Allie Stuckey, host of the “Relatable” podcast on BlazeTV, joins us to discuss the spread of socialist ideology, her experiences on BlazeTV, the importance of mentors, and how to balance a career with motherhood.
We also break down:
- Wendy Ullman, a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, calls early miscarriages and abortions “a mess on a napkin.”
- Singer John Legend rewrites “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” to be more #MeToo appropriate.
- The Department of Health and Human Services proposes a new rule to reverse Obama administration policy of barring faith-based adoption and foster care agencies from receiving grants.
- And we crown Dr. Michelle Cretella as our Problematic Woman of the Week. Cretella is a pediatrician and executive director of the American College of Pediatricians, and her Daily Signal video about transgenderism and children was removed by YouTube. Why? Because her one sentence opposing surgery to alter children’s bodies violated hate speech policy.
Listen to the podcast below or read the lightly edited transcript of the interview.
Virginia Allen: I’m joined by Allie Stuckey, political commentator and speaker and host of the “Relatable” podcast on BlazeTV. Allie also has a blog called the Conservative Millennial. Allie, thank you so much for joining me.
Allie Stuckey: Yes. Thanks for having me.
Allen: So, Allie, you call yourself the “conservative millennial.” What led you to start speaking out so boldly on conservative public policy?
Stuckey: Yeah, so that’s kind of the name that I used, or the title of the blog that I used a couple of years ago when I started. Since then, I’ve kind of moved on to mostly be known as the host of the podcast “Relatable,” but that’s still the moniker that a lot of people know me by. Because when I started in 2015, and I know that doesn’t seem like very long ago at all, it was even a little bit more scandalous or surprising then to hear what seems like a paradoxical term, “conservative millennial.”
Now, thankfully, even though it is rare to be both a conservative and millennial, there are a lot of conservative millennial commentators. I’m certainly not the only one. I’m not even one of the only ones. There are a lot of young influencers with conservative views that are very outspoken.
This past election cycle and this presidency, because there’s been so much to comment on and so much to analyze and so much to talk about, there has been a lot of young people that have spoken up and said, “Hey, I am countercultural, too, where I am against the mainstream. I’m kind of swimming upstream as well.”
But when I started it, there were only a few that people really knew. I started it because I lived in a college town of Athens, Georgia. I was working full time in PR, and I looked around at the college students that were just a few months younger than me at the time, or about a year younger than me at the time, and I said, “OK, all of these very educated people, probably with conservative backgrounds, they tend to lean left or just not care about what’s going on in the primaries.” It was the primaries at the time. “And so maybe I could do something about that.”
I’ve always loved to speak in front of people. I’ve always loved to write. I’ve always kind of been passionate about really, I would say, worldview issues more than policy-specific issues, but how it fits into the larger Christian and conservative worldview, each of these specific policies. So I decided that I was going to come up with, at first, a nonpartisan presentation for why young people should vote in the primaries.
So as I was working full time in PR, I came up with this presentation … and I reached out to sororities. I knew that was one group that I could probably relate to pretty well. I reached out to sororities on UGA’s campus and said, “Hey, can I come to your chapter meeting and speak for free about why you should vote, and why you should vote in the primaries? This is totally nonpartisan.” And it was at the time.
So, some sororities answered back, said yes. Some said no. Some ignored me. But I went to a few, and really, after that, I just realized, “Oh, my gosh, nothing else in my professional life has given me this much energy and this much assurance of, yeah, this is meaningful work that I want to do. This is something that I feel like God has gifted me in. It’s something that I really like.”
And so, I decided, OK, maybe I can kind of pursue this as a little bit of a side hustle for a while until I decided to start a blog that’s obviously not nonpartisan, called “the Conservative Millennial.” And I would just comment on the debates and analyze everything.
I remember one time I made a flow chart for young people to try to decide whether or not they should vote Republican or Democrat. That kind of went, in a very small way, viral because it actually helps people understand which side they’re on. I just kind of thought to myself, “I love this. I love being a voice in this.”
And for a long time, it was really just a hobby. I wasn’t getting paid in any way, wasn’t getting paid to write articles. I wasn’t selling advertisements. I didn’t have any kind of company or sponsor behind me saying, “Hey, you should be a voice,” or anyone saying, “Hey, this is a moneymaking opportunity for you.” No, I just had a few hundred followers, and I just kind of kept going, because it was fun and because it was something that I felt gave my life meaning.
Then I started making videos and eventually after a few months of doing that, the videos started kind of picking up traction … getting hundreds of thousands of views, and that was at the end of 2016 toward the election.
Then, a few months after that started happening, my husband and I moved to Texas, and that’s when I got hired by The Blaze, and that was my first job with the media, so had to quit my day job when we knew. And then that was my first job in the media.
Then I started getting calls from different news networks asking if I could come on and offer opinion. I was still doing my blog. I was still speaking to different organizations. I would just reach out to Republican organizations, to businesses if they just wanted me to talk about millennials, and I would do it for free.
Then I would start charging a little bit. And eventually, it became a job. It became a full-time career. Since then, it’s just kind of grown. I started working for CRTV. Now, it’s Blaze Media. … I started this blog called “Relatable” in 2018, and that has really picked up.
I’ve just found this niche of young people, but particularly young women, young moms, young professional women, college-age women that care about what’s going on in the news, what’s going on in culture, and how to approach these things from a biblical perspective.
That’s what I try to do. I don’t hide that at all. I’m coming from a biblical, from a conservative perspective. This is how I as a Christian conservative see what’s going on in the world, and here are the things we should care about and why. I’ve realized and been encouraged by the reality that there are a lot of young people, a lot of young women, that care about that and are trying to make sense of the world around them with a biblical worldview.
So it’s been fun. It’s been really rewarding work, and it’s been fun to see kind of how God has allowed it to evolve into what it is today.
Allen: That’s so neat. Allie, thank you so much for sharing that incredible journey that you went through. What an amazing ride. So, on the “Relatable” podcast and as you travel and speak, I know you are talking to so many young people, and you have been very vocal about speaking to young people’s fascination with socialism and even with communism.
Why do you think that we’re seeing this rise of an interest in socialism?
Stuckey: Yeah, there are so many factors that play into that. I think one of it has to do—and I always want to be careful when I say this—but one reason, certainly, I think all conservatives can agree on and most parents can agree on is that the public school system in large part has done a huge disservice to young people in how they teach American history, how they teach or neglect to teach the Bible, which whether or not you believe in the inerrancy and the inspiration of the Bible as God’s written word, it is the most influential piece of literature, the most influential historical document that has ever existed in the history of man that has been neglected to be taught.
Whether or not you want to believe this, America was based on Christian values, on biblical values, and the belief in God, in the Christian God, and the Judeo-Christian God did inform the founding documents, did inform how the Founders built this country and the values upon which the Founders built this country.
So, when we neglect to teach children the Bible, even if you don’t teach it as a religious document, they really have no understanding of why America is the way it is and the principles upon which we were founded, why the documents are the way they are, even very basic principles like property rights or the idea that we were all given inherent rights by a creator that cannot be given or taken away from us by the government.
The idea of religious freedom, the idea of freedom of speech, the idea of hard work, it is a Christian value. Hard work existed before the fall of man, before sin entered the world. And so, we see work and earning what you have as an inherent good that is good for the dignity of the human being.
But when you don’t have this biblical context or even just a moral context for any of the things that have made America good—so hard work, the family, raising children, getting your values from the family unit, from your church, from your community, rather than from the government or rather than from just some arbitrary idea of moral relativism—what you do is instead of turning to something that’s bigger than yourself, like God or your church, you kind of turn inward and you start believing in things like moral relativism.
You start believing that you are your own God, the arbiter of your own truth. I believe that self-centeredness always leads to a dependence on the government, because if God is not your moral lawgiver, you are going to look to the government to take care of you and to tell you what is right and wrong.
So, that’s a lot of different factors that I could go into even more, all rolled into one. I think a lot of it just has to do with how people are being raised in public school, and also, like I said, the godlessness that comes with that.
Every single country in which the government has grown, religious freedom and dependence and faith in God has waned. That’s not to say that churches in China aren’t very strong, because they are, amidst persecution. But as far as it being mainstream, and as accepted worldview, Christianity, you cannot find that in countries in which socialism and communism have grown. Those things, in my opinion, go hand-in-hand.
Allen: Wow. Well, Allie … I love how open you are about your faith and about your conservative views. But obviously, not everyone is onboard with those views, and with being now more and more in the public eye, how do you handle the backlash or the negativity that you’re getting from people who don’t agree with you or who even oppose you?
Stuckey: Yeah, I definitely get more hate for being a conservative than I do for being a Christian. But it is kind of an interesting intersection, because while there are a lot of conservative Christians who allow the Bible to inform their politics, it’s a little bit interesting, because on the one hand, I could get Christians who say, “OK, I really like [that] you talked about the Bible and I like your biblical views, but I hate your politics. I don’t understand how you could vote for Donald Trump. I don’t understand how you could be a conservative,” because their view of the Bible is different than mine.
Then you also have, on the other hand, you have people who say, “OK, I really like your politics, but I hate when you talk about the Bible, because I don’t believe in the Bible, and I don’t believe in God.”
But I mean, to me, it’s worth that to reach what I believe is a group of people in this country who feel neglected, feel like they are not fought for. And that’s also why they like President Trump and his administration, because finally they feel like they have someone in Washington, D.C., who has their interests at heart.
But as far as in the media, they feel like there are so few people that advocate for them, that represent their values. And not just in a … “God, guns, and small government” kind of way. There’s nothing wrong with that, but someone who is outspoken about their faith, who is willing to talk about the gospel, who is willing to talk about the Bible being the inerrant word of God and who Jesus was and how that biblical worldview actually informs our politics, people are hungry for that.
So, to me, it’s worth some of the hate that I’m going to get. It’s worth the polarizing that I’m going to get. There’s no doubt that if I drop talking about God, I would probably have a bigger audience. Or if I dropped talking about politics, maybe I would have a bigger audience on that side.
But to me, this intersection, it’s really important for Christians to explore. It’s really important for Christians to care about what’s going on policy-wise, news-wise, culture-wise. It matters.
So, I’m OK with the hate, of course. I mean, it’s not fun. I don’t like being trolled on Twitter. I don’t like organizations on the left who paint people with traditional values as these terrible bigots that hate people, which could not be further from the truth. But it’s kind of part of it.
If you can’t stand the heat, you kind of have to get out of the kitchen. For now … I do feel like God has called me to this arena. So, we’ll see.
Allen: Yeah. That’s wonderful. Well, I want to shift gears for a moment and talk just a little bit about work-life balance, because you are a wife and a mother now, but you have this career that is continuing to take off. How are you balancing those things?
Stuckey: I would be lying if I didn’t say that it was difficult. It is difficult, especially in those first few weeks after maternity leave figuring out how to balance it. There’s just a natural drive that we have when we become parents, too, and it’s good. It’s a wonderful thing, and it should be responded to to take care of our children.
Having to split time between that and work can be very difficult. It’s not impossible, but it can be very difficult at first. I have tried my best to spend every spare ounce of energy, every spare ounce of time that I have just being a mom, not just being a mom, but exclusively being a mom and paying attention to my daughter and making sure that I don’t miss these small moments that I know are going by so quickly.
At the same time, there are times that I need help. I need help from my husband. I need help from my mom. I need help from community in just taking care of her while I am able to spend some time. I do work from home, but … I’m able to spend some time either writing or speaking or doing an interview like this. So, it’s good.
I feel like God has given me a lot of resources and a lot of help and a lot of family close by that’s been able to supplement the care that I can give her. And I think that’s necessary for all moms is to be able to ask for help.
I mean, Hillary Clinton very rarely says anything that’s true, but she did say, and probably in a different way than I believe, but she did say a long time ago, “It takes a village to raise a child.” In some ways, she is true in that it does take community, churches, neighbors. It takes your parents, it takes your in-laws, it takes your spouse, it takes their siblings to all help and come together and to raise this child into a confident person who believes in the values that you’ve set forth for your family.
It’s difficult. It’s definitely difficult to strike that balance, but I’m learning, and I am trying to learn from moms who have come before me who have worked, who have had similar or even different situations than I have, more demands than I have professionally, and how they did it and how they were able to maintain their job without neglecting their first responsibility, which is to their family.
So, I am figuring that out, but I’m very thankful for the situation that I have that I get to work from home, that I get to be close to her all day long, even when I am doing interviews and writing and things like that.
Allen: Yeah, it’s very special. … Allie, your grandmother recently passed away, and I know you shared a little bit on social media just about that she meant so much to you and the important role that she played in your life.
As you were speaking about mentors and learning from other moms and learning from your grandmother, would you take a moment just to share a little bit about the important role that mentors do play in our lives and have played in your life?
Stuckey: Yes. So, I had a wonderful grandmother. She lived with us until I was 13 years old. And I have wonderful parents, too, great relationship with my parents. Awesome. Two older brothers. But she … was a refuge for me in a lot of ways when I was little.
I have always been the way that I am. So, I’ve always been, I would say, when I was little, probably the best way to describe it was, argumentative …. and opinionated. I have always been independent, and that kind of built some tension for me. When I was in school, I would get in trouble a lot.
I might’ve got in trouble at home a lot, but she was always the person that I could go to. She would be on my side. She would believe in me. She would speak life into me and … she would encourage me.
I always felt capable and loved and smart. I believed that I had a lot of potential when I was with her, because that’s just who she was. She had high expectations for the people that she loved and the people that she believed in, and she wasn’t afraid to hold you to those expectations.
But she was always clear that she loved us and loved me unconditionally. We had a very special relationship that I think I’ve only realized over the past few weeks just what a huge impact she had on me and my confidence and building my character and helping me be assured in the things that I believe in enough to be able to speak out about them. And I’m so thankful for that.
So, something that I encourage young people to do. It’s very trendy right now to make fun of the older generations. Millennials and Generation Z make fun of baby boomers as, I don’t know, being out of touch or not laying a good foundation for us, which every young generation likes to criticize the older generation and thinks that we have it all figured out.
But the reality is that whether or not that generation was perfect, which no generation is, I think we know that for sure about millennials. Whether or not you like that generation, I do encourage young people to seek out a mentor, because they’ve got a lot of wisdom to pass down to us. Baby boomers contributed very unique things to this country. My parents, for example.
I mean, my grandmother [was] part of the Silent Generation, and she was born in the Great Depression. She was raised in the cotton … in Louisiana. She was the first woman in her family, the first person in her family, to graduate from high school, first person to graduate from college.
She went on to get her master’s [degree] at night while she was working full time during the day. She raised four kids, and then she set that example for my dad.
My dad was the first one in his family to really kind of earn any kind of income that was beyond just getting by, meal to meal. She really left a legacy for my dad that he was able to build on.
My dad did the same thing for us, for my brothers and me, to make sure that we had a better life than they had. My parents lived in a trailer when they were first married. They got married at 19 and 20, and they just worked really hard, really hard, especially for those first 15 years of their marriage to make sure they set a good foundation for us.
That’s true of a lot of people in that generation, that they maybe didn’t have a whole lot of wealth or a whole lot of financial freedom when they were growing up, but they worked hard in the ’80s and ’90s to make sure that millennials had more options, had more privilege, if you will.
Not in a bad way, but in a good way. More opportunities for education, for work than they ever did. My parents did that really well. A lot of other parents did, too.
All of that said, for any flaws the baby boomers have, there are a lot of good things and a lot of good wisdom that they can pass down to us about hard work, about leadership, about saving money, about just being wise. And even politics, the importance of free markets and capitalism.
I feel like, since I graduated from college, I have gone to my parents way more for advice than I ever did growing up. I guess that’s just kind of how it goes. The more you know, the more you know that you don’t know, and you reach out to people who know more than you to kind of guide you.
But I’m thankful. I’m so thankful for the wisdom that my parents have been able to give me.
I honestly feel like that has been my leg up in my short career so far. That’s been my leg up, has been my parents. That I have been able to go to two incredibly wise resources and say, “I don’t know what to do here. I don’t know what choice to make. I’m at a fork in the road. Can you help me? Can you help me discern? Can you help me know what’s wise here? Because here’s what I want to do, but here are the other factors that I’m thinking.”
Gosh, my parents have been so helpful and so supportive in saying, “Here are the things that you need to think about,” and giving me the freedom, though, of course, as an adult to make the decision on my own.
I encourage young people, if you have that, if you have those resources in your parents, go to them, even if it takes some humility to do it. If you don’t have those resources in your parents, seek out a resource, seek out a mentor.
Whether that’s at work, and so, maybe it’s your boss, where you ask them to meet with you maybe outside of work and just pick their brain. What has made them successful? How have they been able to effectively manage people? What are some mistakes that they’ve made that they wish they would’ve avoided.
Or maybe it’s someone not at work. Maybe it’s someone outside of work that you happen to know in the same arena or even another arena, but that you think that they can give you applicable wisdom to your life. I think that is so crucial.
There are so many things that young people can do today to stand out among their peers. Unfortunately, there is a very low bar for hard work and for wisdom for millennials and Generation Z.
There are very few things that you have to do to be able to stand out from the other people in your generation. One of those people is speaking the wisdom of those that are older than you. Those who have gone before you.
It takes laying down arrogance and ego, which all young people, we all have at some point, and humbling ourselves to realize we don’t know everything, and there are some people who have gone before us that do.
Allen: Allie, that is such practical wisdom. Thank you so much for sharing.
Stuckey: Of course.
Allen: I want to make sure that our listeners know where they can follow you and find all your videos and your podcast. Can you share some of that information?
Stuckey: Of course. So it’s called “Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey,” and you can find that on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify [inaudible]. That’s a website that anyone could go to.
You can also go to Blazetv.com/allie. I’m not the only host there. There are a lot of hosts on BlazeTV, that if you get a subscription you can listen to and watch. So that’s a really good resource for conservative commentary from all different kinds of perspectives.
You can also go to YouTube. Allie Beth Stuckey is my YouTube channel, and so you can watch there. You can listen to all of my stuff and watch all of my stuff totally for free.
I’m on Instagram, @AllieBStuckey, I think it is. And then Twitter, you can look up Allie Beth Stuckey. I have a Facebook page, Allie Beth Stuckey. So you can go to all of those places, and you’ll be up to date with things that I’m doing and the commentary that I’ve given on my podcast.
Allen: That’s great. Well, Allie, thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate it.
Stuckey: Thank you.