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Anything BUT Politics
A groundbreaking new podcast, Anything BUT Politics, is redefining how we view political figures by focusing on everything about them—except their political careers.
Anything BUT Politics
Diamond Rings and Diet Cokes: How a $1,000 Proposal Changed Everything
What does it take to go from Middle Eastern studies scholar to four-term state representative? Representative Laura Telerski shares her journey on Anything but Politics, revealing how she ended up in the New Hampshire legislature.
As the youngest of five, Laura moved to Nashua in fourth grade after her father’s career took the family to Texas. At Georgetown University, she shifted her focus from government to history, eventually studying Middle Eastern cultures in Turkey. This led her to a Master’s from the University of Chicago, where she met her future husband.
One memorable story she shares is getting engaged with a combined $1,000 budget, finalizing the decision over a Diet Coke at Wendy's. After graduation, the couple returned to New England, and when childcare costs became prohibitive, Laura stepped away from her career to raise their three children.
Laura entered politics later, starting with local elections before running for state representative in 2018. Now in her fourth term, she holds leadership roles, including deputy ranking Democratic leader and ranking Democrat on Finance Division Three. She values building bipartisan relationships and finding common ground with colleagues.
Laura’s story shows how diverse experiences offer unique perspectives on policy, reminding us that unconventional paths can lead to meaningful public service. Want to hear more? Subscribe to our podcast for new episodes.
Hi everyone, I'm Tiffany.
Speaker 2:Eddy and I'm Tom Prasol.
Speaker 1:And we are so pleased that you can join us for another episode of Anything but Politics. Where we talk about the personal lives and get to know political figures, not about their policy views, but more about their personal lives. And today we have an incredible guest.
Speaker 2:Yeah, today we're lucky to be joined by a state representative in her fourth term. She served her first two terms on the House Transportation Committee, then got a promotion and moved up to the House Finance Committee where she serves as the ranking Democrat on Division Three, which handles health and human services, and she's also the deputy ranking Democratic leader. So welcome, Representative Laura Talerski.
Speaker 1:Hello, thanks for having me. Yeah, thank you so much for coming on. So we like to start at the beginning. So are you originally a New Hampshire native, or is New Hampshire a place that you migrated to later in life?
Speaker 3:Well, I like to think I'm, as close as you can sort of get without being born here. I moved here when I was in fourth grade. Okay, I moved here when I was in fourth grade. Okay, moved to Nashua. My parents are originally from the Lawrence Massachusetts area and I have four older brothers and sisters. I'm the youngest of five. We did a little side trip, lived in Texas for a bit and then ended up in Nashua when I was in fourth grade, stayed through school all there and ultimately, after I went to grad school and got married and started my life, my husband and I bought a house on the very same street I grew up on and about three houses away from my parents, so ended up back in Nashua after all those years.
Speaker 2:That's great. So you started out in Lawrence and then you went to Texas. What brought you to Texas?
Speaker 3:My dad's work.
Speaker 2:And what did he do?
Speaker 3:My dad well, my dad's sort of one of those American dream stories. His parents, you know, dropped out of school. I think my grandmother did have a high school education. They worked in the mills and my dad was a basketball player and an athlete and ended up getting a scholarship to Central Catholic High School as a basketball player and he got a tuition scholarship to Merrimack College as a basketball player and got his degree there and turned out to be one of the top basketball players Merrimack College has ever seen, held the scoring record for a very, very long time and he always points out before the three point rule. But that's how he sort of hit the American dream. And he worked his way up and managed a bunch of technology companies and part of that movement was getting us over to Texas for a couple years.
Speaker 2:Whereabouts in Texas.
Speaker 3:We were outside of Dallas.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and so I was in first grade and I loved every single second of it. I have pictures of being barefoot and overalls, running around with my dog out back. Yeah, it was a little harder for my brothers and sisters who were older, but when we had the opportunity to come back to New England, my parents jumped at it and my family is all very close in the area and they picked Nashua. He ended up working for a company that had been owned by Sanders ultimately was bought by Lockheed, sort of the whole thing but that's how we ended up back up here in southern New Hampshire. Now is he incredibly tall? Not at all, Really, yeah.
Speaker 2:Scrappy.
Speaker 3:Scrappy. I think they called him Spider because of his long arms. I think he was like 5'10". If he listens to this he'll probably be mad and say he was 5'11". But yeah, he won the Bob Cousy Award, which was for the top New England player under six feet tall. Oh, wow. Anyway, that was my dad and he was very successful in his career and yeah, lived the dream.
Speaker 1:So you said you left Nashua for a little bit to go to school. So where did you end up going?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, after I graduated from Nashua High School, I had gone on a high school trip to DC and I saw across the river the spires of Georgetown and it's like it just lit a fire in me and that's what I wanted to do, that's what I set my heart on, and I got accepted of Georgetown and it's like it just lit a fire in me and that's what I wanted to do, that's what I set my heart on, and I got accepted to Georgetown and ended up going there, fell in love with the school. I'm still very much connected to it and it was a wonderful part of my life. While I was there, I thought I was going to study government. I got there, started taking all my government classes and I actually hated it all, oh wow, and realized what I did love was history and all of the historical stories that bring us to where we are. So I switched to being a history major, a history major.
Speaker 3:And then what really changed my life was I decided to study abroad, in Turkey, and spent a semester studying history in Turkey. It was history, language, religion and fell in love with the Islamic world, the Islamic culture, and all of a sudden, my life just sort of took a turn and when I graduated from Georgetown didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. I thought, well, I'll just stay in college for a while, applied to grad school to some programs to study Middle Eastern studies, and got an opportunity to go to the University of Chicago to get my master's in Middle Eastern studies. So, sight unseen, I accepted it and ended up at the University of Chicago.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's incredible school yeah.
Speaker 2:So you were in Washington DC. You wanted to study government but realized you hated it.
Speaker 3:Hated it.
Speaker 2:In Washington DC.
Speaker 1:Yeah, look at how exciting you're getting on this.
Speaker 2:So I mean, when I think of Georgetown, I think of like the exorcist steps right.
Speaker 3:Right there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right there. But so was there what was happening that in DC at the time? Was there anything that like kind of turned? Was it? It was just political, or was it just?
Speaker 3:the classes yeah it was the classes. I don't even know what it was. Maybe it was a terrible professor, maybe if I had stuck it out I would have loved it. Um, but I ended up just focusing on my history courses and just really loved it. And I remember being challenged in a Russian history course that I thought to myself, how the hell am I going to do this? And I had to teach myself how to really study in that Russian history course. And I succeeded. And I was like, oh damn, I love this. And took classes, you know, in different regions of the world and everything. But when it really came down to it, when I was in Turkey, fell in love with, you know, the cultural part of it, the architecture, history of the Crusades, history of the Byzantine Empire. And yeah, of course my parents were like you're going to do what? Right, because back then it was just after the Gulf War in the early 90s. And then when I said, oh, I'm going to go study in Turkey, they were not so thrilled about that.
Speaker 2:But how long were you there?
Speaker 3:A semester.
Speaker 2:OK.
Speaker 3:A semester.
Speaker 1:Did you ever not feel safe there, or did you always feel welcomed?
Speaker 3:Always, always. And we were in a small city on the southern Mediterranean coast and it was a Georgetown program, so it was Georgetown professors with a there were 13 or 14 of us in the program Always felt welcome there. The one thing as I was thinking about this recently was we actually took a trip to Syria, which now, when I reflect back, I was like wow, that was huge.
Speaker 3:And we went to the city of Aleppo, which now is, for the most part, destroyed. But I was thinking back to that trip to Syria and how wild it was. And they put us all in a bus. We're on this little small bus and we're driving across and the professor at one point was like you know, just keep your head down, like don't ask too many questions. You know, stay close. And as soon as we cross the border, we're like literally in the desert driving and we pull over in the middle of nowhere and all of a sudden two motorcycles come driving up to the bus. We're like what the heck is this? And the bus driver opens the door. These guys come onto the bus. Oh my gosh, unscrew a panel in the floor of the bus, take out bundles of something.
Speaker 2:Oh, get out.
Speaker 3:And then screw it back in and then they take off. I don't know what we smuggled into Syria at that point but the professor was like we don't ask questions and off these motorcycles went with whatever they were smuggling in. It could have been diapers, for all I know. Yeah, yeah, but it was wild. You know, we had some. I don't even know what they called them, but they were basically government spies that were assigned to us and there was always a guy in a yellow sweater vest with us wherever we went Yellow.
Speaker 3:Interesting color A yellow sweater, vest Same one every day for five straight days. Wow yeah, so Syria was amazing.
Speaker 2:So you loved it over there, loved it, found love. Have you been back?
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 2:No, why not?
Speaker 3:Life. Yeah, my husband also. So when I went to the University of Chicago, met my husband, who was in the same program I am. I was in a very another, very small group of students in there and he's from Oregon, he's from the West Coast, I'm from the East Coast. He also sort of didn't know what to do, got a great deal from Chicago and we both ended up in the same program and fell in love and he had spent a couple years living in Israel and studying Hebrew. So he of course, has his wonderful stories of being in Israel and traveling to Jordan and all this stuff, and I was Turkey, syria, and yet we've never gone back. So it's always on the to-do list and now that our kids are out of college, hopefully we'll get there. Hopefully it's peaceful enough that we can do that travel sometime in the future.
Speaker 1:And so you guys met at the University of Chicago. Do you mind elaborating a little bit more like how?
Speaker 3:How we met yeah.
Speaker 2:It's a good story.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh, it's a. We want the dirt. Very first day, very first day of our cohort coming together, this guy walked in. He was wearing Converse, high tops and an Army jacket and had a big University of Oregon travel mug of coffee and I, like, was smitten from the moment I laid eyes on him and it took me a while.
Speaker 2:Was it the converse?
Speaker 3:I don't know what it was. I don't know what it was the army jacket yeah yeah and um, it took him a little bit to uh, I don't want to say, notice me, but he jokes now. It took him a little while, like figure it out, but we became really good friends and then, maybe about a month and a half after I met him, I just laid one on him.
Speaker 2:Oh, good for you.
Speaker 3:I was like I'm going for it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And that was.
Speaker 2:Strong, independent woman.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, 32 years ago. Something like that 31 years ago.
Speaker 1:Now I heard that the proposal might have been interesting.
Speaker 3:Yes, it was.
Speaker 2:Were you still at grad school when he proposed?
Speaker 3:Yep, we had been together for the first year of grad school and then I actually moved to Tunisia for the summer. I had an opportunity to work there, and so it was a couple months we were apart and that sort of was like, oh yeah, that wasn't very cool.
Speaker 2:Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
Speaker 3:So that fall we sort of started talking about what the future would look like, and I don't know what we were thinking Like. We had no money, we had nothing, but we sort of knew that if we were going to make the move and get engaged, that a diamond ring would be important to me and to him. We had no money. I had $500 saved up from my work, he had $500 saved up from his summer job. And we were like we don't even know if you can get a diamond ring for $1,000. And so we decided to. I don't know.
Speaker 3:You know, just take the bus up to you know the loop in Chicago and walk around the. You know there's a bunch of little diamond wholesalers. We weren't going to buy anything and we walked around from store to store. And I think the reason why we ended up getting married is because we walked into a store and the owner of the store was Israeli, his name was Shlomo, and we start talking to him, and so my husband starts speaking to Shlomo in Hebrew and all of a sudden, shlomo wanted to make sure that we were walking out of there with a diamond.
Speaker 3:And so we basically, you know, look at some diamonds and talk about it and we're like, well, we only have $1,000 to spend. And Shlomo's like, all right. And then I was like, well, he's like I'll throw in a basic gold band. And I was like, oh, and then we go, but that has to include tax, sales tax too. And Shlomo's like you're killing me. And then he goes fine, you have a deal.
Speaker 3:And Jason and I looked at each other and went, holy shit, what did we just do here? And so we said we'll be right back, because we hadn't really even made that decision if we were going to get married, even though we were diamond shopping, went to a Wendy's across the street because we had no money. We got a small Diet Coke to split. You split, you didn't want to eat into the thousand dollars, not at all. We had nothing. And we sat in a Wendy's sharing a small Diet Coke and we talked about it and decided we were going to get married and then left the Wendy's when told Shlomo you got a deal and went while he was putting the ring together. We went over to Marshall Fields and just sort of we're in a daze and happily. I remember being on an escalator and bumped into a woman.
Speaker 3:I said oh sorry, I just got engaged. So yeah, it was a fun story. And then I remember calling my mother and father and they were a little surprised we hadn't even been together a year. But it all worked out.
Speaker 1:Did he get down on his knee or anything, or was it just a conversation?
Speaker 3:No, in Wendy's it was definitely just a conversation. Okay, yeah, I do remember, though, when Shlomo brought the ring out, jason took it from him and he made sure that he put it on my finger.
Speaker 1:Did Shlomo get down on his knee or anything? No, Shlomo did not.
Speaker 2:Well, he saved money because he didn't have to put it in a box or wrap it or anything like that.
Speaker 3:I know, but we walked out of there with that thing. So fiscally responsible yeah then we took the bus back and I had to go to class. I had History of Byzantine Empire that night, oh wow. But you were focused that night. Not at all, Not at all Focused on my sparkly thing on my finger.
Speaker 1:That is awesome, but before or I'm getting confused before the engagement or after the engagement, you went to Africa.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So I was in grad school studying Arabic and I had an aunt and uncle who worked for the government and they were stationed at the time in Tunis and said, well, they speak French and Arabic in Tunis. And they said you need to come out here and we'll find you something to do. And I'm thinking to myself, okay, whatever. And then they said, no, seriously, we found you a job for if you want to come out for a couple months. And they were friends with the Peace Corps director in Tunisia and his assistant was an American that was taking the summer off to travel and come back to the United States and he was complaining, going how am I ever going to keep up with things? And back then, you know I don't even think there were computers back then that you know I'm thinking word processing, I don't even think that was it. It was like the phone calls and typing and that kind of thing and that kind of thing.
Speaker 3:And so my aunt finagled this thing where she said you should hire my daughter, my niece, who is going to grad school and studying Arabic. And I didn't even know Arabic that well, but I was like, fine, I'll do it. And so I went to Tunis for the summer, lived with my aunt and uncle and was this guy's assistant slash receptionist for the cohort of Peace Corps volunteers that were coming in that summer, and it was just a really amazing experience to have to get on the streetcar and ride my train into town and go into work and sort of live like a regular I won't say normal person, but an expat living in Tunisia.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so tell me a little bit about what that's like. I've never been to Africa. It's on my to-do list.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But what's it like living there? It sounds like you were in almost like a city, right, because they had a streetcar.
Speaker 3:Tunis. It's probably the largest city in Tunisia.
Speaker 2:There was no geography requirement where I went to school.
Speaker 3:Yeah, north Africa, I'll start there oh that's good, that's helpful.
Speaker 3:North Africa. It's French, french speaking, and you know, like any of the other Middle Eastern countries it's. You know the call to prayer coming out in the middle of the day multiple times and people very welcoming people. I was in a somewhat of a bubble since my aunt and uncle worked for the government. You know we lived very nice in the home that we had, but it was just an exciting time to be there and be able to experience different things. Right near where we were was the old city of Carthage.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:Lots of ancient history happening right there. We would get in the car and drive to the desert and we went to an opera in an old, you know Coliseum kind of amphitheater space. One of the most memorable things I visited there was the mosque of Karawan, which is the oldest mosque in North Africa. So when Islam was founded in the 7th century, you know, it sort of spread from Saudi Arabia out and the Islamic culture spread through North Africa and this mosque was built in Cairoan, tunisia. So it's a very sacred place for the spread of Islam across North Africa and ultimately up into Spain and Andalusia. But going there was sort of the equivalent to me of going to the Vatican. There was just something special and holy there and sacred, sure, and yeah, those trips were very life-changing for me in the way I view the world.
Speaker 2:And full immersion. Yeah, you're just throwing yourself in there for a few months and that's it. No training.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's incredible and it must shape, shape. You know even your values today, like thinking back on those experiences. Um, so I'm curious, you come back and then how your husband's from Oregon yeah, you're from Nashua, but so obviously you won. So, um, so we know the outcome, but how did my mother-in-law that? I won't Okay. Hopefully she's not listening to this.
Speaker 2:She won when she got away with a thousand dollar engagement ring.
Speaker 1:You got the ring and then you got him to move to Nashua or back to New Hampshire. So how? How did you manage to make that happen?
Speaker 3:Yeah, Well, once we graduated from Chicago, we our wedding was planned that summer and we both thought we were going to get jobs with the government. It was 1995. We moved to Washington DC. We applied to all the jobs you would expect, all the government jobs that could possibly happen. And that summer there was a hiring freeze in the government. So we found ourselves in a position of having these wonderful, shiny new degrees and no one that was willing to hire specialists in the field. So we were stuck a little bit. I did get a job for a Saudi marketing company and worked there. I was the only woman, I was the only American woman in this very small group. It was a little challenging, yeah, but that was intense.
Speaker 2:Is that in DC?
Speaker 3:It was in DC, yeah. And we did that for about a year and we thought about what our future was going to look like and where we wanted to be and if we were going to start a family. And we decided that it was going to be New England. Uh, so we both quit our jobs and said we're starting over and moved back up to New England and sort of juggled around. We lived in Burlington, Massachusetts, for a couple years. That's where we started our family. And then ultimately, when we needed a bigger house, we found ourselves looking back in Nashua. Because I said, you know, I thought about what do I envision when I'm raising my kids? And it was the home I was raised in and it was the place I was raised in. And so that's sort of how we did it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you would think you know, graduating with degrees in Middle Eastern studies it would make you super attractive to the government. So I totally understand it. But obviously you quit those jobs and you came back. What line of work did you get into? Are there Middle Eastern studies jobs here in New Hampshire?
Speaker 3:No, no, well, when we moved back, we were at the point of a make or break point when it came to child care, where even back then there was not affordable child care and we ran the numbers and couldn't really afford for me to keep working. So we made the decision that well, first we pinched pennies and to see if we could actually figure out how to do it on my husband's salary alone, and so I ended up leaving the workplace and had three wonderful kids and focused my life at that point on raising them and sort of giving my kids the life that I had when my mom was focused, you know, just on our family. And, and it was wonderful. Where would I be if I hadn't made that choice, which was always sort of a cloud in the back of my head, of what?
Speaker 2:should I have been doing at that time? Smuggling in Syria?
Speaker 3:Yeah, something like that. But you know, I sort of took on parenting as my job and you know, know that sort of transitioned into you know um stuff around my house and my garden and then ultimately volunteering in my kids school and, you know, volunteering in the community. And then, uh, you know, as my kids got older, I started to say what do I want to do now that I've grown up? And that's sort of where I got to the point where I am now and making that choice.
Speaker 1:And that's how you decided I want to run for office.
Speaker 3:That wasn't exactly how I decided to run for office, but my kids were maybe in high school and I said, you know, well, maybe I'll just like start substitute teaching and figure out what I want to do. And I was thinking maybe about you know, going into teaching or something like that. And I had my. My older two boys had gotten sort of involved with the Nashua mayoral race back when Jim Donchus ran again. Come back, kid, you know, he was the mayor back when I was in high school and then ran again, and so they sort of got engaged with knocking doors and holding signs and I was like, oh, that's interesting. And they started to be interested in the New Hampshire legislature and I remember way back them talking about oh, it's something like anyone can do.
Speaker 3:Anyone can run for office and be a state rep in the state of New Hampshire. So when I'm trying to think, when it was, it was like 2017. And I, without going too deeply, found myself struggling a little bit with the state of the world and the future of my kids and what that looked like and I didn't know what I wanted to do about it. But I got to the point where I felt like I had to do something. And my son was like, oh, you can go to this Democratic City Committee meeting and just see if there's something you want to do, to get involved with.
Speaker 2:And what ultimately happened was I met Skip Cleaver, former State Rep, skip Cleaver you served on transportation with him, served on transportation with me in the end, wow, you're good.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he basically talked to me and convinced me to be run for selectman, which is just an election official. So I worked the elections but I guess, impressed him with my vote totals and he could count and started right in trying to convince me to run for state rep. Talked to me a lot about it but ultimately I sat down with now Senator Cindy Rosenwald, who said I said to her what could I possibly bring to this? I can't do this. And she said are you kidding? You're like the perfect person to do this and you know I know talking to other people. You've probably heard they say you want something done, ask a busy mother. And that's sort of why I was like, well, maybe I can actually do this. So, yeah, I ran in 2018 for the very first time.
Speaker 2:And won, and won. You're undefeated.
Speaker 3:I am undefeated. I've never lost one there. Knock on wood, yeah, and this is real wood, yeah.
Speaker 1:So what surprises you most about being in the legislature? What's like the unexpected thing that you didn't really anticipate that you found being a lawmaker as long as you have been being a lawmaker as long as you have been.
Speaker 3:Oh, I was actually thinking the other day talk about unexpected things. I remember going into my first like committee meeting and having no idea what actually happened. No one actually said you're going to go to your first meeting and there's going to be a stack of bills there and you're going gonna have this public hearing. Like no one gave me like the lowdown on. This is how it all plays out. So I literally went into it Just saying I have a general idea about what happens.
Speaker 2:You're good at full immersion.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was just like throw me into it. Here's a, here's a stack of bills. And I think the first time I got my meeting announcement of like oh, house transportation is going to meet on this day and here's a list of like 10 bills or however many you do, I think I started to have like that panic attack that you have right before when you think, oh my God, I woke up and I have an exam today that I'm like what am I going to do? It's just like studying for the Russian history exam. I got to teach myself what I'm doing here, so sort of figuring out how I go through the process of dealing with legislation and everything.
Speaker 3:That's not something that I was super surprised with, other than I wasn't prepared for it, to understand how that whole process worked. But I think the pleasant surprise was the relationships I've built, the friendships I've made, the people who, like when I think back at that point in my life, before I ran for office, my kids were getting older, my longtime friends were going back to work. My life was sort of taking a different direction, and when you're older you don't make friends the same way as you did when your kids were little. When you're going to the school playground or whatever. So the depth of friendships that I've made with people, I think, has probably been one of the most rewarding things that has come out of all of this.
Speaker 2:And I will say I think it's something about our legislature too right, because we have there's so many of them. Each committee is about 20 people and you develop those relationships with folks on both sides of the aisle, right. There's a certain level of polarization that just exists naturally, just you know, by your politics. But when you're with those folks several days a week and you're actually working to get things done, you develop friendships with folks across the aisle and that collegiality does translate on the floor and into those relationships. And there's so many times I've seen folks who some of their best friends are members of the other party. Just because they've worked together so closely, they may not vote the same way no, they very probably rarely do. But you develop those relationships outside of policy, which is important.
Speaker 3:Right before I came here, I was preparing for tomorrow, where the House is in session tomorrow, and I was looking at an amendment. That's in the calendar and I'm looking at the bill and I didn't understand the amendment.
Speaker 3:The amendment is not the position that I will be be supporting. But I picked up the phone and I called the person who I know well, who is on the other side of the aisle, who drafted the amendment. I'm like, can you just walk me through this so I can fully understand it? She's like, sure, and so she walked me through it and I'm like great thanks, I'll see you in the morning. So, yeah, I mean, there's you. We don't agree on everything, that's for sure, but there's definitely, you know, a level of respect of the people we work with and hopefully that translates through it all.
Speaker 3:It doesn't always, but you know, I sort of tell this story also my very first day in committee again, um, I was the clerk of transportation. So when the clerk sits up next to the chair of the committee, and I was really nervous and I turned to the person next to me and I said hi, I'm laura, I'm from nashua. Um, how are you? And he, you know where I'm going with this, probably. And he said hi, and I said introduced himself. And I said, oh, is this your first term too, or second term? And he looks at me. He goes no, now I'm gonna. I'm probably I should have looked up the number. He's like this is my fifth, 15th or 12th, whatever. And it was sherm packard who's now speaker of the house and he sort of chuckled when I said it but like how was? How was I supposed to know? I didn't even know I was supposed to prepare for the bills.
Speaker 3:But, yeah, so Sherm sat next to me for that term and you know, you just do the work.
Speaker 2:I will say the Transportation Committee just breeds leaders, right, because you know, I mean think about it. Sherm Packard was former chair. Now he's the speaker. Steve Smith, former chair, deputy speaker you deputy Democratic leader.
Speaker 1:Wow, you're an encyclopedia. That was really good.
Speaker 2:I spent a lot of time in that committee.
Speaker 1:He spent a lot of time in there, yeah.
Speaker 2:But so I have a question, because you mentioned you kind of got bit by the political bug or interested in it because of your kids Now you have three kids. Right yeah, Now were they your campaign manager, or are they still engaged in politics? Or did they kind of say, all right, mom, this is your bag. Now we're going to let you loose.
Speaker 3:My three kids are amazing. They're all wonderful, grown into wonderful adults. They are amazing. They're all wonderful, grown into wonderful adults. They are successful. I am so very proud of all of them and they are all my campaign managers and my biggest critics of you. Know you'd be surprised if I hit send on a tweet that you know occasionally I'll get an immediate phone call, not occasionally. This was in the beginning. They would be like you got to take that down, mom, like you need no, no.
Speaker 2:But, they.
Speaker 3:I think now I've finally like grown into it that they, they let you, they, let me do my thing, now that I've proven that I can do it. But they know they are, all three of them, wonderfully supportive of everything I do, and I think they're proud of me too, and you know what I've accomplished. Ironically, all three of them are in a politically adjacent career, which is exciting, sometimes makes for some unique dinner conversations, but they're all in a position that they're working to make the world a better place, which, as a mother to see, that is just really rewarding.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's incredible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's really exciting.
Speaker 1:And after that, uh kind uh description of all your kids. Hopefully you're going to get flowers or something really nice. So that was, that was kids, if you're listening, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, they're, they're listening, they're wonderful, they're wonderful. And how old are they? Oh jeez, you know what, when they get older, past like 21, it's hard. My oldest is going to be 27, which would mean my middle is going to be 25, and my daughter is going to be 23. My oldest is going to law school in the fall. My son the lawyer is my Jewish grant.
Speaker 3:My husband's grandmother would always, you know, talk like that. She was the politically active one Like my family was not politically active. My husband's family was. His grandmother was wonderful. She was the president of the League of Women Voters in her area, the age of like 92, my kids would be like Grandma. If you could get a tattoo, what would it be? And she, without missing a beat, she says the ACLU logo on my arm.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. Yeah, that's a great question. Actually, we should ask you do you have any tattoos? I do not, and if you were to, get one.
Speaker 3:what would it be? I don't know. I don't think I would get one, I don't know. That's a really hard question.
Speaker 2:It is a hard question, something so permanent. I've wrestled with it myself.
Speaker 3:You don't have any.
Speaker 2:I don't have any, but you know, I've always thought about maybe the dog's initials, yeah. I don't have children and you know I love my wife. But the dogs?
Speaker 3:No, my husband has said the same thing yeah.
Speaker 1:The dogs over the wife? Well, the kids, oh the kids over the dogs or the kids over me, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I have a question I want to ask you because you talked a lot about history and your love of history, and I know I love history too, just not geography. But my favorite author I believe you also share an affinity for, and he's historical fiction and he's brilliant, in fact Virginia Drew over at the Statehouse Business Center we have a little book club where we read all of his books.
Speaker 3:Oh really.
Speaker 2:Ken Follett.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what's your favorite novel of his? I just he's so historically accurate and he's just so good. I could talk about him for an entire episode I mean the first one obviously was Pillars of the Earth.
Speaker 3:Absolutely yeah, I mean, that's like the masterpiece.
Speaker 2:That was what got me hooked.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's the masterpiece and then everything else that falls in line with that. But you know the amount of research that he does to write his novels and to you know weave in all the storylines and the characters and the descriptions and everything like it just makes you want to go back in time right and see the cathedrals and see the workers and everything. But yeah, I love historical fiction but I love a little time travel, sometimes too Okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah but always going back in time to see what it was like and live in that time.
Speaker 1:So if there was a particular time you could go back to, what would it be?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would want to. Before I could answer that, I'd want to know that there was an out, a definite out right. I would love to go back to you know, see some of the cathedrals being built. You know, maybe Elizabethan times, but you definitely don't want to live there, you know, you definitely don't want to live there. Yeah, you know, yeah. Or you know the time of the great Russian czars or the Ottomans. You know, to see Istanbul when it was like just at its peak would be amazing. Definitely wouldn't want to stay.
Speaker 2:No, but I think you're onto something about seeing such history. Last summer, I went to Europe for the first time in my life. Prior to that, I think the oldest building I had seen was built in, like you know, 1700s.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then when we went to Greece and I saw the Parthenon I was like wow, and it's like you know, it's not in its prime form, but I was just so amazed by that. So I totally agree with you about going back and seeing that time period would be wild.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. I just I want to make sure I have that wild card to always come home you got to have an out.
Speaker 1:You got to have an out? Yeah, because right now is actually pretty good. I mean, there might be things that we'd all like to change, but for the most part, you know, it's a good time to be a woman.
Speaker 3:Oh, central air conditioning and refrigeration, all good things Cars, communications, showers, showers.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely so. Want to do a little lightning round.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that sounds fair.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we're starting this new lightning round. But easy questions. But no, you don't have to look at me like that I know I'm getting nervous. If you won Powerball, what would you do? Would anyone know? Or would you drastically change your lifestyle?
Speaker 3:I don't think I would drastically change my lifestyle. I would probably have a long conversation with my husband on where we wanted to be and how we wanted to live our life, but I could see we would just find more time to travel and spend time with my kids. I could see lots of vacations with my kids and bringing them along to travel with us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so speaking of traveling, vacations or whatever, but another lightning round question your favorite place in New Hampshire?
Speaker 3:New Hampshire.
Speaker 2:And you don't have to say Nashua.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, there's just certain things that, like standing there looking at it, like make my heart swell, and one is, you know, just being in the White Mountains and just seeing it. You know, it just makes me go, oh, like it's beautiful. But I also have that feeling when I see the Statehouse. I still like my heart flutters a little bit, you know, on the good days when I walk up and I see the Statehouse, because it just like it's not only is it beautiful, it just embodies so much.
Speaker 2:And the history behind it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, it just means a lot. But yeah, yeah, I'd have to say, like the, you know the perfect picture of nature of standing in the White Mounds. It doesn't really matter where it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're just beautiful up there. Yeah, so most intriguing political figure you've met, oh, could be local, could be national, could be Intriguing Well.
Speaker 3:Interesting.
Speaker 1:Fun yeah.
Speaker 3:You know I've met a lot. Thanks to First in the Nation. I've met a lot.
Speaker 2:Thanks to First in the Nation I've met a lot of interesting people.
Speaker 3:But I actually, when I was in college, had the opportunity. It was 1993. President Bill Clinton was being inaugurated for the first time. He also went to Georgetown, so there was an opportunity where he was coming to campus. I camped out for hours with my friends to make sure that I saw him.
Speaker 3:But I was actually more interested at the time to meet Hillary Clinton, because back then Hillary Clinton as a professional woman and everything she'd accomplished was very unique back then and I decided I really didn't want to say hello to Bill Clinton or Vice President Gore, who was also there with his wife, but I wanted to talk to Hillary Clinton. But yeah, and you know, a lot of that stuff, it's the world is a different place, you know, and all the things that have happened politically. But you know, I've also had the opportunity to meet President Biden. You know, it's just that the fact that I've had these opportunities to have these college and to see, like say to Hillary Clinton, like I'm really excited that someone like you is going to be around in the White House, and it was just a cool moment.
Speaker 3:That is a cool moment.
Speaker 1:And we are really lucky too in New Hampshire with the First in the Nation because we just have so access to so many incredible people and, you know, future leaders and New Hampshire really does become the center of the universe for a period of time. And, you know, future leaders, and New Hampshire really does become the center of the universe for a period of time, and I, you know, I'll just go off on a diatribe for a second. I think we do a great job.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think New Hampshire does a really wonderful job vetting who should be the next future leader of our country.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I, you know we joke around my husband from Oregon. He likes to tell his family you know they have to, the candidates have to come shovel your walk before you actually tell them. You know if you're going to support him or not, and he's not that far off. I mean, like the fact that you can have those opportunities is just amazing. And you know, I'll often say like to people like, get off your couch. Like you have these chances to go see these people talk, to ask them questions, and very few people in this country actually have that opportunity. So take advantage of it and, you know, go figure out who these people are and if you want them to be, you know, the leader of the free world, and make sure that you take that privilege that you get from being a Granite Sater and put it to work and get it done 100%.
Speaker 1:Totally agree with you, Absolutely. So this summer, any big plans Well?
Speaker 3:once this legislative session is done, my husband and I are taking one of our bucket list trips. We're going to Alaska on an Alaska cruise for our celebratory anniversary and then we always go to the Jersey Shore with my husband's family. We rent four or five houses. We've been going to the same beach for about 18 years now and all my kids will be there and it'll just be family time for a week, sitting on the beach and taking that all in. And then it's slowly getting back here and transitioning to the legislative season and thinking through. You know the way the months will line up until we return in January, but I am really looking forward to the month of July.
Speaker 2:Yeah, jersey Shore, I think we all are Snooki.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you'll find Snooki you know Jersey Shore is amazing and I've been to a lot of beaches and I have to say Jersey Shore beaches are right up their tops.
Speaker 1:Beautiful, they're shark-infested yeah you've got to watch out for the sharks Really, oh yeah. Yeah, careful with the sharks.
Speaker 2:We can talk offline. I've done my research.
Speaker 1:We're not talking about the Jersey people.
Speaker 2:We're talking about literal like dun-dun-dun-dun.
Speaker 1:But, anyway, thank you so much for coming on. We really appreciate having you and hearing all of your interesting stories.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's been a real pleasure. I mean, I've worked with you for a number of years now, since your inaugural season in transportation, and I just want to say I appreciate what you mentioned before about the collegiality and working with other folks. We may not always agree, but you've always worked, finding some sort of compromise.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, that was wonderful. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1:No true pleasure, and thank you everyone for watching Anything but Politics. I'm Tiffany Eddy.
Speaker 2:And I'm Tom Prasad.
Speaker 1:We will see you soon.