Welcome to my podcast

I made a podcast! YOU are the first friends I’m telling about it. I want to invite you to be my first listeners - VIP early access baby! All the details are below, along with the story of how this whole thing started. Continue reading to learn more about being a Patreon, how this podcast came about and what's next! ​

To begin with, welcome! You, dear friends and family are getting FIRST access to the following:

• Our first episodes 
• Website
• Social Media
• Patreon page

When a podcast launches, a few of the things that really help it gain traction are liking, following, downloading it, and writing a review. As someone with early access, we ask you to help us out by doing one or more of these things.  

Starting tomorrow, we're kicking off our Labor Day Launch Party week. Each day, we'll be announcing guests, revealing behind the scenes reflections, and of course, sharing the first episodes! Follow the Launch Party on Instagram and Facebook at @mybelovedamericans. 

If you like the concept and think your friends would enjoy it too, you can also help us out by sharing it on social media and tagging us, rating the podcast, and writing a brief review. We've just submitted to Itunes, Google, Amazon and Pandora so you'll be able to find us there soon. 

Now to the story part and how this very quickly came to be…
I’ve been quarantining at home with Jerome since late February as COVID season started. 

In May, after the construction industry was hit hard by COVID, my unemployment season started. 

Soon after, a new anti-racism season started, and continues. In an effort to invest more of my money in black-owned businesses…

A season of Black Girl Magic Rose (by the McBride Sisters - highly recommend) started. 

The season of raging, polarizing, pull your hair out, dead-end political conversations started (though, let’s be real, it’s been going on for a while now). 

And, here in Seattle, spider season was starting. 

So… I’m sitting on the porch one day, enjoying the pristine summer sun, deepening my internal anti-racism work, applying to diversity-equity-inclusion jobs, taking a breather momentary from strenuous political conversations... a little tipsy on rose, gearing up for the primary elections and national conventions, when it just hits me hard…

Our politics suuuuuuuck!!!! It’s not the first time I/we’ve felt this. I’ve been disgusted by the decisions, rhetoric and hate of the current administration. I’m watching our country, my friends and family polarize further and further apart. Despair and grief were in full force. 

I had a good hour of a rose rant about all the things I wish our country’s leadership - and the President in particular - was doing differently. We have multiple major, if not existential, crises occurring. While I’m not typically a doomsdayer type of person, I am deeply troubled by the potential of a civil war in this country and the possibility that humanity might not be able to pull our shit together enough to survive. 

I wished our President was leading the country, the American people, in a way that helped us be better together. Rather than keep wishing, I decided to journal about what I wanted them to say. If we had the leadership I wanted to see, what would the POTUS be saying right now? What would they be encouraging the American people to do right now? And how would people respond if they heard a different message? 
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Well, one thing led to another and rather than keep it in my journal, I decided to make my imaginary president as real as possible...and turn them into a podcast! The My Beloved Americans Podcast is one part State of the Union speech, and one part regular people having a conversation about it. I hope listeners experience:

• The delight, performance and honesty of Kid President
• The importance, discussion and community of a Civic Saturday, and 
• The sass, authenticity and real talk of Fleabag.

It feels impossible to talk politics these days - but we must because we know what’s at stake if this country fails. At a time when many Americans can’t see a way forward together, we’re going to take weighty conversations and imagine a different outcome. We’re going to get vulnerable, silly, reflective and inspired. We’re going to dig ourselves out of political despair and overwhelm and remember what it feels like to co-create a bright future. 
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In our first two episodes we jump right in with the hard questions: Are we too different to have a united States of America? Is it possible to have a shared vision as a country anymore? Is our Declaration of Independence now irrelevant? And, where do we even start!?

I hope you join me for the ride, use your imagination, and let it lead to action we can all feel proud of. Thanks for playing along! 
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Until next time beloveds,
Cat

PS - have you heard the teaser yet?! Doesn't it sound so good!