Nerd Farmer Podcast

Leiter joined us to discuss the growing pressure nonprofits are facing amid escalating threats and enforcement signals from the federal government.

We talked about how bluster from the Department of Justice can shape philanthropic behavior long before any formal action takes place, and how those shifts ripple outward to affect the services nonprofits are able to provide in their communities. A big takeaway from this conversation: a war on not-for-profits is a war on the communities they serve.

Leiter is the Executive Director of Americans Against Government Censorship and a political strategist with more than a decade of experience in government, nonprofit leadership, and political campaigns.

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Guardian correspondent Jason Wilson joined us to discuss his reporting on Elon Musk’s new Grokipedia. 

The service, an online encyclopedia and purported rival to Wikipedia, serves up white nationalist talking points, pseudoscientific racial theories, and sanitized profiles of extremist figures. The encyclopedia’s articles are written by Musk’s Grok AI, which has its own problems with racism and pseudoscience.

Later in the episode, Wilson described how a new “transparency” feature on Musk’s Zombie Twitter (X) inadvertently exposed that many prominent “MAGA” and “America First” accounts had been run from abroad, including accounts operated from Russia, India, and Nigeria. 

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Republicans in Washington DC control the Whitehouse. 

They also control both houses of Congress, majorities on every Congressional committee, and they chair every Congressional committee. The federal government is shut down on their watch.

Marilyn Strickland is the representative of the tenth congressional district in Washington State which runs from Tacoma to Olympia. She joined us to talk about the ongoing government shutdown and the legislative agenda she and her party are pushing for in Congress.

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This episode is an audio voters’ guide featuring Evelyn and Joe Lopez from Crossing Division: Tacoma’s Talk Show.

We covered the following races in this episode: Tacoma Mayor, Tacoma City Council, Tacoma Civil Service Board, Tacoma School Board, and the Metro Parks (Parks Tacoma) Board. 

Note: Please vote early! Election day is November 4, but if you drop your ballot in the US Mail there could be delays due to the federal shut down. Drop your ballot in a ballot box, or make sure it is postmarked before Nov. 4.

Over on Crossing Division there’s also a conversation about the people running for the County Charter Commission.

Going Further & Related Episodes

Let’s Talk About the 2025 Election–Part 1, Crossing Division and Nerd Farmer Voters Guide

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This week we welcome back Azeri dissident journalist Sevinc Osmanqizi, joining us for her third appearance on the show. Sevinc is one of the most prominent independent voices covering Azerbaijan and has a massive Azeri language YouTube Channel with over 600k followers.

When news broke that Armenia and Azerbaijan had reached an agreement many see as the formal end to their decades-long dispute over Nagorno-Karabakh, Sevinc was the first person I wanted to hear from.

In this conversation, she helped me unpack what the deal actually means on the ground, how it’s being received in both countries, and where the region might be headed from here.

But most passionately she talked about the destructive role of Russia in region.

Tap in.

Cast of Characters

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In July, a flood ripped through Kerr County, Texas, killing at least 104 people and leaving the community devastated. Federal emergency assistance was nowhere to be seen and then feckless when it finally arrived, a small-scale replay of Katrina. The response was further hampered by a fragmented media environment that left communities scrambling for reliable information, and by the Trump administration’s politicization of the disaster. Local officials gave angry press conferences while F.E.M.A., weakened by budget cuts, wasn’t up to the task.

Given the twin pressures of climate change and political dysfunction, this is likely our future. 

That is the impetus for this conversation about community-based natural hazard preparedness. Note that intentional language choice. As our guest, Dave Clark from Factal, points out, people in emergency management are increasingly pivoting to this framing. The idea is that incidents like these should no longer be treated as unforeseeable disasters, but as hazards we all need to prepare for.

And as a reminder for folks in Tacoma, our city sits on a fault line and in the shadow of a volcano.

Cast of Characters

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We’re closing out the summer with another edition of the Tacoma Small Business Series. This episode features Chris Langston of Proof, a new-ish cocktail lounge in Old Town. Chris was previously the mind behind en Rama, Hilltop Kitchen, and 1022 South J.

Chris is a great dude. He brings an apothecary approach to cocktails and has been serving up premium hooch in the city for nearly twenty years.

In this conversation he talks about the origins of Proof and some lessons learned from his time in the service industry.

Proof is located at 2312 N 30th in Old Town.

Cast of Characters

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Halley returned as our most frequent guest, joined by Trayton for his third book club appearance, to take on How to Stand Up to a Dictator by Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa. We started with our entry points: what drew each of us to the book, what readers should know about Ressa’s career and work, and why her story felt urgent in this moment. Trayton gave a concise overview for those who hadn’t read it, and from there we compared first impressions—where the book was most effective and where it came up short.

The discussion then turned to the details: the passages that stayed with us, the impact of Ressa choosing memoir as her form, and the ways her ideas connected to our own lives. We also explored the limits of the text and pointed listeners toward other works worth reading alongside it for anyone concerned with disinformation, democracy, and resisting authoritarianism. 

It is a thoughtful conversation about the stakes of truth and the courage required to defend it.

Cast of Characters

Going Further 

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Lisa Keating is an advocate for student well-being and making sure schools in Tacoma are welcoming to all students. This fall she is running for re-election. In this conversation, we looked back on her first campaign, how the pandemic has shaped the last half decade of schooling in Tacoma, the $30 million shortfall the district faced in the spring, and the work ahead for the school board.

Keating was elected to the Tacoma School Board in 2019. 

Cast of Characters: Lisa Keating – Campaign Website

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Jordan Harper is an award winning writer, born and raised in the Ozarks, now based in Los Angeles. 

Most widely known for award-winning novel She Rides Shotgun and his other crime fiction, he previously worked as a music and film critic. His works explore the LA underworld, its associated violence, and are populated with complex, nuanced characters.  

Other Works

Cast of Characters: Jordan Harper – Bluesky

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