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- [00:00]
Sophia
This is an iHeart podcast guaranteed human
- [00:04]
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- [01:14]
Sophia (Host)
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- [02:54]
Sophia
this is Dr. Laurie Santos from the Happiness Lab. As a happiness expert, I know that mindfulness isn't just about meditation. It's also being present in our choices. And that's why I choose Dietz and Watson. They're family owned and operated and they never cut corners, ever. They're totally transparent about what goes into their food and what doesn't. And that's why their meats and cheeses taste so great. I use their chicken sausage with no added hormones in my family recipes. With Dietz and Watson, I can be mindful about my meals and my choices. Visit dietzandwatson.com the right way to learn more about the dietz difference. That's dietzandwatson.com therightway hi, everyone, it's Sophia.
- [03:37]
Sophia (Host)
Welcome to Work in Progress. Hello, Whip Smarties. Welcome to a very special episode of Work in Progress. Today we are joined by one of my absolute advocate idols. America stands at a crossroads right now, and the choices that are made in the coming months might determine the very survival of our democracy. And when I feel overwhelmed by that, I look for the helpers. And some of the helpers are elected leaders that are speaking truth to power despite the shifting tides of political power in our country right now. And Representative Ro Khanna knows how to do this better than most. From his childhood in Philadelphia as the son of Indian immigrants to his rise as a leading progressive Voice in the U.S. house, Congressman Khanna has dedicated his life to fighting for working families, protecting civil liberties, and holding power accountable. He represents Silicon Valley's 17th district and has championed bold legislation on technology, manufacturing, and climate while pushing for a more just and equitable America. And right now, as threats to democratic institutions intensify, from voter suppression to ice abuse and ice being deployed in airports, to the unchecked influence of corporate money, to the absolutely abhorrent handling of the Epstein files and the fact that that scandal touches the White House. And of course, this multi billion dollar war with Iran that the President started without congressional Approval, the stakes could not be higher. And when things feel overwhelming like that list just did, I want to ask experts what we can do to maintain our hope and what we can do to maintain our fight. And Ro Khanna is a fighter that I would get in the ring with any day. Same team, of course. So let's dive in with the congressmen and figure out what the hell we're all supposed to be doing right now. It's so nice to have you here, Congressman. There's so much I want to ask you about that's pressing in the news. But before I do, I like to go backwards with everybody because plenty of people know your resume. But I think it's fun for people to know a little bit about my guests before they were public figures. You grew up in Philadelphia, and I know that your parents were Indian immigrants. I'm very curious if you could paint a picture for the listeners and I of what life was like in your childhood, what you were up to around, say, the age of 8, what the conversations were like in your house with immigrant parents around. You know, your culture, your American identity, your having been born here. Give us, to use a film term, set the scene.
- [06:47]
Ro Khanna
Wow, Sophia. Well, this is a unique podcast because I've had hundreds of them, and I don't think I've been asked such an interesting, thoughtful question. Before I start, I just want to say I admire your voice. There are a lot of people who have your platform who choose to use it for more frivolous things, and you're speaking out about the issues of our time is really a testament to your character. So I appreciate that.
- [07:13]
Sophia (Host)
Thank you.
- [07:14]
Ro Khanna
You know, I. I grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. My parents were hardworking. They expected us to do really well in school. You know, when I would get 90% on my exams, my dad would say, where's the other 10%? I played little League. Not well, you know, but the coaches always said role plays. And I'd often that ninth, they'd. When I'd get up to the plate, they'd say, watch the bunt. Cause, you know, I couldn't hit well. I was pretty good in the field, but couldn't. Couldn't hit. But I played through seventh and eighth grade. I was big, collecting baseball cards. We'd go two friends of mine, Jordan Rosen and Mike Rosen, we used to have. Go to flea markets and baseball card shows and sell baseball cards, trade baseball cards to make a little extra cash and shovel snow driveways when it snowed and reft basketball. Sports was a big part of It, I did ref basketball games, was a big Philadelphia sports fan. And then we would go to India during the summers, often to visit my grandparents and my grandfather, who I say is my biggest inspiration, was in jail as part of Gandhi's independence movement for 15 years, twice 15 years part of the movement, twice in jail in the 1930s and 1940s, fighting for Indian independence. And I lost twice before I got into Congress and have had a lot of ups and downs, but anytime I've had sort of a down in my life or any time I take any kind of risk, I always think of my grandfather and think about the sacrifices he made, the courage he showed, and feel like my life is, you know, so easy comparatively. And it gives me an inspiration to show more boldness and courage.
- [09:07]
Sophia (Host)
That's really beautiful. You know, I. I think that there's. There's a truth in certainly so much American legacy. And I was thinking about it a few months ago, I was shooting a film in South Africa and staring at Robben island and thinking about Nelson Mandela's legacy. And you realize that sometimes in our human history, just because something has been legal or power has been exercised, it doesn't mean it's been right. And when you tell the story of your grandfather being jailed and that being such an inspiration to you to fight not just for what's allowed in the current system, but for what's correct, I feel that in my bones. I also feel that where's the other 10%, you know, immigrant family? On my end, too. It was like, it better be straight A's or nothing.
- [09:56]
Ro Khanna
I didn't know your parents were immigrants. I didn't realize that.
- [09:59]
Sophia (Host)
Well, so my, my mom's mom came from Italy.
- [10:02]
Ro Khanna
Oh, wonderful.
- [10:03]
Sophia (Host)
But my mother grew up in a, you know, fully immersed immigrant household. And then my dad came to the states in the 70s to go to college. So as you know, well, being such a wonderful elected who stands up against ICE abuse, when people say do it the right way, I'm like, look, my dad's a middle class guy from a white guy from Canada, and it took him until I was 13 to become a citizen. So take several seats when you say that to me, please and thank you. I'm very curious. As a member of Congress, having made your way to California, taking those losses on the chin, but representing our Great State Since 2017, you have always struck me as relentless and dogged in the fight. And my parents love to say I'm like a dog with a bone when I have a social justice issue. And I always tell Them. That's the immigrant in me. I'm very curious for you how you. I don't want to say prioritize, but, you know, you'll hear people say, pick your battles. I don't think when we're fighting for human progress and decency, you can necessarily pick an issue. But you are so much a frontline champion defending people, whether it's exposing the Epstein files to ending ICE abuse, to standing up for a climate that is livable for us and our eventual children. Do you identify a through line that's common in all of those things, or is the through line for you as a leader what you know to be right and fair?
- [11:41]
Ro Khanna
That's a very deep question. I think the through line for me is that America becoming a cohesive multiracial democracy, fulfilling what was Frederick Douglass vision of being a composite nation, a nation for people from all different backgrounds, would be a civilizational achievement and also lead to an America that recognized the human rights and dignity of people around the world and moved us past a colonial model of the world, harkening back to my grandfather. And so that is the North Star. How do we build an America that is this vibrant, pluralistic, multiracial democracy? Something that's never been done in the history of humankind. And given that we're the most powerful country in the world, if we were like that, would that mean that we would exercise power internationally in a more just way that recognizes the aspirations of people around the world? Now, that's the broader frame. I didn't come to Congress saying I was going to be a champion for survivors of sexual assault or Epstein. I don't think that's the way it works. But what happened is that I met with survivors and their stories. They were so powerful. I mean, they were in my office, they had tears, they were treated as dispensable. And it became to me, personal that the these rich and powerful people thought they could write the rules and ignore the rules and just treat girls or working class families, many immigrant families, as objects, as dispensable. And it became something personal for me, personal for Massey, personal from RJ Taylor Greene, which is to say that politics is also somewhat organic. If I came in and just said, okay, here are the issues I want to work for to build a multiracial, cohesive democracy, that may not be what the moment requires. And so what I say is, I have my values, but then I look for what people are feeling and where we're having. We can push the boulder in the right direction. And that often results in the issues that I dedicate myself to on Epstein, it was both the emotional power and the fact that I thought we could actually accomplish something. We could get something done.
- [13:56]
Sophia (Host)
Absolutely. Well, I have to thank you for your leadership on this. You know, as well as a woman with my own stories and as one of the 300 women who signed the original Time's up letter, you know, that we published in January of 2018, it is scary to stand up against the power of industry or the power of finance or the power of government and say 51 of us are being treated as dispensable. And I know that this doesn't just happen to women, but I know it is an outsized abuse of our gender. You know, to see you and Massey working together on this has been, I think, powerful to a lot of us who feel like our real lives get reduced to partisan gamesmanship. I'm curious about a couple of points. You know, I've. I've been really amazed by how you've been able to communicate the complexity of this with the American public. You know, from pointing out the fact that the DoJ under the leadership of Pam Bondi and, or the capture of Bondi, maybe I should say, is purposefully muddying the waters. You know, you, you tweeted something that I thought was brilliant to say. To have Janis Joplin, who died when Epstein was 17, in the same list as Larry Nassar, who went to prison for the sexual abuse of hundreds of young women in child pornography with no clarification to how either is in the files, is absurd. The mention of a famous person, perhaps because he or one of his compatriots was listening to her music, is not the same as people who, with whom he was traff women and girls. And you've pointed out the over $100 million that his estate has paid to 150 survivors. You've pointed out the fact that his estate under Richard Kahn paid a settlement to Jane Doe Number 4 In response to her accusation against both Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump.
- [15:57]
Ro Khanna
You're really deep on the details. I appreciate your following this and I appreciate it. I knew of your advocacy when the Me Too movement.
- [16:05]
Sophia (Host)
It's very true. And I think you know, every woman I know with a story when that news broke, was was heartbroken for Dolores Huerta and thrilled that she was able to finally tell her truth, especially at her age. You know, that that was not a secret that would eventually pass with her. I, I really also want to appreciate that you've called out some of the women that Are your Republican colleagues on this? What I'm cur. Obviously, you know, you get to see the files that we don't get to see. We know that in the files you have access to in Congress that Donald Trump's name is mentioned nearly one million times and three and a half million files. And if you're in 25% of a predator's files, I'd go ahead and say you're a predator. We have very credible evidence. We know the FBI and the DOJ have credible accusations that they investigated, that they believed. We see the evidence of the payments, both on behalf of Epstein and the President. Why do you feel like this man for some reason is Teflon when it comes to this issue? Because I know that if any other president were met with this mountain of evidence, they'd be impeached immediately. So what do you see going on behind the scenes right now? Is it the capture and in progress coup of the country under the umbrella of Project 2025 and it's 925 pages of authoritarian goals? Why are we so unable to stop the madness? Whether it's in relation to the sexual predation or it's in relation to the absolute abuse of American citizens and our taxpayer dollars. Like, what's, what's the hold up here?
- [17:54]
Ro Khanna
Yeah, no, it's a very important question. First, let me just say how important the survivors were in all of this, because to your point of not recognizing the grift, the thing that got Marjorie Taylor Greene, that got Nancy Mace to recognize the grift, were the survivors. I mean, if they had not come to the Capitol and told their story twice, there's no way Massey and I would have been able to pass this to the House or Senate or force the President to sign it. And they really are going to be remembered in history because it's the first time that MAGA has turned on Trump on anything since he came down the escalator. And it's. And they've basically created a permission structure now for more Republicans to speak up against Trump. Yes, it's not as many as we want, but we've gone from Massey and my being one of the few discharge petitions to now hundreds of discharge petitions. When people look at the beginning of the end of the Trump era, they're going to credit these survivors. But why is it that Trump then has gotten away with as much and I haven't seen as many of the files because he's redacted the files he's showing members of Congress and this is so important to Understand, because they've obfuscated this. They scrubbed those files in March, and then they scrubbed them again at the Justice Department. And what they showed members of Congress was the part that the Justice Department redacted, but they're still largely blacked out documents because the FBI had already scrubbed them and in March. And so they have protected the president. They've protected people around him, and there are 3 million documents that still need to be released. What we've seen is just the surface, and it's already chilling. But, you know, look, this president is defending, for some, their way of life. And he tapped into the anger of the American people against a corrupt elite. He said, I'm going to fight for your pride that people had lost. And so they have given him an emotional allowance. I don't. I don't understand it fully, and I certainly don't condone a lot of the things he's gotten away with. This perhaps the most egregious. But it's the first issue that people are turning to him, against him. Not because of the allegations of him raping a girl at 13, which we don't know whether it's true or not. But we do know they covered up the witness interviews with this survivor, and we forced the release, but not because of that. They're turning on him because he promised to expose this Epstein class, and he's now become part of the Epstein class. He promised to fight for the working class, and now he's getting us into these wars. So it's the betrayal of what he represented. And why that makes me sad, Sofia, is that he so broke the trust even of his own voters that I fear whoever our leaders coming next are operating in such a trust deficit that we, yes, someone like me, wants national health care and Medicare for all and taxing billionaires and childcare. That voters look at me and say, come on, bro, we've heard all this before. It's too corrupted. All these politicians come and they make promises and you don't get anything done. And I think one of the biggest legacies of Trump that we're gonna have to grapple with. He's done so much harm. Is just the utter breaking of trust. How he sold a lie to so many Americans.
- [21:32]
Sophia (Host)
Yes. And now a word from our sponsors who make this show possible.
- [21:40]
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- [22:50]
Sophia (Host)
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Ro Khanna
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Sophia (Host)
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- [27:17]
Sophia (Host)
Well, and I think to your point, you know, the, the lie has always felt clear to me, you know, that a, that a man would call an elected representative like you, or, you know, a SAG union member like me, an elitist, yet he's got billions of dollars to his name and a plane, a plane with his name on it, you know, and has a gold toilet in his penthouse apartment, yet is calling other people the elite. You know, I think what's been so hard to watch is the level of grift this time around, particularly because so many of us knew it was coming. You know, to see the $1.5 billion bet that was just placed this week prior to him announcing, 15 minutes prior to him claiming that he had productive talks with Iran. And so someone has made hundreds of millions of dollars on oil. We've seen the bitcoin grift with him and the First Lady. We've, we've seen all of the dark money flowing into politics. We've seen the contracts given to the very people that, you know, he lied, swearing he would go up against, from the manufacturers of glyphosate to all sorts of other chemical companies. The walking back of HHS policy where they're saying, well, it turns out we know how to fight cancer and it's vaccines. I'm sitting here, pardon my French, going, no shit, Sherlock. Turns out science is real and the climate exists. How are we having these conversations? And I think a few of the things that have been alarming to me, particularly with regards to the Epstein files, as that does seem to be a break point for a lot of people, is the evidence we do have, because I know that what we know about what this man is doing and his administration is doing is only a fraction of what's going on behind the scenes. But the fact that we know that The FBI paid 850,000 overtime hours for agents to identify Trump's name in the files that we have watched live on the publication of the DOJ website, files being deleted, including the photograph of him in the top drawer of Jeffrey Epstein's desk. We, we are watching a cover up happening in real time. And to watch it happen so blatantly, I think, is both shocking and, and I, I fear, leads to a feeling of hopelessness because if they're doing this in broad daylight, we can't imagine what they're doing in the dark. You know, and, and that abuse in daylight to darkness pipeline we know has happened in this world with Epstein. We now know that Jeffrey Epstein and Steve Bannon took place in launching backslash poll on 4chan, launching QAnon. They created the every accusation is actually projection sort of routine operating procedure for their world by saying, oh, let's tell people what we're doing, but say other people are doing it. It's, it's a level of depravity and darkness, particularly as it surrounds the sexual abuse of women and children that is so shocking to me. But it's exactly what we're seeing in a, in a whole other vertical with ice. We are seeing untrained, radical, known domestic terrorists signing up to work for ice, carrying guns in our streets, abusing and assaulting people. Abusing and assaulting American citizens, Citizens murdering American citizens, shooting people and then bragging about it in their text threads. And now the news is released this week in a grotesquely cover up manner that underage girls are testing positive for pregnancy in ICE facilities, meaning children are being raped in ICE facilities and getting pregnant. How do we fight this stuff, Congressman? Because it's so awful that I, I feel almost knocked over by it. Oh, sorry, I'm getting emotional. It makes me feel almost powerless. But I'm so angry that I'm not gonna stop fighting. But much like you collected baseball cards as a kid, you've got the inside baseball on how we're gonna fix this. So what is the move? How do we, how do we stop this? I know you've presented a ten point plan to end ICE abuse. Bless you. But since then we've gotten this news about the girls in detention. We see ICE agents getting deployed into airports, which we know was a point in Project 2025 to privatize the TSA because they love union busting. It feels like things are getting worse, but you have a plan to make them better, so what can we do?
- [32:10]
Ro Khanna
So, yeah, that was so raw and so beautifully put. I mean, I think we have to start with what's going on in this country. And it goes to the original paradox of America. A country in one place founded on incredible ideals of liberty and equality with the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, but also a other strand founded on dominion and subjugation of slaves, of Native Americans, of women. And what we're seeing is that ugly strand of American conquest be put as preeminent, be put as in the center of power and not tamed, not in service of any higher ideals. And so you have the Epstein class, these rich and powerful men who basically treated young girls for their sexual pleasures as totally dispensable and had no shame in abuse and rape and thought the laws didn't apply to them. This sense of dominion over another human being. You have in ICE the sense of a lot of these people untrained with an ugly power dynamic, where yesterday I was in a testimony where a 16 year old was in a chokehold by an ICE officer who was a American citizen, a mother talked about being told to shut up and then how she didn't take care of her kids as well as ICE could and how they would blow our heads off. It's the exertion of power. And you see this happening in our foreign policy where we're killing fishermen on boats in the Caribbean, where we're threatening conquest in Greenland, where the President is saying I'm going to just obliterate power plants in Iran, where we struck a school with young girls in Iran and hundreds of people died and no sense of accountability. It's a world of might makes right. But the good news is that across the country, people like you are becoming emotional and rejecting it. Not just kids of immigrants like you and me, people who trace their heritage back four, five, six generations. When I went to Minneapolis for the memorial of Alex Preddy, there were six seventh generation Minnesotans there talking about how they were under tyranny, how they were under siege and how they were going to fight back through social movements, through protests. I believe social movements and organizing will overcome this ugliness in our body politic and that we're going to have a new generation with a new moral direction that emerges. The no kings rallies, the people out there work talking about kindness and decency and truth that are also part of the American story and that in our history have triumphed that after the Civil War we did have reconstruction for 12 years after Hoover, we did have FDR, after George W. Bush, we did have Obama. That is my underlying faith as a, as an American. And I hope it'll be vindicated.
- [35:34]
Sophia (Host)
I hope so too. I also, frankly, Congressman, I hope we get to a point where we don't continue to do this amnesia based swing where we let a Republican get into office and destroy the economy and get us into a war and then we elect a Democrat and they have to do a cleanup job and build the fix instead of continue building on the fix. You know, you look at the last, you know 60 years. And that swing is what happens over and over and over again. It seems like our political memories are quite short and we forget that progress takes time. Destruction is very quick. It takes a second to blow up a building. It takes a long time to build one. But if we, if we continue adding floors of progress to the nation year after year, and we don't allow for the destruction swing, you know, every four to eight years, I think we could really be onto something.
- [36:32]
Ro Khanna
Although sometimes I agree with you. Although sometimes in our country, it's after destruction that we have progressive swings on a much higher plane. And so maybe we're building step by step by step over a floor level six, and it gets destroyed to two, but that destruction gets us to floor number 10. That's what happened with the reconstruction and the New Deal. And I believe we're in one of those moments that the next time the Democrats are in power for the House, the Senate, the presidency, it's not going to be incremental fixing, and let's just build it to be destroyed. It really needs to be a transformational moment where we tackle the wealth inequality, we tackle the fact that people don't have health care and childcare, where we're tackling geographical inequality, where we're tearing down ICE and saying, you know what, yeah, it's being abused under Trump, but let's be honest, I mean, the abuse under Trump is grotesque, but there was ICE abuse under George W. Bush, and there was ICE abuse during the two terms of Obama, and there was ICE abuse under the first Trump administration and the Biden Trump administration. And we just need to tear down this agency. It's not a agency with human rights. And we need to start afresh with an agency that actually is going to uphold human rights. So there's an opportunity to rebuild this country in a more moral direction, in a bold direction that I think we need to take up.
- [37:51]
Sophia (Host)
I also think you and Massie are setting a great example to return to healthy debate versus ideological disagreement, because this whole let's, let's run on a problem instead of fix a problem thing that seems to be happening in the sparring is a mess. The fact that we have not relatively easily, for the sort of power of a nation like America, fixed our immigration system is preposterous. And it's because people like to complain about it. They like to point fingers, and they allow the people who are trying to do things the right way and some of the folks that are desperately running from problems that, let's be frank, our nation has absolutely helped contribute to. We're letting those people be used as pawns instead of remembering who we are. We are the nation that launched usaid. We are the nation that has helped take care of people around the world. For all of our faults, as you mentioned, we also have a side of incredible goodness. And I think the point of the progress of time is that we do more and more good and we learn our lessons and less and less harm. And we seem to really be in a backswing into harm right now. One of the things that frightens me about the potential of us being on a precipice of a huge leap forward into true progress that takes care of everyone, that helps people undo the lie of scarcity mentality is the SAVE Act. You know, this. This could disenfranchise 140 million Americans.
- [39:28]
Ro Khanna
I mean, it's crazy. I. I'm sorry, I don't know if you're married or not, but for anyone who's married, it's the most absurd thing. You're going to have to go to the registrar and show your marriage certificate to prove that you've changed your name. I mean, it is the biggest tax on voting.
- [39:46]
Sophia (Host)
It's a poll tax, which is illegal.
- [39:48]
Ro Khanna
Yeah.
- [39:49]
Sophia (Host)
For our friends at home, because you know this and I know this. You know, you're an actual elected official and I'm a constitutional nerd. But for people at home who might not know, there are laws that prevent our nation from charging a poll tax. And every provision in the SAVE act, whether it's having to go to the registrar and show them your birth certificate, which many people don't have access to anymore, and your marriage certificate, getting a passport, which is incredibly expensive, getting a new. A new form of id, which also is not free. That's a. Those are all poll taxes on your time and your expenses. They are illegal. And the. The GOP currently in power is claiming that this is a voter ID law, but this is truly a voter suppression law because your ID is not good enough to vote with.
- [40:40]
Ro Khanna
Yes. And it's a solution in search of a problem. Because it's just not true that undocumented folks are. Are voting. Just think about it this way. And you know people who are undocumented as I do. Do you really think that someone undocumented who's concerned about their status is going to be taking the chance? Yeah, I really want to go cast a vote that desperately that I'm going to go risk being in jail and doing it illegally. Of course not. I mean, it's just an absurd Proposition. They just want to live their life. They want to like make some money and maybe take, send some money back home to their families. They're not dying to vote for Ro Khanna in some election and risk their, they're going to jail. So I mean, it makes no sense, right? Logically.
- [41:24]
Sophia (Host)
Well, of course not. And by the way, the fact that we do know, because research is not emotional, you know, morals are emotional, math is not. And the research shows that immigrants commit far less crimes than American citizens. So we, we think the immigrants who are trying to stay here are committing the crimes that won't let them stay here. Like, come on, you know, nobody wants criminal on the streets but law abiding residents of our country don't deserve to be persecuted this way. And, and I found this week a statistic that I thought was quite interesting. There was a bipartisan commission. I can't remember the name of it, but I do remember the specificity that it was bipartisan that has studied the last. It's either 25 or 30 years of voting, examining voter fraud. We are a nation of 332 million people and in the last 25 to 30 years they have found 24 incidents, meaning 24 votes total cast by non citizens in three decades. That amounts to less than three a year. And they're trying to disenfranchise all, you know, 90 million married women in the country and up to 140 million people who don't have a passport. It's the most insane math I've ever heard in my life. So is there something that you would recommend as an elected official for us to be doing? Because a lot of people are afraid that the SAVE act is going to get signed off on because of the way that the president is, you know, pounding his fists and saying he won't approve anything until it does. What can we as a constituency do to put a stop to our voices being denied at the ballot box?
- [43:11]
Ro Khanna
Well, we need you out there stumping and talking to people with the facts you have. I mean, I don't think most Americans know and understand these facts of how few actual fraud cases there are, of how many people would be impacted. 140 million Americans who don't have passports, 90 million married women who have to go and then show ID and then people who have student id. I mean think about this. Some states it's fine to have a hunting license that's valid ID to vote, but it's not fine to have a student id. I mean, it's totally rigged to favor groups that are going to vote Republican and put a tax on people who vote Democratic. But we just need the facts out there and we need people's voice out there. Ultimately, I do think we can stop this in the Senate and there are enough Republicans who we have who will be opposed to this kind of a bill, but we can't take it for granted. And really, your voice matters. You're traveling the country, giving talks, being on social media and all of your incredible listeners. Everyone's voice really does matter. The only thing in America that overcomes entrenched power and wealth is social movements, and that's what we need.
- [44:26]
Sophia (Host)
Yeah, well, there's far more of us than there are of them, but my God, do they have a big war chest. We'll be back in just a minute, but here's a word from our sponsors
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Sophia (Host)
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Dean Graziosi
Zach.
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Ro Khanna
How's this?
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Sophia (Host)
No.
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- [48:23]
Sophia
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- [49:30]
Sophia (Host)
I'm curious because I know you've got to go back to the floor. So I'm going to get you out of here as quickly as I can.
- [49:35]
Ro Khanna
All right? I'm enjoying the conversation. I appreciate it.
- [49:38]
Sophia (Host)
Me too. I can't wait to have a longer one at some point. But, you know, tough times I think require more hope. And I know that, you know, we're definitely bruised and bloodied, but we're not, we're not laying down, we're not out of the fight. What do you think is the core message that you want Americans from small towns to big cities to carry with them about not only the future of our country and what's possible, but their role in shaping it.
- [50:14]
Ro Khanna
It's still an incredible country. It's an incredible country that has the most open political process and an incredibly kind and good country from my life experience. I mean, I'm an Indian American of Hindu faith. My parents were middle class, my dad and chemical engineer, my mom a teacher's assistant for special needs. I took out hundreds of thousands of dollars of loans to finish education, over $100,000. My grandfather spent years in a British prison fighting for Indian independence. And this country elected me at the age of 40 to represent Silicon Valley, arguably the most economically innovative place in the world. America is a Place that is making progress in spite of ourselves. One way of looking at Kamala Harris's election is that she lost. Another way of saying, well, an African, American, Indian, American woman got 48.5% in Pennsylvania. When I was growing up in 1970s and 1980s in Pennsylvania, that would have seemed impossible. So what I would say to folks is we have a lot of challenges. And our challenges are fundamentally the economic divide. That wealth is concentrated in places like mine, that we have 19 billionaires who own 12.5% of the economy. That's triple the concentration as during the Gilded Age when we had Rockefeller, Morgan, Vanderbilt and Carnegie. That we've got to have the future economy working for every town, for every community, for every place in America, and that we need to have every family having a stake in economic independence and security. But if we do that, if we can democratize the economy, if we can create economic independence and security for people across this country, then we really can build a multiracial democracy, a model to the world. And I guess I would just say the challenges we have pale in comparison, though tough, to the challenges that John Lewis had, my late colleague, or that my grandfather had, or that the people who fought, scaled the cliffs of Normandy had, or the people, the women who were Rosie the Riveter in industrialized America. We've been, we are the beneficiaries of Mandela and King and Gandhi and Rosie the Riveter and the soldiers of the greatest generation. We have been given such a rich inheritance and we are. You're telling me we're going to let Donald Trump destroy it? Come on, have more guts, have more confidence in the American project. It's for us to seize the moment and build the nation we want.
- [52:55]
Sophia (Host)
You'll love this. I think of the journalist W. Kamau Bell, who says whenever he gets exhausted and thinks he just wants to hide for a day, the ghost of Harriet Tubman smacks him on the backside of the head and says, get up. And I really think that that's true. You know, when I feel overwhelmed, I think about Dr. King and Audre Lorde and Gloria Steinem and all of these women who, who did all of this incredible work. And I think to myself, who. Who would we be to stop? So it's a, It's a really poignant reminder and I appreciate you giving it to us today. You know, from rallying behind survivors in the Epstein files, to pushing back to fighting ice, to being incredibly vocal against this non congressionally approved war that Donald Trump has started in Iran, there's also the other side of your life, you know, your personal life, your world, your family. And as you, as you look at the two, the following question could apply to either. It could be big picture political, or in your four walls, personal. But I'm curious what today feels like, your work in progress?
- [54:11]
Ro Khanna
You know, obviously my family comes first, but I try to keep them out of things because it's such an ugly world that we, we live in. But for me, the, the progress that I hope is that I can do my small part to say that I worked to create a nation and a world that was a little bit more just and a little bit more kind and a little bit more decent. And, you know, Benjamin Disraeli once said that every political career ends in failure. And as a student of history, you know, I was reading something about Churchill and Gandhi and, and there are two opposites. But Churchill, even though he wins World War II, was very disappointed because he wanted the fundamental success of the British Empire. I'm glad the British Empire ended, but he failed in Gandhi. Even though he achieved Indian independence, he didn't want India to be partitioned into India and Pakistan. He wanted Muslims and Hindus to live together. And he failed. And so the act of a political life is one of pushing a rock uphill in terms of the challenge of overcoming so much of human nature, if might makes right in power. But all any of us can do is just do our part to push it a little bit, to leave it the world and the nation a little bit better. And I don't view myself as any better morally or any, you know, we're all living complex lives, but I just hope at the end of the day, at the end of my service, people will say, you know what? But on balance, he made mistakes. He did things that weren't great here and there, but on balance, he did enough to move the world in a little better place. And that's, that's really my. What I live by.
- [56:09]
Sophia (Host)
It's really beautiful. And I think you're right. You know, it's. We hear those stories, the, the David and Goliath stories, but I think that's in each of us. It's. Are we going to let our, our terrible animal brain win or are we going to let the part of us that has all of this incredible research and human history under our belts and say, oh, we can pick our better angels? And I, I do think that that's a, a wonderful goal, you know, in the macro and the micro of life to be focused on. Thank you so much for joining us. Today.
- [56:46]
Ro Khanna
Thank you Sophia. What a great conversation. I appreciate it and I appreciate your voice out there.
- [56:51]
Sophia (Host)
Thank you. We're here to support you. You tell me where you need me. I'll get on a plane.
- [56:55]
Ro Khanna
I appreciate it. Thank you.
- [56:57]
Sophia (Host)
Good luck the rest of the day.
- [56:58]
Ro Khanna
Take care.
- [56:59]
Sophia (Host)
Bye bye.
- [57:15]
Xolair Advertisement Voice
Xolair Omalizumab is proven to significantly reduce allergic reactions if a food allergy accident happens. Xolair 150mg is a prescription medication used to treat food allergy in people 1 year of age and older to reduce allergic reactions due to accidental exposure to one or more foods. While taking Xolair, you should continue to avoid all foods to which you are allergic. Don't use if you are allergic to Xolair. Xolair may cause a severe life threatening allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. Tell your doctor if you have ever had anaphylaxis. Get help right away if you have trouble breathing or if you have swelling of your throat or tongue. Xolair should not be used for the emergency treatment of allergic reactions including anaphylaxis. Xolair is for maintenance use to reduce allergic reactions including anaphylaxis while avoiding food allergens. Serious side effects such as cancer, fever, muscle aches and rash, parasitic infection or heart and circulation problems have been reported. Please see xolair.com for full prescribing information. Ask an allergist about Xolair this is an advertisement for Xolair, paid for by Genentech and Novartis.
- [58:25]
Sophia (Host)
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Dean Graziosi
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Sophia
this is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.