NOVEMBER 2026:

For November, we're teaming up with our President Meet & Greet on Thursday evening, November 19th, from 5:30PM-7:00PM at the Cheese Cartel. We'll conduct both a post election debrief and discuss voting rights moving forward, focusing on current challenges and what we can do to strengthen voting rights for the future. 

DECEMBER 2026:

The group has decided to skip December and start back on with our next book in January!

In October, we gathered to discuss Leigh McGowan's  "A Return to Common Sense: How to Fix America Before We Really Blow It" and/or her podcast and Instagram work. 

Thank you to Rachel Bayly, who will kindly facilitated our discussion, and Liza Nelson for hosting us all in her home. It was a lively conversation, and here are the highlights.

Ideas for future gatherings:

- Wait to see what the midterm results bring before choosing our next topic.

- Watch a movie or documentary together, which several of you liked, so that's what we'll do in January.

- Book. TALK, The Science of Conversation and the Art of Being Ourselves, by Alison Wood Brooks

- Podcast. Everybody's Business, with Stacey Vanek Smith and Max Chafkin

- Podcast. The Democrazies, a League of Women Voters of Virginia initiative created by young women (democrazypod.com)

What we as individuals and as a League can do --

Reach young people where they are:

- Several of us asked where all the young people are, and agreed it pays to engage people early.

- We liked The Democrazies, Democracy Rocks, and the high school club our interns are part of.

- Local civics classes are already using community resources like Democracy Rocks.

Show up where people already gather:

- Rather than always hosting our own events, the League could be visible at community events people already attend. The civics quiz at Civic Jam was a hit, and FC Sips or other city activities could be next.

- With so much happening in politics, more people are paying attention, which gives us an opening.

Other outreach ideas:

- Bring back events and programs like those we've held in the past, keeping in mind that turnout has sometimes been low.

- Run a regular civic information feature in the Falls Church News-Press, though ad space can be costly.

- Try another literature drop or something similar.

Measuring our impact:

- Train people to take part in League Day, then count how many participate.

- Go beyond the League by training residents to engage with their government at any level, such as speaking at a City Council meeting, then track how many put the training to use.

Following the July meeting, new Book Club+ member Christine Gilbert shared this Ezra Klein podcast episode, which focuses on the intersection between the movie Odysseus and its relevance to where we find ourselves now in our democracy. This discussion explores how Homer’s epic and modern cinematic retelling mirror today’s political landscape, democratic decay, power struggles, and how societies handle leadership and collective suffering. 

At the meeting the group listened to the podcast and then engaged in a wide-ranging discussion of Ezra Klein's Odysseus podcast, including: what gives us hope in envisioning an era of norm destruction as a condition for potential radical renewal; the role of modern-day 'tricksters' asserting that the 'real world' is one of might, dominance, and survival of the fittest, where compassion and inclusivity are weaknesses; and we zoomed out and in to touch upon how we are confronting and making sense of "epic" challenges to our democracy.  

Additional September Book+ Odysseus/Democracy podcasts:

1. On Classical and Modern Democracy (podcast episode)

• What it is: A deep-dive interview with Stanford Professor Josiah Ober on the New Books in Ancient History Podcast on Spotify.

• Why watch/listen: This episode tracks the political evolution of Greece all the way from the age of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey through the rise and fall of democratic Athens. It explores how early epics laid the foundational ideas for citizenship, civic bargains, and the vulnerabilities that cause democracies to fracture. [1]

2. What The Odyssey Can Teach Us About Economic Policy (video/podcast)

• What it is: An episode from Foreign Policy's Ones and Tooze podcast, available as a video feature on the Foreign Policy Facebook Page.

• Why watch/listen: Host Adam Tooze uses Odysseus’s epic, obstacle-ridden journey home as a direct metaphor for modern economic and democratic policy. It brilliantly bridges the gap between ancient storytelling and the complex global systems we navigate today. [1]

We will kick things off with How to Raise a Citizen (And Why It’s Up to You to Do It) by Lindsey Cormack (some of you had the chance to hear from Lindsey at our annual meeting last Sunday). This insightful read tackles gaps in modern civic education and explores practical strategies for embedding political literacy into everyday conversations.

To get our thoughts flowing before we meet, consider these few opening questions as you read:

1. The Responsibility Gaps: Cormack suggests that public schools can no longer serve as the sole source of civic knowledge. Do you agree, and how does this shape your view of the League's role in the community?

2. "What Do You Know?" vs. "What Do You Think?": The author highlights the gap between personal political opinions and structural knowledge of how government actually works. How can we better model facts over feelings in local civic engagement?

3. The Non-Partisan Tightrope: How can parents, educators, and community leaders discuss systemic political rules effectively without inserting polarizing partisan bias?