Laura Flanders and Friends: Solutions-Focused Progressive Perspectives on Politics, News, and Culture

The new film “Meanwhile” asks, how do you keep breathing amidst the chaos? “Here is a film that's trying to say, ‘It's okay to be still and engage in this and have your feelings inside of this.’ . . . Let's sit in this and let's have the catharsis that comes with going through the wall, as opposed to stopping at the wall or trying to climb over it.” - Jacqueline Woodson Description: James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Muhammad Ali, Nina Simone — these are a few of the artists featured in the new film “Meanwhile”, from National Book Award-winner Jacqueline Woodson and Emmy-nominated producer & director Catherine Gund. Their meditations on grief, art, breath and more are beautifully woven together as the film poses the question, how do you keep breathing amidst the chaos? Guests: • Catherine Gund: Producer & Director, Meanwhile; Filmmaker & Founder, Aubin Pictures • Jacqueline Woodson: Writer & Performer, Meanwhile; Author, Brown Girl Dreaming; Founder, Baldwin for the Arts This program is made possible by listeners and viewers like you, subscribe at https://lauraflanders.substack.com/ or https://LauraFlanders.org/Donate

Explore the grassroots organizing tactics that flipped Georgia and empowered Democrats, with lessons for inspiring voters and combating election denial. Description: Organizers in Georgia did the impossible back in 2020: they managed to get overlooked voters to the polls and cracked the code on how to spark civic involvement. The election of two Democrats to the Senate from the state handed the presidency to Joe Biden and control of Congress to the Democrats that year. But as you’ll hear, this was no flash in the pan; it was the result of decades of organizing. There’s lots to learn from the state — especially now with the 2026 midterm elections in full swing. This week we are revisiting “The Georgia Way: How to Win Elections”, an oral history intended to record the strategies used in the state. Hear from the book’s editors, Ray McClendon and Steven Rosenfeld; and Andrea Miller, the Executive Director of the Center for Common Ground, People Demanding Action on the strategizing in Virginia. And get Laura’s two cents on election deniers. Guests: • Ray McClendon, Editor, The Georgia Way: How to Win Elections; Political Action Committee Chair, NAACP Atlanta, Georgia • Andrea Miller, Founding Board Member & Executive Director, Center for Common Ground; Executive Director, People Demanding Action • Steven Rosenfeld, Editor, The Georgia Way: How to Win Elections; Editor & Chief Correspondent, Voting Booth: Independent Media Institute This program is made possible by listeners and viewers like you, subscribe at https://lauraflanders.substack.com/ or https://LauraFlanders.org/Donate

Before the 2026 midterm elections we revisit "The Georgia Way: How to win elections", a conversation from 2020 with the book's editors. “What is most needed right now is for people to understand that this election is not about policy, but it's about those who believe in democracy and those who want to see us move to a more authoritarian form of government.” - Ray McClendon Description: Organizers in Georgia did the impossible back in 2020: they managed to get overlooked voters to the polls and cracked the code on how to spark civic involvement. The election of two Democrats to the Senate from the state handed the presidency to Joe Biden and control of Congress to the Democrats that year. But as you’ll hear, this was no flash in the pan; it was the result of decades of organizing. There’s lots to learn from the state — especially now with the 2026 midterm elections in full swing. This week we are revisiting “The Georgia Way: How to Win Elections”, an oral history intended to record the strategies used in the state. Hear from the book’s editors, Ray McClendon and Steven Rosenfeld; and Andrea Miller, the Executive Director of the Center for Common Ground, People Demanding Action on the strategizing in Virginia. And get Laura’s two cents on election deniers. Guests: • Ray McClendon, Editor, The Georgia Way: How to Win Elections; Political Action Committee Chair, NAACP Atlanta, Georgia • Andrea Miller, Founding Board Member & Executive Director, Center for Common Ground; Executive Director, People Demanding Action • Steven Rosenfeld, Editor, The Georgia Way: How to Win Elections; Editor & Chief Correspondent, Voting Booth: Independent Media Institute This program is made possible by listeners and viewers like you, subscribe at https://lauraflanders.substack.com/ or https://LauraFlanders.org/Donate

This October we’re putting together the first-ever Book Month on Laura Flanders and Friends— just in time for Indigenous People’s Day and election season. And every extraordinary book we’re featuring this month is more timely than ever. Description: A.M. Homes’s novel, ”The Unfolding”, is set in the dangerous transition between Barack Obama’s election and his inauguration, as unhinged plotters scheme an insurrection. It was originally published in 2022 but it’s proven to be unhappily prophetic. Is she writing her next novel about our next steps? We can only hope. “Where we are right now, which I would say is very, very dangerous, is some people have lost track of what is a fact, what is actionable, what is real. The problem with that is…. absent any consensus on what is real and true, all bets are sort of off.”- A.M. Homes Guest: A.M. Homes: Author, The Unfolding It’s our members that have kept this show available to hundreds of thousands of listeners and viewers like you, but it takes a lot of funds to keep the show flowing nationally. We do not take corporate or government underwriting, we rely on you. Go to: https://LauraFlanders.org/donate

This October we’re putting together the first-ever Book Month on Laura Flanders and Friends. And every extraordinary book we’re featuring this month is more timely than ever. Description: A.M. Homes’s novel, ”The Unfolding”, is set in the dangerous transition between Barack Obama’s election and his inauguration, as unhinged plotters scheme an insurrection. It was originally published in 2022 but it’s proven to be unhappily prophetic. Is she writing her next novel about our next steps? We can only hope. “Where we are right now, which I would say is very, very dangerous, is some people have lost track of what is a fact, what is actionable, what is real. The problem with that is…. absent any consensus on what is real and true, all bets are sort of off.”- A.M. Homes Guest: A.M. Homes: Author, The Unfolding It’s our members that have kept this show available to hundreds of thousands of listeners and viewers like you, but it takes a lot of funds to keep the show flowing nationally. We do not take corporate or government underwriting, we rely on you. Go to: https://LauraFlanders.org/donate