You Say You Support Women. How Do You Treat Them?

The Find Out Podcast

Comedian Lisandra Vazquez joins the hosts to examine the gap between claiming allyship and taking tangible action, particularly regarding women's safety and consent culture. The

Key takeaways

Lisandra Vazquez uses a growing collection of crosses and props from her Caroline Levitt impersonations to archive political absurdity rather than just perform comedy.
The group critiques Tom Morello's decision not to vote for Kamala Harris, arguing that abstention in a two-party system functionally aids the opposing side.
Lisandra shares how meeting Hillary Clinton sparked backlash from online purists who judge historical political figures through an uncompromising modern lens.
Discussion highlights research showing only 6% of men commit rape, but those individuals often target multiple victims, debunking 'boys will be boys' excuses.
The hosts and guest emphasize that black organizers like Stacey Abrams have consistently spearheaded pragmatic voter mobilization efforts across demographics.

Main topics

Allyship vs performative activism
Political purity tests and abstention
Consent and victim-blaming culture

Notable quotes

I don't think that more violence equals peace and growth.

Conclusion

The episode argues that sustainable political progress requires moving beyond performative outrage or

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) For many of us, going further isn't a choice. It's a feeling we can't ignore because ambition has a way of outgrowing where it began. Speaker 1 (0:11) Turning dreams into direction. Speaker 1 (0:17) Every journey brings us closer to the life we imagine. Speaker 1 (0:23) So, where will your journey take you? Etihad. Beyond Borders. Speaker 5 (0:37) Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Fally Down Podcast. You have three of us today. You have Rich, Luke, and Tim. And like every guest, we have a very special guest today. The specialist guest. You may have seen her as Caroline Levitt, Speaker 2 (0:52) Mitch Speaker 5 (0:54) McConnell. I think you've thrown Donald. She's doing it right now. If you're watching on video, she's doing it right now. And I think I've seen some Donald Trump as well. So ladies and gentlemen, comedian. Creator. all-around great person, Lissandra Vasquez, is with us today. Welcome back, guest number one. I don't know what you are. And I'm happy Speaker 2 (1:20) to be here. And I paid him to say all of those nice things, so thank you. Yeah, Speaker 5 (1:24) I have my notes right here. $12 Speaker 3 (1:26) .50. We Speaker 5 (1:27) are so popular that people pay us to come on the show now. But before we get into the big news that we want to make, for those of you who are watching on video. you might see an interesting background. Speaker 2 (1:39) Can Speaker 5 (1:40) you explain to us, so you are a huge Jesus freak, is I think what we have. Speaker 2 (1:45) Absolutely. That's what I actually wanted to come here to ask you guys if you've accepted Jesus Christ into your hearts. Speaker 5 (1:51) Obviously, yes. Deeply. Yes, but it's Speaker 2 (1:53) a Speaker 5 (1:53) putrid black hole. Yeah, I've taken him deeply. I mean, I don't have one anymore, but yes, if I did. Well, Speaker 2 (1:59) absolutely, same. But no, so. Over the last year, I have acquired some props that I've used for my Caroline Levitt series where she was doing her press, where we were doing her press briefings and I would adorn myself while in costume with crosses that would poke fun at something that was happening. Either Because of the calendar or because of what happened in the news. Like right here, I have a Easter that was for Easter Sunday. I remember this one. This friendship bracelet one was when he talked about Taylor Swift. That day, McDonald's is just because he's a fucking. Yep. That's evergreen. Yeah. I think this one is the deployment meal. That's when he talked about Bubba. Oh, yeah. He blew the horse. Speaker 5 (2:50) Do I see a lobster? Speaker 2 (2:53) Oh, yeah, that's the deployment Speaker 5 (2:54) meal. That's the deployment meal. I thought Speaker 3 (2:55) you were – sorry, I don't have my glasses on. Speaker 2 (2:57) There's a lot. And then there's – it's a lot. I Speaker 3 (3:00) like the Tonka trucks. What was that? That was the ballroom, I'm guessing, right? Yeah, okay. Speaker 2 (3:06) That's a hell of a cross. Yeah, so, I mean, eventually, I am, like, this – after the midterms, I am going to catalog these and then write down why I chose all of them. And then I'll put them into, like, a little coffee table book. But – because, I mean – This is I look at this and I know it's kind of crazy to have all these things around, but it is like an archive of the weirdest year. Can I propose a representation? Speaker 3 (3:34) Can I propose a title for your book? Speaker 2 (3:35) What is it? Speaker 2 (3:38) Yeah. Some Speaker 3 (3:39) version of how I outlasted. Speaker 3 (3:43) Caroline Leavitt, thanks to Jesus. Speaker 2 (3:46) Okay. Yeah. Maybe that'll just be the... That's the tagline? I'll dedicate it to her. Right, Speaker 3 (3:53) right, right. Oh, there you go. Speaker 2 (3:54) Or Speaker 5 (3:54) could it be Christ and me? The story of the Caroline Leavitt impersonation. Yeah. Speaker 2 (4:02) Like true crime. And gold bars. There you go. I Speaker 3 (4:06) love Speaker 2 (4:06) the gold bars, yeah. The Trump Epstein note. I know it's hard to tell, but that's what it is. Speaker 3 (4:11) Makeup brushes. Yeah, Speaker 2 (4:13) that's Pete Hegseth when he got his makeup studio. Speaker 3 (4:15) Yeah, he got his studio. Oh, of Speaker 2 (4:17) course. Everyone knows. Speaker 5 (4:18) Yeah, his own private at the Pentagon because, you know, that's what the Secretary of Defense needs is hair and makeup. Speaker 2 (4:23) Baby oil. That's for today. I Speaker 5 (4:25) was going to say that's somebody else. Speaker 3 (4:27) Still in jail. Baby oil. Hopefully for a while. Speaker 5 (4:30) Well, we, so we. We loved your impersonation of Caroline so much that we decided for our election night show in New York City, tickets available, that we wanted Caroline Leavitt to be on our show. So for everybody, the big news is that Lissandra is going to be our emcee for the show. Speaker 2 (4:52) Not as Caroline. I will be myself. But the good thing is, is that today we found out that. Caroline Leavitt is going to be back on the air Fox News starting November 1st, which means that we will be going up on election night opposite Caroline Leavitt. Speaker 3 (5:08) Yes. How how is her apologetics going to go on election night as they're losing every like everywhere like she's going to realize that she doesn't control the room at that point. She'll be out there yelling about how Trump is is the goat and. It's just going to be a bloodbath and she won't have control over it for the first time. Speaker 2 (5:32) Well, I mean, I think that whatever the Heritage Foundation has given her as a talking point, I think will probably be what she does. I think that's going Speaker 4 (5:41) to Speaker 3 (5:41) be Speaker 4 (5:41) a common experience for right wingers on November 4th or 5th, whatever the fuck the day is. November 3rd. Election day Speaker 5 (5:49) is Speaker 4 (5:49) November 3rd. November Speaker 2 (5:50) 3rd. I think we're, I mean, they're, they're already like. That sounds right. planning on calling it fraud but that's why we have to show up and vote and be undeniable and vote early and vote in person if you need to vote by all this but just vote we have to vote like we're 10 points behind 100 Speaker 5 (6:07) because Speaker 2 (6:07) polling is not a vote Speaker 4 (6:10) Fucking drown them in a blue tsunami. Well, and it's Speaker 5 (6:12) also not the polling the way they do it now. It just doesn't work the way that it used to because people used to pick up the phone because they didn't have a screen that said, you know, restricted number, which everybody sent straight to voicemail. I'm Speaker 2 (6:23) not Speaker 5 (6:23) picking up a phone call. Yeah. I don't. I don't. Anytime this thing rings, I'm like, God damn it. Like, I almost don't want the phone part. I Speaker 4 (6:30) don't answer the phone Speaker 3 (6:31) if I don't Speaker 4 (6:32) have a contact for him. Speaker 3 (6:33) Leave Speaker 5 (6:34) a fucking message. Speaker 3 (6:35) I got one and they were like, this was just a couple of weeks ago. And they were like, we're with public opinion, whatever. And I happened to be, I think, having a cocktail on our patio and it was like 70 degrees. And I was like, this is delightful. Let's do this. And they're like, we're going to ask you about Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Amazon, and some political questions. And I was like, yes, perfect. So I did like a 25. minute long survey and rich Speaker 4 (7:00) got himself put on a watch list Speaker 3 (7:01) definitely yeah pete hexeth was at my door the next day as Speaker 4 (7:05) if all four of us aren't already on a watch list yeah let's be honest they know Speaker 2 (7:10) I hope our names are touching. Speaker 4 (7:12) Yes, yes. Speaker 2 (7:13) I hope they put us in the same cell. Speaker 5 (7:15) I get the top bunk. After election night, they're definitely going to. And for those of you in New York, of course, we want you to come with us. So you can buy tickets. We'll put the link in the notes. But for the rest of you, we'll be online. So you could theoretically be sitting at home having a cocktail and have both Fox News and us going and see one side how we are having a good time, hopefully. And watch them be miserable. Speaker 3 (7:38) See who makes you laugh more, Fox News in the middle of a Blue Nami. Speaker 2 (7:45) Blue Nami is crazy. Speaker 3 (7:46) Or the people who are actually, you know, having a good time. Speaker 2 (7:50) That's the dream. That's what I'm energetically holding out for that we'll be able to after. One of the things that I think that the general public doesn't know necessarily is how much work we do behind the scenes. Speaker 5 (8:04) Yeah. Speaker 2 (8:05) organizing and just like um really just spending our own money uh like spend resources connecting with people and doing and donating our time uh to because we we care about other people and like um and we want to be able to the one way to fight fascism is because we voted ourselves into this right so we are going to try to vote ourselves out and we need to this is This is the path. And so I think that people don't understand how much work goes into this. And I hope that. Speaker 2 (8:45) after this we can uh that night i'm picturing that we will at least have a moment of like Speaker 2 (8:52) joy because we've been busting our ass this whole year. Speaker 4 (8:54) I'm envisioning kind of like a two year long, hold your breath. Everybody goes. Yeah, that's what I'm feeling. Yeah. I Speaker 2 (9:02) looked at my bottle of champagne that I have for when he dies in my refrigerator. And I said, I Speaker 4 (9:06) have Speaker 2 (9:06) one Speaker 4 (9:06) too. I might need two of these. Speaker 2 (9:08) Man, I can't, I can't wait. The midterms will probably feel similar to that. Like I can't wait to be like Senator Abdul El-Sayed, Senator Angie Nixon. I'm so jealous Speaker 4 (9:16) of people who live in big cities that are blue for when he dies. Because you guys are going to get to run outside in a fucking street. And everybody's going to be so happy. Speaker 5 (9:25) And Speaker 4 (9:26) I'm going to walk out the fucking door and people are going to be mourning. And it's going to be terrible. I'm Speaker 5 (9:30) going to be locking my doors. Speaker 4 (9:31) Yeah, I'm going to lock my fucking door extra tight. Speaker 5 (9:33) It's a close the Speaker 3 (9:34) blinds Speaker 5 (9:34) situation. Speaker 4 (9:34) In 2020, Speaker 5 (9:37) because obviously that took a few days, even though we knew kind of early where it was going. I actually found out because I had just put my son to sleep for a nap. And all of a sudden outside, I heard just screaming and clapping. And I literally was like, CNN must have just called it. And I went and clicked it, of course. So when that happens and I live in New York City, oh, it's going to be so amazing. Well, as long as we're still a democracy at that point. My friend Speaker 2 (10:04) Lace and I went on a depression hike. The day after the election. And we literally went to scream into the woods. Speaker 3 (10:11) Yeah, I like that. And Speaker 2 (10:12) somebody behind us, because we taped ourselves doing it, and somebody behind us was like, me too. Speaker 3 (10:21) Lissandra, I want to go back to a word you said, because you said the word work a couple of times. And I think that's, I've been thinking about that a lot over the past two years, that at least we have realized, I think, as the left. that it's not other people who are doing the work anymore. It can't be. It can't be like the black vote doing the work. It can't be the suburban moms in some other city who are like, you know, who don't like the Republican because they're mean. And so they vote against them. Like how many of us, I mean, I think all of us have had our life trajectories changed over the past, like personal life, personal and career trajectories have changed by choice. Speaker 3 (11:04) Because of what happened, like none of us would be probably, I think, getting paid for the things that we're getting paid for now and spending the amount of time we spend on politics now if if it had gone to Kamala Harris. Speaker 3 (11:19) What like what are you what are your thoughts on how do we rally people to keep that work going? Obviously, voting and like not just trusting the polls. I think that's one thing that that people understand. But how do we permanently change our maybe that's a big question, but how would you permanently change our our thoughts of like our involvement in politics in the community? Speaker 2 (11:39) I think that I've thought because I've thought about this with like people because I know that we're trying to get people to vote now. But what? A lot of like people that are even further left criticize is that the candidates that are up right now aren't perfect, aren't their pure version of the thing is. But what I always my answer is always like, but they are. people that we can have communication with. They are people that we can like I've I'm in Georgia. Right. And so my senator, one of my senators is John Ossoff. He's up for reelection. I think he's going to I think he's going to get his seat. Speaker 5 (12:20) But Speaker 2 (12:20) but John Ossoff, a lot of people have criticisms of him because he's pretty moderate in a lot of in some ways that he doesn't use the word genocide. And so but he's a reasonable person. And he's available for conversation, unlike the other side that doesn't even care at all. So I think that one of the ways that we will be able to, our work will be able to continue is to be able to show people that we have to continue the conversation and that this isn't a one-time engagement. It has to become a practice for us to be able to be, it's not a, like being civically engaged is not a passive. Yeah. lifestyle anymore. We all have to, in order to right the ship, we all have to put in a little bit and be as aware of what's happening as possible and to continue to push not only our local representatives, but the federal ones too. And now that we have access to a lot of these people and all of these organizations, we can continue to push and provide resources for people that need them because just even the Democrats, right? Respectfully, not great. They haven't done anything really to Speaker 2 (13:30) push the vision forward they're just not evil so we have to get them to really earn our trust uh and that's what i said once to fucking sorry hakeem referees um one time when i had the opportunity to talk to him and i was like what i know you guys are saying that we should trust you but it's like but what are you What are you doing to prove that you guys will earn our trust? Speaker 5 (13:56) Right. Speaker 2 (13:57) There's people that are skipping meals because their kids need to eat. Speaker 5 (14:01) Yeah. People Speaker 2 (14:02) have like $30 in their bank account until their payday next Friday. They're losing their jobs to AI. Like, what are you doing to actually earn the trust of these people other than you're not Trump? And he said, well, we got to get the gavel back. Speaker 3 (14:16) They're posting some fire. He gave you a real nice marble mouth Speaker 5 (14:19) answer, Speaker 4 (14:20) didn't he? Yeah. Speaker 2 (14:21) And I was like. Thanks. This is Speaker 5 (14:23) why all of this work, whether it's podcasts or creators, is so important, because first of all, Democrats have a tendency to go offline in an off year, which we just can't do anymore, like you said. And also, I think that we are in a position to hold these people accountable in a different way and push them in the right direction. Take out the D.C. folks. I actually think our candidates that we've got this year are some of the best that we've ever had. And I think that they are they are in. the right type of person for each of those states for Speaker 3 (14:51) the state Speaker 5 (14:51) peggy flanagan who uh luke and i just were are you were on it too actually i think yeah we all just talked to her she's amazing she deserves more we got to get her on but she yeah she's incredible for minnesota she's great angie and florida i think that that type of uh approach that she has which is basically fuck this shit and fuck you guys for all the shit you've done great because florida's hard amazing florida's hard so why not right just light them up Speaker 2 (15:15) yeah Speaker 3 (15:15) And also her showing her vulnerability Speaker 2 (15:17) as a real person. I think that her talking about how she was able to, that she struggled and that she was, that she used the federal programs to be able to afford her first home with her child. And I think that's a very relatable thing that especially a lot of people in Florida are. Can relate to. Speaker 5 (15:38) Definitely. Well, there was an attack on her about not paying a student loan or something. She's like, yeah, me and millions of people who can't afford it. Right. Like, this is not me not paying because I don't want to. It's me paying because I can't. Speaker 3 (15:51) Your hedge fund manager didn't take care of that for you? Right. Speaker 2 (15:55) That's weird. Yeah. Speaker 3 (15:56) Yeah. Oh. Speaker 2 (15:57) You're one of those sad, poor people. Speaker 5 (15:59) People should give her money immediately because I do think that there's some interesting things happening in Florida. But then there's the polar opposite, right? Roy Cooper is very moderate in North Carolina. And the Republicans have essentially – they're the biggest super PAC on the Republican side. Just announced that they're pulling out of North Carolina, ceding the race essentially because they have to go defend Kansas where we have another great candidate. And Nebraska. Who is – And Nebraska. Dan Osborne in Nebraska. And Adam Hamilton. Speaker 2 (16:24) Annie Andrews in South Carolina. Annie Andrews, Speaker 5 (16:26) who has been the poll after poll. Dr. Andrews. Yeah. Has showed her maybe a couple points behind. But Jamie Harrison, six years ago, lost by like 15. Which Speaker 2 (16:35) is Speaker 5 (16:35) insane. Speaker 2 (16:36) It's insane that she's only a few points behind Lindsey Graham's sister. Yeah. Speaker 5 (16:41) With Speaker 2 (16:41) no experience. Insane. Well, Speaker 3 (16:44) right. Speaker 5 (16:45) She hasn't done so well since she jumped onto the scene. Speaker 4 (16:48) Yeah. You Speaker 2 (16:48) mean Speaker 4 (16:49) saying I don't know anything about national security wasn't a great look? Speaker 3 (16:53) It's just the Speaker 2 (16:54) Senate, you Speaker 4 (16:54) know. That's how Speaker 2 (16:54) dumb people are. Who cares? But she's just going to agree with everything Trump is going to do. Right. And Dr. Annie Andrews is great. Speaker 3 (17:02) Yeah. I can't believe that. It's like, take the R and the D out of it. If you just say, hey, should we elect a person who's the sibling? of someone who died, who doesn't know what the job is, or a fucking doctor and working mother, who, you know, all things equal, like who's probably going to have, plus a 50-year age