Why Are We Like This?

We talked with Ida V. Eskamani (@ida_v_e) about Florida's place in the war on LGBTQ+ rights, and the moving target that is straight-cisgendered hate for nonbinary people. Schools and scholastic sports are the new battlegrounds, and it all comes to a head with the passage of the "Don't Say Gay" bill in 2022.

There’s machine politics, and there’s micro-machine politics. In Florida’s state capital, you can find both right across the street from each other. 

Ryan Ray, Aide to Tallahassee city commissioner Jeremy Matlow, stopped by to discuss his boss’s efforts to address rampant corruption that has seen high-profile prosecutions and indictments. We got into the push to take Tallahassee back from a powerful group of political elites and a class of consultants who see public service as little more than their own personal ATM.

We also veered into the topic of how the City of Tallahassee's proximity to state power can be a toxic pollutant for municipal governance and the culture at city hall.

You can follow Ryan on Twitter @RyanRay_Fla. Ryan is also helping Josh Johnson in Johnson's run for Leon County Commission, so check out voteforjosh.org and lend a hand if you can.

You can follow WAWLT on Twitter @WAWLTShow.

This episode features music by David Rosen, @ByDavidRosen.

“I want you to make his life a living hell. Seriously.” 

The quote is from a 2019 email the chief executive of Florida Power & Light, Eric Silagy, about Florida State Senator Jose Javier Rodriguez, who had been a thorn in the side of the utility monopoly. Rodriguez was pushing policy reforms that would allow Florida consumers to more easily access solar power outside the confines of FPL’s monopoly.

One year later, Rodriguez was out of a job, the victim of an actual election fraud, where dark money operatives funded a ghost candidate with the same last name. In an election that featured more than 200,000 votes, the difference came down to 32 votes.

In this case file, we talk with Alissa Jean Schafer (@alissajean) about how FPL has affected political outcomes via media and elections to further their own interests at the expense of their customers. It goes deeper and gets dirtier than you can imagine.

You can follow WAWLT on Twitter @WAWLTShow.

This episode features music by David Rosen, @ByDavidRosen.

The post CASE FILE: Florida Power & Light’s Corrupt Election Hustle first appeared on Why Are We Like This?.

With our guest Jordan Zakarin from More Perfect Union, we dive into the enigma that is Florida’s Governor and his myriad scandals, missteps and misadventures.

You can follow Jordan @jordanzakarin and subscribe to Progress Report here.

You can follow WAWLT on Twitter @WAWLTShow.

This episode features music by David Rosen, @ByDavidRosen.

The post CONVERSATION: The Ron DeSantis Riddle Feat. Jordan Zakarin first appeared on Why Are We Like This?.

Following last week’s conversation and exploration of education, we talked with Jennifer Berkshire, a journalist and podcaster who covers education policy and politics. Along with her co-host Jack Schneider, she co-authored “A Wolf At The Schoolhouse Door” in 2020. Her podcast — Have You Heard — has helped many a parent like me navigate the recent acrimony and decline of public education in a post-COVID world. You can follow her on Twitter @BisForBerkshire, and you can subscribe to her show’s Patreon on patreon.com/haveyouheardpodcast.

You can follow WAWLT on Twitter @WAWLTShow.

This episode features music by David Rosen, @ByDavidRosen.

The post INTERVIEW: Education Part II feat. Jennifer Berkshire first appeared on Why Are We Like This?.

This is the story of a multi-million dollar heist of taxpayer funds into private hands that has played out for more than a decade and shows no sign of slowing down. As the school calendar flips throughout Florida, we look at how Charter Schools and “school choice” have successfully played into the American (and Floridian) dual ethoses of “freedom” and “choice, creating a system where there’s no freedom to fix what’s broken and the only choices are bad. 

We explore the powerful, well-funded political project that aims to harness conservative anxiety and grievance into an anti-education movement, molding American secondary schools into a caste system where the kids with means pay for-profit schools for the privilege of attending a decent school, and the rest get the underfunded, neglected leftovers. Sure, they’re undermining the public/community school model that has educated generations of kids, but who’s profiting from it?

Our guest is Jen Cousins (@JenCousinsFL), founding member of the Florida Freedom to Read Project, which can be followed on Twitter @FLFreedomRead, and the Students’ Rights Coalition, @SRCforEd.

You can follow WAWLT on Twitter @WAWLTShow.

This episode features music by David Rosen, @ByDavidRosen.

The post CASE FILE: Proud Boy’ing Our Public Schools first appeared on Why Are We Like This?.

Before its bloody and violent present, Florida had a bloody and violent past of colonial brutality, racially motivated terrorism, and politically motivated bombings (oh, the bombings!).

We spent an hour talking with Matt Christman from Chapo Trap House about how Florida became what it is today, and, as a conservative political project, what it portends for the U.S. at-large.

You can follow Matt on Twitter @cushbomb and you can find Chapo Trap House at www.chapotraphouse.com. The Chapo boys are coming to Fort Lauderdale’s REVOLUTION on Oct. 30, their first and probably only live show in Florida, so get tickets here.

You can follow WAWLT on Twitter @WAWLTShow.

This episode features music by David Rosen, @ByDavidRosen.

The post CONVERSATION: A People’s History of the Sunshine State feat. Matt Christman first appeared on Why Are We Like This?.

As a coda for this new show, we take a 10k foot view of why Florida is the way it is, the forces conspiring to implement creeping authoritarianism in recent years, the anti-democratic sentiment guiding right-wing “culture”, its status as a laboratory for the American conservative project, and how bulwarks like Miami-Dade, Broward and Central Florida are barely holding on.

And the whole conspiracy starts with one uninsured bungalow in Coral Gables… 

This week’s guest is Anna Eskamani. You can follow her @AnnaForFlorida.

You can follow WAWLT on Twitter @WAWLTShow.

This episode features music by David Rosen, @ByDavidRosen.

The post So, Why Are We Like This, Anyway? first appeared on Why Are We Like This?.

The true crime podcast where Florida is an active crime scene. Politics, culture, history, crooked cops, scumbag politicians, zombies and more. Join hosts Thomas Kennedy, Gerald Doherty and David Quiñones as we get to the bottom of America’s id and answer the question, “Why Are We Like This?”

Subscribe today and visit www.wawlt.com for more.

The post Why Are We Like This – Coming September first appeared on Why Are We Like This?.