Corryn Freeman: [00:00:00] Hey y’all. My name is Corryn Freeman and I have the pleasure of serving as the executive director of Future Coalition and welcome to the Future Coalition Podcast. Today we have a phenomenal guest for you all. This guest is a percussionist, renowned musician, also an activist for gun violence prevention in their own right, and the first Gen Z member of Congress.

Please help me welcome to the show, Congressman Maxwell Frost. Maxwell, how you [00:00:30] doing? 

Rep Maxwell Frost: I’m doing great. I’m doing great. It’s so good to be here with you and thank you so much for that amazing introduction. Um, and honored to be in this space with you, Corryn. And just thank you so much for all the work that you do and Future Coalition does.

Corryn Freeman: Absolutely. It’s an honor. All right, Maxwell. So can you take us back? Tell us a little bit about your upbringing, your education, and what really drove you to this political path that you’re on now? 

Rep Maxwell Frost: My dad’s a full time musician. Um, that’s his job. And my mom is a teacher. She just retired after 37 [00:01:00] years of being a public school educator.

And so growing up, there was always music in the house. Uh, my mom, God bless her heart, let my dad have his music studio in the living room of our home. And so music was just a huge part of my life growing up. My life changed forever. When my dad gave me a drum set in the second grade, I started going on gigs with him, whether it was in disney or conventions or wherever. Um, and simultaneously at school, I’d always, you know, spend time with my mom after school, there’s a period of time where she taught the school I went to and spent long nights [00:01:30] just with her in her classroom, watching her finish her IEP. She taught special education. The combination of my dad’s love of the arts and music and the fact that he made it his career and my mom’s life and career of public service, um, I attribute to, you know, who I am today. And I always was interested in politics. You know, my dad was someone who was always watching the news, yelling at the news, uh, but you know, I’d be in there soaking it all in, but I never wanted politics to be my career or the [00:02:00] work I would do out of high school. It was just an interest of mine. In fact, I wanted to go into music and that’s really the main thing I wanted to do.

But everything changed for me, um, right before jazz band concert, actually. I went to a school for the arts. And before every jazz band concert, my best friends and I would go load up on a ton of junk food at this Chili’s. And I remember when they’re eating there’s a silence that falls across the restaurant.

And we look up and we see somebody walked into an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut and murdered 20 children and six teachers. [00:02:30] Now I was adopted at birth. I was raised in the white suburbia of South Orlando. And so gun violence wasn’t something that was top of mind for me. Honestly, it wasn’t something I thought about on a daily basis.

Um, Until that day, you know, at the concert, I played one of the worst shows of my night. I kept looking over my shoulders, looking at the exit sign. I was scared somebody would come in and shoot my friends, shoot my family and shoot me. And that’s really why I got involved. I ended up going to the memorial for Sandy Hook in [00:03:00] Washington, D. C. And it was there that I had my call to action. I was there for like five days. We were lobbying Congress. We were doing community service projects. It was the vigil, the night of the vigil though, and after the vigil was finished, myself and all these teens and kids who had lost loved ones at Sandy Hook, we went to some basement pool of the hotel we were staying in, we were just kinda wading our feet in the water, we were talking, and everyone was talking about their siblings that they had lost, and uh, I just, that was a [00:03:30] very powerful moment for me.

My age, you know, 16 year olds with the demeanor of 60 year olds crying over their loved ones who were murdered for going to school. And I remember vividly running back to my room, calling my mom. I’m a mama’s boy. So I called my mom and I said, mom, um, you know, this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.

I want to fight for a world where people don’t have to feel that pain that I saw. And all of these friends I made over the last few days. And that’s what got me involved in [00:04:00] politics. I started organizing at school, um, started organizing on campaigns. And after I graduated high school, I got my first job being a field organizer and the rest is the rest is history.

That’s why I got involved in politics. 

Corryn Freeman: And I love how like there was a pipeline from, uh, activism into. Organizing politically. I think that that pipeline, um, is really key for a lot of people. And I believe that we need more, uh, activists to [00:04:30] politically affiliated, running for office, uh, politicians, uh, to see the types of progressive change that we need for Gen Z to be able to live fully American life, to have the ability to exist and live out the American dream, as I know that we so very much want them to.

I also have to say, Maxwell, a lot of parallels between your upbringing and my son. My son Xander, um, he’s a drummer. He’s in second grade. He has a drum set. All he wants to do [00:05:00] is drum. And my husband’s a musician. 

Rep Maxwell Frost: I’ll have to do a, we’ll have to do a jam session with your son sometime. 

Corryn Freeman: Absolutely. Holla at me when you in South Florida.

Rep Maxwell Frost: Of course. 

Corryn Freeman: From your perspective, what has been the difference between being an organizer activist versus being a politician? What parts of activism have you been able to take with you into your political work versus are there pieces that you’ve had to kind of retire and leave behind? 

Rep Maxwell Frost: Yeah, you know, it’s interesting.

I think a lot of the work I did as an organizer on the streets, an organizer getting people [00:05:30] registered to vote, or an organizer doing shows. I brought all of that with me into the halls of Congress. And obviously, I also recognize now I play a different role. Like, all of our roles are really important, no matter who you are, no matter what kind of organizing you’re doing.

So I don’t see myself as on top of everybody, but in a different organizing sphere where we need good people, good progressive champions. Um, and so, I bring that with me. And, you know, the other thing I’ve, I’ve realized is all the things that we do in [00:06:00] organizing is so effective and I recognize it now more now more than ever being an elected official.

I’ll tell you, you know, when I worked at the ACLU, I ran a program in South Carolina called Rights for All where we would bird dog presidential candidates and get them on the record on important issues. And you know, bird dogging isn’t just about getting one video, but getting multiple over a course of time and showing the growth of a candidate.

The first day I was here and I got sworn in, I was walking in the basement of the Capitol with one of my best friends from high school and I get bird dogged. It [00:06:30] was an easy one, though. Someone came up to me, they were like, Do you support veterans? I was like, yes. And then they ran away and that was it.

And then I had, my friend was like, what was that? And I was like, I think I just got bird dog. It was a very easy one, but yeah, I just got bird dog. 

Corryn Freeman: That was wild.

Rep Maxwell Frost: Yeah, I know. And, uh, and she was like, wow. And then, you know, she was like, but what if it was a hard thing that you didn’t know how to answer. And I said, well, that’s, that’s part of the, the tactic is it’s, it’s a, it’s a high pressure situation and you don’t always have to get the answer right if you don’t know. You can say, I [00:07:00] don’t know yet. Um, but it’s a way that people hold you accountable. And now being elected, I realized how important of a tactic that is, even though I, you know, I don’t want to get bird dog, but it’s part of the, um, the organizing tools that we have. Um, but something I always try to tell people is to really, you know, view this inside outside game in a very serious way.

It’s really, it’s the only way we can really get big ticket items through, um, whether it’s going to be Medicare for all or Green New Deal or et cetera. And so [00:07:30] having partnerships and co governing with movements rather than it being adversarial, I think is really important and recognizing it’s not always going to be all love and it’s not always going to be, you know, uh, you know, pushing away.

It’s this, relationship between electeds and movement and mutual aid and artists and culture and all of us working together. And sometimes those things are at odds with each other. They can seem like they’re at odds, but movements really about the connectivity between all of them. 

Corryn Freeman: Absolutely. You make [00:08:00] some really great points, especially around, like, organizing, and all of the skills that you learn as an organizer really are transferable around any type of work.

They transfer, and it’s about relating and having the ability to move to bend to flow to reach a goal. And it sounds like it’s really impacting the work that you’re doing now. I would love to know how has intergenerational collaboration shown up in your work, both as an activist, but actually really focus it here as a politician.

Rep Maxwell Frost: Well, I’ll say [00:08:30] as a politician, um, It’s why I’m here. It’s why I won. You know, I, I’m a representative in the great state of Florida, which as you know, is a, yeah, which is a beautiful state full of beautiful people, millions of working class people, one of the most diverse states in the country, one of the most progressive states in the country as well in terms of the policies we believe in as a people, not necessarily the policies enacted by our government, 

Corryn Freeman: Say that because 

Rep Maxwell Frost: but what I will say is we are also a [00:09:00] population.

We also have a very large senior population in the state of Florida. Um, and I take that really seriously, especially as a young legislator. And I knew coming into this that there would be a, you know, a group of people who would look at me with a skeptical eye. Um, and say, is he going to be someone who just cares about young people?

He’s going to care about everybody. And what people don’t realize is, I have a huge heart for our seniors, um, and one of the closest people in my life was my grandma. Um, and I spent a lot of time with her actually learning about the struggle she went through and what it meant to [00:09:30] grow old in America.

Because I believe that, you know, growing old in a country shows the character of the country itself, how we treat our seniors. And so, one of my first bills I introduced was the Safe Through Medicare Act, which is Uh, a bill that’s about the climate crisis, it’s about taking care of our seniors, and it’s about strengthening health care.

It essentially makes it so that way we cover 100 percent of the cost for seniors, um, for their, uh, for an external battery system that is green, um, and that is, uh, uh, friendly to our [00:10:00] environment. So that way when the power goes out during a hurricane, they can keep their dialysis moving, they can keep, uh, BiPAP on, and all the things they need to stay alive.

And so when we did that press conference, we did it in front of, uh, affordable senior home with seniors, with, uh, Sunrise Movement. Um, with people from the healthcare, healthcare field with first responders and EMTs and you know, look at that press conference was so beautiful because it just highlighted what a multi generational movement is.

We have a bill that’s here to help [00:10:30] our seniors and people who are older, um, and we had families there with young people and it was just a great showing of what an intergenerational movement looks like once you win a seat and once you’re proposing legislation. And the same thing was true for me to get here too.

I mean, when you looked at our canvases, we had a lot of young people, but it wasn’t just young people. It was older people. It was families. And when you have an intergenerational movement, you’re more likely to succeed because you have more experience. And what I mean by, [00:11:00] I think a lot of times we think about experiences like, uh, like you either have no experience, or you have a lot of experience, and I don’t want people to view it that way, I want people to view experiences as different experiences, that mean different things, and bring people to different ways of thinking, and so when you have that, You, you, you’re more likely to have more knowledge, and knowledge is power, and when you build power like that, you’re more likely to win your campaign, win your, whatever, whether it’s a political campaign or a campaign for, uh, to get a bill passed, or to get your city [00:11:30] council to do something, or whatever, and so that’s why intergenerational movements are the ones that win. And if you look in movement history, The movements that are the most powerful are ones that are intergenerational, are, um, are ones that are nonviolent and are ones that combine culture and movement in one.

And so we’re always looking to try to do that too. 

Corryn Freeman: Absolutely. And so in your day to day work, I know that you are in the halls of Congress. You are the youngin, uh, in Congress. So I anticipate like what the vast majority [00:12:00] of the people that you’re working with. Have you found mentors? Are you doing mentorship? Like what does your day to day intergenerational work look like? 

Rep Maxwell Frost: I have so many mentors and people that I look up to and people that I speak with all the time. One of the first, when I first got elected, the first person who came to my district, uh, was actually Maxine Waters. Um, and she is a, she’s a big inspiration of mine, has become a mentor of mine.

And I learned that she doesn’t really go to other people’s district like that often. And so [00:12:30] I felt very, I felt very honored to have her there. And I just asked her to come for a fundraiser that I do every year. It’s an oyster roast. And a few days before she, I don’t want to ask for too much, you know, it’s Maxine Waters.

But a few days before she comes up to me and she says, Max, I’m coming a day and a half early. And I was like, Oh, okay. I was like, are you going, are you visiting family? She was like, Oh no, no. I want to be with you. I want to be in your community. I want to put me to work. So I was like, how busy do you want to be?

She was like, busy. So we did like 15 events in like a day and a [00:13:00] half. Um, and it was amazing to just be in the community with her. See how she interacts with my constituents too and the questions she asks and learn from the way that she interacts with the people as an elected and takes that back to DC as a powerhouse on affordable housing and all the amazing issues that she works on.

So that’s an example of a mentorship I have. I have an official mentor with the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which is actually representative, um, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, which has been really great to having another [00:13:30] young person where we’re both the youngest in Congress. Having another young person who came here as a working class person who’s been through a lot of the experiences I’ve been through and I developed a really close friendship with her through that and it’s really helped me get through this and her and other people too like Greg Kassar and Summer Lee and Delia Ramirez, Robert Garcia, we have like a a group of young people of color who are freshmen in this place too, and we’re family and like I, I don’t know if I could do this without them to be honest because there are [00:14:00] really hard days here where sometimes it feels like you’re alone, but having people who understand that experience as being a young person of color that’s progressive in what you’re thinking because you could be young person of color and have an old way of thinking.

And so being with people who have shared the same values as you has been transformational. And one more I got to bring up too is Jamie Raskin, who I think is one of the most intelligent people in Congress and getting to work under him on the Oversight Committee has just been amazing, um, for [00:14:30] me and learning from him and the ways that we can use that committee to really push back on lies and uplift working people, working struggles, um, and base it all on our democracy, which, you know, as a organizer coming from the progressive world, I’m naturally skeptical of our system. Um, and I’m here because of that skepticism and I want to change it. But something that Jamie’s really inspired me is seeing he, he likes to tout this system as a tool for, [00:15:00] for good and as an element that can be used and using this democracy for the world we believe in.

And so in a world and in a country where there can be a lot of skepticism in a system that’s caused a lot of harm, it’s people like Jamie that I think give us that inspiration to step into that power because if we don’t step into it, someone else will step into it for us. Um, and so those are just some examples, but the, you know, this is a. There’s a lot of people here that I think are here for the wrong reasons, but I know sometimes it might seem like there’s no one in Congress who [00:15:30] cares about us, but I’ll tell you we, we got, we got people here, not enough, not nearly enough, but we got people here and we just need to build up the numbers.

Corryn Freeman: I love to hear that we have champions, and I’m so glad that you are. You are the people’s champ. How we met. I met early on in your campaign days, so I always knew you as the people’s champ. But what you just mentioned, the examples that you gave about intergenerational wisdom coming to you, passing the mantle down for the sake of your empowerment as the next wave of [00:16:00] leadership is exactly what Future Coalition is about.

And it’s exactly what we believe. Um, established movement leaders, established political leaders, established business folks who want to see progress need to be doing with young people every single day to create the world where we are all free. So tell me a bit about, uh, the bill you introduced for the Office of Gun Violence Prevention Act.

What did that entail? And what, well, we know why it was so important to you. What was passing that like for [00:16:30] you? And what did it feel like once it was passed? 

Rep Maxwell Frost: Well, that bill, um, was something that, you know, when, when we first introduced it, a lot of folks, you know, had said, well, you know, you just got started on it, it happened so quickly.

And the interesting thing is, I’d actually been working on the Office of Gun Violence Prevention for years, um, when I was in, uh, when I was working at March for Our Lives. So the whole gun violence prevention movement, all of us had been really pushing the administration on this for years. And when I got to Congress, you know, I, as an organizer, you look around and say, all right, what’s a [00:17:00] new tool I can use to push for the thing I believe in, and a new tool I have is introduce a bill. So I teamed up with, uh, Senator Chris Murphy, who’s a, um, senator from Connecticut who’s a champion on gun violence. And, um, I introduced it in the house. He introduced in the Senate. And we created this framework to describe the way we’d like to see the office run and the what the office would do.

And we introduced it on the Hill alongside all of our gun violence prevention groups and champions centering a lot of our community [00:17:30] violence intervention groups led by black and brown folks that have been working at ending gun violence outside of the carceral system because that’s what we wanted this office to really focus on as well.

And we pushed and we had meetings with the administration and we had this inside outside game going on. A few months later, I think it was July of last year, I get a call from the White House and they. They said, Maxwell, the president’s going to take that bill and use it as a framework to create this office.

He’s going to do it by executive order. And now for the first time in our country’s history, we have an office of [00:18:00] gun violence prevention, which is amazing. And, you know, when they called the first thing I asked for 

Corryn Freeman: In your first term too too, that’s crazy 

Rep Maxwell Frost: In our first term. Yeah. But you know, that’s the thing because.

It seems like, I mean, it is, I do, I want to give my team flowers and I’ll give myself flowers and everyone flowers, but it seems so insane coming in as a freshman and doing it. Um, but what people don’t realize is, you know, I, we came in with the movement. And so because we came in with this movement, um, the gun [00:18:30] violence prevention movement, people across the country around this, it, it, it’s not just up to me.

It’s up to the whole movement and all of us. And that’s how we, we got this done. It’s a blessing. I’m honored I was able to play a role in getting that done. And you know, the first thing I asked was, who’s going to run it? You know, cause you can make an office to placate people. You know what I mean? But I wanted to know like, who, who, who’s the president going to have running this?

And you know what, to his credit, the president picked some of the most amazing people in this movement to run that office. One example is Greg [00:19:00] Jackson, who is the former Executive Director of Community Justice Action Fund. Greg was shot during a drive by in Washington DC, woke up in a hospital fighting for his life with police on top of him, asking him questions like he was the one who did the shooting.

That experience is in the White House helping to run this office right now. So, I think that’s a good thing, and we’ve seen, because of this office, money go around the country from the federal government for community violence intervention, which [00:19:30] is outside of law enforcement, how do we end gun violence, and how do we stop this violence before it happens.

That’s what I was protesting for during Black Lives Matter. That’s what I was getting tear gassed and arrested for was community investment in public safety. And we got that, um, um, through this office and we got a lot more to do. I’m not saying we’re done. We got a lot more to do, but what a step, what a huge step forward and, uh, I’m honored to play a role in it.

Corryn Freeman: Kudos to you, your team. But you said something that really [00:20:00] struck a chord. You brought movement with you into the seat of power, and it was your connectivity to movement infrastructure, a long standing movement infrastructure. that had years and years and years of work tied to it that helped allow you get to this position to create the framework, uh, that ended up being an office of gun violence prevention.

And so to the listeners out there, I really think it’s important for you to understand [00:20:30] that All progress is not linear. I don’t think very little progress is linear. It is incremental. It is hard fought. It is a back and forth, but we cannot give up. We have to continue to lay the foundation for when Maxwell Frost comes and is able to get elected, um, and brings a framework for the right point of time.

So thank you so much for giving us that. Can you tell us why do you believe that politics is crucial, especially for young people right now? 

Rep Maxwell Frost: Gen Z and I’ll say [00:21:00] generally this young generation, it’s the most politically active generation we’ve seen in our country’s history. In terms of many metrics, which is exciting, voting, being on the streets, advocating for what you believe in, being vocal, and being aware of the things going on in the country and around the world, as we see going on right now with what’s going on, whether it’s in Gaza, or just the climate crisis generally, or gun violence, or healthcare inequities, or, or, you know, healthcare, etc.

And, um, It gives me a lot of hope for the future of our country, so, you [00:21:30] know, what I have to say is, I think, for a while, in the youth organizing space, the concern was, how are we gonna get young people to pay attention? I’m not saying we don’t need to do that, but I’m saying that I think that we’re in a place where a lot of young people are paying attention, and the next question is, how do we activate young people and give them political home to organize them?

Because I think a lot of people are paying attention and um, and you know, our cell phones and the internet has really changed an organizing [00:22:00] landscape. And so I think it’s less of shaking people and say, look at this. And we’re telling people, I know you see this, what do you want to do about it? You know, uh, I see you posting about it, which I’m not, I’m not someone who shames people for just posting.

I think people have different ways of getting involved. So I don’t like to shame apathy, but I’ll inspire hope. And, you know, I hope that. The next iteration of this youth movement is plugging people in and it’s going to look different for everybody. I always tell this to people, especially as I’m traveling now, people ask me, how do you get people involved?

Some [00:22:30] people are going to get involved in, in like, you know, the College Dems or something like that. Some people, that’s not their thing. They’re going to get involved in dream defenders. Some people get involved in, you know, some, uh, Future Coalition or March for Our Lives. Some people are going to not join organization and do their own thing.

And how do they plug into the greater collective, right? Like that. I think it’s one of the most important things that organizers should be thinking about now. I just spoke at a conference full of influencers and I’ll say what I told them, [00:23:00] I learned this being in the gun violence movement, because this is something that we get in the gun violence movement a lot.

The times in our movement where the most people care are also coupled with the times where we have the most death and trauma. Right. The most part donating to gun violence groups and volunteering and talking about it when there’s a mass shooting or something going on. And it’s similar to a lot of other issues.

The peaks of the organizing hype are very correlated with something bad going on, [00:23:30] unfortunately, tragedy. However, the true testament of our organizing skills isn’t what we do in those moments, but it’s what we do when no one cares. And when no one’s paying attention and no one’s talking about it, we’re building the apparatus.

So when everybody cares, we can give people a home to organize in. And that’s really the reason I think young, young people, young organizers should care about what’s going on now. We’re going to have many more of these times in our, in our history, through our lifetime as we grow [00:24:00] older, where it’s going to activate new people.

And the question is, what are we doing to, to bring people into this fold, to grow this movement for justice wherever, wherever you’re at and meeting people where they’re at? 

Corryn Freeman: You further underscored, uh, what we were speaking about earlier about being a part of longstanding movements. I always call those movement moments.

When movement moments happen, we need to have the ability to take in all of the new people who have become activated into an established pipeline. [00:24:30] To get the thing, whatever said thing is accomplished, eradicated, whatever it is that we have to do. And I’ve heard a lot about, uh, your leadership and you talk a lot about leading with love.

Uh, what does that mean and how do you lead with love in your day to day? 

Rep Maxwell Frost: Well, you know, I, and this is, yeah, this is like the motto, was a motto of my campaign, was a motto in our office and we’re in a time of, there’s always, we’re always in times of a lot of division and heightened tensions. [00:25:00] And coming from the state of Florida, I think we have a very specific outlook on things because we generally have to build very broad coalitions to get things done just, just given the political makeup of our state.

Um, and to do that, I think leading with love is very important. That means always showing up from a place of grace and get showing people grace, even if they disagree with you, even if they say something that might put you off. Um, and I think when we do that, it gives us [00:25:30] the ability to build the broadest coalition that we need.

I’ll give you an example. I, I like to do a lot of different meetings or, um, phone calls or etc. of folks who disagree with me. And you know, during my campaign, I actually had donors who were conservatives. And, and, and like people who supported me that were conservatives. And when I asked them why, they said, It’s, it’s not just that your motto, lead with love, but it’s the fact that I disagree with you on getting to this place, but I understand what you’re saying, that if you love somebody, you want them to have [00:26:00] healthcare.

If you love somebody, you want them to live free gun violence. If you love somebody, you want them to have housing. And I get that. I might disagree with some of the things you’re saying on how we get there, but I get that. And honestly, if we can, especially with folks we disagree with, if we can get through that barrier, I think we’re a hell of a lot closer than a lot of the world would think we are to our end goals.

And so that’s what leave with love really means. It’s showing grace. It’s the way you show up, right? And like [00:26:30] something, the motto there is there really for my constituents to see the way we run our office. But it’s really, there’s a reminder to myself and a reminder to my staff, a reminder to the people we interact with, that we always want to show up in love, even if we disagree with you.

And to be clear, love isn’t always passive, right? Love isn’t a passive thing. It doesn’t mean we’re just gonna let ourselves be slapped around, you know. We’re gonna be aggressive when we need to be. We’re gonna do what we need to do. Um, but it all comes from a place of a love of [00:27:00] humanity. We’re all part of this grand mosaic of humanity.

Even if you’re someone I disagree with. Even if you’re someone that says things that I think are pretty, you know, horrible. Um, I still love you as a human. And a lot of that comes to from, you know, I was going to raise a Southern Baptist, right? So some of it’s a spiritual thing for me and the way, yeah, the way, the way I, the way I see the world, but I think it’s beyond religion too.

I think we can all, whether you believe in a God or not see the humanity in each other. And I think when you do that, [00:27:30] it makes you a better organizer. Even when you see the humanity and the people you disagree with or your opposition doesn’t mean you’re not going to organize against what they’re, what they’re fighting for.

But when you see that humanity, I think it even gives you greater tools as an organizer to change their heart. And if you’re not going to change their heart win that battle and get, get what you need to get done. 

Corryn Freeman: The great black feminist bell hooks talks about what love does. Love is action oriented.

Love is assertive. Love is honest. It seeks justice, [00:28:00] seeks truth. And, uh, all too often we forego understanding. We forsake understanding for disagreement. We choose to not understand in order to disagree. But love says, allow me to hear, understand, take in, and hold space for the disagreement. When we can do that, we have the ability to take steps at least closer to one another.

And the very, very last question that I’m going to ask you, I’m going to ask you to envision with us for a moment. What does a [00:28:30] free future for all Americans look like to you? 

Rep Maxwell Frost: A free future for all Americans. What that looks like to me is a country, really a world, Where people have true freedom, and what I mean by that is the freedom to do what they want to create, what they want to create, without worrying about the things you need to live.

And I think, you know, way back when, you know, it might be a different answer, but now that means you have [00:29:00] healthcare as a human right. You have housing as a human right. You have clean air. You have clean water. You have, um, the ability to live your life and do what you want to do with that true freedom. I think if every American had their basic necessities met because we live in the richest country on the face of the earth, I think we’d all be able to realize a different kind of freedom collectively, um, that we don’t have right now.

And so that’s what true justice and true freedom. That’s what that means to me. That’s what I [00:29:30] fight for up here. And, uh, I just want, I just want them to live their best lives, you know? I always say I want government to go big, so no one has to think about government. And, uh, that’s, that’s the work we got to do.

Corryn Freeman: Well, keep fighting for us, Maxwell, everyone, the great Congressman Maxwell Frost, thank you so much for joining us. You were a joy to have on the podcast today. 

Rep Maxwell Frost: Thank you so much. Appreciate it. 

Corryn Freeman: Thanks for tuning into this episode of the Future Coalition Podcast. If you enjoyed today’s episode, [00:30:00] please be sure to rate and subscribe to Future Coalition Podcast, wherever you get your podcasts.

And if you really enjoyed it, leave us a review. Your input helps us improve and reach even more listeners. Future Coalition Podcast is produced by Future Coalition with Moso Haus. Our producers are Dillon St. Bernard and Ivana Tucker. Our editors are Emily Crain and Jessika Hardy. Our theme song is by Warner Meadows.

And I’m your host, Corryn Freeman. Until next time, keep imagining the [00:30:30] future.