\u201cBased on this perspective, we could be wrong about so many things. Being open to being wrong is a special power\u2026 one that I am certainly not always willing to embrace. But in the moments when I do, and I can find that gratitude, I feel good. I am open to what it might unlock for me. I wish this power for everyone, sincerely.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re a very diversified country. We have a lot of languages, cultures, and religions. We’re trying to live together with a ton of differences, and that’s hard. So having a bit of Zen in this respect can really help, in terms of the citizen work.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Part of that citizen work is helping define the future of media as <\/span>\u201ca rare leader who sits at the intersection of race, technology, and democracy and seamlessly integrates past, present, and future,\u201d <\/span><\/i>as he has come to be known.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

One of the ways he accomplishes that mission is by turning the word \u201ccitizen\u201d into a verb. In <\/span>How To Citizen<\/span><\/i>, now in its fourth season, he reminds people that they don\u2019t just have to <\/span>\u201cscream at the news or vote for people.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Rather, he says, <\/span>\u201cThe power of the people is real. My podcast is about reminding people of the different ways we can all actually leverage the power of the people. That’s what democracy is supposed to be. We explore that and reiterate to listeners that there’s a whole bunch of different ways we can collectively, and individually, shape our society.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Baratunde started podcasting in the early 2000s. At the time, he lived in Boston, and he hosted a low-power FM radio show on a small station called \u201cAlten Brighton free radio.\u201d It had only a two-mile broadcast radius, which meant he couldn\u2019t even listen to his own show in his apartment. So, he started recording the episodes and converting them to MP3s that he could then post on his website.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was basically begging on air. I was like, <\/span><\/i>\u2018If you can hear my voice, call me! Send me an email,\u2019<\/span>\u201d <\/span><\/i>he laughed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What began as <\/span>\u201ca revenue-neutral creative experiment\u201d<\/span><\/i> ultimately launched his love of audio:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have a very real appreciation of what this medium can do. It\u2019s intimate, and it\u2019s connected. It\u2019s a method of<\/span><\/i> creating your own educational experience.<\/span><\/i> It\u2019s also an art.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Having fallen in love with podcasting as a listener and as a host, Baratunde knew it was the perfect medium for him to convey his message when he felt the need to restore his faith in America following the killing of George Floyd, among others, and all that came with COVID-19 in the summer of 2020.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere was just this tightness\u2026 this hurt,\u201d<\/span><\/i> he said. <\/span>\u201cIt really challenged my faith in country. In short, democracy wasn\u2019t being done.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Thus, <\/span>How To Citizen<\/span><\/i> was born.<\/span><\/p>\n

Seeking to create an educational experience for others, he was determined to address critical issues that no one else seemed to be taking on in the medium.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of technical, top-down news headlines\u2014the ease or challenge of voting, the lack of responsiveness of elected officials to those who elected them. But other things, like wealth inequality, which is currently at Depression-era levels that are not good for the whole, weren\u2019t being addressed.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cI had also reached my threshold of being told that<\/span><\/i> \u2018Everything is bad, and there’s nothing you can do about it.\u2019 <\/span>That’s generally what the news tells us.<\/span><\/i> \u2018Everything’s on fire, and you\u2019re going to burn. And there are no fire departments.\u2019 <\/span>There might be one fire extinguisher in a single human interest story, but that’s about it. And I didn’t believe that. In fact, I knew the opposite was true.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Baratunde uses <\/span>How To Citizen<\/span><\/i> as a vehicle for bringing issues like the aforementioned wealth inequality front and center.\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

\u201cIn this country, we punish the poor. We’ve made poverty this sort of moral failure, attributing it to not working hard enough. Then, you have to unlock these levels of living\u2014dental, vision, primary care. It\u2019s gotten to the point where we’re proud if we can go a certain amount of time without paying for insurance.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy do we live in a society where that’s even an option? We could definitely cover everybody, but we don’t. And so, we let a lot of people fall through the cracks, and then, we blame them for doing so. It\u2019s like, if you are so unfortunate in this capitalistic society as to be among the very poor, we’re going to make everything harder for you. It\u2019s hard to get a job. It’s hard to get a house. And then, we punish people for seeking assistance.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cSo how do we break that cycle? Well, that\u2019s what we covered in the second season of<\/span><\/i> How To Citizen. <\/span>There are actually 12 episodes answering this question.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Baratunde is passionate about tackling such issues on his show, which is based on the following four pillars: <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
• Show up and participate.<\/b> Baratunde points to Ukraine as an extreme-yet-simple example. <\/span>\u201cThere are people who are showing up and blocking Russian tanks,\u201d <\/span><\/i>he said.<\/span> \u201cThat’s an extreme way to show up. We saw it in Tiananmen Square, too, and in the civil rights movement. Sit-ins, marches\u2026 it\u2019s about being present. It means something, when someone shows up, even if doing so won\u2019t fix the issue singlehandedly. And we can show up in multiple ways. Your presence has power.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/li>\n
• Invest in relationships with yourself, with others, and with the world around you.<\/b> \u201cWe can’t do it alone,\u201d <\/span><\/i>Baratunde explained. <\/span>\u201cIt\u2019s about valuing interdependence and recognizing our connection with other forms of life that we’re dependent on\u2014what we eat, or those that breathe for us, in the case of trees. There’s also the relationship with yourself, which we often skip in this kind of civics conversation generally about delegates and all that kind of stuff. What do we want? How do we want to live? How do we want to experience this life? How do we want to feel in this country? What are we afraid of? We really have to be in touch with ourselves. And we have to be in community with others for this to work, because we can’t build a bridge by ourselves.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/li>\n
• Understand your power.<\/b> \u201cHere,\u201d<\/span><\/i> Baratunde said, <\/span>\u201cwe unpack the word \u2018democracy.\u2019 It\u2019s Greek, essentially meaning \u2018people power.\u2019 If we’re truly embracing that form of self-government and ability to control our destiny, we have to understand people and relationships. We have to understand power. When we say, \u2018<\/span><\/i>They\u2019ve got all the power,\u2019 <\/span>do they actually? What is the power?<\/span><\/i> What forms of power are we talking about? And when we become fluent in that understanding and recognize all the different ways that we can generate and use power, it makes us ALL more powerful.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  \u201c<\/i><\/b>I’ve internalized a lot of lessons around there being people with power and people without power. The powerful people are always \u2018over there\u2019 somewhere. And then the rest of us are over here without power. But if we just got together and made a joint decision to commit our resources together, all of a sudden, that’s power. And those resources don’t have to be money. They don’t have to be tanks. They can be our bodies. They can be our attention.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i>
  \n<\/i><\/p>\n

  \n
  • Value the collective valuing.<\/b> \u201cFor as selfish as we are encouraged to be as individual economic units within our economic system, we benefit individually when we benefit together. So if, as one of our guests, Valerie Core, says, we can see a stranger as a part of ourselves\u2026 if we can see one another as family a little bit more instead of having the zero sum mentality (someone else winning means I have to lose) and let go of the fear that someone is trying to take something from us\u2026 we all benefit.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Baratunde and his guests have one major goal in common: improving society for the many.\u00a0<\/b>
    \n<\/i><\/h2>\n

    His hope is that listeners will be moved to act for the greater good of us all.<\/span><\/p>\n\n

    \u201cBut if they were, we wouldn\u2019t have had to write them down.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

    On July 5, PBS is releasing his new show, <\/span>America Outdoors with Baratunde Thurston<\/span><\/i>. In it, he travels the country to explore <\/span>\u201cHow beautiful we are and can be.\u201d<\/span><\/i>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    A perfectly fitting description of not just the show, but the essence of Baratunde\u2019s work.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    July 2022 Issue<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In 2019, writer, speaker, activist, and comedian Baratunde Thurston delivered a TED talk that MSNBC\u2019s Brian Williams deemed \u201cone of the greatest of all time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12898,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[3357,1803,3359,3363,3360,3358,3361,1728,58,3362],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n