We Know how to Rebuild Our Democracy - final story

We Know how to Rebuild Our Democracy - final story

Author: iHeartPodcasts April 21, 2025 Duration: 8:08

There is a model for how we rebuild and heal after the human-made disaster being inflicted on the USA right now. Welcome to Dena Heals—a mutual aid marketplace and wellness center born in the aftermath of the Eaton Fire in Altadena.

See the visuals for this story and all our Week of Citizening stories here:
https://newsletter.baratunde.com/p/this-is-how-we-recover-from-disasters 

This is our final story (for now) in the Week Of Citizening. Join our mailing list and share the stories you’re seeing. stories.howtocitizen.com 

When the 💩 hits the fan, we are told people become selfish and look after themselves alone. Every disaster ever proves otherwise including after the most devastating fire to hit Los Angeles. Something extraordinary took root. Not fear. Not isolation. But care for each other.

Rebecca Solnit said it well: “When all the ordinary divides and patterns are shattered, people step up—not all, but the great preponderance—to become their brothers’ keepers. And that purposefulness and connectedness brings joy even amidst death, chaos, fear and loss.”

Rooted in Indigenous wisdom and the Black Panther 10-Point Program, Dena Heals is a blueprint for what happens when we lead with love, show up for each other, and practice power together.

They’ve supported 3,500+ people from over 500 families. This is what it looks like to citizen in the midst of disaster. Not with despair—but with collective action, healing, and hope.

We saved this story for last in our Week Of Citizening series because it reflects all the pillars of How to Citizen:

🌱 Show up & participate

⚡ Understand power

🤝 Commit to the collective

❤️ Invest in relationships (including nature)

This is how we rise. This is how we rebuild. This is how we citizen. Happy Earth Day

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

Video Produced by: Revolve Impact

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

How To Citizen with Baratunde
Podcast Episodes
Love is a Renewable Resource (Nsé Ufot) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:01:25
We all know that voting alone won’t save democracy. But it does help…a lot. No one understands that better than voting rights organizer Nsé Ufot. She’s the former CEO of the New Georgia Project, where she leveraged techn…
Democracy, Fractals, and Sci-fi (adrienne maree brown) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:29:25
Saving our democracy isn’t just about registering people to vote, ending gerrymandering, and so on. It’s about getting back to the basics of living together well through micro, everyday moments. To kick off season four o…
Crafting a Citizen Story (Jon Alexander) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:10:37
The stories we’re told & tell about ourselves shape the ways we act and how we citizen. And the story we’ve been living in for decades now is one of consumerism and self-interest. Baratunde talks with reformed ad-man and…
Season 4: Creating a Culture of Democracy [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 3:45
The podcast for people tired of tuning into bad news is back with a fourth season and brand new ways to interpret the word “citizen” as a verb! This season we’re asking, how can the practice of “citizening,” in ways big…
BONUS: Homelessness Is Solvable (with Aras Jizan) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:15:25
In this bonus episode, Baratunde learns how data, well-defined goals, and a sense of collective ownership are helping those at the front lines of America’s housing crisis work to solve, not manage, homelessness. His part…
Those We’ve Left Behind (with Shaka Senghor & Teresa Hodge) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 54:48
Baratunde asks how can we citizen with tech when we disconnect millions from technology and from society as a whole by incarcerating them? He closes the season in conversation with two people who’ve served time for felon…
Blockchain Chickens and Empathetic Tech Workers (with Xiaowei Wang) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:01
Baratunde is reminded that “tech companies” are really just people and asks what it would mean for tech employees to think critically about their work and its impact and use that power to remake the industry from the gro…
When The Data Is Us (with Krystal Tsosie) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 48:48
Baratunde continues his journey to discover how we can embed more justice into the data driving our increasingly automated lives and focuses on the most intimate data there is: our DNA. He talks with Krystal Tsosie, an i…
Arsenic in My Muffins (with Kasia Chmielinski) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 37:07
Baratunde knows what is healthy to eat or not, thanks to the required nutrition labels on our food. But how do we know the ingredients in the algorithms and AI we depend on are safe to use? Baratunde speaks with Kasia Ch…
Defending Our Collective Psyche (with Sander van der Linden) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 46:52
Can we inoculate ourselves against misinformation and conspiracy theories in the way we do for infectious diseases? Instead of debunking, can we “pre-bunk?” Sander van der Linden, co-founder of Inoculation Science, has c…