This week on the show we’re exploring the challenges of building a progressive media ecosystem and mainstreaming movement narratives in existing corporate media. First, Adam Johnson, co-host of the Citations Needed podcast, joins Cayden to help us understand the current state of play in media and public relations work and why it’s against us by design. Then Cayden talks with Hermelinda Cortés, Executive Director of ReFrame , about her organization's research on the ways narrative links tradition...
Dec 06, 2024•1 hr 4 min
This week on the show we’re looking at how our strategies need to adapt in the coming months. First, we are joined by Senior Political Director for United We Dream , Bruna Bouhid, about their vital lame duck session advocacy. Then we take a bit of a longer view of what movement work needs to look like during the second Trump administration with Senior Fellow at Future Currents, LJ Amsterdam. Her soon-to-be-published report about the changing nature and strategy behind direct action holds some ke...
Nov 22, 2024•53 min
Cayden is joined by political strategist Waleed Shahid, to discuss the lay of the land that is the many… many hot takes and finger pointing that has been going on since last week’s election both inside and outside the Democratic party. Waleed recently laid out a really helpful typology on his Substack and we’ll discuss what we should we sit with and digest versus what should roll right off our backs. We’ll also assess how the Uncommitted movement played out through this election season and where...
Nov 15, 2024•1 hr 14 min
Lots of folks are getting tugged at by the “blame game” that happens after every election cycle. Instead of looking at counterfactuals, we want to ground in reflection and self-critique, as well as where trends are going and what we need to do next. Cayden is joined today by a panel of folks we often look to when we need to think about what the hell is going on: Bill Fletcher, Jr., Convergence Magazine Advisory Board Tobita Chow, Convergence Magazine Editorial Board Kermit Thomas, Director of Po...
Nov 08, 2024•1 hr 1 min
We’re just a few days out from Election Day, so this episode covers a lot of ground. First we hear from Dusti Gurule, President and CEO of COLOR Latina . Dusti and COLOR are front and center in the campaign to pass Colorado's Amendment 79, which would enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution and remove a major barrier to accessing those rights by allowing public funds to pay for abortion services. Then we're joined by Rising Majority National Director Loan Tran, back to check in on t...
Nov 01, 2024•56 min
This week, Cayden speaks with two people doing some deep thinking – and important organizing – that may point the way forward on how we think about the financial resources our movements need to win. First, he spoke with Vini Bhansali, the Executive Director of the Solidaire Network , a community of donor organizers mobilizing critical resources to build political power for movements for racial, gender, and climate justice. Then we'll hear from Michael Gast, a donor advisor who’s working to surfa...
Oct 25, 2024•52 min
Van Jackson, a scholar of international relations and host of the Un-Diplomatic podcast, joined Cayden a few weeks ago to scope out the big picture of US foreign relations and what might or might not shift if Kamala Harris wins the White House. Check out Van's show Un-Diplomatic on YouTube and Apple Podcasts . Support this show and other like it by becoming a member at convergencemag.com/donate ....
Oct 18, 2024•1 hr 7 min
This week has been a difficult one for many of us. Looking back on the past year, it’s hard not to feel deep frustration, grief, and anguish over the way that the US has enabled Israel’s genocide in Gaza and further intensification of violence and expansion beyond Gaza to include the West Bank and Lebanon. It’s also impossible to ignore the ways that both Israel’s campaign and movement organizing has shifted the political landscape in indelible ways. More people in the US have been galvanized to...
Oct 11, 2024•56 min•Ep. 26
In this episode we take a deep dive into what some folks call the “Minnesota Model,” the organizing power behind the policies that made Tim Walz’s reputation as a progressive governor. While Walz tacked to the right in his debate with JD Vance earlier this week, there’s no denying his progressive record as governor of Minnesota. He signed legislation expanding free school meals, requiring a transition to clean energy for all Minnesota power plants by 2040, and codifying the right to abortion in ...
Oct 04, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 24
Cayden is joined first by Publisher for The Forge , Miski Noor and Senior Director of Strategy and co-founder of The Action Lab , Andrew Friedman. We’ll be discussing their recently co-published report on organizing toward progressive power titled The Power to Win Report . Then I’ll be joined by interim Executive Director of the Kairos Fellowship , Jacky Brooks to talk about the ways big tech works to disrupt progressive and left organizing and the User Error series of reports provided by Kairos...
Sep 27, 2024•55 min•Ep. 24
On the show this week, Cayden is joined by Sandra Tamari, Executive Director of Adalah Justice Project, and Ramah Kudaimi, who is the Director of Crescendo at the Action Center on Race and the Economy, to discuss their new research project, Genocide Gentry , which exposes the intimate links between war profiteers and many prominent educational, cultural, and other institutions across the US. Then, investigative journalist Jen Byers joins to discuss her reporting on the criminal cases being broug...
Sep 20, 2024•55 min•Ep. 23
In this episode we explore how far-right extremists and neo-Nazis strategically infiltrate small communities, like Springfield, Ohio, and leverage hateful rumors in and about the community. Since JD Vance and Donald Trump brought those rumors and lies to a national stage this week, these groups have celebrated their contribution to the story's ascendance to mainstream discourse as a top GOP talking point. To learn more about these groups and their activity in Springfield, Cayden is joined by sec...
Sep 13, 2024•38 min•Ep. 22
Executive Director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center , Chris Melody Fields Figueredo joins to discuss the critical work our movements are undertaking this year to move ballot initiatives state-by-state, and how direct democracy can be a specific antidote to legislative gridlock. Then our print editor, Marcy Rein, recently interviewed Florida Rising ’s Campaign Director Ivanna Gonzalez, who is helping lead the campaign for Amendment 4 in Florida to restore abortion rights and healthcare ac...
Sep 06, 2024•59 min•Ep. 21
On the show today, Cayden is joined by the Director of Civic Engagement and Leadership Development at the Murphy Institute at the CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies , Dr. Alethia Jones. Next week, Dr. Jones and her colleagues are hosting a free, one-day conference focused on the task of block & build in the current period. Convergence Magazine Board Chair Max Elbaum is a featured guest at the event. Dr. Jones provides a preview of the upcoming gathering, as well the story of her life and...
Aug 30, 2024•37 min•Ep. 20
As expected, this week's Democratic National Convention saw a variety of protests on the streets outside, mostly from groups demanding an end to the genocide in Gaza. Inside the convention, delegates in the Uncommitted Movement pressed their demand that a Palestinian be allowed to deliver a vetted speech from the main stage. The Democrats turned them down--so they sat in overnight on the sidewalk in front of the convention hall. They may not have been on the program, but the movement's voice was...
Aug 23, 2024•55 min•Season 1Ep. 19
This week Cayden is joined by the Executive Director of Court Accountability , Alex Aronson ( @alexaronson ), to dive deeper into the right-wing capture of the courts and what we can do about it. Before that, Jacobin staff writer and journalist Branko Marcetic ( @BMarchetich ) joins to discuss his research for In These Times into how AIPAC spends its money. Read Branko's writings on AIPAC published by In These Times : The Corporate Power Brokers Behind AIPAC’s War on the Squad Read A Brief Histo...
Aug 16, 2024•54 min•Season 1Ep. 19
This week, Kamala Harris surprised many by choosing the most progressive pick on her "veep-stakes" short list, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. Excitement and momentum on the left didn't last long as many are critiquing Harris' response to protestors in the crowd at a Michigan rally in which she equated their protests to stop the genocide in Gaza as a vote for Donald Trump. Joining the show to discuss the Uncommitted National Movement , which organized earlier this year to earn 30 uncommitted delega...
Aug 09, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 17
In another historic news week, President Joe Biden forfeited his upcoming nomination as the Democratic Party's candidate for President, and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. An immediate cascade of endorsements by other major Democratic Party figures followed, and Harris gathered enough delegate pledges to make her the party's presumptive nominee. Organizing energy surged; we saw a blizzard of social media memes from supporters and trolls alike. Cayden provides some analysis on how left org...
Jul 26, 2024•32 min•Ep. 16
After the mass-shooting, assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump last Saturday, the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee continued as scheduled. Truthout.org news writer Chris Walker ( @chriswalker ) was on the ground in Milwaukee this week. He shares some of his reporting on the event—especially the heavy imprint of the Heritage Foundation —and on the protests around downtown Milwaukee that most media simply ignored. Then 22nd Century Initiative Deputy Director Sue Hyde jo...
Jul 19, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 15
As finger pointing and arguing about President Joe Biden's fitness to remain the Democratic Party's presidential nominee continued all week here in the US, Great Britain and France made strides toward beating back autocratic and fascist rule in their own national elections. In this episode, Cayden is joined by Clément Petitjean ( @clement_petitj ), lecturer in English and Anglo-Saxon languages & literatures at Pantheon Sorbonne, University of Paris. Clément wrote for us in advance of last we...
Jul 12, 2024•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 14
At the top of this episode, we address what may have been a historic moment last night, when President Joe Biden struggled to perform in his debate against Donald Trump. Many in mainstream media are asking today if Biden still has what it takes to be the Democratic nominee and block the return of Trump and the MAGA movement to the White House. In These Times Executive Director Alex Han joins us to discuss what the debate may mean for movement efforts to stop Trump and the ways it might shift our...
Jun 28, 2024•50 min•Ep. 13
Cayden is joined by Maurice Mitchell, National Director of the Working Families Party , live from the floor of this week's Rising Majority Congress , a week long gathering of over 700 organizers and activists on the left, working in diverse coalition to strategize a plan for the next 10 years while envisioning goals for 2050. In this episode, Maurice speaks to Working Families Party's role in strategy as they engage in political endorsement and organizing across the country at the local and nati...
Jun 21, 2024•51 min•Ep. 12
Many of us have seen the attacks against student protestors over the last month on campuses like UCLA and others by both the police and right wing Zionists, attempting to disrupt their right to peaceful protest. This led to a wave of stand-up strikes against unfair labor practices of unionized student workers represented by UAW Local 4811 across the University of California system. As a result, legal actions have gone back and forth in state courts attempting to force an end to the strike withou...
Jun 14, 2024•58 min•Ep. 11
In spite of 34 felony convictions last week, there is still a very real chance that Donald Trump will once again be elected president of the United States in November or that he'll contest the results and attempt another coup. Few of us were truly prepared for his victory in 2016. Many of us felt helpless in the wake of his 2020 blitz to steal the election. As a result, many responses were directionless and lacking in strategy. Experienced organizers Daniel Hunter ( 350.org ) and Katey Lauer are...
Jun 07, 2024•39 min•Ep. 10
Of course the hot button issue of the day is former President Donald Trump's 34 felony convictions in his hush money trial. We briefly discuss how this impacts us as organizer, but have so much else to report. Executive Director of Center for Third World Organizing , Chinyere Tutashinda ( chinyere@ctwo.org ), joins Cayden this episode to discuss the immediate dangers and risks of AI generated social media activism which may have had its first major viral moment with the widely shared " All Eyes ...
May 31, 2024•54 min•Ep. 9
This week, Cayden is joined by Executive Director of New Left Accelerator , Deborah Barron and Executive Director of the Center for Empowered Politics , Alex Tom to discuss risk. Any time we perform acts of civil disobedience, we subject ourselves to varying degrees of risk. As we’ve seen in the news lately in campus protests many risk personal arrest. Others, meanwhile, risk loss of funding, jobs, and more. The panel explores how to strategically make assessments of what risks we should take in...
May 24, 2024•53 min•Ep. 8
Today's episode features an interview by Steven Pitts, the former host and creator of our longest running podcast, Black Work Talk . He sat down with Professor of Sociology and Labor at University of Massachusetts - Amherst, Cedric de Leon , to discuss Cedric’s forthcoming book contracted with University of California Press , Freedom Train. In the book, Cedric centers the monumental contributions of Black workers to desegregating the labor movement and connecting the struggles of organized labor...
May 18, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 7
This week on the show, Cayden is joined by organizer and former Executive Director of Lavender Phoenix , Sammie Ablaza Wills, discussing outcomes from the past month's student protests. They explore some of the agreements of universities that have agreed to work and negotiate with students. The episode also dives into Sammie's recent article published by Convergence, Right Size Belonging: Six Practices for Organizers ; considering how it applies to this new wave of campus organizing. Aside from ...
May 13, 2024•56 min•Ep. 6
This week’s show is our first Movement Media Round Table. We intend on this show to occasionally connect listeners with our fellow travelers in the independent, progressive media space to share some of the top stories from their outlets you should be following. For this round table, Cayden is joined by Editor-at-Large of Truthout.org , Maya Schenwar and Editor-in-Chief of PRISM , Lara Witt. Each of our guests share some of the top stories of the week from their respective publications. We encour...
May 03, 2024•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 5
This week on the show, hosts of the podcast Mystery A.I. Hype Theater 3000 , Emily M. Bender (Professor of Linguistics at University of Washington) and Alex Hanna (Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute ), join Cayden to help make sense of the inescapable hype of all things “Artificial Intelligence.” What’s being oversold? What are the actual threats? And what exactly are we talking about when we say A.I.? Hype or not, the advancement of technology in the workplace has str...
Apr 26, 2024•54 min•Ep. 4
