A Minnesota farmer and a college student walk a mile in each other’s news
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At first blush, Addie Raum and Lauren Biegler couldn’t be more different.
Raum is a 20-year-old junior at St. Olaf College. She considers herself conservative and is a frequent contributor on Minnesota Now’s State of Democra-Z program.
Biegler is a 45-year-old corn and soybean farmer in southwestern Minnesota. She’s a moderate Democrat.
The two women met for the first time on Zoom as part of MPR News’ Walk a Mile in My News project, which encourages people of opposing political beliefs to swap news sources. The goal is to see what they learn and whether they can find common ground.
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For Biegler and Raum, common bonds appeared just a few minutes into a get-to-know-you conversation, as Biegler told Raum about her three kids.
“It’s not a big deal, but it is, that our oldest daughter, our 16-year-old, has Down syndrome,” she said.
Raum interjected that her own aunt has Down syndrome. And Raum volunteers for the Special Olympics.
“I do the bowling,” she said. “And my partner, Tanya, she’s 50, she has Down syndrome, and we just have so much fun.”
“That makes me want to cry,” Biegler said. “I’m not going to cry!”
That was just the first thing these two shared. They’re also both political outsiders in their communities.
“We’ve created a college environment where, like, if someone disagrees with you, you can report them for bias,” said Raum. “Or people should be scared to disagree with you because they might be racist, and that’s often what I feel in class.”
Raum said she dropped a class this semester because she felt unwelcome to freely express her opinions. And she has felt stigmatized for her political activities.
“Last year, I was manning the College Republicans table at our activity fair,” she said. “These girls on my soccer team walked by me and kind of glared at me. There’s just this highly, highly political environment that takes up every aspect of your life.”
Biegler said she shares that feeling of isolation, being a Democrat in an area where there’s strong support for former President Donald Trump.
“I see second graders running around with Trump yard signs and, like, yelling things at people,” she said. “My drive to and from school, I probably see 25 Trump yard signs. That’s how red it is. So I don’t know if anybody would have been brave enough to carry a Harris sign.”
Biegler said the way politics feels “in your face” all the time makes her recoil.
“I find myself wanting to do what I need to do, and unengaging from people socially,” she said.
The connection Biegler and Raum felt before they even swapped news sources seemed to come as a surprise — and relief —to both of them.
“I feel like we could have a good conversation about anything,” said Biegler. “I want you to be my daughter. I think you’re sweet.”
“I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, can I get your number?” Raum said. “Can we get coffee?’”
Going into the exchange of news sources, though, neither knew what to expect.
Raum chose two pieces from the Free Press, a media outlet that's associated with conservative ideas, about former President Donald Trump’s appeal to the working class and a second about drug policy.
Meanwhile, Biegler chose a podcast from American historian Heather Cox Richardson, who describes herself as not politically affiliated. She also shared an Associated Press article about how some conservative Christians are warming to mail-in voting — a process often criticized by Trump and his allies.
Then, they meet over Zoom again to discuss. “This was harder than I thought it would be,” Biegler said.
Raum’s podcast choices throw Biegler off. She said she had to stop to think about what she considered “news,” acknowledging she tended to get her news from traditional, major media outlets.
“Maybe it’s my age coming through,” Biegler said. “It was interesting to me what you shared. I’m like, ‘I would call this like an opinion piece.’ So it may be like, really step back and reevaluate. Like, what is news, what is actually news to me?”
Biegler said the pundits featured in the podcasts were too emotional. And when news gets too emotional, it strikes her as advocacy.
But Raum countered that all news is opinion.
“Depending on how the New York Times writes the headline, it’s pushing a different sort of bias,” she argued. “And so that’s kind of reframed the way I think about news, too. I’m not like a media conspiracist by any means, but we really can’t trust what is being given to us and it’s all like being twisted in some way."
Biegler and Raum circled around to agreeing that media and politicians that promote fear-mongering aren’t great for democracy.
“That fear-mongering culture … makes this whole election more contentious than it needs to be,” said Raum. “I also think politicians … they benefit from the fear-mongering. They’re not going to tell us to stop.”
“You’re saying everything I’m thinking,” Biegler said. “They promise they’re going to be everybody’s savior.”
Biegler said that as the election approaches, she’s felt sad that so many people have lost sight of what they have in common. But talking to Raum about the news has been a bright spot because it’s reminded her that common ground isn't so hard to find.
“This has been more fun than I ever actually envisioned that it was going to be,” Biegler told Raum. “It’s been good for me personally. And even though we didn’t share a ton of resources back and forth, just the idea of seeking out information somewhere else was really good for me.”
“I’ve earned so much, and I feel like I understand people’s perspectives much better after learning about yours and the area that you live in,” Raum said. “I’ve had an absolutely lovely time.”