This episode has a special conversation partner, one of my personal heroes…my mom!

Like many moms she is very humble / doesn’t get half the credit she deserves, but I try to highlight a few things she’s taught me by her example:

-She started a program in her town to support young, low-income moms. She was once a young, low-income mom, but had a very large support system of family / friends who helped out her/my dad. She realized not everyone had access to that type of support system so started this program many years ago once she had some extra time/resources. It has has now morphed into an early literacy program that’s run via playgroups at a (relatively) new children’s museum in town -She is an advocate for improving the public schools in our town, including ones her kids never went to -She is a master at respectfully disagreeing with people she knows in conversation in such a way that they actually listen to the point she’s making -She is into the Both / And of helping out in micro/more immediate ways in her community AND supporting macro/longer-term changes to structures to combat systemic racism

We also talk about: -my time visiting Memphis and Nashville -our mutual love of museums and dance -how the important conversations to have as a family (now of all adults) are often the ones that feel a bit scary to have -how we all have a role to play in the struggle against racism/white supremacy and toward liberation and are continually learning

my audio cuts out for a second or two in a few different spots, guess my wifi connection wasn’t great for the recording, sorry! *this was recorded on 1/14/22

A couple resources on topics mentioned (including the current fight for voting rights and against mass incarceration):

-Explained, whose vote counts (2020 episode) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yn36tY7rNUM&pp=QAFIAQ%3D%3D -Shelby County v Holder (2013 Supreme Court decision) https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/07/how-shelby-county-broke-america/564707/ -13th (2016 documentary)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K6IXQbXPO3I

-COINTELPRO (This page includes a link to a guide for teachers on how to use the actual COINTELPRO documents to teach students about this subject, which is left out of most US history textbooks): https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/cointelpro-exposed/

-Mapping our roles in Social Change Ecosystems (2020)

https://buildingmovement.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Final-Mapping-Ecosystem-Guide-CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0-Handles.pdf