ft. Delegate Lorig Charkoudian (D- Montgomery County). Lorig opens the discussion talking about her 2020 legislative agenda. This year she has put in bills supporting economic justice, including: wage theft protection and retaliation protection for workers. She is also working on a medical debt protection bill that supports individuals who fall into serious financial trouble over medical debt (4:20 -13:00). Lorig is also looking to address climate change and energy democracy. She talks in depth about energy democracy and explains how climate and energy policies disproportionately impact low income ‘frontline’ communities (13:30 - 20:30). Arinze asks Lorig wanted to run for office, and Lorig says she wanted to be a champion for equity (21:30 - 31:00). Lorig says that “it is expensive to be poor” which prompts an extended conversation about regressive policies that exacerbate poverty (31:00 - 35:30); the school to prison pipeline (35:50 - 43:30); and the perverse economic incentives built into the prison industrial complex that makes little effort to rehabilitate people while incarcerated (43:30 - 48:00). The conversation wraps with a discussion about what true representation means and how Marylanders benefit from a more gender balanced and diverse legislative body (48:30 - 52:25).