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
How Sports, Family, And Service Shaped A Candidate’s Heart
Forget platitudes—this one is all lived-in detail and hard-won hope. We sit down with Stefany Shaheen to talk about what really builds a life: teams, family, and the quiet discipline of showing up when it’s hard. She takes us from captaining high school volleyball and basketball to coaching her daughter’s team, and then to the hot corner at Duke where her son now plays. The lessons are the same at every level: work for each other, bounce back fast, and let the team make you better.
Health becomes personal as Stefany shares Elle’s type 1 diabetes journey—the finger pricks, the late-night alarms, and the technology that changed their days. That story pushed her to start Good Measures, a nutrition platform that connects people with registered dietitians and certified diabetes educators for real-time guidance. We also dig into the science sprint happening in New Hampshire: Vertex’s cell therapy work, supported by Lonza and ARMI in Manchester, bringing a functional cure within reach. It’s the rare kind of update that makes the word breakthrough feel earned.
Dogs steal the spotlight twice. Coach, a diabetes alert lab, helped Elle stay safe and gave the family a gentler way to manage a relentless condition. Nico, a K9 trained to detect electronics for the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, turned searches into decisive evidence—proof that the right tools, handled by the right people, change outcomes. From there, we get honest about rebuilding trust in policing, publishing policies, deploying body cams, and adding social workers. It’s the New Hampshire playbook: local, transparent, and relentlessly practical.
We close with the everyday texture—marathon grit on a broken femur, comfort rom-coms, James Taylor on repeat, and the case for skilled trades and community colleges to keep our kids here. If you’re hungry for stories that connect science to hope, sports to character, and policy to people you know by name, press play. If it resonates, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review to help more listeners find these stories.
Anything But Politics is a groundbreaking new podcast that is redefining how we view political figures by focusing on everything about them—except their political careers. Co-hosted by former journalist and media expert Tiffany Eddy and seasoned lobbyist and ex-politico Tom Prasol, this video podcast dives into the personal lives, passions, and pivotal experiences of notable figures, offering a refreshing and intimate look at who they are beyond the public eye.
Hi everyone, I'm Tiffany Eddy. And I'm Tom Praysall.
SPEAKER_03:And we are so pleased to welcome you to another episode of Anything But Politics. Where we talk to different political leaders about their personal lives and not politics. The fun stuff.
SPEAKER_01:Anything but politics. And today we're really excited to be joined by somebody who has quite the resume. It's a household name. She served on the city council in Portsmouth. She served as a police commissioner. She has a small business and she's done a great deal of advocacy work alongside being a mom. So without further ado, we'll introduce Stephanie Sheen.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you both so much for having me today. It's such a great chance to be together and talk about anything but politics.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's a nice break, huh?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, it's gonna be very fun. I'm looking forward to it.
SPEAKER_03:And that might be challenging for you in a way because you come from such a political family like Elephant in the Room, but your mom's fairly well known in New Hampshire and nationally and internationally.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, she is, she is. And I think in our family, the the key is that everything is really about problem solving, not so much the politics of the problem solving. But um, so we certainly have grown up with politics, but it's really been more focused in in my life growing up on what are the issues that matter and how are we going to tackle those. But fun to be talking about stories and life and family today. I'm looking forward to it.
SPEAKER_03:And so talking about family, you're a mom of four, correct? Yes. So I mean that's that's a lot, especially when you're working full-time, running a small business, doing all the different things that you do. So I guess first question is is how are the kids and how do you manage that uh that kind of work-life balance?
SPEAKER_00:Well, it's interesting. I I remember thinking when the kids were little that it really was never about balance, but about trade-offs, because you're trying to make decisions every day about where you needed to be in the context of all your commitments and what your family needed. We have entered a new chapter in my life because as of August 15th, when our son left for college, we are officially empty nesters for the first time in 26 years. So our oldest daughter, Ellie,'s 26, and then we have Anna, who's 24, Caroline, who's 21, and William, who's 19. And William just started in college this fall. So the house feels really different.
SPEAKER_03:I bet.
SPEAKER_00:And uh we're still adjusting. And my husband Craig keeps joking that part of my mission in being on the campaign trail is so that I never have to be in the empty nest because it feels so foreign to have the house be empty. Um, and we're already looking forward to Thanksgiving and having everyone home.
SPEAKER_01:Well, and it's it's really interesting that you talk about um trade-offs too, because I know that you come from a long line of athletes as well. I think um, you know, I know you coached one of your daughters in volleyball. Um, I know you played uh volleyball at Fairfield University, is that Division I and your son's a star baseball player, right? So tell us a little bit about, I guess we'll start with you and your athletic career. And uh what was it, volleyball that you played?
SPEAKER_00:Volleyball and basketball. And so as a as a little kid, I I would say, you know, if you asked me to describe myself as a kid, I would say I was a sports kid. I couldn't get enough sports. So I played soccer and when I was really little, I played basketball. And then in high school I started playing volleyball and and basketball. So I went to Oyster River High School, K through 12, and graduated my senior year. I was captain of both the volleyball team and the basketball team. We won a volleyball state championship when I was a junior against Nashua, and we lost to Salem, we Salem in the in my senior season. So I I still carry that scar. We could have been back-to-back state championships. Um, and we made it to the tournament. I was actually on the floor when my dear friend Jennifer Freel from the Freel family, many people who follow New Hampshire basketball will know the Freel family because Mr. Freel was the UNH men's basketball coach forever. Uh and I went to I grew up going to summer camps with him, and he had he has five kids. The Freels have five, and all five of them scored a thousand points in high school. It's impressive. Their eldest Jennifer was my co-captain, and I was on the floor when she scored her thousandth point. So I have so many fond memories of being a sports kid and ultimately got to go to college to play volleyball on a scholarship. Uh, and then coached. I actually came back when I worked on my mom's first gubernatorial campaign. I coached part-time at Oyster River for the JV team, and my sister was on the varsity team then. Uh, and they won. My sister's group of uh teammates won four state championships in a row in volleyball for Oyster River. Uh and then fast forward when my daughter Anna, our second daughter, started playing volleyball. My husband coached her at Portsmouth Middle School on the middle school team, and then I got to coach her in high school for her junior and senior years, which was just awesome.
SPEAKER_01:I'll tell you, I love volleyball. Like when we have family parties, we have like serious volleyball matches. I mean, I like to think of myself more as like a liberon, right? Just wanting to dig for the dig for the ball.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Just wanted everyone to know I knew what that word was.
SPEAKER_00:Um Although I have to say, when I was playing, we had no libero.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, libero. I was I'm thinking of a car.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. The libero what they're talking about. Yeah. So the libero is the defensive specialist, and when and they only play in the back row.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:And so when I was in high school, we didn't have a designated position for defensive specialists. So you had to substitute in if you were a defensive specialist in a different way than you're allowed to now. So the sport has evolved in some really awesome ways and it makes it more fun for people to watch. Um, and for people who love volleyball, I'd say tune into ESPN too online. You can watch college volleyball. I we've been following women's teams that you know I know have no tie to other than some really awesome athletes that are fun to watch.
SPEAKER_01:I'm really sore the next day, though. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Because yeah, your arm, your legs, your arms, you use different muscles. And then our son uh has been a baseball player from the time he was really little. Also did Taekwondo has a black belt in Taekwondo.
SPEAKER_03:But wow.
SPEAKER_00:He started uh as a freshman at Duke this August, and he's on the baseball team. And fun fact, his head coach Corey Muscara grew up in Goffstown, got his start at SNHU.
SPEAKER_01:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:And his um associate head coach Scott Lazo was very recently the head coach at SNHU. So ties to Duke baseball from New Hampshire that are really strong. That's a great what position he's playing third. He grew up pitching.
SPEAKER_01:Hot corner.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, hot corner. He grew up pitching and middle infield. So played a lot of shortstop and a lot of second base. Um but they project him as a third baseman. He's 6'4, 205. Wow. Yeah, needy. I don't know, I know. But he's Craig tall? Because no, no. Craig's I'm 5'8, Craig's 5'10, 5'11, maybe, but Craig has a brother who's 6'3. And my mom swears there's height in our s on her side of the family because she says her her grandfather was really tall. So it's there somewhere. But he's yeah, he's six, he he's told me that his team needs him to his his trainer wants him to gain another 10 pounds, so he's working on adding muscle, but he hopes not any more height.
SPEAKER_01:But you know, that's great. I mean ba baseball and sports in general, I think, are just so good for you know, learning how to work as a team and and problem solving.
SPEAKER_03:Um overcoming adversity, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I think everything I learned that was most valuable to how I've navigated life came from the experience of being on a team. Like learning how to work hard on behalf of your teammates, learning how to show up, learning how to get over adverse, you know, to be to deal with adversity, to get over things fast for your teammates. Um I I can't say enough about the experience it it's experiences it's given me and also just how uh formative it's been to my life and to see it happening in my kids' lives too. And I've got our two other kids are theater kids, and I keep reminding them those things are not mutually exclusive. They could have, you know, they could have also chosen to do some sports, but um, but yeah, they they chose to be more focused on performing arts.
SPEAKER_03:So and that's amazing. Uh so years ago, I actually had the opportunity to come to your house and interview you and Ellie. I think it was back when she was first diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and uh and you were kind of navigating that whole new chapter, and and I remember how involved you were in in really helping um, you know, make sure she was safe and also fighting for a cure.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, type one is really hard. For people who don't know and they they hear diabetes, it's often easy to think, well, if you have insulin or you get it confused with type 2 diabetes, that it can't be that bad. But the reality, especially for little people, little kids who are going through all kinds of changes in their lives, it's really hard because you have to take insulin for everything you eat. And so at that time, when you you know you first connected with us about that experience, Ellie was pricking her fingers eight to ten times a day. She was taking shots of insulin 10 to 12 times a day, depending on what was happening in her day. So every little decision we made had a consequence and required some kind of action. Either take insulin, eat sugar, you know, eat something, you know, have something to eat, um, have more activity. And it taught it's really hard. Uh and even now to this day, Ellie was just home helping with the New Hampshire Film Festival for the weekend and had a pump malfunction in the middle of the night and wasn't getting the necessary insulin, and so woke up feeling really sick. Um, so there's always risks and complexity, and it's really hard.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and it's got to be terrifying for you as a mom because you know, as moms, our our first job and our first priority is making sure our kids are safe and healthy. And I know you've had a lot of sleepless nights worrying about her and making sure that she's safe.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think every parent can relate to that feeling of bringing home a baby and thinking, how how do I keep this little being safe? And in our case with Ellie, because of the precarious reality of living with type one, that feeling kind of never goes away because there's always risk that she could get too much insulin or not enough insulin, and both of those things have devastating consequences if they're not caught. And so for 17 years since her diagnosis when she was eight, that's sort of the weight of what we've navigated to try to keep her safe. And she's incredible. I mean, she she does the work and she's an she's just an awesome inspiration to all of us, uh, but it's a big weight for her to try to carry alone. And I always say to her, as long as I'm here, you'll never carry this alone because you you can't. It's too much for any one person to carry. My brother-in-law also lives with it, the one I was mentioning earlier, who's really tall, uh, Trent. He also lives with type one. He wasn't diagnosed though until his late 20s, and so his dynamics have been really different. Also, hormones affect type one, and she got diagnosed before her body changed and she went through adolescence, so that also made things really challenging. Uh, and it's just in general kind of harder for women because of the kinds of hormones women have to navigate and what that does with the insulin. So, um, so we're on alert 24-7 and doing everything we can to keep her safe, but also really fighting hard for a cure. And and that lived experience is part of what inspired me to run this time for Congress because I feel like we have to do everything we can to accelerate treatments and cures, not just for diabetes, but for Alzheimer's and cancer and these uh diseases that are so damaging and challenging for people to live with.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I think something that people aren't really necessarily aware of, I know you certainly are, is that we are getting closer to a functional cure for type 1 diabetes. And not only that, yeah, I mean Vertex is making this uh they're doing working on cell therapy. Um, and it's it's functional. I mean, I think there's still going to be things that you have to do, but I think 10 out of 12 uh during the trials of the people who started this no longer need insulin. And it's wild to think about. And the what's even crazier and phenomenal is that it's happening here in New Hampshire.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Right?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, I I say all the time, you know, every time we need just another ounce of hope, and and yesterday is no exception because of what happened with Ellie's pump malfunction over the weekend. I always say the cure is here. It's just a matter of how much time and pressure to accelerate getting into people's lives, and it's going to be made in New Hampshire. So for anything but politics listeners, you've heard it here first if you haven't heard it already. Uh, between Vertex work with Lonza Biologics at Pease and Army, the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute in Manchester, which is also accelerating the manufacturing process of how you make these cells and then making those available to researchers, these cells, the cells that will ultimately cure diabetes, are going to be made in New Hampshire, which is amazing to think about.
SPEAKER_01:It really is.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:It's phenomenal. And I and I know that um your lived experience with you know Ellie certainly led to your work creating a small business. Yes. So can you tell us a little bit about that?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so we had this moment. Ellie was diagnosed, you know, about six weeks before. And again, I as I shared earlier, she was eight. So what used to be the simple act of pouring a bowl of cereal before she'd go to school in the morning was now a 10-step process of measuring how much cereal and calculating how much carbohydrate and and measuring the milk and calculating how much carbohydrate in the milk, and then figuring out how much insulin she had to take, and then drawing up the syringe and injecting insulin with a shot. And there was this moment, and she was rushing to try to get out the door, and she was so frustrated by all the steps, and she took the box of cereal and threw it across the counter and said, Why does this have to be so hard? And I remember thinking, Yeah, why does this have to be so hard? Why can't it just be more straightforward to prepare meals and to know how much insulin or how much carbohydrates in the food you're going to eat? And at that time, this was 2007, late 2007, before apps on smartphones, I had a calorie king book I was carrying around and I'd have to look up, you know, and a lot of times nutrition facts labels are not accurate, unfortunately. Um and at that age, I mean, she was taking half units of insulin, which is just a tiny, tiny amount. And if you get if you're off, you know, 10 grams of carbohydrate, it it throws her in her to a really low blood sugar or can make her feel really lousy because she gets a really high blood sugar. Um so that's what ultimately inspired us to start the company called Good Measures, uh, which we patented a technology platform that allowed us to make personalized recommendations for people based on their age and gender, their health status, what conditions they were managing, what medications they were taking. And we connected them to registered dietitians and certified diabetes educators. Because right now, our healthcare system allows you to see a registered dietitian once or twice a year. And yet, when you're living with a disease like diabetes, you're making hundreds of decisions weekly that impact your disease. And if you don't have that baseline knowledge, you're making yourself unknowingly, it's hard, you're making it harder for yourself. And sometimes you can make yourself sicker without even knowing it because you don't have the information you need.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_00:Um, so we we built this uh team. Many of many of them were based actually at Pease Air Force Base where we had a call center operation. Unfortunately, the call center was shut down during COVID because it was considered a super spreader, as listeners might remember. Call centers were considered a dangerous superspreader. So we were able to reconfigure the operation. So many of our employees are women because registered dietitians and certified diabetes educators tend to be women. And a lot of those folks were also now having to deal with the challenge of helping their kids who were learning from home because schools were closed. But we figured it out. We navigated the challenges, we got a virtual infrastructure set up so people could work from home. They were able to schedule themselves so that if they needed to step out to help a child log into school or to help with lunch or whatever would work best for their families, and we made it work. Uh we actually were able to serve more people during COVID than at any other point in the company's history. And that's actually part of why I'm so sensitive about what's some of what's happening with the tariffs to our New Hampshire small businesses right now, because there's so much uncertainty. And I know what uncertainty feels like when you couldn't have prevented it, uh, and how damaging that can be and how challenging. Um but you know, I it's been it was an incredible experience. We sold the company back in November of 2024 to um a a company that's now going to be able to scale it and make sure we can reach even more people, which is awesome.
SPEAKER_03:That's incredible. Yeah, good for you. It's great. And I know you've been honored because of your work for diabetes. Do you want to just share a little bit of about some of the work? I know you're doing some work with Dean Kamen and received some um some honors from I think the National Diabetes Association.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so the uh Breakthrough T1D, which used to be called JDRF, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, um, has done just incredible work raising money for the research like I described at in Manchester at the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute. Um we've I've been part of that effort on a volunteer basis since Ellie was first diagnosed. Actually, the two of us were able to co-chair something called the Children's Congress, where children from across the country come to DC and explain what it's like to live with type 1 diabetes. It's an incredibly powerful experience. In fact, I remember specifically uh Ellie and I went to meet with then Congressman Frank Ginta. And he, you know, she took out her blood glucose meter. This was before her glucose monitor, which she now wears continuously, and she showed him what it's like to prick her finger, and and just having people who have no understanding of what it's really like to live with type one see it and see how it what it looks like when a type when a kid is having to do this. And the challenging thing with diabetes in particular is you don't look sick necessarily, you know, because you if you're wearing a pump, sometimes it's hidden, you wouldn't know, and even if you did see it, you wouldn't know what it does necessarily. Um, so it's a real that was a really powerful experience to show people what it looks like to actually live with it. Um, and so we've done a lot of work with the foundation for 17 years, and they really are just an incredible organization working to accelerate the research that's ultimately going to cure this disease. And part of how Ellie's life has evolved and why I'm so passionate about the importance of investing in medical research and in science, she no longer has to prick her finger and take shots because she wears a glucose monitor and a pump. Um, and those two things were developed in part through medical research. Um, and it's just been so inspiring to see how much her quality of life has improved because of science.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's only going to get better.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, it is. Knock on wood. Knock on wood. Yes.
SPEAKER_03:Uh I want to talk a little bit about coach, too, because uh you're an author, best-selling author. Uh, could you tell us a little bit about uh for people who don't know, and I think most people in New Hampshire are probably familiar, but for international audience.
SPEAKER_01:That's true.
SPEAKER_03:The international audience might not know. Um but who is coach and and why was why was he so important in your life? And then what inspired you to write the book?
SPEAKER_00:Thank you for asking. We miss Coach desperately every day. We lost Coach on December 26th this past year. Um he coaches a yellow lab trained to detect changes in blood sugar. He's considered a diabetes alert dog or a medic alert dog, depending on the terminology. And we learned actually about these kind of dogs at the children's congress, that event I just mentioned. Uh, and we watched them work uh when a little boy was having a low blood sugar. We watched this dog alert. He was only four at the time, and the dog alerted his parent who was in a different part of the room. And so observing this, I thought I had no idea that these animals could do this, that they even existed. And we started learning more and more. And ultimately we found this organization called CARES, which works with correctional facilities to keep the costs lower. And so all of the basic obedience training is done by an inmate in a correctional facility. They have to be nonviolent offenders. Um, and it's just an incredible on-site training opportunity for people. And when Ellie actually was united with Coach for the first time, because then she has to go through this whole public access training to make sure she can handle the dog in public, she got to meet Michael, the man who trained Coach. And one of the most powerful experiences I had after having written the book was hearing from Michael's sister. So one of the things we did after the book was released is send a bunch of copies for him and to CARES. And so when the book was distributed, Michael was able to give a copy to his family. And his sister reached out to us the day after Christmas and happened to find us through Facebook Messenger and said, I hope this message finds you. I don't know if it will, but I want you to know that Michael's my brother and he's the man that trained Coach. And she said, My parents and I sat and read your book on Christmas because he gave us a copy. And she said, He hasn't given us too many reasons to be proud of him over his lifetime, but this gave us an incredible gift because you gave us a reason to be proud of him. And of course, as I'm reading her message, I'm crying. Ellie's crying. You know, everyone in our family was crying. Um, but that's been one of the gifts of having shared the story. Uh, we started documenting on Facebook what was happening when Coach would alert to Ellie having high or low blood sugars, and people were really fascinated. And we just felt like, okay, there's something here we could share, and maybe other people could benefit. I had no idea about these dogs. And in fact, ironically, just on Friday night, I went to watch my uh nephew Nico play soccer. He's the captain of the Oyster River boys soccer team, and he's a senior right now. And I was sitting in the stands, and Ellie was going to join me because she was home for this weekend, and she hadn't gotten there yet. And I looked down and there was a black lab literally sitting in the bleacher in front of me, wearing the same vest that Coach had come home from CARES wearing. And so I thought, this can't be. So I I said to the woman, Is your dog a KERS dog? And she said, Yes, this is Mushi. And we got him because we read your book. Oh, wow. And we just got killed. Yes, and he's from care, and he came from KARES, and then she shared her whole story. She got him during COVID, so they had a slightly different experience than we had had because um Ellie was actually able to go meet Michael and be in the correctional facility and and see how they had done the training, and it was a very different experience. But then her husband came over and he was the one who was navigating diabetes, and we watched the dog alert several times for for him. So it's just yeah, it was amazing. It feels like a sign from Coach that he's reminding us that we he loves us and uh we miss him so much. But yeah, it's been a gift to share the story for sure.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and it's so important to share those types of stories because people don't know what they don't know. Like you didn't know that this even existed. And and I think it's and dogs are also just amazing creatures. Amazing. The best they're so much better than humans.
SPEAKER_00:Totally.
SPEAKER_01:Um and it's they love you.
SPEAKER_00:They love you in a way that's so pure.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and I think the powerful thing about our experience with coach is that you know, Ellie didn't want me to be her nurse, and there's so much intervention that's required with type 1 diabetes, especially with young children. And so the best part about coach was it was coach, you know, when she'd have a lower high blood sugar, he would alert. And if she wasn't really paying attention, I could say, Is coach trying to tell you something? And it was about coach and not about the disease, or about me nagging her, or about me trying to get her to do something she didn't want to do. And he, you know, it's hard to be mad at coach. He's adorable. So like when he's persistent and trying to get you to do something, you're more likely to do it than if it's your mom saying, Hey, you need to text your blood sugar or you need to go, you know, take more insulin, whatever it may be. Um, so we we miss him all the time.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but I do want to keep talking about pups because I love pups. Yes, me too. Um but I also know that during your time on the uh police commission, you worked very closely with ICAC, which for the listeners internationally, um, that's the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. And so, and I know I actually heard about this during over the at the legislature there was a bill to get more funding for ICAC. Um, that they train dogs now to find like computer software or electronics. So, can you tell us a little bit about that and maybe some about your time on the police commission?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, yes. So, first I will say part of why I had the chance to work on the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force is because uh the city of Portsmouth actually runs the team of detectives that supports the task force. Um so we're the ones doing that for the whole state. And we were successfully able to get a grant to acquire a dog named Nico, uh, ironically, not to be confused by my nephew. Uh Nico with a K, uh, also a Yellow Lab, and he was trained to detect elect for electronics. So for the for listeners, it there's apparently a series of chemicals that are used consistently on in hard drives and in SIM cards and in cell phones that the dogs can detect with a sense of smell. And so, you know, what was amazing is to watch this dog work. So I I witnessed a training uh session with him, and they hid, you know, the little SIM card that you stick in your new phone. I don't think you like that anymore, but you used to do it. It was like tiny little thing. They'd hide it in the back of a cabinet, and then they'd bring the dog in and the dog would find it. Um and that's crazy. It's amazing. And I I the the most compelling story I heard was from one of the detectives who had Nico on a search mission, and they were they had a search warrant to search a person's house, and they thought they had collected all of the electronics in the house. They got like three or four hard drives, they got a bunch of um zip drives, and they were preparing to leave, and they were trying to get Nico to get in the car. And Nico wouldn't get in the car, and the handler kept trying to get Nico in the car, knowing they had swept the house, and said, Well, the Nico's trying to tell me something, so I'm gonna follow him. So followed him three driveways down from the house they were searching, and Nico alerted on a trash bin that was behind the person's house, and the perpetrator had hidden two other hard drives in somebody else's trash can. Wow. And because the dog had found that and because of the amount of data that was now in question, it changed the charges they could bring forward against the perpetrator. Um, so it these animals are amazing. And and not to mention the work that's being done by these detectives or is horrific. I mean, it's it's absolutely horrible, harrowing work. And Nico does provide the added benefit of having to support the team, right? So it's he does, in addition to doing the work of detecting, he also is an amazing emotional support animal for the whole team. It's just been awesome to see. Yeah, it's really, really powerful.
SPEAKER_03:That is incredible.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, it's incredible. Yeah, and watching them work, like you can't quite believe it unless you see it. So part of what with like with Coach when Ellie would when he would alert, we would try to video so people could see what was going on. Because when you see it, like we had this one situation where my dad was still kind of questioning, could this really work? And one day I was outside playing in the backyard with Caroline and William and our younger two kids, and he came over and was sitting in the house watching something on TV, probably gunsmoke or cowboys. And Ellie was upstairs three st you know, two floors up in the shower, and Coach was had started at his feet and then ran to the stairs and ran back to him, and then ran to the stairs and ran back to him, and then ran to the stairs, and he's finally decided, well, he's trying to tell me something. So he followed him, followed him up the stairs, and he was like nudging his nose against the door, which was locked because she was in the shower. And my dad hollered in and said, I think coach is trying to tell you something, and she came out, and sure enough, she was low and hadn't felt it, and she had you know disconnected her pump because she was in the shower. So anyway, um, and you know, luckily she disconnected her pump because she wasn't getting insulin, but it you have to see it to believe it almost.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and it's just it still is just crazy to me how they can like you know, from two stories up, right? He can smell it, you know, coach can smell it there. The uh Nico can smell it from like three driveways over it's yes, they're amazing.
SPEAKER_00:They really are.
SPEAKER_01:Makes me feel bad for my pups when I get home from a run. I'm like, God, you must hate me right now.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Wow, that is fascinating. And what sort of like experience do you think you got from being on the police commission and and kind of learning about these cases like firsthand, like really understanding what the officers go through and and and you know the victims out there?
SPEAKER_00:It's a really good question. So I was on the city council when we had an incident in New H in Portsmouth, which made statewide news and actually went all the way to the state supreme court, which was we had a s an elderly resident, senior resident, who had been uh manipulated by an officer and made her name was Geraldine Weber. It's it's been all over statewide news where she ended up, she had dementia, and she ended up, you know, basically turning her estate over to this officer. Um and the only way we uncovered that was because a concerned neighbor saw a cruiser in her driveway frequently and thought something was strange, and then started exploring what was going on. And as a city counselor, I mean, not every community has a police commission. And and and those who do don't all have them as elected positions. In our in Portsmouth, there are there are four-year terms, they're staggered terms, and there are um there are three commissioners, um, and they're elected by the citizens. So I remember thinking, like, is this the right role for a commission if if something like this can happen and nobody knows what's what's wrong with what's not working right with the commission? Um, and so I ended up stepping in to serve out the term of of a person who couldn't fill out his term because he was ill. And at that point, really was just trying to get my like roll up my sleeves and figure out can we make this commission work the way that it is intended to work so we can avoid these kinds of issues in the future? And then George Floyd was murdered. And that really changed the trajectory of everybody's expectations about what the police should or shouldn't be doing. And if you remember then, I mean, there were calls across the country for defunding the police.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_00:And there was a ton of distrust in the police. And I think the way we navigated, both as the commission and with the police chief's leadership and through the community, with community leaders that just it refused to say, we're gonna get this right. This has to be done right, so we have trust restored with the with the department. We navigated a really tumultuous time. We were able to get additional resources for a social worker. Additional resources for the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force because that was also at a point in time with COVID where tips against kids being online were way up because we were all spending way more time online during COVID. You'll remember that was also during Black Lives Matter protests. So it was a very unsettled and tumultuous time. But but the power, in my experience, navigating that was watching and working together with community leaders, with the police chief, with the unions to say how do we make sure we do this right so we can strengthen community policing, not weaken it. And that's what we did. I mean, we it was amazing. We published almost all of the policies we could on the city website. We made a more transparent complaints process. So if anybody had complaints with how they were treated by the police, they knew how to file those complaints. We implemented a new software platform for how to track encounter data so you could identify was any particular officer targeting any one person. We approved body cams, which weren't you know weren't happening in the city at that point. So we were doing the things that I think the community needed us to do and to see, but we're able to do it in a way that didn't take resources away. We were we were being strategic and and I think smart with where the resources were being directed.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I think it's great that you know you have that background of you know working on the city council and the police commission because I think New Hampshire does it the right way.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:A lot. And I mean we bring everybody together, everyone into the room. I remember when you were talking about, you know, after George Floyd uh at the state house, you know, they brought everybody to the table to just improve the way we do things. Right. Because while it isn't necess may not have been a problem in New Hampshire, it doesn't mean we can't improve. Right. But you bring everybody to the table, and that's very quintessential and very uh something that New Hampshire does right. And so you've obviously lived and breathed that of just getting everybody together and finding a consensus.
SPEAKER_00:I you know, and I think actually New Hampshire is the perfect model for this, both in terms of our citizen-driven legislature, but also our local government. And to me, that's the road forward. I what people want is for everyone, regardless of party, to come together and work together to solve problems. And I we have a great model in how you do that. When you run for city council, you don't run as a Democrat or Republican, you run as a concerned community member who wants to solve some key problems, and then you're accountable to your neighbors. So if you don't fix that pothole, everybody knows. If you're proposing a you know a cut to the school budget, everybody knows and can weigh in. And I think that is where that's the model we need to get back to. The model of real people trying to solve real problems for their neighbors. Uh and I if if we can do that, we know how that works. It works at our local level. It works, you know, in in the way we govern, you know. So I I think that's the model for how we move forward.
SPEAKER_03:And I think the advantage we have too in New Hampshire is is we're a small state, and especially you and I have you've been here your whole life. I've been here for almost 30 years now, but you get to the point where you kind of know who to call, and it's wonderful because they pick up the phone too. And so I think with your experience and having been around for so long, you must know so many different people that you can just be like, hey, it's Stephanie, I need your help. Can you can you come on board and try to help me uh get this across the finish line?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, what's been so I mean to me, what's been such a gift for this campaign and the chance to be in so many different communities across the first congressional district is reconnecting with people. You know, it New Hampshire's a small place, people are accountable to each other, people are expect they remember how they're treated, they expect to be treated well, they expect that you're gonna follow up and respond. And, you know, I one of my favorite most recent stories is uh my middle school music teacher hosted a house party for me in Madbury a few weeks ago. And in that, in that room, in his in his living room, were you know my elementary school basketball coach, my middle school music teacher, my high school guidance counselor, and my school nurse. And I was joking that I hadn't been more nervous for an event in ages because I didn't want to disappoint my teachers. Um but it's it really is, I think, a testament to to the connections people forge in New Hampshire. You know, we're this is this is our state. This these are our our neighbors and friends. Um and so that's been, in my view, that's been the best part. The best part of this is is people and uh working hard to to connect to people and he and listen to people about what challenges they're facing. And people are really forthright. I know they want to be heard, they want leaders who are willing to listen. And I you know, I think that's ultimately what's gonna get us moving forward together.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I mean, I've never met a shy New Hampshire voter.
SPEAKER_00:No, and and I love that because you know it gives you a chance to hear where people are coming from. Yeah. And and and the spirit in which they're they're coming to the challenge, their whatever challenges they want to share about.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, absolutely. And I think you can get a lot done in New Hampshire. This is a place where you like I think your example right there with working on the internet crimes against children, but you can really make a difference, you can really get something done.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, exactly. Exactly. And you you know, you're connecting it to real people. I think what's so often a challenge, especially at the federal and even at the state level, although less in New Hampshire at the state level, because we have so many local legislat, you know, so many legislators that you know your legislator usually. Um, but I I think oftentimes it's hard for people to connect the decisions that are happening in Washington with actually impacting them in their community. And one of our responsibilities is to make those connections and also understand where, you know, where is a problem and how can I best help solve that. Um and that's you know, that's the challenge and the opportunity.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, a lot of opportunity. So uh wondering, because obviously we know about your mom and um who's uh governor and uh you know uh senior senator in New Hampshire, well-respected political legend, really, in New Hampshire. Uh it must be um incredible. She must be so proud of you now that you're you're running for Congress. But what's the best piece of advice she's ever given you, especially now as you embark upon this campaign?
SPEAKER_00:Such a hard question to narrow it down to just one piece of advice. I you know, I think ultimately she will always say, like, you have you have to be willing to do the work. Like you can't you have to know this is something that you're willing to put your blood, sweat, and tears into because ultimately you're the one doing the work. And you know, as we were trying to make this decision, and and there have been times I've wrestled through other ways I might contribute. And, you know, for different reasons, the time wasn't right personally with my family, with our kids, with the kids as kids in their life stages that they were in. Um and she was always really helpful about thinking through, you know, how do you make this decision? And then my favorite quote she always she always gives is it's not about making the right decision, it's about making whatever decision you've made right. And like leaning into it. Once you've made the decision, do everything you can to make it right and make the best of it. Um so and I I just I was thinking today on the way over here of fun stories, and I uh I my my probably my funniest campaign story with my mom is I was a college kid and I was driving her to an event, and we were actually driving to an event in Manchester to meet with with labor union, and then we had to go to an event after that. And so we were driving her, then um Dodge caravan, the maroon with like the wood panel, the fake wood panel siding. Yeah, we had that that one had almost 300,000 miles on it. Um and so I was driving and I after the the labor union meeting, she we got to the gas station and I was pumping the gas and she had gone in to run to the restroom. And she came out around the back side of the van just as I was taking the the gas gauge and put it to put it back on the the um the rack, and I sprayed both of us with gas. Oh my god, and there's still gas in the in the pump. And now we're we're supposed to go to this other event and we both smell like gas. And we have no change of clothes. And I know I've flammable.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, don't let them in.
SPEAKER_00:And I've I'm feeling terrible because I've sprayed us both with gas, and I'm thinking, like, my one job was to get her to this event, and now we both smell like gas. So we decide, okay, well, we'll air ourselves out. Like, we'll, you know, keep the windows down, it'll be fine by the time we get there, it'll it'll evaporate. So we get into this event, and you know, I'm standing next to her and she's talking to somebody, and they say, What's what's that smell? It smells like gas. Like, maybe we need to call the fire department. I'm I have to say, no, that's my fault. So we're sorry, I sprayed us both with gasoline. So that was not the high highlight of of our campaign moments, but it was very funny in retrospect. We, you know, I walked us both into this event smelling like gasoline because I had sprayed us with gas at the gas station. Uh but anyway, we've got a lot of funny moments on the new Chanel number for everybody talking about it. Everyone's just don't call the fire department.
SPEAKER_03:Everybody's wearing, yeah. Well, you could just tell them, you know, mom's gotten really into working on trucks lately. You know, I can't get her out of the garage.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that was funny.
SPEAKER_03:So we know that you're uh an entrepreneur, a mom, um, but but kind of along the lines of those that funny story. I mean, what else, what do you do for fun?
SPEAKER_00:Uh, so most of the stuff I would say is fun is is watching my kids do whatever they love to do. And we've been doing a lot of baseball, um, which is I can't get enough baseball, truthfully. Even if William's not playing, I'm watching Red Sox if we have a chance to watch. Um, so I I do watch a lot of sports and cheer on a lot of a lot of you know, with William right now, but also with Anna. Um up until last year, she was playing college volleyball too, so I got to watch a lot of sports. Um, I l I take a lot of long walks in the morning. That's sort of a mental health thing for me, is start the day with a two and a half mile walk if I can fit it in early. Um, and uh I did train for the Boston Marathon, although I can't say that's what I was doing for fun.
SPEAKER_01:That was sort of a Did you did you run the Boston Marathon?
SPEAKER_00:I ran the Boston Marathon.
SPEAKER_01:God love you.
SPEAKER_00:I ran the Boston Marathon in 2024 on behalf of Jocelyn Diabetes Center as a fundraiser. Uh and and actually part of, you know, I was funny, I I had a chance to share the story on New Hampshire Chronicle and uh with with Aaron Phalow. And I said, mistakenly, I said, because I had been dealing with a knee injury, I mistakenly said, if I have to, I will crawl across the finish line. Well, then it was like then I had declared it publicly that I would do this. Uh and I had raised a lot of money. We actually set a fundraising record uh for diabetes research, but I ended up hurting my knee about four weeks away from the race on my second really, really long run, like the second 20-mile alert, and didn't really want to find out what had happened to the knee because I was afraid I'd be told I couldn't run. So I did it anyway, and I ran the marathon uh and found out after the fact that I ran it on a broken femur. Oh my goodness, that must have been so painful. Yeah, it was not it was not smart, but I did it. I finished.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's impressive.
SPEAKER_00:And it was amazing. It was a bucket list, you know, goal forever, and it was right before I was turning 50. And I was had I had one more year as a board member at Jocelyn at the time, and so wanted to make sure I could do my part before I cycled off the board. Um, and so it was an amazing experience, but I I did it uh on a broken femur.
SPEAKER_01:I give anybody who can run a marathon credit, even if so the fact you did it on a broken femur is wild to me. But anybody who can run a marathon, because that for me at like mile three, I'm like, is this ever gonna end? This is awful.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and it's funny because I before I decided, uh because Craig was saying to me, honey, I don't know if it's a good idea. Like you don't run. I was not a runner. I mean, I like I said, I walk all the time, but I was never a runner and I played volleyball. But again, distance running this whole thing. So I he I he said, When was the last time you ran a road race? And I said, Well, I ran a 5K with my dad when I was nine. And he's like, Yeah, that does not make you a runner.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So I did the I started with the couch to 5K app.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Um, and because during COVID I had not been as active as I needed to be to keep myself healthy. Um and that helped me get started. But I, yeah, distance running wasn't not my thing. But I decided I just needed to do this.
SPEAKER_01:And well, you figured it out. You figured it out though.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. The best part, the best part was uh right before the I about two miles before the finish line, I was running past uh a woman and out of the corner of my eye I saw her get sick and kind of like collapse. And I looked back and she was there by herself, and so I turned around and asked if she needed me to get her medical attention, and she said, No, but will you stay? And so I stayed with her. And meanwhile, I wasn't thinking my family at the finish line was tracking me on the app.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, and they must have been worried.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so then they thought I I stopped, and then I'm sure they were thinking I was the one that was in trouble. Um, and so I stayed with her and was just talking to her and and got her to drink some water. She had explained she had just gotten out of the medic tent. And I said, Well, can I can I stay with you and let's just see if we can get you moving? Because if you sit here, there's lactic acid's gonna just 100%. And so she said, Yeah, uh okay. So we I finally I got her up and she, you know, put her arm around me and we started walking. She got sick all over me. We kept she kept drinking, we kept walking, and we finally turned this corner, and she had her her name across her jersey, it was Jules, and she was running, she was running for a mass ionier. Oh, ironically, where Ellie had also been treated for something in the past. And so we were talking about how she was running for her grandmother who had lost her eyesight, and I was running for Ellie, and she kept getting her to drink water. And as we turned this corner, people saw her name across her jersey, and I was like trying to point to her name so people could see, and they started chanting, let's go, Jules, let's go, Jules. And I I mean, still I get chills thinking about it. And they just they they they really carried her through to the finish line. And we got around that corner on Boylston and she said, Okay, let's run across the finish line together. So we ran across the finish line, and then right at the other side of the finish line, she said, I said, You got to get into the medic tent because you need an IV. She was desperately dehydrated, and she said, No, but I have to get my medal first. I'll go get your medal, you in the medic tent. Yeah, so it was that was amazing. I would I would love to do it one more time just so I could do it without the injury. But when I told the doctor that, he said, You're you know, you're over 50 now. No matter when you do it, you're probably gonna be doing it with an injury. So just you know, but I'd love to try it one more time without you know the the pathetic time that I ended up completing it in because I was hurting.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, but you know what? You finish a marathon, it really doesn't matter because you finished and that's it.
SPEAKER_00:I finished.
SPEAKER_03:And it's not about the time. Someone told me once too that it's almost harder to finish when you're a little bit slower. Yes, because you have more time for it to be get in your head and more time to think about quitting. Yes. So those fast people, yes, it's easier for them, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, yeah, yeah. I don't know. I would love to be, I'll never be a fast person, but I'd love to be able to uh do it a little faster than I did.
SPEAKER_01:I I start thinking about quitting when I within the first hundred feet, like it's almost over.
SPEAKER_03:Driving up to the course. Tom's like, uh, I think I'm good.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and there's so many little things you don't appreciate if you've never done it before. Like I didn't have my music downloaded because I just figured, well, it's there's gonna be Wi-Fi. Like, but then you don't have there's so much demand on the system that you can't really so. Then I was like listening to the same downloaded podcast over and over, which like not exactly inspiring. It's like, where's the eye of the tiger? That's what I mean to get me through. But anyway, things you learn after you do it the first time.
SPEAKER_03:And Boston's so supportive too. My brother runs Boston, and I just think that there's this like collective community. I remember like scooching up to try to see him near the finish line, and someone the people around were like, What's his name? What's his name? And I was like, It's Todd. And everybody starts screaming his name, and it's just like it brings everybody together. It's like a great big hug, and it's so true. It's such a supportive environment, so positive.
SPEAKER_00:So true. That the highlight when they started cheering her name, and I could see like her just her whole spirit lift, like she knew she was gonna finish at that point. It was it was just awesome. It was really awesome. Yeah, Boston fans are spectacular.
SPEAKER_01:So I know we've talked a little a lot about uh, you know, your your kids, about you, your mom, and we've mentioned Craig. Yes, and he's also you know, talk about forging relationships here in New Hampshire. He's a New Hampshire guy.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, he is.
SPEAKER_01:Um, how did you guys meet?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, that's a fun story. So Craig grew up in Meredith on Lake Winnipes, uh, went graduated from Interlakes High School, and then came to UNH.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:And actually, it's through a volleyball connection that we came together. So my high school coach was the manager for his father's high school team. So his father, John Garno, is the winningest girls' volleyball coach in New Hampshire history. He's actually in the New Hampshire Hall of Fame for sports. Um he coached at Belmont High School for many years. He was an eighth-grade teacher there uh for social studies, and then he also coached at Moltenborough High, he coached at Plymouth State. Um, so just an incredible record and an amazing coach. And my head coach at Oyster River had been his manager when he was a student at Belmont High School, Ed Sharon, uh, who I attribute to like the fact that I got a scholarship to play in college. If it wasn't for Ed, Coach Ed, I would never have made that happen. Um, and so Craig ended up knowing Ed through his dad, and he became the JV coach and coach my sister, and we stayed in touch after I went on to college. Um, and then we reconnected later, about a year after. Um, and this is a funny story. We ended up running a restaurant together for the summer with two of his guy friends and two of my girlfriends. And I I was I always joked that it was like the reality TV before there was reality TV. We all lived together and worked together in this restaurant from like 10 a.m. till midnight every day for a hundred straight days. It was incredible.
SPEAKER_01:It's a lot of work.
SPEAKER_00:It was yes, like cleaning, yes, cleaning, you know, the friolators and making we made these hand battered onion rings. I mean, it was awesome, but a ton of work and really fun. And after that summer, we were together in indefinitely. And then we worked, we both worked on my mom's first gubernatorial campaign. Um, and he's now been at the helm of the Portsmouth Housing Authority working on housing and running the public housing authority in Portsmouth, where he's been doing that work for 12 years. Um he's been in in on the housing and real estate side for a long time.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, and getting incredible accolades too.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, he actually built uh a lead certified, one of the first ever uh well, I should say the first workforce housing building in Portsmouth in 50 years.
SPEAKER_02:Oh wow.
SPEAKER_00:And part of our challenge, I mean, we've talked about this earlier, but the you know, housing affordability in New Hampshire is such a huge challenge for families. And one of the issues is is how you finance these projects. And his project in particular was held up in the courts for six years, even though the housing authority is a nonprofit, they owned the land, it was abutting another building that they already managed that was public housing, and still it was impossibly hard. But now it's open and they are home to 64 residents, all of whom live and work in Portsmouth now. Um and the only requirement was you have to work in Portsmouth. So there are folks there who work for nonprofit art organization, run the most sandwich shop, uh firefighter, teacher. So it's really awesome. And the location is spectacular, it's right in downtown Portsmouth. Um so and he's got two more that are underway. One is um converting the Episcopal Church on Lafayette for for your listeners who know where that McDonald's is on Lafayette Road in Portsmouth, um, into what will ultimately be uh housing and a child care facility and um a facility for Haven, which is the domestic violence shelter and organization for the state. Um and then he's also working on the Sherburne School, which is a city-owned building that was a school forever. Uh now those students have been moved over to the community campus and that will become housing too. So he's got a lot of a lot of work. Yeah, but really busy doing great stuff.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, between the two of you, I feel like it must be non-stop. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:It is, but it's all good stuff.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, I mean you're certainly you know giving back and improving the community. But having said that, when you go on vacation, where's where is that?
SPEAKER_00:We don't really so we don't really I mean we usually are traveling to chase our kids someplace.
SPEAKER_01:Your life is a vacation.
SPEAKER_00:No, well, no, definitely not. Definitely not that. Um, but we usually are sort of chasing our kids when we're away. We historically my parents have taken our whole extended family between Christmas and New Year's to Key West. Sort of the family vacation. Uh, we're not doing that this year though, because my niece is getting married on New Year's Eve, so we'll all be home for that. Yeah, yeah. So um, and we spend time when we can in Meredith because his parents still live on Wincasaki, and uh he was just up there a couple weeks ago helping his parents get the boat out of the water with very low, very low water. The lake is really low right now. Um and now we've got a place to visit for baseball, which is North Carolina. Yeah, and this is sort of a funny fact. Uh Breeze Airways just added flights at Pease. Oh, yeah. And they have a round trip from raw from Pease to Raleigh, Durham, which is the airport for Will's school. And I found out one-way trip is$55. And Will said, I may have to call them and say they need to increase their rates, otherwise, you're gonna want to be here every weekend. I said, nah, the campaign schedule won't let me be there every weekend, but it's pretty awesome. I'm telling you. Yeah, so I haven't tried it yet, but I'm hoping it'll work.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, and Pease is a great airport. It's so easy. Parking right there, super easy. Want to give a plug out to Pease.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Um, question though, you mentioned Haven, and isn't that an organization that you've been involved with in the past? And and just maybe recap what Haven is and what was your role with them?
SPEAKER_00:Sure. So Haven is a statewide organization committed to helping uh women who have been victims of sexual and domestic violence. Um they provide a safe place for for women uh who are trying to leave a violent situation. My first job was with then a safe place, which ultimately became Haven in a in a merger and and with a new branding exercise years later. But when I was in college, I came home and I was working in a safe at a safe place, and I was an intake operator. So for people who were calling and trying to leave a dangerous situation, um, they'd they'd get me and several of my other colleagues and we'd help walk through the process of getting them safely brought to to a safe place shelter. Um so that was just an incre I mean they're an incredible organization. It was an important work, yeah. It was an amazing experience, and I got to see firsthand what it looks like to provide direct service and the difference it can make for people. Yeah. Um, it's really important work, and we gotta I'm really I'm excited to know that they'll the organization will have a home in this new location that will serve them really well and have transitional apartments for people too.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's super important.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's great.
SPEAKER_03:And speaking of housing, and it not to it's anything but politics, um, so I guess this is more of a statement, and I want to see what you think. But as a mom of two kids, and my daughter is now out looking for has a place, but will be looking for housing, and at some point we'll want to buy a home, and and my son's still in high school, but we'll see. But you kind of are hoping, even if they go away to school, that they're eventually going to make their way back to New Hampshire and and live here and raise their families because I mean, let's face it, it's a wonderful place to be and raise a family. But it's getting to the point where I worry that they're not going to be able to afford to live here and miss out on so many things if they have to go to somewhere else, maybe down south where housing's a little bit more affordable. Do you have any concerns? I mean, with four kids, especially out on the seacoast, it's it's got to be tough.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, I hear this everywhere. I I hear it from people who have young, you know, 20-something year old kids who've come back and are having to live at home because they're underemployed and can't cover both their student loans and the cost of rent. Um I hear from people whose kids are choosing jobs outside of New England or New Hampshire in particular because they can't afford to live here. Uh and I I think it's a huge policy challenge for the state because we're one of the, I think it's the now the fifth grayest state in the country. Um obviously there's huge incentives for people to retire here because we have no income tax and no sales tax, which makes a ton of sense. But we have to make sure we have infrastructure for young people to stay here so that they can fuel the economy. And if you look at the trifecta of h housing costs, the burden of student loan debt, and then childcare, which so many young families need, uh it's it becomes unsustainable for people. And we've got to solve that problem. We've got to make housing more accessible. We have to we have to elevate industries like trades professions. I was just up at Mount the Mount Washington Housing Coalition, and they were sharing that people are leaving construction trades in particular at two times the rate that people are entering because of retirement. And so just building housing is hard right now because you don't you can't find people who can do the plumbing and the electrical and the sheetrock. And those are critically important jobs that we need to elevate. And I I keep saying AI is not gonna take care of your three-year-old and it's not gonna plumb your toilet or or wire your electrical. So we I think, and I know you are an important leader on the community college front, and I think community colleges are a critical part of the infrastructure we need to accelerate some of these key jobs for New Hampshire's future. And it will also, I believe, help give young people who may not see a four-year college path as part of their plan a way of contributing. Um and I we've got to do everything we can to make it easier for people to stay here, to come back here. Yeah, yeah, and promoting the trades too, like you mentioned. Bring back the trades. Bring back the trades. Yeah, we've been talking a lot about a concept of creating a national skilled services core where we identify those trades that are critical to the future of the economy, including childcare, including plumbing, electrical, solar. Um, and I I think it's in our it's a national imperative that we do that uh because these are gonna be fundamental to our economy.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, 100%. And I think a lot of people, and there was always a mentality, or for a while I think we got into a mentality of you need to have a liberal arts education, and if you're gonna succeed, you need to get that education. And it really isn't the case. And I think we are fortunate in New Hampshire to have an exceptional community college system, and we have seven great schools with um different offerings um accessible all across the state, and it really is important, and and it's it can be a real really fulfilling career, and and people can go there and actually earn a really good living but through the trades.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, I was just talking to the person who runs the culinary program at Lakes Region Community College system back um earlier this spring. And I mean they are taking on some of the best culinary programs in the It's amazing what they do, yeah. CIA and Johnson and Wales, and these young people have no debt, and they're coming out making, you know, getting jobs, making great money.
SPEAKER_01:And great food.
SPEAKER_00:And amazing food, and loving their careers, they're loving it and so happy. Yeah, it's and it's happening right here in Lakes Region. So we have examples of what we know can work. We gotta just keep doing it, doing it more.
SPEAKER_03:And I love going to the board meetings at all the different campuses, but Lakes Region feeds us really well when we're there. So I bet it's always really good.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I bet they do. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So I'm just wondering if you and Craig are home on a Friday night and you don't have anything to do, which probably happens like every blue moon or so, and you decide to turn on the TV and watch something non-news related. Uh, so a movie or something, are you guys gonna put on an action film, a romantic, a comedy? What do you guys go for?
SPEAKER_00:Well, right now I it's true. Right now we're watching college women's volleyball. Yeah. So it would probably especially we're following Nebraska. The team is amazing. Uh, these young women are just so fun to watch. And uh so we're we're cheering them on. Texas is also a phenomenal team. Wisconsin, Penn State, the Penn State coaches this amazing woman, total badass, just navigated a really tough cancer treatment and um and is just and they won the state championship. I mean the the national championship last year. Um so it's probably what we're watching. Uh and but there are when it comes time for movies, I usually went out on a a romantic comedy. And I and usually and I do choose like a comfort, like you know, the while you were sleepings kind of genre, something that I've seen before, but I know I'm I know I'm gonna like it, and and I can just zone out and relax.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I'm a sucker for a good romco. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Sandy Book, she's yeah, yeah, she's amazing. I know.
SPEAKER_03:This congeniality is like, yeah. And before you came into the studio, Tom and I were just talking about how um dirty dancing is not a chick flick.
SPEAKER_00:I totally agree. And Patrick Swayze, come on. Yeah. It's just like what what what else is there, really?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah. All right, and one more fun question, at least for me. Um but so you're in the car coming out here, you're traveling over from Portsmouth. What's on the radio?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, well, I I'm a long time fan of anything but politics. Yes, anything but I have the tiger. Yes, I have the tiger. Well, if I'm listening to music, so I do listen to a lot of podcasts, um, but I also love I mean long time listener of James Taylor. I just saw him in concert here in Guilford over the summer, um, forever. Listen to James Taylor, Carol King going way, way back. So that's like the music of my childhood, the temptations, like all the music my parents loved and listened to growing up. And then loved love reggae, all kinds of reggae music. Um, I also am now a new fan of Noah Khan.
unknown:Oh.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah. Stick season. Yeah, northern attitude. I mean, who cannot sing that loud, really loud? Um, so yeah, that's that's usually what I'm listening to on for music. Um, but then I do listen to a lot of podcasts, and I think like the Bearbrook podcasting. Um Smartless is good. Yes, yes. And you know, Bearbrook and um serial, I mean, with roots in New Hampshire, right? Yeah, I feel like they I think New Hampshire is a big part of what has really created this whole thing.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, NPR has done a really good job with the podcast.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, National Public Radio. And on the 13th step, I highly recommend if people haven't heard that one yet. It's it's incredible. Um with Lauren Schulgen. Oh, yeah, she's does a great job. She's amazing. She's a San Azalon.
SPEAKER_01:We went to school together.
SPEAKER_03:Former WMU our intern, she's phenomenal.
SPEAKER_00:She's amazing, and that podcast, I mean, is is alarming and stunning. It's worth everybody listening to.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:So I'm wondering, you're in the car, you've got you do have music on, you're singing along to Carol King. If someone was in the car with you, would they be like, oh, Stephanie's got a really good singing voice, or would they be thinking like No, no, no, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_00:No, I sing really loud, but I do not sing well.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I was gonna say, if you turn the volume up enough, like you're harmonizing. Regardless of what you said about it.
SPEAKER_00:That's what I try to tell my family. Yeah. Yeah. I have two kids who are amazing vocally. They can sing beautifully. I am not one of them. They did not get that skill from me. I I grew up playing piano, so I I can I do no notes and I can play some piano. Um, but I I do not sound good when I'm singing.
unknown:No, no.
SPEAKER_00:I I'm not sure. Yes, yes, exactly. That's funny.
SPEAKER_01:No, well, thank you, because I know we've taken up a lot of your time and I know you're so fun. You're super busy uh again running for the first congressional district. Yes. Best of luck. Don't break a femur.
SPEAKER_00:No, I no, that's our we've already done that once. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:No, and thank you. So always a pleasure. Like I've I've had the pleasure of knowing you and your family for so many years. So, you know, personally, I was just really excited that that you came on. And you know, is there anything else we didn't ask you that that you want to make sure you get off your chest to our international crowd?
SPEAKER_00:No, I just think thank you for fostering these kind of conversations because ultimately we have real hard challenges ahead, and the way we get through those challenges is together by working together. And I think fostering relationships and friendships that allow you to get through the hard stuff is an important thing to be doing right now, more than ever. So thank you for your leadership to do that. It's been fun, really fun to be part of it.
SPEAKER_03:Well, thank you for your time. A real pleasure.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you.
SPEAKER_03:All right, well, we had Stephanie Shaheen, candidate for the first congressional district. Thank you so much for coming on.
SPEAKER_01:And this was another episode of Anything But Politics, and we'll catch you next time.
SPEAKER_03:Thank you so much for listening.