“In the progressive community, we tend to dislike the idea of selling ideas.” (With David Fenton, author of The Activist’s Media Handbook)

So you’re hoping to propel a cause into the public eye in a way that’s thoughtful and effective? What do you do?
For David Fenton, the longtime progressive PR guru who began his activist work in the late 1960s alongside figures like Abbie Hoffman and Yoko Ono, the answer has been to stick to some simple rules: straightforward and understandable messaging, repetition, effective storytelling, and the other principles that he lays out in his book, The Activist's Media Handbook. We spoke about his activist origin story and how he’s paying forward his decades of experience, as well as how he’s continuing to put the PR rules he writes about into practice to fight climate change.

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David Fenton: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

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Credits:
To the best of our knowledge, all audio used by What Can I Do is in the public domain or is used with permission. Our theme song is Good Deeds by Serj Anto, and we hold a license for use of the song through PremiumBeat.

Original artwork is by Matthew Weflen and used with express permission.