Summary:

In this episode of The Zekely Podcast, host Zeke interviews State Senator Lindsey Williams who shares her journey from a whistleblower to a dedicated advocate for workers' rights in Pennsylvania. She discusses her experiences in the Senate, the challenges of passing significant legislation, and her passion for reading and the arts. The discussion also delves into the implications of data centers, the critical need for public education funding, and personal anecdotes about student debt. She shares insights on the challenges of being in the minority in the State Senate and the importance of getting the Trifecta to move Pennsylvania forward.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Senator Lindsey Williams

01:47 Whistleblower

04:04 What It Means

06:09 Budget

08:26 Obama

09:31 Audiobooks

11:16 Read to Me

12:46 Democrat

14:24 Musicals

16:12 Strike

19:57 AI

23:36 Coffee

25:07 Smells Good

26:43 Website

29:41 Fundraising

30:44 Wonka

33:34 Child Care

35:26 Name That Committee

37:30 Trifecta

40:17 Proud

41:35 Data Centers

44:31 Small Business Spotlight

45:56 Hope

46:48 Future

47:43 Wrap Up

Lindsey Willams: https://lindseyforpa.com/

Commonplace Coffee: https://commonplacecoffee.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

https://commonplacecoffee.com/?srsltid=AfmBOop8DRCpD6EXjA4AZmOO9B3WfF-qJxPYE0CIB2cRkSbc0fzbFYqJ

Hello, I'm Zeke, and welcome to The Zekely Podcast. Let's talk, Pennsylvania. The guest I have today lives in Allegheny County, and since 2018 has been serving as a Pennsylvania state senator. She's been fighting for unions, calling out corporate abuse, and her moral compass has never wavered. And now she's running for a third term in November to help flip the state Senate blue for the first time in over 30 years.

Years. Thank you so much for being here, Senator Lindsey Williams.

I’m Zeke, a doctor, a Pennsylvanian and unapologetic supporter of Democratic values. You might have seen me on social media working my ass off for Democrats and meeting some pretty amazing people along the way - like President Barack Obama and Governor Josh Shapiro.

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.

Thanks,

Zeke, for having me. I'm I'm excited. Thirty years is a long time. I've only been there eight and I I'm I'm done. I'm ready

Yeah.

for I'm ready for majority.

I was 11 years old, Lindsey 11 years old. I wasn't even aware of the political process or the implications of this. And I'm I'm done. I'm done with it. I know you are too. That's why you're on this show, because without you, this doesn't happen. And so I want people to learn all about you. We're gonna play some games and have some fun. Are you ready?

I'm ready.

All right.

Lindsey, before becoming a state senator, you worked as director of advocacy for the National Whistleblower Center.

advocating for legal protections for employees who exposed fraud and abuse. However, when you tried to organize a union, you were fired. That's crazy.

Yes. Something that was not on my bingo card, that's for sure.

That is insane. I mean, instead of accepting a severance, you agreed with a non-disclosure clause and you challenged that before your firing at the National Labor's Relations Board and ultimately prevailed after two years of litigation. That is crazy.

Yes. It was a really tough time. it was a job it was it was a job I loved. You know,

Mm-hmm.

it was a job I got to combine my law degree with helping workers in a way that I didn't imagine. I was helping protect individual workers. I was helping advocate for legislation on a national level that would help protect more workers. And I I got fired on in a voicemail after working there for four Yeah,

A voicemail.

yeah. it was pretty awful.

and thankfully I had some great coworkers with me. And so we kind of banded together. And the the case before the NLRB, like it's it's one thing to know what it is as an attorney. Like I'm aware of my rights, you know, I know my rights.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah.

I working for an employee rights organization and to have my rights violated and to have to navigate that process. I think it has made me a better advocate to really understand what it's like to

You know, have your identity wrapped up in something and it just go away over

Yeah.

greed.

That's

cra I mean, it's just crazy. The entire scenario just boggles my mind. And it's amazing that you stuck with it. I mean, you you had your moral compass and you knew it was wrong and you spent two years fighting it and you came out on the right side. Justice, justice we shall pursue. And you did it. so it makes sense that you continue this path, you know, for justice, for not just yourself, but Pennsylvania. And it just, it's just a wild story. It's like that can't possibly

Yeah.

have happened. Like you can't even like make this stuff up.

Yeah, exactly. When I like when I was like, Okay, it's time to tell this story, I was like you can't like when you call the New York Times and they're like, Wait, what? I was like, yeah, that's a real thing.

crazy story. And in honor of the whistleblower center not understanding what they were doing when they fired you for blowing the whistle, we're gonna play, I do not think it means what you think it means. Okay. All right,

Okay, all right.

kind of a nod to the princess bride. I'm gonna say you some words and you're gonna tell me what you think it means, okay?

So Calipigan. What do you think Calipigian means?

No idea.

It means having a well shaped buttocks, evidently. Yeah. Yeah. If you

That's a new I

you know what? In this job you learn something new every day. I didn't know that.

Yeah, Calipigan. There

you go. Here's another one. Titty Nope.

No idea.

No idea. It's a tiny bit of leftover food or drink. Yeah, these are these are real words, believe it or not. here this one, you you're totally gonna know this one. Snolligoster.

It sounds like something out of the Little Mermaid.

Yeah, it's it's an unprincipled politician. Probably like old

Wow.

old English, maybe. Snali guy. You can use that next time you're in Harrisburg.

Okay.

how about Cockalorum? Got we

No.

we have way too many of these. A self-important little man. Yeah, yeah, cockalorum. All right, now

Yeah. Yeah. There's too many of them.

here's here's a bonus, okay? This is a saying, which actually I learned about this, might have been like on my Facebook feed or something. cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.

Do you know where that do you know where that comes from?

No, but that is something my dad would love. Like that's

Okay.

something that my dad has never said that, but I I could hear

Mm-hmm.

him saying that.

Yeah, so this is actually really interesting. So while it sounds highly inappropriate, it actually refers to a piece of naval hardware. a brass frame called a monkey was used to stack cannonballs on old sailing ships. And when it got really cold, the brass would shrink and the iron balls would fall off. So the saying came cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey. So

There you go.

so if you're listening to this right now, National Whistleblower Center.

You did not know what you thought you were doing when you fired Lindsey Williams, okay?

Lindsey, the budget was passed recently in Pennsylvania. Congratulations. It didn't take half a year this time. Wonderful. Thank goodness.

Thank goodness.

But there were a few things that were missing from the budget, right? Maternity leave, raising the minimum wage, legalizing recreational marijuana. So who forgot to put those items in there? Did you forget? Who forgot? You didn't forget?

I didn't forget.

I don't think Senate Democrats or House Democrats forgot.

Mm.

but it's not something we can get across the eye like across the finish line, unfortunately. Like it has been, you know, that non-discrimination for our LGBTQ plus neighbors. Like that's been, you know, I keep saying some of these things I think if the Senate Republicans ran them, they would pass. But they won't even they won't even do it. They won't even bring it up for a vote.

Yeah. Right. Right.

And that's because you don't control the schedule, right? You don't control the schedule because

No, no.

you do not have the majority in the state senate. So there are all these wonderful bills just flying around the state house and they die and don't even get brought up for discussion. So that's why.

legislature, we're not super productive in that regard. You know, myself and Senator Katie Muth another senator up for re-election this year,

Yes, yes.

have the last couple years introduced rules reforms at the beginning of every session. That's something that her and I are very passionate about, about making the rules more fair.

Right now you're at the total whim of what your majority chair is like. So I've had some majority chairs who are work with me really well. And I've had some others who couldn't care less and barely tell me what day the hearing is and I just have to show up and listen to the

Testifiers as they present them.

They

you used the wrong word. You said whim, but what you really wanted to say was mercy. You're at the mercy of

Yes.

the Republican politicians who just will not listen to you no matter how much you yell and scream or bring, sanity to the conversation. They just don't care. And that's why we have to get you re-elected and your colleague, Katie Mouth, who is going to be coming on the Zekely Podcast eventually. and we're gonna get the trifecta and the majority, and we're gonna get all these amazing things in a budget and passed, and it won't take half a year.

Okay, just stand by.

Yep. Yep. And we and you know what?

And we can tax billionaires while we're at it.

I love the vibes. Love the vibes, Lindsey.

Yeah.

I was I was like, is this real? Like I I it was it was crazy. It was cr I

That's crazy. Yeah.

was like I it was the one of those pinch me moments. Like I never thought if you had told me like back in high school, like you know, I was involved in student government, all that kind of

Mm-hmm.

stuff, but I was always afraid to speak in front of my classmates. And like if you had told me that I would be running for state senate, I would have like, absolutely not. Like that was a moment where I was like,

Like the proud moment where you call your mom and you're like, Mom, guess what? You know, like

Yeah, that's crazy.

I mean,

Yeah.

your campaign manager must have lost their mind when they found that. That was

Yeah, yeah.

that's awesome. Well, congratulations to that and just what an amazing core memory.

Hey, thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Zekely Podcast. And if you're enjoying yourself, please take a moment to rate my Podcast. Five stars would be great and leave a comment as well. And if you're watching this on YouTube, please hit follow. OK, back to the show.

Lindsey, I understand you enjoy listening to audiobooks on your drives to Harrisburg.

idea.

how long of a drive is it these days?

It's about three and a half hours.

Okay.

So yeah.

that

explains why you read about eighty to a hundred books a year, right? Because you're all the all the driving that you do.

Yes. Yeah.

so what's your most recent book? What's going on right now?

so I read a really great book recently called The Boxcar Librarian,

was a story of a wom three women at different points in the time in the Midwest, where they're, you know, they're like settling the Midwest and

a woman just decides that like the the mining towns need access to a library. And so she gets the, you know, like the corporate baron to agree to make one of the boxcars into a library to go. Yeah,

Interesting.

and it was a l it was a lot of fun.

And there

was an antagonist to, you know, some conservative, you know, asshole who didn't want to have the library come to town and educate the townspeople.

Uh-huh. Ex a hundred percent.

I and I know you read multiple books at the same time, right?

Yeah, I'm

one who like I have an audio book going. I usually have a digital book and then I'll have a physical book, depending on what and I I this job has made me a little bit more ability to focus on different things. I think I used

Mm-hmm.

to always just like have one book and like tear through it, but like

Yeah.

because of I'm constantly on the move, I can't like it's hard to be in

one

Yeah.

space.

So yeah, so I can jump from one to another and I'll usually have something, you know, lighter and I'll have something, you know, more serious and then I'll have like a memoir and so like I mix it up and I jump from thing to thing because, you know, on a heavy day you don't want to read a heavy book.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean I mean like some people juggle Netflix, Amazon, you know, Hulu shows and you juggle books. So make

I do.

it makes sense to me.

Well we're gonna play a game called Read to Me, okay?

Okay.

I'm gonna give you a genre and I'm gonna give you two options of who would be the narrator of the book, okay? And you and you get to choose. So horror, will you either have Governor Josh Shapiro or Lieutenant Governor Austin Davis be the narrator for that? Yeah. Yeah.

Ooh, I think I think Austin Davis. I think,

you know, he's got a new baby. I betcha he's playing with all the voices, you know.

You're probably

right. Yeah, he he he could definitely do that. I could see that for sure. All right, what about a comedy? either speaker Joanna McClinton or Congresswoman Mary Gay Scanlon.

I think Speaker McClinton, I think she'd be f I think she'd be good at that. Yeah, there there's like not a bad option. It's like picking between really good options.

These are all good options. So there's no there's no there's there's no wrong answer. Yeah. Yeah,

I agree. All right, how about romance? Senator Amanda Cappelletti your colleague, or leader Matt Bradford. Hmm.

Hmm.

I think I'm gonna have to make Matt Bradford do it. Yeah. I think that would be amusing.

Matt Bradford? Yeah. I could that's good. Mm-hmm.

I I I don't use it. All right well here's a here's the last one, okay? Adventure Senator Vincent Hughes or Rep Mike Schlossberg.

I think Vince Hughes, he can get like he can like just he can start you here and build you right up and that's what an

adventure story needs.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Well, look, I mean, I don't know what it takes to get into this narrator business, but you know, you can show them this segment and maybe they'll get into it. Who knows?

Yeah,

who knows,

right?

Who

Lindsey, why are you a Democrat? And why do you choose to represent the Democratic Party?

probably stems from where I grew up, you know. I grew up in a union household. My one grandfather was a union bus driver in Luzerne County. My other grandfather helped start a union as a machinist. And my dad spent forty years in the operating engineers running heavy equipment. And so I just grew up with the you know, you fight for the little guy.

between my mom and my dad just really instilling that in me and that is something that, you know, the Democratic Party at its core is fighting for the little guy, is fighting for you. And that's, you know

Yeah. It sounds like those those democratic ideals really helped your family during significant times. I know that your your mother later in her life used unemployment funded education benefits to go to college after more than fifteen years. She went back to school. Mm-hmm.

She did. She went back to Yep. She went back to community college.

finished her associate's degree. And, you know, my dad, he worked out of the hiring hall, so he used unemployment on and off throughout my entire life. So he'd work on a job for however many weeks, get laid off, and then go to the next job.

I mean, look, union, education, unemployment, the these are not lazy people. You did not grow up with people who were lazy. You were they were part of the American dream, that process of trying to carve out life, liberty. And it totally makes sense that you carry those ideals and values on to this day. And I'm grateful that you bring those values as a state senator to Harrisburg every day. So it makes sense to me and

and I I'm very appreciative of what you do every day in Harrisburg.

Lindsey, you enjoy attending musicals and have been a seasoned ticket holder to the Broadway series at the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust for years, correct?

Yes, I have.

So what's what's the show coming up? What's the next one?

so I'm seeing SUFS this weekend. So yeah, it's a musical about the women's suffragette movement.

I like that.

And so I do this thing. If I haven't if I don't know anything about the musical beforehand, I don't like I don't read about it. I don't listen to the music beforehand. I like to go in completely surprised. And that has worked out really well for me. Like I saw a couple of years ago Hades Town and I loved it. That's one that's on repeat for me.

That's so interesting that you don't look at all into the show that you're gonna watch because my kids will listen to literally all the music and by the time we get there, they're singing along with the songs where they've even seen the show. so that's a different, you know. Yeah. Mm-hmm. That's how I that's how I would be too, I think. I like to be surprised, but that's

Yeah. Yeah, I like to be I like to be surprised. I like to go in and just see what's gonna happen. And yeah. And then I watch

it afterwards and be like, I wish I could go see it again. Like, I'll go see it again if it's a really

Yeah.

good one. Like I'll probably I think Hades Town is c it's coming back around and it's gonna come back to Pittsburgh and I'll I enjoyed it so much I'm like I'll go go see it again and see things that I miss the first time around.

Yeah. I I have to say I would like to see more shows locally. we do make a trip my my mother in law lives right outside of New York City, so when we go visit her, we do go in and see the Broadway

shows. But I look I know the ones that are in your own towns are just as good. So I need to Yeah.

They are. They are fabulous. And I have some

friends who live in Philly who pret are, you know, in the theater scene in the Philadelphia area. And like I've seen them in dinner theater. And it's just it's a good old time. It's it's a great escape. And people are so

You're inspiring me, Lindsey. I'm gonna get into it, okay? Jess, Jess, you hear this? We're gonna start going see shows, all right?

Good.

Lindsey, when you worked for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, you helped members organize strikes and labor actions across the country. Was there a particular strike that you still think about to this day?

There was a big one that I got to travel for that I learned a lot. It I helped, it was about twenty thirteen, I think. the port driver strikes in LA and long in the ports of LA and Long Beach. So those port truck drivers are working for companies that were misclassifying them as independent contractors. That's something I was learning about at the time. I saw these employees show me negative pay stubs.

Pay stubs, kind of like the old coal mining towns where you, you know, you had to pay, you you lived in company housing and you bought company food at the company store and you went to the company doctor. These truck drivers are the same way. They are in trucks that they don't, you know, they may or may not own. They are having to buy the the tires from the company, oil changes from the company, except and they make so little money.

that they actually like showed me negative paychecks because of

That's crazy.

how much they had to pay to maintain the truck that they were driving for this company that was misclassifying them as an independent contractor but controlling where they went, what time they went, all of those things. They were

Mm-hmm.

still fighting with Uber and Lyft and DoorDash and all those right now here in Pennsylvania.

That's crazy. I mean like they really their soul was owned by the company store, you know, j just like the old the old song. And was the strike successful when you when you organized it?

yes,

and the the Teamsters were you know, I think that's something they're still fighting. It's an uphill battle, it's a lot of small companies, they're offshore, like, you know, it it's a the couple day strike was was successful, but I still think that they're really fighting hard for those workers.

What it sounds like, Lindsey, is that this fight for unions, for fair pay, for organizing never stops, right? Because i if people just did the right thing and they treated people with respect and dignity and pay people a living wage, then we wouldn't have to have people going around fighting these fights and calling people out and holding these millionaires and billionaires to task. And that's what they are. You know, they're not there driving the trucks, they're not there doing the oil changes and fixing tires on the side of the road and delivering all these important products to people.

all over the country, they don't care. They're so far removed. It takes people like you to come down to their level and say you are not gonna treat these people with any less dignity than they're born with.

No. And they're s and they're spending

so much the the amount of money they spend on attorneys and fighting

Crazy.

and when they can just pay their workers more. Just

Pam.

pay them a living wage. Like it's really not that hard. Treat them with dignity and respect because you know what? And when you know, we've seen like there was a coffee shop employer here in Pittsburgh who was fighting the union pretty hard. And then now they're the biggest champion 'cause they're like, wow, I didn't realize that like when you're working together with them, like I'm getting better workers, they're showing up.

they're like they're well trained, I have less turnover. I'm like, yeah. Like

Yeah. Yeah.

actually the union, the workers, the if they work together to make the business successful. Like

Mm-hmm.

it shouldn't be adversarial the way that some people make it.

Right. And those are democratic values. those are Democrats coming in there helping and supporting unions, not Republican politicians. So li

Yep. Yep. Yep. I wear I

have a union yes pin that I wear on my lapel that I have worn on my lapel every day that we've the Senate has been in session since twenty eighteen. It's on my lapel to remind me and to remind everybody else why I'm there.

That's right. Republican politicians wear AK-47s on their lapels, and you wear union

pins because you are union strong and those are democratic values.

They are.

Lindsey, the company Unbound Academic Institute recently applied to open an AI-based cyber charter school in Pennsylvania that would have replaced educators with guides and relied exclusively on artificial intelligence for just two hours of daily instruction.

And you recently proposed legislation to prevent schools from replacing teachers with AI, correct?

Yes, I did.

So what's the line between technology helping teachers and replacing teachers?

Yeah, and that's the thing we have to really grapple with. And I think there's a there's a place

for teaching

students how to responsibly use it. But there's a lot of ethical and moral questions about AI. There's how do you learn how to think critically? I think it's really funny there's this push to use it, but at the same time, every time that like a business gets in front of me, they'll they'll talk to me about how they want workers who can think outside the box and think creatively.

But if you don't teach them how to do that, they won't be able to do that. And so the bill I introduced was just to make sure that you're not replacing

educators with AI.

Teachers should be able to use it in their classroom the way they want, to be able to prepare students for that future that's coming. But and it should be on, not be on the burden of the teacher to prove that AI is replacing them. It should be the default that like it's being a replacement in the

the the school district has to say, No, we're we're using this as a supplement.

And you are I mean, education is your thing. You are the minority

Yeah.

chair in education in the state senate. And I just have to know where is this bill gonna go? Is it ever gonna see the light of day out of your committee while you're in the minority?

Probably not.

Right. This is ridiculous. That this is politics. If you're listening, if you're watching, I'm talking to someone who has the power to protect our children in Pennsylvania, make sure that their education is appropriate and to set them up for success later in life.

and that can't happen unless we get the state senate to have democratic control. So I love it. I love that you are checking this technology that is inevitably coming.

We have to adjust and adapt, but you are on the forefront of trying to control it in a way that is appropriate. Not your Republican colleagues, your Democratic colleagues.

yeah, 'cause why do we want our kid two hours of daily and sh can you imagine? Like it's just

No.

crazy.

Well, I can imagine because Republican politicians in the state Senate have been trying as hard as they can to defund public education in Pennsylvania.

ev at every at every turn at every level, from pre K to K to twelve to higher ed, it's just it's a relentless attack.

Like Pennsylvania is 49th in the country on how we invest in higher ed. When we talk about missed opportunities in the the state recent state budget, we flat funded community colleges, we flat funded PASHI, so our state system, and we gave a small $10 million increase to the state relateds. That's it.

So we have number two or three in student loan debt. I have a hundred and thirty, forty thousand I've lost count of how much student loan debt I have. Me, Senator Muth like there's a whole class of us who are it sitting in that caucus room who have student loan debt and we're doing nothing about

Well, it's not not you not doing it's the Republicans who control the state Senate who are doing

Yes. Sorry. Yeah.

nothing about it. They could care less. They could care less, right?

Yeah. Yeah.

I don't want other kids to be in the same position that I'm at. I

Right. Yeah.

don't want that for them. I don't want them to have a generation of that student loan debt just on their back.

People don't deserve that. And again, get the trifecta Pennsylvania and we can start moving these things forward.

Lindsey, I'm excited about this. You may be the first person on my show who shares a similar distaste for coffee.

Really? good. In fact

Yes. Yes.

I got my tea right here.

Yes. We're we're tea drinkers. You and I. Okay, so I understand you like green tea. Green tea is your jam? Okay.

I have green tea. I'm like a flavor

like right now I'm on a green tea with pomegranate kick.

Ooh,

okay, so I'm an Earl Grey guy. Okay.

Okay.

I love Earl Grey. And actually I like to get the loose leaf tea. So I like to get Earl Grey and vanilla loo and I mix

Mm-hmm.

it together to make like a creamy Earl Grey. Yeah, it's kind of like a

like a London fog. I don't add cream to it, but but that's enough for me. Nope. No sugar. No.

I like do you put sugar in your tea? I'm

I'm I'm a sh I'm trying to cut back on the amount of sugar, but I'm sugar or if, you know, I'm sick, there's honey.

Mm-hmm. Okay,

I thought that makes sense. But I just love it because to me, coffee smells so good. Like I but it tastes like shit. Like it just tastes like a lie, right?

It does smell really good. It Yes, it disappoints me every time.

It disappoints me every time.

Yeah, every

time it's like maybe I'll try it 'cause my wife loves the cappuccino and like the the iced coffee and everything, but I by the time I'm done with it, it's all cream and sugar. I just have a candy bar. You know, it's like it's I can't have any and and I agree with you, I can even have coffee. Ice cream, I can't like nothing

No. Tir no Tiramisu.

nothing. Anything coffee flavored is off the table for me. And like guaranteed if my wife just wants to have an ice cream flavor that I won't touch, just have a coffee flavor. It'll it'll sit there.

There you go.

I won't touch it at all. So

I love that. We and I are gonna have to get together sometime and have some tea. I have a a tea off.

But

we're gonna play a game. smells good enough to eat. Okay. So

Okay.

I want you I want to see if you'll agree with me because I feel the exact same way about coffee. Okay. So leather products.

Who smells good enough to eat?

Right? Like you walk into a leather store like this smells. I mean you would not go, you know, chomp on a belt, right? You just like wouldn't do it. People walk up to a yeah.

But it's that distinct smell, like if you were blindfolded and walked in, you would know where you were.

Right. Leather stores, the the best, but we do not eat purses, okay? How about pine trees? Right? Right?

yeah, yeah.

Love it, but we're not gonna go around licking pine trees, okay? But love the smell. Lovely. Play-doh. Right? Right? If I

a

he's gonna be five soon nephew. And like getting him Play Doh, like I got him his like first Play Doh. I was like, Yeah, this is coming from Aunt Lindsey. This is so nostalgic.

Yeah, right?

Yeah.

If not for parents swatting it out of our mouths, we would all be, you know, hopped up on play-doh. But you just can't eat it. No, no, no. All right, here's the last one. Gasoline. This is a little c this little controversial. You don't like that? You gonna pass on the gas? Okay, see

I'm no, I'm not a I'm gonna pass on that one. I'm gonna pass on yeah.

I maybe it's because I'm an anesthesiologist, I don't know. But

Yeah.

I when I'm at a gas station it just feels like nostalgic for some reason. I don't know why.

I don't

like how I don't like the lingering smell on my hands after I pump gas.

Yeah, I don't know, it's transient for me. It's just yeah. I mean, I don't think I would like it all the time, but you know, once every two weeks, it's nice. Little little, but yeah, okay. But here, we're on the same page again.

We can agree to disagree on that.

Fine. We're we're on the same page for most, but again, we both know. No to coffee. No to coffee.

Yeah, no to call.

No to coffee.

Lindsey, your website is very impressive. Okay, for those who don't know, Senator Lindsey Williams dot com. And I noticed you've got your own informative series.

on demystifying Harrisburg, where there are a series of videos discussing elections, how bills are made and passed, how the budget is processed. I mean, kudos to you. This is great.

Yeah,

that that's something that started in the pandemic. So we started it virtually and we've had one or two in person and we'll probably and we'll hopefully have some more. Like, because we started having whole new groups of people contact my office who prior to you know, COVID restrictions started coming in and people didn't even know they had a state senator or a state rep. And all of a sudden we were setting these, you know, these closures and masking requirements and things like that.

And so they're calling the office, and it was like, here's this opportunity really to engage people and to show them how to lobby their legislator. Like that it shouldn't be scary, it shouldn't be intimidating. And like here's some tips and tricks of how to do it well. Because like I don't like people get embarrassed and they're like, I'm sorry, I didn't know. And I was like, You are not the first person, you won't be the last. But I want you to leave this interaction, having a good interaction and

feeling that government can and should work for you and to like understand the process so you can work through it. Like you don't need to pay a lobbyist. Your personal story is actually really powerful.

look, I have to empathize because I certainly was in that position before I got involved in politics in the way that I am today. I, you know, voted once every four years. I didn't even know what a midterm election was. I certainly, when I was in Pennsylvania, didn't realize there were two elections every year, every six months in Pennsylvania. So, you know, I have to pour on the empathy. You know, it's it's still shocking a little bit, but that was me, right? That that was me. And so yeah, I get it. People are just living their lives and life is hard.

Yes.

Yep.

You

know, life life is really hard at baseline. And so I'm just

Yeah.

glad that you have that information out there to educate people. And I wonder have you ever thought about starting a podcast?

I would love to. I don't think I have the time. When I was at the Whistleblower Center, I we created a podcast that I staffed and booked the guests and sometimes

Okay.

did the interviewing. So I I did one in a prior role for work, which was a lot of

Okay.

fun. So I got to h interview a bunch of like national relound whistleblowers and some really like people I look at as heroes for doing

nice. Yeah.

really cool stuff. So podcasting can be fun, but I think maybe

Maybe it's a retirement gig for me. Like Okay.

Williams show has a really good ring to it.

Wow, you're still listening. Thank you so much. I want to make sure as many people in Pennsylvania as possible get to experience The Zekely Podcast. So to help spread the word, please take a moment to rate my podcast. Five stars would be great. Leave a comment as well. And if you're watching this on YouTube, please hit follow. Enjoy the rest of the show.

Lindsey, one of your most successful fundraising emails in twenty twenty two was an email about your campaign office running out of nerds' gummies because

Uh-huh.

you got your whole campaign staff addicted. That is

Yep.

that's amazing. Was that your idea?

Yeah, I so it was one of those silly things, like, you know, I was driving somewhere, I was probably on the turnpike again, and I stopped and I was like, What are these? I've never seen these before. And I was like, these are amazing. Somebody who used

Ha ha

to like when I was a kid would get the nerds and my flurry at Dairy Queen.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I was like, this is amazing. And so then I just kept bringing them into the office because that's what I would do to like get myself through call time. It's just like eating, eating a lot of sugar.

And so I got all of my staff addicted and then we come in the one day and we're like, We don't have any nerds gummies and we just took this silly picture and sent it to my digital guy and he's like, We can do something with that. And and

That's awesome.

I it blew me away. People were s people just loved it. They're like, give Lindsay's staff more money so they could buy nerds gummies.

I love that. I mean the candy is a is a unifier. You know, s

Yeah.

who doesn't love a sweet treat?

Yeah.

okay, we're gonna play Wonka Williams. Okay, I wanna see how much you know about candy records around the world, okay? Will Cutbill from the UK holds the world record for the most MMs stacked vertically. What is that number, Lindsey?

hundred.

my gosh. Five. Five. That would be, I guess it is evident. No.

It's gotta be big. I don't know.

No, it is evidently very difficult to stack MMs. And so five is the world record for.

All right. I'm gonna have to try that later.

I believe I can visualize you doing that in your office. I definitely can. the longest candy in the world called Fizzy Belt was made in the Netherlands. How long was it?

hundred yards of football field.

Six thousand five hundred and ninety-eight feet, more than one point two five miles long, one and a quarter miles long.

Wow.

Yeah, yeah. That was a lot of candy. The Netherlands, that's what they're doing in the Netherlands. We gotta go visit there. They did.

That is lot of candy. I hope they had a big party afterwards and everybody got to eat some of it.

They did. I think they donated a lot of it. They did. I have a couple more. The largest chewy candy weighing in at five hundred and twenty five pounds was made in which country?

Yeah.

Maybe England. Let's try England.

Japan. Japan. Yeah. Who

Also.

would have thought? Right? It's crazy. All right, here's the last one. We're gonna bring it home. Back to PA. Which Hershey's chocolate and nut bar took the world record for becoming the largest, weighing it at almost 6,000 pounds?

Six thousand

Yeah.

pounds.

Mm-hmm. Chocolate nut bar. Hershey's.

Huh.

Hershey's.

are they whatchamacallit? Do they have the watchma call it or is that

First

of all, I love Watchamacaulitz. That's like a classic to me too, but that's not what this is. I don't know if it is Hershey. I don't know. I

Is that that's not that's not a Hershey product, is it? I'm trying to

rem I'm like I'm trying to flash back to my last time through the Hershey chocolate tour.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. No,

that's a good one. I like what you micolits.

I don't know, I'm blanking on their

Well, this is also a personal favorite of mine. Reese's Take Five.

Mmm. Yeah.

I have not I don't know that I've ever had a

you gotta have one of those, Lindsey. They're so good. It's like pretzel and peanut and caramel and chocolate. It's so good. And like two little

no.

cute little how would you describe it?

It's it's kind of like a turtle, like a a turtle form, but it's got the different components in it. You won't regret it.

Okay. I've seen them but I've never tried them. I'll have to try

it next time.

won't

regret I wish I could have been there when they rolled out this massive bar. I would love I would have loved to partake in that, but yeah, it would have been a lot of fun. Well thing

That would have been fun. Yeah. I like their

the one that you don't see a lot, the cookies and cream. Yeah. Yeah.

heart. Near and dear to my heart, Lindsey.

Lindsey, you and your Democratic colleagues introduced legislation to increase Pennsylvania's child independent care enhancement tax credit, which will give a maximum credit of fifteen hundred dollars for one child dependent, an increase of four hundred and fifty dollars, or three thousand dollars for two or more children dependents, an increase of nine hundred dollars. That's

Such a great idea. Where is that bill right now?

Stuck in committee. I don't even know which

It's stuck wh who why is it stuck there?

committee, to be honest. They probably just they stuck it somewhere.

It's who stuck it there?

A Senate Republican.

Senate Republicans. I I have to say, if I had pearls, I would clutch them.

He

Just unbelievable that we have such great ways to save Pennsylvanians money, put it back in their pockets, but for some reason Senate Republicans just don't care. maybe they're getting inspiration from Trump. Didn't he go on the record saying he doesn't care about cost of living anymore? Like he just doesn't care or whatever.

Yeah. I mean he didn't

sign the bipart like how many bipartisan bills come out of DC anymore?

Right.

And We didn't fund more money for whole home repairs and

Let me tell you, there are there are older folks who really want to stay in their homes and need,

Yeah.

you know, they need a wheelchair ramp, they need accessibility in their shower, they need a new roof. And there's only, you know, there's very little places that you could send those people. And it's actually much nicer for them to stay in their community, near their friends and family, near their grocery store, et cetera. You know, and that that funding that program is kind of a no-brainer. Like the the projects that were done

you know, here in Allegheny County and I know all over the state, but like there are some really great projects that helped families.

Well, if you're listening or watching this, I think the solution is to elect more Democrats to get more

Yes.

money in your pocket in Pennsylvania and help upgrade your house because evidently Senate Republicans could care less.

okay, we're gonna play one of my favorite games on the Zekely Podcast. Name that committee. Okay, I'm gonna ask you some committee questions and you're gonna tell me the committee, okay?

jeeze. Okay.

in which committee would you discuss expanding the tuition waiver program?

To include any adopted and foster child from other states to benefit from these programs in Pennsylvania? You got it. Very good.

Send it Ed.

I would hope so. You're the soon to be majority chair, okay,

Yes.

when we get the trifecta. In which committee would you discuss streamlining and modernizing the way fishing licenses are issued for disabled veterans and military personnel in Pennsylvania?

Game and Fisheries Committee. It's it's a

You got it, Lindsey.

fun com I'm on that committee and you know what? It's a great time. if you haven't gone like trout stalking with the Fish and Boat Commission, that's a lot of fun.

I have

not. I can say that I have never restocked trout, but maybe really?

It's o it's open to the public. They publish

the list and you can just show up and help them.

Is that what's like the long tubes where they like shoot shoot the fish in the tubes?

So so they're it depending on where depending

on where they are. Sometimes they do the tubes, other times they have to carry them by bucket. So you get they fill a bucket and you get to go

wow. Mm-hmm.

and throw it in and then hopefully not end up in the lake or pond or wherever you're

Okay.

I've yet to do that knock on wood, but it's it's a lot of fun. You should try it.

That's awesome. I'll have to look

into that sometime. All right, here's the last one. In which committee would you discuss investing in rebuilding Pendot's rural roads and bridges throughout the Commonwealth?

Transportation Committee.

three. You know, it is rare when people get all three of name that committee, but Lindsey, I ha I had no doubt.

Yeah,

happen to be three I'm on right now. I'm on the transportation committee too. You know and

Yeah. Well, you know, sometimes

they're on it and they they it there there's some crossover sometimes, you know, between committees. So, you know, they mess some like some people say veterans and you know.

Yeah, they do sometimes Yeah.

Sometimes they send sometimes they send things to wild committees because they know it's gonna like die there. And they

Yeah.

just like it they could just bury it somewhere. 'Cause, you know, they make up the rules and they change the rules when they want, so they can refer it to a committee. They could be like, This makes sense, we're gonna send it over here.

Lindsey, you're solid. I love it.

Lindsey, being in the minority in PA in the PA state Senate, has to be so painful. I mean incredibly painful. what's the first thing you're gonna do when it flips blue? When you find out that moment, what

Mm.

are you gonna do?

I don't know, I'll probably pinch myself.

pinch

yourself. I think I'm I mean, I think I might laugh, cry, or cry, laugh, or like yeah.

I I think I may jump for joy and

yell and I don't know, celebratory drinks for everyone, I guess. I don't know. I just I

My god, yes. Break

out a make an old fashioned, smoke a cigar. I mean, it's cra my god. I'm an old fashioned guy. Okay. Yeah.

Yep. I'm a I'm a are you're an old fashioned guy? I'm a man I'm a Manhattan girl. I like Manhattans. We

can ha you can have your old fashions, I'll have a Manhattan.

I mean, I'm just I I will not be able to continu it's kinda like you reach certain moments in life and you tell yourself this is how I'm going to react. I feel like I'm just gonna be in awe. I'm just gonna be in awe, I think, when we we achieve something. We are the only state in the nation that has a divided legislature. The only state. And to have that land on the right side to get Democrats back in control, I mean, I just I I don't really know what I'm gonna do. Yeah.

Now's the now's the time to do it. I mean, flipping

Yeah.

it was, you know, a couple hundred votes out of a couple hundred thousand. And it was the same type of energy, you know, it was everybody when I had looked at this seat, people were like,

You know, that's that's kind of crazy. Like, you sure you want to do that? And I was like, Yeah, I think there's there's there's a path there.

If you have all the energy and you have good candidates doing the work, knocking the doors, my favorite part of campaigning is knocking doors. I love it. I've t I've knocked tens of thousands of doors and I always, you know, have really good experiences. I learned something new encourage everybody to like go out, knock on doors, make phone calls, write posts, whatever however you can engage, like engage because it makes in these seats that we're gonna try to flip, like it makes the difference.

It does.

And they

never thought that we were gonna flip my seat, let alone five that year. So like

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

it can happen. It can happen.

It's gonna happen and I know exactly what you will be drinking. when you find out you're gonna have that Manhattan and I'm gonna have that old fashioned, okay?

Yep. There you go.

Lindsey, what has been your proudest accomplishment as a state senator to date?

Lot of them. You know what? Some of them are like there are so many good accomplishments that are minor that you never see. You like help somebody get their unemployment or get their handicap placard, those like day-to-day things that make you an elected official. I think the one like let like if we're gonna talk legislative accomplishment, it is in my first term, we did the Pennsylvania GI Bill. So it gives an

Additional education credit for our National Guard members that they could either use for themselves to go to graduate school or they a family member can use. So a spouse or a child. So it really recognizes the service of the National Guard's family members.

that's great. I hope that you have many more years of success and many more years to have a difficult time deciding what your proudest accomplishment was as a state senator. But that's great. I I I really enjoy hearing when Democrats care about veterans because I for the life of me I can never understand why veterans sometimes break towards Republican politicians because time and time again they've just shown they do not care at all about our service members. So

I appreciate that.

Lindsey, data centers are being discussed all over the country right now, and Pennsylvania is no exception. So what have you done and what can you do as a state senator to address these centers?

we're all looking at the water usage, electric usage, all that kind of stuff. Part I'm focusing on is community benefits agreements. So a part of my data center bill, it it mirrors the Matsy bill that was passed in the House, that hasn't moved anywhere in the Senate. But the the additional piece that is new in my legislation.

Would require a community benefits agreement for 10% of the project be invested back in the community at a radius of 10 miles. So communities within the data center. Because in a lot of other states, they're countywide governments. So like if you're looking at Virginia, like the county is negotiating these things if they get them at all. here, you know, like I have a data center being built in Springdale. Springdale's a little

one municipality that's like one point five square miles or something, but it touches Cheswick Borough, which is right next to it, and they're not any part of it. And we know that the sound and the water and the it's it's it affects the whole region. So I want to make sure that when these people come into our communities, that they are good neighbors.

And I want there to be something that is mandatory that they that is negotiated by the community for what they want to see. You know, is it investment in the local park? Is it the school? Is it investing in programs so it makes sure you're training

those local workers, like all of those things, whatever is valuable to that community, they can decide and put that in a community benefits agreement.

seeing any of your Republican colleagues writing bills to keep these data centers in check?

Not really. here and there, like I see I see some around the edges, but nothing

Yeah.

really like fighting I made.

No, but

and they're they're not certainly bringing it up for a vote. The

No.

the Republican controlled state senate in Pennsylvania is not rushing to pass something to protect Pennsylvanians from data centers, but it sounds like Democrats in the state house

No. No. Yeah.

and you in the state senate as a minority are trying to. So the solution seems to be getting the trifecta so that if at county levels we can't get a quorum or a vote to do it, at the state level you have protections in place.

'Cause we want to make sure that they pay their fair share too. Like if they're doing build out, which you know, it's already reflected. Like you may not know it, but it has already showed up in the increased cost in your electric bill. And they

Yeah, yeah.

should be paying for if they need a new substation, if they need new w they should be paying for that build out that is for their benefit, not everybody else's.

it. Lindsey, I understand the assignment. Okay. More Democrats

Go ahead.

to protect Pennsylvanians from these data centers.

Lindsey, I have another segment I love Small Business Spotlight. Okay, where I'm giving you the opportunity. It's really hard, I know, to just choose one business that you want to showcase on the Zekely Podcast. It can be anything, anything at all, in your district.

Okay.

there's an commonplace coffee. It so they have coffee and tea. they

Which Okay, just wanna be s yeah, come on, where are we going here?

they opened up a new location in the library, just not too far from me in the Northland library. So they're now you can go to the library, you can get your books, you can get your caffeine fix, and they just organize their union.

Love it.

And so they're a un new union coffee shop.

And I got to do something fun that I've never got to do, which I was really cool. UFCW asked me to be the one to count their ballots. So

they didn't even fight their union. They let them do a vote and I got to I got to be the neutral observer to count the ballots and certify that they had enough

That's exciting.

votes to to form their union. So that

That's great.

is like cool on so many levels.

Yeah,

okay, fine. Ka e even though it's not commonplace tea, I'll allow it, okay? Commonplace coffee, I love it.

Yeah, yeah. He the the

owner of was like, What do you mean you don't like coffee? He's like

Yeah.

he was like, I think I can he was like trying to convert me. I was like, I don't know. A

No.

lot of people have tried, but I I'll drink tea I'll come have tea with you.

Absolutely. Yep, you gotta have your green tea.

Lindsey, what gives you hope?

young people. Every time, you know, I get to talk to a lot of students and they give me hope. they get a bad rap, but they care a lot. They're way more observant and aware than I think I was. I I the times I've been stumped with questions, mostly high schoolers, mostly kids, ask you like the randomest and you're like, I haven't thought about that. Like, you know, I've had high school

Students ask me about their reproductive rights, post Dobbs decision, and in in some real ways that they're grappling with.

right. I mean, it's all about the kids, right? Past, present, future. my own kids. Obviously, I want them to grow up in a place that's better than we have it now. And so yeah, you you have to have hope for the kids.

Lindsey, my last question for you is what plans do you have to get you through these next few years in America?

Whew leaning on my friends and family. I have, you know, a great support system when, you know, this job, I love it. I want to continue doing it. But it's hard. There are days that are hard, you know. There are days when it's like you're you're you're just fighting is still fighting an uphill battle and you're trying to help people who are in a really bad spot and y you wish you could do more. And but my my family, my friends, my my staff

I have an amazing staff who like care just as much as I do.

they're the ones who get me through it.

Yeah, we all need friends and family to lean on when things get hard. And I know you're gonna lean into the work. I know that's how you're gonna spend your next couple of years. So I

Yes. Yep. I don't know how I don't I don't know how to do it otherwise, to be honest.

you and me both, Lindsey, you me both.

Senator Lindsey Williams, Democrat running for re-election this year in Pennsylvania. The margins are slim in your district, but not impossible, obviously, because you have already served two terms and you're gonna get it again because people in your district are going to show up. They're gonna show up for

Yes, they are.

you.

And I'm gonna do my part in my part of Pennsylvania to get the word out. remind everyone what's your website again?

It's Lindsey for P A, so L I N D S E Y F O R P A dot com.

Super easy. And that's my

social

too, they're all the same.

If you live in parts of the 10th, 11th, or 12th wards of the city of Pittsburgh, the North Hill suburbs and the Allegheny River communities, get off your ass. Go to her website, sign up to door knock, phone bank, send postcards, make a donation, whatever Lindsey needs, because every election is the most important election, Pennsylvania. And it's been too long, thirty plus years without the trifecta, things

Are just circling and dying in the state senate. And we can do amazing things like raise a minimum wage, maternity leave, protect children from child abuse and predators, and legalize recreational marijuana. All these things can happen with a trifecta. And Lindsey Williams is part of that puzzle. So, Lindsey, I can't vote for you. I wish that I could over here in Montgomery County, but I'm so proud of what you've done for these last two terms. You need to win again. And I'm just so grateful for you what you do every day in Harrisburg.

Thank you. And thanks for getting the word out for not only for me, but for all of my c other colleagues who are, you know, fighting for their seats this this session. Good.

That's right. Mm-hmm. Katie Muth is coming. Okay, I'm gonna getcha, Katie. All right.

Well, thank you so 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.