Hello My Friends,

I sincerely hope you are doing very well today. I just wanted to take a moment to check in with you all and to reintroduce myself and our work a little bit.

4 years ago, I started The North Star so that we could tell stories of both liberation and struggle that simply aren’t being told anywhere else. So many people didn’t think we’d survive the first year. Or the second, or third, or fourth, but we’re still here, not only reporting stories that don’t make it to the mainstream media, but also showing you all how we can fight for change together. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

We’ve printed over 2,000 articles and editorials and recorded over 1,000 original podcast episodes across 8 different podcast series in our network. I can hardly believe we’ve done so much - on a shoestring budget - that is literally far less than 1% of what mainstream publications are working with.

If you aren’t yet a member of The North Star, we’d love to have you! I am only able to speak truth to power the way I do because of the generous support of good people just like you. You can join very easily by clicking here now.

Since we launched, our oldest daughter has graduated from college. Our next to oldest is about to graduate and is studying in Ghana. And our other 3 kids are in elementary school, middle school, and high school and are each doing well. We’ve got 3 dogs now that we didn’t have when we launched! And 6 chickens! That’s certainly something I never thought I’d say! Hahaha!

Also, my dear wife, Rai, is about to finish her doctoral program and is doing such great work as an educational administrator in Brooklyn.

I am still helping to lead Real Justice - our organization that fights to elect new District Attorneys across the country. And I am also leading The Grassroots Law Project to help fight for civil rights for families impacted by racial injustice, police violence, and mass incarceration.

Here at The North Star, we are powered by everyday people. We don’t have investors. We don’t have loans. We don’t have credit cards. We aren’t backed by big corporations. We have you. And for the past 4 years - that has been enough.

I have 3 simple requests to make today.

1. Read and share one of our most popular articles here.

2. If you aren’t yet a member of The North Star, would you please consider joining today so that we can continue our good work?

3. We are trying to get to 1 million listeners per month on The Breakdown podcast and hope that you will go to Apple Podcasts or Spotify, subscribe for free over there, and listen to our latest episodes. While our podcast is free, it’s only free because of the generous support of our members.

As always, I love and appreciate you all!

Shaun

PS: Please check in with me in the comments below!