Women make up half the population, but only about 28% of Congress. What would change if more women held office? At In Walks a Woman, we believe stories shape reality, and if we change the stories, we can change who gets a voice. This episode asks what happens when we rewrite one of the biggest stories of all: who represents us.
Our guests are Lauren Reinhold, the Democratic candidate for Kansas’s 1st Congressional District, and Matt Beat, better known to his millions of viewers as Mr. Beat, a former social studies teacher turned YouTube educator focused on history, government, and politics. Together they take us inside “the Big First,” the sprawling district that stretches from the Colorado border all the way to Lawrence, near the far eastern edge of Kansas. We also get into the big structural questions about how Congress works, and why it so often doesn’t.
Lauren brings deep experience in how federal services actually reach people, and a belief that Kansans have far more in common than our politics suggest. If elected, she would join a long tradition of Kansas women who have offered the state vision and leadership. Matt brings the history, the numbers, and some genuinely innovative ideas for opening the doors of government to more ordinary people, including women, and he explains the growing movement to Uncap the House.
Voting is one of the most powerful ways we have to change the story. Our own co-host, Sonja Czarnecki, serves as vice-president of the Douglas County, Kansas, chapter of the League of Women Voters, and we can’t say it enough: register, check your registration, and make a plan to vote on November 3.
A note on “care privilege”: this term comes from economist Misty Heggeness’s Swiftynomics. It means having someone else handle the kids, meals, and household, freeing you for things like running for office. Hear Misty explain it on our live Kansas Book Festival episode!
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