In the Meanwhile – Details, episodes & analysis

When politics feels less like a news cycle and more like a full-body stress test, we hit pause and ask the real question: how do we actually defend democracy, right now, with real people?

This week, Nora and Marcus sit down with Hannah Fried, CEO and co-founder of All Voting Is Local, for a conversation that's sharp, human, and refreshingly free of abstract hand-wringing. Fried breaks down how election interference actually works, not just the unhinged headline moments, but the quieter stuff: bureaucratic choke points, "technical" rule changes, and the slow grind of making voting harder on purpose. And she explains how organizers across the country are fighting back year-round to keep the ballot accessible, secure, and dignified.

It's urgent without being apocalyptic, hopeful without being naïve, and a reminder that democracy isn't a vibe, it's a practice. It lives in communities, relationships, and showing up over and over again. And when someone tries to take your vote? Hannah Fried is very clear: that's your cue to fight like hell.

Mentioned in the episode: 

All Voting is Local | I am Legend | Minneapolis to ICE: Get the Fuck Out 

Support the pod:

Donate here to support In The Meanwhile

Follow us:

Instagram | BlueSky | Website

Read Nora and Marcus's Books:

Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Healthcare | Readying to Rise

Music: No Tears for a Wolf · Ahamefule J. Oluo · Okanomodé. Used with permission.

Logo by Nikki Barron.

Transcripts are machine-generated and imperfect.

Nora and Marcus's work on the podcast is separate from their professional roles and does not represent the views of their employers. 

Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links.

We're dropping this mini-episode as new details emerge around the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent. Nora and Marcus cut through the fog, the spin, and the both-sides media haze to talk plainly about what the video shows, what federal officials are claiming, and why those two things are in direct conflict.

They unpack how language is being weaponized to justify lethal force, why U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement accountability feels intentionally out of reach, and how this killing fits into a broader, deeply disturbing pattern. The stakes are named without euphemism: what happened to Renee could happen to anyone. And that is precisely why people are still showing up, still filming, still bearing witness, and still refusing the quiet that unaccountable power depends on.

Mentioned in the episode: 

ProPublica Report on ICE violence against protestors | ProPublica: What the Trump Administration's Videos From a Chicago Immigration Raid Don't Show | Pramila Jayapal on KING5 | Jan 7 2026 ICE protest in Seattle| Ijeoma Oluo

Support the pod:

Donate here to support In The Meanwhile

Follow us:

Instagram | BlueSky | Website

Read Nora and Marcus's Books:

Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Healthcare | Readying to Rise

Music: No Tears for a Wolf · Ahamefule J. Oluo · Okanomodé. Used with permission.

Logo by Nikki Barron.

Transcripts are machine-generated and imperfect.

Nora and Marcus's work on the podcast is separate from their professional roles and does not represent the views of their employers. 

Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links.

Nora and Marcus are back—running on caffeine, civic duty, and sheer willpower—joined once again by Charles Douglas III of Common Power. Together, they break down the chaos that is election week: why Seattle's slow counts might actually be a good sign, what the polls keep getting it spectacularly wrong, and how to turn that fleeting campaign adrenaline into real, lasting community power. They dive into big-tent politics, the art of re-humanizing our movements, and why voting should be so boring it's revolutionary. Charles brings the hope, the humor, and a reminder that democracy isn't a one-night stand—it's the long-term relationship we build together, one conversation, one community meal, and one ballot at a time.

Mentioned in the episode: 

Guest Rant: Now is the Time to Hope, and Vote | Common Power | Protesters at Kamala's book talk in Seattle | Nancy Pelosi retiring | Insider trading among elected officials | Wall Street Billionaires Now Offering to Help Mamdani | Graham Platner | Prime Minister | Rebecca Solnit on 2024 election | Mike Davis: Despair is Useless

Support the pod:

Donate here to support In The Meanwhile

Follow us:

Instagram | BlueSky | Website

Read Nora and Marcus's Books:

Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Healthcare | Readying to Rise

Music: No Tears for a Wolf · Ahamefule J. Oluo · Okanomodé. Used with permission.

Logo by Nikki Barron.

Transcripts are machine-generated and imperfect.

Nora and Marcus's work on the podcast is separate from their professional roles and does not represent the views of their employers. 

Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links.

It's that time again, when democracy throws on a sequined gown, downs a few too many shots of optimism, and texts us at 2 a.m. like, "Hey stranger… you up to vote?"

This week, Nora and Marcus are joined by Charles Douglas III of Common Power to talk about what happens beyond Election Day: the gritty, essential, and deeply human work of keeping people fed, fired up, and politically awake once the confetti settles and the hashtags fade.

Because when the ballots are counted and the headlines move on, the real story begins — the one we write together. Lucky for us, democracy's still kicking, but only if we keep showing up to do the steady, everyday, occasionally caffeine-addled work of keeping it alive.

Mentioned in the episode: 

Common Power | Seattle Mayoral election | Tressie McMillan Cottom article | The Stranger - How a KUOW story became a weapon in the mayor's race | Community support and mutual aid during Montgomery Bus Boycott | Kat Abughazaleh | Mamdani campaign soccer match, scavenger hunt | Atlantic Magazine: Trump's plan to subvert the midterms | New Disabled South campaign for SNAP benefits | Oregon Coffee Shop raises money for free food | Barbara Golden | South Seattle Emerald | Dick Gregory sparks in darkness 

Support the pod:

Donate here to support In The Meanwhile

Follow us:

Instagram | BlueSky | Website

Read Nora and Marcus's Books:

Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Healthcare | Readying to Rise

Music: No Tears for a Wolf · Ahamefule J. Oluo · Okanomodé. Used with permission.

Logo: Nikki Barron.

Transcripts are machine-generated and imperfect.

Nora and Marcus's work on the podcast is separate from their professional roles and does not represent the views of their employers. 

Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links.

What happens when you combine nude bicyclists, dancing frogs, and 7 million patriots saying "hell no"? Joyous resistance. Though MAGA would prefer we forget it, protest is as American as apple pie - from the Boston Tea Party to the summer of 2020. This week, Marcus and Nora are joined by Nadine Bloch - activist artist, puppetista, movement facilitator, and nonviolent organizer - to debrief No Kings 2.0 and talk about what's next. As authoritarian 'creep' becomes authoritarian creeps at warp speed, how can communities mobilize sustained, creative, and even joyous nonviolence resistance? Bloch walks us through noncooperation strategies, offering equal parts pragmatic hope and realistic appraisals of the fight we're up against. It's a call for all of us to dig deep, get organized, and, as Bloch puts it, "make revolution irresistible." Just try to walk away uninspired! 

Mentioned in the episode: 

Freedom Trainers | Seattle strike 1919 | Flint Michigan strike 1937 | Montgomery Bus Boycott | Washington Spirit 'Free DC' chant | jury ullification | malicious compliance | Japan's new prime minister | Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution | Marcus' latest stranger column| ICE spending on weapons | Year of Yes | Paul Ingrassia | No Kings was the largest mass protest in US history | Colleges rejecting Trump's Faustian Bargain

More of Nadine's work:

Beautiful Rising: Creative Resistance from the Global South | We Are Many, Reflections on Movement Strategy from Occupation to Liberation | From Airtable to Zoom: An A-to-Z Guide to Digital Tech and Activism | Education & Training in Nonviolent Resistance | SNAP: An Action Guide to Synergizing Nonviolent Action and Peacebuilding | WagingNonviolence | Endpoliticalviolence.org 

Support the pod:

Donate here to support In The Meanwhile

Follow us:

Instagram | BlueSky | Website

Read Nora and Marcus's Books:

Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Healthcare | Readying to Rise

Music: No Tears for a Wolf · Ahamefule J. Oluo · Okanomodé. Used with permission.

Logo by Nikki Barron.

Transcripts are machine-generated and imperfect.

Nora and Marcus's work on the podcast is separate from their professional roles and does not represent the views of their employers. 

Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links.

Chicago is not a war zone. It's a community under siege, refusing to flinch. This week, Nora and Marcus talk with Chicago Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez about what happens when federal power turns local neighborhoods into testing grounds for fear, and how people fight back with tamale deliveries, neighborhood networks, and unapologetic solidarity. It's a raw, unfiltered look at what resistance actually means when the cameras leave: mutual aid, protest, and the daily act of refusing to look away. It's also a gentle nudge on the importance of keeping people "productively uncomfortable"—a mix of hope, humor, and a rallying cry for anyone wondering how to resist when democracy feels like it's on clearance. Spoiler: it starts on your block.

Mentioned in the episode:

Leaked messages expose Young Republicans' racist chat | Mother Jones on the Dual State Theory | 12 Years a Slave | No Kings Oct 18 | Apple pulls ICE tracking apps under government pressure | Chicago tamale vendor kidnapped | Rideshare drivers targeted at O'Hare | Chicago TV Producer arrested | Broadview resistance to ICE | Colorful Portland ICE protest met with state violence | 25th Ward | AP News: Using helicopters and chemical agents, immigration agents become increasingly aggressive in Chicago | Silverio Villegas Gonzalez murdered by ICE | Murder of Laquan McDonald | Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson | Chicago Executive Order: ICE Free Zone | 40% decrease in Illinois prison population | Chicago ceasefire resolution | Seattle Mariners on the brink of World Series | VICE: John Mayer and D'Angelo Backed by The Roots Is the Dream Performance You Didn't Know You Needed

ICE Resistance and Chicago Resources: Illinois Coalition for Immigrant & Refugee Rights | Mutual Aid Map | City Bureau: How to Get Help Amid ICE Raids in Chicago | Kelly Hayes - They Came for Our Neighbors. We Showed Up. | Look for the Helpers - Chicago | How to Start a Walking School Bus | Whistle Warriors - Printable resources and Meetups | Street Vendors Association of Chicago | Chicago Operation Buyout | Hands Off Chicago | Legal Resources and Assistance from TRP Immigrant Justice

More on Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez: ABC News: Chicago alderman on the immigration crackdown sweeping the Windy City | Sigcho-Lopez on Democracy Now!

Support the pod:

Donate here to support In The Meanwhile

Follow us:

Instagram | BlueSky | Website

Read Nora and Marcus's Books:

Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Healthcare | Readying to Rise

Music: No Tears for a Wolf · Ahamefule J. Oluo · Okanomodé. Used with permission.

Logo by Nikki Barron.

Transcripts are machine-generated and imperfect.

Nora and Marcus's work on the podcast is separate from their professional roles and does not represent the views of their employers. 

Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links.

When the news starts looking like a haunted carnival (panic at 6, Prozac at 11), who are we supposed to trust? This week, Nora and Marcus grab the scalpel and dig into our media's open wounds with writer/editor Maggie Mertens and journalist/therapist Sarah Stuteville. They talk billionaire capture of news, the gutting of public media, and "toxic empathy"—which, to be honest, is just what people say when they're allergic to compassion. Together, they sketch a sane news diet (follow people, not brands), make the case for independent, community-rooted outlets, and ask how we turn doom into doing—from ICE resistance to Gaza coverage. It's a much-needed bit of group therapy for anyone trying to stay human in the headlines.

Mentioned in the episode:

Maggie Mertens: The State of 'The Media' is Bad. What's an Independent Journalist to do? | Photo of pastor being pepper sprayed in Chicago | Toxic Empathy on Today Explained | NPR: One Palestinian Family Shares Their Story of Loss | Study: Profiling Misinformation Susceptibility | South Seattle Emerald | Study: empathy gap + privilege | Children zip tied in Chicago ICE Raid | Cascade PBS Layoffs | CPB is shutting down | Better Faster Farther | Mistakes Were Made | Margin Call

Follow Maggie: https://maggiemertens.substack.com/

Follow Sarah: https://www.sarahstuteville.com/

Support the pod: Donate to Hinton Publishing to support In the Meanwhile

Follow us:

Instagram | BlueSky | Website

Read Nora and Marcus's Books:

Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Healthcare | Readying to Rise 

Music: No Tears for a Wolf · Ahamefule J. Oluo · Okanomodé. Used with permission.

Logo by Nikki Barron.

Transcripts are machine-generated and imperfect.

Nora and Marcus's work on the podcast is separate from their professional roles and does not represent the views of their employers. 

Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links.

This week on In The Meanwhile, Nora and Marcus debrief a joy-sparking night with Stacey Abrams before wading into America's latest authoritarian cosplay. They're then joined by Kashana Cauley—TV writer, comedian, and author of The Payback, a razor-sharp novel about debt, policing, and survival told with humor as cutting as it is honest. She talks about why gallows humor is both a shield and a call to collective resistance. Together, they dig into scrappy resistance led by ordinary people, why "voter apathy" is really despair, and how fiction can punch holes in bad policy.

Plus: an "Eight Ounces of Joy" palate cleanser—Reading Rainbow is back (yes, with Mychal the Librarian)—reminding us the future still has libraries, laughter, and reasons not to yeet our phones into the Sound.

Mentioned in the episode:

The Payback | The Survivalists | Debt Collective | Stacey Abrams at Town Hall Seattle | Pete Hegseth doing pull ups | HUD website announcement | NSPM-7 | Reading Rainbow is back! With Mychal Threets | Assata Shakur | Kashana at the University of Illinois Chicago Oct. 29th

Follow Kashana Cauley: @kashana.blacksky.app 

Support the pod:

Donate to Hinton Publishing to support In the Meanwhile

Follow us:

Instagram | BlueSky | Website

Read Nora and Marcus's Books:

Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Healthcare | Readying to Rise 

Nora and Marcus's work on the podcast is separate from their professional roles and does not represent the views of their employers. 

Music: No Tears for a Wolf · Ahamefule J. Oluo · Okanomodé. Used with permission.

Logo by Nikki Barron.

Transcripts are machine-generated and imperfect.

Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links.

This week on In The Meanwhile, Nora and Marcus tear into the clown-car chaos of American public health: vaccine policy whiplash, Trump's acetaminophen-ass-head-of-men moment, and RFK Jr. running HHS like a crystal-healing Etsy shop. Then they call in Yale epidemiologist and longtime AIDS activist Gregg Gonsalves, who's been in the trenches since ACT UP. He reminds us: public health has always been political, authoritarians hate experts because they tell the truth, and the real antidote isn't just clapbacks, it's organizing from your school board to your statehouse.

And because you can't fight pseudoscience on an empty soul, we end with Eight Ounces of Joy: Kubota Garden peace and a serendipitous cross-country friend reunion. Proof that even in the darkest timeline, you can still find a little sunlight, solace, and maybe even a hydrangea that outlives the administration.

Mentioned in the episode:

Gregg Gonsalves | When AIDS Was Funny | Sick From Freedom | Why doesn't the United States have universal health care? The answer has everything to do with race | RFK Jr., American Psycho | ProPublica reporting on Russell Vought | Research paper on Measles/polio/diphtheria becoming endemic | How Public Health Took Part in its Own Downfall | Defend Public Health | Tom Holman accepting bags of cash |  ACOG: Acetaminophen in Pregnancy | Marcus on Kubota Garden | 

Support the pod:

Donate to Hinton Publishing to support In the Meanwhile

Follow us:

Instagram | BlueSky | Website

Read Nora and Marcus's Books:

Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Healthcare | Readying to Rise 

Nora and Marcus's work on the podcast is separate from their professional roles and does not represent the views of their employers. 

Music: No Tears for a Wolf · Ahamefule J. Oluo · Okanomodé. Used with permission.

Logo by Nikki Barron.

Transcripts are machine-generated and imperfect.

Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links.

Whelp, here's the episode where we finally ask: democracy or dystopia, which one needs fewer bunkers? Marcus and Nora open on a week so wild it made "Make America Boring Again" sound visionary, then dive in with Douglas Rushkoff (creator of Team Human, and author of Survival of the Richest). We unpack why tech billionaires keep fantasizing about escape hatches, Hawaii compounds, New Zealand bunkers, and DIY Martian hydration, while the rest of us are left with the bill (and the algorithms). Rushkoff maps the feedback loop between accelerationist politics, growth-at-all-costs tech, and a media machine allergic to context, then offers an antidote: cap the "more," rebuild local, practice mutual aid, rediscover awe, and value time for its own sake. It's funny, salty, and surprisingly hopeful.

Mentioned in the episode:

AGI | Degrowth movement | The Social Dilemma | Black Wall Street | Robert Redford: the Company You Keep | Rev. Dr. Howard John Wesley: how you die does not redeem the life you lived | Journalist firings following death of Charlie Kirk | Michaela's story on SoundSide | Gabriel Teodros | Before trilogy

Douglas's work:

Team Human podcast | Generation Like | The Persuaders | Merchants of Cool | Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires

Support the pod:

Donate to Hinton Publishing to support In the Meanwhile

Follow us:

Instagram | BlueSky | Website

Read Nora and Marcus's Books:

Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Healthcare | Readying to Rise 

Nora and Marcus's work on the podcast is separate from their professional roles and does not represent the views of their employers. 

Music: No Tears for a Wolf · Ahamefule J. Oluo · Okanomodé. Used with permission.

Logo by Nikki Barron.

Transcripts are machine-generated and imperfect.

Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links.