Here at Red Wine & Blue, we talk a lot about “troublemakers” and “making good trouble” (inspired in part by the late great John Lewis). Our network TroubleNation is made up of hundreds of local grassroots groups across the country — women like Kristi, a mom and former teacher in California who’s been standing up for the public schools in her area.

Troublemakers band together with other badass women in their communities who share their values. They make things better for their kids, friends, and neighbors. On the other hand, “chaos causers,” as Kristi calls them in this week’s podcast episode, come in from the outside to disrupt communities. Groups like Moms for Liberty and the Proud Boys aren’t listening to local communities and they certainly aren’t making good trouble. They’re just causing chaos.

This week we talked to Kristi about how she and a group of other moms started getting together to drink wine and talk about how to stand up for their local schools. You can learn more in this video about how they found the courage to stand up to literal armed extremists in their schools. Kristi also started an organization called Our Schools USA dedicated to empowering parents and students to protect quality public education.

The last week has been filled with bad news on the national level. Trump is the ultimate chaos causer and it can be hard to stay positive in the face of his many (many many) harmful policies. But there are a lot of women like Kristi out there making good trouble and standing up to the chaos causers. When they go low, we go local.

Let's thank Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde for standing up to Donald Trump and calling for mercy — especially immigrants and LGBTQ+ children. You can add your name to our petition here.

For a transcript of this episode, please email theswppod@redwine.blue.

You can learn more about us at www.redwine.blue or follow us on social media!

Twitter: @TheSWPpod and @RedWineBlueUSA

Instagram: @RedWineBlueUSA

Facebook: @RedWineBlueUSA

YouTube: @RedWineBlueUSA

On Inauguration Eve, Red Wine & Blue held a live virtual event with our favorite historian, Heather Cox Richardson. Heather helped us put things into perspective and reminded us that small groups of people can change history.

Over 22,000 people attended the Zoom call, 24,000 watched it on YouTube, and almost 120,000 streamed it on Heather's Facebook page. This is a moment where we can fall apart or all come together to make change - and it's clear which option this community is choosing.

If you missed Sunday night's event, we wanted to share it with everyone right here on The Suburban Women Problem.

For a transcript of this episode, please email theswppod@redwine.blue.

You can learn more about us at www.redwine.blue or follow us on social media!

Twitter: @TheSWPpod and @RedWineBlueUSA

Instagram: @RedWineBlueUSA

Facebook: @RedWineBlueUSA

YouTube: @RedWineBlueUSA

Emotions are running high this week. But while things remain disheartening on the national stage, we’re still celebrating wins on the state and local level. In Virginia, for instance, Democrats just won their special elections for the State Assembly. Not only that, but they won by even bigger margins than expected. And in Ohio, Amanda’s husband Casey has been working hard on a law that helps kids access hearing aids. Last week, the bill was finally signed into law.

These are the kinds of stories that get missed in the 24/7 coverage of the Latest Terrible Thing That Trump Said. Progress is still happening. We just need to look closer to home.

This week, we’re joined by A’shanti Gholar, the president of Emerge, an organization that recruits and trains Democratic women to run for office. She’s surprisingly upbeat and hopeful — or maybe it shouldn’t be so surprising. Despite our painful losses on the national level, Emerge had 570 candidates on the ballot last year with close to a 70% win rate. That’s so many amazing women who are now in office, working to improve their communities.

Whether you want to watch next week’s inauguration or not, just like whether you want to keep consuming national political news, is completely up to you. We need to take care of ourselves and our mental health if we want to keep showing up for our families and communities over the next four years. Just know that there are over 520,000 elected offices in this country and change is possible at all levels. The power of the “new girls network” is only growing.

Speaking of the inauguration and emotions running high, nobody keeps us calm like Heather Cox Richardson. She’ll be joining us for a live virtual event on Inauguration Eve to help put things into perspective and remind us that small groups of people can change history. You can click here to learn more and RSVP for that event, and if you can’t make it live, you can hear Heather in the next episode of The Suburban Women Problem.

For a transcript of this episode, please email theswppod@redwine.blue.

You can learn more about us at www.redwine.blue or follow us on social media!

Twitter: @TheSWPpod and @RedWineBlueUSA

Instagram: @RedWineBlueUSA

Facebook: @RedWineBlueUSA

YouTube: @RedWineBlueUSA