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We just talked live with our regular Thursday guest, the political sage Anat Shenker-Osorio, and nearly 1,400 of you, about how to even begin talking about the human tragedies that are connected to the biggest political questions and why Democrats seem so unable to tell the stories that can make those connections. She talked to us about:* Why right after a tragedy like the flooding in Texas, when people feel it's the most inappropriate time to raise the real questions, is exactly the time to act because it's when the most interest in solving a problem exists: “If not now, when?” * How Zohran Mamdani has broken out of the Democratic trap of depending on polls and is showing the party how to be a leader — even if they can't see it yet* Why protests are great, but they're just the beginning: and why the strategy now is “resist, refuse, and ridicule”You won't want to miss any of it. Just click on the video player above to watch the entire conversation.We are opening this video to all. But we're also asking candidly that you support the work that goes into bringing you The Ink by becoming a paying subscriber.Your support is how we keep the lights on, pay our writers and editors a fair wage, and build the new media we all deserve. When you subscribe, you help us reach more people. Join us today, or if you are already a member, give a gift or group subscription. Get full access to The.Ink at the.ink/subscribe
We just talked with former ABC News anchor and now fellow Substacker Terry Moran, and more than 2,000 of you, about the catastrophic Texas floods, the families directly involved, and what their tragedies and legacies tell us about America now.We spoke about: * Making the necessary connections between human tragedies and underlying causes — the kind of narrative the press tends to avoid* Why talking about climate change after a flood isn't politicization, but the exercise of care* How people who would do anything to protect the ones they love can live the kind of duality that lets them back the kinds of politics — like climate change denial — that endanger the people they love* How the new budget's passage — by people who should know better — reflects the same problem: supported by business elites who are dooming their own great-grandchildren, who are far from guaranteed to be as rich as they are* What happened to the American ethic of solidarity that ensured people looked beyond their own families' self-preservation to the national and global interest, and how can it be rebuilt?* Why the press isn't built to tell people the deep story behind breaking news stories, how that limits public understanding of issues on the scale of climate change, and how independent media might develop the kind of storytelling that can really inform* How we can imagine a tragedy like the July 4 floods, with deep systemic and political roots, being ignored and simply preserving the status quo — and how we might also imagine a future where it motivates people to change* And what kind of great-grandparents are we being now, for our future great-grandchildren?You won't want to miss this one, so just click on the video player above.Visit the link below to read Anand's essay on the flooding:And visit the following link to read our interview with Leah Hunt-Hendrix about her book, Solidarity:We are opening this video to all. But we're also asking candidly that you support the work that goes into bringing you The Ink by becoming a paying subscriber.Your support is how we keep the lights on, pay our writers and editors a fair wage, and build the new media we all deserve. When you subscribe, you help us reach more people.Join us today, or if you are already a member, give a gift or group subscription.And make sure to subscribe to Terry Moran's newsletter, Real Patriotism.Join us for more Live conversation this week!Tomorrow, Thursday, July 10, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, we'll talk again with messaging guru Anat Shenker-Osorio.To join and watch, download the Substack app (click on the button below) and turn on notifications — you'll get an alert once we're live, and you can watch, chat, and even participate in the conversation during our Book Club meetings from your iOS or Android mobile device. If you're using a computer, you can also watch (and ask questions in the text chat) on our homepage. Get full access to The.Ink at the.ink/subscribe
A conversation with Anat Shenker-Osorio, founder of A.S.O. Communications, a progressive political communication bureau known for slogans such as “Don't take the temperature, change it” and “A great message doesn't say what's already popular; a great message makes popular what needs to be said".We try so hard in the regenerative (and probably any other progressive) space to work on our messaging, how to communicate, how to reach people inside our bubble and beyond. We try to speak to those within the agrochemical and food industry, to make them see how environmentally sound, healthy, and economically interesting a different food and agriculture system could be. But somehow, we haven't gotten very far. We're constantly out-lobbied and outsmarted by the very well-organised extractive ag industry. (No, this isn't an evil conspiracy, but it is definitely well-organised.)With Anat we dive deep into the world of effective campaigning, messaging, and communication. Because we're always going to be up against a much higher budget, but let's at least use the airspace we do have as effectively as possible.But we've got news for you: most people don't want to join the losing team. So, stop communicating like we've already lost. Start getting people to join the small but winning team. Don't deny reality and never lie. But do understand what makes people listen, and more importantly, what makes them take action: consume differently, protest, organise, vote (if you can).Because in the end, this is all about who has the power.More about this episode.==========================In Investing in Regenerative Agriculture and Food podcast show we talk to the pioneers in the regenerative food and agriculture space to learn more on how to put our money to work to regenerate soil, people, local communities and ecosystems while making an appropriate and fair return. Hosted by Koen van Seijen.==========================
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit the.inkDonald Trump's actions represent an existential threat to the university as we know it.But why? What is it about the modern American university that is so upsetting to a famously insecure leader? Why has he fixated on this out of all possible targets?We just talked with Wesleyan University's president, Michael Roth, an outspoken defender of student free speech and Trump critic, and 1,300 of you. He spoke of:* How universities are a culture-making, opinion-shaping power center, which Trump, like all authoritarians, fears* How they facilitate social progress by helping students pick up ideas and perspectives that sever them from the prejudices of their families and hometowns, and why that threatens the right's larger political project* Why the kidnappings of Mahmoud Kahlil and Rümeysa Öztürk and others are so chilling, and part of an attempt to turn university leaders into collaborators* How the chilling effects of Trump's cuts and abductions are already shifting the behavior of students and professors* Why the Trump regime's anti-antisemitism exploits genuine anxieties as a cudgel against his enemies, and how it has made Jews in America not more but less safe* How academia came to hold too much influence over the political left and the Democratic Party in particular, and the need to go beyond the jargon and wonkiness and elitist inclusionspeak that keep many Americans at bay* And why, even though Roth is afraid, he's committed to speaking up — because that is the only way to find out if you're wrong, and the only way to stay freeYou won't want to miss this one, so just click on the video player above.Our live shows are open to all. Afterward, to access the full video of this interview and the transcript, become a paying subscriber.Your support is how we keep the lights on, pay our staff a fair wage, and build the new media we all deserve. When you subscribe, you help us reach more people. Join us today, or if you are already a member, give a gift or group subscription.Join us for more Live conversations this week!Tomorrow, Wednesday, July 9, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, we'll meet with The Ink Book Club. Then on Thursday, July 10, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, we'll talk with messaging guru Anat Shenker-Osorio.To join and watch, download the Substack app (click on the button below) and turn on notifications — you'll get an alert once we're live, and you can watch, chat, and even participate in the conversation during our Book Club meetings from your iOS or Android mobile device. If you're using a computer, you can also watch (and ask questions in the text chat) on our homepage.
We just talked live with our regular Monday guest, the scholar of authoritarianism Ruth Ben-Ghiat, and 2,400 of you, and she told us about:* How the new budget turns ICE — the masked, unidentified, plainclothes agents who've been taking people off the streets — into something new for America: a secret police force. * Why masked gangs of enforcers are a “force multiplier of fear,” letting authoritarians exercise power beyond their numbers and popular support.* How to reclaim patriotism from the far-right and own it — the far-right isn't the ship, it's a barnacle.* Rejecting the idea of a fortress America in favor of the older, better idea of a nation of immigrants, with all of its diverse flavors and tastes.* How Hungary's fearless Pride marchers point the way forward for opposing authoritarianism.You won't want to miss any of it. Just click on the video player above to watch the entire conversation.We are opening this video to all. But we're also asking candidly that you support the work that goes into bringing you The Ink by becoming a paying subscriber.Your support is how we keep the lights on, pay our writers and editors a fair wage, and build the new media we all deserve. When you subscribe, you help us reach more people. Join us today, or if you are already a member, give a gift or group subscription.And if you haven't already, please subscribe to Ruth Ben-Ghiat's newsletter, Lucid.Join us for more Live conversations this week!Tomorrow, Tuesday, July 8, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, we'll be joined by former Department of Homeland Security official and Donald Trump critic Miles Taylor and Wesleyan University president Michael S. Roth. Then on Wednesday, July 9, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, we'll meet with The Ink Book Club. And on Thursday, July 10, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, we'll talk again with messaging guru Anat Shenker-Osorio.To join and watch, download the Substack app (click on the button below) and turn on notifications — you'll get an alert once we're live, and you can watch, chat, and even participate in the conversation during our Book Club meetings from your iOS or Android mobile device. If you're using a computer, you can also watch (and ask questions in the text chat) on our homepage. Get full access to The.Ink at the.ink/subscribe
Zohran Mamdani's victory in the New York City mayoral primary has electrified people across the country and stirred hope in the dark. So today we talked to three experts — messaging guru Anat Shenker-Osorio, strategist and writer Waleed Shahid, and New York City Comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander — to understand what happened in the race and what it bodes for the future of the Democratic Party.Shenker-Osorio talked to us about how Mamdani's campaign was a textbook example of two of her political mantras — Sell the brownie, not the recipe, and Animate the base to persuade the middle.Lander took us inside how he and Mamdani were able to do what Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders ultimately weren't in 2020 — collaborate as progressives to advance shared goals. He told us about how their partnership helped bridge the gap between Muslim and Jewish voters, and how it demonstrated that, even in this very dark timeline, politics can be a team sport instead of a contest of self-interest.And Shahid talked about Mamdani's win as a triumph of substance, not vibes. Mamdani's real talk about Palestinians and the war in Gaza, about democratic socialist policy ideas, and about himself were all important in telling a story that could connect Democrats across ideology. He also talked about the very real work that remains to be done if progressive candidates are to do better with Black voters.We are opening this video to all. But we're also asking candidly that you support the work that goes into bringing you The Ink by becoming a paying subscriber.Your support is how we keep the lights on, pay our writers and editors a fair wage, and build the new media we all deserve. When you subscribe, you help us reach more people. Join us today, or if you are already a member, give a gift or group subscription.Join us for more Live conversations next week!On Monday, June 30, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, we'll be joined by scholar of authoritarianism Ruth Ben-Ghiat. On Tuesday, July 1, also at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, we'll be talking to foreign policy expert and former Bernie Sanders advisor Matt Duss. Then on Wednesday, July 2, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, we'll meet with the Book Club to start talking about Karim Dimechkie's The Uproar.To join and watch, download the Substack app (click on the button below) and turn on notifications — you'll get an alert once we're live, and you can watch, chat, and even participate in the conversation during our Book Club meetings from your iOS or Android mobile device. If you're using a computer, you can also watch (and ask questions in the text chat) on our homepage. Get full access to The.Ink at the.ink/subscribe
In this episode of Grow a Small Business, host Troy Trewin interviews John Abrams, founder of South Mountain Company, shared his remarkable journey from launching a small six-person architectural construction firm in 1973 to growing it into a thriving 40-employee solar business generating $20 million in annual revenue. A strong advocate for employee ownership, Abrams highlighted the advantages of worker cooperatives and Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs), emphasizing their positive impact on productivity and employee retention. In his new book, From Founder to Future: A Business Roadmap to Impact, Longevity, and Employee Ownership, John Abrams explores the critical topic of succession planning for aging business owners, offering insights on preserving company values, fostering effective communication, and achieving a sustainable work-life balance. He also reflected on navigating challenges like the 2008 financial crisis and underscored the importance of community engagement in building a resilient and purpose-driven business. Other Resources: Companies We Keep: Employee Ownership and the Business of Community and Place, 2nd Edition by John Abrams The Company We Keep: Reinventing Small Business for People, Community, and Place by John Abrams Why would you wait any longer to start living the lifestyle you signed up for? Balance your health, wealth, relationships and business growth. And focus your time and energy and make the most of this year. Let's get into it by clicking here. Troy delves into our guest's startup journey, their perception of success, industry reconsideration, and the pivotal stress point during business expansion. They discuss the joys of small business growth, vital entrepreneurial habits, and strategies for team building, encompassing wins, blunders, and invaluable advice. And a snapshot of the final five Grow A Small Business Questions: What do you think is the hardest thing in growing a small business? According to John Abrams, the hardest thing in growing a small business is getting everyone aligned behind a single mission—what he describes as “getting all the wood behind a single arrow”—while also maintaining core values in the face of numerous external temptations. He emphasizes that as a business grows, staying true to its founding principles becomes increasingly difficult, yet it's essential for long-term success and integrity. What's your favorite business book that has helped you the most? John Abrams' favorite business book that has helped him the most is Managing Transitions by William Bridges. He values it for its insights on how to effectively move from one stage of business to another, emphasizing that it offers guidance on navigating all kinds of changes within a company. Are there any great podcasts or online learning resources you'd recommend to help grow a small business? John Abrams recommends several alternative sources of learning rather than traditional business media. He highlights The Ink and The Contrarian as valuable platforms, along with communicator Anat Shenker-Osorio for her insights on messaging and influence. While not all are strictly business-focused, he finds them powerful for understanding communication, leadership, and societal context—all of which he sees as essential to growing a meaningful small business. What tool or resource would you recommend to grow a small business? John Abrams recommends strong communication tools—both written and spoken—as the most important resource for growing a small business. He believes that clear, effective communication is the key to building relationships, aligning teams, and driving a business forward successfully. What advice would you give yourself on day one of starting out in business? John Abrams would advise himself on day one of starting out in business to recognize that it's going to be an incredible ride, to enjoy every minute of it, and to stay conscious and aware of how he builds relationships with people, as they are the true key to success. He reflects that in his early years, he focused too much on product quality and not enough on the importance of people, which he later realized is what small business is really about. Book a 20-minute Growth Chat with Troy Trewin to see if you qualify for our upcoming course. Don't miss out on this opportunity to take your small business to new heights! Enjoyed the podcast? Please leave a review on iTunes or your preferred platform. Your feedback helps more small business owners discover our podcast and embark on their business growth journey. Quotable quotes from our special Grow A Small Business podcast guest: When people are truly part of something, they give it everything they've got – John Abrams Growth is overrated and often the cause of trouble rather than triumph – John Abrams Communication is the key to small business — writing, speaking, and being transparent – John Abrams
This weekend, the New York Times ran a piece titled Six Months Later, Democrats Are Still Searching for the Path Forward, and it was bleak. The lead quote came from Anat Shenker-Osorio, a favorite of this show, describing Democrats as sloths, snails, and most devastatingly, a deer in headlights. That last one feels accurate, especially when you look at the post-election breakdown from Catalist, a Democratic-aligned polling firm. We'll dive deeper into that next week with Michael Cohen, but the short version? The coalition looks grim.Democrats are losing ground, and it's not just because of Joe Biden or Kamala Harris. It's not just about the top of the ticket. It's structural. They don't have a message that resonates, and they don't have a coalition that can win. When you look at how the electorate has shifted since 2012 — through 2016, 2020, and now 2024 — the trend is clear. Wide swaths of the country keep moving right. This is not just a Trump story. This is a cultural shift.Politics Politics Politics is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.There are a few bright spots — like John Ossoff. The Atlanta suburbs are still trending blue, which gives him a strong base going into his re-election. But one candidate's survival isn't a strategy. The bigger problem is Democrats losing voters they used to count on, and then reacting like anthropologists studying a foreign culture. Take the new $20 million project codenamed SAM — “Speaking with American Men.” The plan is to understand what language appeals to young men online and then buy ad space in video games. I'm not kidding.I'll save you the $20 million. Want to understand American men? Go to a sports bar at lunch. Talk to the bartender. Watch what's on TV. It's going to be Capitals games, Commanders games, maybe Nationals if they're hot. Ask what name the bartender uses — Commanders or Redskins — and pay attention. That's a signal. Look around. You'll see a guy without sleeves. His name is Pat McAfee. He parlayed a Barstool podcast into a national show that's shaping how a huge swath of American men consume sports and culture.McAfee is the demographic. Not the man, but the space he occupies. You don't need to book him — in fact, don't. But understand what kind of guests are on his show. What they talk about. What they joke about. The cultural signals they send. Most aren't overtly political, but they skew conservative. They care about sports, performance, and authenticity. They aren't trying to be progressive heroes. They're just being themselves — and Democrats don't know how to speak to that.The real issue is that Democrats think everything is messaging. They believe their phrasing is so perfect, so tested, that if people just heard it the right way, it would work. But voters aren't lab rats. They're not waiting for the next DNC ad drop to form their opinions. They're watching comedians joke about trans athletes. They're laughing at jokes about liberal overreach. They're reacting to a world where Democrats are often cast as anti-fun and anti-speech. And white men — yes, still the overwhelming majority of this country — don't respond well to being told they're the problem from the start.So how do you reach them? Start by understanding who's already reaching them. Then think about what message would land quietly on a show like Pat McAfee's. Not what would stand out. What would blend in. That's the Rosetta Stone. Speak in a way that doesn't sound like a speech. Get out of your own head. Stop trying to convert — start trying to connect.And meanwhile, while Democrats strategize over lunch buffets at luxury hotels, Trump is climbing in the polls. The idea that he's getting “less popular” is just wrong. His lowest point was late April. Since then, his numbers have rebounded. His approval is hovering around 47 percent. That's good — especially for someone who normally lives in the 30s. Right now, more Americans think the country is on the right track under Trump than they ever did under Biden. The direction-of-the-country numbers are strong. For Trump. That's insane. And Democrats ignore it at their peril.They keep underestimating him. They keep assuming the messaging is enough. But Trump is talking about tax cuts for tips and overtime. Democrats are voting for them too — the Senate just passed a version 100 to 0. They know it polls well. They just don't want to say it out loud unless it's their version.Politics is about trust. And the Biden White House broke it. When it's he said, she said, voters side with the one who hasn't lied to them. That's Trump right now. And if Democrats want to change that, they've got to start being honest — not just with the public, but with themselves.Chapters00:00:00 - Intro00:01:44 - Democrat Rebranding Struggles00:26:16 - Update00:27:34 - US-EU Trade Talks and Consumer Confidence00:31:32 - Senate Republican Fiscal Concerns00:34:34 - Covid Vaccine Recommendations Pulled00:37:52 - Interview with Juliegrace Brufke01:04:15 - Wrap-up This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.politicspoliticspolitics.com/subscribe
We just got off a call with the technology journalist Karen Hao, the keenest chronicler of the technology that's promising — or threatening — to reshape the world, who has a new book, Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI.The book talks not just about artificial intelligence and what it might be, or its most visible spokesperson and what he might believe, but also about the way the tech industry titans resemble more and more the empires of old in their relentless resource extraction and exploitation of labor around the world, their take-no-prisoners competitiveness against supposedly “evil” pretenders, and their religious fervor for progress and even salvation. She also told us about what the future might look like if we get A.I. right, and the people who produce the data, the resources, and control the labor power can reassert their ownership and push back against these new empires to build a more humane and human future.You won't want to miss this, so check out the full conversation above, and click on the image below to get a copy of Hao's essential book.If you appreciate the work that goes into The Ink and haven't already done so, we hope you'll become a supporting subscriber.Your support is how we keep the lights on, pay our writers and editors a fair wage, and build the new media we all deserve. When you subscribe, you help us reach more people.Join us today. Or give a gift or group subscription.More Live conversations this week!Join us tomorrow, Wednesday, May 28, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, when we will meet Live with The Ink Book Club to wrap up our discussion of Abundance, and on Thursday, May 29, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, when we'll be back with messaging guru Anat Shenker-Osorio. We hope you can make it to both conversations!To join and watch, download the Substack app (click on the button below) and turn on notifications — you'll get an alert that we're live, and you can watch from your iOS or Android mobile device. And if you haven't already, subscribe to The Ink to access full videos of past conversations and to join the chat during our live events.. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit the.ink/subscribe
Your support is how we keep the lights on, pay our writers and editors a fair wage, and build the new media we all deserve. When you subscribe, you help us reach more people.Join us today. Or give a gift or group subscription.More Live conversations next week!Join us next Tuesday, May 27, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, when we'll talk with author and journalist Karen Hao about her new book, Empire of AI. On Wednesday, May 28, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, we will meet Live with The Ink Book Club, and on Thursday, May 29, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, we'll be back with messaging guru Anat Shenker-Osorio. To join and watch, download the Substack app (click on the button below) and turn on notifications — you'll get an alert that we're live, and you can watch from your iOS or Android mobile device. And if you haven't already, subscribe to The Ink to access full videos of past conversations and to join the chat during our live events. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit the.ink/subscribe
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit the.inkWe just got off a wide-ranging call with messaging guru Anat Shenker-Osorio (rejoining us after a long break to fix things in European politics and Run for Something president Amanda Litman, who has a new book out called When We're In Charge: The Next Generation's Guide to Leadership, which applies what she's learned in bringing up a younger wave of Democratic leaders to any organization.We talked about the tension within the Democratic Party between the centrists who feel that they've gotten it right all along and only need to tweak messaging to win elections and those who see the need for a real policy change, whether postmortems of the 2024 election have value, how housing is shaping politics and leadership along generational lines, the power of showing up and protesting from the Visibility Brigades hanging signs on freeway overpasses to the activists who showed up to protest Medicaid cuts at the Rayburn Building this week, and the challenges for younger leaders — in Democratic politics and in any private or public organzation — as they try to break with the models of the past and redefine what it is to lead, work, and build in the future. We hope you'll check out the full video above and pick up Amanda Litman's new book for more of her insights — even if you're not a millennial! If you appreciate these kinds of interviews, will you support independent media by becoming a supporting subscriber now?More Live conversations next week!Come back next week for a full slate of Live conversations! On Monday, May 19, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, when we will be talking with the great economist Paul Krugman. Then on Tuesday, May 20, at 12:00 p.m. Eastern, we will speak with Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut. Then for our Book Club meeting (open to supporting Ink subscribers) on Wednesday, May 21, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, we'll be joined by Abundance authors Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. On Thursday, May 22, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, we'll talk with author and finance expert Ramit Sethi, then at 4:00 p.m., we'll be speaking with the journalist Jim Acosta. And on Friday, May 23, also at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, we will talk to Working Families Party director Maurice Mitchell. We hope to see you all there!To join and watch, download the Substack app (click on the button below) and turn on notifications — you'll get an alert that we're live, and you can watch from your iOS or Android mobile device. And if you haven't already, subscribe to The Ink to access full videos of past conversations and to join the chat during our live events.If you appreciate the work that goes into The Ink and haven't already done so, we hope you'll become a supporting subscriber.That's how we keep the lights on, pay our writers and editors a fair wage, and build the new media we all deserve. When you subscribe, you help us reach more people.Join us today. Or give a gift or group subscription.
Special guest Anat Shenker-Osorio joins Joe and Alex for one of our favorite shows to date. You won't want to miss the energy. What is the entire Democratic political ecosystem getting wrong? What's broken about "testing?" And how do we take the fight more directly to Trump - with what Anat calls "the only thing that truly fells an autocrat?" Plus: How do we avoid "process words" and unintentionally defending the status quo? How we can break through with the voters who really need to hear it? Follow Anat on Bluesky at @anatosaurus.bsky.social. Check out the "Freedom over Fascism" toolkit: https://bit.ly/FreedomOverFascism Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Critics on the left and the right called out Cory Booker's record-breaking speech this week for being “performative.” But what's that all about?Performance matters. Nobody wants to listen to a politician rattle off a list of statistical explanations. When you speak to people about something important, you need to make them feel a certain way, not just think a certain way. Otherwise, they are not going to act.That goes for Booker holding the Senate floor for 25 hours (and making C-SPAN must-see TV), and that also goes for you, trying to convince your friends and neighbors to get together to go out to a protest if they've never been before. And that's what we talked to political sage Anat Shenker-Osorio about this afternoon, along with what to make of the victory in the Wisconsin supreme court election, how to talk about the tariffs (and how to avoid the trap of explaining too much), why the Democrats missed the mark on the budget, and how to plan for the Hands Off! protests this coming weekend. As with anything Shenker-Osorio has to say, you won't want to miss it.We're leaving this open to all. But please support this work and subscribe if you can. When you do, it allows us to keep at it and keep reaching a wider audience. We really appreciate it!Take a moment to support fearless, independent reporting, and to help us keep bringing you conversations like this one. Or give a gift or group subscription.Stand up for media that bows to no tyrant or billionaire. Join us today. Or give a gift or group subscription.A programming note: More Live conversations!Join us again next week for two great live discussions. On Tuesday, April 8, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern, we'll be speaking with the author, documentarian, and political commentator Joy-Ann Reid, and on Thursday, April 10, at 12:30 p.m. Eastern, the philosopher and author Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò will join us. We hope to see you for both!To join and watch, download the Substack app (click on the button below) and turn on notifications — you'll get an alert that we're live and you can watch from your iOS or Android mobile device. And if you haven't already, subscribe to The Ink to access full videos of past conversations and to join the chat during our live events.Readers like you make The Ink possible and keep it independent. If you haven't already joined us, sign up today for our mailing list, support our work, and help build a free and fearless media future by becoming a paying subscriber. And if you're already a part of our community, thank you! And we'd appreciate it if you'd consider giving a subscription to The Ink as a gift or for a group you belong to. Or pick up a mug, tote bag, or T-shirt! We appreciate it. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit the.ink/subscribe
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit the.inkLet's play a game. If we win, we stay free!I'm only half joking.Readers of The Ink will know that I am obsessed with the topic of messaging. I wrote about it in The Persuaders, and of course we regularly talk to our friend, the most memeable messaging maestro in this macabre maelstrom, Anat Shenker-Osorio. (That was not a message she would approve.)Toda…
On this episode of the MeidasTouch Podcast, Ben sits down with political messaging powerhouse Anat Shenker-Osorio for a must-hear conversation about how we defeat the MAGA regime—not by playing defense, but by reframing the entire debate. From exposing the GOP's “pain is good” Ponzi scheme propaganda to laying out the messaging blueprint for real, people-powered progress, this episode is packed with insight, strategy, and motivation for the fight ahead. Tune in and get fired up. To watch our Meidas Meetup series live, join us now on Substack at MeidasPlus.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Enough.Enough despair at everyone who isn't doing enough to stop Donald Trump.Enough fatalism. Enough waiting for somebody else.The brilliant political strategist Anat Shenker-Osorio just joined us with a clarion call for you, the people, taking matters into your own hands. It's the only thing that has ever worked in times like this, she says.Here are her marching orders for you: build people power, starting by creating social proof of how many people feel as you do, and cultivate pressure from the ground up.Her ideas involve a brilliant new catch-all slogan (Free America!), suggestions of symbols and badges (“I'm in the KNOW”), thoughts about a general strike, and more.Share this far and wide. Let's keep going. Let's keep growing. Thank you one and all.In the public interest, we are opening this video to all. But we're also asking candidly that folks support the half dozen or so people who now write for and edit and otherwise support the work of The Ink by becoming a paying subscriber.Take a moment to support fearless, independent reporting, and to help us keep bringing you conversations like this one. Or give a gift or group subscription.Stand up for media that bows to no tyrant or billionaire. Join us today. Get full access to The.Ink at the.ink/subscribe
Safety net programs like Medicaid and SNAP are in peril after the House Republicans passed a budget resolution this week that proposes massive $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, alongside $2 trillion in spending reductions. The math doesn't add up: There is no realistic way to achieve the necessary savings without slashing entitlement programs that the most vulnerable Americans depend on.While the Republicans claim they won't cut these programs, they are simultaneously setting up eventual changes. House Speaker Mike Johnson characterized Medicaid as "hugely problematic" with "a lot of fraud, waste, and abuse." This rhetoric echoes that of Elon Musk, who labeled those affected by federal program cuts as the "parasite class."On this week's episode of The Intercept Briefing, Anat Shenker-Osorio, a political messaging expert, and Sunjeev Bery, a foreign policy analyst and Intercept contributor, discuss how Republican messaging is previewing what's to come and why Trump and his allies have been successful in the court of public opinion.“One of the most persuasive tools that we have in our arsenal is repetition. Messages that people hear over and over, irrespective of their actual content, are rated to be more credible,” says Shenker-Osorio. “Familiarity gives our brains what we call cognitive ease, they give us what's called the illusory truth effect that if you've heard something over and over, like if you've heard government is wasteful, government is wasteful, government is wasteful … then the next time that you hear it, you're like, oh, yeah, that sort of seems true.”Bery believes the way to fight back is by first changing our language. “Republicans are very good at trapping our country and our society with their language. You take something like the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, simply to repeat that phrase is to be trapped by its false logic and by the fraudulent claims of its master, the billionaire Elon Musk,” he says. “We need to use different language entirely. This is an attempt to steal from the American people and hand a fat check to Elon Musk and all the billionaires who stood on stage with Donald Trump during his inauguration. That's what this is.”And while the speed of change and upheaval seems dire, both Shenker-Osorio and Bery remain optimistic. Shenker-Osorio thinks Americans who disagree with the Trump administration's actions should step up in this moment. “The opportunity, if we were to seize it, is a recognition that the only thing that has actually toppled autocracy, I would argue both in the U. S. past and also, most certainly, in other countries, is civil resistance. It is a sustained, unrelenting group of people showing, not telling, being out in the world, demonstrating their resistance, their refusal, and their ridicule,” she says. “The future is still made of the decisions that we take together. That is what makes the whole thing crumble. And the possibility, not the inevitability, but the possibility of a very different kind of governing regime.”To hear more of the conversation, check out The Intercept Briefing wherever you get your podcasts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Hey, folks! Anand here.I just had another informative, illuminating, head-spinning, therapeutic, and, dare I say, healing conversation with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, the scholar of authoritarianism and editor of Lucid, the newsletter covering autocracy and threats to democracy globally.Thank you to the more than 4,000 of you who joined live. Talk about building a new kind of media. Wow. We are floored.People who like freedom and democracy turn out to be numerous. That is good news.If you missed our live conversation, we encourage you to watch the entire video above.In the public interest, we are opening this video to all. But we're also asking candidly that folks support the half dozen or so people who now write for and edit and otherwise support the work of The Ink by becoming a paying subscriber.Take a moment to support fearless, independent reporting, and to help us keep bringing you conversations like this one. Or give a gift or group subscription.Your support allows us to open these ideas to as many people as possible, no paywall.Call notes from The Ink's managing editor, Michael BerkWe covered a lot of territory:* It's the three-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and, even more significantly, perhaps the end of an 80-year transatlantic era as Donald Trump does his best to withdraw from America's commitments and replace them with a mafioso, art-of-the-deal transactionalism — and we talked about how this leaves a vacuum for Russian and Chinese power.* We talked about the continuing failure of legacy media to call things what they are — to continue to tell the story of what Trump and Musk are up to as a business story, of Musk applying startup techniques to government, of Trump acting like a businessman — when, Ben-Ghiat reminds us, these “drain the swamp” efforts are one of the oldest authoritarian scams.* We looked at what the German elections might mean, and saw some signs of hope in the AfD's underperformance — and the way in which young voters turned to the left in big numbers. For Ben-Ghiat, this is a lesson that, to oppose autocrats, you can't run to the center — you need to dig in and stand for progressive values.* And, as we often do, we talked about the psychological ground of politics, about how Musk's OPM letter demanding federal employees justify their existence in bullet points is part of an overall strategy to create trauma, one that goes back to Project 2025 and OPM head Russell Vought's plan to keep government workers in distress. As Ben-Ghiat told us, this is part of the playbook: authoritarians threaten — and they don't need to act further because people just obey. That's what people need to resist.Everyone should head over to Lucid, by the way, and read Ben-Ghiat's account of her disinvitation from delivering her Bancroft Lecture at the U.S. Naval Academy — it's a case study in how authoritarians stifle dissent and something everyone should be aware of — because it illustrates how afraid they are of that dissent, and how critical it is to express it.Marching ordersWe've been trying to turn these talks into opportunities and come up with advice you can act on right away.A point we kept coming back to in this morning's conversation was that our sense of alarm is not joined by enough people. We are outnumbered by people who are broadly sympathetic but not alarmed. And that's something that we need to change.Our marching orders for you this week are simple:Be the anti-fascist skunk at the garden party of apathy and obedience.If you hear about local protests, tell everyone — as Anat Shenker-Osorio told us last week, creating social proof — giving people the incentive to act like they think their neighbors are acting — is essential to building political power, and it's easy to get started.* The enemy is denial and the desire for life to go on, to be able to go about your business as usual. It's up to us to make the connections, to show people how what Trump and Musk are doing will make business-as-usual impossible.* If you hear about local protests, tell people, spread the news — if people think nobody is resisting, that creates negative momentum. So create positive momentum* Most people don't want to be subjugated — they want to be free. Remind them.Again, in the public interest, we are opening this video to all. But we're also asking candidly that folks support the half dozen or so people who now write for and edit and otherwise support the work of The Ink by becoming a paying subscriber.Take a moment to support fearless, independent reporting, and to help us keep bringing you conversations like this one. Or give a gift or group subscription.Your support allows us to open these ideas to as many people as possible, no paywall. Get full access to The.Ink at the.ink/subscribe
Yesterday, we spoke with one of the most brilliant minds in politics in America, and one of the most brilliant in the world: Anat Shenker-Osorio. She's a messaging guru, who I met when I was reporting my book, The Persuaders — there's a whole chapter about her in it — and ever since at The Ink we have often turned to her whenever we need the best advice.But she's so much more than a messaging guru. She's a comedian. She is a person who, in spite of her messaging prowess, will always say something that really pokes and inflames people, but she does it intentionally, to provoke them into seeing what they might not otherwise have recognized. And in a moment when so many people do not know what to say, or how to say it — or seem to have lost the use of their vocal cords and spines — she is someone we can ask to tell people what they should be saying, because she knows just how to frame the most important questions of this time, and has answers for so many of them.For those who've been looking for leadership from above, she made it very clear that nicely asking Democrats to do something has never brought about real change. So stop doing that. Stop trying to get Chuck Schumer to do something.This conversation is an incredibly practical guide to what you need to — and can — do. Anyone and everyone can lead: we make the future, and it's time to do it by stepping up. If you want to, you are a leader!Congrats! Sorry. But congrats!You can start by creating social proof locally — which is to say, create a perception in your community that lots of people feel the way you feel. You might start with signs, hats, talking to people, or, as she put it, the painting of a barn. Just pick something, and get started. And soon enough you'll be leading.If you're not sure where to jump in, Anat's team keeps track of actions across the country, so visit her ever-evolving list of Ways to Resist. And read her Freedom over Fascism toolkit for tons of ideas and insight into how to communicate all of the ideas you'll find below.We know some of you prefer reading to watching, so we're publishing text excerpts of the conversation below. If you missed our live conversation, we encourage you to watch the entire video above.In the public interest, we are opening this video and transcript to all. But we're also asking candidly that folks support the half dozen or so people who now write for and edit and otherwise support the work of The Ink by becoming a paying subscriber today.Take a moment to support fearless, independent reporting, and to help us keep bringing you conversations like this one. Or give a gift or group subscription.Your support allows us to open these ideas to as many people as possible, with no paywall.I wanted to start maybe on a positive-ish note by asking you who is telling the right story right now? Who do you see in the pro-democracy movement? And I know that your answer to this may not take a lot of time because it may not be a very long list of people, but who is telling the right story?Well, let's start with a story that you helped bring to light, in your Live with Senator Chris Murphy. I thought he was absolutely spot-on in many ways. I don't know whether we'll come back to this, but I thought his response in particular when you held his feet somewhat to the fire about why other Democratic leaders are not stepping up. That was probably him at his most diplomatic. But I thought his description of reality was really spot on.Unsurprisingly, he's an MVP, is always there, always prescient, always saying the thing, speaking truth, not just to power, but ensuring we're speaking truth to each other.AOC, Jasmine Crockett, obviously. Governor Pritzker's responses yesterday were extraordinary. Exactly what's needed. And then outside of the elected official space, there's a lot going on. There are burgeoning protest movements, both from known organizations like Indivisible and Move On and Working Families Party, but also from brand newbies that just self-assembled on Substack, like the 50501 movement, and the burgeoning general strike movement.And because there's no up without a down, as they say, who is getting it most dramatically and maybe for you infuriatingly wrong?Do you want to open this Pandora's box? You know, the list is very, very, very long.One might say infinite.Most infuriatingly, it's the siren song of the authoritarian that they are fomenting a counterrevolution against a revolution that never occurred. This has always been their story, time and place immemorial, that you're being attacked, you're being put upon by some usurping minority, whether that be immigrants, whether that be Roma people in Hungary, whether that be people seeking asylum in Australia, whether that be Southern Europeans in the case of Brexit, whether that be trans people. It's always some other who is coming to get you and they have amassed too much power.And so I think what is most infuriating beyond just the absolute unwillingness to locate a single vertebra let alone a spine is the layering on of the misdiagnosis of why we are here when we blame when we make believe that the people with too much power in our society are undocumented immigrants and trans people. If it weren't so pathetic and sad it would be funny. So I think that that is what is particularly infuriating.Talk to me about specific moments in the last month where you've seen someone give a press conference, you've seen someone give a floor speech — give me the hall of shame because I consider you one of the only people, frankly, who I could ask to do that and you'll just do it.I mean, who am I most disappointed by? I think I'm extraordinarily disappointed by many of our senators. I'm thinking in particular, really sadly, because of all the extraordinary work that I know movement groups like Lucha in Arizona went to, putting him into power. But Ruben Gallego, not only refusing to stand up to this administration but also actively sponsoring the Laken Riley bill, which let's not kid ourselves, is about eliminating due process rights. It is about creating an unjust — even more unjust — legal system in the name of genuflecting at the altar of immigrants are the problem.I think that Amy Klobuchar has said things that are really infuriating and incensing. I think obviously Chuck Schumer's stance of, “We'll just rap about the price of eggs.” Hakeem Jeffries, in a very similar vein, and just a lot of, “Well, we can't do anything. We don't have any power.” Excuse making.It's so interesting when you see a lot of the folks on TV and when you're under a Biden presidency or an Obama presidency maybe you don't notice the mediocrity as much because it doesn't like risk the republic — and now to see some of those same people, they're not evil or awful the way that we're talking about on the right, but they are so profoundly mediocre and not up to the task of responding to a once-in-a-century emergency.You know, I referenced earlier before the conversation that you had with Senator Murphy and I was reflecting, because obviously I spend a lot of time listening to people because if you want to be decent at messaging, you have to spend a lot of time listening to people.And by listening to people, I mean in focus groups where we are asking them deep questions, we are extracting metaphors, we are uncovering their underlying assumptions and beliefs about what is going on. What is the origin story behind it? What are their desired solutions?And so I think a lot about what people's underlying motivations are, and the psychology of how they came to be where they are and doing what they're doing. And I think when I think about these folks who have risen to the halls of power, it kind of makes sense because to be honest, that they're behaving in these milquetoast ways.Is that what it takes to get there?Well, partly it's what it takes to get there, but also it is an accurate fact that that has worked for them. The things that they have done in their life have brought them to The New York Times newsroom, because — let's just widen the net of culpability a little bit here — has brought them to the pinnacle of journalism, has brought them to the pinnacle of politics, has brought them to the pinnacle of whatever it is I assume they desired to do once they became old enough to have a thing that they really wanted to do.And so… If taking certain steps and engaging in certain ways and refusing to upset people has been successful or at least successful within a trajectory that you define for yourself, then it actually kind of makes a lot of sense that random lady with big hair being like, “What the actual f**k are you doing? There's a hostile takeover of our government happening on your watch, friend.”It feels like, well, this has worked for me and it has achieved the things that I desire to achieve. So why would I change course?So here's something I'm struggling with. I think part of what explains the election loss going back to November is this problem you and I have talked about before of a tendency to kind of misappraise what is really, really salient with people. And you are someone who studies this and measures it. There are things you and I are worried about. There are things you've been screaming about that it turns out, way more people should be worried about it than are.If you were right about the election, if I was right about the election, a lot more people should have been concerned about things that, maybe did not reach the top rank.And so even now, now that we're in this presidency, I struggle with my own sense of how grave this is, how serious this is.This is a coup. This is that. And then sometimes I just, I live in New York City. Like I've walked down the street. I see people living their lives. These are people, 90 percent of them vote for Democrats, but you can just tell, if you sit in a restaurant, you hear conversations or you watch a normal TV show, the Jennifer Hudson talk show, you see normal life. And normal people living their lives are not living as though, as Senator Murphy says, this is the most serious crisis since the civil war and we may be a few months from irreversibly losing democracy.So my maybe difficult question for you is, is this thing that you and I share, this concern that everybody watching this shares. Is this concern out of touch in some way, maybe accurate, but is it out of sync with how regular people read things? Are we too ahead of the curve? Is it not landing with people?Talk to me about that disconnect.Yeah, it is not landing with people.So I want to say two things about that. The first is that in the lead-up to the election, I coined this phrase, the credulity chasm. And what the credulity chasm means is that when we look at the fundamental attitude that was most predictive of voting for Harris versus doing something else, and by something else I mean voting for Trump, staying at home, voting third party, etc.It wasn't, “Wow, that Project 2025 agenda, that sounds real sweet. That's like a Baskin Robbins tasty level of flavors. I'm excited.” It was whether or not people believed the agenda would come true. So this notion that the country has shifted rightwards is actually not supported by data.What has actually happened — and what happened through the election — was what the people who got it were saying: “No, it's for realsies. This is not hyperbolic. This threat is real. And all of this will come to pass and come to fruition.”And in fact, there's a Project 2025 tracker that shows that already within this first month of being in a hostile takeover, they have made good on one-third of the Project 2025 agenda. Just a little side note.So that credulity chasm, which I would argue we are still in — it is a basic facet of human psychology, and we see this among respondents in many, many parts of the world.This is not a uniquely U.S. phenomenon, but there's a U.S. layer on top of it that John Jost, the psychologist at NYU, calls system justification theory. Basically, there's kind of a fundamental human need to feel like I can predict what's going to happen. Tomorrow is going to be somewhat like today. Things are more or less okay. Things happen for a reason. Good things happen to good people. Bad things happen to bad people. There's a fundamental explanation for the universe because to question that and to really truly be living within that — the badness or the recognition of the badness, I should say — it requires a level of upset and a level of agitation and a level of awareness that is understandably very difficult for most people, because for most people, the basic facets of life, like being able to see a doctor, being able to help out your parents when their water heater breaks and being able to send your kid to university, et cetera, is pretty challenging.And so to ask people to layer on another thing is a lot. And I think that what we are experiencing over and over again, and it's been happening for a while. It's the frogs in boiling water problem, where we truly think this is a hot tub. And a little toasty, get a little cozy. But, you know, it's winter and a hot tub is nice and winter in most parts of the country. And I'm joking, but not by much.Anticipating this is actually why it is absolutely so fundamental that we be crystal clear and that our leaders be crystal clear that what's happening is in fact what's happening because not every problem that is named can be faced, but zero problems that we refuse to name and refuse to recognize can actually be faced. And this is where I think the strategy of hat in hand, please, sir, may I have a tuppence begging Democrats to locate a spine is wrong. And we need to stop pushing in that direction.Okay, but I guess what I'm wondering is, and I wonder this very personally, because I'm afraid that I'm doing it wrong.When I see Elon Musk shadow presidenting his way through these agencies. It basically gets rid of Congress. I mean, it's as grave a series of things as you know. And I talk about Elon Musk's anti-constitutional coup. I feel like I am describing reality as clearly as I can. I feel like I'm saying things that, given what I understand about this country and what people claim to care about, should be ringing bells.And I also feel like I can almost hear with that double consciousness, people are not going to care about that. Everybody watching this is going to care about this, right? But not all the people not watching this, who actually outnumber the people watching this. And so, is that even just doing it wrong? Like, should it just be, “Your grandma's social security check is in danger?” Like, just the practical things?Because this kind of parallels the whole thing in the election about crime and eggs and democracy, all that stuff. Am I doing it wrong when I really fixate on the anti-constitutional coup by Elon Musk?You're right to fixate on it. You're wrong in voter-facing and public-facing messaging to call it that. And it's for the reasons you've already intuited. The Constitution is an abstraction, even though it is actually a physical document, I am aware. Whenever we are in the language of protecting institutions, protecting norms, protecting democracy — democracy never bought anyone dinner.And in point of fact, the way that most people, the way that the average American thinks about democracy, if they think about it at all, is the system as it is presently construed. The thing that we have now. And by the way, the thing that we have now, I'm not loving. I'm not very fond of it.So anytime our language, our messaging implies that what we are asking for is a return to January 19th, 2025, meaning right before inauguration, people weren't psyched about that day either. And so the answer is, As you've already intuited, is how do we make it person-facing, voter-facing, American-facing? How do we make it tangible?So what do we say? We say: “This is a government of the bullies for the billionaires.” Trump and the billionaires who bought him, Musk — you can name both of them, you can name either of them — are coming for your life and your livelihood. He is coming for your freedom. He is coming for your privacy. He is coming for your information. And he is conducting a hostile takeover of our government so he can take our money.”That's the simplest way of expressing it.But do you think that is working? Right now?It's not happening enough. But, you know, I can tell you from experimentation, both within focus groups and within our own internal polling that we continuously do. Yes, the most the highest impact way that we can characterize what Musk is doing is, “a hostile takeover of our government and an armed robbery of our money and our and our very deliberate there.But ultimately, there is absolutely nothing that we can say that will ever be as loud as what we can do.Yes, we should be calling our representatives. And yes, we are rightly incensed about the fact that these people who purportedly have sworn an oath to govern in our name apparently can't be bothered to work on Fridays and, you know, don't want to use the mechanisms at their disposal to throw sand in the wheels of government in order to stop this hostile takeover.Infuriating. Rightly so. Call them. Call the Republicans, too. But understand what has stopped autocracy in other places and within our own history, when we think about the civil rights movement, when we think about ACT UP, when we think about the movement to get the Americans with Disabilities Act, and women's suffrage.Imagine if the Montgomery bus boycott folks were like, “I know, here's an idea. Let's ask the Democrats if they would pretty please end this whole completely unjust, horrifying segregation thing.”Or when folks newly in the throes of the HIV AIDS crisis, dying en masse from this disease that apparently came out of nowhere, watching their loved ones suffer and struggle, if they were like, “You know what we should do? We should ask the Democrats if they would pretty please do something about this.”No, that isn't what they did. They broke into the New York Stock Exchange, as you may know, and they hung a banner from where the bell gets rung saying, “Sell Burroughs Wellcome” which is the pharmaceutical corporation that was making AZT at the time.And sure enough, by the end of the month, the price had dropped. And not that much later, there had been an appropriations bill, the Ryan White bill, to actually bring money into this fight and force research and so on.And so what we do is so much louder than what we say, because what we do, people being out in the world saying, physically opposing this and speaking about it and writing songs about it and making parodies and making TikToks and painting “F**k the Fascists” on the side of their barn.That is actually what sways public opinion. What sways public opinion is what we call social proof. People do the things they think people like them do.And so it's this chicken-and-egg problem where you're walking around New York or I'm walking around the Bay area or someone's walking around in the middle of America and you don't see anyone else freaking out. You don't see anyone else angry. You don't see anyone else upset. And so you're like, I guess really nothing's happening. And so it's about the doing more than it is about the saying.This is so important what you're saying. And it's reframing something for me.It's almost like when we talk about protest, mass mobilization right now, resistance, I think the frame in people's mind is, the object of that is the right. You're protesting against the right, you're resisting the right. And you're hoping for maybe Democrats to be part of this. You're the subject opposing that object and you're kind of inviting them to be part of the subject.And you're reframing this like, no, no, no, the Democrats are like a second object. They're not here. They're there. They're another thing you are mobilizing against for different reasons. It's a different kind of mobilization. But you are mobilizing against their passivity and then against the things the right is doing.Does that sound right?I mean, yes and no. I think… and feel free to lob the charge of hypocrisy at me. Bring it on, because I'm about to perform a big old hypocrisy on you.I'm obviously extraordinarily pissed off at Democrats. I have spent the last many years of my career helping elect Democrats. And so you can understand how it feels especially galling to me and many of you. However, it is the fact that when our public discourse — this is where you're going to come at me, come at me because I'm guilty. Do as I say, not as I post, I would say.When we are loudly saying, “Democrats aren't doing this, Democrats aren't doing that, Democrats are weak here, Democrats are weak there, Democrats refuse.” Then that is the narrative. That is the discourse that is in the public. And insofar as people continue to view the Democrats as the rightful centerpiece of the opposition — which is a reasonable conclusion, they're purportedly the opposition party in a duopoly — it looks like the regime is unopposed. What the regime is doing is fine. People are largely O.K. with it.And so because in life you cannot actually make other people do things — it is very, very unfortunate. It's one of the hard lessons of parenting. You can't actually physically make people do things. You can only really focus on what you're doing.I'm not saying stop pressuring them, but I'm saying what would actually cause a sea change among the calcified leadership — and yes, hashtag not all Democrats, there are extraordinary Democrats who are doing the right thing, as we said earlier — is when there is a mass movement.Actually they're not leaders, they don't go first, literally, to lead means to go first. That's really all it means. And so that means that every single one of you listening right now: If you want to, you're a leader. If you want to, you're a leader.Let's look, for example, at the Black Lives Matter resurgence that happened in 2020. During that protest, during that June, public opinion of BLM moved ahead by 12 points. It was only when the protests stopped And the right-wing coordinated backlash happened that opinion swayed back, which was an intentional thing.The same thing with the Muslim ban. When Trump was first promising the Muslim ban during his first run, it polled popular.But when it actually happened, and people took the extraordinary step of driving to the airport. And you live in New York. Nobody drives — your wife doesn't drive you to the airport. I don't know your business, but I'm telling you that. Who drives to LAX? Who drives to SFO? Nobody drives to these airports. That is not a thing that happens to everyday Americans.It's showing, not telling — showing, not telling — that they are against this. That is actually what altered people's perceptions of whether or not the Muslim ban was okay or not.So that's really it. And that is what drags Democrats along. It's ordinary people showing that they disagree.So this is so helpful and you are always so helpful. Even though I've spent so long engaging with your work, there's like a particular unlock here. And a lot of people are responding to that also. I'm just going to try to summarize.I hear your point on managing the correct level of infighting or criticizing Dems. You talk about calling your representative, pressuring them to do things.Your idea about painting the barn really struck me because a lot of people — everyone who subscribes to The Ink, all their comments are like, “I call everybody, I do this, nothing's happening.”And I don't think a lot of people have thought of it as what you said, which is, yes, you're trying to pressure some leaders, but a very tangible thing you can do is increase the perception of people around you about the number of people who feel this way.Exactly. Because that is something you can do and you can measure. I'm not saying don't do the calling your reps and stuff, but that stuff just feels so remote to people I know.And people are so frustrated, like changing the perception about the number of people who feel that way around you. That is like a marching order.And the other thing to recognize and to realize, and we have a running list that we just keep for ourselves for our team of the actions that are happening right now. It is by no means comprehensive. It couldn't possibly be comprehensive — stuff is popping up everywhere. It's just the stuff that comes across our radar.Do you know how many people go to the average school board meeting in most towns? Do you know how quickly and easily you and two, three, four of your friends will be the only people at the school board meeting?A lot of what has happened in our politics is that we actually stopped organizing. And a lot of the heroic, extraordinary, wonderful organizations that I admire and respect and like count as colleagues, we all became so fixated on channeling ourselves through the electoral process. And that means that instead of organizing, everybody moved to field and called it organizing. And by field, I mean getting people registered, getting people to vote. Fine, do that. I'm not knocking it.But that's not organizing. That is not organizing. And we need to stop kidding ourselves. Organizing is finding out who runs the PTA in your town? Who runs the biggest church? Who are the Boy Scout leaders? Who are the Girl Scout leaders? Are you actually talking to people and radicalizing them in the original definition? You know, radical just means “to the root,” right? Are you actually radicalizing them in a new political understanding of what is happening? Why is it happening? And what is the origin of it? Where does it come from?So that they can withstand all of these constant right-wing drumbeats that say it's the immigrants or it's the Black people or it's the trans people or it's whomever, it's the Muslims. So that they actually have an authentic consciousness and that they themselves then are talking to other people.That's organizing.And so go local. I cannot emphasize enough, especially if you live in a smaller place, especially if you live in a red state, in a purple district, whatever.You show up at your school board meeting and the two of you or the three of you or the four of you, you show up at your city council, you're the only people there. These fascist policies, yes, they are being constructed at the national level. Of course, they are. But they have to be implemented at the local level. And it is at the local level.Let's just take, for instance, Aurora, Colorado. That is where they want to massively expand a detention facility. In order to continue with their evil draconian plan of concentration camps for people who happen to not have been born here and, you know, speak English with the wrong accent, apparently.So Aurora is not Manhattan. It is not Los Angeles. It is not D.C. It is a particular town with a particular city council with a particular set of folks. And right now there is a battle going on to define Aurora, to massively expanded detention facility there.People in that town and surrounding communities could go and say, “We are Aurora.” They could do food trucks of every ethnicity, and nationality. They could do giant dance parties saying, “We are Aurora. This is what we believe.”I'm going to go to Aurora as they do all this. I mean, as God is my witness, I will. This is my pledge: I am going to make a 10,000 or however many food truck caravan from every contiguous state to D.C, in order to have the largest bhangra, K-pop, salsa, samba, polka — I'm not intentionally leaving out any kind of music fill in all the musics — dance party to show not tell that immigrants are awesome.Because we can not live, we can not survive in a dual narrative or a three-part narrative in which immigrants are either villains, which is of course what the right says, or they're victims, which is all too often, sadly, where we have been in advocacy. What I call the ay pobrecitosnarrative. You know, with due respect to the Statue of Liberty, give me your tired or your poor. Most people feel tired and poor. They're not really out seeking that. Or the third narrative, that being immigrants are our valets. You know, they do the jobs that no one wants. They help us.Immigrants are awesome. Immigrants are joy. Immigrants are life. Immigrants are interesting. They're entrepreneurs. You know, America is supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave. And that's a good thing. And so let's make it that way, as you recently wrote.One of the only silver linings for me of this whole era is that the thing that I wrote about before I met you, before I did Persuaders, was a book about billionaires. And it was very difficult to convince people to care. A lot of liberal and even progressive people were like, “Why are you going after these people? Like, sure, they're not the best, but like, really? These are your enemies? You know, Bill Gates or whoever?”It was actually hard in 2018 when that book came out. It was hard. I was often on the back foot, right? I really had to make a case. People were very, very skeptical of why anyone would say anything negative about the ones who give money away and do all this stuff.It is really different. Seven years later, like everybody gets it. Everybody understands what oligarchs are, you know?Thanks to you.Well, I don't think that's the case. It's thanks to AOC and Bernie and Elizabeth Warren and others. But I wonder whether you think, again, with Elon, the oligarch frame, the warning of oligarchy — is this as salient and helpful with the mass public as we seem to think it is?Having people truly understand that this is a government by the bullies for the billionaires, that concept.I guess just the wrinkle is in a country where still a lot of people kind of want to be billionaires, is it as cool a message as I think it is?Yeah.It is, in fact, the case, as people often report, that in America, no one is poor. They're just pre-rich, right? We're all just temporarily embarrassed. You know, we just haven't made our billions. Oprah hasn't given us the car or whatever she's supposed to give us. So there is still that very, very, very deep kind of yearning and with it an admiration and a cultishness around the extraordinarily wealthy.But wow, are people pissed at the rich. I mean, that may be the only thing that has bipartisan agreement in this country is just how extraordinarily furious people are, because I think the fundamental difference is that in the olden times, this cult of people are rich because they're made out of awesome, because they're uniquely smart, because they're uniquely capable and hardworking and so on. That's largely been punctured. And people understand.So it's not just that they're rich. It's how they're rich, why they're rich. And the fact that the reason that they're rich is because they've stolen from you. It's that connection.Because sure, people can aspire to have their own, you know, whatever their dream is. In my case, an extensive shoe collection. But, you know, you do you.But the notion that the reason why people have so much money is because you don't — that is increasingly salient. And that's really the crux of it.Now, where this gets hard — and this brings us back to the earlier conversation of you can't just articulate the problem for people, although that is absolutely extraordinarily essential — they also have to feel that the articulation of the problem lends itself to something that they can do.And so in the universe in which what people are “supposed to do” is petition their government in some way or another. And I say that broadly, right? So vote, register to vote, get other people to vote, call their member of Congress, ask for policy change.It's extraordinary the degree to which people, even low information, low engagement folks, think the jig is up on that particular theory of change.And so I think we are now in a place in which people need to be directed, their anger and their ire need to be directed into what I am calling the “Mangione without murder” strategy. Without murder. Hear that whole phrase.You really do know how to coin a phrase.Yeah, we don't need to be murdering people. I just want to say on the record here that I'm telling you. Anti-murder. I'm anti-murder, whatever you heard, whatever they told you. Sharp messages, no sharp weapons.That's right.Imagine if we actually had people doing, you know, die-ins where corporate CEOs are. If we actually had people going to the places, it's easy to look up. These motherfuckers are all hypocrites. They all go to church. Why aren't we showing up in the parking lots of their churches? And this could both be MAGA Republicans and CEOs. Singing hymns that are actually about what Jesus preached. When they get out of church, say it to their faces.And so I think that the challenge with the billionaire articulation is not that it is not landing. You are correct in your supposition that it is absolutely landing. It's that it quickly becomes, well, every election is a contest between their billionaires and our billionaires. And so the solution, which presumably has been, well, that's why you should vote for Democrats.I know people are really responding to how clear your advice is. And I think it's making a lot of people feel like they know what to do more clearly than they did before. So thank you. I want to go back to that and compile all of your advice. Let's focus on marching orders for everybody here.People are in agreement with you about how grave this is and how serious it is. People feel incredibly undefended by elected Democrats in general and are not expecting them to change very soon. People are doing things already, like calling Congress, but maybe don't know the third, fourth, and fifth things to do.Can you just give us some very, very, very tangible marching orders?So the first thing I would say is in the preservation of your own mental health and wellbeing. Pick a thing that you care about and can be motivated to stay the course with.For some folks, that's going to be education. For some folks, that's going to be immigrant rights. For some folks, that's going to be policing, whatever. There are so many things happening at once that we can all become like cats with a laser pointer and make ourselves nuts.So you pick the thing. You go as local as possible about that thing. And so if it is education, just take that for instance, then you decide with yourself and a handful of your friends, you have a potluck beforehand, you do you. Do something fun and entertaining and get together beforehand. You look up in the public record when the next school board meeting is in your local community. And you go there and you make statements about ensuring that all children have the freedom to learn the truth of our past, and that all children have the freedom to belong and be who they are within their schools. And you oppose any kind of effort to implement the draconian fascist agenda in your own community.So that is one thing. You can do that within the context of immigrant rights. You can do that in the context of disability justice, racial justice, et cetera.The next piece of advice is to wear your beliefs. Get yourself a “Fabulously Fighting Fascism” t-shirt. One of the things that is most important to the right and to any authoritarian force is to suck our joy, is to suck our uniqueness, is to suck our our being. I say all the time, put up a billboard in the middle of nowhere that shows people across the gender spectrum just having themselves the best possible time, and say “Fabulously fighting fascism.”You will get so much local media and local attention, even if it's in the middle of nowhere because it is a saucy message. Show, not tell that you do not agree with this, that you refuse it.So I think the name of the game is really resistance. refusal, and ridicule. And ridicule is a key and essential element that I have danced around.Join a union, if you can join a union. Support union efforts. That is a place where deep and authentic organizing actually happens and needs to happen much, much more expansively. One of the most important keys to fighting autocracy is a strong, integrated, active, in-your-face labor community.Before we go, to leave people on a note of hope, in a lot of the messaging that you do and the formal proper messages you draft for TV ads or other communication, there's a certain structure, which I wrote about in my book. It's often the beginning and the end where more hope and uplift come in and in the middle is where you explain the obstructions to that promiseA lot of people really can't see the after of this. It's very hard to see anything. I find it very difficult to visualize 2026. I find it very, very difficult to visualize 2035. I could see a scenario where it's totally fine, this thing blew over, it imploded, and my kids are just living a normal life, vaguely remembering this. And I could imagine a scenario in which most people I know don't live in this country anymore. It's so hard to picture the after.Can you help us picture the after in a hopeful way if we get this right, if we do all the things you're talking about?The fact that you can't picture 2026. I can't either. And that is either extraordinarily terrifying or fantastic. The reason why it is potentially fantastic is because it takes a fundamental rupture, a big rupture that we think that we have already had, but we have not — because we are still waking up in the morning and going to the store and answering our telephones and checking our social and getting our kids to school and all the things that, of course, we need to continue to do.That rupture has not happened for most people. And it is only in a fundamental rupture that we get a period — and obviously, the decimation of it is one of the most tragic and horrible things in American history. But Reconstruction wouldn't have happened without the Civil War. The New Deal wouldn't have happened without the decimation of the Gilded Age and God forbid, the Depression.Moments of extraordinary rupture are moments of extraordinary possibility where, as my colleague, Mike Podhorzer points out, pre the Revolution, when people were hanging out in the colonies, and trying, you know, to do the Boston Tea Party and to petition the king, “Hey, yo, like, we're not fond of this. We're not keen.”And I'm not discounting the fact that things were pretty bad for most people and enslavement and no women's rights and so on. I'm not making believe that that period was a beautiful era in American history.The only point that I'm making is that there has to be a rupture so fundamental that people are like, “Oh no, how about we just don't have a king? How about we just don't be a colony anymore? How about we decide that we are going to invent a new country from scratch?”Obviously not really from scratch because of the destruction and usurpation and genocide of Native people — again, I am not trying to say this was like a beautiful era.All I'm trying to say is that in the unknowing, in the what-the-f**k-is-going-to-come-next, is actually where invention comes. And it requires us recognizing that. To give you a tautology, the problem is made out of the problem, as we were discussing at the top of our conversation. To think that a system that is working largely as designed, to bring us representatives who, with notable and noteworthy and laudable exceptions, are not actually serving our interests and are not stepping up to the plate. To think that they would behave any differently is to not understand that the entire progressive movement is begging the master for money to buy tools to take down his house, and it always has been.And because we've continued to limp along in this, “But maybe we'll win this election, but maybe we'll get people to vote, but maybe we'll pass this one little policy,” is not to recognize the fact that actually within U.S. politics, there is no correlation between majority support for a policy and that policy passing. And so we have to stop thinking that tinkering at the edges of the old ways, as we have done, is going to yield a new result.And I don't know if this isn't sounding hopeful, but to me, it is always the case. The most fundamental truth of life is that the future is made out of the decisions that we take collectively.We make the future. What comes next will be decided on the basis of what we do. And that's up to us.Readers like you make The Ink possible and keep it independent. 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I first shared this episode with you last November and my mailbox got flooded with kind feedback from so many listeners saying how compassionate and concrete the strategy was. So, I'd love to share it with you again today, my dear co-conspirator.In this episode, you and I will explore a framework for strategic communications that a political messaging expert and campaign advisor, Anat Shenker-Osorio, teaches. Then, you'll adapt and apply this three-part framework to craft your own statement that you can use to set boundaries and protect your peace with those who judge or critique your parenting choices. I'll share various examples of what this framework can look like when the critiques range from “you're too soft” to “you're gonna let your child do that?” This way you can experiment with this framework, leave what doesn't feel right, and as always make it your method.---------------------------Get full show notes and more information at: comebacktocare.com/podcastFor more BTS of this podcast, follow @comebacktocare on Instagram!Sign up for our weekly Care Collective Newsletter for information and inspiration on topics like decolonized parenting, embodied, body-based centering practices for you and your children, intergenerational family healing, and more.I invite you to join me in a virtual gathering once a month for you to digest the information in the podcast with other Social Justice Curious listeners. We'll put awareness into action together with group accountability at www.patreon.com/comebacktocareIf you enjoy the Come Back to Care podcast, we could use your support! Please consider leaving a 5-star rating and review, and share with someone who needs to hear this!The Come Back to Care podcast explores how social justice, child development science, parenting, and family systems intersect—hosted by Nat Vikitsreth, a decolonized, licensed clinical psychotherapist, somatics, and social justice practitioner, and founder of Come Back to Care.
MAGA suddenly seems very, very out of sorts. Donald Trump raged at Fox News on Monday, blasting the network for its supposedly favorable coverage of Democrats. Meanwhile, a number of Trump's allies suddenly seem very worried about the backlash to his hate rally at Madison Square Garden. We spoke with Democratic strategist Anat Shenker-Osorio, who regularly does research into disaffected voters and explains why Trump's rally at the Garden could provide last-minute motivation to vote against Trump among people who are at risk of sitting out the election. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
MAGA suddenly seems very, very out of sorts. Donald Trump raged at Fox News on Monday, blasting the network for its supposedly favorable coverage of Democrats. Meanwhile, a number of Trump's allies suddenly seem very worried about the backlash to his hate rally at Madison Square Garden. We spoke with Democratic strategist Anat Shenker-Osorio, who regularly does research into disaffected voters and explains why Trump's rally at the Garden could provide last-minute motivation to vote against Trump among people who are at risk of sitting out the election. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
MAGA suddenly seems very, very out of sorts. Donald Trump raged at Fox News on Monday, blasting the network for its supposedly favorable coverage of Democrats. Meanwhile, a number of Trump's allies suddenly seem very worried about the backlash to his hate rally at Madison Square Garden. We spoke with Democratic strategist Anat Shenker-Osorio, who regularly does research into disaffected voters and explains why Trump's rally at the Garden could provide last-minute motivation to vote against Trump among people who are at risk of sitting out the election. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A Gaslit Nation listener at the Democracy Defender level asked for a handy guide to help a small business owner considering voting for Trump to reconsider. If you need help convincing the small business owners in your life not to vote against their interests, Gaslit Nation has you covered! This special episode breaks down all the reasons Trump will be disastrous for small business owners, including the bribes they'll have to pay after Trump finishes turning our country into lawless Russia, which has been the plan all along, as Gaslit Nation first warned. This week's bonus show also covers the VP debate. Why didn't Walz dogwalk Vance like Harris dogwalked Trump? Walz is the guy who coined “weird,” so we know he could have destroyed Vance, listing all the ways he's a Peter Thiel tool. Why didn't he? The answer may be in Walz's closing words. His warnings at the very end gave us important insight and guidance into what to expect in the tense months ahead, as discussed in this week's bonus show. Our discussion with investigative journalist Greg Palast, about his new must-watch film Vigilantes, Inc., and the audience Q&A at our live-taping, is included in this week's bonus show. Look out for more live-tapings soon! To our listeners at the Democracy Defender level and higher, keep your questions coming as the Gaslit Nation Q&A continues! If you didn't hear your question answered this week, look out for it soon. Thank you to everyone who supports the show – we could not make Gaslit Nation without you! To hear this full bonus episode, get all shows ad-free, invites to exclusive events, join other listeners in our Victory group chat, and more, subscribe at Patreon.com/Gaslit. Discounted annual subscriptions available! Come As You Are Weekly Political Salons! Join us every Monday at 4 PM ET via Zoom! Let's share frustrations, ask burning questions, seek support, and help shape Gaslit Nation. Everyone's voice matters—whether you're a political junkie or just finding your voice, you belong here! Recordings available exclusively on Patreon.
Anat Shenker-Osorio hat Präsidentschafts-Vize-Kandidat Tim Walz beraten, in Frankreich den Nouveau Front Populaire im Wahlkampf unterstützt und in Australien neue Narrative für Migration und Asyl entwickelt. Im Gespräch mit Inken und Valentin vom "Was tun?"-Podcast spricht die Expertin für progressive Kommunikation darüber, was linke Botschaften erfolgreich macht und was die häufigsten Fehler in Kampagnen sind. Außerdem diskutieren Inken und Valentin mit Anat über den Nominierungsparteitag der US-Demokrat:*nnen und die Kampagne von Kamala Harris.
Strength. Patriotism. Freedom. Ever since Vice President Kamala Harris jumped into the presidential race, Democrats have been all in on language and messaging historically more associated with Republicans. Marisa talks with Democratic communications researcher and campaign adviser Anat Shenker-Osorio to get her take on messaging strategies at last week's convention and what Harris needs to do in the weeks ahead to win this dead heat of a presidential race. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
When President Biden campaigned for re-election, he highlighted threats to democracy and his long track record. But since Kamala Harris took over the ticket, the party has landed on new messaging. On this week's On the Media, a democratic strategist explains why we heard words like joy and freedom over and over at the Democratic National Convention. Plus, hear how Christian nationalism is shaping American politics.[01:00] Host Brooke Gladstone interviews Anat Shenker-Osorio, a democratic messaging strategist who has advised PACs and committees in battleground states, about the party's new messaging strategy. They discuss how mockery shrinks strongmen to size; why voters seem to like the word “freedom” more than “democracy”; and more. [16:39] Brooke speaks with Matthew D. Taylor, scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, & Jewish Studies in Baltimore and author of the forthcoming book, The Violent Take It by Force: The Christian Movement That Is Threatening Our Democracy. They discuss different strains of Christian nationalism — from the sentimental view of America as a Christian nation, to the desire to uphold Christian supremacy. Plus, how the phenomenon has shaped American politics for centuries.[32:23] Brooke continues her conversation with Matthew D. Taylor. Taylor introduces Brooke to the world of independent charismatic Christianity and its media, where an extreme form of Christian nationalism has taken root. Plus, the Christian leaders who stoked violence on January 6th.A portion of this episode originally aired on our April 19, 2024 program, Meet the Media Prophets Who Preach Christian Supremacy. Plus, Journalism in ‘Civil War'Further reading / listening:The rise of the "Brat Pack" — and a new Democratic political style by Anand GiridharadasWhy Kamala Harris' New Politics of Joy Is the Best Way to Fight Fascism, by Anat Shenker-OsorioHow the Alabama IVF Ruling Was Influenced by Christian Nationalism by Matthew D. TaylorChristian Nationalism (Un)Defined by Matthew D. Taylor On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.
This week on The New Abnormal, Chief Creative and Content Officer of the Daily Beast Joanna Coles stops by to talk about JD Vance and the weird ways that men are hijacking a woman's moment in this election season. Plus! Anat Shenker-Osorio, host of the political podcast Words to Win By, joins the show to discuss how Democrat's messaging has changed since the arrival of Kamala Harris. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
In today's episode, we're excited to have Anat Shenker-Osorio as our guest. Anat is the principal and founder of ASO Communications and the host of the "Words to Win By" podcast. As a messaging expert, Anat shares powerful insights on using storytelling and narratives to create impact on issues ranging from abortion rights to drug policy reform. We dive into Anat's strategies for engaging in difficult conversations—you'll hear how she emphasizes the power of individual action and offers advice on finding common ground without compromising core values. This is a thought-provoking discussion you won't want to miss. Stay tuned as we Break the Bias with Anat Shenker-Osorio!
Jon is joined Democratic message guru Anat Shenker-Osorio and longtime political strategist Michael Podhorzer to talk about how swing voters are reacting to a Harris-Walz ticket and what message the campaign will need to win them over in November. They break down why Tim Walz has been a uniquely effective messenger, how Kamala Harris is reclaiming freedom from Republicans, and how Minnesota's 2018 “Greater than Fear” campaign set the stage for this moment. Take action with Vote Save America: Visit votesaveamerica.com/2024 Order Democracy or Else: How to Save America in 10 Easy Steps at crooked.com/books or wherever books are sold.
Jon is joined Democratic message guru Anat Shenker-Osorio and longtime political strategist Michael Podhorzer to talk about how swing voters are reacting to a Harris-Walz ticket and what message the campaign will need to win them over in November. They break down why Tim Walz has been a uniquely effective messenger, how Kamala Harris is reclaiming freedom from Republicans, and how Minnesota's 2018 “Greater than Fear” campaign set the stage for this moment.Take action with Vote Save America: Visit votesaveamerica.com/2024 Order Democracy or Else: How to Save America in 10 Easy Steps at crooked.com/books or wherever books are sold.
Read the full show notes: https://jumpstartyourjoy.com/2024/07/navigating-politics-and-self-care-with-expert-tami-hackbarth/ In this episode, I'm joined by Tami Hackbarth, a seasoned author, activist, and advocate for 100% Guilt-Free Self-Care. Together, they explore the crucial intersection of self-care and activism, especially vital in today's political climate. Tami shares practical strategies for sustaining joy and energy, even when the world feels overwhelming. Key Takeaways: Self-Care is Essential: Prioritize self-care to maintain your energy and effectiveness in activism. Incorporate daily practices such as walking, meditation, and screen-free time to manage stress and enhance your well-being. Know Your Values: Use your core values as a compass for your actions and decisions, helping you stay grounded and focused amidst political challenges. Engage in Meaningful Conversations: Utilize deep canvassing techniques to have constructive, impactful discussions about politics, fostering understanding and collaboration within your community. Resources Tami Hackbarth's website and podcast Tami's book: The Essential Guide to 100% Guilt Free Self Care The Persuaders by Anand Giridharadas The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier Words to Win By with Anat Shenker-Osorio (podcast) The NewsWorthy with Erica Mandy (podcast) Resistance Live with Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin (YouTube) Mobilize US – Find and join local activism events. Labyrinth Information, and Free Labyrinth Walk Guide Others: Subscribe to Jump Start Your Joy for free on your favorite app by clicking here. Check out Jump Start Your Joy's back catalog and resources: JumpstartYourJoy.com Sign up for the free labyrinth walk guide: https://jumpstartyourjoy.com/labyrinth-basics/ Support the show on Buy Me a Coffee: Buy Me a Coffee Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome 00:41 Deep Dive into Self-Care and Activism 03:51 Practical Self-Care Tips 06:43 Meditation and Self-Compassion 10:56 Political Landscape and Activism 20:42 Effective Communication in Activism 27:56 Discovering Trusted News Sources 29:27 The Impact of News on Mental Health 32:45 Understanding Stress Responses 34:35 The Importance of Self-Care 37:53 Deep Canvassing and Political Engagement 39:09 Building Community and Connection 42:31 Tami Hackbarth's Offerings 51:16 Final Thoughts and Next Steps
This week, arguments begin in Donald Trump's hush money trial in Manhattan, and he's raging over the unfairness of it all. Amazingly, some are rushing to insist the trial won't pose a serious problem for his presidential chances. But progressive political strategist Anat Shenker-Osorio disagrees: She writes in a new piece for Slate that due to some hidden public opinion dynamics, the case is already damaging him. So we chatted with Shenker-Osorio about why the trial and Trump's impulsive conduct at it is so alienating to voters outside the MAGA bubble—and why this dynamic will only get worse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week, arguments begin in Donald Trump's hush money trial in Manhattan, and he's raging over the unfairness of it all. Amazingly, some are rushing to insist the trial won't pose a serious problem for his presidential chances. But progressive political strategist Anat Shenker-Osorio disagrees: She writes in a new piece for Slate that due to some hidden public opinion dynamics, the case is already damaging him. So we chatted with Shenker-Osorio about why the trial and Trump's impulsive conduct at it is so alienating to voters outside the MAGA bubble—and why this dynamic will only get worse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
This week, arguments begin in Donald Trump's hush money trial in Manhattan, and he's raging over the unfairness of it all. Amazingly, some are rushing to insist the trial won't pose a serious problem for his presidential chances. But progressive political strategist Anat Shenker-Osorio disagrees: She writes in a new piece for Slate that due to some hidden public opinion dynamics, the case is already damaging him. So we chatted with Shenker-Osorio about why the trial and Trump's impulsive conduct at it is so alienating to voters outside the MAGA bubble—and why this dynamic will only get worse. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A recent Gallup poll found that 29 percent of respondents said neither Donald Trump nor Joe Biden are fit for the job. To unpack how voters are feeling about the two candidates, this week on Deconstructed, Ryan Grim is joined by Anat Shenker-Osorio, a returning guest, messaging expert, and host of the podcast “Words to Win By.” Together they dig into what she's been hearing from voters in swing states disillusioned by both parties and the whole electoral process.If you'd like to support our work, go to theintercept.com/give, where your donation, no matter what the amount, makes a real difference.And if you haven't already, please subscribe to the show so you can hear it every week. And please go and leave us a rating or a review — it helps people find the show. If you want to give us additional feedback, email us at Podcasts@theintercept.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Anat Shenker-Osorio joins The Great Battlefield podcast to talk about her career in politics in the U.S. and abroad, her podcast Words to Win By and her role as CEO at ASO Communications where they help progressives with their messaging.
After a week in which the election race was all but confirmed as a Biden-Trump rematch, pundits - and likely many voters - were listening and watching closely to the current president's State of the Union address. They were met with a fiery address, as Biden weaved between issues including the economy, the border, the Middle East, and even his own age. So, have Democratic fears been allayed? What does the address signal for the next 8 months of campaigning? Anat Shenker-Osorio is a political communication strategist, who joins the show from California. Also on today's show: Rachel Cockerell, Author, “Melting Point”; Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Author, "Americanah"; Charan Ranganath, Author, “Why We Remember” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock our full premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast Host of Words to Win By, and Principal of ASO Communications, and political messenger extraordinaire Anat Shenker-Osorio joins Bad Faith to explain most why certain messages falter where others deliver. After conducting 3-4 focus groups a week for the last four years, she has real insights into what messaging works and what doesn't -- from "defund the police" to "MAGA Republicans." Do Dems have any chance messaging around Biden's age? And are there limits to what messaging can do when voters are driven by ideological disgust of political actions like the siege of Gaza? Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod). Produced by Armand Aviram. Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).
Anat Shenker-Osorio is the host of the Words to Win By podcast and the Principal of ASO Communications. We discuss the winning messages for 2024 and the importance for pro-democracy voters to turn out on Election Day. 2024 is yet another do-or-die election for American democracy, and thus the first and most important message to Americans is to vote. We need to marshal a sense of defiance to participate because if we don't decide for ourselves, someone else will decide for us. This election is a contest between freedom and fascism. What's at stake is whether the US is going to continue to be a place where citizens have the freedom to cast their votes and have them counted. Follow Anat on Twitter: https://twitter.com/anatosaurus Follow Mila on Twitter: https://twitter.com/milaatmos Sponsor: Thanks to Shopify for supporting Future Hindsight! Sign up for a $1/month trial at shopify.com/hopeful. Follow Future Hindsight on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/futurehindsightpod/ Love Future Hindsight? Take our Listener Survey! http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=6tI0Zi1e78vq&ver=standard Take the Democracy Group's Listener Survey! https://www.democracygroup.org/survey Want to support the show and get it early? https://patreon.com/futurehindsight Check out the Future Hindsight website! www.futurehindsight.com Read the transcript here: https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/identify-as-a-voter-anat-shenker-osorio Credits: Host: Mila Atmos Guests: Anat Shenker-Osorio Executive Producer: Mila Atmos Producer: Zack Travis
Today, we're bringing you another podcast from Wonder Media Network that we think you'll love: Words to Win By. Hosted by renowned communications researcher and campaign advisor Anat Shenker-Osorio, this season unpacks real-world narrative shifts that led to real-world victories, from Brazil to Ireland to here in the United States. In the 2022 Midterms, Americans defied polling, pundits and precedent to stave off the predicted Republican “Red Wave” takeover. Despite significant challenges, Democrats were able to hold the Senate, minimize House losses, and flip or retain key battleground state legislatures and governorships. In the first episode of the latest season, we delve into why conventional wisdom about politics doesn't just miss the mark, but actively impedes what we must do to prevail against right-wing efforts to seize and hold power. Hear about the research, ad making, organizing and strategy that helped deliver key Democratic victories by reminding us of the collective power we have to decide our own future. Learn more about the show at WordsToWinBy-Pod.comFollow Anat on TwitterFollow Wonder Media NetworkWebsiteInstagramTwitterSubscribe to Michael Podhorzer's substack Weekend ReadingKeep up with Way to Win's work on their website
Today, we're bringing you another podcast from Wonder Media Network that we think you'll love: Words to Win By. Hosted by renowned communications researcher and campaign advisor Anat Shenker-Osorio, this season unpacks real-world narrative shifts that led to real-world victories, from Brazil to Ireland to here in the United States. In the 2022 Midterms, Americans defied polling, pundits and precedent to stave off the predicted Republican “Red Wave” takeover. Despite significant challenges, Democrats were able to hold the Senate, minimize House losses, and flip or retain key battleground state legislatures and governorships. In the first episode of the latest season, we delve into why conventional wisdom about politics doesn't just miss the mark, but actively impedes what we must do to prevail against right-wing efforts to seize and hold power. Hear about the research, ad making, organizing and strategy that helped deliver key Democratic victories by reminding us of the collective power we have to decide our own future. Learn more about the show at WordsToWinBy-Pod.comFollow Anat on TwitterFollow Wonder Media NetworkWebsiteInstagramTwitterSubscribe to Michael Podhorzer's substack Weekend ReadingKeep up with Way to Win's work on their website
Today, we're bringing you another podcast from Wonder Media Network that we think you'll love: Words to Win By. Hosted by renowned communications researcher and campaign advisor Anat Shenker-Osorio, this season unpacks real-world narrative shifts that led to real-world victories, from Brazil to Ireland to here in the United States. In the 2022 Midterms, Americans defied polling, pundits and precedent to stave off the predicted Republican “Red Wave” takeover. Despite significant challenges, Democrats were able to hold the Senate, minimize House losses, and flip or retain key battleground state legislatures and governorships. In the first episode of the latest season, we delve into why conventional wisdom about politics doesn't just miss the mark, but actively impedes what we must do to prevail against right-wing efforts to seize and hold power. Hear about the research, ad making, organizing and strategy that helped deliver key Democratic victories by reminding us of the collective power we have to decide our own future. Learn more about the show at WordsToWinBy-Pod.comFollow Anat on TwitterFollow Wonder Media NetworkWebsiteInstagramTwitterSubscribe to Michael Podhorzer's substack Weekend ReadingKeep up with Way to Win's work on their website
Today, we're talking about a truly odd form of stalker-ism, we'll also talk about the Iowa caucus, and what progressives should be messaging to get through 2024. Joining in discussion is an all-star panel of returning Fake the Nation guests: comedian, Katie Hannigan, and host of the podcast, Words to Win By, Anat Shenker-Osorio!——Thank you to this week's sponsors:Miracle Brand - Go to TryMiracle.com/FAKETHENATION and use the code "FAKETHENATION" to claim your FREE 3 PIECE TOWEL SET and SAVE over 40% OFF.Paired - Connect with your partner every day using Paired. Download the app at https://www.paired.com/FAKETHENATIONSee, The Thing Is - Join Bridget and Mandii every week as they update you on everything going on in the world with their polarizing hot takes. Subscribe to “See, The Thing Is” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or on YouTube. New episodes drop every Tuesday and Friday!——Rate Fake The Nation 5-stars on Apple Podcasts and leave us a review!Follow Negin Farsad on TwitterEmail Negin fakethenation@headgum.comSupport her Patreon ——Host - Negin Farsad——Producer - Andrew McGuire——Theme Music - Gaby AlterSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Independent investigative journalism, broadcasting, trouble-making and muckraking with Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com
The Bulwark editor Jonathan Last tells The New Abnormal that if Chris Christie really believes that Donald Trump must be stopped at all costs, then he has one card left to play. Plus! Anat Shenker-Osorio, host of the Words to Win By podcast, tells The New Abnormal co-host Danielle Moodie, how Joe Biden's 2024 campaign messaging is landing with voters. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
I'm thrilled to welcome Anat Shenker-Osorio back to the show. It's been a while -- the last time she was here was in July of 2014! Yes, she's been trying to help progressives win elections for many years and I thought this was the perfect time to have her impart some of her wisdom to our listeners. As she explains at the start of her great podcast WORDS TO WIN BY, Anat is a researcher, message maker, and campaign advisor in addition to author and podcaster. An essay in the NY Times she co-wrote with Norm Eisen and Celinda Lake caught my eye and was, as expected, brilliant and necessary, so I reached out and here we are. Please pay attention to what Anat says. She'll give you practical advice for how to respond to defeatist messaging (from those ostensibly on our side!), to the politically naive, and those who are just plain wrong about everything. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nicolesandler/message
On this week's The New Abnormal, extremism expert Jared Holt recounts his trip to a Moms for Liberty conference—and why DeSantis just can't get the MAGA faithful to defect. Plus! A talk with political researcher Anat Shenker-Osorio about Democrats' messaging woes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This episode is a part of Opinionpalooza. Slate's coverage of Supreme Court decisions, and the other legal happenings in June. We consider this coverage so essential that we're taking down the paywall for all of it. If you would like to help us continue to cover the courts aggressively, please consider joining Slate Plus. And sign up for the pop-up newsletter to see the latest every week in your inbox. On this one year anniversary of Dobbs, Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Anat Shenker Osorio to talk about how the political class still hasn't found a way to communicate or act toward the court that delivered this suffering. Next, Dahlia is joined by Slate's own Mark Joseph Stern to talk about two important decisions that came down this week, one concerning the rights of criminal defendants and another about the U.S. President's right to set immigration policy. In this week's Amicus Plus segment, Dahlia and Mark tackle more questions from the Slate Plus listener mail bag about the tension between establishment clause and equal protection claims in suits brought to fight back against Dobbs on religious grounds, and how to impeach terrible awful no-good judges. Sign up for Slate Plus now to listen and support our show. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Democrats worry about the debt ceiling deal Joe Biden might make with Kevin McCarthy. The party gets good news in Tuesday's elections. Ron Desantis will announce his presidential run next week because he's tired of the Republican culture of losing. And the most definitive report on the 2022 midterms give us clues about the 2024 electorate. Then Democratic messaging guru Anat Shenker-Osorio stops by to talk about how Dems should be talking about the budget negotiations. And Jon and Dan play another round of Take Take Don't Tell Me. For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast.