Freedom Over Fascism: Fireside Chats

Gloria Johnson's Website TN State Representative Gloria Johnson has dedicated her life to serving Tenneseans, fighting for justice and standing tall for all who have been left out, left behind, or left without a voice.  Early on Gloria’s family instilled in her the drive to put people first, no matter the cost. Growing up, Gloria remembers sleeping in the hallway of their family home, instead of h...

Emily Voorde is Founder and CEO of INTO Strategies, a Disabled-led firm bringing people into moments, movements, and campaigns. Emily also serves as a Presidentially-appointed Councilmember on the National Council on Disability. She previously served as an Associate Director in the White House Office of Public Engagement as the Biden-Harris Administration’s liaison to Disabled Americans and K-12 e...

As a gay youth growing up in a small, deep South farming town in Tennessee, Lance Preston experienced an enormous amount of religious hate from the Southern Baptist Church. Though his family was always supportive, accepting, and loving, his struggles between living his truth and living in Christianity led to a suicide attempt at the age of 19. As a result, he is passionate in his advocacy for LGBT...

Dr. Katie McHugh is a board certified OBGYN and an abortion provider, chronic pain specialist, and patient advocate. She is currently licensed in 3 states (Indiana, Ohio, and Maryland) and travels to provide abortion care in various locations in these states to provide compassionate, trauma-informed, patient-empowering abortion care. While the work is technically difficult and logistically challen...

Jocelyn Vare is an at-large member of Fishers Indiana City Council and currently serves as the first Democrat ever elected to Fishers municipal office. She is running for re-election in 2023. Her city is at the center of an ever-growing battle between MAGA far right radicals and Moms for Tyranny and public libraries and schools. Find more here and donate to her campaign: https://www.jocelynvarefor...

Best Of: Jessica Craven is a community organizer, activist, mom, and elected member of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party. She’s also the author of "Chop Wood, Carry Water," a daily actions e-mail that’s been published five days a week since November of 2016. She’s a member of the CADem Environmental Caucus, a climate activist, and a grassroots volunteer who has knocked doors, phone-banked, f...

Best of: Jonathan Zucker, founder of Every State Blue, Is a political technology entrepreneur and campaign finance attorney. He was the first COO and second CEO of ActBlue . He talks to Heidi and Stephanie about the idea behind Every State Blue (Blue Missouri, Blue Ohio, Blue Texas, and hopefully Blue Indiana). The goal is to crowdfund money to provide to candidates for every single state legislat...

Freedom Over Fascism was formerly known as What the Gerrymander. Brynn Tannehill is a graduate of the U. S. Naval Academy and the Air Force Institute of Technology with degrees in Computer Science and Operations Research. She is a Naval Aviator who did four deployments to locations such as the Adriatic, Middle East, and the North Atlantic. After leaving active duty she has continued to work in def...

"It's time to go on offense." Simon Rosenberg has been a top Democratic operative for a long time. He founded NDN, a democracy research and advocacy group in 1996. Recently, he started to believe that the United States is entering a new political era that requires new strategies and approaches. He created a new project, Hopium Chronicles, as a way to tout positive messaging about Democrats and the...

Veronical Pejril, is a city council member in Greencastle, IN and the only elected transgender individual in Indiana. Veronica is also an assistant professor in DePauw University’s School of Music, where she teaches courses in music technology and provides leadership for the university’s instructional technology team. She’s a member of Hoosier Women Forward, a board member of Indiana Stonewall Dem...

In our special Best Of series, we're featuring this episode on patriotism for the 4th of July holiday. Ben Railton teaches American Studies of Fitchburg State University in MA. He is author of six books on American identity, national narratives, and collective memory, most recently Of Thee I Sing: The Contested History of American Patriotism (2021). He writes the daily American Studier blog, contr...

Welcome to the last original episode in the first season of What the Gerrymander. We saved the best for last, and this interview with Anat Shenker-Osorio is chock full of magically delicious messaging guidance. Anat Shenker-Osorio is owner of ASO Communications and host of the podcast Words to Win By. She has been my messaging guiding light since I became aware of her work 2 years ago. I first hea...

Sheila Kennedy is a former ED of the Indiana ACLU, Emerita Professor of Law and Public Policy at IUPUI. Sheila’s journeyed from being a liberal republican to leaving the Republican party in 2000 after it had moved irreversibly to the Right. She currently works in democratic circles for democracy and freedom, and against gerrymandering and voter suppression. She writes a daily blog at https://sheil...

Sam Goldman is the host of the podcast Refuse Fascism and is on the editorial board of refusefascism.org.  Send any questions to stephanie@hoosiervictoryalliance.org . Please help What the Gerrymander and subscribe wherever you're listening to this pod. Also, please consider a recurring donation of $15 to help start Blue Indiana and crowdsource funding for state legislative candidates. Donate at w...

Haley Bash (she/they) is the founder of Donor Organizer Hub. Their style of donor organizing is having one-on-ones with friends and sending out BCCed emails to a list of 150 people 2-3 times per year. Haley is passionate about helping each donor organizer find their preferred method of doing this work to raise for under-funded progressive causes! https://www.donororganizerhub.org/     Send any que...

Heidi Beidinger and Stephanie Gerber Wilson discuss how Heidi's worldview shifted after our interview with Ryan Busse, which was recorded the day before we recorded this episode (that's why you hear Heidi say we talked to him yesterday.) Heidi and Stephanie discuss what it really means to be in a war with MAGA Republicans who want to take power and create a white Christian authoritarian state. We...

Jessica Piper ran for office in 2022 for State Representative in Northwest Missouri. She was not successful, but used the experience to organize progressives in rural Missouri. She is now is the Executive Director for Blue Missouri and hosts a weekly podcast called “Dirt Road Democrat” which can be found wherever you listen to podcasts. is a mother to five and grandmother to three and lives on a s...

Ryan Busse, author of Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry that Radicalized America , joins us to discuss the NRA and MAGA's culture wars to build power and wealth, and to turn the country into an autocracy. Listen to a discussion of whether "it can happen here," and how Heidi wants to understand responsible gun owners. Busse tells us how we can turn the culture war around. Please consider a r...

Kimberly Allen is founder of Power the Vote and Blue Texas. She joined Power the Vote from Covington & Burling LLP, where she was Special Counsel in the Commercial Litigation group. During the 2020 election cycle, Kim was Deputy Director of Voter Protection at the Democratic Party of Georgia, where she led the ballot monitoring program. She started the voter protection program with Power the V...

Josh Lowry ran for Indiana state senate in 2022 and is running for State House in 2024. He is a lawyer, former Assistant AG, and a foster parent. Josh and his wife Alexis, who is running for city council in Westfield, Indiana, have fostered 11 kids, 4 of whom they adopted. When not driving one of his children to practice or work, Josh is a competitive natural bodybuilder and plays recreational soc...

Nick Roberts is the 22 year old, Gen-Z Democratic nominee for Indianapolis City-County Council District 4. He has been involved in politics for years, which has included much work during 2021's redistricting around the state. His campaign is focusing on infrastructure, public safety and mental health. You can learn more about him on Twitter: www.twitter.com/nickroberts317. You can donate to his ca...

David Pepper, author of Laboratories of Autocracy, joins us to discuss gerrymandering, voter suppression, and how the MAGA GOP has used these strategies to capture statehouses and pass extreme policies in Indiana, Ohio, and many other Red States. His next book is how everyday people can take action to save Democracy, and he previews this, telling us that every community organization, mayor, and bu...

What the Gerrymander? hosted by Heidi Beindinger, investigates what it takes to build political power in areas where Republicans are trying to make America into a Dictatorship, like in Indiana. We’ll be talking to Democratic state officials in Republican-dominated areas and to activists who are working to build power in so-called Red America. Together we’ll discover what it takes to win in parts o...