S7E3 When ICE Comes to Town: Minneapolis on the Edge with Darcy McKenzie

Today’s episode is an invitation to listen closely—to grief, to courage, and to the hard work of hope. My guest is Darcy McKenzie, a social and political activist in Minneapolis, and our conversation begins where so many lives were altered: George Floyd. Where were you when it happened? What was your response? How did it change you? Darcy answers those questions with honesty shaped by experience—growing up in rural, agricultural America; living with a tenuous relationship to the Church; and carrying the layered truths of atrocities we too often rush past, including the tragic shooting death of Renee Nicole Good.

We talk about Minneapolis in the shadow of ICE, about video evidence without a hearing, about the politics of spectacle—cowboy hats and bounty promises—and about what it means to be a military mom when the state feels like a regime. Along the way, Darcy names political heroes and builders—people like Tim Walz, Amy Klobuchar, Tina Smith, Brian O’Hare, and Paul Cumings—and asks what real leadership looks like now.

Most of all, we ask what we’re hoping for in 2026, and why optimism—clear-eyed, grounded optimism—still makes sense. 

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