No hot takes. No empty platitudes. No easy hope. Just real talk about how we hold onto our humanity, build something better—and maybe even laugh along the way.
Bring snacks. Bring questions. We're figuring this out together.
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Ep 23: Beyond Election Day with Charles Douglas III
Season 1 · Episode 23
Friday, October 31, 2025 • Duration 55:53
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.
Ep 22: Making Revolution Irresistible with Nadine Bloch
Season 1 · Episode 22
Friday, October 24, 2025 • Duration 01:00:22
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!
Ep 21: Chicago Is Not A War Zone with Alderman Byron Sigcho-Lopez
Season 1 · Episode 21
Friday, October 17, 2025 • Duration 01:00:36
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.
Ep 20: Democracy Dies in Clickbait with Maggie Mertens & Sarah Stuteville
Season 1 · Episode 20
Friday, October 10, 2025 • Duration 01:00:23
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.
Ep 19: Dark Humor for Dark Times with Kashana Cauley
Season 1 · Episode 19
Friday, October 3, 2025 • Duration 01:03:41
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.
Ep 18: Gregg Gonsalves / Ass Head of Men and Other Public Health Disasters
Season 1 · Episode 18
Friday, September 26, 2025 • Duration 01:00:29
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.
Ep 17: Tech Bros, Escape Hatches, and Other Bad Ideas with Douglas Rushkoff
Season 1 · Episode 17
Friday, September 19, 2025 • Duration 01:09:42
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.
This week on In The Meanwhile, Nora and Marcus speak with the one and only Tricia Rose: cultural critic, Brown professor, and professional breaker of lazy narratives. We get into "metaracism" (aka the system isn't broken, it's working as intended), why stories move policy more than charts, and her interactive project Way Outta No Way that makes systemic racism visible without putting you to sleep. Rose points to real leverage points, like ending property-tax funding for public schools, and reminds us that collective care (and yes, jokes) are strategy, not fluff. If you've ever wondered how to steal the pen back from power, this is your starter kit.
Note - 9/15/25: the original version of this episode contained an error in Professor Rose's title. Professor Tricia Rose is the Chancellor's Professor of Africana Studies and Director of the Systemic Racism and Resilience Project at the John Nicholas Brown Center for Advanced Study at Brown University.
Ep 15: Turning Outrage into Action with Renée Hopkins
Season 1 · Episode 15
Friday, September 5, 2025 • Duration 01:07:59
This week, Nora and Marcus sit down with Renée Hopkins, CEO of the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, to talk about a grim reality we're supposed to pretend is normal: gun violence that's killing kids every day while politicians offer therapeutic platitudes and zero legislation.
But here's the twist—Hopkins and her team have actually made progress on this issue. While the rest of the country cycles through outrage, helplessness, fear, and legislative paralysis, Washington state has been quietly passing comprehensive gun safety laws. Background checks, extreme risk protection orders, safe storage requirements—turns out you can regulate tools of mass death without the constitution bursting into flames.
It's a conversation about how we misunderstand both where gun violence comes from and who it most impacts, and the policy wins that are saving the biggest killer of pregnant women and children across the US. Bring tissues. Bring rage. And maybe bring some faith that steady progress beats thoughts and prayers every time.
This week, Nora and Marcus take listeners on a wild ride through America's collapsing systems, plus the unlikely origin story of this very podcast: part DIY zine, part serendipity, part awkward poetry class with an ex, and a Town Hall conversation that revealed GoFundMe has effectively become our national healthcare system… just with nicer branding. Along the way, they dig into Nora's groundbreaking work on crowdfunding, showing how desperation got repackaged as an "internet take action button" while the real structural injustices stayed put. It's a conversation about inequity, resilience, and why mutual aid might be the only antidote to living in the "meanwhile." Sure, it's a little enraging, BUT you'll laugh through the fury (and yes, that counts as your cardio for the day).
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