"Trust Scales Through People Now" — Amanda Brink on Why the Old Organizing Toolkit Is Breaking

The tactics most campaigns were built on are quietly breaking, and the reason isn't messaging — it's trust. Host Pete Altman talks with Amanda Brink, executive director of The Empower Project, whose recent essay "The Rules of Engagement Have Changed" argues that real persuasion now happens in the group chats, DMs, and comment sections where people decide who to believe. Amanda makes the case that we're organizing in an environment where credibility travels through people rather than institutions: "I really feel like trust scales through people now. It no longer scales through institutions, which also makes me sad, but I think that is the reality that we are living in." She walks through what friend-to-friend organizing looks like at scale — 47,000 community mobilizers in 2024, three million names, nine million conversations — and why the app is never the answer: "In the same way you can't build a house with just a hammer, a tool is not enough." She's also blunt about why the left is behind, from status quo bias to a movement that is "literally letting the perfect be the enemy of the good." For anyone rethinking how their organization reaches people in 2026, this is a practical conversation about building power instead of perfecting copy.LINKS FROM THIS EPISODEThe Empower Project: https://empowerproject.us/Amanda Brink on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brinkamandal/Amanda's bio: https://empowerproject.us/amanda-brinkAmanda's essay, "The Rules of Engagement Have Changed": https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/rules-engagement-have-changed-amanda-brink-krfgc/Marquette Law School Poll on trust, July 2026: https://law.marquette.edu/poll/2026/07/07/marquette-law-school-poll-finds-a-steady-decline-by-age-in-trust-in-other-people/Messengers: Who We Listen To, Who We Don't, and Why, by Steve Martin and Joseph Marks — the trusted-messenger research Amanda citesMore episodes at substack.tcspod.comFind and subscribe:Substack and your favorite platforms.Contact: [email protected] us on LinkedIn and Bluesky