I review the excellent, Oscar-nominated film Ainda Estou Aqui (I'm Still Here) about Brazil's military dictatorship and what it says about the current regime in the US.

Continuing on the theme of navigating modern times and the importance of our closest relationships, particularly friendship, I share a piece I wrote recently:Playing Capoeira in Beirut.

I did not buy this book to get through the current moment, but it is helping me get through the current moment. A beautiful story of how to live through dictatorship, particularly about the role of friendship. “The question, arguably the most important question of all, is how to escape the demands of unreasonable men.”

My Friends by Hisham Matar

*sorry if you can hear a faint noise in the background of the recording - I had my heater on!

We're a week away from the inauguration, and I keep thinking about my recent visit to the Equal Justice Initiative's Legacy Sites in Montgomery, Alabama. That visit made it all make sense.

I'm back. In the era of billionaire bros, voting with our dollars has taken on great importance. I share some thoughts on how to do that and why there is reason for hope as we go through this Gilded Age reboot.

Bookshop.org alternative to Amazon for books

The StoryGraph alternative to GoodReads for book reviews and tracking

Fossil Free Funds for sustainable investment options

Muckraking journalism by Judd Legum

We are a few days away from the end of voting in the United States, and many are facing long lines to vote. Pizza to the Polls is here to help, by sending pizza to voters facing long lines.

Facing an 1+ hour long wait to vote? Request pizza from Pizza to the Polls here.

Pizza to the Polls is available in all states for this election except Georgia, which criminalized the provision of food and water to voters following 2020, when Georgia voted for Joe Biden and for two Democratic senators.

Welcome to Season 5! If you're feeling election anxiety, I've got a way for you to direct that energy towards winning in November. In addition to winning the White House, we also need to retake the House and keep the Senate; the change we need requires a blue trifecta. With that in mind, here are a few places where you can donate to key congressional races, i.e. races that are really close and underfunded, so a boost in funding can make a difference in the voter turnout needed to ensure a blue trifecta.

key House races

key Senate races

key House and state races

key House, Senate, and state races

*full disclosure: I have donated to each of these funds, so I am recommending what I myself have used

I have collaborated again with Mike Pinto, host of the Singing for Survival capoeira history podcast. This time, we discuss sexual abuse in capoeira and what we as capoeiristas can do to address the wrong that has happened and how to prevent it moving forward. One of those ways is to support CapoeirAcolher, an organization in Brazil that supports victims of such abuse.