Hello, I'm Zeke, and welcome to the Zekely podcast. Let's talk Pennsylvania. The guest I have today is a Philadelphia native who is now based in the capital of Pennsylvania working as a political correspondent for the Keystone Newsroom. He has built a reputation for cutting through the noise with insightful reporting and a deep understanding of politics across the Commonwealth. Thank you so much for being here, Sean Kitchen.

For years, I’ve knocked thousands of doors all over Pennsylvania and poured my heart and soul into supporting candidates and causes that make a difference—from local school board races to national elections. The personal is political, and I take every election in Pennsylvania personally.

Where the mainstream media has failed you, I will give you truth and independence. You’ll hear from Democratic leaders, candidates, and change-makers who are working to improve the health of the Commonwealth, and it won’t be boring as hell.

No matter where you are, I’ll meet you with hope and a plan to make your community better one day at a time. Welcome to the Zekely Podcast. Let’s talk Pennsylvania.

Thank very much and I'm glad to join you.

It's great. You're the first journalist to be on The Zekely Podcast. ⁓ But you do a lot of great things for Democrats across the Commonwealth. So we're going

learn all about you, play some games, and have some fun. So you ready?

No, thank you. I'm honored. Let's do this.

Alright,

well as someone who is a writer for a local news agency, what are your thoughts on the mainstream media?

I have a lot of thoughts on the mainstream

I mean, I feel like we're just watching mainstream media and different people failing to meet the moment we're in. I think it's pretty apparent with

you had people

going from MS NBC with Joe Scarborough, going to Mar-a-Lago, Bill Maher on HBO going to Mar-a-Lago. You have people really just like not covering things as well that should be covered. And I mean, also we're seeing times with the media consolidations right here with the Trump administration and how people who work news organizations that might have a merger on the

play footsies with the administration or not cover things that should be covered in certain ways

they wouldn't have to get that deal done. mean,

the way that like we the media spent so much time talking about Mamdani's win.

over the summer, while not really talking about the main issues that are going on, especially when it comes to

big beautiful bill, a budget that got passed that cut Medicaid by a trillion dollars. And you're going to have at least 500,000 people here in Pennsylvania lose their health care coverage because of this. mean, like we spent time we're arguing about not we, but like people in the media are talking about this when they're getting distracted by

Right.

what's going on from the real picture. You know, I think some of the stuff that Trump is doing, a lot of it, yes, very fascist, very authoritarian, and it's really just like, distracting us from keeping our

off the ball, but it's also, I mean, but these are also things that are dangerous to our country right now.

Yeah, well I'm glad there are people like you who are trying to put out good information for Pennsylvanians and keep people focused because there's a lot of stuff that's happening in Pennsylvania that is super important and you you're part of the process to keep people

on the right track.

Thank you, appreciate it.

right, let's play a game. Okay? It's

That Headline. So I'm gonna read you a short summary of a real news story, and your job is to guess which headline actually ran, okay? You should be a pro at this. So here's the story. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro launched a program to cover the cost of college tuition for students entering certain high-demand fields. All right, so here are the three headlines.

The first one is Shapiro hands out free college degrees like

second one is Governor Shapiro announces free tuition program for critical jobs. And the third is Pennsylvania students told to get a job instead of a loan.

mean, the correct answer, in my opinion, would be the second opinion.

Yeah, yeah, you're right, you're right. mean, these days you can imagine any of them could be anywhere, but you are correct.

Here's another one. Erie County invested in expanding solar panel projects for public buildings. All right, so that's the story. Here are the three titles. Solar Surge, Erie County Goes Green with New Panels, Local Officials Warn Residents to Buy Sunglasses for Glare, or Solar Energy Sparks Outrage at Town Hall.

obviously the first one, solar surge.

Yeah, the first one.

Very good, very good. All here's the last one. Pennsylvania received millions in federal funds to repair bridges under the bipartisan infrastructure law. right, so the first one is Pennsylvania bridges finally get their fix thanks to federal funds. PA bridges collapse under the weight of federal overspending or infrastructure weak again.

I'll only go with the first one on that one.

First one, you're right.

The reason why I wanted to do this with you is because I do believe that headlines matter. Like it's supposed to catch someone's attention, and I feel like these days in the mainstream media, they do a lot of false catchy headlines, right? They take information and they misconstrue it, and I don't know what the numbers are. You probably know better than me. I mean, what percentage of people actually read an entire article? Like how do people just like read the headline and the blurb underneath and they move on to the next

Scroll, right?

I mean, I would say not a lot of people read the full articles, but I mean, like if you look what social media is doing right now, one of the things that has really taken off, on Instagram, are the carousel slideshows. You have the headline card, compelling headline, swipe over, you have a couple of sentences summarizing the article and then just like a quote to go with

Mm-hmm.

no, I mean, like, having a headline is important these

going it's going to set the frame of that story.

Mm-hmm,

And I guess I wanted to do this game with you because there are great things that the Democrats do all the time. I know that, you know that. But in a lot of mainstream places, the article titles are framed in a very slanted negative way. And if you don't really pay attention to know what's going on, you can be

some of that also goes down to news agencies and news organizations not willing to name the villain

think one of the most direct things to do is just name the subject of the person that's doing the action in the article. For instance, I think an example going on right now, especially with SEPTA, you'll see headline cards with the Pennsylvania General Assembly or lawmakers in Harrisburg. It's like,

Mm-hmm.

Pennsylvania and Senate Republicans. this is who is, this is the people doing the action. And I think like every article talking about the transit crisis in Philadelphia, talking about this stuff happening across the state, Pennsylvania Senate Republicans, they got to be front and center with this. Because if you tell people that like lawmakers in Harrisburg or ⁓ legislators, it's just very generic. It doesn't name the enemy. It doesn't name the people doing the action. And it makes it

Right.

100%.

Mm-hmm.

Right.

that, well, it's both parties are not doing it when one party has passed five funding bills and the other has not.

Right,

headlines matter, headlines matter. Well, thank you for playing Name That

Sean, did you know you wanted to be a journalist when you grew up?

Yes, and it took a while to get there.

and pretty much did something back then, which thinking about it 20 or 30 years later is suicidal for your career, especially woke teachers doing this. mean, like telling your, well, no, imagine your teacher telling students why this war is bad and having family members think about you're bringing politics into the classroom and stuff like that. But I mean, having a teacher explain that, and she spent the whole day just going over, was really,

Okay.

okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Right. ⁓

big influence on me politically. But I would say like in high school, I started watching Keith Oberman

and him just like throwing bombs all the time. And just he was the only person just willing to call out the George W. Bush administration for the stuff that they were doing in the

Okay.

And I mean, like that's where I got my inspiration to be a journalist, just like speak truth to power and just like hold people accountable.

That's great. I had no idea what I wanted to be when I was in high school. So I think it's pretty impressive that you carried that through.

Yeah, I mean, it was a really long path to get here. It was not straight and narrow, but I made it. It took a lot of work and it's fun.

Yes.

You made it.

I'm happier here,

Well, Sean, why do you choose to tell the truth?

I mean, one, because you have to, it's ethical, you know, I mean, you should tell the truth if you're a journalist because you shouldn't be spreading misinformation or disinformation.

Do you? Do you have to tell the truth?

You also have to have a good

the way you frame your stories and making sure you don't

reiterate a narrative that the opposition put out or try to defend yourself from that as well.

Okay.

Well, you did, you used the word ethical, right? So you clearly have an ethical core to tell the truth to the best of your abilities.

Yes.

that's why I pose that question.

Why do ethics matter to you as a journalist?

Yeah, no, mean, getting the truth is like, is putting the truth out there is the most important thing when getting your story factually correct. It is, know, obviously the most important thing when it comes to getting journalism, the story correct. But it's also framing it putting people who might be affected, different people to tell the stories instead of just

Mm-hmm.

putting out, like spitting out just like facts and numbers

well I'm glad that you have an ethical

with a compass that leads to the truth, because as I'm sure you can see, as clear as day when you go online or see the media today, they don't always follow that same compass. So thank you for that.

I know you're welcome.

Sean, what do you wish more people knew or paid attention to in regard to the news in Pennsylvania?

We this is a this is a tough one. I mean, I think the biggest thing

see this a lot with people over the past year. I honestly think we need to start teaching civics again in class in schools. A lot of emails last year from readers, from people who may not agree with what we're saying. And there is a like disconnect with people not knowing how.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

state, local, federal government works. Like a lot of people sending emails like, yeah, we're going to send Bob Casey back to Harrisburg, which like, as much as I love Bob Casey,

Yeah.

like, but like getting those types of emails just shows that there is this like

disconnected in the general population where people don't understand how government works or like, and we just need to have like a civics.

Mm-hmm.

Do you think that there's any way from a news or media standpoint that they could put out a series or articles on basic civics? I mean, how can we captivate the electorate to watch this kind of stuff or read it?

I mean, we put out, try to inform people on that type of stuff. ⁓ Each year we do voter guides. So for instance, you we have the Supreme Court election coming up this year and a lot of people don't realize what the Supreme Court election is or what a retention election is and what that means. it's, there's a lot of education going on for that type of stuff. Even though the numbers might be in your favor with the retention, you still have to like teach people on what it means and get them out.

Mm-hmm.

yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, thank you for doing that, and I'm trying to do my part to educate people about civics and keep people engaged because, you know, democracy is a marathon and we all have to do our part.

No, absolutely.

Sean, you went to Kutztown University and you earned a bachelor's in environmental science and geography, correct?

Yes.

So you already said, you know, in high school, you knew you wanted to be a journalist. How did you parlay environmental science and geography into journalism?

when I was in college, I didn't really understand, didn't really have a path of what I wanted to do. Like, like, like major wise,

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

I went into political science and just thought I just didn't like that and went into geography and

geography isn't just looking at maps, right? You're, you're, you are spatially analyzing things, state, local, federal levels. You are looking at maps.

Mm-hmm.

computer models. So you're thinking of how things happen around you in different ways or different

globalization is also a big thing with that. And at Kutztown, they added an environmental science track instead of like a bachelor's degree, like a BA, bachelor's of arts. They added a science track program. And with that, I got into the environmental stuff. that's, I got into like

Mm-hmm.

had to take chemistry, physics, all that type of stuff, doing four semesters of lab, a few semesters in a row is not fun, because I did that very late in college. But I think going through the science process and just going through the experiments

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

and report on it, it's like,

you report on the facts, either your experiment worked or it didn't work, and you had to go figure out why it didn't work And then also like the research, knowing how different parts of government works through the geography classes. That's how I got involved with this. Like, I mean, we're talking about like learning about zoning, local, like municipal planning, like all that type of fun stuff that people don't really know a lot about.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

That is.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

I find it so interesting that you paired the scientific method into truth, right? Because that's the thing about science. Science doesn't lie, right? You have a hypothesis, you test the hypothesis, and sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't, but both are reportable. I read a lot of journals, and a lot of times, journals are just stating studies that didn't have the results that they thought they were going to happen, right?

You have two medications, you give them, and there was no difference between the two. That's not a failure of science. There's a lot of truth that happened there. And you took that scientific method and applied it to journalism. You're telling the truth. You're telling people the

So that makes a lot of sense to me how you translated that to where you are today.

Sean, you're based in Harrisburg now, correct?

Yes.

Do you miss living in Philly?

⁓ Yes, I do. ⁓ I grew up, so I was born and raised in Philly. I grew up in the Juniata Kensington part of the city. So I used to take the L on the subway into school every day. I mean, I'm sure you saw in the newsletter today, I wrote about like how, you know, that experience of like growing up on taking septa really like molded me and stuff like that.

You

Mm-hmm.

But I mean, I love Philly. I love going back to Philly, the Italian market, the Reading terminal and like all those like fun spots. But it's been crazy that I've been out in Harrisburg for 10 years

Mm-hmm.

really have lived in the same building since the day I moved in here. Like I have not moved. Like I thought I was gonna be in Harrisburg for a couple of years and then like move back to Philly. And I mean, I live like a few hundred feet away from the Susquehanna River.

Okay.

It's awesome if you like the outdoors hiking and the Appalachian trails right here,

That's great. next time you come around these parts again, because I

right outside of Philly, we should get together.

we're gonna play a game called Philly v. Harrisburg, but sports edition, okay? So, like I literally, as people know who listen or watch the show, I am not a very sporty person, but hopefully you'll do better than me, okay? So first question, which NBA star played for the Harrisburg-based AAU team team final before going pro?

Ha ha ha.

man, I do not know. It's not he's not the globe trotters coach is he?

So I'll give you three choices Joel embed Jason Tatum or Tyrese maxi

I have no clue.

said Embiid, Magsy?

Tyrese...

Yep, Tyrese Maxey. There you go. Alright, here's... Well, you'll maybe get this next one.

Okay, I did not know that.

Harrisburg High Cougars have produced several NFL players. Which current star defensive lineman is a Harrisburg alum?

The guy from, well he plays for the Packers now. God. You were like putting him on the spot where I should know these people's names or.

It's okay.

it Micah Parsons? Aaron Micah Parsons. Okay, you got it. There you go. It was on the tip of your tongue. All right.

He just got trade from Micah Parsons. Yeah.

Yeah, he just got trained from the Dallas Cowboys.

There you go.

Philadelphia was home to the very first professional sports league in the US. Which sport was it?

Was it baseball, basketball, or football?

and where the...

I'm gonna say baseball.

was basketball. The Basketball Association of America, which was the predecessor to the NBA. Yeah. All

wow.

Is it a pierogi?

wow, I thought it would be pierogi

So soft pretzel, what else? Cheese steak, Hershey Kiss, Hershey Kiss. Wow. I thought they wouldn't have that out here.

Hershey Kiss or a cheesesteak? It was a cheesesteak! Cheesesteak! Yeah, cheesesteak.

They had it!

you, I think they may have pierogies now.

Well, they might. Back then, was a cheesesteak. But thank you for playing Philly v. Harrisburg Sports Edition.

Sean, why are you a Democrat?

Um, I am a Democrat. mean, I grew up in a labor household in Philadelphia.

And I think one of the things that really stuck with me the most, um, I grew up and I watched my dad lose his job.

Yeah.

by like two and a half years because

ACME decided to shut the warehouses down in Philadelphia and outsource their labor to Lancaster for lower wages.

And growing up, I put two and two together in high school and college and that stuff. And also like the Iraq war was going

I grew up in the Philly punk rock scene and just like all those things, you're just going to be an inclusive person. Like, you know what I mean? Which is just not what Republican party stands for.

today. I mean, seeing what happened to my dad was a huge motivating factor, you know, I work in grassroots and also, you know, being being registered.

Yeah, and also you want to tell the truth, Sean.

Yeah, absolutely.

Sean, what's a new initiative that you're pursuing journalistically at this time?

So I am launching the Keystone Labor Report, or I've launched the Keystone Labor Report, which is a twice a week newsletter focusing on labor and economic issues here in Pennsylvania. We switched around the way we are reporting on our news at Courier and Keystone.

Instead of like reporting on stuff like every day, like writing news of the day type stories, I am now focusing on specifically labor and economic issues here in Pennsylvania.

union issues

So there's just like, there's a void here in Pennsylvania for labor reporting and we're going to cover that on the state and local level.

Is there other any particular labor issues you're focusing on?

right now, we just had, ⁓ within the past couple of

UPMC nurses out in

just voted to unionize a UPMC hospital for the first time, which is absolutely historic.

UPMC is Pennsylvania's largest employer. you have, they have been openly hostile to the unions, in the past. They have had, some of their hospitals are unionized, but they're unionized because

they acquired a hospital through a merger that had the union there previously, and they brought the union into the fold. So this vote at the UPMC McGee Hospital, the Women's Health Women's Center out in Pittsburgh, you had a thousand nurses vote to unionize. It was the most amount of nurses, Pennsylvania nurses, to unionize at

in recent

Also the first time you unionize UPMC hospital location, is really big news if you want to change the healthcare system here in Pennsylvania.

Yeah,

You're doing great work. I love reading your newsletters. How can people get access and sign up for your newsletter?

Um, so you can stop to the newsletter by going to the keystone newsroom.com. There's a newsletters tab up at the top.

I think it might be under more. You just see like Keystone labor report or, uh, just find my profile on Instagram, LinkedIn,

Twitter. I know people still use it. I still use it because of media blue sky. Um, if you're all, if you're still on Twitter or blue sky, there's a link in my bio, uh, and you can easily just sign out there.

Haha.

Sounds good. I signed up and I encourage all my listeners and watchers to sign up as well.

I mean, yeah, absolutely. There should be something with the fairness doctrine and at least giving and the fairness doctrine, you know, basically what that did was it allowed both sides to have a say. So if someone's going to say something on one side, the other side has an opportunity to say the same, like a rebuttal, within, with, within the media systems. I'm really like distilling it down, but I think you can see after that, it wasn't just the fairness doctrine, like after the fairness doctrine.

Yeah

you had consolidation of right-wing radio stations, had consolidation of Christian radio stations. Like the right-wing media apparatus has been really cultivating itself since

Right.

building this infrastructure out for three decades

Yeah, mean Rush Limbaugh he birthed that movement essentially after the FCC got rid of the Fairness Doctrine. Rush Limbaugh basically took off and that literally dragged down, you know, all progressiveness in that space and, you know, attracted a base of listeners that eventually branched out when Fox News came out, you know. I mean, it just really set the tone for that entire genre.

Mm-hmm.

didn't really have the capacity to compete with the right-wing radio stations after the gutting of the Fairness Doctorine

Mm-hmm.

Right, right. Yeah, it's just terrible. There definitely needs to be some government oversight This is really out of control. So I'm glad you believe there should be some oversight when it comes to telling the truth in the media

for indecency violations on what show?

Is there a multiple choice?

I didn't make this a multiple choice.

I'm trying to think of the time.

a talk show.

Yeah.

I don't know.

Howard Stern. Yep, Howard Stern got fined almost a million dollars.

Okay.

That's pretty crazy.

Yeah, yeah, which like today, that's like nothing today, right? Like if you get fined like almost a million dollars, it's like what? You know, now we're talking like hundreds of millions of dollars

have to basically say an election was stolen when it wasn't to like get a nod or a fine these days.

Yeah, well you can say a lot of things today without anything really happening.

I know, without getting any

it a TV show?

Yeah,

it's I think a radio show.

I'm not sure what was it. You're digging deep. OK.

KYW. Yeah, KYW.

KYW. Newsradio.

That's pretty... that's crazy.

Yeah.

malfunction led directly to Congress increasing FCC fines tenfold?

Well, this one I remember because I thought this was going to be the first one. Obviously it's with Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson. And I really don't think people realize how what happened to Janet Jackson's career after that and how she was blacklisted and pretty much had her career ruined for something that Justin Timberlake did. And look where he ended up.

Uh-huh. And Janet Jackson, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah, well, yeah, and his star is not rising as high anymore these days anyway. You know, he's kind of getting dragged. He's getting dragged on social media pretty aggressively.

No, it's not.

thanks for playing FCC Will Not Me Be.

how do you decide what issues in Pennsylvania politics to focus on when you're writing or investigating a topic?

So I know you said your newsletter is a lot of labor, but how do you decide which issues to focus on?

earlier this summer we wrote about Racetown Lake out in Western Pennsylvania, which is a very popular tourist attraction. It's a dam by the Army Corps of Engineers that was closed. They closed down all the campsites because of Elon Musk and Doge.

you know, brings in tens of millions of tourism dollars every year to these rural counties. And they lost out the summer of tourism because of

what Doge did. And, you know, there was a couple of reports after like Labor Day week, or not Labor Day, Memorial Day, basically like how no one was on the lake because of these cuts and the campgrounds are completely empty.

like those are the type of stories that mixes what we're looking at. Impacts on the local level, direct.

Mm-hmm.

effects of how these cuts or how like government is impacting something that like Pennsylvanians love. Like Raisetown Lake is the most one of most popular tourist attractions in the

if you're in that part of Pennsylvania, that's either like going to the Poconos or going to the shore for the weekend is going to like Raisetown Lake. And

Crazy story.

that's why it's

you continue to get the word out in your newsletters and your reporting because people have to know this stuff. You know, we live in a five second world and if people don't understand the nuances of what's happening in Harrisburg, then they're just going to keep either not paying attention, not showing up to vote or voting in ways that hurt themselves and other people around them.

or they're just not gonna realize until things actually directly affect them. I mean, we're in the finding out phase in a lot of ways right now. we're gonna be finding out for the many years to come because of what's happened over this. And the one thing I will say, I will add to this, this is like a pet peeve of mine, don't like when people, Democrats or people on the left try to shame those on the right for losing healthcare coverage or losing access to...

Right. Yeah.

.

Yes.

this lake because of the consequences of their votes. I think we should be compassionate with that because we're not going to win people over

like tribalism. Well, this is what you get for it because you voted for this.

Yeah, it's certainly a fine line to walk. I mean, there's obviously a lot of pain that's been caused by the consequences of their actions. And so for people who are being hurt now, right, like, there are a lot of people who found out how bad this is going to be right after the election happened, right? There are lots of people who are shouting from the rooftops, we knew was going to be this bad. And it has been bad for them. And now it's like, oh, now you're finding out. It's like, oh, now

And I think one...

You weren't there for us in the beginning and now it's kind like, you want us to be there for you. It's a difficult dynamic.

Yeah.

like this, this is where I think like where the mainstream media has really failed to connect people. Like you want to talk about one of the biggest failures. Like this double standard that the mainstream media held with Harris and Trump. If

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Like Kamala Harris would have to put out a white paper

and like ⁓ bullet points on every single economic proposal she came up with while the media just gave Trump a pass for talking about Arnold Palmer.

Yeah, or like a concept

of a plan.

Yeah,

I mean, I feel like that's also a big, that was a big, just one of the biggest frustrations last year, just like, you're just covering this horse race stuff and you're just giving the other side a pass because you're covering it as a horse race.

Right.

I completely agree. Well, I'm glad that you choose to focus on local issues that affect people directly, again, to keep people focused and to try and influence change in their towns.

You file right to know requests, which are a formal written request to government agencies for access to public records, laws that are designed to ensure government transparency, essentially.

So how often do you make these requests and what types of stories are you investigating when you do that?

one thing I did do in the past that was awesome, and I don't want to give away the secret, but you're able to get your legislative emails.

Okay.

In Pennsylvania,

when your legislators talk to county or local public, local officials. So in Pennsylvania,

Okay.

the emails between your legislator and the lobbyists are private. But when your legislator emails someone at a state agency or someone at the county commissioner's office or your local elections office, all those emails are open game for the public records. during the pandemic,

We, my previous job, filed rights and our requests looking for legislative emails pretty much in like every county commissioner office in Pennsylvania. And one of the things we uncovered were about like hundreds or thousands of emails out of Lebanon County. Basically just like how Russ Diamond,

there was other state senator, Gepper, at the time, he passed away afterwards.

rest, diamond.

But like he, they were all in this like cabal, just like trying to like go against the governor's COVID protocols. And we got like hundreds of emails of just like outlining and scheming and really just also got nuggets of information in there. I wouldn't have known about like other people.

I've done the same thing with county election offices. I found a state representative who claimed to find like 30 dead people voting in his district.

And you had these people just talking to each other on your emails. Free legal advice. If you don't want something read out in court, don't put it down in

Hiya.

Yeah.

Unbelievable.

The stuff people put in their emails, legislators put in your emails, absolute gold.

but also just embarrassing it sometimes too.

It's terrible. I can't stand Russ Diamond. He like trolled me on Twitter when I used to be on Twitter. He's like an anti-vaxxer, know, election denier. Just, I can't believe these people exist in our state legislature. They're just really not good people.

Yeah, no, no, definitely.

I will say

there are some Republicans I can get along with in Harrisburg, but for the most part.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

No. Yeah, they have their marching orders. my god.

Like Doug Mastroianno is not someone I'm going to be palling around with. I think there's just this

mutual, I just think there's just mutual like distrust that Mastroianno and myself where we both like, it's sort of like game respects game at this point.

Yeah.

He's terrible.

Yeah, and I

one thing to have like a boilerplate crazy

the Christian nationalism just ratchets that up like a whole nother level that like I don't think people really understand.

Yeah.

We get it. We both get it, for

Sean, these panels on large media outlets like CNN and Fox, you know, have these experts who get paid to sit around and just spout opinions. I personally hate them. I can't stand them. I really don't think that that debate culture brings anything to the table. If anything, just platforms misinformation. Do you think there's any benefit to these forums whatsoever?

No, not at all. mean, all of this is just sports debate talk. mean, like, like, like they're they're turning these talk panels into just free for alls with who has like the worst spit take that someone could. But at this point, it's not a spit take about sports, it's a spit take about supporting fascism and authoritarianism and why those things are good in their views.

Yeah.

Right.

Right.

Yeah, it's like I feel like it's one step removed from these people who sit in a room surrounded by 20 people and then they just like run up and they like debate someone for a couple minutes and they won't run back except, you know, they're wearing suits, you know, on CNN or Fox News or something. I feel like it's really taking this country in the wrong direction.

And also, personally, I don't think that there's a need to debate these people, period. Like, there's no need to debate Nick Fuentes. Like, you these people, their views, they're Nazis, they're right-wing, like, know, fascists. Like, you don't need to debate these people and just, like, give them a platform or a space to just spout off their talking points because...

Right.

Right.

That's all they're doing is just being bad faith actors

debates.

Right.

Yeah. And making money off of it,

What gives you hope?

Okay.

what gives me hope? I think like just talking to people who are like-minded, building our communities, building

building, community networks, to rely on each other. Like we're really gonna have to like be our own, movement and rely on each other in the upcoming year. not just the year and next.

few years,

like, if we're have hope and get through this, it's gonna be from like within, with all of us coming together.

we have to stick together.

And my last question for you is what plans do you have to get yourself through these next few years?

I will say like definitely take care of your mental health with this.

I go to the therapist. I'm not afraid to, ⁓ to admit that.

Me too. Me too.

but like having someone to talk your problems

is one of the top things taking care of your mental

is probably the most important thing. Go out, take a walk, take a break sometimes, like find things that takes your stress out.

Yeah.

I mean, I'm doing, I'm busy with my

the union that I'm with, I'm on the bargaining committee, also covering the campaign next year. So it is going to be really packed, but you know,

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

it's also, that's also

one thing about my job. like so much. There's so little downtime where I don't have time to sit dwell on like the horrible things that Trump's doing because I am.

I hate to say like disassociating a bit, like I'm stuck here looking at stuff in Pennsylvania.

and I'm happy you're doing it. I really am. Well, Sean Kitchen, Pennsylvanian journalist, writer for the Keystone Press, and now has a newsletter. So I really hope everyone checks it out. He's doing great work. And I just really appreciate what you're doing, Sean, for Democrats in Pennsylvania. We need truth tellers. We need people who will have that ethical core.

⁓ to get people the news that they need in a timely fashion and to never stray from those ideologies. So I really appreciate you.

No, thank you very much. It was great time talking.

Absolutely, let's stay in touch, okay?

Now let's do it.

All right,

well thank you so much for joining me here on The Zekely Podcast. Stay hopeful and get involved and until next time, let's keep building a stronger Pennsylvania together.