James Talarico: Here Is How They Designed The System To Keep You Poor!

1. 0:00 – 2:14

   Intro

   1. JTJames Talarico0:00

      For one of our own residents to become the world's first trillionaire while one in five Texas children live in poverty, to me, that is a spiritual sickness. Right now, it's three men who now own more wealth than the entire middle class. And as someone who cares about the people in my state, that's not the future I want. We have to have a government of, by, and for the people, and we have to clean up the corruption in our political system.

   2. SBSteven Bartlett0:18

      Is the Texas governor corrupt?

   3. JTJames Talarico0:20

      Yes.

   4. SBSteven Bartlett0:21

      That's a strong thing to say.

   5. JTJames Talarico0:22

      Well, I'm an eighth-generation Texan, was born to a single mother, was a preacher's daughter. She worked overtime to provide for me. My birth father became abusive, so she packed all our stuff into her little Ford Escort. We found a little apartment. There wasn't room for a nursery, so I slept in a crib in her closet. And that fighting spirit, I feel like she passed that along to me. But also, faith has really been the foundation of my life. It's why I ran for office, and I am trying to love my neighbor through public policy.

   6. SBSteven Bartlett0:46

      You're on the verge of potentially becoming the first Democratic senator in Texas since 1988.

   7. JTJames Talarico0:53

      So change is what we need most right now, because everywhere I go, people are struggling to survive, struggling to afford necessities. And people are working harder than they've ever worked, and it's because the system itself has been rigged against working people. We don't have capitalism. We have crony capitalism.

   8. SBSteven Bartlett1:07

      Why did the Democrats lose to Trump, in your view?

   9. JTJames Talarico1:09

      I talked with a lot of Texans who thought he could get the economy back on track. They thought he was gonna lower costs, end the forever wars, release the Epstein files. But more than a year into this administration, those promises have not been kept. But he was right that the Biden Administration failed us on our southern border.

   10. SBSteven Bartlett1:24

       So what would you do about that, though? And how do you reverse this change? And do you have an opinion on who you think should be president in the next cycle?

   11. JTJames Talarico1:30

       We should start with Donald Trump.

   12. SBSteven Bartlett1:34

       Here is a strange fact. Most of the people watching this right now, about 58% of you, aren't yet subscribed to this channel. Statistically, that is probably you. So could I ask you a small favor? If this channel has ever given you any value at all, please could you do me a favor and hit the subscribe button? It costs nothing, it helps us more than you could know, and the bigger the channel gets, as you've seen, the more we can invest in the guests and the production. So thank you so much, and I hope you enjoy this episode. [upbeat music] James Talarico, if the elections go your way this November, you're on the verge of potentially making history by becoming the first Democratic senator in Texas history,

2. 2:14 – 7:35

   Growing Up With a Single Mom Who Escaped Abuse

   1. SBSteven Bartlett2:14

      which would be the first time, I think, since 1988 that a Democrat has won in Texas. And also, people tell me that you might be president someday.

   2. JTJames Talarico2:24

      [laughs]

   3. SBSteven Bartlett2:25

      Because you have a lot of the attributes that people think it would take a Democratic candidate to become president of the United States. So really, I just wanna figure out who you are-

   4. JTJames Talarico2:36

      Yeah

   5. SBSteven Bartlett2:36

      ... and, and what you stand for, and where you've come from. What is that early context that I need to understand to understand the man that sits in front of me today?

   6. JTJames Talarico2:42

      Yeah. Well, I'm an eighth-generation Texan, so my family's been in the state since it was Mexico. Was born to a, a single mother who, uh, was a preacher's daughter from, from South Texas, who struck it on her own, uh, when she was 19 years old, and moved up to, to the big city, Austin, Texas, and, and, um, worked overtime to provide for me. She left a, a dangerous situation to provide a better life for me. Yep, this is her, yeah. She showed me what it means to stand up to bullies. She showed me what it means to fight for the people that you love. She was always making time for service. She worked a full-time job. Uh, she had very limited time, but she a- always carved out time to fight for the causes that she cared about, to volunteer, whether it was at my school or at the church or in the community. And so, um, my service, uh, my public service is inspired by her, and, uh, and I would not be here without her.

   7. SBSteven Bartlett3:40

      Y- you said she taught you to stand up to bullies.

   8. JTJames Talarico3:42

      Yeah.

   9. SBSteven Bartlett3:42

      She was in a abusive relationship with your biological father?

   10. JTJames Talarico3:45

       Yes. She met my birth father. W- He was 21 years old, he was a high school dropout, uh, and he, he had a drinking problem, and when he drank, he w- he, uh, became violent, became abusive. And, uh, one night, um, shortly after I was born, he got physical again, and, and that night, her, her love for me rose to meet that abuse from him. And she packed all our stuff into her little Ford Escort, and she drove me to the hotel where she worked, begged the manager to let us stay in, in one of the rooms until we found a little apartment in East Austin, and this, this photo is taken in that apartment. There wasn't, wasn't room for a nursery, so, uh, I slept in a crib in her closet. And she always says that she was very proud of that closet, like she decorated it with toys and pictures. And, and that, that fighting spirit, I feel like she passed that along to me, and whether it, it was in the classroom or, or in the state legislature, like I, I have tried to fight for the people I love in the way that she fought for me.

   11. SBSteven Bartlett4:53

       How do you feel, how do you feel about him?

   12. JTJames Talarico4:56

       Well, you know, I, I remember when I was growing up, I felt a lot of anger toward him. I feel like as I've gotten older, I've tried to appreciate that the things that got him to that point, um, my mom would tell me that he, um, didn't know the months in order, and so she thinks that maybe he had a, a learning disability that, that went undiagnosed. And things are very different now, and we're able to... I know as a, as a former teacher, that we're able to, to, to catch these disabilities and, and serve our students with special needs. But it sounds like he didn't get that, and that can derail someone, and it can lead to substance abuse. It can lead to, to the bottle, and, and then that can lead to, to violence and abuse. And so I try, a- as hard as it, as it is, to recognize that I'm the person I am because of him and my mom, and that's a hard thing to wrestle with. Um, I think a lot of people who've had abuse in their family, um, struggle with the fact that they come from an abuser. Um-

   13. SBSteven Bartlett5:55

       Mm-hmm

   14. JTJames Talarico5:56

       ... I've tried to have more compassion for it, um, as I've gotten older.

   15. SBSteven Bartlett6:01

       Your mum then meets Mark-

   16. JTJames Talarico6:02

       Yes

   17. SBSteven Bartlett6:02

       ... Talarico-

   18. JTJames Talarico6:02

       Yes

   19. SBSteven Bartlett6:02

       ... who's your adoptive father, I guess.

   20. JTJames Talarico6:04

       That's right. Yep.

   21. SBSteven Bartlett6:05

       And he's the man that's ultimately raised you?

   22. JTJames Talarico6:07

       Absolutely, yeah.

   23. SBSteven Bartlett6:08

       Very different

   24. JTJames Talarico6:09

       Yes. [laughs] Very different

   25. SBSteven Bartlett6:10

       Than your birth father.

   26. JTJames Talarico6:11

       Yeah.

   27. SBSteven Bartlett6:12

       What role has he played in, in your life?

   28. JTJames Talarico6:15

       Yeah, you know, I, I, I've said before that the luckiest thing that ever happened to me in my whole life was meeting Mark Talarico, and I certainly would not be on this podcast. He gave me his last name. He raised me as his own. He is probably the best man that I know, um, honest and cares about other people, does what's right when even, uh, when, when no one is watching. Um, and, um, and he has certainly shaped me into the, the man that I am today.

   29. SBSteven Bartlett6:42

       If I'd asked you at 16 years old, James, if I said, "What do you wanna be when you're older?" what would you have said?

   30. JTJames Talarico6:46

       I had always been interested in education and being a teacher, particularly around social studies and, and history. My history teachers when I was growing up, they're the ones who kept me on the straight and narrow. They got me interested in school. I was not the best student before then, uh, and I struggled, um, you know, to behave in class and, and be a good student. And I feel like it was my passion for, for social studies, for history, for reading that, you know, ultimately kept me on that track. And so from that point, I did wanna go into, into being some kind of a teacher or a professor so I could do that for other people.
3. 7:35 – 13:58

   Why He Won't Run for President

   1. JTJames Talarico7:35

      the president of our choir and the captain of our debate team, and, and so I think people, you know, saw that.

   2. SBSteven Bartlett7:42

      Are, are you interested in being president someday?

   3. JTJames Talarico7:45

      I don't think so. Um, I've, I struggled a lot with the decision to run for the US Senate. I, I had considered getting out of politics, um, uh, I guess as, I guess it was last summer, um, after my, my fourth term in the legislature was coming to a close. I finished the legislative session in, in May of last year, and I was really proud of the work that I had done in the legislature, but it, it is difficult work, um, being in politics. And so I, I, uh, you may, you may know that I also, um, made the decision to go to seminary, um-

   4. SBSteven Bartlett8:18

      Which is Bible school.

   5. JTJames Talarico8:19

      Yes. Yep, studying to become a minister like my grandad. Um, and this is something that I'd always kind of had in the back of my mind. And I, I, I remember meeting with my, my pastor, um, who baptized me when I was two years old, has been my pastor since I was a little kid, and he told me, uh, that a campaign can also be a form of ministry if, if you're giving people hope, if you're bringing people together. If you're helping folks see the image of God in each other and in themselves, you can do that in a political context as well. And I had never really thought about that. I'd kind of kept these, these things felt very distinct to me, and he, of course, as a pastor, was hel- helpful in, in getting me to reconcile, um, these two vocations and see them as potentially one and the same. Given the state of our politics and our civic discourse, like, the campaign that we're building in Texas is, is giving people hope. It's bringing people into the process who haven't been engaged before. It's bringing people together across all the, the many divisions in our, in our communities. And, and at its best moments, it does feel like, that we're doing something really, really special and important.

   6. SBSteven Bartlett9:29

      Why would that exclude you from someday also pursuing the role of presidency? It sounds like-

   7. JTJames Talarico9:33

      And it, it may not. I guess what I'm saying is that I think there's a problem with people who are in politics for too long. I've already said that I've, um, that I'll only be serving two terms, uh, if I'm blessed to, to get the opportunity to serve for two terms. Because I do feel like, uh, when people hang onto these positions or are trying to reach for the next position, then everything becomes about self-preservation. It becomes about accumulating power rather than serving people. And, and those are temptations, right, for every elected official between those two goals. And from what I've seen, being in this now for eight years, is the longer you're in this, the more you kind of get, uh, the office and your identity become kind of merged into one thing, right? Where being a senator or being a state rep, which I am now, if you're doing it for a really long time, it becomes who you are.

   8. SBSteven Bartlett10:22

      Mm-hmm.

   9. JTJames Talarico10:23

      So it's, it's no longer a service. It is your identity, and you do whatever you can to protect that, right, which means selling out your values. It means being susceptible to corruption. And so I guess starting out, I'm trying to, like, always remember that this is a service, and I think we need more elected officials who have other interests besides politics and government and, um, and legislating. There are other things that I wanna do, and there are other ways I wanna serve, and I wanna have a, a well-balanced life, I guess. And so I, I wanna, I wanna do this 'cause I think it's important right now, but then I wanna, like, I wanna give the reins over to someone else, um, someone, uh, who has fresh energy and new ideas and, and a different perspective, and I think that's how this is supposed to work.

   10. SBSteven Bartlett11:09

       Could you see yourself running someday for the highest office in the land, president?

   11. JTJames Talarico11:13

       No.

   12. SBSteven Bartlett11:14

       You couldn't?

   13. JTJames Talarico11:14

       No. I really don't. I'm surprised I'm doing this. [laughs] I'm running for the US Senate. And I feel like there's so much, I mean, I'm, I'm traveling the whole state of Texas, which is a, a giant state, a diverse state, complex state, and I'm constantly learning about the things I don't know, right? And I feel like I'm just, um, every day on the campaign trail cramming for a big test in January of next year, um, to be the senator of this state. And, and I've already seen over the course of this campaign how difficult it is, right, and the attacks that come your way, the attacks on people in your life, like your family, my, my girlfriend. People who didn't sign up to, to be in office, uh, or run for office are also on the receiving end of these attacks. And so I can't imagine doing this for [laughs] for longer than two terms. Um-

   14. SBSteven Bartlett12:05

       Do you think pressure and attacks are a reason not to do something that is worthy? Oh, you know. I, I'm just w- I'm wondering, I just-

   15. JTJames Talarico12:15

       Yeah, yeah.

   16. SBSteven Bartlett12:15

       You know, 'cause even as a podcaster, you get the, lots of pre-

   17. JTJames Talarico12:17

       Yeah, sure.

   18. SBSteven Bartlett12:18

       It's a different type of pressure.

   19. JTJames Talarico12:19

       No, yeah, yeah.

   20. SBSteven Bartlett12:19

       Like, it's pressure, you lots of attacks, lots of feedback, et cetera. But at the end of it, like, I think I, I, I love what I get to do.

   21. JTJames Talarico12:25

       Yeah.

   22. SBSteven Bartlett12:25

       And I really hope that people benefit from it.

   23. JTJames Talarico12:27

       Yeah.

   24. SBSteven Bartlett12:27

       So to me, that's reason enough to continue to do it, really irrespective of the pressure and the attacks, you know?

   25. JTJames Talarico12:32

       I, I think that's true, but I think there are lots of people who wanna be president. Um, and so, like, we should give those people a shot if that's the job they want. I honestly think that my skill set that I've developed is better suited for a legislative position.

   26. SBSteven Bartlett12:45

       What's a legislative position for us Brits?

   27. JTJames Talarico12:47

       Like... Oh, yeah, yeah. So, like, uh, right now I'm a s- a state rep in Texas, so I have to serve in the State House, in the lower chamber. I would be, um, God willing, after this election, serving in the U.S. Senate, which means I'm one member of a larger team of people. I am trying to build coalitions. I'm trying to bring people over to my side. I'm, I'm trying to change hearts and minds in a, in a, in a body, and I feel like I'm really good at that. I mean, in the State House in Texas, even as a Democrat in a Republican-dominated body, I, I've passed 60 bipartisan bills over four terms. And they're not just, like, symbolic, you know, superficial pieces of legislation. Like, these are major bills on housing and healthcare and early childhood education, teacher pay, property taxes, like, the things that are really affecting my neighbors, and that is a skill set. Um, some people are better suited as, you know, as an executive making decisions on their own, and some people are better, you know, working a- a- as part of a larger team to do something ambitious and big.

   28. SBSteven Bartlett13:47

       You must have an opinion on, um, who you think might be... Uh, you know, 'cause we head, head towards 2028. If you look at the polling data and what's going on geopolitically with Iran and-

   29. JTJames Talarico13:56

       Yeah

   30. SBSteven Bartlett13:56

       ... lots of other issues like AI,

4. 13:58 – 15:41

   Who Should the Democrats Run in 2028?

   1. SBSteven Bartlett13:58

      um, it appears that there's a, you know, the polls are becoming a little bit more favorable for the Democrats. Do you have an opinion on who you think should be president, uh, in the next cycle? Kamala's, there's Gavin's, there's AOC's, there's, I don't know, Bernie's probably gonna run again.

   2. JTJames Talarico14:11

      Yeah.

   3. SBSteven Bartlett14:11

      Um, uh, Pete Buttigieg is probably gonna run again.

   4. JTJames Talarico14:14

      Yeah. I mean, I don't, I don't, uh, given that I worked at the state level, I don't know a lot of these people personally, but I, I honestly think a lot of the people that you just named, you know, have a lot of potential to be, to be good leaders and to deliver for this country. And honestly, I'll, you know, change is what we need most right now, so [laughs] I'm excited for anyone who, who's gonna bring some, some change to this political system. The only thing I would say is, what I'm gonna be looking for in, in, in the candidates as they start bubbling up is, like, who's talking about systemic reform? There's lots of issues that I care about, education, healthcare, um, housing, all things that I care about, but I've done this now for eight years a- and I've seen that the system itself is what's preventing us from making progress on all of those important issues. And so, uh, when I'm kinda thinking about my criteria for evaluating who I'm gonna vote for or who I'm gonna support, it's gonna be who is, who is thinking and talking about comprehensive political reform, including getting big money out of our politics, um, banning gerrymandering, overhauling the Supreme Court. All these things that feel like inside baseball, that feel like process, it has to be the top priority, because if we don't fix the system itself, we're not gonna make progress on all the issues we care about.

   5. SBSteven Bartlett15:29

      There's been this really interesting rise in, um, Democratic socialism-

   6. JTJames Talarico15:32

      Yeah

   7. SBSteven Bartlett15:33

      ... over the last, over the last year or, or so.

   8. JTJames Talarico15:36

      Yeah.

   9. SBSteven Bartlett15:36

      Obviously Mayor Mondale has been elected to office and, you know, people like AOC,

5. 15:41 – 20:32

   The Rise of Democratic Socialism and the Powell Memo

   1. SBSteven Bartlett15:41

      and just the broader democratic, uh, socialism narrative has been really popular. What's your perspective on that? 'Cause it, I think of, like, the, the Democrats here, then I think of democratic socialism be- as being slightly different from sort of typical, more centrist democ- Democratic, um, philosophy.

   2. JTJames Talarico15:57

      I, I certainly understand where the, um, where the anger is coming from. I hear it everywhere I go across the state of Texas.

   3. SBSteven Bartlett16:04

      Anger?

   4. JTJames Talarico16:04

      Um, yeah. I mean, everywhere I go, people are, are struggling to survive in this economy. And, and it's not like people are buying nice clothes or nice cars or nice vacations. Like, they're struggling to afford necessities.

   5. SBSteven Bartlett16:20

      Mm-hmm.

   6. JTJames Talarico16:21

      Groceries and gas and utilities, prescription drugs, the, the things that you, that you need to survive every day. And people are working harder than they've ever worked, right? Some of them are working multiple jobs, and they can't make those ends meet. And this is especially pronounced among young people, in my experience, my fellow Millennials, but also Gen Z. Because we were promised that if we worked hard, if we played by the rules, if we went to school, if we studied, that we could live the American dream, and that was a lie. Because it is way too expensive to buy a home. It, it's way too expensive to, to start a family, to have kids. It's too expensive to retire comfortably, and it's because the system itself has been rigged against working people.

   7. SBSteven Bartlett17:09

      How?

   8. JTJames Talarico17:09

      And I would say, I would go back to the 1970s. Um, in fact, you can, you can pinpoint this one document called the Powell Memo. Uh, 1971, he was a corporate lawyer who later got, uh, appointed to the Supreme Court. But if you read this memo, it's basically a blueprint for how corporate interests can start to dismantle the Great Society and the New Deal, um, which had come the decades before. And so there was a feeling that among corporate America, that there needed to be a, a strategic plan, a political, uh, campaign to, uh, protect their power and amass more power. And so the, the blueprint says that corporate interests are gonna unite. They're going to spend massive amounts of money in our politics, buying politicians in both parties, elevate corporate voices in media, appoint sympathetic judges. It goes through kind of a, a whole comprehensive strategy for how to reverse the gains made in the New Deal and the Great Society. And, and you start to see, starting in the late '70s, early '80s trickle-down economics, right, of cutting taxes for the people at the very top and forgetting about the rest of us. And that has really been the story of the last 50 years in this country, the last five decades. And that's a major change from what we saw in the middle of the 20th century when our government invested in, in education and healthcare, in homes and highways. Like, we, we grew together. We had the largest, strongest middle class in the world in the 1950s and 1960s, and now that, that middle class is disappearing all over Texas, all over this country, and there's a lot of anger about that. A- And it's not just limited to Democrats or Democratic Socialists. It really spans the political spectrum, and people are looking for, they're looking for leaders who are gonna take on that broken, corrupt system. Um, not nibble around the edges, not incremental improvements. People are looking for wholesale change, and, and they're, they're right to, to want that change because it is possible to build an economy that rewards work instead of wealth. That's very possible. I mean, uh, the economy's just a collective, a collection of choices that we make, particularly policy choices, and we can make different choices than the ones that we've made for the last five decades. Trickle-down economics, in my view, is not a theory, it's theft.

   9. SBSteven Bartlett19:41

      In 1970, middle class households held 62% of all US aggregate income while upper income households held 29%. Today, those roles have flipped. Upper income households capture over 850% of total US income compared to just 42% held by the middle class. And if we look at lower income families, there's been a 5% increase since the 1970s in the sort of cohort of people living in the sort of low income category. The middle income category has reduced by 10%, and the upper income class has increased by 5%. So the direction of travel is that there's less people in the middle class, there's more people in the lower income, and there's more people in higher income.

   10. JTJames Talarico20:21

       Yeah.

   11. SBSteven Bartlett20:22

       How does one reverse that? Because, you know, whatever the sort of economic system has been in the United States, it's resulted in innovation and GDP growth and

6. 20:32 – 24:57

   How to Rebuild the American Middle Class

   1. SBSteven Bartlett20:32

      productivity. How do you reverse this change?

   2. JTJames Talarico20:35

      Well, and what I'm talking about is not a radical new vision for the economy. I'm talking about how do we get back to the economy of the 1950s and '60s where we grew together as a nation. And in fact, the, the productivity, the innovation was, I think, more significant when we were growing together. I, I think the math and the past make it very clear that a country that invests in its people grows faster than a country that abandons them. And so specifically, what am I talking about? I'm talking about raising the minimum wage, uh, expanding overtime pay so that workers can actually benefit from the wealth they create. You know, capitalism, uh, was an innovation. We f- I think we forget that now. The idea that you should be rewarded, that you should be compensated for your time, for your work, that was a revolutionary idea, and that's not what we have today. We, we don't have capitalism, at least not in this country. We have crony capitalism.

   3. SBSteven Bartlett21:34

      What's, what is that?

   4. JTJames Talarico21:35

      Where the gains in this economy go to those who can afford to buy access, who can afford to buy politicians for control. D- Dr. King said something similar. He said, "We have socialism for the rich, and we have rugged individualism for the poor." You think about the, the bailout, right, in, in, um, uh, the Great Recession, right? When a lot of the people on Wall Street who got us into that mess, they got golden parachutes, right? They got taken care of by the government. But you got single moms out there, y- you got construction workers, you got nurses and teachers who are barely surviving in this economy, and there's no bailout for them, right? It's rugged individualism for them. And so my only point is that we can create an economy where we all grow together, where corporations have a broader definition of shareholder, right? 'Cause, uh, you think about GE, you think about GM, Ford, these great American companies from the 20th century. They believed that shareholders included their workers, the families of their workers, the communities in which they operated, so they felt an obligation, a corporate ethos that, uh, was about much more than just their bottom line. And so that's what I'm trying to get us back to. I, I'm trying to get us back to a point where we are investing in our people and, and we have growth, but it's shared growth. We have competition, but it's fair competition, not monopolies and consolidation like we see today. Uh, so I, I guess what I'm trying to get us back to is old school capitalism where, again, people are compensated for their work, and it, and it's, it's not a system that benefits the wealthy and the well-connected only.

   5. SBSteven Bartlett23:13

      And how do you think you can do that from a Senate position if you are to win in Texas?

   6. JTJames Talarico23:17

      Yeah. So, uh, we, we talked about a few policies, um, of minimum wage and, and overtime pay, but I also think we have to rebuild labor unions in this country. You, you can almost track the destruction of the middle class with the destruction of organized labor. And this is not a government solution really. This is about empowering workers in the workplace to be able to negotiate with their bosses for better pay, for better benefits, for better working conditions. I think we've gotta do more to tackle the debt crisis, both personal household debt, which reached an all-time high in the first quarter of this year, um, whether it's medical debt, um, whether it's student debt, credit card debt, and we should also talk about the national debt, um, because both are, uh, are moral emergencies in my opinion. I also think we gotta do more on, on supporting families and children. I think investing in education. The GI Bill was a game changer in the middle of the 20th century, and it's what helped build that middle class. We haven't seen, uh, we haven't seen an investment in higher education at that scale, um, since the GI Bill. You know, I think we gotta expand the child tax credit which cut ... child poverty in half just a few years ago, and then it was allowed to expire. New families who are, who are having kids, like they need extra support if they're gonna live that American dream, and we can do that. And we can do, we can do all of this if we just were willing to tax the people at the very top and make them pay their fair share in taxes.

   7. SBSteven Bartlett24:44

      Is that easier said than done in s- in light of the forces that are opposed to what you've just said? There are, you know, big companies and individuals lobbying against what you've just said.

   8. JTJames Talarico24:55

      Yes, and that's the point.

7. 24:57 – 27:44

   Is the Texas Governor Corrupt?

   1. JTJames Talarico24:57

      I- I- it is a broken political system which leads to a broken economic system. That, that is the direction that I think this moves in, and it's why I said earlier I'm looking for comprehensive political reform first. Because the only way to unrig the economy so that it benefits all of us again, so that we're all growing together again, that w- work is rewarded, is if you clean up the corruption in our political system, where corporate special interests, corporate PACs, super PACs don't have the same influence in our government as they do now. 'Cause, 'cause right now, I mean, you know, I think about in Texas, there was an out-of-state billionaire from Pennsylvania who gave our governor $12 million, because we don't have campaign contribution limits in Texas. He gave our governor $12 million to pass a private school voucher scam, which is taking money out of our underfunded public schools in Texas. We rank 43rd in the nation in per student education funding. It's giving those tax dollars to wealthy parents who already have their kids in private school. So it is a, it is literally a transfer of wealth from the bottom and the middle to the people at the very top, all because of corruption in our political system. So I don't think we're gonna unrig this economy until we get rid of corruption in our politics and in our government. We have to have a government of, by, and for the people instead of a, what we have now, which is a government of, by, and for corporate special interests.

   2. SBSteven Bartlett26:21

      Is the Texas governor corrupt?

   3. JTJames Talarico26:23

      Yes.

   4. SBSteven Bartlett26:25

      That's a strong, strong thing to say.

   5. JTJames Talarico26:28

      Yeah, I mean, you know, again, the system itself is corrupt. The, the question is which politicians, um, succumb to that and which ones don't. And I'm less interested in the personalities in our politics, and I'm much more interested in the system.

   6. SBSteven Bartlett26:44

      Mm-hmm.

   7. JTJames Talarico26:44

      Because, like, politicians are rational actors for the most part. Politicians are trying to get reelected for the most part. The question is what incentives are put in front of them, what incentives are, is the system putting in front of them? And right now, if you look at the influence of big money, Citizens United, if you look at, uh, gerrymandering and redistricting, if you look at the two-party system, all of these s- social media, traditional media, all of, all of this whole ecosystem incentivizes extremism and corruption by design. And, a- and so you can, you can get rid of the governor of Texas, you can get rid of whoever you want. Someone else is just gonna take their place, and if you haven't fixed the incentives, if you haven't fixed the system, you're gonna get the same result.

   8. SBSteven Bartlett27:32

      A lot of the gr- the great founders, you know, who happen to be, also be billionaires-

   9. JTJames Talarico27:36

      Yeah

   10. SBSteven Bartlett27:36

       ... have chosen Texas as their home.

   11. JTJames Talarico27:39

       Yeah.

   12. SBSteven Bartlett27:39

       Increasingly, I think about Elon Musk building-

   13. JTJames Talarico27:41

       Yeah

   14. SBSteven Bartlett27:41

       ... I think both Tesla and SpaceX in,

8. 27:44 – 31:40

   Is It a Spiritual Sickness to Be a Trillionaire?

   1. SBSteven Bartlett27:44

      in your state.

   2. JTJames Talarico27:45

      Yeah.

   3. SBSteven Bartlett27:46

      How, how do you sort of marry these two worlds together? Because, you know, Elon Musk is now a trillionaire. I think the world's-

   4. JTJames Talarico27:51

      Yes

   5. SBSteven Bartlett27:51

      ... first trillionaire. You're talking about inequality. I think he's been held up by some as the sort of like poster child of inequality because he's so rich-

   6. JTJames Talarico28:00

      Yeah

   7. SBSteven Bartlett28:00

      ... on paper. Again, it's not-

   8. JTJames Talarico28:02

      Yeah

   9. SBSteven Bartlett28:02

      ... like he has cash in the bank, but it's-

   10. JTJames Talarico28:04

       Yeah

   11. SBSteven Bartlett28:04

       ... it's not like he has a trillion in the bank, but-

   12. JTJames Talarico28:05

       Yeah. Yeah

   13. SBSteven Bartlett28:05

       ... his net worth is so high.

   14. JTJames Talarico28:07

       Yeah.

   15. SBSteven Bartlett28:07

       So how do you attract someone like Elon Musk to the state-

   16. JTJames Talarico28:11

       Yeah

   17. SBSteven Bartlett28:11

       ... to build his companies and to employ the people that he does, while also pursuing equality-

   18. JTJames Talarico28:17

       Yeah

   19. SBSteven Bartlett28:17

       ... in the state at the same time? How do you marry those things?

   20. JTJames Talarico28:18

       Yeah. Some people have asked me if I'm demonizing billionaires, a- and I've said that I think I'm humanizing billionaires because for one of our own residents to become the world's first trillionaire while one in five Texas children live in poverty, to me, that is a spiritual sickness. I, I want people to be successful. I'm proud of, of Tesla. Uh, I'm proud of, of the great businesses across the state of Texas, across this country. Um, when businesses are successful, people are successful, and I'm all for that. But to accumulate more wealth than you could possibly spend in 100 lifetimes while we have people starving in this one, to me, that, that means, uh, we're not, um, fulfilling our full humanity.

   21. SBSteven Bartlett29:04

       What would you have done to stop that happening?

   22. JTJames Talarico29:07

       Well, I mean, we, at one point in this country, we had, I think it was in the 1950s, had a top marginal tax rate of 90%. I, you know, I don't think it needs to be that high, but we used to have a, a political system and an economic system that more fairly distributed the fruits of our labor.

   23. SBSteven Bartlett29:24

       On that particular point, if there was a tax rate of 90%-

   24. JTJames Talarico29:27

       Yeah

   25. SBSteven Bartlett29:27

       ... Elon would still be a trillionaire.

   26. JTJames Talarico29:29

       Yeah. [laughs] Well, I mean, this is, this is the problem when you let so much concentrated wealth and power get so out of control, and I think the thing that really upsets people s- uh, particularly about the Elon example, is that Tesla was successful because of taxpayer dollars, right? Tesla got investment from the federal government, which is why it has been so successful. And so if we're all gonna invest in Tex- in Tesla, if we're gonna invest in Elon Musk, or pick your billionaire, right? Most of our billionaires, you know, they went to schools that we funded. They drove on highways that we funded. They benefited from infrastructure that we all built together, and we're not, we're not saying they can't be successful. All we're saying is that, make sure you give something back to the country that made your success possible. B- make sure there's a ladder for the next guy coming up, right? I mean, I, I think that we should be investing and, and taking a chance on the CEOs in their garage, not the CEOs on their mega yacht, because that's where the next great American company is gonna come from. I've seen that w- when people talk about being pro-business, what that usually means is being pro big business. Right? Why all the tax breaks go to the giant multinational corporations, you know, Walmart, we basically subsidize Walmart through Medicaid because they don't give their employees quality healthcare, so we, the taxpayers, are giving Walmart employees quality healthcare. So again, socialism for the rich, rugged individualism for the rest of us. And, and what I'm trying to get back to is, is an economy where, where the folks who work for Tesla, the folks who, who generate that wealth, are also getting to benefit from that prosperity. And this is not a radical vision. It's what we had before, and we had the most productive, innovative economy in the, in the world, and I think we can rebuild that through better tax policy, um, better healthcare policy, a better education policy. Like, public policy can help us unrig this system so that those productivity gains, the wealth that's created is more, is more evenly shared, um, across people in, in our communities.

   27. SBSteven Bartlett31:29

       'Cause in the case of Elon, his wealth is equity value-

   28. JTJames Talarico31:33

       Mm-hmm

   29. SBSteven Bartlett31:33

       ... in the companies that he owns.

   30. JTJames Talarico31:34

       Yeah.
9. 31:40 – 35:51

   How Do You Tax Wealth That Isn't Cash?

   1. SBSteven Bartlett31:40

      or, or government or s- senator could do to-

   2. JTJames Talarico31:43

      Yeah

   3. SBSteven Bartlett31:43

      ... redistribute that, which would've, you know, prevented him from becoming a trillionaire in the first place.

   4. JTJames Talarico31:49

      Yes.

   5. SBSteven Bartlett31:50

      When there isn't necessarily a transaction taking place. It's not like he's necessarily, um, sold down huge amounts of that equity.

   6. JTJames Talarico31:56

      I mean, what we've talked about, uh, on this campaign is, is closing tax loopholes that benefit the wealthiest in this country. You know, there's, there's crazy stuff in our tax code that says you can write off your private jet, your mega yacht as business expenses.

   7. SBSteven Bartlett32:11

      Uh-huh.

   8. JTJames Talarico32:12

      Right? The carried interest loophole, capital gains. I mean, this whole tax system that we have now really allows the people at the very top to accumulate and amass more wealth without any taxation. I mean, we... I, I was reading that if we just collected the taxes that the top 1% owes, no new taxes, just collecting what's already owed, it would raise something like $172 billion, uh, every year, and that's enough to end poverty in America.

   9. SBSteven Bartlett32:43

      That, that they already owe?

   10. JTJames Talarico32:44

       Mm-hmm. Yeah.

   11. SBSteven Bartlett32:45

       But if they hadn't paid it, presumably they're gonna be in jail, aren't they, if they-

   12. JTJames Talarico32:48

       Well, no. I mean, our, uh, one, there's, there are no resources that actually go to cracking down on these tax cheats.

   13. SBSteven Bartlett32:53

       Oh.

   14. JTJames Talarico32:54

       So-

   15. SBSteven Bartlett32:55

       They're using loopholes-

   16. JTJames Talarico32:56

       Yeah

   17. SBSteven Bartlett32:56

       ... is what you're saying.

   18. JTJames Talarico32:57

       Yeah, loopholes in the system. Um, and, and people who are cheating the system, too. It's both. It's both the legalized loopholes that you can get away with, but it's also people who just know they're not gonna get, no one's gonna crack down on them. And so I just say that as an example of how much this system benefits those who can afford to buy politicians, those who can, uh, afford to curry favor with elected officials, those who can, who can write the rules of the game so that they're the only ones who win, and that's what I think people are angry about. That's what I think people are tired of across the political spectrum. This is, I don't think this is a Democratic thing that I'm saying. I, I really do get the sense that most people in this country, they, they want success. They want businesses to thrive. They want business leaders to thrive, but they don't want all the gains in our economy just to go to a few guys at the very top at our expense. Right now, it's three men, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos, who now own more wealth than the entire middle class. Like, that, I mean, that, that's crazy, and, and you're not a socialist or a communist if you say that that's crazy.

   19. SBSteven Bartlett34:01

       So what would you do about that, though? Like, at this point-

   20. JTJames Talarico34:04

       Yeah

   21. SBSteven Bartlett34:04

       ... so histor- you know, in, in the, historically you could've done something, but now th- this is where we are.

   22. JTJames Talarico34:08

       Yep.

   23. SBSteven Bartlett34:08

       So how would you redistribute that wealth?

   24. JTJames Talarico34:11

       A fair tax system to start with. Um-

   25. SBSteven Bartlett34:13

       But they don't, these, a lot of these guys don't pay tax 'cause then they're taking loans against their equity.

   26. JTJames Talarico34:17

       I mean, there's all kinds of ideas for-

   27. SBSteven Bartlett34:19

       Yeah

   28. JTJames Talarico34:19

       ... you know, um, being able to, uh, to tax not only income but also wealth, to make sure that those assets that you have are being taxed fairly. Um-

   29. SBSteven Bartlett34:28

       So you would, you're pro-wealth tax.

   30. JTJames Talarico34:31

       I, I'm interested in what kind of wealth taxes we could actually implement. I know there's challenges on, on implementation, but I think we should explore every avenue to make the wealthiest people in this country pay their fair share. I mean, just, uh, as a percentage of income, if we just wanna talk about income, I mean, working Texans are paying more as a percentage of their, of their take-home pay than the wealthiest people in our state, and that just-
10. 35:51 – 38:20

    Will Billionaires Just Leave the State?

    1. SBSteven Bartlett35:51

       and I think over the last couple of, uh, months, because California were threatening to do a wealth tax, there's been a lot of the, you know, the famous well-known founders have departed California. The Mark Zuckerbergs of the world. I think a few others. I've got a long list of them here. But, but is that something you think about as well? I- in a world that is increasingly global, but also just where, you know, these founders can have their businesses online and on the internet, they can quite easily move their residence to a state that's more preferential, whether it's Florida or other places. I mean, much of the reason why a lot of founders have moved to Texas is because there's a, what is it, a 0% state tax?

    2. JTJames Talarico36:25

       We don't have a state income tax, yes.

    3. SBSteven Bartlett36:26

       Yeah, so 0%.

    4. JTJames Talarico36:27

       Which is a good thing, and I, and I don't want a, a state income tax. Our citizens are taxed enough with property and sales taxes. But this is the reason we need good federal policy. Right? And it's the reason why states can't really tackle this problem on their own. And again, I, I, I had an event with Mark Cuban, uh, up in, up in Dallas-Fort Worth. Um, and, you know, uh, the, the moderator interviewed both of us, and it was a little awkward 'cause she's like, "You know, James, you've had some tough words for billionaires, and you got a billionaire sitting right next to you." And I joked that Mark Cuban is one of the good ones, meaning Mark Cuban uses his wealth, his power, his influence to help working people. If you've seen the work he's done on prescription drugs, Cost Plus Drugs is a great company that is actively making it easier for people to afford their medicine. A- and that's true throughout American history. If I think of Franklin Roosevelt, I think of Bobby Kennedy, these were political heroes of mine. They were trust fund babies. These were the billionaires of their day. But they used their, their power to take on these systems that are hurting people. A- and it wasn't just through charity. Charity's important, but what's more important is addressing the systems that make charity necessary, and that's exactly what people like Mark Cuban are doing. So I, again, I don't mean to-- I'm not interested in punishing success. I'm not interested in banning billionaires. All I want is to ensure that we are, we're acting like a community again, as a country, that we have a responsibility to each other. Uh, and you can be successful while also paying your fair share and ensuring that we, we're investing in young entrepreneurs. We got an education system that's empowering the next great business leader.

    5. SBSteven Bartlett38:09

       So you're saying that the, the tax changes will need to happen on the federal level?

    6. JTJames Talarico38:12

       Yes, along with a lot more. It's not just tax. I mean, I, I'm talking about major changes in education, early childhood, in,

11. 38:20 – 40:23

    Breaking Up Healthcare Monopolies

    1. JTJames Talarico38:20

       in, in healthcare, in blocking consolidation. Uh, one of the things that Mark Cuban and I laid out together was going after healthcare monopolies.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett38:27

       Mm-hmm.

    3. JTJames Talarico38:27

       'Cause you basically, you can now have one company that owns the health insurance company, the hospital, and the pharmacy a- all in one. And so there's, again, when I say this is not capitalism, less competition means fewer choices, which means higher prices for people.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett38:46

       Mm-hmm.

    5. JTJames Talarico38:47

       So these monopolies in our healthcare system, that's an example of crony capitalism. CVS owns one of the largest PBMs.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett38:54

       What's a PBM?

    7. JTJames Talarico38:54

       They own a pharmacy benefit manager. They're, it's basically like a middleman- [chuckles]

    8. SBSteven Bartlett38:59

       Okay

    9. JTJames Talarico38:59

       ... between you and the prescription drugs you buy. But they own one of the big PBMs, they own one of the big health insurance companies, and they own the largest network of drugstores in the country. So Mark Cuban and I were talking about a plan to actually break up those healthcare monopolies and create more choices, more competition, more capitalism, so that we can lower prices. Because at the end of the day, like, if you can't afford your prescription drugs, you get sick, and sometimes you die because of it. The big ugly bill that passed last year in Washington made a lot of cuts to healthcare. The nonpartisan estimates were that as a result of those cuts, fifty-one thousand Americans were gonna die needlessly every year. So I just wanna ground us also in the, in the real world ramifications of these policy decisions. It's not just theoretical. We're talking about our neighbors dying because we have a system that determines your healthcare based on how much money you make, uh, based on how much money your parents make. A lot of these are kids who don't even work yet. And so there is a real urgency that I feel, um, that a lot of Americans feel that we have to, we have to, we have to pursue wholesale transformational change in our political and economic system.

    10. SBSteven Bartlett40:11

        [page flips] I wanna speak to the business owners listening and watching right now. I know what it's like to be personally responsible for every decision. I founded my first company at twenty-one years old, and honestly, the pressure can be

12. 40:23 – 42:27

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13. 42:27 – 46:59

    The 3 Things He'd Prioritize to Regulate AI

    1. SBSteven Bartlett42:27

       of the big sort of protagonists in this story is now artificial intelligence-

    2. JTJames Talarico42:31

       Yeah

    3. SBSteven Bartlett42:31

       ... and how disruptive that's gonna be. And I've sat here with so many of the, like, you know, the stakeholders in that industry and heard some of the most, uh, crazy predictions-

    4. JTJames Talarico42:39

       Yeah

    5. SBSteven Bartlett42:39

       ... around robotics and generally around AI. I mean, one of the, the sort of h- h- big headlines at the moment is that there'll be significant job disruption.

    6. JTJames Talarico42:47

       Yeah.

    7. SBSteven Bartlett42:47

       And a lot of that value's gonna accrue to the big technology companies that are the Frontier Labs and the Nvidias of the world. It appears to me, when I, when I ask very, very smart people in technology what is the biggest concern at the moment for the US economy, it is dealing with this AI challenge.

    8. JTJames Talarico43:04

       Yeah.

    9. SBSteven Bartlett43:05

       Bernie Sanders has been very vocal about it recently. Uh, Donald Trump has said that we need to win against China.

    10. JTJames Talarico43:11

        Yeah.

    11. SBSteven Bartlett43:12

        Um, how are you thinking about AI and the impact it's gonna have on Texans?

    12. JTJames Talarico43:15

        Yeah, I think when I travel around the state of Texas, I get this question a lot. A lot of people are thinking about AI, and there's competing reactions to it. A lot of us, including me, feel excited about some of the, the benefits of artificial intelligence. I, I met with an AI entrepreneur who's talking about how he's gonna cure chronic diseases, maybe cure cancer. I mean, that, that's exciting for me. I think exciting for most people. And then a lot of Texans, including me, feel a lot of anxiety because our leaders, those who are, who should be writing the rules of the game, have their head in the sand. I mean, it is shocking that our US Senate, our Congress, our federal government has really been MIA as this technology has developed faster and faster and has done so in, in dangerous ways, um, as we saw with the, the recent, uh, hacking from, from, uh, OpenAI's model. And so I think what people are hungry for is a regulatory framework to ensure that we are developing these technologies, that we're winning the AI race, and we're doing it responsibly, we're doing it safely. We're doing it in a way that's gonna ensure AI works for us and not against us. And I think that is what I think most people wanna see from their leaders, from their policymakers, 'cause right now it's just, um, no one is minding the store.

    13. SBSteven Bartlett44:41

        Do you know, what does that mean specifically? Do you have any ideas-

    14. JTJames Talarico44:44

        Yeah

    15. SBSteven Bartlett44:44

        ... what that means in-

    16. JTJames Talarico44:45

        Yeah. I think if I, you know, if I was in the US Senate helping develop this regulatory framework, there are three things I would prioritize. One is protecting our workers, protecting our economy, making sure that AI technologies are improving jobs, making jobs easier, um, allowing workers to spend less time on the job and more time doing the things they love with the people they love. Uh, the second thing I would prioritize is children. We've seen how social media companies have preyed on our kids, have taken advantage of our kids, have led to, you know, a spike in, in self-harm and depression and anxiety among young people. I very much worry that without regulation, AI technologies may do the same thing to young people, to future generations. You've seen the horror stories of, of kids going to, to AI for therapy, for counseling, and sometimes those AI chatbot have helped those kids harm themselves. Um, the third thing I would prioritize is our democracy because we've already seen AI deepfake ads in political campaigns. We've seen it in this campaign in Texas for the US Senate. And, you know, I, I've always prided myself as a millennial on being able to differentiate between fact and fiction online, right? A lot of millennials like me will, uh, roll our eyes at our grandparents who get tricked by stuff on Facebook. But I mean, I'm seeing it happen to me, right? I, I, I increasingly can't tell the difference between AI deepfakes and, and reality, and I think a lot of people feel that alarm that these, these technologies are getting so good that you really can't tell the difference between fact and fiction. And most of the time there's no disclaimer required. And so again, there's a lot that needs to happen, but if I was developing a framework of regulation for AI, those would be the three things that I would, I would prioritize.

    17. SBSteven Bartlett46:45

        So Elon said that there will be, within the decade, over a billion humanoid robots. Over a billion humanoid robots, and that those robots will be at least five times

14. 46:59 – 49:29

    Should Billionaires Write the Rules for AI?

    1. SBSteven Bartlett46:59

       the output of a human.

    2. JTJames Talarico47:00

       Hmm.

    3. SBSteven Bartlett47:01

       And he's, I think it's, these robots are being built in your state in Texas-

    4. JTJames Talarico47:05

       Yeah

    5. SBSteven Bartlett47:05

       ... at the Gigafactory there, um, and, and at the other sort of Tesla factories that he has. But how is it possible to protect workers when there's a billion humanoid robots in the world? Now, like, Elon's timelines have sometimes missed a little bit.

    6. JTJames Talarico47:18

       Yeah, sure. [laughs]

    7. SBSteven Bartlett47:18

       But generally, you know, he as an entrepreneur and his companies have been able to do things that are, like, almost indistinguishable from magic at times.

    8. JTJames Talarico47:25

       Well, here's the key, uh, and connects to the, the conversation we were just having. We cannot let AI or robotics become yet another arena where billionaires are writing the rules for the rest of us. Uh, you think about... I try to always think about historical parallels. Um, and the only parallels I can think of in modern history are the Manhattan Project, the development of nuclear weapons, the space race, and the development of the internet. This AI probably will be more consequential than those three innovations. But the thing that's different is that all three of those innovations were done as a public-private partnership, right? We as a country were deciding the rules of the game, and we were doing it, um, in partnership with, with great private sector companies. This innovation is very different. This is being done in the hands of a very small number of people running for-profit corporations without input from any of the rest of us.

    9. SBSteven Bartlett48:31

       Mm-hmm.

    10. JTJames Talarico48:32

        And we can't allow that to happen. We, we've seen already, we talked about the last fifty years, when you let the richest people in this country, the most powerful people in this country write all the rules, all of the gains, all of the benefits will flow to those at the top and we're all gonna get screwed. I could see the same thing happening with AI. Working people in this country deserve a say and a share in that AI future, and whether that looks like an, an AI dividend, some kind of policy to ensure that all of us are benefiting- From the wealth that these technologies create because they're using our collective intellectual property. I- if they're gonna use our ideas, if they're gonna use our ingenuity, then we deserve to be, to get compensated, um, for the use of that intellectual property.

    11. SBSteven Bartlett49:18

        If the technology plays out how they're forecasting and how it, on the current tr- direction of travel, then if you just think about driving as an occupation, I, I... We all watched th- those videos of these new cyber

15. 49:29 – 51:52

    Will Self-Driving Cars Wipe Out Driving Jobs?

    1. SBSteven Bartlett49:29

       cabs rolling out around Texas where they have no steering wheel, no pedals at all, and two seats in the front, and the car just drives itself autonomously. From my rough estimates, approximately 400,000 people in Texas work as professional drivers-

    2. JTJames Talarico49:43

       Yeah

    3. SBSteven Bartlett49:43

       ... as their primary payroll occupation. But if you factor in, like, gig workers that are on the Ubers, the DoorDashes, which by the way, you know, the founder of, uh, the CEO of Uber has sat there and told me those jobs are going away.

    4. JTJames Talarico49:54

       Yeah.

    5. SBSteven Bartlett49:54

       Um, it's more, it's more than half a million people that rely on driving as an occupation.

    6. JTJames Talarico49:58

       Yeah.

    7. SBSteven Bartlett49:58

       Texas is leading the charge against, uh, uh, towards autonomous vehicles where you need no driver. It would appear to me logically that on this direction of travel, there's gonna be significant job disruption. This is even outside of humanoid robots and so on. And, and I wonder, like, how, you know, there's, okay, an AI dividend, but, um, I just wonder how people like you are thinking about that level of disruption-

    8. JTJames Talarico50:18

       Yeah

    9. SBSteven Bartlett50:18

       ... that theoretically could happen really, really quickly.

    10. JTJames Talarico50:21

        And rejecting the false choices, right? Because it is possible to, to benefit from some of these technologies. Um, you know, some of these self-d- driving cars will make us all safer on the roads, which is great. But the idea that that has to replace a human being, the fa- the idea that these technologies don't need a human supervisor, to me, that's a, that's a false choice.

    11. SBSteven Bartlett50:43

        Why would it need a human supervisor?

    12. JTJames Talarico50:45

        I mean, I would hope, especially if we're talking about, like, 18-wheelers barreling down Texas highways, I would hope there's a human being there to monitor these technologies. If you, if you think about-

    13. SBSteven Bartlett50:55

        Even if the data suggests that it's m- it's more safe without the human?

    14. JTJames Talarico50:59

        You, you think... I'm all for taking advantage of, of the safety features. Um, y- I, I just think about airplanes, right? The fact that airplanes mostly fly themselves, I'm still very comforted by the fact that there is a trained professional behind the controls in case anything goes wrong. And so again, if, if we're making these decisions together instead of just a few billionaire CEOs making the decisions for all of us, then we can reject some of these false choices that are presented to us, and we can figure out a way to both take advantage of the benefits of these technologies, like making our roads safer, making cars safer, reducing fatalities, and ensuring that we are protecting human beings in the process. I, I just fundamentally reject the idea that we have to choose between those two things.

    15. SBSteven Bartlett51:42

        I, I watched a video the other day of, um, a factory, and they had the humanoid robot doing the packaging process, and they had a human next to them, and they were just demonstrating the productivity difference between this

16. 51:52 – 55:53

    Is AI Headed Toward 30% Unemployment?

    1. SBSteven Bartlett51:52

       humanoid robot that was flipping the packages versus a, a person who had to sleep and go to the toilet and all those kinds of things.

    2. JTJames Talarico51:57

       [laughs] Sure.

    3. SBSteven Bartlett51:58

       And the c- the... It's a video by Figure AI, and the video concludes with the fact that the humanoid robot was more productive essentially.

    4. JTJames Talarico52:03

       Mm-hmm.

    5. SBSteven Bartlett52:04

       And it didn't need to sleep and obviously all those kinds of things. So I think also about that level of work, and I don't know, I've just... I'm in search of a, of a good answer to, um, this question of, like, job disruption that seems to be-

    6. JTJames Talarico52:15

       Yeah

    7. SBSteven Bartlett52:15

       ... logically on the way.

    8. JTJames Talarico52:17

       Yeah.

    9. SBSteven Bartlett52:17

       The Big Frontier Labs, their CEOs in AI have all forecasted job disruption increasingly. They change their tone a little bit when it becomes unpopular, but if you look through their writing since 2016, they're saying that the economy's gonna have to drastically change in light of this technology, so-

    10. JTJames Talarico52:32

        I, I spoke with an expert on AI, 'cause I'm... You know, when you're in these positions, when you're in elected office, you suddenly realize all the things you don't know. [laughs] You're having to make crucial decisions on things that you may not be an expert on yet. And so I'm trying to get smarter on this every day, and I was speaking to, to someone who's, uh, done a lot of work in AI, and he said he's worried that we are headed toward five trillionaires and 30% unemployment.

    11. SBSteven Bartlett52:58

        Hmm.

    12. JTJames Talarico52:59

        And that terrifies me, right? As someone who cares about the people in my state, that's not the future I want. And there's still time for us to make these decisions together. What kind of AI future do we want? Th- this is not something we're subjected to. Yes, y- we're gonna see disruption. We've seen disruption from, from past technologies. But if we're making decisions together as a country, then we can both weather some of those disruptions, and we can come out stronger on the other side. You know, I think about the need to invest and double down on what only human beings can do. Doubling down on human creativity, on human ingenuity, right? I've talked about the need for entrepreneurship grants. You know, if we're taxing these AI companies, some of that revenue can go, go toward investing in folks who have a, a great idea for a business or a, an invention or a piece of art. But these, these people don't know a bunch of wealthy investors. And so we're gonna invest in the little guy, just like we did with Tesla, just like we did with the internet. And those innovations have, have more than paid for themselves. And so I want us to do more of that, finding out what, what is it that human beings alone can do, and doubling down on that creativity, that ingenuity. Again, that's just an example of if we all come together and we think seriously about this problem, um, and decide that we're gonna make decisions together, the AI future can, can look very differently than the path that we're headed on.

    13. SBSteven Bartlett54:29

        Do you have faith that elected-

    14. JTJames Talarico54:30

        Always

    15. SBSteven Bartlett54:30

        ... officials can-

    16. JTJames Talarico54:31

        [laughs]

    17. SBSteven Bartlett54:31

        ... yes, [laughs] can pass through this and arrive at a conclusion? Because if you think through, I don't know, how social media was handled-

    18. JTJames Talarico54:38

        Yes

    19. SBSteven Bartlett54:38

        ... we tend to handle it after the fact, don't we?

    20. JTJames Talarico54:39

        That exa- Yeah.

    21. SBSteven Bartlett54:40

        Yeah.

    22. JTJames Talarico54:40

        Like, that's, that should be a, uh, a negative example, right? Because we let social media companies run wild, and they ended up preying on our children. They ended up, um, hurting our kids. They ended up hurting all of us, not just kids. And, and so we should learn from that example and, and realize that if we're gonna do this and i- if this technology is coming, if this innovation is coming- Let's figure out as a community, as a nation, um, how we're gonna respond and what policy frameworks we need to put in place to ensure that, again, AI is making our lives better and easier and less stressful, and not hurting people. This is a fundamental belief that I have, that the economy is for people, people aren't for the economy, right? That, that is a, that is a guiding star for me. And so if, if we are headed down a path where people are gonna get hurt needlessly because a few guys in Silicon Valley say it's necessary, I, I think we have to reject that. And our elected officials, who in a democracy are tasked with making these big decisions, they need to get in the game.

    23. SBSteven Bartlett55:41

        Politics has shifted over the last couple of, um, over the last couple of years. There was quite a distinct shift, I think, when Elon purchased Twitter.

    24. JTJames Talarico55:49

        Yeah.

    25. SBSteven Bartlett55:50

        It seemed like the world changed a lot, and this,

17. 55:53 – 57:30

    Did Woke Politics Hurt the Democrats?

    1. SBSteven Bartlett55:53

       one of the terms within politics was this word wokeism.

    2. JTJames Talarico55:56

       Hmm.

    3. SBSteven Bartlett55:56

       And it predominantly seemed to exist, it was like a weapon that the right hit the left with.

    4. JTJames Talarico56:01

       Sure.

    5. SBSteven Bartlett56:02

       Recently, um, AOC came out and said that woke 1.0 was crazy.

    6. JTJames Talarico56:08

       [laughs]

    7. SBSteven Bartlett56:08

       Sort of distancing herself from the 2020 progressive political narratives, um, that I think maybe in hindsight have hurt the party a little bit, or at least hurt the perception of the party a little bit. Do you have a point of view on this, this idea of wokeism and the, uh, the sort of journey we've been on?

    8. JTJames Talarico56:25

       Yeah, I mean, it's hard 'cause, um, you know, people define woke or wokeism very differently. I do think that there was a rise in, in performative politics, in people who were more concerned about using the right words, usually determined by academia, versus bringing people together around some common values, like racism is wrong.

    9. SBSteven Bartlett56:48

       Mm-hmm.

    10. JTJames Talarico56:48

        Right? Um, that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. Those are unifying values that we all agree on, but when you start policing people's language, when you start judging people because they're not up on the right terminology, you're no longer building a coalition to address those real problems that you, that, that need addressing. Instead, you're doing, you're performing a, a kind of politics that's about your own intellectual and emotional needs a- and not about actually making change. Um-

    11. SBSteven Bartlett57:19

        Why did the Democrats lose to Trump, in your view?

    12. JTJames Talarico57:22

        In, in what year? [laughs]

    13. SBSteven Bartlett57:23

        Uh, both years.

    14. JTJames Talarico57:23

        The Democrats have lost to Trump twice now. [laughs]

    15. SBSteven Bartlett57:25

        Yeah, I, I think in, really in both years, but I guess in the more re- the more recent election cycle.

18. 57:30 – 1:00:53

    Why Did Democrats Lose to Trump?

    1. JTJames Talarico57:30

       Yeah.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett57:30

       What is the diagnosis?

    3. JTJames Talarico57:32

       Well, everywhere I went across the state of Texas, um, in 2024, people were, uh, struggling with the high cost of living. I talked with a lot of Texans who didn't like the way Trump talked to people. They didn't like January 6th. They had deep concerns about him as a leader, but they thought he could get the economy back on track. Because if you remember, the economy of 2017, 2018, 2019, that was a pretty good economy and, and costs were a lot lower, and it was easier for middle class people to get ahead. You know, I do think we have to separate, I've talked about the last 50 years of this trend toward, you know, consolidation of wealth and power at the top. All of that became more acute, um, more urgent after the pandemic and the rise of inflation. The increase in inflation was kind of like the, the straw that broke the camel's back, right? You'd had 50 years of trickle-down economics, of stagnant wages for middle class and working class people, systematic attacks on education and healthcare. You had all of that happening, but you had cheap goods. So there was, it felt like we were getting something, right? My income's not going up. You know, I'm not able to get ahead like maybe my grandparents were able to get ahead. It's hard to start a business, but at least things are cheap. And then when that changed, suddenly people realized that we are all getting screwed by this system. 'Cause not only is our, is our pay going down or staying flat, but now the cost of living has gone up, so you're getting squeezed from both ends. So when that happened, I think people were looking for someone who was gonna help. A- and that's not an unreasonable thing to look for when you're hurting. And so people put their faith in, in President Trump, for good reasons, right? They thought he was gonna lower costs. They thought he was gonna end the forever wars that we were all sick and tired of. They thought he was gonna release the Epstein files. They thought he was gonna drain the swamp. I mean, I, I have members of my family who voted for President Trump, um, people that I love, and those are the reason they, those are the reasons they voted for him, and those are pretty good reasons. I think, you know, uh, more than a year into this administration, those promises have not been kept. Everything is now more expensive, largely because of tariffs. We have a new war in Iran that no one asked for. It's costing us a billion dollars a day. That's driving up gas prices. Uh, the Epstein files has, have still not fully been released, and the swamp is bigger than it's ever been before. And so people are feeling like they, like they've been conned. A- and our, uh, you know, my job as a, as a candidate, our job as a campaign is to, is to extend an open hand to our neighbors who are disillusioned, who misplaced their trust in a leader, and invite them to join this movement that we're building in Texas, which is honestly bigger than Donald Trump. It's bigger than any one political party. It really is, uh, on the ground, it feels like a movement of, of working people across the spectrum who are ready to take on this broken, corrupt system. And, you know, a- a- God willing, a- as the next yes- as the next US senator from Texas, I will have the opportunity to work with President Trump to try to deliver for my constituents.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett1:00:42

       What do you think of him as a person?

    5. JTJames Talarico1:00:45

       Well, I don't know him, so it's hard for me to judge but, um, you know, I, I think all of us, um, have strengths and weaknesses. Um,

19. 1:00:53 – 1:02:06

    What Does He Really Think of Trump?

    1. JTJames Talarico1:00:53

       I think the President does have clear strengths. I think he's able to communicate in a way that's clear and, and concise and powerful to people. He is willing to take action. When there's so much gridlock, um, he's willing to just kind of b- bust through walls to deliver for people. And he has a sense of humor, which I [laughs] , I feel like is really missing in, in politics. You know, he has a, a lighthearted way about him. Those are, I think, some of the redeeming qualities. I think all of us know the, his willingness to put his ego above everything else, his willingness to make, uh, chaotic decisions without much forethought, his penchant for corruption and self-enrichment for himself and his family, and his, his, uh, desire to be popular. And all politicians have a desire to be popular, but he does seem to place that above almost any other principle or conviction that he may have. And so, uh, you know, I think, I think it's important to consider both the, the good and the bad of any leader and, and that includes the president.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett1:01:55

       W- what about, uh, immigration? That's one of the issues that is both very relevant to Texas, but also that frankly helped him get elected.

    3. JTJames Talarico1:02:02

       Yeah.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett1:02:02

       Like him talking about-

    5. JTJames Talarico1:02:03

       Yeah

    6. SBSteven Bartlett1:02:03

       ... some of these stats around

20. 1:02:06 – 1:05:19

    How to Fix Immigration Without Extremism

    1. SBSteven Bartlett1:02:06

       border crossings-

    2. JTJames Talarico1:02:06

       Yeah

    3. SBSteven Bartlett1:02:07

       ... in Texas.

    4. JTJames Talarico1:02:08

       Yeah, and he was right about this. The Biden Administration failed us on our southern border. I remember talking with my colleagues in the State House who represented border communities, and they talked about the utter chaos, um, on our border. And our border communities in Texas mean a lot to me. My mom is from Laredo, uh, which is on our Texas-Mexico border. And so this system was out of control in, in the Biden era, and you see it on this map. My worry is that we have replaced one extremism on immigration in the Biden years with a new extremism on immigration, uh, with masked men in unmarked vehicles kidnapping people off the street, deporting small business owners who have been here for years and, and decades, taking children as young as five years old and throwing them in detention centers. So, uh, my sense is that most Texans, most Americans want the same thing when it comes to immigration. They want security, and they wanna welcome hardworking immigrants who wanna live the American dream. And in our politics, those two things are pitted against each other. Again, back to false choices. Those are not mutually exclusive. You can have a secure border. You can, you can, it is not racist to wanna know who's coming into this country, right? You can do all that while also building more legal pathways for folks to come here the right way, folks who wanna start a business, who wanna contribute to this economy, who wanna live that American dream and make us richer and stronger in the process, as immigrants have always done. And so I'm trying to, on the trail, uphold both of those moral values. Safety, which, public safety is the most important thing the government does, more important than public education, more important than public health. Public safety is the most important thing. And we are a nation of immigrants. It is the lifeblood of our economy. It is what has made Texas and, and America so great. And so we can uphold both of those values at the same time and pass comprehensive immigration reform that can do both of those things simultaneously.

    5. SBSteven Bartlett1:04:07

       W- what would you do about the issue of undocumented young people that have come here-

    6. JTJames Talarico1:04:12

       Yeah

    7. SBSteven Bartlett1:04:12

       ... um, that are in the country that, you know, maybe were brought here by no fault of their own, but now find themselves in the US without documents?

    8. JTJames Talarico1:04:18

       Yeah, I taught a lot of DACA students, a lot of dreamers in Room 112 at Rhodes Middle School, uh, on the west side of San Antonio. My students who were undocumented, they loved this country, uh, in a profound way. Uh, it feels like they, uh, they understand something about America that many of our leaders have forgotten, that this is supposed to be the land of opportunity. This is, this is supposed to be the place where dreams come true. And so I would be very interested as part of a comprehensive immigration reform package, which includes border security, to create a pathway to citizenship for, for undocumented folks who have been here for years, for decades, for kids who were brought over as kids, so that they have an opportunity to come out of the shadows and fully join us as, uh, as, as citizens of this country.

    9. SBSteven Bartlett1:05:08

       This is something that I've made for you. I've realized that The Diary of a CEO audience are strivers, whether it's in business or health. We all have big goals that we wanna accomplish. And one of the things I've learnt is that

21. 1:05:19 – 1:06:27

    Ads

    1. SBSteven Bartlett1:05:19

       when you aim at the big, big, big goal, it can feel incredibly psychologically uncomfortable because it's kind of like being stood at the foot of Mount Everest and looking upwards. The way to accomplish your goals is by breaking them down into tiny, small steps, and we call this in our team the 1%. And actually, this philosophy is highly responsible for much of our success here. So what we've done so that you at home can accomplish any big goal that you have is we've made these 1% diaries, and we released these last year, and they all sold out. So I asked my team over and over again to bring the diaries back, but also to introduce some new colors and to make some minor tweaks to the diary. So now we have a better range for you. So if you have a big goal in mind and you need a framework and a process and some motivation, then I highly recommend you get one of these diaries before they all sell out once again. And you can get yours at thediary.com. And if you want the link, the link is in the description below. There should be a button just down below here, and if it says Subscribe, you're already subscribed. If it says Subscriber, that means you're not yet. And if you're not subscribed, please could you do us a favor and hit that button? It helps the show

22. 1:06:27 – 1:13:27

    How Does America Get Out of the Iran War?

    1. SBSteven Bartlett1:06:27

       more than you know, and according to the algorithm, you're someone that watches our show, but you haven't yet hit that button. Thank you so much. One of the, um, issues that I know is gonna be front of mind for a lot of people at the moment, uh, and one of the issues I think that's gonna result in the Republican Party struggling in the midterms is this issue you mentioned earlier of Iran.

    2. JTJames Talarico1:06:45

       Yeah.

    3. SBSteven Bartlett1:06:46

       If you are a US senator, um, you would be voting on foreign policy and war powers and military spending and things like that, including in the Middle East.

    4. JTJames Talarico1:06:52

       Yeah.

    5. SBSteven Bartlett1:06:53

       So I wanted to get your perspective on what the hell is going on.

    6. JTJames Talarico1:06:57

       [laughs] That's a good question.

    7. SBSteven Bartlett1:06:58

       And like, how do you get, how do you get out of this situation now?

    8. JTJames Talarico1:07:00

       Yeah.

    9. SBSteven Bartlett1:07:00

       It seems like a, seems like there's no golden bridge out of this situation.

    10. JTJames Talarico1:07:04

        Yeah, I mean, we shouldn't, we shouldn't have been in this situation to begin with. We should start with that.

    11. SBSteven Bartlett1:07:08

        How did we get in this situation?

    12. JTJames Talarico1:07:10

        Again, this is just from an outsider perspective, but it, it seems like Uh, after the operation in Venezuela, there was a, a hubris, uh, an overconfidence that toppling the leadership in Iran would be an easy thing and would be a, a quick fix to a, a problem that has long plagued the region and plagued the United States. A- and maybe a lack of foresight and, and consideration. I mean, uh, it's not that hard to predict that what Iran would do when they're, when they're cornered is take control of the Strait of Hormuz. In fact, previous administrations had played out these war games and had come to the same conclusion.

    13. SBSteven Bartlett1:07:51

        So what do you do now? You, 'cause you're gonna vote on-

    14. JTJames Talarico1:07:53

        Yeah

    15. SBSteven Bartlett1:07:53

        ... this stuff.

    16. JTJames Talarico1:07:54

        Yeah. I mean, one, I think we, we need checks and balances. Right now we have something the, the founders, I think couldn't have envisioned, which is parties, political parties, factions is what the founders would've called them, coordinating across branches of our government. So instead of, you know, the ambitions of the legislative branch checking the ambitions of the executive branch, you now have members of one party coordinating across those branches, and what that looks like now is a, a legislative branch, which is supposed to be the most important branch in our government, right? It's the first one listed in the Constitution. It has now become completely subservient to the executive branch, to the will of, of the president and his administration. And so one, I think you have to restore those checks and balances. And, and it doesn't have to be in a hostile, unproductive way. It can be in a healthy way where the legislative branch is, um, asking questions about what is the military strategy, what are the military objectives that we're trying to accomplish? 'Cause we've seen [laughs] over the course of this disastrous war, those objectives change over time.

    17. SBSteven Bartlett1:08:58

        But this is the thing. It doesn't appear that they know what the objectives are anymore. It appears that the-

    18. JTJames Talarico1:09:01

        Well, and this is, and this is, I think this is key. I- i- if, if we cannot clearly articulate an objective, then it is the responsibility of the legislative branch to intervene and to withhold funding for these operations until we can get a clear idea of why we are sending our brave young men and women into another forever war in the Middle East. I, I think ultimately how you untangle this is, is through regional partnerships. Um, it has to involve... I mean, we kind of know the contours of what a deal would look like. Free passage through the strait. Uh, we have to deal with the nuclear issue. Uh, I worry that we've actually lost ground o- on this, on this problem because I, I, I don't wanna see Iran get a nuclear weapon. I don't think anybody, uh, wants to see that. A- and I think we were on track to preventing that, um, through the, the nuclear deal we had. So trying to get back to, to, to that diplomacy, um, we had before this invasion, I, I think that's probably gonna be the, the, the ultimate objectives for how to salvage this situation. But it is a, I mean, it is a mess from top to bottom and, you know, I, I, I really, I came of age after 9/11. I was 12 years old when 9/11 happened, and so I understand the importance of keeping this country safe. I also saw, as a millennial, how military disasters like the Iraq War robbed this nation of young lives, of billions of dollars, and of our moral standing in the world. I can't believe that we are making the same mistakes just 20 years later in Iran.

    19. SBSteven Bartlett1:10:31

        The, the proposal there sounds a little bit like the memorandum of understanding that was pitched to Iran that ultimately failed. You know, f- free passage of the Strait of Hormuz. There was, um, a, a clause in there about nuclear weapons and a few other things, and it failed within a couple of days. So, uh, you know, 'cause I think Iran are playing to a different timeframe than Trump is able to, considering h- this sort of four-year election cycle. It appears to me, and I, I don't, you know, I don't really know what I'm talking about, but it appears to me that Iran is saying, "You know, we have the cards. You c- you, you can drop as many bombs as you like. We're decentralized in our nature." Um, they're split into lots of these smaller factions that are weaponized in their own way. There's not particular... Uh, I, I remember in one press conference, I think it was Marco Rubio or, uh, Pete Hegseth saying that they're not even necessarily sure who's in charge in Iran.

    20. JTJames Talarico1:11:19

        Yeah. That's right.

    21. SBSteven Bartlett1:11:19

        And he made a remark that it takes a while to get the carrier pigeons down to the front-

    22. JTJames Talarico1:11:24

        Yeah

    23. SBSteven Bartlett1:11:24

        ... the front lines, i.e.-

    24. JTJames Talarico1:11:26

        Yeah

    25. SBSteven Bartlett1:11:26

        ... the, the people they're negotiating with might not even be connected with the people that are launching the missiles-

    26. JTJames Talarico1:11:29

        Right

    27. SBSteven Bartlett1:11:29

        ... and the drones, et cetera.

    28. JTJames Talarico1:11:31

        Right.

    29. SBSteven Bartlett1:11:31

        It just appears to be a total mess, and I, I just can't-

    30. JTJames Talarico1:11:34

        We do have, uh, but I do believe that we still have economic leverage, and there are still economic cards to play here. And so the key is, you know, I, I really don't want this, uh, disastrous war to play on for the rest of the, of the Trump administration. I pray that we can come to a, a resolution and a conclusion sooner than that, and I think that's gonna have to involve some of this economic pressure in addition to the regional partnerships, because, uh, we're ultimately gonna have to rely on, on regional partners in order to, to actually push through a, a final resolution. So I'm not giving up hope that we can resolve this. We have to. I mean, we, we just lost one of our own. Our fellow Texan, um, Isabella Gonzalez lost her life, uh, because of an Iranian airstrike in Jordan, and she was 19 years old. She had just graduated from Hebron High School in Dallas, Texas. And the fact that we would send brave members of the armed services, like Isabella, off to die in another forever war without any exit strategy, without any clear military objective, to me is deeply immoral. Isabella Gonzalez died a patriot, she died a hero, and, and we are grateful for her sacrifice, but our gratitude for her sacrifice should not be mistaken for an acceptance of her death.
23. 1:13:27 – 1:16:57

    His Advice to Trump and Hopes for the Midterms

    1. JTJames Talarico1:13:27

       We should not lose sight of that. A nuclear, uh, Iran would be a disaster for the region and for the world. So-

    2. SBSteven Bartlett1:13:33

       So they-

    3. JTJames Talarico1:13:34

       It's imperative that we win

    4. SBSteven Bartlett1:13:35

       If you had a phone call with Trump and you had a opportunity to... If he said, "Listen, James-"

    5. JTJames Talarico1:13:38

       [laughs]

    6. SBSteven Bartlett1:13:39

       "... I need some advice. This Iran situation's got out of hand. I thought it would be like, uh, Venezuela. I thought I'd drop the bombs-"

    7. JTJames Talarico1:13:44

       Yeah

    8. SBSteven Bartlett1:13:44

       "... there'd be an uprising, and then it would sort of correct itself, but it's got out of hand. James, what advice have you got for me?"

    9. JTJames Talarico1:13:50

       That'd be tough. Um, you know, I, I, I think that humility is good and, and that self-awareness is good, and hopefully can help him and the administration avoid future mistakes. I would urge him to call the leadership, um, in, in the legislative branch together, leadership of both parties, Democrats and Republicans, and work with them as well as our allies around the world to try to come to, um, a, a consensus on a strategic direction. The president and his administration have not only pushed away Congress, they've also done everything they can to alienate our allies across, across the globe. And there's a reason that this country spent so much political and economic capital on these, on these partnerships and these allies. It's because when you get in a jam, you need your friends. And so I, I would urge the president to start building that big coalition. I would, I would tell him frankly that he's not gonna get out of this on his own, um, and it's gonna require bipartisan collaboration at home and, and regional collaboration abroad.

    10. SBSteven Bartlett1:14:56

        Are you hopeful?

    11. JTJames Talarico1:14:57

        Yes. Yeah.

    12. SBSteven Bartlett1:14:59

        You think Trump's gonna fix it?

    13. JTJames Talarico1:15:01

        I, [laughs] I don't know if I'm hopeful about that. But, uh, I... Here's what... You wanna know what I am hopeful about? In these midterms, if the people of Texas, if the people of this country elect leaders who are going to check the president, um, I think it could be a rebirth for his presidency. I, I think after these kinds of midterms, especially when you get walloped in the midterm, executives have kind of two reactions to it. One is to kind of double down and, and retreat to, to their, their partisan corner. We saw on January 6th what that looks like for President Trump. The other path is to hear the response from the people, listen to the feedback that you're getting, and adjust course. And I would love, as the next US senator from Texas, to work with Donald Trump to actually fulfill some of the, the, the promise of his political project. Because the, the promise of MAGA was that we were gonna transform this government so that it delivered for the people who have been left behind, the people who have been forgotten in this country, and there's still time to do that. There's still time to do that on a bipartisan basis. If the president wants to work with, with me or with any Democrat to expand healthcare access, I'm there. If he wants to make sure that every single kid in this country gets high-quality, accessible childcare, I'm there. Uh, if he wants to tackle the housing problem, Donald Trump is a builder. If he wants us to slash the red tape in this country so we can build millions of new homes and ensure everyone in this country has a place to call home, that, I- I'm there. I- I'll work with him to do it. I would love to do that. So, uh, my hope is that this midterm will be a wake-up call for the president, for his administration, and as a result, they will reverse course. They will decide to engage with,

24. 1:16:57 – 1:20:26

    The Good Samaritan and the Faith That Shapes Him

    1. JTJames Talarico1:16:57

       with leaders in both parties to actually deliver for the working people who sent him there.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett1:17:03

       I have this book here, the Bible.

    3. JTJames Talarico1:17:04

       [laughs] Yes.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett1:17:06

       Uh, and I also have some photos showing, uh, I think you as a young, as a young boy here at eight years old at St. Andrew's Church.

    5. JTJames Talarico1:17:14

       Yes, yes. [laughs] Yes. Yep. I was the acolyte. Usually, the kids, um, are tasked with lighting the candle f- at the beginning of the service and then putting it out. So basically, this thing I'm holding here, the, this part has the, the flame where you light the candle, and the other part's not in this picture. It's like a hood, and it covers the candle to put it out. And so this was my, my very important job, um, uh, at the service that day.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett1:17:39

       So y- y- have you been religious since you were a young, young boy?

    7. JTJames Talarico1:17:43

       Yes. Um, yeah, my, you know, I, I mentioned that my granddad was a Baptist preacher. The church that I still attend to this day has been my church since I was two years old. Um, and my faith has, has, uh, has, uh, really been the foundation of, of my life. It's, um, home base for me, but the work I do, whether it's as a public school teacher or as a public official, uh, stems, grows out of my faith. My faith is kind of the soil, um-

    8. SBSteven Bartlett1:18:09

       And what is your faith?

    9. JTJames Talarico1:18:10

       ... of my life.

    10. SBSteven Bartlett1:18:10

        I know there's lots of different dom-

    11. JTJames Talarico1:18:11

        Yeah

    12. SBSteven Bartlett1:18:11

        ... denominations in Christianity. What is your faith?

    13. JTJames Talarico1:18:14

        My granddad, um, the Baptist preacher, told me that as Christians, we're supposed to follow the two commandments that Jesus gave us, to love God and love neighbor, and that's in the New Testament, um, when, um, a lawyer, it's always the lawyers, asks Jesus to define neighbor, and that's when he tells the Parable of the Good Samaritan, maybe one of Jesus' most famous parables. And he tells the story of a man who is beaten and left for dead on the side of the road. A priest walks by and does nothing. A religious man walks by and does nothing. And then a Samaritan walks by. And, you know, when we hear Samaritan in our modern context, it doesn't really mean a whole lot. Most people associate it with helping people on the side of the road. But in Jesus' time and for Jesus' listeners, the Samaritans were not just a different religious group. They were their sworn enemies. And so in Jesus' story, the Samaritan is the one who stops and bandages the man's wounds, nurses him back to health, takes him to an inn, pays the innkeeper to look after him until he comes back. And in Jesus' story, the Samaritan is the ultimate, ultimate example of loving thy neighbor as thyself. And it's such, it would, it would've been a shocking story. I, I'm a Texas Longhorn football fan. It's as if Jesus was standing in the middle of Darrell K Royal Memorial Stadium at the University of Texas and told a story called The Good Aggie, right? Like, people, people would be outraged by the story.

    14. SBSteven Bartlett1:19:47

        Because they're the opposing team.

    15. JTJames Talarico1:19:48

        Right. They're the rivals, right? But he, but he's reminding us that we're not just called to love our neighbors who look like us or pray like us or vote like us. We're called to actively love those who are the most different from us, maybe those we hate the most. And that, 2,000 years later, is still a, a radical teaching. And so I have tried imperfectly, because we're all imperfect Christians, I have tried to follow those two commandments, to love God and to love my neighbor as myself. Uh, it's why I decided to become a public school teacher. It's why I ran for office. And the work that I do in the legislature,

25. 1:20:26 – 1:23:03

    Does He Love His Rival Ken Paxton?

    1. JTJames Talarico1:20:26

       I think of as, again, as a form of ministry. I am trying to love my neighbor through public policy.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett1:20:32

       So Ken Paxton is your-

    3. JTJames Talarico1:20:34

       Yes. [laughs]

    4. SBSteven Bartlett1:20:34

       I guess he's your sort of adversary.

    5. JTJames Talarico1:20:37

       Yes. [laughs]

    6. SBSteven Bartlett1:20:37

       Um, he's the Republican-

    7. JTJames Talarico1:20:38

       My rival, yes.

    8. SBSteven Bartlett1:20:39

       Ken-

    9. JTJames Talarico1:20:39

       My Samaritan. [laughs]

    10. SBSteven Bartlett1:20:40

        He's the candidate you're running against.

    11. JTJames Talarico1:20:42

        Yes.

    12. SBSteven Bartlett1:20:43

        Um, you've said that Ken is one of the most corrupt politicians in America.

    13. JTJames Talarico1:20:46

        Mm-hmm. Yes.

    14. SBSteven Bartlett1:20:47

        Do you love him?

    15. JTJames Talarico1:20:48

        Yes. Ken Paxton is a child of God. He is my brother in Christ. It doesn't mean there's not accountability, right? Love requires accountability. Um, we talked about the story of my mom, and her love meant standing up to a bully. And, you know, if you think about when you're, like, out having a drink with your friends, and your friend grabs their car keys to drive home under the influence, your job as their friend is to take those keys away, to physically block them from getting in the car, and that feels, um, aggressive. It, it feels maybe even hostile, but it is done out of love for that person and for everybody else, for all of your neighbors. Ken Paxton, from every-- I, I don't know Ken Paxton personally, but from e- everything I've been able to read and, and learn about his service and his life, he has clearly shown that he only cares about himself. He was indicted for investment fraud because he was defrauding his own friends. He committed, he, he convinced his friends to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars into a tech company, but he didn't tell them that he was making a commission off those investments. So he got indicted because he was screwing over his own friends. Um, he was reported to the FBI by his own staff. He was impeached by his own party, and of course, you know, um, his relationships with his own family have now become, um, well-known and, and infamous. And so if I was to sit down with Ken Paxton, which I would love to do-

    16. SBSteven Bartlett1:22:26

        You'd grab the keys

    17. JTJames Talarico1:22:27

        ... I would grab the keys, a- and I would, I would urge him to get his own house in order before he tries to tell all of us how to, what to do with our own houses. And so I am, I'm trying both to protect the people of Texas from the most corrupt politician in our state, one of the most corrupt in the country, and in a weird way, I feel like I'm trying to protect Ken Paxton because I hope if he loses this race, it will be an opportunity for him to take stock and to reevaluate some of his priorities. A- and I just wanna-- I am not saying that as a perfect person. I'm really not. What I'm trying to do is, is be honest about the clear choice in this race,

26. 1:23:03 – 1:27:23

    Why He Went to Seminary at 31

    1. JTJames Talarico1:23:03

       um, and about the ramifications of electing someone with Ken Paxton's track record to the U.S. Senate.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett1:23:09

       At 31 years old, you went off to, um, Bible school.

    3. JTJames Talarico1:23:12

       Yeah. You know, I had always, um, I looked up to my grandfather, still do. Looked up to my pastor, still do. And I, you know, always h- kind of harbored this, this wish to one day preach and, and lead a church. Um, I saw how my granddad and my pastor, I just really, I saw how they, how they helped people, how they helped people make sense of their own lives, uh, how they helped people ask some of the deepest questions. Who am I? What does it mean to be a human being? What is the purpose of life? I saw them doing that on a, not on a, on a big podcast, but, you know, at, at a small neighborhood church in, like, a very intimate way with people. I saw them comfort people who were grieving. In our community, when someone loses a loved one, when someone is dying themselves, like, their first call is to Dr. Jim, my pastor. So I always had this idea that I may wanna go into that line of work one day. And so I was in my second term in the state house, and my first term had been great. It was, um, 2019. Uh, Democrats had flipped all these districts. There was a close competitive election statewide that year in 2018. So the very next session in 2019, suddenly the Republican majority was ready to work on a bipartisan basis with us Democrats, and it was great because we passed this historic school finance reform package that invested a lot of new money into our schools, and we provided property tax relief to working people. It was awesome. And I was like, "I have the best job in the world." Fast-forward to the next session in 2021, and it was one of the most partisan, one of the most unproductive legislative sessions in modern Texas history. That's when you saw the most extreme abortion ban in the country go into effect. You saw permitless carry, um, one of these crazy gun laws that allows people to, to carry these weapons without any kind of background check, without any kind of license. You saw efforts to ban books and whitewash curriculum. Voter suppression, trying to make it harder for people to vote in Texas. Texas is one of, one of the hardest places to vote in the country. So it was a really difficult session, and I just started to doubt- That I was really making an impact, that I was really doing what I was supposed to do. And after meeting with my pastor about it, sitting down with my granddad about it, both of them reminded me that Jesus gave us these two commandments for a reason, right? I, I had been so focused on that second commandment, to love my neighbor, in the classroom, in the halls of power, i- in serving my community, that despite going to church, you know, on Sunday, I, I really wasn't giving enough attention and time to that first commandment to love God. To love that, that sacred something that we are all an expression of. And so I made the decision to, to go to seminary, to follow that first commandment. And what I've discovered, 'cause now I'm a seminarian and a lawmaker at the same time, and I've realized that these two commandments, again, given to us as a whole by Jesus, those two commandments, they sustain, they enrich, they challenge each other. They're in relationship. And at least for me personally speaking, it helped balance me out. Because if I'm being honest, if you're devoting all of your energy to loving your neighbor, especially your neighbors who, who you disagree with [laughs] it's really easy to burn out. And I think anyone who does, you know, service work can tell you that. And it's why we have to be in touch with the ground of our own being, the, the God that all of us express every day. Uh, to me, you need both the inner life and the outer life. You need prayer and action. Those two things go hand-in-hand, and without it, you burn out. Or if you're only focused on loving God and not loving our neighbors, which a lot of people do that too, you become self-centered. You become disconnected from the world. And so going to seminary was my way of trying to unite these two commandments in my

27. 1:27:23 – 1:30:59

    Where Does His Faith in God Come From?

    1. JTJames Talarico1:27:23

       own life. And honestly, it was ... I think it's the best decision I've ever made-

    2. SBSteven Bartlett1:27:28

       Where does-

    3. JTJames Talarico1:27:28

       To go to seminary.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett1:27:28

       Where does your faith c- in, in a, in a god, in Jesus come from? Like, what is the ... You know, a faith-

    5. JTJames Talarico1:27:34

       Yeah

    6. SBSteven Bartlett1:27:34

       ... is probably kind of ex- maybe the answer to the question. But it-

    7. JTJames Talarico1:27:37

       Yeah.

    8. SBSteven Bartlett1:27:38

       What makes you believe that there is a, a higher power, that Jesus is who he pledged to be back all those years ago?

    9. JTJames Talarico1:27:45

       Yeah. As a seminary student, uh, I, I had to learn Greek and Hebrew, because in our, in our Christian Bible, the, the Hebrew scriptures are written in Hebrew, and the New Testament's written in Greek. And so we learn both original languages so that we don't have to be reliant on translations, right? 'Cause things get lost in translation. And, and so I was studying this word faith, and I realized that it can be translated both as belief, which is how it's often translated, you know, a, a commitment to some kind of value, some kind of concept, an idea, right? That's a belief. But it can also be translated as trust. And suddenly, you know, this was, like, my first year of seminary, and I was already having, like, a [laughs] a light bulb moment, and I realized, like, that's how my faith feels to me. It feels much more like trust than it does belief. It's not a, it's not a commitment to some abstract concept, some intellectual idea. It is a visceral, bodily experience of almost like relaxing. Um, the, the best analogy I can think of, 'cause when we talk about God, we're always talking in analogies [laughs] . Um, uh, I learned to swim at the Wells Branch Pool, um, uh, in the neighborhood where I grew up. And I remember when I was, when I was learning how to swim, my swim instructor, she said, she told me, "Don't fight the water."

    10. SBSteven Bartlett1:29:12

        Hmm.

    11. JTJames Talarico1:29:13

        "Don't hold onto the water. Let the water hold onto you." And it, and it, it was, it was a, a big moment for me and, in learning how to swim, but that's exactly how my faith feels. So much of our lives is, is trying to control our surroundings, right? Trying to control other people. And when you realize that we are an expression of something much deeper and much bigger, you're suddenly able to let that hold you instead of trying to hold onto it.

    12. SBSteven Bartlett1:29:39

        And why this religion versus all the other available religions? Why are you trusting in this one?

    13. JTJames Talarico1:29:44

        Uh, we all inherit, um, a, a religious tradition, and it is an inheritance that's passed on from one generation to the next, and it's such a gift. It, it's such a gift that, uh, that I feel like a lot of people nowadays are abandoning, for understandable reasons. I mean, we have seen religious corruption in our religious institutions across this country, across the world, including in my home state of Texas. We've seen religious leaders abuse children. We've seen them lie. We've seen them am- amass wealth and power for themselves at the expense of, of the people of God. And so I understand where that temptation to just reject the whole thing comes from. But there is a, there is a baby in that bathwater. I do worry that a lot of young people are growing up in an incoherent universe because we have discarded the traditions that have been passed down to us through the generations. And whether it's, um, the Ch- the Christian tradition, the Jewish tradition, the Hindu tradition, there is, I think, beauty and truth and love at the heart of, of these great faith traditions. And it's, and it's up to

28. 1:30:59 – 1:34:23

    How Is He Different From Other Politicians?

    1. JTJames Talarico1:30:59

       all of us, it's up to every new generation to reclaim that and, and to live it out, and that's what I'm trying to do in my small corner of the world.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett1:31:08

       James, what's the most important thing we haven't talked about that we should've talked about as it relates to your work, your mission, or anything else that the audience might find of value?

    3. JTJames Talarico1:31:15

       Oh my gosh, that's a good question.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett1:31:17

       Just wondering if there's anything at all that you wanted to, as a closing message for the audience, anyone listening.

    5. JTJames Talarico1:31:23

       No, this is, this has really been great. Um, and grateful for what you do. I mean- I feel like we, um, we no longer have town squares like we once had, and for better or for worse, it is new media, social media, podcasts that have become our, our collective town squares where we have these conversations, these, these debates, this kind of discourse. And the way you and your team, um, have structured these conversations and encouraged these conversations has been, I think, very important for, for the country, for the world. So very thankful.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett1:32:00

       I think one of the questions that I think all, everybody's always asking about politicians these days is, like, how are you different?

    7. JTJames Talarico1:32:09

       Hmm.

    8. SBSteven Bartlett1:32:09

       Because, you know, every politician will come here or they'll, you know, and when I speak to them, they'll say that they are different.

    9. JTJames Talarico1:32:14

       Hmm.

    10. SBSteven Bartlett1:32:15

        But then when you speak to people, one of the great grievances they have is that, like, politics is the same-

    11. JTJames Talarico1:32:20

        Yeah

    12. SBSteven Bartlett1:32:20

        ... in terms of, I mean, you've seen this on the, probably on the doorstep-

    13. JTJames Talarico1:32:22

        Yep

    14. SBSteven Bartlett1:32:22

        ... is everybody says it's gonna be different this time, but-

    15. JTJames Talarico1:32:25

        Yeah

    16. SBSteven Bartlett1:32:25

        ... it ends up being kind of more of the same-

    17. JTJames Talarico1:32:27

        Yeah

    18. SBSteven Bartlett1:32:27

        ... broadly speaking.

    19. JTJames Talarico1:32:28

        Yep.

    20. SBSteven Bartlett1:32:29

        How are you different?

    21. JTJames Talarico1:32:31

        The issue is not personalities. This, I think, is the central problem, is we think, you know, the reason this economy is off track, uh, the reason I can't get ahead, the reason that we see corruption is because of politician X, right, uh, or political party Y, uh, when in reality it is a system that traps all of us, no matter what good intentions we have going in. It's partly why I told you I've put in place a self-imposed term limit, because I know that, that the system, uh, eventually, uh, unless it's reformed, will bring out the worst in all of us, including me. And so what we need is, is to focus on systemic reform. Don't focus on the personalities. Don't focus on replacing the guy you don't like or voting in the guy you do like. We have to focus on transforming this broken, corrupt system so that it's bringing out the best in every elected official. Because in my experience, like, a, a lot of people run for office for the right reasons. They want to help people. They want to improve their community that they love, and it is a broken, corrupt system that transforms them, transforms our public policy so that the system only benefits those at the top.

    22. SBSteven Bartlett1:33:47

        Hmm.

    23. JTJames Talarico1:33:47

        And until we transform that system, you're not gonna see anything change. So I guess I would say we're asking the wrong question. Um, and it's not how will I be different, how will the system be different if we remake it in our own image? And that, that's hopefully an empowering message, because if you're just focused on what you don't like about, you know, certain politicians, you kind of take more of a passive role. I think it, it's gonna require a mass movement of working people in places like Texas joining together across all the divisions in our society

29. 1:34:23 – 1:36:46

    His Biggest Challenge: Winning Texas

    1. JTJames Talarico1:34:24

       to force that kind of systemic change.

    2. SBSteven Bartlett1:34:25

       Mm-hmm.

    3. JTJames Talarico1:34:26

       And hopefully that's an empowering message, um, and, and one that leaves people with a little bit of hope.

    4. SBSteven Bartlett1:34:33

       James, we have a closing tradition where the last guest leaves a question for the next, not knowing who they're leaving it for.

    5. JTJames Talarico1:34:36

       Yeah.

    6. SBSteven Bartlett1:34:37

       Um, the question left for you is, what is your biggest challenge, and how are you working to fix it?

    7. JTJames Talarico1:34:43

       Oh, that's a great, [laughs] that's a great question. Um, you know, winning Texas, um, is, is a challenge to say the least. We got 18 million registered voters. We got 20 media markets. We got two time zones. Uh, Texas was once a nation, and it still very much feels like a nation. So trying to reach all of those Texans, trying to make, trying to listen to them and their needs, trying to share my values and my vision, uh, it is a logistical and physical and spiritual challenge to say the least. I'm thankful that I'm not doing this alone. We have 59,000 people who have signed up to volunteer for the campaign. We have more than a million people who have donated to the campaign, uh, and I have many more people who are praying for me on a regular basis.

    8. SBSteven Bartlett1:35:31

       And you're winning, according to some of the polls that I saw-

    9. JTJames Talarico1:35:34

       Well-

    10. SBSteven Bartlett1:35:34

        ... by a couple of points

    11. JTJames Talarico1:35:34

        ... the only poll that matters is on election day, so, um, you know, I, I do think that we are the underdogs until the last vote is counted. Um, we talked about Elon Musk. He's already committed to spending millions of dollars in our race to try to defeat us, and I have nothing against Elon Musk, so I don't know why he's [laughs] he's trying to stop our, our campaign. But that, you know, if you're, if you're speaking truth to power, if you're going up against the world's first trillionaire, you're always gonna be the underdog. And so we're campaigning like we are five points behind, and so, you know, I, you know, I, I would ask anyone watching to spare a thought or a prayer for me. I, I really do believe that when you put energy out into the universe, it has a ripple effect, and so I hope wherever people are watching or listening, even if they don't agree with my politics, even if they're gonna vote for the other candidate, I hope they'll, they'll keep me in their thoughts and their prayers.

    12. SBSteven Bartlett1:36:26

        Thank you.

    13. JTJames Talarico1:36:26

        Thank you.

    14. SBSteven Bartlett1:36:27

        We're done. Thank you, James.

    15. JTJames Talarico1:36:28

        This was so great.

    16. SBSteven Bartlett1:36:28

        Appreciate it. Thank you so much.

    17. JTJames Talarico1:36:29

        Thank you.

    18. SBSteven Bartlett1:36:30

        YouTube have this new crazy algorithm where they know exactly what video you would like to watch next based on AI and all of your viewing behavior, and the algorithm says that this video is the perfect video for you. It's different for everybody looking right now. Check this video out, and I bet you you might love it

Episode duration: 1:36:47