Sticky Note Conversations

Host Erika Washington sits down with Leo Murrieta — former Executive Director of Make the Road Nevada and proud "recovering executive director" — to talk about what real organizing looks like, the price of citizenship, and why staying moderate is a losing game.

Leo shares his journey from arriving in the U.S. as a week-old baby to navigating notario fraud, discovering he'd been a citizen for a decade without knowing it, and leading one of Nevada's largest Latino power-building organizations for nearly nine years. He also opens up about the night of the Route 91 massacre — and what it taught him about who gets left behind.

From grassroots base-building to the 2028 presidential primary, Leo and Erika get into what's broken in progressive politics, who the real leaders are (hint: they're not in the title), and what the American dream means for a queer immigrant who's spent his career fighting for others.
  • (00:00) - SNC S3 Leo Murrieta - "Ordinary People"
  • (00:41) - Introduction
  • (02:39) - Who Is Leo Murrieta?
  • (03:59) - How Leo Got Into Politics
  • (07:27) - The Citizenship Journey & Notario Fraud
  • (16:30) - Route 91 & Make the Road Nevada
  • (25:55) - Lessons from Nine Years as Executive Director
  • (27:44) - Leadership, Power & the Political Landscape
  • (40:08) - Grassroots Organizing vs. Voter Mobilization
  • (51:22) - Nevada as Second in the Nation & 2028
  • (59:49) - Rejecting Moderate Politics
  • (01:08:16) - What Is Democracy?
  • (01:13:59) - The American Dream
  • (01:19:11) - Closing Reflections


Creators and Guests

Producer
Erika Washington
Composer
Wil Black

What is Sticky Note Conversations?

To keep my thoughts in order and my to-do lists remotely manageable I create arrays of sticky notes on my desk and wall. New idea? Stick note! Someone I want to meet with? Sticky Note! Need to remember to pay a parking ticket? Write it on a sticky note. Over the course of the last year, I have wanted to create a podcast that allowed me to dive deep into conversations with interesting people.. I wanted to have real conversations that were more than sound bites or regurgitated talking points about fluffy topics. My hope is that each episode feels like old friends catching up. Revealing great information but also humanity, struggle, victory, joy, grief, and possibly, a flicker of transcendence.

I hope you will enjoy these as much as I do creating them.
Join me here every Saturday as I pull a new sticky note off my desk.