November 2, 2020 • 11 mins
If you want to change, preserve, or build a better America, there’s one easy way to make your voice heard: Vote. This year, iHeartRadio is teaming up with over 20 incredible celebrities (plus a handful of our most popular podcasters) to get the country excited to go vote, broadcasting the personal, emotional and heartfelt stories behind why showing up to the ballot box means so much-- not just as individuals, but for our entire nation.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Why I'm Voting, a production of I Heart Radio. Listen.
You already know this, but it's an election year. You
might already be tired of hearing about it. But here's
the thing. Democracy doesn't work without you. I'm Holly Frying,
and I'm sitting down with many of my fellow podcasters,
from Will Ferrell to Stephanie Rule, as well as other luminaries,
(00:27):
to find out about their relationships with the ballot box
and ultimately just to find out why they vote. I
hope you're exercising your right to vote, and if you're not,
I hope that their stories inspire you. Welcome to Why
I'm Voting Today. I am joined by singer songwriter musician
(00:49):
Adam Met. He and his two brothers make up the
indie pop trio A j R. Which released its latest
and very very catchy single Bang in February this year.
He is also very very interested in a lot of
important issues, and most importantly, he is a voter. Adam,
thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for
having me. I'm really excited to be here. You are
(01:09):
the eldest of your brothers. Correct, So as we do this,
I'm gonna get to some leadership questions. But first I
want to ask you if you remember when you specifically
learned as a kid about voting and that this was
a responsibility you would one day take on. Yeah. Absolutely,
my first memory of just learning about the election process.
(01:32):
I think I was in fifth grade and it was
the Bush Gore election, and it was such a contested
election that everyone was listening on the radio just to
kind of hear what was going on because we didn't
get a result until many days after the election was over,
and so I was constantly listening on the radio and
they were saying over and over again what was happening,
(01:54):
and that they were still waiting and waiting for votes
to come in. So much so that my parents sent
me downstairs to practice piano because I hadn't practiced piano
in a bunch of days, and I didn't practice at
all because all I was doing was listening to the radio,
so just like kind of play a little bit, but
really just be focusing on the radio, and so it
kind of interrupted my my music career so much so that,
(02:16):
you know, I started to have a little problem with
my parents. Did you then, because clearly you were a
kid that was very fascinated by it. So did you
register to vote right away when you turned eight team?
I did when I turned eighteen. It was just before
the general election when Obama was running, so I wasn't
able to vote in the primary, but I could vote
in the general, and that was such an amazing experience
(02:38):
for me. I mean, I studied a little bit of
kind of political science and a bunch of other things
in school, so it was such an honor for me
to walk into a public school, first, which is a
really cool thing that you can go and vote in
a public school, And second that I could actually vote
and pull the lever. I went with my dad the
first time because I had no idea what to do,
and I know now they're like electronic voting machine means
(03:00):
and all this stuff, But to actually pull the lever
and poke the little holes in the ballot, that was
such a rewarding experience for me. That's so cool. Now,
as I mentioned, you are the older brother, So did
you feel a sense of responsibility to encourage your siblings
to get registered when they turned eighteen or what? Did
you not have to you? Were they also like you
ready to go? They're pretty on it. I had to
(03:22):
push a little bit. But I mean, we travel all
over the world so much and see so many different
kinds of people and the issues they're facing in the
United States and you know, in Europe, in Asia and
Australian all these other places. So they're very much in
touch with the you know, the successes of voting and
what voting can do to actually make change. So the
(03:42):
last election, we voted by absentee, but they were actually
really on it. They got their absentee ballots send out
to them on the road and and we voted from
a tour bus. I love it. In my head, I'm
hoping there's a photo of all of you filling out
your ballots together. Now, you are very engaged in a
lot of issues, so I am presuming that you are
(04:04):
also very active in local elections. So when it comes
to researching for local elections, which takes a little more effort,
and also again, I know you have a whole level
of information from your previous work. Will you talk about
how you synthesize all of that information, your research process, etcetera.
To make sure that for every time you fill out
(04:26):
that ballot or go to the booth, that you are
informed and you're selecting the people that are gonna uphold
the values that you have. Absolutely. I mean I talk
about this all the time. Funny enough, I have a
podcast coming out called Planet Reimagined where we talk about
all different kinds of sustainability, and a few of the
episodes have been about mobilization and voting and finding out
(04:47):
who you should be voting for and how you do
that research. So we've spoken to Andrew Yang about this,
We've spoken to the founders of March for Our Lives,
and they all have really interesting perspectives, and so I've
kind of created my perspective out of an amalgam of
all of these different people. And the first thing I
always think about is the change that can be affected
on the local level. Like you said, yes, you're voting
(05:09):
in a presidential election, and your vote absolutely matters. But
let's say that's three million people. At the state level,
you're also voting, and let's say on average, that's somewhere
around ten million people, So your vote matters a little
bit more. On the city level, you're voting and there
could be you know, around one to two million people
in your city. Your vote matters even more at the
(05:30):
very local level, you could be voting among a pool
of a few thousand people, and those are the elected
officials that make the decisions about things that are so
relevant to you today, everything from police funding, whatever side
of the issue you fall on on. That that is
very much done at the local level. Climate initiatives, and
(05:50):
that's something that I'm extremely passionate about. Cities and states.
They are some of the biggest funders of climate initiatives.
New York City where I am, they have amazing wind
and solar program So you don't necessarily need to just
rely on the federal level for that to happen. And
to answer your question, where you find these answers are
from the individual people, because you're voting for an individual
(06:13):
person and at the same time you're voting for their policies.
So there are a lot of organizations that I work with.
One is called Sunrise and they're really fantastic on climate.
So if you go and research the Sunrise movement, they
will tell you exactly where every single official sits on
all of these issues. And so my big thing is
(06:34):
that your vote absolutely does matter, because you're not just
voting for the president. It is so important that everyone
understands you could be one of just a few hundred
people in your district that are voting for somebody and
whether you care about education, or climate, or healthcare or inequality,
and hopefully you care about all of those things, the
(06:54):
local people are the ones that are making those big
changes well, and I think to right like, the local
is what you feel the most immediately and directly in
your day to day life. Definitely, we've had some very
fun conversations on the show of people going, you're mad
at the wrong people, like, you have to vote for
your local people. Those are the people you need to
talk to. Absolutely in elections where people think they already
(07:15):
know how it's going to shake out, and they might
not be as motivated to get out there. What are
your thoughts on that and why it's still important to
do the thing. Now more than ever, people are reevaluating
how our election system works, and so right now what
you're voting for is not just the person who's going
to be in office, but the potential of rebuilding our
(07:36):
election system. So voices count more than ever. There's so
many ideas of how we're going to reframe the electoral college,
or there's this idea called ranked choice voting, which I'm
a really big fan of, and I think it allows
kind of third party in different candidates from different parts
of the parties for their voices to be heard even more.
And so by voting for one candidate today, that means
(07:57):
your voice is going to be able to be heard
even stronger and even more prevalently in the future. So
it's not just about your vote today. So I'm wondering
what your election day rituals are, since you're probably gonna
be once again doing a mainland vote as our many
and since your siblings are also engaged in voting, do
you guys do stuff together? Do you have a meal?
(08:17):
Do you discuss what you voted on? Like? How does
that day play out for you normally? It's interesting this
year because we talk about it all the time. We
talk about everyone from the local officials that we're voting
for all the way up to the presidential election, and
there will be some sort of ritual. But I can't
emphasize this enough. It's not going to be on election
day because you need to vote early, you need to
(08:41):
register early, and you need to vote early because we
don't know what's going to be happening. With the postal service,
so it's going to be happening a few weeks before.
But I think that's gonna look like probably a meal
of some sort. We're big fans of Chinese food, so
we'll probably do like a big order in take out
Chinese food meal and discuss us everything and see if
we're on the same page. And you know, you don't
(09:03):
necessarily have to be on the same page. I might
not be on the same page as my brothers for everything.
I think generally we agree, but there might be some
you know, local officials that prioritize one thing over another,
and that's totally okay as long as you're having the
discussion about it. I now want you to write a
handbook on how to talk to your family and disagree
about political issues, because it seems like you all adore
(09:25):
each other just the same. If you were in a
position where you were talking to someone who is eligible
to vote but is not using that right and you
wanted to try to just make clear to them how
important it is, what's the one thing you would tell them?
I would say, the one thing that has been the
most convincing for me is at this moment, you're not
(09:47):
voting just for the next president of the United States.
You're voting for a few Supreme Court justices. And if
you think about the history of the court decisions over
the last hundred years, there have been so many incredible advancements.
And if you think about the people on the court
that are promoting those advancements, that's what you're voting for.
(10:07):
You're voting for education, You're voting for gender equality, You're
voting for you know, climate, You're voting for all of
these things. And a president has either a four year
term or an eight year term, but a Supreme Court
justice has a lifetime term. So you have to make
a decision now about what you want that lifetime term
of a Supreme Court justice to look like. Perfect, Adam,
(10:29):
thank you so much for talking to me about voting today.
Tell us the name of your podcast again. It's called
Planet Reimagined and it's coming out September. I'm so excited.
I'm going to be all over that. Are you kidding?
Thank you again for spending this time and for voting,
and for making it a family affair. Of course, you're
like the dream. Thank you for having me today. Hey,
(10:52):
are you not registered to vote yet? But you think
it's something you want to do, you may still have time.
Voter registration deadlines vary by date, so to find out
the scoop for where you are, check out a nonpartisan
registration voting site like head count dot org or fair
vote dot org. Why I'm Voting is an I Heart
Radio production. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit
(11:14):
the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever it
is you listen to your favorite shows
Welcome to Why I'm Voting, a production of I Heart Radio. Listen.
You already know this, but it's an election year. You
might already be tired of hearing about it. But here's
the thing. Democracy doesn't work without you. I'm Holly Frying,
and I'm sitting down with many of my fellow podcasters,
from Will Ferrell to Stephanie Rule, as well as other luminaries,
(00:27):
to find out about their relationships with the ballot box
and ultimately just to find out why they vote. I
hope you're exercising your right to vote, and if you're not,
I hope that their stories inspire you. Welcome to Why
I'm Voting Today. I am joined by singer songwriter musician
(00:49):
Adam Met. He and his two brothers make up the
indie pop trio A j R. Which released its latest
and very very catchy single Bang in February this year.
He is also very very interested in a lot of
important issues, and most importantly, he is a voter. Adam,
thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for
having me. I'm really excited to be here. You are
(01:09):
the eldest of your brothers. Correct, So as we do this,
I'm gonna get to some leadership questions. But first I
want to ask you if you remember when you specifically
learned as a kid about voting and that this was
a responsibility you would one day take on. Yeah. Absolutely,
my first memory of just learning about the election process.
(01:32):
I think I was in fifth grade and it was
the Bush Gore election, and it was such a contested
election that everyone was listening on the radio just to
kind of hear what was going on because we didn't
get a result until many days after the election was over,
and so I was constantly listening on the radio and
they were saying over and over again what was happening,
(01:54):
and that they were still waiting and waiting for votes
to come in. So much so that my parents sent
me downstairs to practice piano because I hadn't practiced piano
in a bunch of days, and I didn't practice at
all because all I was doing was listening to the radio,
so just like kind of play a little bit, but
really just be focusing on the radio, and so it
kind of interrupted my my music career so much so that,
(02:16):
you know, I started to have a little problem with
my parents. Did you then, because clearly you were a
kid that was very fascinated by it. So did you
register to vote right away when you turned eight team?
I did when I turned eighteen. It was just before
the general election when Obama was running, so I wasn't
able to vote in the primary, but I could vote
in the general, and that was such an amazing experience
(02:38):
for me. I mean, I studied a little bit of
kind of political science and a bunch of other things
in school, so it was such an honor for me
to walk into a public school, first, which is a
really cool thing that you can go and vote in
a public school, And second that I could actually vote
and pull the lever. I went with my dad the
first time because I had no idea what to do,
and I know now they're like electronic voting machine means
(03:00):
and all this stuff, But to actually pull the lever
and poke the little holes in the ballot, that was
such a rewarding experience for me. That's so cool. Now,
as I mentioned, you are the older brother, So did
you feel a sense of responsibility to encourage your siblings
to get registered when they turned eighteen or what? Did
you not have to you? Were they also like you
ready to go? They're pretty on it. I had to
(03:22):
push a little bit. But I mean, we travel all
over the world so much and see so many different
kinds of people and the issues they're facing in the
United States and you know, in Europe, in Asia and
Australian all these other places. So they're very much in
touch with the you know, the successes of voting and
what voting can do to actually make change. So the
(03:42):
last election, we voted by absentee, but they were actually
really on it. They got their absentee ballots send out
to them on the road and and we voted from
a tour bus. I love it. In my head, I'm
hoping there's a photo of all of you filling out
your ballots together. Now, you are very engaged in a
lot of issues, so I am presuming that you are
(04:04):
also very active in local elections. So when it comes
to researching for local elections, which takes a little more effort,
and also again, I know you have a whole level
of information from your previous work. Will you talk about
how you synthesize all of that information, your research process, etcetera.
To make sure that for every time you fill out
(04:26):
that ballot or go to the booth, that you are
informed and you're selecting the people that are gonna uphold
the values that you have. Absolutely. I mean I talk
about this all the time. Funny enough, I have a
podcast coming out called Planet Reimagined where we talk about
all different kinds of sustainability, and a few of the
episodes have been about mobilization and voting and finding out
(04:47):
who you should be voting for and how you do
that research. So we've spoken to Andrew Yang about this,
We've spoken to the founders of March for Our Lives,
and they all have really interesting perspectives, and so I've
kind of created my perspective out of an amalgam of
all of these different people. And the first thing I
always think about is the change that can be affected
on the local level. Like you said, yes, you're voting
(05:09):
in a presidential election, and your vote absolutely matters. But
let's say that's three million people. At the state level,
you're also voting, and let's say on average, that's somewhere
around ten million people, So your vote matters a little
bit more. On the city level, you're voting and there
could be you know, around one to two million people
in your city. Your vote matters even more at the
(05:30):
very local level, you could be voting among a pool
of a few thousand people, and those are the elected
officials that make the decisions about things that are so
relevant to you today, everything from police funding, whatever side
of the issue you fall on on. That that is
very much done at the local level. Climate initiatives, and
(05:50):
that's something that I'm extremely passionate about. Cities and states.
They are some of the biggest funders of climate initiatives.
New York City where I am, they have amazing wind
and solar program So you don't necessarily need to just
rely on the federal level for that to happen. And
to answer your question, where you find these answers are
from the individual people, because you're voting for an individual
(06:13):
person and at the same time you're voting for their policies.
So there are a lot of organizations that I work with.
One is called Sunrise and they're really fantastic on climate.
So if you go and research the Sunrise movement, they
will tell you exactly where every single official sits on
all of these issues. And so my big thing is
(06:34):
that your vote absolutely does matter, because you're not just
voting for the president. It is so important that everyone
understands you could be one of just a few hundred
people in your district that are voting for somebody and
whether you care about education, or climate, or healthcare or inequality,
and hopefully you care about all of those things, the
(06:54):
local people are the ones that are making those big
changes well, and I think to right like, the local
is what you feel the most immediately and directly in
your day to day life. Definitely, we've had some very
fun conversations on the show of people going, you're mad
at the wrong people, like, you have to vote for
your local people. Those are the people you need to
talk to. Absolutely in elections where people think they already
(07:15):
know how it's going to shake out, and they might
not be as motivated to get out there. What are
your thoughts on that and why it's still important to
do the thing. Now more than ever, people are reevaluating
how our election system works, and so right now what
you're voting for is not just the person who's going
to be in office, but the potential of rebuilding our
(07:36):
election system. So voices count more than ever. There's so
many ideas of how we're going to reframe the electoral college,
or there's this idea called ranked choice voting, which I'm
a really big fan of, and I think it allows
kind of third party in different candidates from different parts
of the parties for their voices to be heard even more.
And so by voting for one candidate today, that means
(07:57):
your voice is going to be able to be heard
even stronger and even more prevalently in the future. So
it's not just about your vote today. So I'm wondering
what your election day rituals are, since you're probably gonna
be once again doing a mainland vote as our many
and since your siblings are also engaged in voting, do
you guys do stuff together? Do you have a meal?
(08:17):
Do you discuss what you voted on? Like? How does
that day play out for you normally? It's interesting this
year because we talk about it all the time. We
talk about everyone from the local officials that we're voting
for all the way up to the presidential election, and
there will be some sort of ritual. But I can't
emphasize this enough. It's not going to be on election
day because you need to vote early, you need to
(08:41):
register early, and you need to vote early because we
don't know what's going to be happening. With the postal service,
so it's going to be happening a few weeks before.
But I think that's gonna look like probably a meal
of some sort. We're big fans of Chinese food, so
we'll probably do like a big order in take out
Chinese food meal and discuss us everything and see if
we're on the same page. And you know, you don't
(09:03):
necessarily have to be on the same page. I might
not be on the same page as my brothers for everything.
I think generally we agree, but there might be some
you know, local officials that prioritize one thing over another,
and that's totally okay as long as you're having the
discussion about it. I now want you to write a
handbook on how to talk to your family and disagree
about political issues, because it seems like you all adore
(09:25):
each other just the same. If you were in a
position where you were talking to someone who is eligible
to vote but is not using that right and you
wanted to try to just make clear to them how
important it is, what's the one thing you would tell them?
I would say, the one thing that has been the
most convincing for me is at this moment, you're not
(09:47):
voting just for the next president of the United States.
You're voting for a few Supreme Court justices. And if
you think about the history of the court decisions over
the last hundred years, there have been so many incredible advancements.
And if you think about the people on the court
that are promoting those advancements, that's what you're voting for.
(10:07):
You're voting for education, You're voting for gender equality, You're
voting for you know, climate, You're voting for all of
these things. And a president has either a four year
term or an eight year term, but a Supreme Court
justice has a lifetime term. So you have to make
a decision now about what you want that lifetime term
of a Supreme Court justice to look like. Perfect, Adam,
(10:29):
thank you so much for talking to me about voting today.
Tell us the name of your podcast again. It's called
Planet Reimagined and it's coming out September. I'm so excited.
I'm going to be all over that. Are you kidding?
Thank you again for spending this time and for voting,
and for making it a family affair. Of course, you're
like the dream. Thank you for having me today. Hey,
(10:52):
are you not registered to vote yet? But you think
it's something you want to do, you may still have time.
Voter registration deadlines vary by date, so to find out
the scoop for where you are, check out a nonpartisan
registration voting site like head count dot org or fair
vote dot org. Why I'm Voting is an I Heart
Radio production. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit
(11:14):
the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever it
is you listen to your favorite shows
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