Battleground

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Battleground

by Amanda Litman and Faiz Shakir

Battleground is a podcast for people who want answers to questions about politics they didn"t even realize they should be asking. Faiz Shakir ran Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign and Amanda Litman founded Run for Something, an organization that recruits and trains young progressives to run for state and local offices. But even after spending their entire professional careers working in politics, the hosts of Battleground still have questions about the ways our political system complicates itself — like, "who decides what the cable news narrative will be on a given topic?", or "if everyone hates political consultants, why do they always run campaigns?" Listen every Thursday, as Amanda and Faiz try to answer questions like these by speaking to (or debating with) some of the most knowledgeable people in politics.

Battleground

by Amanda Litman and Faiz Shakir

About Amanda Litman

Amanda Litman is the co-founder and executive director of Run for Something, which recruits and supports young, diverse progressives running for local office — since 2017, they’ve identified more than 75,000 young people across the country who want to run and elected nearly 500.

She's also the author of the book, "Run for Something: A Real Talk Guide to Fixing the System Yourself," and host of "Run for Something: The Podcast" on Dear Media.

Politico named Run for Something (and Amanda) one of the 50 ideas driving politics in 2018. Bloomberg called her one of the people to watch in 2019. She was named one of Fortune’s 40 Under 40 in 2020. Amanda has written for outlets like Cosmopolitan, Buzzfeed, The Nation, Teen Vogue, CNN.com, MTV.com, Vanity Fair, O Magazine, Crooked Media, and more, and regularly appears on TV to talk all things politics.

Before launching Run for Something, she was the email director for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, digital director for Charlie Crist's 2014 Florida gubernatorial campaign, and an email writer for Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign. She graduated from Northwestern University and lives in Brooklyn.

About Faiz Shakir

Faiz Shakir served as campaign manager for Bernie Sanders. He managed a campaign that had 1100 people at its peak, raised over $200 million dollars, and generated significant movement on progressive policy discourse in this country.

Prior to working for Bernie Sanders, Shakir was the National Political Director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) from January 2017 – March 2019. In his role, Shakir developed and implemented strategies to advance the organization’s priorities at the federal and state levels.

Prior to joining the ACLU, Shakir worked as one of the most senior advisers to former Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid. He directed policy and communications work for Senator Reid while also coordinating with Democratic members and staffs, key interest groups, and press to organize issue campaigns. Prior to that, Shakir served as Senior Adviser and Director of Digital Media for House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi.

Shakir, a graduate of Harvard University and Georgetown University Law Center, also spent seven years at the Center for American Progress, where he served as a Vice President for Communications and was a founding member and editor-in-chief of ThinkProgress.org, one of the top political news websites in the United States.