The Battles We Pick

What can we learn about making social and political change from talking to professional change-makers? This work takes a combination of persistence, shrewdness, and luck. On the Battles We Pick podcast, skilled advocates and organizers talk about how they deal with the various challenges they confront. Theme music by generous permission of recording artist Stephen.

The Battles We Pick is a government podcast hosted by David Shorr, with 23 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

David Shorr hosts The Battles We Pick, a government show with 23 episodes published.

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  Episode #23

  Civic Strategist Caitie Whelan on "Giving folks the tools to make public policy for the people"

  Jan 7, 202530 minS0

  <p>Send us a text</p><p>Civic strategist Caitie Whelan's professional mission is to level the playing field of public policy. As she puts it on her website, "If regular folks don’t know how to have a voice in policymaking, lobbyists do. And they are very good at shaping it for their special interests." Caitie's work helping clients climb the learning curve of policy change advocacy made her a great guest for the podcast.<br/><br/>As she guides clients along the advocacy learning curve, Catie focuses on three core questions:</p>Who has the power to do wh...

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  Episode #22

  White nationalism researcher Hannah Gais on the overlap of hate groups and the GOP

  Sep 11, 202445 minS0

  <p>Send us a text</p><p>The Intelligence Project of the Southern Poverty Law Center is well known for tracking and exposing the activities of hate and extremist groups. So it was great to have one of their researchers, Hannah Gais, as a guest on the podcast. Discussing her work on White nationalist and Neo-Nazi groups, Hannah told me about the extremist voices and ideas that the MAGA Republicans have welcomed into their Party. As one example, Hannah gave the back story on the Holocaust-denier who appeared recently on Sean Hannity's show, arguing that America was on the wrong...

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  Episode #21

  Veteran immigrant rights advocate Charles Kamasaki on the last comprehensive reform, and the next

  Aug 7, 202444 minS0

  <p>Send us a text</p><p>It is often noted that the last time Congress enacted comprehensive immigration reform was in the 1980s. Charles Kamasaki was not only deeply involved in shaping that legislation as an advocate, but he's also written an authoritative history of the effort titled Immigration Reform: The Corpse That Will Not Die. Kamasaki has for several decades guided the work of  the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization, Unidos US, formerly known as the National Council of La Raza. The Migration Policy Institute has been the sponsor and outlet for much of Cha...

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  Episode #20

  Civic Power coauthor Sabeel Rahman on bringing affected communities directly into decision-making

  Jul 27, 202445 minS0

  <p>Send us a text</p><p>Cornell Law School Professor Sabeel Rahman is coauthor of an important recent book, Civic Power, about the urgent need to revitalize American democracy with much closer links between government and those it's meant to serve. The only path to meaningful equity and true government "by the people" is to engage affected communities as genuine agenda-setting and decision-making partners. <br/><br/>Putting the traditionally disempowered at the center entails a fundamentally new approach to reform. Sabeel and I discussed some of the traditional frameworks for reform such as civility or transparency—abstractions that skate rig...

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  Episode #19

  African social entrepreneur Lolo Cynthia on getting healthy sexuality education into schools

  Jul 19, 202448 minS0

  <p>Send us a text</p><p>Lolo Cynthia is an African reproductive health activist, social entrepreneur, and experienced communicator. She shared some of the negative experiences that led her to focus on healthy sexuality and talked about how she gets schools to open up to the curriculum on sex and relationships that she developed. </p><p>Drawing on what she’s observed about various advocacy efforts, Lolo has clear advice to offer on the best way to develop narratives as the basis of your advocacy on. It was also interesting to hear Lolo's perspective on the dangers of having adv...

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