@soyouwanttotalkabout

well designed info graphics. If you're going to even attempt to engage in conversation with somebody who is of the fake news realm or the Q and on sphere, you need to know what you're talking about. And it's challenging to talk to people that you know are smarter than this, But approaching things with a level head is obviously the

best advice, and going in with facts. Spreading the news on nuanced issues has proven difficult for many, but she seems to have cracked the code with nearly two and a half million followers, and she will reveal her entity here for the first time right now on Righteous Convictions.

Welcome back to Righteous Convictions. Today's episode is unlike any episode we've done before, and it features somebody who has in a year done a hell of a lot to really crystallize the conversation around social justice and justice reform. And she's done it in a way that is really unique because she's hit it anonymously. This is actually a reveal.

This this podcast Today's Reveals, an identity reveal and well, as it says on her amazing Instagram, which is called at so you want to talk about she's dissecting progressive politics and social issues in graphics slide show form, and so we're year to reveal her identity, which has been a subject of much speculation, and also to talk to her about how she has done what she's done in this extremely short period of time. So, without further ado,

I'm gonna let you say who you are. Okay, I'm not the CIA, not Conde Nast, I'm just natally, just me. So here's the thing, So just natally. Since working on the Bernie Sanders campaign, I guess, well, I don't want to put words in your mouth that experience really shape your worldview? Is that fair to say? Uh? Yeah, I mean it definitely my current world view. I had actually worked on Obama's re election campaign, and I think that's

what got me interested in politics. On like more than just the baseline, like knowing what's going on, like really diving into it. But Bernie's campaign is what fired me up, I think, and then you started in it. About a period of about a year. You created an Instagram page that has reached its two point four million very engaged followers now. And that is remarkable because there's no pictures, right, there's no sensational videos, there's no cute animals. What there

is is just graphics and information. And so to give you an idea, and I encourage everyone listening to go now to so you want to talk about, but even the most recent ones, the myth busting, the fifteen dollar minimum wage, women who are getting ship done, wrongful convictions, and a subject that's near and dear to my heart, the Equality Act. But I mean, you really cracked the code. Jests. You've created a format that makes processing complex issues not

only sort of seamless, but also kind of enjoyable. So, so, what what gave you the inspiration to do this and what's your secret? Well, the inspiration came from phone banking with Bernie's campaign during the primaries, and I was speaking to a lot of people predominantly in Florida. That was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back, people in Florida conflating him with communism and saying he's a communist.

And I have older family members in Florida who were buying into that, and I kind of felt like, how can I reach these people? Well they read this, I don't know, so I just the first graphic I made was so you want to talk about Bernie Sanders, and it went from that. I think my second one was so you want to talk about Medicare for all? And it evolved now into these over five posts on the page almost now. That is what started it, and I'm

not really sure what the interests people had. I think just presenting something that's simplified so that you're not having a strain yourself to understand. Sometimes it's a little heavier, like when I'm talking about the death penalty maybe, but in general I do try to present it so that anybody could understand. So, now that I know your name, which I'm excited to know your name and and to know you, what about your background do you think led you to become this person that you are? M hm, Well,

I like, you know, probably what of the world. I have divorced parents who could not be more opposite of each other, and I spent a significant amount of time living with my father, who is maybe one of the most hateful, racist, ignorant people I've ever met in my life, and my mom, who is arguably maybe even more liberal than I am, And seeing the contrast between those two things was almost kind of like, which, which way am

I going to go with this? And I I obviously resonate way more with my mom and just my heart and my soul, I think, And so my whole life has been based around really rejecting everything that I grew up hearing and everything that my father stood for, and wanting to take action so that less people are like that, and so that people are not impacted by other people who are like that. That drives me on a daily basis.

It's the polarization that we're living in now. I've been living that my whole life, So I think maybe that gives me, I don't know, the tools to be running this page by myself, it's so wonderful to see that not only that you're doing this, but that people are responding the way they are. It feels to me from reading the comments and things that you're moving the needle on some of these issues. I didn't make this page expecting more than maybe the people that I knew from

Bernie's campaign and that kind of sphere. I didn't think it was going to break past that at all. Obviously it has, and it's I do this page myself. I have some great collaborators that I work with. One of my collaborators who does art for my post frequently, Alex. He kind of challenged me to add action items to all of the post and I think that that has

proven to be effective. And I think that they're reading something that's upsetting and horrifying, like Julius Jones's case, They're reading that and they want to do something, and then at the end M giving them the tools to do something like make these phone calls, sign this petition, spread the word, and so I think when they're more informed,

they're more willing to do something. That's why I made the pages, because I was becoming more informed and I felt like doing something about it, and I made the page. So the ripple effect of that has been rewarding, nerve wracking, but it's interesting. It's interesting to see this happen on social media. Are there certain things that we act more strongly than others? Are there certain topics and are there certain posts that have just gone way beyond any of

the other ones. The post that has the most engagement ever is the post that I have about abolishing the death penalty. And I had been in contact with Brandon Bernard's people because that was a case that was coming up. Um he was on death row, and so I made a post about Brandon Bernard and a lot of people got really really invested in that case because it was just so terrible. We crashed the DJ phone lines two times. The White House knew about the post, and they were

very upset that I was pushing people to call. But people were very upset and that obviously played out in such a horrific way. And I posted about abolishing the death penalty and really kind of went into the death penalty and the history of it and how it's not humane, it's so error prone. That's my most popular post on

the page. I posted that after they executed Brandon Bernard because I feel like people started to give a ship because there was a person that they could put to this now and now all of the cases that I've covered and tried to amplify on the page. Since have people have been very engaged with those posts. There's been some positive developments recently in some of the cases that we are both involved in. You want to talk about

Julius Jones and what's happening there, Jess. I mean, Julius Jones is sitting on death row, and there's plenty of people sitting on death row in Oklahoma that should not be. I mean, nobody should be. But Julius Jones is definitely innocent and there's a lot of compelling evidence to back that up. He has been fighting for two decades almost His team has been fighting for petitions. They have millions

of signatures on their changed out work petition. People say signing petitions is useless, and it's really not, and Julius Jones his team kind of proved that when they presented this what are they called legal boxes of signatures showing that there's this massive outcry from the public backing his innocence and wanting them to relok at this case, wanting them to exonerate him. So the update with that case

specifically is that they voted three to one. Just now to take up his case in the parole board, and I believe that's going to be later this year that they will take that on. So what's next, Jazz, Like, how does it work inside of your brain and soul? In terms of they're all these issues right? You could open up the newspaper any day of the week. How does the next subject land in your feed? I have a form in my bio on the page where people

can submit for collaboration posts. I love doing collaboration posts, especially if it's collaborating with like the legal team or the families of these people that need this attention. I don't see a point in having this platform if I can't do something good with it, but not have a list of probably four things I've jotted down on a note in phone of topics that I want to cover. Research and design takes like eight hours a post, so I generally get one post on the day because I'm

doing this and I have a full time job. What is your full time job? I'm curious. I mean this might be shocking to you, but I do social media marketing. Yeah yeah, so, Jess, why did you do this page anonymously? I mean, are you banksy or something? Maybe that's it. Maybe your alter ego is banksy. I don't know. Like as a matter of fact, it just started that way when I was initially posting, and I was one of very few people for quite a bit of time engage it with the posts. This wasn't two and a half

million followers the whole time. It grew very slowly, and then it really popped off when I was live streaming from protest Us during the summer. I didn't see a point of making it about me, or it felt irrelevant to have anything about me on here, because that's not I don't want to be an influencer. You know, I'm

not trying to sell hand lotion. So it went from being where I didn't feel like it was relevant to talk about myself to where I actively didn't want to be talking about me or revealing who I was because I was getting threats from people, especially during the election, a lot of very graphic, very angry messages from people who were very upset that I was not holding back about how I felt about Donald Trump. Yeah, I mean

it makes me sad, but it doesn't surprise me. Um. I mean, families we know are being torn apart by these very important issues of our day, and you know, in so many cases this conversation evolves into conspiracy theories on one side and there's news on the other side. Do you have any advice for people who want to try to bridge that gap. If you're going to even attempt to engage in conversation with somebody who is of the fake news realm or the Q and on sphere,

you need to know what you're talking about. And I have found the equipping myself with facts that cannot be disputed, perhaps having those readily available on my phone. It's just the initial knee jerk reaction is to just you know, what is wrong with you? Kind of almost like you're

lashing out. But I think everybody, at the end of the day believes what they want to believe and if it makes them feel better about their lives to buy into this bullshit that's been peddled, you know, these alternative facts that were made into reality for so many people. Is it's frustrating to deal with that, and I have dealt with that obviously on the page, but I've also dealt with that in my personal life, and it's challenging to talk to people that you know are smarter than this.

So my advice, I guess, would just be to take a step back and realize, like these people have been conned into believing what they bel You've given it's of the fake news roman, not the hateful racism role. But approaching things with a level head is obviously the best advice, and going in with facts and you can find those facts at so you want to talk about on Instagram. So I have a question. I ask almost all our guests if you had a magic wand and could fix

one thing, what would it be. I would fix this desire that people have to be willfully ignorant. I think that's one of the biggest problems around the world. But I think it's definitely an American problem that people actively choose to be ignorant about things. And I think if people were choosing rather to be more informed and to learn and be open minded and to be more accepting with all of what they've learned, I think we would

be in a much better place. So, just rumor has it that you have a book coming out, I have put together a book that is tackling all of these subjects that people struggle to talk about. I mean, I have the war on drugs, prison, labor, abortions, all of these controversial topics that people don't really know how to have conversations with family or friends or strangers about. And I'm very excited about it that's coming out in October of this year. Did we get the name of it? Oh? Yeah,

it's called so let's talk about it. Like the page, it's a toolkit for un learning and it will be available wherever books are sold. On that note, you know, we usually like to wrap up the show by first of all, thanking you, and with that, I would like to just turn my microphone off and leave yours on

for any closing thoughts that you want to share about anything. Okay, I guess to address my audience, I am deeply thankful that everybody is so inspired to learn that you followed the page, that you have maybe gain something from something you've learned on the page. Maybe you've taken an action

from the page. Maybe you felt for the first time ever like you can make a phone call and yell at a legislator, or you know, I had so many people who registered to vote for the first time because they felt empowered and they felt like they wanted to make a difference during the election, and I think that keeps me wanting to post, and I really hope that what I'm posting keeps everybody wanting to make a change or feeling inspired to convince others to make a change.

And I think the ripple effect of whatever you read on the page, it can make a difference. And anybody who tries to say it can't be activism if it's on social media, don't listen to that, because what we have done on this page, and I say we because everybody who has followed the page has played a part in getting it to where it is, and we have made a difference in the lives of so many people. And I thank everybody for participating in that with me.

Thank you for listening to Righteous Convictions. I'd like to thank our production team, Connor Hall, Jeff Clyburne, and Kevin Wardis. The music in this production was supplied by three time OSCAR nominated composer Jay Ralph. Follow us on Instagram at Wrongful Conviction, on Twitter at Wrong Conviction, and on Facebook at Wrongful Conviction Podcast. Righteous Convictions is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts and association with Signal Company Number one