Nothing Left Unsaid on Mayes Slays, GOP Flops, and Reality TV

This week, we’re talking all things pop culture and politics. I share my latest coffee spot find, reality TV as a guilty pleasure, major AZ GOP flops, and more. From trash TV, to trash budget proposals—you won’t want to miss this.

Transcript

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Hey everyone, it's your host Abigail, and I'm so excited to be back for another episode of Nothing Left Unsaid. Today we're going to be breaking down all things pop culture and politics happening in Arizona. Recently I've been trying to branch out of my usual go-to coffee shops, and I tried a new place a few weeks ago. I went to Le Moon Cafe in Tempe. It's Palestinian-owned. They have delicious drinks. Everything I tried there was super good, and the decor and just the overall vibe in there is really beautiful. Highly recommend to go there and study or get some work done, but just beware it might be a little busy, especially while ASU students are still on campus. Another exciting update happening in Arizona is that the Phoenix Mercury season is starting very shortly. Just a few months ago, it was not even clear that we were going to get a WNBA season as the WNBA union was fighting hard to win a better collective bargaining agreement for players. Thankfully, they won. And with this new agreement, the average salary for players will be up around $600,000, which is up from $120,000 in 2025. And the minimum salary will be $300,000, which is up from $66,000 in 2025. This is super exciting. We're super excited to be getting a season and that the players will have better pay and working conditions and that they fought for to be paid for what they're worth. Let us know in the comments who are you rooting for on the Mercury this season. I haven't been going to the movies too much in the last few months, but one movie that I am super excited about and I will definitely be sat in the theater for is The Devil Wears Prada 2. The first movie is obviously so iconic, so I'm really excited that they're bringing it back for a sequel. Let me know if you've seen the film and what you think. I have a small confession, I've been on a bit of a reality TV kick recently. Reality TV has never really been my genre, but lately I've been absolutely sucked into the secret lives of Mormon wives, and through that I've been watching Vanderpump Villa. Honestly, it's been a good little brain rot for me given just how crazy everything is. But um a show that I've been thinking a lot about that I watched is Age of Attraction. Um, this is the the age gap show, and I just have to say I think it's such an interesting coincidence that they dropped this in the era of the Epstein files. Like they are really working over time to normalize that age doesn't matter. Um, but I guess it's a good thing that they didn't set the show on an island because the comparisons would be too obvious and the allegations would not be beat. On that note, we have a new interview from President Trump swearing that he isn't pedophile and that he didn't rape anybody. Uh it's an extremely incriminating interview. He gave this interview following the attempted shooting at the White House Correspondence Dinner. Um, and it was literally just the most incriminating interview, like the least believable denials you could ever see. He clearly he needs a shirt that says, I'm not a rapist, but if you're at the point where you have to vehemently deny that you are a rapist and a pedophile constantly, then maybe you should look at your life choices. But clearly, the American people already know that the president is a rapist and a predator. There's plenty of legal cases and settlements to prove it. We still need justice for the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, and all of the abusers that are in those files need to be held accountable. Now, on the subject of the Trump White House correspondence dinner shooting attempt, um, this will probably be old news by the time this episode is out, but I have to say, I love that the president is such a liar that whether or not this was staged is just a completely normalized possibility. Like it's not a scandal at all. Um, my other favorite part about this incident um is when our government decides to come together to collectively condemn political violence as if we are not the number one funder of genocide and exporter of political violence across the world. Okay, moving on from Trump. Um, one big thing that we have to discuss in Arizona politics is the budget. Uh the Arizona legislature has literally one job every year, and that is to pass a budget that funds the programs that Arizonans rely on. Um, this year, Republicans have kept Arizonans in the dark for months, keeping their proposal a secret up until just recently. Um but unsurprisingly, the budget, their budget, is just a huge tax giveaway for corporations and billionaires, and it's a slap in the face to Arizonians and working families. It attacks programs like food assistance and health care as Arizonans are already struggling to make ends meet. It extends a tax cut for data centers, which we absolutely don't need here in the desert, um, and it attacks and takes funding away from higher education. They refuse to fund Prop 123, which voters passed uh several years ago to address gaps in education funding. And there's a bunch of other stuff in the in the budget that just makes it clear how out of touch they are with Arizonans and how much they just do not give a shit. Their proposal is definitely looking like a non-starter for Democrats and Governor Hobbs, who are fighting to fill the gaps left by funding cuts to healthcare and to protect funding for education. So more to come on that budget negotiation as they hash it out at the Capitol. Finally, on the subject of healthcare cuts in Arizona, we have five rural hospitals at risk of closure in Arizona as a result of cuts from Trump's one big beautiful bill act. Um, as a reminder, Andy Biggs and David Schweikert, they're two of Arizona's Congresspeople. They voted yes for this bill. They are both running for governor. Are these the types of people that we really want running our state? I'll let you decide. As Trump continues to hurdle us towards thousands of deaths in Iran and destruction of the global economy, gas prices continue to stay high. Uh, reports show that they rose the highest in Arizona and they are the sixth priciest in the nation. Um, we've got Trump and Hegeth firing everyone who would push back on their completely maniacal plans in Iran. Um, and we've got Iran subtweeting Trump. This would all be kind of funny if it weren't for the fact that while Americans here are paying for this war at the gas pump, uh, Iranians in Iran are paying for this war with their lives. Senator Warren Peterson is wasting no time wanting to Jim Crow up Arizona, following the Supreme Court getting a key vision of the Voting Rights Act. He wants to redraw the maps to attack black and brown political power in Arizona. This is completely unacceptable. This is really no surprise from Peterson, who's running for Arizona Attorney General. Arizona has long been the ground zero for attacks on our voting rights. This comes after another horrific decision by the Supreme Court, which recently ruled that it is okay to traumatize kids in conversion therapy. To be extremely clear, conversion therapy is child abuse. I also want to talk about one thing I've been saying a lot about on the internet. We've talked about it a little bit before on the pod, but influencers are peddling disinformation about birth control. They're selling it under the packaging of self-care and nurturing femininity. But here's the thing doctors are legally required to provide you with evidence-based information. Influencers, this is gonna shock you. They're not. Every medication has side effects. The health risks of pregnancy are way more significant than the health risks of birth control. And natural family planning methods, which these influencers are peddling, they require a lot of accuracy and diligence, and they fail 20%, 25% of the time yearly. This is all part of a greater political plan to take away women's ability to control their lives. And at the end of the day, it is not about whether you choose to be on the pill, on an IUD, on other forms of hormonal birth control or not. That decision is completely up to you. It's about you having the ability to make informed decisions based on evidence. And this is not what influencers are required to give you. Seeing all this disinformation about birth control pedaled online and reshared by people I know is super concerning. Okay, and finally we'll close our episode out with a little bit of good news. We've got Attorney General Chris Mays once again suing. This time she's suing to stop the ICE detention facility in surprise. This is a huge win. It is thanks to community organizing, and we have to keep pushing. We know that folks are dying. We know that they're being refused medical treatment. We know that we cannot allow the construction of further concentration camps to continue in our state. And finally, a little call to action for you. We have the Protect and Ed ballot initiative ongoing right now. Um, advocates for education are collecting signatures to put guardrails on Arizona's voucher program, which is currently costing taxpayers a billion dollars, which is coming out of public education funding. Um, this program initially started to help families of children with special needs, and it is since then ballooned and expanded to be available to everyone, including families who are already able to afford private schools. These funds are being shown to be spent on ridiculous things like Disneyland trips, uh luxury vacations, grand pianos, even lingerie. Um, this is completely unacceptable. So if you are able to get involved, get more information at protectedaz.com. As always, be sure to like, comment, share, subscribe to the podcast. It helps us reach new viewers. And thanks so much for joining us today.