with others

As of September 2024, Transcending Humanity is now known as Vanesstradiol! Episodes will be much more sparse from here on out, but I hope to continue bringing you quality content!

Transcript

Vanessa: 0:21

Okay, I need to do a little bit of vocal exercises. Okay, that's better. Okay, good. I'm happy with this to see if I can keep this up. Anyways, hello and welcome back to transcending humanity. I'm Vanessa, aka Vanessa audio, and I am joined today by two people I've been very excited to have on the podcast. I've had Landon here before, but Alex is new. Just a reminder to using the opinions that the people you see on your screen or hearing in your ears are their own and not their respective employers, if they're employed, and send us money on Patreon and buy shit from the store and thank you to the current patrons. So let's jump into it. This is my Gen Z, and apparently younger millennial episode. You all probably remember Landon. He was on episode 50, and also he was on Episode Episode 25 and he really laid out the kind of the generational divide between the different generations and how everyone needs to stop fucking relying on Gen Z to fix all the problems and actually do it themselves. So so I asked him to come back, and I also asked Alex to join me, and she's another creator that I've been following for a while, and I absolutely love her shit, and I send her a message, and she said, Yes, so this is like a dream for me. So without further ado, I'm gonna let you two introduce yourselves. Say a little bit yada yada yada, ladies, first,

Alex: 2:00

I don't want to jump in. All right, all right, all right, all right. I'll go first. I can do it. My name is Alex fire. Baptism by fire, yeah, just throw me the wolves. We got this. My name is Alex. I do political content on Tiktok and Instagram, really, especially trying to engage those younger generations with politics, especially social justice issues. So LGBTQ rights, abortion rights, income inequality, those kinds of things. Yeah, that's me.

Vanessa: 2:35

Thank you. Landon,

Landon: 2:37

hello. I am not part Chow. I just had cotton candy. That's why my tongue is dark. I am a drag queen on Instagram and Tiktok and all the social medias except x, because Elon sucks, I do content that is political, but really shouldn't be, but it was made political. Yeah,

Vanessa: 3:01

it's honestly pretty innocent stuff too. It is like, How dare you be children's story. I know it's so scandalous. One

Landon: 3:09

Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, indoctrination fish,

Alex: 3:16

right there.

Vanessa: 3:17

I know, right. I'm gonna take a picture this just for socials, because this is exciting.

Landon: 3:25

So for sure, because my eyeline is all over the place, I know, and I'm looking at you, I'm looking off to the side, and when I'm looking at myself, it looks like I'm looking at you, and that's

Vanessa: 3:39

just weird. I know I have to keep training myself to look like I'm looking into the camera right now, so, but this is really Alex.

Landon: 3:46

They're the little green dot. It's,

Vanessa: 3:50

it's hard, you know, like, I've even seen, like, these cameras that, like, they'll stick down in front of the screen for you, but my hands giant, you know, this far, yeah. So, I just wanted to start up a conversation about, what kind of day to day bullshit Do you two as younger Americans that are trying to make a impact in this world or trying to just survive in this world, what are just the day to day bullshit, stuff that just drives you nuts, and you want to just get it out there and call people out for it. So go

Landon: 4:28

apartment hunting. Oh, my God, such a big one. Okay, so I'm trying to move from Texas to Los Angeles, and when you don't have a job in a place, it's very difficult, because, you know, they require a job to get an apartment, but almost every single job requires you to live there currently to even be considered. And so it's this catch 22 snake just devouring itself over and over. And I have a decent amount of savings, because I've just swirled away everything I've ever received for birthdays or whatever, and I just have it all in a little bank account. Just so, yeah, so when I figured out. Out I would qualify to be the cosigner. If somebody with horrible credit and no savings and no job wanted this apartment, I could get that apartment for them, but I cannot qualify to get that apartment for myself. And that was just like, What is wrong with this system? I'd say it's broken. It is so broken.

Alex: 5:43

Man, I could say mad about credit scores in general, it's just a joke number. It doesn't even matter. Like, I made my younger brother like an authorized user on one of my credit cards, so he would have a good credit score. So he's got, like, an 800 now, because I'm anal about money and, like, nothing. He's done nothing. It's just a joke. He knows somebody with good credit, and now he can get, like, a loan where someone who maybe had like, medical debt can't, yeah, that

Vanessa: 6:11

entire system, the credit score thing is so done. Like, I declared bankruptcy a couple years ago, but then I changed my name right after, which, kind of, like, get put a hiccup in my credit score, and it went way up, like six months after I declared bankruptcy, my credit score was in the seven hundreds, which was kind of wild, but, and it never really caught up, even though my name finally got caught up on it. But so like, right now, if I go on Credit Karma, it says, like, 712, or something like that, and when I just went and bought a car, and when they pull up my actual credit, not the credit that we at the seat, it was like 630 which is still enough to get a loan. But how the fuck are we supposed to know anything?

Alex: 6:53

Yeah.

Landon: 6:55

And the thing with, like the apartment hunting, is I was complaining to some people, and I have some friends in Los Angeles who are native Angelinos, and one of them is a man in his 50s, and one of them is a woman in her late 40s, and they were giving me this advice. And it's like that advice is so beyond worthless, like what you're telling me to do is beyond worthless. And one of them told me to look in this area, because, oh yeah, they keep the rent low so artists can live there. Like, that's, that's been the whole thing. That's the MO and they went, and it's a beautiful area, because the artists keep it nice and keep it pretty. And I looked it up, and I was saying a 200 square foot studio with a shared bathroom is 3000 a month that is now the yuppie place to live, because artists made it beautiful, and corporate landlords bought it up, and it was like it this place that had been around since Hollywood was created where artists could live affordably with the knowledge that artists will keep the area safe and nice, went out the window with corporate landlords.

Alex: 8:13

I mean, the entire housing market went out the window with corporate landlords. I was trying to explain my grandparents, like a couple weeks ago, about why I'm renting and not buying a house, and just like, it's ridiculous. You have to have a ridiculous amount of money saved up for a down payments. Interest rates are out of astronomical right now, so people that are locked into low rates aren't selling, so there's a housing shortage and all these things not even taking into account like inflation since their generation, and they're just like, Oh, you just need to save more. You just need to save more. Like, oh, okay, yeah, many lattes.

Vanessa: 8:53

I used to be a homeowner, and when my ex was pregnant with our son, I moved in with her, so I sold my house, like, two months before the housing like, exploded. So like, if I had waited two months, I could have gotten another like, 60 grand for my house, and now it's just so unavoidable, affordable. I lucked out the place I'm in now. I'm renting for $800 a month, an entire house. Oh, wow. Lennon's head just exploded. It belongs to one of my photography clients. It's the house that she grew up in, and her mother in law was living here, but her mother in law moved, and she didn't want to sell the house. She knew I was looking for it. She's like, if you would pay me the same rent that she was paying, you can live there. I'm like, fuck yeah, so, but that is so rare, yeah? And like, any place else around here would be starting at like 1500 if they let me live there because I have a German Shepherd. Yeah? Racism is a thing,

Alex: 9:57

so that's like a whole other thing too. Like, it's so normalized now for us, like, living with your parents is like, cool, like, oh yeah, you're putting aside that bag. Like the friends that are able to live at home were jealous of where that used to be a stereotype. Like, I've been talking to a dude on Tinder that's living with his parents. I'm like, Yeah, dude, get that bag. Like, that would have been a red flag for my parents. Parents generation, and now it's just, like, nice so you have savings, cool, like,

Vanessa: 10:26

that's definitely a big difference between the five, because I imagine your parents are Gen X for both of you, minor boomers. Yeah, they're boomers. Okay, yeah. Minor, older boomers. And, like, living at home when I was growing at like, there's so many things that are different, like, for me in in high school, every time, every time someone hit 15 and a half, that's when you, like, ran out and started your driver's license thing. And now, from what I understand, kids just don't really care that much about driving. My local partner, her kids, just they couldn't give a flying fuck about driving. And I almost think that a lot of it is, I think kids, in their parents, it's more of a general role than it was when I was growing up. Have a little bit more of a connection, and might actually be able to tolerate sometimes living, I could not imagine living with my parents, but, I mean, that's that's just a very blanket statement, but how do you two feel about all that?

Alex: 11:35

I mean, I also could not live with my parents, but I know in my case, and for like, a lot of my friends, we started driving late just because driver's training is not something that's free anymore. Like we're seeing all these little things start to add up, of things that older generations took for granted, like driver's training was just part of high school that was included in public education. It's not free anymore. It's several $100 and for a lot of middle class families living paycheck they can't afford it. I had to wait until I was 18 and able to just, like, go to the Secretary of State and get a permit and, like, have friends teach me how to drive, because, like, it was just not an affordable thing. But living with my parents, that's a no for me. Talk.

Unknown: 12:15

I can't pay boomers. What

Alex: 12:19

about you? Landon, how do you feel?

Landon: 12:22

Oh, well, I live with my mother. I could not have lived with my father, but it's the with the driving thing. Especially, there was this man on Tiktok, and he wasn't even that old. He was probably like 5556 and he was talking about how lazy younger generations are, and how, you know, younger generations don't even want to get a driver's license because they're all narcissistic, and their lives are online and blah, blah, blah, you know, the regurgitated talking points were also used to hearing. And he was he said this phrase where he got a car. He got his first job. His parents paid for half of his first car. He paid for the other half, and then he was responsible with his part time after school, job all day, Saturday, Sunday, off to pay for his gas and car insurance. And I replied to this man to go, all right, a couple things. Number one, there are no affordable used cars anymore. And a couple years ago, when Gen Z actually realized, wait a minute, we can start buying luxury cars from, you know, the 90s and early, 2000s for not that much money, because people who are looking for luxury cars are not going to touch these, and people who are looking for a used car won't even think to go, oh, do I want a Bentley? Do I want a Cadillac? Do I want, you know, this, that, whatever. And so it was these cars aren't that expensive, and Gen Z was buying them. And how did boomers respond? They started buying those cars to hold as investments. And you know, when Boomers and Gen X was coming up, it was this big push, like, there was a media campaign for, like, Silent Generation and greatest generation of if you're looking to trade in your car. Think about selling it to a young person for trade in value like that was a campaign of, don't, don't, let the dealership get the money. You know, the dealership will pay you, like, um, 1/10 of what the car's worth. So sell it to a young person for 1/10 of what the cars were then smoked Mabo cigarettes. And it was that that was one of those things of so there are no affordable use cars, but even if there were just paying for gas and insurance, and I pointed out that part time job you had, and he, like, told me where, like, what the job was doing. And I went, Okay, so that would pay absolute minimum wage, and in your state, that is like 750 you know, an hour. And I went for a 16 year old's insurance and the gas for a part time job, they would need to be making at least$40 An hour to pay for just that and, and, and he was arguing, and he was being belligerent. And I will say, when I told him to crunch the numbers, he did come back and go, okay,

Vanessa: 15:34

yeah, the numbers still, yeah, like, my insurances are cheap because, again, I'm old, but still, my car payments like 405 for 2015, car and then car insurance is like 80, and then gas, you know, everything together. Like, let's just do a quick thing here. Like, the average pay around me is about 12 hours an hour. So, you know, say, $700 I've divided by 12, it's 58 hours of work just to pay for the car. And that doesn't that doesn't even account for taxes, either. So and So how is anyone supposed to keep up with that? Because then they also have rent and food, and so living at home just makes sense. As much as that can suck. So or you get a nice little you also hear of a lot of like communes starting up, you know, just, just a bunch of people living together, just to, you know, survive. But that also has to get annoying too, is, what if one of them doesn't shower? You know, guys don't wash their glass. Well,

Alex: 16:48

I think definitely cost of living is like the biggest divide, and it's so hard to explain to people because, like, Landon was saying, you really have to break the numbers down of just like, Okay, this is how that wage would equate out today because of the, you know, inflation rate and everything, because these people hear something like, oh, wow, you're making 12 bucks an hour. And they're really like, not doing the mental processing of how far that doesn't go now, combined with the fact that, like across the board, even not low wage earners, but wages have stagnated since the 70s, like, we're not seeing wages go up. So they're used to, like, if they're making 40 bucks an hour, they feel really good about themselves. They should be making like, 80 bucks an hour. And realizing like, Oh, hey, you are also getting screwed can be a hard thing to accept, because you're like, especially when you're older, it's like, I work so hard for all the things I have and you probably did, and to realize like, Oh, I'm getting screwed. The younger generations have it even worse. I think it's an easier knee jerk reaction to have to just like, call us lazy.

Unknown: 17:48

The

Vanessa: 17:50

system is fucked, absolutely fucked. My first job paid is that SeaWorld in Ohio. If you believe that Ohio had a sea world. I believe I had a Sea World. Emily had a sea world, and it was $4.25 an hour. But everything was cheap back then. So like, I remember filling up my car for 68 cents a gallon in I think 2000 Yeah, and so, you know, everything is no one can catch up, and it's the absolute worst. Let's pivot to the whole gun bullshit. I imagine you both were in school during with the constant fear of shootings. What crosses your mind when you hear all of these politicians and it NRA, I almost said NAR National Association of Realtors, but really not same thing, if you think about it, but like when they so clearly value guns over the lives of children with gun with gun violence being the number one cause of death for kids in this country, which is a very uniquely American problem. And they keep saying, it's not the guns, it's the people. Well, the guns do fucking help, because if you notice, it's the same kind of gun that tends to be used with a lot of these shootings. What kind of frustrations Do you two feel with all that?

Alex: 19:30

I think, for me, it's the disconnect between like the actual legislation that is being proposed and then what is being told to conservative voters and conservative conservative groups and gun owners, like they paint it as the LIBS are coming for your guns. No one's coming for your guns, like we're proposing, like actual proposals, like universal background checks, red flag laws, safe storage laws, these are all things that, when you pitch them individually to the public, there's overwhelming support, because it's like, yeah, people should have to pass a background check on a firearm, exactly. It's common sense legislation, I mean, things like banning assault rifles outright, that usually gets a bit more pushback. But then you start like explaining in depth there too. It's like, it's not the government's not going to bang on your door and take your guns. There would be buyback programs to make. Sure you're fairly compensated for property that you paid into. Like most people are, like, okay, yeah, that's a lot more reasonable. But there's a lot of just outright propaganda and almost cultish behavior too, like the Congressman wearing, like they are 15 pins after a shooting. Can you imagine if one of the Democrats did that after Trump got shot, like there'd be outrage, I know,

Landon: 20:43

yeah, so much performative outrage would have happened. I always say that children are in schools are the soldiers dying on the front lines for Republican stupid war so they can continue to own their guns.

Vanessa: 21:08

It's flat out true. And as Alex said, you know, they're not coming for your guns. You know, owning a gun is an American thing. You know, a lot of liberals own guns. There's a lot of trans people that own guns, mainly to protect themselves from the asshole conservatives with guns. Well, there's

Alex: 21:27

the same you go far enough left, you get the guns back.

Vanessa: 21:31

Exactly, exactly. I love that, and it's true, but I just, I honestly don't understand why the average citizen needs something like an AR 15 and, you know, everyone's like, Oh, it's not an assault rifle. You know, no, it is. You know, there's a citizen does not need that. It's literally

Alex: 21:55

designed to kill as many people as quickly, efficiently as possible. It's an assault rifle.

Vanessa: 22:02

You know, it's a bunch of just scared white people there buying them so they can mow down to black people. And that's all. That's what it boils down to in the end. And

Alex: 22:10

I mean, I've shot one. It's fun. Like, I've got a gun bro friend that I've been trying to convert. He's like, left on everything else except, like, don't touch my guns. I've shot one. It's fun. Like, I get the appeal, like, there's some monkey part of my brain that's just, like, I want to make the boom, boom big, but like, that is not enough to justify people actually dying. Like, I think really, it's just like, a matter of, like, outreach and education. Because, like I said, most people do support, like common sense gun laws, they've just been spun in a way that the two way cultists go rabid about

Vanessa: 22:50

there's way too much money involved. So, yeah,

Landon: 22:55

I find it fascinating how I don't remember what year it was, but the NRA used to be like this very common sense group that was pushing for like, gun legislation, and there was dissent in the group, and the crazies took over. And I think at one point, the NRA, like, had this view that having a gun should be, like having a driver's license, where you need to get a gun license, and, yeah, you know, after a certain age, or a certain number of years of you having the license, you need to come in and completely have everything reviewed. You know, like with when, when you have a driver's license, there's the at a certain point where you've had it enough years, you do need to actually come into the DMV and get everything redone, and sometimes you need to retake the quiz, and

Alex: 23:53

it's an argument they make is like, Oh, well, cars aren't in the Constitution. Though you don't have a constitutional right to drive a car, like, Bitch, I didn't have a constitutional right to vote when that thing was written. Okay, get out of here with that. Well, they

Landon: 24:08

don't want you to do that either. So, yeah,

Vanessa: 24:12

I don't know if either of you have ever like, handled a, like, black powder musket, but they're very different from a modern gun too. That's what was the gun back then. So the language really could stand a little bit of updating, but we need the Boomers to die out first. I

Landon: 24:29

always love when when conservatives will bring up guns, and I always like to go, Well, yes, our corset wearing high heeled makeup, loving wig, donning founding fathers did, in fact, love guns? No, I've been saying this fashion changes. So

Alex: 24:52

I've been saying this gay. Like, if we make guns gay, they will run away from them. They'll be getting banned up and down, like, we need to take it over just like, go to pride parades and like, hand out. That's probably a bad idea. But you get why I'm Yeah,

Landon: 25:07

I have a theory that if we start instead with abortion rights, if we start calling fetuses illegal aliens.

Alex: 25:20

They'll be on day one. They will

Landon: 25:22

be on board the illegal aliens. And the vagina is now the southern border. The illegal aliens attempting to cross the southern border to great be granted citizenship in our country and will lead your tax dollars. They will be for abortion.

Vanessa: 25:40

We got anything whenever it costs them money. Whenever it costs them money. Yeah. So another pivot, how much enthusiasm Do you see people of your generation looking to run for office?

Alex: 25:59

I'd say it's really mixed. I think we're seeing more and more of it, but the threshold to run for office is really difficult. And again, like, it ties back to cost of living. Like, take out the fact, like, you need time to go run for office. There's a lot of gatekeeping and breaking into these positions even, like, there are some city council organizations where it's like you have to be part of like a member board, and that's like a tiered service, like you have to pay, like, a certain amount of money a month to be like part of this special group to be able to run, or you have to actually own your home in that community in order to run, so renters can't take part. So there is more enthusiasm, but I do think it's a lot more difficult again, because just economic constraints.

Landon: 26:47

Yeah, the entire system is really just so skewed. I mean, I read somewhere and I didn't fact check it at the time to make sure it was true. So don't be saying, if it's not true, I'm just spreading misinformation. I'm putting that disclaimer on it. But the Founding Fathers, when they created the criteria to be president, they wrote it in such a way they never dreamed someone who is not one of their descendants of the men in that room would ever be able to be president, like they did not see anyone who wasn't one of their offspring ever having the possibility of being President.

Alex: 27:32

Well, their offspring in their class, because it's all white landowning men that could even have a political influence. So, yeah, I

Vanessa: 27:42

would like to see the money taken out of politics completely, and shorten the election cycle the episode of the show that's coming out tomorrow. I interviewed two Ohio State House representatives about stuff like that, and because I ran for office and they are actually their representatives that created a bill to help people not get disqualified the way that I was, but like when I ran, it is expensive, and if you don't know the right people, like I, I didn't fucking jerk off The the head of the stark County Democratic Party, so he would not return my calls. And from i, from what I understand, he was actively working to keep me off the ballot. And then the Secretary of State saying that, you know, candidates have to have their own legal teams and stuff like that to know all the rules we're gonna fucking afford that it's there's so many barriers that we really need major election reform. And I think it's possible, I don't do to listen to Jon Stewart at all.

Unknown: 28:54

Yeah,

Landon: 28:56

I bet a little. He

Vanessa: 28:58

has a weekly show. Now that he didn't, he interviewed some people that are that talked about America's two party system and how it's just function nothing can get done in that how we need more parties, not too many, because if you have too many, then it also messy, but it's like four or five or six, kind of a sweet spot. You expand the seats in the House to represent that and with the goal of actually starting to get things done,

Alex: 29:33

like a parliamentary system,

Vanessa: 29:35

exactly,

Landon: 29:36

I would love, love. Love. First thing, getting rid of the Electoral College and equally, yep. Second thing, tiered voting like Australia. Explain where in Australia you you have, I believe it's like you have three votes. So if you like, let's say you want to vote for Jill Stein. Jill Stein's your girl. Woo, woo. Jill Stein. You can vote for Jill Stein, but you know, Jill Stein's not going to win, so you're not, you don't feel like you're throwing your vote away. Because your second vote would be Kamala Harris.

Alex: 30:24

Oh, like ranked choice voting? Yeah, yes,

Landon: 30:28

yes, let me be clear,

Alex: 30:34

yeah, because we don't have ranked choice voting. It's funny you bring up Australia, though too, because their election system is so superior to ours. For one, voting is mandatory, and you have the time off to go do it like you, yeah, you'll pay a fine if you don't vote. They're also their election cycles. It's super condensed, like it's illegal to campaign outside of the election cycles, and it's super short. I want to say, like, three weeks, I might be off on that. I have a friend from Australia that was telling me about this. But, like, you can only campaign in that time. And also, the government has to educate voters about, like, who's on the ballot. Like, they have to send out information and everything. So, I mean, campaigns aren't dumping all this money into like, I mean, essentially, like, look at Biden before he dropped out and Trump, they were campaigning for like, the last two years. So like, half the presidential term is just campaigning. You're not even doing the job, and that's millions of dollars going away, but it's

Vanessa: 31:31

almost elected officials too. Yeah, yeah.

Alex: 31:35

Well, I also wanted to point out because you mentioned, like, your county democratic club, but that's another area where, like, young people need to be getting involved. Like, you don't have to run for office, but like, you go to your local dem club. 90% of the time it's like, middle aged, white ladies, and that's it. Those are the only Democrats in your county. They're just the ones that are showing up. But like, if you have time, and even if it's not all the time, but like, some events, like, you can take part in those county dem clubs. And then when the election season comes around, you can have a voice and like, Okay, who are we endorsing? So who are we going to be knocking doors for in this primary? There are a lot of avenues where I think just young people aren't getting involved, like they're voting in a lot higher numbers, but like, there's a lot more work to be done. That's

Vanessa: 32:21

one of the only good things about Facebook left, is that it's easy to create groups, to kind of organize that kind of stuff, but otherwise it's clusterfuck. My brain just died. My brain dies all that this is, this is my third episode I've recorded this week. So, oh, wow. Which is, I mean, they, they release weekly, but my brain is, you know, fried. Another thing that we're seeing a lot in this country is stupid fucking Republican push to purge the voter rolls. It's happening in every state. And I think one of the most important things that we all need to do right now is remind everybody we know to check their voter registration, because, like in Florida, what was it like? 800,000 were purged, or something crazy like that, and that's a lot of people, and you know, they're probably focusing on purging the Democrats more than they are the Republicans off of there. So like, because if you're perished, you show up to vote, you think you're registered, you can't. And it's I really like the idea of mandatory voting that would also completely fuck all this trying to stop people from voting, from happening? Yeah,

Alex: 33:41

so the Republicans would never win again. No, they wouldn't.

Landon: 33:45

This is one of the other things of voting in general, like when you try to explain to white suburban conservatives or even white suburban liberals about what is happening in the black areas, or any ethnic area, or even a much more liberal area than the white suburbs, that it isn't a two minute line at the High school like it is at your voting area, like where I live currently, it's a very in and out experience. It's super fast, super easy. And when my family lived in a much nicer gated community, there was a polling place in the community, like was at the clubhouse at the clubhouse in the gated community, and it was so fast and easy to vote, and they make it so fast and easy for white suburbia to vote. So when you try to explain to them, they made it incredibly difficult, they just don't believe you. Because why would why would they make somebody stand in the line for 20 hours when we quite literally in and out two minutes. Boom. Texas redrawing. I saw them the gerrymandered map now because people moving in from other states, which number one Texas when they brought. Brag about creating all these jobs. No, he relocated all these jobs from people in California, and the company moved all their workers from California to Texas, which in fact, created no new jobs for the actual state. But we digress. But most of those people who moved are more left leaning. And so to combat that, they were redrawing a map, and one of the maps, like I kid you not. It was a giant red blob, and they cut up the blue parts into four different groups that in this blue area used to be one district, and they cut it up into different parts. And one red place had to stretch like, I think it was 20 miles without touching anything, to do a little circle and go back

Vanessa: 36:13

to my district when I was running head individual houses cut out. Like, Yeah, seriously. Like this and like it would go just like what you said. They would go along a highway and then clip out a house. It's so right in Ohio in November, there's in a citizen let belt initiative to put districts back into the hands of the people, and the Republicans are losing their fucking mind. So anyone that hasn't listened to last week's episode with the state reps, listen to that one so you can kind of get an idea. Or if you're really bored, look up on the Ohio Secretary of State's website, the Ohio House of Representatives district maps, and it's mind boggling that the fucking crazy ass Tetris that they pull out with it. So because Ohio's really, if I was not a blue state, it's a purple state, but you would never know by a government. So

Alex: 37:16

Well, Nick powers, I don't know if you guys are familiar with Nick powers. He's like, the stats guy. He's got all the spreadsheets. He's been doing a really great series, kind of breaking down, like, because it's easy to get kind of complacent when you live in an area that's very gerrymandered, or, like, a solid red state, and be like, Oh, well, my vote's not going to do anything. It's very red here. But that's counterintuitive, because then you're more likely to stay home. And you look at certain elections like Florida, it's like, if only, like, a few 1000 more people showed up, like Santas did not win by a large margin. So I think it's important too. It's like, yeah, we need to fight the corruption. But also that doesn't mean your vote doesn't matter. You know, like, you can still get out there, even if you're in like, a totally red desert, you know, get your friends and family to come with you. Like, make sure you're, like, bringing people out to the polls. I mean, like, look at Georgia that flipped in 2020 That was insane.

Landon: 38:15

And when you go to the polls, you can't wear political clothes, but you can wear a shirt that says I read banned books or something like that, and that makes them so mad. Yeah, it's one of my favorite things. Is when the first time I voted for which was, I believe, for Biden, I wore a black shirt with a lace doily collar, just because Ruth Bader Ginsburg had just died. And it was like, Yeah, I'm doing that. I'm doing that.

Vanessa: 38:53

It's like, I piss people off just by showing up, because six foot tall trans girl in red Ohio, walking into a church, because that's where only place you can vote around here is always in fucking churches, which I hate, and so like, and I fucking get mean. Like, a couple years ago, they kept misgendering me over and over and over again, and I just finally didn't know you guys are just being fucking rude. This is stupid and so, but now I'm trying to do mail in voting.

Alex: 39:25

See, I like mail in voting, just because then I can sit there with my ballot and actually, like, look up, especially like the release offices, I could take a ton of time and not feel like I'm like, holding a voting booth too long. For some reason it's wrong to have my phone out in a voting booth. It's legal, but I feel like I'm like, cheating on a test, like a breaking a rule. Yeah, it

Landon: 39:43

is. They, they won't have your phone. They won't let me do that here, really, on a paper. Yeah, okay, because, like, at least in my area, they are very clear. No, your phone must be turned off. Oh, interesting. Go into that area. And, yeah, but I write it down on a piece of paper of like, This is who I like, This is who I don't like. And if it's something like a judge and it's like, Oh, crap, I didn't look that information up. I don't vote because I don't want to do any. Harm in that, yeah. But most of the time I have every single thing, every single initiative, every single thing, picked and ready and voting on it,

Vanessa: 40:34

yeah, and like your Secretary of State's websites for pretty much every state, I would imagine, once you get close enough to election time, you can see your ballot, so that you can do your research ahead of time as well, so you can do what Brandon did, and write it down and follow up on another thing, where like, when people like are think that their vote won't matter, and like red counties and stuff like that in Ohio. I don't know if you two have heard of a guy named Gary click. He's the I swear he's a sexual predator. He's a Ohio State House Representative pastor who is absolutely obsessed with trans kids, and he's the one that got trans healthcare banned for kids in the state and sports bands and working in bathroom bands.

Alex: 41:19

Was he with John caught on a podcast recently where they were talking about how they want to Yeah, yeah. I know who you're talking

Vanessa: 41:25

about, yeah, yeah. But like, if you look at how his elections, he only won by like 3000 votes, so in an entire district where the main thing people just it's hard to say this, especially for me, because kind of hypocritical, because I went 40 years without voting, but now I understand how important it is, but I only really started understanding that when I came out and all this shit started like affecting me personally, and that's the hard part, is showing people how that does affect them personally, but If they get out there, they can make a difference. And that's one of the most, probably the most important thing I have to say in this episode is one, make sure you haven't been purged. And two, just go do it, and it's easy. It doesn't take long, and you could make a difference. So, anything else you two want to get into before I break out Cards Against Humanity?

Alex: 42:28

Oh, we have cards against humanity.

Unknown: 42:32

Yes,

Vanessa: 42:37

nothing, okay, so then we're gonna do

Alex: 42:41

transcend. We're Yeah, I thought it was Friday, and then I got really upset that I got one more day of work. Love,

Vanessa: 42:50

you hit your 40s because then you're brain fried all the time. But then time goes by super fast, and you never know what day it is, and all of a sudden it's like, two weeks later, and you're like, what happened? I don't get it. I really don't. I feel like

Alex: 43:02

that's starting to happen to me. It's catching up.

Vanessa: 43:06

Well, you're what, 29 so yeah, or right around there, so yeah, 30s when it first hits. Though, honestly, I felt oldest when I was 29 like, hands down, oldest. And now in my 40s, I feel younger than I did when I was in my 30s. But I'm also on hormone replacement therapy, which took like, 510, years off my parents. So that could be part

Landon: 43:28

of it. I feel quite ancient. So

Vanessa: 43:31

you are an old soul. I

Landon: 43:33

am. You really are. I am,

Vanessa: 43:35

like,

Landon: 43:36

also, it doesn't help that I know almost nothing about modern pop culture. All my pop culture references are basically end at 1975 and start at like 1933

Vanessa: 43:52

you're so stereotypical gay

Landon: 43:54

I am, which is amazing about Auntie Mame. Yeah,

Vanessa: 43:59

exactly No. I tell people about you all the time, actually, Landon like, I like to point people towards episode I had you on there, because that's that's one reason I want to have you both here is I feel you two have a lot in common in that you're two of some of the most brilliant people I've ever come across, and I want more people to hear what you have to say, because your insights into life are fucking again, old soul kind of shit. And like you were so much more in tune with the world than people were when I was growing up. And at that age, you know, in my 20s, I was just trying to fuck anything that moved testosterone do that. But if I don't have that anymore,

Alex: 44:47

I'm also just trying to fuck anything that moves, but while shit posting online. So that's really the only difference.

Vanessa: 44:53

Yes, now if you can multitask and do it at the same time,

Alex: 44:58

there we go. That's normally fans. There we go.

Vanessa: 45:01

Exactly I tried only fans, but post op trans girls, no one wants to say it, so we're just as boring as a cis girl. Apparently, wow, you have to have a dick. So I gave up on it. But after I ran for office, some right wing news organization. Like far, far right, dug up my deleted posts on Reddit because I advertised on Reddit, and so my pussy was there for everyone to see on the internet for a while. So that's fun. But anyways, so Cards Against Humanity. This is like the old deck. So I really I need to get something more up to date, because all this stuff seems to be kind of irrelevant, but So how it works? We each get a card, and I only have a black card, so white ones are over there somewhere, but that's no fun, because you can't see them.

Landon: 45:54

We need to keep cards segregated, separate but equal, exactly,

Vanessa: 46:00

separate from the equal feels like Ohio and trans people. I swear history just repeats itself over

Landon: 46:09

Oh, it does. Oh, 100

Alex: 46:10

so

Landon: 46:12

don't get me started on the unholy alliance the Southern Baptist church made with the Republican Party in the 70s after they lost their Supreme Court lawsuit about having to desegregate their private Christian schools or pay taxes, that's when they started to care about abortion. They didn't care and and they they there were like, letters between the Southern Baptist Church and the Republicans, like, basically doing a hey, we've been teaching our people to not think critically for decades. Like, do you know how valuable they'll be? And they went, we need something to get them off of the fact that we lost this case so badly. Let's go with abortion, because everyone hates women. We can focus on this, and they went, and we cannot tell them how to vote from the pulpit, but we can talk about abortion being evil, and all you need to do is say the magic words of abortion is bad, and they'll vote for you, and the sheep will follow. And that is what created Christian nationalism, was them not wanting to have to pay taxes, or which also goes to proof, because they were arguing this whole thing of it's, it's, you know, God's will that the races be segregated and the little white children not be in contact with the black children. Like, Funny how that went out the window when they said, you can continue to have your little racist schools. You just have to pay taxes on them.

Vanessa: 47:43

I swear every, every bullshit thing in this country boils down to two things, racism and money, racism and money. That's It's simple. It's as simple as that, and as stupid as it is. And, you know, I just like, I've had racism just baked into me intrinsically my entire life, like I grew up in a super racist family, and as white people, it's we all are guilty of it on different levels, and it's a constant unlearning process. But when you step back and think about racism, just how fucking stupid it is. It is so stupid. It's a different color of skin. And honestly, I think it might have started because white people were upset that black people were better looking than that. It could be as stupidly simple as that, but I don't I buy

Alex: 48:39

that. When I was a little girl, I was so jealous of like, the black girls in my class that had, like, all the beads, or, like, they'd come in, like, with crazy, like, poofy, like, they just do such amazing things with their hair that I'm like, this is never gonna do. And I was so jealous. I remember coming home to my mom and be like, Mom, I want black girl hair. She said, You can't. You can't just say that. You can't, just don't like what I do. Yeah, so I buy that theory black people are hotter than us, and we were at bags about it.

Vanessa: 49:08

We are. It's just it's so stupid. Okay, Cards Against Humanity. So I'm gonna pull a card for each of us, just at random. Hopefully I keep on winding up polling once I pulled recently. So Landon's card,

Landon: 49:21

that's always how it goes, I know. And

Vanessa: 49:25

we have Alex's card and we have Vanessa's card, so you mini money mode, but it never works. I'm going first. So, okay, so what you do is, I show you the card, and then you come up with the white card, part of it, and for some reason, like I can't really read it when I hold it. I don't know if you two can read it, so I'm just gonna read it

Alex: 49:57

out. Yeah, read it out, because

Unknown: 49:58

this is blurry. Okay.

Vanessa: 50:01

Well, if you'll excuse me, gentlemen, I have a date with

Landon: 50:07

that's actually a good one for that.

Vanessa: 50:08

Do it? Throw it out.

Landon: 50:10

There's groovy new thing called LSD. Goddamn. I think that's an actual white card.

Vanessa: 50:19

Though it probably is. And the one that came into my mind is probably a wipe card too, but my vibrator, because that poor thing, I keep wearing all its batteries. So my

Alex: 50:31

first thought was just macho Bell, but that's because I'm getting hungry, and I keep thinking about getting, like the cheesy gordita crunch. I

Vanessa: 50:39

was just thinking about Mexican food too.

Landon: 50:42

Have you seen Well, I wouldn't call Taco Bell Mexican food that plays cards against humanity on Tiktok. No legends, hilarious.

Vanessa: 50:52

I need to look

Landon: 50:53

that up. Yeah, he's, he's kind of an evil cat. He loves genocide. I mean, which is a great drag name,

Vanessa: 51:04

so here, genocide. Okay, who's next? Alex or Landon?

Alex: 51:14

Okay, I'll go. But I feel like you're gonna have to read it, because I can't read it from your screen. I

Vanessa: 51:19

am gonna read it. Okay, this is a long one. Okay, let's see. It's so fucking hard to do this on camera. After four platinum albums and three Grammys, it's time to get back to my roots, to what inspired me to make music in the first place,

Alex: 51:37

cuck holding. Fuck yeah,

Unknown: 51:40

first thought,

Vanessa: 51:48

I don't think I can beat that. I really don't. Sometimes I just don't have a filter. No, I love that. That's like, that's one reason you're here, because an

Landon: 52:02

animator on bluey got fired, because in the parents bedroom he put, he put the chair that just faces the bed weirdly, and and people on, and people saw it, and half of the internet was going like No, and the other half was going Yes, and they were like, going, it's bluey. Stop being pervs. It's just a chair. And then the anime was like, I did it. And it was a bloody hilarious like, and like, and they were like, you're fired. Like, how dare you Sully bluey. Oh

Vanessa: 52:32

yeah, there's some things that should be sacred, but it's still pretty funny. I can't get my kid to watch Bluey, so, I mean, unfortunately, I don't live with him anymore. Maybe he's starting to watch it now, then not there anymore, but, like, I had to, like, force him to watch it. Oh, Curious

Landon: 52:48

George, that is one of the best TV shows ever,

Vanessa: 52:52

really. There's a new one or an old one. Yeah,

Landon: 52:55

it, well, it started in like 2006 and it has like, 15 seasons. It's so good. It damn so good. I highly recommend it.

Vanessa: 53:07

Okay. June Rogers is over here, plugging. Curious George, so Okay, last on a second one. Landon, how are you maintain How? How am I maintaining my relationship status? Meaning you, how are you maintaining your relationship status with a Ouija

Landon: 53:23

board?

Vanessa: 53:24

That's a really good idea. Shit.

Alex: 53:30

Damn. That is good.

Unknown: 53:32

Yeah. Who are so? Who

Alex: 53:34

are you communing with via the Ouija board to maintain your relationship well,

Landon: 53:39

my family from my past life.

Alex: 53:44

They're giving you some spiritual guidance,

Landon: 53:46

and they're telling me good barbiturians,

Vanessa: 53:53

barbiturates, you really are the toys to the 70s, aren't you? It's pretty glorious. It's pretty glorious. So okay, wrapping up, where can people find you? If they're not already connected to you?

Alex: 54:13

Well, I am on Instagram and Tiktok. If you search caslmon or CA salmon, you'll find me and all my ship hosting, yay.

Landon: 54:29

I am on Instagram, Tiktok threads and YouTube. I just hit 10,000 on YouTube the other day. I am now I officially have over 10,000 followers on every platform I'm on, which I'm very proud of. And it's and underscore mayhem, underscore ensued. And, or you can just look up Landon read that's most likely faster.

Vanessa: 54:59

Mayhem ensued is so much more fun. I

Landon: 55:01

was planning on, on, on it going on, becoming any kind of influencer at all. So it's just like, That's a funny name, stupid 19 year old me, honestly,

Vanessa: 55:15

though, because it's fitting.

Alex: 55:18

So how? Happened with my name? It was like, there was, like, a dumb thing to, like, figure out your digimon name out of letters from your name, and then it just became my screen name on everything. And now people are like, California salmon. I'm like, close enough. All right, fine,

Vanessa: 55:32

yeah. I was kind of wondering where yours came from. So, like, I mean, no, you know, I can, yeah, because YouTube on social media, so you're able to, you know, it's, it's closer.

Landon: 55:47

I oddly didn't, okay, really, I here's, here's the interesting thing, I was homeschooled. Explain so much all of your, all of your burning questions were just answered. I was home, and we didn't have my father didn't allow us to have the internet until I was 11, and I didn't have my first cell phone until I was 16.

Alex: 56:15

See, my dad was super in the online gaming so we had a computer in my house, but it was mostly for, like, Neopets and stuff. And then I had a MySpace for like a minute.

Vanessa: 56:29

I had a MySpace. I was one of first. I was early on Facebook, but yeah, it's all seems so far and now in anyways, thank you two so much for joining me this week.

Alex: 56:45

Thanks for inviting me.

Vanessa: 56:48

Yes, yes. Next week will be river Rowan and I talking about, it's actually a trans episode for a change. We're talking about, like seeing our past selves, and the fact that I came across an old dick pic of mine, and it blew my fucking mind. So tune into that one next week. Anyways, Alex Landon, thank you so much for joining me on this show, and people follow them, you will love their content, and you really well this, this has been, this is a carefully curated episode of this, of this pod. So until I've

Alex: 57:26

ever said that about me, ever in my life, until now, well,

Vanessa: 57:30

now you're there. So, all right, two dolls. I.