James Talarico

You know, also, as much as you, if you spend time on TikTok, how it's abusing your attention and addicting you, it's also an opportunity to see just how hilarious and creative and beautiful human beings are all over the world.

So I don't, I don't mean to say that this technology can't create something beautiful, too.

I think we just have to understand the harm it is inflicting.

Such a good question.

So, yeah, I agree with you.

Economic answers aren't going to get us there, but I also think political answers are going to get us there.

Because the question is not should the state...

intervene to stop you from doing something?

That's a whole different question.

I think our conservative friends, if they were sitting here, would remind us about the bloody history of governments trying to perfect the individual or trying to enforce moral... I'd say it's our liberal friends who would remind us of that, but fair point.

Well, yeah.

So my point is, just in the question how we're framing it,

economy and government, there's a third dimension to our lives.

It's weakened, it's atrophied over recent years, but we used to have robust communities where we wrestled with these spiritual questions.

Churches, mosques, synagogues, temples, meditation clubs, whatever you're a part of, a community

to deepen the spiritual dimension of our lives.

And that is what we have to rebuild, especially as we enter this new era where figuring out what it means to be human, maintaining real human relationships outside of work and outside of politics is gonna be necessary if we're gonna survive this.

And you mentioned, what can I do as a US Senate candidate?

I actually don't think that's the role.

What can I do in my role as a seminarian, as someone who's studying to become a minister one day, which is a goal of mine?