In the Meanwhile

Marcus Harrison Green & Nora Kenworthy
  • 5.0 (14)
  • Society & Culture
  • Updated Weekly

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 laugh along the way. Bring snacks. Bring questions. We're figuring this out together.

  1. 6d ago

    Reclaiming a Politics of Belonging with Sen. Chris Murphy | Ep 64

    America is lonely, angry, unequal, and increasingly wondering whether democracy is still working or just buffering indefinitely. This week on In The Meanwhile, Nora and Marcus sit down with U.S. Senator Chris Murphy to discuss his new book, Crisis of the Common Good, and his argument that beneath our political dysfunction is something even harder to filibuster away: a crisis of belonging, meaning, and human connection. We get into loneliness, capitalism, higher education, AI, faith, family, political tribalism, and the apparently radical proposition that billionaires maybe shouldn't get to purchase democracy wholesale. It's a conversation about what politics can fix, what it can't, and whether we can build a new social contract before the old one completely rage-quits. Mentioned in the episode:  Crisis of the Common Good | Orcas at the Ballard Locks! | Trump's School Sports Day | LES Tenement Museum Related Episodes: Gina Baskin | Julie-C | Dean Spade Support the pod: Donate here to support In The Meanwhile Follow us: Instagram | BlueSky | Website Read Nora and Marcus's Books: Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Healthcare | Readying to Rise Music: No Tears for a Wolf · Ahamefule J. Oluo · Okanomodé. Used with permission. Logo by Nikki Barron. Transcripts are machine-generated and imperfect. Nora and Marcus's work on the podcast is separate from their professional roles and does not represent the views of their employers.  Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links.

  2. Aug 7

    You can't build community in the comments with Julie-C | Ep 63

    In 2020, CHOP became one of the most debated protest movements in modern American history. Six years later, as calls for more policing and tougher public safety policies grow louder, artist, educator, and community organizer Julie-C joins the podcast to reflect on what that moment actually was and what lessons have been lost. Julie explores the myths that still surround CHOP, the rise of movement amnesia, the importance of relationships over rhetoric, and why investing in young people, artists, and community remains the strongest path toward real safety. It's a thoughtful conversation about organizing, conflict, creativity, and what it takes to keep building toward liberation when history feels like it's moving in reverse. Mentioned in the episode:  On the Block | Black Coffee Co-Op | Read about Hidmo in Charles Mudede's piece honoring Rahwa Habte | Embedded S27: We Keep Us Safe | Erotics of Liberation | Gregg Gonsalves in the Nation |   Support Julie-C's work: On the Block Related Episodes: Loretta J Ross | Emily M. Bender Support the pod: Donate here to support In The Meanwhile Follow us: Instagram | BlueSky | Website Read Nora and Marcus's Books: Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Healthcare | Readying to Rise Music: No Tears for a Wolf · Ahamefule J. Oluo · Okanomodé. Used with permission. Logo by Nikki Barron. Transcripts are machine-generated and imperfect. Nora and Marcus's work on the podcast is separate from their professional roles and does not represent the views of their employers.  Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links.

  3. Jul 31

    The Impossible Will Take a Little While with Paul Loeb | Ep 62

    The world feels like it's on fire. So what do we do besides doomscroll? This week, Nora and Marcus sit down with author and activist Paul Loeb to talk about his updated classic, The Impossible Will Take a Little While. In the wake of the Seattle Center shooting, and in the middle of authoritarian creep, climate chaos, and collective exhaustion, Loeb makes the case that hope isn't wishful thinking. It's a practice. A discipline. A choice to act anyway. From South Africa to South Korea, from political prisoners to everyday organizers, this conversation is a reminder that history has always been changed by ordinary people who refused to accept that the future was already written. If you're looking for a reason to keep fighting without losing your joy, this episode is for you. Mentioned in the episode:  Marcus's Column | Renee Hopkins episode | Alliance for Gun Responsibility | The Impossible Will Take a Little While, by Paul Loeb | Archbishop Desmond Tutu | Wendell Berry: The Peace of Wild Things | Minnesota Proved MAGA Wrong | How the Word is Passed, by Clint Smith | MLK: Letter from a Birmingham Jail | theimpossible.org | Schmitz Park | Missouri ends felon disenfranchisement |  Follow Paul Loeb: https://paulloeb.substack.com/ | theimpossible.org  Support the pod: Donate here to support In The Meanwhile Follow us: Instagram | BlueSky | Website Read Nora and Marcus's Books: Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Healthcare | Readying to Rise Music: No Tears for a Wolf · Ahamefule J. Oluo · Okanomodé. Used with permission. Logo by Nikki Barron. Transcripts are machine-generated and imperfect. Nora and Marcus's work on the podcast is separate from their professional roles and does not represent the views of their employers.  Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links.

  4. Jul 24

    Teach Truth and Feed the Damn Kids with Jesse Hagopian | Ep 61

    What if the same government that can find billions for a war in a matter of months insists there's never enough money to feed a hungry kid or keep a school library stocked? Marcus and Nora sit down with Jesse Hagopian — Seattle educator, Rethinking Schools editor, and author of Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education — to follow the money from the Pentagon to the classroom. Jesse traces the fight against book bans and "anti-CRT" laws sweeping the country, and grounds it in his own history: teaching in an underfunded DC classroom, then at his alma mater, Garfield High, where keeping snacks in a desk drawer became part of the job. He connects Seattle's fight for universal school meals to the legacy of the Black Panther Party's Free Breakfast for Children Program, and James Baldwin's claim that "the children are all ours." On the heels of an all-too-tough fight for school meals in one of the wealthiest cities in the world, Hagopian shows us that "there's no money" has always been a ruse, not a fact.  In the middle of recording this episode, Seattle's fight for universal school meals actually won. Jesse walks through how that happened: years of students, parents, and teachers showing up, organizing, and refusing to accept austerity as the final word. It's a blueprint for hope in tough times.  Mentioned in the episode:  Guest Rant: Seattle Can't Afford Not to Feed Every Child | Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education | July 21 City Council Meeting |  More from Jesse Hagopian: https://iamaneducator.com/  Support the pod: Donate here to support In The Meanwhile Follow us: Instagram | BlueSky | Website Read Nora and Marcus's Books: Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Healthcare | Readying to Rise Music: No Tears for a Wolf · Ahamefule J. Oluo · Okanomodé. Used with permission. Logo by Nikki Barron. Transcripts are machine-generated and imperfect. Nora and Marcus's work on the podcast is separate from their professional roles and does not represent the views of their employers.  Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links.

  5. Jul 17

    Making Mutual Aid Radical Again with Dean Spade | Ep 60

    What if we've been asking the wrong question all along? Instead of waiting for institutions that are failing us to finally come to the rescue, what if our real survival has always depended on each other? This week, Dean Spade returns to the podcast to join Nora and Marcus for a timely conversation about the newly updated edition of Mutual Aid. Together they unpack why mutual aid isn't charity but a practice of solidarity, resistance, and collective power with a long and radical history.  From authoritarianism and democratic backsliding to climate disruption and collapsing public institutions, Spade argues that the way through this moment isn't individual resilience or hoping for our institutions to save us, but communities learning to organize, care for one another, and build the relationships that make a different future possible. If you've been wondering what hope looks like in hard times, this conversation offers something more powerful: a roadmap for action. Mentioned in the episode:  ICE Murders | Detention Center Deaths | Mutual Aid | Love in a F*cked Up World [book] and [podcast] | Five Questions for Cultivating Solidarity | In Defense of Looting  | Tiny Gardens Everywhere | Death Panel Podcast | Love in a F****d up World: Resentment | An Unquiet Mind | 2025 Andrew Carnegie Fellow: Nora Kenworthy Follow and Support Dean's work: Dean Spade - Patreon Support the pod: Donate here to support In The Meanwhile Follow us: Instagram | BlueSky | Website Read Nora and Marcus's Books: Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Healthcare | Readying to Rise Music: No Tears for a Wolf · Ahamefule J. Oluo · Okanomodé. Used with permission. Logo by Nikki Barron. Transcripts are machine-generated and imperfect. Nora and Marcus's work on the podcast is separate from their professional roles and does not represent the views of their employers.  Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links.

  6. Jul 10

    Ep 59: Two Nations, One Grief with Nilu Jenks

    This week, Nora and Marcus sit down with Iranian American democracy advocate Nilu Jenks for a deeply personal conversation about war, diaspora grief, authoritarianism, and the deadly lie of "liberation" through violence. Drawing from her family's lived experience in Iran and her work for more representative democracy here in the U.S., Jenks brings clarity, grief, and fierce moral vision to a moment shaped by propaganda, profound uncertainty, and the human cost of minority rule. It's a moving, unflinching conversation about pain, memory, resistance, and what solidarity, accountability, and freedom demand, both abroad and at home. The interview in this episode first aired in March 2026. Mentioned in the episode:  The Skepchic Rebecca Watson on Graham Platner | FIEL Houston | Nilu Jenks | Ten steps towards fascism | Rumi | Seattle's 1st homicide-free month since 1970 | Bloomberg: The Fun Shortage is Real |  Support the pod: Donate here to support In The Meanwhile Follow us: Instagram | BlueSky | Website Read Nora and Marcus's Books: Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Healthcare | Readying to Rise Music: No Tears for a Wolf · Ahamefule J. Oluo · Okanomodé. Used with permission. Logo by Nikki Barron. Transcripts are machine-generated and imperfect. Nora and Marcus's work on the podcast is separate from their professional roles and does not represent the views of their employers.  Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links.

  7. Jul 3

    Ep 58: America, It's Time for Us to Grow Up with Eddie S. Glaude Jr.

    What does it mean to celebrate America at 250 if we've never been honest about the story we've been telling ourselves?   This week, Nora and Marcus sit down with Eddie Glaude Jr. for a conversation that's equal parts history lesson, therapy session, and reality check. Drawing from his new book, America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation's Anniversaries, Glaude argues that America's biggest problem isn't that we don't know our history. It's that we're deeply invested in the fairy tale version of it. Together they explore why Glaude won't say he loves America, why he refuses to give up on it, what Frederick Douglass still demands of us 250 years after the nation's founding, and why growing up as a country means letting go of comforting myths. Along the way, they wrestle with grief, patriotism, memory, James Baldwin, Juneteenth, raising children in uncertain times, and the difference between loving a nation and loving its people. One of the most vulnerable conversations we've had on In the Meanwhile, it's less an interview than an invitation to confront the stories we've inherited and decide whether we're finally ready to write a more honest one. Mentioned in the episode:  SCOTUS: Birthright Citizenship * Campaign Finance * Trans Athletes in Schools | The Atlantic: Trump's 250th is a FIasco | Melania the cow | Civic Bravery at Georgia Pride | Civic Bravery episode | Fruity Farm Tennessee | White House considering issuing 250 pardons | DHS tracked down Pagelynn Gonlea | Prairieland Sentencing | America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation's Anniversaries | Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own | Randall Robinson Quitting America | Hannah Arendt | James Baldwin | Joel Thompson | East Coker by T.S. Eliot | Buffet pausing giving to Gates |  Support the pod: Donate here to support In The Meanwhile Follow us: Instagram | BlueSky | Website Read Nora and Marcus's Books: Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Healthcare | Readying to Rise Music: No Tears for a Wolf · Ahamefule J. Oluo · Okanomodé. Used with permission. Logo by Nikki Barron. Transcripts are machine-generated and imperfect. Nora and Marcus's work on the podcast is separate from their professional roles and does not represent the views of their employers.  Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links.

  8. Jun 26

    Ep 57: Better a Radical than a Pushover with Pramila Jayapal

    This week Nora and Marcus speak with Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal about what Democrats keep getting wrong, why "moderation" so often means surrendering before the fight starts, and whether the left might finally be done asking permission to act like it has a spine. We talk Medicare for All, immigration, trans rights, the Epstein files, and the political class's ongoing refusal to understand that people would, in fact, like to afford housing and remain in possession of their civil rights. Jayapal makes the case for a Democratic Party that actually delivers, a politics rooted in moral clarity rather than consultant leftovers, and a version of hope that feels less Hallmark card, more organized resistance. Mentioned in the episode:  Leftward wave in Democratic primaries! | 21st Century Road to Housing vs. Save America Acts | NYT Siena poll about Dems & socialism | Seattle Pride | Seattle broke two public transit records last week | Seattle's waterfront park Support the pod: Donate here to support In The Meanwhile Follow us: Instagram | BlueSky | Website Read Nora and Marcus's Books: Crowded Out: The True Costs of Crowdfunding Healthcare | Readying to Rise Music: No Tears for a Wolf · Ahamefule J. Oluo · Okanomodé. Used with permission. Logo by Nikki Barron. Transcripts are machine-generated and imperfect. Nora and Marcus's work on the podcast is separate from their professional roles and does not represent the views of their employers.  Links to bookshop.org are affiliate links.

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
14 Ratings

About

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 laugh along the way. Bring snacks. Bring questions. We're figuring this out together.

Information

  • Creator
    Marcus Harrison Green & Nora Kenworthy
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    67
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026
  • Show Website
    In the Meanwhile

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