Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Any, this is any and SMITHA and hocome stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I never told you Protection by Heart radio.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
And welcome to another happy hour in which I just
talk about my problems. Shall we do that before we start?
Of course, we are not currently being sponsored by anything
we are talking about. Unless they do, then you know
you'll hear the sponsorship, but right now not necessarily. Also,
(00:40):
if you are partaking of happy hour ritual and consuming
of adult beverages or such, do so responsibly. We want
you to be healthy, y'all. Any are you sipping on anything?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
Nothing special, nothing.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Special, but if you're drinking it, it's special.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
No, thank you. I'm drinking cold coffee, and I actually
remember today that I used to have a saying with
my friends. When the coffee is cold, the conversation is done.
So well, yeah, so Samantha.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Now oh no, yes, Well, I am drinking some bubble
water with some electoral lights because I'm gonna try to
stay hydrated, like a hydrated coin over here. Yeah. So
today I decided I wanted to talk a little bit
about my introversion because recently, I don't know if y'all
(01:34):
heard today is by the way. June seventeenth, twenty twenty five.
So the day we're recording this comes out on Juneteenth.
Happy June tenth everyone to those who celebrate, Love you.
But what we just had the No Kings protests all
over the country and millions of people showed up in Atlanta,
thousands of people showed up and came to the rally.
(01:55):
They mixed out the area that was reserved for us,
and then they were out in the street and pouring out.
So it was a beautiful thing to see. One of
the things that I had gone back and forth about
was because we've been talking about all of our ailments
that have happened between Annie and I, which you know,
seems to always happen in clusters. I don't know. We
(02:16):
are really connected at me too, You're really connected. I
don't know if it's a good thing, but we're connected anyway.
But with that, yeah, so I've had a lot of
issues with some like pinched nerves and pain in like
all these other ways. And yes, y'all, I have actually
seen the doctor three different times.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
Wow, good for you.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
Thanks. Yeah, still in pain a little bit, but it's okay.
We're still we're figuring things out. We're figuring it out.
But with that, you know, I was thinking maybe I
shouldn't go to these protests because I was not feeling well.
It's been a lot painful. I've not been exercising, which
is unusual for me, like I love my dance grew
and my like like zooma glasses and I I have
(03:00):
not gone. So it says a lot for me not
to go, because I will try to go no matter what.
I would rather do that than even social hangouts. Sorry friends.
But with that on top of that, I went back
and forth, and a part of the thing is like
this could be I will admit an excuse to not
go because I don't want to be out with the crowds.
Like I was very nervous. I was very very like
(03:23):
freaked out, trying to figure out what all to do.
The anxiety like I got to park somewhere, Where do
I park? Where? How can I leave? What happens here
if we do get like arrested, What do I need
to do? My partner's not here, who's my emergency contact? All?
So so many things are going through my head. And
at one point we were I did go, and we
were standing in the middle of the crowd. A good
friend of mine was next to me, and she knows
me very well. She's known me from college. We were listening,
(03:46):
it was getting hot and we were heating. It was
like very crowded. Obviously we had a good crowd, which
was great. At one point though, she turn us to me,
she was like, how overstimulated are you? Genuine it was
like very much, and that's all I could say. And
then the girl in front of me turn around she goes,
oh my god, me too. That's kind of like the moment.
And then everything went down and people did decide to march.
(04:09):
I just physically could not stay in there for much
longer because just not being able to move all that
has a thing. So but I did go, and there
was a lot of things that's crossed my mind in
that I can't A lot of part of like, oh,
I'm kind of glad I was not super healthy in
that I had an excuse to leave, which made me
feel guilty. So we really thought about the fact that, yes,
(04:31):
I've become more of an introvert. I wouldn't say I'm
a complete introvert, even though in my mind I'm becoming
more and more and I would more identify with that
than I would say, being an extrovert for sure, but
with that, like, how do introverts do in activism? What
do the ideas go forward those types of people, because
it is it's a struggle in such a different way
(04:51):
with people who have anxiety, with people who have OCD,
with people who have all these different types of mental
health that really just blocked them from the being able
to do things, and then in turn that becomes guilt.
And of course I needed to find out that there
was any articles about that, and there are. There are
tons of articles, one specifically from introvert dear dot com,
(05:13):
which was fantastic. I was like, all right, well they've
gotten me to list and when was talking about the
introvert guilt about not hanging out with people, wanting to
be social but not being able to do so, feeling
like you're hurting people's feelings if you don't do things
right or do things immediately, or be a part of something, like,
there's so much to that. There's another article which I
(05:33):
thought was interesting written by that person, You're Welcome, written
by Suzanne Berger, who talks about the fact that it
could be also called, specifically with activism, moral distress. And
I was like, oh, so apparently. A philosopher named Andrew
Jameson called it a moral distress. It's this idea that institutional,
(05:54):
systemic barriers prevent us from acting with integrity, and so
therefore we feel like, oh my god, we feel like
if we are the worst people in the world. I
don't know, I know, you know, I know you know
inverse what I'm talking about, because it's that back and forth,
and then the guilt either way of afterwards because I'm
so awkward I made that if it worse, I'm so
(06:15):
you know, all these things that I'll have that conversation
and then like you feel like you have to make
excuses with your friends. I can't come out because of
these things, which most of the time, again, if I'm
making excuses, they're probably true. They are true, they're true,
they're true, they're true. But it's it's definitely feeling still
guilty that they don't believe you or you're making excuses.
(06:37):
And I'll again coming today with this activism on top
of the layers of anxiety, being overwhelmed with the news,
feeling like you can't do enough, feeling like there's nothing
you can do. They're feeling like you're so overwhelmed with
all of the bad things, that what you're doing is
not enough even if you are doing things. So there's
(06:58):
so much to be said in this conversation, and I can't, y'all.
It's constantly in the back of my head, and a
part like being even more so of an introvert, keeping
isolated to myself feels like it's making it worse. And
again I will say, so, my partner has been gone
(07:19):
for a couple of weeks now having to do things,
and it feels weird. And I was just telling Annie
before we got on how I've lost all track of
space and time because nothing not my normal. I'm putting
this in quoes pattern. Daily's routine is now out the
window even more so, and so it feels so overwhelming.
(07:47):
And I'm just because I feel like even though I
was already online chronically online, I am more so now
because I have one I don't have the person that
I talk to or like, you know, and we talk
on the phone all the time, don't get me wrong,
but it's still not the same as him coming downstairs
or May going upstairs, or us eating together, deciding food
or deciding if we need to go out or not,
(08:10):
or if we having someone to buy groceries for, because
I'm the one who goes out for all that it
just is gone kind of right now. So I feel
even more like and towards myself, even more introverted. And
so as activism and things are going online, and I
don't know if it's the timing or again if it's
more I have time on my hands of seeing all
(08:34):
these kidnappings of immigrants and refugees that we're seeing, all
these new laws coming into place, all these new war
crimes that are happening, all of these scary assassinations so
much that it feels like I, yes, I need to
do something, but again, I don't want to be out there.
(08:54):
I don't want to talk to people. Talking on the
phone sounds like hell. So what can we do? I say,
very quietly. There have been people who do talk about
(09:15):
this as an issue, and again we're going to introvert
Dear dot com who talks about being an activist while
being a quiet introvert. And three of the things that
they say you can be an activist is participate in
the ways that feel best to you, even if that
means working behind the scene. And I think that's not
said enough about working behind the scene, talking about whether
(09:38):
it's helping with funding, which I think is so important.
Unfortunately we need they need funding. People need funding to
get resources out to talk about governmental stuff. I hate
that there can't be changed unless that's happening. Funding things
that are being defunded is really important as well. They
(09:59):
talked to about like and I love this too, helping
to make signs and banners, even if you're not going
to assisting others, because unfortunately for me, I have no
art talent, but if I did, that would be an
amazing way. I really suck at that too. Also bad
at puns, which apparently is a thing, and that's the
way that but also the way that we can help.
(10:20):
We can also talk about so much more when it
comes about behind the scenes. I can't even think about
it right now because I'm overwhelmed with trying to think
about the art signs. There are so many signs any
and then talk about no one expressing your boundaries. I
think that's maybe where I get uncomfortable that when I
try to push my boundaries, I feel even more vulnerable
(10:43):
and really really like out of sync over myself, which
is something that I need to think about. And then
also they talk about don't forget about your creature comforts
slash earplugs. That's what I forgot because when something gets
really loud and I get over stimulated, I do shut down,
which is kind of what happened. And I really because
also like when there's other noises because we're outside at a rally,
(11:05):
people are talking and jump, you know, pumped up, and
we had amazing speakers, and then people would go behind
me chanting things that I was like, what's happening And
then apparently there was another rally that was happening because
they couldn't be in the same rally, so but I
could hear both. I should have had an airplex. Yeah, yeah,
I know that's probably uh obvious, but I didn't think
(11:28):
about that. Also doing things that are sustainable again, doing
things that are not going over Like I get so
excited with ideas, but then I get very very quickly
burned out because it becomes so overwhelming and there feels
like it's taking on too much, and I don't ask
for help and that becomes a whole other about problem.
(11:51):
Focusing on everything focused on what you're doing and what
the moment is, and I guess I forget that. Honestly,
our job partially is also activism. I forget that often.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
I do too, But I have to say, in light
of my recent health events, I yep, like, oh, this
is very stressful about this.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
It really is. It really is to not be able
to disconnect from it. It's really hard being like I
literally went through several things. I'm like, Okay, we can
talk about this, we can talk about this, we can
talk about this. But if we don't we talk about
normal day issues. I feel like we're failing the today issues.
There's so many issues to be covered, but things like
(12:41):
this is important. They also holding. I think we forget
too that we one of our jobs, and I hope
we do it. We do it well. I hope we
do it in consciousness like holding in a safe space.
So bringing people who are doing that work in activism
already out there, who are known for it to be
able to be a part of the show or who
are doing activism and any more platform that we're able
to give this platform to them. That is a part
(13:01):
of the activism, and that is a part of the
activism for so many whether it's people just like reposting.
I guess that are like really good information, talk about
like your rights, immigrants rights and what you need to
know about that, protesters rights, what you need to know
about that. Groups like thesolidarity dot org funds for different organizations.
Those are really important to look at and understand. Trying
(13:22):
to weed out the disinformation is also really hard work
and important work. There's a lot that we can do,
and I think we sometimes ignore that. I ignore that
because it gets so overwhelmed at the bigger picture, the
louder picture, and feel like I'm failing. But there's definitely
a lot to be out there. So to my other introverts,
(13:44):
my ambiverts who just get tired and overstimulated, to my
anxious peoples, you're doing a great job if only that
you are at least acknowledging the disinformation, misinformation as well
as the horrendousness of what's happening, and advocating for the
people that need you that we need to be advocating for,
(14:05):
for our queer people, for our trans people, for our refugees,
for those with immigrant parents and those who are immigrants.
There's so much out there that we need to talk about. Though,
for those who are going through a genocide. There's a
lot to have this conversation, whether it's you're boycotting something
that is amazing. You're doing great, sweetie, You're doing great,
(14:27):
and it does work if we actually do it as
a collective. So that's my encouragement, also my whining moment.
Also some that advice if you want any of these
articles I pulled out about four of them that really
are great, and how they tell you to take care
of yourself so that you can't help others. And I
think again we forget that often when we're depleted and drained,
(14:49):
we are no longer of help to anyone. Yep, we're
just trying to figure out how to stay at the hospital,
aren't we, annie Yo?
Speaker 2 (15:05):
Yeah, But listeners, I know so many people you can
relate to this, and I know we've been talked before
about just a general accessibility issues at things like this
and why we shouldn't forget that. There are all these
other ways to participate. So if you would like to
share any of your stories or advice or whatever with
(15:29):
us great puns, you can. We would love to hear
from you. You can email us that hello at Stuffannever
Told You dot com. You can find us on Blue
Sky at mom Stuff podcast or on Instagram and TikTok
at stuff I Never Told You. We're us on YouTube
and we have a book you can get wherever you
get your books. Thanks as always too, our superduce Christina,
our executive producer and a contributor.
Speaker 1 (15:50):
Joey, Thank you and thanks to you for listening.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
Stuff Never Told youstroduction of My Heart Radio. For more
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