📡 On my Radar

Conan O’Brien knows why film production is leaving Los Angeles.

While hosting the Oscars this year, he had an idea for a quick visual gag. During a commercial break, the camera would catch him backstage, rolling around on the floor with nine golden retrievers. Pure joy. Then the music would cue him to the stage. Handlers would rush in with huge lint brushes, mussing his hair and face, and he’d walk out as if nothing happened and start his monologue.

Then he found out those nine seconds would cost $30,000 to film.

Turns out the rules around filming with animals have gotten complicated. The dogs would need to be acclimated to each other for weeks. They’d need to live together. Their handlers would need to live with them. And someone would have to pay for the time, the housing, the meals.

Conan scrapped the bit. What he wanted wasn’t possible or affordable … at least not in LA.

This small story points to a much bigger problem: Like many other states, California has become too expensive for most Americans.

The state now has the highest cost-of-living-adjusted poverty rate in the country. An ER visit here costs $3,238. In Maryland it costs $682. 42,000 film jobs have disappeared from L.A. County in two years. Productions aren’t leaving for the weather.

Here’s what bothers me: California’s values are the right ones. It’s a good thing we care about worker protections, animal welfare, accessibility, and the environment. But when good intentions get so layered in process that a 9 second comedy bit costs 50% of a teacher’s annual salary, something has broken.

The values haven’t failed. The implementation has.

Leave a comment

📈 By the Numbers

👊🏽 Make a Difference

9 jobs | 2 opportunities | 1 fellowship

FELLOWSHIP | The Difference Engine at ASU has two open spots for its Distinguished Innovation Fellows program. Join a cohort of leaders working at the intersection of social impact and innovation.

JOB | Team Rubicon is hiring a Director of Business Development and a Business Development Officer for mission-driven professionals ready to serve communities in crisis.

JOB | Francesco Galtieri shares that UNFPA is seeking a Chief (D-1) in New York to lead the Programme Liaison Branch in its Programme Division.

JOB | WildCard Creative is hiring an Associate Creative Editor.

OPPORTUNITY | Roshan Paul shares a fully-funded hiring strategy support program for US-based climate nonprofits, offered through Onboard Climate and Action Appointments NGO Recruitment.

JOB | Jeff Ziarnik at the International Law Institute in Washington DC is hiring a Project and Growth Administrator.

JOB (3) | The California Civil Rights Department is hiring investigators to resolve civil rights complaints, conducting interviews, research, and analysis of state law.

OPPORTUNITY | Judy Belk shares the 2026 Georgetown University Executive Certificate in Philanthropic Leadership is open for applications, sponsored by the Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership. Scholarships available.

JOB | The City of Long Beach is recruiting a Business Engagement Officer to lead workforce and economic development strategies and strengthen employer partnerships across the city.

Share

🤓 This is Your Next

Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know, by Adam Grant.

🙌🏽 FairNation

The Onion takes over InfoWars. Timeline goes from “darkest” to just “dark”

Subscribe now

Read more

📡 On my Radar

You probably didn’t notice when oil hit $100 a barrel last week. You will notice when ground beef hits $8 a pound this fall.

That’s how wars work when they’re far away. They don’t announce themselves at your front door. They show up in your grocery cart.

Rising gas prices are just the opening act.

Farmers who can't afford fertilizer this spring will produce smaller harvests this fall. Smaller harvests mean less livestock feed. Less feed means more expensive meat. By the time you feel it at the register, the cause will be six months old and 7,000 miles away.

This is how affordability crises are built: in a sequence most people never notice. A blockade becomes an oil spike becomes a diesel shortage becomes a smaller harvest becomes a crop yield becomes a grocery bill.

And it won't hit evenly. Low and middle income families already spend a larger share of their income on gas and groceries. They absorb these shocks first and recover last. This is an economic problem, which can become a political one. When people feel squeezed and can't explain why, they don't blame a strait they can't find on a map …they blame each other.

No one in Washington is talking about this. They're talking about the blockade. They're talking about the ceasefire. They're not talking about your grocery bill in October.

Leave a comment

📈 By the Numbers

👊🏽 Make a Difference

10 jobs | 1 internship | 1 opportunity

JOB | Melissa Lockhart Fortner shares that Global Partnerships is hiring a Director of Development at their Seattle HQ to drive pipeline advancement for fund investors and philanthropic donors.

JOB | Jake Wood at Groundswell is hiring a Product Manager to join their team.

INTERNSHIP | Kimberly Roland shares that Desert Financial’s CSR and Foundation Programs team is seeking a detail-oriented intern with a passion for events and project management in corporate social responsibility.

OPPORTUNITY | Dreamily Williams shares that the National Association of Professional Staff in Public Safety is recruiting State Liaisons to represent professional staff leadership and connect the Association’s work across the country.

JOB | The City of San Francisco is hiring a Director of Innovation to lead civic innovation at one of the country’s most dynamic cities.

JOB | UN-Habitat’s Urban Resilience Hub is seeking a Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer specializing in anti-corruption at the P3 level on a temporary basis.

JOB | The ACLU of Southern California is hiring a Director of Education Equity to lead advocacy on education justice across Southern California and the state.

JOB (4) | The Howard University Institute for Advanced Study is building its founding team ahead of a fall launch, with multiple openings including Research Manager, Research Assistant, Social Media Coordinator, Administrative Assistant, and three roles at The Emancipator.

Share

🤓 This is Your Next

Shoe Dog, by Phil Knight

🙌🏽 FairNation

The end of your job isn’t the end of your career. It’s a new start. If you’re interested, sign up to become a Distinguished Innovation Fellow.

Subscribe now

Read more

📡 On my Radar

Crisis encourages action.

After the civil rights movement, Black Americans flooded into law schools. After discrimination grew post-9/11, many American Muslims and Sikh Americans entered careers in civil rights law. I was one of them.

The pattern was clear: injustice encouraged resistance.

Things are worryingly different now. This year, the number of lawyers from minority backgrounds at U.S. law firms and non-profits just hit a decade low. Three straight years of decline for law students who are women, LGBTQ, or people of color, even while overall hiring remains high.

There are many reasons for this. The U.S. government has criminalized diversity. Law firms are selectively hiring candidates who won’t draw the government’s ire. Legal non-profits that would attract these lawyers have seen their funding cut by the federal government for being “too woke.”

Is it any surprise that young law students feel unwelcome and demoralized in an environment where they should be feeling righteously angry and inspired to fight back?

Unlike in the past, injustice isn't encouraging young lawyers to fight back. It seems to be keeping them out.

That has to change. The courtroom is still the most powerful room in the country. We need young lawyers in it, and it's on the rest of us to make sure the door stays open.

Leave a comment

📈 By the Numbers

👊🏽 Make a Difference

11 jobs

JOB | My friends at Team Rubicon lead the search for an operations leader.

JOB | Masha Tarasyuk reshares that Democracy Prep is hiring a Managing Director of Marketing & Communications, an executive role reporting to the CEO and leading brand strategy during a period of growth and evolution.

JOB | The Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights seeks a VP of Advancement & Engagement. This role is for those who know that fundraising is really movement building and want to do it at a moment when civil rights organizations are on the front lines.

JOB | Mayur Saxena is hiring an experienced attorney to serve as Chief of the Labor Enforcement Section at the NJ Attorney General’s Office, leading efforts to protect New Jersey workers from wage theft and other unlawful labor practices.

JOB (6) | OpenAI is hiring several positions on its AI integrity team.

JOB | Religions for Peace International seeks a Special Projects Associate at its UN-based headquarters in NYC.

Share

🤓 This is Your Next

How Countries Go Broke, by Ray Dalio

🙌🏽 FairNation

Working with young people is the privilege of a lifetime.

Subscribe now

Read more

📡 On my Radar

Apple Computer turns 50 on April 1st.

Tim Cook is throwing parties and inviting influencers. He’s talking a lot about Steve Jobs, but barely mentioning Apple’s other cofounder: Steve Wozniak (Woz).

After Apple’s 1980 IPO made Jobs and other Apple executives rich, Wozniak noticed something: Apple’s very first employees, the team of young employees who had actually built the early Apple II computers, received none of the stock options the executives had.

Steve Jobs had cut them out.

Wozniak considered this unfair and unacceptable.

So he created “The Woz Plan.”

He offered 80 early employees 2,000 of his own shares per employee, at the bargain basement price of $5 a share. Because of his generosity, many of those early employees went on to become millionaires themselves, using the funds to buy their first homes and putting their kids through college.

Had Wozniak kept his full 7.9% stake in 1980, he’d be worth over $237 billion today. Instead, he’s worth “only” about $100 million. He once said, “I didn’t ever want to be rich. What I have is more than enough.”

Unlike Woz, today’s tech billionaires hoard equity like oxygen. The notable exception? MacKenzie Scott, who has given away $26 billion since 2019, no strings attached, to HBCUs, climate groups, and community organizations.

Today, billionaires buy social media platforms and rocket ships. In 1980 Woz bought his team houses. That's the kind of leadership we need right now, and we should be celebrating Woz just as much, if not more, than Jobs.

Leave a comment

📈 By the Numbers

👊🏽 Make a Difference

11 jobs

JOB | Dilpreet Sidhu is hiring a Director of International Relations for the City of Los Angeles.

JOB | Team Rubicon seeks a Grant Writer to fund mission-critical disaster response and humanitarian work.

Read more

📡 On my Radar

Over the past year, the Iranian regime has brutally murdered thousands of its own people for speaking out against government policies (a story that has received scant news coverage). But the United States isn’t bombing Iran to protect human rights or save lives.

And bombing countries is expensive.

The war in Iran has cost the U.S. $6 billion in its first week. Nearly $900 million a day, most of it unbudgeted. Estimates suggest the total could hit $65 billion if this drags on.

What we spend bombing Iran in one day could fund Los Angeles’ entire annual budget for homeless services ($908 million).

The cost of bombing Iran over one week could build 485,000 affordable housing units, housing every low-income person in LA County - allowing them to work, pay taxes and support local businesses.

We can afford carrier strike groups, stealth bombers, and cruise missiles. But we can’t find the money to house people, fix roads, or keep hospitals open.

We could be saving lives, instead of taking them.

The budget is never the problem. Priorities are.

Leave a comment

📈 By the Numbers

👊🏽 Make a Difference

12 jobs | 1 fellowship

JOB | Kashif Shaikh shares that Pillars Fund is expanding and hiring a new leadership position that will report directly to him and be an important part of their leadership team.

JOB | Team Rubicon seeks logistics and supply chain professionals to join their service-driven, veteran-led organization.

JOB | Mark Gaskins shares a Director of Engagement, West Coast position at Instruction Partners.

FELLOWSHIP | Sameer Hossain shares a life-changing experience with the International Career Advancement Program (ICAP) and encourages those interested to reach out.

JOB | Shariq Siddiqui announces a newly created Grantee Partnership & Program Manager position at the WF Fund. Email the link for more info.

JOB | The American Epilepsy Society seeks a Director of Development to build their culture of giving and raise funds for critical research.

JOB (3) | Julia Firestone shares that Park Foundation is hiring a Program Officer, Senior Program Officer, and Executive Assistant.

JOB | UNICEF UK seeks a Faith and Membership Lead in the London area (hybrid).

JOB | Jennifer Atala shares an opportunity for former U.S. Dept of Treasury professionals to join Capital One as a Senior Director of Sanctions Compliance.

Share

🤓 This is Your Next

Steve Jobs in Exile: The Untold Story of NeXT and the Remaking of an American Visionary (unreleased), by Geoffrey Cain.

🙌🏽 FairNation

25 people. 20 products to combat inequality launched over 3 days.

We did something remarkable at last week. Thank you to my team, friends, supporters, and colleagues for breathing life into a small dream I had and helping make it their own.

Subscribe now

Read more

📡 On my Radar

I make some of my students deliver their exams orally. Not as punishment, but to discourage them from using AI to cheat.

They can use AI to prepare however they want. But when they sit across from me, they have to actually know the material, without AI’s help. It’s the best balance I’ve found. But it’s my balance. A computer science professor can’t exactly ask students to verbally compile code.

If we can ask AI any question and get an 80-90% good enough answer, why exactly do we need teachers? Experts?

Increasingly, a lecture is just a slow query with bad lighting.

When both teachers and students are using AI, the old model … professor as knowledge delivery system … is dead. And honestly? Good riddance.

Because knowledge has been democratized. A first-gen student in Compton can now access something resembling an elite college tutor. Customized, patient, available at any time. That’s extraordinary. That’s the equalizer we’ve been asking for.

But here’s what AI can’t do: it can’t tell a student their argument is interesting but wrong in a way that makes them rethink everything. It can’t model what it looks like to change your mind in real time. It can’t mentor.

So what’s a teacher for now? I’m still thinking about my answer but I’d be curious to hear yours.

Leave a comment

📈 By the Numbers

👊🏽 Make a Difference

11 jobs | 1 internship | 1 funding opportunity

INTERNSHIP | Amica Center for Immigrant Rights seeks law student interns to work with children in the immigration system this summer.

JOB | Grande Lum is hiring an Associate Director of the Gould Center for Conflict Resolution at Stanford Law School.

Read more

📡 On my Radar

For most of history, the future was predictable.

A farmer in 1504 knew his grandkid would be a farmer in 1555. Even up until 2005, you could pick a major, plan a career, and map out retirement. The road was long, but at least you could see it.

Now imagine driving at full speed and the road is … everywhere. Up, down, in the air. The GPS is recalculating. And the old directions are useless.

This is life right now. We’re trying to navigate a world that’s moving faster than anyone can model. Is it a surprise that anxiety is at an all-time high?

In the past, even as the world changed, the broad rules remained the same: get educated and you’ll do fine. Now the very meaning of “education” is changing.

It’s not about the knowledge you acquire. Knowledge is now easily accessible. It’s not about the skills you acquire. Most of those skills are quickly being automated by AI (from writing, to analysis, to art … and soon with robots, it’ll extend to plumbing and car repair).

It’s about adaptability.

How good are you at learning how to learn? How good are you at communicating with people? Are you open to new ideas? Can you stay curious when the ground shifts?

When the road disappears, can you be like Doc Brown and build a DeLorean to take to the skies?

Share

📈 By the Numbers

👊🏽 Make a Difference

10 jobs | 3 funding opportunities | 2 fellowships

FELLOWSHIP | Diego Cartagena shares that the Borchard Foundation Center on Law & Aging is accepting applications for the 2026–2028 Borchard Fellowships — a two-year, full-time fellowship for recent law grads pursuing careers in law and aging.

JOB | shares that the MacArthur Foundation is hiring a Director of Artificial Intelligence.

JOB | My friends at Team Rubicon are looking for a Residential Construction Project Management Associate. This remote role can be based anywhere in the lower 48 states.

FELLOWSHIP | Michelle Sullivan Govani shares an opportunity to become a Principled Innovation Fellow at Arizona State University.

JOB | My hometown college California State University Long Beach seeks a Director of Admissions.

JOB | Silissa Smith shares that Girls Inc. of Orange County is hiring a bilingual (Spanish/English) Community Engagement Coordinator to help grow their impact across schools and communities.

JOB | Wafa Ben Hassine is looking for an exceptional leader to serve as Humanity AI’s first Executive Director — guiding strategy, managing grantmaking, and coordinating funders and civil society organizations working to ensure people have power to shape how AI develops.

JOB | Former ASU colleague Suzanne Rinker seeks a sophisticated Assistant Dean for Development and External Relations for the University of Washington School of Law.

JOB | Farhan Syed is hiring a strong people manager to lead the Roads Division Accounts Payable Team at King County, WA.

FUNDING (3) | Pamela DeLargy shares three scholarship opportunities: the Rotary Peace Master’s Degree Scholarship 2027–28, the Joint Japan/World Bank Graduate Scholarship Program 2027, and the Swedish Institute Scholarships for Global Professionals — all fully funded.

JOB | Nick Martin shares that the MacArthur Foundation is hiring a Director of Artificial Intelligence.

JOB | Apurva Chandra seeks a Nonprofit Industry Lead at Microsoft Elevate.

Share

🤓 This is Your Next

One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This, by Omar El Akkad.

🙌🏽 FairNation

Feeling frustrated about the state of the world? Join me and our community of Difference Engineers in a few weeks for our version of happy hour, “Angry Hour” with George Aye from Greater Good Studio. It’ll be a great time!

Learn More & RSVP

Read more

📡 On my Radar

Minneapolis is the nightmare scenario my colleagues and I spent years trying to prevent.

Working on civil rights policies at DHS during the Obama administration, we built policies for exactly this moment.

• Anti-masking requirements, because identification reduces fear and enables accountability.

• Restrictions on “Police” uniforms for agents who aren’t police.

• Sensitive locations protections to prevent ICE from making arrests at hospitals, houses of worship, schools - so parents could take kids to school without fear.

These weren’t radical ideas. They survived Trump’s first term. But on January 20, 2025, they were wiped out with a single signature.

I believed good policy, carefully built, could hold.

I was wrong.

Policy at the pleasure of the president is just that, at his pleasure. If we want these protections to last, they need to be legislated, litigated, or built at the state level. More importantly, they must be fought for.

What’s happening in Minneapolis reminds me that experts can craft policy, leaders can change it, but only the people can make protection permanent. Those 50,000 people in subzero cold, the general strike, the clergy arrests at the airport, that’s what durability actually looks like.

Not memos. Movements.

Share

📈 By the Numbers

👊🏽 Make a Difference

12 jobs | 2 opportunities | 1 internship

JOB (3) | Prevail Fund is expanding and hiring for their New Initiatives team, including Researcher and Manager/Senior Manager roles, with an Associate position coming soon.

JOB (3) | is hiring Proposal Development and Business Development Consultants at TechChange, hourly, remote, and flexible.

Read more

📡 On my Radar

One of my greatest dreams- forever unfulfilled - would be to sit with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and ask his advice. What would someone with his moral clarity say about America today?

On economic inequality: King launched the Poor People's Campaign because racism and economic exploitation are inseparable. Today, the top 1% holds 40% of American wealth. He wasn't afraid to say it: "There's something wrong with capitalism." Fifty-eight years later, we're still too timid to fix capitalism. HOW: He'd tell us to build coalitions across race, the poor share more in common with each other than with the wealthy, regardless of skin color.

On AI: 85% of AI hiring tools prefer white-associated names. New walls. Same architects. But King would also see something revolutionary: a child in rural Mississippi accessing the same tutoring as one in Manhattan. He'd demand we fight the bias without maligning the tool. HOW: Get in the room where it's built. Shape it for justice.

On ICE and militarism: King warned that a nation choosing military power over human needs "is approaching spiritual death." We've arrived. A military-centric society eventually turns those weapons inward. He'd see Renee Good's killing not as an aberration, but as a sad inevitability absent reform. HOW: He'd tell us to keep protesting peacefully, even at risk of injury by an unjust regime.

On the progressive left: King's sharpest words weren't for the Klan, they were for "the white moderate, more devoted to order than to justice." Today's progressives have the right values and zero fight. Press conferences while millions lose healthcare. Statements while people die. You don't build movements playing defense. You build them by making injustice impossible to ignore.

King's words aren't history. They're a blueprint.

Share

📈 By the Numbers

👊🏽 Make a Difference

11 jobs

JOB | George Aye shares an opportunity to work at Designing Justice + Designing Spaces as Managing Director.

JOB | Dilnaz Waraich is hiring at the WF Fund for a Grantee Partnership & Program Manager.

JOB | Jake Pinholster reshares an Assistant Teaching Professor position in Immersive Media and Games at Northern Arizona University.

JOB | Former government colleague Tuyet Duong is hiring at the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum for a Development Coordinator.

JOB (4) | The Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice is hiring for four positions at the intersection of real-world engagement, teaching, and applied research including Associate Directors, Women PeaceMakers Fellow, and Border Peace & Security Fellow.

JOB | Douglas Sylvester shares an opportunity for an experienced trial attorney to join the Beus Chair in Civil Trial Advocacy program at ASU Law.

JOB | Business Executives for National Security (BENS) is hiring a Deputy Chief of Staff.

JOB | Suzanne Rinker is hiring at the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, University of Washington for an Assistant Dean for Advancement & External Relations.

Share

🤓 This is Your Next

Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor E. Frankl

🙌🏽 FairNation

More energy generated from renewables worldwide than coal 🙌🏽

Read more

📡 On my Radar

The U.S. Congress had a historic 2025. Just not the kind anyone should celebrate.

Your elected representatives passed almost no bills, a record low for the first year of a new presidency and the least productive legislative year decades.

More records not be proud of: Congress presided over the longest government shutdown in American history and experienced the largest turnover of representatives since the Civil War.

Any other job, they’d all have been fired.

While Congress set records for doing nothing, they also set records for looking away. The Republican-controlled House and Senate have largely abandoned their constitutional duty to provide oversight of the executive branch.

• Trump fired 17 inspectors general on day five of his presidency, without the legally required congressional notice. Congress shrugged.

• The administration extracted over $1.2 billion in settlements through targeted enforcement. Congress watched.

• By late November, Reuters counted 470 individuals and organizations targeted for retribution. Congress did nothing.

The few Republican dissenters, Murkowski, Collins, Massie, are a handful, not a faction. Democrats are powerless and disorganized, lacking subpoena power as the minority.

The result? An executive branch operating without meaningful constraint. In just the first two weeks of 2026 we’ve seen the chaos that results: the murder of Renee Good, criminal prosecutions against the Fed, and more foreign attacks and actions without prior approval.

This is fixable. Every House seat is up in 2026. One-third of the Senate too. These people work for you, and right now, they’re not doing their jobs.

Vote for real leaders.

This November, you’re the boss.

Share

📈 By the Numbers

👊🏽 Make a Difference

13 jobs | 2 internships

JOB | Tara Roth shares that the Goldhirsh Foundation seeks a 2050 Investment Analyst and Fund Manager to launch and manage the foundation’s newly created 2050 Fund, balancing strong financial performance with mission-driven impact.

JOB | Ben Fong is hiring a Chief Technical Officer to help shape the research agenda at UC Berkeley’s $2 billion space innovation center with NASA—a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for those passionate about space.

INTERNSHIP | Congressman Eric Swalwell is accepting interns for his gubernatorial campaign in California—hands-on experience in statewide politics at a pivotal moment.

JOB | Julian Weinberg is hiring a Programme Officer in Syria for Dialogue Action.

JOB (4) | My former boss, now at Asian Americans Advancing Justice, is hiring for four positions: Anti-Hate Program Manager, Senior Staff Attorney (Litigation), Litigation Paralegal, and Digital Engagement Associate.

JOB | Remote role funding and amplifying grassroots climate justice solutions across the US and Puerto Rico. Managing Director of Narrative Strategies, $150k-$170k.

JOB | The Citizens Foundation (TCF-USA) is hiring Major Gifts Officers and a Grant Manager.

JOB | NobleReach is hiring a Partnerships Director to lead strategic relationships across federal, state, and government-adjacent partners at the intersection of technology, innovation, and government.

JOB | Michael Brennan shares that The Engine Room is hiring an Associate for Engagement and Support in Latin America to support civil society organizations using technology and data in safe, strategic, and justice-oriented ways.

JOB | Naomi Roth is working with Jane Fonda to find a Director to lead the Committee for the First Amendment—seeking candidates connected in Hollywood with significant campaign, organizing, and political advocacy experience.

JOB | Fayaz Nawabi shares that Thousand Currents seeks a Director of Philanthropic Partnerships to mobilize resources for movements advancing food sovereignty, climate justice, and economic justice. Remote, US preferred. $141,450.

INTERNSHIP | College undergraduates can apply now for a paid 10-week Getty Marrow Undergraduate Internship at the Getty Center or Villa in curatorial, conservation, education, and publications.

Share

🤓 This is Your Next

Slow Productivity, by Cal Newport.

🙌🏽 FairNation

Read more

📡 On my Radar

Lots happened in 2025. People are asking what they can do.

I always come back to the three W’s taught to me by a mentor of mine: Work, Wealth, Wisdom.

Fund the fight. It doesnt take a lot to win. Cuomo outspent Mamdani 4 to 1 … and still lost. Fund candidates and organizations fighting for what you believe in. Remarkably, lawsuits are working but they require money. Every blocked executive order started with someone writing a check.

Build something. The organization I started soft-launched a program to train the next generation of community entrepreneurs who understand that fighting inequality isn’t just about being angry, it’s about building better systems. Interested in building a solution? Drop me a note.

Document everything. If you witness ICE activity, know-your-rights violations, or government overreach, record it. NY and CA have websites for reporting federal agent misconduct. Witnesses become evidence. Evidence becomes accountability.

Show up locally. Used to be that bad stuff would happen locally and the federal government would step in to end things, from school desegregation to toxic pollution. Times have changed. Now the resistance is local. Supporting local non-profits, volunteering at food banks when SNAP benefits get cut, or joining a pick up group to support kids who’s parents have been deported - that’s something you can actually do locally to make a difference.

2025 has been a crap year, but we’re already seeing that people have had enough. Let’s make 2026 the year we make things better.

Share

📈 By the Numbers

👊🏽 Make a Difference

9 jobs | 4 fellowships | 2 opportunities

JOB | I will be hiring soon! I’m looking for a hybrid, LA-based position for an entry-level candidate or recent graduate interested in working with communities to solve problems and build practical solutions. Stay tuned!

JOB | ASU colleague Michelle Sullivan-Govani seeks a Director of Project Activation and Integration at the ASU Foundation.

FELLOWSHIP | Grande Lum shares a Teaching Fellow position in international affairs at Stanford University.

JOB (2) | George Aye shares two opportunities at the Center for Civic Futures: Director of Public Benefit Innovation Fund to lead strategy for a nation-wide innovation fund supporting public benefits systems modernization, and Program Director of State AI Readiness Project to support Chief AI Officers across states, territories, and Tribal governments.

JOB | The Non Profit Partnership seeks a part-time Marketing & Communications Coordinator.

OPPORTUNITY | The Aspen Institute’s Education & Society Program seeks Youth Advisory Partners ages 18-24 to join their Rising Generations Strategy Group shaping the future of K-12 education.

JOB | Colleague Susan Jacobs seeks a creative photographer/videographer to serve as digital media producer at CSULB.

JOB | Unilever seeks a leader to shape social sustainability strategy, drive collective action on human rights and livelihoods, and embed social impact at the heart of their business.

FELLOWSHIP (3) | Applications open for 2026-2027 fellowships at Harvard Kennedy School’s Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights, including Technology and Human Rights Fellowship, Racial Justice Fellowship, and Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights Fellowship.

JOB | Pillars Fund seeks a Program Director to steward core creative initiatives, design new program verticals including the Digital Creator Fellowship, and strengthen systems during a dynamic period of growth.

OPPORTUNITY | Greg Weatherford shares that applications are open for The Allstate Foundation College Service Grants 2026-2027, offering $10,000 grants to US colleges and universities to elevate youth-led service.

JOB | Planned Parenthood Southwest Ohio Region seeks a director of communications with strong writing and media skills.

Share

🤓 This is Your Next

Burn Book: A Tech Love Story, by Kara Swisher

🙌🏽 FairNation

He’s not a ‘hero’ … he’s a HERO.

Read more

📡 On my Radar

DHS recently tweeted just the words “remigration now.”

Remigration is a favorite term of white nationalists and Neo-Nazis calling for the ethnic cleansing of non-white populations from traditionally white countries. The State Department is even proposing an “Office of Remigration.”

It’s becoming increasingly clear that white nationalism is the official policy of the United States government.

Need more evidence? Here’s what demographic engineering looks like with a government seal:

• Travel bans on 19 countries. All in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, or Latin America. Zero European nations made the list.

• No more refugees admitted to the United States … well unless you are a white South African.

• Mass deportation campaigns pushing 2+ million people out, overwhelmingly from Mexico, Central America, Haiti, and African nations.

• Re-vetting every refugee already in the U.S., threatening to revoke legal status based solely on nationality. Again, targeted towards Black and brown people.

• Economic punishment for non-compliant countries through tariffs and aid cuts, weaponizing trade policy to force deportation cooperation.

When Trump calls Somalis “garbage” and Haiti a “shithole” country or when Vice President Vance lectures Europe about “civilizational suicide” from immigration, they are telling you exactly what this administration believes: Western civilization means white civilization.

It’s the point. And the vocabulary being used - remigration, reverse migration, assimilation - comes straight from the white nationalist playbook.

Share

📈 By the Numbers

👊🏽 Make a Difference

9 jobs | 2 opportunities | 1 internship

JOB | Anthropic seeks an International Policy Analyst to help shape how the world governs frontier AI, with experience engaging governments and policymakers in APAC, LATAM, or EMEA.

JOB | Isaacson, Miller conducts the search for Vice President Programs at the Fidelity Foundations.

JOB | Gallery Attendant position at Long Beach Museum of Art and Workforce Development Manager role at Gracelight Community Health.

JOB | Professor Frank Zerunyan reshares that USC Price School of Public Policy seeks a creative, mission-focused Deputy Chief Development Officer to drive their centennial campaign.

OPPORTUNITY | Raise, a 2-week fundraising bootcamp powered by The Labour Fund Tamkeen, helps Bahraini founders sharpen their pitch and step directly in front of investors.

FELLOWSHIP | The inaugural Keseb Democracy Innovation Lab accepts pitches for 10 innovative early-stage projects reimagining community-building for inclusive democracies, with 8-month programming and $10,000 seed funding.

JOB | Colleague Christian Omena is hiring for Enterprise Planning at Arizona State University, seeking someone with diverse analytical skills to create strategies advancing ASU’s charter of excellence, inclusion, and impact.

JOB | George Aye reshares an opportunity for Assistant Professor, Design and Disability, at SFSU’s School of Design.

JOB | Occidental College seeks a Senior Director of Communications to align the College’s mission with strategic communication plans and serve as spokesperson in crisis management.

JOB | The Center of Disaster Philanthropy is hiring a Director of Annual Giving to design and manage a comprehensive, data-driven annual giving program and build a major gifts pipeline.

INTERNSHIP | Maryland Public Service Scholars programs offer 10 to 11-week paid internships helping students form lifelong connections and build a Maryland that leaves no one behind.

JOB | Elaine Pearson seeks a researcher for Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division to investigate human rights issues in Southeast Asia, focusing on the Philippines and Cambodia.

Share

🤓 This is Your Next

The Courage to Be Disliked, by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga

🙌🏽 FairNation

Men can talk about their feelings, they just can’t … face them.

Read more

📡 On my Radar

We trust museums more than any other institution in America - nearly as much as we trust our friends and family.

Why?

• Museums maintain trust because their structure forces accountability to public benefit, not private profit.

• They operate under a public trust doctrine with transparent governance, professional ethics codes with actual enforcement, and evidence-based communication where they show their work.

• They engage communities as genuine partners who can change institutional direction, not advisory boards institutions ignore.

Meanwhile Congress scrapes by at a 7% approval rating, media hits 28%, and corporate trust flatlines at 14%.

We may want to ask how can these distrusted institutions be more like museums? But I dont know if that’s the right question. I think a better question is: who does your institution actually serve?

Congress serves donors. Media serves shareholders. Healthcare serves insurers. Universities serve rankings.

But they were always meant to serve YOU, like museums.

Rebuilding trust requires restructuring power - public funding for journalism, single-payer healthcare, campaign finance reform, democratic university governance. Not better messaging. Different incentives.

We haven’t lost capacity for trust. We’ve lost patience for institutions that betray it.

Share

📈 By the Numbers

👊🏽 Make a Difference

12 jobs | 3 funding opportunities | 2 fellowships

JOB | Fayaz Nawabi shares an opportunity to make a critical difference in the region as Middle East Regional Director at the American Friends Service Committee.

JOB (3) | The Gates Foundation’s Communications Division seeks three senior communications leaders to build public campaigns, create content, and tell stories that inspire people to care about improving global health and fighting poverty.

FUNDING | The Government of the Netherlands launches FemFocus 2026–2030, offering €209.3M in grants for Civil Society Organizations advancing women’s rights and gender equality in the MENA region.

JOB | Girl Scouts of USA is hiring a Director of Movement Communications to keep their 111 councils, national board, and staff aligned and inspired through strategic storytelling and relationship-building.

JOB | Wafa Ben-Hassine reshares an opening for Director of California Programs and Policy at Omidyar Network to serve as their primary representative in Sacramento.

JOB | National Geographic’s StoryLab is hiring a Director of Operations to lead their Blue Boundaries initiative.

FUNDING | The W.K. Kellogg Foundation offers year-round grants for bold, community-driven organizations working on early childhood education, maternal and child health, food systems and economic equity, and racial healing and community leadership.

JOB | Jeremy Sherlick is hiring a Senior Video Producer at the Council on Foreign Relations to create compelling visual storytelling on complex global issues, based in New York or DC.

FELLOWSHIP | Caroline Ouwerwerk shares the Obama Leaders fellowship at the Obama Foundation for changemakers looking to scale their impact worldwide.

JOB | SurfCoast Shire seeks a Community Engagement Facilitator to build relationships and guide inclusive, authentic engagement across the community.

FELLOWSHIP | American University’s Emerging Global Leader Scholarship offers full or partial scholarships (up to US$40,000/year) for international students committed to civic leadership and positive social change.

JOB | The Obama Foundation seeks a Director of Social Media to lead their digital presence and engagement.

FUNDING | Foellinger Foundation’s Capacity Building Grants help Allen County nonprofits strengthen leadership, grow organizational capacity, and plan for the future.

JOB | The Golden State Warriors seek a Public Affairs Assistant to support government relations, neighborhood engagement, and operations across the Warriors, Valkyries, Chase Center, and Thrive City.

Share

🤓 This is Your Next

You’re More Powerful than You Think: A Citizen’s Guide to Making Change Happen, by Eric Liu (thanks to for the rec).

🙌🏽 FairNation

This is why I love working with young people.

Read more

📡 On my Radar

Today is Veterans Day in the United States.

Every year, we make promises to our veterans. Very few are actually delivered, but this time the gap between promise and payoff is wider than ever.

Promise: Trump said he would “totally eradicate” veteran homelessness.
Reality: 80,000 VA workers fired - nurses, mental health specialists, suicide prevention researchers all providing mental health services to unhoused vets.

Promise: We will strengthen veterans’ care and expand VA services.
Reality: Congress cut $23 billion from the PACT Act for toxic-exposed vets and 650 contracts cancelled, essential for processing their claims.

Promise: We will “watch out for” veterans and never betray those who served.
Reality: 1.2 million veteran households pushed off food assistance. The administration is actively suing in the Supreme Court to block SNAP benefits - for the same veterans they claim to honor.

Vets see through it. Polling shows nearly 70% now oppose these policies.

And today on Veterans Day itself, veterans marched in the streets demanding the government honor its commitments.

Share

📈 By the Numbers

👊🏽 Make a Difference

10 jobs | 2 fellowships | 1 funding opportunity

JOB | Larissa Rydin at Team Rubicon, a veterans-led disaster relief organization, seeks a direct response and mass market expert to lead their fundraising efforts.

JOB | Diego Cartagena at Bet Tzedek Legal Services seeks a compassionate Receptionist/Intake Screener to serve as the welcoming face of their mission-driven nonprofit legal services.

JOB | The Atlantic Council is hiring for their Development Team, offering exposure at the intersection of global policy and business development in international affairs.

JOB | Apple is hiring an External Engagement Specialist for their Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives team.

JOB | Citizen University seeks a remote Program Manager for their CU Labs Team to develop projects and methodologies strengthening civic practices nationwide.

FELLOWSHIP | Applications are open for the 2026 Nonprofit Technology Fellowship by Okta for Good, empowering nonprofit technology leaders with funding, coaching, and networking over six months.

FELLOWSHIP | My friends at The NonProfit Partnership is accepting applications for their 2026 Emerging Leaders Institute cohort for current and future nonprofit leaders developing executive skills. I am on the board, let me know if you are interested!

JOB (4) | Visa’s Social Impact team is hiring for four CSR roles across their Regional Team, Foundation Team, and Corporate Responsibility/Sustainability Team.

FUNDING | The FIFA Global Citizen Education Fund 2026 invites applications from grassroots organizations advancing quality education and sports access for children in underserved communities worldwide. Deadline: December 31, 2025.

JOB | The DC Bar Foundation, the leading funder of civil legal aid in DC, is hiring a Director of Communications to support their mission of equal access to justice.

Share

🤓 This is Your Next

A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload, by Cal Newport.

🙌🏽 FairNation

Team Rubicon is a group of veterans and first responders who volunteer to respond to natural disasters. They’re helping disaster victims - and helping each other heal. Join up. Become a Greyshirt.

Read more

📡 On my Radar

Zohran Mamdani started at 1% in the polls. Today, he’s likely to become New York City’s next mayor.

If he wins, it won’t be due to slogans but specifics: freeze rent, make buses free, universal childcare. Simple promises that directly address what people actually struggle with.

We’re watching two opposite approaches to fixing America’s problems play out in real time. One tears things down: closes governments, splits families, cuts food benefits. The other builds: housing, transit, opportunity.

Both claim to serve working people. But only one offers concrete solutions instead of chaos.

Mamdani is proving something important: voters will respond to straightforward policy proposals that make their lives materially better. No tricks, no culture war distractions. Just: “This costs too much. Here’s how we fix it.”

Whether he governs well remains to be seen. But the campaign itself showed a path forward for progressives who’ve forgotten how to talk about kitchen table issues.

Sometimes the simplest answer is the right one.

Share

📈 By the Numbers

👊🏽 Make a Difference

8 jobs | 6 internships | 2 opportunities | 1 fellowship

JOB (8) | Commissioner Faisal Qazi shares eight opportunities at the California Commission on Aging in the IT and policy analysis space.

JOB | I am hiring an ASU student in Los Angeles to help run The Difference Engine’s newly launched DifferenceCorps program and engage local LA-based communities! Open to ASU students only.

RESOURCE | New York Attorney General is creating a portal for citizens to report federal agent misconduct.

Read more

📡 On my Radar

AI is changing who owns the future.

Just five companies - Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Amazon - represent nearly 29% of the entire S&P 500. Wealth is aggregating at the top at unprecedented speed.

Meanwhile, worker power is collapsing. Union membership hit a historic low of 9.9% in 2024. Sixty million workers say they’d join a union if they could, but the system won’t let them. AI is accelerating this squeeze, commoditizing labor while funneling returns to shareholders.

Here’s a fix: public companies reward all employees with stock proportional to their income, or lose tax incentives. CEO gets 10% of salary in stock? The front desk worker making $40,000 gets their 10% too: $4,000 in stock.

This builds asset bases for everyone. Assets that appreciate. When communities own stakes in the innovation economy, they build generational wealth instead of watching it concentrate elsewhere. And by reducing turnover its good for bosses too.

We’re at a fork: concentrate AI’s gains among the already ultra-wealthy, or spread them among the people actually building the future.

Share

📈 By the Numbers

👊🏽 Make a Difference

8 jobs | 6 internships | 2 opportunities | 1 fellowship

JOB | Jeff Ziarnik at the International Law Institute is hiring a finance and operations manager. I used to teach there, highly recommend.

JOB (2) | Kevin Singer at Unite America is hiring a VP of Campaigns: Ballot Initiatives and a Senior Director of Campaigns for seasoned political operatives interested in nonpartisan election reform.

INTERNSHIP (5) | The Bipartisan Policy Center is offering five internship positions across health and energy policy areas.

JOB | Grande Lum shares a Director of JD Admissions position at Stanford Law School’s Office of Admissions.

OPPORTUNITY | The Salzburg Global Seminar is accepting applications for the inaugural Asia Policy Leadership Forum 2026 (May 5–10, Salzburg, Austria), bringing together 35–45 emerging leaders to explore digital public infrastructure, data governance, and responsible innovation in Asia.

JOB | Grande Lum shares an Assistant Vice Provost & Executive Director of Bechtel International Center position at Stanford University with Another Source.

JOB | Hussam Ayloush at CAIR-CA is seeking an Executive Assistant for their Greater Los Angeles Area office.

OPPORTUNITY | Applications are open for the Charity Entrepreneurship Incubation Program 2026, a fully funded two-month program providing training, co-founder matching, and seed funding (average £120,000 / up to $200,000 USD) to launch high-impact nonprofits.

FELLOWSHIP | The Non Profit Partnership is accepting applications for their 10-month Emerging Leaders program, designed for nonprofit professionals ready to elevate their careers to executive-level roles. Apply by December 1, 2025.

INTERNSHIP | The Tiyya Foundation seeks a Community Outreach Intern in Orange & Los Angeles Counties for a 3-6 month part-time paid position ($18/hour, 10 hours per week) focused on community engagement and partnership building.

JOB | Jake Pinholster is hiring tenure-stream faculty for the University of Illinois’ Bachelor of Science in Sustainable Design program, an interdisciplinary undergraduate program entering its sixth year.

Share

🤓 This is Your Next

The Origins of Efficiency, by Brian Potter.

🙌🏽 FairNation

7 million Americans, 0 mass shootings.

Subscribe now

Read more

📡 On my Radar

Finally a ceasefire in Gaza.

Families reuniting with hostages, the end of daily bombardment. I can’t stop looking at the videos of how joyful people are.

But relief and celebration are different things.

Over 67,000 Palestinians are dead. A third were children. Rania Abu Anza spent a decade trying to have children through IVF. Her five-month-old twins were killed in an airstrike, along with her husband and 11 family members. No ceasefire brings them back.

Beneath 60 million tonnes of rubble lie the bodies of an additional 10,000 missing people. The ceasefire doesn’t guarantee Gazans a viable government, Palestinian sovereignty, restore bombed hospitals and schools, undo manufactured starvation, or address the structural conditions that made this horror possible.

The systems that enabled this: unchecked military power, U.S. complicity, settlements, occupation - remain intact. A pause in violence isn’t justice. The work of building a world where Palestinian lives matter equally must now begin.

We can acknowledge relief without pretending the underlying unfairness has been resolved.

Share

📈 By the Numbers

👊🏽 Make a Difference

11 jobs | 2 opportunities | 1 fellowship

JOB | Jennifer Gerard of WildCard Creative seeks a contract creative content producer to be embedded on set for an upcoming TV show in New York, capturing behind-the-scenes and talent-focused content for social and digital channels.

JOB | Howard University School of Law invites applications for tenure-track positions in property, torts, law and technology, civil rights, voting rights, and election law, as well as a clinical law position with emphasis on the Civil Rights Appellate Clinic.

OPPORTUNITY | UN Tourism Global Social Innovation Challenge 2025 invites startups, scaleups, MSMEs, and entrepreneurs developing sustainable, inclusive, and community-driven tourism solutions to apply for this global competition.

JOB | Tova Scherr shares a part-time Finance and Operations Associate opportunity with I Support The Girls in Rockville.

Read more

📡 On my Radar

For decades, we tolerated capitalism’s excesses - the inequality, the wealth hoarding, the insecurity, because the government underlying a capitalist state - liberal democracy - promised something in return: freedoms, rights, a voice. The carrot kept us invested in the system.

That bargain is breaking down.

Today, those same countries are turning to authoritarianism without losing their focus on capitalism: same market structure, same wealth concentration, but now the carrot’s gone. What’s left is the stick.

Today’s authoritarians use more insidious means of control: economic and social annihilation. Speak up? Lose your job. Organize? Get doxxed. Dissent? Face deportation or deplatforming. The fear is quieter but just as effective.

And yet, if modern authoritarians rely on capitalism, they’re vulnerable to it too. Boycotts bite. Sanctions work. Economic pressure has teeth when the regime depends on markets.

Some leaders want to “restore” liberal democracy - to go back to 1995. That ship has sailed. Liberal democracy failed people. That’s why we’re here.

We need something radically better. A system that actually delivers: healthcare, housing, economic security. Maybe that’s universal basic income. Maybe it’s FDR-style economic revival. Maybe it’s all of the above.

Share

📈 By the Numbers

👊🏽 Make a Difference

13 jobs | 2 fellowships

JOB | Barry Friedman from the Policing Project is hiring a Senior Communications Associate to help effect change and spread the word about their impactful work.

JOB | The Rockefeller Foundation seeks a Manager of Innovation to work on all things AI in this amazing role.

FELLOWSHIP | Echoing Green is now accepting applications for its 2026 Fellowship program, supporting bold early-stage leaders tackling the world’s most urgent challenges with an 18-month program offering financial support, leadership development, and a global community.

JOB | Kathryn Wells shares that the City of Long Beach is hiring a Public Affairs Officer for its Health and Human Services department.

JOB | Jake Pinholster shares that the University of Illinois College of Fine and Applied Arts advancement office is hiring an Assistant Director of Advancement during a transformative time for the team.

JOB | Grande Lum shares a mediator position available at Resolvium Mediation Group.

FELLOWSHIP | Christina Ngo shares that applications are open for the Morgridge Acceleration Program (MAP) Fellowship.

JOB | Dr. Erroll Southers reshares that the California Civil Rights Department is hiring a Staff Services Manager I (Specialist) to support the Research and Policy Unit.

JOB | Caribou is hiring a Program Operations and Partnerships Manager to help keep their programs, proposals and internal projects running smoothly for those who love organization and thrive on multitasking in a global, mission-driven environment.

JOB | Christine Tsang invites applications for Executive Director of Stanford RegLab.

JOB (4) | Zeenat Rahman shares that Johns Hopkins University’s School of Government and Policy is hiring multiple senior faculty across political science, economics, history, sociology, philosophy, law, and computer science.

JOB | Diego Cartagena of Bet Tzedek Legal Services is hiring a Staff Attorney I focused on Transgender Advocacy to advance rights and dignity through direct legal services, policy advocacy, and community engagement.

Share

🤓 This is Your Next

The Map of Salt and Stars, by Zeyn Joukhadar

🙌🏽 FairNation

Look past the costumes and prosthetics and you realize this was filmed in the past, takes place in the future … and teaches us about today.

Subscribe now

Read more

📡 On my Radar

Last week, as I was doing my bi-annual talk on civil rights with LAPD officers, the topic of DEI came up.

I talked about the difference between equity and equality. Several officers pushed back - "equity sounds unfair," they said, "equality treats everyone the same."

A few hours later, I covered the same concepts using different words: fairness, level playing field, having the tools to succeed. Same room, same people. Completely different reaction. Suddenly everyone was nodding along.

DEI was never doing to save us. It created a good environment for many, but also generated resentment. To me it always seemed designed to placate people, not create real change. Now that companies are folding under government pressure, we're seeing how shallow it all was.

It’s why I’ve declined to use language like “DEI” in my work and focused on fairness instead.

Fairness cuts through the noise. It's a policy everyone understands. And here's the secret - fairness is equity in disguise. A fair system gives people what they need to truly compete. Teams can lose gracefully when the game is fair. But nobody accepts losing when one team has their arms tied behind their backs the whole game. That’s inequitable.1

I call this newsletter UnfairNation to bring attention to this challenge - not just unequal policies, but fundamentally unfair ones.

Share

📈 By the Numbers

👊🏽 Make a Difference

8 jobs | 3 fellowships | 2 opportunities

FELLOWSHIP | Charity Entrepreneurship opens applications for their 2026 Incubation Program, a fully funded two-month program to launch high-impact nonprofits.

JOB (2) | CARE is hiring a Research Partnership Manager and Technical Advisor for Cost Analysis.

Read more