B. What can you do if you want to help protect vulnerable people today?

L. Build the muscle in the networks in between crisis flash points. The key is to be urgently building out the network of mutual aid — lawyers, communications people, church networks, neighborhood phone trees, your local A.C.L.U., journalists you want to alert immediately if there’s a state action against a disfavored group or other citizens committing hate crimes.

Let me add this is not just about progressives organizing against Trump. There are libertarians and conservatives who are equally alarmed by some of the overreaching actions of the executive branch, and the permission that’s being given to local law enforcement and others to wield power heavy-handedly.

B. Looking at college campuses, where are you seeing students using power effectively?

L. One example is a campaign called Know Your IX, which was started by students at Yale and Amherst who had been frustrated by the opacity and complexity of the accountability process in cases of sexual assault on campuses. So they created a project which was about knowing Title IX, the federal law that governs how campuses have to provide for equal treatment and justice. The campaign was about illuminating what had felt like — and in many cases was — a rigged or warped set of campus rules, then helping victims of sexual violence to navigate those rules and giving them strategies to activate other forms of power — peer power, alumni power, money power or the power of attention from the media — to force justice and systemic change.

B. What advice would you give to the activists who led the women’s marches?

L. I’d love them to offer their advice to everyone else! They should be codifying all the steps they took, even if they sound simple. From “make a spreadsheet” to “think about people who are in nodes of networks” to “create a good visual meme to spread on social media.” Then say with everybody who came to those marches,“O.K., that was an awesome start. Now here are four or five pathways for you to continue.” One can be about policy-making 101 on the issue you care about. Two can be running for office or supporting someone. Three, start organizing money. Small money organized at scale can change the game. Four, learn how to activate allies for various causes. Show the people who showed up at those marches how to convert protest into institutional power.

B. But in our age of distraction, how do we get citizens to transcend boredom?

L. The greatest remedy for boredom is purpose. If you feel a sense of purpose and a fulfilled sense of community in the work you’re doing to make change happen, you won’t be bored. It won’t feel like torture to be stuffing envelopes, or working a phone bank, or knocking on doors. That will feel like part of what you get to do when you’re part of a community of purpose. And that allows you to transcend internet time and the need for distraction.

B. What could schools be doing to better educate young people about citizenship?

L. My two-word answer is: Teach power. And help students learn power by practicing it. What schools and universities could be doing far more is engaging in what is now being called “action civics,” the way groups like the Mikva Challenge or Generation Citizen teach civics by doing: actively preparing students to name changes they would like to see in their neighborhoods, and then having them try to make those changes happen through politics.

B. What can parents do?

From an early age, we can help kids ask, “What if?” and “Why is it this way?” and “Who decides?” You can be walking with your kids to the park, and you can say, “What if the park was bigger and had a newer jungle gym?” Or “Who decided where the park should be?” Or “Why aren’t there lights in it so people can hang out at night?”