Summary

In this episode of the Zekely podcast, host Zeke interviews Dana Edwards, a candidate for mayor of Narberth, Pennsylvania. They discuss Dana's background in technology, his motivations for running for office, and his vision for improving the community. Dana emphasizes the importance of civic engagement and local elections, sharing his plans to address community concerns such as traffic, development, and communication. The conversation also touches on the significance of hope and perseverance in leadership.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Dana Edwards

01:28 Running For Mayor

02:25 AI

05:11 The Role of a Chief Technology Officer

07:24 Vision for Narberth as Mayor

10:38 Mayor May I?

11:57 Balancing Work and Public Service

15:30 Where's The Mayor?

18:08 Inspiration

19:40 Political Identity and Democratic Values

20:46 Experiencing Local Culture: The Dickens Festival

23:36 Scavenger Hunt

25:12 The Importance of Local Elections

27:04 Hope

29:04 Plans for the Future

Dana Edwards: https://danaedwards.com/

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

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

www.thezekelypodcast.com

Hello, I'm Zeke and welcome to the Zekely podcast. Let's talk Pennsylvania. The guest I have today has been in the tech space for over 20 years, helping to manage companies on a global scale as a chief technology officer. But now he is running to be mayor of Narberth, Pennsylvania. Thank you so much for being here, Dana Edwards.

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.

Thank you Zeke, I look forward to the time.

Absolutely, is this your first time on a podcast?

Yeah, this is my first. I've listened to a bunch, but this is my first time on a podcast, so it's pretty exciting. Let's see how it goes.

⁓

I'm excited to have you on. We're gonna have a great time, talk all about your campaign and play some games. All right, so we'll get right into it.

Well, let's talk about you a little bit. Why did you decide to run for mayor of Narberth?

Yeah, I appreciate that question. You know, when I was a little kid, I grew up in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and I ended up living there about 10 years. when you live back then, there were more power outages, more sewer problems, more just infrastructure problems than what you hear about today. And things like that, like lack of food, lack of restaurants, lack of just everything, really forces you to come together as a family. And you know,

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

You come together as a family, come together as like a neighborhood, you come together as a town. And that's where I learned everything about just how to be part of a larger group. When I came to Narberth, I really fell in love with it. But I saw a town that was going through a lot of change and one that I wanted to be even more involved in. And I felt like I had a lot to offer. And so kind of my background led me to be who I am. And then seeing the town.

This was the time for me to jump into the mayor race.

so you have worked with artificial intelligence to help optimize businesses, correct? All right. Well, we are going to play a game, an AI game, okay, where I actually asked ChatGPT some questions.

I'm going to ask you the same ones that I asked chat GPT and we're going to compare the answers, okay? Alright, so I have three questions for you. Alright, so the first one I asked chat GPT was what's the correct way to hang toilet paper?

geez, if that's the hardest thing that we ask chat GPT, that's a that's a good day Yeah, it has to come off of the front. I mean, that's the only way

Yeah.

Off the front.

Alright

I don't even understand it coming off the back.

I don't know why you would torture yourself like that.

Those people don't like kittens or cats or something. the next question is, which came first, the chicken or the egg?

I saw Neil deGrasse Tyson talk about that and I'm trying to remember what somebody way smarter than me said. I think his answer had something to do with dinosaur, but I don't really remember. Dinosaur is an evolution, ⁓ but let's go with chicken because that's where the egg has to come from.

Yeah.

Chicken?

Well, from an evolutionary standpoint, I wish I had like a good Degrassi voice, but I don't. The egg came first, alright? Specifically, eggs existed long before chickens did. Creatures that were not quite chickens laid eggs that eventually led to the first true chicken through genetic mutation. So evolution says the egg wins.

Okay, all right.

Hmm

man, I need to go back and watch that Neil deGrasse Tyson podcast. So, okay, got it. All right, I'll get it right next time.

So that's that one.

All right, so here's the last question. Liquor before beer or beer before liquor?

hmmm... alright, let's see

These are I really took a deep dive in the chat GPT's chest when I did these

Yeah, yeah,

I was expecting to talk about the touring test or something like that. All right, beer before liquor or liquor before beer.

And now, come on.

What is it?

I'm gonna go liquor before beer.

Well, the old saying goes, beer before liquor, never been sicker. Liquor before beer, you're in the clear. But scientifically, it's more about how much you drink overall and how quickly. Mixing types of alcohol can mess with pacing, but order doesn't matter as much as total intake and hydration.

Yeah.

Ohhhh

Okay, you have to admit that was a little bit of a trick question. You gave me A or B and it was C. That's all right.

It was a trick question. Yeah, it was. It was.

But that was a fun game we just played, right? Ask Chet. I'm definitely going do this again in the future.

Yeah, that was good.

Well, I have to admit Dana, anything outside the medical field I get lost. Okay, so you are a chief technology officer. How did you arrive there?

Okay.

Yes.

man, yeah, that was a long twisted journey. I'll give you the Cliffs notes on that one. Studied chemistry and computer science in school. That's sort of the chemistry was the love. Computer science was second love. Throw in some math there. I pretty nerdy. I mean, you can tell, right? It's all right. It was a second. math. Yeah, minor in math.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I mean, did you minor in math as well?

So you majored in chemistry and minored in math. That's what I did too. It's crazy. Crazy Dana.

Correct.

So went into computer science, formerly in banks, worked my way as a programmer, software engineer, kind of the manager, kind of went up the chain, and just sort of expanded scope every couple of years. And it turns out I actually like running all of tech for companies. And so it's really interesting job because it's

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

I've seen everything from no Internet to a chat GPT style interface. And so yeah, so that's what it is. So my teams tend to be like information security. They tend to be like programmers. If you work somewhere where they give out computers, we hand like business operations is what they call it. Data and of course artificial intelligence and front ends and it's like everything related to computers.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

for individual companies and I'm doing it for a company now based out of the UK and based out of Boston so Got a little bit travel in there. That's gonna start winding down a little bit. I think Yeah, but that's what a CTO is chief technology officer

⁓ Gotcha.

Mm-hmm.

I mean,

I have to be honest, I still have no idea what mostly what you do, but understand some of it. It's just, it's crazy. And it always fascinates me outside of the medical field, how lost I get. And I'm sure that the hospital I work for uses a lot of the technology that you implement, you know, that I just don't know that it's going on all the time in terms of, you know, interfacing with the computer system and whatever firewalls are protecting us from outside, you know, hackers or whatever.

Mm-hmm.

It's very interesting, it's just not my space, but I am grateful that you are doing that for lots of different companies.

Well, what are some things you want to do as mayor to make your community better?

think that when you look at Narberth, it's an awesome town. We've had some businesses come in, we've had some businesses leave, some have gone down the street to Ardmore. So kind like when I look at the first thing, the heart of the community is the people and the places they shop and the things that they do, the parks, everything around that. I think all of that kind of needs a facelift.

We've got things going on with the bridge. We've got things going on with Sabine Park. We've got parking and traffic and the master parks plan. The borough council kind of runs a lot of those things. But what I'd like to do is a couple of things. Number one,

Mm-hmm.

A consistent theme from the people has been, you know, people are speeding, there's no place to park, you know, people are running stop signs. I want to get all of that under control. And, know, our police chief, John String, is doing an amazing job. But as you bring more people in, there are going to be more people doing things. And I want to get that, just, you know, start a program around making traffic safer everywhere. And that has been a consistent theme. That would be number one.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Number two would be we've got a very active set of developers who are bringing in businesses. And I want to make sure that the community understands things that are going on. Why are things moving at the pace they're moving? Sometimes they'll move fast, sometimes slow. Things have been a little bit slower because of COVID and all that. And that communication broke down. having worked in banks, so I always work in technology, but having worked in banks, I understand how the loan system works, how the

Mm-hmm.

and just how it works to get things built. So I feel like I can be that in between for the two, but really represent the people to the developers and to the people bringing those businesses in. And then I think third, we've got a set of problems around transit-oriented development, affordable housing, SEPTA, in general, just modes of transportation and people where they can live.

I think that's a really complex problem. And it's one that requires kind of everybody in the community chiming in, telling us what they want. Do you want an apartment building? Do you not want an apartment building? Do you want more parking? Do not want more parking? Do you want the train? More buses or whatever it happens to be. Believe it or not, in the last two weeks, there have been a whole bunch of people telling me they don't want the bridge fixed. so, you know, it's, I think that I want to get all of those opinions, bring them all out.

Mm-hmm.

and work with Borough Council to get, you know, like refresh the 2040 master plan and get that out, get it communicated to the people. And, you know, quite frankly, let's just get moving on it and break all those big projects into small projects so that we can see the progress. I think it's a lot easier to do a whole bunch of little things than it is to like say, you know, we're going to do this one big project and it's going to take five years because people get restless. And so I throw a whole bunch of things out there, but, you know, it's

Mm-hmm.

It's a passion that just really uplifting everything about the community.

Yeah, definitely parking could be better in Narberth for sure. I mean, I enjoy taking my kids to the park there. And when we go to the main street to do things, it is difficult to find parking. So that would be great for the community. And certainly if there's a new ice cream store, I want to be able to find a place to park. That'd be really enjoyable. Yes, I know. Yes, of course. Well, stay tuned for that.

We do have an amazing ice cream store in Ginny's,

Well, we're play another game called mayor may I all right ⁓ a true true false of what you could ask of your mayor, okay? So Let's say I want to have trash collection occur every other day. Could you do that for me mayor Edwards?

Okay.

Okay.

Borough Council. That's going to be Borough Council. But when people see this and they hear that answer, please come to me and tell me that intend to be not only a person pushing on Borough Council and being pushed by Borough Council, but I want to bring that in. real answer is no, I can't do that. would be Borough Council. But tell me anyway.

borough council. Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Got it.

All

right, so there you go. Indirectly you can influence up, but not directly. How about, I'd like to organize a monthly food drive for those in need in the community.

Yeah, I can help there.

you can even help with that. Okay.

And the last one is, want a permit to build a pool in my backyard.

Edwards, can you just sign off on that for me?

Well, if I get invited to the pool, no, I don't know. Nope, you know, that is going to go through zoning and the planning commission. And those are all parts the borough council. Yeah. Yeah.

Uh-huh. Mm-hmm. The Burr borough council, I understand what you meant. Yeah, all right.

Well, thank you for playing Mayor May I. I'm sure you're gonna get a lot of very interesting requests from your constituents when the time comes and you're gonna have to bounce all those things off of them. So I'm just getting you ready. Just getting you ready for the, give me some softball questions.

Yeah, I appreciate it.

how will you balance your current job while being a mayor?

Yeah, that is a fair question. I've got a lot of flexibility in my job.

course work is going to take 8 hours a day, 9 hours a day, right? I have luxury or not luxury depending on how you're looking at it to work UK hours work US hours and they're very flexible.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

It is amazing working for a B Corp because they really understand people and they understand like the whole picture of somebody's

What is it called?

It's called a B-Core? What's a B-Corp? ⁓

B Corp. is

a certification actually that started in Philadelphia ⁓ by the makers of And One. Yeah. And so I don't remember the person's name, but what they said was, you know, the story goes something like he created the tennis shoe and the tennis shoe was great. And then, you know, he sold it to another company, Nike.

Okay.

I saw a documentary on that ⁓ company. Okay, okay, so go on.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

and then he sold it to Nike saying that,

sell it to you if you treat us the way I was treating us. Then when he went and sold it to Nike, they corporate it a little bit for lack of a better term. Then employee satisfaction went down, caring about the environment went down, caring about social issues went down. Then he said, okay, great, I'll buy the company back, but I'm to do it this way and like,

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

have all these things, these measures. So B Corp is a set of measures looking at how you run your company both like financially, socially, employee wise, know, like are you taking care of the environment? And simply business is just amazing with that

Mm-hmm.

So not

every corporation is a B Corp. ⁓ So you would think that every corporation would want to be a B Corp, right? Like to think about the environment and treat your employees well, but this is like, you have to be labeled a good corporation.

That's correct.

You do. It's like a multi-year process to get certified too. You can't just treat your employees and do social things for a year and then you get a stamp. You've got to do it for a little while and prove

Mm-hmm.

Interesting.

it. It's proof that you can get profits and hit all the ESG things all at once, and it's a great company.

Mm-hmm. yes.

Yes. She you got it. You got like bring them to speed on these ESG

Well,

that one's not a technology term, environment, social, and government.

Okay, there you

don't test me, Dana. I'm gonna start throwing medical terminology at you just to get you tripped up,

I fail. I had my appendix removed

so I know what an appendix is. Yeah.

That would be an APPY, how we abbreviate that in the

hospitals. There you go. So, go ahead.

And so

work has been really good about all of this. They give me the time to do what I need to

Mm-hmm.

It was the first place that had an extended paternity leave when I had my baby. And they really pushed me out, like, no, no, you have to go take care of your baby. And they just really look after people. they're caring. My wife is very supportive of this. She sees the passion. She knows that I care about people, communities, and small businesses.

Mm-hmm.

So really it's a great time. Everybody from all dimensions is supporting me and I think I'll be able to do it.

Yeah,

it's really refreshing actually to hear a job treat someone that way. Because you don't really hear a lot about that in the States, but to have your business in the UK really push you to take that time off and have paternity leave, I hope that eventually in America we have that same type of ideology. So that's really great. I'm glad that your job is going to be supportive of this endeavor of yours.

Mm-hmm.

I appreciate that. Yeah, I am too. It's exciting. I'm really looking forward to it.

Yeah,

that is exciting.

there are 2,560 municipalities in Pennsylvania, which that includes cities, boroughs, and townships. And I did a Google search, and I could actually not find out how many mayors existed in Pennsylvania, which is kind of crazy, right? You'd think that'd be like a chip shot for Google. so much. Well, we are going to play a game called Where's the Mayor? Pennsylvania Edition, okay?

Hmm.

Gosh.

no. Okay.

So if you don't know this out of the gate, it can be multiple choice, okay? This mayor made headlines, national headlines for declaring their city a sanctuary city and has been a vocal advocate for progressive policies in the Lehigh Valley. So do know who the mayor is? Where the mayor is?

Alright.

no, I think I'm gonna fail these.

Alright, well I'll make it multiple

choice, okay? Is it Matt Turk of Reading, Ed Ganey of Pittsburgh, J. William Reynolds in Bethlehem, or Deneen Soros in Lancaster?

Let's go with Pittsburgh.

It's J. William Reynolds in Bethlehem. Bethlehem. Yeah, it's okay. got those three. you get best of three, okay? All right. This Western Pennsylvania mayor became the first black mayor of a major Pennsylvania city in 2022. You know that one out of the gate?

Bethlehem...oh shoot...yeah...

Okay.

Spetsberg I'm gonna but I don't know his name. I could see his face, but I don't know his name

It is.

Okay, well i'll

just tell you the names in okay, derek slaughter ed ganey michael lammer sheryl parker ed ganey You got it ed ganey in pittsburgh. Very good. And here's the last one This mayor represents the electric city made famous by the office the show the office And is the city's first woman to hold the office All right so It is it is scranton so you got that part so i'll just tell you the names again, okay?

Ed Gainey. ⁓

Well, I know it's granting, but I can't, yeah.

Is it Kathy Sheehan, Paige Cognetti, Matt Turek, or Ed Gainey? So you know it's not Ed Gainey, right? Because you know that one. Yeah, OK. ⁓

It's not again. He's out of Pittsburgh. Yeah.

man, tell me the first two names again.

Kathy Sheehan, Paige Cognetti, or Matt Turek.

I guess kind of like Matt Turk is a giveaway because I did say it was a woman. So it's either the first two, Kathy Sheehan or Paige Cognetti. It's Paige Cognetti? There you go. There you go. You got it. And I might not be pronouncing her name correctly. It might be Cognetti. I might be butchering that, which I historically do on this show and in life. But yeah, so there you go. You just played Where's the Mayor? Pennsylvania Edition and soon to be

Let's go with Kathy Sheehan.

And that page cards negative, what did say? Yeah.

Dana Edwards in Narberth Pennsylvania.

I so. What I learned out of that is I need to learn more about all the mayors. There are a lot of mayors though.

I mean, I

think you can have a light obsession now with finding out all the mayors in Pennsylvania because you're not going to be able to find it on Google. So you're going to have to start a little list by

Who is someone that inspires you?

Back in the day, I would have said Albert Einstein. mean, just because

he, because I was so science obsessed and he,

huh.

you know, he always said, you know, it's not that I'm smarter than everyone. It's that, you know, I could just stay focused on things longer. And I just love that because it, you know, it tells you that there's the opportunity for everybody to kind of do what they want and solve problems. And then of course I love Alan Turing. So Alan Turing being, you know, the, the, father of the Turing test and kind of the father of

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

modern artificial intelligence. He broke a lot of different barriers and if you don't know much about him, should definitely read about him.

Mm-hmm.

Oh yeah,

I'm just gonna look into him. Well, did you know that you can actually visit a part of Albert Einstein in Philadelphia? Yeah, you can. So you can go, you ever been to the Mütter Museum? Have you ever heard of the Mütter Museum? Yeah, so there are actual slices of his brain that are in the Mütter Museum. Now, they do rotate the exhibits, so it's possible that it's not there anymore.

No, what? Tell me more about that.

I've heard of the Mütter Museum, but I've not been.

my gosh.

Hmm

But

when I was there a year ago, I think, or two years ago, that it was on display. Yeah. So after he passed away, they actually dissected his brain because he's so brilliant. And the Mütter Museum had some of the slices on display.

I love that.

I also like how you brought in the medical piece to science and yeah.

There you go. Well, if

you don't have a strong constitution about you, I would not recommend going to the Mütter Museum because they have a lot of really abstract medical stuff on display, like things in canisters. It's not for the faint of heart. So, yeah, you definitely should only go if you maybe don't eat breakfast,

Hmm.

Why are you a registered Democrat and why did you decide to represent the Democratic Party?

Yeah, I think, you know, I've been a lifelong Democrat and, you know, clearly what it means to be a Democrat has shifted over the time since I first registered and first started thinking about being a Democrat. But like the modern version really resonates with me. So the modern version for me is all about like things like free elections. I think free elections are very important because I think people should have the say. I think that like, you know, it's just it is the core of

And I think another big piece to

the democratic platform that really resonates with me is just how you treat

it's that concept of everybody is important and everybody should be treated equally, fairly. And I just don't see that with the other parties.

When you put together sort of the foundations of the Democratic Party, I kind of put those three things as the three big ones for me, treating people fairly, free and fair elections, and a focus on education. That's what really does it for me, because those are like the base of just a good society for me.

education.

Well, I am very happy that you are a Democrat and that you do represent the Democratic Party. So thank you very much.

Thank you.

Well, tell me about your first Dickens experience, which of course I'm talking about the Dickens Festival. And for those who don't know, each December, the town of Narberth is transformed into 1840s London as Ebenezer Scrooge, Tiny Tim, and all the characters from A Christmas Carol roam the streets for an afternoon honoring Charles Dickens. So.

Mmm. ⁓

yeah.

What was your first experience? What do you remember about your first Dickens Festival?

My very first experience with the Dickens Festival was coming back from London for work. I got on a plane in London Heathrow, flew over in the middle of the night over to Philadelphia, sleep for a little bit.

Mm-hmm.

you know, my wife says, all right, it's time to go down to the Dickens Festival. And we went down there and I'm like, wait a minute, what? Like, I was still a little bit foggy. What's going on? And then the next thing I know, like,

Yeah.

are people like ringing the bell and like they're dressed in all the appropriate garb and you know, the food, their period pieces for food and those sorts of things. And then, you know, you get down to the end down by station circle and you know, there's the chorus singing.

Mm-hmm.

I mean, it is like being in a little Christmas town. And then, know, there's some people doing accents and things like that, and that's all cute. But yeah, and then off to the side, I remember like an impromptu singing of Christmas carols. And, you know, you just don't get that anywhere else. And just the whole of that, the gestalt, was my experience coupled with having flown over from London.

Yeah.

Yeah,

Yeah, that's very quaint. I actually my first experience with the Dickens Festival was after a movie. So I was in the Narberth Theatre and I had parked on the street in the morning for whatever reason. We saw like a 10 or 11 a.m. showing. And then we walk outside and every like the streets are filled and we can't get our car out because they wall off all the streets. And so we're like stuck.

Hmm. Okay.

Yeah.

And we're like, what's going on? was like, it's the Dickens Festival. And we'd lived here for maybe four or five years, but we live in an adjacent town, you know. So we didn't really ever come past during that period of time. And so we just like went back inside the theater and watched another movie because we couldn't leave, you know. I guess we could have probably walked around and gone around and seen what was going on. But the kids were like, we'll just watch other movies. That's funny.

⁓ I love that. Yeah.

Yeah, and the great thing about you know, I just have to this out there, because one of the great things about this town is, you know, like every couple of months we do something like that. So the Dickens Festival is is is a big one, right? But we've got the witches. We've got the Easter egg hunt. and it's it's really special how the community gets together. And, you we've got a couple of groups that coordinate all the volunteers and they have all the.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

costumes and they have all that, know, everything lined out. They're just so well done. But you do have to remember not to park in the middle of the festival. mean. Yes, sir.

Yeah, well you're gonna fix that parking and so one of these days

it's gonna be very streamlined.

as part of the Dickens Festival there is a scavenger hunt, right, where the mission is to collect I think what is it eight wooden nickels and a cup. You perform festival tasks and find Dickens characters out the town. Well we are going to have our very own Dickens scavenger hunt on the Zekely podcast, except I don't have any wooden nickels for you as a prize, okay? Just bragging rights, all right? So...

Yeah.

no. Okay.

Okay.

Here's your first question. What was the title of Charles Dickens first published novel?

my gosh, I was a chemistry computer science guy. Okay, okay.

I like it. I can make it.

I can make a multiple choice. So great

expectations, the Pickwick papers, Oliver Twist or Nicholas

Hmm. Let's go with the Pickwick papers. Yeah, that would have been my guess too.

that is correct that is correct that is yeah

the pick the pickwick papers next question which Dickens novel was left unfinished at the time of his death was it the Barnaby Rudge the mystery of Edwin Drude Martin Chuzzlewit or our mutual friend

I remember that at a quizzo once. drat.

rat indeed.

Yeah.

Let's go and chisel with. ⁓

The

Mystery of Edwin Drude. There you go. It's okay, it's okay. Wah-wah. Here's the last one. Which social issue did Dickens frequently highlight in his work? Was it gender equality, child labor and poverty, religious persecution, or environmental pollution?

Yeah, child labor and poverty. Yay.

That is correct. Very good. Well,

no nickels for you, but you did you did do a pretty good job. Two out of three isn't bad.

Well, you are obviously running for office this year as mayor, but there are a number of other positions on the ballot as well. There are school board races, judicial races, tax collector, sheriffs, et cetera. How would you explain to someone the importance of participating in these elections in your community? And as a leader, people are gonna look to you. So how would you navigate that?

Yeah, I think that this year we do have a lot of positions up. We do have mayor, four borough council seats. We have a tax collector. We've got a whole bunch of ward commissioners across Lower Marion. And when it comes right down to it, those are the people that most directly affect the day-to-day lives. So if you want something fixed day-to-day, those are the people that have the direct line to that.

Now there are national types of issues, but in order to impact all of those, it's really important to make sure you get the right judges in, the ones that represent your values, that will protect your values, that you've

people who are focused on the right mix of business development, social issues, and just general issues in a particular area. And so the way you do that is by voting locally.

Yeah, I mean, there are I was interviewed Arvind Venkat. He's a state rep in Pennsylvania and he he sticks with me. He said, you know, 90 percent of your life is affected by local politics, but 90 percent of people don't know who their local politicians are. And so it is super important that people are engaged politically every year. And so I really do hope that as mayor, you will continue that civic engagement and alert people when these important elections are coming up and to pay attention.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

who the local democratic committee is endorsing. I would really appreciate that. That's great.

Yeah, you got it. At a

minimum, you have that commitment from me to keep that up, make sure people know who it is and what issues are hot. Definitely.

Excellent.

Every election is the most important election.

What gives you hope?

I'm a pretty positive person. And that's rare in computer science. Mostly it's like, things are terrible. We've got to make it

when I see things like the Supreme Court overturning executive orders and forcing things to come back, and I'm like, OK, the Supreme Court is not stacked with people that I would say align 100 % with what I believe.

Mm-hmm.

But

when I see them starting to do things like reviewing those executive orders, that gives me hope. And when I see businesses thriving in the face of all these tariffs, when I see that, that's good. sometimes it can be hard, but I try to find the good and I try to find those things. So I look for them that give me hope.

Mm-hmm.

I'm glad you have those things that to give you that hope. What gives me hope? man, I have to have hope for my kids. know, have to, know, hope, hope is a verb, you know, it's, it's something that we do to make things better. And I feel like I have to have hope for my children's that their lives when they grow up are better than the ones that we have now.

Yeah.

How about you? What gives you hope? Yeah?

Yeah, that's right.

Reading about history gives me hope about all the difficult things that people have gone through in the world and they've overcome them. And I think honestly doing this podcast has given me a lot of hope. Talking to people who want to make their communities better, who want to engage civically, who are moving the ball forward has given me a lot of hope as well. So there are multiple things that give me hope, but it is hard sometimes for sure. know, there's a lot of stuff going on, but I don't think that we have a choice than to

move forward. cannot get lost in apathy. We cannot get lost in hopelessness because there are too many people counting on us.

I think that's wonderful. you, when you think about hope as a verb, no doubt, my 20 month old and, know, seeing my 18 year old thrive and seeing my 21 year old, like, you know, just seeing that whole evolution and, know, seeing the relationship with, the community and that you could, I couldn't have said it better. love that.

Yeah.

have to have hope for the future.

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

I love the work that a lot of the political groups are doing and how they're pushing back on the administration.

Mm-hmm. Sure.

That helps me a lot.

But what really does it is having a vision for what Narberth could be having a vision for what I want to be as a person, what I want my family to be, what I want, what types of relationships I want. And then just waking up literally every day and doing that one thing I can do that day. I don't try to do 10, 15,000 things, just what's that one thing. And, every day before I go to bed, I think about what was that and did I do it? And, you know, I had met their days that.

You don't hit the mark, but you just try to have as few of those as possible because like you just got to keep moving forward. And, you know, I think it was Winston Churchill. He said, you know, when you're in hell, keep going. And I'm not saying we're there, you know, but, know, when things are tough, you just got to keep moving. And that's the most important thing. I've been through a lot of things in my life started out really rough and, know, it, it, gets better by moving forward.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

you

one day at a time, one hour at a time, but you have to keep moving forward.

Yeah, 1 % better every day.

Well Dana Edwards, the democratically endorsed candidate for mayor in Narberth.

how can people support your campaign?

Well, think what I'm really looking for is for people to come out and vote. It's as simple as

Well, you have a website, too, correct? What's your website called?

I do, it's www.daneedwards.com. It has, on the front page, it has everything like what I stand for, what I'm gonna bring to Narberth, what I wanna do with Narberth. And of course, there's a donate button, always appreciate that. But there's also a form where you can just sort of free text, fill in, volunteer, give feedback. My personal cell phone number's on there, my email's on there. So everything's out there, just, I think.

Mm-hmm.

Communications keys Zeke, I you know that, you're in the business and as long as people keep coming with new ideas and keep telling me what they want, we'll see what we can make happen.

Absolutely, well I'll make sure to promote your website, okay?

Appreciate that.

I wish you good luck. I hope you have a good pair of shoes because it sounds like you've already knocked a ton of doors and you're you're not anywhere close to the finish line. So

Keep hitting those doors I really do hope you're gonna represent your constituents well and I think you're gonna be a great mayor.

I that. Thank you Zeke. Love the time.

Absolutely.

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