ResistanceMom

Emmy Award-winning journalist and podcast producer Heidi Cuda discusses her transition to resistance work in 2016, and. now her new podcast, Radicalized, covering today's disinformation ecosystems.  Our conversation reaches back to the early impacts of Trump's rise to power and what lessons we carry forward from those days.

The new corona virus sweeping through our communities is deadly and disruptive, but its infinitely more toxic in an environment of corruption. It will take organizing and action to get the testing, care and prevention measures our communities need.  The millions of us who have built up our protest muscles since 2016 will likely need to mobilize to demand public health measures that are basic standards of care worldwide.

Andrea Hildebran Smith interviews Sharon Fast from the University of Hong Kong about adjusting to social isolation policies and the cancellation of in-person schools, universities and workplaces for another 3-4 months due to the corona virus 19. How will people in the United States act to contain the COVID 19 outbreak as the epidemic surges through the American population over the coming weeks? Our discussion circles back to how corruption in health policy inform people's reactions to health emergencies.

Lebanon is just one of the places around the world where people are protesting on a massive scale for an end to corruption and restoration of democracy. Our guest, Luna Safwan, is a journalist covering the 9+ day demonstrations in Lebanon. Chat about the planning for mass demos in the US at ResistanceMom's Flickchat.

The crisis of the Trump presidency escalates with the open embrace of foreign interference in our elections and the betrayal of US Kurdish allies in Syria. It's time to look to leaders from movements that have successfully used mass protest to force corrupt leaders to leave office. Our guest today, Saadi Rosado, is a member of the Collectiva Feminista en Construcciòn, and helped organize the six weeks of sustained protests in Puerto Rico this summer that convinced their Governor, Ricardo Rosselló to resign.

Clicking and commenting on campaigns online takes up more of our time than any other type of political work we do. In this episode I'm looking at how social media has developed over the past 12 years as a tool for social justice work. We're adapting to an online environment that's now been weaponized by the right, but the most important thing we can do is increase our commitment to face to face political work.

Not looking away in this moment means letting some of the traumas around us take their place in your psyche. It's part of standing with people who are targets of oppression. Human rights workers around the world have dealt with the toll on staff members for decades. Yvette Thijm, Executive Director of Witness.org talks with me from RightsCon about how changing the narrative we use to define our work can make all the difference in the resilience of activists working in hostile and traumatizing environments.

The disruption of our political system since 2016 was partly due to the emergence of big data technologies, such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. The extraordinary amount of information big companies and many governments have about our lives from our phones, our online searches and the integration of massive data sets, is a "tool of social control", and even an "existential threat," according to Zeynep Tufekci, author of Twitter and Teargas, The Power and Fragility of Networked Protest. Episode 20: Data Politics, brings you Zeynep Tufekci's talk from RightsCon on the types of regulation that will help people benefit from these new technologies without giving up the privacy and autonomy they currently threaten around the world. In the context of the European Union's new data privacy law, Zeynep Tufekci argues for approaching data as a public good, rather than a private asset.

The US government continues to separate children who cross the border from their families and warehouse them at secretive child detention centers run by private, for-profit companies. Miami area resisters are holding a daily witness at the biggest such facility in the United States, in Homestead, Florida. Andrea Hildebran Smith interviews Kathy Hersh of the Miami Quaker Meeting, and Charlie, one of the people witnessing at the camp on a daily basis.

With the court stacked with right-wing justices ready to overturn Roe v Wade, advocates and abortion providers look to technological and medical advances as the path forward for women needing abortions. Amy Weintraub of Progress Florida talks with us about the safe abortion medication that women can self-manage if abortion care providers are made illegal. We discuss which groups are picking up the work connecting people with new avenues for care and which are preparing for the deluge of criminal charges against women for their abortions and miscarriages.

If the abortion bans in 8 states have you freaking out, tune in to our four-part series, The Abortion Nexus. In the first episode: Citizenship, Andrea Hildebran Smith interviews Ashleigh McGuire of Planned Parenthood about how their activists defeated this ban in Florida this year. As the pressure builds already toward 2020, the work starts now to hold the line against abortion bans here and across the country.

For Mother's Day 2019, meet ResistanceMom Elyse Haley. She shares the values of St Pete, Florida's most progressive church with their youngest members. Elyse's work as a mom, a teacher, and organizer make her our first profile for Mom of the Month.

With the release of the redacted Mueller report, Trump's control over the messaging regarding Russian collusion begins to come apart. The obvious falsehoods in Attorney General Barr's summary letter to Congress begin to shred his credibility as the conversations about impeachment start in earnest. How and when the Democrats move on impeachment is the subject of my interview with Erin Conroy, a national leader of the StandOnEveryCorner movement.

As the reality of climate destruction hits home with the California wildfires and flooded Midwest, young people in the United States are joining their European counterparts in holding strikes from school to demand immediate investment in Green New Deal legislation. Andrea Hildebran Smith interviews Anna Grace Hottinger of MNCantWait, US Climate Strikes, and I Matter about the movement that is building a generation of organizers. Become a supporter of ResistanceMom.com and listen to the extended interview with Anna Grace Hottinger at Patreon.com/ResistanceMom.

Moms Demand, formed in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook school shooting, is breaking the lock the NRA has on our country's legislators for more than a generation. Andrea Hildebran Smith interviews Kelly Moore of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America about the activists who are winning state and federal fights for gun safety measures. Building support networks for survivors of gun violence, Moms Demand shares their all-too-common stories with lawmakers in statehouse after statehouse. NOTE: This episode continues with PREMIUM CONTENT for ResistanceMom Patrons at Patreon.com/ResistanceMom.

The hazards for kids online used to be evenly matched with standard parental worries about their interest in sex and their vulnerability to strangers. But the pervasiveness of violent pornography and political disinformation campaigns means the internet pose challenges for adults and children alike, beyond what any parent can counter on their own. This week on ResistanceMom, Andrea Hildebran Smith explores internet safety with author Nathan Fisk, whose book, Framing Internet Safety, critiques early attempts at regulating online speech.

How do we help our kids make sense of the attacks on our democracy? Can the work of resisting racism and defending democracy be something we can do side by side with our kids? Andrea Hildebran Smith talks with author and family therapist Rebecca Thompson Hitt about making sure we show our kids how to move through trauma to action.

Author and pastor John Pavlovitz speaks with us today about the anniversary of the Parkland massacre, and how storytelling and story-sharing holds the door open to healing the relationships broken by Trumpism and Fox News.

This week Andrea Hildebran Smith talks with Ashley Weitz, a leader in the #StandOnEveryCorner movement about the nationwide actions demanding an end to the Trump administration. Whether it's the caging of kids at the border, or Trump's apparent treasonous relationship with Russia, or the promotion of nazism and white supremacy by the White House that makes you go stand, speaking publicly has profound effects in your community.

Andrea Hildebran Smith discusses the emerging impact of the Trump economic shutdown as millions of Americans prepare for a severe economic recession. Our interview is with Amanda Litman, Co-founder and Executive Director of RunForSomething.net, a non-profit recruiting and supporting thousands of young progressives to run for office.

This week, ResistanceMom.com interviews Lindsay Cross, a first time candidate for office who came within a few points of beating a powerful Republican State Senator in 2018.  Our discussion covers her journey from citizen scientist to emerging political leader.   

Andrea Hildebran Smith interviews Chris Sampson, cyber-researcher with Tapestries and researcher working with Malcolm Nance, author of the The Plot To Hack America, The Plot to Attack Democracy and others. The discussion ranges from details of his research into the criminal history being unearthed about Trump and his Russian-assisted campaign, to the factors that leave Americans vulnerable to information warfare.

Andrea Hildebran Smith talks with activist Ashley Green about the urgent campaigns to chase ballots in the Florida recount.  More than 20,000 votes have the potential to get ‘cured’ if they settle questions about their signatures and the campaigns are hard at work finding those people. Our conversation about engaging the public in this critical phase of the election leads us to the utility and hazards of social media in the age of Russian interference.

Despite feeling relief at the Democratic takeover of the House of Representatives, progressive Floridians and Georgians are devastated by the loss of Andrew Gillum’s and Stacey Abrams’ runs for governor. My conversation with Reverend Andy Oliver of St Pete’s Allendale United Methodist Church, explores our developing understandings of racism and confronting white supremacy. The show ends with a meditation by yoga teacher Andrea Dawn on releasing attachment to outcomes.

With the midterm election upon us, ResistanceMom interviews Marilyn Marks about fighting to let votes be counted in that state's deeply conflicted Secretary of Elections (hint: he's overseeing the election in which he himself is running for Governor). We also talk with Anjenys Gonzalez-Eilert, Executive Director of Common Cause about their work with Florida's 67 different Supervisors of Elections to ensure election integrity.    

Amy Weintraub of Progress Florida explains what's up with the confusing, dozen+ amendments Floridians are finding on their ballots in the Midterms.  Find out how Amendments can be used to undermine democracy. Also, this episode reviews Malcolm Nance's ground breaking book, The Plot to Hack America, on the Russian cyber attacks on the 2016 election.