One Country Project's Hot Dish

Heidi Heitkamp (00:05):
Welcome to The Hot Dish: Comfort Food for Middle America. I'm Heidi Heitkamp.

Joel Heitkamp (00:09):
And I'm Joel Heitkamp.

Heidi Heitkamp (00:11):
Well, Joel, it's great to have you on today.

Joel Heitkamp (00:13):
Good to be with you, Mary.

Heidi Heitkamp (00:15):
Well, you are going to be jealous, because I had a conversation with Adam Frisch, the Democrat in Colorado who almost beat the MAGA darling Lauren Boebert in 2022. He came so close that she skedaddled out of the district. Now she's running in a very tough primary in another district in Colorado. But what was important, I think, about our conversation was not his 2022 race, but his 2024 race, because he's doing exactly what we hope will happen in politics. He's trying to encourage people to vote for him and not just vote against someone else. And so, it'll be interesting to see how well he does.

Joel Heitkamp (00:54):
Well, and he's right to do that. I mean, that's the high road, and hats off to him. He's probably the guy that can get the job done. He almost did get the job done last time. He forced her to kind of run. And I don't understand the rules in Colorado where you don't have to live in your district and you can go ahead and run in another district, but my guess is, between now and then, Boebert or Boebert, whatever you're calling her today, is probably not going to be going to any musicals.

Heidi Heitkamp (01:25):
Yeah. Well, I don't think she's coming back to Congress, because I don't think she could make it even through her Republican primary. And so, it'll be interesting to see. Adam claims that there are people in the primary who are to the right of her.

Joel Heitkamp (01:40):
Oh, wow. How in the world could that be?

Heidi Heitkamp (01:41):
Yeah. I know.

Joel Heitkamp (01:42):
In her case, I'm always really curious, because the strength that individuals like her have and the Marjorie Taylor Greenes have is usually money, that high-profile "here I am" Madam MAGA willing to be just outrageous. And so, I'm curious. She could run against X number of people, but number one, that usually helps somebody perceived as the incumbent. But are they just so embarrassed that they have heard that her time has come and gone?

Heidi Heitkamp (02:16):
Oh, I think that she's moved to a district that she can't win in. Ken Buck, who has controlled that district for a lot of years as a Republican, basically quit and arranged it so that she would have a difficult time taking over his seat. So the goalpost keeps moving in the Republican Party in terms of the amount of outrage that can be, I think, advanced in the Republican Party.

(02:44):
First, though, I want you to meet Michelle Rathman. Michelle has over 25 years of experience working on rural healthcare issues, and she now has a podcast called The Rural Impact, which talks about health and other issues facing rural Americans. We're going to be talking to her occasionally as we examine rural healthcare issues in the coming months. So I hope you get as excited as I am to get to know her.

Michelle Rathman (03:14):
My name is Michelle Rathman, and I am a rural health strategist, communications, and community engagement expert and an advocate for equitable health policy for rural and remote communities. These are commonly known for their older, sicker, poorer, and, in many places right now, shrinking populations. I launched The Rural Impact Podcast about a year ago after hosting a different rural-focused podcast for three years.

(03:41):
I felt it was needed, because we have a goal that's very, very simple. We help listeners connect the dots between policy and rural, absolutely everything that we can think of that we have time to talk about. Aside from covering many layers of rural health, because that is my life's work, we take deep dives into topics like rural housing and homelessness. We talk about access to food, transportation, broadband, of course, is a big subject, economic development.

(04:10):
And another really emerging issue that we're hearing so much about is high-quality rural education, and that includes postsecondary education and training opportunities for adults, apprenticeships, and things of that nature. And later this year, we are going to be doing a series on the rural vote. And we know that this gets a lot of attention these days, but as I said earlier, our focus is purely on the policy. There are so many critical issues, healthcare issues, facing rural Americans today. And to get to the solutions, I think it's really first important to understand the root of the challenges, because this is where the opportunities can be unlocked.

(04:48):
So I serve on the National Rural Health Association Policy Congress. And our 2024 agenda has three very clear priorities that speak to the heart of the critical issues, and the first is really focused on the need to invest in a strong rural safety net. And by that, I mean we need to invest in programs that expand access to healthcare, improve health outcomes, and increase the quality and efficiency of healthcare delivery in rural America.

(05:16):
Over 165 rural hospitals have closed or have discontinued inpatient services since 2010, and over 50% of rural hospitals today are operating with a negative margin and, therefore, so vulnerable to closure. So it is a critical issue. And I would say the second, we have to reduce the rural healthcare workforce shortage. We've been hearing about it. It does not matter how many beds a hospital has. It does not matter the number of parking spaces at a rural health clinic. Without healthcare providers, including physicians, nurses, techs, IT staff, maintenance, you name it, patient needs cannot be met. It's that simple.

(05:56):
And then the last thing, I think, which, again, is kind of a bundle here, the third critical issue, is addressing the rural decline in health and life expectancy and rural equity. That's a lot, but it's also tied together. And much earlier, I mentioned the association of older, sicker, poorer with rural. And we say that not to be cliché, it's true. That is the majority of the population, not everywhere, but in most rural places.

(06:21):
So each of these single factors alone are a challenge, but together, they are a recipe for nothing but poor health outcomes. The good news is, there's this saying where there is a will, there is a way. And there is a lot of really great things happening, because I think the one thing that's so exciting to me is that we are seeing so much collaboration, cross-industry collaboration, because, like, for example, the Rural Partners Network, which is run through the USDA Rural Development, they have agencies, Department of Labor, Department of Health, Department of Transportation, Department of Education, so many agencies working together to kind of pool resources and technical assistance.

(07:05):
So I would say that there's a lot of communities out there. There's a lot of case studies for what can work, because there is not one size fits all. What I see working is when it's not so prescriptive, and communities are able to engage someone to help them identify their most critical needs. Okay? It might be transportation. It might be bringing cancer care to a community. But I will say, some of the innovative things really evolve around technology, and funding for that technology goes back to that rural safety net. We can deliver care via the internet.

(07:40):
And there's some great community collaborations, a Rural Grocery Initiative out of Kansas that's focused on closing the food care deserts, the 100% Community out of New Mexico that's got 18 counties participating and making sure that every community has the five services they need to thrive and survive. All of that takes policy that spurs funding, and we can't negate whether it's city, local, or federal. All of this really boils down to policy and the priorities of those who make the decisions in the rooms that we are not in.

(08:19):
The challenges that we face in rural America, where healthcare is concerned, cannot be contained. That cat is out of the bag. We are at a place right now where the implications and the impact, it's like a domino effect that's happening. So we have to say, and look at it logically, federal budgets, the appropriations that come from Congress. I'm very involved every year, doing my civic duty and going to Washington, and laying out the case for rural health. It's incumbent upon us to be informed and not expect this to be solved alone. Each of us need to participate, in my view, and we're working to make that easier.

Heidi Heitkamp (09:06):
Listeners, I want you to meet someone who understands rural America as well as anyone, but also understands issues like global economics and international finance, maybe the best of both worlds. He's running to represent Colorado's third district in Congress, where he almost beat Lauren Boebert in 2022. He came so close that she moved to a different district, because she knew she couldn't beat him in the 2024 race. Welcome, Adam. Thank you so much for joining us on The Hot Dish.

Adam Frisch (09:38):
Great to be here, Senator. Thank you so much for everything you've done, and excited to have a conversation.

Heidi Heitkamp (09:43):
Well, your history is so familiar to those of us who grew up in rural America. Maybe you can tell us a little bit about how you were raised and how you got a passion to help people who maybe don't have a voice in this government.

Adam Frisch (09:59):
Well, it's been kind of a windy road from both my parents growing up in northern Minnesota. My dad grew up in the Iron Range of Virginia, Minnesota, an old mining town close to the Boundary Water Canoe Area as well, and my mom's grandparents came over from Europe as well and opened up a cattle-trading business. They happened to move out to the very northeast part of Montana.

(10:22):
I was born on Fort Peck Indian Reservation. Actually, I was born in Williston, North Dakota, which was the closest hospital to Wolf Point and Poplar, Montana, but I lived there for five years. My dad spent five years working for the Indian Health Service. We moved back to Minnesota, where I grew up in Minneapolis. I spent probably a little too much time on the ski slopes. Ended up going out to the University of Colorado, where I was going to the ski race, and I ended up getting hurt, but loved it so much to be out in the middle of the mountains of Colorado.

(10:51):
And then I found myself waiting tables in the center of Manhattan in New York City, and I was there for about 12 years. I did about a year and a half of waiting tables and kind of fell into getting involved with some asset management, money management for a couple years then, the last eight years of my time in New York.

(11:08):
I was very involved with the global foreign exchange currency interest rate derivative trading. I think I went to about 30 or 40 countries, a lot of time in Asia and Africa, Middle East, Latin America. And sadly, like a lot of people, just had to deal with the aftermath of 9/11, a lot of funerals for friends. That's when I figured it might be a good time to hightail back to Colorado and see what's going out there. I met the proverbial girl, Katy, in the Western Slope. We have been married for over 20 years.

(11:38):
We have a 18-year-old son, who is a high school senior, and our daughter is finishing up her junior year in high school. My wife spent some time on the school board in the Roaring Fork Valley, and I spent eight years as a city councilperson. Both Katy and I look at those jobs as elected community service. And then the roundabout way at the end of '21, late summer, early fall, there were some comments made by the current representative.

(12:08):
And yeah, I'll just say it was very on-brand. And that's where my very politically astute son, 16 at the time, and Katy and I had a conversation, and there must be a better way for the U.S. Congress, the House of Representatives, Colorado, the Western Slope, and southern Colorado to have better representation. So we thought as a family, it was super important that sometimes it's important to stand up, and it turned into a big deal.

Heidi Heitkamp (12:32):
Yeah. Well, it turned into a big deal, because you took on someone that we have watched with great concern about democracy moving forward, and someone who has not always represented the best interest of many... the thinking of many people in this country of the United States of America, but more importantly, of this amazing district that you hope to represent. How did you convince your fellow citizens of District 3 that you were the guy for the job, that you were the guy who would carry the mantle forward for their interests?

Adam Frisch (13:08):
Great question, and I'll give you a quick bio of our district. First of all, it's 50,000 square miles. It's larger than the entire state of Pennsylvania. We have 27 counties. As you know, every House of Representative district has about 700, 725,000 people. If you're in Manhattan, you can run around that district in about an hour, maybe an hour and a half. For me, it takes 10 hours to drive with no traffic across our district.

(13:34):
And the district makeup is about 22% registered Democrat and about 32% Republican, and about 45% registered unaffiliated, which I was for about 20 years. And we have some of the wealthiest counties in the country, including one I live in, Pitkin County, home base of Aspen. We have Telluride, another high-end resort community with a lot of great people, but we also have some of the least well-off counties in the country, right a little bit south of the New Mexico border.

(14:04):
There are still teachers down there making $24,000 after 10 years of public school service. We have ranchers. We have farmers. We have coal mines. We have a steel mill, which is 80% solar power, in Pueblo. We have this huge district, and I've been living in the Western Slope district for 20-some years. The easy thing for me to run is, what I said in the Democratic primary is exactly what I share with people in the general election this time and last time, because it's the conversations I was having literally with my family around the proverbial and literal kitchen table.

(14:36):
And so, we've earned the trust of a lot of people. They're still looking for sincerity and authenticity in the face of a lot of what my buddy Dean Phillips calls angertainment, this angertainment industry that is so prevalent. And I knew that it was going to take a lot of work, and it's one of the reasons we've driven over 50,000 miles in the past couple of years. Ranchers and farmers are very pragmatic, and the current congressperson is about as unpragmatic as you're going to get. And I just knew that we could build a coalition. My mom calls it the pro-normal party coalition, and we've been very, very focused on that from day one.

Heidi Heitkamp (15:12):
I think people who are listening to this can say, "Okay. So you have Aspen and you have these areas where coastal elites have moved in." But mainly, what people, who listen to this podcast, are going to be asking is, what are you hearing from those ranchers and those farmers? What are they telling you?

Adam Frisch (15:31):
Yeah. Yeah. Listen, we have a diverse economy, but our resort communities are literally 1% of the vote, literally 1 or 2% of the vote. The vast majority of people who are voting are non-Democrats, small business owners, ranchers, farmers, natural gas producers, coal miners, steelworkers down in Pueblo, proud union members down there.

(15:53):
And so, we have this microcosm of a lot of different moving parts. And I'll say this: There's a couple of things that people are talking about a lot. One, people are exhausted, Senator, with the national conversation. It's probably, sadly, the most appropriate word I hear all the time, whether they're left, right, or center, involved in politics or not. People are just exhausted with all the yelling and the screaming, that angertainment industry that Representative Boebert and her friend, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and all these other people are so fond of, of just stirring up the pot, not focus on the district. So people are exhausted.

(16:26):
Two, they want someone to focus on the district, not themselves. And that's been very, very clear from how things go. The good thing about our district is, it leans five or six points red, but our conservative friends out there, and you know this as well probably up in the Dakotas, it's more of a libertarian conversation than it is a conversation that we would see in the Deep South.

(16:48):
And so, they're not interested in the yelling, the screaming about who people marry, who people love. Our district, CD-3, has been pro-choice for over 20-some years. They just want to be left alone to raise their families, build their communities, and just get back to the common sense of making sure that they're left alone to do what they want to do.

(17:09):
And we are producing counties, and our producing counties sometimes need to push back against those counties who are in the consuming side of things. And the producers of steel mills, the producers of wool, the producers of beef, the producers of domestic energy, whether it's solar, wind, hydro, they just feel left out of the conversation, out of Denver's conversation and D.C.'s conversation.

Heidi Heitkamp (17:33):
When you grow up in places like we do, we know that mineral extraction and extraction of energy and extraction from animals and agriculture is a wealth creator for the rest of the country.

Adam Frisch (17:44):
Yes.

Heidi Heitkamp (17:45):
And I think where you and I live, they feel that that role in the American economy is underappreciated. And so, I think you're not hearing anything different than I'm hearing, which is, why don't people understand that what we do is important to the American economy?

Adam Frisch (18:01):
Yeah. And I just spent time meeting with a rancher and farmer that is trying to figure out how to make sure more of that money that is coming out of the food industry ends up in the producers and not the processors. Right?

Heidi Heitkamp (18:13):
Yeah.

Adam Frisch (18:13):
I mean, that's a conversation. And we are pushing back to make sure that moms and pops and the families of multi-generations are able to keep their head above water competing against a lot of industrial food production out there, and that's a conversation that we have all the time.

Heidi Heitkamp (18:29):
Yeah. I want to kind of ask you about, now that Boebert has exited, when you ran in 2022, you had that foil of this woman who really didn't represent her district, really didn't represent anything other than the 15% of the population in this country that's angry and just wants to listen to, in my opinion, hate speech. Tell me why you think that in that environment, where you are not running against her, you could be successful in the third district.

Adam Frisch (19:01):
No, thanks for asking. The question comes up a lot. Yeah. To bring everyone up to speed, in mid-December of last year, Boebert's team did an internal poll and a horse race between the representative and ourselves. And I know what the questions were, because a couple of my friends got them. I don't know what the exact results were.

Heidi Heitkamp (19:18):
That's a great thing in where you live, where we do. People get bold and they call you. I wrote down every question. I tried to listen really hard.

Adam Frisch (19:24):
Yeah.

Heidi Heitkamp (19:26):
Yeah. There's no such thing as a secret.

Adam Frisch (19:28):
But I mean, for the first time in 25 years, we think a sitting congressperson decided to pack their bags, put their tail between their legs, and hightail out of the district. And so, we're proud of that. Listen, it would have been more fun to defeat her at the ballot box this coming fall, but there's a lot of good things about her being gone. A, she's not representing CD-3 anymore. She never did, but she doesn't have that title anymore, at least not for a couple more months after that.

(19:49):
Two, I've been trying to tell a pro-Adam story about why people should be voting for us, not against other people for a really long time. And that really got lost, because while we never spent any time hammering her away about her family and her personal foibles, and there's a lot of them, everyone in the national world came in to just kind of hammer that conversation.

(20:09):
And we took the blame for picking on her about... I'm focused on policy, not personalities. And the fact that she and that traveling national angertainment circus has now left western and southern Colorado, that's one of the best successes we'll ever have. But I do want to remind some people, we're running unopposed, which is great. There are six-

Heidi Heitkamp (20:28):
In the primary.

Adam Frisch (20:30):
Yeah. We have an uncontested primary at the end of June. The Republicans have a primary with six Republicans on the ballot. There's everything from some more traditional Republicans to people that are probably more extreme than Lauren Boebert, which might be hard to believe. So we're not sure what we're going to get. But even though this district leans the other way, and as I tell people, "I'm not on Team Red. I'm not on Team Blue. I'm on Team CD-3." And that is my mantra, and I truly, truly, truly believe that.

(20:57):
And we also have a very important state constitutional amendment to protect women's healthcare and reproductive right/freedom. And as the son of an OB-GYN of 45 years, worked for Planned Parenthood the last couple years, dealing with bomb threats and death threats growing up every once in a while, my youngest of three sisters is an OB-GYN, this issue is really, really important to my family and myself.

(21:19):
And so, we're going to need to continue to earn trust of Democrats, independents, and Republicans, and we're very, very focused on Team CD-3, not this partisan stuff. As you know as well as anybody, Senator, the people out in the rural parts in their small towns, they're not really politically focused. They're just focused on, "Who is going to look after and allow my family and my community to thrive to its best ability?"

Heidi Heitkamp (21:42):
You're going to be an independent voice for your district, and you're going to say some things that aren't necessarily consistent with the mantra of the Democratic Party, things that people need to understand about energy, things that people need to understand about agriculture. And so, this race is so important to not only securing different leadership in the House of Representatives, but so important to changing the narrative about what a Democrat can say and do in the House of Representatives.

Adam Frisch (22:16):
You're spot on, Senator. There's a couple of reasons I ran. One was obviously because of the current representative. The other thing is, I came across some statistics that you know so well, but some of your listeners might not, which is, I don't like monopolies. And there's monopolies in business, and there's monopolies in politics.

(22:32):
And I say this with respect to a lot of big cities, like these 20 big cities are always not getting the best version of the Democratic Party, and a lot of rural parts of our country are not getting a great version of the Republican Party. And there are 2,000 rural counties in the country defined by the Department of Agriculture based on density, out of about 3,100 counties in the country.

(22:53):
Bill Clinton in '96 won more than half of the rural counties. You go forward 12 years, 2008, Barack Obama, who won Indiana once and Iowa twice, he got 25% of the rural counties. And with all due respect to President Biden, in 2020, he won fewer than 10% of the rural counties in the country. And that monopolization is showing up in rural America that it's 90% one party, and 90% of anything controlled in the duopoly is not healthy, and it's not good. And that's why I'm just so focused on not Team Red, Team Blue, but Team CD-3.

Heidi Heitkamp (23:28):
Adam, you'll know your opponent in June. Is there a runoff if anyone in the Republican primary doesn't get 51%, or will it-

Adam Frisch (23:37):
No. It's a plurality. So there's a good chance that someone's going to win this race with somewhere in the high 20s to low 30s. We'll have to see what we're going to get.

Heidi Heitkamp (23:47):
And it may be the most extreme person on the ballot.

Adam Frisch (23:50):
Yeah. Well, I mean, you do not see a lot of Mitt Romney showing up these days at the Republican primaries, do you? We're focused on telling why people should be voting for us. And wherever the chips fall, there's a libertarian and there's a couple other variety of people that will be in the race, but it doesn't change our story, and it doesn't change the miles that we've put on. I mean, we've just hit 50,000 more miles since we started this whole journey back in February of '22, and it's great to have conversations with you.

Heidi Heitkamp (24:15):
Well, terrific, and look forward to seeing you join us as a congressman from Colorado's third district. Thank you so much, Adam, and good luck to you.

Adam Frisch (24:27):
Thank you, Senator.

Heidi Heitkamp (24:33):
Every Mother's Day, I think about how your mother's opinion of you and your mother's opinion of the world really helps fashion or shape your future. I mean, you think about if we had a mother who was passive and who didn't show the example of fighting for herself and fighting for things that she believed in, would we be where we are, Joel?

Joel Heitkamp (25:02):
Well, you think about the era that Mom was raising children in. Number one, Mom switched to Catholicism. And I think at times, when we look back, oftentimes we don't think of the role that religion played in informing all of us. And in Mom's case, there were things that she agreed with and there were things that she didn't agree with, and she wasn't afraid to say the things that she didn't agree with.

(25:27):
And Mom used to joke, Heidi, about... I was born in 1961, and I think the pill came out in '61 or '62, and Mom always said, "If it had come out earlier, you wouldn't be here." So I'm the last of seven. So the point being that in a Catholic world, that was unheard of at the time, and she said, "To heck with it. I'm not having any more kids." And so, it was just a different era.

Heidi Heitkamp (25:59):
Yeah. I mean, we still live with her legacy every day. I can hear my mom's voice in a lot of the stuff, whether it is people trying to take away women's right to choose. She was pro-choice and kind of openly pro-choice, and almost to the point of embarrassing us when we were kids, because that was not the dominant kind of position that women were taking. She was somebody who believed women should run.

(26:27):
One of the stories that I love telling about Mom is, when Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton in the primary, my mom was all in for Hillary. And she called me up, actually, and she said, "Well, what do you think about Barack Obama?" And I said, "I think he's going to be a good president. I think that he's a good person," kind of singing his praises, and she goes, "Yeah. I suppose it will be okay, but I always thought I'd live long enough to see a woman president."

Joel Heitkamp (26:58):
Well, and it goes into what you were talking about earlier, Heidi. Mom voted for someone and not against someone. And I think that that's important too, although I don't want to paint her out to be some angel. There were certainly some individuals she didn't like when it came to their policy. But I mean, look at our family, seven completely different kids that agree on some things and don't agree on others, and that was encouraged.

Heidi Heitkamp (27:27):
Yeah. Well, and she brought that same attitude to her grandkids. And now that I'm a grandma for the first time, you've been a grandpa for a lot of years, 13 and counting, this is a new experience for me. But you feel that sense of generational change in what do you want to provide for the next generation. But when you think about her legacy and the legacy of all the women in that generation, they experienced a lot of autonomy during the war. Right?

(28:05):
So during World War II, men went off to war, women stepped up. They were doing things that they hadn't been expected to do in the past and doing it well. And then the soldiers come home, and it's like, "Now we want to put this society completely back the way it was." And these were the generation of women saying, "We're not stepping back." And it's kind of consistent with where we are right now on the issue of reproductive freedom, which is women saying, "We had this right. We were responsible with this right, and we're not stepping back." And I think that's the legacy of my mom's generation.

Joel Heitkamp (28:42):
Well, yes and no. I agree with you about Mom and what certain women did, but Mom wasn't always very popular. It wasn't just a generation. I mean, Mom with these strong circumstances in what is a fairly conservative state, but the mom I knew and the mom, actually, you knew wasn't always very popular.

Heidi Heitkamp (29:07):
Well, I don't think she cared about popularity.

Joel Heitkamp (29:09):
No, I agree.

Heidi Heitkamp (29:09):
If she did, if she cared about being popular and saying the thing that everybody was saying, she wouldn't have been the mother that raised us.

Joel Heitkamp (29:18):
No, but the point in me saying that is, you say generationally as though it was all kumbaya, we're going to get this stuff done. It was people that broke through even their own gender that got it done.

Heidi Heitkamp (29:32):
Well, that's true. I mean, people who are willing to say, "Why are you letting that happen? Why are you not fighting for what is rightfully yours, or for the dignity that you're entitled to?" And I think it was one of the challenges that my mom had with the Catholic Church, which was the patriarchy of the Catholic Church.

Joel Heitkamp (29:51):
Well, for the record, I live closer to the cemetery where Mom and Dad are buried than you do, Heid. And after the Dobbs decision, I went out there, and I saw a great, big hump in the ground where it turned Mom around. She was so ticked off.

Heidi Heitkamp (30:07):
Yeah. Which is pretty hard to do since she was cremated, Joel. Come on.

Joel Heitkamp (30:12):
Well, who knows? Who knows?

Heidi Heitkamp (30:16):
Maybe she spun bad.

Joel Heitkamp (30:17):
Yeah. Maybe Dad was trying to move away from her strictly out of fear.

Heidi Heitkamp (30:31):
Well, listen, Joel, so we've got this summit coming up for One Country, and I hope that all of the people who listen to our podcast have a chance to listen to what I think is really quite a remarkable program. The conference that we're holding is about rural America's role in moving our country forward, and it is going to be virtual, all virtual, June 4th, 5th, and 6th.

(30:58):
And so, I think it's going to be absolutely interesting to people who, number one, live where we live in rural America, but also people who want to know more about what are the issues of rural America, and how do they play out coming in this next election?

Joel Heitkamp (31:15):
Well, and those conversations are needed. I mean, that's been your mission and why you guys began One Country and why I'm kind of proud that you've included me with some of this conversation. This podcast, the people that are listening to it, and, obviously, there's getting to be more and more, what's great about this podcast is, as people listen to it, they understand that there's progressives in rural America, and actually, there's individuals that they can connect with, whether or not they're Republican or Democrat. So it's achieving some of the goals you set out.

Heidi Heitkamp (31:54):
Yeah. And it also is hopefully educating on some of the issues that we're going to be talking about at the summit, which is energy, the economic interests of rural America, and what's the future of agriculture. And we're going to have panels on issues that you may not think affect rural America, but they do, paid family leave, rural healthcare, the fentanyl crisis, and a whole lot more. And so, we take up a lot of space in America, rural America does, and we aren't a one monolith, racially, economically, or even politically. And so, I think it's always good to reintroduce the country to rural America.

Joel Heitkamp (32:34):
And you're right. It isn't just here in the Upper Midwest where I live. I mean, you get around the world more than I do, but what I was surprised at is how much we still mirror each other, whether we're in the Northern Plains, the Southern Plains. We just have more in common than what we have not in common.

Heidi Heitkamp (32:54):
So at the end of the day, if you're interested, you can register for this summit at One Country... It's free, One Country Rural Progress Summit. You go out on onecountryproject.org and click on the link, and you'll be able to see all of the agenda, and you'll be able to register. So I hope you do that.

Joel Heitkamp (33:17):
There you go. I'm going to ignore the fact that I didn't do it, and I will do it, Heid, not just because it's going to be a good summit, but because I'm afraid of you.

Heidi Heitkamp (33:28):
You should be afraid of me. Joel, sign up. I think for so many people, and you know this, too, traveling around and being in other parts of the country, they think they can't possibly understand rural America. But when they hear, "Hey, listen, there's families who really care about mental health. There's families out there who really care about making sure that their kids are getting a good-quality education," 98% of what we care about in this country doesn't have a D or R behind it. It has a family behind it. And so, let's join together, get educated, and then realize we are just one country.

Joel Heitkamp (34:13):
You bet. I'm all in. And thank you for joining us today on The Hot Dish, which is brought to you by One Country Project, making sure the voices of the rest of us are heard in Washington. Learn more at onecountryproject.org.

Heidi Heitkamp (34:29):
And we'll be back in two weeks with more Hot Dish: Comfort Food for Middle America.

Speaker 5 (34:33):
Voxtopica.