1. How old are you and what state do you live in?

I am 50 years old and live in Illinois. I just moved here last November from Ann Arbor, MI.

2. When did you become a member of TYT?

Wow. I was hoping you’d tell me. I used to listen the Cenk and Ben and Jill on Air America. I became a paying member back in the early days of the web site. I guess it might be as long as 10 years, maybe. Hoky smokes!

3. How do you consume the show?

Web browser if I’m working at my desk at home. Podcast if I’m portable. iPad or iPhone. I used to burn it to CDs to take in the car on the way to work in the old days.

4. What field do you work in?

I’m a software engineer, and write medical software.

5. How would you describe TYT in 5 words or less?

Real.

6. Do you have a favorite TYT moment?

Anytime anyone drops an elbow from the sky. (The simultaneous Ana/Cenk drop the other day was awesome.)

7. Who is your favorite co-host? Why?

I’m going to assume Ana is not a co-host, since she anchors the second hour. So, with the smart and beautiful Ms. Kasparian out of the running, I’d have to say hands down it’s Ben. He is very smart, with an ability to step back and cut through the emotional rhetoric surrounding a topic and ground it with facts and perspective. Keeping it real. At the same time, he can be funny.

8. What motivated you to take the extra step of becoming a paying member?

I was listening so much to the show, and enjoying it so much, it just became necessary.

9. Are surprised that the The Young Turks has grown into a multiplatform network of multiple channels?

No.

10. Cenk often talks about the TYT brand as “truth telling.” What does this mean to you as a member?

I’ll be honest, I don’t hear the phrase “truth telling”. Is this an internal catch phrase? I hear him say “keeping it real.”

It means being honest about yourself, and your opinions, regardless of the consequences, with compassion and understanding, and the ability to admit you’re wrong.

11. Which TYT host would you get coffee with? Which one would you go to the bar with? Who would you have dinner with?

Coffee: Cenk – I’d like to talk business with him. I bet it’d be a blast.

Bar: Ana – If she is a fun drunk like she says… so am I.

Dinner: Ben – I’d like to pick his brains about growing up with his dad. What was that like…?

12. If you were a co-host on the show, which story would you cover? Why?

Liberia and the ebola epidemic. I have a fairly broad medical knowledge from my job, and I’ve also been volunteering my engineering skills on a project for educating rural Liberians about sustainable agricultural practices. The whole thing got derailed, and my friend June, who was coordinating the project, was evacuated in the middle of the epidemic. She is currently marshaling what resources she has to lobby and fundraise and whatever else she can do to address the urgent needs for infrastructural basics… like seeds, so there will crops and food for people next year. The epidemic has blasted that country’s fragile economy off its moorings, and this is going to get bad. Real bad. June’s been doing 3rd world development for decades, and would make for a killer interview. She once told me “Poverty is big business” and explained why. It was an eye-opener. This is a person who is boots-on-the-ground trying to address the problems of the third world. She’s awesome. Too much material there for one lonely story.

13. Have you ever communicated with other TYT fans? If so, how?

Yep. During the “Enough” protests, I got together with another TYT-er and protested the Iraq war, and other things, for several months.

14. Has the show convinced you to change your position on a particular issue?

Sometimes. When I do disagree with the show’s position, it’s usually because you guys are oversimplifying an issue, and I’m not about to be swayed. There are a few things, but nothing comes to mind right away. Generally, I am a progressive, so a lot of what I hear is similar to my own positions.

15. Have you ever referred membership to anyone? If so, what did you say?

I once bought a state Republican strategist a trial membership. He made the mistake of trying to out-talk me about political issues at a party. Thanks to TYT I was so well-informed… he definitely showed up with a knife to that gun fight. Afterwards, he asked me how I knew so much… so I bought him the subscription. I doubt he ever listened to it. I was kind of amazed at how someone so deep in the political trenches could be so ignorant.

I’ve mentioned TYT to a few of my friends, but they never got addicted like I have. I’m also one of the most political of all my friends, which I didn’t used to be. I used to think that there wasn’t much difference between the right and the left. And then the Iraq war happened, and people died. Lost of people. And I realized that there was a difference and I couldn’t be quiet about politics after that. TYT was rising at the time, and became one of the tools I use to stay current. I do a lot of reading, and keep my finger on what’s going on locally, state-wise, nationally, and globally. I’m lucky. I’m an upper-middle-class white guy who has never been discriminated against or lived under the threat of violence. People shouldn’t have to live that way. And because I don’t have to, and I have the means, I think it’s kind of my duty to step up and represent what’s going on when I can, and when it makes sense.

I remember, vividly, during the run-up to the Iraq war, sitting and getting my haircut in a nice salon. A lady two chairs over from me was going on about how Saddam Hussein had nuclear missiles and was going to bomb America if we didn’t do something. I remember thinking “That’s stupid. He doesn’t have nukes. He doesn’t have ICBMs. There’s no threat at all.”

I also remember not saying anything.

Now you don’t want to come down on someone like a steamroller in the middle of them getting their hair styled and tell them they’re an idiot. But I sure as hell could have gently said “That’s not true.” and explained why. And I didn’t, and I think that there were more than a few of us sitting on the sidelines watching the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Media juggernaut pounding those war drums. If a couple thousand people like me had spoken up, maybe we’d have turned that battleship a few degrees away from stupid. I don’t know.

From that point on, I decided not to keep my mouth shut. Like I said, I don’t want to be a dick, but I also can’t let lies slip idly by, even in casual settings.

That’s why I listen to TYT. You guys keep it real, and it reminds me that I need to keep it real, too.

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