Block & Build

This week we are building February's Attention Economy Navigator, our guide to what you should be paying more attention to, and what you can probably pay less attention to. And why those stories might not be what you’d assume. Joining to help build this month's Attention Economy Navigator in real time are Chris Melody Fields Figueredo, bruja, Bad Bunny super-fan, and Executive Director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center; and Steven Renderos, DJ, culture critic, and Executive Director of MediaJustice. Find the full navigator chart here. You can also watch the panel plot these stories in real time on YouTube. Stories we referenced in this episode: Chris draws our attention to the emergence of "competitive authoritarianism": The SAVE America Act; FBI raids Fulton County, GA, election office; The arrest of Don Lemon and Georgia Fort; Steve Bannon wants ICE at polling places. Ring walks back from "Search Party," which was featured in a super creepy Super Bowl commercial, Nancy Guthrie's offline Nest camera footage, and the community-powered surveillance we didn't sign up for. Colbert says CBS blocked interview with James Talarico, but now the video has over 8 million YouTube views. Benito Bowl is a rich text. Prairieland 19 trial kicks off and immediately gets declared a mistrial; how this case might be a bellwether for the state of protest to come. Is something big happening with AI, or is Matt Shumer just trying to get us to join his weird cult? The MAHA Boys are hitting the gym in this bizarre sensory nightmare of an ad, featuring Kid Rock (and apparently Kid Rock's home gym?). Want more? Enrich your media diet: Movement Media Alliance Contact us: mailbag@convergencemag.com Subscribe to Convergence Magazine's YouTube to catch the video premiere of each episode: Mondays at 7:00 PM ET / 4:00 PM PT Have we made a difference in your life? Help us keep it going. convergencemag.com/donate

At the end of 2024, Michigan’s state-level Democratic trifecta passed a massive tax incentive for data centers to the tune of $90 million in exchange for, essentially, an IOU for future “community benefits.” Organizers saw this as representative of a two-pronged problem: desperation on the part of local and state governments to bring in revenue, and corporate control of the functions of democracy. In the time since, Michigan has fast tracked data centers, and those community benefits have been…elusive. As pushback against data center development has ramped up as a non-partisan community issue across the country in the time since this tax break was passed, organizers in the state have begun circulating petitions for two ballot measures which address each side of the problem. Invest in MI Kids is a ballot measure that would repair a regressive tax and require the rich to pay their fair share into the education system and Money Out of Politics would dismantle the system of lobbying which allows corporate control of their state assembly. Joining this episode to discuss are Co-founder and Organizing Director of 482Forward and steering committee member of the Invest in MI Kids ballot initiative, Molly Sweeney, Executive Director of Voters Not Politicians and steering committee member of the Michigan Money Out of Politics ballot initiative, Christy McGillivray, and Director of the Tishman Center for Social Justice and the Environment at the University of Michigan, Michelle Martinez. Additional Resources One Solution to Data Centers? Tax the Rich in Convergence Magazine Want more? Enrich your media diet: Movement Media Alliance Contact us: mailbag@convergencemag.com Subscribe to Convergence Magazine’s YouTube to catch the video premiere of each episode: Mondays at 7:00 PM ET / 4:00 PM PT Have we made a difference in your life? Help us keep it going. convergencemag.com/donate

Art Against Empire, hosted by textile artist Ian Danger Capstick, examines the intersection of creativity and politics through conversations with artists, craftspeople, and activists who use making as a form of resistance. The show features interviews with dozens of artists, crafters, and theorists from around the world exploring the history of makers fighting back against capital control of their craft—including Convergence’s very own Kimmie Dearest. Art Against Empire, Episode 1 – Our Hands Know How to Build the World We Want Quilters, blacksmiths, weavers, embroiderers - 25 artists across four countries using craft to fight systems of power. Welcome to Art Against Empire! This series introduction launches a 16-episode journey featuring over two dozen artists, craftspeople, and theorists across four countries. You'll hear from quilters stitching memorials to police violence victims, blacksmiths forging tools as acts of reclamation, embroiderers translating climate data into thread, and weavers who are building queer community. Ian traces why empires from Rome to Britain built their wealth on controlling cloth, and why makers have always fought back. The history runs from the 1378 Ciompi Revolt through Gandhi's spinning wheel to the AIDS Memorial Quilt that covered America's National Mall. Additional Resources G92 - Learn more about those organizing to protect immigrants in Springfield, OH Want more? Enrich your media diet: Movement Media Alliance Contact us: mailbag@convergencemag.com Subscribe to Convergence Magazine’s YouTube to catch the video premiere of each episode: Mondays at 7:00 PM ET / 4:00 PM PT Have we made a difference in your life? Help us keep it going. convergencemag.com/donate

On Friday, the Department of Justice released millions more documents held in cases relating to Jeffrey Epstein, AKA the "Epstein Files." The files are full of allegations and outright admissions of horrific behavior by elites of the billionaire and political class. However, at this point it seems consequences are unlikely beyond a few days of media headlines about increased "scrutiny." Amidst all the speculation, gossip, and political jockeying by both sides to score points: almost all public discourse around Epstein and his relationships with powerful elites neglects the survivors at the center of those documents. Our guests this week published a piece last month at Truthout.org, “Sex Trafficking Prosecutions Won’t Stop the Next Epstein. Here’s What Will.” It draws on their experience in abolitionist and sex worker justice movements to explore how the Left can reclaim space long ceded to the Right’s “law and order” messaging with a block-and-build strategy rooted in economic, racial, and gender justice that centers survivors while creating the social conditions to address harm and even prevent it in the first place. Chanelle Gallant is the co-author of Not Your Rescue Project: Migrant Sex Workers Fighting for Justice. Shannon Perez-Darby is co-editor of the anthology How to End Family Policing: From Outrage to Action. Additional Resources Mandatory Reporting is Not Neutral on Instagram "Numerous journalists targeted in attack via Signal Messenger" at Netzpolitik.org Want more? Enrich your media diet: Movement Media Alliance Contact us: mailbag@convergencemag.com Subscribe to Convergence Magazine’s YouTube to catch the video premiere of each episode: Mondays at 7:00 PM ET / 4:00 PM PT Have we made a difference in your life? Help us keep it going. convergencemag.com/donate Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links to Convergence’s Bookshop. Ten percent of purchases made through our bookshop directly support our movement media work.

Last week, Minneapolis-based poet and activist Kyle Tran Myhre hosted a virtual workshop called What Can Artists Do? What Are We Doing? in light of the massive ICE and CBP surge in his city. His expectation was that a few dozen people might attend. Instead, over 500 people joined to discuss and wrestle with the ways artists can engage and show up to help get ICE out of Minneapolis and beyond. His follow up article is now cross-published by us and Minneapolis outlet Racket. It explores how artists can use their time, energy, and resources to support local resistance to ICE operations. In this episode, Kyle joins us to discuss that experience as well as what he is seeing on the ground in his community as ICE continues to aggressively disrupt and terrorize Minnesota communities. Additional Resources What Can Artists Do? What Are We Doing? Kyle "Guante" Tran Myhre - artist page Want more? Enrich your media diet: Movement Media Alliance Contact us: mailbag@convergencemag.com Subscribe to Convergence Magazine’s YouTube to catch the video premiere of each episode: Mondays at 7:00 PM ET / 4:00 PM PT Have we made a difference in your life? Help us keep it going. convergencemag.com/donate

This month on the Attention Economy Navigator, our guide to what you should be paying more attention to, and what you can probably pay less attention to. And why those stories might not be what you’d assume. Joining to help build this month's Attention Economy Navigator in real time are friends of the pod Shaira Chaer, Senior Strategist at ReFrame, and Jess St. Louis, an organizer and narrative strategist based in North Carolina. Just a quick content note: this discussion includes stories about murder, gun violence, an antisemitic attack against a house of worship, revenge porn, and child sexual abuse material. It's been a rough few weeks in the headlines, please take care of yourself! Find the full navigator chart here. You can also watch the panel plot these stories in real time on YouTube. Stories we referenced in this episode: “Transgender Athletes Ask Supreme Court to Overturn State Bans” covered in many outlets. “Project 2026: Restoring America’s Promise” from the Heritage Foundation/Heritage Action for America. “Raw eggs, ‘Scripture-backed fitness’ and a Porsche: The online world of the man accused of burning Mississippi’s largest synagogue” by Michael Goldberg and Molly Minta in Mississippi Today; Beth Israel is committed to rebuilding. The murder of Renee Nicole Good, the narrative meaning of which is being hotly contested right now. Grok’s deepfake features are being used to create nonconsensual pornographic images and other abuse material, only relenting after the government of the UK came after them. “ICE plans $100 million ‘wartime recruitment’ push targeting gun shows, military fans for hires” by Drew Harwell and Joyce Sohyun Lee in The Washington Post; this echoes what Shaira found researching QAnon in 2023. “War Profiteers Furious After Polymarket Refuses to Pay Out on Venezuelan Invasion Bets” by Joe Wilkins in Futurism. We swear we wanted to talk about something lighter that still provides insight, but it’s been a rough couple weeks. Want more? Enrich your media diet: Movement Media Alliance Contact us: mailbag@convergencemag.com Subscribe to Convergence Magazine's YouTube to catch the video premiere of each episode: Mondays at 7:00 PM ET / 4:00 PM PT Have we made a difference in your life? Help us keep it going. convergencemag.com/donate Here's how we're nurturing writers this year.

Starting this week, some student loan borrowers in default may receive notice that their wages are being garnished directly from their paychecks in order to restart repayment. This is one of many Trump era changes to student loan repayment programs negatively impacting borrowers. Of the nearly 43 million student loan borrowers in the US, only 40% of them are current on their payments. Since changes made in 2020 to protect borrowers during the early days of the Covid pandemic, confusing rules about payment plans have come and gone between the Biden and Trump administrations. Furthermore, thanks to cuts at the Department of Education, many borrowers are completely lost on how to properly restart their payments or stay on paths they thought would lead to forgiveness of their remaining balance. Joining us to discuss these struggles and how borrowers can organize to protect themselves and others is Press Secretary and organizer for the Debt Collective, Braxton Brewington. He helps us navigate the current state of the shifting and messy student debt landscape and what rights borrowers have. Additional Resources News Brief: How Corporate Media Laid the Groundwork for a Rightwing Incitement Campaign in Minnesota by Citations Needed Want more? Enrich your media diet: Movement Media Alliance Contact us: mailbag@convergencemag.com Subscribe to Convergence Magazine's YouTube to catch the video premiere of each episode: Mondays at 7:00 PM ET / 4:00 PM PT Have we made a difference in your life? Help us keep it going. convergencemag.com/donate Here's how we're nurturing writers this year. Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links to Convergence’s Bookshop. Ten percent of purchases made through our bookshop directly support our movement media work.

We are off until the new calendar year. In the meantime we hope you enjoy a sampling of episodes from our network of podcasts! Episode Description from November 14, 2024: Following last week's elections, Scot and Sue are joined by Daniel Hunter, co-founder of Choose Democracy, to discuss how we respond to authoritarians emboldened by the election results. In the episode, they take a deeper look together at Daniel's recent post-election essay 10 Ways to Be Prepared and Grounded Now That Trump Has Won (first published by Waging Nonviolence and then shared by Convergence). What should we be doing to defend our democratic institutions? What can we learn from other countries fighting the rise of authoritarianism in their borders? Daniel also touches on the transformative power of trusting ourselves and making space for grieving in movement work.  Subscribe to the Anti-Authoritarian Podcast for more. Support our end-of-year fundraising drive. Connect with Block & Build and more Contact us: mailbag@convergencemag.com Subscribe to Convergence Magazine's YouTube to catch the show live: Fridays at 2:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM PT Support this show and movement media like it: convergencemag.com/donate Movement Media Alliance

We are off until the new calendar year. In the meantime we hope you enjoy a sampling of episodes from our network of podcasts! In this episode, Sha Grogan-Brown talks with guest Le Tim Ly, Chief Operating Officer of Center for Empowered Politics, about how multi-entity infrastructure can improve the resilience of organizations. Subscribe to the Rad Ops Podcast for more. Support our end-of-year fundraising drive. Connect with Block & Build and more Contact us: mailbag@convergencemag.com Subscribe to Convergence Magazine's YouTube to catch the show live: Fridays at 2:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM PT Support this show and movement media like it: convergencemag.com/donate Movement Media Alliance

This week we are joined by the editors of the new anthology We Will Rise Again: Speculative Stories and Essays on Protest, Resistance, and Hope. The book champions realistic, progressive social change using the speculative stories of writers from around the world. To assemble the book, editors Karen Lord, Annalee Newitz (@ghidorahnotweak), and Malka Older put writers, organizers, scholars, and others in conversation with one another to dive deep on the messy work of making change. Read a story from the book online! "Where Memory Meets the Sea" by Laia Asieo Odo was previewed at Electric Literature. Want more? Enrich your media diet: Movement Media Alliance Contact us: mailbag@convergencemag.com Subscribe: Block & Build YouTube Have we made a difference in your life? Help us keep it going. convergencemag.com/donate Here's how we're nurturing writers this year. Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links to Convergence’s Bookshop. Ten percent of purchases made through our bookshop directly support our movement media work.

Producer and director Chris Landry's new film series Reimagining Philanthropy critically examines the issue of philanthropy as the financial driver of movement and social justice work, and how movement leaders believe it can be fixed. Joining Chris is historian of US philanthropy and the author of White Philanthropy: Carnegie Corporation's “An American Dilemma” and the Making of a White World, Dr. Maribel Morey. Dr. Morey appears in the series' first episode, alongside many other leading voices reshaping the field and challenging long-held assumptions about how philanthropy operates. Connect with Block & Build and more Contact us: mailbag@convergencemag.com Subscribe to Convergence Magazine's YouTube to catch the show live: Fridays at 2:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM PT Support this show and movement media like it: convergencemag.com/donate Movement Media Alliance Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links to Convergence's Bookshop. Purchases made through our bookshop support our movement media work.

This week on the show we are debuting a new format we’re calling the Attention Economy Navigator. The goal of Block & Build has always been to help organizers figure out what’s happening, how people are responding, and get a sense for what’s working out there in the world. The Attention Economy Navigator came out of a conversation Cayden had at the Narrative Power Summit about Naomi Klein’s 2023 book, Doppelganger. An interesting takeaway from the book is that Klein suggests a new political spectrum in addition to left and right defining political division in our society, and the determining factor is how prominently conspiratorial thinking shapes our political views. Joining to help build this month's Attention Economy Navigator in real time are Convergence Managing Editor, Akin Olla, and co-host of the Citations Needed podcast, Nima Shirazi. Before diving in, we are joined by co-founder and co-director at Siembra NC, Nikki Marín Baena, to discuss what organizing's happening on the ground in North Carolina with ICE's recent mobilization in the region. This month's navigator chart can be found here. Stories we referenced in this episode: Corporate media refuses to report on racism from sitting GOP politicians against Zohran Mamdani at In These Times. Electronic Arts is taken private by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund and Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners, for some $55bn at PC Gamer. The AI bubble is bigger than you think at The American Prospect. Is the MAGA Era "over?" Some mainstream media seems to think so, like The Boston Globe. The US and Russia put together a "peace plan" based mainly on Ukrainian capitulation, at The Guardian. FAIR's roundup of corporate media's refusal to cover the Handala hack vs. Drop Site News's analysis of the data dump. This horrible Charlie Kirk memorial AI slop song, we're sorry. It's like Creed, but worse.

This week on the show, we will first talk about how on the ground organizing was a factor in Zohran Mamdani’s historic 10-point victory in the New York City Mayoral election last week. We are joined by a panel of leaders from different local organizations who worked on the campaign to learn more about their work and strategies. Guests Include Organizing Director of CAAAV Voice (Coalition Against Anti-Asian Violence), Alina Shen Political Director of DRUM Beats (Desis Rising Up and Moving), Jagpreet Singh Policy Director of New York Communities for Change (NYCC), Alicé Nascimento Then we talk with activist Rafael Uzcátegui, who has been part of the Venezuelan human rights movement for decades. He discusses how the American Left can orient itself to show solidarity as Trump aggressively pursues violent intervention in and around the country. Connect with Block & Build and more Contact us: mailbag@convergencemag.com Subscribe to Convergence Magazine's YouTube to catch the show live: Fridays at 2:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM PT Support this show and movement media like it: convergencemag.com/donate Movement Media Alliance

In this episode, we are joined by Co-Founder and Organizing Director of Kentucky Tenants Union, Josh Poe to discuss how their organizing strategy successfully brings people together to fight and win against landlords in a red state. Resources from this episode Kentucky Tenants Union Linktree Tenant Union Federation "NYC-DSA Strategy in Zohran's Race Shows the Path to Mass Municipal Governance" - Grace Mausser, Convergence Magazine Connect with Block & Build and more Contact us: mailbag@convergencemag.com Subscribe to Convergence Magazine's YouTube to catch the show live: Fridays at 2:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM PT Support this show and movement media like it: convergencemag.com/donate Movement Media Alliance

This week on the show we are joined by Chicago-based writer, organizer, and podcaster Kelly Hayes, whose new edited volume, Read This When Things Fall Apart: Letters to Activists in Crisis, is out November 4 from AK Press. You may also know Kelly from their excellent podcast, Movement Memos, their newsletter, “Organizing My Thoughts,” or their previous book, with Mariame Kaba, Let This Radicalize You. Connect with Block & Build and more Contact us: mailbag@convergencemag.com Subscribe to Convergence Magazine's YouTube to catch the show live: Fridays at 2:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM PT Support this show and movement media like it: convergencemag.com/donate Movement Media Alliance

This week on the show we are joined by historian Gerald Horne, whose 2025 book, The Capital of Slavery: Washington DC 1800-1865 explores the early history of the capital city of the United States and the role of enslaved people in how it was built. This is explored in the book both in terms of the hands that did the labor to build its edifices and monuments, and in terms of how fear of free Black people shaped the law, policy, and governance of the District, in ways that echo today. Connect with Block & Build and more Additional works by Gerald Horne Contact us: mailbag@convergencemag.com Subscribe to Convergence Magazine's YouTube to catch the show live: Fridays at 2:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM PT Support this show and movement media like it: convergencemag.com/donate

This week we are joined by Marzena Zukowska and Shanelle Matthews. Together they are the co-editors of the new book Liberation Stories: Building Narrative Power for 21st Century Social Movements. This anthology of essays and interviews distills successful theories, strategies, and tactics from the movement left for anyone wanting to understand and participate in modern progressive movements. Connect with Block & Build and more Contact us: mailbag@convergencemag.com Subscribe to Convergence Magazine's YouTube to catch the show live: Fridays at 2:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM PT Support this show and movement media like it: convergencemag.com/donate

This week on the show we take a look at the Trump administration's multifaceted attacks on immigrants as testing grounds for authoritarian control, how we got to this point, and what efforts are being made to push back. Joining to discuss is Program Director at Detention Watch Network, Stacy Suh. Resources from this episode Troops in the Street: What Does an Authoritarian Takeover Look Like? with Barbara Ransby and Barbara Weinstein Connect with Block & Build and more Contact us: mailbag@convergencemag.com Subscribe to Convergence Magazine's YouTube to catch the show live: Fridays at 2:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM PT Support this show and movement media like it: convergencemag.com/donate

This week on the show we are joined by Executive Director of State Power Caucus, Margie Del Castillo. Their organization is currently focusing on work that goes beyond mobilization to build lasting governing power at the state level across the country – we talk in this episode about what that looks like in different states. State Power Caucus is a multi-state organizing project primarily focused on the “build” aspect of Block & Build strategy. They do this by supporting state based organizations in the process of moving from short-term mobilization into consistent state based infrastructure, leadership pipelines, and co-governance capacity. By bringing organizations together to think about long-term goals, they build alignment and share skills to strengthen movements in the long run. Resources from this episode Global Sumud Flotilla for updates and ways to support imprisoned activists Connect with Block & Build and more Contact us: mailbag@convergencemag.com Subscribe to Convergence Magazine's YouTube to catch the show live: Fridays at 2:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM PT Support this show and movement media like it: convergencemag.com/donate

This week on the show we are joined by Lina Srivastava, Founder of the Center for Transformational Change. She’s developed a framework to help communicators, creatives, and organizers think through the infrastructure we must develop to build narrative power–the power not just to tell the stories we want told, but to shift the landscape of common sense about the issues we’re struggling to win. Lina joined us a few weeks ago for this recorded conversation, but the insights and lessons are more relevant than ever as we navigate the changes looming on the horizon as factions of the far Right fight among themselves about the meaning of the horrific murder of right wing propagandist, Charlie Kirk, and our movements face intensified scrutiny and attacks as scapegoats. Connect with Block & Build and more Contact us: mailbag@convergencemag.com Subscribe to Convergence Magazine's YouTube to catch the show live: Fridays at 2:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM PT Support this show and movement media like it: convergencemag.com/donate