This week, Nora and I unpack my reporting trip to Minneapolis, where vigils for Alex Pretti and Renée Good highlighted grief and resistance, and neighbors are building real-time community protection. We reflect on people moving from “How are you?” to “What are you doing?”

This week on @inthemeanwhile.bsky.social, @mhgreen3000.bsky.social and I talk with @brsoucek.bsky.social about academic freedom, the impossibility of institutional neutrality, and why turning campuses into corporate training centers undermines democracy. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

Today on the podcast, @janehu.bsky.social is joined by @mhgreen3000.bsky.social and @benkeenan.bsky.social to discuss what Seattle's looking for from our political leaders right now. They also cover Starbucks' new AI "ordering companion", and what to do this weekend. 🎧

I spent time with partners and families supporting loved ones impacted by incarceration. Together, they’re building community, making art, and modeling how we keep our humanity in inhumane times.

Ready for the Super Bowl!

This week on In The Meanwhile, Nora and I speak with Angelina Godoy of the UW Center for Human Rights about the accelerating cruelty of ICE. We unpack secret-police tactics, the weaponization of Washington state data, and why immigrant rights are an urgent legal battleground.

Thousands packed Garfield HS for Seattle’s MLK Day celebration, and it felt anything but symbolic. With civil rights under attack, people reflected on what honoring Dr. King means now: showing up, organizing, and continuing unfinished work.

Quite a quote from Texans LB Azeez Al-Shaair, who was asked about his STOP THE GENOCIDE eye black after today’s game www.usatoday.com/story/sports...

This week on the pod, Nora and I spin the news-cycle roulette wheel and land on America’s favorite coping mechanism: militarism. Joined by Michael McPhearson, U.S. Army veteran and head of Veterans for Peace, on how forever wars abroad get redeployed at home, and why being anti-war is pro-veteran.

Hard story to report...

When politics feels like a full-body stress test, we ask the real question: how do we defend democracy now? Nora & I talk with Hannah Fried of All Voting Is Local on how voter suppression actually works, and how people fight back.

@mhgreen3000.bsky.social explains: we all know what’s getting twisted in the narrative around the Minneapolis killing of Renee Good. Listen to the full episode at podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i...

Minneapolis knows this script because America’s run it a thousand times: decide the story first, drag in the “facts” later, and let the truth talk only as long as it doesn’t threaten power. Same playbook. Different victim.

Friendly reminder: this podcast is powered entirely by you, not ads, sponsors, or shadowy billionaires. If you like what we do each week (and would prefer we not fully emotionally disintegrate on mic), please consider tossing a couple bucks our way!

2025 felt endless, but it wasn’t empty! On this week’s show, we spoke with Alex Gallo-Brown about Seattle’s scrappy, people-powered mayoral campaign that beat big money, doomscroll despair, and establishment politics, and what it says about solidarity, democracy, and hope in the year ahead.

Trump ordered a massive military attack on Venezuela and the abduction of President Maduro. Let’s be clear: these strikes are illegal. The President does not have the authority to declare war or undertake large-scale military operations without Congress. Congress must act to rein him in. Immediately

Incredibly proud of my mother Cynthia who spoke at Mayor Wilson's swearing in yesterday, and who is quoted at the end of this article.

2025 felt endless but it wasn’t empty. On this week’s show, Nora and I spoke with Alex Gallo-Brown about Seattle's people-powered campaign that beat big money and establishment politics, and what it says about solidarity, democracy, and hope in the year ahead.

Just got out of the Stranger Things finale…and I’m pretty sure it just filed an official challenge to Return of the King’s world record for endings that absolutely refuse to end.

The podcast I co-host with @mhgreen3000.bsky.social is entering its second year with a slate of amazing guests and conversations. Somehow we’ve done this for 30+ weeks straight so far, and this project brings so much joy and purpose to my weeks. www.inthe-meanwhile.com

From the latest episode of the @inthemeanwhile.bsky.social podcast: Heather Cox Richardson on the quiet engine of American democracy, and how those pushed furthest from opportunity have again and again pulled this country closer to its promises.

Great dissection of the “alpha male” myth (aka a cultural phenomenon built entirely on deeply bad science and loud confidence). Real research shows power is built on cooperation, relationships, empathy, and social intelligence.

Holiday breather, but your brain’s still clocked in. We’re re-airing my convo with historian Heather Cox Richardson, and it somehow hits harder now. We talked about how democracies actually fall, why bad myths persist, and who keeps pushing us closer to the promise.

Kids dying from gun violence isn’t “normal,” no matter how often politicians treat it that way. We re-aired our conversation with Renée Hopkins of the Alliance for Gun Responsibility on how Washington is actually passing gun safety laws (and saving lives) while the rest of the country stays stuck.

And yet, 600 people lost their jobs for refusing to participate in the hagiography of Charlie Kirk...

How do we move from racial exhaustion to radical listening and speaking? Ralina Joseph speaks to @mhgreen3000.bsky.social and I this week about what it takes to have conversations about race in this moment, and why it’s so necessary that we continue having them. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i...

This week on the pod, Nora and I talk with Dr. Ralina Joseph (Racial Exhaustion) about why race conversations feel impossible right when they matter most—and how radical listening & speaking can keep us in the fight without burning out or rage-quitting society.

Looking for your next read? Creative producer @samjleeds.bsky.social compiled favorite Seattle books from @maxdelsohn.bsky.social, @mhgreen3000.bsky.social, and @janehu.bsky.social here: seattle.citycast.fm/guides/local...

Nora & I swap Thanksgiving horror stories before talking with Anand Pandian about why America lives like a permanent bunker. From gated communities to monster trucks to COVID denial, it’s part political exorcism, part reality check, and a case for choosing each other over fear.

Even MJ loyalists have to respect a man who’ll sacrifice a historic streak for the sake of his team... www.espn.com/nba/story/_/...

Since President Trump's second inauguration, the number of local police departments agreeing to coordinate with ICE has grown by more than 600%. Deputizing police to be deportation agents doesn't make us safer. Communities nationwide are fighting back. 

Today on the podcast: @janehu.bsky.social chats with @mhgreen3000.bsky.social and @lex.vaughn.theneedling.com about the pay gap in professional hockey, how Seattle deals with pigeon poop, and the holiday increase of porch pirates, with a radical idea: maybe stop ordering so much online?

This week, Nora and I talk about holding onto gratitude, forgiveness & connection when life gets complicated. I also share a tribute to my brother D’Marcus, a reminder to say “I love you” while it can still be heard. If you need a push toward grace, presence & love, this one’s for you.

This week, Nora & I keep the chaos of the news cycle short before welcoming historian Peniel Joseph. He breaks down Freedom Season, why 1963 was a hinge year for civil rights, and how those lessons shape today’s fights over voting, book bans & basic dignity.

Kubota Garden holds a kind of quiet magic for me, as it does for so many others. I was deeply honored to deliver the keynote at their annual celebration, and to share in a space that continues to nurture my community in so many ways.

Ditto, my friend!

25 episodes in. Nora and I are celebrating like any pair of exhausted optimists: looking back at the chaos we somehow survived: mutual aid sparks, Gaza truth-telling, billionaire clownery, working-class rage, and Mama Green’s democracy gems. Also yes: we’ve technically out-podcasted Obama.

What's responsibility of a transplant to assimilate into Seattle culture? @mhgreen3000.bsky.social and Eula Scott Bynoe discuss on today's episode.

Nora and I are back this week, fueled by caffeine, civic duty, and just enough hope to get through election week. Joined by Charles Douglas III of Common Power, we dig into Seattle’s slow counts, messy polls, and how to turn all that campaign chaos into real community power.

Fun to join @citycastseattle.bsky.social (for their third episode!) to chat about the early results in the Seattle elections along with one of Seattle's smartest reporters, @mhgreen3000.bsky.social. seattle.citycast.fm/podcasts/how...

This week on In The Meanwhile, Nora and I chat with Charles Douglas III of Common Power about what happens after Election Day—aka the messy, meaningful, caffeine-fueled work of keeping hope (and people) alive.

Mighty Krypto & I are taking a break from saving the world to remind you: the South Seattle Emerald’s free T’Challoween bash hits Beacon Hill tomorrow, 1–4 PM! Come for the candy & costumes, stay for at least one guy in spandex quietly rethinking his life choices. It’s gonna be super.

I'm not sure there is a single elected Dem who is taking the threat of white nationalist minority authoritarian rule as seriously as Sen. Murphy is.

This week on In The Meanwhile, Nora and I talk with activist-artist Nadine Bloch about No Kings 2.0, creative resistance, and why joy is one of our most subversive tools. As authoritarian creep turns to creeps at warp speed, she says: make revolution irresistible. open.spotify.com/episode/1OTY...

I’ll always have respect for my former reporting colleagues at The Seattle Times. The editorial board, on the other hand...

Come for the outrage, stay for @mhgreen3000.bsky.social's legendary story of seeing D'Angelo and John Mayer sharing a stage with The Roots. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

Chicago isn’t a war zone—it’s a mirror. It shows what happens when power tries to rule through fear, and how ordinary people answer with courage, care, and community. Nora & I talk with Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez about resistance that starts where you live. Listen: open.spotify.com/episode/0hlb...

Some eras search for truth. Ours is busy trying to gaslight it into extinction. Enter Magical Millie’s Courageous Journey, the Indigenous-led coloring book teaching kids that science, joy, and culture belong together. I wrote about the unicorn doing public health’s job, one crayon at a time.

Spoke to Sarah Stuteville for the latest episode of the In The Meanwhile podcast, where she laid out why major media companies don’t bite the hand that feeds them—they are the hand. Power protects itself, and that’s exactly why truth so often gets buried beneath the weight of profit.

I shared some thoughts in this piece. I’m very thankful to Marcus for writing this and to everyone who shared their thoughts and experiences here.