New Year, Old News

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NATURAL DISASTERS

COVID-19 OMICRON UPDATE

Transcript

Beth [00:00:00] One of the pieces I read this morning said that really, since the vaccines came out, the number of people who are going to be hospitalized and die is less of a scientific question and more of a cultural and political question. And that is really heartbreaking. And I do not want to take away from the severity of that at all, and I think that I'm just trying to figure out how to be a good citizen in this new landscape. 

Sarah [00:00:31] This is Sarah Stewart Holland 

Beth [00:00:32] And this Beth Silvers. 

Sarah [00:00:34] Thank you for joining us for Pantsuit Politics. 

Beth [00:00:50] Happy New Year, everyone. So glad to be back with each other and with you, this will be a true catch up episode. Sarah and I have not been in touch much at all over the past two weeks, except for a text message here and there. So we hope that you enjoyed our prerecorded episodes last two weeks, reflecting on the past year and setting intentions for this year. And we are delighted to be with each other and with you to talk about current events, as we typically do here. So today we are going to begin by checking in on Kentucky and Colorado to talk about the storms and fires that have been just devastating. And then we're going to talk about COVID 19 because we just can't quit it. You really didn't miss a whole lot over the past two weeks because all of the news has been dominated by Omicron. So we'll talk about that. And then Outside of Politics, we're just going to tell each other and all of you what we've been up to for the last two weeks. 

Sarah [00:01:42] Before we get started. We have a very important announcement to make in regards to our Extra Credit Book Club Box. We've been doing the Extra Credit Book Club Box with Wild Geese Bookshop for, I believe, two years. It's been an amazing journey and it's grown way beyond our expectations to the point that we think it might have outgrown us just a little bit got a little bigger than all of the partners here at Pantsuit Politics and Wild Geese Bookshop were prepared to deal with going into a new year. So this next book box will be the last with Wild Geese Bookshop. We're going to take a pause and focus on releasing our book. We'll have some really cool book boxes surrounding that in May, and then we're going to reevaluate, look at the numbers, look at how to make this more sustainable as far as shipping, in particular, supply chain issues, you know, all the different logistical stuff that businesses across the country and the globe are dealing with and bring some new energy to the Extra Credit Book Club in the second half of this year. So enjoy that last box. That's why the you can no longer sign up and subscribe to the Extra Credit Book Club Box. We appreciate every single one of you that has subscribed and sent a lovely message and you told us that it's the favorite thing you get in the mail. We can't possibly be more grateful for Tiffany and her team, who were like, Yeah, we'll ship out a couple of boxes and then ended up shipping out 400 plus boxes. We know that was an enormous lift every quarter and we're just so appreciative and we look forward to what the next page... Ah did you see what I did there? 

Beth [00:03:21] I liked that. 

Sarah [00:03:22] The next page will hold for the Extra Credit Book Club. 

Beth [00:03:26] Next up, we will get into the news that has been dominating headlines over the past two weeks. On Thursday, Colorado experienced the Marshall Fire. Lewisville, Colorado, a very suburban area, experienced just an inferno. The weather had been extremely dry, which really created a tinderbox. The cause of this fire is still being investigated. The investigation is very complicated and has been made more so by the fact that now there's a foot of snow where the fire started. It is hard to contemplate what has unfolded there over just a very short span of days. We have a lot of factors at issue here, climate change, population growth, there have been fires before. It's unusual to see fires in December. There have been dry spells before. It's unusual to see it this dry in December. So you have kind of a perfect storm of factors, as the governor of Colorado has described it to create a really devastating situation for a lot of people. 

Sarah [00:04:39] Yeah, it's, you know, Colorado is used to fires, but they're usually out in the forests of way, far from populated areas. The Governor in particular emphasized like this was a suburban fire. I read this crazy story in The Dispatch where this woman was like I was going on my nail appointment, and then all of a sudden the cars were going in the opposite direction. So you don't see this sort of a fire in a suburban area. Now part of this is because Colorado has seen a huge population growth, the population of Superior, The Dispatch talked about this, went from 250 in 1990 to more than 13,000 in 2019. So if people expanded in these areas that used to be, you know, forests that if there is a fire that swept through didn't affect a lot of people will. Now you have, you know, all these effects coming to play, climate change, population growth and you have a thousand people losing their homes just gone overnight. And I think the trauma, the shock of that, you know, we're still dealing with that here in Kentucky from the tornadoes that we experienced in December. And I think that's, you know, that's why I thought it was so important for us to talk about in this first segment because, you know, we're going to get into COVID and sort of this Omicron wave and how it shocked everybody. But part of like checking in and seeing how you're doing is acknowledging that that's not the only thing people are dealing with. And on top of a pandemic, you have people dealing with these extreme weather events that just everything changes like that. So you have this like slow rolling crisis in a pandemic and then you have these like overnight, your house is gone, your house, your community is gone on top of it all. And that is just an incredibly intense combination. 

Beth [00:06:18] And it is so hard to imagine a fire sweeping through where there's a Costco and a Target. I mean, it just it's it's difficult to compute. I think the suburbs, especially if I think about where I live, there is a real illusion that everything here is built to be just fine all the time in all circumstances. And for a fire to break out in this way is really difficult, and I read some local reporting. There is a lot of intense speculation about how this fire started. And that is making it incredibly difficult for police. I'm sure that it creates an atmosphere of real tension in the community. So we'll continue to watch this story unfold, but for now, just sending a lot of care to everybody who's been impacted.

Sarah [00:07:03] And that's exactly what's happening in my community in Kentucky. So much care for the people affected by the tornadoes, the amount of, you know, conversations I've had over the holiday season. Well, Bethenny Frankel, people are here. Well, Josie Andre is here. Well, here's this Instagram person that came in and gave a barber $30,000 to rebuild their barber shop. Like. I have been so touched by the amount of charity and giving and generosity exhibited towards the people of Western Kentucky from across the country and across the globe. But it's still just a long process. You know, now a lot of what the volunteer work is being focused on is just sorting the stuff coming in. There's just so much coming in to the people of Mayfield that sorting and storing and dealing with how to distribute all the goods and to the people that need them and the people that need them most is like such an intense logistical operation. It's like I went to Mayfield, a probably a week after the tornado to visit my CASA Kids. And it's like what we really need in a moment like this in Colorado or in Kentucky, whenever there's a natural disaster is just like, I know that's technically what FEMA is, but it's like, Send us all your best logistical experts. Anybody who can think logistically, can you please come with as many power linemen as you can bring in your vehicles? Like it's just it's really interesting to watch the sort of waves of need and the waves of like, Well, let's eliminate this crisis in this emergency, and then let's let's sweep away as much of this as we can. And just but there's like a layer after layer after layer. I mean, even like with Colorado, where now you have snow and frigid temperatures on top of the devastation from this wildfire like it's just it's so intense. And it's really like in the shock and the trauma. All you can do is take it day by day, like, that's the only thing available to you. 

Beth [00:09:07] Well, and in addition to all of those layers that would have existed anyway, parts of Kentucky were affected over the weekend by more storms and more tornadoes, and we're still really getting our arms around what the damage has been from those weekend storms. Governor Bashir has been talking about how there are communities that have been impacted three weeks ago and then impacted again this weekend. Lots of road closures throughout eastern Kentucky, just a wide swath of the southern part of Kentucky, along with other southern states in the United States affected by storms this weekend. 

Sarah [00:09:40] Yeah, because the weather's jacked, I don't know what your Christmas was like, but it was like 75 here and now it's supposed to snow on Thursday. It's jacked up those wild swings from 70 to 30. Not only do they make us all sick. I'll get into that in my catch up on Outside of Politics. But it also really messes with the extreme weather. It messes with recovery efforts and messes with the logistics of moving things across the state and much less across the country. 

Beth [00:10:10] I was reading The Courier Journal this morning, which is that the really the major newspaper in Kentucky about the upcoming legislative session here and how quickly funding for just everything is becoming the dominant priority. We haven't had a full budget for a couple of years because of the pandemic, and so the Legislature is going to have a lot of work to do in the normal course to work through the budget, but also because fortunately, we have lots and lots of federal money coming into the state. We also have lots and lots of needs across the state, and those needs span the storm damage in western Kentucky to social workers, teachers, essential workers across the state government who haven't had a raise for a couple of years. And we are in dire need of more people in those positions. So there is a lot of legislative work to do in Kentucky, and I imagine that's the situation in many legislatures across the country. 

Sarah [00:11:07] Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's what so interconnected and intricately related to the next segment on COVID is like nothing is untouched one from the other. The staffing issue, the supply chain issues that come from a wave of COVID are going to affect recovery efforts that come from extreme weather events and the, you know, even sheltering of people after extreme weather events are going to feed waves of COVID. It's just it's a lot like this. That's a really big energy to bring into a new year. The complexities of our interconnected crises. 

Beth [00:11:59] OK, Sarah, if you are like me, you just eat, sleep and breathe Omicron. Were you able to get a test? How long did you wait in line for your test? Was the test positive? Who have you been with that has COVID lately? How's your case of COVID? That's just, we're just living and breathing it here. 

Sarah [00:12:14] Yeah, I heard on The Daily this morning that three Americans test positive every second, every second. That blew my mind, even though it shouldn't, because you're right. I mean, I had a friend test texting me this morning, "do you have any rapid tests I could buy?". I had a church staffer feeling sick, not coming in on Sunday. Like, you know, we're all living and breathing it literally and figuratively because cases are up like 200 plus percent in the past two weeks. So Omicron, in case you hadn't heard, is incredibly contagious. And it is just about everywhere. It feels very much to me as I look around at my sort of just personal experience anecdotally, that Omicron is kind of sweeping up all the people that have successfully avoided COVID thus far. 

Beth [00:13:02] And being in the bucket of people who have successfully avoided COVID thus far. I just am at peace with the fact that it's coming to us, just coming soon to a silver's near you. I am certain that we will get it in some form. I'm not extremely worried about that because of the experiences that I'm watching unfold around me. You can feel more like paranoid, what am I supposed to be doing, what am I supposed to be caring about? You know, I didn't sleep well last night and I woke up today with a scratchy throat and kind of a dull headache. And if I were talking to a friend who described how I felt to me, I would say, like, I don't know, puts a peppermint in your person. Carry on. It's 70 degrees now. It's 30 degrees. It's January. You didn't sit down over the holidays like, I'm not worried for you. But then there's this voice in your head that's like, You should I keep my kids at home from school for 10 days? You know, it's it feels like we're living multiple versions of this pandemic at one time, and that's hard to to hold. 

Sarah [00:14:08] Well, fun fact. It's not 10 days anymore. The day after Christmas, CDC reduced the isolation period from 10 days to 5 days,. 

Beth [00:14:15] Except that school hasn't caught up. 

Sarah [00:14:17] Oh, the school says, still says 10 days. Ya'll are not test to stay? 

Beth [00:14:21] We are test to stay, except that over the holiday they changed that test to stay where if it's in your household, you are no longer eligible. 

Sarah [00:14:30] Oh geez, Louise, what does that mean? 

Beth [00:14:32] That's a really excellent question. 

Sarah [00:14:34] You can come to school, you can come to test to stay, but if you're exposed in your household, you cannot. 

Beth [00:14:37] That's correct. I believe that's how I read it. And the second change they made fascinating is that masks are still required at school and on the bus, but not an extracurricular activities. 

Sarah [00:14:47] What? 

Beth [00:14:48] I don't know. 

Sarah [00:14:48] What? 

Beth [00:14:49] I don't know. 

Sarah [00:14:50] You know what we don't need more layers of requirements like the like you said, like living through like extra added up complexities, not helping anything, the CDC say in five days. But then for real wear a mask the last five days. OK, it's cute. 

Beth [00:15:04] I know. I just want to gather everybody and say, Listen, I understand this is a hard job. Don't envy your job. I have so much respect for you. I'm so sorry about how stressful it is. Help a sister out. I can not keep up with where we are right now or what I'm supposed to care about, or how seriously, as a as a thrice vaccinated person, I'm supposed to be taking all this at this point. 

Sarah [00:15:23] Yeah, I mean, listen, I'm busting on them because they're easy to bust on at this point. But I was reading and thinking a lot about the isolation requirements for vaccinated people already. I was reading those Atlantic articles that was like, Why are vaccinated people self-isolating for 10 days? I had already decided among my my family that I was going to be sticking to the Cornell Protocol, which is like, if you have a negative PCR on day, I think five and seven or three and five who can keep up. But then you're then you don't have to isolate anymore, because I do think that 10 days for vaccinated people is just a recipe for people to avoid testing. Now, testing is easy to try to avoid right now because there are no tests, which is probably why the CDC did not attach a testing requirement to said isolation restriction reduction. You know, I've posted a lot of test on Instagram, and every time I get a message that's like, so jealous of your test, like my husband is an Eagle Scout. He has a sick ability to anticipate shortages. So we are we're not. We're not hoarding them, but we do have a lot because there's five people in our house. So but I mean, you said you cannot get them where you live at all. 

Beth [00:16:30] You cannot get a rapid test. The PCR testing appointments are very, very hard to come by. They're available, but you're going to wait a long time and people are having delays in getting their results because the system is overwhelmed, which again makes me think, All right, well, if I got a scratchy throat and I didn't sleep well, do I need to add to the burden of these tests just to give myself a little bit of comfort when everybody in my house is vaccinated, I work from home. I do not interact on a regular basis with anyone I know to be immunosuppressed. Right, right. It is easy for me to hang out in my house until I feel a little bit better, and that seems to me to be the right thing to do. I am very frustrated by this testing situation. I have to say, and I've been frustrated about it for a couple of years. 

Sarah [00:17:17] You've been very consistent. 

Beth [00:17:19] I have been very consistent. I understand that... 

Sarah [00:17:22] Unlike the CDC.

Beth [00:17:24] And again, I don't think consistency is like a value on its own. So I'm not mad at shifting guidance. I'm not even mad at saying we don't have enough tests, so we're not going to make that part of the requirement. There is a pragmatic reality to every aspect of how we deal with what's going on. But to me, rapid testing when you can get it is so easy to do at home. I get that there's a tradeoff in terms of the data. I get that it's not 100 percent accurate, but zero tools that we have in our arsenal are 100 percent. 

Sarah [00:17:59] Yeah. And what's the point of a PCR if by the time you get an appointment and you wait for the results, you're out of the five day isolation requiement.

Beth [00:18:05] Exactly. I read this piece for Vanity Fair. I know the Biden administration is angry about this piece and feels like it is a mischaracterization of what happened. But the piece talks about how in October, a group of scientists came to the White House and said, Listen, it's going to be bad over the holidays. What we should do in advance is get all the rapid tests to the people so that everybody can test at home before the holidays. And the administration was more focused on vaccination. And there was discussion about how if you have unvaccinated people with easy free access to rapid testing, then where's their incentive to get vaccinated? 

Sarah [00:18:50] Oh no, no, we don't do that. They don't reason [unclear]. We don't do that. No, no, we don't do. We don't give them condoms because then they'll have unprotected. They'll have, they'll have more sex. 

Beth [00:18:59] Thank you. 

Sarah [00:18:59] We don't do that. We don't do that. 

Beth [00:19:01] But that's what we did. 

Sarah [00:19:03] Oh, man, the truth is, do you know it wasn't just vaccination, it was boosters. People were giving them crap for pushing boosters, which now seems very smart that they were in front of this booster thing, so oh, but that's that we know we don't do that. We don't, we don't give people. 

Beth [00:19:21] And to be fair. There was also concern about can we make that many test? And do we have enough brands approved? And there is disagreement about how accurate these tests are. But there is also disagreement about how protected you are by different kinds of masks. And we still say it's effective enough if it helps 50 percent. Great. We'll take it. And if adding rapid testing capabilities had helped 50 percent compared to where we are now with Omicron, I think looking back, everybody, including President Biden, who, to his credit, has said. Wish we had done more. You know, I think everybody would have said, let's take it. 

Sarah [00:20:01] Well, and I think, you know, this testing situation is coming to play, not just because Omicron is so contagious, but I am telling you, I am convinced. Part of it is because there are also very contagious, awful viruses out there. But COVID is not the only virus. Let me tell you, I experienced it firsthand when I contracted what I have termed the cold of doom for two weeks. I've had so many of y'all reach out on Instagram to say I had it. One listener was like, I got the full panel. I got COVID test, flu test, strep test. They're like, it's rhinovirus. It's just this excuse me, b*tcha*s cold. That's awful. It lasts for two weeks. And I know, like if people were like me using a rapid test, it says, thinking they had COVID when really it's just another virus. It's just a cold virus. But it's a it's a nasty one. It is a nasty one. So I think that's part of it, too. We have a very contagious COVID virus. We also have a cold and flu season that's like fired back up that we weren't used to from last year. That's now making people sick, keeping people home and keeping people rapid testing. 

Beth [00:21:05] And I don't know how to be most supportive of health care workers who I know just feel like, can we catch a break literally anywhere and that I am concerned about that. That is my chief concern right now. How do I?

Sarah [00:21:17] I have caught a small break. It is milder. We have we are now seeing the data that we were waiting for for weeks, that Omicron is milder, you know, physiologically, they think it's because it sort of hangs out in your nose, which is what makes it more contagious. But it doesn't go down into the deep parts of your lungs and cause scarring and causing issues. You know, hospitalizations are only up 30 percent despite the fact that cases are up 200, and I think that's an undercount and deaths have actually dropped. So there is a small break. Now, it's not for all parts of the country, but we are seeing data coming back. You know, the UK only had 57 deaths since it discovered Omicron in November, so that's heartbreaking for the 57 people. And we don't want to downplay the fact that lots more people are going to get COVID because Omicron is more contagious and just, you know, statistically that means more people are going to die. And it might mean that hospitalizations there are only up 30 percent. But when you have that many more people getting COVID, it's still going to be a wave of people coming at the hospitals. Just hopefully not as bad as Delta. Delta is much more severe. 

Beth [00:22:20] One of the pieces I read this morning said that really, since the vaccines came out, the number of people who are going to be hospitalized and die is less of a scientific question and more of a cultural and political question. And that is really heartbreaking. And I do not want to take away from the severity of that at all. And I think that what I am so frustrated about and I'm struggling with, even though my struggles are very trite compared to people who have to be in the health care system all day, every day with unvaccinated people for whom milder can still be quite severe. 

Sarah [00:22:54] And children who are unvaccinated. 

Beth [00:22:56] And children who who aren't vaccinated yet or are not eligible for boosters yet. We did get good news this morning as we're recording that boosters have been authorized. I mean, even if we should say boosters anymore, the third shot has been authorized. 

Sarah [00:23:08] Mmmhmm. Third dose. 

Beth [00:23:09] For older children. I'm just trying to figure out how to be a good citizen in this new landscape, and I don't feel like I have any answers on how to be a good citizen. I don't know if I should be testing and contributing to the burden on the testing system, if I should just lay low here, given my particular circumstances. I think that that is a really difficult question, and we do know that the administration is now moving forward with an emergency use authorization for a new at home COVID 19 test they have committed to establishing sometime this year a website where Americans can get free rapid tests sent to their homes. I'm not sure that any of that's going to happen soon enough for it to make much of a difference with Omicron. 

Sarah [00:23:49] I mean, they think Omicron supposed to peak some models around January 9th like next week, so I don't know if it'll be soon enough for that. And you know, I think that we have all learned a set of new skills. Throughout this pandemic, right, we've all learned how to manage our own anxiety. Some of us better than others, some of us take it out on our support staff. Not helpful. So all of us have learned how to sort of assess risk as best we can. So I think it feels like this really weird moment in the pandemic where I see a lot of my friends and family sort of individually like getting stronger, like feeling like they've got a better mental handle, like they're exhausted, they're frustrated, like they don't like it, but they are becoming better abled at sort of adapting to the changing scenarios. What I see, in addition to that is like the institutions themselves are really buckling. Like this weird moment, like I feel like in the beginning, the institution stepped up when all of us were like, Oh my God, what's going on? But now where we're like, OK, I don't like this stupid pandemic that'll never happen. But I have a a decent handle on how to move about in it and the like the institutions, particularly schools and hospitals, and airlines you know, all these different institutions that not only support our sort of society, but our economy are really struggling. I mean, we saw thousands and thousands of airline cancelations. The messages that flow into our DMs from nurses and doctors and teachers who are like, I don't think you understand the level of burnout, the low morale in our institutions. That's what's got me really, really concerned. 

Beth [00:25:50] And it's no wonder none of those stories happen for a single reason, right? You can't even attribute all of that to Omicron. Or you can attribute it to Omicron plus, it's kind of like the hospitalization data is complicated, because when do you have people who are hospitalized because of COVID versus with COVID? With the airline cancelations, you see those flights happening because of COVID plus weather plus decisions made by the airlines and how their staffing, how many flights they're booking, you know, how they're using the resources that they have been given by the federal government to continue to operate uninterrupted or with fewer interruptions and still deciding to try to maximize profits in the midst of all of this. And and I can't even be super mad about that because a paradigm shift needs to have something to shift to. You know, if you were to say to the airlines, Hey, your chief objective right now is not maximizing profit for shareholders. Well, what is it? What is your chief objective now and what's a sustainable chief objective for businesses in these industries that really affect how our entire economy runs? We haven't had a pause to kind of reexamine and establish that new paradigm. So as angry as I get reading some of the pieces about why these flight cancelations are happening when it really is about staffing too lean, I think about my time in business where staffing lean was the goal. It was like so much the goal that you didn't even talk about it. It's just in the water as this is what we try to do and to to dig out of that is going to take a lot of time. 

Sarah [00:27:32] Well, and I think it's this myth we've created this narrative. We tell ourselves that there's the economy. The schools. The health care when really it's just us, you know, we talked about this great moment that Rob Bell talks about, I think in and Chariots of Fire, where they say, Well, we are the committee. This is us. It is us. And I think that's what you're seeing. I think that some of what you're you're seeing is that individual sort of the great resignation this I didn't survive a pandemic to do X, Y and Z, this individual kind of strength bumping up against like, but what am I doing in the commit? Do I like my role in the committee to act like the purpose of the committee? And when the answer is no, we're all facing the fact, Oh, well, these institutions that we were talking about in these abstract ways are just composed of people, and maybe the people weren't happy inside the institutions. And so if we want the institutions to continue to serve us, then we need to take better care of the people within them instead of telling ourselves that it's this, you know, this this legal fiction we set up with corporations? Oh, it's a legal person, maybe, but it's just composed of regular old people like, I think that that we're like, we're hitting that, that that tension between the two where we want them to be this abstract thing. But really, they're just human beings. And if the human beings are not happy inside the institution, are not happy with the mission and purpose of the institution, are not happy with the requirements put on them by the institution, then we have to fix that. There's no there's no workaround. 

Beth [00:29:10] And even people who are perfectly aligned with the mission and vision of the institution who are for the most part, satisfied with how it runs and their role within it needs a break. The people who have the most opportunity to influence COVID supply chain, health care, transportation, you name it. Right now, everything is just stressed to its breaking point. Yeah. So even where you have institutions that were running pretty well before all of this, it's just been a lot and it takes a lot of patience. And I think that's where that sense of strength or growth that you were describing seeing in your people really connects with me. I feel like certainly in my household and most of the people around me, I see just a clear sense of priorities down to if I got COVID from attending this thing, it would be worth it to me because this was really important to me and this wouldn't right? This set of circumstances would not be worth it. I'm willing to let that go for a while because I would not want to expose myself to risk in this situation. Those kinds of calculations, I do think everyone around me is getting better at doing that, said, it's because the people I spent time with in my life were vaccinated. And another thing that I'm trying to take from all of this, especially in the current moment. And again, this is where I get frustrated with the administration. I think I'm getting better at just accepting that some people aren't going to get vaccinated. They're just not. And it doesn't matter what I think about the reasons for that. In some ways, in some ways it doesn't matter what the reasons are, they're just not going to. OK. What are we going to do about that now? What steps are we going to take to continue to move forward? Because we did put, you know, all of our eggs as a nation in the basket of getting everybody vaccinated or getting a huge part of the population vaccinated. And we did get a lot of people. It's a it's a miracle, right? We have the vaccines. Lots and lots of people have gotten them. Hurray. And we have not done it to the extent that we hoped. So now what? 

Sarah [00:31:18] Yeah. It feels a little bit like we're finally abandoning this, this fiction that our society, economy institutions have been like, Well, let's just get us to the break. You know? No, no hatred to breaks. We just got off a two week break. It was much needed. I enjoyed every minute of it, except when I was suffering from the cold of doom. And so breaks are important. But this idea that like we're just going to survive to this next moment is not how you build, you know, holistic, healthy functioning institutions and society is just pushing people to the next break. Just leave it on the field, guys. Just get to the next break. Like, No, that's not that's not going to do it. I feel like that's kind of what we're running up against now is like this burnout of like, we'll just get past the pandemic. We'll just get it now. We're seeing like, well, that's not going to be a thing, is it? So what does that mean if there's not going to be some big release, the big break where we can all sit back and recover because that's not really how life works. I think you're totally right about the vaccinated/unvaccinated reality. I was thinking about that in a totally other context, which is another sort of stressor out there, which is January 6th, we're going to talk about this a lot more on Friday's episode with Olivia Beavers. But you know, NPR had this poll this morning and it was like two thirds of people think democracy is in danger. And I thought I knew for sure where those numbers were coming from or coming from Democrats, but they were coming from Republicans who sincerely believe the election was stolen. And I thought, Well, we can keep tssking them and shaming them and rolling our eyes, or we can deal with the fact that thousands and thousands of our fellow Americans feel like the system failed them. Or we can deal with the reality that thousands and thousands of our fellow Americans are not going to get vaccinated. And if a democracy is based on, you know, not shaming people to agree with you, but dealing with that disagreement in a nonviolent, you know, cooperative way, then the first step has got to just be acknowledging where people are and accepting that instead of wishing them away or shaming them away or, you know, just being angry at them constantly, I'm definitely done with that, being angry at them constantly. And I think that that's, you know, that's our reality in so many areas in American life right now. 

Beth [00:33:34] Well, I am certain this won't be our last conversation about COVID or democracy or systems. We are definitely going to return, as Sarah was just saying to January 6th and that anniversary as it approaches and what it means for us. And I think we'll be talking about the strength of U.S. democracy throughout the year. But please be sure to join us on Friday for a conversation with Olivia Beavers from Politico. We spoke with Olivia shortly after the January 6th attack on the Capitol last year, and so we wanted to follow up with her a year later and are honored that we'll be able to do so. Next up, we're just going to chat about what we've been doing for two weeks. 

Beth [00:34:23] All right, Sarah, how was your winter break? 

Sarah [00:34:26] It was really good, except for the cold of doom. 

Beth [00:34:29] When did you get the cold of doom? 

Sarah [00:34:31] When we got back from New York City, my husband had it before we left. He then gave it to me. I spent several days resenting him. I understand that this is neither scientific nor productive, but I don't care. It's just really mad at him for giving me this cold. I was successfully holding it off, I think. But then I switched to a different type of vitamin C that really hurt my stomach. So I stopped taking it. And I think that's when it snuck in. But I didn't get it till I got back. So I had a fantastic time in New York City. We did have one of our Broadway shows was canceled, but it actually worked out great because we were going to try to squeeze in Rockefeller Center in like an hour. I don't know what I was thinking that would have been a disaster with lots of yelling and stress and said we had just the whole afternoon to enjoy it. We just had a very sort of picture perfect trip through New York City Christmas with trips to the Rockefeller ice skating. We took a limo ride ala Home Alone 2. Had pizza in our limo ride as we drove around and looked at the lights. We did get to see Lion King, so we just had the most amazing trip to New York City. And then we came back on the 20th and had some time to settle down and chill out and had a really, really great Christmas got to do all our our Christmas traditions. We did have two big family gatherings sort of canceled because of COVID, which was sad. But overall, I have no complaints. We had a really, really lovely holiday. How about you? I've been so excited to hear about your trip to Orlando. 

Beth [00:35:59] And it was great. So we surprised our kiddos who are almost 11 and 6 when they got off the bus from their last day of school. We had an Amazing Race envelope tucked into the wreath on our door because they love The Amazing Race and we were sort of off. We didn't tell them immediately where we were going. Just we had them pack suitcases for a warm vacation. The next morning, on the way to the airport, we revealed that we were going to Orlando, but they still didn't know that we were going to hit both Universal and Disney properties. So we did two days at Universal. And then three days in the Disney properties. We hait four parks.

Sarah [00:36:36] What a very intense schedule. I have never done it like that. 

Beth [00:36:41] We pounded the pavement. 

Sarah [00:36:42] We probably only do like day on day off, day on day off. 

Beth [00:36:44] Listen, we didn't take breaks. We got up to go to the early admission at the parks and we came home when it was bedtime and it was so fun. It was so fun. I had dreaded honestly taking my kids to Disney for a very long time. It just sounded like a lot of work. What made it not a lot of work is that my friend from high school, Andrea, is a travel person for Disney, and she just planned it for us. I didn't have to learn things. She gave me detailed instructions, including like, Go here and order this. OK, so she broke it all down. I printed her instructions. I put them on a clipboard and I packed the clipboard. So...

Sarah [00:37:25] You did not carry a clipboard around Disney? 

Beth [00:37:27] I didn't carry it around Disney, but I read it every morning in my hotel before we left and we did it as easy as we could. We stayed on property. You know, we just we were like there to see it all and do it all and be close to saw it all did it all, but it was really fine. The girls had a great time. I had been worried that Jane was too old for a trip like this, that we had waited too long. She was the perfect age she could handle, waiting in line. She enjoyed and appreciated everything. She was tall enough to ride everything. It was great. Ellen had a lot of fun. It was a little harder for her. You know, you just you. She's a smaller body, so the steps are harder for her and the patience is harder for her. And making sure she's gone to the bathroom at a time that makes sense is harder for her. But we all really had a good time. It was so nice to be away right before Christmas and not use that week before Christmas to shop, wrap, cook, clean. I did a lot of those things when we got back, we got back on the 23rd. On the 24th, we did two Christmas Eve services at church. On the 25th, we went to my in-laws. On the 26th we went to my parents. It was bananas and we got back from that. I have been cleaning out my house big time, so I have not sat, I did not read a book. I did not watch a movie like I have gone, gone, gone, but it's been kind of energy I was looking for. It's been kind of nice. 

Sarah [00:38:51] I did a lot of that before I left, and then I got, with the cold of doom I watched a lot of TV. I watched all of Hawkeye. 

Beth [00:38:56] We finished Hawkeye last night. I have been watching that at night. 

Sarah [00:38:59] It's really good. I watch Power of the Dog Jane Champions name movie with Benedict Cumberbatch. I watched. Then I started watching. I sort, I've been binging the new Ben Jane Strategy. I couldn't decide which I wanted to binge, so I just watched one episode of each in a row. So I've been watching the Great Station 11. Have you heard of Station 11? 

Beth [00:39:17] No. 

Sarah [00:39:17] Oh, it's a new pandemic show. Fun fact, but everybody dies. Nine hundred ninety nine out of a thousand people there, but every critic I read was like, Listen, I know it sounds bananas that I'm telling you to watch a pandemic show, but you have to watch the show. And it's it's mainly about like the twenty years after the pandemic, and it's very good. And then I watch an episode of Succession, so I'm working my way through Succession. 

Beth [00:39:39] Oh good about I've only watched one episode, so we're going to be on the same schedule then.

Sarah [00:39:42] I'm only on like episode three. And then I watch The Lost Daughter, which is Maggie Gyllenhaal's directorial debut with Olivia Colman about motherhood. And it's fantastic. So I actually watch a lot of TV read a lot of books, but also did a lot of like stuff. Get out of my house. Bye bye. See you later. 

Beth [00:39:58] So much stuff out of my house. Ellen's room I cleaned out the week before we left for Orlando. I had fifteen garbage bags of stuff from Ellen's room, and then I took what feels like an entire house worth of stuff to my sister, for my niece from Ellen's stuff. I don't know. I think her room must be like Mary Poppins bag. You know, it looks like it's a certain size, but it really never ends and its capacity to hold things. But it feels so good. So much better. My Christmas stuff is packed away. My baseboards are clean, like I'm ready to go. Here we are. 

Sarah [00:40:37] Are you enjoying the new year, have you started off with an exciting new New Year routines? I'm doing all the journals I have, all my brainy journals cracked open and ready to go. I journaled for like, seriously two or three hours because that unravel your ear is not a short one. It takes a while. It's several pages. So I did several hours of that on December 31st and several hours of that up to on January 1st. And I'm loving it. I'm loving the new year. But of course, I'm still celebrating the 12 days of Christmas. We're on day 10, I think as we're recording, so we're getting close to epiphany, but it's just my it's my most favorite time of year. I just love the like 12 days of Christmas New Year's. It's the it's the most fun. 

Beth [00:41:14] Well, I hosted New Year's Eve, which was really, really fun. Did not leave me a lot of time for journaling and reflection, but I really enjoyed it. And then January 1st, I spent some time with Unravel Your Year because I think we shared this when we talked with Maggie and Alise about rituals. But I really like doing unravel your year because you do it too, and I think it generates some really good discussions between the two of us that are super helpful. I also just like this cleaning energy. I clean up my closet this morning between the hours of five and seven when I wish I had been sleeping, but I just couldn't. 

Sarah [00:41:45] But you thought you had COVID. 

Beth [00:41:46] But I thought I had COVID for a few minutes. And so but I dealt with that by getting rid of lots of sweaters. No, I feel good about just getting my house in order and kind of getting my thoughts in order about where we're going to be this year. But the truth is, what the journaling has revealed to me... 

Sarah [00:42:05] Tell us about the life changing magic of tidying up. Some would call it that.

Beth [00:42:07] Some would say that. It does spark joy for me. What has become clear to me in all of the reflection that I've tried to pack into that cleaning time is I don't know what this year is going to be. I just don't know. And it's hard to plan much when there are so many question marks out there, but that feels pretty good too. Actually, I feel like the journaling uncovered for me that I don't have a lot of complaints in my life right now. 

Sarah [00:42:31] No, me either. And we hope you don't either as you start a new year with us here at Pantsuit Politics, because whatever it is, whatever our complaints, whatever our struggle, I think what we've learned here in the past several years of Pantsuit Politics. And what I hope we learn again in 2022 is that we're in it together and that's what matters. 

Beth [00:42:47] Yes, this is definitely not been true every year of my life, and I am so grateful for it in this season. So if you are not feeling that as you listen. What I want you to know is we've been there too, and there are days ahead of all of us that are going to be filled with struggle and with joy, and we are excited to navigate them together. We will be back with you here on Friday to talk about January 6th, will be an important episode. We hope that you'll join us then and until then at the best week available to you. 

Beth [00:43:23] Pantsuit Politics is produced by Studio D Podcast Production. Alise Napp is our managing director.

Sarah Maggie Penton is our community engagement manager. Dante Lima is the composer and performer of our theme music. 

Beth Our show is listener-supported. Special thanks to our executive producers. 

Executive Producers (Read their own names)  Martha Bronitsky, Ali Edwards, Janice Elliot, Sarah Greenup, Julie Haller, Helen Handley, Tiffany Hassler, Emily Holladay, Katie Johnson, Katina Zuganelis Kasling, Barry Kaufman, Molly Kohrs.

The Kriebs, Laurie LaDow, Lilly McClure, Jared Minson, Emily Neesley, The Pentons, Tawni Peterson, Tracy Puthoff, Sarah Ralph, Jeremy Sequoia, Katy Stigers, Karin True, Onica Ulveling, Nick and Alysa Vilelli, Amy Whited.

Beth Melinda Johnston, Ashley Thompson, Michelle Wood, Joshua Allen, Morgan McHugh, Nichole Berklas, Paula Bremer, and Tim Miller. 

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