As our team launches into planning mode this summer, we curated a media collection that’s stuck with us this year. We hope you find them as thought-provoking as we did. If you have a moment, let us know what you’ve been reading, watching, or listening to at digital@thepeopleslobbyusa.org!
Annelise Rittberg: I’m re-reading my favorite play, Angels in America, by Tony Kushner. I’m seeing it live for the first time in Chicago later this month! Reading a play that was written about another time in our country’s history, when queer people were being targeted by a conservative government, feels important in organizing through this moment.
Brandon Williford: I have recently just finished watching season 3 of Squid Games, which led me to explore other psychological thrillers that serve as subtle (or not so subtle) critiques of capitalism. My two recommendations for this are The Platform or The 8 Show.
Chris White: I’m reading Holding Change by Adrienne Maree Brown. For years, I recommended people read just her chapter on facilitation in the book Emergent Strategy, and then my wife told me the next book was an elaboration on that chapter. I’m watching the new Marvel TV Series Ironheart, which is heavily set in Chicago, and the Funny Or Die series A Very Special Episode, which summarizes the most bizarre episodes of 80s and 90s sitcoms.
Deana Rutherford: I’m reading Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber, which is more fun than it sounds, and also plowing through The Expanse series (I’m on the sixth one).
JC Muhammad: I’m right in the middle of The Message by Ta-Nehisi Coates. This is a pretty riveting book that examines current events in America and in the Middle East through the moral lens of a well-respected and renowned Black scholar. Coates forces us to grapple with and re-examine some of the basic moral assumptions we’ve come to accept about race relations in America, as well as our understanding of the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Kristi Sanford: I’m reading People, Power, Change by Marshall Ganz, a book about the art and science of community organizing, and reflecting on what I can take from it to strengthen my leadership at The People’s Lobby.
Lori Simmons: The shows that have captured my attention recently are Severance, which questions the direction our corporate culture has taken, and Resident Alien, a fun comedy with great representation of marginalized communities.
Miguel Molina-Ventura: I’m finishing up Hopscotch by Julio Cortázar and about to start Catch-22. Hopscotch will take you on a metaphysical journey and let you read a book in the most unconventional way, as if playing hopscotch. Julio Cortázar is one of the Latin American boom writers and was left-leaning during his time. I’m about to start Catch-22, so no idea what to expect. I do plan to watch the new Lilo and Stitch movie just to fall into nostalgia.
Nika Lofton: I’m usually in the middle of two books: Assata by Assata Shakur and Amerika by Franz Kafka! Assata is an emotionally resonant autobiography detailing her involvement in the Black Liberation Movement with the Black Panthers. And Amerika is a sillier fiction story about a man immigrating from Prague to America.
Reema Saleh: I’m reading Katabasis, a dark academia fantasy novel where two rival magicians travel to hell to save their terrible professor from damnation but discover that academia can truly save no soul, by R.F. Kuang. I’m also reading The Border Simulator, a very trippy poetry collection about two siblings trapped between worlds, by Gabriel Dozal.
Shaddi Zeid: I’ve been watching The Bear, The Wire, The Last of Us, and The Studio. If it doesn’t have a “the” in the title, I’m not interested at this time.
Will Tanzman: I found this Ezra Klein podcast episode on Musk and the tech right to be particularly helpful in trying to better understand the Trump coalition.
