I’m Marianne Dhenin, a journalist and historian. After navigating freelance journalism for over five years, writing for dozens of publications, and notching a couple of exciting accolades, I launched this site in June 2025. It provides a platform for projects that respond to the demands of our current political moment amid a contracting non-profit news world. On it, you’ll find my signature reporting on political organizing, climate justice, and disability communities. John Loeppky edits the original reporting I publish here.
Currently, I send two email newsletters per month. Both round up any reporting I’ve published on the site since the last newsletter went out, and at least one contains bonus content that you can only access as a paid subscriber. To get your first month of a paid subscription free, click here. The regular rate is $8 USD per month or $80 per year, and I offer a $40-per-month tier for those who want to contribute even more.
I decided to launch the site after I learned that Yes! Magazine would be sunsetting its operations. I had been a regular contributor there for more than two years and had written occasional stories for the magazine throughout my entire career. Yes! paid me to cover solutions-oriented stories you won’t find at other publications, including how urban planning could be reimagined to serve working people, the importance of archiving labor struggles, and why the disability community joined the Stop Cop City movement.
The loss of independent non-profit media outlets is not only tragic but also a threat to the movement-building needed to meet the challenges of our current moment. As extreme weather imperils frontline communities, authoritarians roll back the hard-won rights of marginalized groups, and Western governments continue to fund genocide in Gaza, we need reporters and outlets committed to centering the voices of affected communities and uplifting stories of progressive and transformative social change more than ever.
At the same time that bold independent journalism is becoming more important than ever, it is becoming more and more difficult for journalists who do this work to make ends meet. Subscription-based income from this site allows me to focus more on ambitious projects with the potential to drive change. I’m also aiming to hire a freelance fact-checker to work on every story I publish here, not just some of them. As of May 2026, I’m about 30 paid subscribers short of earning enough to do that.
If you’d like to share your story for my reporting, collaborate on a project, or share an idea for something you’d like me to cover, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I’m looking forward to building this platform together so we can publish more stories that inform, empower, and inspire readers to build a better world.