How We Build This

May Boeve talks with Annie Leonard and Andre Carothers, longtime movement leaders and co-authors of the new critically acclaimed book, Protest: Respect It. Defend It. Use It. (Patagonia), about why protest remains one of democracy’s most essential tools, and why it is under such intense attack right now. Anne and Andre trace the idea behind the book: helping people see that the rights and freedoms many of us take for granted Together, they explore the rising threats to protest, from vilification and anti-protest laws to SLAPP suits, regulatory harassment, violence, and self-censorship, while also making the case that solidarity is what helps people stay brave. 

Plus: reflections on The Story of Stuff, Rockwood Leadership Institute, worm composting, and the magic of getting a whole room to sing.

How We Build This is created and hosted by May Boeve

Producer: Phil Surkis

Theme music: ‘Within’, composed by Ruthie Dineen, and performed by Negative Press Project.

Instagram & Bluesky: @hwbtpod

Find us on Linkedin and Substack at How We Build this Pod. 

Thank YOU for taking the time to tune in and helping build the movement!

May Boeve talks with Sudha Nandagopal, founder of Bend the Horizon, a strategy advising and consulting firm that works at the intersection of climate, narrative, philanthropy, and governance.

Sudha traces her path from immigrant rights organizing with Pramila Jayapal and OneAmerica to transforming Seattle’s approach to environmental justice by asking a deeper question: who decides what problems are worth solving? 

The conversation lands on a powerful lesson for this moment: durable wins come from building with people from the start, practicing democracy locally, and creating the politics of possibility even in hard times. 

Sudha's substack: Black Sheep Chronicles

How We Build This is created and hosted by May Boeve

Producer: Phil Surkis

Theme music: ‘Within’, composed by Ruthie Dineen, and performed by Negative Press Project.

Instagram & Bluesky: @hwbtpod

Find us on Linkedin and Substack at How We Build this Pod. 

Thank YOU for taking the time to tune in and helping build the movement! 

May Boeve talks with Natalie Foster, co-founder of the Economic Security Project and author of The Guarantee: Inside the Fight for America’s Next Economy, about what it would take to build an economy where everyone has a floor beneath them. Together, May and Natalie revisit the extraordinary policy openings of the pandemic, the unfinished promise of the Biden years, the affordability crisis, AI, inequality, and California politics. The conversation lands on “hope punk”: the audacious belief that no savior is coming, but communities can still build something better with compassion, wire, and a stubborn commitment to repair.

How We Build This is created and hosted by May Boeve

Producer: Phil Surkis

Theme music: ‘Within’, composed by Ruthie Dineen, and performed by Negative Press Project.

Instagram & Bluesky: @hwbtpod

can find us on Instagram and Bluesky at HWBT Pod, and on Linked in and Substack at How We Build this Pod. 

Thank YOU for taking the time to tune in and helping build the movement!

May Boeve welcomes Ilana Berger, director of New York Caring Majority and Caring Majority Rising. Ilana shares how older and disabled New Yorkers, family caregivers, and home care workers came together to win major raises for home care workers, and why that victory still wasn’t enough. Together, May and Ilana dig into the fight against private equity’s takeover of New York home care, the mutual-aid “water cooler” spaces that helped people survive a broken system, and why care organizing is both deeply personal and politically transformative. 

How We Build This is created and hosted by May Boeve

Producer: Phil Surkis

Theme music: ‘Within’, composed by Ruthie Dineen, and performed by Negative Press Project.

Instagram & Bluesky: @hwbtpod

can find us on Instagram and Bluesky at HWBT Pod, and on Linked in and Substack at How We Build this Pod. 

Thank YOU for taking the time to tune in and helping build the movement! 

In this first ever Movement Dispatch, May Boeve offers a rapid-fire look at the political moment, and what it means for movement building. From a federal investigation into the Southern Poverty Law Center to the growing influence of the Supreme Court of the United States “shadow docket,” May connects the dots between authoritarian tactics, fossil fuel industry power, and attacks on civil society. May closes with a clear call to action: stay engaged, connect the dots, and get involved in one of thousands of May Day actions happening across the country by checking out MAY DAY STRONG.

Dig Deeper: 

How We Build This is created and hosted by May Boeve

Producer: Phil Surkis

Theme music: ‘Within’, composed by Ruthie Dineen, and performed by Negative Press Project.

Instagram & Bluesky: @hwbtpod

can find us on Instagram and Bluesky at HWBT Pod, and on Linked in and Substack at How We Build this Pod. 

Thank YOU for taking the time to tune in and helping build the movement! 

In this episode, May Boeve speaks with political scientist and author Hahrie Han, one of the leading scholars studying how movements actually build power. Drawing on her research, Hahrie challenges the idea that scale alone wins change, arguing instead that how we engage people determines whether movements succeed. They explore why quick, individual actions often fall short, how real power comes from relationships and collective capacity, and why so many people feel like consumers rather than participants in public life. From surprising lessons in faith communities to the urgent need for “democracy gyms,” this conversation offers a clear, grounded framework for turning outrage into lasting power.

How We Build This is created and hosted by May Boeve

Producer: Phil Surkis

Theme music: ‘Within’, composed by Ruthie Dineen, and performed by Negative Press Project.

Instagram & Bluesky: @hwbtpod

can find us on Instagram and Bluesky at HWBT Pod, and on Linked in and Substack at How We Build this Pod. 

Thank YOU for taking the time to tune in and helping build the movement! 

May Boeve sits down with Heather Cronk, longtime organizer and founder of Project 21:12, about her journey from deeply committed evangelical Christian and anti-abortion activist to queer progressive movement leader organizing against Christian nationalism.

Heather shares how a childhood in the South and years of rigid theology shaped her worldview, and then how community and lived experience slowly unraveled it. She reflects on the deconstruction process that led her out of evangelicalism, why so many people are leaving those spaces now, and how Project 21:12 is working to find, connect, and organize ex-evangelicals who often leave not just a church, but an entire social world behind.

Plus: Heather offers an unexpectedly practical hot tip for organizers who love a training plan but hate swimming. Skip the triathlon, try a biathlon!

Discover the archive of the The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)

How We Build This is created and hosted by May Boeve

Producer: Phil Surkis

Theme music: ‘Within’, composed by Ruthie Dineen, and performed by Negative Press Project.

Instagram & Bluesky: @hwbtpod

can find us on Instagram and Bluesky at HWBT Pod, and on Linked in and Substack at How We Build this Pod. 

Thank YOU for taking the time to tune in and helping build the movement! 

May Boeve talks with Tomás Garduño, organizer, strategist, and author of The Fundamentals of Electoral Organizing, about what it takes to build real working-class political power. Tomás traces his path from the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle to leading electoral work with groups like Southwest Organizing Project and, now, with Many Hands, an incubated project of Addition focused on organizing in under-resourced, often-red congressional districts.

Together, they unpack a core tension in movement life: why so many organizers are skeptical of electoral politics. Their conversation explores how mass mobilization, canvassing, city council fights, and elections all fit together, not as competing strategies, but as different tools in the same toolbox.

Plus: a surprisingly useful hot tip on mold remediation! 

How We Build This is created and hosted by May Boeve

Producer: Phil Surkis

Theme music: ‘Within’, composed by Ruthie Dineen, and performed by Negative Press Project.

Instagram & Bluesky: @hwbtpod

can find us on Instagram and Bluesky at HWBT Pod, and on Linked in and Substack at How We Build this Pod. 

Thank YOU for taking the time to tune in and helping build the movement! 

In this episode of How We Build This, May Boeve sits down with Chris Neff, a nationally respected labor leader, union builder, labor lawyer, and leadership coach. Neff unpacks how worker power actually gets built (and defended) in a moment of rising authoritarianism. She also traces her path from “seventies feminist troublemaker” to union leadership, sharing how she discovered the leverage of collective bargaining, and what it looks like to organize locally when federal protections are being dismantled. 

Together, May and Chris dig into the labor movement’s role in resisting Trump era attacks, why institutions need cross-generational succession, and how changing who leads can transform an entire movement. They also explore the delicate (but essential) work of building solidarity between climate and labor.

How We Build This is created and hosted by May Boeve

Producer: Phil Surkis

Theme music: ‘Within’, composed by Ruthie Dineen, and performed by Negative Press Project.

Instagram & Bluesky: @hwbtpod

can find us on Instagram and Bluesky at HWBT Pod, and on Linked in and Substack at How We Build this Pod. 

Thank YOU for taking the time to tune in and helping build the movement! 

In our first-ever live taping at KALW Studios in San Francisco on January 29th, May Boeve sits down with “power couple” Heather Box and Julian Mocine-McQueen, co-founders of The Million Person Project and co-authors of How Your Story Sets You Free, for a funny, heartfelt deep dive into storytelling as a tool for movement building.

Heather and Julian unpack why so many leaders default to “facts and figures” when what actually brings people in is values, honesty, and a story that says the thing. They share how they got their start in organizing, how parenting and movement life collide, and how they coach people past “I don’t have a story” (or “my story is too much”) into real ownership.

Then May gets meta, revisiting the cringe (and power) of learning to be vulnerable on the podcast, sharing wins, regrets, and lessons from 15 years in the climate movement.

How We Build This is created and hosted by May Boeve

Producer: Phil Surkis

Theme music: ‘Within’, composed by Ruthie Dineen, and performed by Negative Press Project.

Instagram & Bluesky: @hwbtpod

can find us on Instagram and Bluesky at HWBT Pod, and on Linked in and Substack at How We Build this Pod. 

Thank YOU for taking the time to tune in and helping build the movement!