Welcome to Good Story

A Substack for Strategy with a Progressive and Practical POV

On election night, I was in a hotel ballroom with hundreds of Democrats who had come to celebrate. Working 18 hour days had required a state of suspended disbelief. As the map on the big screen was turning redder, that suspended state gave way to panic.

In the days and months that followed, armchair strategists offered their hot takes: 

It was moderates. It was messaging. It was progressives. It was podcasts.

It was the gravitational, global post-pandemic malaise. It was Gaza. 

I am here to tell you from my office chair - not my armchair - it was all of that, and more. And staying in a state of disbelief and panic, pointing the finger at each other — is precisely what they are counting on.

We have to snap out of it.

The bad news? There is no One Weird Trick to get us out of this awful mess.

But the good news? There are strategies that work, and there are things you can do - that we can do together - to fight back, find a way forward, and to renew a sense of solidarity and a bold progressive movement. Maybe even make it better than what we had before.

That’s what this Substack is about.

I’m going to be here to tell you what’s happening, and how to pick ourselves up and fight back, with messaging and strategies that work.

And I’ll also throw some punches, and throw in as much good news as I can find, as a treat.

I’ve spent the last 20 years in the trenches of community organizing and grassroots politics, fighting for progressive change. I co-founded the Center for Story-based Strategy and created a method for messaging that has shaped some of the most important progressive social movements of the past two decades: from the Iraq War to Occupy Wall Street, Immigrant Rights and Climate Justice, Black Lives Matter to Bernie.

I’ve advised dozens of left leaning organizations, and trained thousands of activists building power for racial, economic, and environmental justice. My passion is climate change, which has brought me around the world working with inspiring activists, and into the woods, where I find my inspiration and solace.

I’ve been called “Dangerous” by more conservative Democrats, and “a big part of the reason for the left’s relentless success” by Republicans.

I’ve worked in and around progressive politics for half my life now — running advocacy campaigns, running for office, running policy and progressive organizations.

Always punching above my weight, and forever an optimist, I am here because after two decades, I’ve learned how to be a relentless operator. As far as the fractious left goes, there isn’t a fight I haven’t been in, an issue I haven’t touched, or a scenario I haven’t seen. My signature is bringing people together when things are falling apart, and finding a strategic pathway to start moving to a better place.

This is where I am going to share my playbook, and get real with my readers about what’s happening out there, and what we can do now.

It won’t always be perfect, but it will be provocative. And I hope you will come along for the ride.

Welcome to Good Story.