Resisting Authoritarianism

By

Introduction

Here is a live list of resources to read, watch and listen to collated and recommended by The Horizons Project and their partners about resisting authoritarianism. These resources are sourced from their monthly newsletters, The Vista.

Resources

Reading

Self-Organization Needs Activators: The 9% Who Turn Networks into Movements
by Socialroots

“In today’s connected world, our biggest problems need many groups working together to solve them. But when different organizations try to work together without anyone in charge, we face a basic challenge: how do we organize our work and move in the same direction without having one central leader? Sometimes networks begin by replicating traditional leadership; a ‘backbone organization’ creates a ‘hub and spoke network. Others start as several fragmented initiatives. [This research shows that] effective collaboration across networks of groups requires supporting the “middle layer” of participants – network catalysts who step into leadership roles but aren’t part of the core team. Without these critical participants, networks struggle to build capacity or maintain coherence as they grow.”

Building and Repairing Trust in Social Justice Movements
by Amber Banks

“The evidence is overwhelming: trust is the critical ingredient in nearly every successful collaborative endeavor in any sector. From securing funding to achieving policy victories, our movements succeed or fail on the strength of our relationships… Despite our best intentions, we sometimes find ourselves navigating varying degrees of distrust, or at best a fragile trust. Maybe hurt people hurt people. Maybe we have not yet mastered the art of relational repair. Or maybe dealing with trust and distrust is just part of being human and working together. So, then the question becomes: how do we build and repair trust in movements fighting for justice and freedom?” Enjoy this article – part one of a two-part series exploring this important success factor for our movements.

‘We have power together’: Three social change leaders on solidarity and what we can learn from history as we build a more equitable future
by Marianne Schnall, Forbes Magazine

“Reflecting on the historic figures and events that have advanced rights and freedoms in the U.S. can be a meaningful source of inspiration for today’s leaders who are working toward a more equitable future, especially at a time when many of those hard-won rights feel under threat. Three pro-democracy movement leaders recently had the opportunity to do just that [in this interview.] LaTosha Brown, cofounder of Black Voters Matter, Monica Riley, executive director of The Alabama Alliance, and Pamela Shifman, president of Democracy Alliance were in Montgomery and Selma, Alabama to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Bloody Sunday… Riley shared her hope that ‘one of the biggest takeaways I want people to understand is that liberation doesn’t happen in isolation, especially not in a place like Alabama. It’s not just about one group or one fight; it’s about all of us, moving together toward justice and collective freedom.’ “

Holding the line doesn’t need to mean losing ourselves
by Michael Braithwaite, Next Big Thing

“The institutional instinct in times of crisis is nearly always to triage — to circulate wellness tips that place responsibility back on the individual, to plan a team-building day that momentarily lifts spirits before dropping everyone back into the same unsustainable conditions… However, these surface-level fixes, profoundly miss the deeper collective opportunity that burnout actually presents: to treat it as a systems signal pointing toward institutional misalignment — one that demands structural reimagining. What we’re confronting is an inherited operating system shaped by centuries of cultural programming that now runs so deep as to appear natural: productivity framed as moral virtue, overwork celebrated as proof of loyalty or mission dedication, and rest stigmatized as unprofessional or an indicator that someone lacks dedication to the cause. These aren’t truths about human nature or organizational necessity, but rather cultural relics still quietly running in the background of most organizations…”

The rise of end times fascism
by Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor, The Guardian

“How do we break this apocalyptic fever? First, we help each other face the depth of the depravity that has gripped the hard right in all of our countries. To move forward with focus, we must first understand this simple fact: we are up against an ideology that has given up not only on the premise and promise of liberal democracy but on the livability of our shared world – on its beauty, on its people, on our children, on other species. The forces we are up against have made peace with mass death. They are treasonous to this world and its human and non-human inhabitants. Second, we counter their apocalyptic narratives with a far better story about how to survive the hard times ahead without leaving anyone behind. A story capable of draining end times fascism of its gothic power and galvanizing a movement ready to put it all on the line for our collective survival. A story not of end times, but of better times; not of separation and supremacy, but of interdependence and belonging; not of escaping, but staying put and staying faithful to the troubled earthly reality in which we are enmeshed and bound.”

The Faithful Fight: Toolkits for countering authoritarianism
Protect Democracy and the Horizons Project

“Authoritarian movements often use religious and racial identity to divide people in ways that are useful to gaining power…Such efforts run in direct contrast to religious communities which believe that every person has human dignity, that each human person is made in the image and likeness of God. There are many examples of faith leaders speaking truth to power and taking collective action to reject authoritarianism… The Faithful Fight toolkits offer strategies to bring us together, and help us to act.”

The series includes toolkits focused on: organizing and training, strategic advocacy, bridgebuilding, religious freedom, immigration, civil resistance and noncooperation, survival strategies, digital security, and more.

If not us, who? If not now, when? Why funders must continue to invest in reparations and racial repair in the current political climate.
by Liberation Ventures

“With fires raging literally and figuratively, many are wondering: is now really the time to invest in the reparations movement? The short answer is: Yes. Building a culture of repair – one in which reparations are common sense and commonplace – is what will equip us to fight today, win tomorrow, and sustain our progress for generations to come. At the highest level, “reparations” is the process of the state making amends for harm. While most people think of reparations simply as compensation, a wider variety of material, systemic, and symbolic repair for victims, their families, and broader society is involved.” Check out the recently released 10-year grantmaking strategy called the Reparations Grantmaking Blueprint that lays out three major pillars of work: (1) invest in reparations efforts at the city and state level; (2) build an at-scale, multiracial mass movement; and (3) change the narrative on reparations and uproot anti-Blackness from American culture.

The Metacrisis, Our Fears and the Road to Authoritarianism
by Chusana Prasertkul

“History has shown that when people feel unsafe, they seek security – sometimes, even at the cost of freedom, reason, or morality. [Authoritarianism] and totalitarian regimes do not seize power by brute force alone. They rise because fear makes people complicit. One of the most crucial elements of this crisis is our attention & the rise of fear and the psychological costs of uncertainty…It’s essential to recognise oppression within ourselves. It’s deeply personal and it manifests in everyday thoughts, behaviours, and emotions…How to stay human in the face of chaos? Practice critical thinking daily; master the art of meaningful conversations; guard your attention. Just like a muscle, our brain requires proper nourishment, rest, and healthy stimulation.”

Building Bridges: Through The Arts, Media and Humanities
by The Doris Duke Foundation, NEA and NEH

“The arts, media and humanities are core to the human experience…these sectors have maintained a legacy of fulfilling the innate human desire for connection, belonging and curiosity. In addition to creating spaces for comfort and refuge, the arts, media and humanities act as remedies in moments of dissension and conflict. In times of distress and strife, people of all cultures often turn to imaginative storytellers for solace and to make meaning of the world around them…practitioners of the arts, media and humanities have the opportunity to unite and think innovatively to deepen the impact their work has on addressing these critical issues - to build bridges and transform hate into cross-community cooperation.” We recommend this new report that digs into how arts, media, and the humanities create belonging, especially in times of crisis.

Transformative Power and Empathic Connection: Changing contexts, generating inclusive mindsets
by Rosa Zubizarreta, The Listening Arts Blog

This meaty article is well worth your time to dig into. “Some people may believe that empathic communication is only useful or appropriate for the work of “bridging divides”, where neither “side” is attempting to influence one another, but both are simply seeking to gain greater mutual understanding…[but] empathic communication is also central to the work of ethically influencing people – from the garden-variety influence of Deep Canvassing to the more intense work of deradicalization. These two different purposes are distinct. Wanting to create greater mutual understanding and “re-humanization” of one another, is not the same thing as seeking to ethically influence another person. At the same time, whenever we are indeed seeking to ethically influence someone, working toward some mutual understanding is usually a first step. In addition, there is a third significant realm of empathic communication, which is supporting a group at arriving at shared ways forward…”

Twenty Lessons on Tyranny
by Timothy Snyder

All twenty lessons are worth digesting, but we’ll highlight three here: “Stand out. Someone has to. It is easy to follow along. It can feel strange to do or say something different. But without that unease, there is no freedom. Remember Rosa Parks. The moment you set an example, the spell of the status quo is broken, and others will follow. Be kind to our language. Avoid pronouncing the phrases everyone else does. Think up your own way of speaking, even if only to convey that thing you think everyone is saying. Make an effort to separate yourself from the internet. Read books. Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.”

Bridging America’s Political and Racial Divides: Key Motivators for Building Connections
by Peter Coleman

A new study reveals important insights into what motivates Americans to engage in “bridge-building activities” — efforts to connect with people across political and racial divides…researchers uncovered several key findings that could help organizations better mobilize citizens to heal growing divisions: different motives work for different divides; action-oriented activities show most promise; gender and political differences matter; there is power in the proper framing; and community activities unite best.

Supporting Society’s Bridge Builders
by Don Gips, Tulaine Montgomery, Rohini Nilekani, & Cristiane Sultani, Stanford Social Innovation Review

The authors extol the role of “system orchestrators” to meet this moment, understanding that linear problem-solving is not enough. Horizons agrees! “System orchestrators play a critical role in bringing about transformational social change by knitting together actors and institutions, providing backbone infrastructure, and mobilizing collective change efforts across ecosystems, sectors, and geographies. Along the way, they shape new paradigms, leverage system-wide resources, and navigate complexity, all to create forward momentum and progress at societal scale. System orchestrators are often overlooked because of the complex, collaborative, and behind-the-scenes roles they play in long-term systems-change efforts…If you want to drive equitable systems change, investing in system orchestrators is among the highest-leverage investments that the philanthropic sector can make.”

Fear, Grievance, and the Other: How Authoritarian Populist Politics Thrive in Contemporary Democracies
by Miriam Juan-Torres Gonzalez, Othering & Belonging Institute

This paper offers key concepts to understand politics beyond the left-right paradigm. It “advances the framework of authoritarian populism as an analytical tool that better describes a form of politics (not an ideology or regime type) that draws from both the authoritarian and populist playbooks… Beyond just serving as a descriptive model, the framework [seeks] to offer insights not only into how we can understand a concerning and newly dominant force in politics today, but also how we can more effectively counter it without provoking further othering or division. It asks us to question whether we are reinforcing the authoritarian populist double lens of ‘elite versus the people’ and ‘us versus them,’ or if we are advancing a different lens to process reality that is predicated on belonging without othering.”

Stop and Think: An undervalued approach in a world that short-circuits thoughtful political judgment
by Robert B. Talisse, The Conversation

As author, Robert B. Talisse argues in his new book Civic Solitude: Why Democracy Needs Distance, “the trouble is that our social environments are primed to short-circuit our thinking. They engage our reflexes while suppressing our judgment. Here’s how. We humans are all subject to a cognitive dynamic known as belief polarization. This is the tendency for individuals to adopt more extreme perspectives as a result of their interactions with like-minded peers. When we shift toward more radical views, we become more inclined to dismiss anyone who does not agree with us as ignorant, irrational and devious… As belief polarization escalates, we feel more pressure to conform. Hesitation begins to look like disloyalty. Even a momentary reluctance to affirm the party line signals to allies that our commitment to the group is wavering. Accordingly, we become more inclined simply to adopt the opinions that are popular among our peers – we decide what to think by mimicking our allies.”

Fascism and Isolation vs. Democracy and Interconnection: The Narrative Antidote to Authoritarianism
by Mónica Roa, Puentes

“At a time when narratives of isolation are being used to instill fear—justifying power concentration and the erosion of rights—we need stories that restore our awareness that, far from being a burden, our connection to others is the key to greater well-being and a stronger democracy. The narrative of interconnection reminds us that well-being is relational, that progress stems from cooperation, and that mutual care is a survival strategy, not just amoral concession.” Mónica Roa presents a compelling argument for rebuilding our vision of interconnectedness. “When we stop sharing experiences with those who are different from us, we lose the ability to imagine a common future. In this void, authoritarianism thrives, offering rigid identities and clear enemies to fill the space once occupied by interconnection and solidarity.”

Getting Small to Go Big: Lessons in Interdependence
by Jennifer Brandel, We Are Hearken

“What if we focused less on our own survival and perpetuation and more on how we can work in a networked, distributed manner and support the ecosystem?” Hearken shares insights from their team’s new approach to nourishing the network by sharing resources, funds, time, and knowledge. “As newsrooms continue to face headwinds and lack of resources, and as the civic space is intentionally closed by the current administration, perhaps approaching your work more like an interstitium (an organ that connects all organs) as we did could lead to a healthier, more resilient future.”

Watching

Could The 3.5% Protest Rule Stop Donald Trump?
Pod Save America

“How much of America would we need to mobilize to stop Trump’s power grab? According to political scientist Erica Chenoweth, it only takes 3.5 percent—the magic number that defines every successful protest movement. Against the backdrop of the anti-ICE and No Kings protests, the national guard deployment, and Donald Trump’s birthday pageant, Chenoweth joins the show to break down the math of the 3.5 percent threshold, explain why nonviolence is the key to meeting it, and to share the lessons the civil rights movement can teach us about staying unified, organized, and disciplined in the fight against authoritarianism.”

20 Lessons on Tyranny
by Timothy Snyder / read by John Lithgow, Politics Girl

“Now, more than ever, we need the wisdom of our intellects, the patriotism of our citizens, and the passion and talents of those who still believe in the American experiment.” Timothy Snyder offers 20 lessons on countering modern tyranny: from defending democratic elections and institutions, to becoming active in civic life, practicing courage, building new friendships and putting oneself in unfamiliar spaces. He urges people to stay calm, believe in truth, investigate matters for themselves, and never pre-emptively obey a tyrant.

Organizing and Mobilization during Democratic Backsliding
Harvard Ash Center

You can watch this webinar recording to hear from five expert panelists, Cornell William Brooks, Erica Chenoweth, Marshall Ganz, and Steven Levitsky as they shared lessons from around the world about how civil society groups have protected and promoted democracy and the rule of law during episodes of democratic backsliding.

William J. Barber II: How an Anti-Poverty Movement Makes Extremists Tremble
Kettering Foundation, The Context

“The United States is the wealthiest nation in the world, but millions of its citizens live in poverty. What prevents poor, low-wage, and low-wealth Americans from using democratic government to fight for a fairer distribution of resources? And how can they overcome the structures set against them? The answer is counterintuitive, but it’s worked on other social issues in the past. Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II is president and senior lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, cochair of the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, and a Charles F. Kettering Foundation senior fellow.”

Reflecting on the Great Transition – 2025 Narrative Predictions Townhall
ReFrame

Enjoy the recording of the ReFrame 2025 Narrative Predictions Townhall where they presented their recent report The Great Transition. The conversation explored enduring narratives and emergent story trends and reflected on current social, political and cultural upheavals in play in the current narrative landscape. Three strategists shared their experiences of making practical use of the predictions – seeding just narratives, uprooting harmful ones and scenario planning; focusing on building narratives that connect generations, regions, and identities; and, discussing tactics to adapt to the ever-shifting digital landscape.

Eyes on the Prize: We Who Believe in Freedom Cannot Rest 1977-2015
HBO Series Trailer

“Almost 40 years ago Eyes on the Prize set the standard for the cinematic exploration of the Black experience in America and the long struggle for civil rights. At a time when ideals of equity and racial justice may have gone out of favor, HBO is returning with a new documentary series. This six-part series illuminates the bold stories of people and communities who continue to work for equity and racial justice in the years since the birth of the American civil rights movement.”

Heather Cox Richardson & Jen Rubin in conversation
The Contrarian

Heather Cox Richardson is a professor of American history and author; her Letters from an American newsletter about the historical precedent or, increasingly, the unprecedented nature of our political landscape. Check out this interview about “what it means to be an American today, the joy of democracy, and history’s invaluable lesson: if we want to move forward, we must never shut up.” You also might want to check out The Democracy Index which is a new project from the newly launched Contrarian that will be “a tracker for understanding what is happening and why it is important, giving Americans the information they need to make up their own minds about this administration.”

Trump 2.0 and the Return of ‘Court Politics’
The Ezra Klein Show

Erica Frantz is one of the leading scholars on personalist regimes, in both their democratic and their authoritarian forms, where everything is a transaction with the leader, whether it’s party politics or policymaking or the media. Understanding personalist politics, and their tried-and-true playbook, is a way to help make the next four years legible. Erica is the co-author of The Origins of Elected Strongmen: How Personalist Parties Destroy Democracy From Within. In this episode, they discuss what personalist regimes are and how they operate, the personalist qualities of Trump and the signs of democratic backsliding that Frantz thinks Americans need to track in the coming weeks and years.

January 6 in Context—Political Violence, Attacks on Democracy, and Scapegoating the Vulnerable
The Stakes, Charles F. Kettering Foundation

In this episode, guests Alan Jenkins, Harvard Law professor and cocreator of the graphic novel series 1/6, and Alex Theodoridis, political scientist and UMass Poll co-director explore: how January 6 and rising political violence reshape democracy; the chilling normalization of attacks on minorities, including immigrants and LGBTQ+ communities; dehumanizing rhetoric as a tool of authoritarianism; and lessons from history on resisting violence and safeguarding democratic norms.

This discussion contextualizes the threats we face today, emphasizing the urgent need to protect the vulnerable and uphold the principles of inclusive democracy. A must-watch for all who care about the future of governance.”

Becoming Human in a time between worlds
In the Making video series

You’ll enjoy this video short by film-maker Katie Teague with interviews from many thought leaders who are helping to tell the story of what it means to be human “in a time between worlds.” There’s a lot of inspiration to be found in the full series of video essays with cutting-edge thinkers, philosophers, artists, and writers that you can find here.

How to Survive the Next 4 Years as an Undocumented American
Define American with Jose Antonio Vargas

Like millions of other undocumented Americans, Jose Antonio is trying to figure out how he’s going to survive the next four years. In this series, he’ll be seeking to answer a fundamental question: “How do you define American? When we start deporting people person by person, family by family, that’s the question we are going to be asking. In this first episode, he speaks with two exceptionally brave women who have devoted their careers to helping other undocumented immigrants: Patrice Lawrence, executive director of UndocuBlack and an advocate for undocumented and formerly undocumented Black immigrants; and Erika Andiola, a leading immigrants’ rights activist based in Phoenix, and currently serves as Communications Director at Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights.”

Loss, Shame, and the Rise of the Right with Arlie Hochschild
Next Question with Katie Couric

“Arlie Hochschild, a sociologist from Berkely, has spent a chunk of the last decade in ruby red areas of the United States. During that time she’s written two books: Strangers In Their Own Land, and now, Stolen Pride. Arlie interviewed dozens of people from Pike County, Kentucky–the whitest and second poorest district in the country–to better understand what’s happening in the rust belt and why those voters are so drawn to Donald Trump. In her view, it’s not just about the economy, trans rights, or climate change, but about loss, shame, and ultimately pride. Arlie invites us to open our minds and ears so we can learn about one another and begin to come together.”

The Fall of Any Dictator Reflects Badly on All Autocracies
Sky News

“Journalist and author Anne Applebaum joins Trevor Phillips to discuss the network of authoritarian states and the issues they pose for the West. It comes after the Assad regime which ruled over Syria was toppled by rebel forces. Ms. Applebaum says, ‘the fall of Assad as a blow to the alliance [of Russia, China, Iran etc.] – it may mean Putin doubles down on his war in Ukraine.’ “

From Selma to Montgomery: How Civil Rights Leaders Made Political Violence Backfire
Harnessing Our Power to End Political Violence (HOPE)

You don’t want to miss the recent video released by the HOPE coalition. “Selma, Alabama is cemented in American history as a place that sparked great change in 1965. But understanding how requires us to look back at the events of 1963. Follow as Sherri Bevel, co-founder of the Addie Wyatt Center for Nonviolence Training, and Rev. Stephen Green, pastor and founder of Faith for Black Lives, explore how leaders of the Civil Rights Movement made violence backfire.” If you’re interested in finding out more, or hosting a training session, you can sign up here.

A Matter of Survival: Meeting Unmet Needs and Building Power in Times of Crisis
The Kairos Center for Religions, Rights & Social Justice

You can re-watch Kairos’s recent webinar launching the new report “A Matter of Survival: Meeting Unmet Needs and Building Power In Times of Crisis”. The speakers shared insights about the authoritarian movement on the rise, shared how communities are responding to these conditions, including how meeting basic needs is forming the basis for long-term political organizing. They also discussed the relevance and power of cultural organizing today, and why it holds a different kind of potential in this moment.


This Is What a Digital Coup Looks Like
Carole Cadwalladr, TED

“In a searing talk, [investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr] decries the rise of the ‘broligarchy’ — the powerful tech executives who are using their global digital platforms to amass unprecedented geopolitical power, dismantling democracy and enabling authoritarian control across the world… ‘We are watching the collapse of the international order in real time, and this is just the start.’ Her rallying cry: resist data harvesting and mass surveillance, and support others in a groundswell of digital disobedience. ‘You have more power than you think,’ she says.

We’re experts in fascism. We’re leaving the U.S.
New York Times Opinion

“In this Opinion video, Marci Shore, Timothy Snyder and Jason Stanley, all professors at Yale and experts in authoritarianism, explain why America is especially vulnerable to a democratic backsliding — and why they are leaving the United States to take up positions at the University of Toronto. Professor Stanley is leaving [as] an act of protest against the Trump administration’s attacks on civil liberties. “I want Americans to realize that this is a democratic emergency,” he said. Professor Shore, who has spent two decades writing about the history of authoritarianism in Central and Eastern Europe, is leaving because of what she sees as the sharp regression of American democracy. “We’re like people on the Titanic saying our ship can’t sink,” she said…Their motives differ but their analysis is the same: ignoring or downplaying attacks on the rule of law, the courts and universities spells trouble for our democracy.”

Listening

Solidarity as Strategy: Building Power Across Movements
Solidarity Is This Podcast

“In this episode, co-host Adaku Utah speaks with Nikko Viquiera of Race Forward about the role of solidarity in dismantling structural oppression and building thriving, just communities. Nikko shares insights on weaving cross-issue strategies, deepening relationships, and sustaining a racial justice ecosystem rooted in love, equity, and collective action.”

Protests, political violence and its alternatives with Erica Chenoweth
Why is This Happening? podcast

“You’ve probably seen footage or photos of people protesting the Trump regime. Some data suggests that the volume of protestors is higher than in Trump’s first term. But at the same time, you might be wondering if we’re seeing enough civil resistance to preserve American democracy… Erica Chenoweth is a political scientist at Harvard [and discusses] historical and contemporary strategies for protesting, democratic backsliding, global comparisons and more.”

Exploring the inconvenience of systems thinking
Two Inconvenient Women Podcast

“Thinking in systems has started being given a lot of attention. But what is a system? What does it mean to transform systems? And what is systems thinking anyway? [In this episode, they] unpick the inconvenience of systems thinking by going right back to the roots and appreciating how this is not a ‘thing to learn about’ but simply how life works. We are all of us part of the infinite, interconnected systems and ‘thinking in systems’ simply means knowing and noticing the connections that we are a part of and influenced by. This is as simple and as profound as it gets.”

Antiracist Followership in the Civil Rights Movement – Ashton R. Cooper
Lead & Follow Podcast

In this episode, Ashton R. Cooper, an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati, shares his research on the participation of White activists in the South in the Black-led Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, as well as insights into the lead and follow role switching of White activists from a recent paper titled “Antiracist followership: rethinking social justice leadership in education.” As a researcher, he uses historical and narrative methods to understand and explore followership as it relates to disrupting systemic oppression and building diverse justice-oriented coalitions. “It is less about what we can do to lead the charge but instead turning to the people who are being affected and ask, ‘how can I be of service to you?'”

A Point of View: The Overwhelm
A. L. Kennedy, BBC

“The ‘overwhelm’ – noun, not verb – has been around ‘since at least 1596’, A. L. Kennedy discovers. She looks at the reasons why the word is making a comeback – and she has some advice for those who also feel lost in ‘the overwhelm.’”

Revolutionary Generosity: Ramon Ramirez on Building Multiracial Movements for Justice
No Matter What Happens: A Race Forward Podcast Series

“In the first episode this season, Eric Ward sits down with Ramon Ramirez—former Race Forward board member and Coordinator of the Race Forward Elders Network—to dig into what it takes to build multiracial coalitions in these tough times. Ramon shares powerful stories about Black-Brown unity, the wisdom of elders mentoring younger activists, and how generosity across communities keeps movements alive. They also talk about managing the fear that comes with political uncertainty: Name what’s at the root of your fear; take small, meaningful actions; find community—you’re never alone; step back from the noise and care for yourself; remember: history shows change is possible.”

How To Harness Your Citizen Superpowers: Eric Liu on turning fear into fuel for community-based action in the Trump era
How To! Podcast

In this episode, host Courtney Martin enlists Eric Liu of Citizen University to explain how busy parents, introverts, and first-timers like Connie can test the waters of civic engagement in the Trump 2.0 era—without getting sucked under. Eric is the author of You’re More Powerful Than You Think: A Citizen’s Guide to Making Change Happen.

Sharing Stories that Heal with Heather McGhee
Say More Podcast with Tulaine Montgomery

Don’t miss this inspiring conversation with Heather McGhee, the author of The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together as she explores how we can lift up stories that are meant to bring us together — that are a true representation of our country’s unity. “Learn how honest storytelling combats the false narratives that divide us.”

How to Stop Fighting Each Other and Start Fighting the System with Denise Padín Collazo
Conflict Decoded Podcast, Center for Callings and Courage

“Veteran leader in grassroots organizing and author of Thriving in the Fight: A Survival Manual for Latinas on the Front Lines of Change. Together they dive into the heart of what it takes to build a better world without tearing each other down. Denise shares her insights on recognizing habitual responses to stress, setting boundaries, and the transformative power of rest for leaders committed to social justice. The conversation also tackles the often-overlooked role of anti-Blackness in social movements and explore how to approach conflicts constructively so that our energy stays focused on the bigger fight – the systemic issues affecting our communities. Whether you’re a seasoned activist or new to organizing, Denise’s wisdom on thriving, connecting, and leading with compassion offers practical guidance and inspiration for the journey ahead.”

Solidarity is Hard
Reimagining Democracy for a Good Life Podcast

“Democracy flourishes when communities inspire and learn from one another. In this special chapter, recorded live at the 2024 PolicyLink Equity Summit, Hillary Holley, Kent Wong, and Alberto Retana discuss the evolution and power of local action in the South and in Los Angeles, showing how each community’s unique path fuels a shared fight for justice, resilience, and real change.

The Future of our Former Democracy
More Equitable Democracy Podcast Series

This seven-part series describes how Northern Ireland’s history and politics offer a blueprint for how the US can implement a better electoral system, especially in the wake of rising polarization and political violence. Developed by More Equitable Democracy, a racial justice organization working to advance racial equity through electoral reform, the series offers historical context, personal stories, and expert interviews, “to inspire listeners to consider radical changes that can lead to a more equitable and representative democracy.”

Rest, Resilience, and Joy in Tough Times
More PlayFull Than Ever Podcast

“Kristine Michie and a group of changemakers discuss resilience and joy post-2024 election. They share anecdotes, reflections, and strategies on rest, ancestral wisdom, and community in advocacy. This episode inspires and offers practical ways to make an impact, blending play and purpose.” Some of the insights include: joyful communal experiences strengthen bonds and inspire hope; rest as resistance ensures sustainable advocacy; ancestral wisdom provides grounding and strategies for modern challenges; and, role modeling uplifts the next generation, fostering a legacy of advocacy.

Can Dialogue Truly Shift Power?
The Power Shift Podcast by The New Humanitarian

“‘People need to be listened to, and when they come in with their own stories, that is a form of power,’ argues Lina Srivastava, Power Shift’s moderator and founder of The Center for Transformational Change. In this first episode of Power Shift, host Melissa Fundira, Adeso executive director Degan Ali, and Srivastava set the stage for conversations to come by highlighting how power inequalities prevent us from addressing humanitarian crises adequately and fairly, and by discussing whether dialogue can ever truly shift power.”

Reimagining the Cultural Narrative: Art and Storytelling for Systemic Change
The Great Simplification Podcast

“In today’s modern era, the overwhelming flood of information that constantly flows our way can leave us feeling disoriented, lost, and powerless. Even science – our most trusted source of truth – can be taken out of context to fuel division and distort the reality around us. In the midst of this confusion, how can we learn to ground ourselves and find guideposts that can direct our lives and work?” In this episode, storyteller and social thinker, Dougald Hine, explores the importance of narratives in shaping our understanding of the world and how they can help us navigate the complexities of life.

Adrian Röbke on Network Weaving
Making It Massive podcast

Adrian Röbke is “an expert in network weaving, the practice of connecting people, communities, and ideas to build stronger, more collaborative systems.” In this episode they “dive into the heart of network weaving—not as a trend, but as a vital shift from ego-centric networking to eco-centric community building. Adrian shares how unlearning dominant mindsets, embracing indigenous wisdom, and cultivating trust are key to weaving networks that can tackle our most complex challenges. He also announced the launch of the Network Weaver Game, a fun, quick, and interactive way to learn and grow your network weaving skills. This conversation is a call to build nourishing relationships, embrace collective intelligence, and reimagine what’s possible when we work as ecosystems, not silos.”

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