Anti Authoritarian Podcast

Following last week's elections, Scot and Sue are joined by Daniel Hunter, co-founder of Choose Democracy, to discuss how we respond to authoritarians emboldened by the election results. In the episode, they take a deeper look together at Daniel's recent post-election essay 10 Ways to Be Prepared and Grounded Now That Trump Has Won What (first published by Waging Nonviolence and then shared by Convergence). What should we be doing to defend our democratic institutions? What can we learn from other countries fighting the rise of authoritarianism in their borders? Daniel also touches on the transformative power of trusting ourselves and making space for grieving in movement work. 

Daniel Hunter co-founded Choose Democracy to help stop Trump’s 2020 coup, most recently writing What Will You Do If Trump Wins. He is a renowned nonviolence trainer, having worked globally as a training director with 350.org and working with ethnic minorities in Burma, pastors in Sierra Leone, and independence activists in northeast India. He has written multiple books, including Climate Resistance Handbook and Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow.

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Continuing this season’s exploration of how communities are fighting authoritarians, we turn the spotlight to Florida. Scot and Sue sit down with Dwight Bullard, Senior Political Advisor with Florida Rising. Dwight gives insights into what has been going on in Florida for the past 20 years and how authoritarians have captured the state. He shows us how authoritarian policies weaken public education and other institutions, and offers food for thought for the rest of us drawn from Florida's fightback.

Dwight M. Bullard is the Senior Political Advisor of Florida Rising. Leading the organization to bring political education and awareness to underserved and often marginalized communities, he uplifts people in a way that helps them determine their own destinies.

In 2008, he was sworn into office as State Representative of District 118 and was reelected subsequently. In 2012, Dwight was elected to the Florida Senate, where he served as Vice Chair of the Transportation and Agriculture Committees. He maintains his memberships in the Democrats of South Dade Club, the Ron Brown Democratic Caucus, 100 Black Men of South Florida, and many more organizations.

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Scot and Sue are joined by Rachel Carmona, Executive Director of the Women’s March, to discuss threats to our democracy and what building mass movements has taught her. How is minority rule undermining democracy and what must organizers and believers in democracy do to win? How do we create a big enough tent to allow room for disagreement, while keeping a shared commitment to defeating authoritarianism? And what’s up with the authoritarian bloc's obsession with the LGBTQ community?

Rachel O’Leary Carmona is the Executive Director of Women’s March and Women’s March Network. Rachel served as the Chief Operating Officer of Women’s March from 2018, transitioning to the Executive Director role in 2019. She oversaw building the infrastructure of Women’s March as an organization from a series of record-breaking mobilizations. Under Rachel’s leadership, Women’s March drove record turnout in 2018; anchored 4,500 nationwide actions in the United States, mobilizing tens of millions in 2022; and mobilized women in a pivotal 2023 Supreme Court race in Wisconsin.

Throughout history, the participation and leadership of young people has defined the success of movements for justice. The same is true today. Scot and Sue are joined by Alex Ames, a movement leader in the state of Georgia, to give insights into the experiences of young people and democracy. Why are young people cynical toward the democratic process in the US? How do social media and the rising cost of living create the conditions for isolation? What issues matter most to young people, and how do we bring more of them into the pro-democracy movement?

Alex is a student and community organizer based in Atlanta, Georgia. At 17, Alex founded the Georgia Youth Justice Coalition, which builds grassroots student power among a multiracial base of thousands. She led campaigns to defeat "don't say gay" laws, book bans, voucher bills, and racial gerrymandering, resulting in the largest public education budget in Georgia's history. Alex now trains and funds youth organizers at the Student Action Network for Equity (SANE) and directs youth organizing at the nationwide Partnership for Equity and Education Rights (PEER).

Scot and Sue have a conversation with Alan Jenkins and Gan Golan, co-authors of the graphic novel 1/6, which speculates on what could have happened if the insurrection on January 6, 2021 had been successful. After the insurrection, Alan and Gan were concerned with how quickly the nation was forgetting--and, more troubling still, reinventing history. They retell this history in a compelling way that can reach everyday people. It's not just the story of what happened, but of what could have happened and how close we came to losing our democracy. How can this moment in history be a warning sign and call to action for us all?

Alan Jenkins is a Harvard Law School professor, a writer, and a human rights advocate. He teaches courses on racial justice, strategic communications, and Supreme Court jurisprudence, and is a frequent commentator in broadcast and print media. Alan was selected as a Blacklist Google Screenwriting Fellow and named a 2022 top 25 screenwriter to watch by the International Screenwriters Association. Before joining the Harvard Law School faculty, he was president and co-founder of the Opportunity Agenda, a social justice communications lab.

The South remains the epicenter in the fight for freedom and equality in the US, and North Carolina specifically has been a site of fierce battles between authoritarians attempting to capture state government and communities defending the democratic process. Scot and Sue are joined by Serena Sebring, Executive Director of Blueprint NC, an organization helping to lead the charge against these authoritarians. How has North Carolina historically and presently been a battleground for democracy, what are real threats that we must acknowledge and navigate, and what are victories and stories of hope that the rest of the country can learn from?

Serena Sebring is a queer Black feminist, mother, organizer, educator, and the Executive Director of Blueprint NC. Serena also served as the Regional Organizing Lead for Southerners on New Ground and taught at North Carolina State University. Blueprint NC is one of the country’s premier people-power organizations that is working toward inclusive and anti-racist democracy rooted in civic engagement through movement building and mobilization.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform and share it with your friends. Don't forget to subscribe to the Anti-Authoritarian Podcast for more episodes on fighting authoritarianism and building the pro-democracy movement.

Scot and Sue are joined by Hahrie Han, an award-winning author and professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University, to discuss her new book Undivided: The Quest for Racial Solidarity in an American Church (Penguin Random House 2024). Undivided tells the story of Hahrie's visits to a megachurch in Ohio as it goes through a six-week program developed by church leaders to cultivate meaningful relationships across race and foster collective anti-racist action. Listening to the congregation and the participants she follows, Hahrie hears a powerful story about politics in the US and what we can do to protect democracy.

Hahrie Han is a professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University, as well as the inaugural director of SNF Agora, an institute dedicated to strengthening global democracy. She writes for The New York Times, the Washington Post, and The New Republic and is an award-winning author of four books. The daughter of Korean immigrants, she lives in Baltimore. 

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform and share it with your friends. Don't forget to subscribe to the Anti-Authoritarian Podcast for more episodes on fighting authoritarianism and building the pro-democracy movement.

In this episode Scot and Sue are joined by Laura Flanders, a media expert and host of the Laura Flanders & Friends show, to lay out the history of media in the US and the power the mainstream media has to frame issues. How has the media landscape changed since the civil rights movement, and what investments have authoritarians and their ultra-rich supporters made in media to give them the influence they wield today? What should our strategy and tactics be to  grow the pro-democracy media ecosystem?

Laura Flanders is the host and executive producer of Laura Flanders & Friends (formerly The Laura Flanders Show), which airs on PBS stations nationwide. She is an Izzy-Award winning independent journalist, a New York Times bestselling author and the recipient of the Pat Mitchell Lifetime Achievement Award from the Women’s Media Center.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform and share it with your friends. Don't forget to subscribe to the Anti-Authoritarian Podcast for more episodes on fighting authoritarianism and building the pro-democracy movement.

Over the past couple of decades, white nationalists and authoritarians have become growing threats to democracy and peace in northwestern states like Oregon and Washington. Lindsay Schubiner of the Portland, Oregon-based Western States Center joins the show to take us on a journey through history not only to learn how the situation became what it is today, but also to point out legacies of resistance and modern-day organizing. Lindsay specifically gives insight on the new threats from “active clubs,” networks of local white nationalist groups that train together and often show up to target and intimidate the community. What can we learn from the pro-democracy movement in the Pacific Northwest to build a super-majority and counter these active clubs around the country?

Lindsay Schubiner is Western States Center's Director of Programs, which counters the dangerous ascension of white nationalism across the country. She previously led advocacy efforts against anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim bigotry at the Center for New Community. Lindsay has served as a Congressional staffer handling housing, health, and immigration policy, and managed advocacy for sexual health and rights at American Jewish World Service. Lindsay has provided commentary for PBS NewsHour, the New York Times, and the New Yorker, among other outlets. She holds a Master's degree from Harvard’s School of Public Health.

Authoritarians and anti-democratic political elites attack democracy because a robust and equitable democracy is the ultimate regulator of wealth and power. But their bottom lines are drawn behind their own heels and in front of the toes of working families. So, how are they attempting to build a mass populist movement against democracy, popular enough to use the democratic process to take power?  By organizing down the class ladder to white workers; a move that use to legitimate their claim of being champions of "real" Americans. In this episode Executive Director of Standing Up For Racial Justice, Erin Heaney addresses the elephant in the room: how do we compete for the hearts and minds of white workers and build a counter-movement for progress and a multi-racial democracy? As executive director of the largest white anti-racist organization in the US, Erin shares the sometimes messy work of organizing in white communities that have been fed lies by authoritarian. How are race and gender weaponized to divide us, and how do we make the case that a multi-racial democracy means prosperity for everyone?

Erin Heaney is the Executive Director of Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), organizing in majority-white communities to undermine the power of the Right and bring millions of white people into multi-racial movement. She brings over a decade of experience running grassroots campaigns for economic, racial and environmental justice and building organizations to enable transformative organizing.