Politics and public health haven’t always been so divided, but in today’s world, even science and vaccines have become political battlegrounds. That’s why I sat down with Congressman Maxwell Frost, the youngest member of Congress and a voice for Gen Z leadership, to talk about where we go from here.

We dig into what it means to lead in such a polarized time, the dangers of politicizing health, and how younger generations can push for change. Congressman Frost opens up about his perspective on the vaccine mandate debate in Florida, the role of misinformation, and why community and courage matter more than ever.

We cover:

• How public health became politicized—and why that’s so dangerous

• The impact of Covid-19 on trust in science and communication missteps we can learn from

• The real stakes of rolling back vaccine mandates in states like Florida

• Why Gen Z’s voice and skepticism can be a strength in leadership

• How grassroots advocacy, calls, and community action can still influence policy

• Congressman Frost’s perspective on staying hopeful and grounded in the fight for public health and democracy

To connect with Congressman Maxwell Frost check out all his resources at ⁠https://frost.house.gov/⁠.  Follow him on Instagram at @repmaxwellfrost

We’d like to know who is listening! Please fill out our ⁠Listener Survey⁠ to help us improve the show and learn about you!

00:00 – Health care at risk: Frost’s opening
00:33 – Dr. Mona on vaccine rollbacks and misinformation
02:08 – Meet Rep. Maxwell Frost: Gen Z in Congress
04:32 – How public health became politicized
07:25 – Mistrust, disinformation, and Covid’s lasting impact
11:36 – The pediatrician’s perspective on burnout and broken systems
18:32 – Communication failures during the pandemic
21:23 – Vaccine mandates in Florida and political agendas
28:09 – What real advocacy looks like: calls, town halls, showing up
34:07 – Gen Z leadership, corruption, and the fight for change
43:08 – Division, anger, and re-centering community
50:26 – Radical optimism and final reflections

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00;00;00;07 – 00;00;17;23

Maxwell Frost

Health care in this country right now is at risk. Our health care system was broken before this president. And I’m going to sit here and say we’ve had a perfect health care system. I believe we need to ensure that health care is a human right, not health insurance, health care, the actual care being healthy. And I think the system we have isn’t set up for that.

 

00;00;17;23 – 00;00;32;28

Maxwell Frost

It’s really set up to make a few people very rich, and it doesn’t take into account providers, patients, people and health care. And I think that’s really important.

 

00;00;33;00 – 00;00;56;02

Dr. Mona

Welcome back to the show. I’m Doctor Mona, and I want to start this episode off with some honesty. I don’t know about you, but as a pediatrician and mom, there have been moments where I have felt deeply defeated. First, it was watching the vaccine mandates for schools being rolled back here in Florida. These are requirements that have kept kids safe from diseases like measles and polio for decades.

 

00;00;56;04 – 00;01;26;06

Dr. Mona

And then when I thought that it couldn’t get any worse, the president’s press conference linking autism, Tylenol and folate. Another wave of misinformation that only added to the shame and confusion parents already carry. And didn’t add any valuable science backed solution. And I usually don’t bring politics into this space. But maybe you remember when I spoke with Doctor Annie Andrews, a pediatrician who’s running for Senate in South Carolina about why parents voices matter in shaping policy.

 

00;01;26;06 – 00;01;47;10

Dr. Mona

And she said something so important that she never thought that she would get into politics. But politics was getting into her life and her career the way politics has intersected with public health. We can’t be silent because these are issues that are impacting our lives and our children’s lives. And then recently, I attended an impact summit celebrating South Asian changemakers in America.

 

00;01;47;12 – 00;02;08;02

Dr. Mona

And both of these moments reminded me, if we want the world to be better for our kids, if we want this country to be better for our kids with the value systems that we have. We can’t stay silent. Other podcasters are using their platforms for this work, spreading misinformation. And I want to bring back compassion and real advocacy change to make the world a better place for children.

 

00;02;08;04 – 00;02;28;28

Dr. Mona

So today’s conversation matters. I’m joined by Congressman Maxwell Frost, the youngest member of Congress at only 28 years of age, and the first from generation Z. He’s not just sitting in Washington. He’s carrying the urgency of a generation that has had to grow up faster, fight harder, and demand better, inspire to act after the Sandy hook shooting at just 15 years old.

 

00;02;29;05 – 00;02;53;13

Dr. Mona

Congressman Frost has spent his life fighting to end gun violence and championing issues that shape family’s daily lives, from affordable housing and health care to abortion rights, Lgbtq+ rights and justice reform. And I’m so honored to have him on the show today. We talk about the harm of politicizing public health, the exhaustion that comes with disillusionment, and what keeps him pushing forward when the system feels broken.

 

00;02;53;16 – 00;03;15;13

Dr. Mona

And before we dive in, I have to ask you please subscribe, download and share share, share this episode. It’s going to resonate with you and it’s going to change the world, I know it. Because if you don’t like what you’re seeing out there, change won’t happen by staying silent. It starts with us. Let’s get into it.

 

00;03;15;16 – 00;03;20;18

Dr. Mona

Thank you so much, Congressman Frost, for taking time out of your busy day to be here today.

 

00;03;20;20 – 00;03;24;26

Maxwell Frost

Yeah, thanks for having me on. I really appreciate it and excited for the conversation.

 

00;03;24;28 – 00;03;42;10

Dr. Mona

When we connected with your team, I was like, I gasped, and I was like, oh my gosh, like, they want to come on the show. This is going to be amazing. And you’re honestly the second politician that I’m having on the show. The first one is Doctor Annie Andrews. She’s a pediatrician in South Carolina running for Senate against Lindsey Graham.

 

00;03;42;12 – 00;04;01;07

Dr. Mona

And for a long time, I didn’t have politicians on my show, one because no one would respond. Number two was because I didn’t want it to be that I was aligning myself with one party or the other. But unfortunately, what’s happened is that I’m a millennial and I’ve said this before, but I’ve seen how much politics has shifted over the last few decades.

 

00;04;01;07 – 00;04;23;13

Dr. Mona

Back in the 90s and early 2000, under presidents like Bush or Reagan. Public health wasn’t so divided along party lines. Now it feels like every health issue gets politicized. And as a pediatrician and a mom, this really concerns me. And as someone from a younger generation in Congress, how does this feel for you? Because I know we’re also going to be talking about the removal of vaccine mandates in Florida.

 

00;04;23;13 – 00;04;32;18

Dr. Mona

But do you see this in the same way? And what role do you think this new generation of leaders can play in changing this back to maybe what it used to be politics?

 

00;04;32;20 – 00;04;57;01

Maxwell Frost

Yeah, it’s incredibly scary because, I mean, you brought it up for so long. There’s a lot of things that get that would get politicized. But health care, vaccines, science wasn’t really something that was that politicized. So it’s it’s really dangerous. And I think this has happened for many different reasons. I think that the president and this movement that has come up.

 

00;04;57;03 – 00;05;12;29

Maxwell Frost

And it’s not it’s not a problem to question the way things are. Right? You know, I always bring that up to people. I have friends that are in the Maha movement and different things like this who are very skeptical about things. And I always tell them it’s not about not being skeptical. In fact, that’s what science is, right?

 

00;05;13;02 – 00;05;45;18

Maxwell Frost

Is is testing things. Coming to the conversation with a healthy dose of skepticism. But it is a problem that then, when presented with evidence and, research done by many different people from many different places, and there’s a general consensus, if you then continue to cast doubt to spread misinformation and disinformation, then your skepticism is no longer skepticism, and it is now dangerous disinformation that can literally kill people.

 

00;05;45;21 – 00;06;04;21

Maxwell Frost

And that’s what that’s what we’re in right now, and that’s why it’s so dangerous. I mean, I know we’ll talk about the vaccines, but, you know, I, the health care, health care and health care in this country right now is at risk. Our health care system was broken before this president. And I’m going to sit here and say we’ve had a perfect health care system.

 

00;06;04;24 – 00;06;23;25

Maxwell Frost

I believe we need to ensure that health care is a human right, not health insurance, health care, the actual care being healthy. And, and I think the system we have isn’t set up for that. It’s really set up to make a few people very rich. And it doesn’t take into account providers, patients, people and health care.

 

00;06;23;27 – 00;07;00;16

Maxwell Frost

And I think that’s really important. But what we’re seeing is the system we do have, they are breaking it right now from the drastic cuts to Medicaid to cuts to nutritional assistance, to adding this not just doubt, but disinformation into basic research, science and vaccines from HHS. And I was actually just this morning at one of our federally qualified health centers, and I was speaking with the chief of medicine, their chief medical officer, about what is she hearing on the ground from predominantly low income families?

 

00;07;00;18 – 00;07;25;06

Maxwell Frost

Are they asking questions about vaccines or are they asking questions about, you know, they questioning the doctors more when they say something, which is no problem. The question, but what are you hearing? And what I heard is, yes. And it’s not just a healthy dose of skepticism. It is full distrust. Yeah. Coming straight from the government, which isn’t really supposed to politicize medicine.

 

00;07;25;08 – 00;07;48;28

Maxwell Frost

And it’s putting us in a place where it is more dangerous, in this country. And we’re seeing that many diseases have come back that really haven’t really been around in a big way. And unfortunately, we’ll see what happens with the vaccine mandate here in Florida. But it will probably get even worse. Hopefully not. And I asked her, how do we how do you think we fix this?

 

00;07;48;28 – 00;08;09;22

Maxwell Frost

I’m actually I know you’re interviewing me, but I’m curious to hear what you think too. Like what to do as a society to get back to this point where we acknowledge that. Yeah, yeah. I mean, there are facts and the facts are true. And you don’t mean you can’t question stuff. But, you know, I just I talked to my colleagues about this all the time.

 

00;08;09;22 – 00;08;30;18

Maxwell Frost

Who especially ones that have been there for a long time, who are used to a politics where, you know, someone tells a lie, and then you go on the news and you set the record straight, you tell the truth, and then that’s all. But we’re in a different society now where it’s more of your truth versus my truth.

 

00;08;30;21 – 00;08;50;14

Maxwell Frost

The way we tell it and where we tell it will impact how many people believe it. And it sucks, but it also is. And I think it’s something we, you know, those of us who really want our society to, of course, put that trust into basic research, experts and stuff like that so we can keep our people safe.

 

00;08;50;16 – 00;09;11;17

Maxwell Frost

What do we do to get back there? And it’s something I’m really. It’s really important. I mean, it’s part of the reason we reached out to come on the podcast. Yeah. And, and speak with you and a lot of other creators and influencers because more and more people are not getting their news from, like, journalists, but they’re listening to different people on different places on the internet to understand a little bit more about what’s going on.

 

00;09;11;17 – 00;09;15;23

Maxwell Frost

And I think it’s really important that we’re in those spaces as well. So sorry, that was a long answer.

 

00;09;15;25 – 00;09;36;08

Dr. Mona

But oh, but I wrote I you’re lucky I’m a mom and that I have a good attention span because I have responses to all of those things. And so the first thing you know, I wanted to address was thank you for being a policymaker that understands the the harm in politicizing health care. And I love that you talked about it as health care, not just having health insurance.

 

00;09;36;08 – 00;09;54;07

Dr. Mona

Health care is a human right, and that I want to focus on that care term. You know, we from the health care perspective, and I’ve been practicing now for ten years, residency for another three. So 13 years in a practicing medicine. Right? I’ve been in three different areas of this country. And the common thread, like you said, is distrust.

 

00;09;54;12 – 00;10;14;04

Dr. Mona

But the common thread from our angle, you know, as a health care provider is obviously lower reimbursement, less time with patients, high burnout rates and lack of respect, from the men in suits that run how we, you know, they are taking control over how we run practices. So we’re not being able to practice our art of medicine.

 

00;10;14;04 – 00;10;38;25

Dr. Mona

That the reason why so many of us, especially general pediatricians, went into medicine is to truly impact lives. And to answer that beautiful question that you have posed many times to answer the why and so when I went into pediatrics, it was because I love explaining the why. I love answering the why. But now when you have ten minute visits and people have ten questions, how can you answer the why in ten and ten minutes?

 

00;10;38;27 – 00;11;15;19

Dr. Mona

And so part of this is recognizing that this is a huge disservice to our communities, not only in Florida but nationwide. I don’t care what socioeconomic bracket you have if we don’t have a solid health care system or in a solid education system, societies crumble and that is where we’re headed. And I’m seeing it now how, you know, living in a blue, in a red state because Florida is a red state, being on the more centrist, liberal side of policy and living in a very blue area of Florida, in, in Broward and seeing how this is now taking shape in terms of the education systems, things coming from the government, like you said.

 

00;11;15;22 – 00;11;36;20

Dr. Mona

Now we’ll talk about the vaccine policies, how all of it seems like it’s crumbling around us, and we’re all just kind of trying to keep our head above water to actually make that impact. And so one of the biggest things that I think is important, and you just said, like, how do we change this narrative, is looking at what Trump and his whole administration did when they ran for reelection.

 

00;11;36;26 – 00;11;58;16

Dr. Mona

You said it beautifully. They didn’t go on mainstream media. They tackled college campuses, they tackled podcasts, social media, and they went where people are actually consuming information. And honestly, that’s why I wanted you on because I said I want to do what they’re doing with my top 30 parenting podcast, because not a lot of parenting podcasts are doing this right.

 

00;11;58;16 – 00;12;17;00

Dr. Mona

And this is not about get out there and you need to vote blindly. This is exactly what you said, Maxwell, that I want people to ask questions and think about their value system. Do you value health care? Do you value education? Do you think that people deserve it as a right? Because if you do, there’s only one party right now that’s unfortunately advocating for that.

 

00;12;17;00 – 00;12;33;17

Dr. Mona

And that’s not our fault. That’s not mine and yours fault that the Democratic Party is the one who’s leaning in on that. But we got to get on social media. We got to try to meet with compassion and the underlying value system. So this is something that I’ve changed. So when a family comes to me and they’re like, I don’t want to vaccinate.

 

00;12;33;20 – 00;12;50;18

Dr. Mona

I used to be like, well, why are you here? Right? But now it’s more like, tell me what you know. Tell me why you’re concerned. And getting on their level of I think we can both agree that we both want healthy children. Right. What is the common underlying thing that we both want? I think every human being wants to be seen.

 

00;12;50;24 – 00;13;11;19

Dr. Mona

And I think this is important not only, as, you know, health care providers, but as a politician running, you know, obviously tell me your issue. I may not have a magic wand to fix it tomorrow, but I want you to know that I’m listening, and I want to think about ways that we can make this happen so that we can improve the quality of life of all of our I mean, patients, constituents like, this is what we’re all trying to do.

 

00;13;11;19 – 00;13;33;04

Dr. Mona

And I’m concerned. I mean, I’m glad you’re on because I feel already that you are obviously someone in this for the change. And it can become very hard to think that our politicians don’t hear what we’re saying. And I do believe our, you know, obviously we elect you. It’s important that people realize that their vote matters and that if you want change, you got to vote for it in this country.

 

00;13;33;10 – 00;13;49;23

Dr. Mona

You can’t just think that, oh, well, yeah, people will vote their on. You know, Kamala is on, you know Oprah on this and that. You got to get to the polls. Tell people the impact. And we’re seeing the repercussions of it now. I mean it’s it’s hard to see.

 

00;13;49;25 – 00;13;58;15

Dr. Mona

Now let’s take a quick break to hear from our sponsors who support helps us keep bringing you this show.

 

00;13;58;17 – 00;14;25;14

Maxwell Frost

Yeah, it’s very hard to see. And yeah, you brought up so many points I agree with and I think, you know, at the end of the day, there’s something I didn’t bring up, which is obviously, I think one of the catalysts for this new kind of world we live in, in terms of public health and the attacks on public health, which is the weaponization of Covid 19 and essentially what our not just our nation, but humanity went through it.

 

00;14;25;16 – 00;14;47;25

Maxwell Frost

And like, you know, I, I talked to people about this, that especially for young people who were in school during Covid, I don’t think we’ll fully understand the psychological ramifications for another decade or even even longer to the those that group of students and young people, in terms of just kind of what we all went through together and like the trauma associated with it.

 

00;14;47;27 – 00;15;12;13

Maxwell Frost

But part of it is, I think Covid was also, spotlight on the parts of our system that don’t work. Yeah, that, that that was when the rug is pulled from beneath all of us who can still stand, who needs help to stand and who is who, who falls. And I think a lot of us saw that. Wow.

 

00;15;12;13 – 00;15;37;24

Maxwell Frost

The way things are set up right now isn’t really set up to keep all of us up. And that’s I’m not here to pin that on one person. That’s a system. That’s part of the reason why, you know, I believe in bold, transformational change on a lot of key issue areas because the age of, you know, my bill will make it better for some people around the edges if you’re in this income level and this year and you’ll get it in seven years.

 

00;15;37;27 – 00;15;55;09

Maxwell Frost

The age of that kind of legislation, I think is part of what has put us in this situation where the people are demanding more because wealth inequality is so high, because the standard of living has gone down so much for so many people who are doing the things they were told, that if you do all this stuff, you’ll be okay.

 

00;15;55;16 – 00;16;16;08

Maxwell Frost

You’ll be able job with a good salary that’ll pay for your health care and your food and this and that and this and that. You’ll be able to send your kids to college and you’ll be able to retire with dignity. And I think a lot of people are finding as we kick the can down the road on big issues of housing, health care, different things like this, people are finding I’m not as good as I’m not as well.

 

00;16;16;14 – 00;16;35;29

Maxwell Frost

I’m not as well off as I thought I would be, or I’m not as well off as I was told I was. And I think part of what happened with Covid is did we do everything perfect? No, we all know that we’re doing, you know, and I’m not here to say there was people with mal intent saying, let’s do stuff to hurt people, right?

 

00;16;36;01 – 00;17;05;19

Maxwell Frost

I think we’re doing the best we could with the information we had. Obviously we lost over a million Americans. But I do think that there’s a healthy dose of skepticism into things people were told to do. And I think what the president and his allies have done very effectively is weaponize that skepticism and that trauma that our humanity went through to politicize public health.

 

00;17;05;22 – 00;17;32;25

Maxwell Frost

And I think, you know, I, I just want to make sure I named Covid because I feel like, oh, yeah, yeah. Without that, we might not be having this conversation because that was like the catalyst for this new movement we see. That’s like a very dangerous thing that I took. What is, like I said, valid skepticism that people can have about things, but weaponize that into a political movement, that is going to end up killing people.

 

00;17;32;27 – 00;17;53;10

Dr. Mona

And listen, I felt the same way. I’m a pediatrician. I’m married to an ER doctor. And so obviously we saw the worst of the worst. And I’m going to say my husband saw the worst of the worst. Right? So, we saw the clinical, the clinical ramifications of that virus, especially when it first came out. Right. And then we also saw the virus evolve and less people becoming hospitalized, less people being intubated.

 

00;17;53;10 – 00;18;08;28

Dr. Mona

And I, you know, my a lot of my awareness of the pandemic was for my husband. Meaning I would ask him, I’m like, hey, how how’s it going? He’s like, yeah, we haven’t had to we haven’t had to intubate someone in like two months. That’s a record. Or when the Omicron variant came back or the Delta variant was around, right.

 

00;18;09;01 – 00;18;32;03

Dr. Mona

Oh my gosh, it’s been really bad. And so you’re right on that. I think the pandemic is what caused this entire shift. And it also added to that mistrust. You mentioned that you were asking some people about that mistrust, mistrust in the CDC, mistrust in science communication, mistrust in doctors. And I think a huge disservice that happened is the way communication happened around the vaccines, around everything.

 

00;18;32;03 – 00;18;49;13

Dr. Mona

And there was a lot of black and white language when we we shouldn’t have done black and white language like this is this is 100% safe. This is going to prevent you from getting Covid. We know that that vaccine has risks. Every vaccine does. Right. We know this. And so that should have been the benefits outweigh the risk.

 

00;18;49;19 – 00;19;10;01

Dr. Mona

The reframe of you know, this is 100% effective should be this is going to reduce your risk of getting the Covid virus and it can reduce your risk of hospitalization. And so when we hear that as a consumer, we’re more likely to say reduction, this is not a guarantee because then what happened? People got the vaccine or they didn’t, or they were forced to get it because of mandates.

 

00;19;10;06 – 00;19;36;28

Dr. Mona

They still got a variant, right. They still got a breakthrough infection. Why did I get this vaccine? It didn’t do anything. So then it created this distrust in the communication. And so you are right that I think the current administration is monopolizing on that in the most creative of ways. But the ramifications, like you mentioned, are now we may be dealing with another pandemic, meaning it may not be a huge pandemic like the Covid, Covid 19 virus.

 

00;19;37;03 – 00;20;02;23

Dr. Mona

But with the measles outbreaks, pertussis, we have seen those outbreaks come on now. And when you when we talk about the mandates dropping mandates in a state like Florida that already has one of the lower vaccination rates in the country for kindergartners, it’s extremely concerning to me as a doctor here, of what that’s going to mean for these outbreaks in a state that has already lower vaccine rates compared to like a state like new Jersey, New York, California.

 

00;20;02;23 – 00;20;05;06

Dr. Mona

And that’s scary as a from a public health perspective.

 

00;20;05;09 – 00;20;30;06

Maxwell Frost

No, you’re 100% right. I’m really glad you brought up the way that things were communicated during Covid, because that you hit it right on the dot, because what also happens is because we’re naturally skeptical people, and because that is an okay and valid thing, especially when it comes to the health of you. And your family. When you’re given that black and white language and you’re told, you know, if you question this, you’re the worst person in the world, right?

 

00;20;30;13 – 00;20;52;11

Maxwell Frost

Right. What happens is, and we know is this was about harm reduction, reducing harm. And and us looking at this as a team effort, right, as a nation trying to, get through this thing. But when you put it in that black and white, when people see the cracks because there are cracks, as you mentioned, with, with everything, with every vaccine, with everything, there’s a there’s nothing that’s 100%.

 

00;20;52;13 – 00;21;23;09

Maxwell Frost

Then what happens is the blowback is even harder because we have sold to the people that it was 100% and what not. Then you, you know, the it’s just a lot worse. And I think yeah. So I think you’re right. I think decisions around communicating, I think there’s a lot of bad decisions around communicating. And then obviously now we have people weaponizing it and then kind of doing the opposite end of the spectrum, and even worse, which is going to arm people and to go to the vaccines, conversation.

 

00;21;23;11 – 00;21;52;16

Maxwell Frost

I think a few things. And some people might not like hearing this, but this is just the truth. Our governor wants to run for president. He is looking for opportunities to shine. And unfortunately, they’ve been a lot of ridiculous things that he’s chosen to try to make news on. And one of them is the vaccine thing that even had Donald Trump in the white House, who’s one of the leaders of this movement on mistrust, on public health and medicine, say himself, wow, I don’t like fully, you know, whatever.

 

00;21;52;16 – 00;21;53;01

Maxwell Frost

Yeah.

 

00;21;53;03 – 00;21;56;28

Dr. Mona

Yeah. He was like, that’s not a good idea. And I was like, what? I agree with you. Yes.

 

00;21;57;02 – 00;22;09;19

Maxwell Frost

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the reason why is, you know, he’s our governor. DeSantis is trying to actually trying to, you know, gain. Yeah, yeah. And a lot of people don’t know this, but Trump and Trump doesn’t like DeSantis. So this party oh.

 

00;22;09;20 – 00;22;24;23

Dr. Mona

Yes, I knew that. And I explained that to my followers. I’m like understand the intent of this here. This is also political meaning his response you may believe it, but it was also like he knows that the state, the person running that state is a is his political opponent. And so yeah.

 

00;22;24;25 – 00;22;43;22

Maxwell Frost

He does not like them at all. And yeah, but but DeSantis knows he needs Trump for any. Yeah. For the part. So either way so this was the next thing that he picked. And we know that our surgeon general in this state is severely underqualified and is just not, is should not be in that position.

 

00;22;43;24 – 00;23;23;20

Maxwell Frost

And, and so, you know, this effort, you know, and so people know to a lot of this is going to have to be done via law through the legislature. Because it was put into law by the legislature, to some of it not. So we’re going to have to see how this legislative session goes, to see exactly what the ramifications will be in our schools, but that, you know, a lot of times and this is and, you know, this, this is so true in public health, is that Americans become people, become complacent with something because they didn’t know how bad it was before we had that something.

 

00;23;23;22 – 00;23;43;07

Maxwell Frost

And, and they don’t know how good we actually have it. And vaccines is a really good example of it. And the way I like to explain it to people is, number one, children contracting give, you know, bacteria and diseases and stuff like that more than other people. Why? Because their children like and stuff and sneezing on each other.

 

00;23;43;09 – 00;23;44;14

Dr. Mona

Oh yeah yada yada.

 

00;23;44;21 – 00;24;08;19

Maxwell Frost

And before we had real childhood vaccination, in this in this country, people don’t realize that children were dying at very, very, very, very big rates. I don’t want to give the wrong number here, but I believe it’s 20 to 30% of all deaths were children. And, and now we’re at a place where it’s like under 1%.

 

00;24;08;21 – 00;24;29;01

Maxwell Frost

And the reason why is because of vaccinations and new ways that, you know, we are very with children and, and this is really important. And what people should know is number one, obviously there’s a tax on public education. This is, think something that would impact public education. Private schools would still be able to do their vaccine mandates.

 

00;24;29;01 – 00;24;39;25

Maxwell Frost

But here’s the thing. It doesn’t matter because our children go to the same churches, they go to the same congregations, they go to the same parks, they go to the same theme parks. Another big thing here.

 

00;24;39;27 – 00;24;40;17

Dr. Mona

Is for Disney.

 

00;24;40;23 – 00;24;59;28

Maxwell Frost

A big impact on our tourism economy, because people are going to continue coming here. People are going to get sick and then people are going to die, and then people are going to stop coming here and it’s just going to have a huge impact on all of us, not just children in public school that gets sick. It’s going to be a thing that impacts all of us.

 

00;24;59;28 – 00;25;18;10

Maxwell Frost

And I think I think a lot of Democrats and Republicans get that. And my hope is that we can all come together and rally against this in the legislative session, because it’ll be detrimental and kids will die. I mean, kids will die and then adults will die. We’ll see, polio come back. I mean, like, we will see things come back that we haven’t seen at that scale.

 

00;25;18;10 – 00;25;40;12

Maxwell Frost

And it’s really scary. I mean, I was explaining to people I, born and raised in Orlando, I love Florida Floridian. Obviously we’ve been through a lot here, especially as a progressive Democrat. But I, you know, I’ve had people tell me, why don’t why don’t you move to California, New York and yada, yada yada. And I’m like, well, number one, this is my home.

 

00;25;40;14 – 00;26;02;08

Maxwell Frost

And I believe in voting for my home. And I believe in fighting where the battle is hard. And we have a hard fight here, and I’m going to be a part of it. But I got to tell you that this vaccine announcement was the first time ever that I had a thought. The thought didn’t take over and win, but I had the thought of saying, I don’t know if I want to raise a family here.

 

00;26;02;10 – 00;26;17;28

Maxwell Frost

And then there was the that vaccine thing, but there’s been a lot of other things I find discussing. Well, but it was that thing that I was like, I don’t know if I could be here that my whole life and raise a family here, if that, if this is where we’re going in this state. And I know.

 

00;26;17;28 – 00;26;42;07

Dr. Mona

That is the feeling I had. You know, I have two small I have two children. I am a physician, married to a physician. And besides that, I believe in community public health measures to protect everybody. Right. And I also want to reiterate that these the vaccine mandates being dropped are for the routine school vaccines. Right. So there was never a mandate for Covid because we know that the efficacy rates and stuff for Covid wasn’t great, so they didn’t mandate those, right.

 

00;26;42;09 – 00;27;00;29

Dr. Mona

Flu is also not mandated in many schools. But yes, we do mandate your Hib meningitis, your pneumococcal, your MMR, chickenpox, all the things that you get before five years of age. And you’re right that my husband and I talked about it, we have already had plans to relocate for other reasons. And that’s still probably going to happen.

 

00;27;00;29 – 00;27;16;09

Dr. Mona

Not because of that, but it was the final, like him messaging me that. You’re right. We got to get out of here, you know, and it but it wasn’t the final. It wasn’t like we had already planned on decision making happening before that. And then part of it was that same thing you said, I’m like, do we stay to fight the fight?

 

00;27;16;16 – 00;27;33;29

Dr. Mona

But for us, like you just said, we don’t have family and connection here. So we’re struggling with the lack of community. And to fight any good fight, you need a good support system. And so that’s kind of what is coming down too. But this is a hard thing for people to have to decide. We have that privilege of relocating if we don’t like something.

 

00;27;34;01 – 00;27;49;16

Dr. Mona

And then I think about majority of the country who relies on public health measures, don’t. They don’t realize what those measures will mean to them. And they can’t relocate, right? They can’t just up and go if they don’t like a policy or like they realize, you know what, this isn’t vibing with what I want to do for raising my kids.

 

00;27;49;16 – 00;28;09;18

Dr. Mona

So now it’s sad to me to think that these policies are in the interest of politics. These aren’t for public health. This was a political move to tout your feathers and make you seem like you’re doing something big and grandiose to align yourself with your voters, but it actually is more harmful. And my question to you is, like I said, sometimes you can feel defeated.

 

00;28;09;21 – 00;28;33;29

Dr. Mona

This was one of the announcements before the president did the announcement on the Tylenol Foliate autism thing, which was probably worse for me from an emotional standpoint. But before that, this announcement was very hard for me to hear because I was like, wow, like all this progress we’ve made trying to educate families, trying to do the good work as pediatricians, it just feels like we’re failing and that work, everything’s crumbling.

 

00;28;34;02 – 00;28;52;26

Dr. Mona

So for everyone listening, does it matter to call the Congress, like call our state legislators? Like, what is the advocacy that we can do to encourage policies that we don’t like that are coming into the, you know, voting and like, for example, like this, like I’ve, I’ve said, call my state to call the state legislators. But of course, like what?

 

00;28;52;26 – 00;29;05;26

Dr. Mona

How much impact does that have for things like this? Or does it even. Now let’s take a quick break to hear from our sponsors who support helps us keep bringing you this show.

 

00;29;05;28 – 00;29;27;13

Maxwell Frost

Oh, it does have an impact. And and the thing I always tell people is, and it’s not even about I mean, I understand what someone would say did. Well, my one call. Do something. Well, you never know. Yeah, yeah, but the thing about organizing is it’s never about one call. It’s about thousands. It’s never about one email.

 

00;29;27;15 – 00;29;53;19

Maxwell Frost

It’s about thousands. It’s about hundreds. It’s, you know, depending on what it is. And that’s what organizing is all about. I love there’s this Cesar Chavez quote or Cesar Chavez, one of the most famous, labor worker organizers in Arizona with the, farm workers movement. And he was in the middle of a hunger strike. For better pay and, compensation for these farm workers who were essentially doing slave labor.

 

00;29;53;19 – 00;30;16;24

Maxwell Frost

They were all immigrants from all around the world. He was in the middle of this hunger strike. And, you know, the people were getting discouraged. The workers, they weren’t getting what they needed. And, he, you know, said the this famous quote, we know it’s, yes, we can. And but that actually, yes, we can from Obama actually came from Cesar Chavez under a lot of sweat.

 

00;30;16;24 – 00;30;41;15

Maxwell Frost

That one they said in Arizona, si se puede right in Spanish. But there’s something Cesar Chavez would always say which is organizing is simple. You talk to one person and then another person and then another person. And that’s what this work is all about. And so the last me is calling an office, emailing an office, sending a message to offices, an important 100% yes, because a lot of people haven’t been in a legislative office before.

 

00;30;41;16 – 00;31;08;18

Maxwell Frost

They’re not that big. And when you are flooding that office with calls and emails and letters and stuff, you you’re actually kind of changing the physical environment of that office. Like the like like the I don’t have a better word for it. So I’m going to say the vibe, the vibe of the office shifts because what you’re doing is you’re asserting pressure on an elected official in a place that they’re working in, where their staff is at, and that helps.

 

00;31;08;20 – 00;31;32;09

Maxwell Frost

Yeah, well, I say that changes everything all at once. No, but it’s a tactic that you use. And then you go to the town hall and you don’t go by yourself because one person standing up is important and is powerful. But what’s better than one person is 50? Yeah. You show up with people, you go to that town hall if they’re not hosting town halls, because there’s a lot of my colleagues not hosting town halls because they’re being yelled at.

 

00;31;32;12 – 00;31;48;25

Maxwell Frost

Yeah. And maybe you find out where they’re going, and you go up and you speak to them, right? And you go up with 20 people and you speak with them. Hey, I know when I was in town halls will want to talk to you about this vaccine thing. I’m here with Democrats and Republicans and independents, and we have families.

 

00;31;48;27 – 00;32;10;19

Maxwell Frost

We want to talk to you about this. We’re worried about it. And exerting that pressure helps, because when that person goes to Tallahassee or Washington, DC or your local city council to make that decision, you have made your voice heard in a way that’s undeniable. Yeah. And and I think that that’s really important. They won’t always do what you asked for.

 

00;32;10;22 – 00;32;32;17

Maxwell Frost

And I you know, I’ve been involved in politics since I was 15 years old. After the Sandy hook shooting, I’ve sat in an office with countless politicians who’ve cried with me, who have cried with survivors of gun violence, who have cried with family members who just had their little sister shot to bits in school. I’ve had a politicians cry with us and hug us and say, we’re going to do everything we can.

 

00;32;32;19 – 00;32;52;24

Maxwell Frost

And then the next day they go in and vote the same way they’ve always voted. So I’m not going to hear a lot of people and say, if you do it, it’ll change everything. But what you’re doing is you’re building power and you can change it. And if you don’t do anything, you won’t. And I think a good thing about this vaccine fight is it’s bipartisan.

 

00;32;52;27 – 00;33;13;27

Maxwell Frost

There’s Republicans and Democrats and independents of the people who understand that we can’t go down this road. And, you got to make your voice heard. If you can’t go to Tallahassee, go to Tallahassee. Right. Like if you can speak with your elected official locally, speak like that official locally, if you can host a protest or a demonstration, do that.

 

00;33;13;29 – 00;33;35;02

Maxwell Frost

If you can host some, health care town hall with Democrats and Republicans and invite your local elected, then if they don’t come, put a cardboard cutout of them there and invite the press. Do it right. Do what you can to ratchet up pressure so they understand that as you make this decision, we are watching now. Not only are we watching, but we have told you what we believe you should do.

 

00;33;35;08 – 00;33;59;29

Maxwell Frost

And to be honest, so is my. This is not breaking news, but in many cases that politician already agrees with you. Yeah, but they are. They don’t have the courage to stand up for what they actually believe in, and so they will bow to the bigger political pressures in their pursuit for political power. And they’re more afraid of someone else than they are of their constituents.

 

00;34;00;03 – 00;34;07;24

Maxwell Frost

So you got to show them that you have the courage to go out and speak to them, because courage is is contagious. I do believe that.

 

00;34;07;26 – 00;34;20;14

Dr. Mona

I love that. And, you know, I’m curious your thoughts. Obviously, this is your own personal perception. Do you think that the age has something to do with it? Right. These people, like you’re a younger congressman, obviously. I think at the time of this recording, you’re 28 years old.

 

00;34;20;22 – 00;34;21;08

Maxwell Frost

Yeah.

 

00;34;21;11 – 00;34;40;17

Dr. Mona

And the average age in the house is like in the 50s Senate. It’s closer to 60s. Do you think that the younger generation, the generation that Gen Z always gets labeled as lazy or, you know, too emotional, but you also are the generation that also and asks a lot more why and doesn’t take no for an answer. And I, Brené Brown, is a wonderful speaker.

 

00;34;40;17 – 00;34;59;08

Dr. Mona

She talked about that. She’s like, Gen Z is doing something that a lot of our generations before were like, because I said so. And do you think that the fact that you guys, as a new generation, having younger politicians, younger change makers, do you think it will change that tide where they actually vote with what they feel versus that influence from other higher powered individuals?

 

00;34;59;08 – 00;35;06;11

Dr. Mona

Or why is that happening? Like, why can’t they just say, you know what, I’m going to do this because it’s what it’s what’s right.

 

00;35;06;14 – 00;35;19;04

Maxwell Frost

I do think generally Gen Z is is a generation that’s very entrepreneurial. That is always questions and that. Yeah, when people say the lazy thing, I’m always like, I don’t see that. I mean, yeah.

 

00;35;19;04 – 00;35;20;23

Dr. Mona

I, I don’t see it either. Yeah. Yeah.

 

00;35;20;23 – 00;35;53;05

Maxwell Frost

All the social movements I’ve been a part of, if anything, the entrepreneurial thing sometimes isn’t great because like, Gen Z loves to start their own thing, you know, like do their like start something and do something and be active. And I think it’s really cool. I actually was, speaking with some friends about the similarities between Gen Z and actually the baby boomers in, in a lot of traumatic things and points of connection with our generations growing up and what it will look like as we get into power.

 

00;35;53;05 – 00;36;21;03

Maxwell Frost

I’m very interested to see, but when you ask people about what’s a thing, what’s a moment in your life that you feel like your whole generation can empathize with? You know, a lot of boomers will bring up a lot of war and a lot of, you know, forced to go to war and, or sorry, seeing their seeing their parents being forced to go to war and, for us, similar thing right now and also, what I ask for, like what our moments.

 

00;36;21;03 – 00;36;56;18

Maxwell Frost

You think all Gen Z remembers. I hear the parkland shooting, I hear, George Floyd, I like I hear all these all this stuff about death that, that, that, that death. And it’s it’s very traumatic. So, but I but I but the the other thing I have to say is the forces of big money, big corporate money, big political forces will continue to be omnipresent in our political system and will have outsized power.

 

00;36;56;24 – 00;37;22;28

Maxwell Frost

And our political system wants to do something about it. And I’m not under the impression that just because someone is younger means they’re not corruptible. And that’s a great point. And so I think it is important to have younger people in office. But there’s a lot of people, a lot of times the type of people who run for political office or people who have a lot of ambition, but not a lot of passion, and you need ambition.

 

00;37;23;05 – 00;37;44;22

Maxwell Frost

I’m an ambitious person. You’re an ambitious. We need ambitious people. But with the lack of real passion that is, you know, connected to people that you’re that you’re serving, that’s where you can be corrupted. And. Yeah, I’m not under I’m not under the impression at all that it will just go away as a new generation takes hold.

 

00;37;44;24 – 00;38;19;10

Maxwell Frost

Unless that new generation changes the way the system works. Because the fact of the matter is, we’re human, and we we we will feel those pulls and those tugs, and some of us will resist it better than others. So this isn’t excusing corruption, but it’s just a fact. But what we actually have to do is have the courage to cut it off and say that we’re going to cut that tug as much as we can to make sure the older people can tug at us, are the people we represent in our district, and that big dark money and that, huge corporate interests can tell us what they think, like everyone else.

 

00;38;19;12 – 00;38;41;25

Maxwell Frost

But don’t have so much power where it outdoes everything else. And that’s the way the system works right now. So that’s why when we talk about things like Citizens United and election reform and getting big money out of politics, all this stuff is so important. There shouldn’t be like, one billionaire who can say, I don’t like you, so I’m going to throw $50 million against you.

 

00;38;41;27 – 00;38;46;23

Maxwell Frost

And 98% of congressional candidates that win their race had the most money, right? Yeah.

 

00;38;46;23 – 00;38;47;26

Dr. Mona

So yeah.

 

00;38;47;29 – 00;39;09;20

Maxwell Frost

Yeah, in a way not to go on my system rant, but the thing that polls the best with Democrats, Republicans, independents alike is that our system has a lot of corruption in it. And we have to have the, you know, the courage to root it out no matter who’s in office. Because what happens is, if you’re if you’re a person in office, you’re like, well, nothing’s corrupt, we’re all good.

 

00;39;09;23 – 00;39;22;09

Maxwell Frost

And then when the other person’s, in office, you’re like, oh, right. Yeah. And we, we will say that there is corruption in both parties. We have to be able to say that there’s big money corporate interests in both parties.

 

00;39;22;11 – 00;39;23;07

Dr. Mona

Absolutely.

 

00;39;23;09 – 00;39;34;29

Maxwell Frost

But at the same time, being real about the fact that there’s one party destroying public health and his own party trying to save it, we can say all these things at the same time. And hopefully do something about it.

 

00;39;35;02 – 00;39;54;18

Dr. Mona

Oh, I resonate with that. You know, the ambition and passion thing I think exists in so many different aspects, not just in politics. I mean, I know clinicians as well, right, that have the ambition, but they have lost the passion or really never had the passion to help. And then that’s when they’re going to fall into more corrupt practices, insurance fraud, things like that, to make the bottom line versus actually helping individuals.

 

00;39;54;18 – 00;40;11;03

Dr. Mona

So what you said is valid across many different, you know, areas, I believe, and I can resonate that being a health care, in the health care world. And it’s sad, you know, we go back to the education system and the health care system and how, you know, a lot of it is corporate America. A lot of it is capitalism.

 

00;40;11;03 – 00;40;28;02

Dr. Mona

But it sounds like politics is obviously very highly influenced by the money you have and capitalism as well. And we see that in health care. And it’s it’s okay to say that, like, I love being a pediatrician. I think I’m a really good pediatrician. I know I have a lot to learn still, even though I’ve been practicing for ten years, that’s the growth mindset that I have.

 

00;40;28;05 – 00;40;50;04

Dr. Mona

I also know the ways it benefits the world to be in a modern health care system. But I also know where there’s pitfalls. Like we mentioned earlier, the low visit times, the lack of reimbursed ment, insurance companies being involved. So to go back to your I think your through line that has really stuck with me is the the desire and okay to ask the why, but still be in the mindset of like what is the evidence?

 

00;40;50;04 – 00;41;14;28

Dr. Mona

What can we actually do to change? But it’s okay to question these things, but what’s not okay is to hurt other people in the process to spread misinformation and to, you know, what has happened a lot besides the pandemic is the division that we’ve seen from our president. And I don’t one of the biggest things I have a problem with, with this administration is the divisiveness that’s being created at public forums.

 

00;41;14;28 – 00;41;33;22

Dr. Mona

Right. We’re talking about I get it, we’re going to be divisive. But I’ve watched debates when I was a young kid between, again, Republicans and Democrats, and there was cordiality in there, even though they didn’t agree on policy. There was like, thanks, Barack, or thanks, John McCain. Right. Thank you so much. And then they would go, now it’s just like name calling and anger.

 

00;41;33;22 – 00;42;00;03

Dr. Mona

And we’ve almost, in this culture of America have made anger an okay feeling to have. And that is just ripping all of us apart. We can’t even have conversations about these policies, right? That on social media or on, you know, you said like you’re like peers in your life, like we should be able to have cordial conversations about the importance of these value systems and why we are voting as we are and listen to facts.

 

00;42;00;03 – 00;42;15;09

Dr. Mona

But people just shut down when they, you know, when it’s not something that they agree with. And that I think has gotten so much worse in the last, you know, 7 or 8 years, especially with Donald Trump and present in the office, you know, he’s made it okay to be angry and he’s made it okay to be a hateful person.

 

00;42;15;09 – 00;42;34;15

Dr. Mona

And that to me, hate and anger has always been a human emotion, but he’s normalized it where it’s okay to be offensive towards people with disabilities. It’s okay to be racist. It’s okay to just say that I don’t like you, and I’m not going to agree with you and that you’re a horrible person. It’s okay to go to the UN and say things that are harmful to other countries.

 

00;42;34;15 – 00;42;57;20

Dr. Mona

And and again, it comes from a very unhealthy place that divides and sort of brings us together. And I think you you sound like that person that wants to bring people together, whether they’re voting red or blue, whatever. And I’m the same way. I want people to be raising healthy kids. I want people to know the facts and know the science, and I don’t want us to argue about things because life is too short and people will die.

 

00;42;57;23 – 00;43;08;00

Dr. Mona

Like if we keep doing this. Now let’s take a quick break to hear from our sponsors who support helps us keep bringing you this show.

 

00;43;08;02 – 00;43;36;28

Maxwell Frost

You know, 100%. I mean, I think Donald Trump’s introduction into national politics has brought out the worst in every everybody, in this country. And it’s, and I can’t wait for that to be hopefully over hard. But, I yeah, what you said at the end is exactly what my politics are about. I mean, when I’m in a rush, I always tell people like, look, my politics are simple.

 

00;43;37;01 – 00;43;59;17

Maxwell Frost

Like, I want you to live your best life. And I believe being in the richest country on the face of the earth, our government can do a better job of making sure that there is a line that we set and we say as a government and as a people that because we are our country’s immense wealth, our country has immense wealth.

 

00;43;59;19 – 00;44;23;01

Maxwell Frost

All such a large economy, we have so many resources, but we have to look at the way we prioritize these things because we can, as a society, come together and say, this is our line, and we’re going to say that no American will get below that line. And what’s below that one? Homelessness, pot, abject poverty, being hungry, not being healthy.

 

00;44;23;04 – 00;44;41;17

Maxwell Frost

And we and it really takes political will for us to come together and say we’re going to step aside. We know that we have that some of the most, though, some of the most wealthy people in this country. And I always like to explain to people, I’m not, I’m not I’m not talking about your billionaires or your hundred millionaires.

 

00;44;41;17 – 00;44;59;11

Maxwell Frost

I’m talking about the 1.1% of people, billionaires and these huge corporations that really profit off of someone like Donald Trump, making us believe that the reason we can’t pay our rent has to do with our neighbor that might be trans or an immigrant, right?

 

00;44;59;17 – 00;45;01;05

Dr. Mona

Right.

 

00;45;01;07 – 00;45;23;27

Maxwell Frost

When we have more in common with other working people who our bank accounts look a lot more similar. Yeah. And a lot of people don’t realize that we are closer. All of us are closer to living on the streets and then being like Elon Musk, right. Having a bank account like and I and I explain to people because they want us looking around at someone to blame instead of looking up.

 

00;45;24;00 – 00;45;45;17

Maxwell Frost

And that’s part of the issue. And it’s not on this. Like, you know, like I guess I am a populist, but it’s not on this like faux fake us versus them mentality to rile you up. And then nothing happens. But it’s like real like we have real system issues in this country that obviously not working for the majority of us, whether you’re Democrat or Republican or whoever.

 

00;45;45;19 – 00;46;13;05

Maxwell Frost

So the question is, how do we fix it? And it’s easier to run on, agenda saying, I don’t like the federal government. We’re going to destroy. It’s easier to destroy something than build something. That’s why very right wing governments, it’s they are oftentimes able to get through stuff quicker, because it’s easier to destroy stuff than it is to try to build a system, a new way for us to take care of, not not just our most vulnerable people, but all of us.

 

00;46;13;05 – 00;46;29;05

Maxwell Frost

And I hear this whole time, people are like, yeah, Republicans take care of the top 10%, Democrats take care of the bottom 10%. And I’m in. I’m like, somewhere in there. And like, I feel like no one’s looking at me. And I grew up like this. I grew up middle class. My mom’s a teacher. My dad’s a musician.

 

00;46;29;07 – 00;46;33;18

Maxwell Frost

Yeah. We grew up in the household where you feel too rich to be poor and too poor to be rich.

 

00;46;33;23 – 00;46;35;12

Dr. Mona

And that was us.

 

00;46;35;14 – 00;46;56;19

Maxwell Frost

Yeah. And. Yeah. Do you need help. But you don’t qualify for anything because you’re not that bad off. But then you don’t have the money to really send your kids to the college. They want to go to and all this. And now you can’t pay for food anymore, right? I talk with my local food banks and they’re like, we’re at over Covid levels.

 

00;46;56;22 – 00;47;18;12

Maxwell Frost

And 20 years ago, the bread line would be people in abject poverty and people who are homeless. And now it’s mom and dad pulling up in the minivan. Pick up the kids from school. They both have good jobs and they can’t pay for anything anymore because we’ve been siphoned from for so long. And it’s getting to it’s at this breaking point, you know, not to use buzzwords and stuff, but I do.

 

00;47;18;13 – 00;47;44;28

Maxwell Frost

I do believe Donald Trump is someone who’s an authoritarian. And people like this, authoritarians do not come to power when everyone’s doing good, right? It just doesn’t happen. It happens when there’s a deep anxiety. That’s why I really try not to belittle people on their vote, even if they voted for it. I’m on this town hall tour, Chris Murphy, Senator Chris Murphy we’re going to red districts and talking to people and I’m saying, no, I’m on, I’m on blue Sky too, and stuff like that.

 

00;47;44;28 – 00;48;02;09

Maxwell Frost

But some of the problems I see on a lot of these very democratic spaces, you hear a lot of like, I told you so, right? I remember, you know, we know a lot of Latinos voted for Trump. We have this, you know, horrible deportation campaign going on. And then I would have people I know even be like, well, they voted for it.

 

00;48;02;11 – 00;48;36;27

Maxwell Frost

Like politics is about addition, not subtraction. And I don’t know, I’m I’m one of these people that think like, we have grace with people and be ruthless towards systems. And and that’s my politics. You know, I, I’m, I’m not going to shame some of her decision they made. I’m more worried about the next decision you make. And I hope that my conversation with you, or my event that I had, will play a part in us coming together around real solutions for this country that fund other big, bold, transformational change for working people.

 

00;48;37;03 – 00;48;59;18

Maxwell Frost

And not just like selling a pipe dream and then destroying the country that that we’re in. So that’s what I’m about. And, and, you know, on the public health part of things, I think we have a lot more learning and education to do on things. I think that there’s just, you know, I watch, I consume a lot of, like, public health content creator stuff.

 

00;48;59;18 – 00;49;28;10

Maxwell Frost

And, you know, I actually watch that, one of these videos where it’s like a bunch of people debating against each other or something. It wasn’t the anti-vaxxers versus someone or something like that. But something I kept hearing a lot of was, you know, people saying, well, I’ve done research or research and this and that, and it’s even explaining to people that, that now you bombing, you probably didn’t do research, but you probably looked up research other people did.

 

00;49;28;12 – 00;50;04;22

Maxwell Frost

Right. And and the reason I think that’s important is not to belittle people. Right. But so people understand and that research and this work is like real, that people have put blood, sweat and tears into to provide you with analysis and information on the research that they did. And it’s there on the internet for us to to look up and even small things like that, I think are important because it puts some perspective, a different level of work that was done to tell us why professionals think this is what we should do.

 

00;50;04;24 – 00;50;23;14

Maxwell Frost

And I think there’s just so much distrust in that, that someone googling something will tell you, oh, I’ve done a lot of research, and they’ll tell that to someone who’s done like actual research. And I think this is part of the issue that we’re in where like it, you know, it’s like cool to be against learning things, right?

 

00;50;23;16 – 00;50;26;05

Maxwell Frost

Right. But I’m, I’m, I’m rambling on now.

 

00;50;26;05 – 00;50;58;24

Dr. Mona

But listen, I love your rambling. And I also just want to thank you because throughout this entire conversation, it was just refreshing to see you as an elected official with the mindset that you have. Right? And also because you’re younger, it’s even more refreshing because I don’t know what your future in politics is. I’m not going to sit here and ask you what your ambitions are in politics, but I hope that you continue to go on continuing to succeed in whatever position you want to run for, because the mindset and the value system that you carry is very refreshing to see.

 

00;50;58;24 – 00;51;18;19

Dr. Mona

And I got a little teary eyed because it’s easy to feel defeated and disillusion and that things are not going to change. So my final question for you is for people who are listening, who maybe feel powerless or disillusioned by the political system, feel like, where are we? What are we doing? How do you get through it as a politician, as a young man in America?

 

00;51;18;23 – 00;51;23;04

Dr. Mona

And what would you say to those listeners today?

 

00;51;23;07 – 00;51;39;29

Maxwell Frost

Honestly, being in community. So I get through it like being with other people. We’ve talked about this earlier, and I always have to go back before I was a politician because like I mentioned, I’ve been involved in politics since I was 15 years old, all on gun violence. So it’s really all I worked on for a long time.

 

00;51;40;01 – 00;51;55;15

Maxwell Frost

For about like a decade. And, that’s a movement. It’s really traumatic. It’s a movement where the time, where in the news is talking about it and people are donating and people are caring is directly connected to more people dying.

 

00;51;55;18 – 00;51;56;01

Dr. Mona

Yeah.

 

00;51;56;01 – 00;52;20;22

Maxwell Frost

And there’s many times throughout my life that I was like, I’m done. I’m going to focus on my music, right? I went to Art school. I’m a musician. So I was like of many times I was like, I think I’m just going to focus in on the music. But then I go to my the event I had scheduled that night, or I’d go to the, you know, hang out with other organizers that I went to, and I would be reminded about the reason I do this work.

 

00;52;20;22 – 00;52;50;00

Maxwell Frost

And it’s it’s not I mean, it is like for the for the outcome that we want, which is a more just, safer world. But the people around you really keep you going because we all go through this. We all go through moments where we feel like all hope is lost. But something that I keep going back to after being in this fight for ten, for about over a little over a decade now, is that I’ve had a lot of moments where I felt like it was over.

 

00;52;50;02 – 00;53;10;20

Maxwell Frost

But now I’m here and I keep telling me, am I telling myself this because it’s going to be the same in five years? When I look back? That’s not to downplay the real threats to our democracy going on and the fact that if we all don’t step up as a society and politicians don’t step up, that we might be in a place where there’s not much left to defend.

 

00;53;10;22 – 00;53;37;11

Maxwell Frost

But. I have faith that we will be successful in being able to push back and get back, get not just get back to where it was, but get back to a better place for people. And that kind of fierce, radical optimism, I think is very necessary, especially living in the United States of America. And, and it is ingrained in what it means to be an American.

 

00;53;37;18 – 00;54;06;27

Maxwell Frost

I just think about all different times, in our country’s history, violence, hatred, bigotry. And I think to the people who were in my position way back then, not just position in Congress, but like person, part of this struggle. And, if they didn’t do what they did, I wouldn’t be here. And, chances are there’s going to be two people having a very similar conversation to what we’re having in 100 years that will say something about us.

 

00;54;07;00 – 00;54;26;20

Maxwell Frost

And for me, it’s not just about like, I want to leave my legacy. I don’t really care like, about that kind of stuff. It’s not really what matters to me. But like the outcome is really important. And I’m just really honored to play a very small part in a really big struggle. And, but being with other people is really what keeps me going.

 

00;54;26;22 – 00;54;47;22

Dr. Mona

I am honored to know you. I’m honored to connect with you. I mean, I hope that you know that you just said something that brings me the joy when I’m feeling defeated, creating content right when I’m watching press conferences and I’m like, oh my God, I take myself out of it. I focus on my mental health and then I create, you know, I my, my life is a life of purpose.

 

00;54;47;24 – 00;55;06;05

Dr. Mona

I find so much joy from helping others. I also take care of myself in the process, which I hope you do as well. Being a helper in this world and trying to make change. But it is nice to when you go back to that community, to the why, to the purpose. And I think, you know, I feel that and I said it already that I’m glad that you’re on my show.

 

00;55;06;05 – 00;55;24;00

Dr. Mona

I’m glad that the world who listens to my show, whether they’re in America or internationally because I have international followers, know that not all hope is lost, that America is not going down the toilet. After Trump’s press conference on Tylenol autism and a lot of the misinformation there, I cried and my husband came home and I was like, this is horrible.

 

00;55;24;06 – 00;55;40;17

Dr. Mona

And he’s like, is it really horrible? And I said, what do you mean? He’s like, Mona. Every generation has dealt with something that they, you know, we talk about in history books, slavery, Civil War, you know, all these things are happening and this is our thing. And he’s like, maybe we’re going to come back stronger. I have no doubt, you know, that we will.

 

00;55;40;17 – 00;55;55;25

Dr. Mona

And I’m like, well, thank you for bringing this positivity today. Because normally you’re a little bit of a pessimist. He’s like, this is hard, but I know we’re going to we’re going to get through it. And he’s like, you also now have content to talk about. And I’m like, you’re right. I mean he’s like, use your platform to share the advocacy.

 

00;55;55;25 – 00;56;07;05

Dr. Mona

Like you are right. You have your social media. Thank you for coming on on your very busy day. To talk to me, because now we’re going to spread this information. People are going to share it. And I just want to thank you for your time.

 

00;56;07;07 – 00;56;09;06

Maxwell Frost

Yeah. Thank you so much for having me on.

 

00;56;09;09 – 00;56;12;26

Dr. Mona

And where can people go to stay connected? Your social media handles, website, all of that.

 

00;56;13;02 – 00;56;21;01

Maxwell Frost

Yeah. People can go to at Maxwell Frost FL. I also have an official account which is at Rep Maxwell Frost.

 

00;56;21;04 – 00;56;40;08

Dr. Mona

Wonderful. I will be adding all of that to the show notes. Everybody, please make sure you follow just to get motivated. If you’re feeling disillusioned, you feel like what’s going to happen, just follow. Even if, doctor, even if, Maxwell Frost is not representing your district, it’s important to know that these changemakers exist. And if you like this episode, share it.

 

00;56;40;08 – 00;56;51;14

Dr. Mona

Subscribe. Make sure more people hear it. And that’s how we can change this country and change the world. Thanks for tuning in. And again, thanks. Thank you so much, Maxwell, for joining me today.

 

00;56;51;16 – 00;57;11;10

Dr. Mona

Thank you for listening to the conversation. I told you that it would be impactful and that if you were feeling defeated, you would leave feeling empowered. I know it’s different from my usual episodes, but it’s also exactly what’s needed. Parenting doesn’t exist in a bubble. Our kids grow up in the systems we create, and those systems are shaped by political decisions.

 

00;57;11;10 – 00;57;33;09

Dr. Mona

And my absolute favorite quote from the entire conversation was have grace with people, but be ruthless towards the system. And that is exactly what this is all about. I think about that in healthcare. I think about that in the education system and in society. We tend to get so angry with each other when in reality we should want the system that serves us to be better for us.

 

00;57;33;14 – 00;57;55;00

Dr. Mona

And if this episode spoke to which I’m pretty sure did, please subscribe, download and share. This is how the show continues to grow and how we can spread this amazing conversation. Follow REP, Maxwell Frost and PedsDocTalk and the PedsDocTalk podcast on Instagram. Send this episode to a friend, bring it to your community and let’s keep this conversation alive because change spreads when we push it forward together.

 

00;57;55;03 – 00;58;19;04

Dr. Mona

I’ll be honest. Attending the Impact Summit celebrating South Asian changemakers lit a fire under me to use this platform more boldly. Other podcasters do it as I said, and so should I. And after this conversation, I’ll say this without hesitation. If Congressman Maxwell Frost keeps advancing in his political career with this mindset, with passion and ambition, I truly believe he could be one of the biggest change makers of our time.

 

00;58;19;07 – 00;58;36;17

Dr. Mona

He brings conviction, community and compassion into spaces that desperately need it. Hope isn’t lost, but hope requires action from me, from you, from all of us. So until next time, I’m Doctor Mona. Stay well, stay informed, and let’s keep fighting for the future we want. And that our kids deserve.