Two months ago, I launched this every-Sunday-morning newsletter in an attempt to cultivate spiritual depth, moral clarity and political courage in a season of escalating fascism. Since early July, I've had the opportunity to dialogue with all sorts of people in all sorts of places - from Capitol Hill in DC to beaches on the Jersey Shore and Southern California to whitopias like Bend, Oregon to a Pacific Northwest Indian reservation to a grief ritual at a synagogue in Michigan to the underground railroad museum in Cincinnati to beer summits in small towns like Port Austin, Michigan and Clay City, Kentucky to the Brightmoor Connection Food Pantry in Detroit to fitness centers and lectio divina circles to phone calls, zoom calls, Signal threads and text exchanges.
Over and over again, friends, family members, colleagues and complete strangers have lamented to me that life is more confusing and complicated than ever. It feels like the question that hovers over everything is this: where can we go to find credible sources, statistics and analysis that will help us make sense of what is happening in our world - and also equip us on a path of personal healing and collective liberation?
There is obviously so much disillusionment and disinformation spilling out of the white pores of the MAGA crowd. It is deeply disturbing where these folks are finding their alternative facts. However, we cannot overlook the fact that CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, NPR and other more "liberal" mainstream media outlets are primed by corporate profit and other ruling class interests that normalize poverty, mass incarceration, colonialism, war and other imperial disorders. These sources also limit, distract and distort how we understand what is happening in the world.
A couple of years ago, my friend Mike compelled me to sign up for a Twitter account and curate a feed of just a few other voices that I trust. I understand that a lot of people are skeptical about what information is getting posted on Twitter and the trolls and negative comments and how the algorithm distorts what posts we see and that Elon Musk owns it. I share all these concerns too. However, I've found this platform, when stream-lined, to be a much better way to get "the news" than corporate media outlets. It has been an invaluable source of strengthening my political courage and moral clarity in this American moment.
In this week's newsletter, I've made a list of twenty-two thought leaders, journalists, community organizers, scholars and spiritual guides that I continue to find credible and compelling.
My list is disproportionately not-white, not-straight and not-male - but the most important thing they all share in common is this: none of them is even remotely interested in perpetuating a culture that is subsidized by militarism, greed and violence.
The leaders on this list critique the powerful and privileged who perpetuate oppression and exploitation - no matter what their race, religion, creed or political affiliation is. They are committed to saying things that are uncomfortable, inconvenient and unpopular. Their written, spoken and embodied witness have made a huge impact on the way I understand the world and what it means to crowd-source compassion, love, justice, truth and humility in a genuine quest to defeat fascism and work for a society that is truly democratic.
I've intentionally limited my list to Gen X and Millennial leaders. My life has been indelibly impacted by the work and witness of many Boomers. But there is a groundswell of younger leaders emerging from the cracks and corners of empire. They graduated from high school in the 90's and 00's and are paradigm-shifting perspectives, practices and convictions in crucial ways - and they aren't being platformed by corporate media outlets. So here you go.
1. Noura Erakat is a Palestinian-American scholar and professor at Rutgers University. Check out her speech at PalFest in NYC just a month after October 7.
2. Marc Lamont Hill is a professor at CUNY and a journalist who now works at Al Jazeera after he got fired from CNN for supporting Palestinian rights; he also hosts a night school podcast on his YouTube channel.
3. Briahna Joy Gray got her law degree from Harvard and was the national press secretary for the Bernie Sanders campaign before she devoted all her time to journalism. She hosts the Bad Faith podcast.
4. Nina Turner is the elder stateswoman of this list (she graduated high school in the mid-80's!). She was a state senator in Ohio and was railroaded by corporate Democrats in her bid to become a congresswoman. She is a senior fellow at the Institute for Race, Power and Political Economy.
5. Kiese Laymon is a professor at Rice University and the author of the absolutely amazing Heavy: An American Memoir. Check out his essays and interviews here.
6. Kshama Sawant is a former city council-woman in Seattle who stood up to Amazon and others to implement a millionaires tax and led the successful fight for a $15/hour minimum wage.
7. Rashida Tlaib is a Palestinian-American, a Detroit native, a law school grad and a congresswoman. She was censored by Congress for telling the truth about what Israel and the US government are doing to her people.
8. Keeyanga-Yamahtta Taylor is a professor of African-American studies at Northwestern University. She is the co-founder of Hammer and Hope, a quarterly magazine of Black politics and culture.
9. Amanda Gelender is a queer Jewish author and activist based in The Netherlands.
10. Derecka Purnell graduated from Harvard Law and is the author of Becoming Abolitionists.
11. Steven Thrasher is a professor at Northwestern University and the author of The Viral Underclass.
12. Abbas Alawieh is a Palestinian-American, the co-founder of the Uncommitted Movement and a former chief of staff on Capitol Hill.
13. Bree Newsome Bass is the artist and community organizer who removed the confederate flag from the South Carolina capitol building in the name of Jesus on June 27, 2015.
14. Christian Smalls is the founder of the Amazon Labor Union.
15. Zachary Foster is a Jewish-American who grew up in the Detroit suburbs and got his PhD on the history of Palestine.
16. Steven Salaita is an Arab-American scholar who lost his job at University of Illinois after he tweeted out the truth about Palestine. He is the author of An Honest Living, a book about the ostracism and loneliness and alienation (and vitality and joy and regeneration) that comes from being loyal to the oppressed and downtrodden of this world.
17. Cori Bush is a single mother who was formerly unhoused and became a pastor, community organizer and member of Congress. AIPAC spent more than eight million dollars to defeat her in the Democratic primary a few weeks ago.
18. adrienne maree brown is a Detroit-based author who wrote an amazing book on leadership called Emergent Strategy.
19. Caitlin Johnstone is an Australian journalist who incessantly critiques empire and the culture war.
20. Alec Karakatsanis is a civil rights lawyer who writes a newsletter called Copaganda.
21. Mehdi Hasan is a journalist with Zeteo, an organization he founded after his show was canceled by MSNBC.
22. Nick Estes is an enrolled member of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe and is an Assistant Professor in American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota. Check out his articles in the The Guardianhere.
These are influential people, but I would not call them "individual influencers" because they consistently lift up the larger, interconnected movement committed to building a beloved community that prioritizes people over corporate profit. They are far-from-perfect, but their willingness to go public on Palestine proves that they are far more concerned about telling the truth and calling out corruption than about being popular or growing their following. Many of them have lost jobs, been denied jobs and have been publicly castigated for their convictions.
When it comes to just keeping up with what is happening in the world, I highly recommend listening to the first fifteen minutes of every Democracy Now episode, Monday through Friday. All of their interviews are great too.
This Fall, it will also be inspiring to follow what these kids on college campuses are strategizing as they continue to demand that administrations divest from weapons manufacturers and other corporations that are complicit in the occupation, apartheid and genocide inflicted by the state of Israel. Definitely don't trust how the corporate media outlets are reporting on this.
As I've shared in this newsletter, Lindsay and I visited multiple Gaza encampments on campuses this Spring and we were blown away by the compassion, discipline, learning and nonviolence that these students are committing to. Shun the corporate-sponsored accounts and go straight to the students who are organizing on the ground. Many colleges and universities have Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice For Peace chapters that are doing the work. Check out their sites and see for yourself.
American culture has become increasingly fascist and fragmented. Basic facts and spiritual convictions are becoming endangered species. Their loss has led to deep feelings of despair, depression and loneliness in my life. Ditching the well-traveled avenues of mainstream media for the underground tunnels of Something Else is a challenge.
When middle-class Americans start listening to a few other voices, we often become alienated from our social network. We become that weirdo in the wilderness spewing inconvenient truth and uncomfortable solutions. Some of our friends and colleagues ghost us or gaslight us or get that glazed-over look on their face.
When I am feeling lonely or crazy, it is often comforting just to be reminded that these twenty-two brilliant people actually exist in this world - and usually, that's all I need to keep going on this spiritual journey through an American wilderness that can be both frightening and full of hope.
