Hey everyone, I'm Ashley C. Ford. This is Into the Mix, a Ben and Jerry's podcast about joy and justice, produced with Fox Creative. I'm whispering because we're beginning today's episode in a library.

We're here to find a quiet space to interview Antonio McBrough, the Ben and Jerry's franchise

owner and plaintiff in the Stop Woke Act case, who we heard from last week.

I'm not a businessman. I'm a business man. I like how you remix that.

And we're in St. Petersburg, Florida, because Antonio is spending the day with the city's mayor

to talk about business opportunities.

So we're heading over to meet with the Economic Development Board in the mayor's office around finding a spot in St. Pete for Primo.

And this is such a great team that has really leaned into figuring out how to grow St. Pete as a business center. And so there's so many

cool new developments on the horizon. We're interviewing Antonio on the campus of St. Petersburg College,

a small public two-year college. And we're in a very typical college library.

It has bulletin boards full of flyers for clubs and events with free food,

and some sleepy-looking students in school hoodies looking to get in some early morning studying.

Something else I noticed right as I walked into the St. Petersburg

College Library were two tables flanking either side of the stairs. The table to the right was

adorned with an explosion of rainbows and was stacked with books with titles like genderqueer

and call me by your name.

The table to the left holds books titled How to Be an Anti-Racist.

Banners hang from each table reading,

Happy Pride Month and Happy Juneteen.

Honestly, there are more than a few people back home I wouldn't be able to convince that I saw

these two tables in the library of a public university in 2024.

Last Halloween, we're sitting out front giving candy. And I have this opposition to ban the books

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