Listen to powerful conversations with organizers, thinkers, and movement builders in the U.S and Europe as they explore what it really takes to strengthen democracy from the inside out. This series is a co-production of the Horizons Project and the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley with the support of Valor Media Network.
Episode 1: The Power of Learning Together
This conversation explores how learning cohorts can serve as living experiments in relational democracy, where the cohort creates space for democracy organizers to grow together through relationship and collective reflection. Julia Roig and Jarvis Williams discuss how real change happens in community: by listening to each other’s stories, questioning assumptions, and practicing care and discernment. They talk about fostering trust, vulnerability, modes of play and ways of tolerating discomfort, as routes to collective sense-making. The conversation addresses power dynamics, hope, and the balance between the urgency of activism with the slower pace of deep learning.
Episode 2: Political Horizons and Power Struggles
This episode features Reggie Abraham and Jeff Klein reflecting on john a powell’s Othering and Belonging framework in the context of today’s political struggles. They highlight its promise and some of its limits in our contemporary moment. They emphasize that exclusion often comes down to power and resources, and that equity usually requires pressure and struggle. Together, they explore the potential of bridge building while naming its risks, especially with groups invested in dehumanization. The conversation weaves structural critique with the psychology of “us and them,” calling for both radical honesty and everyday practices of connection.
Episode 3: The Dilemmes Around Bridging Work
In the third episode, Nim Ralph and Kira Hamman unpack the complexities of engaging in the work of bridging across deep divides. They reflect on how to balance clear political commitments with the need to build trust and shared humanity, especially in contexts of deep polarization. Both emphasize that relationships and everyday encounters, in gyms, neighborhoods, or mundane moments, are the real foundation for change, even as the work remains emotionally taxing. Their conversation highlights humility, imperfection, and the courage to engage difference as essential practices for building resilient movements.
Episode 4: Embodiment, Disobedience and Vulnerability
Ruth Moreno and Javier Vaquero discuss the body as both a site of vulnerability and liberation in social movements. They share how somatic practices including yoga and dance, help reconnect with the body, sustain activism, and build collective resilience. From protests to digital spaces, they reflect on the risks and power of bodily presence, the role of rest and consent, and the ways movement and joy can transform trauma into community strength.