Baratunde connects with Gen-Z author and climate activist Jamie Margolin, to see how this next generation is using tech to save the planet. He was surprised more than once by this 19-year-old’s perspective. She is the founder of This Is Zero Hour, an intersectional movement of young people fighting for a livable planet and co-organizer of the 2018 Youth Climate March. Guest: Jamie Margolin Bio: 19-year-old Colombian-American organizer, activist, author, public speaker, and film & tv student....
Nov 25, 2021•40 min•Season 3Ep. 7
After a life of civic hacking outside the system through efforts like vTaiwan, Audrey Tang, now Digital Minister of Taiwan, speaks with Baratunde about how to use digital tools to include people in more direct, participatory, democratic practices and her design philosophy of “fast, fair, fun.” She shows how tech can help government be more responsive to and collaborative with its citizens. Guest: Audrey Tang Bio: Digital Minister of Taiwan, open-source software contributor, poetician Online: Tai...
Nov 18, 2021•49 min•Season 3Ep. 6
Baratunde learns more about experiments in digital democracy. He speaks with Pia Mancini, cofounder of Open Collective, a platform empowering collectives and mutual aid groups with new transparent, decentralized financial tools that make local grassroots efforts more feasible than ever. It is a powerful example of how the use of technology can change the power dynamics and help people citizen together where they live and across the globe. Guest: Pia Mancini Bio: Democracy activist, open source s...
Nov 11, 2021•42 min•Season 3Ep. 5
Esra’a is a Bahrani human rights activist and founder of Majal, a multiplatform organization that amplifies underrepresented voices in the Middle East and North Africa. She works collaboratively with technologists and designers across the world to create alternative digital spaces that are safe from censorship and trolling. Utilizing gamification and music, Majal’s platforms offer a safe space for people who face persecution based on their identity and politics. Guest: Esra’a Al Shafei Bio: Foun...
Nov 04, 2021•35 min•Season 3Ep. 4
Right now we interact with the public more online than offline. But these digital spaces are not designed with our collective wellbeing in mind. Baratunde speaks with Eli Pariser, Co-founder of New_Public, about how we are missing intentionally designed digital public spaces, like libraries and park spaces online, and they discuss New_Public’s NEW! design playbook for creating platforms that bring us together instead of tear us apart. Guest: Eli Pariser Bio: Author, Activist, and Entrepreneur, C...
Oct 28, 2021•40 min•Season 3Ep. 3
Baratunde has been sounding the alarm about the perils of Big Tech for years. In this episode, he breaks down his journey in tech and talks with tech expert and sharp critic, Prof G, otherwise known as Scott Galloway, co-host of the Pivot Podcast. They dive into Scott’s summary of what the hell went wrong, his recent argument that corporations need to start acting “as citizens,” and how this idea of corporate citizening informs his investment strategy. Guest: Scott Galloway Bio: Marketing expert...
Oct 28, 2021•49 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Technology and its promise of a better world is a part of Baratunde’s DNA. In this episode, Baratunde reminisces with his older sister, Belinda, about their upbringing in Washington DC in the 1980s. They discuss their mother’s influence on his earliest experiences with tech that would someday come to shape this very podcast. Guest: Belinda Thurston Bio: Yogini, tai chi player, Buddhist, African-Japanese American, journalist, speaker, motivator, number one sister. Online: Just B Yoga website Go t...
Oct 28, 2021•45 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Season three of How To Citizen with Baratunde is all about tech. Launching October 28th, we’re bringing you the people using technology for more than revenue and user growth. They are using it to help us citizen. We don’t have to live in the futures shown in Terminator, Black Mirror, or Westworld. We can choose a different path. Instead of being used by tech, we can use tech to bolster our community participation, strengthen our relationships, and help us flex our collective power. This season b...
Sep 30, 2021•2 min
If we’ve learned anything in Season 2 of How To Citizen with Baratunde, it’s that it takes a village, and by that, I mean the entire global community. From leaders of nonprofits, to Wall Street entrepreneurs, we need everyone to come together to build the economy we all deserve. And that even includes comedians. In this episode, we speak with fellow podcaster and comedian Hari Kondabolu about comedy’s role in shaping our future. Guest: Hari Kondabolu - comedian, writer & podcaster Twitter: @...
Jun 17, 2021•46 min•Season 2Ep. 12
“It’s hard to citizen when you can’t pay the bills.” This season’s theme has revealed the economic causes of our deep division and has opened our eyes to how our democracy and economic well-being are incredibly interconnected. This week, Baratunde weaves together lessons from across this season, discovers surprising takeaways, and revisits stories that have more in common than we expected when we set out to make this season. Listen to a virtual conversation among our guests that will reveal new ...
Jun 10, 2021•35 min•Season 2Ep. 11
This week, Baratunde digs into the world of Universal Basic Income and Guaranteed Income, in other words distributing money, much like we do when we subsidize farmers or oil companies, but instead to individual households. Where does this money come from? Who gets the money? Will people still work? What will people even spend it on? And how on earth does free cash help our economy? Baratunde sits down with Aisha Nyandoro to find out what exactly happens when you give people in extreme poverty a ...
Jun 03, 2021•41 min•Season 2Ep. 10
Workers have long been excluded from financial gains when businesses become profitable, and wages are no longer a way to create stability and build wealth. Cooperatives were created to combat this very problem. This week features Jamila Medley, the former Executive Director of the Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance (PACA), a co-op OF co-ops. PACA works to support this business model across industries, from food, to banking, to electricity! Guest: Jamila Medley - Former Executive Director of ...
May 27, 2021•45 min•Season 2Ep. 9
Racism, exclusion, and unchecked corporate growth have trapped an entire class of people in poverty, no matter how hard they work. We call them the “working poor.” This week, workers’ rights advocate Ai-jen Poo shows Baratunde how it’s possible to work several jobs and still struggle to make ends meet — and how domestic workers are fighting for a future where all workers receive the dignity and fairness they deserve. Guest: Ai-jen Poo - Co-Founder and Executive Director of the National Domestic ...
May 20, 2021•44 min•Season 2Ep. 8
In 2021 it’s non-negotiable: quality home internet is something we all need. Our entire economy, along with almost all other aspects of our lives, relies on access to the internet. This reality is why many argue that it should be treated as a public good and operated like a public utility instead of run by a handful of corporations that leave many people underserved. This week, Baratunde sits down with technologist Bruce Patterson to learn how the small city of Ammon, Idaho gives its residents a...
May 13, 2021•47 min•Season 2Ep. 7
In a future where we depend increasingly on Amazon, the fates of many small businesses hang in the balance. In this episode, Baratunde learns about a new model to help local small businesses compete with the online ease of ordering from Amazon. He speaks with whiskey distiller Marie Estrada, a small business owner who has pushed through the hurdles of the pandemic, while giving back to the community in ways that corporate monopolies just don’t. Guest: Marie Estrada - small business owner, distil...
May 06, 2021•31 min•Season 2Ep. 6
Our extreme wealth inequality isn’t just caused by economic exclusion; we are also struggling with the concentration of corporate power. Simply put, most of our money flows directly into the pockets of a few wealthy individuals. This week, Baratunde learns how it’s possible for Amazon to receive one out of every two dollars spent online. He speaks with antitrust reformer Stacy Mitchell who breaks down why concentrated power like this is a threat to our businesses, communities, and democracy. Gue...
Apr 29, 2021•39 min•Season 2Ep. 5
Imagine a land without landlords or racialized displacement. Sounds too good to be true. The East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative [EB PREC] is fighting for this future. Baratunde sits down with Executive Director Noni Session and learns how EB PREC is reclaiming their community, and building local ownership through real estate. Guest: Noni Session Executive Director of East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative Twitter: @NoniSession Bio: Noni is a 3rd generation West Oaklander, Cultural An...
Apr 22, 2021•38 min•Season 2Ep. 4
Everytable founder, Sam Polk, wants to change the way we do business by not only creating jobs, but going a step further to create wealth-building, ownership opportunities through a social franchise model. In this episode, we follow Sam’s journey from Wall Street tycoon, to nonprofit connoisseur, to social entrepreneur, and how he found himself with a new mission to transform the food system by making it delicious and profitable for everyone. Guest: Sam Polk CEO of Everytable Twitter: @SamPolk B...
Apr 15, 2021•34 min•Season 2Ep. 3
This week, author Heather McGhee breaks down the driving force of American economic exclusion via the swimming pool. Baratunde asks Heather about all she has learned traveling across the country to write her book, The Sum of Us . They explore the roots of wealth inequality, the true cost of racism, and why Americans have a zero-sum worldview - meaning progress for some must come at the expense of others. Guest: Heather McGhee - writer, advocate Twitter: @hmcghee Bio: Heather designs and promotes...
Apr 08, 2021•47 min•Season 2Ep. 2
In Season One we asked ourselves, what does it mean “to citizen”? How do we show up and stand up for our community? Coming off the heels of January 6th, 2021, Baratunde starts Season Two by taking a step back with the question, “How can we citizen with so much division?”. In this episode, we speak with author and filmmaker Astra Taylor who takes us back to ancient Greece and reveals how our political and economic rights are deeply intertwined. Guest: Astra Taylor - writer, organizer, and documen...
Apr 01, 2021•39 min•Season 2Ep. 1
How do we wield our collective power for the many, not just the few, in order to live together even with our differences? We feel the dangerous divisions within our democracy daily: the pandemic response, racial oppression, and political violence. In season two of How To Citizen with Baratunde, we focus on ground zero for these divisions: money, capitalism, and the economy. In a time of radical economic inequality, how do we citizen when we can’t pay the bills. This season we explore the deep ro...
Mar 25, 2021•2 min
Baratunde ends Season One focused on the state of our relationships, a key pillar of how to citizen, and thus the health of our society after the most contentious election in modern history. In conversation with world-renowned relationship expert, Esther Perel, they discuss how to repair relationships in this moment, and how choosing to listen and humanize each other is not only how to citizen, but enlightened self-interest. Show Notes + Links We are grateful to Esther Perel for joining us! Foll...
Nov 12, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 16
Baratunde reflects on Election Day and contemplates the record set this week for positive COVID cases recorded in a single day. He speaks to his trusted source for all things pandemic response, Dr. Michael Osterholm, and learns about the "pandemic of kindness" that Dr. Osterholm hopes will be more contagious than the virus in the coming weeks. Dr. Osterholm shares how he keeps moving forward despite the dire facts, and he wrestles with the injustice of people of color being disproportionately im...
Nov 05, 2020•51 min•Season 1Ep. 15
Baratunde wrestles with how to handle rising political violence in the U.S. by learning from a leading steward of strategic nonviolent action. Jamila Raqib, executive director of the Albert Einstein Institution, shares lessons on the superiority of nonviolent approaches to change, options for defending democracy against authoritarianism, and tips on what to do if a certain head of state refuses to leave office. Hypothetically. Show Notes + Links We are grateful to Jamila Rahib for joining us! Fo...
Oct 29, 2020•52 min•Season 1Ep. 14
Baratunde learns to think about sacrifice and having skin in the game in terms of a ham, egg, and cheese sandwich analogy. Desmond Meade , founder of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC), reminds us that to error is human and the need for second chances, and how that reminder mobilized a grassroots citizen’s movement that transcended racial and political lines to restore voting rights to 1.4 million Floridians with past felony convictions. Show Notes + Links We are grateful to Desmond...
Oct 27, 2020•35 min•Season 1Ep. 13
Baratunde digs into the feeling of disconnect and neglect felt by the black community in Milwaukee during the 2016 election and learns from Angela Lang, Executive Director of Black Leaders Organizing Communities (BLOC MKE). They are changing what it means to get people politically engaged in their community, and it doesn’t start with knocking on doors, begging for votes two months before an election! Quentin Palfrey also weighs in on how data scientists and lawyers are uniting on the ground to s...
Oct 22, 2020•52 min•Season 1Ep. 12
Baratunde speaks with Sherrilyn Ifill, the President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund about the very long history of voter suppression, why it still exists (hint: white supremacy and racism), and the current tactics being deployed for the 2020 election. Show Notes + Links We are grateful to Sherrilyn Ifill for joining us. Follow her at @Sifill_LDF and @NAACP_LDF on Twitter. You can learn more about the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund at https://www.naacpl...
Oct 20, 2020•35 min•Season 1Ep. 11
Baratunde speaks with Maria Teresa Kumar, President of Voto Latino, about the power in numbers of Latinx voters and the work of relationship-building for this moment. Maria shares stories of what effective government looks like and its impact on the lives of the Latinx community. Show Notes + Links We are grateful to Maria Teresa Kumar for joining us. Follow @mariateresa1 and @votolatino on Twitter. You can learn more about Voto Latino at https://votolatino.org/ . We will post this episode, a tr...
Oct 15, 2020•34 min•Season 1Ep. 10
Baratunde ignores the headlines about Chicago and heeds a listener’s advice to learn more about the South Side from a local artist who is building bridges in her community and literally helping people find common ground. Tonika Johnson helps us understand the pride that comes from being a Chicagoan and the root causes of today’s community struggles grounded in segregation and discrimination. Through her Folded Map Project, she is a perfect example of using art as a way to citizen. Show Notes + L...
Oct 08, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 9
Baratunde calls out the adults that say, “The kids will save us,” but then underestimate or don’t support kids’ efforts to participate. Josh Thompson and Zoë Jenkins, leaders at Civics Unplugged, share a new kind of movement and organization that is setting a vision for the future of democracy in 2030 and showing us what Gen Z leadership can look like right now. Show Notes + Links We are grateful to Josh Thompson and Zoë Jenkins for joining us. Follow @joshuatthompson on Twitter or @civicsunplug...
Oct 01, 2020•48 min•Season 1Ep. 8
