The unprecedented resistance to President Donald Trump’s rise to power did not materialize overnight. Grassroots movements have been challenging the establishment for years, and are what Democracy Now! reports on every day in its global news hour, and in this book.

From the standoff at Standing Rock over the Dakota Access Pipeline, to the voices of grassroots leaders; from Black Lives Matter activists to the stories of those fighting for peace, climate justice, migrant rights, and LGBTQ equality; from uncovering government surveillance to fighting attacks on freedom of the press, Democracy Now! has been reporting for two decades from the front lines of the movements that are changing America and changing the world.

In these times of war and elections, movements and uprisings, we need independent media more than ever. The commercial media serves as a mouthpiece for corporate and government interests—giving a platform to the pundits and the pollsters who know so little about so much, explaining the world to us and getting it so wrong.

Free speech is democracy’s last line of defense. We must demand it, defend it, and most of all, use it—now.

AMY GOODMAN is the host and executive producer of Democracy Now! a daily, global grassroots news hour, broadcasting on over 1,400 public television and radio stations around the U.S. and the world, with millions accessing it online at democracynow.org. An acclaimed international journalist, she has won the Right Livelihood Award, widely known as the Alternative Nobel Prize. Goodman is also the recipient of a lifetime achievement award from Harvard’s Nieman Foundation of Journalism, the George Polk Award, the Robert F. Kennedy Prize for International Reporting, and the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award. This is her sixth New York Times bestselling book.

DENIS MOYNIHAN has been working with Democracy Now! since 2000. He is a bestselling author and a King Features syndicated columnist. He lives in Colorado, where he founded community radio station KFFR.