Election Anxiety Mixtape

Vector Illustration (2008) | Elisanth / Shutterstock

For the past year, commentators from all sectors of the American political spectrum have remarked on the impending enormity of the 2024 US presidential election. I am here not to join them but to offer a token of wellbeing.

This week, Public Seminar’s editorial team is turning to music for escape, rejuvenation, and for truth. The songs I’ve selected for our mixtape explore themes of self-empowerment, the political climate, and what it means to live with uncertainty.

In “Living Room Floor,” band frontwoman Sammy Rae carries a powerhouse of a chorus that preaches strength through individuality and independence: “I am in my own lane, I will not let myself down. I am in my own place, I am my own house.”

In “Flow State,” Casper Sage comes to terms with the struggle for inner peace, “trying to flow like the water, but running out of things to hold on to.”

A fungus only found in the mountains of America’s northwest coast offers Narcissist Cookbook a comforting allegory for connectedness: “We are talking thousands … of seemingly individual mushrooms connected by this astounding underground mycorrhizal network.”

Meanwhile, three-piece act MUNA brings a vibrant, energetic approach to escapism with their hit single “I Know a Place.” Songs like this remind us that our ability to resist depends in large part on our ability to persist in the pursuit of our own happiness. Maybe we should all take a line from MUNA, and “go get drunk on cheap wine [and]… hop on the purple line.”

The playlist closes with an optimistic anthem from Shungudzo and Joy Oladokun. “My soul,” Shungudzo sings, “is incredibly ready to change history.”