Lemonada.

Hey, I'm Elise, the managing director of Pantsu Politics.

I started listening to the show after the 2016 election and then joined the team for

episode 264 in early 2018.

I've been full-time ever since episode 561, which was over four years ago now.

So crazy.

As I was trying to explain my job to my three-year-old son a few weeks ago, and admittedly,

not doing a great job, he somehow both thinks that I am a member of Congress and make

his Frozen Story podcast, which, you know, great options, but got to work on clarifying

exactly what that means for him. But I was reminded again how I never could have dreamed

up this career path as a child. I can barely explain it to my child. Now, I certainly couldn't

have imagined it back then. And yet, I love my job. It's this wonderful amalgamation of my skill set and my

interest. There's always something new to learn about the world and about myself. This job,

and just being a listener of this show for so many years, help me know myself better to better

identify the issues that I care most deeply about, to clarify where I stand on those issues,

and to continually work on what it means to live out my values in community with other people.

I am very proud to say that I have not outright yelled at anyone over politics since I started

listening to the show. Now, not to say I haven't had very difficult political conversations,

we all have over the last few years, right?

But I have gotten a lot better at leading with curiosity and articulating my thoughts well in those conversations.

Now, still very much working on managing my news anxiety, but aren't we all?

I'm so grateful to the team here, Sarah, Beth, Maggie, the whole crew at Studio D.

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