Alyssa Milano: Sorry Not Sorry

Our guest this week is Erin Vilardi. Erin is the Founder and CEO of Vote Run Lead, an organization dedicated to training and empowering women to run for office. Vote Run Lead recently launched Run 51, an initiative to help women run for state legislatures.

Our guest this week is Malcolm Kenyatta. Malcolm is a member of the Pennsylvania State Assembly and a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate election in 2022. He’s got an incredible personal story and an unparalleled commitment to justice.

Donald Trump and his regime posed a serious threat to the very soul of our nation. Beginning with Hillary Clinton's loss and continuing through Joe Biden's decisive victory, Isaac Dovere provides us with unprecedented behind-the-scenes reporting of the Democratic Party's fight to defeat Trump and restore America by retaking the White House. 

Edward discusses his new book Battle for the Soul: Inside the Democrats' Campaign to Defeat Trump, and the insights he gained while writing it.

“In the tradition of Theodore White’s The Making of the President . . . . A riveting account . . . filled with turning point moments. . . . Scenes jump off the page.”

SEE LESS 

As a direct result of the racist and hateful lies and rhetoric Donald Trump and his followers spread about COVID, violence and hate directed at Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in this country is on a terrifying rise. We've invited Varun Nikore, Executive Director of the AAPI Victory Alliance on the show to discuss this rise and how we can fight back against this hate.

I first met my friend Misha Collins more than twenty years ago. Since then, we've become dear friends and have worked together on projects on and off screen. Now that Supernatural is over, he joined us to talk about his acting, his activism, and what's next on his plate. I hope you love it! xo, Alyssa.

The Trump administration, with a complicit Senate, completely overhauled the United States judiciary-filling it unqualified and far-right extremist activist judges all the way to the Supreme Court. To discuss the impact of these appointments and what can be done about them, we’ve invited Tamara Brummer to the show. Tamara is the Senior Advisor for Engagement and Outreach for Demand Justice, an organization founded in 2018 with the goal of reforming and protecting the American judiciary.

Recently, the United States Senate failed spectacularly in its duty to protect democracy when every member of the GOP joined a filibuster against the For the People Act, a sweeping and incredibly important bill designed to protect our democracy. To talk about the bill, and what happens next, we’ve invited Senator Jeff Merkley to join us for a special live episode. Senator Merkley was the lead sponsor of the For the People Act in the Senate.

He is a stalwart defender of democracy and a champion of putting people ahead of corporate interests. As a US Senator from Oregon, he’s taken on Wall Street, Special Interests, and even his own party leadership to make sure that the American people always come first.

The nation’s capital has a population of nearly 700,000 people, and has no voting representation in Congress—because it’s not a state. But efforts to change this are heating up, and so we've invited Bo Shuff, the Executive Director of DC Vote on the show to discuss.

The District of Columbia is just like any community you would find in any other part of America.  As DC residents we raise our families, pay our taxes and serve on juries, we fight for our country in our nation's military and we work together to create a strong community in which our children can learn and grow. Yet, every day, every one of the 700,000 residents of the capital of the world's strongest democracy is denied the right to participate in that same democracy.

Not only are DC residents deprived of full voting representation in Congress, we are also subject to the politically-motivated whims of members of Congress from other parts of the country. Any law or budget that we as citizens support must be approved by Congress - a body that has more than enough trouble handling its own business. DC residents should control their own budget and be in charge of local affairs, just like any other community in the country.

The District of Columbia was created in the late 1700’s to help protect the original Congress from unruly mobs.  At the time, the area was sparsely populated farmland and swamp.  There is no way our Founding Fathers could have envisioned that their action would lead to the disenfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of American citizens in the thriving DC of today.

DC Vote fights for full and equal representation for DC residents through DC Statehood – nothing more than the same rights you enjoy today. And we're pushing to keep members of Congress from Utah or Kentucky or anywhere else out of our local affairs.

Please share our message with your network of friends and family and ask them to join us, too.

Together, we will make history!

Our guest this week is Mondale Robinson, my friend and a hero of electoral activism. Mondale is the founder and Principal of The Black Male Voter Project, an organization dedicated to overcoming systemic disenfranchisement of Black voters, and Black men in particular, in the electoral process.

Since the inception of the United States, Black men have been the recipients of inequitable treatment as it pertains to the ability to vote. And since the enactment of the 15th Amendment in 1870, the powers in this country have been exacting strategies to prevent the full enfranchisement of Black men.

These practices continue today in many forms, like voter ID laws, felony disenfranchisement, and misinformation campaigns just to name a few. Our goal at Black Male Voter Project is to increase the number of Black men who participate in electoral politics. The United States of America has failed Black men in nearly every aspect of social life and access to the ballot is no exception.

Our work is wherever Black men are, and the urgency is now. Currently in this country, nearly half of the Black men who are registered to vote have not voted in the last five consecutive elections. This fact should not be misconstrued as a critique of Black men, because we know that voting is a habit that is only formed when resources are spent on it.

For this reason, Black Male Voter Project exists. We have thrown out the traditional way of campaigning, because of its transactional nature and lack of ability to reach “brothas” where they are. In doing so, we have created a new campaign model that prioritizes an expansive approach to reaching Black men. This campaign model we named BMEP Additory Approach© is designed to eliminate the inherent skepticism, lack of voter mobilization, and increase the desire within Black men to participate in electoral politics greater than the causal relationship that currently exists.

BMEP stands for “Black Male Engagement Program” and Additory means “tending to add; making an addition”, thus the name explains our approach to engage and add Black males to the active voting demographic.

BMEP Additory Approach also requires more resources and acts as an alternative to the electoral narrative which employs Progressives, Party officials, candidates, and auxiliaries to prioritize the white swing-voter over Black men. This behavior is at the core of the neglect currently eroding trust between Black men and electoral politics.

At the national and state level, the focus has never been on mobilizing Black men as the base voter. That coupled with massive voter registration projects it is clear why Black men aren’t participating in elections at higher rates. While voter registration projects are undoubtedly important, without meaningful investment in mobilizing Black men these projects fall short. We don’t have a voter registration problem with Black men, we have a voter engagement and turnout problem.

The history of the United States is a story about the disenfranchisement of millions based on their blackness. More than a hundred years of violent voter suppression, poll taxes, literacy tests, and gerrymandering have created a climate that is nothing shy of hostile towards Black men that choose to stand up and be a part of the electoral process, even if that is just being a casual voter. So if the opposition knows how to suppress the participation of Black men, then our only response must be to support a campaign that reverses these ideas. The issue of low Black male voter participation can be addressed by dedicating oneself to reversing these neo-colonial ideas. So we have.