Tom Colicchio Visits The Why I'm Voting Podcast

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knew it was time to get back to work? Let's drop it up at career Builder are simple, customizable search tool lets you search for part time, full time, and even work from home jobs so you can find a job that fits your lifestyle. Get started now at career builder dot com. Welcome to Why I'm Voting, a production of I Heart Radio. Listen. You already know this, but it's an election year. You might already be tired of fearing about it. But here's the thing. Democracy doesn't work

without you. I'm Holly Frying, and I'm sitting down with many of my fellow podcasters from Will Ferrell to Stephanie Rule, as well as other luminaries to find out about their relationships with the ballot box and ultimately just to find out why they vote. I hope you're exercising your right to vote, and if you're not, I hope that their stories inspire you today. I am a very lucky person because I am joined by Tom Collichio, who you know.

He is a chef and a TV personality. You have seen him on shows like Top Chef, and he is also currently hosting a podcast called Citizen Chef, which deals with food and where it comes from the politics that shape that entire system. So he is an absolutely perfect guest to join us on Why I'm voting. Tom, thank

you so much for being here. Sure, thank you. My first ques gen out of the gate is do you recall when, probably as a kid, you realized that the job of government was something that also included a responsibility for you as a citizen. Absolutely. My father, UM was a union organizer. UM. He was the president of his p B A. He was a corrections officer in a county jail and he was a president of his p

b A. UM. I remember him campaigning for people who were running for Sheriff's department mayoral races in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where I grew up, and so he was very active in organizing around politics, and so at a very young age I sort of was taught that that voting was important, and so, uh, my first election was I remember my father watched a lot of news, and I remember sitting there watching the news and Reagan was on and I said, ask guy, sounds okay, and my father just kind of snapped.

My father never snapped. He was like, don't you go for this. This is your first election. We're Democrats. We don't you know, We're not gonna vote for this guy. And so that was that was, Uh, that that memory is seared into my brain. Um, I think right now in our house and I have two non voting children that are nine and ten, soon to be eleven, and a twenty seven year old, and they're pretty clear where we stand. I love it. Indoctrination from the beginning. You

have to vote. So does that mean that you were registered right away as soon as you could be at eighteen? Yes, I think I voted in that election, and I've been voting ever since. I don't think I've missed an election now. I may miss some primaries along the way, although I don't miss them anymore. I may miss some you know, other local votes and stuff, but I don't anymore. In fact,

I actually changed my my registration address. I have a I live in Brooklyn, but I also have a house in Mattatuck, New York, and a small little town out in Long Island, and so I actually changed my registrations out here where my vote counts a little more than

in Brooklyn. I love it. You meant Shion that you definitely keep up with local elections, and particularly because of the nature of the show that you're working on, I imagine some of those offices are extremely impactful from your point of view in terms of like the food supply. What do you do to research those people and make sure that the candidates that you want to vote for our upholding the ideals that you want to share and

keep going in the government? Well, I I asked the questions, but even for even for those that I don't vote on, for those that I support. I mean Antonio Delgado Um was running uh in New York. I think it was twenty one nothing, it wasn't twenty one nineteen maybe upstate in New York, and I was at a fundraiser for

for him, and I asked those questions. And I didn't know him at the time, And you know, the one question I asked him was was what committees what he likes to be on and he actually mentioned AGG And I said, so why agg He you know, gave me a great answer. So it's it's not just researching the people that I can vote for UM, but it's also researching people are support either with just social media support,

are with UM financial support as well. So I think, yeah, you know, for me, Uh, it's it's it's important to know where they stand. When there's an election coming up where maybe people think that the outcome is a foregone conclusion. Why would you say it's still important to vote in those Oh, it's not a foregone conclusion. Nothing is. Listen, this race is going to tighten up like most races do I think at this stage of the game, do Cacus was up by like fourteen fifteen points? Uh so, Uh,

it's it's never over till it's over. Although the national polls were dead on in the last presidential election, most people don't seem to realize that the national polls were dead on. UM. Some of those state by state polls can change pretty quickly. UM. And we saw that, you know, in some cases, uh, forty votes made a difference. I think a total of seventy votes made a difference. And so yeah, vote votes are are important. And you know, staying home and not voting is essentially the same thing

as voting for the other candidates. So you know, if you're a mcrat and you just were Bernie Sanders supporter and you decide that, well, you know he didn't he didn't get in. So I'm just gonna protest that you're voting for Trump. There's there's no doubt about that. And so this election, no one can stay home and we

need to get people out. You know, right now, I would say, not only do you need to register, you need to register to vote UM via mail right now if you can now prior to this unique moment in time where we are all theoretically staying home as much as possible, did you tend to vote on election day? Were you an early voter? Did you already do mail in? What was your usual set up? I used to vote day of nowadays I'm voting early. You know, up until this past mid term, New York didn't have early voting,

so I couldn't vote early. When I first started voting, I voted in New Jersey, UM, where I grew up, but I would vote the day of But now last election, I voted early, and I think some of the local elections I actually voted by mail, when since you vote usually ahead of time, I'm wondering if on election day you have any rituals as you watch the poll numbers come in, as you do you do that with friends? Do you like to be alone? Do you wear lucky socks?

What is election day like for you? I don't wear lucky socks, but um, you know, I don't have a ritual, although I do watch it religiously. A last presidential election, I actually spend at the Javit Center. I was kind of in an inner circle. I was a surrogate for the campaign. I know, for both of um the elections presidential elections. Prior to that, I actually watched them in my restaurant and had a group of people and that was really exciting. But no, I I don't, but I

typically glue to MSNBC watching the election returns. So you mentioned that you have two kids that are not yet voting age. If they start to get up towards eighteen, or even if they have passed that age and they're a little bit cavalier or maybe lack of days ago and not all that interested in using their voice to vote. What would you tell them to make sure they get

their butts to the polls. It's a hypothetical that I hope I don't have to deal with because I believe that again, we are we have these conversations about the importance of voting. My wife especially, she believes in being very direct and having these conversations at a very young age, and so our children know where we stand. They know

the importance of voting something that we talk about. So I'm hoping when they're a teen that they're gonna be, you know, chomping at the bit to sign up um, and if they don't, I will drag him down there and they can sign up. My eldest sons same thing. When he was eighteen, he signed up and he's very active and uh follows the issues pretty closely. So so I think if you grow up in a household that that cares about the process and we don't take a

cynical approach that it's all bs um. I actually, you know, happen to know a lot of politicians and and most that I know are there for the right reasons, and on both sides of the Aisle there. They are there for the right reasons. They are there because they do care about the process, They care about helping people. Most are there because they're there because they want to They

want to do some good in the world. If only we could get you to drag everybody who doesn't want to use their right to vote to the polls or to get their their registration done. I hope that that makes very clear to anyone listening who is maybe on the fence about doing their civic duty, that it is that important. Sound Collegio would drag them to the polls.

It's it's great to be patriotic on on you know, Labor Day and fourth of July and and all that stuff and to you know, put the flag out and to you know, do whatever you do to celebrate that and feel good. But but really the most patriotic thing that you can do is vote. You know, it's really special.

And when you see elections, whether they're happening in places like Iran and even in Iraq where people go and and are really you know, putting their their lives at risk, are actually voting at times it's important when you look at with the Sefarate jets, how to go through to actually get the right for for women to vote, and then you're just gonna kind of ignore that and go, eh, well it's not that important or it really doesn't matter,

you know. I I think that that you're you're you're not quite understanding what it takes to you know, what it means to be an American, and that's what it means. And I would go a step further. I would say, you know, before voting, get out there and go to a rally, go to a you know, if you get invited to a fundraiser, you don't have to spend money, but you can go and listen to someone. I want

to hear what Canada has to say. You know, the process of watching someone run, watching someone raise money, watching someone get out there and put themselves out there is kind of, you know, really humbling. Not only getting out and voting I think is really important, but really getting informed and right now with social media is very easy. If there's someone that that you want to follow, uh, you can amplify their voice by retweeting. You can engage

um with them as well. If you want being active in the process, not being active in politics, but being active in the process is our duty and and uh, that's that's why I vote. I love it. Thank you so much, fun for taking this time with us today. If anybody wants to follow you, where should they do that? Make it? Follow me a Twitter, I think at Tom CLICKI ar Ti clikio. Also on Instagram and you can also subscribe to citizens. You have podcast that I Heart Radio.

I hope everyone does because it's a really good show. Tom. Thank you again so much. Hey are you not registered to vote yet? But you think it's something you want to do? You may still have time. Voter registration deadlines vary by state, so to find out the scoop for where you are, check out a nonpartisan registration voting site like headcount dot org or fair vote dot org. Why

I'm Voting is an I Heart Radio production. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever it is you listen to your favorite shows.