Writer and producer Boen Wang and his Chinese-born mom disagree on almost every political issue. Each suspects that the other has been “brainwashed”, because how else could they have such extreme views? In this personal piece, Boen unpacks the epistemology and history of the term brainwashing, and goes on an intimate exploration of his mom’s childhood and experiences in the U.S. to figure out what has actually shaped her political beliefs—and his own.

Both parties maintain that Latino voters are important to them. But across the country many Latinos say they feel alienated from the political process.

Community organizers aim to change political hearts and minds through dominoes, art workshops and community dialogues.

In this year’s midterm elections, a lot of the political gains of the past 12 years are threatened, and Latino voters could be partly responsible.