Town Hall Seattle Civics Series

Has it ever felt like the planet is burning, shared reality is melting, and a new iteration of the extreme is on the march? In their new book, End Times Fascism and the Fight for the Living World, activists and authors Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor help readers not only understand this development, but how to resist it.

Offering a scathing assessment of the contemporary scene, Klein and Taylor explore how religious fundamentalists, Silicon Valley technologists, and ethno-nationalists make up an apocalyptic alliance that share more than one might think: they are united in the belief that some kind of cleansing cataclysm is coming, whether through the manifestation of messianic prophecy, the rampages of artificial intelligence, or the purported existential threat of immigration and cultural replacement. Klein and Taylor contend that rather than avoiding this conflagration, this group welcomes it, convinced they will be among the saved on the other side.

"End Times Fascism" is the ideology of the actors who strive to make the world unlivable and then seek to protect themselves from the fallout — whether by retreating to luxurious private islands, rocketing off to Mars, or bunkering the nation to keep their enemies at bay. The new survivalists have accumulated power, but they are far from impregnable. As Klein and Taylor show via original reporting and analysis, their many internal conflicts, contradictions, and nihilistic inability to envision a shared future leave them vulnerable to a new kind of politics — rooted in reverence for our shared existence and regard for the earth we inhabit and must protect.

Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker, and the bestselling author of Doppelganger, No Logo, The Shock Doctrine, and other classic books, which have been translated into thirty-five languages. She is an associate professor of geography and a codirector of the Centre for Climate Justice at the University of British Columbia, and she writes a regular column for The Guardian. Doppelganger won the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction and was named one of the ten best books of the year by New York, Slate, and Time.

Astra Taylor is an award-winning writer, activist, and documentarian, and co-founder of the Debt Collective. She is the author of The People's Platform, which won the American Book Award; Democracy May Not Exist, but We'll Miss It When It's Gone; and The Age of Insecurity. Taylor regularly writes for publications including The New Yorker and The New York Times. Taylor toured with the band Neutral Milk Hotel and was the 2023 CBC Massey Lecturer.

Katie B. Wilson is the Mayor of Seattle, taking office in January 2026. A longtime transit advocate and community organizer, Wilson co-founded the Transit Riders Union and then led the organization for over a decade, during which time she had extraordinary success building coalitions to win better transit, affordable fares, higher wages, stronger renter protections, and new progressive revenue. Wilson approaches the role of Mayor from the perspective of a coalition builder and has assembled a diverse and experienced team ready to deliver responsible, effective governance and make progress on our city's biggest challenges. She rents an apartment in Capitol Hill which she shares with her husband and young daughter.

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A decade after the Panama Papers exposed the hidden world of offshore finance, the investigation's consequences continue to unfold. Governments have recovered at least $1.4 billion, transparency laws have changed, and investigative journalism has been transformed. But financial secrecy has evolved alongside these reforms.

Join Gerard Ryle, executive director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, for a conversation with financial crime expert Jas Randhawa about the investigation that reshaped public understanding of offshore finance and sparked arrests, legislation and political resignations. Together, they'll examine how secrecy influences markets and erodes public trust, why transparency is democracy's best defense against corruption and what leaders across industries can learn from one of the largest collaborative investigations ever undertaken.

Gerard Ryle is executive director of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, the nonprofit global newsroom behind the Panama Papers investigation, which won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism and helped establish a new model for collaborative cross-border reporting. Under his leadership, ICIJ has expanded its global network and has continued to expose corruption, injustice and abuses of power around the world through investigations including the Pandora Papers, Cyprus Confidential, China Targets, The Coin Laundry and Cancer Calculus. ICIJ's reporting has prompted criminal investigations, policy reforms and the recovery of more than $1.4 billion in tax dollars.

In 2021, ICIJ was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of its groundbreaking collaborative investigations, including the Panama Papers and Pandora Papers, which exposed corruption, financial secrecy and illicit money flows around the world.

Jas Randhawa is managing partner at StrategyBRIX, a boutique risk and compliance consulting firm. Previously, he led financial crimes and compliance at leading fintechs including Stripe and Airwallex. At PwC, he built and led the firm's financial crimes practice across the U.S. West Coast. As a member of the Bank Secrecy Act Advisory Group, he advised the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network on digital identity verification, know-your-customer requirements and advanced technologies to combat financial crime. Jas is a frequent speaker at industry events, a member of the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists and an executive committee member of the West Coast AML Forum.

They were perhaps an unlikely trio: the professor Leah Stokes, the policy wonk Sonia Aggarwal in the White House, and the DC insider Adrian Deveny in the Senate, but together, they crafted the boldest climate legislation of our time. In her newest book, The Carbon Wave, Leah Stokes chronicles the turbulent path of their climate bill as it veered between breakthrough and collapse — from the hopeful beginnings of the Green New Deal in 2018, to the bill's near-certain defeat by Senator Joe Manchin in the winter of 2021, to the surprise passage of the landmark legislation in August 2022. During this critical time, the author was pregnant, or in the NICU with her premature twins, and Aggarwal and Deveny were new parents too.

Interlacing personal narratives with stories from Congress, the White House, and outside activists, Stokes shows how dogged perseverance and collective action can still bend the course of history. The book concludes with an update from the second Trump administration, explaining the parts of the bill that were — and were not — rolled back, and why we should remain hopeful that progress is still being made.

Everyone has been told to shrink their carbon footprint and lighten their load on our planet by changing their behavior. But what if instead of making ourselves smaller, we joined with others to maximize our impact?

Leah C. Stokes is Anton Vonk Associate Professor of Environmental Politics at UC Santa Barbara. As a leading climate advocate, she has championed climate policy in the United States at all levels of government and was selected for Time Magazine's Time100 Next list and Business Insider's top 30 global climate leaders. A recipient of a Harvard University Radcliffe Fellowship, she is the author of the award-winning Short Circuiting Policy, which was listed as one of the top 5 climate books in 2020 by The New York Times.

David Roberts is the owner and writer of Volts, a newsletter and podcast about clean energy and politics. He previously covered energy and environmental issues for Vox and Grist. His work has been featured in The Chicago Tribune, Reuters and The Atlantic and he has appeared on CNN and the CBC. He lives in Seattle.

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Why do some fights for justice hit a wall while others succeed? What does it take to win social change, especially now? According to author and social change strategist Rashad Robinson, it all comes down to understanding one thing: the difference between presence and power.

Robinson has watched many movements unfold in his more than twenty years at the highest levels of leadership in two of the most significant social movements of our time: the fight for LGBTQ rights and the fight for racial justice. He's taken on tech giants and the criminal justice system, politicians in Washington and corporate executives in Hollywood. He's been on the front lines of protest and in the back rooms of negotiation.

In his new book, From Presence to Power, Robinson argues that achieving presence — the visibility of marches, media fads, and making issues popular — is not the same as gaining the leverage required to change the rules for how society works or change the decisions that politicians, corporate executives, and other people in authority make.

The book offers a set of essential lessons about power for anyone who wants to understand it, gain it, and use it to win the progress we all deserve — and to defeat the forces trying to take our freedoms away. Robinson provides the tools needed to help everyday people build real leverage in systems designed to prevent them from doing so and offers a hopeful, practical guide to achieving positive impact in the most challenging times.

Rashad Robinson is a social justice leader, strategist, and organization builder. He has designed campaigns to change public policies, corporate practices, electoral outcomes, and media representations. Through Rashad Robinson Advisors (RRA), he advises and collaborates on developing high-impact strategies to bring about progress with foundations, nonprofits and leaders across media, politics, government and business. He previously led Color Of Change for nearly fourteen years, transforming it from a start-up into a national force for racial justice, and also led programs at GLAAD, reshaping media representations of LGBTQ people during the fights to win marriage equality and end discrimination.

Angela T. Rye, Esq. is an award-winning host, lawyer, social justice advocate, producer, and Principal/CEO of IMPACT Strategies. She is co-creator of State of the People, which is a coalition of more than 200 national and local organizations. Attorney Rye is co-host of the NAACP Image Award–winning podcast Native Land Pod, and co-founder of Reasoned Choice Media. Through her firm's Professional Development Program, she has helped develop more than 500 leaders serving across government, corporate, and nonprofit sectors. A Capitol Hill veteran, Angela is the former Executive Director and General Counsel to the Congressional Black Caucus and has more than two decades of experience in crisis management, political strategy, and coalition building.

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Ben Wikler, hailed as the "preeminent state party chair" by Nancy Pelosi, led Wisconsin Democrats through a series of hold-your-breath fights against right-wing extremists that resulted, against the odds, in the unrigging of the political system of the most divided — and, until recently, most gerrymandered — state in the nation. His new book, This Is The Plan: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy, draws on decades of experience in everything from school-board races to presidential elections to bring readers inside the hidden web of power that shapes our lives.

At every step, he shows what individuals and small groups can do to help build a future where democracy thrives, and our country works for everyone. With verve, infectious humor, and a rallying-cry energy that has inspired tens of thousands of volunteers. Wikler offers an idealistic yet practical guide to turning the present crisis into a better future.

Ben Wikler has spent over two decades at the forefront of progressive advocacy and political action, serving as chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin from 2019 to 2025. Wikler led the party to win 10 out of 13 statewide races—including Joe Biden's presidential win in 2020, Tony Evers' reelection in 2022, and Tammy Baldwin's victory in 2024, as well as three state Supreme Court landslides that flipped the majority and ended the state's extreme partisan state legislative gerrymander. Before leading the Wisconsin Democratic Party, Wikler worked for MoveOn, where he helped spearhead campaigns to protect the Affordable Care Act.

Over the past thirty years, Governor Jay Inslee has provided bold leadership at the local, state, and federal levels that has demonstrated the powers of innovation and inspiration to move our communities forward. More recently, his leadership as the three-term governor of Washington State has led to unprecedented success in building a clean energy economy, fighting climate change, improving opportunities for working families and advancing progressive values of Washingtonians.

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Finding and forging one's identity and purpose can be challenging enough. Doing that while also being a member of a marginalized identity living in a conservative milieu can add more complexity to this experience. For former state Senator Cole LeFavour, that was very much a reality.

LeFavour chronicles their life in a new book, In the Arms of Mountains: A Memoir of Land, Love, and Queer Resistance in Red America. As Idaho's first out LGBTQ+ lawmaker, LeFavour explores a journey through gender, power, and rebellion against a reactionary system. When LeFavour was 11 years old, their parents uprooted the family and purchased a ranch in the rugged landscape of Idaho. Cole and their sister came of age in the remote backcountry, learning about themselves and the world in the wilds of a rural environment situated within a larger system of inequality.

By the time they left for college, Cole was starting to grapple with their queer and nonbinary identity and was concerned about what lay ahead in their red home state. In the Arms of Mountains traces the contours of Cole's life—from formative years connected to the land to working as a fire lookout and lone ranger, to joining anti-apartheid protests, and later becoming Idaho's first openly queer legislator.

LeFavour's memoir aims to be a cautionary yet inspiring story of the power of political resistance in places you least expect it.

Cole Nicole LeFavour is an activist, an award-winning journalist, and a writer whose stories and essays have appeared in The North American Review, Idaho Wilderness Considered, Confluence, Sawtooth-White Cloud, among others. In 2004, LeFavour became the first openly LGBTQ+ member of the Idaho Legislature, serving as an Idaho State Senator for 8 years and leading multiple acts of civil disobedience at the State Capitol.

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New York Times bestselling author and former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade offers an exposé on what she frames as an escalating threat of far-right politics to both national security and American democracy. In The Fix: Saving America from the Corruption of a Mob-Style Government, McQuade draws on her decades of legal experience to argue how systems of organized crime and political opportunism exploit the levers of power — using corruption, cruelty, and chaos as tools to dominate institutions and eliminate accountability. McQuade exposes government tactics like information warfare, aggressive retribution, conformism enforced by fear, and pervasive dismantling of legal checks and balances, thereby attacking public interest and undermining justice in the process.

Weaving together courtroom stories, political analysis, and cautionary lessons from history, McQuade makes the case that the threats we face are not merely possibilities — they're already here. The Fix is not just a warning, however. The book is also a call to action. McQuade offers reforms and strategies that she believes can reclaim the rule of law and recenter democracy with the power of the people. The Fix is for everyone concerned about America and for those prepared to take a stand.

Barbara McQuade is a professor from practice at the University of Michigan Law School, her alma mater, where she teaches courses in criminal law, criminal procedure, national security, and data privacy. She is also a legal analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, and co-host of the #SistersInLaw podcast. From 2010 to 2017, McQuade served as the US Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan. She was appointed by President Barack Obama and was the first woman to serve in her position. Earlier in her career, she worked as a sportswriter and copy editor, a judicial law clerk, an associate in private practice, and an assistant US attorney. McQuade is the author of the national bestseller, Attack from Within. She and her husband have four children and live in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Debora Juarez has built a 35-year career focused on legal advocacy and economic development for the most marginalized communities in our state. Debora is an enrolled member of the Blackfeet Nation. After growing up on the reservation, she became the first member of her family to go to college. She completed her undergraduate degree at Western Washington University before attending the Seattle University School of Law. After five years as a public defender, she began working at Evergreen Legal Services (currently The Northwest Justice Project). She served for two years as a pro-tem judge for the King County Superior Court and City of Seattle Municipal Court. Debora was later appointed to serve as a full-time King County Superior Court Judge by Washington State Governor Mike Lowry and later by Governor Gary Locke, as Executive Director of the Governor's Office of Indian Affairs. Eventually, Debora joined a major Wall Street investment firm and created a first-rate Tribal Practice Group. and ultimately partnered with the Williams Kastner law firm, who welcomed her vision of focusing economic empowerment and development beyond tribal lands.

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As the Gaza war stretches into its third year, journalism professor and MSNBC analyst Peter Beinart claims that, as a Jew, he must reckon with the intense moral and theological tensions that not only he holds, but what he sees as challenges for Judaism as a whole. Because of these tensions, Beinart believes the Jewish community must build a new answer to the question: What does it mean to be a Jew? From his book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning, MSNBC analyst Peter Beinart imagines a world where Israeli Jews have the right to equality, not supremacy, and in which Jewish and Palestinian safety are not mutually exclusive but intertwined. In Beinart's view, one story dominates Jewish communal life: that of persecution and victimhood. It is a story that erases much of the nuance of Jewish religious tradition and warps our understanding of Israel and Palestine. Beinart claims that, as a Jew, he must reckon with the intense moral and theological tensions that not only he holds, but what he sees as challenges for Judaism as a whole. Because of these tensions, Beinart believes the Jewish community must tell a new story and build a new answer to the question: What does it mean to be a Jew? From his book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza, Beinart offers a path toward resolution.

A frequent contributor to The New York Times and an MSNBC analyst, Peter Beinart is a professor of journalism and political science at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. He is also the editor at large of Jewish Currents and writes The Beinart Notebook, a weekly newsletter. He lives with his family in New York City.

Professor Smadar Ben-Natan is a professor of human rights at the School of Global Studies and Languages, University of Oregon. A legal scholar of human rights, criminal justice, and armed conflict, she is an expert on Israel/Palestine. She is working on two books: Citizen-Enemies: Military Courts and the Construction of Citizenship in Israel/Palestine; and The Carceral State in Conflict: Between Reconciliation and Radicalization. Professor Ben-Natan received her PhD in law from Tel Aviv University and a master's in international human rights law from the University of Oxford. She also served as a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley and Harvard, and as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Washington.

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Third Place Books

By way of structured academia or outspoken social commentary, the work of Kimberlé Crenshaw can be found woven throughout the fabric of modern American sociopolitical discourse. Through establishing the concepts of intersectionality and critical race theory, Crenshaw helped lay a foundation for decades of discussion and activism around race and gender across the world. In her upcoming memoir Backtalker, Crenshaw recounts the personal journeys that shaped her as someone who champions taking notice and speaking up.

With intimate and compelling storytelling, Crenshaw takes readers back to her roots as a little girl in Canton, Ohio, who saw and said things that others didn't. As the daughter of a strong-minded teacher and pathbreaking public servant and the sister of a protective, yet bullying older brother, she starts to talk back. When she is denied a role in the kindergarten school play. When she is escorted to the back door of a private club. When Anita Hill is exiled for testifying against Clarence Thomas. When OJ Simpson goes on trial. When Obama launched My Brother's Keeper, a movement focused on boys of color only. When the movement against police violence overlooks Black women. Crenshaw keeps talking back. From classroom to courtroom, as the years go by – with new context and critique, but always the same fervor for challenging the structures that were never built for her.

Backtalker presents an immersive, defiant, and deeply personal portrayal of a life spent fighting to be heard. Evoking emotions and revelations with each instance, Crenshaw transports readers to the moments that not only shaped her, but motivated her to work towards reshaping the world. Combining insight, intention, and impact, Backtalker details the path Crenshaw carved to establish herself as a pioneering voice in American civil rights– and a force to be reckoned with.

Kimberlé W. Crenshaw is a pioneering scholar and writer on civil rights, Black feminist legal theory, race, racism, and the law. She was a founder and has been a leader in the intellectual movement called Critical Race Theory and is also known for introducing and developing the concept of intersectionality. She is a Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles, the Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law at Columbia Law School, and the cofounder and Executive Director of the African American Policy Forum. Crenshaw writes regularly for The New Republic, The Nation, and Ms., hosts the podcast Intersectionality Matters!, and has appeared as a commentator on media outlets including MSNBC and NPR.

Angela Rye is an award-winning host, lawyer, social justice advocate, and Principal/CEO of IMPACT Strategies. Rye is also the co-creator of State of the People, a coalition of 200 local and national organizations providing resources, education, empowerment, and relief to thousands of citizens. She is co-host of the award–winning podcast Native Land Pod and co-founder of Reasoned Choice Media. With more than two decades of experience in political strategy, coalition building, and advocacy, Rye previously served as Executive Director and General Counsel to the Congressional Black Caucus and as Senior Policy Advisor and Counsel for the House Homeland Security Committee.

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Estelita's Library

Do you bike in Seattle — or want to? Join Cascade Bike Club for Town Hall Seattle's 2nd annual Bike Month Bash.

Seattle's bike network and transit connections are expanding as the city prepares for the FIFA World Cup and a flood of visitors this summer. But gaps remain, and more work is needed to make people of all abilities feel safe biking in our city. There are also many opportunities to support better biking in Seattle, such as the Pedaling Relief Project that rescues and delivers food on behalf of multiple food banks. Bring your enthusiasm and questions for our panel of speakers representing Cascade Bicycle Club, the Seattle Streets Alliance, and the Seattle Bike Blog. Learn about opportunities to push progress and participate in a Summer of Seattle Cycling!

Paul Tolmé is an award winning environmental journalist, former Associated Press staff reporter, and winner of the Ted Scripps Fellowships in Environmental Journalism whose work has appeared in Newsweek, the New York Times, Audubon, National Wildlife, Salon, Ski, High Country News, and more publications than he can remember over a 30-year career. In 2020, following his move to Seattle, he switched careers to engage in direct advocacy on climate, transportation safety, and transportation equity as the spokesperson and content strategist for Cascade Bicycle Club, the statewide nonprofit that helped defeat the effort to repeal Washington's Climate Commitment Act. He lives with his wife on a tiny houseboat on Lake Union and bikes, walks, and uses mass transit to reach nearly all of his Seattle destinations.

Tom Fucoloro is the Founder of SeattleBikeBlog.com and author of Biking Uphill in the Rain: The Story of Seattle from behind the Handlebars (2023, UW Press). An independent journalist originally from St. Louis, Missouri, Tom has been reporting about bicycling in Seattle since 2010. He is a car-free parent and received Cascade Bicycle Club's 2023 Doug Walker Award "for outstanding leadership in improving lives through bicycling." He was a finalist for the 2024 Washington State Book Award.

Clara Cantor (she/they) is a community organizer with Seattle Streets Alliance, advocating for safety and accessibility for people walking, rolling, biking, and accessing transit, and with Whose Streets? Our Streets! advocating for transportation justice. Clara is an artist, maker, and community builder who believes in the power of grassroots organizing, the importance of equity in our movement, and the incredible value of befriending neighbors. Clara lives and bikes in the Rainier Valley with her wife and two young kids.

Tyler Vasquez is a dedicated transportation advocate with experience in policy development, public engagement, and project management. Growing up in a frontline community impacted by inequitable infrastructure decisions, he is committed to ensuring that transportation investments are transparent, accountable, and prioritize historically underserved communities. As an advocate with Cascade Bicycle Club, he works to improve bike infrastructure and safety, ensuring that no one's right to mobility comes at the cost of their safety.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Cascade Bicycle Club.