Newly-elected Republican member of Congress George Santos has lied about a lot of stuff, yet somehow the lies have only surfaced after he was elected. Some have argued that his story illustrates the importance of local journalism and that makes sense to me. I explore.

In this episode, I highlight one local news outlet I support called San Jose Spotlight.

Since today is MLK Day and we've been discussing voting and democracy in prior episodes, here is one way that you can promote voting and voter engagement: volunteering with Postcards to Voters. I'm a volunteer, so in this episode I'll share what my experience has been. 

Last time we talked about voter suppression in the US. We talked about tactics like reducing polling locations, reducing early voting, not allowing vote by mail, etc. Let's look at a couple of additional ways that suppression plays out: prison gerrymandering and felony disenfranchisement. 

In the episode, I talked about the Prison Gerrymandering Project by the Prison Policy Institute.

I also mentioned the book Let My People Vote by Desmond Meade, about the Amendment 4 fight in Florida to restore the right to vote for people with felony convictions.

Some follow up thoughts from the last episode. Let's dive in deeper to the history of democracy in the US and Brazil.

An insurrection in Brazil on Jan. 8th closely parallels an insurrection in the US from Jan 6, 2021. Why? I explore.