In a life dedicated to organizing people to make change—from working with SNCC and the United Farm Workers to Nancy Pelosi, Jerry Brown, and President Obama—Marshall Ganz has seen and learned a lot, lessons he’s passed on for decades as a lecturer at Harvard Kennedy School. Today, democracy teeters as our capacity for collective action seems to have withered away. In his new book, People, Power, Change: Organizing for Democratic Renewal, Ganz has distilled a half-century’s worth of insights into an urgent call for strengthening democracy, both a practical guide on how to reclaim democratic power and an inspiring manifesto for collective organizing.

In his book, Ganz argues that lasting and meaningful change only happens when people come together for a shared purpose, when they deliberate together, and when they act together, even when the future seems unknowable and the road uncertain. On November 13, 2024, just days after Donald Trump was elected president, at a public event hosted by Stanford PACS, Ganz was interviewed about building power and leadership by Tomás R. Jiménez, professor of sociology and comparative studies in race and ethnicity and the founding codirector of Stanford’s Institute for Advancing Just Societies. Their conversation has been edited for clarity.