Block & Build

This week on the show we’re looking at how our strategies need to adapt in the coming months. First, we are joined by Senior Political Director for United We Dream, Bruna Bouhid, about their vital lame duck session advocacy. Then we take a bit of a longer view of what movement work needs to look like during the second Trump administration with Senior Fellow at Future Currents, LJ Amsterdam. Her soon-to-be-published report about the changing nature and strategy behind direct action holds some key learnings for all of us preparing for next year.

Connect with United We Dream by texting "Here To Stay" to 787-57

Get in touch with Future Currents for more info for you or your organization: [email protected]

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Cayden is joined by political strategist Waleed Shahid, to discuss the lay of the land that is the many…many hot takes and finger pointing that has been going on since last week’s election both inside and outside the Democratic party. Waleed recently laid out a really helpful typology on his Substack and we’ll discuss what we should we sit with and digest versus what should roll right off our backs. We’ll also assess how the Uncommitted movement played out through this election season and where we go next to continue the important work toward Palestinian safety and liberation.

Then Executive Director of Future Currents, Connie Razza, joins to talk about scenario planning and research work they’ve already been doing that can help us prepare for this treacherous moment. Find their recent report on how movements prepare: Getting Ready & Staying Ready: Lessons from 2025-26 Scenario Exercises

Get in touch with Future Currents for more info for you or your organization: [email protected]

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Lots of folks are getting tugged at by the “blame game” that happens after every election cycle. Instead of looking at counterfactuals, we want to ground in reflection and self-critique, as well as where trends are going and what we need to do next.

Cayden is joined today by a panel of folks we often look to when we need to think about what the hell is going on:

Learn about the Joint Resolution of Disapproval and how to contact your legislators.

Places you can connect to organizing work right now:

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We’re just a few days out from Election Day, so this episode covers a lot of ground. First we hear from Dusti Gurule, President and CEO of COLOR Latina. Dusti and COLOR are front and center in the campaign to pass Colorado's Amendment 79, which would enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution and remove a major barrier to accessing those rights by allowing public funds to pay for abortion services. Then we're joined by Rising Majority National Director Loan Tran, back to check in on the state of the united front against MAGA as we go into election week. And we have another report from the doors, this one from Ellie, a canvasser with Essie Justice Group, which works to harness the collective power of women with incarcerated loved ones to end mass incarceration's harm to women and communities.

Additional Resources

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This week, Cayden speaks with two people doing some deep thinking – and important organizing – that may point the way forward on how we think about the financial resources our movements need to win. First, he spoke with Vini Bhansali, the Executive Director of the Solidaire Network, a community of donor organizers mobilizing critical resources to build political power for movements for racial, gender, and climate justice.

Then we'll hear from Michael Gast, a donor advisor who’s working to surface the deep history of organizing the rich – and figuring out where we go from here. You can hear more from Michael at his substack Organize the Rich.

And we have more testimonials from volunteers with Seed the Vote helping you understand how accessible and easy it is to get out and canvass for the issues and candidates you care about.

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Van Jackson, a scholar of international relations and host of the Un-Diplomatic podcast, joined Cayden a few weeks ago to scope out the big picture of US foreign relations and what might or might not shift if Kamala Harris wins the White House.

Check out Van's show Un-Diplomatic on YouTube and Apple Podcasts.

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This week has been a difficult one for many of us. Looking back on the past year, it’s hard not to feel deep frustration, grief, and anguish over the way that the US has enabled Israel’s genocide in Gaza and further intensification of violence and expansion beyond Gaza to include the West Bank and Lebanon. It’s also impossible to ignore the ways that both Israel’s campaign and movement organizing has shifted the political landscape in indelible ways. More people in the US have been galvanized to act in solidarity with Palestinians and started asking pointed questions about our government’s blank-check support for Benjamin Netanyahu’s authoritarian government. Foreign policy, war, and peace have become important to this year’s Presidential election in a way that it simply hasn’t been in recent memory.

Joining today's panel to discuss how we move forward after this difficult year where public opinion is on our side, but institutional power refuses to budge are:

Additional Resources

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In this episode we take a deep dive into what some folks call the “Minnesota Model,” the organizing power behind the policies that made Tim Walz’s reputation as a progressive governor. While Walz tacked to the right in his debate with JD Vance earlier this week, there’s no denying his progressive record as governor of Minnesota. He signed legislation expanding free school meals, requiring a transition to clean energy for all Minnesota power plants by 2040, and codifying the right to abortion in the state.

These wins came from decades of relentless progressive organizing in Minnesota through coalitions of faith, labor, and community groups willing to engage with the messy work of shared governance. Joining Cayden to discuss the model’s strengths and complexity is Doran Schrantz, former executive director of the organizing groups Faith in Minnesota and ISAIAH.

Other Resources

Down Home North Carolina has links to a resource to support equitable relief and recovery in western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee.

Highlander Center is posting relief and recovery links to their Instagram from eastern Tennessee.

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Cayden is joined first by Publisher for The Forge, Miski Noor and Senior Director of Strategy and co-founder of The Action Lab, Andrew Friedman. We’ll be discussing their recently co-published report on organizing toward progressive power titled The Power to Win Report. Then I’ll be joined by interim Executive Director of the Kairos Fellowship, Jacky Brooks to talk about the ways big tech works to disrupt progressive and left organizing and the User Error series of reports provided by Kairos to teach organizers what to watch out for and how we fight back.

Other links

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On the show this week, Cayden is joined by Sandra Tamari, Executive Director of Adalah Justice Project, and Ramah Kudaimi, who is the Director of Crescendo at the Action Center on Race and the Economy, to discuss their new research project, Genocide Gentry, which exposes the intimate links between war profiteers and many prominent educational, cultural, and other institutions across the US.

Then, investigative journalist Jen Byers joins to discuss her reporting on the criminal cases being brought against a movement journalist in the Pacific Northwest for covering anti-fascist activists.

Resources from today's show

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