In the Meanwhile

This week, Nora and Marcus take listeners on a wild ride through America’s collapsing systems, plus the unlikely origin story of this very podcast: part DIY zine, part serendipity, part awkward poetry class with an ex, and a Town Hall conversation that revealed GoFundMe has effectively become our national healthcare system… just with nicer branding. Along the way, they dig into Nora’s groundbreaking work on crowdfundin...

This week on In The Meanwhile, Nora and Marcus chat it up with Dr. Daudi Abe about America’s hottest commodity: ignorance, which is now streaming in a classroom near you! From states rebranding slavery as “involuntary relocation with benefits” to classrooms streaming PragerU like it’s the Disney Channel, we dive into how the powerful weaponize misinformation to keep us confused, divided, and buying Hulk Hogan bobblehea...

The broligarchy isn’t just cringe, it’s deeply dangerous. This week on In The Meanwhile, Nora and Marcus sit down with Dan McQuillan, author of Resisting AI, to unpack how artificial intelligence isn't changing the game—it's rigging it in favor of authoritarianism. McQuillan breaks down how Silicon Valley has found its perfect dance partner in far-right movements, and offers a crucial blueprint for resistance. By rejec...

This week on In The Meanwhile, Nora and Marcus catch up with Seattle’s most unexpected threat to billionaire brunch politics, Katie Wilson. She’s a longtime organizer, transit rider, and Americano-splitter who went from dragging mayors in public comment to becoming the mayoral frontrunner herself. Her game plan? No hedge fund sugar daddies, no donor call lists, just a Google form, a ground game, and the radical idea th...

This week on In The Meanwhile, Nora and Marcus speak with The Bitchuation Room's Francesca Fiorentini — comedian, journalist, and professional thorn in the side of fascists everywhere. She breaks down why comedy is doing the job cable news is too scared to touch, why billionaires are basically rich toddlers with Wi-Fi, and how the left can stop doomscrolling and start building real power. From Palestine to potty‑training wins, Fran...

In this scorching episode of In The Meanwhile, Nora and Marcus sweat it out—literally and metaphorically—as they sit down with disability rights advocate and policy powerhouse Matthew Cortland. With razor-sharp clarity and raw honesty, Matthew unpacks how Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful” budget is actually a legislative wrecking ball aimed at Medicaid, Medicare, and the people who need them most. Matthew shares their...

This week, Nora and Marcus sit down with Gabriel Teodros, MC, poet, educator, organizer, and community time traveler, to talk about how we carry grief, make art, and stay human when the world’s on fire (sometimes literally). Gabriel takes us from losing his home in a blaze to creating From the Ashes of Our Homes, his most personal album yet. And along the way, he unpacks what it means to do “love work” in a world built...

What if everything you’ve been told about Palestine was only half the story, and the half that kept power comfy? This week on In the Meanwhile, Marcus and Nora talk with Palestinian American scholar Karam Dana, whose new book doesn’t just unpack the crisis in Gaza—it shreds the whole suitcase of sanitized narratives we’ve been fed for decades. With the precision of a professor and the fire of someone who’s lived it, Da...

Synopsis: This week on In the Meanwhile, Nora and Marcus sit down with journalist Schuyler Mitchell to unpack how we went from “defund the police” to cities doubling down on militarized crackdowns: complete with riot gear, surveillance drones, and bipartisan gaslighting.

Drawing from Mitchell’s Truthout exposé on the LAPD’s long history of unchecked brutality, the conversation explores how both Trump and s...

Dean Spade joins Nora and Marcus for a conversation about how our relationships show up in our activism, politics, and everyday life.

Mentioned in the episode:

Love in a F*cked Up World by Dean Spade | Love in a Fucked Up World Podcast | Mutual Aid by Dean Spade | Facing Collapse Together study group | Movement Memos: Bizarre and Dangerous Utopian Ideology Has Quietly Taken Hold of Tech Worl...

In this episode, Nora and Marcus wade into the bizarre right-wing war on empathy—where Elon Musk, JD Vance, and others claim that caring about other people is a threat to civilization itself. But beyond the absurdity, they trace how empathy has been weaponized, misunderstood, and hollowed out—from Clinton-era politics to today’s culture wars. Together, they ask: How should we show up and care in a time of polycrisis? s...

Mentioned in the episode:

• So the No Kings March Happened. What Next? (Marcus Harrison Green, South Seattle Emerald)

• Erica Chenoweth

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In this episode Nora and Marcus dive headfirst into the dystopian text thread we’re all living in: ICE raids in broad daylight, masked agents snatching people off the streets, media complicity, and the federal government going full “authoritarian starter pack.” But rather than stew in our fear, today’s guests offer pragmatic lessons about what we face and what can be done. Professor Angelina Godoy, a human rights schol...

Five years after a global pandemic, historic protests, and social rupture, where are we now—and what have we forgotten? In this episode, Nora and Marcus Harrison Green dive into the lingering impacts of 2020, from fractured families to the backlash against empathy itself. With humor, honesty, and a touch of John Mayer fandom, they explore how we hold memory, process grief, and dare to vision something better in a natio...

Welcome to the premiere of In the Meanwhile—a podcast for anyone trying to survive the slow-motion apocalypse without losing their soul (or their sense of humor). Professor Nora Kenworthy and journalist Marcus Harrison Green kick things off with a candid, funny, and heartfelt conversation about what it means to live through this messy in-between era—where the old world is collapsing, the new one isn’t here yet, and the...

The old world is collapsing. The new one hasn’t arrived. And in between? There’s grief, confusion, burnout—and the possibility for something better. 

Welcome to In The Meanwhile, a weekly podcast hosted by public health scholar Nora Kenworthy and journalist Marcus Harrison Green. 

No hot takes. No empty platitudes. No easy hope. Just real talk about how we hold onto our humanity, build something better—and maybe even l...