How We Build This

Aru Shiney-Ajay: The Next Era of American Politics

Episode Summary

Sunrise Movement leader Aru Shiney-Ajay joins May Boeve to explore how a new generation of organizers is turning protest into political power, and daring to imagine a better future.*/

Episode Notes

May Boeve is joined by Aru Shiney-Ajay, executive director of the Sunrise Movement, about the power of youth-led organizing, the fight for democracy, and what it will take to usher in a new era of American politics. Joining from a college campus in Michigan just days before the midterms, Aru reflects on Sunrise's evolution from climate protests to electoral organizing, and why young people are uniquely positioned to imagine a radically different future.

Together, May and Aru explore the possibility of a new Green New Deal era, emerging grassroots resistance to AI data centers and corporate power, and the lessons of Minneapolis, where Aru witnessed extraordinary neighborhood solidarity in response to ICE operations. This is a vital conversation about organizing, imagination, and the courage to hope for something bigger.

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How We Build This is created and hosted by May Boeve

Producer: Phil Surkis

Theme music: ‘Within’, composed by Ruthie Dineen, and performed by Negative Press Project.

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