Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Wow, wow, wow. No offense to guests I've had on the show or will have in the future, but I just interviewed my dream guest, and that is Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Chapter 2: What inspired Ilana Glazer to interview Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez?
OMG, it's AOC. Wow! You know, you see AOC... doing her thing, messaging so clearly in real time on social media and on, you know, going on shows and talking. But then to have the privilege of meeting her in person, it's the same person. This is very different, I mean, from many famous people you meet, but... But certainly not elected officials.
AOC is the Democratic congresswoman for New York's 14th district, representing parts of the Bronx and Queens. And she won not initially against a Republican, the big Republican. The big goalpost she had to hit was winning against an incumbent Democrat, 10-term incumbent Joe Crawley.
And when she challenged this guy in 2018 as a former waitress and organizer, the daughter of working-class Puerto Rican parents in the Bronx and Westchester, She won. She won 56 points to 43, and then she won the general at 78%. So AOC is known internationally for fighting for working families, a real brawler for democracy. real working people.
She's championed Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, and she's aggressively anti-corruption, pro-worker, and anti-establishment. The news cycle is just strategically horrific and such an onslaught, but to see AOC as somebody in power working so hard for you and me and for a better future... That is something I'm grateful for, even just from a distance.
But wow, what a privilege to interview her IRL and up close. Welcome to It's Open with Alana Glazer. And I hope you enjoyed this conversation I had with AOC. I did. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Hi.
Thank you so much for joining me today.
Oh, no. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited.
I really am. Me too. It's really my honor. AOC, you are a beacon of hope. You are a, whew, thank the Lord, beacon of hope for, I want to say millennials, but really Americans right now. You talk normal. Yes. You look normal looking in your eyes. I'm like, there's not I can see what this person is feeling. And you're not saying something different than you're feeling.
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Chapter 3: How did AOC's upbringing influence her political views?
You're you're a different kind of elected official, one who has lived the life like those of their constituents. So you worked in food service.
Yeah. Yeah. I waitressed. I bartended. I mean, my first job was as a hostess at an Irish pub in suburban Westchester when I was in high school. But then, yeah, I... You know, in my 20s, too, I graduated college during the Great Recession, like a lot of us did. Job market was brutal. And, you know, my dad had gotten sick and passed away when I was a teenager while I was in college.
My mom was a single mom. She cleaned houses. She drove school buses. And we almost were on the brink of losing our house. And so at that time... waitressing and bartending. It was fast money. And in a lot of ways, it paid more than a lot of entry-level work if you had a college degree. And so that's what I did for years to make ends meet. And yeah, you know, and I was so...
distressed during that time.
A teenager.
Um, yeah.
I'm so sorry that you, that your father passed away that young.
Yeah. But also, um, I'm so glad that I went through that in retrospect, even though at the time it was horrible, but like, I just wouldn't I wouldn't be doing what I do and I wouldn't be able to do what I do if I didn't go through that.
It's like at the time and when you're a young person, things happen and they like consume you. But you couldn't have known that it was preparing you to care for yourself. Millions of people.
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Chapter 4: What challenges did AOC face during her political campaign?
Yes. And, you know, that was what I how I saved a nest egg to do comedy. Truly. You know what I mean? To like pay some student loans off initially. Like it made... And like fast money, you get some on the books and you're making some tips and it's... Absolutely.
Yeah. I mean... I sometimes joke about this with Republicans or other people.
Chapter 5: What are AOC's views on capitalism and its impact on society?
I was like, honestly, if we actually had guaranteed health care in this country, I may still be doing it.
100. I know. Nannying. I did nannying for a long time.
It's not that bad of a job. If I just had felt a little more stability in being able to go to the doctor and, you know, be able to save some money, it's It's dignified, good, honest work.
You're talking to people, you're getting out, you have a community. I totally agree. Childcare, you know, I have a little kiddo and I talk to people in childcare who are, you know, I've had, have a childcare provider and it's like this work is typically so undignified, diminished.
There's no, you know, there's that National Domestic Workers Alliance, but there's not really like a unionization around it, but it's great work. It feels so good. It's so rewarding. And if there was health care, more people would do it.
Yeah. And I felt really I like doing the job because. In a way, it's like you really feel like you are doing something real. Right. Like. I work in food. This is what I do. Like, there's a lot of skill involved.
Yes.
Front of house, you know, a lot of order of operations, a lot of management, a lot of, like, food knowledge. It's – I mean, I love – I really grew to love that industry.
Yeah. The way the system is rigged. Let's talk about it.
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Chapter 6: How does AOC propose to build bipartisan coalitions?
So the system is rigged for the ultra wealthy and you, you know, Bernie Sanders, I think was the first to puncture through with this messaging to the mainstream, to mainstream America and, And you're really his successor. You speak in such clear and simple language. So obviously spontaneous, genuine from your lived experience, which is so different.
I mean, you know, I'm laughing, but it's honestly terrifying how most, I would say the majority of elected officials do not reflect the lived experience of their constituents. When did this come into your consciousness, this system being rigged for the ultra wealthy?
Well, first I want to say, In a lot of ways, we're all kind of Bernie's successor. I think that this class consciousness that young people have today has been a big part of Bernie's life. And so I say that because I know that that is also what he would say and it's what he wants. But also, you know, in terms of the class piece, I...
You know, to your point, a lot of it just had to do with the experiences of my life, which is the experiences that a lot of people have. I think that... So I grew up in a household that was actually not very... It was political, but it was not very political at the same time. Like, my parents identified as independents. They were very skeptical of the political system.
They always voted for Democrats here in New York for the most part, but they would, you know, it was... It was just a different type of upbringing. I didn't grow up... I'm not the child of professors or anything like that. My mom cleaned houses growing up. My dad was born in the South Bronx.
Where was she born?
She was born in Puerto Rico. She was born in Arecibo in Puerto Rico. And my dad's parents were Puerto Rican. And actually they met when he was home visiting family and she was literally like the girl next door.
yeah so he was flying home oh my god to visit some family in puerto rico that's so cute yeah i was like literally he was like visiting like an like an older aunt or something like that and my mom was literally like the girl next door i think she was like helping them put up a shelf or something like that and i know it's she must be so beautiful i know it's just like god is that sweet yeah just the best
And so anyways, like, you know, but they both grew up in just real poverty. And my dad was born when the Bronx was burning. And the reason the Bronx was burning was because landlords...
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Chapter 7: What role does AOC see for the American people in democracy?
He got into Brooklyn Tech. Wow. He would, like, study on the subways. But, like, he grew up in, like, a one-bedroom apartment. Five people. Wow. It was crazy. And my mom grew up in, well, she was originally born in a rural area in Puerto Rico, Utuado. And then they moved to this other area of Puerto Rico. But, like, you know, my parents really, really, really came from nothing.
So, you know, I grew up around this real fidelity to the American dream. Like if you work hard, you can make it. And so I did. Yeah. And they did. They did. Like my parents, I think about this now. My parents, they bought, they bought an apartment in the Bronx in their twenties and it was like $40,000. Wow. You know, like what?
And like when I say that they did, it's like but even think about where you got to in your 20s and you're like, shit, I got to I got to work my ass off to pay my debts and help my mom and all this. But it's like, you know, this dream. It's like this like loop that is this dream. But then it also is an opportunity like you. You are amazing. You have become this beacon of hope in this speaker.
And it's like it's confusing. We're so totally tricked. And we're also like tricked out of our own history of these genocidal frameworks on which our country is born. But then also there is this opportunity. Yes. And it's amazing. But I think the missing piece is the practicality, the affordability.
You know, I've been thinking lately about messaging of affordability, how this is actually human rights, right? Affordability is the on the ground, you know, structural, practical, functional framework for human rights.
Yeah. I mean, well, this is, you know, and there's history with that. You have FDR had released an economic bill of rights and he had released this framework that included things like the right to retire with dignity.
Wow.
healthcare, which became then the foundations for social security, Medicare, and so on. And it's true because what had become the turning point for me was that, you know, my parents had been doing it. They came from nothing and they scrapped and they built their way and they worked so hard to the bone, but like they were able to do it. And
Then when my dad got sick, my dad was diagnosed with lung cancer when I was about 16. And so we had really struggled our whole life. But like things were just starting. It's like to pay off in a way. It's like starting to feel a little stable and things like that. And my dad got lung cancer. He never smoked. It was just like rare. I'm so sorry.
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