Don't Wait for New Leaders. BECOME Them

Don't Wait for New Leaders. BECOME Them

Author: iHeartPodcasts April 19, 2025 Duration: 6:47
How To Citizen with Baratunde
SocietySociety & CultureCultureNewsTechnology

Today we bring you Story #6 in our Week of Citizening. We’ve already shown you how people are rethinking democracy through libraries, labor, and school boards. Now we’re headed to a place often overlooked but brimming with democratic possibility: West Virginia.

See the visuals and links to all these stories here: https://newsletter.baratunde.com/p/dont-wait-for-better-leaders-become 

We’re told politics is about picking the lesser of evils. Ordering off a fixed menu. But what if we left the table… and headed for the kitchen? That’s what the folks behind West Virginia Can’t Wait are doing. And it’s a clear sign that democracy is evolving.

  • They’ve passed legislation that’s rare even in liberal strongholds

  • They don’t run candidates but communities

  • They help hold elected officials accountable and offer ongoing support

This is what Jon Alexander calls the shift from Consumer Democracy to Citizen Democracy. Not just new processes like Citizens’ Assemblies or Participatory Budgeting (though we love those too) — but real people getting a grip on the systems we’ve got, starting from where we are.

“One of the things I’m most proud of in my career is helping to demystify politics. It’s just everyday work for everyday folks.”

— Rosemary Ketchum, West Virginia Can’t Wait

This isn’t happening in some liberal stronghold. This is Appalachia — a place many assume to be too red, too rigid, too far gone. But that’s just not the whole story. I’ve seen firsthand the level of commitment and creativity in Appalachia through my recent travels there for my PBS America Outdoors show. Trust me, these stories are happening in all sorts of underestimated places.

💬 Who else is opening politics to everyday people?

Sign up to share and discover more stories like this: https://stories.howtocitizen.com

Video Produced by: Tess Novotnoy

Week of Citizening Collaborators: Baratunde Thurston, Jon Alexander, Shira Abramowitz, Elizabeth Stewart

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.


Finding your place in a world that often feels broken can be disorienting. How To Citizen with Baratunde, from iHeartPodcasts, tackles that confusion head-on by treating "citizen" not as a static label but as a series of actions we can all learn. This podcast moves beyond the headlines and the outrage to explore the tangible, often surprising ways we can participate in shaping our communities and systems. Each episode is a deep dive into the mechanics of collective power, featuring conversations that span society, culture, technology, and news. You'll hear from people who are actively redefining what it means to belong and contribute, offering practical insights that replace helplessness with agency. The discussions remind us that while voting is crucial, a functioning democracy requires much more from all of us. This isn't about abstract theory; it's about the real-world application of citizenship. Tune in for a thought-provoking and actionable guide to wielding your influence, discovering how to move from being overwhelmed to being effectively engaged. The entire premise of this podcast is built on the idea that we can learn to citizen better, together.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 69

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How To Citizen with Baratunde
Podcast Episodes
Introducing: Season 2 of How To Citizen with Baratunde [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 2:13
How do we wield our collective power for the many, not just the few, in order to live together even with our differences?We feel the dangerous divisions within our democracy daily: the pandemic response, racial oppressio…
To Be Less Polarized, We Must Humanize (with Esther Perel) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:04:59
Baratunde ends Season One focused on the state of our relationships, a key pillar of how to citizen, and thus the health of our society after the most contentious election in modern history. In conversation with world-re…
Flexing Our Civil Resistance Muscle (with Jamila Raqib) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:08
Baratunde wrestles with how to handle rising political violence in the U.S. by learning from a leading steward of strategic nonviolent action. Jamila Raqib, executive director of the Albert Einstein Institution, shares l…
Making Our Returning Citizens Whole (with Desmond Meade) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:50
Baratunde learns to think about sacrifice and having skin in the game in terms of a ham, egg, and cheese sandwich analogy. Desmond Meade, founder of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition (FRRC), reminds us that to err…
Making Our Presence Felt (with Angela Lang and Quentin Palfrey) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 52:05
Baratunde digs into the feeling of disconnect and neglect felt by the black community in Milwaukee during the 2016 election and learns from Angela Lang, Executive Director of Black Leaders Organizing Communities (BLOC MK…
Making Our Votes Count (with Sherrilyn Ifill) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:50
Baratunde speaks with Sherrilyn Ifill, the President and Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund about the very long history of voter suppression, why it still exists (hint: white supremacy and rac…
Making Our Voices Heard (with Maria Teresa Kumar) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 33:30
Baratunde speaks with Maria Teresa Kumar, President of Voto Latino, about the power in numbers of Latinx voters and the work of relationship-building for this moment. Maria shares stories of what effective government loo…
Building Bridges, Not Walls [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:08
Baratunde ignores the headlines about Chicago and heeds a listener’s advice to learn more about the southside from a local artist who is building bridges in her community and literally helping people find common ground.

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