#65 — Andrew Flowers (Journalist > Politician)

Inside The Newsroom

Hello! Welcome to another edition of Inside The Newsroom, where we’ll be interviewing a political candidate for the second straight week! Last week Paula Jean Swearengin, star of the Netflix documentary Knock Down The House came on to talk about her race for U.S. Senate and the issues facing West Virginia. This week’s guest is… Andrew Flowers, former data journalist for FiveThirtyEight and Indeed, current Democratic candidate for the Massachusetts state legislature. Below is a post-game of everything we talked about and more. But first, my most interesting articles of the week. Enjoy! 🤓

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Andrew 👇

Who Is Andrew Flowers and How the Hell Do Start a Political Campaign?

Andrew is running for state representative of the 8th Norfolk District in Massachusetts, just southwest of the Boston metro area. Andrew’s a former economist for the Federal Reserve and Indeed, and former data journalist for FiveThirtyEight. where our paths just missed. Without sounding like a political ad, it’s because of this background that Andrew believes he’s the right man to tackle Massachusetts’ soaring living and housing costs, which we’ll get into shortly. I couldn’t find much data on how many journalists transition into politics, but I can’t imagine there’s too many. If you know anyone, or any databases out there, please email me. Okay, #politicalad over, let’s get to some issues…

U.S. Uninsured Rate Is Climbing, But Not In MA

We’ve heard it time and time again: Obamacare aka the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was a great step for healthcare in America, but it didn’t go far enough. No matter where you sit on the healthcare debate, whether it’s Medicare For All, or “Medicare For All for those who want it”, whether it’s on a powerpoint presentation or post-it note, it’s alarming to see that the uninsured rate in America is beginning to rise for the first time since Obamacare was signed into law in 2010. And this is in spite of Obamacare reaching record popularity, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

According to Census data, 8.5 percent of Americans were uninsured in 2018, an increase of half a percent from a year before. That means around 30 million people are still without health insurance, which for someone from a country where 100% of people have access to free healthcare, is an unimaginable thought.

Credit: Me 👇

Source: Kaiser Family Foundation

Uninsured Rate Per State, 2010-2018

Andrew’s state of Massachusetts is an anomaly, where the uninsured rate is tied for lowest in the country with Washington D.C. at three percent. But unlike D.C. and any other state, Massachusetts had an uninsured rate of less than 5 percent before the ACA was even enacted, thanks to massive healthcare expansions signed into law in 2006, by our old friend Mitt Romney, then the Republican governor. Romney’s healthcare model eventually became the blueprint for Obamacare, and was successful partly because the state had a Republican governor, Democratic speaker of the House and a Democratic president in the Senate, meaning that both parties’ reputation was on the line. The same can’t be said about many other states.

Traffic’s a B***h

The number one issue for Andrew in his district is transportation, more specifically traffic and congestion. I’ve only ever taken the Amtrak into Boston, which is a story for another newsletter, but thankfully I didn’t have to experience the worst traffic of any major metropolitan area in the country. Though I did have to sell a kidney to be able to afford the ticket. Yes, Boston is worse than Los Angeles, which will make Bostonians even angrier, according to transportation data firm Inrix. In fact, Boston is eighth worst in the ENTIRE WORLD, where people lose about 164 hours a year on average from sitting in traffic. Probably not the best time to say that my walk to work takes me six minutes and 53 seconds (personal best).

Credit: Inrix

Anyway, the population in the Boston metro area grew by 15 percent between 2012 and 2017, partly due to its booming biotech industry, which increased six percent between 2017 and 2018 alone. This has lead to soaring living and housing costs, similar to that of in Austin and San Jose, directly affecting Andrew’s and other districts that surround Boston.

Effects of Financial Instability on the Brain

For all of Massachusetts’ positives, and there are many, growing living costs have led to growing inequality within the state. Again, not to sound like a #politicalad, but that’s why Andrew is running: to give everyone a fair start in life. And like with everything Andrew does, there’s plenty of data and studies to back it up.

The majority of us know how tough it is to have no money and live from paycheck to paycheck, and we’re far more susceptible to adverse effects on the brain. “Well duh”, you might be thinking, but it’s far more complicated than just being diagnosed with depression or severe anxiety. One study found that people who’d lived in poverty had worse verbal memory, processing speed, and executive functioning than those who’d never been exposed to poverty. Another found that 91 percent of children, whose brains are by far the most vulnerable, said they saw and felt the effects of their parents' yelling and arguing, commonly because of money troubles.

Andrew Yang #Math

It must be in the name, because both Andrew Flowers and Andrew Yang hold numbers and data central to their ideas. The latter of the two dropped out of the Democratic presidential race a couple of weeks ago after finishing sixth in Iowa and eighth in New Hampshire, but despite a lack of actual votes, Mr Yang will come out of the race as one of the most popular candidates. It’s also why I joined the Andrew Yang book club. #YangGang

Yang began his campaign in January, 2019, on the platform of reinvesting in working class towns where automation had swallowed millions of manufacturing jobs. A 2017 report projected that automation could cost up to 73 million jobs in the U.S. by 2030, roughly 45 percent of the current workforce. And right up to his final debate performance, Yang was still the only candidate even talking about the issue. But whoever the eventual nominee is, they’ll do well if they take automation head on and visit the likes of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin where 4 million manufacturing jobs have been lost because of machines.

Related podcasts…

#51 — Jason Kander (Democratic Party) on almost running for president and the neglect of U.S. veterans

#49 — David Armstrong (Pro Publica) on the opioid crisis and how the Sackler has made billions from killing Americans

Last week…

#64 — Paula Jean Swearengin (U.S. Senate) on West Virginia’s devastating opioid crisis, and what it’s like running for the U.S. Senate

… Next week…

Comedian and journalist Francesca Fiorentini on how to be funny while covering the news…

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