A whole lot has been happening in the Middle East since October 7th, and there's been no shortage of coverage of the conflict on news, social media, and almost anywhere else we look.

But what was it like to visit before all this started — and especially, what was it like to visit Gaza? Listen in as Ted describes his experiences mentoring startups there in 2015 and 2017. This is an atypical episode — no music, and no Marni — but we hope this can help add some context to what's happening in the region today.

Ted will read excerpts from a series of essays he's posting on his weekly newsletter, The Web and the World. If you'd like to read more about his time there (and see photos of Gaza in a time of peace), take a look there as well.

Resources from this episode:

• John Oliver's excellent coverage of the war on "Last Week Tonight"
• Ezra Klein's interview with Nimrod Novik, a fellow at the Israel Policy Forum and a member of the executive committee of Commanders for Israel’s Security
• Gaza Sky Geeks, Gaza's first and only tech accelerator, which hosted Ted's visits
• Gaza Online — help a Gazan tremendously for very little money by buying an eSIM card to provide vital mobile data access to someone in Gaza today
• Ted's newsletter, The Web and the World

We chose not to include our usual bright, upbeat music in this episode, but usually we rely on Inny PDX for our excellent tunes — thank you!

Woke Points uses affiliate links for purchases made with the excellent Bookshop.org, so if you purchase books through these links you help sustain both our podcast *and* independent bookstores across the country — thank you!

Enjoying Woke Points?
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@wokepointspod on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.

Help keep Woke Points going & growing with support through Buy Me a Coffee

Have feedback and/or topic suggestions to share? email: [email protected]

When Henry Kissinger died, various obituaries struggled to sound respectful while recounting his long history of war crimes and dastardly deeds. Woke Points, on the other hand, will not be burdened with that struggle.

Ted and Marni are joined by Danae Hendrickson of Legacies of War to discuss the Secret War that Kissinger led in Laos and Cambodia during the (far-from-secret) war in Vietnam. Together we discuss the devastating impacts that 2 million tons of bombs dropped on Laos in the 1960s and '70s still have to this day.  Danae shares her personal history with The Secret War and the important work of Legacies of War and other NGOs striving to shed light on, and ameliorate the continued harm of,  the war and its aftermath.

Resources from this episode:

• The New England Review of Henry Kissinger Obituaries
• Henry Kissinger, the Devil at the Dinner Party
• Henry Kissinger Dead at 100
• Why Laos Has Been Bombed More than Any Other Country
• Kennedy and Khrushchev Agree on Neutrality for Laos
• Tham Piew Cave
• Biden: sending cluster munitions to Ukraine was ‘difficult decision,’ but ‘they needed them'
• Convention on Cluster Munitions
• Mother of Five Killed by UXO
• Legacies of War's The Originals

Books:

• Jessica Pearce Rotondi, What We Inherit
• Naomi Klein, Shock Doctrine
• Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust

Who to Support:

• Legacies of War
• MAG International
• COPE
• APOPO

Thank you to Inny PDX for the music!

Woke Points uses affiliate links for purchases made with the excellent Bookshop.org, so if you purchase books through these links you help sustain both our podcast *and* independent bookstores across the country — thank you!

Enjoying Woke Points?
Please stay subscribed and continue to follow us to stay apprised of updates and new episodes!

Follow Woke Points:
@wokepointspod on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.

Help keep Woke Points going & growing with support through Buy Me a Coffee

Have feedback and/or topic suggestions to share? email: [email protected]

Getting outdoors has never been nerdier! Atmospheric scientist and avid ultra runner Joe Boomgard-Zagrodnik joins Ted and Marni to bring a truly informed, scientific perspective on how we can conscientiously enjoy the great outdoors.

We talk climate change, optimism, microplastics and much much more. If you like Woke Points then you should love Joe BZ because he originally introduced Ted and Marni when they crewed for him at The Western States 100  race.

• Books referenced in this episode:
  • Yi-Fu Tuan, Topophilia
• Links:
  • William Cronon, “The Trouble with Wilderness”

Keep learning from Joe:
The Convergence Zone
Twitter/X
Google Scholar

Thank you to Inny PDX for the music!

Woke Points uses affiliate links for purchases made with the excellent Bookshop.org, so if you purchase books through these links you help sustain both our podcast *and* independent bookstores across the country — thank you!

Enjoying Woke Points?
Please stay subscribed and continue to follow us to stay apprised of updates and new episodes!

Follow Woke Points:
@wokepointspod on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.

Help keep Woke Points going & growing with support through Buy Me a Coffee

Have feedback and/or topic suggestions to share? email: [email protected]

Some folks on the left have adopted the maxim that the "best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." Listen in as we discuss our own reaction to that belief, and the practice of using guns to defend threatened groups from the violence of oppressors.

Marni and Ted share stories of groups in the minority who are taking up arms for their protection, and discuss our own experiences with, and feelings about, guns.

Resources from this episode:

Books:

• Killers of the Flower Moon
• One Hundred Years of Solitude

Links:

• Pew, “Key facts about Americans and guns”
• Pew, “Gun Violence Widely Viewed as a Major – and Growing – National Problem”
• HCN, “Meet the gun-toting ‘Tenacious Unicorns’ in rural Colorado”
• TNR, “Antifa Is Arming Itself Against a Trump Crackdown”
• Atlantic, “Guns Have Always Been Regulated”
• Harpers, ”Good Guys with Guns”
• Gallup, “Stark Gender Gap in Gun Ownership, Views of Gun Laws in U.S.”
• Atlantic, “The Secret History of Guns”
• NJSBF, “The Evolution of the Second Amendment”
• Socialist Rifle Association
• The Pink Pistols

Thank you to Inny PDX for the music!

Woke Points uses affiliate links for purchases made with the excellent Bookshop.org, so if you purchase books through these links you help sustain both our podcast *and* independent bookstores across the country — thank you!

Enjoying Woke Points?
Please stay subscribed and continue to follow us to stay apprised of updates and new episodes!

Follow Woke Points:
@wokepointspod on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.

Help keep Woke Points going & growing with support through Buy Me a Coffee

Have feedback and/or topic suggestions to share? email: [email protected]

Having served five tours of duty as a Marine in Iraq and Afghanistan, Elliot Ackerman knows what he's talking about when it comes to military service.  He makes the argument that a draft could increase public engagement with the military and thus potentially reduce wars because everyone would have more skin in the game.  In this episode, Ted and Marni talk to Elliot about how his experience informs his perspective and if he sees any real potential for a universal draft to be brought to fruition. 

Resources from this episode:

• Elliot's Time article about reinstating the draft
• Pre-order Elliot's latest book, 2054
• Buy Elliot's National Book Award-nominated novel, Halcyon
• Read more of Elliot's thoughts on war and military service in his book, Places and Names: On War, Revolution, and Returning
• Elliot's recent interview with Terry Gross — that's right, we interviewed someone before Terry Gross did!

Thank you to Inny PDX for the music!

Woke Points uses affiliate links for purchases made with the excellent Bookshop.org, so if you purchase books through these links you help sustain both our podcast *and* independent bookstores across the country — thank you!

Enjoying Woke Points?
Please stay subscribed and continue to follow us to stay apprised of updates and new episodes!

Follow Woke Points:
@wokepointspod on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.

Help keep Woke Points going & growing with support through Buy Me a Coffee

Have feedback and/or topic suggestions to share? email: [email protected]

Ted is super Outdoorsy and Marni is more Outdoors-ish, but we both love our time in the woods, on the water, and just out in the fresh air. In this episode, we explore (see what I did there?) how to love the outdoors without destroying them. 

Resources from this episode:

• COVID spikes in Outdoor Recreation
• Outdoor Activities and Greenhouse Gas Emissions
• The impact of urbanization on Austria’s carbon footprint
• Trail running events contribute microplastic pollution to conservation and wilderness areas
• Nat Geo article: Rock climbing is getting more popular—and that concerns conservationists
• Apparently helicopters use lead fuel
• Helicopters with SAF! Promising for general travel too
• “Your stoke won’t save us: The idea that outdoor recreation leads to meaningful conservation rests on a big ‘if’
• Are We Loving Our National Parks to Death?
• Ted and Marni's favorite Wilderness Reads

Thank you to Inny PDX for the music!

Woke Points uses affiliate links for purchases made with the excellent Bookshop.org, so if you purchase books through these links you help sustain both our podcast *and* independent bookstores across the country — thank you!

Enjoying Woke Points?
Please stay subscribed and continue to follow us to stay apprised of updates and new episodes!

Follow Woke Points:
@wokepointspod on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.

Help keep Woke Points going & growing with support through Buy Me a Coffee

Have feedback and/or topic suggestions to share? email: [email protected]

Most Americans pass every day blissfully unaware of the impacts our military has around the world. We are insulated by a volunteer military that carries out global campaigns while we go about our lives. On this episode, Ted and Marni discuss whether a national, inclusive draft could result in increased civic engagements and fewer wars.

Resources from this episode:

• Why Bringing Back the Draft Could Stop America’s Forever Wars
• How I Learned to Love the Draft
• Should the United States Reinstate the Draft?
• Watson Institute Cost of War Map — Counterterror Locations
• CFR (Council on Foreign Relations) data on military demographics
• Countries with Mandatory Military Service, 2023
• Skin in the Game: Poor Kids and Patriots

Thank you to Inny PDX for the music!

Woke Points uses affiliate links for purchases made with the excellent Bookshop.org, so if you purchase books through these links you help sustain both our podcast *and* independent bookstores across the country — thank you!

Enjoying Woke Points?
Please stay subscribed and continue to follow us to stay apprised of updates and new episodes!

Follow Woke Points:
@wokepointspod on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.

Help keep Woke Points going & growing with support through Buy Me a Coffee

Have feedback and/or topic suggestions to share? email: [email protected]

Chorus Foundation founder Farhad Ebrahimi is in the process of giving away all $50 million of his inherited wealth, and he'll be done by the end of this year.

Listen to this episode to learn not only why is Farhad giving away his fortune, but is encouraging others to follow his lead. Beyond his own foundation, he's part of a larger movement to work with others across society to imagine a future beyond philanthropy as we know it.

Resources from this episode:

• The Chorus Foundation — Farhad's Organization
• The Whitman Institute —Trust Based Philanthropy
• Justice Funders
• The Mexico City Policy — Ted couldn't remember the name of this during recording, but it's important knowledge!
• Vu Lee's Blog "Nonprofit AF"
• Boot's Riley's "I'm a Virgo"
• Winners Take All, by Anand Giridharadas
• Pineapple Street, by Jenny Jackson — a surprisingly relevant beach read

Thank you to Inny PDX for the music!

Woke Points uses affiliate links for purchases made with the excellent Bookshop.org, so if you purchase books through these links you help sustain both our podcast *and* independent bookstores across the country — thank you!

Enjoying Woke Points?
Please stay subscribed and continue to follow us to stay apprised of updates and new episodes!

Follow Woke Points:
@wokepointspod on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.

Help keep Woke Points going & growing with support through Buy Me a Coffee

Have feedback and/or topic suggestions to share? email: [email protected]

Author of multiple books on national identity and patriotism,  Duke's Noah Pickus brings his historically-informed perspective to this week's episode.

This conversation goes beyond our emotional responses to patriotism and expands into some deep topics, like the relationship between patriotism and immigration policy, and what it even means to be a citizen of a place.

Resources and recommendations from this episode:

• Buy Noah's latest book, The New Global Universities
• Buy Noah's other books, True Faith & Allegiance: Immigration and American Civic Nationalism and Immigration & Citizenship in the 21st Century
• Dismal Science: How Thinking Like an Economist Undermines Community
• "What does it mean to be an American?"
• "The Home We Build Together: Recreating Society"
• Connect with Noah via Linkedin and Twitter
  
  Thank you to Inny PDX for the music!
  
  Woke Points uses affiliate links for purchases made with the excellent Bookshop.org, so if you purchase books through these links you help sustain both our podcast *and* independent bookstores across the country — thank you!
  
  Enjoying Woke Points?
  Please stay subscribed and continue to follow us to stay apprised of updates and new episodes!
  
  Follow Woke Points:
  @wokepointspod on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.
  
  Help keep Woke Points going & growing with support through Buy Me a Coffee
  
  Have feedback and/or topic suggestions to share? email: [email protected]

When you approach a house flying an American flag, do you feel welcome? When you hear the national anthem, do your eyes well with tears of national pride? Do you bleed red, white, and blue? 

Can you answer yes to any of the questions above and still consider yourself politically progressive? 

In this episode, Ted and Marni discuss their own relationships with patriotism as well as how it seems to have been co-opted by the right. We ask if progressives should try to re-stake our claim on patriotism, and if so, how we can go about it.

Thank you to Inny PDX for the music!

Woke Points uses affiliate links for purchases made with the excellent Bookshop.org, so if you purchase books through these links you help sustain both our podcast *and* independent bookstores across the country — thank you!

Enjoying Woke Points?
Please stay subscribed and continue to follow us to stay apprised of updates and new episodes!

Follow Woke Points:
@wokepointspod on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.

Help keep Woke Points going & growing with support through Buy Me a Coffee

Have feedback and/or topic suggestions to share? email: [email protected]