Summary:

In this episode of the Zekely Podcast, host Zeke interviews Daniella Weinberg, a Communications Chair for the Democratic Committee of Lower Merion and Narberth. They discuss Daniella's transition from corporate public relations to local politics, emphasizing the importance of community engagement and understanding local governance. Daniella shares her experiences in college, her superstitions, and the significance of local elections in shaping community decisions. The conversation also touches on personal growth, advice received, and the hope for future political engagement.

Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Daniella Weinberg

00:20 Intro

01:19 Being Young and Trendy

03:33 Making a Transition

07:17 You Said What?

15:06 The Power of Commission

18:28 Advice

23:57 Taking Names and PR Goals

27:21 Superstitions, Hope and Plans

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 has 15 plus years experience doing public relations work with Fortune 500 companies And now she's the communications chair for the Democratic Committee of Lower Merion and Narberth in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Thank you so much for being here, Daniella Weinberg.

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.

Thank you Zeke, I appreciate you inviting me on.

I'm so happy you're on here. love working with you, with the Democratic Committee, and we have so much to talk about. Thank you.

I love working with you. We are

so lucky to have you working with us. So, it's mutual.

Well, there's a lot to be done.

I'm happy to do it.

you are so cool. You had such a cool past with all your swanky friends I saw when I was Googling you at the the BFA events. What does the BFA stand for again?

No.

Billy Farrell Agency, they, Billy Farrell Agency is a society photographer. So it's like the Getty, yes, it's the Getty images of society events and mostly in New York and LA, but they travel also. So sometimes in Miami, like during Basel, which was earlier this month. And yeah, so there was a time in my life where I was focused.

Okay.

Okay, society photographer.

100 % on communications for consumer brands, doing a little bit of nightlife and doing a lot for hotels like Starwood hotels where I usually have like a hotel bar like for W hotels and you're going to throw events and you get your picture taken sometimes when you're young and bold and stupid and you don't realize that things stay on Google forever. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, well, mean,

to be honest, your pictures are they look great. mean, they look like you could take those photos at any time and be like, come to New York City. We are the popular crowd. You want to come hang with us. Exactly.

thank you.

We're having a good time. Yeah. mean, my

twenties and thirties, we had a really good time and we did some really good stuff for brands. So launched some really interesting hotels, launched some really cool brands, did some really interesting, fun things. definitely have enjoyed my time in New York, but then, you know, all good things must come to an end. And, you know, you sort of age out of the 2 a.m.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yes.

Mm-hmm

nightlife scene, 3am

nightlife scene, and then sometimes like teammates would have to come get me and say you were out a little bit too late last night. It's like we need you at the office right now. You missed a meeting. But that didn't happen very often. Just one time. Just that one time.

man.

Yeah.

Alright, just that one time. Just that one time.

And now I do much more responsible things.

What was your...

We're going to move on to why you chose to go from working for these huge Fortune 500 companies to now working for a Democratic party in Lower Merion Narberth. So what made you want to make that jump?

Well, so I was a political science major in college and pretty much an activist in high school. And then sort of went down this other path. It was very fun. And I got involved in local politics in the way a lot of people get involved in local politics, something happens in your town or in your where you live, that sort of inspires you to get engaged. And

as you start to get engaged, you get more engaged. And so for me, that was really around zoning issues and sort of popping up of like new developments, luxury homes in existing neighborhoods. And that got me involved in talking to the township. And I wanted to know who my representative was. And then I wanted to better understand once I got to know who that was, I wanted to better understand what the structure of government was.

And then I wanted to know who the Democratic Party was. And so I was living in here, like who they were here. And so I got involved

to have a bit more control over what's happening in my hometown. And I said, okay, well, I've been doing communications for a long time and I would love to get the community more engaged and to be doing things to get the community to understand a little bit more on what their local politics is all about.

Mm-hmm.

who's making those decisions, the impact they can have on those decisions made.

It's so fascinating that you were so interested in just getting involved in politics to have the foresight to say, I see something I don't like or something is concerning to me in my community. And then you thought the best way I can to figure out what to do about it is to look into the political makeup of the community, which I feel like not enough people do that. They look around and they see things changing and they probably don't understand where the levers of power reside.

And you went on a mission to figure that out.

Right, well it's.

That's right. Well, because I really don't like being told no. Mitch, my husband will tell you that. That's just not a word that I understand. And so as we started to dig in, we were told no. And that was just not something I was willing to accept. And so you have to start to think, you know, if I don't have, where can I have control? If I'm being told no, you know, but we are.

Mm-hmm.

residents of this town, we pay taxes here, right? And this is the thing that is so amazing about America and our country and a democracy is that you have actual control over what happens to you, but you have to engage to get that control.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Right, right, you have to engage. And why did you decide to join the Democratic Party? So it sounds like you were a Democrat coming into the community already, but why did you decide to stand up and represent the Democrats?

Yeah. So I've been a Democrat my whole life. My family are Democrats. I'm a Democrat because I believe in smart regulation. I believe that we should be working to do well for ourselves and also to give back to the community and to make sure that we are a society that is healthy. And I think that the Democratic

Mm-hmm.

values of the party is about helping others to ensure that we have a really healthy society that is going to then help move all of us forward. Yeah,

I agree with everything you're saying.

Well thank you for explaining all that. That's great information. We're going to move on to talk about some words. So are there any words in your vocabulary that you've ever said wrong for a very long time and you never realized you were saying the word wrong until someone checked you on it and then you're like, my gosh. Yeah.

Sure.

Okay.

This just happened. This just

happened Zeke. Like excor she ate, like it was like basically saying not excruciating, but like you, yeah. Excoriated. Like, I don't know how to say that word. Yeah. It's go reated.

You

Oh, excruciating. You said excorciating. Excoriated. How did you say it?

I don't know, it's one of those words that you never say out loud because you don't know how to say it. You say it in your mind, but you know that you're not really saying it right, and so you just never say it out loud. Yeah, and you hope someone else will say it for you or just isn't paying attention. This is actually something I do all the time and Mitch is constantly correcting me, and that's okay.

Yeah, like you like you say it in your mind all the time, you know Yeah, and then once then you have to say it and you kind of just hope someone else says it

Yeah.

That's okay. I had one that I said for a very long time, I guess in my mind, until I said it aloud in front of Jess. It was, I'll never forget, it was when I was in medical school and Jess and I would watch Law and Order SVU at the end of the day after I was studying for 12 hours a day, we would watch like an episode of Law and Order SVU. And at one point in the show, Jess walks in and she says, well, what just happened? And I said, they're getting an Alpha David.

Yeah.

Mmm.

for this person. And she said, what? I said, no, they're getting from the judge an alpha David. And she was like, did you mean affidavit? I was like, isn't that what I said? Isn't that what I said? I was 25, 24, 25 years old. And yeah.

Ha

David?

Is that what it is? Is that what it said?

that's young. This was yesterday

that's happened to me.

But yeah, that was I mean, Jess lost it. She thought it was the funniest thing.

Ha ha ha ha

The more you talk about it, the more I'm flashing back to Jess laughing her ass off when she was confronting. We had to pause the show and have an intervention where she had to explain to me that I should never say it wrong that way ever again until I'm now 40 years old on a podcast telling everyone I used to say it wrong. So, yeah.

But she couldn't.

Yeah.

Yeah, she's

like, I will not have children. cannot be the father of my children. Calling it an alpha david Yeah.

Yeah,

but I'm glad we can at commiserate about that. So thank you. Words that we can't say correctly sometimes. Excoriated and affidavit, perfect.

Okay.

Yeah, excoriated, which I still sure I'm not. Yeah. Yeah.

Here's another question for you. Let's talk about college. Did you pledge to a sorority in college?

Fuck no

I was not a sorority sister girl.

That's funny. I did join a frat when I was in college because there was like nothing else to do. I went to the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, which no longer exists because St. Joseph University bought it recently. But yeah, it was one of the dumbest things I've ever done.

Yeah.

interesting. Goodbye.

was called Kappa Psi KY. Those were the Greek, no, ours was KY. So you can kind of connect a lot of dots with that, the name of that one. And I just, I don't know. They were the cool guys, I guess, I thought at the time. And I joined it and my class just ruined.

Okay. Aren't there supposed to be three letters? No, just two. Okay.

Yikes.

Okay.

the fraternity, I stopped going after a while because they were just fighting all the time, like really bad fights. Like people would wind up in the emergency room because of the fights. I, no, I mean, I was pre-med at that point. And a lot of the people in my class were just playing Madden all day long and partying too hard. And I think that the fraternity actually shut down after I left a couple of years later and the house was condemned. So like, I don't even think that.

my gosh, is this why you're a doctor?

Yeah.

I don't think it exists anymore as a fraternity. But yeah, just pledging was one of the, I did the dumbest stuff. I mean, and the crazy thing about pledging is that no one is forcing you to do anything. It's just the like, that group think mentality and the peer pressure is just so heavy. And you just really want to be a part of the crowd that you just do whatever they tell you to do. Like we would just like, I ate the most disgusting things and you know, just embarrassed myself in ways that just are just.

So.

channel.

No, you would never do that ever. But you're like, yeah, this is gonna be so great when it's over. And then the fact that it was so terrible afterwards made it just worthless. Yeah.

Oh, that sounds terrible. so

my mother, roommate in college joined a sorority or pledged and she had the most amazing pledge story. Like, wait, can I tell you something? I think it's so funny. no, I mean, like it's all stupid. Like the whole thing is so stupid. Why would you put yourself through this? But what they did was they took all the girls. This was in the 60s, okay? So they...

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah, give the antithesis to mine.

Mm-hmm.

Mm.

took them, they woke them up in the middle of the night and they said, come with me. And they put them all in a van and they drove them. She went to Hofstra, so this was on Long Island. And they drove them into a sanitarium in pajamas. Okay, into like a, you know, like a crazy hospital for crazy people and left them there with nothing. So that then,

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Yeah.

they were in the sanitarium and that the sanitarium staff came out and thought that they had tried to escape because they were in there. There was a bunch of girls in their pajamas in the sixties on the other side of a sanitarium and the sanitarium grounds. And so some of the girls got brought in and then they had to like call like when they realized that they actually weren't. Yeah, I was like, you're not understanding this yet. And this is in the sixties. This is like, this is where like women had like

God. So did they like

No rights. Like you see a woman and just picture like woken up in the middle of the night. And so the staff grabs them and brings them inside and then takes them hours to realize they are not a crazy woman.

my god. Well,

my god.

but even their women, so they didn't even believe them in the first place, even though that they weren't as like their names, they had no IDs, nothing. That was the pledge.

my God. So when you said that it was

a lovely story, were you being facetious?

No, I don't

mean a lovely story. I think I said a story that I love.

Not a lovely story, nothing lovely about

That is... my god, yeah, I

was expecting like, I have a story I love, as in like, you...

Yeah,

no, mean, I love it. I think it's so, I think it's genius.

my God, that's terrible. That is worse than anything that I did as pledging because that's actually terrifying. mean, what I did was stupid. I did stupid. like the people, they put us in vans, took us to the Jersey shore in the middle of the night and made us like wade out into the freezing water and then like put us back in the vans and then like put bags over our heads and took us home. Like dumb stuff, but like.

my god. How terrifying is that? Yeah.

Yeah, okay.

Yeah.

They could have actually been in like an insane asylum for weeks and no one would have been able to find them.

Yeah, uh-huh, and like to get into the sorority you had to get out of it. I mean, it is like dazed and confused type of shit. I love it. I mean, I have like, it's awful. It's horrible. And thank God I didn't do it. But like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You were like looking at me like, this is so wonderful, but it's not happening right now.

That is terrible.

my God. That took a that took a left turn. Wow, that's I.

Yeah, I was not

expecting that. Well, we didn't do anything that terrible, because that's nefarious. But wow, I hope that they are all nice to each other now. Like, I hope that after that experience that they enjoyed being in the sorority, because that is a terrible thing to go through.

They're all fine.

Yeah.

They definitely like worked for it, right?

We'll leave it at that.

Just saying.

right, let's talk a little bit about 2024. Obviously it was a shock to a lot of us in the Democratic Party. lost a lot of ways,

Sure. So they are the Board of Commissioners is the legislative body in Lower Merion Township. It's our only governing body. and the commissioners play the role both of the executive and the legislative branch. So we don't have a mayor here.

Instead, what we have are districts that we call wards, and there are 14 of those wards, and each one has a representative, and those representatives make up the board of commissioners. And these people, they do everything and anything that you can think of in Lower Merion. So in our municipality, if you want a new stop sign,

in your neighborhood, the board of commissioners will make the decision of whether or not they want to commission a traffic study and whether or not you should then that traffic study, whatever the outcome is, that you should have a new stop sign. If you want a speed bump in your road because like your people are too fast or if you want to change the, you can even change the speed limits.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

And so these are the kinds of things that the commissioners do. It can be anything from what size house is built next to you, how fast you can drive on the road, to what type of stores you have in your commercial districts in your community. And these commissioners are the ones that are making those decisions.

Mm-hmm.

So they have a significant

amount of power over our everyday lives.

They have a huge amount of power over our everyday life.

We don't really pay attention to local politics because life is sort of moving and it's going and you're driving and like, maybe it's annoying if there's an extra stop sign where there wasn't one before. And maybe you're a little frustrated that you can't go as fast as you want, but mostly you feel like your life is just happening and you feel pretty good about it. But then if something happens, you start to pay attention and you start to say, wait, I don't want that. Or that doesn't feel good. Or this doesn't feel like it aligned with my values. And

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

you maybe didn't vote in the last election. And that was the election where you could have voted for your commissioner, for the person that was going to sit up in the dais for the next four years and make the decisions that have a daily impact on your life. So that is my pitch to pay attention to local politics, because when you don't pay attention to it, then you don't have any say about what happens.

Right. Right.

Yeah, absolutely. That's a lot.

in your area, your community.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, and then you don't even know where to start, right? Then you just start... Yeah, you hear something on the news or you get angry and frustrated, then you refocus your anger on someone or something that has absolutely no control over what your actual issues are.

And then sometimes you don't even know where to start. Yeah.

I hope to change that narrative with this. That's why we're talking right now. Yeah, I really, I really, really, really want people to pay attention to elections every year. I want people all over Pennsylvania to pay attention to their local races. So all over Pennsylvania, there are going to be multiple races this year with commissioners and school board races and sheriffs. And if you want things to change around you in your local community,

Yes, I know that's why we're talking about it right now. You are going to change it. Yeah.

This is the time to get online and pay attention and get involved in your local democracy.

That's correct. And also there's a statewide judge, right, elections as well. And we have very important elections, which is whether or not we're going to retain our democratic Supreme Court, Pennsylvania Supreme Court seats. So.

Yes, correct.

Yeah, you got it. Yep. I'm going

to try and have those judges on the on the podcast. So that'd be great. I'd like to have them.

Amazing.

just, I have such admiration for what you're doing. It's amazing. And yeah.

Thank you. Well, thank you for telling me about all of that information. really want

people to understand how important local elections are.

gonna move on to some good advice you maybe got in your life at some point or even recently. What's the best piece of feedback you've ever received? Is there something notable in your mind like, that really was great. Thank you so much. Either or.

advice or feedback.

feedback, advice.

one of the things that I was told,

that I thought was really good for my therapist was the calendar moves on. Things are temporary, right? So no matter how you feel and no matter what is happening, the calendar, cannot stop time, right? So life is going to continue marching on. And so you have a choice. You can either try and stay still, but that's impossible.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

or realize that whatever you're feeling or whatever is happening, it's transient. Right? And so this too, essentially, right?

This too shall pass essentially, yeah?

time is going to march on. It's our job to march with it.

Yeah, I agree. I would say probably one of the best pieces of advice that I received was when I was in medical school. I was really struggling when I got into medical school. I just wasn't doing very well with my grades. And I was really nervous, was I going to be able to hack it?

And there was this mentor program that was in place. So I got connected with someone who was a couple of years older than me. And I talked to him. said, you know, studying 12 hours a day. I literally was studying all the time. I was taking copious amounts of notes and reading them and reading them. I just, I took a test and I would get a C, you know, like what, what am I doing wrong? and he said,

I don't know what you're doing wrong, but you just need to stop doing what you're That's literally what he said. He just said, whatever you're doing is not working. You are working, you are doing a lot of something. And I was, I was studying for 12 hours a day and it just wasn't, it wasn't connecting. Like something just wasn't working. And so I stopped taking notes altogether, just stopped. And I just.

rights.

picked up a highlighter and I started reading the textbook and highlighting instead. My C's turned into Bs, turned into As and it worked. I mean, he was right. So I guess if you're doing something and you're working really, really hard and it's still not working, you just gotta try something else. And that was just really great advice.

Wow.

It is really great advice.

You have to figure out a way that works.

Yeah, no, mean,

So we both got some good advice.

All right, so let's talk about our names for a second. All right, did you like your name growing up? Like you loved your name?

I love my name except

yes love my name except that you could not get your name on like a license plate or tag like no one had people had Danielle but no one had Daniella yeah

Right. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Right, right. Well, similarly

with me, I mean, you could never find Ezekiel, or Ezekiel License Plate, but I did not like my name growing up at all. Well, first of all, nobody calls me Ezekiel. Nobody. Except for my, my grandmother used to call me Ezekiel, but she was like the only one. And she used to say that like it was a very heavy burden to carry. Yeah, she'd be like, that's... In Hebrew, it means strength of God. Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

What does Ezekiel mean?

wow, is like, to think you're a doctor. mean, literally it was like rolled out for you, my gosh.

I know, it's a heavy burden to carry.

Yeah, I know

it's crazy. No, but nobody, not even my parents called me Ezekiel. They always called me Zeke. And so growing up, know, it just always rhymed with geek. So it'd be like Zeke the geek, you know, I know it's so, you know, you get so traumatized as a kid, but then when you get older, you're like, oh, I'm very unique. I'm Zeke because there aren't a lot of Zeke's in the world, but nobody still calls me Ezekiel. I remember when I first started dating Jess, she really likes my name. She started calling me Ezekiel.

Yeah.

You do.

Yeah. Yeah.

yeah.

And she

stopped calling me Ezekiel after a week because nobody knew who she was talking about. Like, not even my parents were like, Ezekiel, who? It's like, you named me and you can't, you don't even know who she's talking about. So, Ezekiel just resides on diplomas. But yeah, I did not enjoy my name growing up. But I love it now. Like, hence the Zekely podcast. You know, here we are. Look how far I've come, Daniella.

They'd be like, who? I don't understand, who? Yeah. They were like, you don't even know who I am.

that's nice. Okay. All right. Okay. Yeah, I love Zeke. think it's very

like, you look how far you've come. Yes. Yeah.

Look how far I've Great. So

we just talked about our names.

All

Mm-hmm.

Wow, I mean.

Here you go. I'm putting you on the spot. What's your strategy? Let's go.

Putting it on.

mean, the strategy is,

what we want to do this year is we want to be telling the stories. We want to tell good stories. What are the things that Democrats are doing? And how can people feel good about being part of the Democratic Party?

Mm-hmm.

We want to tell the stories to get people engaged and involved. And then it's about doing events and it's about talking to people and talking to

Mm-hmm.

your neighbor and having your neighbor then talk to their neighbor. And it's about thinking about what the impact that these these elections are going to have on people.

that's really what we're gonna be doing.

and

I agree. I just don't want people to throw in the towel when it comes to politics at any level. think we should always be encouraging people to stay engaged and to always avoid the conversations of it doesn't matter. both sides are the same and that I'll just pay attention the next four years when the next presidential election comes up. Everything is a layering effect. If you are very involved at the local level,

That's right.

you're gonna pay attention in the big presidential election, but everything builds on itself. To say that your local elections are not as important as a presidential election, there's a disconnect, right? It basically says that your engagement in democracy only matters every four years. But this country is great because we have to constantly be involved in the democratic process, and that means at all levels of the process.

Yeah, and I would actually argue that these elections are more important.

So if you want to protect vaccine mandates in your state and you want for your kids to go to school and it be mandated that the other students go to school, that is something that you can be voting for in state elections. And then that's also something that you're going to want to vote for when you think about school board elections, right?

Hmm

Right.

Well, whatever those things are your local elections is what's making the decisions of what can and can't happen in the place that you live.

Right. Well, I like your strategy and you know, it's tell good stories, show what Democrats are doing and keep people engaged. So thank you.

All right. Let's play a little game. Okay. It's called low key awesome. You know what low key awesome means? Little Gen Z lingo. It's like something that's awesome, but subtle, like a subtle kind of awesome. Okay. Exactly.

I don't know what that is, but I think that's me.

Okay. Yeah. Like me. Yeah, like you. I don't

You're more than subtle. I mean,

know.

you're awesome. All right, so here's something. When you get free food, that's low-key awesome, right?

I think I'm low key. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. When do I get free food?

Yeah, free food is, Uh-huh. Sure.

Free food's always good.

It's good. I love free food. I mean, when I was in training in medical school and residency, anytime there was free food, I was all over it. Always tasted better. It was

Amazing.

Alright, when you win a board game against a kid...

That's not low-key awesome. that's because you have kids.

really? think, I mean, I just... Yes. It's still, I mean

Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

I mean look, if I have to deal with them driving me crazy all day long, I think it's low-key

awesome when I crush them in a board game. Okay? It's like, you know what? I've had to deal with your shit all day, I'm gonna crush you in a board game, and I'm just gonna keep it to myself, but it's kind of low-key.

Yeah, like as a person who's not a mom, I don't think that's low-key awesome. They're like little kids. They're just like innocent little ones, but like I don't have to take them home and deal with them. There's someone else's problem. That's low-key awesome. Yes, that's low-key awesome. Yeah, I don't have to deal with them. Yeah, not my problem.

Okay, fine.

Exactly. Someday. Okay, fine. Yes, it's low-key awesome that you don't have to deal with them. There you go. All right.

Here's another one. When you don't have to take your shoes off to go through security at the airport.

Yes, I just made Mitch and I put in our TSA numbers so we don't have to do that Yeah, that is low key awesome

Yeah, that's pretty low-key awesome.

All right, here's another one, the last one actually, when you don't have any cavities when you go to the dentist.

Unfortunately, it doesn't happen for me very often because I hate the dentist so I don't go enough Yeah, but when that does happen, I know these are all fake Yeah, well they're already gone these are all little like alien nut like they're like little alien nubbins underneath. Yeah. My god, I'm like a little alien. my god. Yeah, like in real life like I look like this but actually remove them I'm like

Really? you gotta protect the...

You gotta protect them.

Alien nubbins?

my god.

that's so funny.

It's disgusting. It's a horror Anyone

That's hilarious.

that has veneers, we're monsters. We are low-key monsters.

I mean, know Jess' dad is a dentist, so I've actually never had a cavity in my life. Never. Jess has had a number of cavities and it's funny, she's the daughter of a dentist. I know.

Yes, yeah, yeah.

Wow!

that's so funny. I like never

see her eat sweets or anything.

She hasn't had any recently, but I think as a kid she had a lot. I'm... Yeah. Well, thank you for playing Lowkey Awesome with me.

interesting. I would not have thought about that. Okay. Yeah.

All right. I'm going to ask you about superstitions. Are you a superstitious person at all?

I do

not walk under ladders and do not walk under them. I had a mirror one time, I woke up and it broke and I am convinced that all things have gone wrong since then. So yes.

Okay.

Okay. Like

all things that have happened since the mirror broke are because of that one mirror breaking?

I mean, it wasn't just like a small mirror. was like a full length mirror fell over and shattered. And I just think that terrible things have happened and it's because of that.

wow.

Like what's one terrible thing that's happened that you connect to that mirror breaking? I'm just curious. Because I'm not a superstitious person at all, but I'm always, I always enjoy hearing other people's superstitions. like, tell me one bad thing. Get me on your side with the superstitions.

my dad died.

my god, you had to pull that out? You had to pull that one out?

Can I think of anything?

I was like trying...

Ugh, Daniella!

Those are like embarrassing,

like I'm not gonna be like, yeah, my dad died.

I

can't say anything to that. I'm not gonna browbeat you over that, but... gracious. All because a mirror broke.

Yeah?

mean, and it was like very close and then he got very sick and he died. I mean, he had been

sick, but he got like sicker progressively.

Yeah.

Well, I'm just going to put a pin in that one.

So don't let a

mirror fall because your dad might die. That's not why he died. I mean, he was like, that's not why he died, I promise.

my God. All right.

As a doctor,

I can tell you with 100 % certainty your dad did not pass away because of the mirror breaking. But I don't want to shatter, literally or figuratively, your superstitious ways.

No, he did not.

the same time, there are just

very sorry. Well, thank you for telling me about your superstitions. All right, let's have... It's okay. We're going to lighten it up.

it's okay. Sorry, This got very dark.

that. Just sayin right, I have two more questions for you, okay? What gives you hope?

Just saying. Yeah. Okay.

You and Jess yeah, yeah, you guys give me hope, you know, that like we can keep going. I mean, this was a pretty...

I give you

that there are people that are still

gonna do the work, I guess is what you're saying.

No, there are people that are still going to inspire us to do the work.

Gotcha. Well, thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. Well, you inspire me as well. Anyone who works for the Democratic Party and their values inspires me. So thank you. You give me hope Thank you. And my last question for you is what plans do you have to get yourself through these next few years? Obviously, you are doing something as the communications chair, but what else are you doing just to get yourself through, you know, what's coming in 2025 and beyond?

What else am I doing? Okay.

I think the most important thing that we have to have is the realization that the calendar, the pages get torn every day and that time marches on and we have two choices. We can sit and do nothing and as time marches on things get worse and harder for everybody or we can

Any...

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

move with the world and continue to fight because we know that this isn't going to last

we can become involved and get engaged and make sure and it doesn't just mean things like calling your local, you know, elected official. It can mean running for office. It can mean getting involved in

Hmm. Yeah.

your local Democratic Party.

Now it's about figuring out what we can do that can make a difference.

I agree. Yeah, I mean, that's all you can do is just keep moving forward one day at a time.

Yeah, with. But with a purpose.

If people wanna take time to themselves, take time to yourself, right? You just have to be able to continue to get back on the horse. You can't just turn away. The crisis continues to be there, but you have to be able to figure out how to do it in your own way, in your own balance.

It's that's great. really spoke to me, Daniella. It did.

That's how my, because

it's not my words, it's Maya Angelou's. Yeah.

You're right. Well, that's great. Well, thank you for

bringing her words here. Well, Daniella, this was lovely. Thank you so much for coming on and having these conversations. Thank you for everything that you're doing. And I really do look forward to working with you over the next couple of years to improve the well-being of our county and the state of Pennsylvania.

Yes.

Yes, it was. Thank you.

Thank you.

Yes,

me too. Thank you. Thank you for everything that you're doing. Thank you for having me on and we will talk soon.

You're welcome.

Absolutely.

Thank you 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.