Real Good News with Branden Harvey

TOPICS DISCUSSED

  • The FBI Investigates Donald Trump

  • Real Good News with Branden Harvey

  • Outside of Politics: The National Lentil Festival

Thank you for being a part of our community! We couldn't do it without you. To become a financial supporter of the show, please visit our Patreon page, subscribe to our Premium content on Apple Podcasts Subscriptions, purchase a copy of our books, Now What? How to Move Forward When We’re Divided (About Basically Everything) and I Think You're Wrong (But I'm Listening), or share the word about our work in your own circles.

Sign up for our newsletter to keep up with all our news. Follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for our real time reactions to breaking news, GIF news threads, and personal content. To purchase Pantsuit Politics merchandise, check out our store or visit our merchandise partners: TeePublic, Stealth Steel Designs, and Desert Studio Jewelry. Gift a personalized message from Sarah and Beth through Cameo. You can find information and links for all our sponsors on our website.

EPISODE RESOURCES

THE FBI INVESTIGATES DONALD TRUMP

BRANDEN HARVEY

FESTIVALS

TRANSCRIPT

Brandon Harvey [00:00:00] I don't see it as much as like a this is the homework you have to do. You've got to consume all the news. I see it as an opportunity because the reality is we don't just share good news at Good, Good, Good because we want you to feel more hopeful. I mean, that's definitely one thing that we want you to do. Our cute little tagline from the beginning, our mission has always been that we want to help people feel more hopeful and do more good. And I think that when you're paying attention to the good in the world, then you have a really unique opportunity to be a part of that good in the world and to create positive change. 

Sarah [00:00:40] This is Sarah Stewart Holland.  

Beth [00:00:41]  And this is Beth Silvers. 

Sarah [00:00:43] Thank you for joining us for Pantsuit Politics.  

Beth [00:00:59] Hello and thank you so much for joining us for a brand new episode of Pantsuit Politics. It's a special episode because our dear friend Brandon Harvey, CEO and founder of Good Good Good, is here. We're going to talk with Brandon about good news and how it does and does not show up in traditional media and what Brandon is doing differently. And he's going to stick around and talk with us about what's on his mind outside of politics, which you will not want to miss. Before we spend some time talking with one of humanity's finest, we're going to catch up on developments about former President Donald Trump.  

Sarah [00:01:28] We're all about balance. If you love this episode, we hope you will share it with the people in your life. We were so touched by your reactions to our last episode on social media. I felt very confirmed when a listener who's a social media manager shared the episode. I could tell you that. We also know that many of you were looking for links to our recommendations we offered at the end. If you hear us reference the show notes and wonder how to find those, the easiest way, no matter what podcast player you use, is just to go to our website, Pantsuitpoliticsshow.com. Right there on the home page, you'll see a link under the podcast to get show notes and transcripts. Click that link, it will take you to the latest episode. You can find all kinds of resources that Maggie and Alise worked hard to pull together for you and a full transcript of every episode. Like, for example, today we're going to put a link in our show notes that you can subscribe to the Good, Good, Good and get your first month free with the code Pantsuit. They will send you the Good, Good, Good, the print edition for your first month free. If you subscribe, click the link in the show notes and use the code pantsuit.  

Beth [00:02:25] Next up, the latest verse in The Ballad of former President Donald J. Trump. Sara When we last discussed the FBI executing a search warrant at Mar-A-Lago, we did not know much. We still do not know much, but we know a little bit more. I'm curious what you thought about Attorney General Merrick Garland's roughly four minute press conference on this topic.  

Sarah [00:02:58] Did you see the tweet where somebody put this obsession theme underneath it?  

Beth [00:03:01]  It's so good. It's so right.  

Sarah [00:03:04] It was so perfect. She's a professional. So we have really the consummate professional on the other side with Donald Trump, who I actually I'm not sure he does know what's going on. His story changes every three and a half minutes. And so for the attorney general to come out and say, let me just lay this out in black and white as clearly as I can, and also at the end, 100% call your bluff with this whole if nothing is wrong, show us the documents you, in fact, have in your possession, former President Donald Trump. Then let's just do this. It just seemed like all business. Okay. This is where we're at. This is where we're going. You want the information? Great, I'd love to share it with you.  

Beth [00:03:46] It is worth watching this in full. If you haven't though, the salient points are, number one, the Department of Justice does not go around making public statements about active investigations and would not have commented on this when had former President Trump not publicized it himself. Two, the FBI tries less intrusive things first. They do not  impulsively go to someone's property to take stuff. Three, the DOJ would ask the court to make this warrant public as well as the list of items retrieved since Trump spoke about this and generated considerable public interest. Four, Merrick Garland, basically direct to camera said, "My job is to follow the law without fear or favor." And five-- and this is what I think really motivated the press conference. The FBI works professionally indiscreetly to protect Americans and their rights and anybody saying anything else is full of hot garbage. I really think that what brought him to the microphone when he very much does not want to be there for any reason ever, is to stand up for the people who are being maligned by senators over this work.  

Sarah [00:04:53] Not just maligned, threatened. Threatened. Like in a massive unprecedented increase and the levels of threat near you, a man came with a gun to the FBI office and then was shot himself and killed. This is not surprising. After January six, it is not surprising that Donald Trump, in pursuit of his own protection, protecting his own interests and his own ego, will lie indiscriminately, fire people up to violence. I mean, it's just not surprising. No one is safe from this list. Congress, law enforcement, judges, no one is safe. You would think the people defending him would learn that, but they don't. And so he called the bluff. The court didn't sell the warrant and inventory. And despite years and years of watching this man behave in the way I just described, I was still surprised. Still surprised by what was listed in the search warrant and in the items claimed from Mar-A-Lago..  

Beth [00:06:00] The FBI took 11 sets of documents, some marked as sensitive compartmented information that is one of the highest level of government secrets. It included records related to pardoning Roger Stone, records related to the president of France, a handwritten notes and items labeled as just varying degrees of extremely sensitive. The warrant said that the DOJ is investigating obstruction of justice, illegal removal or destruction of government records, and then, most notably, violations of the Espionage Act.  

Sarah [00:06:34] The Espionage Act. I did not see that coming. I don't know why. I don't know why I didn't see it coming, but I didn't. I was legitimately shocked when that news alert came across my phone. 

Beth [00:06:45] Congress would like more information than what we got. Senators Warner and Rubio, the top Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee, sent a letter to Avril Haines, who I'm sure is like, excuse me, I have a lot going on right now. But Avril Haines, the DNI, and Attorney General Merrick Garland, have both been asked to share with Congress on a classified basis the specific documents seized from Mar-A-Lago, as well as an assessment of potential risks to our national security as a result of the mishandling of these documents. We have a similar request coming from Representative Schiff and Maloney, the chairs of the House Intelligence and Oversight Committees. Republicans in Congress given news of the Espionage Act's involvement and the very, very secure nature of some of these documents are no longer in lockstep about the whole situation. There was a press conference that was scheduled and then it was canceled. And some Republicans spent Sunday on the morning shows saying we should really reserve some judgment here, which seems like the thing that would have been a good thing to say from the beginning. Everyone would like to see the affidavits supporting the warrant. And if you are not a person with experience with the legal system, congratulations to you. Often when you present the court with a request for something, you submit a sworn statement with it called an affidavit where you go through and say, here is what I know and here's what I believe and this is why I'm making this request. So the story behind the warrant would be contained in that affidavit. Now, I have a feeling, Sarah, that if we get that, it will be about two thirds redacted at least given the nature of what's at issue here.  

Sarah [00:08:28] Well, the New York Times reported that Trump allies reached out to some of those allies in Congress and said be careful how much you defend the president because there could be more damaging information coming out. I mean, I imagine there are a lot of people who were defending Donald Trump that were shocked to see the Espionage Act listed on that search warrant. And look, there are no charges filed. We still don't know a lot. We cannot jump all the way to the worst conclusions because of the listing of that legislation. It really protects the release of information. It doesn't mean he was selling secrets. Again, doesn't mean he wasn't, but does it mean he was.  We still don't know so much. But to me, I don't expect a lot from certain members of Congress. I do expect them to act in their own self-interest and that they didn't have a moment to think maybe the FBI wouldn't escalate this unless this was really, really serious, that they're just so in this fight mentality, Democrats are out to get us. They'll use whatever they can. I don't know. I don't know how they got to the space where they didn't even take a beat to wait for a little bit more information. I mean, I guess I can really if I think hard about it, understand how they got there. But it still is shocking to me that you thought that the FBI would show up at Mar-A-Lago without a really good reason.  

Beth [00:09:54] It's that beat that I keep looking for in connection with this news because I can hear the call of high alert. Scroll Twitter for updates. What's he saying now? What did they say about what he said? What does he say about what they said he said? And getting back into the whole thing. And so I have adopted as a mantra for myself, not today, Donald. I just don't want to be hijacked in terms of what occupies my consciousness by this guy. Again, I think all this is important. I will tune in for 4 minutes of Merrick Garland adulting any time he wants to come to the podium. I will watch the January six hearings when they reconvene. I am interested and I care and I think this is all incredibly important and I just cannot ride the waves of it. I even thought about should I work on some research about the Espionage Act and really explain that to people? And I just think the answer to that is no, because we don't know yet. We don't know if charges will be filed. He's still innocent until proven guilty. We don't know what charges would actually make it into an indictment. I just want to calm all the way down about this situation.  

Sarah [00:11:03] Well, and you just see these rounds of like, well, he automatically with the search warrant violated this law, which means he can't run again.  And then you see The New York Times and everybody else come out like, well, this really disqualify him from public office. Well, it's not that simple. I mean, spoiler alert, none of this is going to be simple. We're not going to trigger some law or piece of legislation or whatever that's going to solve all our problems when it comes to Donald Trump. I do think the gears of the justice system are turning. I think the speed at which they are turning has absolutely accelerated. We are we are moving past the phase where he can just stop everything by bombarding whoever he's in a fight with, civilly or criminally, with legal filings and in just sort of gumming up. Those are still options available to him, but it feels to me like we've entered this new phase where people are finally going to get the information they need. They're finally going to-- the fact that he came for a deposition before Letitia James. Like, we're reaching a new stage and I understand the desire to just keep that pace accelerating. But that's not really how the justice system-- just because we've accelerated a little, doesn't mean we're going to go to warp speed.  

Beth [00:12:16] And I don't want to accelerate personally with it. I just want to take it all in. This is one situation as much as I believe and conversation around politics, I don't think it's worth talking to family and friends about this at this stage. I don't think it's worth convincing anybody of the rightness or wrongness of this search. To me right now, the best answer is I'm just taking it all in because we don't know where it goes. We have so little to go on and all of that prognostication just makes us worse with each other. And we've got midterm elections coming up where we have real power as citizens. We have no real power over this as citizens. These elections are happening where we have real power as citizens. And I think one of the lessons of the vote in Kansas on that constitutional amendment around abortion services is to focus where you have real power with people, where there's an actual opening to find something that we can work with. And this is not it. 

Sarah [00:13:14]  Yeah, I agree.  

Beth [00:13:16] And something that I think has been really nice in that regard is that like President Biden's on vacation. Vice President Harris is in Hawaii. Congress is now out of session. I think it's good. We're in a real take a beat moment. Let's take a beat.  

Sarah [00:13:32] Not for nothing, they left on a high note. The day all this broke, they passed the Inflation Reduction Act in the House. Positive news. Good, good, good news on process as we transition to our next interview.  

Beth [00:13:44] Next up, we're talking with Brandon Harvey, a storyteller focused on the good in the world. He's the founder of Good, Good, Good, an independent media company. Host of the podcast Sounds Good and creator of The Good Newspaper, a printed newspaper full of good news. We're going to talk a lot about that. Brandon speaks to organizations all over the world about creativity, activism and feeling more hopeful. And we are lucky enough to call him a good friend and mentor. Brandon Harvey, we are so delighted that you're here.  

Brandon Harvey [00:14:24] This is such a treat. I'm your huge fans. I've loved y'all for a long time and I feel honestly a little nervous to be here, but in a wonderful way.  

Sarah [00:14:34] I don't know why it's taken us so long to get you on the show. It was a real oversight. Real oversight. Took too long.  

Beth [00:14:40] Well, we want to talk to you about a lot of things. You are the good news guy on the Internet. And I want to start by asking you how you decide what constitutes good news.  

Brandon Harvey [00:14:51] This is such a hard question because I don't think that any truly good news comes without nuance. And so the biggest thing that we run all of our filters through is we basically say, what are the problems that exist in the world and who is working to create a solution to those problems? And we try to introduce that good news with the caveats of the ways that this may not be good news for X, Y and Z groups. So the ways that this is good news, but it doesn't quite go far enough for the way that this is good news in the short term. But maybe there's an opportunity to do some sort of systemic change that is even better good news for the long run. And so ultimately we would find good news as a solution to a problem, no matter how big or small. But of course, there will always be problems with that good news. But that doesn't mean that we need to throw it away. It just means that we just get to find more ways to do good in other ways as well.  

Sarah [00:15:54] Well, I just want to say the reason you're my good news guy on the Internet is because for those in our audience who are unfamiliar with the Good, Good, Good, it is not what I think has become sort of the default approach to good news, which is anecdotal stories about people being nice to each other or good to one another or raising a lot of money or being charitable. Like, if you go to certain mass media outlets and they're good news pages, who I will not name, that's what you get. You get this community rallied around this child. Or this person did an incredibly generous act. And while I don't think there's anything wrong with stories of kindness in the world, stories of kindness in the world is not, to me, the same thing as what you're describing, which is good news. And so I wonder when you came into this space and that sort of what filled it, how did you realize and sort of turn the ship and say, okay, we need to focus on this more problem solving trend approach.  

Brandon Harvey [00:17:04] So my background was as a humanitarian photographer. I got this incredible opportunity to spend years traveling all over the world with non-profits, basically photographing the work that they were doing to create solutions to big problems in the world. And I got to meet all these incredible and inspiring people, and I was like, these stories need to go beyond me telling them. They need to go beyond whatever the reach of these nonprofits are. Because I would just come home from the trips just feeling really, really hopeful about the state of the world, because literally everywhere I went, there were people creating solutions to problems. And I had worked in the nonprofit space enough to know that one thing that you don't want to do is start a nonprofit when you could just contribute to an existing nonprofit that's doing a lot of good. And I was like, okay, I'm not going to start a company just because I think that my stories need to reach more people. Let me go out and see if I can find somebody else doing this thing that I think that I need and I hope other people need. And I just couldn't quite find it. We defined this difference in good news as real good news versus feel good news. And like you said, there's a lot of feel good news on the internet.  

Sarah [00:18:23]  I like that.  

Brandon Harvey [00:18:25] And here's the thing. There's nothing wrong with it. I love me some kindness content. I love me some tiktoks of puppies and kittens playing together or [Crosstalk].  

Beth [00:18:35] The Little League Hug.  

Brandon Harvey [00:18:36] Yeah, the Little League Hug. I just saw a news story about a town where the mayor is a horse. Like, that's important content to me, but that goes under the feel good news category. And I wanted something focused on real good news. And so that's when I decided to kind of start Good, Good, Good not knowing what it would turn into. I kind of thought it was a little side project and it has been really wonderful to find that there are a lot of other people who are interested in this kind of stuff like this. It's a very unique kind of thing. And I also go into this knowing that we will never reach as big of an audience as when Good Morning America does the little feel good news section. It's just feel good news will reach way more people than real good news. But the kind of people who are drawn to real good news are my favorite kind of people in the world. And that is who Good, Good, Good is for. And I think that's a great thing. And, honestly, the biggest thing is we just like to slowly grow that community of people.  

Sarah [00:19:40] I do want to illustrate something. I just want to highlight underline something you just pointed out, though. You did not follow engagement. You felt a need that's different, right? That's a totally different thing that I think that happens in a lot of news coverage and media. Instead of saying what needs to be illustrated, what needs to be illuminated, what needs to be told, it's a where is the engagement? What drives clicks? What drives that emotional reaction, that feel good reaction as opposed to what is the story that needs to be told here? It's two different things.  

Brandon Harvey [00:20:18] And I will say that's a really hard thing for a small business. Now, there's no excuse for big businesses not to be doing this. Like, large media companies absolutely should be doing this. And I think in many ways they do. I think investigative journalism and stuff, it's like that may not actually get the clicks that a BuzzFeed style article does, but they do it anyway and they probably fund it with their BuzzFeed style articles. We've had an immense amount of privilege that when we started the company, I didn't take any salary from it. And I was still just doing my full time humanitarian photography stuff, and that was what was paying my bills. And so everything else didn't really need to make as much money. Now we've got print subscribers who basically help fund that with the good newspaper. And so that's why we have the ability to do that. But if we were running just on ads, it wouldn't be possible. So I do understand why there is not as much of it. But, yeah, I think you're right. I think it's important to do that as a public good, not because it's financially a super successful thing.  

Beth [00:21:22] You mentioned that all real good news stories have a lot of nuance attached to them. And I'm curious in your process how you decide what perspective to highlight as you're telling a story. And I would imagine that that's gotten even more complex over the past few years as we've all sort of trained ourselves to ask different questions about are we focusing on the helper or the person being helped? Is it real help? What does help mean in this situation? And I would just love to know how you think about that because I know that storytelling is your first love. And I just can imagine that that's gotten really complicated.  

Brandon Harvey [00:22:00] Yeah, it's only gotten harder through the years. I look back on maybe some of the early content when it was just me running the show that I created and I'm like, oh, I'm not super proud of this in hindsight, but I was doing the best that I could at the time. And I think that's a really good way of saying I've learned to ask better questions and my team has learned to ask better questions. First thing we do is we try to bring as many people into the room as possible. So we have team meetings at Good, Good, Good where we talk about good news and they're really, really fun meetings because we're just all sharing things that we're interested in, also things that break our hearts. And we're diving into some of that nuance there. We really do want to center who are the people who are being impacted by the bad news and subsequently impacted by the good news. What are they saying about this solution? We don't want to talk about racial justice through the lens of the power figures who are predominantly white. We want to talk about it through the folks who are being most impacted by this. Same with climate justice. We try to take an approach to paying attention not just to the U.S., but outside of the U.S.. There's a lot of different components that go into it. And I think the biggest thing is just learning more and more questions to ask ourselves. And, again, a little bit of it can come down to saying this is good news, but it can only be good news if another thing comes along just for people. The anecdote that I think about all the time and I've thought about it since the very beginning, it was one of the first good news stories we shared was, you know, it was just talking about how much success we've had in working towards a world where all the trucks on the road are self-driving.  

[00:23:50] And there's a lot of reasons that this is really good news. It would significantly cut down on the environmental impact of things. It would make our supply chains and logistics more efficient. It would make driving on the road much safer. There's a lot of really great upsides here. The downside is  I'm pretty sure that the metric is that the number one employer of American men in the United States is driving. And so what happens when a lot of people are put out of work by this? And so we can hold in one hand, this is really great news. And the future of highways in travel and transportation is going to be so much better while also saying, what are we going to do to create good news in the short term? So we might actually always pair that first good news story of the technology with what's another good news story of somebody working to create awesome job opportunities for folks who will be displaced, folks finding new ways to put these skills into practice. There's a lot of opportunities there. And so sometimes it's just a matter of not limiting which one good news story we share, but maybe finding three good news stories that all support each other.  

Sarah [00:25:00] It strikes me that you have the opposite problem of a traditional media source, which is they have a negativity bias. Something good will happen. It is good. The passage of this legislation is good and they just can't say it. Like they just can't bring themselves to say it. This temptation of neutrality, of impartiality, of nonpartisanship is so strong, is so strong, they can't stand it. And so they'll say something like, oh, but will it be enough? Will it affect the next midterm? Like, they just can't. Whereas, I feel like for you it's almost the opposite problem. It's like, okay, we have to make sure in an effort to fight that negativity bias and make sure we're sharing good news that we're not leaving out a section of the story. Like, what could you guys learn from each other? Like, if you were to sit down with someone at the post and you guys had a conference, it's like  how could we meet in the middle? Now, though, I guess that's the part of the problem. It is that meeting in the middle.  

Brandon Harvey [00:25:57] Yeah. It's so interesting and tricky. And I will say there is this beautiful movement called Solutions Journalism. And I'm a big fan of the Solutions Journalism Network, which is essentially the overarching organization supporting Solutions Journalists helping them tell stories of solutions to problems. And they take a tiny bit of a different approach than us because their baseline is starting at the place of journalism versus our baseline is starting at the standpoint of good news. So they basically say, let's talk about solutions to problems.  

Sarah [00:26:31] And you're not writing the good news stories. You're sharing them. You're not investigating them. You're not sending a journalist to the field. You're sharing them.  

Brandon Harvey [00:26:38] Yes, for the most part. We're slowly scaling up the stuff that we that are original, research, etc. But, yeah, exactly. But solutions journalism is essentially the idea of, like, what are the problems, who's creating a solution to it? And then let's report on it, whether that solution works or not. And we're going to say, is this working? What are the limitations to this? And I think that's a great approach. And I think we're going to see a lot more of that from traditional journalism in the years to come. And I think it really still does numbers in a similar way for these outlets. But it's it still leaves you feeling more hopeful because it's reminding you that progress is possible. And also, I think it's helping elected officials and leaders and people who create solutions not feel like they have to have a silver bullet before they try something. You can invest in something, but find it doesn't work, and that is a success in and of itself as long as you keep going.  

Sarah [00:27:31] You learn something. Yeah.  

Beth [00:27:33] I want to ask you about your decision to make a paper or newspaper, like an actual thing that you hold in your hands that comes to you in the mail. I love receiving it. It's so beautifully designed. I know that I'm going to open it and find all of this great information of good stories. So I love receiving it. I would just love to know your thought process about creating it this way.  

Brandon Harvey [00:27:56] This comes back to what I was saying with this internal negativity bias. We all have an internal negativity bias where bad news sticks to our brains like Velcro and good news slides right off our brains like a slip and slide. And so early on, my question was, okay, if I don't have a lot of money like a traditional newsroom, I don't have a huge audience to reach from the beginning. How do you make sure that people are drawn to this good news or consume this good news in a way that will actually absorb into their brains and is an effective way of communicating good news. And it started as a joke, the idea of like, okay, what if we made a print newspaper? You know, it's like throwing ideas at a wall. And then we just kept on coming back to this. I was meeting some friends at a co-working space and we were just kind of brainstorming this. And ultimately we found that this is a really good tool because reading a print newspaper slows you down enough that you kind of have to meditate on the good news and you absorb it a little bit differently being in a non digital place. The fact that you have to pay for it, it's $8 a month. It's affordable by most standards, but you are still investing in a little bit.  

[00:29:10] It does that a little thing to trick your brain into consuming that information a little bit differently. In the same way that I hold in so much esteem all of the Patreon staff from Pantsuit Politics that I love. And the other wonderful thing about a print newspaper is it's so delightful to give to somebody else. You can tangibly hold and give good news to somebody who may need it. I think we all need it. And so I think all of those things just kind of came together to be a perfect storm. But when we launched it, I didn't really know all that. It was a little bit of intuition,[Inaudible] kickssart it because I assumed it would fail. And if it fails then everybody gets their money back. And it worked out and then people stayed subscribed. And like I said earlier, there's this niche community of people who care enough about real good news that they're willing to spend time paying attention to it, investing in it, sharing it with other people. And it's become a really cool community of people who they get a newspaper in the mail every month and they know that they're a part of that group of people who are seeing the world differently and are living hopeful lives where they're centered around celebrating good and then doing good.  

Beth [00:30:22] It's an unusual thing to consume news now without links. And I find it to be just a really peaceful exercise to read something in your paper and not follow 15 links in the course of reading it.  

Sarah [00:30:37] Yeah, it's contained. I think there is a sense of containment. I think our anxiety around our news environment is not just the negativity bias, it is the fact that it can just go and go and go. And not about one story, much less all the stories we're taking and stories about parts of the world that we never would have consumed 50 years ago, 100 years ago. And I think that that bombardment of information and the ability to always know more, I think, is really, really difficult.  

Brandon Harvey [00:31:15] This is something that I think about a lot because I think that there has to be some sort of balance to be found between limiting the amount of news we consume because it's way possible to just go overboard and just become hyper vigilant of everything happening in the world. But alsoI think my natural instinct sometimes is to say I'm just going to pay attention to the news that affects me and my community. And the reality is I live in Portland, Oregon. I'm a white, cisgender dude. This is one of the whitest cities in America. I would be literally just paying attention to people who look like me, who share my level of privilege if I only consume news around that kind of niche. And I don't see it as much as like a this does the homework you have to do. You've got to consume all the news. I see it as an opportunity because the reality is we don't just share good news. It could get good because we want you to feel more hopeful, which that's definitely one thing that we want you to do. Our cute little tagline from the beginning, our mission has always been that we want to help people feel more hopeful and do more good. And I think that when you're paying attention to the good in the world, then you have a really unique opportunity to be a part of that good in the world and to create positive change. And so for me, when I think about just paying attention to the news in my community versus looking around the world and seeing where there are problems that are in need of solutions, I have such an opportunity to be a part of that solution if I'm not being the one directly impacted by that.  

Sarah [00:32:58] Right.  

Brandon Harvey [00:32:59] So when Kentucky has devastation, the people who are being most affected, they are dealing with their own, you know, okay, my basement is flooded. My neighbors need food and shelter today. They're dealing with the immediate things. What can I do from across the country to help make a difference for the people of Kentucky? And the same goes for conversations around race, conversations around war and conflict in Ukraine, conversations around all these other things. I have a unique opportunity from the place that I live to pay a little bit more attention to those things so that I can sure celebrate the good that's happening there, because there always is, and we can help amplify that. But I think most importantly, use that privilege to make a difference and to help the communities who are being affected. And I think that that will go the other way too at some point. Portland's going to get this huge mega earthquake that we've been expecting for 100 years. AndI think people will do the same from far away there as well.  

Beth [00:34:01] Well, as we wrap up this section of our conversation, Brandon, you mentioned our negativity bias in our own brains and how much negative information sticks. If you could plant one piece of good news with all of our audience, this is a good thing that I want you to hold on to alongside all of those bits of negativity that will stick today. What might it be?  

Brandon Harvey [00:34:24] I might just zoom out on this because I think that this is something that just helps me feel more hopeful about every single day. And it helps me look for that good because it exists. We all know that quote from Mr. Rogers where he said, "When I was a boy and I see scary things on the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping."' And at Good, Good, Good, we have never not found a helper for a story. There is always been one and it has not been hard to find. It's not like we had like spend weeks doing research to find a helper. They have always been there. And in next week I'm going on vacation and I'm just going to read the local newspaper. I'm not going to get online. I'm really excited about that. And every time that I've done this in the years past, even in this local small newspaper in northern Idaho, I have always found helpers. And so my encouragement for anybody listening would just be when you hear a bad news story that breaks your heart, simply look for the helpers. They are not hard to find. It is just hard to remind your brain to look for them. But if you say, oh, I'm going to look for them, you will find them. And that's my encouragement to you.  

Beth [00:35:37] I love that. Well, you know that I believe that news and politics is very important here and also not the sum total of life. So we want you to stick around, if you will, for our last segment and tell us what's on your mind outside politics. Brandon, I'm really excited to hear what's on your mind outside of politics.  

Brandon Harvey [00:36:05] Okay. So I've been thinking about this all week, going back and forth between should I say this or should I say that? And I absolutely know what I am thinking about outside of politics. Next week, I am attending the National Lentil Festival in my home town of Pullman, Washington. We are the largest grower of lentils in the United States, and every year my whole childhood growing up, we would have the lentil festival where on Friday night the mayor comes down and stirs up this big pot of lentil chili and everybody gets free chili served from this giant pot. The mayor, by the way, is also the announcer for the Washington State University Cougar Football team, and he's also a professor at the university. I just love that small town dynamic and I'm just so excited to show my wife, to hang out with my grandparents, to do all of that wonderful, delightful, small town things that I did all growing up and also to eat some lentil chili. Honestly, I don't even know if I like lentil chili, but it's so nostalgic and specialist and I'm so excited.  

Sarah [00:37:15] I love lentils. I am thrilled by this. Lentils are such a perfect food, especially going into fall. Although, listen, do not sleep on a cold lentil salad in the summer. Do not sleep on it. You know what I'm saying? Like, there is opportunity there. I love it. And there really is nothing better than like a festival in a small town where that's like the thing. And it's also such an exercise in creativity because people are like, no, seriously, we need to like just pull every opportunity we can out of a lentil or whatever it is. And so you're like the ways that people will find to celebrate a lentil. Or where I live, there's a quilt festival because we have a quilt museum. And it's like people don't understand what's happening to quilts. They're real art form. It's just just a deep dive like that. I think because of our previous conversation, our information environment, we're all getting a little bit of a lot. And so you can just slow down and get a lot about a little. It's very refreshing.  

Brandon Harvey [00:38:15] I love that way of looking at it. And you are so right. And I'm going to be looking around and almost like listing as I'm going around like, oh, they found a unique way to do this with the lentil.  

Beth [00:38:26] Now, is it all types of lentils or a particular variety that is central to this festival?  

Brandon Harvey [00:38:33] I'm going to be honest, I have no clue. And I think it's just a generalized celebration of lentils. Sure, there's probably only one kind that we grow there, but we have taken ownership of the lentil in every sense.  

Sarah [00:38:48] It's also perfect because when you grow up in a place like this and you would think people coming out of the town that has the lentil festival, they'll know everything. Opposite. When you grow up in a place like that, you're like, man, I don't know. I didn't understand the quilt museum. I didn't go to the quilt festival until  where they put on the like prize winning quilts. Until I was an adult and then I was like, oh, this is a whole thing that I did not understand. Because you think, you know, but you don't. So you need to expand your little knowledge. You need to come back from this trip with more lentil trivia. This is what I'm telling you.  

Beth [00:39:21] I at least want to understand if it's, like, red or green lentils and the chili. What are they? I mean, I have a guess, but I really want to know what they're putting in the chili.  

Brandon Harvey [00:39:28] Well, so our mascot tasty lentil is a brown lentil. So I am leaning towards it kind of being a brownish reddish lentil, but I think I've seen it all. But I'll pay attention.  

Sarah [00:39:43] The most important thing for this show promotion show notes is that you send us a picture of tasty lentil.  

Brandon Harvey [00:39:52] This is important. Absolutely.  

Sarah [00:39:54] Number one priority as we leave this recording is that everyone who wants to see what tasty lentil looks like, including me, has that opportunity. I think that's the most important thing. But listen. What have we not solved today? We have solved lentil appreciation. We have solved our news environment. We have solved our anxiety about the state of the world. We're feeling more hopeful. This is why we knew we had to have you on. This is why we brought you here, brandon. You have exceeded expectations, as I knew you would.  

Brandon Harvey [00:40:27] This is such a treat. And can I just add one more thing. I was thinking about it. I think that the reason that I was nervous coming in is because. I listened to Pantsuit Politics. And what I love is that you come out on Tuesdays and Thursdays and sometimes the breaking news happens on  like Wednesday afternoon after your record. And I don't get to hear your takes, your perspectives until the following Tuesday. And the number of times where I have said I'll take care of this myself, I'll figure out how I feel about this on my own. And then I'll come around to Tuesday, I'll listen to the episode and go, I didn't know what I was thinking. My entire opinion has changed since I listened to this episode. In my mind, I was going into this episode thinking, okay, what if I share something and Sarah and Beth share something so much better and then my whole perspective is changed forever?  

Sarah [00:41:26] To reformulate the Good, Good, Good you got to start on a whole new...  

Brandon Harvey [00:41:28] Yeah, the basis is we're changing the whole thing. Check it out next week.  

Sarah [00:41:34] Well, you have been a long time supporter. I mean, that's why we met you. You reached out to us. You had us on your podcast back in the day. We have loved and adored you every single day since that meet up in Nashville several years ago. You are the best. Thank you so much for coming on Pantsuit Politics Brandon.  

Brandon Harvey [00:41:51] Thank you so much for having me. This is such a treat.  

Sarah [00:41:53] One more reminder, you can get your first month of the Good, Good Good free and try it out. Try that print subscription by using the link in our show notes and the code Pantsuit. So you should all do that. And we will be back in your ears on Friday. And until then, keep it nuanced y'all.  

Beth [00:42:17] Pantsuit Politics is produced by Studio D Podcast Production. Alise Napp is our managing director.  

Sarah [00:42:22] Maggie Penton is our community engagement manager. Dante Lima is the composer and performer of our theme music.  

Beth [00:42:28] Our show is listener-supported. Special thanks to our executive producers.  

Executive Producers (Read their own names) [00:42:32] Martha Bronitsky. Linda Daniel. Ali Edwards. Janice Elliott. Sarah Greenup. Julie Haller. Helen Handley. Tiffany Hasler. Emily Holladay. Katie Johnson. Katina Zugenalis Kasling. Barry Kaufman. Molly Kohrs.  

[00:42:51] The Kriebs. Laurie LaDow. Lilly McClure. Emily Neesley. Tawni Peterson. Tracey Puthoff. Sarah Ralph. Jeremy Sequoia. Katie Stigers. Karin True. Onica Ulveling.  Nick and Alysa Villeli. Katherine Vollmer. Amy Whited.  

Beth [00:43:09] Jeff Davis. Melinda Johnston. Ashley Thompson. Michelle Wood. Joshua Allen. Morgan McHugh. Nichole Berklas. Paula Bremer and Tim Miller.  

Maggie PentonComment