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This is our body politic. I'm the creator and host, Farai Chidea. Here on the show, we've

discussed public safety and police reform with data scientists parsing out how different segments

of the population feel about policing. My next guest shares what it takes to implement change

in real time.

Tashara O. Jones is the mayor of St. Louis, Missouri. Before that, she served as the city's treasurer and in the Missouri House of Representatives. When she was sworn in this spring,

she became the city's first black female mayor. I'm pleased to have her on the show to talk

to us about her approach to politics and what it means to her to be progressive and pragmatic.

Welcome, Mayor Jones.

Thank you for having me.

So in your inauguration speech, you said, I am not naive in my pursuit of progressive public policy.

What does that mean?

That means that I know that sometimes as I pursue progressive policies, that I will be met with resistance. So I am expanding what public safety

means in my city and really transforming the meaning of public safety.

And public safety is everything that keeps you safe in your neighborhoods and in your homes.

And some of the things that I have proposed to do that we're working on right now are adding more social workers to the police department and using a co-responder model where officers

and licensed clinical social workers

go out on certain calls. The other thing I'm trying to do is set up tiny home villages for our

...