0:00:00.0 Rhiannon: Daddy, someone set a fire in your car because you took too long, and I got bored. [chuckle] Money, please.
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0:00:10.9 Leon: Hey everyone, this is Leon from Fiasco and Prologue Projects. On this episode of 5-4, Peter, Rhiannon, and Michael are back with their annual tradition, the 5-4 Giving Guide. The hosts wanna tell you about some organizations that are trying to make things better. You can give them your money, volunteer your time, or just keep them in your thoughts. But if you want to help, it's really more about the first two. This is 5-4, a podcast about how much the Supreme Court sucks and what you can do about it.
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0:00:44.0 Peter: Welcome to 5-4, where we celebrate Christmas, guys.
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0:00:49.8 Michael: That's right.
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0:00:50.8 Peter: The birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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0:00:54.0 Rhiannon: Yes.
0:00:54.7 Peter: The official God of the 5-4 Podcast.
0:00:57.2 Rhiannon: 'Tis. The. Season.
0:01:00.7 Michael: 'Tis the season, yeah.
0:01:01.0 Rhiannon: And he's the reason.
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0:01:05.2 Peter: I am here with Michael.
0:01:06.8 Michael: Hi everybody.
0:01:07.9 Peter: And Rhiannon.
0:01:08.4 Rhiannon: Hey. Hello.
0:01:09.9 Michael: What do they call it? The Yule? The Yule? Is it upon us? Something like that?
0:01:13.8 Rhiannon: I have no fucking idea. Raised a Muslim and a [0:01:16.6] ____ for that.
0:01:17.8 Peter: I'm aware of Yuletide greetings and things like that, but I've never actually understood what that meant. It was just syllables in my head. You know what I mean by that? [chuckle]
0:01:25.1 Rhiannon: Yeah, uh-huh.
0:01:26.2 Michael: According to Wikipedia, Yule is a winter festival historically observed by the Germanic peoples that was incorporated into Christmas.
0:01:33.2 Rhiannon: Pagans. Yeah. We love them.
0:01:35.3 Michael: The pagan holidays that Christmas appropriated.
0:01:38.0 Rhiannon: [laughter] Yeah. [laughter]
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0:01:40.8 Peter: Well, this is our... When you say "Yule," it makes me think of Soulja Boy, you know?
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0:01:50.3 Peter: All right. Cut that.
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0:01:52.8 Rhiannon: Oh, you mean:
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0:01:54.8 Rhiannon: Yeah.
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0:01:57.2 Michael: Yeah.
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0:02:00.3 Michael: Yeah. It took me a second to... [chuckle]
0:02:01.4 Rhiannon: [chuckle] Yeah.
0:02:01.8 Peter: Not intuitive. This is our annual giving episode where we all rattle off some organizations that we think could maybe use your help if you are able. Maybe first, guys, any big holiday plans? What are you up to?
0:02:15.9 Rhiannon: I traveled a ton over the fall.
0:02:18.1 Michael: Yeah.
0:02:18.4 Rhiannon: There was a period over the fall semester. You know I work at a law school now. There was a period during the fall semester of six weeks. In five weeks I did airplane travel.
0:02:30.1 Michael: Oof.
0:02:30.8 Rhiannon: And that was really rough. So my holiday plans are sitting on my couch, not going anywhere. Anybody is welcome to visit me. I will not be leaving my neighborhood.
0:02:42.9 Peter: Yeah, that's fair.
0:02:43.8 Michael: Fair enough. We are hosting, I think, on Christmas Eve. And originally it was gonna be a few people, but I think actually we might invite a number, which will be fun.
0:02:52.8 Peter: Didn't you just host Thanksgiving?
0:02:53.3 Rhiannon: We just hosted Thanksgiving.
0:02:54.9 Michael: We did?
0:02:55.1 Rhiannon: Yeah.
0:02:55.9 Peter: You should only have to host one.
0:02:57.9 Michael: But this will be less taxing because instead of preparing a big meal, probably just make Frito pies and latkes and stuff, and it'll be pretty simple.
0:03:07.0 Peter: Okay. Not doing the seven fishes? All right.
0:03:09.8 Michael: [chuckle] No.
0:03:10.3 Rhiannon: Not Italian.
0:03:11.2 Michael: And then we're going to San Diego for New Year's with some old friends. What about you, Peter?
0:03:16.2 Peter: I'll be going home to see my parents, and no one else in the family, in the extended family is gonna be there. So it's just me and the parents for a week. And then my wife will join after a couple days. She doesn't have to come the whole time...
0:03:28.0 Michael: That's good.
0:03:28.2 Peter: 'Cause it's too much.
0:03:28.8 Rhiannon: And your sister?
0:03:30.3 Peter: My sister will not be attending.
0:03:32.1 Rhiannon: Wow.
0:03:32.8 Peter: She's decided that her job doing social work is more important than Christmas.
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0:03:42.7 Rhiannon: How did Michael and I end up on a podcast with the worst of the siblings?
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0:03:49.9 Peter: Look...
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0:03:52.2 Peter: She moved away from the family. You guys know that I'm a, if nothing else, a family man.
0:03:57.2 Michael: Yeah.
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0:03:58.2 Peter: And...
0:03:58.8 Rhiannon: Oh, okay. [chuckle]
0:04:00.3 Peter: She moved to the mountains where any holiday visit is arduous. It's a trek. It's like the fucking Oregon trail.
0:04:04.2 Rhiannon: Right... Right.
0:04:06.8 Peter: And so the stars need to align. Whereas I will never leave...
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0:04:12.3 Peter: The Acela corridor.
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0:04:13.3 Peter: There's absolutely no way.
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0:04:16.0 Peter: The ocean will have to wash over it.
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0:04:19.8 Michael: Speaking of oceans...
0:04:21.0 Peter: Go for it.
0:04:21.8 Michael: I am glad you mentioned rising sea levels and the changing environment. The first organization I want to mention in terms of groups we think could use your time or money or however you wanna help out, it's called ICARE, which is short for Islamorada Conservation and Restoration Education. It is a group based in South Florida that is dedicated to protecting and replenishing the coral reefs in the keys. This is a cause near and dear to my heart. I grew up in South Florida, and I very much love the area. And the reefs are an incredibly important part of the ocean ecosystem there. They're important commercially. They're important for countless animals. And coral itself is alive. It is a living thing.
0:05:19.0 Michael: And so they grow coral in nurseries and seed reefs and replenish reefs with coral. They take some coral out of warm waters and move them to deeper cooler waters as the ocean warms and the climate becomes uninhabitable for fish and other wildlife, marine wildlife. They do a lot of cool stuff. It's an important project in an area that's important to me. I spent a lot of time in Isla Morada when I was a kid and a teenager. It's a beautiful area, and I think it's one worth protecting. So you can go to icareaboutcoral.org and check out their website, and maybe kick them some money. Or if you like diving, maybe go on a little dive trip with them. Save some coral.
0:06:15.1 Rhiannon: That's awesome.
0:06:15.9 Peter: Yeah.
0:06:16.4 Rhiannon: All right. The first organization that I wanna put on people's radar, get some support going for is Shout Your Abortion. This is an organization really more like a collective that works to normalize abortion and elevate safe paths to access, really regardless of legality, wherever you are in the US. Shout Your Abortion, they make resources, campaigns, and media that are all intended to arm existing reproductive justice activists, create new activists, and really just foster, again, collective participation in abortion access all over the country. You can donate directly to Shout Your Abortion. You should definitely follow Shout Your Abortion all over social media. Another way to support Shout Your Abortion is to buy their merch. They've got excellent, excellent merch in their shop, and they use those proceeds from the sale of their merch to support their work as well. So that is shoutyourabortion.com. Follow them on social media as well. Shout Your Abortion, really cool organization.
0:07:22.4 Peter: Yeah. All right. My first one is Assigned Media. And this is a deviation from our usual type of organization. They are a news website, and they are dedicated to covering anti-trans propaganda. Mainstream media has failed so badly on trans issues that it has essentially necessitated independent coverage from people who are unabashedly in favor of trans rights and don't spend their time equivocating on the topic. And Assigned does a great job of tracking anti-trans media narratives, generally covering the anti-trans moral panic. So you can check out them, check out their work @assignedmedia.org. I'd recommend just using it as a resource. You can click on "Support" if you want to donate. You can also subscribe to their newsletter for five bucks a month if you wanna support 'em that way. It's assignedmedia.org.
0:08:16.0 Michael: That's a great name.
0:08:16.9 Peter: Yeah, it's cool, right?
0:08:17.9 Michael: So the next org I want to talk about is continuing a little bit in the vein of these sort of cultural moral panics. If you're a listener of our podcast, you are probably aware of a right wing attack on our public libraries. There are a lot of organizations that are fighting back, and one I wanted to highlight is called For The People: A Leftist Library Project. Very cool organization. Also, this is in keeping with a tradition I'm trying to start of picking one organization that needs more of your time and energy than your money. I don't even think they have a donate page on their website. What they want is action.
0:09:04.8 Rhiannon: Yeah.
0:09:05.6 Michael: What they're doing is recruiting candidates for library boards. They're recruiting watchers who will go to public meetings and comment in support of libraries and fighting book bans, and generally organizing people power to protect an incredibly important public institution. I don't think I need to explain why libraries are so phenomenal and important. So check them out, librariesforthepeople.org. Print out their flyer. Hand it out. Do some of the things on it. Get involved. Protect your local library. And if you really feel like, "Yeah, well, I just wanna give money," you can go to their action page and scroll to the bottom to anti-censorship groups, and you'll find a great list there of organizations to send money to.
0:09:58.4 Rhiannon: That's really cool. That's awesome that you found that place.
0:10:01.0 Michael: And while you're deciding precisely how you want to get involved with Libraries for the People, I suggest going and hanging out in your public library, doing some thinking, getting online, hanging out, whatever, instead of like a Starbucks, and help it out with its foot traffic. It might help it with its funding. It might help convince your local council members that it's an area the public appreciates and wants to protect. Easiest way to get involved.
0:10:31.0 Rhiannon: My next organization is another resource hub actually. This one is called the Palestinian Feminist Collective. This is a collective of intergenerational activists and organizers, also just artists and thinkers, scholars, practitioners and water and land protectors who are committed to achieving Palestinian liberation by confronting systems of gendered and sexual violence and dispossession. So they put together resources and hold educational events to teach people about the intersection of Palestinian liberation with feminist, gender, reproductive justice. I have personally used and referenced back countless times to their Palestine Digital Action Toolkit. Their social media have been indispensable in terms of communicating actions, sharing resources, spreading information about teach-ins and other events related to Palestine in the past couple of months.
0:11:29.2 Rhiannon: A representative from Palestinian Feminist Collective spoke at the March on DC and it was really, really beautiful. I really appreciated that presentation. If you want to check out their work again, there are Digital Action toolkits. There are worksheets and children's stories. There's a ton of information there in addition to statements and events, etcetera. Check them out, palestinianfeministcollective.org. You can click on "Donate," but definitely follow them on social media, and check out the resources that they put together.
0:12:04.1 Peter: All right, my next one is New Alternatives, NYC. New Alternatives is an org that provides services to homeless LGBTQ youth in the shelter system in New York to help them transition out of shelters, get them on their feet, smooth their transition into a stable adulthood. They do everything from provide food services and educational resources, to things like STI testing. I had a friend recommend them to me. And then when I was looking into them, what sold me was that their founder's profile picture on Twitter is her getting arrested.
0:12:38.4 Rhiannon: Fuck yeah. Yeah.
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0:12:39.7 Peter: I was all in. You know?
0:12:40.3 Michael: Hell yes. [laughter]
0:12:41.4 Rhiannon: You know it's a good org. Yeah.
0:12:42.7 Michael: Yes.
0:12:43.9 Peter: [laughter] Absolutely. NewAlternativesNYC.org. Click on "Donate."
0:12:49.2 Michael: Nice. The last organization I wanted to highlight is also geared towards people experiencing homelessness and housing vulnerability. But many of you know, I am also a pet lover, an animal lover, and a dog lover. And so I wanted to highlight Project Street Vet. It's an org. It's a 501-C-3 that provides free veterinary care, treatment and support to the pets of people experiencing homelessness. Free vet support, I think that's a really cool and important work. I see unhoused people with pets all the time, and it just adds a layer of policy failure and brokenheartedness to the whole thing. So I think they're doing very cool work. This is something that actually my wife Elena sent me as a possibility, and I was really into it. So check 'em out, @projectstreetvet.org.
0:13:49.0 Rhiannon: Last organization for me, this is a legal organization, and it's an organization you've heard me, you've heard us talk about before on the podcast. You guessed it. It's Palestine Legal. Palestine Legal protects the civil and constitutional rights of people in the US who speak out for Palestinian freedom. We had a special episode with two attorneys from Palestine Legal in the movement lawyering series. And I just wanna highlight again that this is really a time of absolutely unprecedented repression around the expression of solidarity with Palestinians and with Palestine right now. Palestine Legal is one of the only legal organizations in the United States that is specially, specifically built around this moment exactly. They are absolutely inundated with complaints, requests for help at this moment, and could really, really use support.
0:14:44.1 Rhiannon: Just a couple of weeks ago on Giving Tuesday, I put out a call for people to donate, and I would match donations up to a certain amount for Palestine Legal. And in a few hours we got $2,500 donated to Palestine Legal. And so just from that, I know that a small group of people seeing the organization on Twitter, seeing the work that they do, people that felt that it was really, really important right now. And so I just wanna highlight the organization again 'cause I know the people over there doing such incredible, such necessary work right now. Check 'em out, palestinelegal.org. You can click on "Donate" there. You can see the work that they're doing, see the need that there is for this work right now, palestinelegal.org.
0:15:31.2 Peter: All right. And before I get to the final org, I'm gonna tell a story that I just told you guys, [chuckle] which is that up until like an hour ago, I thought I was gonna do an organization that I think I was confusing in my brain with another organization that I was familiar with. And I was looking at their shit on Twitter, and I saw them working with cops and I was like, "Well, that's weird."
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0:15:54.8 Peter: Because this is a juvenile justice organization. And then I realized that this was not the organization I was thinking of. And in fact it was basically a branch of the carceral system. [chuckle] So I just wanna everyone to be aware that I was like 45 minutes away from just recommending the cops as an organization to donate to. And that's my bad. That was a large mistake on my part. Thankfully I am vigilant. And by "vigilant," I mean I scanned the social media of all of these organizations.
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0:16:29.3 Peter: My last Pick: Freedom Agenda. Freedom Agenda is a project of the Urban Justice Center in New York. They do advocacy and organization for decarceration, things like shifting funding away from the Department of Corrections and toward essential services. But most prominently, they are helping spearhead the campaign to shut down Rikers, New York City's largest jail, one of the most notorious in the country, which time and time again has been shown to be a place rotten to its core, full of state violence and inhumanity towards inmates. I believe they crossed 20 people dying in Rikers last year in 2022. And I think it's safe to say that we're at a point where the only actual solution to the Rikers problem is to shut the fucking place down.
0:17:21.4 Rhiannon: That's right.
0:17:21.9 Michael: Absolutely.
0:17:22.7 Peter: So I thought I had... Shout-out an org that's trying to do that. Fa.urbanjustice.org/donate to support them.
0:17:31.2 Michael: Excellent.
0:17:32.3 Peter: And that's all, folks.
0:17:33.1 Michael: Yeah.
0:17:34.0 Peter: Usually I would do one joke suggestion, but seeing as I almost recommended a cop-affiliated organization...
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0:17:41.8 Peter: I don't wanna play with too much fire here.
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0:17:47.3 Rhiannon: Don't give anybody any ideas. Yeah.
0:17:49.9 Peter: I was feeling very precarious going into this.
0:17:51.8 Rhiannon: [laughter] Right, right.
0:17:52.4 Peter: I almost fucked this up big time...
0:17:53.8 Rhiannon: Right. [laughter] Imagine?
0:17:54.8 Peter: And someone was gonna call me out and be like, "Peter's out here just recommending like police unions, basically."
0:18:01.2 Rhiannon: [laughter] Right. Yeah. Yeah.
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0:18:05.2 Rhiannon: "Peter said donate to the sheriff's office."
0:18:07.0 Peter: Did you guys watch Telemarketers?
0:18:08.3 Rhiannon: Yes.
0:18:08.9 Peter: The documentary?
0:18:09.8 Michael: I haven't watched it yet.
0:18:10.9 Peter: It's all about these telemarketing scams that are run in coordination with the police to funnel money to just like cops taking themselves on vacations and shit like that.
0:18:21.2 Rhiannon: Yeah.
0:18:21.8 Michael: Ugh, God.
0:18:22.3 Rhiannon: To the police union, yeah.
0:18:23.9 Peter: Ostensibly, like we're supporting fallen officers' families and shit like that, but all the money just goes to the cop unions.
0:18:29.0 Michael: Of course, of course.
0:18:30.4 Peter: Anyway, I almost helped them out. That was my bad.
0:18:32.4 Rhiannon: Yeah, yeah. [laughter] We are not recommending those. [laughter]
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0:18:40.1 Rhiannon: How many years have we done this episode now? Is this our third?
0:18:42.8 Peter: I think it's the third, yeah.
0:18:43.9 Rhiannon: Nice. Yeah.
0:18:44.0 S5: It's third. Yeah.
0:18:45.2 Rhiannon: All right. Well...
0:18:46.2 Michael: It's a good tradition.
0:18:47.0 Rhiannon: Yeah.
0:18:47.3 Peter: Are we angels fallen to earth?
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0:18:51.9 Michael: A good Yule-time tradition.
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0:18:56.1 Rhiannon: Yeah. And whether you donate or give your time like Michael said, participate in sort of civic and direct action, political action, all of that is really, really valuable across all of the issue areas that we talk about on this podcast all of the time, right? The Supreme Court fucking sucks. And the thing that makes it better and the thing that beats the Supreme Court is people power and people doing what's in their locus of control to change circumstances around them. So we appreciate all of you so much for listening. It's been another amazing... By "amazing," I mean, pretty shitty year in Supreme Court history, yeah...
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0:19:37.8 Rhiannon: On the podcast 5-4. But it's so amazing to make this podcast. For me, it's so amazing to make this podcast with Peter and Michael and Rachel. It's so amazing to know that it goes out to listeners who listen, who take this stuff seriously, who listen to a giving episode and try to figure out where to send some money and help an organization out. I feel really blessed to be able to participate here.
0:20:00.0 Michael: Yeah. You don't have to change the entire world, but you just make the world around you a little bit better, and you're doing all right. And if enough people do that, we will get somewhere good eventually.
0:20:09.8 Peter: Absolutely. Thanks to our listeners. Thanks to our Patreon subscribers. Easily by far, the most moral people on Earth.
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0:20:18.0 Michael: That's right.
0:20:18.8 Peter: Yeah. It's just cool to be able to push a little bit of support to organizations that we appreciate. It feels good. And we'll see you for the same thing next year, right before January 6th, 2.0.
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0:20:34.0 Michael: That's right.
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0:20:35.7 Peter: The waning days of our republic.
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0:20:44.8 Peter: Next year we're gonna pop on and be like, "Just send me 50 bucks. I have to get outta here."
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0:20:50.1 Michael: As we record this, Jack Smith has just filed for cert before judgment in the Supreme Court on the presidential immunity question, saying like, "Let's not wait for the DC Circuit to figure this out. You guys should just decide it.
0:21:04.2 Rhiannon: Great.
0:21:05.1 Michael: Exciting times.
0:21:06.3 Rhiannon: [laughter] Yeah.
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0:21:08.1 Peter: All right.
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0:21:09.2 Peter: Everyone have a lovely holiday season. Follow us on social media @FiveFourPod. You can subscribe for premium content at fivefourpod.com/support. We'll see you in the new year.
0:21:22.0 Michael: Bye, everybody.
0:21:22.9 Rhiannon: Happy New Year. Free Palestine.
0:21:25.0 Michael: 5-4 is presented by Prologue Projects. Rachel Ward is our producer. Leon Neyfakh and Andrew Parsons provide editorial support, and our researcher is Jonathan DeBruin. Peter Murphy designed our website, fivefourpod.com. Our artwork is by Teddy Blanks at Chips NY, and our theme song is by Spatial Relations.
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0:21:54.1 Peter: Where we list off a few organizations that we think maybe deserve a few dollar... A few dollars. [laughter] I dunno why I said "a few dollar."
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0:22:04.8 Peter: Let's start over.
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