Welcome, welcome back to another episode of The your good news podcast. So over 2021, this podcast has focused on a broad range of guests, from teachers and capital police officers, to health coaches, and even my nephew. I've believed strongly in the fact that good can be found in each day, even the hardest of days. And well, maybe most importantly, on those hard days, especially for me over the last couple years, I've oftentimes felt a little hopeless by the state of our world, and for much of it are American politics. If you've watched the news, you've seen the division and duration, and well just the sprinkle of end of time served up 24/7. And our things in this country are in need of fixing? Absolutely, I'll be the first to admit that. But I do think that much of it comes down to listening to listening to one another, to realizing the other person may just have the same passion, but on the opposite side. And that's okay, to listening to all the facts and opinions and then taking a moment to think about how you feel about it. How does it fit into your worldview? It's my hope that this podcast can be a bit of a reset on the craziness of what we see on social media and in the news. And it's my goal that each episode will leave you with two things. First, highlight what good news is coming out of Washington, from what's the topic du jour from members of Congress, or what a think tank is trying to tackle on that next problem. I'll call balls and strikes, give you the news as they are in the facts, just lay them out. Second, I want this podcast to be a place where you can learn or learn more ways to get involved with our democracy, from registering to vote, to how to call a member of Congress or volunteer on that campaign you're so passionate about. I want to pull back the curtain on the levers of our democracy. Think of this as the new and improved Schoolhouse Rock because, well, one day I'm going to do an episode on how bill becomes law because we'll plot twist, they lied to us when we were kids, I want this would be a cool new improved Schoolhouse Rock where you learn all the levers of Congress, all the levers of our democracy, how to get involved, and how to leave more engage. So for today's two items, here we go. What is happening in Washington? Well, for members of Congress, they're currently back in their districts. It's a period of time known as August recess. And this kind of beginning of August recess comes from well, the beginning of our our Senate, when it was really hot, and they didn't have a C, it can get really steamy in DC. So don't come in the summer. So basically, the backstory on August recess in 1970, a bill came along and said, Let's mandate a summer break. There was a little bit of fighting on how do we designate it, when does it really shift and actually the beginning of each Congress. So every January, after an election, the Majority Leader of the House and in the Senate gets to decide how that calendar lays out to it's typically a six week period, many of this time is giving the members of Congress an opportunity to get more involved with our constituents, learn about that new business opening or the school reopening, or whatever it may be. So just a little bit of fun fact on what's happening in Washington, all of the members are back in their districts. So for the secondary piece, how do you get involved? And as we think about the midterm elections, I'm sure many of you have been getting primary ads and are wondering, well, how do I even start? I think the best place to get started is usa.gov/voter registration, and I'll put this in the show notes. It's a really great place to see, am I registered to vote? Or do I need to change the street location? Or how do I get a voter card? Does my state require it? It's a really good one stop shop of how do you figure out are you registered to vote, you can register to vote there and you can get all the tools you need to be successful. I would also reach out to your local board of elections. I typically just type this into Google when I move somewhere, or the State's Attorney General to learn about deadlines, deadlines to registering to vote deadlines for primaries, are the primaries open to both Democrats and Republicans and independents, or are they close, which means only Democrats can vote in Democratic primaries and Republicans and Republican primaries? If you're listening live in September of 2022. Most of the primaries have happened and we are heading towards the midterm elections on November 8. So there's a lot of information