the forward party. andrew yang

has a new title this week. political fiction author. thanks for joining us for getting answers today. i'm kristen sze. indeed andrew yang is becoming a familiar figure in the bay area. just last month he was here attending the premiere of the movie love in taipei. this week he has a new book out. it's a political thriller called the last election. when he's not in town right now, but joining us live to talk about his latest book and presidential politics, andrew yang. good to see you, andrew. >> good to see you, too, kristin. thanks for having me. >> absolutely. okay. so i just checked because i'm like that, but this is number one right now. new release in political thriller on amazon. did you know this? >> i did. thank you to everyone who has picked up a copy. it's based on my experiences running for president. i thought i could give people an inside look and also scare people a little bit. entertain and scare because what's coming around the pike in our presidential politics may not look the way we want it to.

>> yeah, i mean, i'm entertaining and i'm scared and i'm like halfway through. i'm a slow reader. okay but before we talk more about the book and the inspirations and your experiences, let's talk a little bit about the 2024 election. so a new ipsos reuters poll shows president biden and former president trump tied right now at 39% in a hypothetical matchup right there. also tied in another regard, only 40% of the electorate has favorable views of each of them. take a look at this. andrew, what do you make of that? >> well, it's something that we all can sense, kristen. there are two thirds of americans who are not excited about a biden trump rematch. and yet we can all see that that's probably what we're going to be presented with. there'll be a combined 160 years old in 2024. it's not a high functioning process. i'm someone who thinks trump would be a catastrophe, but unfortunately, i think right now you can see that trump has a real chance to win again in

2024. >> so if you had your way, what would you advise the democratic party do i think that joe biden should step aside and make way for a new generation of leaders or have a real primary with debates and competition and say, i'm willing to debate all comers and then if he wins, as everyone would feel better about his energy and the fact that people had a say, those are two possibilities. >> another possibility is having a competitive primary for who his successor should be at vice president, because we all can know that if he's 82 at the beginning of a potential second term, it might be that the vice president takes over at some point in the next four years. >> all right. interesting concepts we should mention to our viewers. most know, but you ran as a democrat, though. definitely an outsider. but now you're an independent and you've written this book. okay. so the last election, let's talk about it. right? you've written books before, but this is your first nonfiction or i should say

fiction. first fiction, right. what inspired you to co-write this? >> now, what's interesting, kristen, is when i was running for president and people would tell me all the time to use my biography because folks get attached to stories more than anything else. and so thought that if i could tell a compelling story about how this next election could play out about the inner workings of a presidential campaign, maybe i could convey certain concerns i have in a way that people would actually listen to or in this case, read and find it compelling, entertaining, engrossing, and learn a little something about how our system is not designed to succeed. and so that's what motivated me. and i have to say i enjoyed it more than i thought i would. nonfiction is a bit easier for me, but i did have a writing partner on this one and that made it flow a lot more naturally. >> yeah, no, you know, i think i accidentally said nonfiction

because parts of it feels so real and i don't think i'm giving anything away because it's on the jacket. but the reason it's called the last election is that the system is broken in ways that a military coup carried out by the joint chiefs, you know, is afoot. and i guess people are just wondering, is that the stuff of fantastical thrillers? right or do you think 2024 could be america's last election? >> i think 2024 is something we should be very, very concerned about. i just said that trump has a chance to win again for a second time, and i think trump would be a disaster. he's already talked about how his main agenda would be revenge, what's left of american institutional integrity could very much slip away from us. and you have to ask yourself, how are we in this situation? in my view, again, the democrats s o the country the best possible candidate to take on and defeat a donald trump type challenger

and a lot of democrats and americans are not clear on whether joe biden is the strongest possible candidate that could be fielded. >> yeah, there's a passage about discontent and disillusionment as well. it says each generation is poorer than the one before it. nature is more withered and torn every year, chaos gains every year along the fronts of order. the old solutions no longer work. so i paused there, right, and really thought about that possible government shutdown in 11 days. if they don't get their act together on spending. and of course, there's the trump and hunter biden indictment. it's in the background there. there's so much gloominess. so how do we begin to tackle that? >> you know, kristen, we're capable of much, much better than this. in a country of 330 million people. are we really going to say that these two individuals are the best possible choices? so we need systems that actually will respond to us that reflect modern reality and practice.

there is so much potential for us to make real headway solving these problems. but right now, our government does not need to solve those problems for our folks in office to continue to in those roles in san francisco . so there are a lot of people frustrated with various things. and you look up and say, are our leaders accountable to us? that's what we should be changing. and if we accomplish that, then maybe we'd feel better about our shared future and our kids futures. >> but it's not just as simple as the election reform or the two parties and what they could do right, because some of the things you talk about in the book, you know, whether it's the main characters or maybe journalistic practices, how stories are chosen, fund raising, opposition research. dang, i was thinking that's just , you know, if those things are true too. i mean, i mean, i assume that's what you saw during your presidential run, right? how do we fix those? >> it's accurate, kristen and if it made you feel more concerned about the system, those concerns are well founded and legitimate

. that's why i wrote this book. i still believe there are ways out of this. i mean, i'm the child of immigrants. i think you are, too. there is so much potential in this country for us to have a better future. we just need to up grade our systems to give ourselves the best chance. >> by the way, i'm looking at one of the stop that you made in san francisco when you were running and you had those math buttons. so i have to ask you, is the tech billionaire third party candidate, cooper sherman, whose slogan is do the math is that you? well you write what you know. >> and so there's certainly a lot of me in there and there's some easter eggs. >> the billionaire part and people the billionaire part is not true, as my wife will tell you. >> but no, we wanted to make it as real as possible. and we incorporated a lot of my experiences from the trail. so if you were yang, i think you'll enjoy the book as a bit of a trip down memory lane. >> okay, but not the un expletive america slogan. i don't think i remember hearing

that one or covering that one at all. >> i think i might have said that in, you know, in a podcast interview possibly, possibly to your handler's chagrin, no doubt . >> but i want to ask you, look, you co-founded added the forward party, which advocates for ranked choice voting and will support candidates of any party who supports that type of election reform. right. you were saying you guys weren't going to run candidates of your own. but now we're hearing, though, that you are having talks with the no labels party, sometimes viewed as the centrist party. right. but other people who say they're just going to ensure a republican win by siphoning votes away from democrats. i'm just wondering, what's your what are you talking about? i mean, do those discussions include you running for president again? maybe under their banner? >> i wouldn't do anything that i thought would increase the chances of trump winning again. i think he's a disaster in waiting. so what forward party is doing is trying to create real choices in local races around the country. we have 36 mayors and commissioners and

district attorneys who've already enlisted. we think we'll be up to the hundreds in the next number of weeks. and there are a lot of people in california who are super excited about it. if you go to forward party.com and just click on your state, you can get in touch with the teams and volunteers. we're already the third biggest party in the country by resources, though i'll admit there's a very big drop off between number two and number three. but hey, you know, we're number three with a big up arrow attached to us. we're focused on making changes on the ground. we're not looking at the presidential because i think if we got involved, particularly if i got involved, we'd be more likely be to cause something we didn't want to happen than to do good for people. >> but that is what no labels intends to do if they don't like the two nominees of the two parties, they will run a presidential candidate. and is that something you're talking with them? possibly about? >> oh, we have a lot of folks in common, kristen. but what i've said to anyone who has asked is , look, i personally am not going to do anything that would increase the chances of trump

winning. >> all right. andrew yang, former presidential candidate, co-founder of the forward party and now fixing author, the last election. the book is out this week. thank you so much. nice talking with you. >> thanks, kristen. have a great weekend. you too. >> imagine buying a home that doesn't exist. that's exactly what's happening to some people. the california association of realtors joins us next to arm us with information about new real estate scams

joining us live now to give us

the details. gov. hutchinson assistant general counsel of the california association of realtors. hi gov. thanks for your time. hi >> great to be here. how are you doing? i'm good. >> i'm good. thanks for joining us because i really hope you can explain to our viewers what the vacant land scam is. >> yes. and we've been seeing a lot of this recently. the idea is the scammers will look for look through the property records. they're looking for properties that are vacant, like a vacant lot or maybe a property that was just transferred, touring an estate. and it's not occupied and they're looking for properties that don't have any liens against them. so they're no lenders involved. and then they email a real estate agent or text them and say, hey, i'm traveling, i'm out of town, but i'm in or i got to sell this vacant lot. could you help me sell this real quickly? and they you know, the warning signs, are they they don't want to talk on the phone. they just want to they don't want to meet in person. they're traveling.

they're unavailable. we don't need a for sale sign. just advertise, buys the property and as far as the price to advertise it. yeah, advertise it for less than it's worth because i'm really in a hurry. i want to do a quick sale. and of course they're. they're going to take care of the signatures. they're going to use a remote notary and they'll take care of the title issues and all you have to do is just, you know, get the get the contract signed by the buyer electronically and we'll take care of everything else when actually, of course, this person is not a they don't own the property. they're not the real seller. and of course, ultimately they're going to have ask for the money to be wired to them. some somewhere not to the real seller, not to the real title company. so they've always been scams in real estate. but this is really, really been happening a lot recently. the idea is since it's vacant, there are no nosy neighbors around who can see what's going on and

there's no liens on it, so there's no lender that has to get paid off and they just want a quick sale. and some people are tempted because it seems almost too good to be true and of course, it is too good to be true because they're not the real owner and the money is not going to go to the real owner. the real owner doesn't even know what's going on. and they're not going to get a legitimate deed. so the buyer is just going to be out all that money. >> so does this only affect real estate agents or also just individual buyers? >> so great question. i work for the realtors. i'm the attorney for one of the attorneys for the realtors. so we, of course, hear about it when they contact realtors directly. but but yeah, people will advertise properties. you know, there's some buyers out there don't have real estate agents. they're just looking for a good deal online and they'll see the advertisement. so there doesn't even really have to be a real estate agent involved. this can this can cause problems with any buyer, whether they have a realtor, represent or not. yeah.

>> now, are elderly and foreign property owners most vulnerable or targeted? >> i think so. i think so. just as a just as a fail safe. i mean , the way to prevent this, if you have any suspicions, you really try to contact the actual seller. i mean, most people are findable now on social media. so you're trying to look for the real seller and get a phone number or a or a photo id or something. but if conveniently, the seller, the real seller is also happens to be abroad or they're foreign and maybe you don't speak english, that'll make it harder for the for the person trying to find out if it is a scam to actually determine an if it's a scam. so yes, i asked you that question because it's extra relevant here in the bay area. >> as you know, there are a lot of properties here that are held by foreign owners or people who live abroad. half the year or something like that. right? so what are some of the verification steps you gave us? the red flags, right. what are

some of the verification steps that people can take? >> yeah, the key thing i think the first thing you do is you check the preliminary title report out because sometimes these scammers don't even go to the trouble of impersonating the real seller. so they don't even use that name. but if they do, then the next step is you do is you research the real seller or as i said on social media, most people you can find them or a phone number or a picture and you can actually engage third party identity verification companies whose job is to verify people's identity. and then you demand some type of in-person meeting. i mean, in this day and age, i don't care where you are, you can meet on facetime, you can do a zoom and ask for a government issued id with a picture on it. you want to see a good idea? >> god, we're almost out of time. but real quickly, i want to ask you, what should somebody do if they think they've been victimized? any recourse? >> yeah. i mean, obviously, hopefully they figure this out before they sent all the money. um, otherwise, you know, you call the fbi is probably the

first step. local law enforcement is good. but the fbi is all after this. and my final point to make is in any real estate transaction, don't don't electronically wire from wire funds unless you have verified with some type of phone call to someone you know that the instructions you got to send the money were legitimate. >> all right. great advice. gov hutchinson, assistant general counsel of the california association of realtors, is talking about the vacant land scam. thank you so much. >> my pleasure. thank you. >> art is more than creative expression. it can also be healing. ahead, we'll talk with a woman who's made it her life mission to help children using art, especially kids who are fighting cancer find out how art can also help improve our

new research out on the benefits of engaging in art, especially if you're battling emotional or physical pain. this sunday, a family friendly event called art heals day is taking place in

redwood city and you're invited. joining us live now to talk about it and the new science on art is the founder of the bay area nonprofit kids and art purvi shah. hey, ravi, nice to see you. >> hi, kristin. >> you're nonprofit, tries to support pediatric cancer patients and their families by providing art workshops and activities. you are co-hosting an event in redwood city this sunday. tell us about it. who should attend and what can they expect there? >> it's the let's rephrase it. the event is called art heals day. it's for everyone.ur goal is to bring community together and tell them that when people get together for it's a moment of healing and we are going to do that by doing mosaics different kinds of yarn bombing . there's food trucks, there's music, there's dancing. it's just a simple way of saying when people get together, wcreate memories. we work with art. we

use our fine motor skills. we become happy. that's just what we want to spread. >> and how did that become a mission for you in your life? >> my background is as a graphic designer, and then when my son was diagnosed with cancer at the age of three, kristin, i left my job and all i knew was to use art to create a sense of, you know, control in our house that we had none of anymore. now that we had the cancer diagnosis and i just started doing art with my son who had cancer, and his siblings who was six at that time. and little by little, everyone in the hospital joined us in the waiting room. and before i knew, i realized that it's not just me and my kids, that what we are doing is helping. it's everyone around us . and that's really how the organization was founded. >> yeah, and i'm so sorry for the passing of your son, but what a legacy that it inspires for that. his passing inspired. i also. i think you're not alone

, right? you said there's a lot of new science about engaging in art. some of it documented in a new book called your brain on art. walk us through what you learned from this book and maybe some of the biggest benefits of engaging in the arts. >> when the book came out, we were so glad because we finally felt validated, noted kristin. we felt like we had been doing this for 15 years, but every time we would go out and talk to people, look for funding or even talk about what we do. they always said that what we do is a nice to have, not a must have. and as soon as the book came out , we reached out to both the authors and we told them we would love to give them a visionary award from kids in art and they have accepted that the research that few points that would love to highlight and i've i've put them everywhere in our office and it's right here on my desk is making and beholding arts support emotional resilience in children and adolescents as they learn the

arts lower mental distress, better mental functioning and improve quality of life. chronic pain can be managed with dance and even even virtual reality. sound is an excellent tool to help regulate stress in that it can work at an unconscious level . just 20 minutes of walk walking in nature can increase cortisol, singing and humming, activate the nerve, engaging in parasympathetic systems to make you feel good. there's just so much science behind. and this, you know, simple things of working with clay releases, serotonin effortlessly lifting your spirits and increasing an optimistic outlook. it's you know, exactly what we've been doing for 15 years, having our children who have tingly numbness in their fingers because of chemo or chemo brain, which i'm sure everyone has heard of sending them art kits, you know, to their homes while

they're going through treatment or art kits in the hospital, all while they are isolated during treatment. you know, all of that has really brought this. everything we do and everything the book is talking about together. you can hear my excitement because i am truly excited that finally there is some real research that we can take with us when we are talking with people and say we are not making this up. art is an not a nice to have. it is very much a must have and i'm sure, kristen, you've heard of this and you must have faced this and everyone else during covid, we were all isolated and we all use some form of art to bring us up and uplift from our funk right? >> absolutely. i mean, you know, i'm not much of an artist, but i think i get your point. you don't have to be an amazing artist to do it. just, you know, it's good for the soul and there's no wrong way to do it. and i love that. and your art kits that you've been sending to

kids battling illnesses, they they it's like healed in a box. so how can people support you and your work and, you know, funding those boxes or local workshops at bay area hospitals or learn more about the event on sunday? >> sure. so the artists that we send in january, we had about 19 families. but as is and this is all word of mouth, as our hospitals try telling their families about it today they we have about 112 families. we've sent out 882 art kits to our families and at the hospital, we have about 23 hospitals, around 19 states. we have sent out about 4920 art kits. so if anybody wants to help, it's only $25 an art kit. and they can donate on our website, they can donate through their donor advised fund and whichever way possible. okay >> and that's kids and art .org. thank you so much we appreciate

it we'll take a short break

tonight, breaking news. for the first time ever, thousands of united autoworkers on strike against the big three automakers all at once. the northeast bracing for hurricane lee tonight. the officer heard laughing on body cam after responding to the death of a pedestrian. the uaw is holding a large rally, more than 12,000 workers walking off the job, ddi