The smallest serial killer of all time

It’s February?

My kids are all finally of the age where they’re simply aghast at how both February and Wednesday are spelled and pronounced, and today just happens to be both of those things, so breakfast was a blast. And I’m not kidding, it was a blast, and not just because of those things, but also because the (small-case) ice mostly melted and immediately after breakfast they went back to school after what feels like a century at home. With me. In the place where I live.

Things are a lot — a recurring theme of our work — but you can also choose to take a few minutes to yourself each day to disassociate and recharge. I recommend Olympic curling, which actually started today and is streaming live on Peacock. You’re welcome.

Let’s go.

— Quinn

Last year, almost 600,000 people died of malaria (just a percentage of the 200+ million who get sick with it).

Most of the deaths were in sub-Saharan Africa, and most of those were kids under 5 years old.

Here’s the Hulk part: we know a $3 donation to the Against Malaria Foundation buys a treated bed net that can prevent infection. We just don’t scale it up as far as it should go.

There’s a promising new vaccine that already cut a shit ton of child deaths in Ghana, but guess who cut funding to it?

👉 Donate $3 and buy a bed net now.

Our very first push into state-level Be Heard actions is going swimmingly.

Obviously we focused on Virginia, because I live here and know the ins and outs, but we’re incredibly excited to use the commonwealth as a model for more statesm, now and in the future.

With our help and your calls, the General Assembly has passed 4 constitutional amendments — on abortion, same-sex marriage, voting rights, and a temporary redistricting to fight back against the bullshit Texas started — that’ll now go to the people for a vote this fall.

To be clear — there’s no other tool out there that enables you to find and call your state reps about the progressive legislation that’s currently up for grabs. And there’s a LOT up for grabs, friends.

If you want to get your state on the board, please just reply to this email or email me at [email protected].

Here’s a few bangers Virginia friends can act on right meow:

👉 HB96 ensures every public school kid in Virginia can get breakfast and lunch at no cost. This is obvious. Ring ring.

👉 HB217 would limit access to certain high-powered firearms and save some goddamn lives. Call now.

👉 Virginia’s ranked 26th in the nation for teacher pay, which is bullshit. Tell your reps we need to fight to keep and attract the folks molding the next generation.

👉 Restore Hampton University’s land-grant status and federal funding, because over a century ago, some racists decided that only one Black school per state could get federal funding. No.

🔎 Find 25 more Virginia bills right here. 👈

Thanks to everyone who sent their hard earned cash to people on the ground in Minneapolis and across the fine state of Minnesota.

Here’s those links again, ICYMI and because ICE has still not gotten the fuck out:

Donate to CANDO (Central Area Neighborhood Development Organization)

👉 Immigrant families are being terrorized by ICE and sheltering in place — they can’t go to work, school, the doctor, whatever. No matter where you are, you can be a good neighbor and help them get food, diapers, and rent support.

Donate to or volunteer with the Community Aid Network MN

👉 These grassroots friends organize and distribute ground-level supplies. If you’re nearby, give them a ring and ask what they need (including volunteers). If you’re not, you can always donate cash (and anger — lots and lots of anger).

💫 EXTRA CREDIT!

👉 Call your senators and insist they continue to vote and scream and yell against any appropriations funding for ICE and the DHS at-large.

A government shutdown was averted today, but — as usual! — Congress just kicked the can (barely) down the road instead of doing what they were elected to do.

Huge thanks to everyone who called last week. Let’s go.

☎️ Call now (takes less than a minute).

Since some countries haven’t cancelled or even just buried their annual hunger reports (stares in the United States), we know food bank use is on the rise in Canada.

Food bank visitors in Ontario, for example, were up 87% (!) in 2025 since 2019, and one in three were kids, one in three were folks with disabilities, and one in four were actually employed but couldn’t earn enough to make it all meet.

👉 Wherever you live, you can help feed people from Calgary to Edmonton and Mississauga tonight. We’ve got 18 vetted orgs you can donate to or volunteer with in Canada. Check them out here.

There is a term that exists but shouldn’t and it’s “period poverty”. And that term lives on a list with other terms like “school lunch debt”. If those terms don’t enrage you, this probably isn’t the place for you, but anyways.

We’ve got some great Actions to help do away with period poverty entirely, but today I want you to check out Period: The Menstrual Movement, because, like menstruation itself, they’re fairly international, advocate for policy and education, and distribute period products to people in need.

Which is…juuuuust about half the global population.

👉 Anyways — you can join or even start your own chapter here, or just donate to the cause. 👈

That’s it, I hope you enjoyed this little note, powered as always by some combo of hope and spite.

And thank you — as always — for giving a shit.

— Quinn