Living at Odds | 1. Two Partisans, One Corner
How To! with Mike Pesca
Peach Fish Projects
4.3 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 8 April 2025
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Living at Odds is a new How To! series about what's holding us together when so much threatens to break us apart. In our first episode, host Courtney Martin talks with two street vendors who operated rivaling merch tents at the same busy intersection during the 2024 election. Steve hawked MAGA caps and Trump-branded pool floaties just a few feet away from Sandra, who sweetened her sales of Harris-Walz campaign shirts with free "Kamala candy." After so many weeks on the same street corner, the pair negotiated an easy friendship—and even talked about politics. Then came Election Day.
If you're enjoying Living at Odds, check out these How To! episodes: How To Run for Office Without Being an A**hole and How To Talk Politics With Your Dad (Without Yelling) Pt 1
Do you have a problem that needs solving? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show. Subscribe for free on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.
This episode was produced by Maura Currie and Rosie Belson. Our technical director is Merritt Jacob and our supervising producer is Joel Meyer. Thank you to Sophie Summergrad for her help with this episode.
Special thanks to The Hearthland Foundation, which provided funding for this series.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi everyone, I'm Susie Weiss, and I've noticed there's just simply not enough podcasts in the world. So I'm launching my own. Let's go. Let's go, baby. Second Thought is a weekly show about pop culture. The stuff everyone's been binging, arguing about, obsessing over. Here's the thing about heated rivalry. I mean, even the most devoted swifties, I think we can agree, not our best work. We'll be hosting thoughtful conversations with culture's most important figures. Talk about genius. |
| 0:22.6 | Talk about generational talent. |
| 0:23.7 | Coming to headphones near you on |
| 0:25.0 | April 17th with a first guest you won't want to miss. Available wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:30.0 | Hey there, it's Courtney Martin, host of Slate's how to podcast. For the next four weeks, |
| 0:35.5 | you're going to hear something a little different in our |
| 0:37.6 | podcast feed. I'm hosting a series called Living at Odds about the moment we as Americans are in |
| 0:44.3 | right now, grappling with existential questions about our country and navigating a huge |
| 0:49.9 | political divide. So we'll talk to people who are living at odds with one another, with their |
| 0:56.6 | family legacy, and with the future. We hope you enjoy it, and we'll be back with a regular |
| 1:02.4 | how-to episode on May 6th. Here's the first episode of Living at Odds. About five months before the 2020 living at odds. |
| 1:21.6 | About five months before the 2024 election, a guy named Steve from Southern California went looking for a spot to do business. All that he needed was a patch of sidewalk in a highly visible spot in a neighborhood with a lot of traffic and a lot of |
| 1:30.0 | Republicans. He found all of that and a lot more in North Tustin, California. North Tustin is part |
| 1:40.5 | of Orange County, a place that Ronald Reagan once said was where good Republicans |
| 1:45.7 | go before they die. These days, this historically conservative area is actually purple, |
| 1:52.0 | and during the 2024 campaign, the local GOP was seeing increases in voter registrations. |
| 1:58.3 | So, to Steve, the intersection of 17th and Newport in North |
| 2:01.9 | Tustin seemed like a great place to set up a couple of pop-up tents and sell some |
| 2:07.0 | Donald Trump merchandise. Well, I live in Corona, California, but I didn't want to be |
| 2:13.4 | out in the Inland Empire in the middle of the summer, but it's 110 degrees. But also, by going to |
| 2:19.9 | Orange County, I knew that they had more money to spend. So there was an opportunity for more |
| 2:26.0 | product to be sold. Even better, Steve didn't need a permit as far as he knew. 17th and Newport |
... |
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