 Thank you guys so much for joining us. As some of you might know, this is a huge month in the movement to end corruption in our country. And in fact, this month is the last month for U.S. senators to pass legislation preventing gerrymandering that could make it harder for students and communities of color to vote. You might know him as the star of Teen Wolf, but in recent years, Max has also become a major voting rights advocate working with represent us, which is the largest anti-corruption grassroots movement in the country. And joining Max is on Lynn Kearney from represent us to tell us about what's happening this month on Capitol Hill, why it matters, and what we all can do to take action to end corruption. And so with that, Max, please tell us why did you get involved in the anti-corruption movement to begin with? And why is it so important to you? First of all, thanks for having me. So the anti-corruption movement, I think when I was younger, I had some issues that I cared about, I still do, but the environment, health care, there are a number of things, but it always felt like there was a roadblock to what do I do in these movements because corruption came on. How do we get bills or legislation passed in these areas if my will as a person is not being represented fairly? So for a long time, there's just this feeling of like, I felt very disempowered. And then I found represent us. And I loved what their message was. It was an apolitical message. So it wasn't Republican or Democrat. It was about how do we address corruption in this country? And essentially, to boil it down is if there's something you care about, corruptions in the way, let's address that first so we can address a number of whatever else you care about. Once we address corruption, we can deal with everything else. That's the least elegant way to say it. I think it makes sense. It's the most direct way to say it too, perhaps. On Lynn, since you're with represent us, tell us a little bit more about your organization and why this voting rights battle is important to you, especially in Texas. Yeah, of course. And thanks so much for having me. So represent us, like you said, is the nation's largest nonpartisan nonprofit that's united against government corruption. And at our core, we work on laws to change the incentives so that politicians actually work for the voters that they serve and not just the billionaires and corporations that fund their reelection campaigns. I joined represent us at the start of the pandemic when states were battling COVID and also trying to hold their primaries safely. So we saw lots of states quickly expand their voting access using vote by mail to make things safe for voters. But in many places like my home state of Texas, people experienced a lot of barriers to voting safely. And that hasn't ended with the 2020 election. Ever since then, we've seen a trend of states across the country introducing new voter suppression attempts under the guise of election security legislation. And you've heard it on the news in Georgia. Now you're hearing about it in Texas. So more than ever, we need a new federal voting rights package to level the playing field for something as critical as our right to vote. Right. And why is this month in particular so big for the anti-corruption movement? So, you know, corruption, like Max was saying, it underpins every issue that we care about from climate change to racial and economic justice. And it's difficult to make progress on these issues when there are special interests that buy politicians to use their power and make it harder for everyday people to vote. And a lot of people feel like there's nothing that can be done about that. But this month, there is a bill before the Senate that can make many forms of corruption illegal at the federal level. It could really change everything. And so that's why it's now, you know, more important than ever to get involved. Absolutely. And I know that some of the three biggest issues that are involved with this bill include cracking down on dark money, aka preventing billionaires from buying our elections, to making Election Day a national holiday, and three, ending partisan gerrymandering, which I know it's not a word that a lot of people are familiar with. Max, could you enlighten us a bit? Sure. I mean, I remember when I first got involved to represent us, there were some staggering numbers that were thrown out that made this very simple to understand. So gerrymandering really affects how we vote because we have representatives based on what district we're in. So we have a representative that represents our district. And what gerrymandering is, is it's determining or drawing the lines of the district. But what you can do, especially now with the information that's available from the census, is you can choose if you're in power what that district looks like and therefore manipulate the outcome. So I remember a very scary number was something like 87 percent of districts are uncompetitive in terms of how they're drawn. So it doesn't matter how you vote in 87 percent of districts, it's predetermined. And that's because of things like gerrymandering. What it does is it disempowers voters. So you saw in Atlanta, actually, there were there were certain regions that were majority black, but then you would have a conservative suburb included. And I guess a simple way to put it would be drown out a vote. That's not a nice way to say it. But that's that's what happens. It's how can you make certain votes not matter by surrounding it with with another political affiliation. Right. So what what is is crucial now is passing the For the People Act, because it addresses things like gerrymandering. And as you mentioned, dark money. I remember another number was that 50 percent of the time someone who's working in Congress or representatives are in office 50 percent of the time they're raising money for the next election cycle. Wow. So that is not an efficient use of time. I wouldn't want to pay someone who has the time they're in office is trying to get ready for the next job. Right. What that means is that our representatives are beholden to big donors because they need the money to win elections. And what if we could change that is the question. What if we could limit the impact of big donations and special interests and instead have our representatives represent us, the people. That's what they're there for. It's in the constitution. Just saying. Right. You would think that's what I mean. We're in a democracy. Right. So hopefully that would be one of their job job priorities. And yeah. And I think like it's also so important because this happens every 10 years. So the next time we get a chance like this for redistricting and gerrymandering, as you explained it to happen, it's going to be 10 years from now, which is a long time to live under a system we might not like or doesn't hear all of our voices equally. So we're joking earlier. Like if you look back 10 years ago, I mean, 2011. Right. People just started. Oh my God. Yeah. Exactly. And I think I had the first brick iPhone. I like that as a metric because you're like, okay, all right. Wow. That was a long time ago. Was Instagram even around 10 years ago? I'm not sure. It might have been like a year before. That's 10 years ago. That's a long time. You think what happens for the next 10 years that we don't address this stuff, the amount of timing, the amount of things that can happen. If our voices aren't included, to me, climate change, these are issues I care about are on the table. And I want a voice. I want my voice to be part of that. Absolutely. And especially since this affects gerrymandering really affects students a lot, young people and people of color. So a lot of communities at stake here with the bill. Yeah. So just kind of to wrap up on Lynn, it tell us, you mentioned the, we mentioned the for the people act. What's next in the timeline? Yeah. So as some people may know, the bill was reintroduced at the beginning of this year and a lot has happened since then. In March, the bill passed the house, but it was subsequently filibustered in the Senate in June. Now, that doesn't mean the bill is dead. It's now being revised. And with the support of Senator Joe Manchin, who was the one previous holdout blocking the bill from moving forward. So now hopefully with him on board, if everything goes right, all 50 Democrats will be united around this new version of the for the people act, which makes the path forward in the Senate way more promising. So the latest is that state lawmakers and activists, state lawmakers from Texas, my, my representatives led the state in order to put pressure on the federal government to help establish these new baseline voting protections because in Texas, they're under attack like we've never seen before. Right. And they really want the Senate to get this done before they leave for recess or vacation at the end of the month. It really needs to happen before August 12th, which is really soon because that is when the 2020 census data becomes available to states. And if we don't put new protections down against gerrymandering, then they can start gerrymandering as soon as that data comes in. So as early as next week, our voices, our votes can be getting drowned out diminished by gerrymandering unless we do something. And there's a bill in the pipeline ready to go that will do something about it. So that's just a long way of saying we need to do everything we can right now. Absolutely. It really sounds super urgent and timely since August 12th is next week. So Max, what can we do? Like what, what can we all do to help and take action? Yeah. So it's not that hard actually. I think that's when we hear these big political words like gerrymandering and, and voting rights, go, well, how, how as a single person, what can I do to help? This seems too big. And the truth is no, collective action is, is really important, but collective action starts with you. And what you can do is you can have a conversation with a family member and a friend about this. But the reason why we're here is because I love represent us. And they, they already made up a game plan. They have the actions for you. It's at represent.us backslash max. That sounds pretty simple. And what it is, is it's coming together. Sometimes it sounds like a big pain in the but if you pick up the phone and you call your local elected official and just say, Hey, I really care about the for the people act. And as a voter in your blah, blah, blah, and you have a conversation, there's scripts online for you. It's not hard. And it makes all the difference in the world. If you can get two friends, five friends, maybe where you just agree, Hey, I'm going to hold you accountable, pick up the phone, call your local person, deliver the message. And you keep doing that. Again, I'm going to throw I love numbers. Yeah, the number, I believe it's 3.5% is the magic number of 3.5% of a population comes together. They can pass anything that's that's put back across history, the civil rights movement, gay marriage, equality, all of that starts once you hit the 3.5% threshold, it becomes federal. So if we can get a small group of people who are really passionate, apply pressure, take very simple actions like go to represent.us backslash max follow the instructions, we can change this 3.5%. That's such a small number, it's like still single digit. So it sounds like something we can definitely do, even just us young people are millennials and Gen Z, if we get enough mass momentum going. So yeah, good numbers to be encouraged by. And like Max said, guys, go to represent.us slash max and get involved. Let's do this. Thanks so much for having me. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Thanks for all the work you're doing. Thank you. Likewise.