INDIVISIBLE CHICAGO PODCAST SHOW NOTES FOR APRIL 12, 2021

The most pressing issue we are facing the country at this moment is defending our freedom to vote. Forty-three states across the country have introduced legislation intended to strip that freedom from Black and brown voters. And Republicans in Georgia have gone so far as to make it illegal to hand out water to people in line to vote.

On Wednesday, April 7, 2021, Tom Moss and Marj Halperin co-hosted the Indivisible Chicago Alliance educational panel: Demand Democracy: Fighting for the Freedom to Vote -- a discussion about S1, the For the People Act, a sweeping pro-democracy bill that will ensure that ALL Americans are free to vote.

Guest included:

Dan Weiner is deputy director of the Brennan Center’s Election Reform Program, where he helps to lead the Center’s work on money in politics, election security, government ethics, and other democracy and rule of law issues.

More at brennancenter.org

Angela Lang is a community organizer in Milwaukee and executive director of BLOC: Black Leaders Organizing for Communities. More at blocbybloc.org/

Jonah Minkoff-Zern is co-director of Public Citizen’s Democracy is For the People campaign to build a national, grassroots movement to get money out of politics and ensure all voters have access to the ballot. More at citizen.org.

Barbara Arnwine is President & Founder of the Transformative Justice Coalition. She is a longtime activist for voting rights issues, and many of you will know her Voting Rights “Map of Shame” released in 2011, which exposed the new modern wave of voter suppression in the states. More at tjcoalition.org,

Learn more about how you can get involved at indivisiblechicago.com.

The podcast will be on hiatus until September. Have a great summer!

INDIVISIBLE CHICAGO PODCAST SHOW NOTES FOR MONDAY, APRIL 5, 2021

1. Number one, remove Trump from office. Check. Number two, demand democracy and the freedom to vote. To learn more about what's at stake, and what we can do about it, join Marj Halperin and Tom Moss on Wednesday, April 7, at 7pm on Facebook for a panel discussion featuring Dan Weiner from the Brennan Center; Angela Lang from Black Leaders Organizing for Change in Milwaukee; Jonah Minkoff-Zern from Public Citizen; and Barbara Arnwine from the Transformative Justice Coalition. Demand Democracy: Fighting for the Freedom to Vote. More at http://bit.ly/ICP_Apr7

2. Jennifer Nagda from The Young Center joins to discuss the current situation on the southern border. The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights protects and advances the rights and best interests of immigrant children according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child and state and federal law. More information at theyoungcenter.org.

INDIVISIBLE CHICAGO PODCAST SHOW NOTES FOR MONDAY, MARCH 29, 2021

1. As more people are vaccinated, the prospect of returning to "normal" creates a new kind of stress. Licensed Clinical Social worker and Erickson Institute adjunct faculty member Lili Gray joins the podcast to help start thinking about the stress of this next transition.

2. Members of Indivisible Chicago will recognize this week's guest. She has been a fixture at a number of our events, rallies, our events at the Athenaeum Theatre back when we were able to that kind of thing, and just last August at one of our Blue Mondays events on the Indivisible Chicago Podcast. She is a musician, an activist, a documentarian, and a runner for justice. Melody Justice joins the podcast to talk music, politics, and so much more. Stream her albums in all the usual places, or at melodyangelmusic.com. On Instagram @melodyangelmusic. Her non-profit is blackrevolutionarycollective.com.

Member of the DemCast Podcast Network

INDIVISIBLE CHICAGO PODCAST SHOW NOTES FOR MARCH 22, 2021

Most of us grew up believing that Democracy was unassailable —  that especially in America, Democracy was so embedded in our being  that nothing and no one could tear it down. The last several years have proven how misguided that thinking was. But there are reasons to be optimistic about the future. Benjamin Page, a professor of Political Science at Northwestern and co-author of Democracy in America? What has gone wrong and what we can do about it, joins the podcast to discuss the book and shine some light in the darkness.

INDIVISIBLE CHICAGO PODCAST SHOW NOTES FOR MONDAY, MARCH 15, 2021

1. Reflecting on all that has been lost over the past year, perhaps it’s the casual encounters with not-so-close acquaintances that will do us the most good. The article referred to is here: http://bit.ly/3exHQnf.

2. After a year of pandemic living, things seem to be looking up. This week's guests reflect on the year of living cautiously, with a look ahead to what we generally agree is a light at the end of the tunnel and not another oncoming train. Dr. Rachel Rubin is Senior Medical Officer and co-lead of Cook County Department of Health, and Dr. Ellen Mason is an attending physician at Cook County Hospital and adjunct faculty at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health.

INDIVISIBLE CHICAGO PODCAST SHOW NOTES FOR MONDAY, MARCH 8, 2021

_1. Distribution of vaccines is up. More and more people say they are going to get the vaccine. Consumer confidence is up. Biden remains popular with approval ratings the previous president never saw. Something we haven't been able to say for a long time: This week was a pretty good week.

_2. Indivisible grew from a Google Doc in December, 2016, to a going concern with an office, a cadre of employees, and a national network within a matter of months. The goal of Indivisible from Day 1 was to remove Trump from office. Mission Accomplished. So now what? There's still a democracy to protect, and progressive policies to enact, so the work is far from over. And that work is the topic of this week's interview with Indivisible co-founder and co-executive director Leah Greenberg. Find the new Indivisible Guide at indivisible.org.

INDIVISIBLE CHICAGO PODCAST SHOW NOTES FOR MONDAY, MARCH 1, 2021

_1. 2020 was such a bad year, it's hard sometimes to recognize when good things happen. But a few good things are happening. Articles referenced:

Michael Grunwald - Politico Newsletter - http://politi.co/3dPyOla

Zeynep Tufekci - The Atlantic - http://bit.ly/3ks45vQ

Tom Nichols - The Atlantic - http://bit.ly/3q0Uvkz

_2. Ann Williams is a longtime member of the state legislature, representing her Northside district. She has been key in moving all sorts of legislation on topics near and dear to our hearts including those involving data privacy, gun control, ethics and  accountability, and of course the Reproductive Health Act. She serves on a number of committees, and--key to our conversation about the Clean Energy Jobs Act-- she is the chair of the Energy and Environment Committee. We also discuss her role in the conclusion of Michael Madigan's tenure as Speaker of the House.

INDIVISIBLE CHICAGO PODCAST SHOW NOTES FOR FEBRUARY 22, 2021

1. To make American's lives better, we may need to end the filibuster. But Democrats always focus on the second part -- the process -- and not the first part -- the good stuff. We need to get it right this time. More about Hozier's song Nina Cried Power here: https://songexploder.net/hozier. More about Anat Shenker Osario here: https://bit.ly/37v0GH5.

2. A month or so ago, Mike Simmons had a full plate as deputy director of the My Brother's Keeper Alliance as the policy and urban planning consultant through his firm, Blue Sky Strategies. Less than two weeks later, as we record, he is one of the newest state Senators, appointed on February 6 to replace retiring Heather Steans. This week's guest represents the 7th, a diverse district that includes parts of Uptown, Andersonville, Lincoln Square, and Ravenswood.

INDIVISIBLE CHICAGO PODCAST SHOW NOTES FOR FEBRUARY 15, 2021

1. Indivisible Chicago Alliance Exec Director Darcey Regan joins to podcast to discuss our Valentines for Democracy project.

2. Renato Mariotti is a CNN Legal Analyst and the host of the podcast, On Topic.  He is the Legal Affairs Columnist for Politico Magazine, and has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time Magazine, and other publications.  We turn to Renato whenever we want to get into the weeds on legal issues, and he is our go to expert every time a president is impeached. Subscribe to his podcast, On Topic, wherever you get your podcasts. ontopicpodcast.com

INDIVISIBLE CHICAGO PODCAST SHOW NOTES FOR FEBRUARY 8, 2021

_1. The former President pushed the internet's tall tales, gaslit the country, and denied science and reality. And it took him a long way. But there’s evidence this week that fabulist thinking has its limit. The article referenced is here: https://nyti.ms/3jnYCp8.

_2. Many of us have any number of options for how and where we buy our food. Others, especially people living on the south and west sides, live as much as four miles from the nearest major grocery store. These circumstances are not just natural, but developed over time as a result of all sorts of influences -- from economic to technological to political. And these are the circumstances that are the subject of this week's interview. Andrew Deener is Professor of Sociology at the University of Connecticut and author of the new book: The Problem with Feeding Cities: The Social Transformation of Infrastructure, Abundance, and Inequality in America (University of Chicago Press, 2020).