<![CDATA[Pantsuit Politics: Reimagining Citizenship]]>https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/s/reimagining-citizenshiphttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Kj_7!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fba9e4626-d217-401e-aa35-74dd066e61c1_1280x1280.pngPantsuit Politics: Reimagining Citizenshiphttps://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/s/reimagining-citizenshipSubstackSat, 23 May 2026 11:48:05 GMT<![CDATA[Day 30 | Citizenship as Love]]>https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/day-30-citizenship-as-lovehttps://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/day-30-citizenship-as-loveFri, 04 Jul 2025 10:02:34 GMTHappy Independence Day!

It’s been a beautiful 30 days together as we reflected on the idea of citizenship and what it means to each of us. Today, to close out this series, Sarah and Beth are together for a conversation about citizenship as love.

We’re making this final meditation available to all our subscribers, free or paid. The full series will continue to be available to paid subscribers to go back and enjoy again and again at their leisure.

If you’re interested in starting this series over from the beginning, you can find all 30 days of meditations on this page. You can also add the meditations directly to your podcast player as an independent feed from our other work with the link below.

Get the meditations in your podcast app

(The podcast setup doesn’t work if you are in the Substack app. You’ll need to open the link from a browser. To make it easier, you may want to copy this direct link instead: https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/s/reimagining-citizenship/account/add-podcast)

We hope this series has been encouraging, inspiring, and helpful to you this summer. Thank you for your support of our work and our shared pursuit of reimaginging citizenship.

]]><![CDATA[Day 29 | What Does Citizenship Mean in This Moment?]]>https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/day-29-what-does-citizenship-meanhttps://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/day-29-what-does-citizenship-meanThu, 03 Jul 2025 10:01:48 GMTCitizenship requires clarity and, at different moments in American history, it is those who speak with clarity that rise to the top. Sharon McMahon is one of those people. In September of 2020, when so many of us were overwhelmed by public health guidance and political battles and oceans of misinformation, Sharon stepped forward and said (with her delig…

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]]><![CDATA[Day 28 | Being a Citizen Fighter]]>https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/day-28-being-a-citizen-fighterhttps://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/day-28-being-a-citizen-fighterWed, 02 Jul 2025 10:02:29 GMTWe’ve been examining citizenship for weeks now. We’ve talked about citizenship as hospitality, as creativity, as care. We’ve taken time to talk about healing as citizens. We’ve exercised gratitude and leaned on the lifegiving power of art.

Which is good because what I have to say next is hard.

Citizenship is also a fight. A knockdown, drag-out, exhausting…

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]]><![CDATA[Day 27 | Being a Citizen Lifeguard]]>https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/day-27-being-a-citizen-lifeguardhttps://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/day-27-being-a-citizen-lifeguardTue, 01 Jul 2025 10:03:27 GMTSometime in April, my fourteen-year-old daughter, Jane, announced that she was applying for a job at the city pool. She’s on the swim team there and heard a friend talking about interviewing for a front desk position. We had never, not once, discussed the possibility of her working this summer beyond babysitting here and there for neighbors. But she had…

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]]><![CDATA[Day 26 | A Moment of Gratitude: Freedom of Assembly and Petition]]>https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/day-26-a-moment-of-gratitude-freedomhttps://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/day-26-a-moment-of-gratitude-freedomMon, 30 Jun 2025 10:03:02 GMTOn March 2, 1961, 187 Black high school and college students gathered at the Zion Baptist Church in Columbia, SC. They walked in groups of 15 to the state house to petition for a change in the laws that restricted freedom and sanctioned discrimination. They were greeted by law enforcement officers and told they had a right to walk through the State Hous…

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]]><![CDATA[Day 25 | The Art of America: The Last Five Years]]>https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/day-25-the-art-of-america-the-lasthttps://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/day-25-the-art-of-america-the-lastSun, 29 Jun 2025 10:01:50 GMTI’m the last member of our team to write about a piece of art for this series on citizenship. I’ve read Maggie’s wonderful history of the voting sticker, Beth’s beautiful thoughts on barn quilts, and Sarah’s poignant reflections on paintings of daily American life. I, meanwhile, struggled for weeks with what piece of art I wanted to spend my allotted ti…

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]]><![CDATA[Day 24 | Seasons of Citizenship ]]>https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/seasons-of-citizenshiphttps://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/seasons-of-citizenshipSat, 28 Jun 2025 10:02:12 GMTI don’t remember the first time Liz K showed up in our inbox, but I remember vividly the feeling I felt wash over me as I read her words - it felt like wisdom. I knew immediately that I’d want to know what Liz thought on all manner of things — from motherhood and how it shifts and changes to why Jeremy Allen White is so appealing, because I knew Liz was…

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]]><![CDATA[Day 23 | Being a Citizen Student]]>https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/day-23-citizens-as-studentshttps://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/day-23-citizens-as-studentsFri, 27 Jun 2025 10:02:41 GMTI’ve always been persistent in my pursuit of learning. I loved being a student and really through this work have found a way to stay in that student role - constantly learning about a new piece of legislation or a new policy or a new controversy.

I won “Biggest Apple Polisher” in 8th grade. My law school nickname was Gunner. I was always at the front of …

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]]><![CDATA[Day 22 | Being A Citizen Neighbor]]>https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/being-a-citizen-neighborhttps://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/being-a-citizen-neighborThu, 26 Jun 2025 10:02:42 GMTThe issue of backyard chickens is very contentious in my part of the world. Nothing brings the fight out in people like the notion of the urban hen. The romanticism of keeping chickens blends with the economics of agriculture, and then we get wrapped around an axle of odor and noise. Add in bird flu, inflation, the use of hens as therapeutic companions……

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]]><![CDATA[Sharon McMahon On Reimagining Citizenship]]>https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/sharon-mcmahon-on-reimagining-citizenshiphttps://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/sharon-mcmahon-on-reimagining-citizenshipWed, 25 Jun 2025 19:13:59 GMTThank you to for joining us for a chat about citizenship. You can see our full conversation here.

Get more from Pantsuit Politics in the Substack app
Available for iOS and Android
]]><![CDATA[Day 21 | Citizenship as Healing]]>https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/day-21-citizenship-as-healinghttps://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/day-21-citizenship-as-healingWed, 25 Jun 2025 10:02:33 GMTIn a nation of 340 million people that contains a universe of diversity that even its continent-filling geography sometimes struggle to contain,

In a nation with a relentless news cycle filled with tragedy and natural disaster, and global destruction, and that’s before you log on to social media and tackle misinformation and conspiracy theories,

In a nati…

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]]><![CDATA[Day 20 | Citizenship as Hope]]>https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/keep-hope-alivehttps://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/keep-hope-aliveTue, 24 Jun 2025 10:02:54 GMTLee Hamilton is a 94-year-old former congressman from Indiana. He was in the House of Representatives from 1965 to 1999 -- can you imagine? Can you imagine everything you witness if you’re in Congress from 1965 to 1999? He continued in public service after he left Congress. Most notably, George W. Bush nominated Hamilton, a Democrat, to serve as vice-ch…

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]]><![CDATA[Day 19 | A Moment of Gratitude: Freedom of Speech]]>https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/day-19-a-moment-of-gratitude-freedomhttps://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/day-19-a-moment-of-gratitude-freedomMon, 23 Jun 2025 10:02:36 GMTAs a student of history, I am reminded constantly of one fundamental truth. For most of human existence, the facts of your birth defined the reality of your life: what job you could do, how much education you had access to, who you could marry, and most certainly what you could say.

The freedom to speak isn’t brand new. Most historians locate the origins…

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]]><![CDATA[Day 18 | The Art of America: Baseball at Night]]>https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/the-art-of-america-baseball-at-nighthttps://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/the-art-of-america-baseball-at-nightSun, 22 Jun 2025 10:02:36 GMTRecently, I visited Washington, DC with my family for spring break. We stood in the Lincoln Monument reading the words of The Gettysburg Address, and went on the spring garden tour at the White House. We walked and walked through more monuments and museums.

Exhausted and ready to be home, we had attempted to fly out earlier on standby but instead had a m…

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]]><![CDATA[Day 17 | Chit-Chat to Fight Fascism ]]>https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/chit-chat-to-fight-fascismhttps://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/chit-chat-to-fight-fascismSat, 21 Jun 2025 10:02:05 GMTThere was a moment when Beth and I thought, ‘We need to expand our professional circle of friends.’ We weren’t mad or bored with anybody, but it just felt like we had more to learn and that it was time to invite people into our lives who could teach us

Then, like an angel, comes Vanessa Zoltan. She had written a book, but lots of people write books and w…

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]]><![CDATA[Day 16 | Citizenship Requires Resilience]]>https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/citizenship-requires-resiliencehttps://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/citizenship-requires-resilienceFri, 20 Jun 2025 10:03:01 GMTDue to my incredible luck and willingness to chat up strangers and make them into friends, I recently found myself on a behind-the-scenes tour at the National Museum of American History staring at Susan B. Anthony’s red silk shawl. Anthony’s shawl was her trademark. She wore it as she tirelessly advocated for women’s suffrage. People said there were two…

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]]><![CDATA[Day 15 | Citizenship as Creativity]]>https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/creativity-and-storytellinghttps://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/creativity-and-storytellingThu, 19 Jun 2025 10:02:09 GMTWhen I was in high school, a couple of my teachers wrote a puppet show to teach students about environmental toxins. My friend, Alaina, played Lumpy Lead, complete with Smoke on the Water as her walk-up song. Her puppet was incredible. I was Claire Clean Air, one of two humans in the show. I wore a white, flowing gown and did my best damsel in distress.…

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]]><![CDATA[Day 14 | Citizenship as Hospitality]]>https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/citizenship-as-hospitalityhttps://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/citizenship-as-hospitalityWed, 18 Jun 2025 10:02:44 GMTSouthern hospitality. It’s a heavy expectation placed upon you if you are born anywhere near or south of the Mason-Dixon line. I’ve felt it. I still feel it. The desire to make visitors - or even strangers - feel welcomed and at ease.

But it’s not just citizens of the South who have high expectations and high execution when it comes to hospitality.

Americ…

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]]><![CDATA[Day 13 | Citizenship as Belonging]]>https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/citizenship-as-belonginghttps://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/citizenship-as-belongingTue, 17 Jun 2025 10:02:16 GMTMaybe you’ve heard this story - please indulge me for a quick moment. When I was a young associate at my firm, I received an invitation to sit at a table the firm bought at a charity event for a school. “Received an invitation” when you’re a young associate means “told to show up,” and so I did. I went directly from work, clad in a black dress with blac…

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]]><![CDATA[Day 12 | A Moment of Gratitude: Freedom of Religion]]>https://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/a-moment-of-gratitude-freedom-of-39ahttps://www.pantsuitpoliticsshow.com/p/a-moment-of-gratitude-freedom-of-39aMon, 16 Jun 2025 10:02:48 GMTFrom sundown on June 1st to nightfall on June 3rd, the Jewish faith celebrated Shavuot by going to synagogue to hear the 10 Commandments, eating dairy, and staying up all night to read the Book of Ruth. This Thursday, many Christians will celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi in a huge variety of ways, including a procession through downtown Los Angeles…

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