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.

When the news feels like a haunted carnival (panic at 6, Prozac at 11), who can we trust? This week on In the Meanwhile, Nora & I talk w/ Maggie Mertens & Sarah Stuteville about billionaire media capture, “toxic empathy,” & staying human in the headlines. open.spotify.com/episode/6jbR...

I screamed, howled, or cried the entire time reading this. These are some of the best quotes I have ever seen in local news. Incredible, must-read piece.

Who do we mean when we say “Black Seattle”? This mayoral race isn’t about personalities—it’s about whether symbolism becomes substance. What do “seats at the table” mean if the rest of us go hungry? My latest column for the @soseaemerald.bsky.social

This week on In The Meanwhile, Nora and I debrief a joy-sparking night w/ Stacey Abrams, then talk w/ Kashana Cauley (The Payback) on gallows humor, debt, policing + why “voter apathy” = despair. Plus: Reading Rainbow is back (yes, w/ Mychal the Librarian).

Can’t wait for the NFL’s moment of silence for Assata Shakur at this weekend's games.

This week on In The Meanwhile: vaccine whiplash, Trump’s “ass-head-of-men” moment, RFK Jr. running HHS like a crystal Etsy shop. Yale’s Gregg Gonsalves reminds us: public health is political + the cure is organizing. open.spotify.com/episode/2eWz...

Nora & I finally went there: democracy or dystopia, which needs fewer bunkers? This week’s In The Meanwhile w/ Douglas Rushkoff dives into billionaire escape plans plus how we fix it: cap the “more,” rebuild local, practice mutual aid.

"We can speak against political violence without somehow twisting ourselves around to defend others who spoke for it..." Great interview with Jeff Shartlet on @democracynow.org

Beyond grateful to @guyoron.net @veganpattyy.bsky.social and the Real Change team!

This week on In The Meanwhile, Nora & I talk w/ Renée Hopkins of @WAGunResponsib about the grim “normal” of gun violence, and the rare good news: WA has passed real safety laws saving lives while DC stalls on “thoughts & prayers.”

This was a fun one! And for those who missed the @townhallseattle.bsky.social event for my book Crowded Out, you can now hear the best parts via this week’s podcast episode!

Grateful to Real Change for honoring Florangela Davila & me with the 2025 Editorial Excellence Award for our work at the South Seattle Emerald. Thanks to all who’ve sustained the Emerald. This honor is yours too! www.realchangenews.org/news/2025/09...

This week on In The Meanwhile, Nora & I trace America’s collapsing systems + the oddball origin of our pod (zines, awkward poetry, a Town Hall that exposed GoFundMe as our “healthcare system”). open.spotify.com/episode/21tz...

Nora + I talk w/ Dr. Daudi Abe about America’s booming biz: ignorance. From slavery rebranded as “involuntary relocation” to PragerU in classrooms, we unpack how power weaponizes confusion. Funny. Terrifying. Necessary.

This week on In The Meanwhile, Nora and I talk with Dan McQuillan, author of Resisting AI, about how artificial intelligence isn’t “changing the game” — it’s stacking the deck. He explains why we must reject the lie that AI domination is inevitable.

Sharp context from @lukethomas.bsky.social on Trump’s move to send in the National Guard and federalize DC police, an escalation with deep political and historical implications.

On this week’s In The Meanwhile, Nora and I talk with Katie Wilson: mayoral frontrunner, public comment assassin, and Seattle’s worst nightmare if your politics come with a side of bottomless mimosas. Listen with the link or wherever you get your podcasts!

We made it through another week of The Horrors! To celebrate, we've got a special surprise: none other than Francesca Fiorentini @franifio.bsky.social on this week's episode. She's helping us laugh at fascists, call out billionaires, and teach toddlers to curse 🤩 podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

Beacon Hill’s beloved Homer reopens today. Beyond the celebration, it’s a reminder of what’s possible when bosses choose partnership over exploitation, and when labor is met not with disregard, but with dignity.

Crossed off a bucket list item in interviewing the Jordan/Lebron of political comedy, Francesca Fiorentini! She shared her secrets on how to laugh at fascists, call out billionaires, and still potty‑train a toddler, all in the same week!

I got to talk with @inthemeanwhile.bsky.social — a new podcast from the fantastic @mhgreen3000.bsky.social and @kenworthy.bsky.social — about why how we talk about health care is literally a life and death matter.... podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

The Oklahoma Schools Superintendent, a religious extremist, is in hot water after having porn on a screen during a meeting. I know 'separation of church and state' was never gonna happen with this guy, but I guess I assumed we'd at least get 'separation of school meetings and Pornhub.'

So grateful to have @matthewcort.land join us on In the Meanwhile this week to talk about the current moment and what it means for Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, etc. They remind us that there are still so many reasons to fight and stand up for each other. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

If your deductible is currently higher than your will to live, this one’s for you!

Between Musk & the Trump administration, Media Matters has been squeezed to the brink. In settlement discussions, lawyers for X demanded the organization hand over all its cash and shut down — all because MM reported ads appeared on X next to antisemitic content. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/25/u...

"Every major US city has a private foundation supporting police, with more than 250 nationwide. The foundations have been used to pay for surveillance technologies in cities like Baltimore and Los Angeles without being subject to public scrutiny, according to the report."

One of my absolute favorite conversations, with one of my absolute favorite people. Much appreciation to Gabriel Teodros for coming on the pod!

Friday has arrived with a banger of an episode! This week, Nora and Marcus talk to MC, educator, and organizer Gabriel Teodros about grief, art, & love in a burning world. It’s a convo on joy as resistance & solidarity you can dance to. Come for the rhythm, stay for the revolution.

This was a necessary and really enlightening conversation. Huge thanks to @karamdana.bsky.social for joining us!

This week on In the Meanwhile, Nora and I talk with Palestinian American scholar Karam Dana, whose new book doesn’t just explain Gaza: it calls out the lies, silence, and the people erased along the way. It’s personal, political, and somehow still hopeful.

Right-wing pundits are calling the new Superman movie a ‘beta cuck fest.’ That’s how you know it’s doing something right. Check out my full review of it.

"Conservative media has spent so much energy trying to convince people that Superman, of all characters, is anti-American that they've accidentally revealed their own vision of America: one where kindness is weakness, where immigrants are threats, where helping others is “woke ideology.”"

If cops kept us safe, America would be the safest country on Earth. So, why isn’t it? Journalist Schuyler Mitchell pulls back the curtain on how policing often reproduces the very violence it claims to stop.

On our latest episode, Nora and I chop it up with Schuyler Mitchell about broken reforms, police budget bloat, and why your neighbor with a first aid kit most likely has a better safety plan than the state.

This week on In the Meanwhile, Nora and I talk to journalist Schuyler Mitchell about how “defund the police” somehow turned into “let’s give them drones and matching riot fits.” Spoiler: both parties helped. Listen at this link or wherever you pod: open.spotify.com/episode/5qLI...

My mama!

Loved this conversation with @kenworthy.bsky.social and @mhgreen3000.bsky.social about relationships, autonomy, isolation, resistance, masculinity, and so much more.

Ultimately, this week's episode is a heartfelt discussion about how we show up and care in a time of rampant polycrisis and dehumanization. As an added bonus, @mhgreen3000.bsky.social and @kenworthy.bsky.social awkwardly try to impersonate Joe Rogan and Elon Musk. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

What if the most radical thing we can do right now is love each other better? On this episode of In the Meanwhile, we sit down with Dean Spade to talk mutual aid, messy love, and why your romantic partner shouldn’t be your entire disaster plan. open.spotify.com/episode/1SuV...