WACO, Texas (KWTX) – It’s safe to say Chip and Joanna Gaines have put Waco on the map with their ‘Magnolia magic’, however, craftsman Clint Harp is taking on a new venture in hopes of keeping Waco on the map.
Harp, who rose to fame as a carpenter on HGTV’s “Fixer Upper,” also owns a shop, Harp Design Co., in Waco, plus, he speaks at home shows around the country inspiring others to get their hands dirty, he created the podcast “Man UnMade,” and he continues to host the show “Restoration Road” on Magnolia Network.
Now the Wacoan is going further to bring his city something new.
“I dreamt it up in my mind at some point, somewhere in the middle of the pandemic when I was doing my own podcast,” Harp told KWTX. “I think Waco needs more things to do, and I wanted to throw my hat in the ring and go ‘what can I contribute to this?’ outside of everything I’m doing.”
“Everybody’s coming in: you want to be at the Silos, you want to experience all the things Waco has to offer, but sometimes nightlife…there isn’t that much going on,” said Harp.
Harp brought some ‘life’ to Waco Saturday night in the form of a concert-style conversation event at the historic Waco Hippodrome with guests Beth Silvers and Sarah Stewart Holland from the popular podcast “Pantsuit Politics”
“Highlighting experts, that’s something that I really love,” said Harp. “I love learning from people like Sarah and Beth–someone said to me ‘you get your news from Sarah and Beth’… I said ‘no, I understand my news thanks to Sarah and Beth.’”
“Pantsuit Politics” was named one of Apple’s best podcasts of 2021.
“Texas has been so supportive or our podcast,” said Silvers. “Every time we come to Texas we have really interesting conversations, the politics of Texas are fascinating, and we talk a lot on how to speak in families where politics are changing where people are maybe on different pages, and the Texas audience has just been really receptive to that.”
“I really think it resonates with people because we’re not afraid to bring a little joy to the conversation, and the good thing about our events is it never feels like a performance, the questions the audience asks are really important to us,” she said.
It was a night of laughs, making some serious topics not-so-serious with cheerful banter delivered through the eyes of two moms on different sides of the political spectrum.
“What we always want to do is just create a little curiosity with people, a little connection with people, and a little space for them to maybe have that conversation they were dreading, or maybe reconnect with that person the got mad at over a Facebook post, that’s what we’re always looking for,” said Holland.
“People are hurting, and they’re just in pain, they feel disconnected from their communities, from family members, from friends, they maybe feel disconnected at work, and we have a new book coming out where we’re really trying to speak to that,” she said.
Their new book, “Now What? How To Move Forward When We’re Divided (About Basically Everything),” gives advice on how to connect over differences in today’s world of conflict.
It’s advice Harp says is especially needed in Waco where people are having to do what’s routinely talked about nationwide in terms of ‘getting along’ with your neighbor.
“There are certain places in our country where it’s like you know ‘this is the way it is’, and here in Central Texas–you don’t know, you honestly do not know,” said Harp. “We are having to straddle that line with folks and bridge gaps and divides and everything all the time.”
Harp is hoping to make events like this a ‘regular thing’ by bringing a series of guest conversations to Waco in the future.
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