It Could Happen Here - Everyone vs ICE: On the Ground In Minnesota, Pt. 2

Episode Date: January 28, 2026

In the second part of a two part series, Margaret and James reflect on their time in Minnesota, the incredible community response to the immigration raids, and what other communities can learn from the Twin Cities. Links: Rent Support for neighbors in Phillips https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-phillips-families-in-urgent-need Rent Support for neighbors in Central https://www.gofundme.com/f/critical-rent-assistance-for-central-neighborhood-families Rent Support for neighbors in Powderhorn https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-powderhorn-families-in-crisis Supplies for Political Art Making https://givebutter.com/spno Protective Gear for Legal Observers https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-equip-twin-cities-legal-observers-with-ppe Diapers and Menstrual Supplies  https://secure.everyaction.com/jLLKnfwWk0qdptMbYLoyPQ2 Abolish Ice Shirts https://www.eaglescreenprint.com/printshop/p/defend-612-abolish-ic3-wnj6e Northstar Front Line Street Medics https://www.paypal.com/biz/profile/northstarhealth Twin Cities Swoletariat Bail Fund Venmo: @TCSwoletariat Cashapp: $TCSwoletariatSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. AllZone Media. Hi, friends. It's me, James, and I just wanted to explain, as you're listening to this, we recorded this around midnight on Friday after having spent, I think, three days, four nights in Minneapolis. And the tone of what we recorded here is hopeful. I remain hopeful and inspired by the people we met in Minneapolis, and I remain so.

proud of everything they've done. But about nine hours after we sent this off to our editors, Alex Prattie was killed by two Border Patrol agents. And the tone of this would have been different if we had recorded after that. And that's just the nature of the work we do. But we don't want anything in the hopeful tone here to suggest that we don't grieve his passing that we aren't thinking of the people who loved him right now, because we understand that they're going through a very difficult time. But we still want you to learn from what's happening in Minneapolis and for what people are doing there. And we hope that you remember that as you go through this episode. And I think that honestly, those two things that we have to balance just as we deal with the state

of the world is just, you know, everyone we talk to, this was so present on their minds is both an awareness of the beauty of the things that they are building and also an awareness of the darkness that has caused them to need to build these things. But anyway, we hope you enjoy these episodes and are following more closely with more current news about what's happening and are talking to the people around you, wherever you are, about how you will keep yourself and your neighbors safe.

And yeah, thank you. Hello, and welcome to Cool People Could Happen Hear It, a podcast, which is what happens when two podcasts, love each other and go to Minneapolis together. Yeah, go on a trip to remember Minneapolis in the winter where it is cold.

I am one of your hosts today. My name is James Stout and I am very lucky to be joined by my friend Margaret Kiljoy. Hello, welcome to the thing that we're doing. Should we talk about today? We talked last time

about some rapid response in mutual aid and there's more to be said about that. Yeah, today is the 23rd. It's the past for you all. But it's present for us. Yeah. It's amazing how podcasting works like that. Today was the second realish, real general strike I've been to in my life.

Yeah. First one was in Oakland during Occupy. Okay. They pulled off a pretty serious general strike. Thousands of us shut down the ports. It was really beautiful. Oh, yeah, that was post. Today, no one had to shut shit down, really.

No. With the exception of the federal building, which we will discuss. Yeah. It's been remarkable. we've been here to Tuesday, it's Friday, how just the momentum has grown, like seeing, we went past some place, I think it was like a place that repaired, like electronics or some description. They just had a little thing being like, attention, we're not opening on Friday.

Yeah. It's these businesses which have no reason, you know, like these outward facing reasons to, you know, it's not even businesses which rely on their community for business and have to signal the community that they're with them, right? It's just people who are being like, yeah, now. Nah, not. You know, like, that seems like a shot. Yeah, let's, we got to do something.

Yeah. Let's all close down and go protest. One thing that I was sent, didn't share this with you, Margaret, because I'm unkind, was a list of businesses that were like, yo, we will not be participating in, like, profit-making today. But if you need X, that's what we do. Come by. Yeah.

Like, if you know, if you're hungry, if you're cold, if you need a cup of coffee, if you need a bicycle fix, whatever it is. Yeah. Like, if you want a screen print, abolish ice on a shirt, swing my. Like, we'll just be opened up for the community, come say hi. Yeah. Like, we don't want your money. We just want your solidarity.

Like, I thought that was cool. And on some level, it's been happening for a while to like to talk about how yesterday we went to powwow grounds. Yeah. Right. There is a indigenous own coffee shop called powwow grounds. They're actually worth donating directly too because they're mutual aid projects. That'll probably be in the list of things that we include. And you go in and the coffee is free now.

And, you know, we were like, well, we want to pay you for tea. And they were like, you can pay us for tea. Yeah. And we were able to, like, put some money behind in case someone else came in and needed some. Right. But the entire space has been taken over by a mutual aid organization. Yeah. And it's, you know, indigenous run. We talked to someone from AIM, American Indian movement.

Yeah. About the work they've been doing there. And, you know, which is that they've been, you know, basically just turning it into, like, making sure everyone has everything. they need. Yeah. By creating these places that are good to hang out in, you make really good rapid response places.

Yeah. We, you know, this is the first person we heard from about just like, I was like, how does this work? How does rapid response work? I was like, well, there's more of us and there are them. Yeah, yeah. Like, yeah, we can keep showing up. And, yeah, so like, you know, people are, people are hanging out there.

And so, you know, and it's right in a place where ICE likes to fuck with people. Yeah. Yeah, well, it's like, for people who aren't familiar with that block, right? Like, I've read a lot about AIM. Yeah. I'm interested in. Like, Franklin Avenue, I believe, is where AIM began, right? That's an understanding with Community Watch, which is what's happening now.

Yeah, exactly. It was doing patrols to keep their community safe. Yeah. It's a cool little full circle movement from that. So this is a space which is obviously designed to, like, center and protect indigenous folks. Yeah. But they were just like, yeah, anyone who's out there doing the work, please come by. We got snack packs for you.

We got this little EMFs we made. We've got four different soups, got a vegan soup, got a gluten-free soup. Like, they were more than happy for folks to come by, get fed, get warm. Yeah. A big thing here. People sort of make light of, you know, there's the whole quip that orderly works on me, which is the like ice made the classic Nazi mistake. They invaded a winter people in winter.

And that's true. But it is exceptionally cold right now. Yeah. Like we last night, I think due to an error on my part, were locked out of the place we are staying. I think it's fairly clear that I fucked up there. It becomes a risk to your well-being pretty quickly. To put it another way, how cold it is.

Today, I took the battery out of Margaret's vehicle and blew hot air from a hair dryer on it for some time so we could try and start it. So a jump would work because a jump wouldn't work without also heating up with the battery. The battery didn't have enough coal cranking happens to get. Yeah, despite being a brand new battery. Yeah, you need different tires for your truck.

You need different oil for your vehicle. Yeah, you need your battery to be warm. Yeah, people have engine block heaters for gas engines. I don't even have a diesel. Okay, so this morning, we knew as the general strike, we went and got enough supplies to have enough food without having to go shopping today. And, you know, we get up.

We knew that there was going to be a direct action this morning at the Whipple building. And the Whipple building is, oh, I wish, once this whole thing is scripted, you'll understand all this better. But there is a building that used to be a fort. And it was a fort in ye, oldie, even more murder of indigenous people times. And it was the fort from which they would go out and capture people. Yeah. And that is what it is again.

It is the center of the ice operations here. It is where everyone is taken, both citizen and non-citizen, for processing. and there's like one way in and one way out. And there have been people, I keep talking about, we were talking about this hyper local rapid response. There's been people at the Whipple building at this crap of a place with one way in and one way out.

This place is a fortress house building. Yeah. Where it's real easy to kidnap people because the kidnap place is right there. Yeah. There have been people there are basically every day. Yeah. And like just blatantly being like,

we are here to track you all. Anti-ice people have been there every day. Yeah. So there was a call. to go to it this morning. And so we did and, you know, as press. Yeah. And he did not get there on time because my car would absolutely not start.

Yeah. Yeah. But multiple people came to rescue us. Yeah, yeah. Like multiple people showed up to help out of towners who aren't even core of, we weren't there to get stuff done. We're just here to talk about it. Yeah, yeah.

Like someone came to office a jump. someone else was like, hey, did you get a jump? Yes. Someone was like, do you want to ride? Do you need to borrow my vehicle? Yeah. And these weren't people we've known very long. Yeah, the longest we'd known these people was since Tuesday.

It's Friday. And so people come up, get the vehicle working, we drive there. And the whole time, both of us are moderately outdoorsy people. Right. To put it mildly in your case and to be accurate in my case. Like, and we spent the whole time be like, do we have enough gear? Do we have enough winter gear? We both have these new insulated boots we got for this trip.

And like I live in the mountains. You were a literal sports person. Yeah, I enjoy to be in the mountaineering. When I have time, I will go into the mountains and sleep outside. Yeah. It is cold. It is like... It was cold.

You know, there's the cold when your nose hairs freeze when you breathe in. And then there's a cold when you're like, my eyes are like actually icing over. Yeah. This is alarmingly cold. It is the coldest day. here since 2018 or 2019 is what we learned. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, when I talked to my friend before I came, I was like, it's going to be

horrendously cold. Are people still going to show up? And, you know, my friend who lives here was like, well, we will. Ice will be miserable. Yeah. And we saw probably 10,000 people outside today. Yeah. Between the two protests, mostly the larger one. Yeah, like, so we roll up, right, and there is a small shield wall.

Barricading one of the waves that ice gets into, the Whipple Building to incarcerate the people who they have snatched. Yeah. There are probably half a dozen shields and then two big corrugated steel. Which is the level of bravery of that. Yeah. That is audacious. Yeah.

Because there will maybe 100 people in that whole formation, right? And the shield was facing two ways. We check it out. As we arrive, we see what we later learn was an Italian camera operator. Yeah. The habit maced in the face. I just want to like break down again. And we've made light of the cold, and it's funny that it's cold.

You get maced, right? Generally, you want to pour water on your face. Right. The clock is ticking pretty quickly once you start pouring liquid on exposed skin in these temperatures. The clock is ticking on exposing skin in these temperatures. Any exposed skin is danger. I have this, like, basically balaclava that I like... I don't wear it a protest.

That's sketchy. Yeah, and then I'm like, oh, no, I'm going to, like, die if I don't wear... thing that covers every inch of my face. Yeah, like, I have a helmet with goggles, and I wasn't wearing the goggles for particularly, like, I didn't think I was going to get a pepperball in the eye. I needed the air not to touch my eyes.

So, like, this is amazing. It's serious, right? And I saw that, and I saw them pouring water, and I was like, oh, shit, actually, that's quite grave. And they actually did have a staged water truck to spray people. They didn't spray people with water. Yeah, that's what we heard. Where there was a water truck staged in the parking lot.

To be clear, like, that could have killed someone. Really easily. Yeah. So then that was one entrance. We were like, let's go scope out the other entrance to see what the whole scene is here. As we're walking, first of all, we come past someone with one of those like trolleys that people pull.

They have the better part of like a thousand hand in foot toe warmers. And they are stoked to be given them out, right? So we put hand warmers inside our gloves. Then we see someone who's pulled up in a minivan that is the warming car. Yeah. So if people do get cold, they get in there and they warm them up. We come around, someone has snacks, someone's playing public enemy. As we come around further, we see this is the place that I are coming in with people, right?

And so there are people who are there shouting at them. I saw a couple of snowballs thrown. And like, yeah, there were people who were throwing snowballs, right? But there were also folks who just turned out to be like, you know, I'm more of, that's not my vibe. Yeah. But if you would like a snack while you're throwing them, I'm here for you. No one was like, hey, don't do that. Everyone was showing up in their own way.

Yeah. And that was really cool. Yeah, and that's like one of the things that I asked at one point. I was like, what's the like discourse like about, you know, the usual thing that divides people about like, I'm going to use air quotes here. You can't see. But violence and nonviolence, which are like complicated. Right. You know, and there's obviously people like, we've met people who've been like, and we're nonviolent.

And they're like really excited and that's an important part. They were people who had yellow vest. on being like peaceful observer don't shoot. Right. And then there's also people who are like, we didn't see any of it, but there's graffiti all over town. Yeah, like, fuck peace, justice doesn't bring him back.

Yeah. And I was like, what's the discourse like between these groups? And everyone we've talked to is like, there isn't time for that. Yeah, we got shit to be doing. Yeah, and like, you know, even when people are discussing things,

they'll try to start having a discussion and someone's like, hey, ICE is on that corner. Yeah. And not that these discussions aren't worth Well, I famously, my PIN post on Blue Sky's discourse as the mind killer. But like, and you can see it just like right here, right? Because there's people who are like, when you show up with shields at a shield wall at blocking federal agents from being somewhere, you're clearly being mildly antagonistic.

Right. It is a rowdy thing to do. And, you know, and at the same time, right, like, we didn't make it to this because they were happening at the same time more or less, but not very far away at the airport. We're not the news in this particular case. It could happen here is a news show, but this is still not the news we're reporting right now. Like 150 clergy people were arrested in civil disobedience

because the airport's being used to transport people away. I did real quick tangent about that. I think it's really beautiful because there's so much, you know, the national press is, of course, like these anti-Christian people attack church. And you're like, no, the churches are on our side except like one or two of them. We were staying next to a church. And we get up in the morning that first day we heard the honking

and we see like, yeah, the church has got a sign being like, I'd notice, I shit seems bad. I don't think it's not what Jesus would have done. Yeah. So we're at the thing and, you know, we're like, okay, this is happening. And we start seeing the police getting ready to use munitions, right?

We come back from the first place to where the shield wall was, right? Right. Shield wall is no longer there. We think, huh, weird, no shield wall. And then there's a line of police. Oh, look at that. It's Hennepin County Sheriff's Department.

Yeah. And yeah, go ahead. No, no. I mean, that's the thing. It's always really sad when you come back and expect to see a shield wall and instead there's a line of police. Yeah. And they are yelling dispersal orders at the shield wall, which is already banked up.

dispersed. Yeah. They're like, they've been pushed away. We can't really see. Several hundred yards away. Yeah. Like, we just like straight up can't see them. And we are told, and no uncertain terms by some other folks who are,

standing. This is not a large crowd. The crowd has been moved and we're just kind of yeah. There are, there are, there are, there are, there are, there are, there are, there are, one, two, three, four, five, six of us. Yeah, there's six of us. And I was going, I was counting people in my head. I can, I can say six. No, no, you're right. And two of the people were standing next to are like, yeah, if you cross this red line, they told us that if we cross this red line, the National Guard will shoot us dead. Yeah. And it, um, we did not test that. Yeah. I'm not sure if they would, but Neil Young had a whole song about it.

Right. And we're not in Ohio. It would be fine. Minnesota National Guard. And so they are not letting us go. Yeah. To be clear, the red line would have signified we were entering into like a military area. Right, totally. With no like

barricades or anything like that. They had barricades further along, right? Yeah, yeah. To make vehicles weave so you can just drive straight up. It's the side of a public road. We're at the light rail station. Yeah. So there's the line of police, and they're mostly facing away from us.

There's about two people facing towards us. Our cars between them. We are marked for us. Yeah. And wearing a bright red helmet with press stickers on it. I was wearing a blue helmet with press stickers. It's really black. The first, the cops keep pushing the shield wall further away from us,

and we hear them on the LRAD. This has been declared an unlawful assembly. I did hear somebody shout, by who? That is a very, good question. Honestly. Yeah.

Unfortunately, the Henopin County Sheriff's Department were not very interested in answering questions. Yeah. And the way that we learned this is that

a couple of people, I would call them older folks just from looking at them from a distance. They weren't the young rowdies holding shields. They were absolutely not. No, it was an older

gentleman in a male presenting person in car hearts. Yeah. Right? Who walked up. Coveralls. Yeah. Yeah.

With hands up. Yeah. Very clearly hands up and seemed to be asking or talking. Yeah, it was like probably going up to me like, hey, what's happening? Yeah. Like whatever.

And I go over there. That person was arrested. Yeah. So was another person who was with them. Yeah. And they were told they were arrested on the LRAD. We could hear that. Yeah, yeah.

You are under arrest. Yeah. Yeah. That was very strange. Yeah. Then a bus arrived. More cops got out. Yeah.

And those two people were put on the bus. Yeah. Three people. There's three of them. Three of them. Three of them put on the bus. Yeah. Okay.

The majority of the police then turned to face us. Yeah, all six. By now there's probably 12 of us. Yeah, because other people are like, hey, my car's over there too. Yeah, because they're in between us and where we parted our cars right now. Yeah.

And then they turn the L-Rad around, right? And then they tell us that they have issued a dispersal order due to something about like a legal conduct. Yeah. Which again, we are standing on the platform of a light rail station at this point, and I have seen no one do anything other than stand around. I've seen someone throw a snowball,

but that was somewhere else. We're in a different location. And then they say we have five minutes to disperse, And they give us a cardinal direction. Yeah. We have to disperse east. Onto a road that no one with us knew what was. Yeah.

We're all looking. Like, where to... We're in a kind of weird maze of barricades. I had previously tried to walk up to this line and be like, can we go through to our car, please? Yeah, we would like to disperse. Yeah. Because at this point, we're like, this is just going bad.

Yeah. We're maybe under arrest now. Yeah. Right. We're here to report. And if we get arrested, we can't report. Yeah. And there's nothing to report on.

Yeah. Because the cops have kettled us with two other press. Yeah. The rest of the Italian news crew who now can't. Don't have a camera that is still trying to do reporting. But brave as hell, yeah, because they're just still standing there and they're like, you know, thick Italian accents. And they're just like, our camera person got maced. Yeah.

They'll be fine, but they got maced. Yeah. And so the cops had very clearly indicated that they were not interested in that. arrangement. So we went back to standing there, wondering which way was east. I was trying to get under my layers to my watch so I could pull up a compass. I had figured out which way was east. I even had a suspicion about how to go that way. But I am willing, I believe, from talking to other people who are elsewhere there that day, that day. Today, this morning, it's been a long day. I don't normally drink caffeine. I am on caffeine. I believe that is where the other line of police was

starting to kettle people from. It seems like... So I actually believe they were not actually offering us a way out at all. Yeah. I, on the other hand, as I realized I couldn't get to my watch and was, I knew it was before noon, so I was looking for where the sun was. Yeah.

Gonna do some celestial navigation. And at that point, we saw... Well, actually, at that point, we went to the train platform, and a light rail train was going not towards our car, but away from it. Yeah. But it didn't open the doors when it came to the platform. Yeah, we were like, we want to go, though. I said, Margaret, we're fucked.

Yeah. And Margaret said, get ready to run, I guess. Yeah. And then as they were advancing towards us, Comrade Light Rail train arrived. Everyone got on the train. Literally last minute. Yeah. Just scootle straight past the police line.

Yeah. And then we got off and commenced walking around to try and find a way back to our vehicle. Yeah. So that was our morning. That was, I mean, whatever. We are the parties least. affected, but to be like really just transparent about it. This is the coldest day of my life.

I've experienced negative temperatures before. Yeah. I haven't experienced negative 30-something wind chill. Yeah. Like we were seeing people getting off the light rail. Everyone's eyelashes had frost in them. Yeah. Anyway, just to just to keep hitting that point.

Well, like, that was one of my concerns with detainment, right? With like cops, legendary don't treat people in their custody very well. well. Right. And I was very worried about that to, they did seem to be getting the people there rested quickly on that bus. Yeah.

But that was one of my worries. Right. If you lose a glove when you're being handcuffed, that's not a, that's, you know, that's serious. Yeah,

that's like maybe you lose your fingers now at the end of that. Like, it's like genuinely like a, I know we keep harping on it, but it's just, it's a, it's a massive risk.

Yeah. My car is a mess right now because we can't clean it, because that involves standing outside in like negative 18 or whatever the fuck. All of these numbers have become meaningless to me at this point. Anyway, you know what keeps me warm, Margaret? The handwormers we purchase with the money that we get from advertisements?

Yeah, I was going to say thinking about how the products and services to support the show, love to support me and the work I do. But I don't think they actually know what I do. I think it's look at our listener numbers, to be honest. Yeah, I think they don't hear our ad transitions. Maybe they're in trouble. I'm almost certain they don't. And here they are.

And we're back. So we go to this and then we go to the clear highlight of the day, which is the ice vehicle crashed into the... Yeah, this is when we decided, we received word that an ice vehicle had teaboned telephone. Yeah, I was doing a blue sky thread. And I was like, nope, that's a shorter thread because we got to go. Yeah, yeah.

I'm not as good as Marga is at skiing while I'm at things. I'm so used to being in places where it would be a risk to where everyone involved posted I was there. Yeah. So, yeah, we go, right? We park a few blocks away once we see flashing lights. Yeah. We start boogeying up the street at fast walk pace, which is about as fast as you're going to go when it's an inch of ice on everything. Yeah.

And we see this car that has failed. There's traffic calming roundabout that clearly they were not expecting to be there. It looks like they've been trying to go straight over the roundabout and have. Yeah, they're just, like, the front of their car is just rash. in a 15 mile per hour street. Yeah, yeah, like a street where you would expect a child to be riding a bicycle in the summer. Yeah, and it's like, it's one of those streets

that's like cars on both sides. One lane that two cars have to pass each other by backing up. Yeah, and they clearly just blew through it. They don't give a fuck. And that's like a thing we've heard over and over from the people who tail them is that they, they drive erratically, they drive recklessly

because they are, they think they are immune to all. consequences. Yeah. And they are. They are until someone, like the only people giving them consequences are the people of the city. Yeah. Not the city itself or the state. Yeah. This is the thing actually, I'll just, I have spent more time than nearly everyone at the southern border United States in more places, right? In California, in Texas, in New Mexico, in Arizona, I've been up and down the border. There is one thing that unites the border experience, be it on the Torn Autum Reservation in Arizona,

be it in San Diego, be in New Mexico, or in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, and it is that Border Patrol's driving is at risk to everyone. And you can hear the most straight-up right-wing people are saying, I love what they're doing, I don't want the migrants in my country, but I wish they wouldn't drive like dicks. And they've killed people on the Autumn Reservation, right?

Like, this is serious. And what is happening, once again, is that the border is coming to a city and people are seeing. This is not new. It is new here. The driving erratically is such a perfect, though, example of, like, what power does to people. Like, you have an unaccountable force, and they will do horrible things. Yeah. They will do major horrible things, like kidnapping people, and they'll do petty.

I don't care. I am just drunk on power things. Well, they will leave the cars in drive when they pull them out, right? like doesn't take a second to pop it to park or like yeah in this case they will case a telephone pole right anyway so then we decided we're going to the big march downtown yeah you know because uh the general strike has a component that is a big march downtown and the single most important thing about that to me was again to keep harping on it the cold because i know a lot of people who go to these sorts of marches right and these are the sorts of marches that a lot of people go to who don't necessarily do

a ton of other political activity, although here it probably feels a little different because a lot of the people going to that march who probably are the kind of sign holding, going to the big march kind of people are also quite possibly at the very least

showing up on your whistles. Yeah, doing the work, right? They're buying the groceries, whatever it is. Yeah. Like, I think one thing I was struck, so we're walking towards March, and it is one of the things that you get this a lot when you're going to a big action, right? You feel like a salmon.

And everyone's just swimming up. They're swimming in the stream together or whatever, a tuner. And you're all going towards the same space. And that's cool. That's always nice to feel the size. And then we get there and it's big. Like there's a lot of people. And it's cold.

Like I know we keep on about the cold. It is cold as shit. Margaret's ear was a little bit out. We were both worried about Margaret's ear. Yeah. Like you want to ensure it like skin coverage in these temperatures. Yeah. we get there and like, so they're meeting in like a big square and then they're marching through the street, right?

Yeah. And there are also people on like, there are internal walkways between buildings above the street and all of them around with people with signs or cheering and stuff. Yeah. And the thing I noticed as we got there was like immediately we set foot in that square. We were once again being offered hot cocoa hand warmers. There's a guy with like a, you know, there's orange insulated containers. They use it like sports. Yeah, like a gatorade thing.

Yeah. Yeah. He's got soup in it. He's backpacking the soup. It's vegan and gluten-free, and he's handing out soup. There are multiple people who have just set up to care for people because it's cold and people might need caring for, right? Like, there are all kinds of facilities there to look after folks.

We received some hand-womers, I think, you and I both took some hand-warmers. And there wasn't, at least where we were, like a speaker, there was some chanting. at this point I would love to include to be a role of chanting unfortunately it was so cold that both my voice recorders refused to work

Oh yeah one by one every electronic device that James brought ate shit and I like you know I'm much you all listen to my shit

I'm much more of a vibes podcaster where I like just observe and then write everything down James is a proper podcaster and journalist and like you know has B-roll of things

not Not as much today. Yeah, yeah. My voice recorder, which has been through the Darien Gap, has attended to Syrian Civil War, has been to the place where the US dropped a nuclear bomb. So you didn't make it out of Minneapolis. It's gone to Valhalla now. Yeah.

Which is sad. I even tried to record on my phone, but my phone just black screened on me. It was comedy. Yeah, it was pretty funny. When the cell phone tied, it was like, like, previously I had been to paint a picture fuel, using my nose to unlock the phone and then, like, actuate apps. Because I didn't want to take my glove off. We would take turns, taking our hands out of gloves, to touch buttons on things.

Yeah, or to, like, adjust each other's clothes or, like, yeah. Someone works me doing the phone thing, and they just gave me a nod, like, yeah, doing the nose phone. Yeah, yeah, totally. And, like, I don't know, I just, I keep talking about how the sense of togetherness, it's inspiring. Like, full disclosure, I'm not a big rally person. I'm much personally more interested in mutual aid. in direct action. I'm disinterested in it

when it seems like a way for people to check off that they've done their resistance. Yeah, definitely. If that feels like you're warm, fuzzy and that's all you want. But in this case, it was more, I don't know for certain,

it was more of a warm, fuzzy for people who are also just doing this hard thing day in and day out. It felt like when you and your friends, like when you're doing a hard, long, neutral aid thing, right? you know like or let's say you're engaged in a project that feeds people every week yeah and once a year you get together and have a dinner together right it felt a bit like that

or like yeah you know a little bit like when we were feeding people in the desert we would sit down afterwards and uh i was talking about this with someone today we would like eat vegan morees out of the packets like people eat go goods yeah because we were too tired to warm up our food but we were hungry yeah but we would just spend a little bit of time in community and celebrate what we'd done what was cool though is like sometimes after those big actions you feel a little lonely. But like it felt like that was just everyone going over there, but like there was also everyone elsewhere,

as you kind of went around the city, you know? Right. Like it wasn't like that was the end of it. Yeah. And I was worried it would, you know, draw people away from other things. But, you know, even this huge crowd was only a tiny portion of the people

doing things in the city and people were still doing things. And at one point I was like, hey, it's, it's, maybe it was Thursday. We were like, hey, we saw less people out today. Yeah. Was that because the cold was, starting to drive people inside. And we talked to someone and they're like, no, ice was less out today than it was yesterday.

But if ice had come out, all of those people would have come out again. They were all staged and ready to go. And one of the things actually, the warm, fuzzy thing, that feeling, one of the things that we talk to is that people are very aware that they're organizing for the long haul. Yeah. You know, I, again, I don't have the news in front of me, but the word on the ground here is people being like, we think ice might be here until June. Yeah. And so people are like, how do we do that? You know?

And one of the things is that like there are people providing things to the people doing things. You know, the people whose job is to provide things for other people are having people provide things for them. Yeah, yeah. And there's this moment I think about all the time, I'll accidentally do like the, you know, I was at this protest in the Netherlands and the cops try to grab my friend. Yeah. And they try to grab him because he's screaming. the Netherlands is a police state, which they try to make their point

by trying to grab him. Right? So everyone holds on to him. Yeah. So the cops start just beating the crap out of the people holding on to him. Yeah. So people start grabbing onto the people

who are holding on to the person. They start trying to beat the people who are holding on to the people who are holding on to the people. By the time it gets to like four layers out, the cops are just like, yeah, fuck this. Yeah.

All right. The center person is never arrested. You know? And that's what solidarity is. Yeah. But that's also a lot of the mutual aid stuff. Like, you know, we're talking about to people who are like, yeah, we work day in and day out on this stuff. And other people are, like, massage therapists and regular therapists are talking with us, you know.

And, like, people are building the infrastructure to try and make it sustainable. Yeah. And who knows? I don't know whether you can truly sustain what's happening here. Right? But, like, they're going to fucking try. Yeah. The way I like to explain anarchism to people who, there's sometimes the confusion, right,

that people think anarchism is a predilection for chaos and violence, and that's not what it is. I like to explain anarchism at its core is building ways of caring for one another that don't reinforce ways of controlling one another. Yeah. And that's what people are doing here, right? Yeah, under any name. Yeah, it doesn't make, the rest of it is really ephemeral. A lot of them are anarchists, but not any of it.

we're near the majority of them. Yeah, but I think we can use what Jim Scott called the anarchist squint, right? And see us people building networks here that make the state unnecessary. Yeah. Irrelevant. Right. None of state violence is still very much relevant. But other, right, the feds are going to cut funding.

Yeah, they can cut food stamps from Minnesota. Yeah. People are still going to get food to their neighbors. Yeah. Right? They can cut education funding. We heard that there are schools which have a very diverse background. And biodiversity, I don't just mean, like, people have different.

races, but also people of different income brackets. And the wealthier parents are like, which families aren't able to work? How do I help them make their rent? Yeah. Oh, God, it was funny when people were like, oh, you know, the thing where like the rich parents are like really excited to help everyone and feed everyone. I was like, no, that's not how you get rich. That's not the stereotype.

Right. Let me tell you. And like, it should be. Yeah, it should be. Well, I think folks are really like, What are the world without these people look like? Worse? I don't want that.

Like, what do I have that I can use to stop that? I have my time, I have my body, have my money. Let me give them all of them. Yeah. Yeah, I thought that was very cool. I think the specific thing that has made people, I saw Lil signs, he had the name for one of the guys from, Liam,

the very, very young kid, right, the five-year-old kid with the Superman. The one who was, yeah, grabbed the other day. Yeah, who was grabbed the other day. I saw a lot of people with signs about that. It made me want to cry even just seeing the signs. Yeah, with these little outrages, continue to bring people out of their safe, warm comfort bubbles

and be like, no. Like, I am going to do whatever it takes, my money, my time, whatever, right? Yeah. You know William von Sbronson? Yes. For people who are listening, there was an IWW member named William von Sbronson, who was killed by ICE a number of years ago now,

because he decided that he would go and try to set some ice stuff on fire. Yeah, middle of the night. Yeah, I think it was buses, right, unoccupied buses, to be clear. Yeah, middle of the night, empty buses, the buses that they're using to kidnap people. And the cops showed up and killed him. Yeah. Right. And he was seen as kind of this lone wingnut, you know, and I'm watching it,

and I'm like, this man is going to be written about history books. Yeah. A guy actually started doing something early about this. And in his statement that he wrote, I'm not telling people that this was a wise action for him to have taken, whatever. Yeah, yeah. But in his statement he wrote, he wrote a line something like, I am off to fulfill my childhood promise to myself to be noble.

And like, he knew he was going to die doing that action. Right? That certainly seems to be the tone from the letter. but that line, the idea of fulfilling your promise to yourself to be noble, and the thing that is beautiful here is that you can now do that with people and effectively. And I think that a lot of the things that stop people from taking action is a belief that it would be shot in the dark. It would be a lone thing.

It wouldn't accomplish anything. thing. Right? Because most actions you can take by yourself don't accomplish nearly as much.

And to be clear, the people who built rapid response networks here, they learned from other cities. They learn from Chicago who learned from L.A.

Right? That is the lineage that is I have heard presented. Yeah. But they have developed and expanded because this is actually

a bigger thing than operation on ISIS part than either of those. But so people can do we've been put on this

earth to do, which is be our best selves. And I think that there's, even as hard as it is for people, I think that there's a dark beauty that they get to know who they are. And they get to know that they are people who will make sandwiches. You know, because that's the thing. And they will risk everything to make sandwiches. Yeah, yeah. They will risk everything to follow ice vehicles.

Like imagine following a murderer down the street going, this man's a murderer. This man right here shoots people. Well, not just that, right? This person has a power to kill me and not face consequences. Yeah, that's what they're shouting at people. Yeah, yeah. And everyone is shouting it at them.

Yeah, yeah. And it works. Yeah. And it's people who you wouldn't expect of people he would expect, both together alongside each other. Yeah, I think a lot about how, like, how much things have changed. in this country in a year.

Lots of it's bad, right? But like, Abolish ICE was a pretty niche position in 2020. Yeah. Let me tell you, you didn't really hear it, right? Abolish ICE is a compromise position now. That is the centrist position. Yeah, yeah.

That is, uh, yeah. Reform ICE, center right. Yeah, yeah. I think reform ICE is some parts of the Republican Party, right? Abolish ICE is pretty much in between the two. Yeah. The political parties haven't caught up to this fact. Yeah.

But they'd never do. They always take longer than everyone else. But let me tell you, there was, you know, what would Ronald Reagan guy do? When you've lost the what would Ronald Reagan guy do, you're in fucking trouble in this country. Yeah. And I love how it's like, we talk to a lot of people with a lot of different political ideas. Most people didn't have a, this is my political ideology. I am an expressed.

Yeah. But like, you know, people are like just blunt, like, well, it would be better if the politicians were doing it. and they're not. Yeah, this lady who, again, the lady said, those are local cops, you don't have to worry about them. Yeah. A couple days later, turned out. But she was like, it would be great if our politicians were with us,

but they're not, so we're going to do it ourselves. Yeah. That's all you need. That lady's done more anarchism than your average internet anarchist who's out there fed posting every day. Yeah, totally. That's really all you need. Yeah. Well, we're going to take one more ad break.

That's all you really need is advertisement. And it goes a little something like this. And we're back. I feel warmed in my belly by those advertisements. Yeah, hopefully you buy something that you don't need. Yeah, I hopefully you skip past them. Yeah, yeah. You double tap the old headphone button.

It normally goes 30 seconds. See, the problem is that I like, I don't usually, I listen to a lot of podcasts and I don't have cooler zone media because I have Android. Yeah. So I have to listen to the ads. Yeah, I know. So the ads come on. Just remember if you tag I write okay,

if you have any issues regarding the, that failure. That'll definitely work. Yeah. And so sometimes when I'm like, because I listen to a lot of podcasts, why I'm like doing like woodworking or like cleaning or doing stuff with my hands.

Yeah. And so I like, I'm like, I don't want to put down the saw in order to press the button. So I do it with my left ear. yellow against my shoulder. That's how I skip them. Yeah, because I don't have cooler sound media either.

Yeah. But maybe you do. Yeah. This has been a diversion about shit that doesn't bother you. Yeah. Lucky, lucky thing. We will have a lot more reporting.

This isn't the end of the episode, but we'll have a lot more reporting about Minneapolis and the structures that people are building. And Minneapolis and St. Paul and the outline areas, there's someone kind of correctly checked me on the fact that I keep saying Minneapolis is just where I spend less of my time.

Yeah. And things are different, but things are different block by block. But a lot of that we really want to kind of do write and we're going to write scripted. But we're just really kind of in it right now and really want to talk about this. And part of the reason we want to talk about this so soon is because things happen really fast and just that everyone we've talked to has told us that they want people to know, you know, the horrors are getting out on some level, which, is good. It is actually good that people are learning all these horrible things, but a lot of the scale of the resistance isn't getting out and the efficacy of the resistance isn't getting out. And people want people to know because they want people to know that they can do it too.

Yeah, like, I saw someone had, like, shockingly, someone had a stupid opinion on the internet. Someone had said that, like, talking about this makes it dangerous for these people. No. First of all, I think... I mean, there are things that we don't know that we shouldn't, we wouldn't say. Yeah, there are things that, yeah, there are things that we wouldn't ask about or that people wouldn't give us interviews about it. Yeah. They thought they were dangerous, right?

But like, what makes it safe is that everyone is doing it. Right. What makes us safe is that there are more of us. And what people asked us to do with share this, because they are safer if you do it too. Yeah. Right. There are tens of millions of people who are, just as outraged as that older lady that we met on the first day.

And what keeps that lady safe and your neighbor safe and her neighbor safe and people who you've never met safe. And yourself. Yeah, and yourself is you doing it too, right? Like if it stops here, if you can't grab migrants off the street here, then you can't grab dissidents off the street somewhere else. Right. And like, you know, we've seen all over graffiti and, you know,

We saw a huge piece of graffiti at the ice building, basically. Yeah, I read it into the mic actually. Yeah. My mic was working. First, it came for the undocumented, and I said nothing because I wasn't undocumented. Then they came for the Somalis. I said nothing because I was not Somali. Then they came for the activist, and I said nothing, for I was not an activist.

Then they came for me. I am so grateful that we live in a generation that has read that poem. Yeah. You know? And seemingly taking it to heart. Yeah. And more people have than I thought. And I think all the time about solidarity, we're shocked to know this.

You know, obviously the moment that makes me cry on the most regular basis is, of course, the charge of the Roheum when the riders of Rohan ride to Gondor to face the... Anyway, even though Gondor wasn't there for them, where was Gondor? But part of the reason that I love solidarity so much is because, like, I keep joking that I'm going to write the misanthropic introverts guide to socialism. because like I misanthropic introvert at that heart right? I also love people

right? Yeah. And I most just, I love most people over there. Yeah, yeah. And I grew up,

not proud to say, pretty self-interested. Right? And I was like a very lost in my own head and, and I'm a selfish. And I very quickly,

as upon this meeting anarchists and meeting people who believed in responsibility and freedom. was like, oh, I am safer and more free and more able to express my full self if I am part of a community of solidarity. Yeah. And so even though in the immediate moment it is more dangerous, like, there's the old joke about like you don't have to be faster than the bear. You just have to be faster than your friend.

Yeah. That is the single worst idea in the world. Yeah. Because then bears start eating people. Right. So if there is a monster and you can outrun someone so you think you're safe, you now have to be the fastest person. Yeah, yeah, right. You're safe until you're not.

To be part of a community that turns around and fights the monster might be more dangerous for yourself in the immediate sense. And being someone who stands up is that. It is that saying like, well, even though in the short term it is more dangerous for me to stand up, by having been participate in a society where we stand up for each other, I am safer. Yeah. And so even if that means like my literal death, like I will have been safer, even if you get like weirdly utilitarian about it. Yeah. In aggregate, you are safer. Yeah. And so is everyone else. And so it's not a, it's not a charity. It's a solidarity. No, like solidarity is in a sense, is in your own self-interest because we want to live in a world where people take care of. of each other.

Right. Not just in your jobs pay better. You know? Like, yeah. No, just in case we need to be taken care of. Right. But because I often think about that, I think it's John Stuart Mill, right? Ask not for whom the bell toll.

The bell tolls for thee. Mm-hmm. Like what he's saying there is not, what's that bell ringing? What he's saying is I participate in humanity. And so when humanity is devalued, in his case, talking about bell or funerary bell, right? when humanity is devalued, my humanity is devalued. And therefore, in this case, the bell is ringing for me. I am a human.

When they undermine our common humanity, therefore they undermine this thing that I have. And I won't let them do that because I participate in humanity. And so, as it happens, there's a person who's been subjected to inhuman violence. And so I will stand up for humanity. And in doing so, I will stand up for making a humanity that will stand up for, for me. Yeah. And, like, I think about a lot because John McCain wrote it in an obituary for the last

American Lincoln Brigade volunteer. And I don't agree with John McCain on anything, really. Yeah. Right. But I do on that. And, like, I was thinking about it today when I saw what would Ronald Reagan do, guy. Yeah, because John McCain was a man who believed something. He believed things I don't agree with.

Yeah, including a lot of racist shit. Yeah. John McCain clearly thought that the Lincoln Brigadiers were on the right side of history. Right. And Winston Churchill's nephew fought in the international brigades. Right? Folks with whom I share very little in terms of politics, a lot of British upper class people fought in the international brigades.

Yeah. They probably weren't anarchists, but they were anti-fascists. They were better anti-fascists than the people who stayed at home. Yeah. You couldn't tweet in 1936, but they would have been if they could. Yeah. Right? Because they were willing to put their bodies on the line.

Yeah. And many of them died. Many of them were buried in Spain, a Spanish people. remember them fondly. Yeah. Right. They have annual ceremonies to remember the sacrifice they made

before any of the people who are attending those ceremonies are alive. And if more people had said, yeah, I'll go, right? Like, the bell's ringing for me. Yeah. I'm not going to stand for a world where this happens. I'm going to fight for war where it doesn't.

Then we might not have had the Holocaust. Right. We might not have had the Second World War. We might not have had Stalingrad. And also all the people who found Stalingrad are the reason it didn't get worse. Yeah, yeah, right. But World War II could have been worse.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It would have been worse if people hadn't fought. Yeah, right, yeah. We had Stalin grads that the Holocaust wasn't more so that Western Europe doesn't speak German. Yeah. Right? Like, every single one of those people who stood up to stop that probably wished that they'd stood up earlier. Yeah.

And every single one of those people who stood up earlier probably wish that more people to join them. Yeah. And I think about that a lot, right? It's not news. To anyone listen to this that I wrote my PhD on a Spanish Civil War and think about it every day. Yeah. If you wanted the non-dramatic version of all this, you're listening to the wrong two podcasts. Yeah, yeah.

But I think a lot about what we should learn from that, right? I translated a piece for a zine, strangers in the tangled wilderness. Oh, yeah, yeah. It's a publishing collective that I work with. And I translated a piece by a Belgian anarchist who's referred to as a constellation of acronyms. But Charles Riddle was his birth name. Louis Mercier Vega was his name he lived with for most of his life. And he wrote this piece called Refuting the Legend,

where he talks about what he feels that he owes the people who died, right? And I think about that lot. The thing that he comes up with is that he owes the people who died the truth so that we can learn from it and do better. And he shouldn't just make them into heroes. He should make them into real people with flaws so that people can understand their flaws. And they can know what we can do better.

I think about that a lot, right? So many people have gone before us. So many brave people have gone before us. And we owe it to them to learn. Right? And I think we have. Like when I was thinking about this when that older lady said to us, oh, my father was in the Second World War.

Like, and I think about it again when I saw the poem today. Like we have to learn from that experience, right? And you have to stop it now, not when it comes for you. Yeah. Yeah. And the fact that we talked to multiple people who some of their families had survived the Holocaust. Yeah, the reason they were in America in many cases because their grandparents had come here to flee the Holocaust.

Who were making comparisons to that, and you're like, they're not doing that lightly. And I feel like almost, you know, when we talk about this sort of grandiose things, I'm like, I almost feel like I'm like, ah, we're talking about people with whistles. We're like, yeah, but we're not. I mean, we are.

We're talking about people with whistles. Yeah, well, let's hope it stops at whistles. Right. And that is what is effective right now. And it, like, is, you know, it's spreading something. and it's going to be so interesting to see what comes of this. Everything will be changing.

There's no reason to specifically set up everything that you all do in whatever city or town you live in exactly the same as they do it here. But there's like so many things to learn from them. And more than anything else, the thing to learn from them is like, you just show up. It's not that every single person in the city has quit their job to do this full time. Obviously economies don't function like that. but you don't have to quit your job

to walk outside your house when you hear someone yell help, which is what is happening with whistles and honking. Yeah. Right? And just spreading a culture

of we take care of each other and neighborliness, right? And that is like, weirdly fundamentally, it is an American cultural idea. We're just bad at it. We've kind of forgotten a lot of it. Yeah, yeah.

You know, it's like, because obviously isolation is a big part of American individualism is a big part of it. But like everyone's a little bit happy when they get to like, oh, you need a, you need a lawnmower. Oh, yeah. When I get to fix my neighbor's truck. Yeah. Love that. Yeah.

Get out and give someone a chainsaw. And one of the things that we, to maybe kind of end on, the thing that I want to end on, you know, we're asking people like what they wish other people knew, what other people could know. And there's a couple things that people mentioned, and we'll write more about this and probably the podcast more about this. But one of the things that people mentioned is they wish they had started earlier about knowing their neighbors.

Obviously, it wasn't too late. It's the whole, like, with any kind of preparedness, right? You wish you so scary. Yeah, but, you know, now is the best, you know, yesterday is the best time and today is the next best time. Yeah. Right.

And like, just literally knowing them, not necessarily becoming their friends. Like a lot of people are like, no, I wasn't friends with them. I just sort of knew them. And then also one of the other things that people, just as another thing people mentioned that they wanted people to know is that when you build these networks,

you need to build autonomy into them at every level. You need to build the idea that the person who is following ICE is at the end of the day in charge of how they do that. Yeah. Like even if, you know, people are like, oh, ice is over here. You can't say, everyone go do this. someone can suggest that. Yeah.

Right. But having built autonomy into these networks makes them so much stronger. And in an interesting way, partly because it makes them less predictable to ice. Right. Because you never know what someone's going to, what they're comfortable when they're not comfortable with. Yeah.

So like that is basically a diversity of tactics makes movements strong. If they don't know how we are going to behave. they can't, you know, and not just like, if everyone's rowdy, no. Like, if people are a combination. And when the rowdy and non-routy support people, it support each other. Anyway, those are the kind of last thoughts I have before I actually sit down and look at all my notes and write something real. Yeah.

I think for me, it's everyone here said that, like, it was funny when people were like, we were like, how did you start organizing? And they were like, you know, last July, we had a blog. party and a potluck. Yeah. And it just seemed to be just a thing until it became the foundation of this thing that exists now, right?

Yeah. If there's one thing you can do, it won't cost you any money, it will take you a little bit of time and it will probably make your life better. It is go out on your block and meet your neighbors. And I know that can be hard for people.

Yeah. I know it can be scary. But we're talking like trans motherfuckers who are doing this too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's people who are, who have. more at stake than I do, right?

Like I'm the cisgender white man for people listening. The best thing you can do is start to form community and it could be in so many ways. One thing that I really like to do is like I have throughout my life developed certain skills and certain

hobbies and I love to share those with people. You know, if there is someone in my neighborhood they've got a bike outside, they're trying to fix a puncher, I'm going to go help them because I've done that 10,000 times. Right? Whatever it is your thing that you like to talk about that you're good at that you know about. Think of a way you can share that with people. Maybe you like to bake. Maybe you like to knit.

Maybe whatever it. It doesn't matter. It doesn't. Oh, there's people with like free hats and scarves at these things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You could just be the person who knits the scarves. Is that your way to contribute? If that's your way to meet your neighbors, right? Yeah. Put on a knitting circle. To put on a baking thing. I like to grow plants. So I'm always growing plants and I'm stoked. when my neighbours stop by and say, hey, I really like your basil plant and I want to make...

Which is how they pronounce it when they say that to you. Yeah, when they say to me, because otherwise I look at them and say, get out of my home. You know, and if they want to make something, I give them some, right? Or if they say, hey, I just need a couple of tomatoes and I notice, of course I'm going to give them, right?

Yeah. Whatever that is, your neighbor's away for a couple of weeks. Hey, do you want me to look after the house? Your car won't start. Let me jump it. Right? I have one of those little jumper packs. I love to use a little.

jumper pack. Oh yeah. If you have a tool and someone needs the tool, having a multi-tool on you is the best way to feel good all the time because someone's like, oh, I wish I had a rent or not a, you know, I wish I'd flyers. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And there you go. Like Superman. Yeah. Do those things now. I know we harp, Margaret and I both hop on about this, but like this is how you build a better world. It starts on your block. It starts by building a better neighborhood, building a better street, building a better apartment complex. If an apartment complex, right, could be high. It could be high. It's a better. It's I'd see people in apartment complexes because people sort of get in the lift and put the look at the floor. Yeah. Put a little sign up. Just be like, hey, we're going to have a potluck.

Hey, the little bit in between the pavement and the road's kind of fucked up. Anyone else want to help me put some plants in it this springtime? You know, whatever it is that is your thing, start using that to build community

because it's a community that's going to get you through this. Yeah, and it's like, you know, I don't always like talking to people, but I just, when I'm in a new place, I'm just like, Hey, I just moved here.

Nice to meet you. I'm so and so. Do you need my phone number? And I can do the kind of like, you know, I want you to my phone number because I want you to call me instead of the cops. I'm being too loud, right? Yeah. But like, you're going to make a little bit of a faux pa in certain communities by being like, hey, we should know each other. Yeah.

But usually just a hey, we should know each other isn't actually offending as many people as you think. Yeah. Like, I know a lot of people don't live in cities too or some people are like. I grew up very, very rural. Yeah. But actually, like, we had to know each other because, like, there wasn't really anyone else you could go to. Oh, yeah. In my mind, I'm like, when I live rural and I'm like, that's how you have to know people.

Like, yeah, like, I remember someone's horse fell in a wealthy of people at a swimming pool. Like, yeah, I ain't lifting the horse out by myself. Oh, yeah, my neighbor's pig out of the pool. He keeps walking under my property. Yeah. It's not as big of a deal as the horse falling in, but just constantly my neighbor's like, my pig got out again. Yeah. Like, we, there were a million reasons.

way in rural areas, I'd hope you would know people anyway. But again, like, hey, I'm so-and-so, I just moved here. I just wanted to say hi, maybe you bake something, whatever, take something over. Most people aren't going to be mad at you. Yeah. Well, that's kind of our preliminary stuff, and we're going to be doing so much more with it. But we just kind of wanted to get some ideas out while we were both in the same place in this shockingly beautiful city around people who,

they're so fucking inspiring. Like, everyone we talk to is so inspiring. Even if the like the tragedy of it, you know, I feel so weird being like, here's the hopeful stuff when I'm like, we're describing a horrible land of kidnappers. Like, it's just like literally kidnappers have descended upon the city and are like,

yeah, we're just going to kidnap people. When you put your taxes this year, that will fund the kidnappings. Yeah. For cool people, cool stuff. That's the core idea of the show is that when people, you know, it's the intro, when people are trying to do bad things, there's people trying to do good things. And so that's why taking a break from history content, talking about something that's just fucking

happening right now. It is cool people doing cool stuff up here and or maybe more than cool because it's freezing. Yeah, freezing people doing cool stuff. Yeah, feel free to workshop at home. Yeah. The better way to do it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I'm coming back from a place more hopeful than I left. I know that's my thing that I do. But, like, I really believe that in the darkest times, we can build beautiful things.

And I don't believe that any less after being here. Yeah. That's a great thing about being a goth. Beauty and the dark stuff. That's like fucking... Anyway, we'll talk to you all for me next week and for James, who knows. Probably freaking tomorrow. Yeah.

A couple of days here. Yeah. Yeah. God. Yeah. I thought my job was hard. Anyway, yeah, good luck with everyone and take care of your neighbors and fuck ice. Yeah.

Thanks everyone for listening to all of this. And if at the end of this you're thinking that you would like to help some of the people who are on the ground, we ask people that we trusted on the ground to provide us with links to different fundraisers. And basically, you know, I never share a fundraiser unless I can support it with my whole heart and I would support it with my own wallet. The links themselves are going to be in the show notes. But there's a couple different ones. There's rent support for neighbors in Phillips, which is a neighborhood,

rent support for neighbors in Central, rent support for neighbors in Powderhorn, supplies for political art making, protective gear for legal observers, diapers and menstrual supplies is another fundraiser. Abolish ice shirts, including the shirt I am wearing right now as I record this, North Star Frontline Street Medics,

and the Twin Cities Swolaterate Bail Fund. And there'll be links to both a Venmo and a cash app for that one. Anyway, thank us, everyone, and take care of each other. Cool people who did cool stuff is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Coolzone Media,

visit our website, coolzonemedia.com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an iHeart podcast, Guaranteed Human.