Summary

In this episode of The Zekely Podcast, host Zeke interviews Pennsylvania State Representative Michael Schlossberg, who discusses his journey in politics, the role of a House Majority Whip, and his legislative priorities. Schlossberg emphasizes the importance of local government, community engagement, and addressing misinformation. He shares personal insights about balancing family life with public service and highlights the significance of mental health advocacy. The conversation also touches on the impact of social media in politics and the need for active participation in local elections.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Representative Mike Schlossberg

01:59 Becoming The Whip

04:39 Crack The Whip

07:06 SEPTA

09:10 Let's Get Schlossed

10:47 Proudest Achievement

12:26 Misinformation

13:36 Family Life

14:49 Protection From Congress

16:42 Social Media Preferences and Engagement

18:16 Local Elections

19:13 Jack?

20:24 Something About You

22:06 Small Business Spotlight

23:15 Constitu-What?

25:02 Favorite Caucus

26:02 Club Caucus

28:03 Why Are You A Democrat?

29:26 Hope

30:13 Future Plans

Representative Michael Schlossberg Constituent Services: https://www.pahouse.com/Schlossberg/Help-Services/Constituent-Services/

The Udder Bar: https://www.theudderbar.com/

Full Video Episode Available On YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheZekelyPodcast

Short Clips Can Be Found On TikTok: @drzeketayler/@thezekelypodcast and Instagram: @thezekelypodcast

Hello, I'm Zeke and welcome to The Zekely Podcast. Let's talk Pennsylvania. The guest I have today is a Pennsylvania State Representative who has been serving since 2014 in the 132nd district, which is located in Lehigh Valley. As a staunch Democrat, he continues to fight for a fair wage, access to healthcare, and affordable housing for everyone living in the Commonwealth. Thank you so much for being here, Representative Michael Schlossberg.

For years, I’ve knocked thousands of doors all over Pennsylvania and poured my heart and soul into supporting candidates and causes that make a difference—from local school board races to national elections. The personal is political, and I take every election in Pennsylvania personally.

Where the mainstream media has failed you, I will give you truth and independence. You’ll hear from Democratic leaders, candidates, and change-makers who are working to improve the health of the Commonwealth, and it won’t be boring as hell.

No matter where you are, I’ll meet you with hope and a plan to make your community better one day at a time. Welcome to the Zekely Podcast. Let’s talk Pennsylvania.

Glad to be here Zeke, thanks so much for having me.

Absolutely. Look, I don't, you probably don't know this, but you're actually the first state representative that I ever met in Pennsylvania. Yeah. It was actually about probably eight or nine years ago. I was in Harrisburg at the Capitol and I was doing some advocacy work and it was lunchtime. So I was at lunch and I didn't know who anybody was, And so someone who was helping me navigate the arena was like, Hey, that's, that's Mike Schlossberg.

Okay?

So you were like getting food, just, hey, how are representative Schlossberg You're like, hey, how you doing?

You were very nice and you seemed very busy and got your food and you left. But you were the first I ever met.

I'm genuinely flattered. That's a good thing to have considering how involved you are now.

Well, we're going to have a lot of fun, play some games, so let's get into it, all right?

All right.

How did you become the house majority whip?

like most of us in leadership, it's a combination of skill and timing, frankly,

then from there was able to, you know, I guess prove myself to an extent. And then when our caucus administrator retired, I was able to move into that role.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, all right.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Then whip Dan Miller is going to run for judge in Allegheny County. So he doesn't want to, and appropriately did the right thing and the selfless thing. And he backs off of his leadership role and I was able to move into that one. So that's, ⁓ that's where Mike Schlossberg sits.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Got it.

So I have lot of visions of what a whip does. I mean, it sounds aggressive. It sounds like you put pressure on people. It sounds like you keep people in line when it comes to voting.

Right, right, right.

It can be, and I'm sure the moments will come where it has to be. But I think in an ideal world, the job of the whip is to get it... is to... make sure you have a good... handle on the pulse of caucus.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

to

build relationships with the individual members, in my case, 101 other members, make sure you know where they're at and build the relationships so they can come to you and say, look, I have a challenge with this. And you figure out ways to address the challenge or address the legislation itself. And it's, I laughed about it because people kept congratulating me on being whip I was like, yes, I'm the whip with no margin for error. I am a smart man. I make good career decisions. But the truth is that our caucus lets us lead.

That's right.

And that's something that I really got to experience last year when we started this journey in the majority with a one vote majority, which is the caucus understood the stakes and were willing to make compromises. Everybody from the most conservative, the most liberal members were willing to make compromises when it counted in order to move the joint plan forward. And we've got an aggressive agenda this year and I hope we can hold that up.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Got it.

love it. And do you foresee this position to be something you want to carry for a while?

I am lucky in that, and it's bit of a rarity in caucus conversations that we all get along really well. So as long as the leadership team will continue to have me, and even more importantly, obviously, as long as my colleagues will continue to have me, I'm very happy being here. Serving in the house is a dream job. Serving in a leadership capacity is the cherry on top of a dream.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

I hope to see you crack that

a long time to come.

As long as they'll let me have it, absolutely.

That's great. Well, look, we're gonna play a little game called Crack the Whip for the Commonwealth. So I want you to bring your best whip cracking noise to this session. Okay? I'm gonna give you a couple bullets and if you like it, you're gonna crack that whip. Okay? All right, so here's the first one. Expand access to Medicaid.

god.

Okay, I can do this.

Like one solid, a solid, a you know like multiple whips going, just like one whip, alright?

Mm-hmm.

that whip Alright, here's another one. Provide maternity leave.

that's absolutely a big, big priority of the caucus for sure.

Beautiful. Mm-hmm.

We need that for sure across the Commonwealth. All right, decrease medical debt.

Dr. Venkat has been a champion on that one. Unfortunately, he couldn't make it over the finish line last time, but I know he's trying again. And the governor, if I'm not mistaken, mentioned it in his budget proposal and it is in his budget.

Mm-hmm.

right

that's right. Here's two more cap prescription drug prices.

That's a challenging one because

we have a hard time doing so at the state level. Our options, and we really found this out the hard way over the past few years, have been really limited when it comes to controlling drug prices at the state level because so much is done federally. But you do have people like Jess Benham who are heroes on decreasing the role of PBMs under pharmacy benefit managers and hopefully making them more transparent, passing some of those savings on to consumers.

We gotta get it done eventually. And the last one here, protect access to all forms of reproductive healthcare.

Yep.

look at that shirt. This was not planned. Hold it up again, I'll read it for the listeners. Representative Schlossberg is wearing a that says, stand with Planned Parenthood. Love it. The perfect shirt to wear. Well, that one seat majority is what is really protecting Pennsylvanians from an agenda to strip those away. So I'm glad.

For those of you...

Yes.

Yes, Yep.

Yes, truly. We were, Republicans

passed before we took the majority, a constitutional amendment that would have said that there is no legal right to an abortion in Pennsylvania, among other things. Now constitutional amendments have to pass in identical form, two sessions in a row. We took the majority, we stopped it. As long as we have the majority, that doesn't move.

⁓ That's right.

And with Dan Gogunar being elected to the state house in the recent special election, we still retain that house majority. So I'm sure you'll welcome him warmly to the house floor.

Yes, sir.

So SEPTA, as you know, is struggling right now. And for those who don't know, there are going to be significant cuts starting in July of this year due to lack of funding. And Governor Shapiro already had a stopgap measure in place.

Yep.

and the House has passed a budget, but the Republican controlled Senate still hasn't really come to the table. So is there anything that can be done from the House's standpoint to kind of push this through?

There's no question that that's a huge part of the budget conversation. That's one of our top budget priorities. SEPTA has come a long way making the internal changes they need to, but they really do need state assistance. But it's important also to note this is not just an exclusive SEPTA problem. The Port Authority in Pittsburgh, Atlanta, which is the third biggest in my neck of the woods, and all the other mass transit agencies throughout the Commonwealth that are kind of the backbone.

of our regional economies that make sure that workers and consumers can get from point A to point B, they're going to face massive service cuts if we don't actually pony up. The House twice last year, or maybe even three times actually, passed a plan that would redirect budget funds to mass transit to make sure that they can operate the right way. Our Senate friends declined to send that to the governor's desk. So this is the make or break year. The governor did his short-term fix. He flexed the funding. Can't do it again. So now it's, you know,

Yeah.

do something or get off the pot. And I'm hoping that we're able to get that through the budget. But again, that's a huge priority for every house Democrat. Frankly, it should be a huge priority for every part of the Commonwealth. There are very few areas in Pennsylvania that will be untouched if mass transit fails.

Right.

100%. Like you said, getting to work and just the amount of money that is made through these types of jobs,

massive. It's going to affect the environment, it's going to affect traffic, it's going affect everything. Well, right.

Absolutely.

And especially economies and generating tax revenue, you know, for

as much as I hear my Republican friends say that they're friends of small business, what happens if people can't get to work in said small

Little, frustrating universe.

yeah,

it's not really a logical argument, but I just really hope that they will in the end do the right thing because we can't keep having these stopgap measures. But I do appreciate that the Democrats at least are trying to do the right thing. But now there's a wall that's been met and now Republicans have to come to the table.

Yes. That is correct.

Yep.

Absolutely.

we're going to play Let's Get Schlossed, okay? Yes,

It was really... no. It writes itself.

you're going to, I'm going to give you some scenarios and you're going to tell me whether or not you get schlossed, okay? Or we should get schlossed together, okay? All right. So here's the first one, a funeral.

Okay. Okay.

Probably not. That seems like a bad idea. No, no, no.

Probably not. Okay, not getting schlossed at a funeral. Alright,

how about a confirmation hearing?

Who are we confirming and why? I think that's

really the key question. We're gonna say context dependent.

Fair enough, fair enough. Alright, what about an axe throwing event?

God. so here's the danger. I have the coordination of a mop. So I feel like that's a bad idea, especially for a guy with my level of accuracy, which is unfortunate because when it comes to the capital softball game, I'm one of the more coordinated players, which is actually horrifying.

You

Uh-huh.

Okay.

Okay. What position do you play?

So I was short field which is like the 10th position last time although for the last game now we didn't have it last year due to the rain out but the game before that I was actually the coach I was doing it for the speaker and had the time of my life with it and we won even better.

Mm-hmm.

All right, here's two more. How about a spelling bee?

Yeah. Yeah.

Probably, if only for the entertainment value,

I actually,

one of my favorite gifts, someone from our early childhood education lobbying group gave me a shirt that said, let's get schlossed, something like that. So I actually do have that. I'm in the wrong outfit today.

Ah, so that's

awesome. Well, it would have a nice connection there. All here's the last one. Bar Mitzvah

Yeah. Yes.

Definitely. I've been to more than my share. I was at my son's last year, which was a lovely event. My daughter's coming up. So let's see what my daughter wants me to do.

Yeah.

Oh,

Maazal Tov. Well, I mean, should definitely got a little sloshed at Abar Mitzvah.

Yeah, probably.

what has been your proudest accomplishment while serving as a state representative?

I will say two things from a legislative perspective. It was we got level up into the budget which put first year $100 million in the second year, another $225 million into the 100 poorest schools. was a huge win for our poor school districts and it was my bill.

And it was in the second to last Wolf budget. was an idea brought to me by advocates because my advocacy for education, I have the Allen town school district in my district. is one third largest third or fourth largest district and fifth or sixth poorest. So it's perpetual challenge and getting that over the finish line and driving dollars to the poor school districts was behind me. have, call it my wall of happy. It's all my pictures and a good chunk of them are from the bill signing that day with the governor.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

But also second is probably more broadly speaking some of the mental health work that I've been able to lead. I've been, know, if anybody knows anything about me, it's mental health. I've been very upfront with my own experiences with depression, anxiety and suicidality. It's something I've struggled with my whole life and still do. And I've tried to use those experiences to destigmatize the issue and make real policy changes We've had some legislative success, definitely hoping for more this session, which I'll come back to in a second. But.

Mm-hmm.

One of the things I found out very quickly when we were in the minority was despite being in the minority, no one can take away your voice. And so I've tried to use my voice to make sure that we're talking about mental illness so that we're elevating it to the platform it needs to be. And then other people are having an easier conversation, maybe inspired by my own, to talk about their own mental health.

I love it, I think it's great. I try to promote mental health awareness on the podcast a lot. I have a therapist who I've talked to for years and I just think cutting through that stigma is very important. So thank you for that important work.

Yep.

Yes. Yep.

How do you handle as a state rep, misinformation and disinformation?

That's a great, great question because it's a challenge. You know, when that stuff really started to burst out of the scene in 2016, you get so overwhelmed by it and you try to fight it, but the simple truth is that you can't. I mean, it's like fighting a, it's like trying to shovel the ocean. The best that you can do.

and that it spreads that way.

Yeah, I agree. They say that while the truth is getting its pants on, the lies have already gotten around the corner kind of thing. Yeah, it's hard, but we have to keep fighting the good fight. I will. Tick Tock is going to come back around in this conversation. So just stay tuned. OK.

Thousand percent. Yes.

That sounds good. Yep.

How

a state rep affected your family life?

Good question. When I was, I was on Allentown City Council previous to becoming a member of the house. My son was 19 months when I was elected. My daughter was six weeks old. So they've never really known a life where I haven't been here. I know my wife obviously knew me. I shouldn't say obviously, but my wife knew me before I was any sort of politician where I was just a

You know, there's obviously the negatives. It's stressful. There's a lot of time away from home. but there's also like, they get to see, and my kids really get to see the value of public service and of trying to use a position to do good in the world. And it's part of our lives as part of all of our lives together. Because of my job, I've been able to go places and do things that have been incredible experiences. And I've been able to share those experiences.

with my wife and my kids, we got to see Kamala Harris when she was in Allentown the day before the presidential election. They've gotten to go places and to events in the Lehigh Valley that have given them some really, really cool experiences. They've gotten to meet the governor, to go to the governor's mansion, and they've gotten to see the real joy that you can get in public service. They know my son is 14, my daughter's 12. They know why I do this. They know how hard I work.

they understand the importance of public service. And that's pretty cool for me to be able to say.

A lot of people are looking to Congress right now to address what Trump and Republicans are doing, but I know legislators like yourself have been doing a lot of things to protect people in Pennsylvania. So could you just explain some of those measures?

So yeah, it is candidly, it's challenging. I know I'm going to a town hall on Thursday for an education town hall and one of the questions they're gonna ask, they were kind of sensitive, is what are you gonna do to backfill the education funding when Trump cuts it? And the answer is nothing. Like in a lot of ways we don't have, we can't, we don't have the resources. People will suffer if these cuts are out, if some of these proposed cuts are ultimately enacted.

But there are things that we can do to stop the worst of it. When he overturned Roe versus Wade by having a democratic governor and a democratic majority, can stop any attempt. Well, democratic governor is harder, but by having a democratic majority in the house and democratic.

Supreme Court justices, we can make sure that the right for a woman to access reproductive health care and abortion services is protected. We passed out of the House four pieces of legislation that would codify some of the more popular components of Obamacare, including being able to stay on your parents' health care until you're 26 and guaranteeing the coverage of preventative care. So there are legislative items that we can do, but we can't backfill dollars. We just can't. We don't have the money to be able to repair the cuts from the federal government. Simple as that.

and the bills that you passed to mirror some of the Affordable Care Act, that has not passed through the Senate yet, correct? Like you got it through the House.

You got it. We passed it out of the

house. We need them to do the right thing.

Right? So even though the Democrats are doing the right thing in the House, if Pennsylvanians lose out on health care coverage for their children, it is not going to be because of Democrats, but Republicans in the State Senate. So people have to remember that. People are shaking their fists into the sky wondering why is this happening? There is a reason for that.

Yes sir. Yes sir.

Yep.

I appreciate what you are trying to do in the House of Representatives. And I really hope that again, Republicans come to the table.

You and me both.

All right, here we go. What is, and I think I know the answer to this, your favorite social media platform?

you know what, it's actually a challenge. That's not an easy one necessarily. The answer probably is TikTok certainly to stare at, ⁓ to use. I'm going to answer this very deliberately. I loved Twitter. I hate X, but I love Twitter. ⁓ because as soon as Musk got it and slanted it conservative and, you know, made it all bot friendly and did a bunch of terrible things to it, it wasn't nearly as fun.

Really? Mm-hmm.

Okay. Okay. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Um,

Right, yeah.

I mean,

are you even married if you're not looking at TikToks in bed together? I mean, honestly, you know, just, you know, don't even talk. You just send them back and forth and then you usually chuckle at each other as you look at them together. Exactly, exactly. Well, I love TikTok. To me, I mean, look, I used to be a big Facebooker back in the day, but to me, TikTok's like Formula One racing, you know, it's just like straight adrenaline. Yeah, yeah, I just love it.

Look, it's my love language at this point.

Yes. It doesn't matter if you're in a fight or not, you just send them, you deal with them.

Yep.

So good way, that's a really good way to put it, Zeke. I'm going to steal that one from you because

it moves. And if you don't move, you're not good at it. And I sometimes struggle with being too verbose. So I've got things I need to work on over there.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

It's fun. think just authenticity is what you'll always win with authenticity on TikTok. You you can't go wrong.

Agreed.

Well again, there are elections happening in Pennsylvania this year. What would you tell people to motivate them to get engaged?

that what happens at the local level impacts you so much more than anything else that we do. Well, not that impacts you in a lot more direct ways than what happens at the federal level. That's everything from the books that your kids read in school to the quality of your roads to how quickly cops gonna come if you ever, God forbid, need them. Local government is the government that touches you the most and deserves so much more importance than it actually gets.

Commissioners, sheriffs, we have judicial races coming up this year. We have to retain three state Supreme Court judges and know, Elon Musk did his best in Wisconsin. He lost. We have to make him lose in Pennsylvania too because

Yep.

Yes, sir.

I'm really

excited about the prospect of beating Elon Musk in Pennsylvania. I mean, he's shown he doesn't know how to win elections, so I'm super excited about proving it to him again.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, he's gonna bring his million dollar checks, but we gotta make him waste his money here. yeah, I'm looking forward to that.

Yes, that's an excellent plan. Me too.

Well, I took a survey, Mike, before this episode, and the most common thing that people wanted to know was, are you related to Jack Schlossberg?

I get that a lot. No,

Caroline and cousin Jack and I are not actually related. It is funny. So that one started because his mom is Carolyn Kennedy Schlossberg because the daughter of the former president married a Schlossberg that I have no relation to. So no, sadly, I'd be a lot richer if there was a relation there. No, I've tweeted at him every now and then. Thanks for screwing up my Google alerts, dude, but he hasn't responded yet.

⁓

Okay.

Yeah. Have you ever met Jack Schlossberg in the flesh?

That's funny. I actually

met him during the election cycle last year and he is obsessed with mayonnaise and my only into yeah, he's like it's his favorite condiment Which I can relate. I mean my favorite condiment is honey mustard sauce So we don't I mean it's the best but I I brought him a bottle of mayonnaise and I gave him a bottle of mayonnaise when we met and

Okay.

Okay.

Same. Yeah.

That I wonder if anybody's

ever said that sentence before. gave Jack Schlossberg a bottle of mayonnaise.

I don't know, But yeah, so I shared a bottle of mayo with Jack Schlossberg.

Again, a sentence not often said.

Not that upset, but I have it.

Good for you.

What's something that not many people know about you?

Come on, give me something juicy.

I tweet too damn much, so I don't know what people don't know about me. all right. This is something that I don't talk about too often. Both of my, my son's name is Auron A-U-R-O-N, my daughter's name is Ayla. as the Goomba behind me clearly indicates, I'm a huge video game fan. Both of my children's names came from video games. Yep.

Really?

Okay, so which ones?

So my son's name Auron is from Final Fantasy X. My daughter's name Ayla is from a Super Nintendo game called Chrono Trigger. The Ayla character is a cavewoman that beats dinosaurs with a massive stick and that's my daughter. The Auron character is a wise, calm person and my son is very wise. I don't know how calm he necessarily is though.

⁓

huh.

He's more the Energizer bunny that runs around like a chicken with his head cut off. It's honestly part of his charm.

That is so funny. I mean, did you have to have like a caucus with your wife to hash out these names? the middle. Okay, so what are the middle names?

She got the middle names. We got the middle names.

People say, well, you're like, I've had like conversations with nerds. like, that's awesome. I'm like, yes, it's awesome on my part. Sure. But my wife is really the awesome one. Let's not confuse things here.

Yeah,

seriously. So what are the middle names come from? Are they like from a lineage of Schlossbergs or?

combination of family and meaning. son is Auron Connor. lover of hounds. said it's an Irish name. My wife is Irish. ⁓ daughter is Ayla Robin and it's the, forget what it is now, but Robin has the same meaning besides bird as my wife's grandfather's name, something like that. If I'm remembering this correctly. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's something I'm really proud of. Yep.

you

Okay.

That's epic. I'm glad I squeezed that out of you. is extremely unique. I love it.

by design.

That is hilarious. By design. Love

let's do another segment I enjoy called Small Business Spotlight, where you have a chance to spotlight a business in your district that you think people should frequent.

Yep.

That is the easiest one in the universe for me because I'm obsessed with this particular business. It is the Udder Bar, which is a amazing ice cream small business on 19th street in Allentown. It is my favorite one. We used to live literally four blocks, which is really dangerous to live that close to an ice cream parlor. That's good. Now I actually have to get my car and drive there. Best business in the world owned by husband and wife. Their kids work there. They employ a ton of people in the area and I love it. I can't say enough good things about it.

The utter.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

What's your favorite flavor?

Strawberry Cheesecake, they have this wonderful Strawberry Cheesecake Sunday. They have a delicious Moose Tracks or just give me plain vanilla and a hot fudge and I'm a very happy camper. Yes, yes, yes.

and all homemade, they all make their own ice cream? Wow, that

sounds, and are they all year round or is it seasonal? All year round. I get annoyed at these seasonal places, like how dare you? How dare you take away my ice cream? Yeah, that's just rude. Well, I like it. If I'm ever in your neck of the woods, I'm gonna check it out, because my family does not discriminate when it comes to ice cream.

All year round. Very, very all year round.

Yeah, I've never quite understood how they could do that. Yes.

Highly recommend, please.

That's good. That's good.

All right, let's do another segment I enjoy called ConstituWhat?

where you tell us some constituent services that you provide to your constituents.

All right. So my favorite thing to do with my constituents, I actually, and people laugh at me when they hear about this, I call my constituents 65 and older on their birthdays. It's like 20 to 30 minutes every day, 360 days a year. You know, do them a day early for Christmas or Thanksgiving. And it's a good way of staying in touch with people.

Really?

huh.

Cause they don't expect it. was like, look, no, I'm not running for reelection. just saying happy birthday. Call me if you need anything. And that will often lead to other conversations about either other services that we offer or someone's like, Hey, well, I've got you on the phone. What do you think about this? And it is, it has kept me sane because it actually gives me the opportunity to talk to normal people, not just someone who's complaining or wants them.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Did someone give you that idea?

Absolutely.

A hundred percent. was a probably, you know, was probably former representative Chris Sonato, think is the one who came up with, or who told me about that one. ⁓ it is, it is the smartest thing I've ever done is those calls and it, I've been doing them about eight years and it's really great because you become part of somebody's day. They know, hi Mike, you know, they know why you're calling and that's, that's always fun.

Who was it?

Uh-huh. What a great idea!

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah. And

only on their 65th birthday. And up. So, base, do you take notes on, so like you can say, hey, last year this was going on, did Mary have so and so, and how the kids, how the grand, yeah. That's such a great idea, I love it. no, but I think that's a wonderful way to connect with the constituents and kind of.

65th and up, I'm sorry, 65th and older.

Yes.

Yes. Yeah. I hope you're feeling better. That's a common one. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, definitely not mine. I wish I could take credit for it.

Yeah.

take the temperature of what's going on in their lives and improve their lives and bring that back to Harrisburg and pass legislation that help their lives even more. That's great.

Yep, that's the plan.

All right, you are in a ton of caucuses. Okay, like when I look at your website, there's like a whole long list. What is your favorite caucus? Mental health. Got it, got it, got it, got it.

committee.

mental health, but that's mine, so I'm biased.

Caucuses are informal ways of gathering information and getting information out there for folks. I've always loved doing mental, as I said at beginning, is real passion of mine and we've been able to use it to bring a bipartisan cohort of members who care about mental health together. And we've actually had some success with it too.

Mm-hmm.

That's great. How much time do you dedicate to each caucus? I think like 20 or 25 of them I saw in...

Yeah, and like being

a member of a caucus doesn't mean anything. Some caucuses are just, isn't this great? And that's the end of it. Some are more active and it really depends on your schedule. I can't get to as many meetings as I wish I could because there's just so many other things going on. But the one that I'm most involved with absolutely is mental health. And there's also LGBT equality. That's a relatively active one. Women's health and animal protection. Those are the ones that jumped in my mind as ones that actually really do meet and try to do stuff.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah.

Well, we're gonna play a game called Club Caucus, okay, where every opinion has a party. And I'm gonna name some caucuses that I just, you know, decided to discover. And we're gonna come up with some things with those caucuses, okay? So here's the first one, the Midnight Snack Caucus. Okay, so what would our motto be for the Midnight Snack Caucus? What think? We're gonna have to have a motto.

Okay.

Okay.

It's a very,

it's a very in joke, but we have a house rule that says you can't meet past 11 o'clock. so the motto there would be, there's no, there's no rules against midnight snacks.

I like it, I like it. And what would be our policy position? Chomp chomp chomp. And what would our annual conference be called?

Chomp chomp chomp.

ooh, I don't know, but it'd be sponsored by Hershey's. Yeah.

Yeah, okay, that's good. I'll take that. I'll take that. Okay.

I have two others, right? The next one is the free Wi-Fi caucus All right. So what would our motto be in the free Wi-Fi caucus?

Full bars for you.

that's a nice one. I like that. Okay. What's our policy position?

Bye.

Full bars for you.

And what would our annual conference be called?

I don't want to do it

You'll never roam alone.

Yeah, that's really good. I like that a lot. That was really well done. Yeah.

That just came to me, just came to me. You like that?

All right. And how about the last one? The Pet Tax Credit Caucus. What's our motto?

turn Fido into a credit's a little

Ooh. Yeah, like, I'm trying to figure out how to get a pun in around the world, around the word pet.

I scratch my, you'll scratch yours or something like that.

Your pet tax credit. Nah, I keep coming back to tax credit. I'm going to have to mull that one over.

Alright fine, what about what's our policy position?

for pets, obviously.

Tyra

obviously. And what would our annual conference be called?

Deduct this? Mmm, that's not that great. I can do better. It's been a long day. I can do better than this.

Yeah, we'll come with it. I think our

motto should be throw me a bone. Yeah, no, toot. I'm sorry. I'm not sorry, actually. Well, thanks for playing Club Caucus. Look, this could be a future. There could be a caucus generator where you just an infinite number of caucuses that we could have in Harrisburg. Everyone is welcome.

No Jesus, Zeke. It was awful.

Nah, I don't think you are and I don't blame you, honestly.

Absolutely.

That actually sounds hilarious.

Why are you a Democrat and why do you choose to represent the Democratic Party?

because I believe that government can and should do good in people's lives. And I think we should find ways to make sure that it can do better.

Like government has an important role to play. The role of my, the job of my party has always been to find out where to slot government into places that it can be the most useful and the most good to help everybody.

I agree.

Yeah, I think the most challenging thing today is to combat apathy. It really is hard to convince people that the government actually does work when it works correctly and when the right people are in charge. You know, it's difficult to drive your car around when someone slashes your tires and cuts your brake line, you know? But no one's saying, we're just not going to have cars anymore, right? Like, no, you got to just have someone that's not going to slash your tires and cut your brake line. And right now we have a party that is grinding down government in a way that is not helpful.

Mm-hmm.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

majority of people and so I think that the Democratic Party is trying to push back on that.

Yep, when you elect people who hate government to run government, don't be surprised when they screw it up.

Exactly. It's like that famous meme where you have the person riding on a bicycle and then they have the stick and they stick it inside the bicycle tire and then they fall off. go, somebody tripped me off my bike. It's like that's what they're doing, you know. How did this happen to me? Who did that? Yeah, I agree. Well, I agree with you. The Democratic Party does believe the government works and we have to keep pushing the ball forward.

Yup, I know what mean.

I can't believe this happened. Yeah.

Yes.

What gives you hope?

A lot of things. Despite the moment that we're at, I still have a lot of hope. And a big part of the answer is sometimes in a weird way...

really, and I shouldn't say weird way, but it's talking to my kids and them telling me stories about the things that they see and do and their interactions at school. I have to continue to think that younger generations will be able to save us and our job is to make sure that we best position them to do so. But at the same time, I will also say talking to constituents out there who say that they're paying attention, say that they're angry. They're still paying attention. It still matters. As long as it still matters and they're still pissed off, they're likely to do something about it. And as long as we have that, I will still have hope. It's when they say the hell with you guys.

them out. When that apathy truly kicks in, then it's time to go.

Right, yeah, we have to combat that apathy and show people that their vote matters and then we can keep moving forward.

Mm-hmm. Yes.

And my last question for you is, what plans do you have to get yourself through these next few years?

The answer is the

do what I can.

But I mean that in two ways. First of all, do everything I can. I am blessed to serve as state representative for the 132nd district, serving my community in West Allentown, all South Whitehall and a large chunk of upper McCungee. They have given me a distinct honor and I will use that honor to enrich their lives and protect democracy as best I can. At the same time, when it comes to foreign policy, the federal budget, you know, if Trump wants to declare himself Pope, like, there's only so much that I can do.

And while I can try to inspire people and help candidates that I care

limiting where you pay attention is really, really critical because you can't do things. Like, I can't control the federal budget process beyond what I'm trying to do.

to make sure that you keep your eye on the ball and on what you can actually control is the best thing I think you can do.

Yeah.

Yeah, just one day at a time, sometimes one hour at a time, if that's what it takes. I agree. I know.

Absolutely. Yep. Yes, especially right now.

Representative Schlossberg, Mike, I am so grateful for what you're doing in Harrisburg. Your vote matters. And even though I can't vote for you, I know that your representation in Harrisburg does something for me.

Thank you.

does something for my family, for the patients I treat every day. And I'm just eternally grateful for all the work that you're doing. And I have to say, we're going to collaborate a lot more on TikTok. OK, we're to we're going to we're going to turn up your Riz as the kids say these day. We're going to turn it up and we're going to have a great time. And I just look forward to what you do in the future.

That's a good plan.

⁓ yeah, that's a mediocre plan.

Thank you very much, Zeke. It was a pleasure being with you. Thanks so much for having me and thank you for all that you do to get the word out of what we're trying to do.

Absolutely. Well, thank you very much for joining me here on the Zekely podcast. Stay hopeful and get involved and until next time, let's keep building a stronger Pennsylvania together.