The US supreme court demolished the 1965 Voting Rights Act when it ruled in Louisiana v Callais in April that states can’t consider race in redistricting. Southern states from Tennessee to Alabama have rushed to erase majority-Black districts, sparking chaos for the midterm elections. In the first episode of Guardian US’s video podcast Stateside, co-host Kai Wright talks with Stacey Abrams, voting rights activist and former Georgia house minority leader. They discuss the fallout from the decision, and why Abrams still thinks the way forward is through engaging more voters to participate in democracy: ‘They have fractured communities and said we’re going to scatter these seeds. Our job is to grow’