Majority 54

In 2014, there was a shooting outside the Jewish Community Center in Overland Park, Kansas - a suburb of Kansas City. The gunman was a white supremacist and the former grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. He picked this location because he was sure he would find Jewish children preparing for a talent show. The gunman killed three people, none of whom were actually Jewish. Of the three people killed, two of them were related to Mindy Corporon. One was her 14 year-old son, Reit. The other was her...

One of the best parts of doing this podcast is getting to highlight friends of mine who are doing big things or have big ideas or both. Former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has a history of public service, and now he’s continuing it from the private sector. He’s a deeply thoughtful guy and he’s really made me think differently about what expectations we should put on the business community in America. I mean, yes, as progressives we think big business should pay its fair share of...

Jon Lovett takes over Majority 54 to interview Jason about his new book. "Outside The Wire" tells the story of Jason Kander's experiences as a deployed American soldier and what he's learned about working in politics while keeping your soul intact. Join us for this Crooked crossover episode with the host of Lovett or Leave It. "Outside The Wire" is available today, wherever books are sold.

This episode is for everyone who has listened to this show, thought about the change they’d like to make in the world, and hesitated to take action because they either weren’t an expert or weren’t directly affected by the thing they wanted to change. We’ve been debating the Muslim ban since the 2016 campaign, and we’ve even done an episode of this show on Islamophobia, but today we wanted to tell you about the woman behind the legal fight for refugees. She’s not a long-time human rights...

Gerrymandering is the process of redrawing the districts and reviewing the power structure of voting in America, but often for less than bi-partisan means. Every ten years, the party in power works with recent census data to determine the "best" way for voters to be represented. The process is becoming a bitter power play, and the people who are fighting against it are finding incredible backing from other voters who are tired of watching their voice in our government get muted more with...

This is a show all about reaching across the aisle and engaging with people that you might think could never change their mind. So, it's a real pleasure to talk to someone who has flipped a seemingly impossible stance in a public figure. I absolutely want to ask them about how they pulled it off, and what we can learn from that and/or emulate in our own battles. Remember a few years ago when the owner of Chick-fil-A made some anti-gay remarks and it lead to a national boycott of the fast...

Our guest today had never been a political person, mostly because he simply did not have time to. He works​ three jobs trying to support a family. And that ​is the issue: based on the minimum wage in America, he ​is ​still struggling to provide for his family. It certainly ​isn't due to ​a ​lack of work ethic. Here is my very personal conversation with minimum wage activist Terrance Wise about how we can right the ship. If you're a fan, check out our new line of t-shirts from the Crooked...

His name is Trae Crowder but you might know him under a different name: The Liberal Redneck. From his porch, Trae films videos on his phone where he goes on rants about social issues. You instantly feel he’s about to venture into very upsetting territory, and some of that comes from his mix of anger and a heavy southern accent. And then, when he hits his stride, The Liberal Redneck shifts into a position of openness, and general woke-ness, that turns your expectations on their head. Now, him...

Phil Spagnuolo is a state representative in New Hampshire, and someone who has personally struggled with opioid addiction. Last year, he flipped the seat from red to blue for the very first time in the history of that state. During the campaign for the 2016 election, Trump came to New Hampshire and made a lot of claims about the opioid epidemic and his plans to solve it. As you might have guessed, there’s been no progress on this issue from the Trump administration. But there has been...

Today, we’re talking to one of the biggest names in the tech entrepreneur world. He experienced a total political shift the night of the 2016 election, while he watched in horror, as most of us did. Unlike most of us, he set about creating a means for change to prevent this from ever happening again. Eric Ries inadvertently became very influential in the Resistance against Donald Trump’s policies (and many of you probably have used a tool he invented without even knowing it). We’re going to...

Welcome to Majority 54. We’re talking to the 54% of American​s​ who did not vote for Donald Trump about where we go from here. Senator Yvanna Cancela is a millennial union leader who thought she was headed for a much different destination. She listened to her calling and became the political director of Culinary Local 226, Nevada’s largest union. Now, Cancela has led protests, lobbied state lawmakers and played a pivotal role in turning Nevada blue last November when most of the nation wound...

Welcome the official start of season two of Majority 54. If you’re new to Majority 54, I’m Jason Kander, the president of Let America Vote: an organization dedicated to making sure that every American gets to vote by creating political consequences for anyone who wants to diminish the most basic American right. And we’re talking to the 54% of American who did not vote for Donald Trump about where we go from here. He's a District Attorney for Nueces County in Texas. He's a proponent of...

If you’re new to Majority 54, I’m Jason Kander, the president of Let America Vote: an organization dedicated to making sure that every American gets to vote by creating political consequences for anyone who wants to diminish the most basic American right. And we're talking to the 54% of Americans who did not vote for Donald Trump about where we go from here. In the first episode of this second season, we talk to someone who has an incredible platform about how he uses it to do good. That man...

Jason Kander previews Season 2 of Majority 54... coming this Friday!

Today we’re talking health care, taxes, and activism with Ady Barkan. Like me, you probably first became aware of Ady when a video of him confronting Jeff Flake went viral. But that wasn’t Ady’s first stab at activism – far from it in fact. A graduate of Columbia and of Yale Law, he could have done anything he wanted. He could have made a whole bunch of money right out of school, but instead, he started representing low-wage workers in New York City in pursuit of everything from paid sick...

Today we’re talking Voting Rights. In my mind, there is no issue of greater importance in the country right now – and that’s because it affects every other issue. As you may know, I’ve put a good chunk of time into this cause. I spent four years fighting voter suppression as Secretary of State in Missouri and I’ve spent the last year fighting it as the President of Let America Vote, an organization I founded. It’s a broad issue because there are a lot of different pieces to it, so in the...

Remember two years ago when we still talked about the college debt crisis? Remember when what to do about it was one of the defining topics of the Democratic primary for president? I’m nostalgic for those days, and I lament the fact that it barely qualifies as one of the most divisive issues anymore – solely because the people in power refuse to care about it. I’m interested in reviving the conversation. After today’s interview, I’ll address the talking points you hear from the other side...

I have an F rating from the NRA. They’ve spent millions against me. The leaders of the NRA hate me, but they loathe Shannon Watts. And I have a feeling you’re gonna love her. We closed 2017 by talking to a life-long activist and imploring you to deepen your involvement, so it makes sense to open 2018 talking to someone who grabbed an oar a few years ago and hasn’t stopped rowing since. Shannon founded Moms Demand Action, one of the most effective groups working to reduce gun violence, the...

This is a special episode of Majority 54. Usually this show focuses on a single divisive issue by talking to a single individual experiencing it in their everyday life. But from the beginning, I wanted to conclude this year with a different kind of conversation – one specifically about activism. 2017 has been a year of progressive activism. It’s drawn people out of their homes in so many inspiring ways, and from the women’s march to the #MeToo movement, the resistance has been especially...

It’s hard to think of a more polarizing issue than the wall Trump wants to build on our southern border. The conversation you’re about to hear was recorded in a wooden barn, on Tony Sedgwick’s ranch in Nogales, Arizona. Tony’s a Republican who didn’t vote for Donald Trump. In fact, Trump drove Tony all the way out of the party. He’s a small-town lawyer turned full-time Arizona rancher working the land that’s been in his family for generations. If President Trump is going to build his wall,...