Friday Power Lunch

The June 21, 2024 Friday Power Lunch was a thoughtful and lively discussion on key issues we'll be addressing at the Women's Summit from exposing the politics of hate and rage for what they are to strategizing on how we meet the moment with innovative tactics and bold defiance.

GUESTS

SARAH STANDIFORD, Director of the Planned Parenthood Votes Campaign and Elections team, spoke with Power Lunch co-host Katherine White about the ongoing repercussions of the Dobbs decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, including the trend of states restricting access to reproductive healthcare services. They highlighted the coordinated efforts of lawmakers and courts to undermine democratic institutions and the importance of vigilance and activism in the face of these ongoing threats. They also discussed potential implications of a Supreme Court ruling expected the following week, which could allow states like Idaho to override the requirement that hospital emergency care includes abortion. Sarah emphasized the severe consequences of allowing hospital staff to opt out of care for patients in distress and the importance of long-term efforts towards protecting reproductive rights.

KYLE SPENCER, former New York Times contributor and author of "Raising Them Right: The Untold Story of America's Ultraconservative Youth Movement and Its Plot for Power" and Founding Editor of the Substack "Reporting Right - A Weekly Guide for Journalists Who Cover The Truth" spoke with Power Lunch co-host Finale Norton about her book on how the right is radicalizing young people on social media through a strategy of normalizing rage and relentlessly fanning the flame of division. The discussion focused on the origins and tactics of a new youth movement, the importance of grassroots organizing, and the need for increased investment in youth organizations. They then transitioned into a discussion of what we can do. They spoke about the necessity of collaboration among groups, the shift from a bystander to an active role, and the importance of exposing the actions and plans of extreme right-wing groups.

ABOUT THE FRIDAY POWER LUNCH

The Friday Power Lunch is a weekly podcast produced by the badass women of Network NOVA to amplify the voices of the Grassroots on politics, culture, and women making change.

To get tickets to attend the recording of the live Zoom program, https://fridaypowerlunch.com

The June 14, 2024, Friday Power Lunch is a discussion on what's driving education wars and their impact on schools, teachers, students, and public officials. We also talked about how to defend public education. The good news is, what we're doing is working!

GUESTS

JENNIFER BERKSHIRE, journalist and co-author of "The Education Wars: A Citizen's Guide and Defense Manual" explains the core issues driving the education wars and offered essential information about issues, actors, and potential outcomes. She also shares good news that our organizing is working.

LIZ MIKITARIAN, retired Kindergarten teacher and founder of STOP Moms for Liberty, tells the story of how Moms for Liberty was founded in her home town and why she founded this group to combat their anti-education agenda. Liz also discusses their successful efforts to stop Moms for Liberty and how they are helping groups across the country do the same.

CHERYL BINKLEY, retired high school teacher and co-founder of 4PublicEducation.org, explains the unique challenges facing school board candidates and how we can help them.

ABOUT THE FRIDAY POWER LUNCH

The Friday Power Lunch is a weekly podcast produced by the badass women of Network NOVA to amplify the voices of the Grassroots on politics, culture, and women making change.

To get tickets to attend the recording of the live Zoom program, https://fridaypowerlunch.com

The June 7, 2024, Friday Power Lunch was a series of conversations with people who are organizing the election their way.

GUESTS:

CAROLINE GLEICH is an American skier, mountaineer, and the Utah Democratic Party's nominee for Senate. She has climbed some of the highest peaks in the world including Everest/Chomolungma and Cho Oyu and is the first woman to have skied all the lines in "The Chuting Gallery." She is an athlete activist who brings the same grit and determination as in sports to fight for social and environmental justice. Caroline talks about her run for Senate in Mitt Romney's vacated seat and how she uses her athlete-activist perspective to reach young voters.

LISA LEIBOW is president and co-founder of The Scheherazade Project. Their model and inspiration is from the storyteller and activist, Scheherazade from the book,"The Arabian Nights." The story is about the Sultan who vowed to take a new wife each night and have her executed the next morning. However, his latest bride, Scheherazade, saves herself by engaging the Sultan's interest in a series of interconnected tales. For 1001 nights she tells stories that eventually sway the Sultan to repent his evil ways. Through her storytelling, Scheherazade saves the women in her kingdom and transforms the sultan into a good man and enlightened ruler. Lisa shares how the Scheherazade Project uses stories, told through words, dance, and music, to bring awareness to social justice issues and inspire change.

When SAMUEL SCHWARTZ's cousin was killed at the Parkland High School shooting, Sam realized he had to do something. He was part of the sit-in on the Capitol steps last year to demand a vote on the Assault Weapons Ban Act. This summer he is organizing a national bus tour, "Gen Z Tour to Save Democracy," to educate and engage his fellow Gen Z'ers about the November election. Sam explains how he and his team are traveling the country by bus to drive change forward by stopping in districts that could flip from Red to Blue.

ABOUT THE FRIDAY POWER LUNCH

The Friday Power Lunch is a weekly podcast produced by the badass women of Network NOVA to amplify the voices of the Grassroots on politics, culture, and women making change.

To get tickets to attend the recording of the live Zoom program, https://fridaypowerlunch.com

The May 31, 2024 Friday Power Lunch was the monthly national show. For this episode we are Rethinking/New Thinking: How we need to change the conversation.

GUESTS:

NED HOWEY (CEO and Co-Founder of Tectonica) speaks about his new book, "Fixing Our Democracies and Winning Elections in the Age of Junk Politics - A Guide to Transformational Campaigning" with national show co-host Susan Wagner

TERESA PURCELL (Founder, Rural Strong Network) speaks with co-host Finale Norton about why we need to change the conversation when working with rural communities.

LYDIA OZUNA (President, Texans Against Gerrymandering) and ALEXANDER MONTALVO (Founder, Texas Grassroots Alliance (TGA)) speaks with co-host Katherine White about how grassroots groups in Texas are joining forces to start their own Power Lunch show, "TGA: Grassroots Strong" to amplify the voices of the Texas grassroots.

ABOUT THE FRIDAY POWER LUNCH

The Friday Power Lunch is a weekly podcast produced by the badass women of Network NOVA to amplify the voices of the Grassroots on politics, culture, and women making change.

To get tickets to attend the recording of the live Zoom program, https://fridaypowerlunch.com

The May 24, 2024 Friday Power Lunch was our always popular "Hot Minute" candidate power hour. We were joined by almost all of the Virginia Democratic Congressional Candidates running in the June 18 primary.

We heard from the candidates in 3 groups.

GROUP 1 - Candidates in CD1, 2, 5, 6, & 9

• CD1 Herb Jones
• CD1 Leslie Mehta
• CD2 Jake Denton
• CD2 Missy Cotter Smasal
• CD5 Gloria Witt
• CD6 Ken Mitchell
• CD9 Karen Baker

GROUP 2 - Candidates in CD7

• Andrea Bailey
• Elizabeth Guzman
• Margaret Franklin
• Briana Sewell

GROUP 3 - Candidates in CD10

• Jennifer Boysko
• Eileen Filler Corn
• Marion Devoe
• Dan Helmer
• Krystle Kaul
• Mark Leighton
• Michelle Maldonado
• Travis Nembhard
• David Reid

Two Candidates were added at the end

• CD7 - Eugene Vindman
• CD11 - Congressman Gerry Connolly submitted a video because he was unabe to attend in person

ABOUT THE FRIDAY POWER LUNCH

The Friday Power Lunch is a weekly podcast produced by the badass women of Network NOVA to amplify the voices of the Grassroots on politics, culture, and women making change.

To get tickets to attend the recording of the live Zoom program, https://fridaypowerlunch.com

The May 17, 2024 Friday Power Lunch is a discussion on the grassroots and official campaign efforts to re-elect President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

GUESTS

SUSAN WAGER, Executive Committee of the Grassroots Collaboration Project, announces that the grassroots has a seat at the table with the Biden-Harris Campaign. The first order of business is to hire a grassroots liaison in each battleground stste to work directly with grassroots groups. This will be modeled after the highly successful Tom Souzzi for Congress campaign in New York. The grassroots liaison in this campaign coordinated the tactical muscle to write postcards, make phone calls, canvass, and coordinate events which produced a decisive win.

BETSY FIEBACH, Founding Member & States Leadership of the Women for Biden-Harris (WFBH) Grassroots Coalition, highlightS the organization's growth from a small group of 12 women on Facebook to a nationwide network with more than 800,000 women volunteers and state chapters across the country. Betsy discusseS how their members are supporting Democrats up and down the ballot to re-elect Biden-Harris.

Senior members of the Virginia Biden-Harris campaign team, TONYA JAMES, Virginia Political and Coalitions Director, and TYEE MALLORY, Senior Advisor, talk about activities that are being taken to ramp up the campaign in the state. Tonya, a long-time member of the grassroots community, shares that the grassroots always has a seat at the table in Virginia. They discusshow they are building a team of experienced professionals and opening offices across the state. The campaign will tailor resources and talking points to Virginia issues.

JOEL RUBIN, Virginia Beach political consultant, shares how he advises candidates to make political issues relatable by talking about them through personal stories.

ABOUT THE FRIDAY POWER LUNCH

The Friday Power Lunch is a weekly podcast produced by the badass women of Network NOVA to amplify the voices of the Grassroots on politics, culture, and women making change.

To get tickets to attend the recording of the live Zoom program, https://fridaypowerlunch.com

On the May 10, 2024 Friday Power Lunch, guests Andra Watkins and Kelsey Lawrence talk to show hosts Katherine White & Finale Norton about Project 2025: What it is, how it shapes today's Republican politics, and what we need to know in order to understand its implementation and impacts.

GUESTS:

ANDRA WATKINS (NYTimes bestselling author and founder of the Substack "How Project 2025 Will Ruin YOUR Life") explains how Christian Nationalism has infiltrated Republican politics as spelled out in Project 2025

KELSEY LAWRENCE (Save Samuels and Young Dems President, North Shenandoah County) discusses her 2023 fight to save Samuels library from book bans and budget cuts and how and why they were successful.

ABOUT THE FRIDAY POWER LUNCH

The Friday Power Lunch is a weekly podcast produced by the badass women of Network NOVA to amplify the voices of the Grassroots on politics, culture, and women making change.

To get tickets to attend the recording of the live Zoom program, https://fridaypowerlunch.com

The May 3, 2024 Friday Power Lunch was a discussion on "Location, Location, Location: the Geography of Organizing" with show hosts Finale Norton and Carrie Short.

GUESTS:

• LUISA BOYARSKI (Virginia Grassroots Coalition) gives a Virginia grassroots update.
• DR. JOHN FINN (Associate Professor at Christopher Newport University) discusses his research on the historical and ongoing impacts of racially discriminatory housing policies on urban inequality in Hampton Roads.
• KIM SUDDERTH (Community activist, former candidate for Delegate in HD 92 - Norfolk and the first Black woman to serve as Vice-Chair of the Norfolk Planning Commission) discusses how cultural awareness is key to being an effective organizer.
• MARGARET MORRISON (Lifetime social justice advocate) shares her provocative perspective on this important discussion.

ABOUT THE FRIDAY POWER LUNCH

The Friday Power Lunch is a weekly podcast produced by the badass women of Network NOVA to amplify the voices of the Grassroots on politics, culture, and women making change.

To get tickets to attend the recording of the live Zoom program, https://fridaypowerlunch.com

To save Democracy, we need to win in November. In order to win, we need people to register and vote!

This episode of the Friday Power Lunch focuses on different angles to register voters. We'll discuss finding the elusive unregistered voters, registering high school seniors, the importance of following up with newly registered voters, and using a new app that engages with people to vote.

GUESTS:

• Susan Labandibar (Co-Lead, Spring Blue Alliance) and Andy Liebman (Co-coordinator, Unregistered Voters Data Project) discuss Swing Blue Alliance's groundbreaking Unregistered Voter Data Project currently being tested in Arizona.
• Laura Brill (The Civics Center) talks about youth voter registration and their program for high school seniors, "Cap, Gown & Ballot".
• Debra Taylor (Red2Blue) shares how they serve as a back-office for organizations that register new voters by calling them one month after registration to assure successful completion of the application and then a GOTV call before the election. Voicemail messages are left for those who do not answer and calls are followed by a text message.
• Andrea Miller (Center for Common Ground) discusses about registering people of color to vote and the new voter engagement tool ActiVote.

ABOUT THE FRIDAY POWER LUNCH

The Friday Power Lunch is a weekly podcast produced by the badass women of Network NOVA to amplify the voices of the Grassroots on politics, culture, and women making change.

To get tickets to attend the recording of the live Zoom program, https://fridaypowerlunch.com

The April 19, 2024 was a conversation with election innovators who are leading the Democratic Party to victory this November.

GUESTS

• SENATOR L. LOUISE LUCAS (President Pro Tempore, Virginia's 18th Senate District) discusses prtecting the long-term interests of Virginians against MAGA Republican Governor Youngkin from the state budget to the arena.
• ANDERSON CLAYTON (Chair, North Carolina Democratic Party) represents the new energy coming into the Democratic party through vibrant state party leadership.
• ROBERTA THACKER-OLIVER (Chair of the Rural Caucus of the Democratic Party of Virginia) previewsthe May 3-5 Rural Retreat.
• CANDIDATE KEN MITCHELL (Virginia's 6th Congressional District) talksabout his strategy to connect with voters in this large and rural district.

ABOUT THE FRIDAY POWER LUNCH

The Friday Power Lunch is a weekly podcast produced by the badass women of Network NOVA to amplify the voices of the Grassroots on politics, culture, and women making change.

To get tickets to attend the recording of the live Zoom program, https://fridaypowerlunch.com