DS Leiter is a pastor’s kid with a PhD in Communication who started the Assertive Spirituality project to offer people the research-based tools they need to speak up against the toxic crap in the world and to further understand the intersections of stress, trauma, conflict communication and spirituality. The project–which is based on Leiter’s teaching and research on the university level–is currently a FB page (FB.me/AssertiveSpirituality) and a blog (AssertiveSpirituality.com) with a weekly newsletter. If you sign up for the newsletter for a limited time you’ll get the “Assertive Spirituality Guide to Online Trolls” in the final welcome email as well as weekly news and blog posts weekly. Leiter started the project in May 2018 to help provide training and encouragement to those seeking to speak up against toxic messaging in politics justice work and other venues. Leiter’s background includes facing plenty stress, trauma, and conflict personally as well as teaching and studying about it. Leiter has also studied things like fascism, WWII, and the rhetoric of conspiracy–these things drive an intense urgency to offer people the tools to speak up against those dangers and for a better world in the midst of the current religio-political apocalypse.