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PODCAST

Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams

Let"s face it, sometimes the world feels broken. We can see what needs fixing, yet more and more, it feels like the problems are too big and the bad guys are winning. But the truth is, they’re not. They’re just hoping we stop fighting. Welcome to Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams, a new podcast from Crooked Media and Democratic changemaker Stacey Abrams. Stacey knows better than anyone that societal shifts happen when a group of ordinary people decide that a problem is solvable, and are willing

society & culture

All Episodes

01:40:53

What's the future of organizing? + Ken Martin with...

Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams ·

2025/11/27

Live from Crooked Con, Shaniqua McClendon, Vice President of Politics at Crooked Media, hosts Maurice Mitchell of the Working Families Party, Ezra Levin of Indivisible, DeRay Mckesson of Pod Save the People, Kate Barr of Can’t Win Victory Fund, and Melissa Morales of Somos Votantes to talk about the best ways to contact and engage the low-information voters we know we desperately need. Then, Shaniqua McClendon sits down with the chairman of the DNC, Ken Martin to answer questions about how the party

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00:57:51

Redrawing Democracy: Prop 50, Trump’s Maps, and the...

Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams ·

2025/11/20

The battle for 2026 has already begun, and it’s all about the maps. Step three in the 10 steps to authoritarianism is to weaken competing powers, and step 10 is to end democracy itself by disrupting election systems and restricting who can vote so no meaningful opposition can ever win again. In California, voters passed Prop 50, the Election Rigging Response Act as a way to fire back at Republican gerrymandering in Texas that was designed to steal power by making it harder for voters to make their

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00:58:34

Samantha Bee on How the Funny Can Fight Trump and...

Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams ·

2025/11/13

Late night comedians have become some of the most recent high profile targets for Donald Trump and Republicans, because like most wannabe authoritarians, they can dish it out, but certainly can’t take a joke. This week, Stacey is joined by comedian, podcast host, writer, and former host of Full Frontal, Samantha Bee to discuss comedy’s role in pushing back against political censorship with relentless humor. They take on the current state of late night comedy, the very real threats to truth and free

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01:09:35

Gaza Under Siege: Netanyahu’s Use of Violence to...

Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams ·

2025/11/06

Authoritarianism is on the rise globally, from hard-line leaders in Europe to despots in Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. Wherever they emerge, these leaders are doing whatever it takes to stay in power, and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is no different. In this episode of Assembly Required, Stacey looks at how Netanyahu has overseen the erosion of Democracy in his country, and how it’s coincided with the devastating campaign of violence carried out against the Palestinian

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00:58:20

How 3.5% of People Can Change Everything

Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams ·

2025/10/30

The act of protest is a vital, visible, and essential tool in resisting the fall of democracy, and it takes commitment, disruption, and denial – three of the ten steps to freedom and power. While protest gives us a platform to voice our grievances, foster solidarity, and demand change, it is not the only tool we have in our toolbox. When combined with other forms of direct nonviolent action — such as strikes, economic boycott, documenting abuses of power, and providing mutual aid like meals , and

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01:05:20

The Rise of State Violence in the United States

Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams ·

2025/10/23

National Guardsmen are being deployed into Democratic-led cities under the guise of fighting crime. ICE, using military-style tactics, are racially profiling and terrorizing communities and brutalizing citizens and undocumented immigrants alike. Trump and the Republicans cynically describe millions of peaceful protestors raising their voices against authoritarianism as a violent threat. Taken separately, each of these events is disturbing. Together, they paint a stark and terrifying portrait of

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01:02:18

The Politics of Fashion: How What We Wear Shapes the...

Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams ·

2025/10/16

Fashion isn’t just functional — it’s transformative. It can be a form of political speech, like when Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made headlines in a white gown emblazoned with “Tax the Rich.” It can also be a statement of resistance, as when the Black Panthers adopted black berets, a uniform that came to symbolize unity and power. Understanding the language of fashion is key to understanding the times we live in. It’s a translator for anyone trying to navigate this moment and one of the ten steps to

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00:52:15

The Republican War on Knowledge

Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams ·

2025/10/09

Knowledge is power — a familiar cliché, but one that’s never felt more urgent. Trump and his Republican lackeys have launched alarming efforts to distort facts, manipulate evidence, and dilute the truth in order to disempower us. Very little has been left untouched, and the harm to scientific inquiry, the study of history, and institutions that preserve historical memory will be hard to reverse. Understanding our history is how we know that despite the dark chapters, this country is resilient

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01:00:34

How to Build a Winning Coalition in Trump’s Broken...

Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams ·

2025/10/02

One of authoritarianism’s core tactics is claiming the system is broken beyond repair and only one man can fix it. Enter Donald Trump. He’s reshaped the Republican Party around his insidious MAGA ideology, casting Democrats as enemies bent on destroying the country. For centuries, America’s two-party system has kept Republicans and Democrats locked in battle, with third parties rarely breaking through. But today, to defeat autocracy and its effects, something beyond the binary is required. This

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00:49:13

How MAHA Is Coming for Women

Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams ·

2025/09/25

Propaganda is a powerful tool for an autocrat. It’s crucial to step six of the Ten Steps to Autocracy: weaken the truth and fill the void with propaganda and lies. And since RFK Jr. allied with Trump and the Republicans before the 2024 election, the Make America Healthy Again movement has grown into a juggernaut of misinformation. You’ve seen it on your feeds - one minute you’re watching a recipe video or checking out someone’s post about a new workout, and then suddenly you’re listening to a young

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01:07:07

Stacey Abrams’ On The Ten Steps to Save Democracy

Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams ·

2025/09/18

On this week’s episode of Assembly Required, Stacey Abrams breaks down the “Ten Steps to Autocracy,” a framework inspired by Princeton Professor Kim Scheppele that outlines the warning signs of a country sliding toward authoritarian rule. We’re watching Trump and the Republicans check off those steps in plain sight: expand and consolidate executive power, break down government institutions, sow distrust in the media, scapegoate vulnerable communities, incentivize violence, and their final goal:

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01:10:50

The Republican Dismantling of Public Education

Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams ·

2025/09/11

As back-to-school season kicks off, the Trump Administration has gutted the Department of Education, and his Republican allies in Congress have followed suit by slashing funds for our public schools. Locally, GOP governors and state legislators are jamming through private school voucher bills paid for with public dollars. That means rollbacks to special education services, massive cuts to Title I grants that support low-income students, and reduced civil rights enforcement in public schools. And

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00:39:09

More Happier: Talking Romance Writing with Stacey...

Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams ·

2025/09/03

The Assembly Required team is taking a break this week but we’re excited to bring you an episode of Happier with Gretchen Rubin featuring our very own Stacey Abrams.In this Roundtable discussion, we explore the role of romance in fiction and real life. Author and political leader Stacey Abrams explains how she weaves it into her suspense novels by focusing on authentic human connection, while therapist Lori Gottlieb brings her perspective on love off the page. Together, we look at how romance is

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01:13:36

How to Fight Back Against the Republicans’...

Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams ·

2025/08/28

Authoritarianism takes many forms - including stripping women of their rights. This summer marked three years since Roe v. Wade was overturned, eradicating the federal constitutional right to abortion and handing states the power to impose extreme restrictions or outright bans. The fallout has been devastating. Women have been hospitalized, dragged into court, and some have died as a direct result of Roe’s reversal. On this week’s Assembly Required, Stacey Abrams is joined by New York Times

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01:10:30

Ezra Klein on Abundance and Reclaiming the Democratic...

Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams ·

2025/08/21

In the Ten Steps to Autocracy, step four is convincing citizens that democracy just isn’t working. If democracy isn’t working, then people will be seduced by populist promises and grievance politics. That’s why Democrats and the rest of us standing up to autocracy must have a positive vision of the future, and a realistic path to get there. One idea that has taken off among those thinking about Democrats’ next act is the “abundance agenda.” Crafted in their co-authored book Abundance, Ezra Klein and

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01:05:29

How Christian Nationalism Threatens Democracy

Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams ·

2025/08/14

Christian nationalism is an extremist, anti-democratic ideology rooted in the belief that the United States should be a nation for Christians to the exclusion of all others. In modern times, the Trump administration and its Republican allies have wielded this ideology as a weapon to divide Americans and implement an agenda via plans like the infamous Project 2025 that eviscerates the rights of immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community, questions the rights of women to vote, restores a freedom to

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01:03:19

How Trump’s War on Journalism Can End America

Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams ·

2025/08/07

Donald Trump has been called many things: authoritarian, racist, liar, scam artist. Stacey Abrams is adding one more…aspiring autocrat. Inspired by Princeton professor Kim Scheppele, Stacey has remixed the “The Ten Steps to Autocracy” to reflect today’s political reality. And embedded in that framework is a chilling move the administration and Republicans have played repeatedly since inauguration: attack the media until no one knows what’s true. Just this year alone, Trump has launched frivolous

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01:07:54

How the Republican Megabill Hurts Everyone

Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams ·

2025/07/31

On July 4th, Trump signed the devastating and dangerous Republican "Megabill" into law — a sweeping measure that targets the young and the vulnerable to further enrich the wealthy. But we’re all collateral damage. Among its many cruelties: new Medicaid restrictions that could strip coverage from 11.8 million Americans over the next decade, a cost shift in SNAP that may cut food benefits for 22.3 million families, and a $5 trillion debt ceiling hike. While working and middle class families across the

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01:05:09

Buffy, Bad Bills, and Burning Questions with Stacey...

Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams ·

2025/07/24

In the very first edition of Assembly Required’s listener mailbag, Stacey Abrams tackles your wide-ranging, urgent questions—from politics to pop culture. She dives into MAGA’s Epstein-fueled outrage, breaks down Trump’s mega-bill, and fully embraces her inner nerd with takes on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Trek, her all-time favorite romance novels, and much more! For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and

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00:46:14

How to Find the Funny in Times of Crisis

Assembly Required with Stacey Abrams ·

2025/07/17

Political humor is more than just a distraction. It’s where punchlines meet headlines and chaos turns into catharsis. It offers us moments of levity amid an overwhelming, anxiety-fueled news cycle. In an America galloping towards autocracy, where the political landscape shifts by the hour and human rights teeter on the edge of policy, humor isn't just helpful…it’s essential. This week, Stacey sits down with someone who knows how to find the funny in the bleakest of times. Amber Ruffin, comedian,

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