Future Hindsight Podcast

Episode: Turning Hope Into Action: Michael Ansara

Date: September 18, 2025
Host: Mila Atmos
Guest: Michael Ansara
Theme: Translating hope into effective civic and political organizing to defend and expand democracy.

Overview

In this episode, host Mila Atmos sits down with lifelong activist and organizer Michael Ansara, author of The Hard Work of Hope, to unpack the urgent challenges facing American democracy, the lessons learned from decades of organizing, and the concrete steps individuals and groups can take to build lasting power. Drawing from Ansara’s rich history in the civil rights, anti-war, and economic justice movements, the conversation dives deep into the difference between mobilization and genuine organizing, the pitfalls of polarization and media fragmentation, and the essential role of enduring, group-based action in creating transformative change.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Current Status Quo and Its Threats to Democracy

• Democracy Under Threat (02:38)

  • Ansara frames the present as the gravest threat to American democracy, the Constitution, and basic decency since the Civil War.
  • The dilemma: in resisting destructive figures like Trump, “if we become defenders of a failed and flawed status quo, we will not succeed.”
  • Quote:

    "The challenge for all of us who care about democracy is both to resist the destruction that's going on, but to offer a better alternative."
    — Michael Ansara, [03:27]

• Roots of Discontent

  • Rising income inequality, unaffordable living, and divisive media ecosystems are fueling both far-right and far-left movements.
  • The need is not just defense, but vision for reform and progress.

2. Mobilization vs. Organization: Building Lasting Power

• From Mobilization to Organization (04:28)

  • Ansara distinguishes between large-scale protests and sustained organizing.
  • Organizing Principle:

    "Organizers organize organizations."
    — Michael Ansara, [04:47]

  • The most pressing need: forming durable teams rooted in communities and workplaces to counter anti-democratic forces.

• Lessons from Mass Fair Share (07:26)

  • As founder of Mass Fair Share, Ansara organized for economic justice statewide, focusing on tangible issues like taxation, energy, and insurance.
  • Wins included holding large tax delinquents accountable and changing property tax policies, pursued through research, coalition-building, and pressure on regulators.
  • Contemporary Application: Organizing around today’s electricity price hikes, driven by AI data center demand, to expose and challenge consumer-subsidized profiteering.
  • Quote:

    "Consumers are subsidizing billionaires once again. ... I'd be going in and saying, hey, how do you feel about the cost of living? ... There are things that we can do about it, both at the state level and the national level."
    — Michael Ansara, [09:32]

3. The Challenge and Value of Deep Organizing

• The Time and Effort of True Organizing (11:24)

  • Grassroots organizing is time-consuming and relationship-based.
  • Text-based fundraising misses the crucial step of building solidarity and understanding through conversation.

• Success Stories: Door-to-Door in NYC (12:04)

  • The example of Zoran Mamdani’s mayoral campaign in NYC: 50,000 (mostly young) volunteers knocked on over a million doors, transforming the electorate.
  • Quote:

    "They were building a field organization that completely transformed the New York electorate."
    — Michael Ansara, [13:28]

4. Elite Abandonment, Media Fragmentation, and the Organizing Vacuum

• Elites Abandon Working People (14:16)

  • Both political parties’ "catastrophic abandonment" of working- and lower-income Americans has fueled resentment and alienation.

• Media Landscape: From Shared Narratives to Tribalism (16:17)

  • Unlike the days when national news shaped a common discourse, today’s tribal, fragmented media ecosystem impedes organizing and narrative-setting.
  • Face-to-face organizing—knocking on doors, kitchen-table conversations—remains irreplaceable for bridging divides and fostering shared purpose.
  • Quote:

    "When you do that kind of connecting and outreach and engagement, you find that you can start to persuade people that the problems that they face are not theirs alone ... and that working together, we can start to do something about it."
    — Michael Ansara, [17:37]

5. Organizing Under Urgency: Action in a Time of Crisis

• Balancing Speed and Depth (18:29)

  • The crisis is urgent, but deep political power isn't built overnight.
  • Start with those already opposed to authoritarianism—form small groups and grow them by reaching out to the disengaged and organizing for collective action.

• Practical Strategy for Action (18:59)

  • Form Groups: Begin with friends and acquaintances, escalate collective action with each protest, election, or campaign.
  • Targeted Organizing: From university resistance to regulatory advocacy around utility rates, tailoring efforts to local contexts.
  • Quote:

    "As urgent as our situation is, we've got at a minimum, at a minimum, three and a half more years of this and it's going to get worse before it gets better. So we have no choice but to build deep, real political power. That means organizing."
    — Michael Ansara, [21:18]

  • Ansara’s refrain:

    "Organize. Organize. Organize." [Repeated, ~22:25]

6. Reflections on Protest Movements and Strategic Voting

• Campus Protests & Strategic Perspective (26:05)
  • Admiration for student activism, but caution against old mistakes: movements must be strategically focused to build broad coalitions and avoid jeopardizing potential (even if imperfect) allies.
  • Lesson from 1968: Not supporting the lesser evil (Humphrey vs. Nixon) had disastrous long-term consequences.
  • Quote:

    "We lacked the political imagination to understand how much damage Nixon and Kissinger would do for the country."
    — Michael Ansara, [29:41]

  • Applied to 2024: millions who had supported Biden in 2020 did not vote in 2024, playing a decisive role in the outcome.
  • Many abstained out of disillusionment with the status quo rather than support for the far right.
  • Quote:

    "There's been a recent poll that showed most of those would not have voted for Trump had they voted. They would have made the difference in all the swing states. All of them."
    — Michael Ansara, [31:55]

7. Effective Boycotts and Community Action

• Wonder Bread vs. Starbucks (34:33)

  • 1960s Wonder Bread boycott: grassroots, block-by-block organizing led to concrete victories in job access and prompted change in other businesses.
  • Successful boycotts demand broad, persistent, structured engagement—just damaging the bottom line isn't enough unless it's widespread and organized.

• Lessons for Today

  • Current boycotts against large corporations like Starbucks need the same commitment and structure: local leadership, accountability, and clear objectives.

8. Civic Spark & Organizing Starter Pack

• Concrete Steps to Begin Organizing (39:10)
  • Gather 4-5 friends, meet regularly, discuss fears and actionable ideas, attend events together, and gradually expand the group.
  • Engage with and/or join broader movements (Indivisible, Sunrise, Third Act, unions).
  • Quote:

    "It's beginning a group. And you can affiliate with...dozens of organizations...or you can just have your own small group that is getting larger and larger with each passing month."
    — Michael Ansara, [40:12]

9. The Nature and Power of Hope

• Hope as a Decision and a Discipline (40:58)
  • Hope is not naïveté or idle optimism. It’s a conscious, active choice to keep fighting and refuse passivity.
  • Agency and organizing are antidotes to despair—“the future is not set; it is up to us.”
  • Memorable Final Quote:

    "Hope is a decision, and it's a decision to fight for what is good and right, even when things are not going well. ... That's the hard work of hope. And the hard work of hope...that's organizing."
    — Michael Ansara, [41:28]

Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• "The challenge for all of us who care about democracy is both to resist the destruction that's going on, but to offer a better alternative." — Michael Ansara [03:27]
• "Organizers organize organizations." — Michael Ansara [04:47]
• "Consumers are subsidizing billionaires once again." — Michael Ansara [09:32]
• "They were building a field organization that completely transformed the New York electorate." — Michael Ansara [13:28]
• "There's no substitute for face-to-face organizing, for knocking on people's doors, coming and sitting at their kitchen table..." — Michael Ansara [16:53]
• "Organize. Organize. Organize." — Michael Ansara [22:25]
• "We lacked the political imagination to understand how much damage Nixon and Kissinger would do for the country." — Michael Ansara [29:41]
• "There's been a recent poll that showed most of those [2020 Biden voters who abstained in 2024] would not have voted for Trump had they voted. They would have made the difference in all the swing states." — Michael Ansara [31:55]
• "It's beginning a group. ... Or you can just have your own small group that is getting larger and larger with each passing month." — Michael Ansara [40:12]
• "Hope is a decision, and it's a decision to fight for what is good and right, even when things are not going well... That's organizing." — Michael Ansara [41:28]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 02:38 — Defining the threat to democracy and the problem with “defending the status quo”
• 04:28 — The distinction between mobilization and organizing; importance of sustained organizations
• 07:26 — Mass Fair Share and strategies for economic justice organizing
• 12:04 — The essential, difficult, and rewarding work of real grassroots organizing
• 16:17 — The fragmented media ecosystem and its impact on organizing
• 18:59 — Steps for urgent but deep organizing in the current crisis
• 26:05 — Lessons from student protests, the 1968 election, and the costs of strategic shortsightedness
• 34:33 — The Wonder Bread boycott: structure and success in action
• 39:10 — Organizing starter pack: small groups, regular meetings, expanding connections
• 40:58 — The meaning of hope and its necessity for change

Conclusion

Michael Ansara’s message is clear: genuine change is driven by deep, sustained organizing—not one-off marches, texts, or online fundraising. Hope is a discipline, not a feeling, and translating it into action requires forming and nurturing real-world relationships, facing uncomfortable truths, and building power from the ground up. The future remains unwritten—and up to all of us.