Ross Morales Rocketto I feel pretty safe in saying that we all have gripes about our government. Where it's not doing enough, where it's overreaching. Most of us just gripe, Ross Morales Rocketto has taken a decidedly different path. Along with his co-founder, Amanda Litman, Ross has made it his mission to get as many young (read under 40) progressives elected to offices at the state and local level around the country as possible.  From their start, rising from the ashes of the 2016 campaign, their organization, Run For Something, has been guiding successively larger numbers of ..read more

EMERALD GARNER Most of us, mercifully, get through life without getting the news that Emerald Garner and her family got on a July day in 2014. Her father, Eric, had been killed by a police officer who used a chokehold on him as Garner spoke those words that we have heard all too often, "I can't breathe". While her older sister, Erica, sprang into action Emerald stayed in the background until the day that Erica died at 27 years of age from a heart attack.  With Erica gone Emerald knew that she had to pick up the torch and fight for justice for her father, her sister, and all those who had ..read more

Diane Rosenfeld I read a lot of books, most of the people I interview on this podcast are authors, so I'm pretty used to finding interesting aspects to various subjects. But when I started reading this book I was riveted! I couldn't wait to talk with Diane about what we humans, particularly females, could learn from Bonobo apes.  That apes had figured out how to eliminate male sexual coercion and violence while this is still a huge problem for a, supposedly, more evolved species fascinated me. By the time I finished reading the book I had pages of questions for Diane. When we finally got ..read more

Kelli Stewart Sports are part of the culture of every country. Here, in the U.S., baseball is our "national pastime". Kelli Stewart and her husband, CJ, decided to use the tool of baseball to teach disadvantaged and at risk young Black boys essential life skills. Founders of the LEAD Center in Atlanta, GA Kelli and CJ have grown a program that reaches at risk Black boys in middle school and high school and helps them create positive paths for their lives. When Kelli and I spoke one of the things that struck me was her commitment to engaging with the kids that most people don't want to engage w ..read more

Will Jawando Will Jawando sat down to write a book about the Black men who had the most impact in his life. That book, My Seven Black Fathers, has illuminated corners of the Black experience, particularly the Black male experience, that all too often go unseen. In our conversation Will and I talk about the influence of these men, including Barack Obama, on him. But more than simply a personal narrative Will has written, and we discussed, the universality of many of his experiences and though luck played a part in connecting him to the men whose mentoring helped lead him to the success that he ..read more

Kerri Kelly September 11th changed life for all of us, but for Kerri Kelly the impact was especially personal. In the aftermath of that event Kerri upended her life and went on a search for wellness. What she found was not what she expected and, once again, the trajectory of her life was changed. In her new book, American Detox: The Myth of Wellness and How We Can Truly Heal, and in this conversation, Kerri explores the ways in which our culture of wellness perpetuates systems that are deeply unwell. She leads us in a conversation that helps us find our way towards the deep, connected wellness ..read more

Shawn Ginwright What if we've been approaching this whole idea of justice and have left out a critical piece? What if our very approach is actually helping cement the damage that bias and systemic inequity have caused?  We all know that there is much healing that has to happen if we're going to be the equitable society that we envision. The question is how do we get from here to there? What are the tools we need, the way of thinking that will help move us along? Professor Shawn Ginwright, in his new book The Four Pivots: Reimagining Justice, Reimagining Ourselves, argues that we are faili ..read more

Tatenda Musapatike If your best friend asks you what you want to do in the world and your response is, "Run shit" then you and Tatenda Musapatike should probably sit down and grab a drink.  The founder of the organization, Voter Formation Project, Tatenda and her team work to leverage the digital age to not only get people registered to vote but also to get them excited to vote. From working for Facebook to starting her own firm not only to run shit but to do it with intention and integrity Tatenda is creating a new model for how political work is done. One that isn't about livi ..read more

Nisha Anand Around the world the divisions that define our societies are becoming deeper and more hardened. In this inspiring conversation Dream Corps CEO Nisha Anand and I talk about the power of finding common ground.  If we truly want to make the difference that we say we want to make we have to be willing to work with people who may have radically different points of view to ours but who, miraculously, share common ground with us on maybe only one thing.  Nisha gives us a map to coming together in service of a mutually important goal, beyond the politics and divisions that keep u ..read more

Obery Hendricks From the moment of his announcement that he was running for the presidency Donald Trump directed his efforts towards courting white evangelicals with  racist and anti-immigrant sentiments. But he didn't start this trend, he simply hopped on a bandwagon that had been gaining speed for years. Author, scholar, and ordained minister Obery Hendricks and I explore some of the lesser known aspects of this issue and including the culpability of large swaths of the Black church for not responding forcefully to the ongoing assault on civil rights. In theory the United States has sep ..read more