In This Episode
- As the year comes to a close, we look back at the stories we thought were most memorable in 2022. We talk about the rising momentum of the labor movement, the politicization of drag, the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and the historic gains Democrats made in the midterm elections.
TRANSCRIPT
Priyanka Aribindi: It’s Friday, December 16th. I’m Priyanka Aribindi.
Josie Duffy Rice: I’m Josie Duffy Rice.
Tre’vell Anderson: I’m Tre’vell Anderson.
Juanita Tolliver: And I’m Juanita Tolliver and this is What A Day, the only news show podcast that isn’t generated by an A.I. chat bot. Go figure.
Priyanka Aribindi: Nope. We prefer to write epic medieval poetry about fast food chains the old fashioned way. [laugh]
Josie Duffy Rice: Priyanka. You okay over there?
Priyanka Aribindi: Look. I’m just doing whatever the algorithm tells me to do. [laughing]
Juanita Tolliver: Goodness. She’s crossed over, y’all. [laughter] [music break]
Priyanka Aribindi: Hey, WAD squad. Thank you so much for joining all four of us here on the show today.
Tre’vell Anderson: Yeah.
Juanita Tolliver: I love sharing the screen with y’all. This is so dope.
Josie Duffy Rice: So exciting.
Priyanka Aribindi: Very exciting.
Josie Duffy Rice: We are all here together because this will be our last show for 2022 before we take a two week break for the holidays. Yes, it is almost 2023, which is weird because I think it’s 2019.
Priyanka Aribindi: Yep.
Josie Duffy Rice: That’s for a different time. We wanted to take a look back at some of the biggest stories from this past year. And really, there were a lot.
Tre’vell Anderson: Juanita, we’re going to have you kick things off for us.
Juanita Tolliver: All right. Let’s start with the fact that workers stood the fuck up for themselves in 2022. This year, we saw workers across the nation fighting for better pay, better working conditions and better benefits, frankly, all of which they deserve. And they unionized at huge rates. In the words of Beyoncé, this is hustle personified and 2022 should be remembered as the year of the Union push.
Priyanka Aribindi: Oh definitely will be for me. I feel like we covered so many stories like this on the show.
Tre’vell Anderson: Yeah.
Priyanka Aribindi: And I’m proud that we have.
Josie Duffy Rice: Yeah, it felt like a real turning point.
Juanita Tolliver: Right. We’re far more union friendly than Joe Biden, apparently, but that’s neither here nor there–
Tre’vell Anderson: Burn.
Juanita Tolliver: –in the wake of the pan– I mean, sick burn, right? [laughter] In the wake of the pandemic which exposed and emphasized the longstanding poor treatment of workers, especially essential workers. The union push hit a high note in April, when more than 2600 Amazon workers in Staten Island, New York, voted to join Amazon’s first union in the United States recognized by the National Labor Relations Board, that vote and the push to unionize, like many others, was led by Black and Brown organizers and was sparked by a 2020 walkout led by Chris Smalls and Derrick Palmer. Shortly thereafter, we saw votes at other Amazon facilities across the country, as well as Starbucks workers rising up, too. Since the first Starbucks unionized in Buffalo, New York, only one year ago, more than 260 Starbucks in 40 different states have unionized giving the union an 80% win rate. And we’ve since seen collective bargaining units formed at other companies like Chipotle, REI, and Trader Joe’s. And it’s not just service workers. This year, congressional staffers did it too y’all. In May, the House voted to allow their offices to unionize with all Republicans opposing the legislation, of course. And in September, Representative Andy Levin’s office was the first to unionize under the Congressional Workers Union.
Tre’vell Anderson: You know. I completely forgot about the congressional workers also unionizing.
Priyanka Aribindi: Same.
Tre’vell Anderson: So I’m glad you mentioned that.
Juanita Tolliver: It’s so great, isn’t it?
Tre’vell Anderson: Yeah.
Juanita Tolliver: And that was one of the big ways most recently.
Josie Duffy Rice: I do love the audacity of, like, voting against your workers getting more pay. And still just like having to see them every day, it’s just so uncomfortable.
Juanita Tolliver: It’s par for the course, though, Josie. [laugh] It’s par for the course.
Josie Duffy Rice: Wouldn’t you just be, wouldn’t you just be at least a little embarrassed. You’re like, um since I’m actually going to have to get coffee with you in the morning, I guess I’ll vote for you to be able to put food on the table.
Priyanka Aribindi: Hell they lost the ability to feel that emotion a long time ago.
Josie Duffy Rice: Yeah no no definitely. That’s a good point.
Juanita Tolliver: Right. The cruelty is the point. Front and center for the Republican Party. And this year, we saw workers collectively set boundaries and essentially tell their employers what was up. And it was timely as private sector corporations raked in record profits with inflations at a 40 year high. But naturally, corporations didn’t fight fair in these union votes. In the case of Amazon, the company reportedly called the police on workers handing out union materials in Kentucky. They’ve been accused of illegally firing workers in Chicago, New York, Ohio, and they’ve allegedly retaliated against workers in Pennsylvania and New York for their organizing efforts. Not to mention they have also deployed anti-union tactics like allegedly threatening to close an entire warehouse in Alabama if the workers voted to unionize there. Advocates say that these types of escalating behaviors just show how concerned Amazon is about the impact of unions but workers themselves say they aren’t deterred by their efforts.
Josie Duffy Rice: Also, that’s illegal. [laughter]
Tre’vell Anderson: It is illegal.
Josie Duffy Rice: You can’t do that. I feel like someone should let them know.
Juanita Tolliver: That part.
Tre’vell Anderson: And when it comes to interference, Congress and the Biden administration just interfered with the rail workers union negotiations, right?
Juanita Tolliver: That’s right. Now, the rail workers have been working through these negotiations for years. And what they’re asking for is more paid sick time so that they can go to the doctor or care for a sick family member or take time off when they aren’t well themselves. And at the start of negotiations, they had zero sick days. Zero. I feel like I got to repeat–
Tre’vell Anderson: Wow.
Juanita Tolliver: –that for emphasis because none of us would accept that. So it makes sense for them to push for that time off, right?
Josie Duffy Rice: Well, everybody knows that railway workers don’t get sick so. [laughter]
Juanita Tolliver: Indestructible human beings.
Josie Duffy Rice: It’s just science.
Juanita Tolliver: Apparently.
Josie Duffy Rice: It’s just science. Yeah.
Juanita Tolliver: Well, after negotiations this summer, the rail companies gave them one sick day, and last month, the workers rejected the deal. So cue the Biden administration, da da da da! President Biden said, look, we got the holidays coming up. We’re just getting on top of the supply chain issues. And inflation is still hurting people. So we don’t want to lose rail transit over this fight. Biden then issued the directive for Congress to use legislation to force rail workers to accept the deal, which only give them one sick day. Now, this isn’t a move you’d expect from the self-declared most union friendly president in history. But alas. So now the rail workers were forced to take this deal when they were seeking about 15 days of paid leave. But they only got one personal day. And I have to mention that Democrats did try to pass an amendment in Congress that would have given rail workers six days of paid leave. But, of course, Republicans rejected that provision because the cruelty is the point people. You know, it’s their make workers suffer platform.
Josie Duffy Rice: Also, Biden’s the Amtrak president as well.
Juanita Tolliver: Dind ding ding.
Josie Duffy Rice: Really awkward on his part.
Priyanka Aribindi: Incredibly.
Juanita Tolliver: Literally, has a station named after him.
Josie Duffy Rice: This man has been talking about Amtrak since I’ve known him. Not personally.
Priyanka Aribindi: No, totally. Obviously, this story and what’s happening is not good. But this story being in the news and the more people it reaches, people who don’t work jobs that are associated with unions, I feel like–
Juanita Tolliver: –Right.
Priyanka Aribindi: If they’re encountering this, you know, this is not right. Like that is the one maybe–
Juanita Tolliver: Right.
Priyanka Aribindi: –good thing to come from this is that like more and more people will understand, even with the Starbucks stories and the stories of Amazon and all of the efforts to unionize around the country, maybe hopefully people have slightly more understanding of like why this is important and the way these workers are treated and how not right that is.
Tre’vell Anderson: Yeah.
Josie Duffy Rice: Yeah. And it’s a reminder, right? Like, even when you don’t win, imagine what this fight would have been like without union help like–
Priyanka Aribindi: Totally.
Juanita Tolliver: That part.
Josie Duffy Rice: Imagine what it’s like to go up against the Biden administration.
Juanita Tolliver: Or Amazon. That’s the second largest–
Josie Duffy Rice: Yeah.
Juanita Tolliver: –employer–
Priyanka Aribindi: Yeah.
Juanita Tolliver: –in the country. Right like–
Josie Duffy Rice: Right.
Juanita Tolliver: That’s a huge fight.
Josie Duffy Rice: Exactly. Exactly.
Juanita Tolliver: And I appreciate people came together for it.
Josie Duffy Rice: Yeah.
Juanita Tolliver: All right. Let me pass the baton over to you, my friend Tre’vell. What you got?
Tre’vell Anderson: All righty. So when I was thinking of what I consider to be one of the biggest stories of this year, I knew I had to do something on LGBTQ rights issues. Right. Because in addition to me being a card carrying proselytizer of the gay and trans agenda, we are literally living through what is a historic legislative attack on queer and trans people. I don’t know if you remember, but on the very first episode of WAD this year, back in January, I spoke a bit about what organizers were predicting would be an onslaught of attempts to codify transphobia and legislate transphobic discrimination. That has absolutely happened. But there was also a broader attack on the LGBTQ community as a whole as well. The GOP has taken their anti-LGBTQ political strategy and dressed it up as a social issue. And now in many states, in addition to trans youth, not being able to play sports because they’re banned from playing on the teams that align with their identities, teachers can’t really teach about the likes of Harvey Milk or Bayard Rustin because of Florida’s don’t say gay bill and similar laws elsewhere. The health care that some trans youth need has been banned because Republicans think they know better than every major medical association that says such gender affirming care is lifesaving. How a congresswoman tried to weaponize her homophobic tears to stop Congress from passing the Respect for Marriage Act. They’ve been out here wilding out of control, y’all.
Juanita Tolliver: Aunt Vicky. Somebody get her. Aunt Vicky, got to go.
Josie Duffy Rice: Listen.
Priyanka Aribindi: Truly.
Josie Duffy Rice: With that haircut and that jacket, have the nerve– [laughter]
Juanita Tolliver: Ooo child, ooo child. Ooof.
Tre’vell Anderson: But a particular story I wanted to highlight is about how drag shows and Drag Queen Story Hours have become sites of protest and armed violence because of the GOP’s foolishness. We’ve seen the headlines about proud boys and their guns disrupting these events, as well as other right wing conservatives stirring up controversy, talking about how their tax dollars are being used to push a political agenda. That’s how they sound to me all the time. [laughing]
Josie Duffy Rice: That’s like exactly, exactly what he sounds like. [laughter] I don’t know if you were doing Brian Kemp, but that was accurate.
Juanita Tolliver: I’m gagged.
Tre’vell Anderson: Why not? So according to GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, as of November, at least 124 incidents of anti-LGBTQ protests and threats targeting drag events were reported this year alone. The majority of them happened during Pride Month in June into September, October and November, including false rhetoric about some drag performers being used in some folks’s campaign ads during the midterm elections. It’s apparently, you know, drag is that much of an issue. You’ve got to put it in your campaign ads these days.
Juanita Tolliver: Mmm.
Tre’vell Anderson: According to GLAAD’s analysis, not only did anti-drag incidents happen in at least 47 of our 50 states this year, the rhetoric around them has become increasingly violent. And I think it’s important to connect this to tragedies like the Club Q Shooting in Colorado Springs back in November that killed five people and wounded more than a dozen others. The club was known for its drag shows, having had one that night, and they were going to have two more the next day. So all of this made me think back to a special episode of WAD that I did in June with producer Raven Yamamoto about drag as a tool for political organizing. Everyone under the sound of my voice should revisit it. But I especially want to play this bit from Peppermint of RuPaul’s Drag Race fame. I asked her about this political moment we’re in and what is keeping her smiling through it all. Here’s what she said:
[clip of Peppermint] The thought that we are going to get through this and that’s kind of what I tell myself. It’s like, yes, it’s bad, but we’re not going to just drop dead instantly. I know that though a lot of these things do threaten the livelihood, if not the lives of many individuals. But we will be there the day after to reconvene and figure out what to do.
Juanita Tolliver: Peppermint said, we ain’t going nowhere.
Josie Duffy Rice: Right.
Juanita Tolliver: So you all better get used to it. Period.
Tre’vell Anderson: Period. Absolutely. Absolutely.
Juanita Tolliver: And there are more stories to come, Priyanka and Josie. You’re up next. But first, we’ll be back after some ads. [music break].
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Josie Duffy Rice: We are back on What A Day. All four of us. Yay! We’re each sharing our top story from 2022. Priyanka. It is your turn.
Priyanka Aribindi: Yeah. So one of the biggest things to happen this year and really just like in decades in this country, was the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson’s women health, which overturned Roe v. Wade.
Juanita Tolliver: Oh, it was a dark day.
Priyanka Aribindi: It was awful. I mean, also several dark days because of like the way it happened and the draft–
Juanita Tolliver: Right.
Priyanka Aribindi: –being leaked like, it feels–
Josie Duffy Rice: Right.
Priyanka Aribindi: –like it happened several times.
Josie Duffy Rice: Right.
Priyanka Aribindi: But, yeah, the constitutional right to abortion and really to bodily autonomy was something that was protected for all of us as Americans for nearly half a century. And that no longer exists today because of this court and will never stop being outrageous and wild that we are being subjected to this against the will of the majority of U.S. people. But here we are. And many people took to the streets against this decision, including here in Los Angeles. We have some audio from our amazing producers, Jazzi and Raven, who went to the protests in Los Angeles and, you know, spoke to some people, captured some audio and really kind of took the temperature of what was happening on the ground.
[clip of protestors in LA] Abortion. [shouts indistinct] [?] Bodily autonomy. And telling the supreme court fuck you.
Juanita Tolliver: I mean, I knew it was outside the Supreme Court for multiple reasons.
Priyanka Aribindi: Yeah. Wow.
Juanita Tolliver: I had a TV hit, but also the protest y’all like I was–
Tre’vell Anderson: Absolutely.
Juanita Tolliver: –pissed like. And that was in May, when the draft was leaked. I was–
Priyanka Aribindi: Right.
Juanita Tolliver: –out there like screaming my head off with everybody else. So shout out to everybody who protested.
Tre’vell Anderson: Absolutely.
Priyanka Aribindi: Yeah. It’s one of those stories I feel like all of us have like this like visceral reaction. And also, like, you remember where you were. You remember like–
Josie Duffy Rice: Right.
Priyanka Aribindi: –how you felt or like that news alert, however you found out. Like, that’s something that’ll stick with me forever.
Josie Duffy Rice: And it was definitely that feeling of like, even when you know it’s coming, when it actually happens, like the bodily reaction is just so–
Priyanka Aribindi: Right.
Josie Duffy Rice: –intensely strong. I mean, it’s a life changing moment for so many of us.
Tre’vell Anderson: Mm hmm.
Juanita Tolliver: Right.
Priyanka Aribindi: Totally. I mean, the consequences of it were very swift. When the ruling came out, it set off a wave of abortion bans across the country in GOP led states. Now, most abortions are banned in at least 13 states. There’s more legislation all over the place. The Dobbs decision also had an immediate impact on health care. Abortion clinics in several states have been forced to close or limit their services, which has impacted health care choices that people have every day, depending on whatever state they’re in and the resources that they may or may not have to travel, you know, to seek the care that they need. It’s also triggered major legal battles where advocates have sued to block abortion bans in certain states from being enforced. And there’s been an outpouring of everything from grief to rage to what I do want to focus on, I do feel like, is I don’t want to say a silver lining, but this new energy that we’re seeing from voters and people who were never even voting or particularly engaged in our politics before have been kind of incensed by what happened. And that is the only appropriate response, in my opinion.
Juanita Tolliver: Right. Roe being overturn was a cornerstone of the 2022 midterms. I think that–
Priyanka Aribindi: Yeah.
Juanita Tolliver: –is a critical part.
Josie Duffy Rice: You guys are leading right into my section and I like it. [laugh]
Priyanka Aribindi: We love it. So I mean, for example, voters in Kansas not, you know, what we typically think of as like a particularly liberal place, voted overwhelmingly against a ballot measure that would have led the state to ban abortion back in August. That was just the start. People tried to say, I mean, Juanita, we talked about the midterms. People tried to–
Juanita Tolliver: Right.
Priyanka Aribindi: –claim that like the only thing that was motivating people in the midterms was inflation and the economy. And this wasn’t going to get voters to the polls. But Democrats had historic performance for a midterm election year with an incumbent Democratic president. Abortion related ballot measures in five different states all turned out in favor of abortion rights. Even in red states like Montana and Kentucky, they were so clearly wrong. They so clearly underestimated how much people cared about this and how angry and how willing to fight people are for their rights.
Josie Duffy Rice: Yeah.
Juanita Tolliver: And how it’s an interconnected issue. Right. Like I remember talking to the head of Planned Parenthood and she was like, these polls are missing the point that people see it all attached. Abortion is connected to our social well-being, our physical–
Priyanka Aribindi: Totally.
Juanita Tolliver: –well-being and our health, our economic well-being.
Josie Duffy Rice: It’s a criminal justice issue.
Juanita Tolliver: It’s criminal justice.
Josie Duffy Rice: It’s an economy issue.
Juanita Tolliver: It’s everything.
Tre’vell Anderson: Absolutely.
Josie Duffy Rice: Yeah. Exactly.
Priyanka Aribindi: Definitely. I mean, definitely cannot overstate the ways that this decision has impacted this year and the news that we’ve covered. But, Josie, I know we led right into what you’re talking about. So–
Josie Duffy Rice: It’s great.
Priyanka Aribindi: Let’s hear your top story of 2022.
Josie Duffy Rice: 2022, like 2021 and 2020 and 2019 and all the other years for a long time you get the gist was kind of a rough one. There was plenty of depressing news.
Priyanka Aribindi: When are we getting a good year?
Josie Duffy Rice: I know.
Priyanka Aribindi: Please.
Josie Duffy Rice: I know. I know. It’s been a minute. There was plenty of depressing news to go around, but there were also some bright spots, or at least like dim spots. Maybe not bright, bright, but brighter than maybe we expected. And take, for example, what you just mentioned, Priyanka the midterm elections um after what felt like a particularly depressing campaign season to me, like promise after promise of the red tsunami coming our way. Like I told myself, I wasn’t even going to watch the returns on election night, but then of course, I gave in and was pleasantly surprised to see that it was not much of a red tornado at all. Not a single Senate incumbent lost their election and Democrats managed to even gain a seat, the first time in 60 years they’ve managed to even hold steady in a midterm election when they’ve had the majority. For context, the last time that happened, JFK was president and Biden was probably hanging out with like corn pop or whoever [laugh] like it’s been a minute.
Priyanka Aribindi: Oh, God.
Josie Duffy Rice: And in my state, Georgia, we elected a Democratic senator again three times in two years. Uh. Despite efforts to make voting less accessible, people really came out. And sure, part of that is because Herschel Walker was a uniquely bad candidate um.
Juanita Tolliver: Is that how we’re describing it? Uniquely bad?
Josie Duffy Rice: On account of the fact that he can’t actually form a sentence. But still, you know, this is a reminder that across the country in the so-called flyover states in the south and the places that often get written off as lost causes, right there are people dreaming of a better, more progressive future. They are ready to fight for it. They are here.
Priyanka Aribindi: Totally.
Josie Duffy Rice: And Georgia has so much organizing happen, and especially by Black women in particular, often by Black formerly incarcerated women. You know, imagine the possibility of what the country could look like if we really saw every state as a battleground state.
Priyanka Aribindi: Yeah.
Juanita Tolliver: And made the investments in infrastructure and made the long term investments in organizing. I will never forget Representative Nikima Williams, who’s also the chair of Georgia Democrats, being like–
Josie Duffy Rice: She’s my house member.
Juanita Tolliver: She was like, we organize every day with everybody everywhere. They left no stone unturned in Georgia.
Josie Duffy Rice: Yup.
Juanita Tolliver: And that’s the model Democrats need to adopt for 2024.
Josie Duffy Rice: Yup.
Priyanka Aribindi: 10,000%.
Josie Duffy Rice: It was an incredible, incredible effort. It was done without much of the infrastructure that other states have in terms of the actual organizing on the ground, get out the vote stuff. The actual organizing infrastructure in Georgia is pretty underfunded. And this is just a reminder of like what could it look like if we actually put a ton of money into the between election work as well. Right. But it wasn’t just that we avoided a red hurricane or whatever. I’m just switching up the natural disaster with each time.
Priyanka Aribindi: We got a lot to pick from.
Josie Duffy Rice: Lava. Lava is next. As someone who focuses on criminal justice, I had spent the past year hearing elected officials fearmonger around crime. So much to get votes.
Priyanka Aribindi: So much.
Josie Duffy Rice: Threatening to set back the little progress we’ve made over the past few years. Right. And I was so scared on election night that this craven messaging by so many on the right and too many on the left, by the way, was going to work. That voters would go right back to this 1996 mentality, lock them up. And that didn’t happen. I mean, we’re still facing an uphill battle, right? There’s still a lot of minds to change. But it’s clear–
Juanita Tolliver: Yes.
Josie Duffy Rice: –that many voters are thinking differently about what safety looks like and engaging with the possibility that law enforcement isn’t our only or our best option, and they’re willing to prioritize different solutions. The midterms were also a reminder that more of this country is left of center than we often think. We are told real America does not look like us.
Tre’vell Anderson: Mm hmm.
Josie Duffy Rice: Real America looks like something totally different. And it’s just maybe not the case here, you know? And it’s a reminder that Democrats have an opportunity now to go big, to pass strong progressive policies, to insist on a robust social safety net, to support children and the elderly, to reduce houselessness, to help create the conditions under which people can thrive. That is the mandate. Um. And so let’s hope they do it.
Juanita Tolliver: And this is one more time when I’m like, look at Georgia. Senator Warnock ran on that type of platform, was reelected, beat his numbers from November even because this is what people want, plain and simple.
Josie Duffy Rice: Mm hmm.
Priyanka Aribindi: Totally.
Josie Duffy Rice: Yep.
Priyanka Aribindi: And those are our personal top stories of 2022. [music break]
Tre’vell Anderson: A couple of things before we go. We know there were so many other stories out there from this past year that we didn’t get a chance to talk about. But let us know what you think by tweeting us using the hashtag #WhatADay. You can also find us on Instagram at @WhatADay.
Josie Duffy Rice: Also, we will be back on Tuesday, January 3rd. And when we do come back, we’ll talk about the stories we’ll be covering in 2023 and the things we are looking forward to seeing. I do not like saying 2023. I don’t like it.
Juanita Tolliver: Mm mm. Wrap your head around it friend.
Josie Duffy Rice: I don’t like it.
Juanita Tolliver: Because it’s coming, like it or not.
Priyanka Aribindi: It’s not right.
Josie Duffy Rice: Not into it. [music break]
Juanita Tolliver: That’s all for us in 2022. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe. Leave a review. Strike fear into your boss’s heart by organizing your coworkers and tell your friends to listen.
Priyanka Aribindi: And if you’re into reading and not just quietly judging everyone’s Spotify wrapped like me, What A Day is also a nightly newsletter. Check it out and subscribe at Crooked.com/subscribe. I’m Priyanka Aribindi.
Tre’vell Anderson: I’m Tre’vell Anderson.
Josie Duffy Rice: I’m Josie Duffy Rice.
Juanita Tolliver: I’m Juanita Tolliver.
[spoken together] And happy holidays to all.
Tre’vell Anderson: Happy Chris-Mahana-Kwanzaka
Juanita Tolliver: Are you all eating any good food for the holidays?
Priyanka Aribindi: All the food.
Josie Duffy Rice: No.
Juanita Tolliver: No? [laughter]
Josie Duffy Rice: Are we recording still, can I turn it off and tell the truth? Because that I hate the holidays. I’m a holiday grinch.
Juanita Tolliver: Oh my gosh. [laughter] [music break]
Tre’vell Anderson: What A Day is a production of Crooked Media. It’s recorded and mixed by Bill Lancz. Jazzi Marine and Raven Yamamoto are our associate producers. Our head writer is Jon Millstein and our executive producers are Lita Martinez, Michael Martinez, and Sandy Girard. Production support comes from Leo Duran, Ari Schwartz and Matt DeGroot with additional promotional and social support from Ewa Okulate, Julia Beach, and Jordan Silver. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.
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