Building Local Power

Our new season shatters the deceptive facade often employed by merging companies that claim their consolidation will benefit consumers.… Read More

In this episode of Building Local Power, Chris Noble, the Director of Organizing at Health Access California, and Allison Hardt, the Community Development Director at T1 International, share their personal experiences accessing life-saving medication in America that ultimately led to their efforts supporting the CalRx plan to publicly produce life-saving medications, starting with insulin. Chris was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age five, setting in motion a chain of events that motivates his efforts to bring awareness to the market failures that exacerbate the high cost of medicine in the United States. Allison witnessed the challenges her mother faced as a nurse in an increasingly impersonal healthcare system and eventually, through her partner, became intimately familiar with the daily struggles and unbearable costs associated with accessing insulin. In the second half of the episode, ILSR Co-Director Stacy Mitchell delves into the hidden world of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) — their role in the pharmaceutical industry and how their practices hinder people like Chris and Allison from obtaining essential medicines at reasonable prices. She explains how three PBMs currently dominate the industry, controlling over 80% of all insured prescriptions in the United States, enabling self-dealing practices that undermine fair competition and transparency at the expense of people’s health. Stacy calls for a “marriage of antitrust policies and public action,” a two-pronged approach to promote competition by decentralizing power and increasing public investment. For additional resources see: https://ilsr.org/building-local-power/

Kay Eady, a lifelong Georgian, fondly recalls spending her childhood playing baseball with her siblings, reading at the library, and admiring her mother and grandmother. As she embarked on her adult educational journey, Kay learned that despite her individual blessings, there was an abundance of disparities for low-income communities and communities of color, particularly in the rural South. This was especially true for access to healthcare, and Kay devoted herself to bridging this gap. One such opportunity to bridge the gap is increasing broadband service to rural communities, opening the door for greater telehealth access. Her work at the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative, empowering communities to speak up for their needs and advocating for broadband infrastructure, has paved the way for improved healthcare access and quality of life. In the second half of the episode, Ry Marcattilio, the Associate Director for Research at ILSR’s Community Broadband Networks initiative, highlights how investments in broadband in the rural south can improve access to healthcare, education, economic development, and community engagement. Ry emphasizes that broadband service is a crucial social determinant of health and discusses the advantages of telehealth in improving patient outcomes and healthcare delivery. One of the biggest obstacles, Ry explains, is monopolistic telecom companies that put profit over service, and largely neglect rural areas. However, Ry notes that electric and telephone cooperatives can bridge the connectivity gap. For additional resources see: https://ilsr.org/building-local-power/

From an early age, Rose was taught that if you see a problem, you have a responsibility to do something about it. Now in her 70s and living just seven miles from the Sherco coal-fired power plant, Rose shares her story and secrets with us of how she is applying this lesson — working with the Sierra Club’s “Beyond Coal” campaign and successfully mobilizing hundreds of concerned residents in an effort to shut down the plant, and others in the region. Tyson Slocum, the director of Public Citizen’s Energy Program, joins the second half of the episode to discuss how private equity firms across the country have been acquiring and sustaining coal plants like the ones Rose is fighting against. He explains how private equity firms operate differently from traditional corporations in financing and transparency, insulating them from public scrutiny and pressure to address climate change and adhere to certain ideals. Tyson provides examples of private equity firms exploiting market design changes to extract value from these plants, leaving long-term liabilities, environmental concerns, and residents’ health behind. For additional resources see: https://ilsr.org/building-local-power/

When Jasmine’s apartment roof started caving in, she asked her landlords to fix it. Instead of fixing it, the landlord gave her an ultimatum: accept the conditions or leave. Jasmine left, turning to activism and organizing with the Louisville Tenant’s Union to help neighborhoods throughout the city have access to safe and affordable housing. As she articulates in this episode of Building Local Power, people’s lives shouldn’t “be determined by the whims of a landlord.” In the second half of the episode, Tara Raghuveer, the Director of Kansas City Tenants, discusses how private equity firms have identified the housing market as a lucrative opportunity to reap enormous profits at the expense of tenants. What’s worse, she posits, is that the federal government has enabled private equity to infiltrate the housing market with few safeguards for buyers and renters. Tara goes on to suggest changes that can be made at the local, state, and federal level, emphasizing that cities can reform their tax incentive policies to support tenants rather than corporate profiteers. For additional resources see: https://ilsr.org/building-local-power/

In 2022, in the small town of Alpine, California, Raquel Nuñez founded Cuatro Vientos, a community composting project that brings environmental and cultural solutions to the community. In this episode of Building Local Power, Raquel, and her partners Iriani Lopez and Aedan Lagillardaie, share how it has been a dream come true to reconnect with their heritage and the land through composting. However, over the last year, they have quickly learned that their biggest barrier to sustaining this dream is funding. Jessica Toth, Executive Director of the Solana Center, an organization driving environmental innovation, joins the second half of the episode to outline how food waste is both an environmental and a social issue and why the very people implementing solutions to lessen our carbon footprint — while providing jobs and education in a circular food system — are underfunded. Despite misaligned interests on the part of investors, environmental stewards, and policymakers, Jessica makes the case for economic incentives that can help the United States address the 40 million tons of food waste created every year in this country alone. For additional resources see: https://ilsr.org/building-local-power/

Twenty-five years ago, there were over 2,000 commercial shrimp boats in Mississippi. Today, that number has fallen to around 200. This trend is not unique to Mississippi: Across U.S. coastlines, commercial fisherfolk are seeing their way of life disappear. On this episode of Building Local Power, Tim Barrett, a local fisherman in Marshfield, Massachusetts, and Ryan Bradley, of the Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United, guide us through how catch share policies — a set of regulations promoted as beneficial for the environment and for fisheries — have turned the sea into a tradeable and buyable commodity, opening the doors for investment, private equity, and corporations to hoard the right to harvest fish. The ensuing consolidation of the industry is driving up prices for both small-scale fisherfolk and the consumer, and putting countless fisherfolk out of work. Tim and Ryan explain how we need to reform the nation’s catch policy to build a more equitable and thriving fishing sector where small-scale fisherfolk aren’t the ones being hooked. For additional resources see: https://ilsr.org/building-local-power/

“A country with no farmers is no country at all,” says Shad Dasher, owner of The Onion Man Company, an onion farm in Glennville, Ga., on this episode of Building Local Power. In the 1930s, the United States boasted some 6.8 million farms. Today, we’re down to roughly two million — a more than 70% decline. The rapid consolidation of agriculture across the U.S. has obliterated many small and mid-size farms and has posed monumental challenges for small farmers and consumers alike. In the second half of this episode, Sarah Carden, Senior Policy Advocate at Farm Action, explains how increased consolidation drives up land prices, reduces agricultural diversity, increases prices for consumers, and diminishes the economic viability of communities. What we’re seeing is a hollowing out of U.S. agriculture — “farmers are going extinct,” as Sarah says solemnly. All of this points to a clear need to shift our American ideology away from misguided notions of “efficiency” and, as Sarah suggests, to implement policies that support a decentralized farming system. For additional resources see: https://ilsr.org/building-local-power/

Imagine sitting in a remote region of the Sahara desert. The sun is scorching hot, the dry air is stifling, and there are no trees, no water, and no living creatures as far as the eye can see. What would you wish you had? One night in 2020, Aaron Johnson, founder and owner of Oasis Fresh Market, was up late working on a marketing plan for his new grocery store when he imagined himself in this very scenario. Then, it hit him. “In my mind, I [thought of an] oasis,” he recalled. “I remember opening my laptop and Googling the definition … it means refuge, safe place, and shelter.” For years, Aaron had lived in a different kind of desert, one common to many urban and rural areas across the U.S.: a food desert. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, an urban area becomes a food desert when residents live further than a mile from a full-service grocery store; in rural areas, the range stretches to 10 miles. North Tulsa, Oklahoma had been a food desert for fourteen years. It was also, Aaron adds, a food swamp, inundated with dollar stores and fast food restaurants. Aaron knew that there was a need in his community – not only for fresh and nutritious food, but for a business that valued people over profits. With the support and aid of his family and community, Aaron officially opened Oasis Fresh Market in May of 2021. In the years since, it’s grown into a thriving independent business and nonprofit organization. Aaron thinks that Oasis can be a blueprint for other cities, mayors, and governors looking to support truly community-centric businesses. Oasis – and its associated nonprofit organization, The Oasis Projects – combines a grocery store with wraparound services, including employment, public health, and education. Together, they nurture a safe place and a refuge that only small, independent, locally-owned businesses are nimble enough to foster. In the second half of this episode, Stacy Mitchell, Co-Director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, expands on the policy decisions that have wiped out independent grocery stores and led to an increasingly consolidated grocery sector. She also points to smart policy decisions that some communities have implemented to preserve independent grocery stores. Pennsylvania, for example, created the Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative, which allocated capital for grants and loans for people interested in starting and expanding grocery stores in low-income and underserved areas. This program ultimately financed nearly 100 grocery stores in urban and rural areas. But policymakers and elected officials must create the pathway to make opportunities like this available to all communities, including by enforcing antitrust laws and returning power to the people. For additional resources see: https://ilsr.org/building-local-power/

The Rev. Dr. Donald Perryman was born and raised into the Black church in Toledo, Ohio. Since 1997, he has served as the Senior Pastor at The Center of Hope Community Baptist Church, in the central city, where he has led a religious, social, and political movement to empower his community. Toledo’s Dorr Street was once home to a thriving Black community rich in art, music, culture, and small businesses. But after decades of disinvestment, mass incarceration, and industrialization, neighborhoods in Toledo, like Dorr Street, were stripped of their wealth. In 2015, Dollar General saw this as an opportunity to move in. But Dr. Perryman knew that chain dollar stores preyed on struggling communities. As he says, “they’re a cancer on vulnerable urban neighborhoods,” and he was unwilling to let Toledo be their next victim. He banded together with neighborhood groups, government officials, and allies to implement a moratorium to prevent dollar store construction. The moratorium expired without the city notifying Dr. Perryman, and now the fight has started all over again. Dr. Perryman is not deterred. His work in the church has grounded him in the long-term nature of the fight for justice. “I don’t know how long it’ll take,” he says, “but we plan to win.” In the second half of the episode, Kennedy Smith, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, weaves Dr. Perryman’s story into the broader fight against dollar stores raging across the country. Kennedy talks about the disconnect between what communities say they want and what planning commissions and city councils are actually doing. She details how dollar stores create food deserts, attract crime, extract wealth from local communities, and endanger workers. Dollar chain stores are threatening the very fabric that makes a community. Finally, Kennedy explains that Dr. Perryman’s work and movement-building at the local level is critical to ending dollar store proliferation, but these local leaders need help. Not only do state and federal officials need to reinvigorate our antitrust laws to prohibit dollar stores from using predatory tactics to crush independent retailers, she explains, but they “need to have the political courage to enforce them.” For additional resources see: https://ilsr.org/building-local-power/

For our final Building Local Power episode of 2022, we invited Co-Founder, David Morris, to offer a history lesson on the self-reliance framework that underpins ILSR’s work. He discusses how that framework has evolved over four-plus decades, the organization’s inherent aversion to bigness, and the successes and hardships of ILSR’s early years. … Read More

On this episode of Building Local Power, Christopher Mitchell and Sean Gonsalves talk about the work that immediately lies ahead for the broad array of communities seeking to free themselves from the unbridled power of monopolistic Internet providers.… Read More

The three members from ILSR's energy team engage in a riveting conversation on the biggest energy stories from 2022, including the Inflation Reduction Act’s big funding for solar, the antimonopoly focus in the Biden administration, how utility companies are continuing to use their financial power to lobby against energy, and a new tool designed to bring distributed solar to more communities.… Read More

On this episode of Building Local Power, members of the Composting for Community team, Brenda Platt and Clarissa Libertelli, explain how their accomplishments in 2022 have impacted communities across the U.S. and forged a more sustainable future. … Read More

On this episode of Building Local Power, Josh Ewing, Director of the Rural Climate Partnership, explains how we must put rural America at the forefront of the clean energy transition. … Read More

On this episode of Building Local Power Alejandro Roark, the Chief of Consumer and Governmental Affairs at the FCC tells a captivating journey of his career from working at the Hispanic Technology and Telecommunications Partnership all the way to his current career at the Federal Communications Commission. He speaks about his LGBTQ inclusion work, racial and economic justice in the telecommunications sector, collective action, and how the ACP is filling an immediate and vital need. ILSR's Sean Gonsalves weighs in on how to strategize for longer term Internet solutions that will make our broadband economy more fair and equitable.… Read More

This week on Building Local Power, we are joined by Brandi Collins-Dexter, author of Black Skinhead: Reflections on Blackness and our Political Future and Stacy Mitchell, Co-Director of ILSR. We engage in a riveting conversation on how political parties have monopolistic tendencies, how Big Tech has dominated mainstream media, and the future of Black-owned and led businesses in America. … Read More

"For every crime, you need means, motive, and opportunity," Rakeen Mabud explained on the Building Local Power podcast. Executives at some of the largest monopolies in our economy are using their market power to jack up prices on consumers. Their means is market power. Their motive is profit. What is the opportunity? The opportunity is for CEOs to pocket the revenue from price hikes while blaming inflation for the increases. On this episode of Building Local Power, Rakeen Mabud the Chief Economist at Groundwork Collaborative and Ron Knox, Senior Researcher and Writer at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, take us on a riveting journey exposing the story of inflation that most economists don't want to tell. As workers, citizens, and small businesses are made increasingly vulnerable in the face of rising prices, corporate profit margins are hitting a 70-year high. So, despite real issues with a broken infrastructure, the war against Ukraine, and a fragile supply chain, the recent history of unchecked mergers and corporate greed underlies much of what has left the majority of Americans so vulnerable in our economy today.

"Young people have the energy to respond immediately to crises," Addison Turner, Worcester Youth Cooperatives organizer, stated in a new documentary "Radix: Youth Build Solidarity and Worker-Ownership in the Midst of the Pandemic." The pandemic exacerbated the deeply rooted issues in cities around the nation — but the youth of Worcester, Massachusetts, decided that they wanted to enact change to create a better now. Their action lead to the formation of the Worcester Youth Cooperatives where young people are delivering food and other assistance to neighbors on bikes, growing their own food, and bringing power and a voice to Gen Z. On this episode of Building Local Power, we are joined by two youth collaborators who played an integral role in developing the Worcester Youth Cooperatives, Mario Harper and Samuel Posner. Our third guest is now an adult ally and organizer, Addison Turner, who is also featured in "Radix." The guests detail their experience growing up in Worcester, lay out the social and cultural inequities that the city faces, and rewrite popular ideologies to encourage an active community. Addison states that "we need to destroy the myth that youth are the future. Youth are the present."

On this episode of Building Local Power, host Jess Del Fiacco is joined by members of ILSR's Community Broadband Networks team: Ry Marcattilio-McCracken, Senior Researcher; Sean Gonsalves, Senior Reporter and Editor; and Christine Parker, GIS and Data Visualization Specialist. They discuss the importance of mapping for building broadband networks.

On this episode of Building Local Power, host Jess Del Fiacco is joined by several ILSR colleagues: Susan R. Holmberg, Katie Kienbaum, and Sophia Jones where they discuss ILSR's recent work at the state and local policy level, including dollar store restrictions, New York antitrust legislation, a new model for solar energy, composting and waste reduction in Maryland, and more.

In this episode of Building Local Power, host Jess Del Fiacco and Neil Seldman, Director of ILSR's Waste to Wealth initiative are joined by several guests who are involved in the canning community. Canners, also called waste pickers or scrappers, collect recyclable materials such as cans and bottles from the streets and redeem them at recycling centers. The guests are Christine Hegel and Jessica Yauri of Sure We Can, a nonprofit recycling center in New York City, and Taylor Cass Talbott and Kris Brown of Ground Score Association, a ‘peer-led’ initiative in Portland, Oregon, organized by and for workers who identify as canners.

Leah Douglas is a reporter at Reuters covering the politics of food, agriculture, and the environment. Douglas discusses how the poultry industry is structured by contract production, how dairy farms are the bedrock for many rural communities, and Earl Butz's conviction for farmers to plant "fence row to fence row" to enable economic food production.

Harry First, law professor and co-director of New York University’s Competition, Innovation, and Information Law Program discusses moving antitrust away from a technocratic approach, the politicization of law enforcement, and how to reinvigorate strong antitrust legislation. … Read More

Kevin Erickson, Director of the Future of Music Coalition discusses how music is being impacted by monopoly power and what kind of marketplace breeds broad participation.… Read More

In this miniseries, we return to our most insightful podcast conversations. These five minute episodes highlight critical themes that are still relevant today. Jeremy Greer and Solana Rice argue for organizers of color to be embedded and centered in the antimonopoly fight.… Read More

In this miniseries, we return to our most insightful podcast conversations. These five minute episodes highlight critical themes that are still relevant today. Alec MacGillis discusses how economic concentration leads to regional disparity. … Read More

In this miniseries, we return to our most insightful podcast conversations. These five minute episodes highlight critical themes that are still relevant today. Zephyr Teachout and Stacy Mitchell discuss the increased recognition of the intersection between race and antimonopoly. … Read More

In this miniseries, we return to our most insightful podcast conversations. These five minute episodes highlight critical themes that are still relevant today. … Read More

On this episode of Building Local Power, three members of ILSR’s Independent Business team, Lauren Gellatly, Katy Milani, and Kennedy Smith, answer: What challenges are small, independent businesses facing? And what legislative solutions are on the way? … Read More

Host John Farrell, Co-Director of ILSR, interviews Leslie Glustrom, founding member of Clean Energy Action, an organization working on accelerating the transition from fossil fuels to a clean energy economy. They discuss how we can equitably transition to a clean energy future.

In this episode, we look forward to upcoming policy opportunities. We discuss the status of small businesses across the country and the creative solutions some communities have implemented to keep them going, ILSR's 30 Million Solar Homes proposal, and why nonprofit approaches are the most reliable solution we have for closing the digital divide.

Host Jess Del Fiacco talks with John Farrell, Director of ILSR's Energy Democracy Initiative, about how cities are taking action around climate change. This episode also features perspective from leaders in Burlington, Vt.; Boulder, Colo.; Pueblo, Colo.; and Minneapolis, Minn., who have tackled ambitious clean energy goals.

Zephyr Teachout, author of the new book Break 'Em Up, shares her thoughts on building an antimonopoly movement, what she finds encouraging and discouraging in our current moment, and how she approaches antimonopoly work as a democracy activist.… Read More

Host Jess Del Fiacco talks to ILSR's Stacy Mitchell and Ron Knox about the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee's recent hearing on monopoly power in online platforms, which featured testimony from the CEOs of Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and Google. The hearing was part of a year-long investigation of anti-competitive behavior in these companies — the first time in more than 40 years that Congress has conducted a detailed investigation of monopoly power.

On this episode of Building Local Power, host Jess Del Fiacco is joined by Chris Mitchell, director of ILSR’s Community Broadband Networks Initiative, and David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect. David discusses his latest book, Monopolized: Life in the Age of Corporate Power, which tells the story of the daily impact of monopoly power on Americans’ lives.

In this episode of Building Local Power, host Jess Del Fiacco is joined by Zach Freed, researcher with ILSR's Independent Business initiative, and John Farrell, ILSR co-director. The three discuss ILSR's new Fighting Monopoly Power guide, which spells out how local leaders can challenge concentrated corporate power in the banking, broadband, electricity, food and farming, pharmacy, small business, and waste sectors.

On this episode of Building Local Power, host Jess Del Fiacco is joined by Christopher Mitchell, director of ILSR's Community Broadband Initiative, and Representative Seth Berry of Maine. Seth is the House Chair of the Maine Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on Energy, Utilities and Technology, and he is leading the call for the state to takeover Maine's two largest electric companies ⁠— including Central Maine Power, which has the distinction of being the least popular utility in the United States.

In this episode of Building Local Power, host Jess Del Fiacco is joined by Brenda Platt, Director of ILSR's Composting for Community Initiative, and Kesiah Bascom, founder of OffBeet Compost. OffBeet is a small-scale, community-minded food scrap collection and composting enterprise in the Lowell, Mass., area. Kesiah and her team have an ongoing mission to connect environmental goals with social justice values.

Host Jess Del Fiacco talks with Kennedy Smith, Senior Researcher with ILSR's Independent Business initiative, about efforts at the state and local level to support small businesses affected by the pandemic.

Host Jess Del Fiacco and ILSR Co-Director John Farrell speak with Gina Schaefer, owner of A Few Cool Hardware Stores in the D.C. area. Gina talks about how she and her husband got into the hardware business and explains some of the steps they've taken to adapt operations in order to safely serve customers during the pandemic, including moving to curbside pick-up and online ordering, changing operating hours and staffing, and adjusting the products they stock.

Chris, John, Stacy, and Jess discuss the bumpy rollout of federal relief funding for America's small businesses, which are facing an unprecedented crisis in the COVID-19 pandemic. Stacy offers a behind-the-scenes look at how the legislation to help small businesses was crafted, and explains why some large franchises, including chain restaurants and hotels, benefitted from the initial round of relief funding, while many small businesses did not. Looking beyond the immediate future, Chris, John, Stacy, and Jess speculate on what the recovery process might look like for different sectors.

Host Christopher Mitchell speaks with Fordham Law School Professor Nestor Davidson and National League of Cities Research Director Christiana McFarland, authors of a recent report on home rule. Home rule gives cities the authority to make policy decisions locally, without being preempted by state or federal governments. They talk about why local officials need "all the tools in the toolbox" in order to confront challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic to climate change, and not be held back by state restrictions.

Host Zach Freed speaks with Jim Hrncir, owner of Las Colinas Pharmacy in Irving, Texas. Zach and Jim discuss how independent pharmacies are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jess Del Fiacco talks with ILSR Co-Director John Farrell about recent publications from ILSR's Energy Democracy initiative, including the Community Power Scorecard, which grades states on whether their energy policies help or hinder local clean energy action, and ILSR's recent report on community choice energy, which allows communities take charge of their energy supply.

This special episode of Building Local Power features a timely conversation between Stacy Mitchell, Co-Director of ILSR, and small business owner Sandy Grodin. Sandy owns El Paso Office Products in El Paso, Texas. He's been in the business for more than 30 years, but his company is now on the verge of collapse due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. He's shutting down for three weeks, and, like many other small business owners, isn't sure when or if he'll be able to reopen.

Host Jess Del Fiacco talks with Stacy Mitchell, Co-Director of ILSR, and Christopher Mitchell, Director of ILSR’s Community Broadband initiative, about how communities are responding to the unprecedented challenge of Covid-19. It is already drastically impacting local businesses, and in many cases this crisis will further exacerbate existing inequalities -- making it impossible for people without high quality Internet access at home to work remotely, for example, and making it difficult for people without paid sick time to protect themselves and others.

Host Brenda Platt speaks with Elsa Higby and Aleks Jagiello of the Queens Botanical Garden Farm and Compost Site. Their site is a part of the New York Compost Project, which was created by the city in 1993. Brenda, Aleks, and Elsa discuss how the site has grown over the last 25 years, and the many benefits their programming has brought to their community and beyond.

Host Christopher Mitchell is joined by ILSR Co-Founder David Morris for a wide-ranging conversation about whether or not modern populist movements are tied to concerns about centralized control.

This week we’re bringing you a bonus episode from our friends at the Green Dreamer podcast. Green Dreamer is a podcast for those who are yearning to live lives of vitality and fulfillment and who are dreaming of a thriving planet to call home. Green Dreamer inclusively and inquisitively dives into how sustainability is intersectional to all areas of our lives. This episode explores how decentralized energy grids can make communities more resilient against natural disasters, like Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.