#230: The Palestinian-American representing Appalachian Georgia, Rep. Ruwa Romman

Chuck (0:02)

Mornings are hard, especially these days. Often we are waking up to yet another chink in life's impenetrably armored succession of days, doomed to repeat this loop for the next 30-40 years as we pray Social Security remains solvent. Or perhaps you're waking up with the existential dread of imagining JD Vance as Vice President, which is sadly a real possibility. While I can't promise you our partner will resolve all those problems, they'll certainly make them more tolerable. Red Rooster Coffee, our friends based out of Floyd, Virginia and the beautiful gorgeous Southwest Virginia. The good people at Red Rooster Coffee make some of the best coffee that I've ever had. And look, number one, as you know, I'm not a big coffee guy. Number two, my brother-in-law owns his own coffee roasting business. So this is akin to treason in a familial sense for me. That's how much I love Red Rooster Coffee.

My recommendation is the Funky Chicken. It's a medium roast crowd pleaser, 10 out of 10 I'm a big fan. But the more important part to Red Rooster is that they're doing all this very above board and in a very respectful way. All their coffee is sourced sustainably and responsibly they strive to operate sustainably in their daily operations by offering biodegradable coffee bags, having all their bags hand printed locally using water-based ink, composting with local organic farms and minimizing their footprint by recycling and reusing within their own facilities. They're a family business and they've always strived to do their part to help create a vibrant local community. So they hire local, they provide a living wage, full health care benefits to their employees and contribute to local charities, participate in local fundraisers. And in 2018, they license an on-site daycare specifically for their employees' children. What other coffee company do you know that's doing this? I don't know any and I know a lot. So here's what you can do. You can go on to their website, redroostercoffee.com. You find what you want. They got a lot of good stuff. And then you go to checkout. You put in the code DOLLY, D-O-L-L-Y, at checkout, named after the great St. Dali Parton, to get free shipping on your order. Free shipping on coffee. That's a big deal. It's a pretty big deal. So check them out. Support them. And by supporting them, you can also support this show. And also just get some great coffee from a wonderful Appalachian business that is objectively doing good things for their community.

Ruwa Romman (2:30)

The Coalition for Palestine and Palestinians is the base of the Democratic Party. Unions, progressive organizations, even some reproductive organizations. Yes, it's a single issue, but it represents so much more than that.

Chuck (2:45)

All right, we are so back. We've got a great episode today. Really excited to get into it. I'm not messing around here. We're gonna jump right into things, but actually, first, let's do a quick plug. Patreon. We are having our live hangout this Thursday, September 26th at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time or Daylight. I don't know which one it is right now. Pending that my power and internet and home are not flooded and destroyed by the massive hurricane that is heading directly my way. So we shall see. But you can go on Patreon, join for as little as $5 a month, and come hang out with us. And we're good time, I hear.

John (3:26)

Yeah, I hope you don't rain on our parade there, Chuck.

Chuck (3:29)

That's part of your new stand up set, I'm sure you're going to be selling out the improv soon.

John (3:33)

I just know that our Patreon is flooded with enthusiasm. It's like a hurricane of emotions over there.

Chuck (3:42)

The damn has broken on these jokes, I mean.

John (3:44)

But yeah, patreon.com/appodlachia. Make sure that you get signed up. And Chuck always posts a thing where that you can comment and he'll invite you to it so that we make sure that only Patreon members are the people who get to swing on by.

Chuck (3:58)

Yeah, we'll see you there, so check it out. We have a good time. We always have a good time. In fact, let me put in a big plug for this. So the last time we did a hangout, one of our members who works at a zoo in California, live streamed from her job and we got to see her hangout with baby otters.

John (4:13)

Let's see otters, which I am dumb enough to not know the difference between otters and pretty much everything else. So it was cool to learn what an otter really is. Because I wouldn't have been able to pick them out of a fucking lineup.