August 10, 2022

EP. 277 — Can State Legislatures Save Us? with Gaby Goldstein and Lala Wu of Sister District

You want LGBTQIA+ rights? You want reproductive justice? You want to end mass incarceration? You want environmental protections? You want living wages? You better vote for state legislature, b**ch.

Sister District co-founders Gaby Goldstein and Lala Wu return to Getting Curious for a conversation all about the upcoming midterm elections, and specifically what’s in store for state legislative races. Listen in as they discuss what it’ll take for Democrats and progressives to hold their ground; how we can invest in year-round, state-level organizing; and why we need to think in a timeline of decades, not just election cycles.

Gaby Goldstein is an attorney and political strategist who focuses on the growing importance of state legislatures. She is co-founder at Sister District, whose mission is to build progressive power in state legislatures and co-moderator of the State Power Series, a virtual event series co-sponsored by Vote Save America/Crooked Media and Sister District.

Lala Wu is a co-founder and the Executive Director of Sister District, which builds progressive power in state legislatures. Prior to Sister District, Lala was a lawyer, specializing in environmental and clean energy law. Lala graduated from U.C. Berkeley, School of Law and Barnard College of Columbia University. Lala serves on the Boards of the AAPI Victory Alliance and Together SF, and the Advisory Board of Asian American Women’s Political Initiative. She is a New Leaders Council alum.

You can follow Gaby and Lala on Twitter @gaby__goldstein and @_lala_wu_. To keep up with Sister District, you can follow them on Twitter @Sister_District.

Want to get involved with Sister District? Check out the Sister District & Partners National phonebank!

 

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN to join the conversation.

 

Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook.

 

Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com.

 

Love listening to Getting Curious? Now, you can also watch Getting Curious—on Netflix! Head to netflix.com/gettingcurious to dive in.

 

Our executive producer is Erica Getto. Our associate producer is Zahra Crim. Our editor is Andrew Carson.

 

Our theme music is “Freak” by QUIÑ; for more, head to TheQuinCat.com.

 

Getting Curious merch is available on PodSwag.com.

Transcript

Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness & Gaby Goldstein and Lala Wu of Sister District    JVN [00:00:00] Welcome to Getting Curious, I’m Jonathan Van Ness and every week I sit down for a 40-minute conversation—but usually, let’s be honest, it takes a lot longer than that—with a brilliant expert to learn all about something that makes me curious. On today’s episode, I’m joined by Sister District co-founders Lala Wu and Gaby Goldstein, where I’m asking: How can we do the damn thing this midterm election? If you’re a fan of Getting Curious, which I hope you are, but maybe this is, like, the first time you’ve ever listened. Like, I don’t know what your life is. Sister District is, like, one of my favorite organizations of all time. And I know that you maybe have heard me say before that, like, “This midterm is the most important and consequential,” but bitch, just keep getting more important, okay? They just keep—, the stakes,

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