In the Meanwhile

Marcus Harrison Green & Nora Kenworthy
  • 5.0 (12)
  • PHILOSOPHY
  • 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. 3D AGO

    Ep 42: ​​Staying in the Fight with Ijeoma Oluo

    This week,  Nora and Marcus sit down with author and activist Ijeoma Oluo for a searching conversation about movement work, harm, belonging, and the radical choice to stay. Together, they explore the personal cost of speaking truth, the wounds movements can inflict on their own, and what it means to build the world we long for now—not after revolution, but through the way we live, love, and struggle every day. It's a deeply honest conversation about survival, accountability, joy, and choosing community even when it hurts. Mentioned in the episode:  If You Decide To Stay |  Be a Revolution | Gabriel Teodros | Ahamefule J. Oluo |  Washington State Book Awards More from Ijeoma Oluo: Behind the Book | So You Want to Talk About Race | Mediocre: The Dangerous Legacy of White Male America:  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.

    1h 3m

  2. MAR 6

    Ep 41: The Bill Chill vs. the Epstein Files with Tim Schwab

    It's been another "37-day week" in America, and In The Meanwhile is doing what it does best: refusing to let the chaos set the agenda. Nora and Marcus open on the latest Washington-fueled disaster (a brand-new war with Iran, because apparently weekends are illegal now), then pivot to the scandal the powerful would love you to forget: the Epstein files, and one name still floating above the consequences like a philanthropic forcefield. Enter Tim Schwab, investigative journalist and author of The Bill Gates Problem, to talk about Gates, Epstein, and the dangerous alchemy of extreme wealth + "good billionaire" mythology. Schwab breaks down why Gates' "I didn't know" era doesn't pass the smell test, how philanthropy can function as reputation-laundering and influence-buying, and why the so-called "Bill Chill" keeps Seattle institutions and media hesitant to speak plainly, even when the story is screaming. Mentioned in the episode:  Is Bill Gates in the Epstein files? Probably |  The Epstein files should end Bill Gates's philanthropic career | Erasing Gates Seattle's Favorite Philanthropist Faces Campus Reality Check from UW Student | NYT Opinion: This Summer, Students From Hundreds of Colleges Will Heed One Urgent Call | Half of Americans want to Abolist ICE More from Tim Schwab: Tim Schwab on Substack | On X | on BlueSky | The Bill Gates Problem | on LinkedIn 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.

    1h 2m

  3. FEB 27

    Ep 40: They Skipped Black History Month. We Didn't.

    This week on In The Meanwhile, Marcus and Nora do what America refuses to do: pay attention. They skim the State of the Union so you don't have to, drag the idea of replacing epidemiology with astrology, and ask a very basic question: should our Surgeon General believe in vaccines or just vibes? Then it gets real. While Black History Month goes conspicuously unmentioned in a country built on Black labor and brilliance, Marcus shares a speech that reframes Black history not as a Pinterest board of heroes, but as a survival manual. From his mother witnessing Rosa Parks' arrest at nine years old to vigils in Minneapolis and Rainier Beach, the throughline is unmistakable: inheritance isn't just trauma. It's tools. And we're gonna need them. Mentioned in the episode:  Full service at Westside UU | Crowded Out wins inaugural Procedure Award (!!) 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.

    47 min

  4. FEB 19

    Ep 39: The Price of Mercy with Emily Galvin Almanza

    We're back with a question that sounds obvious until you say it out loud: if you're picking a North Star… why is "more prisons" anywhere on the map?  This week, Nora and Marcus wade through the usual dystopian fog and land in L.A., where a blockbuster social media trial is screaming in 4K: "Yes. The harm. Is the business model." Not a glitch. Silicon Valley said, "Move fast and break things," and we're like, "Cool, you broke our kids' brains." Then enter Emily Galvin Almanza (Partners for Justice) and her new book The Price of Mercy, which is part courtroom drama, part myth-busting masterclass, part polite society intervention.  Emily brings lived experience, legal receipts, and the kind of clarity that makes you sit up straighter. She walks us through how people get criminalized before they're even arrested,  how poverty itself becomes probable cause. How bail is basically a "pay-to-sleep-in-your-own-bed" subscription service. (Premium tier: freedom. Ads included.) And how plea deals are engineered so aggressively that "choice" becomes less a right and more a hostage negotiation with your own future. Mentioned in the episode:  See Emily Galvin Almanza at Town Hall Seattle Saturday Feb 21 | Follow Emily: @galvinalmanza | The Price of Mercy: Unfair Trials, a Violent System, and a Public Defender's Search for Justice in America | Partners for Justice | Dads on Duty | Marcus on Jesse Jackson in The Stranger |  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.

    1h 10m

  5. FEB 13

    Ep 38: It Takes Three to Tango with Tyranny with Jelani Cobb

    This week on In The Meanwhile, Nora and Marcus start with civic sunshine(yes, the Seattle Seahawks are Super Bowl champions), and end in the deep waters of power, protest, and historical memory. From Ernest Jones' "spirit-forward" parade speech to a congressional hearing that felt like defiant incompetence colliding with diabolical intent, they unpack the Bondi–Epstein fallout, elite impunity, space lasers over El Paso (it was a balloon), charting the increasingly surreal cartography of America's institutional collapse. They then sit down with Jelani Cobb, dean of Columbia Journalism School and author of Three or More Is a Riot, to trace the throughline from Trayvon Martin to George Floyd, from Ferguson to January 6, and from protest to backlash. Cobb breaks down how Black collective action gets reframed as threat, why property damage often outranks the value of Black life in public debate, and what it means to teach journalism as press freedoms erode. It's a conversation about history as barometer, protest as democracy, and why, as Cobb reminds us, no fascist gets to drive us out of a country our ancestors built. Read Jelani Cobb's Books: Three or More is a Riot | To the Break of Dawn | The Substance of Hope Mentioned in the episode:  Trayvon Martin and the Parameters of Hope | Quitting America | SPL Reading List | 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.

    1h 7m

  6. FEB 6

    Ep 37: Grief and Solidarity from Minneapolis to Seattle

    Nora and Marcus are back in Seattle after Marcus's whirlwind reporting trip to Minneapolis, and what he saw there stayed with him. From vigils and memorial sites honoring Alex Pretti and Renee Good, to organizers building "community protection" in real time (warming stations, escorts, carpools, and mutual aid), Marcus reflects on how grief travels across time and distance, and how solidarity can, too. They talk about what feels different right now: a shift from performative outrage to everyday people asking, "What are you doing?" and then actually doing it. The conversation also zooms out to the bigger picture: state violence, the fragility of billionaire leadership, the stakes for local journalism, and the hard truth that you can't "microwave" a community when the crisis hits. Plus: a little righteous pettiness about the Melania documentary flop, and Nora's eight ounces of joy, which features Ian McKellen bringing Shakespeare to late-night TV as a fierce, immigrant-rights mic drop. Mentioned in the episode:  Common Power | Charles Douglas III | Seattle Indivisible | George Floyd Square | Pastor Sergio Amezcua | Philly's ICE out law | New Mexico ban on detention centers | Minnesota Star Tribune | Melania movie box office failure | Ian McKellan on Late Show with Stephen Colbert 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.

    58 min

  7. JAN 30

    Ep 36: Make Universities Unruly Again with Brian Soucek

    This week on In The Meanwhile, Nora and Marcus do what every emotionally stable person does in a collapsing empire: eat dessert first and deal with the vegetables later. They speed-run the Trump administration's latest clown car pileup: featuring the extremely cursed timeline where even the NRA and Senate Republicans are like, "Hey man… maybe chill?" — before zooming out to a much bigger target on the authoritarian wishlist: universities. Enter constitutional law scholar Brian Soucek, author of The Opinionated University, who joins for a brainy, spicy, occasionally laugh-so-you-don't-scream convo about what academic freedom actually means (hint: it's not "tenured guy yells vibes"). They dig into why  calls for "neutrality" are usually code for "please stop challenging power," how outsourcing expertise hollows out education, and why turning campuses into beige corporate training centers would be a tragedy for democracy. We're reminded that universities — messy, loud, imperfect as hell — are still some of the last places where people practice the radical act of disagreeing in public and (sometimes) learning something. Mentioned in the episode:  Federal judge actually tossing out a lawsuit  | Hannah Fried episode | Pediatrician who fought to help Alex Pretti |  at least 8 other people killed by ICE  | Howard Zinn | "Committee A" on Academic Freedom and Tenure | Committee on Academic Freedom | UC's National Center for Free Speech and Civic Engagement |  Gaza Med School Commencement Speech | SSE: Living and Loving Under the Carceral State | Arts at King St Station Art More from Brian Soucek: The Opinionated University: Academic Freedom, Diversity, and the Myth of Neutrality in American Higher Education | Brian Soucek at Town Hall Seattle Feb 3 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.

    1h 6m

  8. JAN 23

    Ep 35: Immigrant Rights are Human Rights with Angelina Godoy

    This week on In The Meanwhile, Nora and Marcus open with global chaos: tantrum diplomacy, Greenland confusion, and peace-as-a-timeshare, before turning to something far more urgent and close to home: the accelerating cruelty of ICE. Joined by Angelina Godoy, founding director of the UW Center for Human Rights, they unpack how immigration enforcement has slid toward secret-police tactics, how Washington state data is being quietly weaponized, and why "immigrant rights are human rights" isn't just a slogan, it's a legal and political battleground. It's dark, funny, furious, and grounding all at once: a group therapy session for a moment that demands clarity, courage, and boundaries. Mentioned in the episode:  UW Center for Human Rights | report on immigration enforcement and driver information | Immigration officers assert sweeping power to enter homes without a judge's warrant, memo says | Economist/YouGov Poll | ICE Can Now Spy on Every Phone in Your Neighborhood | Fury as Amazon Ring Cameras Are Hooked Up to ICE System | 2026 Oscar Nominations |  Sinners | Ryan Coogler | Fruitvale Station Read Prof. Godoy's Books: Popular Injustice | Of Medicines and Markets 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.

    1 hr
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Trailer

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
12 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
    45
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026
  • Show Website
    In the Meanwhile

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