Politics, Perspectives, & Progress - A Path Forward | Entrepreneur - Artist - Visionary, Ruben Rojas
Watch the full episode: YouTube
Episode Summary
Visionary artist and Live Through Love founder Ruben Rojas joins for a candid conversation about bridging political divides through love, acceptance, and authentic dialogue. From his work with Beautify Earth to his current mission of spreading positivity, Ruben shares insights on navigating political toxicity, the importance of local civic engagement, and how choosing love over fear can transform communities. This wide-ranging discussion explores voting responsibility, the immigrant experience, gratitude for American democracy, the power of service, and practical ways individuals can create meaningful change without waiting for federal action.
Key Topics: Political division, civic engagement, Live Through Love, local government, voting responsibility, immigrant perspective, gratitude, community service, authentic dialogue, choosing love over fear
Table of Contents
- Introduction and Thursday Vibes
- The Live Through Love Mission
- Political Toxicity and Communication
- Local Civic Engagement
- Voting Responsibility and Gratitude
- Truth, Perspective, and Reframing
- Navigating Public Life and Politics
- Message to Congress
- Service and Respect for Public Officials
- Closing Thoughts
Introduction and Thursday Vibes
Evan Meyer: All right. We are alive. How are you, buddy?
Ruben Rojas: I'm good. What is today? Well, it's Thursday. Beautiful Thursday, I'm talking to you. I mean, it—
Evan Meyer: It's the best. It's that—it's something special about Thursday. I don't know what it is. It's got a certain feel. You feel Thursday?
Ruben Rojas: Honestly, that's actually a good moment. No, seriously, think about it. People dread Mondays and they live for the weekend. And they live for Friday. Then you kind of get to Tuesday and you're like, Oh, it's past Monday, Wednesday. Ooh, hump day. Thursday. Oh, there's something about Thursday. It feels like the freest of the days because it's not the weekend yet and you're past the schlag of the first couple of days of the week. So I kind of feel that energy, but at the same time, we've always, we're self employed. So like Monday through Sunday is kind of all the same. We're dads. We got our kids all the time. Like everything revolves around the same thing. So like all days are really the same, but I do notice the energy around Thursday in general seems to be a little lighter all around.
Evan Meyer: Yeah, I think so. And there's opportunity there for Thursday improvement in the world's experience of Thursdays.
Ruben Rojas: Yeah.
Evan Meyer: We should do something about that. Maybe make a nonprofit or something every Thursday. Well, Hey, let me introduce you.
Ruben Rojas: Making a—Thursday is the day of beauty.
Evan Meyer: There it is. Okay. I love that. Well, I'm going to, I'm going to give an introduction to you now. Um, that, uh, I think you're going to like. Are you ready? Are you ready for a good introduction?
Ruben Rojas: We'll do it.
Evan Meyer: Ruben Rojas is a visionary artist and advocate for positive change through his mission, Live Through Love. This lifestyle brand inspires creativity and optimism and is channeled into various mediums, such as street wear, art prints, and public art, including sculptures and murals in cities around the world, uniting communities with beauty and hope. His work empowers individuals to dream big, live with possibility and create lasting impact. He collaborates with major brands like NFL, BMW, and Google to promote social responsibility and inspire innovation. He's a sought after speaker and Ted presenter and through his podcast, he delves into how love can transform lives and communities.
Evan Meyer: For the early part of his journey, I personally had the pleasure of working with Ruben in building and scaling the organization, Beautify Earth. "Until no unkempt wall remains" was our mission using murals to end what we called ugly wall syndrome on our streets and communities and Beautify Earth continues to thrive today. But today we're here to dig into something else. Um, something a little different for Ruben and, uh, something a little different for me in having, um, Ruben as a guest today, uh, different style of guests, uh, and different style of conversation for me and different style of conversation for Ruben.
Evan Meyer: But, um, throughout our friendship, we've had so many conversations about the toxicity in politics. And, uh, we've watched many of our people we know, including friends, um, divorce their families for their, for their politics. It's been heartbreaking to watch. Uh, and I know this resonates through with Ruben because of his, of how powerful his mission is and what he stands for and what we've built together. But, uh, today we're here to fix it. So are you ready to fix it?
Ruben Rojas: We'll do our best.
Evan Meyer: We will do our best. How was that intro?
Ruben Rojas: You made me blush a little.
Evan Meyer: I had a feeling you were going to, you were going to enjoy it. It's been a while since I've, uh, since I've gotten to introduce you and, um, You know, the world's in a very interesting place. Uh, it's some ways it's very sad. In some ways it's very exciting.
The Live Through Love Mission
Evan Meyer: I don't know. I don't think anyone knows where things are going to go, but we do know that there is a lot of, um, there's a lot of toxicity and we've seen this now for, for years. And you know, your art carries this theme of love and positivity and unity. And I, just to kick things off, how do you feel knowing that that's what you stand for? What is the connection between, you know, these themes, uh, and, and, and the political landscape?
Ruben Rojas: You know, that's a good question. I think about this all the time because politics are important, right? And having differentiating opinions is important. It's important for us to argue, to debate, to have opinion, to conversate. And if we start realizing that we're coming from this from our own sets of values, from our own principles, but what I'm seeing right now is that a lot of it is coming from fear and scarcity and being right and insignificance and not feeling worthy or of importance.
Ruben Rojas: And what if we just really look at that through love? So, you know, I have this mission to live through love, to choose love, to look at the world through the lens of love. So if like we pull off the fear glasses, put on the love glasses, what does that look like? What does it look like to respond versus react? Can we take a moment? What would it be like if I could take a beat and have a conversation? So what we see now is everything is so extreme. And it's, I'm right, you're wrong, you don't align with me, GTF, right? Um, and I don't know what we can do about it. And at the end of the day, one of the things that we're trying to say, and we try to look at it, are we coming from that space? Where are we losing our values? What is it that we're really trying to, to move forward?
Ruben Rojas: And it's looking like it's money, it's looking like it's greed, and it's looking like in the name of inclusivity, we're creating more divisiveness across the world. We're adding more labels. We're adding more definitions to everything going on, on what it means to be a human. And I think if we could simplify it all back down to, like, you're a human, I'm a human. Let's talk about what you believe in. Let's talk about what I believe in. And let's unpack that conversation.
Ruben Rojas: Instead of saying I'm dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot, dot zero window to conversate if you don't align with me, see you later.
Political Toxicity and Communication
Evan Meyer: Yeah, the common theme here is to be able to communicate, you know, with people period. I mean, it's like every relationship in your life whether it's personal or business or—if you can't communicate things don't get done. And I think that's what's always bothered me about is like all that all that this means is that things, things that people want are gonna take a lot longer to get. It's just not efficient, right?
Evan Meyer: Like from the, in the name of efficiency, it doesn't, it doesn't make any sense. Uh, and, and, you know, I know you've been, you know, you have quite an influence now and you're a public figure, uh, and that comes with a responsibility. And what do you feel that, you know, your audience, do they expect you to take a stand on political and social issues? Do they, um, what is, how do you, how do you respond to maybe inquiries that come in about this type of stuff on behalf of yourself personally or your brand?
Ruben Rojas: So most of it is like deduce what you want to deduce. Ultimately, the mission is a universal message for humanity. Love, whether you're Republican, whether you're Democrat, whether you're gay, straight, believe in God, don't believe in God, we know that there's this power of love that is all around us, that we ultimately all want to get more love or seek to give more love. That's what we're here for. And if we be the love you seek, that's something that I say, and no one outright asks it. I think a lot of people do assume and they do assume a side because it is message of love and it's okay because I want them to use it for whatever they need to use it for.
Ruben Rojas: I have zero political agenda around the mission of Live Through Love. What I want to do is to see humans be better to each other, to be kinder, to be kinder to themselves, and to be open to honest conversation. Like, we don't have to agree with each other, but we do need to accept each other. And that's something that I say a lot. And if we can find acceptance in the lens of love, whether you voted one way or the other, that's us moving in the right direction. I think we all have different views, and it's about getting clear on our views and getting clear on the pros and cons of everything going on and actually starting to make our own decisions for ourselves instead of, honestly, regurgitating headlines and clickbait.
[Full transcript continues with discussions on local civic engagement, voting responsibility, gratitude for American democracy, truth and perspective, navigating public life, messages to Congress, service and respect for public officials, and closing thoughts. The complete 66-minute conversation explores how choosing love over fear can bridge political divides and create meaningful change at all levels of government and community.]
Written by
Evan Meyer
December 22, 2024