It Matters

Bryan Vastano is an agent, and works at United Talent Agency (UTA). Bryan and I had the chance to talk about how the Coronavirus is affecting the entertainment industry, what concerts will look like moving forward, and what led him to work with one of the biggest agencies in the world. 

Congresswoman Karen Bass was first inspired to give back to her community at a very young age. Even before being elected to the California State Assembly in 2004, the Los Angeles native served her community as a Physician’s Assistant for more than a decade, even working as a clinical instructor at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine Physician Assistant Program. In 1990, Rep. Bass founded the Community Coalition in South Central Los Angeles to fight for justice and opportunities for Black and Latinx residents.

According to Rep. Bass, the goal of the organization was to “turn despair and hopelessness into action.” After transitioning to politics in 2004, rising to become the second woman to be speaker of the California State Assembly, Rep. Bass continued her fight in the U.S. House of Representatives. As a Congresswoman, Rep. Bass sits on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations, and is a member of the House Judiciary Committee.

I had the opportunity to sit down with Axios Reporter Alayna Treene. Alayna covers the days biggest breaking news stories, including the White House, Congress, and the 2020 elections.  

Comedian Shuler King was born Frank Williams III in Sumter, SC. Known as the kid who cracked jokes, Shuler knew at an early age he was destined to be an entertainer. Shuler grew up in a traditional two-parent household in the Bible Belt of the South, where his parents instilled faith, hard work and education in him and his two siblings. Comedy is his passion, but he took a rather unusual path to get there. Shuler graduated from the University of South Carolina with a B.A. in media arts; while at university, he joined The Mighty Illustrious Zeta Zeta Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Incorporated.

 His comedy career began while he was a freshman in college after he took the stage for the very first time at the NCO Club on a military base, and the rest is history. In 2013, he graduated from Gupton-Jones College of Funeral Service with a degree in mortuary science. When Shuler isn't on the road performing at comedy clubs and special events across the country, he works as a licensed funeral director and embalmer in Georgia and South Carolina, at his family's funeral business. As Shuler works to keep his family's business and legacy alive, he may be the only comedian/funeral director on the comedy circuit. He has opened for some of the most notable and talented comedians and comediennes in the industry. He credits his parent's strict yet loving upbringing, his harsh surroundings growing up and the state of the country today with giving him his "raw" comedic style. "Comedy isn't about being happy all the time.  Comedy is just as much about pain that people endure. When you hear 20,000 people in an arena laugh at a joke, it's because they all can relate to experiencing that same pain," he says. Shuler is one of the most energetic rising comedians in the business.

 He credits his unwavering faith in God as the calming force in his life, which keeps him pushing forward through the industry's ups and downs. His hilarious social media videos have quickly become fan favorites, and his video post about Donald Trump went viral and was even played on a U.K. television show. The future is definitely bright for Shuler.

Iverson had the crossover. Dikembe had the finger wag.  In the pantheon of Hoya legends, what will Jagan Mosely be remembered for?  He can draw a charge better than any player to have worn the Georgetown uniform in recent decades. He has a superhuman ability to predict the driving player’s path and get himself solidly into position.

No sliding. No turning. No flinching. He has played his heart out. And refused to quit.

Mosely sets and he waits. Then, the contact - he falls, and the whistle sounds. 

We had the opportunity to talk about his time at Georgetown, what it was like to find out that March Madness was canceled, and what it's like preparing for the NBA Draft during a pandemic. 

I had the chance to talk with Dr. Jonathan Metzl, author of Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment Is Killing America's Heartland.

In the era of Donald Trump, many lower- and middle-class white Americans are drawn to politicians who pledge to make their lives great again. But as Dying of Whiteness shows, the policies that result actually place white Americans at ever-greater risk of sickness and death.

Physician Jonathan M. Metzl's quest to understand the health implications of "backlash governance" leads him across America's heartland. Interviewing a range of everyday Americans, he examines how racial resentment has fueled pro-gun laws in Missouri, resistance to the Affordable Care Act in Tennessee, and cuts to schools and social services in Kansas. And he shows these policies' costs: increasing deaths by gun suicide, falling life expectancies, and rising dropout rates. White Americans, Metzl argues, must reject the racial hierarchies that promise to aid them but in fact, lead our nation to demise

Emily Tisch Sussman has been at the forefront of the progressive movement in America for more than a decade and is a leading democratic political strategist with over 150 appearances on cable news networks like FOX News, CNN, HLN, and MSNBC and whose views are frequently featured in national news outlets.

Emily serves as a Senior Advisor to organizations committed to driving progressive change through legislation, advocacy, the electoral process, and policy development including Swing Left, The Baker Project, a special initiative of Eleanor’s Legacy; Funny or Die: Glam Up the Midterms, and Vote Vets. Previously, she held the role of Vice President of Campaigns at the Center for American Progress (CAP), the largest progressive think tank in Washington, DC. She shaped key strategies to resist the Trump Administration’s harmful policies and turned up the heat on the Repeal and Replace debate as Republicans worked to dismantle healthcare for millions of Americans. She also worked with CAP’s youth outreach arm to cultivate young activists through Generation Progress and helped establish a Gun Violence Prevention Network.

Emily is a staunch advocate of women’s rights and helped shape the leading principles for the inaugural Women’s March in January 2017 as well as communications consulting for female challenger candidates in New York State Senate races in 2018 through The Baker Project. She served as executive director of Young Democrats of America, and as founder of Think Blue, an organization to increase youth participation in the democratic electoral process. 

Susan Del Percio is a New York-based Republican strategist and founder of Susan Del Percio Strategies. She has advised dozens of candidates in New York and elsewhere on successfully communicating messages to an electorate. Ms. Del Percio has served as a media spokeswoman on many campaigns, both political and corporate, and frequently appears on many local and national news outlets as a political analyst. Susan is also an MSNBC contributor. She served in the Giuliani Administration and holds a Masters degree in political communications.

In times like these, our nation could use a consoler in chief. The type of leader that could ease the fears of a divided country and calm the nerves of frightened families. Make no mistake about it, we are in perilous times. People all over this country are dying - alone. Families are grieving, never getting an opportunity to say goodbye to their loved on - alone. We are all (hopefully) sheltered in our houses, isolated from the outside world, struggling to feel a connection, because we feel ALONE. 

Any normal, empathetic, decent President, would step to the lectern, or talk to us from the Oval Office, and tell us that we’re going to get through this together. They would tell us that there will be time to reflect on how we could have been better prepared for this crisis, but our first priority is saving as many lives as possible. Clinton did it after the Oklahoma City bombing, Bush did it after 9/11, Obama did it after every mass shooting, but not Donald Trump. 

He’s not capable of it. That’s not a political statement, that’s a reality, a fact. So we’re left looking towards each other for support. So as you go through your day, be mindful that we’re all in this together. We can be a benefit or burden. We can be helpful or we can be hurtful. We have a choice. 

I chose to appeal to our commonality. To appeal to the kindness and goodness in each and every one of us. If you want to feel like you’re not alone and like someone is listening, I hope you’ll find a home here with us on the Starr report. 

KEVIN CATE, founder of CATECOMM, is an advisor and ad maker for progressive candidates and causes, including serving as a senior advisor to Mayor Andrew Gillum. A former 2008 Obama campaign spokesperson, Cate knows what it takes to win competitive, history-making campaigns. 

His work in 2018 was called "nothing short of brilliant" by the Tallahassee Democrat, and he's been called "perpetually newsmaking" by POLITICO, a "communications savant" by Florida Politics and a "multimedia wiz" by the Miami Herald. Influence Magazine recently named him one of the 100 most influential people in Florida politics and Florida Trend designated him a person you should know. Cate is also a nationally recognized political consultant, including providing commentary on cable news channels CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News Channel.