S4E17 Encore of But What Can I Do? (S4E5)

"But what can I do?” This is a question we are getting with greater frequency from our followers, listeners, and viewers. We’re going to try to answer that question…with a little help.

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In this episode of Getting to 3rd Space, we are going to try to answer a question we are getting more frequently from friends, followers, listeners, and viewers: “But what can I do about the situation in our country?” Frankly, we were a bit stuck. So we went to Perplexity and asked it this question: People ask me, about the current social and political situation in the United States, "What can we do?" What can I tell them?

Here’s a summary of what we learned (and we’ve put a few links below if you want to learn more):

First, don’t give your power away to despair.

Second, shift your focus to where you have real leverage: local life.

Third, invest in relationships.

And finally, use the tools we have.

Sources:

The Hill: Several Political Storms Loom on the Horizon in 2026

Brookings: The bucket list for involved citizens: 76 things you can do to boost civic engagement

Reddit-Serious Conversation: What should we be doing to help people/communities/ourselves in the current state of the US?

A Crucible of Thought: Political Predictions for the USA in 2026

Greater Good Magazine: What Can We Do Now?

Vox: 26 things we think will happen in 2026

Playing with Fire: What to do NOW: 10 actionable ways to make a difference during the Trump years

KSAT.com: Americans are exceptionally anxious about their political system, new Gallup polling shows

Brookings: Economic Issues to watch in 2026

A 3rd Space Survey: Acts of Kindness

Kindness seems out of vogue right now. But we don’t believe that to be true. We believe there are a lot of people in our world who are choosing kindness even in the face of cruelty.

Do you have an act of kindness that you’d be willing to share? You can participate through a Google Forms Survey at this link: https://forms.gle/5NQakn6bgeXpm2us5

There you will find two kindness questions we’d like you to consider and then respond to:

• What is an act of kindness you’ve received that made a difference to you?

• What is an act of kindness you have done which you hope changed another person’s life?

What do we do with the acts we learn about in this survey? We save them and feature them in our Thanksgiving show each year…anonymously unless you prefer we use your name.

Finally, please share this survey because an act of kindness shared begets others.

How We Check Ourselves

Fact Checking: Because there are a lot of things happening…some true, some false, some unbelievable…we use the following fact checking sites. Take a look for yourself:

• Snopes

• FactCheck.org

• Politifact

• RealClearPolitics

• Reuters FactCheck

Because media can have its own biases, we also rely upon these sites to help us get balanced coverage:

• Media Bias/Fact Check

• All Sides

• Ad Fontes Media Bias Chart

Want to watch us do the podcast? Visit the Klaus Haus Productions YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/@KlausHausProductions.

Credits:

Wild Opinions and Nonsensical Musings by Lamar Roth & Tom Klaus

Images by Getty Images, Pexels, Pixabay, Roth Images, and Cyberlink AI

Final review and approval by Jake and Ebie Dawgs Inc.

Photos by Lamar Roth are copyrighted by Roth Images, All Rights Reserved. For permissions or additional information: lamar3rdSpace@gmail.com and https://www.rothimages.com/

Getting to 3rd Space with Lamar and Tom is produced and sponsored by Klaus Haus Productions LLC and Acorn Consulting, LLC. © 2026. All Rights Reserved. Permissions: hello@klaushausllc.com.

No living creature was harmed in the production of this film but a lot of Colombian coffee was consumed.

Recorded using Riverside.fm - http://riverside.fm/ - from “home studio” locations in Maryland and Kansas, USA and Iowa; Original Publishing Date, February 17, 2026.