I'm back with another book report and this one is all about family, love, activism, identity, politics, and American and Puerto Rican culture.

Other resources mentioned in the episode:

The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein

Independent reporter Bianca Graulau @biancagraulau

Author and poet Elisabet Velasquez @elisabetvelasquezpoetry

It's an election year and the deluge of negative news can make it easy to feel disillusioned and want to check out. I offer some tips and tools to help you feel informed, engaged, and yes, even hopeful.

Tldr: pick a handful of journalists and/or a podcast or two to follow and one cause or campaign to support. And set a daily timer on your news apps! Quality over quantity is the key here.

Folks I mentioned as suggestions on who to follow on social media/subscribe to their newsletters/read their stuff:

• Oliver Willis (I have 3 one-month subscriptions to his newsletter to give away, so contact me if you're interested)
• Teri Kanefield
• Judd Legum
• Dan Rather
• Heather Cox Richardson
• Adam Serwer
• Keith Edwards
• Marc Elias
• Sherrilyn Ifill
• Elie Mystal
• Molly Jong-Fast
• Nikole Hannah-Jones
• Robert Reich
• Jay Kuo

The podcasts I mentioned:

• The Nation
• Boom Lawyered
• Small Doses with Amanda Seales

On March 5th, residents of District 4 of Alameda County will be voting for their supervisor, who will represent them on the county's Board of Supervisors. The candidates are 24-year incumbent Nate Miley and his challenger, Jennifer Esteen. Esteen joins me to talk about her campaign and why voters should support her. We talk about public safety, mental health, housing and homelessness, the Coliseum, and more. 

To learn more about Jennifer Esteen, visit jenniferesteen.com.

Two upcoming candidate forums:

Feb. 25th, Skyline Church in Oakland, 5-6:30pm, in-person and virtual. More info here: https://skylineucc.org/forum/

Feb. 29th, virtual forum, 7-8:30pm, hosted by Restore Oakland and Oakland Rising