Tag: Vista

February is the month of St. Valentine and so it’s a perfect time to reflect on the courageous power of love to sustain our relational organizing and care for each other. As we grapple with uncertainty, incorporate hope into our daily practice, and wield the power of imagination for seeking justice, many are also working on a new shared narrative of a future of belonging for all in the United States. At the same time, we take stock and learn from autocratic shocks in other countries, such as the lessons from Alexei Navalny’s murder in a Russian prison this month; and, we are inspired by the renewed focus on people power to demand freedom and justice around the world. It is especially important for the funding community to continue to support the “hidden wiring” behind our needed connections for broad-based movement-building across many lines of difference.

We also celebrated Black History (and Black Futures) this month, with many inspiring compilations and content to educate and help celebrate. Both looking back and looking forward as a nation requires that we engage in a conversation about racial justice and racial repair. Luckily, there are many resources to draw upon for communicating about the emerging topic of reparations. In addition, an important discussion has been unfolding about the current state of sustainable infrastructure of Black-led organizing, centering the foresight of Black leaders and their advocacy for sustained funding and on-going investment in capacity development.

Finally, this month Horizons would like to share that our colleague Jarvis Williams is taking on a new role as Director for Race and Democracy, reflecting both the gaps and opportunities we see to synergize lines of work and actors within the ecosystem of social change. We’ve compiled an initial list of resources that bring together the many elements of racial justice and democracy work, that we hope will help spur conversations and new insights.

Please enjoy some additional resources we’ve been reading, watching, and listening to this month:

READING

Healing Systems
By Laura Calderon de la Barca, Katherine Milligan & John Kania

This Stanford Social Innovation Review article is a powerful read: “Seeing individual, intergenerational, collective, and historical trauma for what they are—powerful forces to reckon with in our present-day systems—and moving discussions about trauma from the margins to the mainstream can help the social sector discern new and effective approaches to systems change.”

Will You Join the Supermajority for Constitutional Democracy?
by Danielle Allen in The Washington Post

“…A supermajority for constitutional democracy. More than two-thirds of us committed to the basic norms and guardrails. That should be our goal. Any supermajority at that scale is [going] to be cross-ideological. But the real test of health for a democracy is not whether a large majority of us can agree on this or that policy, or this or that candidate, but whether it is possible to forge a cross-ideological supermajority in support of the core norms of constitutional democracy…What does that mean? It means to affirm a set of basic norms: a commitment to constitutionalism, rule of law, full inclusion, nonviolence and respect for elections.” 

Free For All: So What is Your Caste?
The Ink

Anand Giridharadas interviews Isabel Wilkerson the author of Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents a comparative inquiry, connecting the experience of structural racism in the US, Nazi Germany, and India. Ava DuVernay has turned the book (and the story of its writing) into a film, Origin. Word is the movie will make you think, and Giridharadas re-released this conversation with Wilkerson about what the book has to say to Americans about how to understand their historical experience of race and what it means as we move forward into the future.

Lead the Leaders: Lessons on Movement Building
by Joel Searby

As New Way Politics Leadership Network prepares for their Spring Summit, this article describes the ways that investment in leadership is critical. “In order to grow a movement and not just convene people, assume that everyone, from the biggest name to the newest organizer, needs to grow and will benefit from being led and fed. Pour into them.” Joel also stresses the importance of building diverse rooms. “In order to stay grounded, equitable, diverse and authentic, include people who are truly leaders but may not have ‘platforms’ or ‘influence.’”

WATCHING

The State of Black America
Harvard Kennedy School, Institute of Politics

Don’t miss this recorded discussion with leading scholars on multiple issues facing Black communities across the country. Setti Warren moderates with panelists Cornell William Brooks, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, and Sandra Susan Smith who have a wide-ranging discussion, including the many facets and historic context of our current democratic decline, specific policy solutions and the inspiring mutual aid networks and political education initiatives being led in Black communities around the country.

The Rise of the Far Right – And What We Can Do About It
Hosted by the Conduit, Ece Temelkuran, Paul Hilder, Jiore Craig, and Jon Alexander

“It’s time to face facts. Far right leaders have a firm grip on power in Turkey, Hungary, Italy and more; Trump’s polling lead in America is growing; the leading candidate to be the next Chancellor of Austria is openly using Hitlerian rhetoric in his campaign; and here in the UK the plates are shifting too. The work to fight back needs to accelerate hard, and it needs to involve all of us – and that begins with a clear-eyed understanding of what’s really going on: where exactly we are, how we got here, and what’s coming down the track. Then we can turn to the work of response, looking at what has already worked and what else might. Join Ece Temelkuran, Paul Hilder, Jiore Craig, and Jon Alexander for a critical discussion on the rise of far-right politics in Europe and the US hosted by The Conduit.”

IMPACT: Creating Hope Together Keynote
John Paul Lederach

IMPACT is a global organization that advocates for arts and culture to transform conflict and build more creative, inclusive societies. Earlier this year, IMPACT convened a global community of activists and creatives to provide an online space for connection and to find creative inspiration together. You won’t want to miss the inspirational keynote address offered by renowned peacebuilder, John Paul Lederach. One nugget he offered is “how you're choosing to respond to the particular challenges that any crisis offers us… is so key because being crisis responsive and long-term strategic means we have to have clarity of self and clarity of relationships and openness to work with and alongside people who may see the world very differently than us and who may be engaged in things that are not our areas of understanding or specialty but that ultimately we will need if we are to make change last.”

Join or Die
Documentary Trailer

Join or Die was released in 2023 and is now launching a year-long national community impact campaign. The film introduces Robert Putnam’s research on the importance of community to democracy and the decline in American community engagement over the past decades — especially to young Americans who were not alive to experience the Bowling Alone message go viral decades ago. “…we hope that the film can serve as a tool to catalyze urgent conversations in every city, campus, congregation, civic organization, and public institution across the country about how each can begin to answer the question: How can we help, in our own community, to build social capital and rejuvenate civic life?” If you’re interested in organizing a free film screening for your organization or community, you can find out more information at Host.JoinOrDie.Film.

Race Civic Identity and Self-Expression
Keseb Global

Keseb recently hosted a timely discussion on the intersection of race, civic identity, and self-expression. Joining this dialogue were two Keseb Fellows: PushBlack CEO Julian Walker interviewed Tessa Dooms, the Director of Programmes at Rivonia Circle and co-author of the recent book, “Coloured: How Classification Became Culture.” In recent months, South African singer Tyla has not only gained significant prominence in the international music scene but has also ignited a noteworthy discourse in the United States. As a South African, Tyla identifies as "coloured," a term deeply embedded in South African culture. However, in the United States, this term carries a negative connotation, serving as a painful reminder of the oppressive Jim Crow era. This conversation was part of Keseb's 2024 Mega Election Year event series.

LISTENING TO

On the Courage to Blow the Whistle
On Leading Podcast

“If I learned one thing, it’s that it really is never too late to do the right thing.” Miles Taylor was the senior official who anonymously sounded a five-alarm warning in the NYT Times op-ed I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration. During this podcast interview, he candidly shares why he chose to unmask himself and “go public” with the stand he took for the future of the United States. He describes how important it is to come forward publicly to lower the price of dissent for others. He explains that many people are scared to speak out or remain anonymous for fear of being cast out of their own political tribe, but he explains how there is life on the other side of a right decision.

Advancing Social Impact Chuckle by Chuckle with Negin Farsad
Say More with Tulaine Montgomery Podcast                   

“Policymaking isn't enough to create real change. Impact begins with a shift in culture. Negin Farsad, a comedian and filmmaker, talks to me about the importance of comedy in creating a foundation for social change. She also explains how comedy has helped her build bridges across identities.”

Faith in Elections
BJC (Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty) Podcast

How does religious freedom overlap with ensuring fair and free elections? And “what is the role of churches and other houses of worship in protecting democracy? This topic usually comes up because of bad actors that overstep into partisanship, but [this podcast discussion] looks at how faith communities can help our elections run smoothly. Holly Hollman speaks with Chris Crawford about how people of faith can love their neighbors and take active roles in protecting our system of government.” Protect Democracy and Interfaith America partnered to help faith communities serve their communities during the 2024 election; check out their Faith in Elections Playbook.

How is Political Violence Different in 2024? Featuring Alex Theodoridis
Keeping Pace with Kristen Podcast

Kristen Cambell from Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE) interviews Alexander Theodoridis on how political violence today differs from that which we saw in the past such as scenes from Vietnam protests, or politics amidst the Civil War. “This short podcast will help you develop greater awareness of how political violence is birthed, how it draws on human nature, and how it can be addressed.”

FOR FUN

Why We Should Cook Big
Weave the Social Fabric Project, Aspen Institute

“For many weavers, food is the path to opening hearts and creating connections that can then turn into after-school programs, friendships across race or class, support for immigrants or neighbors returning from prison, and any number of other weaving projects. And while it might feel like magic, there’s proof that shared food helps build trust. Two researchers at the University of Chicago ran a series of experiments to see the effects of eating the same food during negotiations. In one experiment, they asked participants to play the role of a manager and a union representative during salary negotiations. During their discussion, they were served snacks. When the pairs ate the same food, they got to agreement much quicker than when they ate different foods. Sharing food, the researchers found, promotes trust and cooperation.”

Happy 2024 from Horizons! A year when half the population of the world will be going to the polls. One of the main lessons from recent electoral successes - like in Poland - is the importance of keeping pro-democracy coalition(s) from fracturing. So staying together as partisans for democracy is especially important as we go into this electoral year. There are several helpful efforts underway to map the pro-democracy ecosystem in the US and to reflect on the ways pro-democracy private philanthropy is responding. And while Horizons continues to be galvanized by the authoritarian threat in the US, we also feel a sense of hope and momentum from the many state-level efforts to fight back against these anti-democratic trends, such as Pennsylvania Uniters and KeepLouisanaUnified.org.

Check out this short explainer video on the Pillars of Support framework that Horizons released earlier this month to help make sense of authoritarian systems and highlighting some of the strategies used during the civil rights movement. In January, we also celebrate Martin Luther King Jr - a day to be inspired not only by his vision and leadership, but by the multitude of people who made up civil rights movements. Appreciation to More Perfect for sharing this short film, Traveling with Dr. King, featuring stories from several of Dr. King’s closest advisers, and we also recommend King: A Film Recorded...Montgomery to Memphis covering some of the most critical campaigns of that period. Part of commemorating MLK Day is also to be clear eyed about our history in the country and to take seriously the current resurgence of threats of political violence that is having an increasingly chilling effect on democratic participation.

And finally, we are finding such inspiration from those elevating the calls for love and radical collaboration as the foundations for our organizing. We agree!

Enjoy some additional resources we are reading, watching, and listening to this month:

READING

Searching for a New Paradigm: Collective Settings

A Partnership of More in Common and the SNF Agora Institute

Within the complex ecosystem of democracy reformers, there is often two dominant paradigms: (1) institutional reform efforts and (2) individual, psycho-social interventions. Through a series of case studies, this report seeks to articulate another paradigm for making democracy work: investing in the design and distribution of civic infrastructure. “By investing in collective settings, we hope to develop the muscles for democracy that people and communities will need to seek, identify, and implement shared solutions that do not accept the world as it is but instead create the world they need.”

Slow Change Can Be Radical Change

by Rebecca Solnit, Literary Hub

“The expectation that change will be swift and the failure to perceive it when it’s not impacts politics for the worse. A common source of uninformed despair is when a too-brief effort doesn’t bring a desired result—one round of campaigning, one protest. Another immense impact of this impatience and attention-span deficit comes when a political process reaches its end, but too many don’t remember its beginning. At the end of most positive political changes, a powerful person or group seems to hand down a decision. But at the beginning of most were grassroots campaigns to make it happen. The change got handed up before it got handed down, and only the slow perspective, the long view, lets you see the power that lies in ordinary people, in movements, in campaigns that often are seen as unrealistic, extreme, aiming for the impossible at their inception.”

Democracy Hypocrisy: Examining America’s Fragile Democratic Convictions

by Joe Goldman, Lee Drutman, and Oscar Pocasangre, The Democracy Fund 

“Will Americans stand up for democracy even when it works against their party?” The View of the Electorate Research (VOTER) Survey is a longitudinal survey that Democracy Fund has conducted in partnership with YouGov since December 2016. Insights from the most recent report include: while the vast majority of Americans claim to support democracy, fewer than half consistently and uniformly support democratic norms across multiple surveys over the past seven years; support for democratic norms softens considerably when they conflict with partisanship; the portion of the public who are consistently authoritarian — Americans who consistently justify political violence or support alternatives to democracy over multiple survey waves — is also relatively small. This leaves most Americans somewhere between consistent democratic and authoritarian leanings, a position often heavily shaped by partisanship.

Framing Democracy: A Quick Start Guide

The Frameworks Institute

“Democracy in the United States is at a crossroads. Moving forward, the strength of our democratic system will depend on public support and action, which in turn depends on how people think about and make sense of democracy itself. The framing choices we make can have a major impact on how people understand democracy in the US—what it is, how it works, and how it can be better. In this short guide, we zero in on democracy—specifically, how can we foster a more productive dialogue and build a greater understanding of what democracy is and how we can improve it in the US?”

WATCHING

National Day of Racial Healing

NBC News Now Special

The National Day of Racial Healing was launched in 2017 and is observed each year on January 16^th to reflect on our shared values around equality and how we can heal from the effects of racism. The National Day of Racial Healing is a part of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation’s Truth, Racial Healing Transformation efforts We enjoyed seeing our friend and Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)-KY organizer, Beth Howard, in the special! You can read more about all the organizations who commemorated this day and the many events they hosted around the country here.

Democracy by Margaret Atwood | Democracy 2024

The Financial Times

“In a year in which more than half the world goes to the polls, acclaimed novelist Margaret Atwood asks whether democracy is fragile and easily destroyed or flexible and resilient. This [short] animated monologue is the first of four films examining the state of government, representation, rights, and freedom.”

Political Violence in the US Landscape: Are We Ready?

Kettering Conversations

Three years after the insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, political violence remains a threat to American democracy. You can watch the recordings of this live January 2024 Kettering Conversation, as they engaged with thought leaders about the ongoing threats of political violence including James Comey, former director of the FBI; Chris Matthews, nationally known broadcast journalist and political commentator and Kelley Robinson, President, Human Rights Campaign amongst others.

Your Creative Superpowers Can Help Protect Democracy

Sofia Ongele, TED Democracy

“’Democracy is more fun and inviting when you take it into your own hands,' says creator and activist Sofia Ongele. Sharing how she's using coding and social media to defend democracy, Ongele invites us to identify our own creative superpowers — whether it's community organizing, making music or telling stories — and use them to cause a ruckus and bring movements to life."

LISTENING TO

January 6th: An American Story

An Audio Docuseries by Our Body Politic

“Many of the investigators and team leads on the January 6^th Committee that investigated the insurrection were people of color… We bring you the story of their leadership, and why their mix of lived experience as descendants of enslaved people; children of immigrants; or immigrants themselves deeply shaped the committee’s quest to protect and uphold a multiracial pluralistic democracy. In January 6th: An American Story, we show – through the eyes of the people of color helping to lead the committee – that January 6th is not over, and the ways we continue to make sense of its reverberations could save – or imperil – us all.”

A New World Combining

Interview with Nora Bateson, Entangled World Podcast

Nora Bateson discusses her latest book, Combining, where she challenges conventional fixes for our problems, highlighting the need to tackle issues at multiple levels, understand interdependence, and embrace ambiguity. The interview looks at how we cannot solve our current global challenges or the metacrisis with direct correctives. She discusses the fact that in ecological systems nothing is happening one thing at a time. There’s not A solution to A problem.

1/6 the Graphic Novel

Why? The Podcast

What would have happened if the January 6^th insurrection had been successful? The second installment is out! Check out this interview with Harvard law professor Alan Jenkins who co-wrote the graphic novel with Gan Golan (and illustrated by Will Rosado). Drawing on real-life events on 1/6, the novel imagines a world in which the events of that day turned out very differently. It’s a story that demands our attention and calls on us to act. You can order the first two issues on the comic’s website. 

FOR FUN
Check out the Poetry Clinic, now live! “Poetry Clinic provides a poetic response to the complex situation of being a human during this time of climate crisis, cascading conflicts, the ongoing pandemic, and other social and environmental upheavals. Poetry Clinic cultivates new relationships among readers, poets, and poems in a time of profound uncertainty. In short, Poetry Clinic serves as a portal for users to request poems that address specific life situations they’re facing. 

You are invited to email the Clinic with your quandary, any experience or circumstance, for which a poem might be a balm — or a disruption, an opening of sorts. Poetry Clinic is the online equivalent of an apothecary, but instead of dispensing herbs and potions, they offer up poems to help soothe a moment of your heartache or worry–or to join in celebrating births, marriages, love, transitions, the passionate transitory.

As we close out the year, the team at Horizons would like to extend our gratitude to all our partners and colleagues for the much-appreciated collaboration, learning, and commitment to relationship-building across lines of difference in 2023. We continue to be inspired by the new ways that the pro-democracy ecosystem is organizing across sectors and the recognition of new funding practices that this collective work requires. Many of us are trying to make sense of the trends from the year that are propelling us into 2024 and this list from Pew Research offers some “striking findings.” Or, you can really geek out with this mega list of lists of trends from the year.

Horizons’ work continues to be animated by the resurgence of the authoritarian threat both in the US and around the world, and if you’re not listening to the short video updates of scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat, we highly recommend tuning in. As a part of our Pillars of Support Project, Horizons was pleased to co-host this month with the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins - a small salon with diverse leaders working on the role of business in promoting and defending democracy. You can read more about the perspectives of several of those leaders in this recent article highlighting the work of Business for America.

Also in December, we celebrated the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Harvard’s Carr Center released Making a Movement: The History and Future of Human Rights which includes a range of discussions on the intersection of the UDHR and global human rights with the themes of racial justice, transitional justice, economic equality, women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, security, migration, changing political systems, climate change, advancing technology, and more.

As our hearts (and some relationships) continue to break over what is happening in Israel and Gaza, several organizations are providing helpful resources, such as how to speak out against bigoted, dehumanizing rhetoric and also how to have a conversation with those who many have a different perspective from you.

During this season of light and love, we hope you find some time for rest and rejuvenation during the end-of-the-year holidays, and please enjoy some of the other resources we’ve been reading, watching, and listening to:

READING

How to Survive 2024

by Amanda Ripley

What's the "right" way to live through a high-conflict election year? This article includes three lessons from a wise conflict survivor and also highlights a few of the books that are helping the author make sense of the world these days…in hopes they might help you, too.

New York Gov. Hochul Signs Bill On Reparations, Joining California And These Other Cities

by Brian Bushard, Forbes

New York’s Governor signed a bill into law this month creating a commission to study the impact of slavery and centuries of racism in the state, and potentially propose reparations, becoming the second state after California to take such action. Check out NY4reparations.org to join the movement for reparations in in the state. You can also read more about the role of philanthropy in helping to create a culture of repair and learn more about narrative power and infrastructure for reparations in this great article by Trevor Smith from Liberation Ventures. And if you’d like to get more involved with repair work, check out this call for nominations for the Cultivating Repair Catalyst Initiative.

Practical Radicals: Seven Strategies to Change the New World

by Deepak Bhargava and Stephanie Luce

“At a time when so much is at stake – from our climate to our economy to the state of our democracy – the strategies offered in this book feel especially timely for activists, organizers, and advocates who are fighting to win huge battles ahead.” The book profiles seven timeless strategies that have helped some of our nation’s most successful grassroots movements win in the face of enormous opposition. Organizers often talk about power – in Practical Radicals the authors explain what power is and isn’t and describe six forms of power used throughout history by “overdogs” and “underdogs.” The authors also discuss topics like how overdogs in business, the military, and politics develop strategy and what we can learn from them, how we address conflict in movements, how organizations and social change leaders can get better at strategy (great strategists are made, not born!), and explore methods for developing long-term, multi-generational and ecosystem-wide strategies.

WATCHING

Power Grids Under Attack: The Threat is Domestic Terrorism – Not Drag Artists

The Laura Flanders Show

On December 3, 2022, an attack on two electricity substations in Moore County, NC plunged 45,000 households and businesses into darkness for almost a week. A year on, no arrests have been made and authorities have named no suspects other than to say that whoever did this “knew what they were doing.” The attack on the substations coincided exactly with a drag performance in the Moore County town of Southern Pines. The episode highlights the first reading of a defiant drag opera in Durham that is being created by drag artists working with Blueprint NC as a tool for education and building community safety. “This episode is a must-watch for anyone interested in domestic terror threats, public safety, LGBTQ rights and more.”

The Art of Scaling Deep

Webinar hosted by The Tamarack Institute with Tatiana Fraser, Rachel Sinha, and Lisa Attygalle

As many working for social change think about how to “scale” our work, Horizons appreciated the insights of Tatiana Fraser of The Systems Sanctuary in her recent publication The Art of Scaling Deep. You can re-watch the launch webinar to learn more. Scaling deep includes prioritizing the gradual and meaningful cultivation of relationships, acknowledging the importance of context, fostering connections that unite diverse communities, and emphasizing the essential role of self-reflection and healing.

How to Build a Global Pro-Democracy Movement

Yordanos Eyoel, TED Democracy

“’Democracy is the most compelling vision we have for self-governance,’ says freedom advocate Yordanos Eyoel. Taking a stand against predatory and opportunist authoritarian forces, she shares how to reimagine, accelerate, and protect the pro-democracy movement — to build societies that are both functional and inclusive.” You can also watch some other great videos from the recent TED Democracy conference, like this one by Michigan activist Katie Fahey who sparked a successful campaign to end the practice of gerrymandering.

LISTENING TO

Why We Need Hope

Speaking of Psychology Podcast

“When the news is filled with war and climate change and other disasters, remaining hopeful about the future can feel impossible. But psychologists’ research has found that hope is not an unrealistic luxury, but a necessity. Jacqueline Mattis, PhD, of Rutgers University, and Chan Hellman, PhD, of the University of Oklahoma, discuss the difference between hope and optimism, why cultivating hope can help people facing adversity and trauma, and what all of us can do to find hope in trying and uncertain times.” And if this topic interests you – make sure to also sign up for Thomas Coombes newsletter on all things hope-related. It’s super.

The New Wave of Neuroscience

Think Peace Podcast

“As the social change landscape experiences rapid and holistic transformations, the integration of diverse disciplines and knowledge fields is shaping new paradigms of "peace" and "justice." In this episode of the Think Peace Podcast, Dr. Colette Rausch has an insightful conversation with Dr. Sará King on the intersection of neuroscience, mental health, and wellbeing. Sará King, M.A., Ph.D., is the founder of the MindHealth Collective, an organization dedicated to addressing the consequences of intergenerational trauma and she provides valuable insights into the integration of wellbeing practices within the realm of social justice.

Constraints, Complexity & Context (Oh My!) w/ Alicia Juarrero

The Deep Dive Podcast

“[Host,] Philip McKenzie spends time with educator/writer/philosopher Alicia Juarrero discussing her latest book Context Changes Everything: How Constraints Create Coherence. In their conversation, they cover how complexity has become a widely used but largely misunderstood term, the significance of context and different ways of knowing.”

Solidarity Narratives in Crises, A Practice Guide

Solidarity Is This Podcast

Deepa Iyer and Shanelle Matthews discuss how organizations can shape solidarity narratives in a time of crisis. “Often during movement moments or societal crises, organizations may contemplate drafting and releasing Solidarity Statements to convey their support of the demands and perspectives of partner groups and affected community members.” You can check out the excellent solidarity resources of the Building Movement Project here.

FOR FUN

A Viral Dance and Happiness Campaign Frustrates Iran’s Clerics

by Farnaz Fassihi and Leily Nikounazar, The New York Times

We need more joy in our movements!! “A new form of protest against the government is rocking Iran: a viral dance craze set to an upbeat folk song where crowds clap and chant the rhythmic chorus, “Oh, oh, oh, oh.” In cities across Iran men and women of all ages are gyrating their hips, swirling their arms in the air, and chanting the song’s catchy lines, according to videos posted on social media, television news channels like BBC Persian, and Iranians interviewed. People are dancing on the streets, in shops, at sport stadiums, in classrooms, malls, restaurants, gyms, parties, and everywhere else they congregate. In Tehran traffic was stopped in a major highway tunnel for an impromptu dance party to the song. Young women, hair uncovered and flowing, dance in parks, and young men performed a choreographed hip-hop dance.”

This fall was a busy month of convenings for the Horizons’ team, making us particularly aware of the need to make time for building deep community when we are in these spaces together; and, we are reminded of our commitment to relational organizing. One of the amazing events we had the pleasure to help plan and participate in was the Othering & Belonging Institute’s Conference in Berlin in October. You can watch all the sessions on their YouTube Channel, and we would recommend this lovely blog, taking inspiration from one of the conference speakers, Turkish writer Ece Temelkuran, who discussed how we can practically bring love into politics using the example of Ekrem İmamoğlu’s successful Radical Love campaign for Mayor of Istanbul in 2019.

We have spent time participating in convenings of conservatives who are reflecting on their movement’s commitment to democracy, and we found inspiration during a recent gathering with a group of futurists, academics and non-profit leaders who are at the forefront of reimagining democracy and governance. The alarming increase in political violence continues to be the focus of many convenings and discussions, and we are pleased to be partnering with the newly-launched Bedrock, a new nonpartisan organization committed to supporting institutions and leaders reversing the alarming increase in hate-fueled violence in the US. You can watch Maria Stephan’s recent keynote, The Power and Promise of Nonviolent Action, sponsored by the Interfaith Peace Working Group and the University of Wisconsin - Madison’s Center for Interfaith Dialogue.

In every space where we gather, we have felt the shared pain of the ongoing violence in Palestine and Israel. Horizons continues to reflect on the need for nuance and care for our interpersonal relationships and the role for a stronger peace and justice movement.

Finally, during this season of gratitude in the US, we honor the legacy of Rosalynn Carter and also appreciate this creative video with curator Paul Chaat Smith (Comanche) from the National Museum of the American Indian discussing the creation of Thanksgiving as a holiday. At Horizons, we continue to be extremely grateful for your partnership(s) and all you’re doing to make the world a better place.

Here are some additional materials we’ve been reading, watching, and listening to:

READING

Cycles of Trauma and Journeys to Wellbeing

by the Wellbeing Project and Georgetown University

Prior to this report, trauma, wellbeing, and social change were examined as related but distinct subjects. The authors and their large group of collaborators from across the world and across disciplines used a systems level analysis to reveal and address the gaps in this paradigm. The resulting “framework is intended to offer a holistic view of trauma and wellbeing that can aid the ongoing global quest for social justice and equity.” And this more complete outlook is needed “to shift vicious cycles of intergenerational trauma toward virtuous cycles of intergenerational wellbeing, we need context and culture-specific strategies for transformation that operate on individual, communal, and systemic levels of relation.”

The military’s secret weapon is ... humor

by Theodore R. Johnson, The Washington Post

Theodore Johnson’s recent Veterans Day piece explored the importance of humor in the military and highlighted a recent comedy show featuring veterans hosted by the Armed Services Arts Partnership. (Enjoy the video clips embedded in the article.) This was more than just a comedy show, it served as a jumping off point for the comics and the audience to have conversations about difficult topics which came up in the comics’ sets. “Lots of advice was given, but it boiled down to this, as true for comedians as it is for military men and women telling stories during all the waiting — and for a nation not very good at dialogue lately: You have to know your audience to humor them.”

Workplace Political Polarization

by Ethical Systems, NYU Stern Business and Society Program

We know that workplace polarization is a big concern for business leaders, and one of the entry points for engaging businesses in a pro-democracy agenda to address the root causes of our increasing polarization. This recent report reviews “the factors leading to the current state of extreme polarization and the resulting effects on the workplace, and it explores various potential solutions. Every effort has been made to avoid judgments about the right-left paradigm and to focus on consistent social and psychological factors that are applicable in understanding and responding to political polarization.”

Faith in Elections Playbook

by Interfaith America and Protect Democracy

“The Faith in Elections Playbook supports faith-based, civic and campus communities with accessible, actionable resources to support the 2024 election. This playbook is designed to make it easier for faith and community leaders to join work that is already happening across America to help the 2024 elections run smoothly, so that all eligible voters can access a ballot and every valid vote is counted. [The] purpose in compiling and curating this information, is to enable organizations to focus on taking actions that best align with their interests, their skills, and the needs of their communities.”

WATCHING

2023 Keseb Virtual Global Democracy Champions Summit – Highlights Video

If you missed Keseb’s three-day virtual Summit, you can re-watch all the sessions online. “Keseb engaged in salient conversations around fighting authoritarianism, safeguarding civil liberties, protecting our information ecosystems, and building towards a pluralistic democracy in 15+ sessions with speakers who are democracy entrepreneurs, activists, academics, journalists, philanthropists, and policymakers.”

Multiracial White Supremacy? The Shifting Grounds of Race

Daniel HoSang for Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice’s Public Programming

As part of its commitment to fostering meaningful dialogue and analyzing the context of critical movements, Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice launched this Lecture Series to give social justice leaders the opportunity to delve into topics relevant to movement building. This year's series focuses on the threat posed by authoritarian populism and how to better organize against it. You don’t want to miss this recent conversation between Scot Nakagawa from 22^nd Century Initiative and Daniel HoSang on the changing demographics of white supremacy movements.

The Truth About Civility

The Hopeful Majority with Manu Meel

In this episode of The Hopeful Majority, Manu sits down with author Alexandra Hudson to discuss her new book, The Soul of Civility. They reflect on what civility is, whether it’s even necessary, and have a wide-reaching conversation about Dr. King’s legacy, the difference between civility and politeness, the 2024 election, and much more.

RISE Action Guide Launch Symposium: Opening Plenary

United States Institute of Peace (USIP)

You can re-watch USIP’s recent launch event for the Rehabilitation and (Re)integration through Individual, Social and Structural Engagement (RISE) Action Guide. “[The Guide] provides… a peacebuilding framework to support the rehabilitation of people disengaging from extremist violence as well as their reintegration into, and reconciliation with, local communities. The RISE Action Guide’s overarching goal is to encourage behavioral changes that facilitate disengagement from, and the rejection of, violence by lowering barriers and opening spaces for sustained, positive, inclusive engagement between people disengaging from extremist violence and local community members and institutions.”

LISTENING TO

Dunking On Trump's Lawyers Might Not Be The Win You Think It Is

Amicus With Dahlia Lithwick podcast

“What role will the former President’s many many legal woes play in the coming months? A clearer picture is emerging after testimony for the prosecution wrapped in the civil fraud trial against Trump and his adult sons in their roles at the helm of the Trump Organization in New York City [recently]. That picture is of a political candidate claiming to be the victim of an unprecedented legal witch hunt. In other words, as the trials proceed within the courts, a political trial is underway on the courtroom steps, at campaign stops, and in the media. On this podcast episode, Professor Eric Posner, of the University of Chicago Law School, author of The Demagogue's Playbook: The Battle for American Democracy from the Founders to Trump, [discusses] political trials - their history and their risks.”

How Do We Remain Bridgebuilders During Times of War?

Interfaith America with Eboo Patel podcast

“Amanda Ripley is a New York Times bestselling author, journalist, and co-founder of Good Conflict, a media and training company that helps people reimagine conflict. As the violence abroad and at home escalates, Ripley and Patel discuss “high conflict” – what it is, how it impacts individuals and society, and ways to resolve high-conflict situations.”

Interview with Bjørn Ihler

Did Nothing Wrong podcast

You don’t want to miss the conversation with a global leader in the fight against hate and violent extremism, Bjørn Ihler from Glitterpill and the Khalifa-Ihler Institute. In this interview, he discusses how to promote peace and inclusivity in our communities, and how to reach people with an alternative to hate.

FOR FUN

Amplifier recently released a new collaboration with Shepard Fairey, including a limited print series to “Defend Democracy.” They have been collaborating with Fairey for over a decade on some of the most important movements of our time, and now consider that “there are few greater than protecting our democracy.” The sales of these prints will fund photographers and photo-based artists to build projects exposing threats to democracy in the run-up to the 2024 elections.

Check out Agents of Influence, a game to teach middle and high school students to combat misinformation and reduce polarization. The game has won several awards including the Aspen Competition on Information Disorder.

This has been an emotionally heightened month worldwide as we confront the violence in Israel and Palestine and a rise of hate speech and violence in the US and globally. If you are not familiar with the history of the region, this short video from Jewish Voices for Peace is instructive.

More than ever, how we talk about violence and this conflict matters, as described by our close colleague Rachel Brown from Over Zero. Please take the time to read this important perspective from a life-long peacebuilder and friend of Horizons’ Lisa Schirch, Scaling the Wall of Grief in Israel and Palestine as well as Masha Gessen’s The Tangled Grief of Israel’s Anti-Occupation Activists. There is an alarming surge of antisemitism around the world, as well as growing anti-Muslim actions that we should all be standing in solidarity against. This month, the Greater Good Science Center provided a list of resources for peace and conflict that explores the roots of peace, war, and reconciliation; offers resources for well-being and activism; and reminds us of human goodness.

At Horizons, we believe that our global struggles for justice, democratic values and civic freedoms are deeply intertwined, so we celebrate the recent pro-democracy electoral win in Poland; grieve with the recent defeats in Australia for indigenous rights and in India for LGBTQ+ rights; and will continue to learn from the mobilization efforts in Latin America and beyond.

And finally, as part of our Pillars of Support project our colleague, Sama Shah, recently published an article entitled Faith in Democracy: Mobilizing Religious Communities for Democratic Change.

Here are some additional resources that we have been reading, watching, and listening to this month:

READING

Why Anti-LGBTQ Attacks Matter for Democracy

by Ari Shaw, Council on Foreign Relations

Ari Shaw shares the findings from their recent report on the linkages between anti-LGBTQIA+ policies and democratic backsliding across 175 countries. They find that, “Anti-LGBTQI+ attacks create a wedge that defines sexual and gender minorities as outsiders and threats to a core national identity. This fissure can then be used to justify subsequent antidemocratic behavior in the name of protecting ‘the nation.’” Additionally, they highlight that supporting the LGBTQIA+ community can be a bulwark against democratic backsliding.

Conditions to Flourish: Understanding the Ecosystem for Narrative Power

by Abi Knipe, The Global Narrative Hive

As a part of the Global Narrative Hive’s launch, a new report was released: Conditions to Flourish: Understanding the Ecosystem for Narrative Power (available in French, Portuguese, and Spanish). Based on hundreds of conversations the report, “paints a picture of the ecosystem of actors who are working to build narrative power in movements, as well as of the movements themselves. The picture shows different groupings — or kinds of actors — within this ecosystem, the interconnections between them and what they need to succeed.”

Launching the Reparations Narrative Lab

by Trevor Smith, LinkedIn

Liberation Ventures recently launched their first narrative program, The Reparations Narrative Lab (RNL), which in turn published the report There Are New Suns: Building A Transformative Narrative For The Black Reparations Movement and the schema the Narrative House. There’s a lot to dig into with these resources that “can help us collectively strengthen our language and understanding of repairing the pervasive ills of colonialism, imperialism, war, xenophobia, anti-Blackness, and all of the other harmful systems we've socially constructed.”

Finally, Moderate Republicans Will Have a Say

by Daniel Stid, Democracy

In this piece Daniel Stid explores what could happen if the House of Representatives was elected through a system of proportional representation and how that could support more moderate Republicans. Building off of the work that More In Common has done on political tribes, he lays out a compelling vision of a better functioning House of Representatives which could have knock-on effects on the Senate and the rest of the political system.

WATCHING

Interview: Countering Authoritarianism with Maria J. Stephan and V Fixmer-Oraiz

Brad Rourke's Blog

Following a panel presentation at the recent National Coalition for Dialogue & Deliberation (NCDD) conference in Atlanta, Horizons’ Chief Organizer Maria Stephan explains the authoritarian playbook and especially how authoritarians use the tactics of divide and rule to pit groups against each other and engage in or encourage political violence. The second interviewee V Fixmer-Oraiz, a member of the Johnson County Board of Supervisors in Iowa and leader of the Iowa City Ad Hoc Truth and Reconciliation Commission, then describes how this playbook impacts local elected officials. They leave us all with the chilling question that V’s wife asked, “What should I do if . . . there’s an active shooter, do I take care of the children or do I take care of you?”

Creating New American Stories of Us: Can Storytellers Save America?

Bridging Entertainment Lab

Bridge Entertainment Labs (BEL) believes that “Storytellers can be the heroes America needs right now, dismantling the destructive ‘us versus them’ dynamics that are fueling our current political crisis and isolating Americans from one another. Storytellers can act as societal norm-shifters for how we engage across our differences, helping us imagine a shared democracy for an ideologically diverse, multiracial America.” Check out the launch of BEL’s “event series that explores entertainment’s potential to strengthen America’s social fabric and create a shared sense of ‘us’ as Americans.”

Living In the Metacrisis with Jonathan Rowson

In the Making Films

In this short video, Jonathan Rowson gives an insightful view of our current experience of "living in the metacrisis.” Rather than muddling through this era and passively observing the world around us, Jonathan sees this era as a natural process of renewal and a time where we can use our imaginations and where we have agency to form this next epoch in human life on Earth.

LISTENING TO

Baratunde Thurston — How to Be a Social Creative

On Being with Krista Tippett

“Baratunde Thurston is a comedian, writer, and media entrepreneur. He has eyes open to the contradictions, strangeness, and beauty of being human. He looks for learning happening even amidst our hardest cultural tangles. And he intertwines all of this, innovatively and searchingly, with his lifelong joy in the natural world. The kaleidoscopic view of life and love and the world that is Baratunde’s builds and builds in this conversation Krista had with him … towards an exuberant glimpse of how we can all be more fully human and socially creative.”

Rethinking Life: The Myth of the Hierarchal Value of Human Lives

Red Letter Christians Podcast

“Shane Claiborne continues his special series based on his newest book, Rethinking Life. In this episode, he talks about what it means when we say Black Lives Matter, what the value of life is, who determines it, and examines racism in Christianity.”

Democracy 2076: Shaping a Resilient Future for the United States

Revolutionary Optimism Podcast

Dr. Paul Zeitz interviews Aditi Juneja “as she shares her inspiring journey from the granddaughter of refugees to a leading democracy reformer. Discover how she's dedicated her life to strengthening the United States’ democracy and transforming it for the better. Explore her visionary initiative, Democracy 2076, which aims to reshape the foundations of democracy, reimagine political storytelling in Hollywood, and prepare for the political realignment of the future. Get insights into the critical work of creating pro-democracy political parties that will shape the future of American politics. Don't miss this thought-provoking discussion on the path to a resilient and inclusive democracy for 2076!”

INTERESTING OPPORTUNITIES

Are you inspired to work for democracy and social justice? Check out these 2024 Fellowship opportunities. Whether you are an experienced social justice professional, an emerging leader, or a curious student, these fellowship programs offer tools and support to make a lasting impact on your community and beyond. Deadlines are fast approaching so check it out!

September is a busy month for those working at the intersection of democracy and peacebuilding, as several important days of commemoration are celebrated while the United Nations gathers for its annual General Assembly. With shared challenges of democratic backsliding around the world (such as in India) and painful historic reckonings to be addressed (such as in Chile), the International Day of Democracy provided an important moment to reflect on how US democratic erosion is accelerating compared to other countries. Don’t miss this framing document commissioned by Action Aid Denmark on the need for people-powered movements both in the US and globally, and the initial recommendations for funders and allies from around the world.

Later in the month, as we celebrate the International Day of Peace, we reflect that “peace” appears to resonate with the US public, even if we use different language for goals related to justice, security and safety. And, Horizons is particularly inspired by the “critical constellations” of arts and culture in peacebuilding that helps us weave together our past and chart collective futures.

Also this month, we observed the 60-year anniversary of the bombing of the 16^th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama that killed four girls. U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the keynote speaker at the commemoration and spoke about the beauty of Alabama in the fight for civil rights: “If we are going to continue to move forward as a nation, we cannot allow concerns about discomfort to displace knowledge, truth or history. It is certainly the case that parts of this country’s story can be hard to think about,” Jackson said. Artists also stepped up to contribute to the commemoration. Don’t miss this monthly poster series led by veteran graphic artist, Marcus Watts. 

Finally, we are excited to share the beta version of the Democracy Resource Hub. The Hub was established to compile a wide range of tools and resources for anti-authoritarian and pro-democracy organizing in an easily accessible manner for trainers, facilitators, researchers, and practitioners. This effort is the product of a collaboration between the 22^nd Century Initiative, United Vision Idaho, the Shift Action Lab and The Horizons Project, and is hosted on The Commons Library for Social Change. Let us know what you think! Please submit any resources you would like to be included in the hub here. And enjoy some of the things we’ve been reading, watching, and listening to this month:

TO READ

The Problem with Anti-Anti-Christian Nationalism

by Paul D. Miller, Christianity Today

Paul Miller, the author of the recently published The Religion of American Greatness: What’s Wrong with Christian Nationalism, writes in Christianity Today about the danger posed by “anti-anti-Christian nationalists”, who “busy themselves with warning of the dangers not of Christian nationalism itself but of warning against Christian nationalism.” He finds that in doing so, “the anti-anti-Christian nationalist position overlooks the relationship between extremists and mainstream movements and the responsibility of the latter to police the former.”

How Deep Canvass Conversations Can Transform America

by Sulma Arias and Eboni Taggart, Our Future

People’s Action Institute explains how deep canvassing works and provides examples of groups using this approach in a variety of contexts to advance policy objectives within their communities. They do note that, “deep canvassing is not a magic bullet for social justice - nothing really is. Real social change takes rigor, discipline, and the full set of tools every organizer needs.” Consider joining their one-hour Introduction to Deep Canvassing on October 24, to discover what deep canvassing is and how it works. 

Nurturing Patriotic Civic Engagement: Five Ways Parents Can Teach Civics to their Children

We The Veterans

Horizons believes that Veterans have an important role to play in helping to protect and preserve democracy. We the Veterans provides a helpful resource for its community - and beyond - of five simple and concrete activities that parents can use to teach their children about civics and to encourage them to grow up to be active citizens. They also include a list of outside resources for parents.

TO WATCH

Emerging Issues Conference 2023

The Kettering Foundation

“On September 19, 2023, in Washington, DC, the Kettering Foundation held its first Emerging Issues Conference, focused on connections and creative tensions among major themes in the pro-democracy space… Expert panelists and audience participants explored the dimensions of authoritarian moves taking place both globally and in the United States, responses and the tensions between potential solutions, and potential ways forward.” Don’t miss seeing Horizons’ Director for Applied Research Jarvis Williams ask the first question during the event!

Today Is Democracy Day!

via UnderTheDeskNews

“Scores of news organizations across the country came together on September 15^th to collectively publish, broadcast, share and highlight pro-democracy journalism as part of U.S. Democracy Day 2023.” Local and national news outlets coordinated their coverage which allowed the stories to have larger impact by placing them squarely in the broader fight for our democracy. You can learn more about the collective impact here.

How Can American Democracy Work Better For Busy People?

Preserving Democracy

In this interview, Kevin Elliott, the author of Democracy for Busy People, lays out changes we can make to our system of elections and governance to make it easier for everyday citizens to participate more fully in our democracy. The disjointed system that we currently have in places puts up unnecessary barriers to participation, makes it harder for busy people to stay abreast of the issues, and can make participation seem overwhelming. The result is a democracy that works best for those with the time and resources to influence outcomes. He ends with the “very important message that everyone who does see politics as part of their calling, does see politics as an important part of their life… remember the people who weren’t there, they also matter, their voice matters, their interests matter.”

LISTENING TO

Designing an Investigation of Power: Series Introduction

Convergence Magazine

“Convergence is happy to announce the launch of our new podcast, Hegemonicon. In this first episode, host William Lawrence introduces himself with his story of working to build a youth-led climate movement as co-founder of the Sunrise Movement... Upon reminiscing the perceived successes and failures of that movement and the wilderness the past decade-plus has led [organizers] into, he lays out the foundation for the Hegemonicon’s exploration of power and how the show will go about investigating it through a series of interviews with organizers, activists, theorists, and more.”

Doing Democracy: Pride, Reckoning and Reimagining Our Nearly 250 Year Old System of Democracy

KQED Doing Democracy Series

Ted Johnson is leading the US@250 Project which is urging us to approach the [250^th] anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, starting in 2026, by reimagining the American narrative with pride, reckoning and aspiration. “What parts of our democracy should we protect, what should we change, and what do we hope to become in the next 250 years?”

Our Sizzling Summer of Focus Groups

The Focus Group with Sarah Longwell podcast

While on summer hiatus, The Focus Group re-upped an old episode from March 2023 that is worth a listen with Jane Coaston of The New York Times about our never-ending culture wars. Sarah Longwell is the publisher of The Bulwark and this podcast takes a deep dive into what conservative voters think about politics, policy, and current events from the hundreds of hours of focus groups conducted around the country.

FOR FUN

Bridge-building Innovation Showcase

The Listen First Project

Sign up to watch the Bridgebuilding Innovation Showcase in October! “In today’s polarized climate, working across our differences to solve problems can feel hopeless. The Bridge-Building Innovation Showcase will celebrate Americans who are navigating generational, political, racial, and other differences to effect meaningful change in their own communities. The showcase has two parts: an in-person gathering in Kansas City on Oct 14, 2023 and a virtual webinar on Oct 19, 2023. Come for the celebration, stay for the inspiration!”

Today When I Could Do Nothing

by Jane Hirshfield

Acclaimed poet Jane Hirshfield is releasing her tenth book of poetry this fall, The Asking: New and Selected Poems where she shares sentiments of not-knowing, renewal, and awe of the natural world. Enjoy this specific poem “Today When I Could Do Nothing” included in her new collection.

As summer ends and we kick off the academic year here in the US, Horizons continues to grapple with the inherent tensions of different approaches taken within the broad ecosystem of social change. One clear fault line lies along a time horizons of gradual versus radical change. This is especially evident in the conversations unfolding about the linkages between capitalism and democracy. For example, this recent podcast with the Secretary-General of International IDEA and the chief economics commentator at the Financial Times was a fascinating discussion on needed reforms included in a new book about the Crisis of Democratic Capitalism. Whereas other conversations are unfolding about: radical new ways that humans might govern themselves that are less technocratic; totally new ways of envisioning our economic systems; and, how we might redefine concepts of security and perceptions of insecurity.

Another fault line is how we grapple with the ways that progressives should bridge across difference within social movements, while also appreciating what it will take to achieve a multi-racial, inclusive democracy in the US; and, the cultural and political change that can be achieved over time by movements like Black Lives Matter that is turning 10 this year.

We bring up these tensions not to seek definitive solutions, but rather to acknowledge that there are many entry points to this work, and what’s important is to be in conversation with each other, while looking for signals of the change we want to see in the world. This is why the practice of sensemaking is so important to the Horizons’ team, both internally and together with colleagues. We plan to share more of our own sensemaking practices externally, such as this short video amongst some of the Horizons team discussing the recent “Alabama brawl” and implications for how we think about incorporating a racial justice lens into our pro-democracy organizing.

Appreciation and respect to all our wonderful partners who engage in all this sensemaking with us! Enjoy these additional resources we’ve been reading, watching, and listening to this month:

READING:

When Democracy Breaks: Studies in Democratic Erosion and Collapse, From Ancient Athens to the Present Day

Edited by Archon Fung, David Moss, & Odd Arne Westad

Harvard’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and The Tobin Project recently released this free online compendium analyzing the factors that make democracy resilient or fragile. “The volume’s collaborators…explore eleven episodes of democratic breakdown, ranging from ancient Athens to Weimar Germany to present-day Turkey, Russia, and Venezuela. Strikingly, in every case, various forms of democratic erosion long preceded the final democratic breakdown. Although no single causal factor emerges as decisive… some important commonalities (including extreme political polarization, explicitly anti-democratic political actors, and significant political violence) stand out across the cases. Moreover, the notion of democratic culture, while admittedly difficult to define and even more difficult to measure, may play a role in all of them.”

Down the Rabbit Hole: Demystifying QAnon Narratives and Networks

This is Signals

Reframe, alongside the Women’s March and Political Research Associates embarked on an 18-month journey “to unravel the connections between QAnon and Q-adjacent networks, their values, narratives, and the disinformation that surrounds it all. In an era where misinformation and conspiracy theories thrive, it’s imperative to understand the terrain so we can organize our communities to be better equipped to fight for a democratic future rooted in justice, equity, and liberation. By critically examining the values, messages, and narratives that emerge from these networks, we hope to encourage a nuanced understanding of their impact on our communities and shifting societal expectations of governance and democracy as a whole.”

15 College Presidents Unite to Advance Civic Preparedness Across the Country

by Rajiv Vinnakota, The Institute for Citizens & Scholars

A new consortium recently launched, the College Presidents for Civic Preparedness, made up of 15 college presidents with diverse perspectives across the political spectrum, but who agree that civic preparedness is essential to the academic experience and campus life. The consortium is also spearheading the Campus Call for Free Expression, a project to promote free expression on individual campuses, such as presidential speeches, training sessions, guest speakers, courses, and artistic endeavors. “The Campus Call embraces different viewpoints, focusing on upholding and advancing the principles of free expression and critical inquiry that are crucial in preparing young people to become empowered citizens.”

Populism Thrives Because People Are Mad, and Also Because They’re Sad

by Charles Lane, Washington Post Opinion

This article summarizes a recent study of social scientists: “Does Anger Drive Populism?” – answering in the affirmative, but with a major caveat. “Anger alone cannot account for recent US vote shifts in favor of populist candidates (of both the left and right). Rather, the trends reflect a wider mix of negative emotions such as sadness, stress, and worry… It’s a portrait of populism as an expression of dismay and disenchantment, not just resentment.”

WATCHING:

Next Frontiers – Unlocking Resources in This Time of Crisis and Possibility

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation in the UK has uploaded all the videos from their second annual conference, Next Frontiers. We would especially recommend the recording of this short presentation by Vanessa Andreotti discussing her new book Hospicing Modernity, where she explores four socially sanctioned forms of denial that our world is changing irrevocably. She describes the change using a metaphor of the House that Modernity Built and extols the need to go beyond reform because “more modernity is not an option, given the violence required to keep modernity in place.”

Belonging Design Principles with Ashley Gallegos

Othering & Belonging Institute

Check out this short, fun video with Ashley Gallegos, Belonging Coordinator at the Othering & Belonging Institute as she introduces their newly released Belonging Design Principles. “This distinct belonging framework includes a set of principles and practices that can root out structural inequality and exclusion of all kinds while helping us turn toward, rather than against, each other. Beyond a call for inclusion into pre-existing structures built to serve only some of us, belonging asks each of us to commit to co-creating new structures built for everyone.

Check My Ads with Claire Atkin

Fission’s DWeb Social

You can watch this short presentation about the AdTech watchdog Check My Ads Institute who are seeking to cut disinformation off at the source, acknowledging that bigotry and hate are fueled and funded around the world by the digital advertising industry. Co-founder, Claire Atkin recently published an article in the Harvard Business Review highlighting the proactive role businesses can play in protecting against democratic decline: Are Your Ads Funding Disinformation? “Propaganda thrives on money, ads, and data. Ad revenue helps propagandists multiply their efforts across networks of content across the web. Data enables propagandists to develop detailed user profiles that help them target people who are susceptible to lies and bigotry. Finally, the ads themselves — particularly those from blue-chip advertisers — lend signals of legitimacy to visitors to disinformation websites.”

LISTENING TO:

What the World Will Become

Podcast Series from The Inclusive Global Leadership Initiative

Check out all the podcasts in Season One in this series about humans from around the world who are dedicating their lives to building a more free and just world. We especially recommend Episode 6, The Making of a Democratic Community in an Authoritarian Landscape with Isabella Picón from Labo Ciudadano in Venezuela. The title of the series comes from abolitionist scholar Ruth Wilson Gilmore: “What the world will become already exists in fragments and pieces, experiments and possibilities.”

Leveraging Networks for Democracy with the Leadership Now Project

Podcast from System Catalysts

Daniella Ballou-Aares, the CEO of the Leadership Now Project and her colleague, Anoop Prakash, the Wisconsin Chapter Lead, discuss the formation of a group of concerned businesses to launch the Leadership Now Project and the power of leveraging networks to protect and renew democracy in the US. The actions that businesses collectively took in Wisconsin during the 2020 election cycle, on a bipartisan basis offer a particularly important example of the proactive role the business community can and should play to uphold democratic norms and values.

Building Bridges Amid Division: Understanding America’s Conflict Dynamics

Peace: We Build It! Podcast from the Alliance for Peacebuilding (AfP)

In this podcast AfP Executive Director Liz Hume “discusses identity-based grievances, polarization, and social cohesion in the US. While conflict is inevitable, violent conflict is not, but it takes correct analysis of conflict drivers, resources, political will at all levels, and everyday people and communities working to prevent conflict and build sustainable peace. Liz welcomes three experts from across the political spectrum to discuss peacebuilding and conflict in the US” including Peter Coleman from Columbia University, Lisa Sharon Haper from Freedom.us, and Charles Lieske from Mediation West in Nebraska.

FOR FUN

A Strategic Analysis of Barbie: The Ideological Hegemony and Failed Revolution of Barbieland

by Lawrence Freedman, The New Statesman

“I want to be a part of the people that make meaning, not the thing that is made.” Barbie

This emeritus professor of war studies at Kings College writes, “all accounts of relationships between characters resembling humans raise issues of power and strategy, and Barbie is no exception. After all, to want to be part of “the people making meaning” could be a strategist’s creed.” So, Prof. Freedman delves into a wide-ranging strategic analysis of the movie Barbie. Spoiler alert – this article “may make little sense even if you have watched the movie but will make none at all if you have not and may contain sufficient information to spoil it if you intend to.”

The summer lull is in full swing in the US as July comes to a close, while we grapple with rising temperatures and guard our energies for the 2024 electoral cycle. We’re all going to need that energy, as we are faced with polls that describe the rising acceptance of political violence, and that “gut-level hatred” is consuming our political lives. Horizons is committed to continuing to work with those who are actively trying to prevent violence and acts of hate being fueled by a clear political agenda. And we find inspiration and hope from the myriad organizing efforts throughout the country.  

The global nature of the authoritarian threat continues to animate our work. Check out, Chief Organizer Maria Stephan’s article in Ha’aretz about pro-democracy protests in Israel and the relationship between Israeli democracy and Palestinian self-determination. Also, registration is now open for the next Othering & Belonging Conference, taking place in Berlin in October. Please join Horizons and others as we reflect on global strategies for countering the far-right and bolstering democracy. 

As you go into August, we hope you find a space for deep rest, and reflect on the role that conflict transformation and listening skills play in all our relational organizing. There are several resources to help, such as this summer survival kit of conflict hacks from Amanda Ripley; and, this summer reading list and overview of the listening arts. If you haven’t checked out our friend Brett Davidson’s writings on how deep narrative work also requires deep listening, don’t miss his recent missive on the meanings of listening.  

It’s an exciting month for Horizons as we welcome a new member of the team, Jarvis Williams who just joined us as Director for Applied Research. Read more about Jarvis and hear directly from him why he agrees with the power of listening for transforming relations and building deep partnerships. Welcome Jarvis!  We also have openings for Research Assistants to work with Jarvis and the team, as we partner with the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University on research related to the pillars of support for authoritarianism and democracy. Please help us forward the announcement to any students you know who may be interested.  

We hope you enjoy the additional resources we’ve been reading, watching and listening to this month: 

READING 

Doing the Work While Doing The Work 

by Samhita Mukhopadhyay, The Nation 

“How can social justice organizations prioritize mental health issues while finding ways for their staff and members to stay in solidarity with each other? As we work to undo the legacies of racism and oppression, we are often facing a history of unresolved trauma—our own, and the histories of those we work with… Incorporating trauma-informed perspectives and general mental health awareness has sprouted up in many different places in an effort to counter narratives that we should ignore or override these feelings… But connecting the dots between social justice work and trauma history doesn’t automatically confer the necessary tools to deal with it.” This article is full of wisdom and resources from many leaders showing that prioritizing mental health while also finding ways to remain in solidarity with each other are not necessarily in opposition. 

Is Tennessee a Democracy? 

by Anne Applebaum, The Atlantic 

Anne Applebaum explores the current context in Tennessee from her perspective of reporting on the decade-long democratic decline and rise of one-party rule in Poland and Hungary. “…the cascade of tiny legal and procedural changes designed to create an unlevel playing field, the ruling party’s inexplicable sense of grievance, the displaced moderates with nowhere to go—this [does] seem familiar from other places. So [is] the sense that institutional politics has become performative, somehow separated from real life…Today, Tennessee is a model of one-party rule… Nor will the situation be easy to change, because gerrymandering is something of a blood sport in the state… [And] Getting people to vote is not so easy, either, because Tennessee has some of the nation’s most restrictive voting laws.”  

Why We Shouldn’t Give Up on Organized Religion 

by Tish Harrison Warren, New York Times Opinion 

Check out this interview with Eboo Patel, an American Muslim and founder and president of Interfaith America, a nonprofit that aims to promote cooperation across religious differences. Patel discusses his latest book, “We Need to Build: Field Notes for Diverse Democracy” and speaks about religious identity, diversity and institutions in America.  

More than Red and Blue: Political Parties and American Democracy 

The American Political Science Association (APSA) & Protect Democracy 

APSA and Protect Democracy partnered to support the APSA Presidential Task Force on Political Parties to synthesize decades of research on political parties and what they do in democracies. Key insights include: (1) the current campaign environment, from campaign finance regulations to changes in media, have made it harder for political parties to fulfill their roles; (2) American political parties are easy to join, opening them to new voices and interests but also leaving them vulnerable to capture by those with authoritarian objectives; (3) Racial realignment between the major parties has been growing for decades, changing the way the parties see the political landscape and their incentives for action; and (4) political parties are vital to modern democracy and reform efforts should take their essential roles seriously. 

WATCHING: 

Can We Transform Our Politics? 

Utah Governor Spencer Cox, Braver Angels Convention 

Governor Cox is well known for the public service announcement with his rival candidate, Democratic candidate Chris Peterson during the 2020 race for governor. Research has shown that watching the “One Nation” ad reduced viewers support for undemocratic practices, such as forgoing democratic principles for partisan gain or using violence against members of another party. Check out Governor Cox’s keynote address at the recent Braver Angels Convention in Gettysburg.  

Why Did “Woke” Go from Black to Bad? 

The Legal Defense Fund 

To some, the word “woke” is now a derisive stand-in for diversity, inclusion, empathy and Blackness. When legislators pass a law to “stop woke” in light of the word’s true history as well as its commonly understood meaning, what are they really saying? Check out this recent article by Keecee DeVenny on American Redefined, How Language is Weaponized. “Make no mistake, the linking of discussions of systemic oppression, race, gender expression, and sexual orientation with “anti-American” sentiments is intentional. It’s an attempt to redefine and reclassify who gets to call themselves American, regardless of their relationship to the country.” 

The Resurgence of the ‘Oldest Hatred’: The Effort to Combat Antisemitism 

Aspen Ideas Festival 

“Antisemitic incidents are on the rise in the United States, leaving Jewish communities feeling vulnerable — a sentiment both new and sadly familiar. Among the responses is the first ever U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, released by the White House, advocating a whole-of-society approach because all of us are affected by hate and it takes all of us to fight it.” Moderated by Katie Couric, this Aspen Ideas Festival panel features Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff, Eric Ward from Race Forward and Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall from Harvard’s Belfer Center. 

LISTENING TO:  

Advancing Just, Multiracial Democracy with john a. powell 

Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast 

“On this episode, Julie Nelson, Senior Vice President of Programs at Race Forward and john a. powell, Director, Othering and Belonging Institute, come together in a conversation inspired by the recent essay they co-authored, “Advancing Just, Multiracial Democracy.”  They explore the role local municipalities can play in not only defending against “democratic backsliding,” but also in expanding the very nature of democracy, which is critical with the global rise of authoritarianism and nationalism. Julie and john’s work rests on the idea that local governments are uniquely situated to turn grim situations built on “othering” into a global movement grounded in racial justice and belonging.”  

Are ESG Investors Actually Helping the Environment? 

Freakonomics Podcast 

Economist Kelly Shue argues that ESG investing gives more money to firms that are already green while depriving polluting firms of financing that they need to get greener. But she offers a solution, which is to take an engagement strategy with corporations and build power from the inside for change. As the debate about ESG continues to rage, we found this a nuanced conversation in line with our approach to the business pillar within a pro-democracy movement that requires both strategic engagement and pressure tactics. 

Making Reparations a Reality: Blazing a Trail to Racial Repair with Trevor Smith 

Let’s Hear It Podcast! 

Check out this thought-provoking episode with Trevor Smith, the Director of Narrative Change at Liberation Ventures. Trevor is a writer, researcher, and editor of the newsletter – Reparations Daily (ish). During the interview Trevor discusses the growing movement calling for reparations as a catalyst for true racial repair. He invites reflection on how we can all work toward a new narrative of reparations, and how we can create a democracy that is inclusive, empathetic, and centered on principles of justice. 

FOR FUN 

This is Real! Premiere Performance at the 22CI Conference: Forging a People Powered Democracy 

The 22CI conference came to a close earlier this month with a joyful performance of a brand new song crafted during one of the sessions, “Developing a Collective Poetic Voice to Address Authoritarianism Thru Songwriting,” under the direction of Jane Sapp, a musician and cultural worker at Let’s Make a Better World and Cindy Cohen, Emerita of Brandeis University and former Director of the Program in Peacebuilding and the Arts. Special thanks to the members of the “This is Real Ensemble” – Destiny Williams, Jeralyn Cave, Penny Rosenwasser, and Molly O’Connor. You guys rocked it.  

The month of June is a busy one with the celebration of Juneteenth (check out this great reading list.) Also, the kick off of Civic Season – with hundreds of activities between Juneteenth and the Fourth of July – that is a new tradition started by Made by Us, together with museums, historic sites, libraries and archives around the country to help transform the way history is learned and “to remind us of the struggles and hard-won victories in our ongoing journey to form a ‘more perfect union.’” Our friends at Veterans for Political Innovation are also using the Fourth of July as an opportunity to recruit more veterans into their movement. We agree that veterans have an important role to play in upholding our democracy.

And of course, June is Pride month, with beautiful celebrations and visibility for the LGBTQI+ community. This year, Pride has also served as a poignant call for increased solidarity with a community that is increasingly under attack, intimately tied to the attacks on democracy playing out at the state level. You can find out more in this recent TikTok video by the Human Rights Campaign who have declared a state of emergency for the LGBTQI+ community in the United States.

Unfortunately, these trends of increasingly extreme anti-LGBTQI+ laws are global, so our solidarity must also extend across borders. This month, Uganda passed one of the most extreme laws in the world that drastically restricts the rights of LGBTQI+ Ugandans to engage in public life or advocacy. As we know, autocrats around the world are learning from each other, and therefore the pro-democracy response must also be actively sharing and learning across borders.

Hot off the press, Horizons’ Chief Organizer Maria J. Stephan published this article with Just Security focused on the specific ways that far-right authoritarian leaders in the US and globally are sharing lessons and collaborating – and how pro-democracy movement(s) can strategically out-maneuver them. She flags the 22^nd Century Initiative’s conference, Forging a People-Powered Democracy where we hope to see many of you from July 6^th to the 9^th in Minneapolis, MN. Registration is open until the 5th!

At Horizons, we are committed to sharing experiences and lessons from other countries with our US colleagues, helping to connect the dots amongst shared threats and to find inspiration in how we are rising to the shared challenges we face. There are several important innovations captured by the Journal of Democracy from the recent opposition efforts to unseat Erdoğan in Turkey that we highly recommend, even though the campaign was ultimately unsuccessful. And, as Horizons focuses on a pillars approach to combatting authoritarianism, we also want to highlight the role that different sectors have to play in pro-democracy movements. For example, there are some lessons for the private sector in how Israeli businesses joined in the recent fight for an independent judiciary is Israel. And to help make this case, Rachel Kleinfeld recently released a helpful report on the negative impact of populism on the business sector around the world.

At this time of rest and reflection during our summer vacation mode in the United States, we hope you enjoy some of the additional resources we are reading, watching, and listening to:

READING

Mapping An Emerging Ecosystem

by Life Itself

At Horizons we spend a lot of time reflecting on ecosystem-level organizing for social change. If you’re into systems thinking and systems change, you will appreciate this super project overview by Life Itself. “We sense that a new ecosystem, or ecosystem of ecosystems, is emerging. A growing number of people, organizations, and initiatives are taking alternative approaches to social change, which diverge from and go beyond the more established spaces in civil society and the social economy.” They explain the process used for identifying and visualizing the various approaches different organizations and networks are taking to affect large systems-level shifts. They also relate this work to other established and emerging movements.

We Need to Talk about Well-being: Why the Study of Well-being is Crucial for Race Relations and Advancing Prosperity

by Andre M. Perry and Jonathan Rothwell, Brookings

A new study was released by Brookings that analyzes data from Gallup to show that measures of well-being offer a valuable way to chart collective progress towards a diverse thriving society, arguing it’s a more holistic indicator than the traditional measures of education and income attainment. Acknowledging that “the road to a more perfect union is paved in race relations,” the report highlights the country still has a long way to go and points out that high well-being scores correlate with greater individual and community stability, high racial and ethnic diversity, and lower rates of so-called “deaths of despair.”

How to Build Movements with Cyclical Patterns in Mind

by Dave Algoso, Florencia Guerzovich, and Soledad Gattoni, Nonprofit Quarterly

“The world changes too much for anyone who is invested in social change work to imagine that this work is linear and predictable. Opportunities come and go, whether caused by a pandemic or political shifts. This much most social movement leaders and activists intuitively understand. But what can be done with this realization? How might movement groups better prepare for moments of opportunity?” In this super article, the authors reflect on how we can create the changes we want to see by responding to the changes that are outside our control.

WATCHING

Building Collective Leadership at Grassroots and Globally Can Fuel Positive Change

hosted by the Social Change Initiative

“Collective leadership, strategic thinking, and self-care are key tactics to leading change in difficult circumstances and divided societies.” Don’t miss the recording of this inspiring online discussion hosted by the Social Change Initiative featuring Ambika Satkunanathan a human rights lawyer from Sri Lanka; Eric Ward, Executive Vice President with Race Forward in the US; Bernadette McAliskey, a human rights and social justice campaigner from Ireland; and Phumeza Mlungwana, an activist from South Africa. Addressing the big challenges facing those who seek to lead change, Bernadette gave some sage advice: “All I can say is, does the road wind uphill all the way? Yes. Will you meet the best human beings in the world on your way? Yes, you will. And if we stand together for the values of human dignity and equality, if we stand for the principles of democracy and equality, will we get there? Yes, we will.”

Talking about Science in an Age of Misinformation

by Nat Kendall-Taylor, Nobel Prize Summit

At the recent 2023 Nobel Prize Summit, FrameWorks Institute CEO Nat Kendall-Taylor gave a short talk on two cultural mindsets that undermine trust in science and two that can be activated to build trust in science. The public’s trust in science has been on the decline, and Nat explains that to understand this lack of trust and what we can do about it, we need to look not only at what people think, but how people think about science. Also, in case you missed it FrameWorks’ recently released an updated report on their findings on Culture Change in the US incorporating shifts from the reversal of Roe v. Wade and the contentious 2020 midterm elections on Americans’ perspective on the world.

The Hopeful Majority

with Manu Meel and Jeremi Suri

Manu Meel, CEO of BridgeUSA has started a new video podcast, The Hopeful Majority, and in this third episode to celebrate Juneteenth, Manu interviewed distinguished historian Jeremi Suri to reflect on the complexity of American history while seeking to advance a new narrative of patriotism. Manu says, “to me, loving America means admiring and critiquing- both are necessary for America to be the greatest democracy possible.”

LISTENING TO

Patriotism: Pride, Race and Reckoning

Let’s Find Common Ground podcast

In this Memorial Day episode, retired US naval officer and Washington Post columnist Theodore Johnson explores the paradox of patriotism and ponders, “how can we take pride in a nation with a history of injustice and inequality?” He shares a powerful personal story of standing at attention in the stands while his son took a knee during the national anthem at his high school football game. And, he shares his thoughts on how he believes America can have more productive discussions about race.

A Billion Dollar Problem

Justice Ain’t Cheap: A Queer Philanthropy podcast

In this premier episode of the new Justice Ain’t Cheap podcast, host Saida Agostini-Bostic talks with Funders for LGBTQ Issues’ board members Ana Conner (Third Wave Fund) and Paulina Helm-Hernández (Foundation for a Just Society) about the heightened attacks on transgender and gender nonconforming communities and the role philanthropy plays in resourcing social justice movement. Paulina says, “I feel like there’s a conversation that has been created by philanthropy in relationship to movements that’s like, ‘Is this a $50,000 problem? Is this a $100,000 problem?’ And I’m like, ‘This is a billion-dollar problem. This is a huge problem.’”

The Edges in the Middle III: Báyò Akómoláfé and Indy Johar

For The Wild podcast

This is a thought-provoking conversation on A New Theory of Self that delves into how lifeforms are entangled together on the earth, exploring the modern crisis of a singular self that creates space for violence and waste. Báyò is the inaugural Global Senior Fellow at the Othering & Belonging Institute and Indy is the Founding Director of Dark Matter Labs, and their conversation is both inspiring and challenging as they call attention to the aliveness of the world and how we may collectively “move beyond constraining ideas of order, power and control to be able to recognize and take part in relational ecological emergence.”

INTERESTING TWEETS

FOR FUN

The American Music Landmarks Project (AMLP) connects music fans, music landmark operators and other advocates through unique opportunities to discover, experience and support the places that shaped US popular music history. During this year’s Civic Season, they are focusing on supporting Gen Z to add their voices as present and future stewards of our music history’s architectural legacy through connecting them with virtual and on-site tours, special events and volunteer experiences to meaningfully participate in the ongoing preservation, maintenance and interpretation of music landmarks. “AMLP understands that the presence of youth in transforming our music landmarks from built history to built heritage is essential to further democratizing and diversifying public awareness, appreciation and support for the places that shaped our collective musical past.”

During the month of May, many important resources have been released on both the rise of authoritarianism and on global polarization. Horizons appreciates the opportunity to learn from across regional contexts and supports deep understanding of how the authoritarian playbook is used to fuel divisions and toxic othering. In “America Needs a Cross-National Approach to Counter Authoritarianism” Yordanos Eyoel provides an overview of the newly released report, “Defending and Strengthening Diverse Democracies” that offers lessons from Brazil, India, South Africa, and the United States. The Institute For Integrated Transitions also published as a part of their global polarization program: First Principles: The Need for Greater Consensus on the Fundamentals of Polarisation. Aditi Juneja makes The Case for Expanding the Landscape of Democracy Work; and People’s Action Institute highlights the need for an organizing revival, in their recent report: The Antidote to Authoritarianism.

Horizons Chief Organizer, Maria Stephan, published a comprehensive piece this month on how the global authoritarian playbook is being executed in Florida and lessons for the pro-democracy movement. A special thanks to all the front-line movement leaders in Florida who contributed to this analysis and who continue such important organizing work under such difficult circumstances.

As we kick off the summer in the US with LGBTQI+ Pride month in June, we recommend the new resources provided by Georgetown University’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy & Protections on Protecting Pride Events from Armed Extremist Activity. Our hope is that we continue to care for each other and find new ways of being and doing across our many difference.

Enjoy some of the other resources that the Horizons’ team has been reading, watching and listening to:

READING

Why Voters Who Value Democracy Participate in Democratic Backsliding

by Alia Braley and Gabriel Lenz, Nature Human Behavior

“Around the world, citizens are voting away the democracies they claim to cherish.” This article summarizes research that shows this behaviour is driven in part by the belief that our opponents will undermine democracy first. The study finds that US partisans are willing to subvert democratic norms to the extent that they believe opposing partisans are willing to do the same. When partisans were exposed to the fact that their opponents are more committed to democratic norms than they thought – they became more committed to upholding democratic norms themselves and less willing to vote for candidates who break these norms. “These findings suggest that aspiring autocrats may instigate democratic backsliding by accusing their opponents of subverting democracy and that we can foster democratic stability by informing partisans about the other side’s commitment to democracy.”

How King’s ‘Letter from Birmingham Jail’ parallels the Tennessee Three

by Kristen Thomason, Baptist News Global

One of the Tennessee Three, Rep. Justin Jones tweeted: “There comes a time when you have to do something out of the ordinary. We occupied the House floor today after repeatedly being silenced from talking about the crisis of mass shootings. We could not go about business as usual as thousands were protesting outside demanding action.” This article connects this action to the reasoning of Martin Luther King Jr. 60 years ago as explained in his famous letter from a Birmingham Jail that sometimes actions out of the ordinary are necessary. “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.”

Being Human > Being Right

by Thomas Coombes

“Does your approach to social justice depend on showing people that they are wrong (and, therefore, that you are right)?” Our friend The Hope Guy has written a wonderful summary of the insights from four recent books to challenge this all-too-common approach to “being right” and lays out three helpful steps: (1) Recognize when our certainty makes us bad communicators; (2) To change minds, listen; and (3) Make the conversation (not its subject) the story.

WATCHING

The Growing Threat of Christian Nationalism

“What is Christian nationalism and how does it threaten our democracy? Investigative reporter Katherine Stewart, author of The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism, Eric K. Ward, executive vice president at Race Forward, and Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, communications director at  Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty (BJC) and a member of BJC’s Christians Against Christian Nationalism campaign discuss the rise of Christian nationalism, its intersection with antisemitism, racism, and extremism, and why we should be paying attention.” (This is the second program in a four-part series on Exploring Hate.)

A Brief but Spectacular Take on Finding Hope in a Difficult World

PBS Newshour

Simran Jeet Singh is executive director for the Aspen Institute’s Religion and Society Program and author of “The Light We Give: How Sikh Wisdom Can Transform Your Life.” Singh shares his Brief But Spectacular take on how by focusing on the positive aspects of our multi-religious, racial and ethnic world, society can disrupt bias and build empathy.

The Abortion Talks

This documentary film by Josh Sabey and Sarah Perkins follows the crimes and trial of John Salvi—and the story of six women, all of them leaders in the pro-life and pro-choice movements, who sought to ensure that it would never happen again. To coincide with the film’s impact campaign, Picture Motion has launched a Screening Tour, providing access to the film and an accompanying Discussion & Action Guide at a sliding fee scale. If you are interested in hosting a film screening, you can contact Picture Motion here.

Imagination Infrastructure

ICYMI, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation recently released all the video recordings from their convening “A Time Between Worlds” where a series of inspiring speakers from around the world discussed aspects of imagination infrastructure. Olivia Oldham summarizes various concepts of imagination as a way “of seeing, sensing, thinking, dreaming” that creates the conditions for material interventions in, and political sensibilities of the world. Imagination is thus a transformative practice, which has the capacity to cultivate and foster alternatives to social, political, cultural and economic conditions; it is a prerequisite for changing the world for the better.”

LISTENING TO

“Polarization” Is Not the Problem. It Obscures the Problem – with Shannon McGregor

Is this Democracy Podcast

In this interview McGregor discusses her recent article, A Review and Provocation: On Polarization and Platforms and reflects on: “Why do scholars, politicians, journalists, and pundits cling to the idea of “polarization”? [Her] answer lies in the fact that the empirical, normative, and historical inadequacy is not a bug, but a feature of the polarization narrative – it is precisely the fact that is obscures rather than illuminates the actual problem that makes it attractive. The “polarization” concept is useful if you want to lament major problems in American politics, but either don’t see or simply can’t bring yourself to address the fact that the major threat to American democracy is a radicalizing Right, is the threat of rightwing authoritarian minority rule. In this way the concept even provides a rhetoric of rapprochement since it does not require agreement as to what is actually ailing America, only that “polarization” is to the detriment of all.”

A Slow Civil War? Jeff Sharlet

Future Hindsight Podcast

Jeff Sharlet discusses his latest book, The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War, reflecting on the democratic decline in the US, and the role of myths and martyrdom within fascist narratives. “On the Far Right, everything is heightened―love into adulation, fear into vengeance, anger into white-hot rage. Here, in the undertow, our forty-fifth president, a vessel of conspiratorial fears and fantasies, continues to rise to sainthood, and the insurrectionist Ashli Babbitt, killed on January 6 at the Capitol, is beatified as a martyr of white womanhood. Framing this dangerous vision, Sharlet remembers and celebrates the courage of those who sing a different song of community, and of an America long dreamt of and yet to be fully born, dedicated to justice and freedom for all.”

Hungary: Learning useful lessons from your enemies

Strength & Solidarity Podcast

“The election in 2010, of Hungary’s Prime Minister Victor Orban and his Fidesz party triggered a lurch to the right and authoritarian rule. It brought legal restriction, bureaucratic harassment and public vilification to the country’s civil society and human rights community. Official hostility made it difficult for [non-profits] to survive and made individual rights workers’ lives hell. It would not have been surprising if the net outcome of such targeting were a weakened human rights movement and a profound loss of confidence. And yet, says Stefánia Kapronczay, co-director of the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union, that is not what has happened. Instead, finding themselves blocked from their former work of advocacy and litigation, human rights workers pivoted to a model of grass roots activism that puts citizens’ needs and their values about rights and justice at the heart of movement-building. It is work they had not been doing enough of, she argues, and it is making the constituency for human rights stronger.”

How the News Media Shortchanges Nonviolent Resistance

War Stories Peace Stories Podcast

“The right to peaceful protest is considered fundamental in democracies around the world.  Nonviolent protest movements, like the Gandhian movement for independence in India or The Civil Rights Movement in the United States, are celebrated in history books. Yet if you go looking for coverage of nonviolent protest in the news media, most of the time you’ll come up short. In this interview, Horizons’ Chief Organizer, Maria J. Stephan widens the lens on nonviolent resistance and offers tips for how journalists could apply that lens to tell more complete and captivating stories.

INTERESTING TWEETS

FOR FUN

Astronaut shares the profound ‘big lie’ he realized after seeing the Earth from space

by Tod Perry Upworthy

“Sixty-one years ago, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to make it into space and probably the first to experience what scientists now call the “overview effect.” This change occurs when people see the world from far above and notice that it’s a place where borders are invisible, where racial, religious and economic strife are nowhere to be seen.…In a compelling interview with Big Think, astronaut, author and humanitarian Ron Garan explains how if more of us developed this planetary perspective we could fix much of what ails humanity and the planet.”