Hey everybody, welcome to the Michael Steel Podcast.

Michael Steel is so good to be back in the house with you after a 4th of July break.

I hope you had a chance to check out my reflection on the 4th of July, the meaning of the 4th

and the context of everything that's going on today, plus my sort of take on the American dream

and how all of that fits together or maybe doesn't fit as well as some of us pretend it does.

But anyway, check that out. You can certainly download that on Apple Podcasts.

Let's ditch a tune in where we get your podcast on.

But we're going to shift gears a little bit.

We've done a lot in politics and certainly the killing of George Floyd and a lot of the big issues that have been pressing.

But there are some other issues out there that are very, very important that will play a big role in how voters approach the ballot box in November.

And certainly will play an even bigger role in how our country moves going forward into the future.

And there is a young brother that caught my eye. He was brought to my attention by a buddy of mine.

And believe it or not, this guy's turning heads and making some noise. And I like that.

That's kind of the brand I kind of play under is if you're turning heads and making noise and getting people to pay attention, that's always a good thing.

His name is Benjamin Backer. Binge for short. He's the president and founder of the American Conservation Coalition.

So senior at the University of Washington.

He serves on the Wisconsin Conservative, conservative energy forums leadership council and is a fellow at the Chapman Center in Seattle.

He previously served as the co-chair for young Americans for Mitt Romney and Wisconsin.

And he has been awarded the Grist 50 Forbes 30 under 30, red alert 30 under 30, and Green Biz 30 under 30.

So this brother is doing the 30 under 30 thing. I can't do that anymore. Obviously.

But it's a real treat having Benji backer here on the program. Hey, man, welcome.

Thank you. Thank you. That was the that was one of the kinder introductions I appreciate.

...