Podcast appearances and mentions of matt baume

This week, in a first-ever solo episode, Drew talks you through not just one episode of the cult series Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman instead the whole of the show's art for its two gay characters, Ed and Howard. What's remarkable about this nuanced portrayal of a same-sex couple is that by virtue of airing before the AIDS crisis, the showrunners didn't need to make these two characters angel gays. They're as neurotic and complex as any of the straight characters on the show, which means it's an example of a progressive representation back in 1976. If you want to see Ed and Howard (and everyone else) in action, check out the supercut of their whole story on Patreon. It's free for everyone, so even people who aren't pledging can watch it. There is not another place online where you can easily watch Ed and Howard's whole story. But also check out Matt Baume's 2020 video on why this show's gay storyline still matters. We have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This episode's art was designed by Ian O'Phelan.

Matt Baume, author, podcaster, and video-maker -- whose work focuses on pop-culture and queer history -- first-time watches MADONNA: TRUTH OR DARE (1991) alongside James and Allan in the Shamequarters.  Follow us on Bsky @cinemashame.bsky.social and on Instagram @CinemaShamePodcast. 

Episode Notes On E376 I sit down with queer content creator and author Matt Baume to talk about his experience with ADHD and nerve pain. We explore how that plays a role in his work and his queerness + so much more. Enjoy. Follow Matt Baume: https://www.mattbaume.com/ Episode Sponsors Clone-A-Willy or Clone-A-Pussy all your own and get 20% off sitewide by using coupon code DISABILITYAD20 at Checkout. www.cloneawilly.com Get 15% off your next purchase of sex toys, books and DVDs by using Coupon code AFTERDARK at checkout when you shop at trans owned and operated sex shop Come As You Are www.comeasyouare.com Join the Patreon and get the show days early and ad free at www.Patreon.com/disabilityafterdark This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

My So-Called Life: "Halloween" We're joined by Matt Baume (YouTuber, award-winning author, and host of Matt's So-Cast Pod) for this seminal Gen X teen drama and the poster child of 90s cancelled-too-soon TV--and the much-maligned time it ditched the grounded realism it was so famous for in a Halloween ghost story involving time travel and dying young. We talk about the breakout performance from Claire Danes, Jared Leto jumpscares, the show's groundbreaking queerness, and more! Find all of Matt Baume's incredible work:⁠⁠ YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠Matt's So-Cast Pod | Hi Honey, I'm Homo! A proud part of⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The Glitterjaw Queer Podcast Collective⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Tip us on Ko-Fi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ |⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Gimmicks Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Email: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠gimmickspodcast@gmail.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | Twitter:⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@gimmickspod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | Instagram:⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@gimmickspod⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Theme song:⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠"Disco Tears" by Raven⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ |⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Creative Commons Attribution 3.0⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sources: San Francisco Bay Guardian | Tampa Bay Times 

Hear from author and podcaster Matt Baume who discusses his book, Hi Honey, I'm Homo! Sitcoms, Specials, and The Queering of American Culture. As Matt unpacks the history, you will hear a few clips from the groundbreaking sitcoms in his book - and the messages are as profound and relevant today as they were decades ago!CLICK HERE to learn how History UnErased is putting LGBTQ history in its rightful place - the classroom.

Hello, I'm Matt Baume, and welcome to the Sewers of Paris. We're on a podcast search for entertainment that changed queer peoples' lives. This week, I'm continuing the monthlong Pride special, bringing you excerpts from some of the very best Sewers of Paris conversations I've had over the last nine years.This week, we're talking comics books. We'll start with a conversation with writer Andrew Wheeler, whose tales of adventure and intrigue stand in sharp contrast to his domestic life. Then moving on to artist DJ Kirkland, who pursued his dreams in spite of — or maybe in order to spite — a particularly mean art school teacher. Then we'll hear from artist Justin Hall, whose erotic imaginings are seemingly without limit. And finally the delightful writer Anthony Oliveira, who hosted a panel with me just last week at the Toronto Public Library.And also a quick note: if you're in Seattle, I hope you'll come see me at Elliott Bay Books this Friday, June 21st! I'll be talking about The Golden Girls, and what made those ladies such powerful queer icons — both on screen and in real life. Full details on all that at mattbaume.com/events.Full conversations with this week's guests:My 2018 conversation with Andrew WheelerMy 2016 conversation with DJ KirklandMy 2019 conversation with Justin HallMy 2017 conversation with Anthony Oliveira

What if we broke format to discuss America's favorite smartypants game show? Well, we did it. And special guest Emily Heller joins us to discuss Amy Schneider, who became Jeopardy's second-longest-running winner ever — and as a result became a household name and a trans icon.  Listen to Emily's Jeopardy podcast, What Is…? A Jeopardy! Podcast on Apple or Spotify! Listen to Peaches Christ and also Drew on Matt Baume's new My So-Called Life podcast! Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE's Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn And yes, we do have an official website! We even have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This episode's art was designed by Ian O'Phelan. This is a TableCakes podcast.

Behind the laughter and bright lights of sitcoms, some of America’s favorite shows featured queer storylines – whether viewers realized it or not. From Bewitched to the Golden Girls, “Hi Honey, I’m Homo!: Sitcoms, Specials and the Queering of American Culture” explores how sitcoms played a role in the advancement of LGBTQ+ rights by embracing queer culture. Matt Baume is a Seattle-based podcaster, Youtuber and author of the new book. He joins us to share some of the most impactful shows in gay history and the greater role they played in society.

We've made no secret about being Liza Minnelli fans and now the episode is finally here! Were we right to look forward to it all these weeks, or will we drink ourselves half blind over losing our love? It's a quiet thing, but don't worry, everything's coming up roses and it's gonna be a great day. With our very special guest star, Matt Baume! https://muppeturgy.com/episodes/liza-minnelli

Judging from teen dramas on Netflix, the slow dance seems to be alive and well. But when you talk to actual teens, it's clear this time-honored tradition is on life support. In this episode, we trace the history of slow dancing from its origins in partner dances like the waltz to the modern “zombie sway” seen at middle-school dances and high-school proms. Plus, former slow dancers offer up stiff-armed, nostalgia-soaked stories about a rite of passage that's fading fast. Decoder Ring is produced by Willa Paskin and Katie Shepherd. This episode was edited by Zakiya Gibbons. Derek John is executive producer. Joel Meyer is senior editor/producer. Merritt Jacob is our senior technical director. Thank you to Benjamin Frisch and Carlos Pareja. Special thanks to everyone who shared their slow dancing stories, including Ralph Giordano, Matt Baume, Meryl Bezrutczyk, Ari Feldman, Ava Candade, Eileen Zheng, and Harper Kois. Here's the article by Kyle Denis that we mentioned in the episode: The Death of the Slow Dance? How the One-Time Rite of Passage Has Evolved for Gen Z.  If you haven't yet, please subscribe and rate our feed in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And even better, tell your friends. If you're a fan of the show, we'd love for you to sign up for Slate Plus. Members get to listen to Decoder Ring without any ads. Their support is also crucial to our work. So please go to Slate.com/decoderplus to join Slate Plus today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Judging from teen dramas on Netflix, the slow dance seems to be alive and well. But when you talk to actual teens, it's clear this time-honored tradition is on life support. In this episode, we trace the history of slow dancing from its origins in partner dances like the waltz to the modern “zombie sway” seen at middle-school dances and high-school proms. Plus, former slow dancers offer up stiff-armed, nostalgia-soaked stories about a rite of passage that's fading fast. Decoder Ring is produced by Willa Paskin and Katie Shepherd. This episode was edited by Zakiya Gibbons. Derek John is executive producer. Joel Meyer is senior editor/producer. Merritt Jacob is our senior technical director. Thank you to Benjamin Frisch and Carlos Pareja. Special thanks to everyone who shared their slow dancing stories, including Ralph Giordano, Matt Baume, Meryl Bezrutczyk, Ari Feldman, Ava Candade, Eileen Zheng, and Harper Kois. Here's the article by Kyle Denis that we mentioned in the episode: The Death of the Slow Dance? How the One-Time Rite of Passage Has Evolved for Gen Z.  If you haven't yet, please subscribe and rate our feed in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And even better, tell your friends. If you're a fan of the show, we'd love for you to sign up for Slate Plus. Members get to listen to Decoder Ring without any ads. Their support is also crucial to our work. So please go to Slate.com/decoderplus to join Slate Plus today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Judging from teen dramas on Netflix, the slow dance seems to be alive and well. But when you talk to actual teens, it's clear this time-honored tradition is on life support. In this episode, we trace the history of slow dancing from its origins in partner dances like the waltz to the modern “zombie sway” seen at middle-school dances and high-school proms. Plus, former slow dancers offer up stiff-armed, nostalgia-soaked stories about a rite of passage that's fading fast. Decoder Ring is produced by Willa Paskin and Katie Shepherd. This episode was edited by Zakiya Gibbons. Derek John is executive producer. Joel Meyer is senior editor/producer. Merritt Jacob is our senior technical director. Thank you to Benjamin Frisch and Carlos Pareja. Special thanks to everyone who shared their slow dancing stories, including Ralph Giordano, Matt Baume, Meryl Bezrutczyk, Ari Feldman, Ava Candade, Eileen Zheng, and Harper Kois Here's the article by Kyle Denis that we mentioned in the episode: The Death of the Slow Dance? How the One-Time Rite of Passage Has Evolved for Gen Z.  If you haven't yet, please subscribe and rate our feed in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And even better, tell your friends. If you're a fan of the show, we'd love for you to sign up for Slate Plus. Members get to listen to Decoder Ring without any ads. Their support is also crucial to our work. So please go to Slate.com/decoderplus to join Slate Plus today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Judging from teen dramas on Netflix, the slow dance seems to be alive and well. But when you talk to actual teens, it's clear this time-honored tradition is on life support. In this episode, we trace the history of slow dancing from its origins in partner dances like the waltz to the modern “zombie sway” seen at middle-school dances and high-school proms. Plus, former slow dancers offer up stiff-armed, nostalgia-soaked stories about a rite of passage that's fading fast. Decoder Ring is produced by Willa Paskin and Katie Shepherd. This episode was edited by Zakiya Gibbons. Derek John is executive producer. Joel Meyer is senior editor/producer. Merritt Jacob is our senior technical director. Thank you to Benjamin Frisch and Carlos Pareja. Special thanks to everyone who shared their slow dancing stories, including Ralph Giordano, Matt Baume, Meryl Bezrutczyk, Ari Feldman, Ava Candade, Eileen Zheng, and Harper Kois Here's the article by Kyle Denis that we mentioned in the episode: The Death of the Slow Dance? How the One-Time Rite of Passage Has Evolved for Gen Z.  If you haven't yet, please subscribe and rate our feed in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And even better, tell your friends. If you're a fan of the show, we'd love for you to sign up for Slate Plus. Members get to listen to Decoder Ring without any ads. Their support is also crucial to our work. So please go to Slate.com/decoderplus to join Slate Plus today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Judging from teen dramas on Netflix, the slow dance seems to be alive and well. But when you talk to actual teens, it's clear this time-honored tradition is on life support. In this episode, we trace the history of slow dancing from its origins in partner dances like the waltz to the modern “zombie sway” seen at middle-school dances and high-school proms. Plus, former slow dancers offer up stiff-armed, nostalgia-soaked stories about a rite of passage that's fading fast. Decoder Ring is produced by Willa Paskin and Katie Shepherd. This episode was edited by Zakiya Gibbons. Derek John is executive producer. Joel Meyer is senior editor/producer. Merritt Jacob is our senior technical director. Thank you to Benjamin Frisch and Carlos Pareja. Special thanks to everyone who shared their slow dancing stories, including Ralph Giordano, Matt Baume, Meryl Bezrutczyk, Ari Feldman, Ava Candade, Eileen Zheng, and Harper Kois. Here's the article by Kyle Denis that we mentioned in the episode: The Death of the Slow Dance? How the One-Time Rite of Passage Has Evolved for Gen Z.  If you haven't yet, please subscribe and rate our feed in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And even better, tell your friends. If you're a fan of the show, we'd love for you to sign up for Slate Plus. Members get to listen to Decoder Ring without any ads. Their support is also crucial to our work. So please go to Slate.com/decoderplus to join Slate Plus today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are BACK from a break. Matt Baume joins Forrest, J. Andrew World, and Conan Neutron to talk about Alfred Hitchcock's 1948 technical experiment Rope. Matt Baume is a YouTuber and Writer who covers stories about Pop Culture and History from a Queer Perspective: https://www.youtube.com/@MattBaume He has a video on Rope: "The Secret Gay Love Affair Behind Alfred Hitchcock's Rope" Conan Neutron & The Secret Friends has a new split LP with Lung "Adult Prom" neutronfriends.bandcamp.com

This week, Matt Baume stops by to chat with Izzy and Murtada about his book, “Hi Honey, I'm Homo: Sitcoms, Specials, and the Queering of American Culture.” You may recognize Matt from his wonderful YouTube channel where he breaks down episodes of The Golden Girls, All in the Family, Friends, and more to examine how the media has portrayed LGBTQ+ issues throughout American history. His latest book offers this and more— “Hi Honey, I'm Homo! is the story not only of how subversive queer comedy transformed the American sitcom, from its inception through today, but how our favorite sitcoms transformed, and continue to transform, America.”Follow the show on Twitter and Instagram: @IMPictureShow.To hear more from Izzy and Murtada check them out on social media: Izzy (Twitter: @bkrewind, IG: @bk_rewind); Murtada (Twitter: @ME_Says, IG: murtada_e).See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week, we're joined by Matt Baume, author of the new book Hi Honey, I'm Homo, about the history of LGBTQ representation on American TV. Instead of a single episode, we're talking about several, including some we've covered previously on GEE and some we have not! All in the Family, “Judging Books by Covers” (February 9, 1971) Soap, “Episode 1.8” (November 8, 1977) The Golden Girls, “Isn't It Romantic?” (November 8, 1986) and “Sister of the Bride” (January 12, 1991) Ellen, “The Puppy Episode” (April 30, 1997) Will & Grace, “Homo for the Holidays” (November 25, 1999) Schitt's Creek, “Honeymoon” (April 15, 2015) Go buy Matt's book, Hi Honey, I'm Homo! Watch the Carol Burnette clip with Jim Nabors and Rock Hudson that Drew mentions. Watch the Ellen DeGeners appearance on Rosie O'Donnell that Matt mentions. And here is that Australian marriage equality ad. Listen to that deep dive about Cool World that Drew mentions. There are a lot of references to episodes we've covered previously, and check them all out here: Archie Bunker Meets a Homo Alice Dates a Gay Guy Gomer Pyle Writes Gay Love Letters Taxi Does a Bisexual Episode We Finally Do Soap Dorothy's Friend Is a Lesbian Blanche's Gay Brother Wants to Get Gay Married The Other Two Finds a Daddy Ellen Comes Out* Give us a rate and review on Apple Podcasts — and on Spotify too, if you can.

Activist and author Matt Baume joins us to talk about his excellent book on queer representation in sitcoms Hi Honey, I'm Homo!. Also: devastatingly elegant kiss-offs to the ignorant and angry, catching up on the classics, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, the rise of PlutoTV, Boober from Fraggle Rock as gay icon, cinemaphobia, the genius of Bewitched, All In The Family and Soap, the problem of Jody, the joy of a progressive family, and the place where the hottest men on television can reliably be found: reruns of Supermarket Sweep. 

Behind the laughter and bright lights of sitcoms, some of America's favorite shows featured queer storylines – whether viewers realized it or not. From Bewitched to the Golden Girls, “Hi Honey, I'm Homo!: Sitcoms, Specials and the Queering of American Culture” explores how sitcoms played a role in the advancement of LGBTQ+ rights by embracing queer culture.Matt Baume is a Seattle-based podcaster, Youtuber and author of the new book. He joins us to share some of the most impactful shows in gay history and the greater role they played in society.

What did Queer representation look like in 70s, 80s and 90s television? Could you say gay?Susan and Sharon kick off their Pride Month celebration with author, podcaster and video maker Matt Baume. His latest book, “Hi Homey, I'm Homo!” traces the evolution of LGBTQ+ characters on American sitcoms. His previous book - “Defining Marriage” - chronicles the personal stories of people who fought for marriage equality over the last forty years.In this fun, fact-filled interview, Matt shares stories from his childhood and early life that led to his career as a chronicler of queer history on TV – and then we discuss the highlights (and lowlights) of TV history as seen through rainbow-colored glasses…THE CONVERSATIONHow the Civil rights movement led to the first subtextual whispers about Queer culture and characters on TV. “Bewitched” anyone?AND – how the “Bewitched” episode “The Witches Are Out” (S1, Ep 7) eerily and hilariously anticipates future struggles for representation within marginalized cultures.The 1971 “All in the Family” (S1, Ep 5) “Judging Books By Covers” features one of the first gay characters on primetime TV – even though the word “gay” is never used.AND – how another “AITF” recurring character, drag queen Beverly La Salle, becomes part of “the family” in “Archie, the Hero” “Beverly Rides Again” “Edith's Crisis of Faith”AND – how “AITF” 1975 episode “Cousin Liz” may have swayed a California election about whether or not homosexuals should be allowed to teach in public schools.Do you remember the 1992 Nickelodeon "Nick News with Linda Ellerbee" special "A Conversation with Magic" about HIV/AIDS featuring Magic Johnson and a group of HIV-positive kids? Matt does – and it led directly to what he does now.“I Can't Believe It's Not Heterosexual!” - a deep dive into the classic sitcom “discovery moment” when a character suddenly realizes another character is gay.Gay Kisses on TV: LA Law, Picket Fences, and Rosanne. Why is it one thing for women to kiss – but way different for men?What do “Fraggle Rock” and “Star Trek” have in common?“80's Star Trek Ladies”? It might be coming your way soon-ish…!“Designing Women's” groundbreaking episode “Killing All The Right People” about AIDS and safe sex.How TV struggled then and still today with trans representation.The Incredible Life of George Takei!So join Susan and Sharon – and Matt – and they discuss Muppets, Maude – and the Magic of asking for “100 percent of what you want – 100 percent of the time!” AUDIOGRAPHYCheck out everything Matt Baume is doing – including his podcast “Sewers of Paris” -- at his website, MattBaume.comGet Matt Baume's new book “Hi Honey, I'm Homo” at Bookshop.SIGNED COPIES are available at Elliott Bay.Watch Matt's YouTube Videos.LGBTQ AdvocacyConsider supporting orgs like The Trevor Project and The Okra Project.CONNECTWhat does representation mean to you? Email us at 80sTVLadies@gmail.comFor transcripts and more visit 80sTVLadies.com.Don't miss out. Sign up for the 80s TV Ladies mailing list!Help us make more episodes and get ad-free episodes and exclusive content on PATREON.This show is part of the Spreaker Prime Network, if you are interested in advertising on this podcast, contact us at https://www.spreaker.com/show/5585115/advertisement

Soundside host Libby Denkmann sits down with author & YouTube host Matt Baume to talk about his new book, "Hi Honey, I'm Homo: Sitcoms, Specials, and the Queering of American Culture"We can only make Soundside because listeners support us. Make the show happen by making a gift to KUOW: https://www.kuow.org/donate/soundside

Matt Baume is a writer, podcaster, and video-maker based in Seattle whose work focuses on pop culture and queer history. “Every chapter serves up a slice of queer history with a rich scoop of fascinating, juicy asides and shocking behind-the-scenes insights—like having dishy late-night cheesecake with a witty, wise friend.” —Anthony Oliveira, PhD, author, film programmer, and pop culture critic “For a medium so aligned with queer sensibilities, with its brazen artifice, showy wit, and over-the-top performances, the network sitcom was slow to embrace actual queer people. In Hi Honey, I'm Homo, Matt Baume takes us on a highly entertaining tour of queer representation in television comedy, from the be-bad-with-meta phor and you'll-miss-it winks of Bewitched to the out-and-proud-ish center stage of Will & Grace. Baume brings his trademark mix of childlike enthusiasm and intellectual rigor to a medium he clearly loves. He calls out cowardice and appeasement where he sees it, but is also careful to place each show inside its moment in queer history. This not only broadens the scope of the book, it helps us understand why sitcoms failed queer people where they did, and allows us to appreciate each step of progress on its own terms. Mainly, he never allows the many times sitcoms failed queers to diminish his appreciation for the form. I came away from Hi Honey, I'm Homo with not only a broader understanding of the medium I've spent over thirty years writing, but a big smile, too.” —Richard Day, TV writer and producer on Arrested Development, Spin City, The Drew Carey Show, Ellen, and more “What an absolute honor to read Matt Baume's Hi Honey, I'm Homo. 

Crack open a Foster's cuz this year's Pride begins Down Under with the other well-known movie about three drag queens taking a road trip! But don't drink and drive. Not even through the Outback. Matt Baume's video Desperate Lives Celeste +++++ Intro: by Professor Ping available on BandcampOutro: Lonely Boys performing Drop It Down Girl --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/zandkmoviepod/support

A woman feels guilty that she's only interested in tall men. How can she weed out the little fellas?  Our guest this week is author Matt Baume, to discuss his fantastic book “Hi Honey, I'm Homo,” which looks at queer history through the lens of old TV shows. Shows like Soap, Bewitched and All in the Family grappled with gayness in secret and overt ways that reflect the historical context of when they aired. And because this is the Savage Lovecast, Dan makes Matt answer a question about fucking trees. Some of the convo is on the Micro and all of it is on the Magnum.  A man plans to propose to his girlfriend. His mom died when he was very young, leaving behind a diamond in his dad's care. His dad really wants him to give this diamond to his fiancé, but the caller doesn't want to. What should he do?  And, a woman is begging you. Please, please, please, if you have a penis, can wash it before you plan to use it? And wash your underpants too?  Sure you can!  Q@Savage.Love 206-302-2064 This episode is brought to you by Feeld, a dating app where the open-minded can meet the like-minded. Download Feeld for free, and get access to a free month of Majestic Membership when you go to feeld.co/savage This episode is brought to you by the Meridian Trimmer, the very best tool to trim your body hair. Go to MeridianGrooming.com and use the code SAVAGE for an exclusive 15% off. 

Harvey Brownstone conducts an in-depth interview with Matt Baume, Podcaster and Author, “Hi Honey, I'm Homo: Sitcoms, Specials, and the Queering of American Culture” About Harvey's guest: Today's guest, Matt Baume, is a writer, podcaster, and video-maker whose work focuses on pop culture and issues of particular interest to the LGBTQ+ community.   His popular online YouTube series, “Culture Cruise”, explores surprising behind-the-scenes stories from film and television history.  And his podcast interview show, “The Sewers of Paris”, is about how queer people's lives are shaped by our favorite books, movies, music, and shows.   He's also known for his shows “Weekly Debrief” and “Marriage News Watch”.  And he's the co-creator of the comedy podcast & live show “Queens of Adventure”.    His first book, entitled “Defining Marriage: Voices From a 40-year Labour of Love”, chronicles the compelling personal stories of the most prominent pioneers and champions  who fought for the legalization of same-sex marriage.    And today, he's here to talk about his brand new book entitled, “Hi Honey, I'm Homo: Sitcoms, Specials, and the Queering of American Culture”.   The book gives us an informative and entertaining analysis of how, starting in the early 70s, situation comedies like “All in the Family”, “Soap”, “Barney Miller”, “Cheers”, “The Golden Girls”, and many more American TV shows, used comedy as a medium to deliver provocative and progressive messages and lessons about bigotry, tolerance and sexuality.   From the hidden and subtle metaphors in “Bewitched”, to the studio politics on shows like  Ellen DeGeneres' sitcom, and “Friends”, to the groundbreaking triumphant victories on “Will and Grace”, and “Modern Family”, the book shows us that positive media depictions of minorities on TV shows, have a demonstrable real-life impact in shaping public attitudes, fostering tolerance, acceptance and empathy.    Our guest was nominated for a GLAAD award for journalism, and his work has appeared in dozens of media outlets including National Public Radio, Rolling Stone, The Advocate, and many more.  The New York Times referred to his work as “thoughtful, thorough, informative and funny,” and I agree wholeheartedly. For more interviews and podcasts go to: https://www.harveybrownstoneinterviews.com/ https://www.mattbaume.com/http://www.facebook.com/mattbaume https://twitter.com/MattBaume http://instagram.com/mattbaume http://www.youtube.com/mattbaumehttp://toot.io/@mattbaume #mattbaume   #harveybrownstoneinterviews

New episode! It was an honour for us at BGM that podcaster and author Matt Baume made time to sit down and talk to us about Herbert Ross’s The Last Of Sheila, though owing to the fact that both he and Bil loved the movie and because Matt is so great to talk to about […]

Want more of our discussion with Matt? We've got a 30 minute bonus content interview for you here which is free for everyone on our Patreon - no need to sign up, though we'd love it if you did! We talk about 'The Host', Dax, George Takei, Discovery, Fraggle Rock and lots of other great stuff!Check Matt out here:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnSFwk_mZPnUuh0m7Z6T-4ghttps://www.patreon.com/mattbaumeAnd pre-order his upcoming book ‘Hi Honey, I'm Homo!' here

Matt Baume, a Seattle-based writer, podcaster, and video-maker joins Andrew in the ITBR. Matt gears his content towards LGBTQ+ culture, geeks, and all things strange and wonderful! Matt is the creative genius behind the podcast The Sewers of Paris and his over 220,000 subscriber YouTube channel! Matt was nominated for the GLAAD award for journalism and recognized by the New York Times as “thoughtful and thorough… informative and funny.”  Matt reveals the inspiration for his 2015 book, “Defining Marriage: Voices from a Forty-Year Label of Love.” Before marriage equality was enacted, Matt heard a plethora of stories from couples hoping for the day they can legally marry in the United States. Matt was inspired, and combined testimonials over the course of a few decades into a book, sharing the stories of LGBTQ+ couples.  Andrew asks Matt about today's advocacy climate and whether or not the same energy that was used to fight for marriage equality exists today for transgender rights. Where are all the celebrities and public figures who advocated for  marriage equality when it comes to transgender activism? Matt reveals why LGBTQ+ TV, Film, and Pop Culture truly speaks to him! Matt describes how media entertainment and culture was always a part of him. He finds media important in order to advance the “human project” and gain a better understanding of each other's experiences, whether you're a fan of “Modern Family” or “Queer as Folk.”  Make sure you listen to Matt interview Andrew, on his podcast The Sewers of Paris, where Andrew opens up about how his musical theater career intersects with his academic one! Be sure to follow Matt Baume on Instagram (@mattbaume), Twitter (@MattBaume), and Facebook (@mattbaume). Subscribe to his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/mattbaume Check out Matt's personal website! https://www.mattbaume.com/sewers-summary Preorder Matt's book, “Hi Honey, I'm Homo!”: https://bookshop.org/p/books/hi-honey-i-m-homo-sitcoms-specials-and-the-queering-of-american-culture/18906893 Head over to the ITBR Cafe, our Patreon, for exclusive bonus episodes featuring many academics, authors, and media personalities… Only $5 a month! ⁠patreon.com/ivorytowerboilerroom Head to Broadview Press, an independent academic publisher, for all your humanities related books. Use code ivorytower for 20% off your broadviewpress.com order. To subscribe to The Gay and Lesbian Review visit glreview.org. Click Subscribe, and enter promo code ITBR to receive a free copy with any print or digital subscription. Order from @mandeemadeit, mention ITBR, and with your first order you'll receive a free personalized gift! Follow That Ol' Gay Classic Cinema on Instagram, @thatolgayclassiccinema. Follow ITBR on IG, @ivorytowerboilerroom, TikTok, @ivorytowerboilerroom, and Twitter, @IvoryBoilerRoom! Thanks to the ITBR team! Andrew Rimby (Executive Director), Mary DiPipi (Chief Contributor), and our Spring 23 Interns (Andrea, Kaitlyn, Rosie, Sara, and Sheila) --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ivorytowerboilerroom/support

After another 12 months with the podcast, Caleb and Isaac return for their third New Years special. And picking up some of the threads from last years episode, we discuss some of our failures and successes during 2022. We also discuss their favorite episodes they've recorded this year, and upcoming episodes on the 2023 schedule. As always, for everyone who's listened to the show over the past year, happy new year and thanks for spending time with us in 2022. And to all our guest hosts, we raise you a toast and look forward to another year of fun conversations.

On today's midweek show, Representative Jessica Bateman of the 22nd Legislative District joins Crystal for an in-depth discussion on housing policy in Washington State. After laying out the Department of Commerce's 20-year projection of a needed million homes of which half need to be low-income housing, Representative Bateman walks through plans to address issues of supply, stabilization, and subsidized housing in the 2023 Legislative Session. Crystal outlines common opposition arguments to addressing the housing crisis - such as pushing growth into rural areas and maintaining local control - and Representative Bateman debunks these claims as not rooted in reality or equity. The two then make hopeful observations of the urgency of the problem being reflected in a tone shift in the conversation as well as the election of younger and more diverse legislators with closer ties to the matter - as a result, the House is redoing their committee structure and a broad coalition of stakeholders is coming together to elevate solutions to an issue that affects all of us. As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Follow us on Twitter at @HacksWonks. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Twitter at @finchfrii and find Representative Jessica Bateman at @jessdbateman.   Representative Jessica Bateman Representative Jessica Bateman lives by the commitment that no one should be left out or left behind. A lifelong resident of the Pacific Northwest, she grew up in a single-parent, working-class household. Watching her mom work hard to provide for her family deeply shaped Jessica's worldview and later motivated her advocacy for those most vulnerable in our communities. Since then, Jessica has dedicated her career to serving the 22nd Legislative District, where she envisions an inclusive, equitable future for all who call this region home. As an organizer and coalition leader, Jessica has worked to create affordable housing, assist struggling families, and empower at-risk youth. Jessica also worked to pass a Sanctuary City Resolution in Olympia and is a passionate advocate for accessible health care. Jessica is a first-generation college student who earned her master's degree in Public Administration from The Evergreen State College and her bachelor's degree in environmental science. She currently works as a health care policy analyst, and served on the Olympia City Council and as staff in the House of Representatives.   Resources Washington House Democrats: Representative Jessica Bateman   “What Washington's housing legislation could look like in 2023” by Joshua McNichols from KUOW   “Poll: Strong Majority of Washingtonians Support Middle Housing Options” from The Sightline Institute   “What Will It Take to Get Statewide Housing Reform?” by Matt Baume from The Stranger   “18 Reasons Why Washington Should Legalize Middle Housing” by Dan Bertolet from Sightline Institute   Representative Bateman Twitter thread on creation of new Housing Committee Futurewise: We work across Washington to create livable communities, ensure clean healthy waterways, and protect farms, forests & habitat for this & future generations.   Transcript   [00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Crystal Fincher, and I'm a political consultant and your host. On this show, we talk with policy wonks and political hacks to gather insight into local politics and policy in Washington state through the lens of those doing the work with behind-the-scenes perspectives on what's happening, why it's happening, and what you can do about it. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. So today I am really excited to be welcoming Representative Jessica Bateman to the show to talk all things housing. How are you doing? [00:00:48] Representative Jessica Bateman: I am fabulous. Thank you so much for having me. [00:00:50] Crystal Fincher: Well, I'm really excited to talk about this. Obviously, housing affordability has been a major issue on the minds of a majority of people across the state. Going through election season, we see polls and we hear about what are the most pressing issues that voters are thinking about and that people are facing in their communities - and consistently the cost of housing and affordability comes up as one of the predominant concerns. Housing is usually people's biggest expense that they have, and the cost of housing has just been skyrocketing and has caused a lot of problems that people are trying to figure out how to deal with. You have been working on that. So I guess starting off, I just want to back up a little bit and talk about what brought you to the Legislature - I mean to politics, you were on the Olympia City Council and then the Legislature - and what got you so passionate about housing? [00:01:46] Representative Jessica Bateman: Well, I worked on housing on the Olympia City Council for five years during my tenure there, but I'll go back even further. When we talk about housing policy, we can get really into the weeds and we're on a show right now that has "wonk" in the title - so I definitely can go there and have those conversations. But I think it's really important for us to remember - when we talk about the need for housing - abundant housing and housing options for everyone, housing that's affordable for families - we're talking about people. Because every single person and every single family has to have a home and a place to live. And for me, it's personal. My mom grew up in poverty - she was born and raised in a trailer park in rural Montana. She moved out here to get a job and after having me, she was able to get a job at the county, King County, working as a janitor. And that job was a union-paying job and it helped provide the economic security for her, healthcare benefits - to buy a home as a single mom for $117,000 in Maple Valley. She took the equity that she built in that home and helped me buy a home when I was in my early 30s. I was able to sell that home, pay off all my student loans, and buy a second home with financial security and stability. Fortunately for me, I was one of the lucky ones. I went on to earn my Master's degree, ran for City Council, and now I'm in the Legislature. I want every family to have that opportunity - and right now with the current conditions that we are experiencing with housing, that is not the reality for people across Washington state. And my major concern is that the status quo is not working and we have an obligation - a moral obligation - to make changes so that that opportunity is available to everyone. [00:03:30] Crystal Fincher: Completely makes sense. It mirrors the story of so many people in our communities right now. So what are you working on? What is the fix? What do we need to do to get this issue under control? [00:03:43] Representative Jessica Bateman: I don't want to imply that there is a single solution, or that this is an easy problem to solve. The reality is that it has been decades in the making. It's also multifaceted. We've seen construction after the last recession - we saw a lot of people exit that workforce and we haven't seen them come back since then. So we've got a workforce issue underlying what is a barrier to the construction of housing. The fact of the matter is that the majority of cities across Washington state only allow one type of home to be built - single-family homes - in the vast majority of the residential land use areas. So when we're experiencing a shortage of housing - the numbers that we've been talking about in the last year are the quarter of a million homes that we're behind. We've now got estimates from the Department of Commerce - what our housing need is over the next 20 years - it's a million, and half of those - 500,000 - need to be homes that are affordable for people earning 0-50% AMI [average median income], which would be considered low-income housing. So we have this desperate need to build housing commensurate with our population growth - that's really what we have not been able to do. We've been growing as a state, growing as an economy with jobs, job recruitment. You in Seattle definitely know and see that every day. While we do that, we also have to - must - allow for the construction for homes for those people to live in. Because when we don't have enough homes, the supply imbalance creates this environment - because everyone needs a home. People - what we saw in the last year with the astronomical prices - people in Seattle bidding $200,000 over asking price - really just eliminating the option for middle-income families right out the gate. People that were buying homes in this last year were people that had wealth. So what we're trying to focus on going into the 2023 session is focusing on the multifaceted nature of this issue - triaging the issue of housing - because we know one single solution will not solve it. So it's about increasing supply - making sure that we have homes available to Washingtonians of all shapes and sizes. So that's meeting you where you are and what your needs are and what the demand is. If that's an ADU for a senior that wants to live on the property of their children so they can age in place and provide childcare. If that's a college student that would like to work at the record store down the street and be able to walk to work every day. That's a duplex, if you want to be able to buy into a home and build equity - or a sixplex or a fourplex or a cottage home - we should have all of these options available to us. There's also additional barriers and we have to make it legal to build those homes - we have to lift the bans on those homes. We also need to do things like make it easier for lot splitting - so if you have a piece of property, you can split that line and you can actually sell it - making that equity yourself, that profit. And you can also allow someone else to buy it - build a duplex - so they can then have that opportunity. We're also focusing on things like condo liability, permitting, impact fees. We can get into all those details, but there's all these other things that impact our ability to impact supply. We also want to focus on stabilization because ultimately it is much more effective to keep people in the homes that they're in. So that's weatherization support for low-income people. That's rent stabilization - helping people stay if they're getting behind on their rent. It's also increased notice for people when rent increases are going to happen. We had a bill last year that would have required six months' notice for a tenant if the rent increase was going to be 7% or more. That bill did not make it out of the House last year. We can talk more definitely about the challenges of a bill like that. I also think we'll have a rent cap bill. So actually keeping a cap on rent - maybe similar to what we saw in Oregon, which was a 7% or inflation, but it could be - like in a case where we have inflation, it could be higher. And then also the last tier of that stool is subsidized housing. So that's the public investment in permanently affordable housing. You can call it social housing, you can call it public housing - but it's subsidized housing by the government to keep it affordable in perpetuity. And there's a number of different ways that we do that. Primarily at the legislative level, it's through the Housing Trust Fund. We need to vastly increase our investment in that. So the numbers that I started off with - the 500,000 that are 0-50% AMI - that's very difficult to build considering how expensive it is to build housing, with the cost of land, infrastructure, materials, workforce, permits, timeline, all the things, impact fees. So we really do need the government to step up and help support the subsidized lower-income housing. Over the last 40 years - since 1986 - the Housing Trust Fund has only built 55,000 homes. So if we're looking at a 20-year horizon of a need of 500,000 homes - that is pretty simple math for the common person to just say that does not add up. So we've got a significant gap in the need and what we're investing. That number just came out recently - I had been telling my colleagues we need to add a minimum double our Housing Trust Fund investment. Now that those numbers have come out, it tells me we need to make a significant investment, much more than double. So that's just the start of what I'm thinking for 2023. [00:09:15] Crystal Fincher: Well, and that does certainly seem like it would make a significant difference and addresses many of the different elements of challenge in the whole issue. When I hear people - who have been less excited about this bill, or about taking on housing challenges, or even in opposition to - saying things, there are a few things that I hear. One is just, and I think there was a local meeting last night where it was expressed - hey, this is all growth. Why do we need to accommodate people who are coming here? Somewhere else can accept the growth. That's for big cities and not necessarily for all of the other communities. What would you say to- [00:10:00] Representative Jessica Bateman: I would say that is not a factual statement. It's not based in reality or evidence or fact. Cities in Washington state - when you take an oath to serve the Constitution of Washington state - you take an oath to obey its laws and to fulfill them as a local elected official. And in our state law - under the Growth Management Act - we are required as local municipalities to plan for future population growth. It's a requirement. We can't just opt out of that and say no - although I have heard that before. I've doorbelled and had someone tell me - let's just build a wall around our city and tell people they need to move somewhere else. I think it's a fantastical idea. It's convenient to think we just don't have to welcome people into our community - I like it exactly how it is. The reality is that's not an option. If it's not an option and we know population growth will happen and that we have to accommodate it, our choice and opportunity is, what do we want that to look like? What do we want our community to look like? [00:10:57] Crystal Fincher: That makes sense. And I think the entire business community would be pretty unhappy with just saying - no, we don't want anyone else in this community. Definitely would not be a community that thrived. [00:11:10] Representative Jessica Bateman: If you walk through that argument - think about doctors, nurses, construction, waitresses, waiters. Our lives depend upon people being here, people working here - solutions, creative thinking, schools, everything we have - we want people to be here. [00:11:30] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. What do you say to other people who - there was another recent local meeting where folks were - well, we're supposed to absorb growth within these existing boundaries that - in either special districts or existing areas where there are homes. But there's all this other land that we have out in these suburban and rural areas and we can, instead of "burdening" single-family neighborhoods, we can just build new housing elsewhere. What do you say to people who say that? [00:12:02] Representative Jessica Bateman: Also a fantastical idea about reality. Going back to the Growth Management Act, which stipulates that we concentrate population growth in our urban environments, in our cities - for good reason. That's where the infrastructure already exists. It's much more cost effective to build there. And because we want to retain green spaces, habitat conservation for our environment, for farmland, for habitat for endangered species and different animals - we have to have those green spaces. That's why the Growth Management Act stated its intent to have cities - population growth to occur in cities. Cities have processes for annexing and for expanding out, but there's a process for that as that's not something that happens every day and it's complicated. The reason is because we know we have to abide by the law and that population growth has to occur in our cities. [00:12:53] Crystal Fincher: Last session, we heard from a number of cities - through a number of advocacy organizations and lobbyists - that cities don't want a one-size-fits-all solution for the state. They want to be able to come up with their own solutions for their own cities on their own. Unsurprisingly, not many cities have figured out that solution, despite the fact that this has been a growing crisis for years and years. What do you say to those who say - we need local control? [00:13:24] Representative Jessica Bateman: I think local control is a 20th century ideology - it's outlived its use in this conversation. And it's vastly inadequate as a defense when we're looking at not enough housing for the people in Washington state to live in. The argument just falls incredibly flat. In addition to that, I would say I heard it for five years when I was on the Olympia City Council. We passed middle housing there - legislation, ordinance - after years of work, after 44 public meetings, after 1200 pages of written comment, after 3 public hearings. We went through it and we passed it anyway because we had - fortunately, an organized group of residents that were supportive and wanted livable, walkable communities. And we also had about a half that were really vocal and opposed, which is traditionally the people that show up at City Council meetings. We have data that tells us in fact that people that show up at City Council meetings are predominantly older, whiter, male property owners - so I would argue that the very process that we go through to receive public input on things like zoning changes and proposed zoning changes - where we're considering whether or not we want to grow as a city, which means allow more people to live here and be here - and the people that show up are the people that have the investment, the financial stake in maintaining the status quo is not equitable. And as government, as elected officials, we should - especially as Democrats, with our values - we should be looking at this system and analyzing - is it equitable? Who is benefiting from this? We have to think of the future that we want. When I think of the future that I want and the problem that we're currently experiencing where we have not enough homes for the people that are here resulting in homelessness, resulting in people spending a third to half of their income on their housing, being vulnerable to falling into homelessness, not buying basic necessities like medicine because they cannot afford their needs because their rent is so high, or people that are terrified of a rent increase over a hundred dollars - the stress that that causes. When I hear those things and that's the problem that I'm trying to solve and a city comes to me and says - but I want to maintain local control. That's why it falls flat. And the data doesn't lie - the vast majority of cities do not allow middle housing. 5% of the permits in Washington state for new construction are for middle housing. The data doesn't lie. The consensus among social scientists - people that study this work - doesn't lie. There's, at the local level, not a lot of incentives for individual residents to support new housing. That's just a fact. It's not a judgment. I'm not judging people. I think it's a very natural inclination to say - I want things to stay how they are when you give a choice. Like I mentioned before, the way that we go about getting public input for these decisions really is inherently getting input from people that are already housed, not the people that are working two jobs, single moms, or someone that speaks English as a second language, or someone that has a reaction to an institutional setting like a City Council meeting. We need to be aware of that and we need to be thinking collectively about the good of Washington state. I would also argue that we've got over 220 cities in Washington - the vast majority of them are small ones. Does it make sense when we have something that's impacting cities across the state that we would want them to be doing it on an ad hoc individual basis across the state? I would argue that we would want a floor statewide, and then if they want to add additional incentives and additional density increases - that they can do that. [00:16:54] Crystal Fincher: That makes sense to me. I think one interesting thing that I've noticed, as this conversation has taken place over the last several years, is that there's been a hesitance on behalf of a lot of elected officials because of what you just described - in hearing from the most vocal people who, as you talk about, usually are wealthy landowners who are profiting handsomely on the status quo, being vocal and saying - no, we don't need this. We don't want this. This isn't the right way to go. We don't need to grow. Just leave things the way they are. And a real hesitance from a number of elected officials to take action because they feel like it will come with a lot of pushback. However, I think what has been really encouraging to see is that over the, especially the last couple electoral cycles, we have seen voters in districts where this has been a big topic of conversation - in a number of districts where some of the most outspoken critics or people who have been hesitant to take action on this have been - and their districts and their jurisdictions, overall in voting, when this has been an issue in the election - and basically where candidates have taken opposing views on the ballot - voters have voted overwhelmingly in favor of candidates who are saying - hey, this is not sustainable, we have to take action, we need to implement middle housing, we need to make housing more affordable, we need to protect renters and just make sure people can afford to age in place, live where they are. Hearing from a number of parents who have raised kids and who were not paying attention so much, but now their kids are in college and in early careers - and they're seeing through their kids' eyes a lot of times how hostile this housing market is, how hard it is to get your foot in the door as a homeowner, and how hard it is just to afford rent year after year - and that creating a different kind of a sense of urgency and need than we've seen before. This issue is affecting everybody, everywhere. Do you see a change in perspective among some of your colleagues in the Legislature after seeing so many voters vote in favor of a new direction? [00:19:16] Representative Jessica Bateman: Yes. I have noticed the tone change on this particular issue - because I've been working on it for eight years now - and it's significantly different today. I noticed it a lot last session when I was working on the middle housing bill. We even had an article, I think in the Auburn paper, where when they presented the middle housing bill, it was pretty - they didn't try to burn anyone at the stake with their description of the bill. It was pretty balanced - I was surprised. And what that tells me - and also the anecdotal stories that I hear from people talking to members in their district, from what I hear from my colleagues - is that as Washingtonians get more squeezed by this housing shortage, the more people it impacts, the more real it becomes. Like my little sister - my dad worked at Boeing 40 years, something like that. My little sister is the baby of the family. She's a nurse. She can't afford a home in King County. She makes a good living at her wage. She has a partner too that makes a decent living. But the median home price last year when I was working on this bill, or earlier this year, was $830,000 - which they just cannot afford. They want to live near downtown because they don't want to spend an hour commuting every day and it's just impossible - there's no way that they can do that. So they're postponing starting a family, postponing building equity, building a future, getting roots in a community. That's happening all across the state, so we're seeing people that have children, like you mentioned, that are experiencing that. We're also seeing people that have relatives - like parents - that are stuck in these big suburban homes that are going - I would move to a smaller home if there was an option for me, and there aren't. Because we're not seeing the construction of - those smaller homes and condos really aren't being constructed. They're being constructed at a very low rate. So because it's impacting more and more people, I think you're seeing that dialogue change. Also, the younger and more diverse our legislators are, the more connected they are to this issue. It's pretty simple. And just this recent year, our freshmen incoming class is the most diverse class - both racially, lived experience, and economically. So I'm very optimistic that we're going to take this issue seriously, that we're going to work on solutions for the people of Washington, and that we're going to get some major things accomplished this next year. [00:21:30] Crystal Fincher: All right. So talking about getting things accomplished - is middle housing going to pass this year? [00:21:36] Representative Jessica Bateman: I am very hopeful. So a couple of things have happened. First, we have changed our committee structures. Every two years, we evaluate our committee structures and the jurisdictions within them. And so going into 2023, we heard from our members in the Democratic caucus on the House side that housing was the number one issue that they wanted to focus on. So we took a look at the committees and we decided to create one committee that's just housing and everything housing. That might seem like an obvious choice, but it wasn't. Before that, the current committee structure - until the end of this year - I'm on the Housing, Human Services and Veteran Affairs Committee, which includes veteran affairs, developmental disability, social services, and housing. So we're putting everything other than housing - we're pulling it out - and then we're going to take zoning and GMA out of Local Government and put it into the Housing Committee. Makes sense because we want to look at not just the symptoms of not having enough housing - like the need for rent stabilization, for instance. We want to look at the cause, the root of the problem, and look at all of those things together - condos, HOAs, rent stabilization, Housing Trust Fund dollars, and above all, supply. Because to be honest, we have not been focusing very much on the supply side of this problem. It's almost been like a dirty word amongst politicians. And I think there may be subconscious reasons for that - it's really easy to vilify developers. When we get into the nitty gritty of why housing is so expensive, it's because it's expensive to construct housing. And actually the government's responsible for a lot of that. So we need to be honest about that - it's the first step in coming to terms with a solution is being honest and accepting the current conditions. So we need to look at those things and figure out how are we going to solve them. And I'm very enthusiastic and excited about this committee. We'll decide later on this week who will serve on committees and it will be adopted by our caucus next week. But I think that indicates that we're really taking this seriously and want to put a concerted focus, like I mentioned before, triaging the issue of housing. I'm going to be bringing back my middle housing bill this year. It will be more ambitious than it was last year. It will be impacting cities - last year it was cities 10,000-20,000 duplexes everywhere, and cities 20,000 and up fourplexes everywhere, basically. And this year we're starting at cities of 6,000 or more - and it will be legalizing fourplexes on every current residential lot. In addition, if two units are affordable, there's a density bonus and they could have a sixplex. So on any current single-family residential lot, a sixplex could be allowed if two of the units were affordable - up to 80% AMI. And then in addition to that - same as last year - allowing sixplexes within a half a mile of transit. So that's the basic gist of the bill. It will impact - oh, and cities that are contiguous with any city larger than 200,000, which will impact some of those smaller cities that are up close to Seattle and larger cities in King County. And so we have a coalition working on it this year - Futurewise, which is an environmental organization that's been focusing on Growth Management Act policies, land use, protecting and conserving the environment - they're making this a priority this year, along with House Bill 1099 from last year, which is a climate change bill requiring cities to adopt climate change policies in their comprehensive planning processes. I'm thrilled that these two bills are together a priority, because we often don't talk about the connection between climate change and land use. But the reality is we will not accomplish our climate change, our carbon reduction goals in Washington state if we do not change land use. Because utilization of public transit and multimodal transportation is predicated on density. And that means we have to do infill. And so having those two priorities and bills together and talking about them together is my dream come true. Because ultimately this is about solutions and we need solutions that actually work. And these two really are - the intersection of climate change with all of the things that we want to focus on - equity, racial justice, conserving and protecting the environment, economic stability, all those things. It all works together, housing and climate. And so I'm happy to have them on board and working the issue. And working on getting more and more support from my colleagues - I had a good number of colleagues that co-sponsored the bill last year, I'm hoping to have even more this year. We've been doing a lot of work over the interim and I'm excited. [00:26:11] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. Now, when you talk about you've been doing a lot of work and the coalition that you've been able to put together with this - how have you gone about this? How have you involved stakeholders in the process? How did you get to where you are today with this bill? [00:26:26] Representative Jessica Bateman: So last year was my first - I sponsored it in 2022. But prior to that, Representative Nicole Macri, who is my housing shero, sponsored that bill. She asked me to take it over last year because she had a lot of other bills she was working on and I was happy to do so. It was Governor request last year, and there's a process for Governor request - they have to go through their whole internal process. So this year is different because I'm drafting it on my own. Last year, the public engagement process was kind of me on Twitter - that was the extent of it, which I really didn't use before that bill. But the response that we got was overwhelming. The number of people that signed into the bill last year - I've got it on a sticky note - 548 people signed in Pro on the bill last year, which is phenomenal. And we had quite a few people that were signed up to support it - I think 37 people were signed in to actually comment. That's a lot of people for a bill, especially a wonky land use bill. So what that tells me is that this is impacting so many people - that they're motivated to come and talk to their legislators about it and to sign in to support a bill, they're engaging on social media, they're listening to podcasts - and we did interviews and news and all the different things - that's happening because it's an issue. It's top of mind for people - that's the only reason why this issue continues to be focused on - is because the people in Washington are saying - fix this, we need a solution. And so after session ended and the bill died, I got together with my labor stakeholders and advocates, environmental advocates, some racial justice advocates and said - this is something that intersects all of these issues. We need to work together and we need to work together on a package looking at this holistically. What are all of the things that impact our ability to create housing and enough housing for Washingtonians? And then how do we keep people stable in the homes that they have, and how do we build enough subsidized low-income housing that will only be built by the public because the private sector won't be able to make it pencil out? And so in doing that, we saw - over the summer, the Washington State Labor Council passed a resolution stating that they supported ending exclusionary zoning because it impacts working families and their ability to take those wage gains that they've earned - hard-fought over years - they just dissipate when the cost of rent and homes go up so much. We've also seen the environmental organizations and supporters come on board and say - this is impacting climate. And the Black Homeowner Initiative has a 7-point plan for creating homes - and included in that is legalizing middle housing. So what we really saw was a consensus among these stakeholders and organizations that this is something that they want to focus on in 2023. They really see the intersection and the connected nature of these issues. And that's really enabled us to work and educate lawmakers. We held a town hall last night - a webinar for folks to learn about this package proposal. And then I think what we're going to see is - Democrats working with Republicans - I think this is going to be a bipartisan issue, at least the supply side of this package. Ultimately, that package that includes supply stabilization and subsidy, there will be people or organizations that cannot support certain bills or certain tiers of that stool. But they also recognize that all of those things are included in a solution. So some people might opt out of certain parts. But I think in terms of the supply conversation, we'll see some bipartisan support. [00:30:12] Crystal Fincher: So in terms of the stabilization issues, are there any conversations about lifting the ban on rent control? [00:30:21] Representative Jessica Bateman: Yes. So the bill I mentioned before, that we had last year in Local Government, was just simply providing advanced notice - six months' notice. And that bill was killed. The people that were opposed to that were successful in that bill never making it to the floor. My impression, having been there for two years, is that rent control remains politically very, very difficult to take away - to give cities the ability to actually to have a rent cap, or rent control, or even doing it statewide. I don't actually understand why that is because it's very popular politically. People, my mom included - over the summer, we were garage saleing and we were talking about housing and I said - Mom, does it make sense to you that we can't put a cap on rent? She was like - Nooo. So I think we're going to see probably a rent stabilization bill - a bill that will allow for a cap on a 7% inflationary increase - so with inflation, with a couple extra percentages just as a buffer for things like maintenance or if you need to do some upgrades on the unit, but within reason. Some kind of a stabilizing - you can see and predict how much and it's not excessive. They did that in Oregon when they passed their middle housing legislation a couple years ago, and I really like the combination of the two of those. We'll probably see just one that's straight rent control. Whether or not those can pass - I think it's a really heavy lift and I haven't seen evidence of a coalition organizing around that in a strong way. [00:32:00] Crystal Fincher: What can people do to help organize around that and middle housing and funding - increasing funding for the Housing Trust Fund? How can the public engage, get involved with this, and help make sure their Representatives and Senators are in the right place on this? [00:32:18] Representative Jessica Bateman: I think - and it's tough when I hear that question, because I know having been a renter and a person earning minimum wage and living in poverty, poverty wages - it's really hard to tell people - take time out of your day, your stressful life, and put the onus on them to then contact their elected officials. However, I do think that those stories really resonate with people in the Legislature. Personal stories are the most important. I was a legislative assistant years ago before being elected to City Council. And I can tell you, even as a staffer, those personal stories really resonate and they do far more than a fact sheet does. That being said, I know it's difficult for people. So even - if you have a tenants' union, they probably have legislative priorities. You can sign on to bills and track bills and just sign your name - that's important. Also, the Low Income Housing Alliance has a legislative priorities - they're very, very organized and they have a really great outreach and engagement with their members to tell those stories. Ultimately, we need more people that are directly impacted by our housing shortage and rent increases. I'm surprised - because when I go out to my community, I hear from seniors - like this summer, the senior resources center in my community - the woman who manages that told me she gets two or three calls a day from a senior that says they can't afford their rent increase. And she looked at me and she said - you know what I tell them? What I give them? And I said, what? She says - I give them the phone number for homelessness services because that's all I have. There's no resources for them. There's no bucket of money for them. Nothing. That's all I have. And she has to do that every day - because there's no special funding for seniors. And seniors are on a fixed income - it's so obvious. But then, we hear these stories - $400 increases, $500, $1,000 increases. People can't afford it. So that's the reality of our constituents across the state. And it's a huge problem - both from a humanitarian perspective, also from a cost-effective perspective - because once you're unhoused, it is so much more expensive to get you back into housing and the destabilizing impact that has on you, your family, your children, school, for everything. [00:34:40] Crystal Fincher: What else can be done to help stabilize, or what else is on the agenda this session to help keep people in their homes, to help people be able to manage the rent increases? I have a neighbor who this past year had their rent go up over 40%. And just really, really hard to manage and negotiate through. Obviously, their income did not go up at all and trying to squeeze that in. And there just seems to be no kind of incentive for landlords - many of them corporate landlords or corporate entities, not even people you can talk to - doesn't seem to be any kind of incentive for them to slow down or moderate the rent increases. It seems like it's going to have to happen through regulation or it's not going to happen - and we'll continue to pay the consequences until then. [00:35:33] Representative Jessica Bateman: I agree with everything that you said. And I think what we're going to see is a big push for a significant increase in the Housing Trust Fund. And I know that sounds vague. It's the beginning of a conversation around what does that look like and what does that entail? There's a couple - so when we say an increase in investment in the Housing Trust Fund, we have to identify where that money comes from. And we have to identify what revenue source because there's a lot of reluctance to move money that's going towards something now into something else. We don't want to have a scarcity mindset where we cut things that are really important in order to fund other things that are important. Revenue is a tricky thing for us to address. It takes a little bit of organization and demonstrated support. A lot of things have to kind of line up in order for that to happen. I have heard of two revenue sources. First is an additional local REET option for cities to pass that they can use for affordable housing. Cities have - [00:36:38] Crystal Fincher: And is the REET a real estate investment tax? [00:36:41] Representative Jessica Bateman: Real estate excise tax. [00:36:42] Crystal Fincher: Excise tax - thank you. [00:36:44] Representative Jessica Bateman: Yes. And cities have a couple of different tools in their toolbox right now. They have a 1% property tax or sales tax that they can implement for the use for affordable housing. They also have a sales tax that they can get back from the state as a form of credit - that was a June Robinson bill from before I was in the Legislature that I cannot recall right now. It's not a significant amount of funding, but it would add to if they were to do the Home Fund - which is what we call it in Olympia - the 1% sales tax. Those are two revenue sources. Not all cities are doing that - a handful are and counties. First, I would say the Low Income Housing Alliance has been really great about educating local electeds to know what revenue options they have. We need cities to be a partner in this. In addition to that, we also need to identify revenue sources at the state level so we can make a big investment. It'd be really lovely if we had a sense of urgency and investment from our federal partners as well. I'm not going to bank on that. However, I have a fabulous Congresswoman, Marilyn Strickland, who's working on that. So REET local option. Also, we have a progressive REET - we changed it a couple of years ago. For the higher properties, there's a discussion about lowering the threshold for when the higher rate would apply, which would increase the amount of revenue that we're collecting from that. There's also discussions about wealth tax - that was something we considered a couple of years ago when we passed the capital gains excise tax. A wealth tax is very popular amongst Washingtonians, and it makes sense to have the wealthiest Washingtonians paying their fair share. However, going into what some people might call a recession - we're feeling recession, inflation - we're hearing a little bit of talk about that. I think that it remains very politically popular and feasible, so I would push us to do that. We do need to increase our investment in the Housing Trust Fund for the reasons you identified. We need to have rent stabilization. We have a doc recording fee Rent Stabilization Fund for the first time - that was created last year or the year before - and that goes directly into rent assistance for people. We need to provide more investment in that and we need to vastly increase the number in the Housing Trust Fund. The Association of Washington Cities is advocating for a billion dollar a year increased investment in the housing trust fund. [00:39:09] Crystal Fincher: That is significant. [00:39:11] Representative Jessica Bateman: That's six times what we're currently investing right now, so it's significant. [00:39:16] Crystal Fincher: I would love to see it. I think the final thing I just want to cover - you had mentioned that government does have a role to play in how expensive it is to build housing and challenges. We hear challenges about design review and the time it takes to permit, just the time it takes to build and all the different factors involved with that. Are you looking at anything to address those issues? [00:39:42] Representative Jessica Bateman: We are. First, there's going to be a bill on eliminating minimum parking requirements near transit, which would save - I think in Seattle the last time I heard, it adds an additional $75,000 per unit. In addition to that, an impact fee deferral bill. As a developer, when you go to start building, you can defer out the impact fee until after you sell the property. Permit streamlining in Washington state - cities are supposed to turn around a permit in 120 days. There's no accountability or action that happens if they don't meet that timeline. We need to provide them with resources and support so they can actually honor that timeline and hold them accountable if they don't. There's another bill for condos that will allow condos of 12 units or less to be subject to residential energy code and residential building code instead of commercial - will significantly reduce cost. I know Representative Duerr is working on a bill that's similar to that for middle housing, but it's going to be a study to get them to come up with a plan for how to do that - so we can have middle housing only have to go through the residential building codes, which would reduce the costs as well. Those are just a handful of the bills that we've talked about so far. I think there will be more, but there is a significant area of interest in reducing the cost and our role in creating the high cost of constructing housing. [00:41:17] Crystal Fincher: Sounds good. Then the issue of just some notoriously bad actors who are landlords - and hearing from cities that code enforcement resources are short, seeking funding for that - are you looking at anything to help hold bad landlords accountable for illegal and negligent actions? [00:41:43] Representative Jessica Bateman: That hasn't been an issue that has been brought to me. I'm happy to work with folks and see additional revenue that we could provide for cities. I know - in the city of Olympia, we have code enforcement, so if you've got a violation of a code, I guess it would depend upon how active the code enforcement department is. In Olympia, it's pretty active and if you have - I've called them before - and they come pretty quickly. If cities are saying they need more resources to enable them to actually take those complaints and actually go out and investigate, I'm happy to have that conversation. Because while we focus on making sure there is housing available, we want to make sure that it's healthy housing for people. [00:42:23] Crystal Fincher: Makes sense. How can people follow the work that you're doing throughout the Legislature and just stay up to date on what you're working on? [00:42:33] Representative Jessica Bateman: So first, my email - you can reach me at jessica.bateman@leg.wa.gov. You can also follow me @jessdbateman - B-A-T-E-M-A-N - on Twitter. And you can also find me on Facebook - I have a legislative Facebook account. It's frozen right now, I think, because of the elections. I think it'll be active starting next January. I would say that the most fast-paced information is on my Twitter account, and I will be posting updates on my middle housing bill as I introduce it, which should be happening in the next week. I was really hoping to drop it today on my birthday, but it didn't work out that way. So I'll be posting information for people so they can get engaged. Also, Futurewise, I'm sure, will be doing that. And Futurewise has an account as well on Twitter. [00:43:29] Crystal Fincher: Excellent. Well, thank you so much for taking this time to explain all this to us, for working so hard on this for so long. I wish you a very happy birthday. Thanks for joining us. [00:43:42] Representative Jessica Bateman: Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure and thank you so much for hosting the opportunity to have this dialogue about this really important issue. [00:43:50] Crystal Fincher: Thanks so much. [00:43:51] Representative Jessica Bateman: Thanks. Bye. [00:43:52] Crystal Fincher: Thank you all for listening to Hacks & Wonks. The producer of Hacks & Wonks is Lisl Stadler. Our assistant producer is Shannon Cheng and our Post-Production Assistant is Bryce Cannatelli. You can find Hacks & Wonks on Twitter @HacksWonks, and you can follow me @finchfrii, spelled F-I-N-C-H-F-R-I-I. You can catch Hacks & Wonks on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts - just type "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to get our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered right to your podcast feed. If you like us, leave us a review wherever you listen. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the episode notes. Thanks for tuning in - talk to you next time.

On today's episode, we have a special crossover episode for you with one of my favorite podcasts The Sewers of Paris. The Sewers of Paris is a podcast about how queer people's lives are shaped by our favorite books, movies, music, and shows. So, how could we not have a crossover?The host is writer, podcaster, and video-maker Matt Baume. He's been nominated for a GLAAD award for journalism and he created the YouTube pop culture series Culture Cruise and the LGBTQ news shows Weekly Debrief and Marriage News Watch. He is an author with a new book on the way called Hi Honey! I'm Homo!Matt interviews me about the entertainment that changed my life (Phantom of the Opera!) and I interview Matt about the Queer book that saved his life: Harriet the Spy.Subscribe to the Sewers of Paris on Apple Podcasts:  podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-sewers-of-paris/id983828051Pre-order Hi Honey! I'm Homo at Matt's website: mattbaume.com/hi-honey-im-homo Follow Matt on Instagram and Twitter: @mattbaumeBuy the books featured on our podcast at bookshop.org/shop/thisqueerbook.Support the show

H. Alan and Kerri are joined by writer/podcaster/Youtuber Matt Baume (Culture Cruise), where they discuss dating people who had a "thing," like driving a loud monster truck or making them travel far for Dunkin donuts. They also chat about Rose's dilemma when she dated snappy dresser Dr. Jonathan Newman! Listen on WhoHaha or wherever you get your podcasts, and for more Golden Girls greatness follow Out on the Lanai on Instagram (@outonthelanaiofficial), Twitter (@goldengirlspod), and Facebook (goldengirlspodcast). Stay Golden!And you can (and should!) pre-order Matt's new book, "Hi Honey, I'm Homo!" https://www.mattbaume.com/hi-honey-im-homoSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Matt Baume of the Stranger and EverOut events team shares his picks

It's “Equality Kings”, Hawkeye & Trapper,  versus “Man of Many Layers (all of which are kind of bad)”, Frank Burns. What else is new? This time, Frank wants to out a young gay soldier and get him a dishonorable discharge. Hawk and Trapp devise a scheme to stop Frank in his tracks and help the young man finish his tour of duty. Who will win in this battle of wits? Take a wild guess. “M*A*S*H's Revolutionary Gay Episode” by Matt Baume:https://youtu.be/8ugsupVQXHE Music credit: “Feel Good Rock” by Jason Shaw, https://audionautix.com/ Contact the show: mashmouthpod@gmail.comSocials: @valiantlyoffbalance on Instagram @OfficialVOB on Twitter @mashmouthpod on Instagram @EthanWasCool on Instagram and Twitter @unvanesscessary on Instagram Ethan would like to apologize for getting Mark Hamill's age wrong. He's older than Ethan assumed.

"Finally, a comedy that will change the way you think, the way you feel, and most importantly... the way you dress."FINALLY! Grab your heels and wigs, kids! We're going on a road trip! We're finally talking about THE ADVENTURES OF PRISCULLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT! And our guest is better than an ABBA turd, it's writer, rabbit, and pop culture critic, Matt Baume! Follow Matt on Twitter & Instagram: @mattbaumeVisit Matt's website: http://www.mattbaume.comFollow us on Twitter and Instagram: @TwoOldQueensFollow Mark on Letterbox: @markrennieEmail us: TwoOldQueens@gmail.comWe've got a Patreon!https://www.patreon.com/TwoOldQueensWE'VE GOT MERCH! CAN YOU IMAGINE?Click on this link!https://www.teepublic.com/stores/two-old-queens?ref_id=12950Or go to TeePublic.com and search for Two Old Queens!To submit a category for the wheel, go to:https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScmNEcC7zatOf2EHAEf_SRPRN5m3MI5MmU9VDgLUSMeSfdwlA/viewformPick up a copy of John's book: Baked! Sex, Drugs, and Alternative Comedy:https://amzn.to/3tUbvOMFor autographed copies:https://www.johnflynncomedian.com/bakedMusic by Danny CohenArtwork by Conrad Shin Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we're welcoming a new and very exciting guest! Troy is joined by YouTube creator, Matt Baume, who specializes in the study of queerness in popular television shows from the past. Troy and Matt discuss the shining examples of how gay characters should be handled (The Nanny, Golden Girls, etc) and the not-so-great examples (we're looking at you, Friends). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fletcher and Data somehow spend longer talking about the second (third?) episode of Star Trek Deep Space Nine than they did talking about the two hour pilot. Great video by Matt Baume about Garak/Bashir fan shipping and gay representation in Star Trek (possible spoilers): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5_g1DY1FLg The Sanderlanche, Data's podcast where he and other people talk about Brandon Sanderson books: https://www.thesanderlanche.com/

They really gotta mine up some interpersonal conflict here, amirite???? The Matt Baume video we reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4nByXqLusI Once Upon a Time is currently streaming on Disney+. Follow us on Twitter! @notevenoncepod Bob - @thekidaintright Seth - @recycledsarcasm More at https://linktr.ee/notevenoncepod! A special thank you to AJ for editing for us! Title Music: World of Magic by Scott Buckley – www.scottbuckley.com.au

On this episode, Janey is taking us to Finland to aggressively make fun of men who think they're entitled to wife-servants, and Max is going to ask us to "take off our heteronormative frog skins and dance to a lesbian/gay spirit." Hope you brought your dancing shoes!Starting a podcast of your own? Try Buzzsprout and get a $20 Amazon gift card!Janey's sources:“The Maid of the North: Feminist Folk Tales from Around the World” by Ethel Johnston PhelpsMax's sources:"The Frog Princess," Georgian tale by Marjory Wardrop, from "Georgian Folk Tales," free text available"The Frog Princess," Russian tale, free text available Obituary for Harry Hay, official founder of the Radical Faerie movement "Radical Faeries Have Been Pushing Queer Boundaries for More Than 40 Years," article by Matt Baume for Hornet, Twitter thread that inspired this story choice: 

This week, as a supplement to our episode on Stonewall, we had the incomparable Matt Baume on to talk to us about queer representation both before and after the Stonewall riots. Join us as we learn about the history of queer portrayals in media, from anti-gay propaganda films up to that time Archie Bunker met a trans woman Links mentioned in this episode: https://www.youtube.com/c/mattbaume https://twitter.com/mattbaume?lang=en We Read Movies This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

It's Pride Month and Mike, Mike, Darren, and Mary don their frocks and celebrate with a daring, over-the-top, unforgettable road movie from Down Under. Plus, Jeff, Adam, and Nick of the You Hate To See It podcast call on some liquid courage to take on the Geek Seat. All this, along with A Geek Girl's Take, Ashley's Box Office Buzz, the Creative Outlet with Dylan Goss, and Shout Outs! We want to hear from you! Feedback is always welcome. Please write to us at feedback@earthstationone.com and subscribe and rate the show on Apple Podcast, Stitcher Radio, Google Play, Spotify, Pandora, Amazon Music, or wherever fine podcasts are found. Table of Contents 0:00:00 Show Open / Interview and Geek Seat w/ Jeff, Adam and Nick of the You Hate To See It Podcast 0:50:33 Box Office Buzz 0:53:11 An LGBT Look at The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert 1:55:17 Creative Outlet w/ Comic Creator Dylan Goss 2:02:02 A Geek Girls Take 2:04:02 Show Close Links Earth Station One on Apple Podcasts Earth Station One on Stitcher Radio Earth Station One on Spotify Past Episodes of The Earth Station One Podcast The ESO Network Patreon The New ESO Network TeePublic Store ESO Network Patreon Angela's A Geek Girl's Take Ashley's Box Office Buzz Michelle's Iconic Rock Talk Show The Earth Station One Website NSC Live TV Tifosi Optical Matt Baume's How Australia Fell in Love with Priscilla, Queen of the Desert You Hate to See It Podcast Mara Issue #1 Stuffed Rock Studio Legion of Substitute Podcasters Evisionarts Promos Tifosi Optics Modern Musicology Earth Station Who NSC Live TV The ESO Network Patreon If you would like to leave feedback or a comment on the show please feel free to email us at feedback@earthstationone.com Special Guests: Darren Nowell and Mary Ogle.

On this Hacks & Wonks week-in-review, Crystal's co-host is criminal defense attorney, abolitionist and activist Nicole Thomas-Kennedy. They discuss how a powerful lobbying group used a focus on local control to sink statewide housing reform, and how to overcome that in the next session, a rundown of candidates running for open seats, the disconnect of prioritizing the wants of downtown stakeholders over real solutions to homelessness, the Seattle City Attorney's repackaging of a failed initiative, and mixed results on the plan for some concrete workers to return to work while concrete companies continue to drag their feet on negotiating a fair contract. As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Find the host, Crystal Fincher on Twitter at @finchfrii and find today's co-host, Nicole Thomas-Kennedy, at @NTKallday. More info is available at officialhacksandwonks.com.   Resources “Here's What Happened in Olympia” by Rich Smith from The Stranger: https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2022/03/15/68343035/the-strangers-rundown-of-2022s-huge-confused-legislative-session    “What Will It Take to Get Statewide Housing Reform?” by Matt Baume from The Stranger: https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2022/03/16/68207458/what-will-it-take-to-get-statewide-housing-reform    “Surprise Sweep Displaces Fourth Avenue Encampment, Scattering Unsheltered People” by Erica C. Barnett from PubliCola: https://publicola.com/2022/03/09/surprise-sweep-displaces-fourth-avenue-encampment-scattering-unsheltered-people-throughout-downtown/    “Downtown Sweep Highlights Urgency of Resolving Seattle's Other “Top-Priority Encampment,” Woodland Park” by Erica C. Barnett from PubliCola: https://publicola.com/2022/03/16/downtown-sweep-highlights-urgency-of-resolving-seattles-other-top-priority-encampment-woodland-park/    “City Attorney's Office Introduces Latest Initiative to Target “High Utilizers” of the Criminal Justice System” by Paul Kiefer from PubliCola: https://publicola.com/2022/03/15/city-attorneys-office-introduces-latest-initiative-to-target-so-called-high-utilizers-of-the-criminal-justice-system/    “Harrell postpones Seattle police plan to crack down on ‘disorderly conduct' at Third Avenue bus stops” by David Kroman from The Seattle Times: https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/harrell-postpones-seattle-police-plan-to-crack-down-on-disorderly-conduct-at-third-avenue-bus-stops/    “Cigarettes and Fentanyl: All Aboard” by Nathan Vass from NathanVass.com: http://www.nathanvass.com/blog/cigarettes-and-fentanyl-all-aboard    “Some Seattle-area concrete drivers return to work, others await go-ahead from employer” by Nick Bowman from MyNorthwest: https://mynorthwest.com/3398180/seattle-concrete-drivers-return-others-await-employer/    “Concrete strike continues in King County as union workers who offered to return didn't show” by KING 5 Staff & Adel Toay from KING 5: https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/concrete-strike-king-county-union-workers-no-show/281-f14d167c-c88c-44db-91c8-591171124209    Transcript [00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Crystal Fincher, and I'm a political consultant and your host. On this show, we talk with policy wonks and political hacks to gather insight into local politics and policy in Washington State through the lens of those doing the work with behind-the-scenes perspectives on what's happening, why it's happening, and what you can do about it. For transcripts and resources referenced in this show, you can visit officialhacksandwonks.com and reference our episode notes. Today we're continuing our Friday almost-live shows where we review the news of the week with a co-host. Welcome to the program for the first time, today's co-host: criminal defense attorney, abolitionist, and activist Nicole Thomas-Kennedy. Hey. [00:00:55] Nicole Thomas-Kennedy: Hello. Thanks for having me - and this is the second time I've been on - must have been so memorable that first time. [00:01:01] Crystal Fincher: No, this is your first time as a co-host on the Week In Review. Yes, we did an interview last time, which was very good and incredible. And a number of people were like, well, we see who you want to win. And it's just like, look, if she happens to be making great and salient points, it's not my fault. But yes, just really, really excited to have you here on the Week In Review. [00:01:28] Nicole Thomas-Kennedy: I'm excited to be here. Thank you. [00:01:30] Crystal Fincher: Well, and so the first thing that we have coming out of the gate was one thing I wanted to talk about - coming out of the end of the legislative session - we talked last week and broke down a number of bills. The Stranger this week had a great article that we'll put in our episode notes that also further broke down what was great about the legislative session, what was disappointing, and how we can move forward. And then Matt Baume also had another article talking about the failure of bills that would have mandated more density, specifically near transit, that would've helped address the affordability crisis that we have here in the state. And I thought it was very good - it was focused on, hey, what needs to happen moving forward to actually succeed in passing bills that require more density statewide? In that, he talked about the AWC, Association of Washington Cities, being a vocal opponent. They are a powerful lobby in the State of Washington. Their purpose, they say, is to represent the over 200 cities in the state. And their position largely was - it's really important to have local control in these and the one-size-fits-all solution that would come from the state just may not be right for our communities, so therefore we need to do nothing. The challenge in that is that most cities have not moved forward on doing anything. As you look at this issue, Nicole, what do you see as being the barriers and, I guess, the opportunities for moving forward successfully? [00:03:16] Nicole Thomas-Kennedy: I think that when I look at this, first I think it's funny that there is a coalition of all these cities that are all saying the same thing - we want local control - that seems to be the only thing that they agree on. But I think that on a state level, there needs to be a floor created for affordable housing and density, and that's really all we were talking about for the most part with these bills. It wasn't any incredibly specific directions that each city has to take on a certain timeline on a certain budget - anything like that. It was about just creating a floor of affordable, dense housing that is needed in pretty much every community. And I think that what I heard a lot in the last year was that - the reverse of there needs to be local control - which was now we have municipalities competing against each other for who can do the least. Seattle is - Sara Nelson and other people are calling out other cities for not doing their part and spending their money on addressing the crisis. And it seems to be like a race to the bottom in terms of who can spend the least. And because the idea, I think, is that if you build services, if you build affordable housing, people will move into them. And why do that when you can concentrate a lot of the unsheltered population in one place that provides the minimum to keep people alive? And that's what I see going on. [00:04:59] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, and definitely a resistance to people who are defined as others and outsiders from even being able to buy into communities. It was really interesting in this article - there were representatives from cities across the state, from Port Orchard to Tacoma to University Place, and a number of them were leaders within AWC and talked about - we need local control, we are all very different. But one very consistent thread in these is that the median home price in most of these areas has doubled. This housing crisis is not just a crisis in major municipalities. It is a crisis across the board in areas that were affordable - that people used to consider being affordable and that people could buy into and still work in a major area where jobs are concentrated. And still live, even with a commute unfortunately - that it was possible to buy a home there with a median income. It is no longer the case in many of these places. And sometimes, like one of these examples in Port Orchard, they touted - well, we built new homes. Well, yeah, those are half million dollar plus homes adjacent to a golf course. If we're concentrating on making sure cities are accessible to people across the board and that you don't have to be rich and that we aren't displacing people outside of cities and just gentrifying them, then we have to have a solution across the board. Also, interestingly, the National League of Cities, which the Association of Washington Cities is a member of, had a 2019 report that said, "While local control is often at the heart of policies that accelerate progress, there are examples, particularly in the affordable housing policy arena in which state policy is needed." To your point, there has to be a floor. We have to establish a minimum boundary. Cities can determine the right way that they're all going to get there, but what we can't do - what is not sustainable, we're already paying the price for - is continued inaction while just spouting excuses like, well, it's not local control, therefore it's nothing. I would love to see leaders within the legislature say, "Well, you say you want local control? This wasn't successful this session. You now have this coming year to address this within your own cities. If you do, we can find a way to create legislation that respects what you've done." And more than likely if you're taking meaningful action, the floor is going to be below where you set it. But it's not going to be an option to continue to not take action next session and further on in the future. I would love to hear that from legislative leadership and leaders across the state - it just should not be an option. We have to make cities and housing affordable and accessible for people to live in, or else we're going to make our homelessness problem worse, we're going to make our displacement problem worse, we're not going to have people available to fill jobs that are necessary within cities. This is a critical economic development issue just in addition to a housing and social issue. So I hope we address that. Go ahead. [00:08:31] Nicole Thomas-Kennedy: Oh, I was just going to say too that I really like how you talked about these are communities that used to be affordable. When we talk about Port Orchard - my in-laws live in Port Orchard, and so when they bought their home, it was very affordable and the amount of money it appreciated to was pretty astronomical. And so when we're resisting building affordable housing - and affordable really is - we're talking about homes that are less than half a million dollars, which is just a wild concept that that's where we are with the average home prices in an area. It wasn't always like that. So the idea that these - the people that are already there should be able to stay with this huge, expensive appreciation that they have in their home value, but then not let anybody else in that is going to be coming in at the same level that they came in at. And unfortunately they're not going to be able to afford - they're going to have to have less in terms of space and in terms of all of those things. And so it's interesting to me to want to keep out the same people that are essentially already there, I guess. [00:09:52] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it absolutely is that issue. And then as I look at this, it's like the people who are in housing whose housing has appreciated and who are resistant to any kind of acceptance of other people in their communities - we're talking about their kids, we're talking about their employees, we're talking about their students. And again, people talk about, well, I can't find anyone to fill this position in my company. We can't find people. No one wants to work. But is it that no one wants to work? Or is it that you're now forcing people who can't live and work in the same community, and maybe the compensation doesn't work for someone who has to commute 45 minutes each way and drop off their kids beforehand and pick them up after? It just isn't tenable for so many reasons. I feel like we leave housing and affordability out of economic discussions and it's just so critical and a big part of those two. So I hope that we see significant action, and that candidates are talking about this on the campaign trail, and our leadership is making it clear in both the House and the Senate - that this is something that needs to be acted on and will be acted on next session, and that cities are on notice that they need to move in the right direction. [00:11:19] Nicole Thomas-Kennedy: Yes, I agree. Yes. That needs to happen. And I think there needs to be some - maybe more clear calling out of what is actually happening. If municipalities are saying, oh, we want to sit down, we want to sit down, we want to talk, we want to talk - but then they're not asking for any more talks and they're not proposing anything of their own. I think it's maybe time to call a spade a spade and say, are you really interested in solving this problem, or are you really just kicking the can down the road? [00:11:47] Crystal Fincher: Exactly. Well, the legislative session did recently conclude, and that means that now we have a number of legislators who are kicking off their re-election campaigns and starting in earnest. One thing I don't know if everyone who listens is aware of is that - while our legislators are in office, they can't actually raise money, so they can't do a major element of campaigning. There is a prohibition against doing that, also for certain employees of the state. So once session concludes, they're all trying to catch up to people who have already been running and doing that. And so a lot of them are - people are receiving a lot more emails from their representatives and appeals for donations - that's happening now. And I just wanted to do a quick little rundown of where there are open seats. There are a number of representatives who are retiring or moving onto different positions, some in the House are running for Senate seats - but that is leaving some positions open that are now contested by several different people. The 22nd Legislative District in Thurston County - having Beth Doglio and Laurie Dolan who are Democrats, and Loretta Byrnes running for those - that's Position 1 there. 30th Legislative District in Federal Way, where Jesse Johnson has decided not to run for re-election - we have Kristine Reeves, who's filed to run, Leandra Craft, Lynn French, Ryan Odell and Ashli Raye Tagoai, I think it is, and Janis Clark. And then in the 36 District in Seattle, where Reuven Carlyle decided not to run and then Noel Frame decided to run for Reuven Carlyle Senate seat, leaving that House seat vacant - there's Julia Reed, Jeffrey Manson, Elizabeth Tyler Crone, Nicole Gomez, and Waylon Robert. And in the 46th District - and just a reminder, I am working with Melissa Taylor - there is Melissa Taylor, Lelach Rave, Nancy Connolly, Darya Farivar, and Nina Martinez who have filed for that seat. That's in north Seattle, northeast Seattle. 47th Legislative District, which is eastern Kent, Covington, Maple Valley area, where Pat Sullivan is no longer running, he's not going to be running for re-election - there's Carmen Goers, Kyle Lyebyedyev, Jessie Ramsey, and Satwinder Kaur, who is a Kent City Councilmember. And then King County Prosecuting Attorney is an open seat because Dan Satterberg is not running for re-election - and so there's Stephan Thomas, Leesa Manion, and Jim Ferrell who are running for that seat. So there is a lot to come - we're certainly going to be having conversations with several of these candidates, but running these campaigns are getting off in earnest now - and you'll be hearing lots and seeing lots, and the end of the legislative session is a big turning point in campaign season with another big milestone coming up. There are lots of people who can file to run and you can start your campaign committee in May - in mid-May is where people officially declare that they're running for a specific seat - and that will determine who actually appears on your ballot. And so that'll be the final say on who is running for what, so people in the interim can potentially switch positions they're running for, choose not to run - lots of choices and paths that this can go down. As you're looking at this crew, does anything just come to mind for you? Or you've run a campaign - a big campaign citywide before - what do see just ahead for these candidates and for voters who are evaluating them? [00:15:59] Nicole Thomas-Kennedy: I mean, I see some candidates that I think are exciting - I also love Melissa Taylor. I used to work on the other side of Leandra Craft - I think she's smart and knows what's going on. So I think I'm seeing some good candidates. Campaigning at that level is different because there just has to be so much fundraising done, whereas in the City, we're so lucky that we don't have to spend all of our time doing that. I just - I wish everyone the best because - oh yeah, oh, Nicole Gomez too. There's some people to be really excited about, I think, and so that's great. I just wish everyone the best. I hope everyone's taking good care of themselves - that's what I think when I see this list. [00:16:45] Crystal Fincher: Running for office is a very, very tough thing. It's not fun - you're putting yourself out there to be scrutinized - people do not always consider the human when they are communicating with or about candidates. And they are humans - even when we disagree with them, they're humans. I do think, as candidates are kicking off their campaigns, certainly fundraising is a big deal in the City of Seattle - with City races, there are Democracy Vouchers where every resident gets money from the City that they can donate to the candidate of their choice. That is not the case in these campaigns this year - they have to raise all the money they need. And campaigns do take money because unfortunately there is not broad media coverage, and getting your message out to most voters requires communicating directly with them. And so whether it's knocking on their door, giving them a call - which still takes resources - and usually also involves communicating with them via mail or online or on TV - just a lot of different mediums there. And then people are also focusing on endorsements - especially early on, people are trying to figure out - what do these candidates stand for, what have they been involved with, and how have they worked before in the past, what is their history? And sometimes endorsements can be revealing and highlight what that candidate prioritizes, who is in their corner, what kind of issues they'll be strong on and a leading a advocate for - not simply a vote. So lots of that happening right now, and certainly just hope for the best and hope they are successful in getting their messages out. It is an interesting time and campaigns are kicking off once again. I did want to pivot to a number of news items in the City of Seattle surrounding public safety - first being the issue of sweeps of a number of encampments. And so we had a 4th Avenue encampment sweep, which scattered a bunch of unsheltered folks. There's probably other sweeps to come soon, and the issue of another encampment that has been viewed as a top priority at Woodland Park. As you look at what's going on with these sweeps, what do you see as far as what's happening? [00:19:33] Nicole Thomas-Kennedy: What I see is the huge amount of disconnect between what the public thinks is happening and what is actually happening - and that's just such a huge disservice to everyone. I know that there's a narrative out there that people are refusing services and they're refusing shelter. And I guess the idea is that some people are camping out in the cold and rain, because that's preferable somehow to be sheltered. And that's not what the case is - we don't have enough places for people to live that they can afford to live in. We don't have the services that are needed to stop this from continuing to happen. Also, the thing is - it really just moves the problem around. There's nothing really - it will clear one area of sidewalk for a certain period of time, but all it does is move things around. And the more people are destabilized, who are already barely, are clinging to stability and security in the most tenuous way possible - are then pushed around and have all the belongings they need to survive thrown away - because that's what we saw in the downtown sweep is - it was different than some of the other sweeps in that they didn't really offer services, they didn't offer anything. There's different timelines that they went by because they called the tents downtown an obstruction, a sidewalk obstruction, which means that they're - all of the things that they're supposed to do during the sweep, they didn't have to do any of that. And they didn't. And so we just see people's belongings being thrown away, tents thrown away. And I think what's also missing from the narrative around these sweeps is just how much stress that puts on service providers. I talk to a lot of people and they say, well, the Navigation Center is just up the street and I'm like, how much do you think that they can handle? Because as a public defender, something that I saw often was people being displaced by going to jail. That means when they get out, they have to get a new ID, a new EBT card, they have to go to DESC and see if they can get a tent and a sleeping bag - because there's things that people need in order to survive. And people don't just evaporate after a sweep, they are still existing. And also my partner has an office in Pioneer Square and he watched the 4th Avenue sweep, and he's seen a lot of sweeps around . That area. And he says, it's just really hard to watch people who are barely hanging on become so dysregulated by the horror of what is actually happening to them. And he said he would see people huddled together in alleyways trying to get away from the police - it's just a really horrifying scene that doesn't - it really truly does not solve any problem other than that one piece of sidewalk for a little bit of time. And so we're spending millions and millions of dollars to essentially make this problem worse. We move it around and make it worse. And so, I get that people don't want to see this anymore, but if that's what they want, then we're going to have to take some steps towards solutions and sweeps just aren't it at all. [00:23:04] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. You raised so many good points - it's absolutely correct. The bottom line is the actions that we're taking are not moving people into shelter and permanent housing. It is not an ideal solution to have people on sidewalks and have people living on streets. But when people don't have a home to go to and they don't have anywhere else to go, that is the option. That is the option. Unless we just expect people to die, we can't jail our way out of the problem. There certainly is a contingent of people who are just like, well, they shouldn't be on the sidewalk and that should be illegal and that's an obstruction and it's bad, and they should be arrested and they're probably criminals anyway and they're causing problems and creating crime. When the reality is people who are unsheltered are actually many times more likely to be victims of crime. They're a very vulnerable population and that's all just factless propaganda that we're hearing otherwise. But our services are not set up to meet the needs that actually exist, and time after time - when we listen and we hear things like they were offered shelter and they refused, we really do have to dig a little bit deeper and think about what were they offered? So many times what they were offered does not actually accommodate the needs that they have - if they have a partner, if they have a dog - those people that they have relied on that again, because they're in such a vulnerable position and because they are so exposed to the likelihood of having crime committed against them, having people that they can count on who help to look out for you, that help to protect your belongings - is essential to survival. And a lot of times we're asking them to give that up for a night in a shelter, for a week in a shelter. It's not even like they have the opportunity to transition in a permanent way and okay, maybe it's going to be okay. That stay in the shelter could be absolutely destabilizing for them and could tear apart the only thing that is keeping them safe and warm and alive. And so we just have to get really serious about this. I think Marc Dones has talked a lot about this issue and that we have to get real about - when we see such high "refusal rates", which can just be a service didn't fit. And when we see high rates of people being referred to services and then not showing up or following through, there's a reason for that. And if we want to get to the root cause of this issue and if we want to get people off of our sidewalks, which I think everybody wants, then we have to actually address the issues there and meet the needs that exist, not the ones that - they have to be solutions that meet the needs that they're identifying that they have, not what we think they should have, not what we think they deserve, not what we think is right or good or moral or all of that stuff. If we aren't addressing the things that they say will, hey, yes, that is something that I could do to move forward to get off the streets, then we're just moving people around to different areas. And again, a sweep is just moving people off of a block - the City and the County will acknowledge, have acknowledged - that no, it's not solving the issue of homelessness, it's moving them off of a block. I think another missing part of this conversation is that we seem to be prioritizing the needs and wants of downtown moneyed interests and not those of the rest of the community. We're perfectly fine spending tons of money - allocating tons of time and officer resources, City resources - to clear a block here and there at the behest of the Downtown Seattle Association, or the Chamber, or a business owner who's been loud and vocal, but we're actually not doing the same thing in other neighborhoods where just regular people are living. In fact, we're displacing the problems that existed in the downtown area to other communities - freely admitting it and saying, hey, we just spent the money that we could have spent to house people - which is the biggest problem of homelessness is people lacking houses - and we're treating this like a criminal solution and basically putting the problem into your lap now. And doing a victory lap because this one block downtown is clear for now. It just does not make much sense to me. And I just feel like so many people are just like, well, you don't care and you want all the sidewalks to be like this. No, no one does. We just want to actually not keep kicking the can down the road and waste the money that we could be using to actually solve this problem. [00:28:33] Nicole Thomas-Kennedy: Absolutely - and I also think that there's - I don't really understand why there is so much comfort in subsidizing downtown businesses using all the resources there to make sure that they can have what they want, but everybody else has to deal with the fallout and they just have to take it on. But like downtown - their sidewalks, everything - the City as a whole pays to subsidize clearing those blocks for them and for their businesses. And I don't understand why anyone is okay with that idea, especially because yes, we're not talking about solutions. And I think that if you're not talking about getting people housed, then you are just talking about moving the problem around. And there's a lot of reasons why - you were talking about people might refuse services, but there's also - and they're very real. Like you said, there's a community aspect that is the only thing that's keeping a lot of people truly alive, truly safe, truly alive - the modicum of safety and life that they have. And that's not considered. And I think that it's a very convenient - to say, well, they refused services - but it's just like, well, did you give them a three-night hotel voucher where they can't take any of their belongings? And so therefore they know if I do this, then I'm going to be out again in three days and I'm not going to have any of the things that I need to survive. There's a lot more that goes into decisions about what services to accept and not, rather than just personal preference. And I think that's how it gets sold - is like, oh, well, you maybe don't like this, but that's what there is. And it's just - first of all, I think people should have choices. But second, we're talking about the difference between life and death. And so the idea that, and this is what I would see in court all the time too, especially around issues like addiction or not having shelter is - well, if we just punish you harder, then you won't be like this anymore. I'm - this person lives under a bridge and is fighting for their life. I don't know how much lower we can take this - there's no point in making people who are suffering suffer more. I think there's this idea that they'll just suffer more and then they'll just stop - suffer more and then they'll magically have money to move into an apartment that costs twice as much as it did five years ago? That's this weird, magical thinking that is really, I guess, hypnotic on some level, but it's really pervasive. And we can see that it hasn't worked, so I don't really understand clinging to those notions. But yeah, that's where we are. And it's incredibly - I saw a picture the other day of some bike officers at a sweep and there was 12 of them just in the picture - and if you think about median income for a sworn police officer for SPD, I think it's $163,000. So even just looking - if we just rounded to $150k - 12 officers at $150k in this picture - that's almost $2,000 an hour. And I'm sure that was only a small number of the officers that were there. So in addition to parks, in addition to all of the other services that may or may not be provided - we're spending gigantic amounts of money to make the problem worse. And that just doesn't make any sense. If you want people off the sidewalk - I do too, this is horrible. Yeah, and I think there is this idea that if you say you don't like sweeps, then you must love people living in the street. And I think it's the complete opposite - you can be in favor of the sweeps, but you are not in favor of getting people off the street. You are in favor of getting people off your street temporarily. So it really - but I think it's really hard for people when the narrative is, oh, they're refusing services - as if people are being offered an apartment and they're saying, you know what - I really like it outside in the cold and rain. Yeah, it's hard, it's hard, there's - the media around this issue is really hard, making it really difficult for a lot of people. [00:33:30] Crystal Fincher: I agree with that. Another thing that we saw this week was the City Attorney Office pivoting back to a strategy - another strategy that we've seen unveiled many times before - an initiative to target "high utilizers" of the criminal justice system. And so Ann Davison has identified - I think it was 118 individuals who they say are responsible, 118 "high utilizers" who "create a disproportionate impact on public safety in Seattle." And so there have been similar initiatives launched in 2012 and 2019. And you may have heard other terms like high-impact offenders, prolific offenders - but this is the same strategy that they're using there. These clearly were not successful programs in the past, but we are returning to them. And certainly this is something that has been championed by more conservative folks, by the "law and order crowd". And we have varying opinions with this - there's a PubliCola article that goes over this - but King County Department of Public Defense Director, Anita Khandelwal, views the initiative as just repetition of a failed strategy, saying, "Over the last decade, the city has repeatedly announced similarly named initiatives that would focus more law enforcement resources on those already most policed as a strategy for addressing public safety. This is a tired strategy of arresting, prosecuting and jailing. It's expensive and clearly ineffective." Lisa Daugaard, the co-executive director of the Public Defender Association and co-founder of the LEAD diversion program, who we've talked about before - most recently supportive of the failed Compassion Seattle initiative - sees potential for success, saying the initiative is built on a solid foundation - addressing the needs of "high utilizers" on a case-by-case basis. She believes Davison could avoid the errors of past crackdowns by pushing her counterparts in city and county governments to expand programs like LEAD to accommodate a new surge in clients. Also, Lisa admits that if LEAD took on all 118 of those people's clients, they would not have any more capacity for additional clients in the future. And again, it's important to note that it does not appear that Ann Davison has expressed at all that she has any interest in diverting these programs to LEAD, or any other diversion program that is focused on treating more root causes to prevent this recidivism and reoffense that has been a hallmark of just arresting and jailing people. We have to do different things in order to get a different result. What do you think about this? [00:36:47] Nicole Thomas-Kennedy: I think it's funny - the repackaging every year - Ann really sold herself as this - someone so opposite of what Pete Holmes did, but now she's - this is the same exact thing. And it really is just window dressing in my opinion. And the idea that we can spend more on law enforcement and it's going to help is so ridiculous. The one thing that the 118 people that were identified have in common is none of them have shelter. [00:37:28] Crystal Fincher: Literally none? [00:37:30] Nicole Thomas-Kennedy: Right. Yeah. No, none of them do. They're all unsheltered. And so instead of spending this astronomical amount of money on more law enforcement, why don't we put money into housing? Because also when you look at the breakdown of the repeat crimes, it's usually low-level shoplifts and trespassing, which is just sleeping under an awning. And so how much of that could we just remove by getting people sheltered? And that seems to be the last solution. It's just - try everything else, except for providing shelter and services to people, which are so - it's so much less expensive to house someone and give them wraparound services - wraparound services like onsite case management, medication management, things like that - is so much less expensive than putting them in jail. And it's stable, right? Because no matter how much you hate that someone sleeps under an awning or steals a sandwich, no matter how much you dislike that, the criminal justice system will always fail to provide a solution because it's a temporary thing. The maximum sentence on almost every misdemeanor is - well, the maximum sentence is either 90 days or 364 days. And with the way jail time works, everyone's going to be back out on the street in 9 months - that's the max. We cannot just think of jail as this permanent housing solution and permanent incapacitation solution for low-level misdemeanors that could be so - I don't want to say easily, because it's not easy - it's not getting people into affordable housing, we don't have any first of all. And it's not an easy solution, but it's the only one that actually makes any sense. And I think that when we talk about LEAD or any of these other things, we're just putting more money where it doesn't belong. I don't think lawyers and cops should not be dealing with these situations. That's not where the money should go. The money should go to service providers, to housing, to professionals that deal with addiction or mental health issues - that's where the money needs to go and those are prioritized the least, and it's all about arrests and incarceration. And again, it's just like the sweeps - you're kicking the can - there's nothing about that that's going to solve the problem. And so no matter how many times someone gets arrested for these things, they're going to get out of jail. If it doesn't escalate into a felony and we're talking about the people that are these "high utilizers", or a couple years ago repeat offenders or prolific offenders, we're talking about a lot of misdemeanors. We're not talking about people with a bunch of murders or something like that. [00:40:24] Crystal Fincher: Committing violent crime, assaults - that type of thing. [00:40:27] Nicole Thomas-Kennedy: Yeah, so if we're talking about this low-level stuff, there's - it's a completely inadequate response that sucks up all of the resources needed to actually combat the problem. [00:40:39] Crystal Fincher: It does, and it is a real challenge. We have done this before, it has not worked. We keep spending resources on what has been proven to not work, while simultaneously demanding data that proves that doing anything else will completely solve this issue, and create a nirvana and just be the end-all and be-all, when that is actually not the standard that we're applying with our humongous expenditure of resources. And just another reminder that jail is really expensive. It costs a whole lot of money. The criminal, just our entire criminal legal system is a really, really costly system. So we do have a lot of resources available - we continue to make choices to spend them on lawyers, on jailing people, on all of the people and buildings and apparatus to support that. And when we actually have tons of data that that does not fix this problem - in fact, it is likely to make it worse. And so if we are focused on data-driven approaches, that is what is clearly being indicated - what we have a long track record locally that we can draw on that proves that, but certainly also looking nationally - so much data to back that up. We will have to see. The last thing I wanted to talk about was a story that came out this week - David Kroman wrote about it in the Times - with Harrell postponing Seattle Police Department's plan to crack down on disorderly conduct at Third Avenue bus stops. The police department was looking at using the City's criminal code regulating disorderly conduct on buses - things like smoking, playing loud music, littering, drinking alcohol, "loud raucous and harassing behavior" and other conduct that is inconsistent with the intended use and purpose of the transit facility, transit station or transit vehicle. These have often not been cited. We will put it in the episode notes - there's actually an article I need to track down by a bus driver that I thought was really thoughtful. And it does seem like it is a fact that there is more disruptive activity happening on buses than there was before. This bus driver was thoughtful and like, yeah, this is happening - and also there are lots of reasons why it's happening, and there are lots of reasons why taking a criminalizing approach may not be helpful, why taking a different kind of the law and order thing or just kicking people off buses may not be helpful. It's a complicated thing to solve. We do need to acknowledge that driver safety is important, that rider safety is important, but also have the lens that if we want to address this problem - again, like the conversation we just had - simply arresting and jailing someone actually doesn't fix and solve the problem. A lot of times this is a result and a symptom of failures in so many other places of people not having access to mental health treatment that they need, of substance use disorder treatment that they need, public health problems that we actually don't have those facilities for. What is your view on this, and on Mayor Harrell's decision to actually step in and postpone it? [00:44:34] Nicole Thomas-Kennedy: I think it's interesting because again, like as we already talked about, it's not a solution. There's lots of reasons for why these things are happening and it's not because there's lax enforcement. First of all, there is enforcement on buses - I've had many bus cases myself and there is some degree of enforcement. Is that something that's going to - or has that been working? Is it going to continue to work? Is the scope of the problem in a lack of enforcement? And it doesn't really seem to be. Like you said, there's lots of reasons that these things are happening. And when we're talking about mental health, addiction, housing - all of these things - addressing these things are going to help with those issues, but that's not what we put money towards. We just keep throwing it at this system that is not working. It's interesting to me that it was walked back - they're putting that on pause. And I wonder is that because they realize - oh, that's actually not going to make that much of a difference - but there's also the fact that buses and bus shelters are not under the City's jurisdiction. Those are county issues, so maybe that was not known - I don't know - beforehand. But when the City talks about cracking down on things going on on the buses, they don't have the jurisdiction to do that. So that could be one reason why it got walked back as well. [00:46:10] Crystal Fincher: Yeah. That's really interesting because - very clearly talking about enforcing things on buses - which yes, there is a jurisdiction issue there - but it also looks like they were planning to take action within 25 feet of transit stops. Is that defined as - technically the stop facility - or is there, I guess that's a really technical and wonky question, but I could totally imagine, to your point, that there are jurisdictional questions. [00:46:49] Nicole Thomas-Kennedy: Yeah, I don't know what that - I have not looked that up. No, I think that's under City jurisdiction - that would be under City jurisdiction. Yeah. Just not anything on a bus - I don't think would be. But yeah, I would have to look that up, but I do think that would be the City still. It just depends - there's different parts of the City, like when - I won't go into jurisdictional issues, because no one wants to talk about those things for long periods of time - but they don't have as much control. Let me just say - they don't have as much control over things going on on a bus as they think they do. If someone's committing a felony on the bus, then SPD could potentially get involved, but it's still - it's going to be prosecuted by the county. And if it's misdemeanors, the misdemeanors on a bus are also going to be prosecuted by the county, because of county - see, I could go on, it could be a really long time. [00:47:47] Crystal Fincher: Well, I just learned something because I did not know that misdemeanors committed on a bus would be prosecuted by the county and not city. Very interesting - these discussions are very interesting. But I think overall we'll just keep our eyes peeled on it and continue to update on it. Just another quick update in terms of the concrete workers strike - there was talk this week about some of them potentially returning to some job sites as a show of good faith and an attempt to lessen the impact on the greater community. That seems to have had mixed results and a mixed outcome where some talked about returning, others didn't. One particular company looked like workers were willing to return and the company was unwilling to let them work again. But again, we've seen city and county leaders say that they want a quick resolution and that this is impacting various projects around the county, but also workers need fair conditions. And the workers are saying, hey, they're asking us - when you consider inflation - to take a hit to our salary, to healthcare benefits, and to our pension - it's across the board. And companies saying, but we're technically offering more money than we did before and so it should all be good. And still not doing much to come to the table and participating in this activity - hoping that public pressure just forces the workers back and they can just ride out the storm and do nothing, and hope that public pressure does some negotiating on their behalf. So we will continue to follow it - the county, we had talked about before, had tried to issue an RFP to other companies to try and work around this and have greater protections for unionization and worker conditions. And that - no one responded to that RFP actually, so we seem to just be in this position - and unless there is some specific call or pressure, it seems like - on the companies to negotiate in better faith and to move closer to the workers, it looks like we're going to be stuck in this position for quite some time. So we will continue to see how that unfolds. And again, I thank you for listening to Hacks & Wonks on today, Friday, March 18th, 2022. The producer of Hacks & Wonks is Lisl Stadler, assistant producer Shannon Cheng, with assistance from Emma Mudd. And our wonderful co-host today is criminal defense attorney, abolitionist and activist, Nicole Thomas-Kennedy. You can find Nicole on Twitter @ntkallday, and you should be following Nicole. You can find me on Twitter @finchfrii. Now you can follow Hacks & Wonks on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcast - just type "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to get our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, leave us a review wherever you listen to Hacks & Wonks. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced on the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the episode notes. Thanks for tuning in. Talk to you next time.

December 1988: Power ballads ruled the music charts, camp Christmas classics dominated television, and a precocious new charge with a sadistic streak put Claudia Kishi in the hospital. COMEDIANS, amirite?Brooke and Kaykay discuss Claudia's emotional trauma and Betsy Sobak's potential conduct disorder, with digressions on what passed for comedy in the '80s (anyone wanna see a guy smash a watermelon?), the queer subtext of Kristy's pie fetish, and Kaykay's future career as a Hollywood stuntwoman.Visit us at our website, and follow us on:FacebookTwitterInstagramSpotifyPLUS: As promised in the episode, here's Matt Baume's fabulous tribute to the queerest/best thing ever to air on television, Christmas at Pee Wee's Playhouse.

Dave and Alonso are joined by Matt Baume (Sewers of Paris, Queens of Adventure, Culture Cruise) to discuss why straight guys maybe shouldn't be allowed to direct musicals. Subscribe (and review us) at Apple Podcasts, follow us @linoleumcast on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, shimmering splendor. Join our club, won't you?

There's a lot of letters in LGBTQAI+. But people waren't limited to just one. In this episode, Kath and Faith discuss Faith's own history growing up not only transgender but also gay.  Be sure to check out Matt Baume's YouTube channel for a lot of great videos about the history of LGBTQ representation in popular media, especially classic American sitcoms. Here's his video Ellen [DeGeneres] Gives America a Crash Course in Coming Out.  Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards—like drinks with us at Stonewall Inn! Check out our website for our latest episodes!  And watch the brand new Gender Rebels TV Youtube Channel!  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.  Faith's book, American Transgirl, available now! Music by one of our favorite bands, the super cool, all-female punk band Jasper the Colossal. Download their new album "Take Your Time" and all their tracks on iTunes. 

In this week's headlines: • An Oklahoma school district shut down after parents of students threatened violence on a transgender 5th grader • That anti-gay Colorado baker is at it again - this time denying a cake to a trans woman • Smart guy Matt Baume reminds us when 'The Mary Tyler Moore Show' went gay for just one episode (Watch Matt break it down here - http://randyreport.blogspot.com/2018/08/that-time-when-mary-tyler-moore-show.html) * A gay Afghanistan teen was denied asylum by Austria for not being ‘gay' enough • Plus, out musician Anthony Starble's new remix of "Paperweight" All that and more in this episode of The Randy Report

This week on the Bad Gay Agenda, we are taking a trip to Grey Gardens! Join Nick and special guest host Matt Baume, from “The Sewers of Paris” podcast. We discuss the draw and peculiarity of both Big Edie and Little Edie, and why they are such fascinating character studies. So put on your revolutionary… Continue reading Episode 12 : “Grey Gardens” with Matt Baume

Dave and Alonso are joined by Matt Baume (Sewers of Paris) to discuss what's going on with Melissa McCarthy and Gabrielle Union. Subscribe (and review us) at Apple Podcasts, follow us @linoleumcast on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, annihilating rhythm. Join our club, won't you?

Episode 39. After a bit of an hiatus I'm back! Normal service is resumed. This week it's a long distance phone chat so if there are moments of delay then blame the miles! This week it's the turn of the marvellous Matt Baume of The Sewers Of Paris podcast. I'm an avid listener to Matt's show and(once you've listened to mine)I recommend you head over there and subscribe. Matt is pretty prolific in his endeavours. He has also written for 'Rolling Stone', 'Vice Magazine' and 'The Advocate' to name but a few. He is also author of the book 'Defining Marriage' - which is now a podcast aswell! In May he launches yet another podcast entitled 'Queens Of Adventure' which is based on his live show 'Dungeons and Drag Queens'. This is also leading Matt to RuPaul's Dragcon where he will host a special of the show there. Matt is a witty and charming individual who I really enjoyed chatting to. I turn Matt's big question to his guests - 'What was the entertainment that changed your life?' - on him and got some great answers. Links www.mattbaume.com www.mattbaume.com/sewers/ www.mattbaume.com/get-defining-marriage/ www.facebook.com/sewersofparis/ twitter.com/mattbaume www.instagram.com/mattbaume/ One of Matt's many YouTube videos and a favourite of mine - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yk70JqzW8fQ and me - 40somethinggay.co.uk

Raymond is joined by Matt Baume of Marriage News Watch to discuss the recent Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide.  They begin with the emergence of the gay rights movement in the 1960s and move forward decade by decade.  Touching on many of the major events and key figures that have helped push marriage equality to the forefront of national discourse.  Followed by a brief analysis of the reactions to the Supreme Court decision throughout the LGBT community.  With such a momentous victory, Matt explains where the battle for gay rights will go from here.   Show Reference Links: The Sewers of Paris Podcast The Case for Gay Marriage by Andrew Sullivan California Proposition 22, Limit on Marriages (Knight Initiative) California Proposition 8, the "Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry" Initiative The Shadow of Ideas Website: shadowofideas.com Email: shadowofideas@gmail.com Become a Patron: http://www.patreon.com/shadowofideas Like us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/shadowofideas Follow us on Twitter: @shadow_of_ideas Subscribe in ITunes:  http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/shadow-ideas-history-politics/id995813969