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We're back with another edition of The
Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Emil Jasinski,

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culture editor here at the Federalist.
As always, you can email the show

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at radio at the Federalist dot com, follow us on Twitter at fdr LST.

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Make sure to subscribe wherever you download
your podcasts, and to the premium

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version of our website as well.
Today I am joined by the woman behind

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a familiar byline. You may have
read her work at The Federalist, Teresa

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Mole. She is an editor over
at The American Spectator, but right now

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for the purposes of this conversation.
She's also the author of a brand new

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book that is coming out in August. It's called Woke Proof Your Life and

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is chock full of practical advice.
Theresa, thanks for joining the show.

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Thank you for having me. I'm
delighted to be here. Yeah. I

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think it's your first time on the
podcast. So if you could just Charles

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talked to us a little bit about
how you ended up writing, especially writing

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about these particular issues, that would
be awesome. Absolutely so. I've always

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been interested in writing and journalism.
I studied literature at the University of Dallas,

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and I started working in some small
town newspapers really enjoyed that. I

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still dabble in that here and there. And then I went to Washington,

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DC. I interned at a couple
of different places. I worked from our

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ingram for a bit and have done
some freeliancing. And I've worked in conservative

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journalism for about a decade now,
and recently I noticed that our society just

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seems angry. We especially in the
past three years since COVID, it just

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seems as if we are looking more
at one another, not as neighbors with

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a Christian attitude, as how can
I serve you, how can I help

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you thrive, but more as enemies, you know, how can I get

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something from you? How can I
accuse you of disting against me? We

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just haven't an attitude shift in this
country that I really don't like. And

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I thought, you know, what
can I do about this? How did

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we get this way? And how
do we cure our nation and heal and

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get back on that path to the
go to old American virtues. So that

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was the inspiration for this book.
And I after, you know, having

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worked as a writer and editor in
various capacities, I decided that it was

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time to write a longer form piece, so to speak about, you know,

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two hundred times longer than I would
normally write. And I came up

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with this book, and I'm really
excited about it. I'm hoping that it

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will help help a country get back
to where we were at least three years

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ago, if not, you know, ten fifteen. I'd love to go

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back to the nineteen fifties. I
understand that's not exactly realistic, but that's

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basically how the book book came into
beating in the nineteen fifties. Okay,

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So this has become a topic of
some debate in conservative media recently because Michael

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Knowles said that he didn't want to
go back to the nineteen fifties. He

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wanted to go back to the twelve
fifties. Oh okay, well, yeah,

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I mean, I like indoor plumbing. I don't know all about Michaelnols,

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but you know, I think I
could maybe a happy media, maybe

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like the seventeen fifties. I don't
know. I didn't have plumbing either,

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but a little more hygiene. This
is a great podcast idea. We'll have

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to have you come debate Noals on
the various merits of the nineteen fifties versus

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the twelve fifties in the seventeen fifties. But alah, on that note,

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I mean it is interesting because I
think for so long the conservative world,

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and this is common with the political
world serve in general, but it is

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really mired and esoteric conversations about what's
right and what's wrong, and you know

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what was? You know that the
past was better? But you know what

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does that mean for people right now? And obviously you've thought a lot about

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that because you decided to sort of
translate that into practical, like actually very

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practical tips that people can apply in
their own life. Tell us about that,

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you know, going from that sort
of very thirty thousand foot conversation and

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then saying, actually, things were
better and here's what you can do to

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channel some of those healthier lives.
Yeah. So I think a lot of

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people, and statistics prove this.
You know, the number of people who

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are on antidepressants, and number of
people who are addicted to various substances,

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and number of people who are overweight
just generally miserable. That number has risen

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dramatically in recent years and continues to
skyrocket at alarming rates. And I look

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at you know, how did we
get this way? Take it back to

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I take it back more recently to
the sexual Revolution and what that did to

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our society. You know, in
the nineteen sixties and seventies, there was

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definitely a shift in the way that
sexuality was perceived and normalizing things like sex

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outside of marriage. You know,
people, I think really began to look

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at one another more as an object
as you know, I can use your

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body, I can use you for
a good time, for the weekend,

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or whatever it is. And that
shift is really important in the way that

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we look at one another now and
wokeness, because if you think about wokeness,

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it is essentially objectifying people. You
know, diversity tends to be about

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quote unquote, diversity tends to be
about the color of someone's skin, their

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sexual identity. They're really kind of
physical things, not the person's soul,

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not the way that they're made in
the image of likeness of God, not

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certainly not their merit. We saw
what happened whenever the Supreme Court ruled against

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affirmative action. You know, the
left really freaked out about that because they

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are very concerned about the physical things
and things that people can't really help not

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people's virtue. So that's a long
winded way of saying we essentially have been

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losing God in society, and certainly
our belief in Christianity keeps declining as well.

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You look at the Gallup does a
pool every year of Americans gaging their

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values and beliefs, And the belief
in God has gone from like ninety nine

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or ninety eight percent in the nineteen
fifties and sixties to like eighty one percent

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now, and the belief in Christianity
went from ninety percent to like sixty one

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percent in the last few years.
So that's really startling. So whenever you

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take God out of the picture and
our Judeo Christian values, what is left?

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You know, people are empty,
they're searching for meaning, they're searching

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for values, and the left wokeness
has swept in and said, oh,

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you should you should look at yourself, you should value yourself above all else.

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So I'm kind of getting off track. I understand what was Yeah,

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so looking big picture, how do
we get back to you know, the

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twelve fifties or whatever it is.
You know what people throughout history, recent

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history, and what was you know, the lynchpin that really made our country

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great for so many years, and
the founders was that it was based on

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this fundamental belief that we are created
equal, that we are made in the

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image and likeness of God, that
we ought to treat each they're with dignity

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and respect and love, and we're
losing that as we lose God. So

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the first thing I write in the
book guiding people to wokeproof their lives is

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to find God in their life.
And if you have God in your life,

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to strengthen your relationship with him.
And if you have a strong relationship

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with him, try to spread that
relationship to others. And then the rest

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of the tips that I give people
in Wokeproofing is I hope will also lead

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them to God. You know,
if if you're not close to God,

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doing certain things will also lead you
closer to Him. You know, it's

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kind of a it's a whole circle
to get us back to God and to

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get us back to Christianity. So
things like spending time in nature, volunteering

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at your local church, community or
your local nonprofit, serving one another,

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rather than sitting at home on your
phone and becoming angry, so we don't

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necessarily have to go back to the
nineteen fifties. As far as you know,

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you can't use social media, or
you can't use the internet, you

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can't you know, watch TV or
anything like that. You know, I'm

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not advocating that we all become honesh, though I am tempted every day.

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I live in Pennsylvania where they're all
around me. I'm like, you would

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be easy, Yeah exactly. I'm
like, yeah, yeah, hop of

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the buggy one day and drive off. Yeah. So we don't have to

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really radically alter our lives all that
much. We just need to tweak a

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few things and reset our priorities and
remember whenever things were good, the good

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old days, what was driving that? It wasn't. It wasn't much more

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than just remembering our Christian values and
applying them. And yeah, okay,

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I will shut up now, go
ahead. Oh no, no, no,

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no, that's super interesting because it's
bringing me towards somewhat of a tangent

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that I'll ramble about for a second. I was doing a segment the other

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day about the Barbie Oppenheimer memes,
which are absolutely hilarious. But you know,

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we laugh at it because we think
they're so completely different, but they're

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actually really tied to the same thing, which is in some ways the way

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our American hegemony after World War Two
allowed us to just have this incredible access

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to oil, which gave us a
totally new lifestyles and plastics, Barbie,

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we're a huge, huge, huge
part of that. And if you watch

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old movies, especially old movies,
or if you look at pictures before World

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War Two in particular, you don't
see plastic. And I'm not saying that

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plastic isn't great. I think plastic
has a lot of applications and has created

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a lot of prosperity and improve the
quality of people's lives. But there are

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so many This is where it gets
to my question for you things we take

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for granted, like sort of the
ways they've dramatically changed how we interact with

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ourselves, with nature, how we
live as human beings. Brett Weinstein and

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Heather Hang referred to it as hypernovelty
and and all kinds of different contexts,

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not just not just plastics, and
not just you know, the post nuclear

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world. But there are so many
things that have changed, and not all

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of them for the better. We
have we're just drowning in random plastic stuff

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that we use once and you know, then let's sit around in a house

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for a really long time. So
are there I know in the book,

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actually you talk you've already mentioned this
talk about gardening. You talk about like

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all of these specific kind of lifestyle
tweaks that are practical, that are fairly

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accessible, easy, It doesn't matter
if you live in a red state or

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a blue state, although some of
the stuff might be easier in red states

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or rural areas as opposed to urban
areas. But is that really you know,

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in some cases when you mentioned the
nineteen fifties, is that really what

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we're talking about here, that there
things changed really quickly in the last one

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hundred years, and actually the way
that we were doing things, you know,

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subsistence gardening for example. You know
that we may have conveniences that make

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it easier and I'm making pasta for
instance. People have machines for that now

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and that's probably a good thing,
even if they're handmaking their own pasta.

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But is that the case that really, when we start to think about it,

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just the last one hundred years,
there were certain things we were forced

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to do because we didn't have technology
yet that actually, when we look back

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on it, that there may have
been values that outweighed the costs absolutely,

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I think, and one of the
sources I quote in the book makes this

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point really nicely, is that we've
kind of been lulled into a stupor by

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all the luxuries we have. You
know, we I think there's like ninety

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percent of people in the United States
have some sort of smart something. It

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might even be more than that,
you know, a smart phone or a

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smart TV. And most people,
even if you're you know, poverty level,

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that you're not you're not suffering as
much as you would have been,

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say in the nineteen fifties. You
know. It's it's we just we have

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so many resources, and we're very
spoiled as a nation, which is wonderful

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that we've been able to make all
these advancements and to improve people's lives and

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have these technologies and all of these
wonderful things. But we can't lose sight

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of basically what it means to be
a human, and we can't we're forgetting,

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I think, to ignite ourselves.
You know, it's easy to be

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lulled into the convenience of ordering from
grub hub and to you know, click

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twice and next thing you know,
your weeks for worth of groceries and supplies

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shows up on your doorstep from Amazon
Prime without ever having to leave your home.

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But so much is lost in that, you know, your There's so

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many studies about how good gardening is
for you physically, mentally, spiritually.

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Your mental health is improved, and
a lot of people understandably say, why

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would I garden? Whenever I can
literally sit on my couch and order food

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that is delicious and I didn't have
to get dirty or sweaty, and it's

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cheap and convenient. But you know, the obviously kind of simplistically no pain,

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no game. You know, the
same can be said about I am

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looking at the ozempic trends. You
know, why would I go to the

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gym? Why would I go on
a diet? Why would I? You

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know, do research as far as
nutrition goes whenever I can easily take a

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pill for that. So we have
to be really careful about how much we're

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allowed allowing all these luxuries and technologies
to control our lives and to be lulled

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by it, because there is so
much value in doing things yourselves, and

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you don't have to do everything yourself. You know, you don't have to

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become a homesteader. But yeah,
you know, just choose one thing that

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maybe you would hire someone to do, or you know, instead of throwing

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away your bookshelf and going in buying
another one from Ikea in two years whenever

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it breaks, you know, I
suggest maybe go antiquing or restore something,

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or just develop a skill use your
hands. It's a disservice, I think

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to the gifts that God gives us, not only personally our faculties that were

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kind of letting sleep, but also
to the beautiful things that He has provided

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us. You know, if you're
sitting inside just being entertained mindlessly by TikTok,

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you're not listening to the the songs
of the birds that he made and

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appreciating the various colors of wildflowers and
the sense of the forests and things like

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that. You know, there's this
beautiful masterpiece all around us, and we

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are a lot of us, are
you know, just limitating that to like

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a three inch by four inch little
plastic screen and just becoming consumed by it.

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And wokeness is a symptom of this
disease that we have. I think

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technology and wokeness really go hand in
hand the watched Alto on Wall Street podcast

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with Chris Markowski. Every day,
Chris helps unpack the connection between politics and

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00:14:37,960 --> 00:14:41,679
the economy and how it affects your
wallet. With crime and drug addiction continuing

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to skyrocket, the US as the
highest rate of singral parent households in the

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world. Lbj's Great Society resulted in
a reliance on social welfare programs and destruction

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in the family unit. Is there
a direct correlation whether it's happening in DC

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or down on Wall Street, it's
affecting you financially. Be informed? Check

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00:14:58,440 --> 00:15:01,879
out the watched Aolto on Wall Street
podcast with christ Markowski on Apple, Spotify

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or wherever you get your podcast.
Oh that's a that's such an interesting point.

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Can you just flesh that out a
little bit? Why? Because my

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next question was going to be used
It is funny you mentioned home studying,

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Like that's something in the wake of
the pandemic that's really taken off. And

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early in the pandemic we saw people
like one of the hottest TikTok trends was

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making your own bread or like canning
and all of these different things. And

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I was just going to ask,
you know what, why has some of

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the stuff taken off in the aftermath
of the pandemic. But that actually goes

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hand in hand with what you just
said about wokeness and technology being sort of

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inextricably intertwined. One rises as the
other rises. Twenty twenty is as good

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at you know, early days of
the pandemic on the other side of the

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coin exactly a great example of that. Why is it that these things go

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hand in hand? Well, yeah, I think, you know, we

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didn't have wokeness as we see it
now really before COVID. I guess the

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term woke has been around since before
COVID, but we had political correctness,

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we had iterations of what wokeness has
become. You know, wokeness is a

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form of evil, and evil has
always been around, and wokeness has sort

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of always been around in some form, maybe by another name. But it

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seems as if the gloves really came
off post COVID and during COVID, And

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I think a lot of the reason
for that is that these concepts and these

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agendas have been stewing, so to
speak. But then during COVID, everybody

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was locked down, everybody was made
fearful, which is a huge you know,

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like the number one tactic of wokeness
is fearmongering, because you think about

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how easy it is to control someone
whenever they're afraid. I make the analogy

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to like a bank robber and an
Old West movie. What's the first thing

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they do? They like, stick
them up, you know, put your

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hands up. Get You're scared for
your life, so you'll do whatever they

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tell you. So people are afraid
of being called racist, of being called

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homophobe, of being censored, of
being canceled, of you know, not

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getting enough retweets on Twitter or whatever
it is. You know, they put

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this fear in us, and then
we do what they tell us. We

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go along to get along, we
go to the d EI training, we

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do whatever it is. And technology
or social media specifically, I would say

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I had a lot to do with
that because during the pandemic, in addition

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to the kind of the silver linings
that you mentioned of people kind of being

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becoming re enchanted with doing things themselves
and exploring things like making bread or gardening,

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we also saw a spike in screen
addiction that we're still navigating. You

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know, some psychologists wanted to want
to diagnose that as its its own form

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of mental illness, you know.
So I think that that really offered wokeness

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and opportunity to people were already afraid
and then they were They were on their

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phones a lots, and these these
platforms that are so notorious for censoring,

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we're just feeding them whatever. These
people were sitting at home on their phones

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and watching TV all day, you
know, whatever. They there's this propaganda

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that they wanted them to believe.
And then you know, after after COVID

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kind of subsided a little bit,
now we see wokeness really taking hold all

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over the place. So I think
that without technology, without so much technology,

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I should say, without social media, wokeness would kind of wither and

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die. I write that wokeness lives
and dies online because without these very prominent

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and you know, there's hundreds and
thousands millions of people absorbing this stuff and

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it is censored, so are getting
their messaging across very easily. And you

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look at Facebook and Twitter until recently
it's owned by you know, very radical

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left wing people who are able to
get their messaging across to all of these

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people who are just absorbing it.
So you take social media out of the

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picture, and you get people out
and about interacting with one another, you

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know, going to the church,
picnic, going to the diner, hanging

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out with one another, you know, just joining a club, doing things

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that we did do in the nineteen
fifties or even the nineteen eighties, you

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know, before technology was so well
spread. People don't look at each other

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whenever they walk into a diner and
say, oh, what do you identify

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as? You owe me a million
dollars. You know, it doesn't really

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happen in real life because people are
unboldened on social media and in the mainstream

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media to do and say these things
because there's not really new percussions, you

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know. But whenever you get out
and about in your interacting with your friends

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and neighbors, and you realize,
oh, I like this guy. He

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has a fun sense of humor or
he's really good at woodworking, and I'm

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really good at you know, baking
pies. Like we can have this exchange

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and you realize that you like you
like each other. You're not enemies,

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you're not looking for ways to accuse
the other person and get reparations or whatever

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it is. You really you find
that you enjoy each other, and a

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lot of wokeness is dividing and conquering
and isolating people. They rely on that,

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and that's really easy to do on
social media, and we see that

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the fruits quote unquote, they're rotten. Fruits of the movement and of social

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media tend to be pretty bad.
You know, the more people use screens

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and social media in general, the
higher their depression and their anxiety and their

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isolation and loneliness and all these things. And it's really deadly, not just

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for for the individuals but for our
society. Yeah, there's so much truths

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all of that. Is it getting
well here? This is such a tricky

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question because well, you do see
things like home setting kind of taking off

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in certain subcultures, you know,
even just homeschooling taking off in certain subcultures.

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But also, you know, we
even people who don't necessarily recognize that

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they're doing something that is along the
lines of your book, you know,

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gardening, putting it on TikTok or
whatever it is, like these things.

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It is just interesting to see some
of these trends taking off, especially among

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gen Z and so I guess my
question is are you hopeful that this is

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getting better? I mean, what
is the path to human recovery? Is

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it just the sort of mass awareness
that some of our technologies have been unhelpful

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and we need to kind of reorder
our lives, even if people are secular

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people, even if people aren't Christian, and they start to realize maybe I

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do need to, you know,
stop eating so much junk and start making

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some of my own food. Maybe
I should have a garden, Maybe I

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should put my phone down. Is
this getting better in any sense? Or

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is it, you know, going
to get worse before it gets better?

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Is there? You are you noticing
this even among people who aren't consciously making

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the decision to you know, live
a godly and you know, in some

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sense conservative lifestyle. What does this? What does the future look like right

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now? I'm optimistic and I do
think it is getting better slowly. You

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know, the people who create these
apps and who are behind the screen technology

305
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that we all know and love for
the most part, they're very smart.

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They make these things so that they
are intentionally addictive, and they have been

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very effective at that, obviously very
successful. But I saw a study recently

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that I believe it's gen z actually
want less technology. They did a poll

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and kids of the younger generation said
that, you know, they're kind of

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overt technology. And I heard this
recently from a parent. She has like

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a ten year old and she was
getting him his first smartphone, and I

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was like, oh, I was
kind of asking her, you know,

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how are you how are you going
to monitor him? Is that all he

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wants to do is use his phone
all day? And she said, actually,

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not really, because they grew up
with phones. They're used to them.

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It's just kind of like, I
don't know, flipping on the lights.

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To them, it's like, oh
yeah, But they're still enchanted by

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nature. They're still enchanted by playing
outside. And I think that as I

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guess the novelty of these things kind
of wear off, we become re enchanted

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with the things that have spained society
and enchanted humans for forever. And I'm

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actually seeing kind of the rise,
I guess the trendiness of like being outdoorsy

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in recent years, especially since covid, Like, yeah, people were still

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posting on TikTok or Instagram like selfies
of themselves hiking, which kind of irks

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me because I'm like, you're out
in the wilderness, you're hiking, You're

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you're just supposed to get leave your
phone at home. Whatever, but it's

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still encouraging to see that. And
I think also as the statistics statistics come

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out, you know that now that
we've had social media for how many years,

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were really it takes a few years
kind of like you know, smoking,

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really to delve into the science and
to do the studies and to see

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what the effects are. And as
those start to come out, I think

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people will be reevaluating what the relationship
is. And yeah, I'm hopeful.

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And also I would say, you
know, things like the Dylan Mulviny TikTok

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or Instagram backlash, people are are
really realizing that wokeness really does survive on

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these platforms, and they're kind of
getting sick of what they're getting turned off

335
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and they will unturn you know,
I write in the book, cancel them

336
00:24:52,880 --> 00:24:57,160
before they cancel you. They are
kind of repulsed by the censoring that that

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has been proven has taken place on
social media, and so Americans, you

338
00:25:03,039 --> 00:25:04,240
know, they don't want that.
They don't want to be censored. They

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don't want to use a platform that
sensors their fellow Americans. And there has

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been statistics also from both sides saying, you know, both Democrats are Republicans

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that censorship does go on in these
platforms, So I don't think Americans will

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continue to want to use these technologies
that they feel are not presenting reality,

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you know, whenever you can go
outside and see reality for yourself. That's

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a really good point too. Is
this a was it sort of a personal

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journey for you as you recognize some
of these things? And if so,

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what of the practical tips you offer? What experiences did you have in your

347
00:25:45,559 --> 00:25:51,000
own life that kind of brought you
to compiling a book like this. Yeah,

348
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Like I said in the beginning,
I kind of took a look at

349
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society and I thought, why is
everyone so angry at each other? Where

350
00:26:00,160 --> 00:26:04,920
are the people who are happy and
who are leading you know, virtuous,

351
00:26:06,200 --> 00:26:11,319
joyful lives? And how do I
do more of that? I had this

352
00:26:11,359 --> 00:26:15,920
moment where I bought some shampoo and
I took it home. I was getting

353
00:26:15,960 --> 00:26:18,119
ready to use it, and I
looked down and there was like an LGBT

354
00:26:18,799 --> 00:26:22,039
flag on it, and I was
like, really, like, can I

355
00:26:22,079 --> 00:26:26,119
do nothing in this world that is
not some sort of radical political cause?

356
00:26:26,400 --> 00:26:32,799
And I saw just I see this
nation just becoming kind of disenchanted with modern

357
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life and becoming exhausted, burnout,
and nostalgic for the good old days.

358
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And I am fortunate to live in
a place that's kind of we're a little

359
00:26:41,440 --> 00:26:45,759
bit behind the times. You know, it's rural central Pennsylvania. We're kind

360
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of like stuck in the eighties a
little bit. Of course, we have

361
00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:52,240
TikTok, we have screen addiction,
we have all the problems that you know,

362
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the rest of the world does,
but it's not as bad here.

363
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And we still have, you know, a bunch of old timers who kind

364
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of do the traditional thing, and
I get to be a part of that.

365
00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:04,440
And I really you know, coming
back to this small town where I

366
00:27:04,480 --> 00:27:08,559
grew up, and you know,
obviously it has some disadvantages, but it

367
00:27:08,599 --> 00:27:15,599
also has a reminder of what life
was like, prewokeness, and what it's

368
00:27:15,640 --> 00:27:18,680
like to interact with your neighbors.
I belong to my local sportsman's club.

369
00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:22,279
I shoot trap on Tuesdays. I've
made like a million friends there. People

370
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are so welcoming. They have different
talents and traditions and stories, and every

371
00:27:27,480 --> 00:27:32,480
time I go there, I just
feel like I stepped back in time and

372
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it's really enjoyable. And I thought, you know, if the rest of

373
00:27:34,799 --> 00:27:41,119
the world, or you know,
had had what I've gotten to experience here,

374
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people would be a lot happier.
You know, there's there's a group

375
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of people who go to the local
coffee club or a coffee shop every morning

376
00:27:48,799 --> 00:27:53,119
and interact with one another, and
sometimes after they have their coffee, they

377
00:27:53,160 --> 00:27:57,160
will go over to somebody's house and
help them move something with a project.

378
00:27:57,240 --> 00:28:02,960
You know, you just form these
communities and these relationships that really enrich your

379
00:28:03,079 --> 00:28:07,440
lives. And even if they don't
see I'd eye on every single political issue

380
00:28:07,480 --> 00:28:10,400
of the day, it doesn't matter
because they're not talking about it all the

381
00:28:10,440 --> 00:28:14,440
time, But you really I call
it. I refer to it as unforced

382
00:28:14,440 --> 00:28:18,240
stress. In the book. You
know, in Tennessee, you have something

383
00:28:18,240 --> 00:28:21,680
called an unforced error, which is
basically, when your opponent doesn't do anything

384
00:28:21,720 --> 00:28:23,160
to you, you just mess up
on your own. And I find that

385
00:28:23,200 --> 00:28:29,640
we have so much unforced stress through
social media and through mainstream media that we

386
00:28:29,720 --> 00:28:33,200
bring into our homes and into our
lives, and we allow it to consume

387
00:28:33,279 --> 00:28:37,799
us. And I've I found myself
doing that. You know, I get

388
00:28:37,880 --> 00:28:44,039
angry whenever there's something on the news
about why men should be allowed to play

389
00:28:44,200 --> 00:28:48,480
on the women's lacrosse team or whatever
it is, or you know, men

390
00:28:48,519 --> 00:28:51,200
are able to get pregnant, and
I start getting angry, and I start

391
00:28:51,279 --> 00:28:53,799
like arguing in my head, and
I'm like, why am I doing this?

392
00:28:53,880 --> 00:28:56,759
You know, people who not that
we shouldn't fight. Of course,

393
00:28:56,839 --> 00:29:00,000
obviously we should. We should push
back and stand firm and our beliefs,

394
00:29:00,039 --> 00:29:07,920
but we can't lose sight of living
our lives also and in informing friendships,

395
00:29:08,240 --> 00:29:14,160
in developing hobbies, and I just
feel like we invite a lot of stress

396
00:29:14,200 --> 00:29:15,759
that we don't really need to.
There's a time and a place for that,

397
00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:21,119
but we can't lose sight of the
other wonderful good things. So it's

398
00:29:21,160 --> 00:29:26,079
really about balancing your life so that
you don't lose your inner peace and your

399
00:29:26,119 --> 00:29:30,240
purpose and losing sight of that.
I see a lot of conservative friends who

400
00:29:30,799 --> 00:29:37,039
kind of make fighting wokeness and fighting
liberals almost like a full time job,

401
00:29:37,160 --> 00:29:38,880
to the point that they're agitating,
upset all the time. And that was

402
00:29:38,920 --> 00:29:44,359
another inspiration for writing this book.
You know, I thought, yeah,

403
00:29:44,559 --> 00:29:47,559
we should be righteously angry, angry, But if we're like that all the

404
00:29:47,559 --> 00:29:51,039
time and they're robbing us of our
joy and our peace and of our appreciation

405
00:29:51,240 --> 00:29:52,440
of the good things that we have. Then they're winning. You know,

406
00:29:52,559 --> 00:29:56,119
maybe not the war, but that's
a battle that they're winning. And throughout

407
00:29:56,240 --> 00:30:00,839
scripture, we're tool being not afraid
to put your trust in your peace and

408
00:30:00,839 --> 00:30:06,279
your hope in the Lord. And
if we're constantly agitated, if we're if

409
00:30:06,279 --> 00:30:08,079
we're all stressed out and are angry
all the time, and that's not a

410
00:30:08,079 --> 00:30:12,519
good thing. So how do we, you know, build an impenetrable alternative

411
00:30:12,720 --> 00:30:18,319
society of our own that's basically immune
to woke forces? And I've been trying

412
00:30:18,359 --> 00:30:22,759
to do that myself. You know, I'm wokeproofing my own life and it's

413
00:30:22,799 --> 00:30:26,400
great. And in writing this book, I would I found, you know,

414
00:30:26,920 --> 00:30:30,119
a wonderful community of people who are
already doing all the things that I

415
00:30:30,160 --> 00:30:33,559
write about, and they have five
friends who are doing it, and then

416
00:30:33,599 --> 00:30:37,480
they have five more friends. And
there's a lot more people out there who

417
00:30:37,839 --> 00:30:42,359
are woke proof and wollproofing than you
would believe by if you just listen to

418
00:30:42,880 --> 00:30:52,160
the media. So what role is
there for politics in this situation? I

419
00:30:52,200 --> 00:30:56,440
like the way that you phrase it. They're building a society that's woke proof

420
00:30:56,519 --> 00:31:00,799
That would seem to implicate all of
the politicians that constantly talk about wokeness.

421
00:31:00,799 --> 00:31:04,119
Some of it is very constructive and
some of it is, you know,

422
00:31:04,160 --> 00:31:10,799
maybe more signaling than sincere. But
is there a role for politics, And

423
00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:15,000
you know, maybe this is outside
the realm of what you write about,

424
00:31:15,119 --> 00:31:21,240
but is there a role for policy
in any of these particulars can incentivize behaviors

425
00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:25,240
that would help us build a wokeproof
society in any different ways? Does anything

426
00:31:25,279 --> 00:31:27,960
stand out to you that policymakers could
be doing or is it maybe even just

427
00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:33,680
their role as leaders to talk about
healthier ways that people can live their lives.

428
00:31:36,079 --> 00:31:41,960
Right, So, I'm pretty obviously
a small government person, so you

429
00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:45,279
know, wokeness is reliant on big
government, you know, telling you what

430
00:31:45,319 --> 00:31:48,880
to do in the bedroom, you
know, what to do at the local

431
00:31:48,960 --> 00:31:52,720
schools. All these things they want
to tell us what to think and how

432
00:31:52,720 --> 00:31:56,160
to act and what pronouns to use, and all these things control our language.

433
00:31:56,119 --> 00:32:00,680
So the best thing I would like
politicians to do is to limit the

434
00:32:00,720 --> 00:32:06,240
influence. Obviously, that would be
the best of what the government's control of

435
00:32:06,559 --> 00:32:12,799
our lives is. And then just
I see so much like all the reports

436
00:32:12,839 --> 00:32:17,880
of the corruption of the Biden family
and what Trump is going through with his

437
00:32:19,039 --> 00:32:22,960
various cases, and all these things
that are really really a bummer and a

438
00:32:23,039 --> 00:32:28,200
downer to the American people. Doesn't
really have that much to do with our

439
00:32:28,279 --> 00:32:30,960
day to day lives as far as
like paying our bills and things. Of

440
00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:34,400
course it does affect it, but
we don't have any say on that.

441
00:32:34,519 --> 00:32:37,279
And politics just seems like it's gotten
so big and so out of control,

442
00:32:37,359 --> 00:32:43,039
and so I feel helpless all the
time. I'm like, well, what

443
00:32:43,079 --> 00:32:45,079
can I do about this? You
know, what's my vote going to do?

444
00:32:45,480 --> 00:32:46,319
Which is not to say that you
don't vote and you don't make your

445
00:32:46,400 --> 00:32:51,440
voice heard, but it can seem
really daunting and like it's just gotten out

446
00:32:51,440 --> 00:32:54,559
of hand, as if government and
politics is just like this foreign thing that

447
00:32:55,680 --> 00:33:00,079
is fighting all the time, and
then you're just like this little helpless and

448
00:33:00,359 --> 00:33:02,680
down here just trying to live your
life and make ends meet. So what

449
00:33:02,759 --> 00:33:08,359
I advise people is to become a
self sufficient so that politics and policy doesn't

450
00:33:08,440 --> 00:33:13,000
affect you as much as you can. Of course it's going to affect you,

451
00:33:13,039 --> 00:33:20,319
but I recommend things like homeschool your
kids if you can move somewhere that

452
00:33:20,480 --> 00:33:24,319
has you know, more freedom.
We look at things like what Ronda Santists

453
00:33:24,319 --> 00:33:28,279
did with the quote unquote don't say
gay bill, which was you know,

454
00:33:28,640 --> 00:33:34,240
obviously it has been misconstrued, but
just limiting what the public schools can do

455
00:33:35,079 --> 00:33:39,279
and say and teach. So really
just limiting the government's power. I liken

456
00:33:39,359 --> 00:33:44,160
it to like playing a game of
whack a mole with all of these all

457
00:33:44,200 --> 00:33:47,440
of these woke agenda items, but
if you can make yourself immune to them

458
00:33:47,640 --> 00:33:52,160
by kind of stepping out of the
way, so that even if there is

459
00:33:52,640 --> 00:33:58,200
you know, terrible things being taught
at the local public school, parents obviously

460
00:33:58,200 --> 00:34:00,440
are pushing back against that, and
sometimes the best thing you can do,

461
00:34:00,480 --> 00:34:04,079
and maybe the only thing you can
do is to take your kid out of

462
00:34:04,119 --> 00:34:07,640
the public school. You know.
I talked to the Pullmans from the Federalist

463
00:34:07,119 --> 00:34:12,480
who started their own school. Maybe
that's not realistic or practical for everyone,

464
00:34:12,559 --> 00:34:15,079
but I talked to several parents who
homeschool with their kids. And maybe you

465
00:34:15,119 --> 00:34:21,440
can move somewhere that a state that's
a red state that has excellent education choice

466
00:34:21,480 --> 00:34:25,360
programs so that you can send your
child to a private school and get help

467
00:34:25,400 --> 00:34:29,960
with funding for that, or send
them to a charter school. You know,

468
00:34:29,960 --> 00:34:34,920
there's there's so many ways if you
just make a little bit of effort

469
00:34:35,480 --> 00:34:40,880
to be unaffected by policy as much
as you can. So that's that's kind

470
00:34:40,920 --> 00:34:45,320
of I don't know exactly if I
answer your question. I feel like it's

471
00:34:45,360 --> 00:34:51,199
just there's so many bad policies and
so much bad politics that sometimes we just

472
00:34:51,440 --> 00:34:53,280
we have to get out of the
way of it and do things ourselves as

473
00:34:53,360 --> 00:34:59,639
much as we can. Absolutely,
is there anything else do you think people

474
00:34:59,639 --> 00:35:01,400
should know? First of all,
people should buy the book, of course,

475
00:35:01,639 --> 00:35:04,840
but is there anything else you think
people should know about? You know,

476
00:35:05,280 --> 00:35:08,880
maybe they're thinking this is sort of
a daunting prospect. This sounds really

477
00:35:08,880 --> 00:35:15,159
hard. I'm super busy at all
these kids, and they're in this world

478
00:35:15,199 --> 00:35:19,519
that you know, is all around
them, and the idea of making any

479
00:35:19,559 --> 00:35:24,280
small changes maybe feels like it won't
do much to curb the radical the radical

480
00:35:24,320 --> 00:35:30,760
problems that people are surrounded with.
What would your message be to them?

481
00:35:30,800 --> 00:35:36,119
It is definitely not as hard as
you think it is. There's millions of

482
00:35:36,159 --> 00:35:39,920
Americans already doing it, and they
are ready to advise you, to help

483
00:35:39,920 --> 00:35:45,519
you, to form a community with
you, there's plenty of statistics showing that

484
00:35:46,280 --> 00:35:52,079
there's really not that many people who
identify as woke in America. Is just

485
00:35:52,679 --> 00:35:55,719
they're very well funded, and they're
very loud, and they have the media

486
00:35:55,840 --> 00:36:00,760
mostly on their side. So you
can get the impression that you're alone and

487
00:36:00,800 --> 00:36:04,320
that's the point, but you're really
not. And once you start doing a

488
00:36:04,360 --> 00:36:08,880
few of these things, it will
really snowball, not just socially all the

489
00:36:08,920 --> 00:36:14,880
people and friends that you discover,
but also you'll find that you like it.

490
00:36:14,960 --> 00:36:16,639
You know, I I've gotten to
the point where I kind of crave

491
00:36:16,840 --> 00:36:21,679
chores. You know, I really
look forward to gardening. It's so good

492
00:36:21,719 --> 00:36:23,840
for you. Uh. You know, once you you take that first step

493
00:36:23,840 --> 00:36:28,960
and you take a walk in nature
after work instead of you know, going

494
00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:31,519
home and tiktoking or whatever it is, you find that you you want more

495
00:36:31,559 --> 00:36:36,079
of it and you don't have to
do it all at once. You can

496
00:36:36,119 --> 00:36:42,360
take baby steps, and there's ways
that you can micro boycott. For instance,

497
00:36:42,360 --> 00:36:45,039
you know, I have a list
of all of these woke corporations,

498
00:36:45,079 --> 00:36:49,079
and then you know, one woke
corporation will own like ten of your favorite

499
00:36:49,199 --> 00:36:52,760
brands that you know have become staples
in America and it can be really daunting.

500
00:36:52,760 --> 00:36:55,000
You're like, well, I'm not
going to be able to eat anything,

501
00:36:55,039 --> 00:36:58,360
you know, from the grocery store
because it's owned by all these woke

502
00:36:58,440 --> 00:37:00,320
things. But you can pick and
choose, you know, you can start

503
00:37:00,360 --> 00:37:06,000
small. You can just just do
little things here and there and then build

504
00:37:06,039 --> 00:37:08,639
on that as you're able to,
and know that there are so many people

505
00:37:08,679 --> 00:37:13,719
who are doing this with you and
that it adds up and that it makes

506
00:37:13,719 --> 00:37:19,199
a difference and not just you know, physically for you for your own you

507
00:37:19,239 --> 00:37:22,599
know, well being and mentally,
but for what you're building as a community.

508
00:37:22,639 --> 00:37:27,599
And it's really satisfying. And uh
yeah, just give it a try,

509
00:37:27,880 --> 00:37:30,679
try one or two things from the
book, and then you'll like it,

510
00:37:30,719 --> 00:37:34,920
trust me. And then as you're
able, you know, try one

511
00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:37,320
or two more things and and reach
out and encourage your friends and family to

512
00:37:37,360 --> 00:37:43,880
do it too. And yeah,
it's a wonderful journey to res mole.

513
00:37:44,199 --> 00:37:46,960
Thank you so much for joining Federalist
Radio Hour. The book is called Woke

514
00:37:47,039 --> 00:37:52,039
Proof Your Life is out in August. Can't wait for people to get their

515
00:37:52,079 --> 00:37:53,679
hands on it. Theresa, thanks
for joining the show, of course,

516
00:37:53,719 --> 00:37:58,960
thank you so much for having me
absolutely you have been listening to another edition

517
00:37:59,000 --> 00:38:01,320
of The Federalist you hour. I'm
Emily Jasnski, culture editor here at The

518
00:38:01,320 --> 00:38:05,599
Federalist. We'll be back soon with
more. Until then, be lovers of

519
00:38:05,599 --> 00:38:13,360
freedom and anxious for the fray you
got. You are right, we are

520
00:38:13,480 --> 00:38:17,159
You're wrong right