Hello and welcome to another episode of IWave with Jameela Jameela, a podcast again shame.

Now if you consent some urgency in my voice, that is because this is such an important episode.

It might be one of the most important episodes I've ever had on this podcast

due to what is happening in America right now. In the United States of America,

we have the midterms coming up. Now midterms, something that I never paid particular attention to.

I know a lot of people haven't the media still isn't fucking paying attention to the midterms

the way they should. They should be all we're talking about. We're still talking about

fucking don't worry fucking darling when we should be talking about the midterms.

And we aren't really seeming to fully understand the gravity of what's at stake here.

Democracy is hanging in the balance and this next few weeks might be our last chance to secure it.

And if we miss this chance, we might lose most of our fucking basic rights,

especially those of us who are marginalized to be seen as full human beings in the United States of America.

That is not hyperbole. That is not exaggeration. And the reason I feel confident in that is that I have

the excellent Ashley Allison on this podcast. She is an extraordinary educator, a CNN commentator,

an organizer, an advocate, someone with the most intimidating resume of her activism career

that I've seen in a very long time, an amazing communicator. She is on here explaining to me

the gravity of these midterms how we can be involved, how we can help others become involved,

and how important it is that we use our votes that we have access to because so many people are

being increasingly denied access to the vote. And that is because our democracy is under attack.

So we have a very no bullshit chat together about what is happening, what is at stake,

I as an English person and someone who has never been politically active in my youth. And so I'm

still kind of coming to this now in the last kind of decade of my life. She has educated me in this

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