Combating Antisemitism, Aging in Place, and AI Podcasting
IN THE NEWS:
A recent report from Virginia's Commission to Combat Antisemitism made several recommendations to aid in its mission, including increasing police training and improving data collection on hate crimes. One of its recommendations has come under scrutiny, following a theme of the Youngkin administration: a recommendation to "prohibit indoctrination in public education." Thomas and Michael discuss what this means and how it misses the mark as an actionable tactic.
Aging In Place: one in five Virginians is aged 60 or older, and that number is set to increase in coming years. A researcher at UVA's Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service recently published research showing that rural people age in place at a higher rate than people in urban areas--and she also says it’s important not to romanticize aging in place.
AI Podcasting: This week, we used the aid of ChatGPT, and artificial intelligence chatbox, to help write the script for the episode. Some of its recommendations included new segments--such as a "behind the scenes" look at Virginia politics, as well as its own ideas for combating antisemitism.
At the Watercooler: The Family Foundation has some trouble getting a restaurant reservation in Richmond, and the remains of Confederate General Ambrose Powell Hill are set to be removed along with his statue in Richmond, marking one of the last Confederate statues to be removed from the state's capital.
Episode Transcript
Michael Pope
I'm Michael Pope.
Thomas Bowman
I'm Thomas Bowman.
Michael Pope
And this is Pod Virginia, a podcast that is now written and performed exclusively by an artificial intelligence Chatbot. Thomas, what the hell is Chat GPT explaining to the store listeners that have never heard of this?
Thomas Bowman
It's a free chatbot you can use. It was trained on basically everything that was on Google up until 2001. So good news for us, Michael, it cannot do news and current events right now. But this is just open AI, and of course, there are other options out there. But this is making a lot of waves because I saw it on Tik Tok. Somebody asked it to create an algorithm to solve world hunger and then express that algorithm in Python script. And it created it boom, right there with all of the like variables. And that got me wondering. I'm like, Oh, my gosh, what can I do? Like if it can solve world hunger? Obviously, it's not necessarily going to work. But if it couldn't come up with a brand new thought pattern and algorithm behind solving world hunger, what can it do for Pod Virginia Michael? So there's a lot in that there's a whole Twitter thread about this. What stood out to you in that conversation?
Michael Pope
Well, I actually have been asking this chatbot all kinds of questions, including what would be good, really good Pod Virginia topics that would be popular with valley girls in the language of a valley girl. So the AI spit out this stuff. Like the hottest Virginia politics right now. OMG, the craziest elections in Virginia history. It was totally the most scandalous moment in Virginia politics. Yeah, you can have a lot of fun with this technology. It's, it's got there's a lot to it. And you can ask it about topics that you want to explore in the podcast and topics that might get a lot of downloads and listeners ships.
Thomas Bowman
And what do you think about the script that it wrote for us?
Michael Pope
You know, the script I had some problems with the.
Thomas Bowman
This isn't public. So we should probably give a little bit more context, right? So I asked it to propose that new format and a script, where we interviewed former Governor Terry McAuliffe to talk about certain interests and laws relating to the ABC, part of Virginia, which of course, he is well known for being the first Governor to install a kegerator in the Governor's mansion and he threw a bomb as parties. I'd love to have him on to talk about some ABC stuff. So I just asked it to write a script about what that might look like. That's really fun. Maybe we can post that in our social media feed I don't think I've done that yet.
Michael Pope
It was hysterical. It was a script with, you know, actual language. Here's McAuliffe speaking, here's Michael Pope speaking, here's Thomas Bowman speaking. It was really funny. I think this fake script actually put some misinformation in my mouth Thomas, which was not happy about AI. My part of the script said that McAuliffe was a former chairman of ABC.
Thomas Bowman
He did you dirty; well, why are we assuming gender? Michael AI?
Michael Pope
Did you die? AI, whoever AI is right, exactly. But AI was really onto something there because that URL the in the very early days of the McAuliffe administration, there was a huge controversy with the ABC board, and McAuliffe fired the members of the ABC board and then he hired a Republican strategist by the name of Boyd Marcus, who had served as Chief of Staff and the Gilmore administrations. And you know, Thomas, those ABC board jobs that's plumb patronage, these jobs pay, like, $100,000 a year. So, yeah, people clearly want these jobs. And they've highly sought after.
Thomas Bowman
Well, ABC board Commissioner, which is the actual title, Michael, by the way, we should do a whole episode on that. That got blown out of proportion. But one of the issues with that is that the ABC board has its own police. I don't know if you knew this or not, but there's an entirely separate police force for the ABC.
Michael Pope
You know, I think we have just given a proof of concept here to AI, giving us suggestions about what we should talk about on the podcast because the ABC board was not on my radar. But wow, I think there's a lot there to talk about.
Thomas Bowman
It's a stressful position, too.
Michael Pope
So let's put that on the agenda for the future. And for now, let's get to the news. The Commission to combat antisemitism is now on the campaign trail. In recent years, talk of George Soros-funded prosecutors has a kind of wink and a nod to antisemitism. Last year when he was on the campaign trail, candidate Glenn Youngkin actually engaged in some of this antisemitic conspiracy mongering when he was campaigning, and Burke Youngkin said, quote, George Soros back to allies, quote, have inserted political operatives into our school system disguised as school boards. So now Youngkin is remaining silent about Donald Trump dining with a Holocaust denier former Speaker of the House, Eileen Filler-Corn was the first Jewish Speaker of the House, and she told Jackie Defusco of WRIC that Governor Glenn Youngkin needs to do more to reject antisemitism in his own party.
Eileen Filler-Corn
The Governor's silence on Donald Trump's dinner with an avowed anti-Semite is extremely, extremely troubling.
Thomas Bowman
So what's the Governor saying? Well,
Michael Pope
Before I tell you what the Governor is saying, Thomas, I'm curious about how you would craft this response. So the Governor engaged in this Soros rhetoric during the campaign. So there's that he's got to deal with. He did create this Commission. So you know, at least he's concerned about it. And then you've got Eileen Filler-Corn, you know, casting aspersions at you in terms of not apologizing for Donald Trump's dinner with a Holocaust denier? If you are crafting the statement here, Thomas, you would say the Governor would not blank; how would you answer that question? So Governor so and so would not blank?
Thomas Bowman
I won't dine with Nazis, or Governor Youngkin has no plans to dive with Nazis, and white supremacists is a pretty low bar.
Michael Pope
I think you actually hit it. I'm gonna play here Jackie Defusco saying the response that she got from the Governor's communication folks.
Jackie DeFusco
In a statement, a Youngkin spokesperson said that Youngkin quote, would not break bread with white supremacists.
Michael Pope
Yes, you got it.
Thomas Bowman
Right tongue-in-cheek wink and a nod to the religious community. Yeah, I'm on break bread. So like what he's saying with that wink and nod context, because, Michael, I do speak evangelical. And I know you do, too, right. So I won't break bread with them, which quite literally means he just won't have them over. That doesn't mean for dinner, right? So that doesn't mean he's not going to associate with or carry out their political policies. That just means they're not invited to dinner.
Michael Pope
So I asked the AI chatbot about strategies to combat antisemitism. So we've got this Commission here. That's their hope. The point of this Commission is to give you get Virginia strategies to combat antisemitism. So I said, Okay, AI chatbot give me some strategies for Virginia to combat antisemitism. So the chatbox came up with educate yourself and others about the history of antisemitism, speak out against anti-semitic comments, join an organization like the anti-Defamation League, engage in interfaith dialogue, support legislation and policies to combat antisemitism, reflect on your own biases and promote a culture of inclusivity. So the AI actually had a pretty fulsome here response to combating antisemitism. Let's contrast that with the recommendations of this Commission, which were the following add a definition of antisemitism and state law. That sounds pretty good. Increase police training that was not in the AI response but interesting. Improved data collection on hate crimes. Anytime you're talking about improving data collection, that's a strong win for everybody. Expanding K-12 lessons on the holocaust sounds pretty good. But then the last item here, Thomas's prohibition indoctrination in public education. What do you think of the idea of pro-prohibiting indoctrination and public education?
Thomas Bowman
Hmm, that sounds like 1984 doublespeak to me, Michael.
Michael Pope
So the report says this part of it says it prohibits indoctrination in public education. The Commission recommends the General Assembly pass legislation prohibiting partisan political or ideological indoctrination in classrooms. And curriculum at state-supported K-12 schools and higher education institutions. This is from the report, quote, In instances in Virginia and elsewhere, political advocacy in the classroom has been associated with subsequent antisemitic actions. A requirement of non-indoctrination would maintain or restore the basic neutrality of teaching in a way that protects Jewish students and others from being victimized by the politicized environment that some perceive as a license for hateful activity.
Thomas Bowman
Yeah, so original intent, that's.
Michael Pope
It is really interesting that the AI would have never come up with prohibiting indoctrination.
Thomas Bowman
Yeah, prohibit indoctrination and public education. That's the entire point of public education. And indoctrination is just a word. And it doesn't need to have a positive or negative association to it. Right? Indoctrination is like, how we teach you how to do everything. And then they've layered into that elements and civics and whatnot of like, doing the Pledge of Allegiance every day, which is absolutely cheap and devalues it. Things like that, or the moment of silence, which they got added as a substitute for prayer in schools, do a moment of silence now. And they just use 911 as an excuse to start doing it. So public indoctrination and public education take a lot of forms. But the original intent of this is, is to keep out these crazy right-wing or MAGA Republican ideas, conspiracy theories that, by the way, are not our values. These are not the values of our community. So we absolutely are not interested in teaching our kids anything that's not science and, you know, an actual fact and truth. That's not the point of schools. Right? Like if you want to teach conservative crap, do that at home.
Michael Pope
Well, I thought it was interesting that when I asked the AI about strategies to combat antisemitism, the second bullet point spoke out against anti-semitic comments and actions. And then boom, you got President Trump, who was in alignment with our Governor, meeting with a Holocaust denier. Right. So I mean, like, what planet do you have to be on?
Thomas Bowman
I like it a little better, by the way.
Michael Pope
We might end up replacing all our commissions with AI.
Thomas Bowman
Some consultant probably made $100,000 of profit, minimum off of that, whatever that thing was some consultant. I mean, they did a lot of work, and there are hours behind it. So it's not like bullshit money at all. That's not how the industry works. However, that said, they may very well have coasted here or subcontracted to somebody else for some of this thinking and writing. I don't know. Yeah. So this AI stuff is a lot more interesting to me. I gotta say.
Michael Pope
All right, let's move on to our next story. Aging in place. Now, I know a lot of young people listen to this podcast, which is great. Thank you for listening, but you will be inheriting a world with vastly more old people than have ever lived in the history of the planet. One in five Virginians is currently over the age of 60. And that number is only going to rise faster than you can say, okay, Boomer.
Thomas Bowman
You're so proud of that joke.
Michael Pope
Sol Baik is a researcher at the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at UVA.
Sol Baik
Interestingly, the demographic pattern of aging in place has been consistent in the last ten years and Virginia. So rural or older adults continue to be staying in the same houses as urban older adults.
Thomas Bowman
Baik recently published research showing that rural people age in place at a higher rate than people in urban areas. And she also says it's important not to romanticize aging in place.
Sol Baik
It is ideal for those older adults who have all the infrastructure and the environment surrounding environment that is supportive of their healthy aging. However, some older adults have different experiences, and they may stay in their places without their choice because they do not have enough financial resources.
Michael Pope
So this really hit home. Thomas when saw when I read her research on all this because there are groups in Northern Virginia that are they're called Alexandria at home and Mt. Vernon at home. And no, yes, I know that you do because of your work with Delegate Krizek, who also works with these groups. And like the whole premise is once you've reached a certain age that you should be able to stay where you are the age in place. And that's good for some people. But not everybody like that should not be overly romanticized. I think this researcher actually does a good job explaining why that's not actually good for everybody. And her research, something that jumped out at me was that you really see this in rural communities, you know, like people in rural communities that are, you know, over the age of 60, are way more likely to age in place, as opposed to going to an assisted living facility, or, you know, one of these villas, senior villages.
Thomas Bowman
It's also part of why rural populations don't often live as long as urban populations, and it's because you trip and fall down the stairs, right? And in a city or suburb where you might have accessible medical teams, certainly, in a retirement community, where they're going to be right there on call all the time, possibly even just working in the building. You got to wait as part of why COVID spiked in those areas because you still have church on Sunday, your social functions. And then, of course, nobody's wearing a mask.
Michael Pope
Do you know what else spiked in the senior Village in Florida was STDs? I don't know if you've read about the Villages.
Thomas Bowman
No comment on that.
Michael Pope
So I was actually trying recently; I was trying to go to see a live performance of a band called The Blue Oyster Cult, which I'm a big fan of the Blue Oyster Cult. So I'm looking at their tour schedule. And they go to the Villages in Florida, like multiple times on their tour, when the reason I bring this up is like the Villages, the senior Villages, which that is one example of that's the Florida version of it. I'm sure there are different; in fact, I know there are different Virginia models of that kind of thing. But, like, that's probably a much better option for lots of people than staying in a building that has lots of stairs, where if you've got mobility issues, you're not going up and down stairs really easily.
Thomas Bowman
It's also like, aging in places a rich person's luxury often because to make it nice, put it that way.
Michael Pope
One of my neighbors here in Old Town installed an elevator in his House. So an
Thomas Bowman
elevator I've seen when I would encounter Mount Vernon at home; one of the things they often do or recommend is installing things like stair chairs. And that certainly does help all of that stuff costs a lot of money. And, of course, you're talking about a population on a fixed income. So let's not like within their means.
Michael Pope
Hey, let's get on to the next thing that artificial intelligence is telling us that we should be talking about, which is trivia questions. So gosh, I would have never written this into our script. But artificial intelligence is telling us we need to have a segment where we ask each other trivia questions. So, Thomas Bowman, I'm gonna throw this to you. You've got a trivia question about, like, where the Capitol should be located. Right?
Thomas Bowman
Yeah. Imposed upon us by our new digital overlords. And by the way, unfortunately, Michael, they're binary only. It's a binary system. The AI told us this would be fun, so haha. Around a trivia about Virginia politics, okay. So I decided to take the initiative and come up with some obscure fact that you might know, Michael, and just, so you're aware, I did. I got straight A's in my history classes in college. I was almost a history major, but I did not want to write a 40-page paper, so I dropped that in my favorite political science. So anyway, here we go. Here's here is my fact. Richmond was never the planned final capital for the Commonwealth of Virginia. We have Williamsburg, then we have Richmond, and then it was going to go somewhere else. Now, do you know what city that was?
Michael Pope
I don't, but I'm gonna see, of course, Alexandria. Well, why should it not be Alexandria? That would be the obvious choice.
Thomas Bowman
God, That's so fucking NOVA of you, so NOVA. No, go back to when Virginia stretched all the way out west, technically to California at one point, then the Mississippi, Ohio, we had Kentucky, Virginia, and everything in between was part of Virginia. And so, the original intent was to have the capital continue moving west as the population of Virginia expanded. So that didn't happen. But what did happen is that the de facto capital, for about four days in 1865 after Richmond fell, became Lynchburg, Virginia. Yeah, the planned third capital for the Commonwealth of Virginia. That's, yeah, in practice, it was more like Danville, but it was technically Lynchburg for four days. All right.
Michael Pope
So speaking of artificial intelligence, it also tells us that we should have a behind the scenes segments. So Thomas, let's talk, you and I, about some behind-the-scenes stuff. I know that you have been talking to folks about the Marshall Newman amendment. Explain what that is. And what is the conversation going on behind the scenes right now?
Thomas Bowman
Yeah, so the Marshall Newman amendment in the Commonwealth of Virginia got passed in the early 2000s. Tim Anderson, Republican Delegate from Virginia Beach, by the way, we need to correct that from before, not Fredericksburg dropped a constitutional amendment to repeal the Marshall Newman Bill Newman amendment, which is a prohibition on the state recognizing gay marriages from out of state, but also from authorizing or affirming gay marriages either. So like, it's a ban on gay marriage in Virginia. And so when if the United States Supreme Court and it's like 50/50, that they would, if the United States Supreme Court, overturned Obergefell, then we are back into a position where not only is marriage equality illegal, but so is like your out of state marriage. So that's what the federal Respect for Marriage Act has done when that passes Biden's desk that will enforce the contract clause, but it will not mandate that states have to allow marriage equality. So the debate right now is, do Democrats want to just let Tim Anderson take this bill and get that through? Is that indeed actually on the table? That's a big, like, asterisk there, or is it a head fake? And then, do we want to muddy the water on what the message is, right? Is the message repeal Marshall Newman? Or is the message an affirmative rights amendment that we already know is not going to pass? It's failed in the past, recently, under this Republican Speaker in the General Assembly, so that's not changed. The numbers aren't different. So it's not going to pass; we already know that's not going to pass.
Michael Pope
So the choice there, the choice there, Thomas is, take the deal. That's not ideal. But it's the best deal that you could get at the time versus making a lot of noise and not accomplishing anything.
Thomas Bowman
No, it isn't that simple because you have no guarantee that there's even a deal on the table that could be used to hang over your head like a bludgeon. And by the way, that's just the first pass. So we got to come back and do it next year. So we would have about 18 months or so, assuming everybody passed it right away, where we were in that we still had Marshall Newman, but Obergefell would have been overturned. So that's like, it's not that simple. And so, do we want to get that process rolling now? Because of it going to take till '25? Anyway, we don't know if that is even really on the table for the Republicans. So do Adam Ebbin and Mark Sickles, who's been painting this resolution for years? Do they want to do that again? Or do they want to go after? Affirmative, right? So, by the way, big, special interest groups, the good people, large LGBT organizations, who fund a lot of these campaigns have said that Marshall Newman repeal, you want to do that, that's fine. But that isn't going to juice anybody up; they can't raise money off of that. And they're not going to be giving money and rewarding that kind of behavior, which is like a bottom-line human expectation. But if they do want to make a campaign issue of it, they can do that successfully with affirmative rights. They know that there's money on the table for affirmative rights. They know that they don't really trust the Republicans anyway. So like, if they get it good, they're still complications if Obergefell goes away, but all it will mean is that the law becomes silent. The Constitution has become silent on the issue of marriage equality, and that's not a bad thing compared to where we are today.
Michael Pope
Well, in my behind the scene segment, I wanted to talk about the ways that candidates will be selected in these upcoming primaries. So two Republican races that are worth talking about. The first is there in senate district 12, where you got Amanda Chase versus Glen Sturtevant; this is mainly a Chesterfield district that has a little bit of Colonial Heights in it. So we're going to have a primary to determine the winner there. It would be really interesting to see Amanda Chase have better luck in something in a convention or firehouse primary or something that was more limited. But we got, you know, an actual primary here. So does Glen Sturtevant actually benefit from that? And related to that, another Republican race out in the southwest at the House District 47, where we've got Wren Williams versus Marie March, is also going to be a primary. So does Wren Williams benefit from having a primary? Would Marie March have done better in a convention? Or in a firehouse primary, would be, you know, these are the kinds of things that are worth thinking about here as we move forward with this upcoming primary season? Which includes that Southwest seat with Wren Williams and Marie March. That's its own kind of center. Yeah, three-ring circus. You've got the indictment of Williams in that assault case; that's going to be Thursday of this week. So keep your eye out for that. But wow, there's all kinds of stuff going on.
Thomas Bowman
It strikes me that we have a couple of opportunities here for engagement. Right, so do you think that like you listening to this right now, do you think that Democrats should take the Marshall Newman repeal? Or do you think that they should go after affirmative marriage? Given all of the affirmative rights, excuse me, given all the risks? We want to hear from you on Twitter; if you're still on Twitter, on Facebook, or wherever you happen to be, tag us. And tell us what you think. All right, and we'll hold on similar to the primary Wren Williams versus Maria March; who's the favorite in that one? Same thing. Tag us, Pod Virginia. Tell us what you think.
Michael Pope
All right. Well, let's continue here with our theme of artificial intelligence and do another thing. It's suggested that we do this with this episode, which includes listener mail. So Thomas, go ahead and open up that Pod Virginia mailbag and tell us what our listeners are asking.
Thomas Bowman
We heard from a user on Twitter at Gabriel Bumble, who says he's interested in becoming more politically active locally, and he says, Being informed is a good first step. He says he's already signed up and listening to this podcast. Well, it's nice to have you listening, Gabriel. We hope you learned something and edutained. Is that the term we're going for now?
Michael Pope
Yeah, it's educational. It's entertaining. That's the mash-up. That makes sense. Right, edutainment, infotainment?
Thomas Bowman
Infotainment. Educational, informational, and entertaining. Yeah, we'll keep our eye on that. We're gonna be waiting to ask AI.
Michael Pope
We also heard from Jamie Lockhart at Planned Parenthood, who said that she loved her episode with Buckingham County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jordan miles. She says that the Board of Supervisors is fortunate to have him in leadership. That episode that we did with George Miles was fascinating in terms of gold mining and the potential, you know, environmental problems out there. And you know, in this continuing ongoing conversation about the upcoming primary season, he is a candidate for a House seat in district 56 out there. Buckingham County, parts of Fluvanna, Goochland. I think there are also a number of Republicans running, including a former congressman. All right, so Thomas, what are people talking about around the water cooler?
Thomas Bowman
Oh, Michael, I know you know this. But did you hear the one about the Family Foundation?
Michael Pope
Yeah. So like, they had a reservation at a restaurant there.
Thomas Bowman
Let's give them a shout-out.
Michael Pope
And at the kind of last minute, the reservation was canceled, and then there was a back and forth, and yeah, so kind of a high drama there for the Richmond restaurant scene. Right?
Thomas Bowman
You know what I love about us doing this at the water cooler and me bringing it up? As Michael, you sent this to me when the Family Foundation put out a press release; you're like, maybe we should talk about this. And at the time, I'm like, Nah, I don't want to give the Family Foundation and an identified hate group as any oxygen right on the show. But then everyone starts doing it because, haha can't get seated.
Michael Pope
I'm sure it's packed with walls now.
Thomas Bowman
I mean, like, yeah. Oh, yeah, it's on the list. We'll get maybe we'll get in, get a seat one day.
Michael Pope
So that works both ways because the Family Foundation actually got a lot of press that is I'm sure they consider it favorable to them. Yes. They
Thomas Bowman
They raised a lot of money off that, I'm sure.
Michael Pope
Everybody's went in and this parade, so hey, listen to something; there's something else going around.
Thomas Bowman
And what are you hearing?
Michael Pope
Today is a very big day for the remains of Confederate General Ambrose Powell Hill, who is buried underneath a statue at the intersection of West laburnum Avenue and hermitage road there in Richmond, the AP Hill Monument and grave dates back to 1892 when the Culpeper native was buried there, so the removal of the grave and the statues starts today, Thomas today's the first day of the removal of that grave. And so when it's gone, you know, we're going to have a significant number of Confederate statues. I mean, like, this is a mile marker. There are also some Confederate statues in Capitol Square. So it's not the last of the Confederate statues. But the fact that this one was particularly noteworthy is because it had the actual grave of the remains of the general. So yeah, this was a totally different thing, but it also involved a traffic intersection. So like, yeah, you got dead bodies of Confederate generals and traffic. You know, curb cuts at the same place. It's a crazy story.
Thomas Bowman
Well, Michael, you're we're running a little long. Do you want to wrap it up now?
Michael Pope
Well, yeah. Did we?
Thomas Bowman
Well, hold on. Let's just introduce the ending here. I didn't write this. Didn't you write this? Who wrote this ending?
Michael Pope
That would be artificial intelligence wrote this ending.
Thomas Bowman
Our AI overlords have informed me to say that's a great place to leave it. Tune in next time for a more in-depth discussion on Virginia politics.
