GasLit Nation: Will the Youth Save Us?

November 7, 2022

GASLIT NATION WITH ANDREA CHALUPA AND SARAH KENDZIOR

f you have a young person in your life, take them to vote, and if they’re voting for the first time do something special to mark the big occasion. That’s the advice of this week’s special guest. Here is an excerpt of our interview with Dakota Hall, the executive director of the Alliance for Youth Action—the first Black and Indigenous leader of the organization—and former executive director of the Alliance’s Wisconsin-based affiliate Leaders Igniting Transformation. The Alliance for Youth Action grows progressive people power across America by empowering local young people’s organizations to strengthen our democracy, fix our economy, and correct injustices through on-the-ground organizing. 

GasLit Nation: Kanye. Elon. Trump

Oct 19, 2022

GASLIT NATION WITH ANDREA CHALUPA AND SARAH KENDZIOR

Imagine: the year is 2005. The Apprentice dominates the airwaves, Kanye West dominates the charts, and you are told that in seventeen years, you will be comparing the antisemitic rants of former presidential candidate West to the antisemitic rants of former president Trump as you analyze the descent of the United States into full-fledged authoritarian kleptocracy. Where is a Tesla time machine when you need one?! Surely transporting us back to an era in which we could alter our current timeline this would be a better endeavor for shit-talker Elon Musk than taking over Twitter while bonding with the extremist right.

GasLit Nation: Laboratories of Autocracy

October 7, 2022

GASLIT NATION WITH ANDREA CHALUPA AND SARAH KENDZIOR

Hey remember when Trump stole a bunch of classified documents related to nuclear material and stored them in his Florida golf compound and the legal pundits said “he can’t do that” and Trump summoned the ghost of Roy Cohn who said “it doesn’t matter what the law is, only who the judge is” and a Trump-appointed judge ruled in favor of Trump and then another throwback from Trump’s mafia glory days in NYC was appointed “Special Master”?

David Pepper has witnessed Ohio devolve into an electoral autocracy where extreme Republican gerrymandering ensures that the results of the state elections are pre-determined. This is happening across the country in so-called red states, which are in reality voter suppression states or Republican hostage states. Pepper explains how we got here, what can still be done about it, and his list of reasons and strategies to fight like hell. For more on Pepper’s work, check out his book Laboratories of Autocracy: A Wake-Up Call from Behind the Lines and his website LaboratoriesOfAutocracy.com.

GasLit Nation: Defiance

Sept 28, 2022

GASLIT NATION WITH ANDREA CHALUPA AND SARAH KENDZIOR

This week we kick off by examining a country that is technically a democracy on paper but is actually ruled by an unelected supreme court of theocrats who strip women of their basic rights! Is it the United States? Iran? Does the fact that we have to ask not speak to a broader global attack on women’s bodily autonomy?! We look at the brave protests of Iranian women and prepare for a horrific month of rulings on the Supreme Court here in the US. We also note that a woman will become prime minister of Italy for the first time, but of course she is a fascist groomed by Steve Bannon, because it is 2022 and we are in hell.

GasLit Nation: Special Master of Puppets

Sept 21, 2022

GASLIT NATION WITH ANDREA CHALUPA AND SARAH KENDZIOR

Hey remember when Trump stole a bunch of classified documents related to nuclear material and stored them in his Florida golf compound and the legal pundits said “he can’t do that” and Trump summoned the ghost of Roy Cohn who said “it doesn’t matter what the law is, only who the judge is” and a Trump-appointed judge ruled in favor of Trump and then another throwback from Trump’s mafia glory days in NYC was appointed “Special Master”?