What Can I Do

So your community of veterans is getting sick because of toxic exposures on the job, but nobody, including the federal government, wants to take responsibility for your care. What do you do? For Rosie Torres and Susan Zeier, the answer was the organize a major lobbying effort to ensure that burn pit victims like their family members were taken care of. For Rosie, the founder of Burn Pits 360, this involved organizing a community and marshaling the efforts of people like Susan, who were willing to show up again and again. They built a successful lobbying force and (with some help from Jon Stewart) passed the groundbreaking PACT Act earlier this year. Episode Links: Burn Pits 360: Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook Follow Lila on Twitter Follow Kelly on Twitter Follow the podcast on Twitter at @WhatCanIDoPod To contact us with questions or guest suggestions, email us at: hello@WhatCanIDoPodcast.com.  Please rate and review and tell your friends! Credits: To the best of our knowledge, all audio used by What Can I Do is in the public domain or is used with permission. Our theme song is Good Deeds by Serj Anto, and we hold a license for use of the song through PremiumBeat. Original artwork is by Matthew Weflen and used with express permission.

So you’re concerned about a local issue in a small rural community and you need to start an advocacy effort from scratch. What do you do? Donald Hebbard was a retired farmer and longtime resident of a rural area in upstate New York when he learned of a plan to put a natural gas compressor station in his town. Concerned about the impact this would have on the environment and community, he and a group of concerned citizens put together a local advocacy effort and won. Episode Links: Compressor Free Franklin  Follow Lila on Twitter Follow Kelly on Twitter Follow the podcast on Twitter at @WhatCanIDoPod To contact us with questions or guest suggestions, email us at: hello@WhatCanIDoPodcast.com.  Please rate and review and tell your friends! Credits: To the best of our knowledge, all audio used by What Can I Do is in the public domain or is used with permission. Our theme song is Good Deeds by Serj Anto, and we hold a license for use of the song through PremiumBeat. Original artwork is by Matthew Weflen and used with express permission.

So you’re thinking about how to connect young people interested in running for office with the resources and community they need to win. What’s your first step? For Amanda Litman, a veteran of the Obama campaign, the first step was to put up a website looking for people interested in running for local office. What the response was greater than she could have ever imagined, she and a friend recruited volunteers and got to work helping thousands of young candidates navigate how to file, how to run a campaign, and how to win.  Episode Links: Find out which offices are available in your area at Run for What: Website Run for Something: Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook Amanda Litman: Twitter Follow Lila on Twitter Follow Kelly on Twitter Follow the podcast on Twitter at @WhatCanIDoPod To contact us with questions or guest suggestions, email us at: hello@WhatCanIDoPodcast.com.  Please rate and review and tell your friends! Credits: To the best of our knowledge, all audio used by What Can I Do is in the public domain or is used with permission. Our theme song is Good Deeds by Serj Anto, and we hold a license for use of the song through PremiumBeat. Original artwork is by Matthew Weflen and used with express permission.

So you’re looking to be a part of a faith community, but one that shares your values about things like reproductive rights LGBTQIA+ issues, and more? How do you find one? How do you create one? For Rev. Angela Willams, the co-director of Movement Building at SACRED, faith and political action are intertwined. She talks about being called to become a Pastor while finding her political voice, working to change the narrative that religious communities are inherently conservative, and how religious communities and individuals can work towards cultural change and liberation. Episode Links: SACReD: Website | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook Follow Lila on Twitter Follow Kelly on Twitter Follow the podcast on Twitter at @WhatCanIDoPod To contact us with questions or guest suggestions, email us at: hello@WhatCanIDoPodcast.com.  Please rate and review and tell your friends! Credits: To the best of our knowledge, all audio used by What Can I Do is in the public domain or is used with permission. Our theme song is Good Deeds by Serj Anto, and we hold a license for use of the song through PremiumBeat. Original artwork is by Matthew Weflen and used with express permission.

So you live in a rural community that’s been ignored by the Democratic establishment, but you want to get involved in the political system. So, what do you do?  For Chloe Maxmin and Canyon Woodward, taking the lessons they’d learned while working in the climate movement and applying them to what they knew about Chloe’s rural home community taught them a lot about how to win campaigns in rural spaces. After working together to get Chloe elected to the Maine statehouse - the youngest woman ever to serve as a Maine Senator - they collaborated again on a book filled with helpful action items for Democratic rural candidates looking to run successful campaigns. Episode Links: Dirt Road Revival: Website Rural Runners: Website Chloe Maxmin: Twitter Canyon Woodward: Website | Twitter Follow Lila on Twitter Follow Kelly on Twitter Follow the podcast on Twitter at @WhatCanIDoPod To contact us with questions or guest suggestions, email us at: hello@WhatCanIDoPodcast.com.  Please rate and review and tell your friends! Credits: To the best of our knowledge, all audio used by What Can I Do is in the public domain or is used with permission. Our theme song is Good Deeds by Serj Anto, and we hold a license for use of the song through PremiumBeat. Original artwork is by Matthew Weflen and used with express permission.

You’re an American living abroad, but you want to have a voice in choosing who represents you, so what do you do?  For Candice Kerestan, an American living in Germany, the question of how to work towards a more equitable and just American system was made more urgent by her experience living in the German system, where issues like education, healthcare, and combating climate change were being prioritized. So, she got involved at the ground level with her local chapter of Democrats Abroad, and now helps other Americans abroad work to elect their preferred candidates and ensure their vote is counted. Episode Links: Democrats Abroad: Website | Twitter Vote From Abroad: Website Follow Lila on Twitter Follow Kelly on Twitter Follow the podcast on Twitter at @WhatCanIDoPod To contact us with questions or guest suggestions, email us at: hello@WhatCanIDoPodcast.com.  Please rate and review and tell your friends! Credits: To the best of our knowledge, all audio used by What Can I Do is in the public domain or is used with permission. Our theme song is Good Deeds by Serj Anto, and we hold a license for use of the song through PremiumBeat. Original artwork is by Matthew Weflen and used with express permission.

A recap of the actions and strategies we’ve discussed in our recent interviews. Find out more on our blog! Episode Links: “The trouble with viewing 9/11 and the pandemic through a wartime lens,” by Lila Nordstrom and Sarah Senk, The Washington Post, September 9, 2022. The Op-Ed Project Writing Effective Op-Eds, Duke University “15 Actionable Media Training Tips From Former Journalists,” LiaisonPR, August 23, 2021 Follow Lila on Twitter Follow Kelly on Twitter Follow the podcast on Twitter at @WhatCanIDoPod To contact us with questions or guest suggestions, email us at: hello@WhatCanIDoPodcast.com.  Please rate and review and tell your friends! Credits: To the best of our knowledge, all audio used by What Can I Do is in the public domain or is used with permission. Our theme song is Good Deeds by Serj Anto, and we hold a license for use of the song through PremiumBeat. Original artwork is by Matthew Weflen and used with express permission.

You’re skilled in the arts and you want to use those skills to make change, so what do you do? For Shannon Downey, a.k.a. Badass Cross Stitch, the answer was simple: Build a community of craft lovers and doers, and connect them with activists, issue-based craft challenges, fundraising opportunities, bystander training and advocacy workshops, and, of course, each other. Shannon tells us how she took her love of embroidery and lifelong passion for political action and combined the two. Episode Links:Shannon Downey / Badass Cross Stitch: Website | Twitter | Instagram  Follow Lila on TwitterFollow Kelly on TwitterFollow the podcast on Twitter at @WhatCanIDoPodTo contact us with questions or guest suggestions, email us at: hello@WhatCanIDoPodcast.com. Please rate and review and tell your friends! Credits:To the best of our knowledge, all audio used by What Can I Do is in the public domain or is used with permission. Our theme song is Good Deeds by Serj Anto, and we hold a license for use of the song through PremiumBeat.Original artwork is by Matthew Weflen and used with express permission. 

If you can see how big, seemingly-intractable national and international issues impact your local community, what do you do? For Rachel Dawn Davis, community activist and public policy and justice organizer with Waterspirit, the answer has been to search for intersections and connections between myriad local and national causes and do…whatever needs to be done. Between her work with veterans, her environmental activism, and her work in her community and New Jersey more broadly, she’s built advocacy and connecting communities into a lifelong habit and career. Find out how she approaches her work, where she finds opportunities, and how you can do the same! Episode Links:Waterspirit: Website | Twitter | Facebook | InstagramFollow Lila on TwitterFollow Kelly on TwitterFollow the podcast on Twitter at @WhatCanIDoPodTo contact us with questions or guest suggestions, email us at: hello@WhatCanIDoPodcast.com. Please rate and review and tell your friends! Credits:To the best of our knowledge, all audio used by What Can I Do is in the public domain or is used with permission. Our theme song is Good Deeds by Serj Anto, and we hold a license for use of the song through PremiumBeat. Original artwork is by Matthew Weflen and used with express permission. 

If you don’t see any people in power who look like you or come from your background, what do you do? For A’shanti Gholar, President of Emerge America, the answer was to jump into the ring herself. From her high school showdown with a candidate for U.S. Senate to her work training women to run for office all over the nation, A’Shanti shares the story of how she took an early interest in politics and turned it into a career helping others. Episode Links:Emerge America: Website | Facebook | Twitter | InstagramA’Shanti Gholar: Bio | Twitter | Instagram Follow Lila on TwitterFollow Kelly on TwitterFollow the podcast on Twitter at @WhatCanIDoPodTo contact us with questions or guest suggestions, email us at: hello@WhatCanIDoPodcast.com. Please rate and review and tell your friends! Credits:To the best of our knowledge, all audio used by What Can I Do is in the public domain or is used with permission. Our theme song is Good Deeds by Serj Anto, and we hold a license for use of the song through PremiumBeat.Original artwork is by Matthew Weflen and used with express permission.