Part of the way all of these terrible things take hold is that we think we're alone.

And so one of the ways I stay grounded is by connecting with folks, by doing this work, by being in community with people.

Organizing is nothing more than asking how can I help and finding a few people to help you answer that question.

Hey y'all.

Welcome back to how to not lose your shit, a podcast where we figure out how to make a difference in the middle of chaos without losing our shit.

I'm Leponda Cousin, a part-time yoga instructor and self-care advocate,

and of course the chief people officer here at Red One and Blue.

And I'm Katie Paris, the founder of Red Wine and Blue.

Before we can really talk about how not to lose our shit, we've got to be real.

What is making you lose your shit this week?

The partisanship of the last week, the government shut down, having friends that are impacted

by the government shutdown and just like the chaos around the government shutdown. Yeah.

The White House answering machine is saying it's the fault of the Democrats. And it just all

feels so childish. And to me, we had this conversation

when I started and me feeling not political because social things shouldn't be political. And

I feel like people should be entitled to quality and affordable health care. And so that because

that is that the center of this shutdown just feels really silly and chaotic to me. It feels like toddlers are running the daycare. And that's kind of making me lose my shit a little bit.

I mean, this is why people don't like politics. Because when they hear the word politics, they think partisanship, they think

they're pointing, they think just playing games. And this is not a game. Yeah. Real people are

impacted. Yeah. It does feel really scary in this moment. I think to have a shutdown in the

middle of the chaos of all the wreckage right now of Trump

and Russell vote, who the hell knew that we'd have to know who our budget director was

...