Baratunde returns to the How To Citizen feed with a conversation that sits right at the intersection of character, democracy, and what it means to citizen in this moment.

This episode features Baratunde in a live discussion with retired U.S. General Stanley McChrystal at the 2025 Masters of Scale Summit in San Francisco. The two dig into the responsibility of leaders in a time of democratic crisis, the historic norms around deploying the U.S. military inside American cities, and why character is not something we simply “have” but something we practice.

They talk about the...

This is our wrap of our Week of Citizening that I've been doing with Jon Alexander. We found 8 stories from across the U.S. — across sectors, communities, and divides — where people are coming together to make life better, together. See them all here.

See the visuals for this story and all our Week of Citizening stories here: https://linktr.ee/weekofcitizening 

Join our mailing list and share the stories you’re seeing. stories.howtocitizen.com 

The story is everywhere.

It’s happening in libraries, tech hubs, small towns, and fire-stricken neighborhoods.
It’s hap...

There is a model for how we rebuild and heal after the human-made disaster being inflicted on the USA right now. Welcome to Dena Heals—a mutual aid marketplace and wellness center born in the aftermath of the Eaton Fire in Altadena.

See the visuals for this story and all our Week of Citizening stories here:
https://newsletter.baratunde.com/p/this-is-how-we-recover-from-disasters 

This is our final story (for now) in the Week Of Citizening. Join our mailing list and share the stories you’re seeing. stories.howtocitizen.com 

When the 💩 hits the fan, we ar...

We head to Eliot, Maine, where a multiracial, multidisciplinary group of artists have reimagined what a conference can be. At SeaCHANGE, creativity isn’t an afterthought—it’s the starting point. The gathering opens with movement and dance. It invites deep connection through shared meals, collaborative workshops, and artistic expression. And it creates space for belonging, especially for artists of color.

Full video viewing options for this story plus links to the Instagram and LinkedIn versions: https://newsletter.baratunde.com/p/how-we-gather-is-how-we-citizen-7th 

🧭 More stories and updates: https://stories.howtocitizen.com

🎙️ This story series is a col...

Today we bring you Story #6 in our Week of Citizening. We’ve already shown you how people are rethinking democracy through libraries, labor, and school boards. Now we’re headed to a place often overlooked but brimming with democratic possibility: West Virginia.

See the visuals and links to all these stories here: https://newsletter.baratunde.com/p/dont-wait-for-better-leaders-become 

We’re told politics is about picking the lesser of evils. Ordering off a fixed menu. But what if we left the table… and headed for the kitchen? That’s what the folks behind West Virginia Can’t Wait are doing...

Today, we head to Chicago, where a civic gathering called Chi Hack Night is bringing technologists, designers, policy nerds, and everyday residents together to build a better city.

Access to visuals for this story are here:

https://newsletter.baratunde.com/p/we-found-the-anti-doge-in-chicago 

and that conversation on Life With Machines with Deb Roy is here

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/life-with-machines/id1766829040?i=1000703577941 

mRelief, a woman-led initiative that’s made it easier for people to access food benefits. Since 2018, it’s helped unlock $2 BILLION (yes, with a B) in SNAP s...

We’re told some people just need to be saved. But what people really need is to be needed. This community of young single mothers in Lexington, Kentucky reveals a version of this story.

Full video viewing options for this story plus links to the Instagram and LinkedIn versions:

https://newsletter.baratunde.com/p/young-mothers-asked-to-lead-and-they-did

This episode features Tanya Torp, Executive Director of Step by Step, a nonprofit that chose to stop assuming what young mothers needed—and started asking.

These moms didn’t just receive support. They shaped it. They request...

We’re told America is hopelessly divided. But zoom in—like, say, to a school board in South Central Pennsylvania—and a different story emerges.

Full video viewing options for this story plus links to the Instagram and LinkedIn versions:
https://newsletter.baratunde.com/p/proof-we-can-overcome-division-3rd 

This episode features Steph and Lance: one conservative, one liberal, both neighbors, both school board members. With the support of Urban Rural Action, they chose relationship over partisanship. Listening over labeling. Curiosity over contempt.

And the result? A school board that works. For the kids. For the c...

It’s Tax Day in the U.S., a moment when many of us think about how we fund collective life. So today’s story? It’s about layoffs — but not the kind we’ve come to expect.

See the visuals for this story and all our Week of Citizening stories here:
https://newsletter.baratunde.com/p/this-tax-day-solidarity-and-consent  

We’re often told democracy is too slow or messy for hard moments. But this episode shows that it’s exactly in those moments that shared power matters most. This isn’t just a story about layoffs. It’s a re...

Watch this first video story from the Week of Citizening on Instagram or LinkedIn: https://newsletter.baratunde.com/p/1st-story-libraries-are-hubs-for?r=204q7

What if every library in the world was a hub for citizening—a space where people could come together, tell their own stories, and build new ones? It’s already happening. And Cossit Llibrary in downtown Memphis is leading the way.

🎙️ Meet Ena Esco — Innovator-in-Residence for podcast programming. In a city that’s majority Black and shaped by deep economic challenges, Ena is turning a traditional library into a platform for power.

Inside this...

It's been almost two years, and I (Baratunde) am back with an experimental drop because democracy is something we DO, not something we HAVE (or don't), and this moment calls for that reminder. So...

I’m teaming up with my friend and fellow citizenist Jon Alexander (author of CITIZENS) to do something we believe is urgent and necessary: shine a light on the everyday people practicing democracy in extraordinary ways.

We’ve gathered a week’s worth of short, powerful stories from across the U.S.—people showing up for their communities, bridging divides, building somethin...

Welcome to a special bonus episode of How To Citizen. We are sharing Baratunde's appearance on the What Could Go Right? podcast, created by The Progress Network. Baratunde discusses technology, and specifically generative artificial intelligence, and how it might help or hinder human progress and how it aligns or deviates from our concept of citizen as a verb.

As always, find How To Citizen on Instagram or visit howtocitizen.com to join our mailing list and find ways to citizen besides listening to this podcast! Please show your support for the show by reviewing and rating. It makes a...

So much of the conversation around democracy focuses on the external: from elections and policy to protests and organizing. While getting active is important...what could happen if we ALSO turn inwards? When we shift our relationship with our insides—what we believe and feel and the unconscious patterns we act from—our world shifts with us. In the final episode of season four, Baratunde sits down with Source Code creator and former psychologist, Dr. Sam Rader, about how we can learn to citizen on a deeper level. 

SHOW ACTIONS

Internally Reflect - Recogn...

There’s no shortage of volunteer opportunities or organizations offering them. But how often are the communities meant to benefit from all of this volunteer work determining what help is truly needed, and which issues are most pressing? Christian Vanizette has spent the last decade building MakeSense, a global network of over 100,000 citizens and entrepreneurs committed to solving social and environmental issues where they live — bringing neighbors together to share solutions to address local challenges together. Baratunde met up with Christian in Paris to find out what it takes to move people from local volunteers to global activists, and to l...

Whether you’re a sports fanatic, or you’ve never stepped foot on a court or field—there’s a lot we can learn about citizening from the lens of coaches and athletes. To show us how sports can help us with teamwork, discipline, and a sense of play in our citizening efforts— Baratunde is joined by Steve Kerr, head coach of the NBA championship-winning Golden State Warriors and relentless advocate for gun violence prevention, along with Dr. Kensa Gunter, a clinical and sports psychologist, and Jamie Zaninovich, the Deputy Commissioner & COO of the Pac-12 Conference.

SHOW ACTI...

How we gather matters. A lot. And what is a nation but a big ol’ gathering of gatherings? Baratunde talks with Priya Parker, facilitator and author of The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why it Matters, about how we can use gatherings as a tool for strengthening our relationships by doing things together that invoke joy and have meaning. Listen till the end to hear Priya answer a listener’s pressing question during the live taping. 

SHOW ACTIONS

Internally Reflect - Gatherings & their impact

Think about gatherings in your life...

The intensifying political division and violence in our country is concerning — but it’s not unique. And few know that better than Tim Phillips. For 30 years, his organization Beyond Conflict has been bringing people from opposing sides of violent divides together to find common ground. He shares insights from their research into human psychology that could hold keys for overcoming violent division, along with lessons from Northern Ireland, South Africa and beyond to help us fight polarization here at home. 

SHOW ACTIONS

Internally Reflect - Try the 90-Second Rule 

Think about a time...

According to Ruha Benjamin, we’re living inside someone else’s imagination. An imagination that  limits our ability to build a more just, liberated world. So, how do we take back our agency and begin to seed something different? Baratunde talks with Princeton professor and founding director of the Just Data Lab, Ruha Benjamin to find out.

SHOW ACTIONS

Internally Reflect - Bear witness and create a ripple

This one is inspired from Ruha’s book Viral Justice: How We Grow the World We Want which says: “…bear witness to the weight of in...

It’s no secret that our economy only works for a select few. But what would our economy look like if we prioritized people and the planet, instead of profit? Economist Kate Raworth says it might look like a doughnut and to build it requires changing how we talk about, teach, and imagine economics. Baratunde talks with Kate about her theory of doughnut economics and how we can build an economy that works for all life on Earth—exploring how our small acts of consumerism can enhance or degrade a culture of democracy. 

SHOW ACTIONS

...

Imagine if the members of your group chat shared more than memes but also shared a bank account, or if the early users of a social media app helped decide how that app grew, made money, and moderated content. How does the group make decisions and make sure everyone is heard? Who decides how the money is spent? These are some of the questions Friends with Benefits (FWB), a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) has had to answer. Baratunde talks with FWB Mayor Alex Zhang about DAOs, online community-building, and Web3 to find out if the way we citizen online...

Instead of electing politicians to represent us…what if we just represented ourselves? Peer to peer. Neighbor to neighbor. Baratunde talks with Claudia Chwalisz about citizens’ assemblies—groups randomly-selected by lottery that are shifting political and legislative power into the hands of everyday people. Claudia is one of the world’s leading voices on citizens’ assemblies and founder and CEO of DemocracyNext, an organization working to build new institutions for the next democratic paradigm.

SHOW ACTIONS

Internally Reflect - Imagine life with citizen assemblies

Our reflection prompt is inspired by the DemocracyNe...

We all know that voting alone won’t save democracy. But it does help…a lot. No one understands that better than voting rights organizer Nsé Ufot. She’s the former CEO of the New Georgia Project, where she leveraged technology and culture to register 600,000+ new voters. Nsé and Baratunde talk about why voting still matters and how we can bring love into the ways we citizen together. 

SHOW ACTIONS

Internal Reflection - What Do You Love?

Take a moment to reflect on what you LOVE about your city, your county, or your co...

The stories we’re told & tell about ourselves shape the ways we act and how we citizen. And the story we’ve been living in for decades now is one of consumerism and self-interest. Baratunde talks with reformed ad-man and author of CITIZENS: Why the Key to Fixing Everything is All of Us Jon Alexander about how we can tell a new story rooted in community and interdependence. 

SHOW ACTIONS 

Internally Reflect - Tell a new story 

Think about the three stories – Subject, Consumer, and Citizen. Where do they show up in your li...

Saving our democracy isn’t just about registering people to vote, ending gerrymandering, and so on. It’s about getting back to the basics of living together well through micro, everyday moments. To kick off season four of the show, Baratunde talks with writer, activist, and fellow Virgo adrienne maree brown about how we can learn to practice democracy in every space we’re in and how our small, civically-minded behaviors in society create a culture that isn’t easy to shake. Stay till the end to hear questions from our live audience. 

SHOW ACTIONS

Inte...

The podcast for people tired of tuning into bad news is back with a fourth season and brand new ways to interpret the word “citizen” as a verb! This season we’re asking, how can the practice of “citizening,” in ways big and small, create a dope culture of democracy? 

We’re getting practical, sharing things you can try in your community, in your workplace, in your home, and within yourself. To help us, we’ll hear from people like adrienne maree brown, Steve Kerr, Priya Parker, Nsé Ufot, and you! Our guests and live audience will help us find ins...

In this bonus episode, Baratunde learns how data, well-defined goals, and a sense of collective ownership are helping those at the front lines of America’s housing crisis work to solve, not manage, homelessness. His partner in conversation is Aras Jizan, the Portfolio Lead for Data and Technology for the Built for Zero initiative at Community Solutions.  

Guest: Aras Jizan

Bio: Portfolio Lead for Data and Technology for the Built for Zero initiative at Community Solutions 

Online: Community Solutions website, Twitter @cmtysolutions, and Instagram @cmtysolutions

Go to howtocitizen...

Baratunde asks how can we citizen with tech when we disconnect millions from technology and from society as a whole by incarcerating them? He closes the season in conversation with two people who’ve served time for felony convictions and are now working in tech to expand opportunities for all: Shaka Senghor, author and head of DEI for TripActions, and Teresa Hodge, president of Mission: Launch and co-founder of R3 Score which changes how employers use background checks.

Guest: Shaka Senghor

Bio: Bestselling author and speaker; Head of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at...

Baratunde is reminded that “tech companies” are really just people and asks what it would mean for tech employees to think critically about their work and its impact and use that power to remake the industry from the ground up? He talks with Xiaowei Wang, whose work at Logic School helps workers answer those questions. They also discuss blockchain, rice farming in rural China, and tarot. It’s all connected. 

Guest: Xiaowei Wang

Bio: Lead steward of Logic School, author of Blockchain Chicken Farm 

Online: Logic School website; Xiaowei on Twitter...

Baratunde continues his journey to discover how we can embed more justice into the data driving our increasingly automated lives and focuses on the most intimate data there is: our DNA. He talks with Krystal Tsosie, an indigenous geneticist, and bioethicist who fights for data sovereignty and the rights of indigenous peoples to have agency over their personhood and knowledge.

Guest: Krystal Tsosie

Bio: Indigenous (Diné/Navajo) geneticist-ethicist at Vanderbilt University and incoming faculty at Arizona State. Co-Founder of the Native BioData Consortium. 

Online: Native BioData Consortium website; Krystal’s TED...

Baratunde knows what is healthy to eat or not, thanks to the required nutrition labels on our food. But how do we know the ingredients in the algorithms and AI we depend on are safe to use? Baratunde speaks with Kasia Chmielinksi about the Data Nutrition Project, which helps data scientists, developers, and product managers assess the viability, health, and quality of the data that feeds their algorithms and influences our decisions daily. 

Guest: Kasia Chmielinski

Bio: Co-Founder of the Data Nutrition Project, an affiliate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Inte...

Can we inoculate ourselves against misinformation and conspiracy theories in the way we do for infectious diseases? Instead of debunking, can we “pre-bunk?” Sander van der Linden, co-founder of Inoculation Science, has created games that offer to do just that. Baratunde plays one of them and speaks with Sander about online misinformation campaigns, polarization, and how we can better protect ourselves.

Guest: Sander van der Linden

Bio: Professor of Social Psychology in Society at the University of Cambridge, co-founder Inoculation Science, author of The Truth Vaccine (writing)  

Online: Inoculation Science websit...

Baratunde connects with Gen-Z author and climate activist Jamie Margolin, to see how this next generation is using tech to save the planet. He was surprised more than once by this 19-year-old’s perspective. She is the founder of This Is Zero Hour, an intersectional movement of young people fighting for a livable planet and co-organizer of the 2018 Youth Climate March. 

Guest: Jamie Margolin

Bio: 19-year-old Colombian-American organizer, activist, author, public speaker, and film & tv student. 

Online: Jamie’s book, Youth To Power, and her Twitter and Instagram; Zero Hour on Ins...

After a life of civic hacking outside the system through efforts like vTaiwan, Audrey Tang, now Digital Minister of Taiwan, speaks with Baratunde about how to use digital tools to include people in more direct, participatory, democratic practices and her design philosophy of “fast, fair, fun.” She shows how tech can help government be more responsive to and collaborative with its citizens. 

Guest: Audrey Tang

Bio: Digital Minister of Taiwan, open-source software contributor, poetician

Online: Taiwan’s Public Digital Innovation Space; On Twitter @audreyt and the hashtag #FastFairFun

Baratunde learns more about experiments in digital democracy. He speaks with Pia Mancini, cofounder of Open Collective, a platform empowering collectives and mutual aid groups with new transparent, decentralized financial tools that make local grassroots efforts more feasible than ever. It is a powerful example of how the use of technology can change the power dynamics and help people citizen together where they live and across the globe. 

Guest: Pia Mancini

Bio: Democracy activist, open source sustainer, co-founder & CEO at Open Collective and Chair of DemocracyEarth Foundation. 

Online: Open Collective web...

Esra’a is a Bahrani human rights activist and founder of Majal, a multiplatform organization that amplifies underrepresented voices in the Middle East and North Africa. She works collaboratively with technologists and designers across the world to create alternative digital spaces that are safe from censorship and trolling. Utilizing gamification and music, Majal’s platforms offer a safe space for people who face persecution based on their identity and politics.

Guest: Esra’a Al Shafei

Bio: Founder of Majal, Migrant Rights, and Mideast Tunes; civil rights activist dedicated to improving the lives of LGB...

Right now we interact with the public more online than offline. But these digital spaces are not designed with our collective wellbeing in mind. Baratunde speaks with Eli Pariser, Co-founder of New_Public, about how we are missing intentionally designed digital public spaces, like libraries and park spaces online, and they discuss New_Public’s NEW! design playbook for creating platforms that bring us together instead of tear us apart. 

Guest: Eli Pariser 

Bio: Author, Activist, and Entrepreneur, Co-Founder of New_Public 

Online: New_Public website; @elipariser on Twitter; Eli’s websi...

Baratunde has been sounding the alarm about the perils of Big Tech for years. In this episode, he breaks down his journey in tech and talks with tech expert and sharp critic, Prof G, otherwise known as Scott Galloway, co-host of the Pivot Podcast. They dive into Scott’s summary of what the hell went wrong, his recent argument that corporations need to start acting “as citizens,” and how this idea of corporate citizening informs his investment strategy. 

Guest: Scott Galloway

Bio: Marketing expert who specializes in critiquing the worlds of tech & busines...

Technology and its promise of a better world is a part of Baratunde’s DNA. In this episode, Baratunde reminisces with his older sister, Belinda, about their upbringing in Washington DC in the 1980s. They discuss their mother’s influence on his earliest experiences with tech that would someday come to shape this very podcast. 

Guest: Belinda Thurston

Bio: Yogini, tai chi player, Buddhist, African-Japanese American, journalist, speaker, motivator, number one sister.

Online: Just B Yoga website

Go to howtocitizen.com for transcripts, our email newsl...

Season three of How To Citizen with Baratunde is all about tech. Launching October 28th, we’re bringing you the people using technology for more than revenue and user growth. They are using it to help us citizen.

We don’t have to live in the futures shown in Terminator, Black Mirror, or Westworld. We can choose a different path. Instead of being used by tech, we can use tech to bolster our community participation, strengthen our relationships, and help us flex our collective power. 

This season brings you those...

If we’ve learned anything in Season 2 of How To Citizen with Baratunde, it’s that it takes a village, and by that, I mean the entire global community. From leaders of nonprofits, to Wall Street entrepreneurs, we need everyone to come together to build the economy we all deserve. And that even includes comedians. In this episode, we speak with fellow podcaster and comedian Hari Kondabolu about comedy’s role in shaping our future. 

Guest: Hari Kondabolu - comedian, writer & podcaster

Twitter: @harikondabolu

Bio: Hari Kondabolu is a comedian, writer & podcaster based in Broo...

“It’s hard to citizen when you can’t pay the bills.” This season’s theme has revealed the economic causes of our deep division and has opened our eyes to how our democracy and economic well-being are incredibly interconnected. This week, Baratunde weaves together lessons from across this season, discovers surprising takeaways, and revisits stories that have more in common than we expected when we set out to make this season. Listen to a virtual conversation among our guests that will reveal new insights. 

Show Notes + Links

Go to howtocitizen.com to sign up...

This week, Baratunde digs into the world of Universal Basic Income and Guaranteed Income, in other words distributing money, much like we do when we subsidize farmers or oil companies, but instead to individual households. Where does this money come from? Who gets the money? Will people still work? What will people even spend it on? And how on earth does free cash help our economy? Baratunde sits down with Aisha Nyandoro to find out what exactly happens when you give people in extreme poverty a thousand dollars a month, no strings attached.  

Guest: Aisha Nyandoro - CEO...

Workers have long been excluded from financial gains when businesses become profitable, and wages are no longer a way to create stability and build wealth. Cooperatives were created to combat this very problem. This week features Jamila Medley, the former Executive Director of the Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance (PACA), a co-op OF co-ops. PACA works to support this business model across industries, from food, to banking, to electricity!

Guest: Jamila Medley - Former Executive Director of Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance

Twitter: @PhillyCoops

Bio: Jamila Medley is a passionate advocate and educator for the...

Racism, exclusion, and unchecked corporate growth have trapped an entire class of people in poverty, no matter how hard they work. We call them the “working poor.” This week, workers’ rights advocate Ai-jen Poo shows Baratunde how it’s possible to work several jobs and still struggle to make ends meet — and how domestic workers are fighting for a future where all workers receive the dignity and fairness they deserve.

Guest: Ai-jen Poo - Co-Founder and Executive Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance

Twitter: @aijenpoo

Bio: Ai-jen Poo is the Co-Founder and Executive...

In 2021 it’s non-negotiable: quality home internet is something we all need. Our entire economy, along with almost all other aspects of our lives, relies on access to the internet. This reality is why many argue that it should be treated as a public good and operated like a public utility instead of run by a handful of corporations that leave many people underserved. This week, Baratunde sits down with technologist Bruce Patterson to learn how the small city of Ammon, Idaho gives its residents access to high speed internet through its own state-of-the-art, public broadband infrastructure. 

Gue...

In a future where we depend increasingly on Amazon, the fates of many small businesses hang in the balance. In this episode, Baratunde learns about a new model to help local small businesses compete with the online ease of ordering from Amazon. He speaks with whiskey distiller Marie Estrada, a small business owner who has pushed through the hurdles of the pandemic, while giving back to the community in ways that corporate monopolies just don’t.

Guest: Marie Estrada - small business owner, distiller, motorcycle enthusiast

Instagram: @motospirits

Bio: Marie Estrada left a car...

Our extreme wealth inequality isn’t just caused by economic exclusion; we are also struggling with the concentration of corporate power. Simply put, most of our money flows directly into the pockets of a few wealthy individuals. This week, Baratunde learns how it’s possible for Amazon to receive one out of every two dollars spent online. He speaks with antitrust reformer Stacy Mitchell who breaks down why concentrated power like this is a threat to our businesses, communities, and democracy.

Guest: Stacy Mitchell Co-Director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance

Twitter: @stacyfmitchell

Bio...

Imagine a land without landlords or racialized displacement. Sounds too good to be true. The East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative [EB PREC] is fighting for this future. Baratunde sits down with Executive Director Noni Session and learns how EB PREC is reclaiming their community, and building local ownership through real estate.

Guest: Noni Session Executive Director of East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative

Twitter: @NoniSession

Bio: Noni is a 3rd generation West Oaklander, Cultural Anthropologist and Grassroots Organizer. After a 2016 run for Oakland City Council in which she garnered more than 43% of t...

Everytable founder, Sam Polk, wants to change the way we do business by not only creating jobs, but going a step further to create wealth-building, ownership opportunities through a social franchise model. In this episode, we follow Sam’s journey from Wall Street tycoon, to nonprofit connoisseur, to social entrepreneur, and how he found himself with a new mission to transform the food system by making it delicious and profitable for everyone. 

Guest: Sam Polk CEO of Everytable

Twitter: @SamPolk

Bio: Sam Polk is the founder and CEO of Everytable, a social enterprise on a...

This week, author Heather McGhee breaks down the driving force of American economic exclusion via the swimming pool. Baratunde asks Heather about all she has learned traveling across the country to write her book, The Sum of Us. They explore the roots of wealth inequality, the true cost of racism, and why Americans have a zero-sum worldview - meaning progress for some must come at the expense of others.

Guest: Heather McGhee - writer, advocate

Twitter: @hmcghee

Bio: Heather designs and promotes solutions to inequality in America. Her new book, The Sum of Us...

In Season One we asked ourselves, what does it mean “to citizen”? How do we show up and stand up for our community? Coming off the heels of January 6th, 2021, Baratunde starts Season Two by taking a step back with the question, “How can we citizen with so much division?”. In this episode, we speak with author and filmmaker Astra Taylor who takes us back to ancient Greece and reveals how our political and economic rights are deeply intertwined.

Guest: Astra Taylor - writer, organizer, and documentarian

Twitter: @astradisastra

Bio: Astra Taylor is a filmma...

How do we wield our collective power for the many, not just the few, in order to live together even with our differences?

We feel the dangerous divisions within our democracy daily: the pandemic response, racial oppression, and political violence. In season two of How To Citizen with Baratunde, we focus on ground zero for these divisions: money, capitalism, and the economy. In a time of radical economic inequality, how do we citizen when we can’t pay the bills.

This season we explore the deep roots of wealth inequality in the US, learn how it...

Baratunde ends Season One focused on the state of our relationships, a key pillar of how to citizen, and thus the health of our society after the most contentious election in modern history. In conversation with world-renowned relationship expert, Esther Perel, they discuss how to repair relationships in this moment, and how choosing to listen and humanize each other is not only how to citizen, but enlightened self-interest.  

Show Notes + Links

We are grateful to Esther Perel for joining us!

Follow her @EstherPerelOfficial on IG or @estherperel on Twitter. or find more of he...

Baratunde reflects on Election Day and contemplates the record set this week for positive COVID cases recorded in a single day. He speaks to his trusted source for all things pandemic response, Dr. Michael Osterholm, and learns about the "pandemic of kindness" that Dr. Osterholm hopes will be more contagious than the virus in the coming weeks. Dr. Osterholm shares how he keeps moving forward despite the dire facts, and he wrestles with the injustice of people of color being disproportionately impacted by the disease. Listen to his weekly COVID podcast, The Osterholm Update, here.

Show Notes + Li...

Duration: 00:50:55

Baratunde wrestles with how to handle rising political violence in the U.S. by learning from a leading steward of strategic nonviolent action. Jamila Raqib, executive director of the Albert Einstein Institution, shares lessons on the superiority of nonviolent approaches to change, options for defending democracy against authoritarianism, and tips on what to do if a certain head of state refuses to leave office. Hypothetically. 

Show Notes + Links

We are grateful to Jamila Rahib for joining us!

Follow her on Twitter @jamilaraqib. You can learn more about The Albert Einstein Institute at https://w...

Baratunde learns to think about sacrifice and having skin in the game in terms of a ham, egg, and cheese sandwich analogy. Desmond Meade, founder of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC), reminds us that to error is human and the need for second chances, and how that reminder mobilized a grassroots citizen’s movement that transcended racial and political lines to restore voting rights to 1.4 million Floridians with past felony convictions. 

Show Notes + Links

We are grateful to Desmond Meade for joining us. 

Follow on Twitter. You can learn more...

Baratunde digs into the feeling of disconnect and neglect felt by the black community in Milwaukee during the 2016 election and learns from Angela Lang, Executive Director of Black Leaders Organizing Communities (BLOC MKE). They are changing what it means to get people politically engaged in their community, and it doesn’t start with knocking on doors, begging for votes two months before an election! Quentin Palfrey also weighs in on how data scientists and lawyers are uniting on the ground to stop voter suppression, especially targeting communities of color. 

Show Notes + Links

We...

Baratunde speaks with Sherrilyn Ifill, the President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund about the very long history of voter suppression, why it still exists (hint: white supremacy and racism), and the current tactics being deployed for the 2020 election.

Show Notes + Links

We are grateful to Sherrilyn Ifill for joining us. 

Follow her at @Sifill_LDF and @NAACP_LDF on Twitter. You can learn more about the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund at https://www.naacpldf.org/.

We will post this episode, a t...

Baratunde speaks with Maria Teresa Kumar, President of Voto Latino, about the power in numbers of Latinx voters and the work of relationship-building for this moment. Maria shares stories of what effective government looks like and its impact on the lives of the Latinx community. 

Show Notes + Links

We are grateful to Maria Teresa Kumar for joining us. 

Follow @mariateresa1 and @votolatino on Twitter. You can learn more about Voto Latino at https://votolatino.org/.

We will post this episode, a transcript, show notes and more at howtocitizen.com.

Pl...

Baratunde ignores the headlines about Chicago and heeds a listener’s advice to learn more about the South Side from a local artist who is building bridges in her community and literally helping people find common ground. Tonika Johnson helps us understand the pride that comes from being a Chicagoan and the root causes of today’s community struggles grounded in segregation and discrimination. Through her Folded Map Project, she is a perfect example of using art as a way to citizen.

Show Notes + Links

We are grateful to Tonika Johnson for joining us. 

Fol...

Baratunde calls out the adults that say, “The kids will save us,” but then underestimate or don’t support kids’ efforts to participate. Josh Thompson and Zoë Jenkins, leaders at Civics Unplugged, share a new kind of movement and organization that is setting a vision for the future of democracy in 2030 and showing us what Gen Z leadership can look like right now.

Show Notes + Links

We are grateful to Josh Thompson and Zoë Jenkins for joining us. 

Follow @joshuatthompson on Twitter or @civicsunplugged on IG or Twitter. You can learn more...

In this bonus episode, Baratunde follows up on an audience member’s question asked during the live taping of Ep 06 “Making Work Work for Everyone.” How can independent contractors or freelancers find their collective power to address issues they face as self-employed workers? What would that look like? Baratunde speaks with Mathieu Young, a creative freelancer based in Los Angeles who straddles all the employment labels from self-employed, to employer, and employee about the power of community and what the future may hold.

Show Notes + Links

We are grateful to Mathieu Young for joining us for th...

Baratunde wonders what today’s labor movement looks like and how workers are responding to the unprecedented consolidation of corporate power across all industries from tech to agriculture to retail. He learns how our economy and our democracy are impacted by these extremes. Saru Jayaraman speaks to the Davida and Goliath power dynamics in the restaurant industry, the origins of the $2.13 per hour minimum wage for tipped workers, and the progress of One Fair Wage. Michelle Miller of CoWorker.org reimagines how we can be agents of our economy instead of objects in the economy. 

Show Notes + Lin...

Duration: 01:03:53

Baratunde explores how, in the absence of national leadership, determined, newly-minted leaders are problem-solving and mobilizing people around them to protect and save lives during this pandemic. Danielle Allen breaks down what has ACTUALLY been happening with regional leadership and how she stays hopeful in the work of protecting all of us during this pandemic. Emergency medicine physician, Dr. Amy Aminlari, shares her experience standing up a Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) operation and finding community. 

We have an abundance of wealth and resources in this country, and yet, it has come down to very local and regional co...

Baratunde learns about mutual aid and local, distributed approaches to feeding ourselves during this time of crisis. José Andrés, chef, humanitarian, and founder of World Central Kitchen, speaks about the power of food to build community, and his belief that we can indeed feed ourselves with dignity in this moment if we have the political will to do so. Two representatives of the LA Community Fridge movement tell us about how neighbors are feeding neighbors and learning more about each other in the process. 

While COVID has exposed the fragility of so many systems including how we...

Baratunde builds off the last episode of his previous podcast, We’re Having a Moment. He speaks with two esteemed guests, Dr. Phil Goff, who works directly with police departments around the country, and Zach Norris, who works with communities, about ways we can reclaim public safety that don’t always need to involve the police.

Show Notes + Links

Find Phil @DrPhilGoff and visit Center for Policing Equity and @policingequity on social media.

Find Zach @zachwnorris and at zachnorris.com. Visit Ella Baker Center, and @ellabakercenter on social media. Also grab...

Baratunde shares the four pillars of How To Citizen. Eric Liu, founder of Citizen University, schools us on power - what it is, who has it, and how the practice of citizenship is empty without this literacy. They also discuss how this power needs to be coupled with civic character to prevent us from becoming finely-skilled sociopaths. Eric answers questions from the live audience and Baratunde gives you some ways to practice understanding and using power.

Show Notes + Links

We are grateful to Eric Liu for coming on the show and schooling...

Baratunde lays the spiritual foundation for the show. His first guest, Valarie Kaur, activist and author of See no Stranger, helps us go inward to ready our hearts and minds for How To Citizen. Welcome to the show! 

In December 2016, activist, lawyer, and Sikh faith leader Valarie Kaur, asked this question in her Prayer for America: “What if this darkness is not the darkness of the tomb, but the darkness of the womb? What if our America is not dead but a country still waiting to be born? What if the story of America is...

How To Citizen with Baratunde reimagines the word “citizen” as a verb and reminds us how to wield our collective power. With humor and empathy, Baratunde explores societal topics that affect us all, speaks with people using their relationships and power for the benefit of the many, and offers audience members ways to participate. With so much media focused on what is wrong with our society, this show focuses on what is right and how to build on it. Our democratic experiment is up for grabs, and we the people will decide, through our action or inaction, where we go n...