Moving Through Anger To Action: Why My Teaching Philosophy Centers Social Justice
Reflecting on over a decade of teaching, I'm using this episode of Design Decisions to talk about my teaching philosophy and why it centers critical self and systems reflection, education as a path to liberation in collaboration and community. I reflect…
Read MoreMaking Study Abroad More Accessible to Black and Brown People: Unexpected Journeys with Sarah Jones
Instead of a single, pivotal moment, Sarah Jones compares her journey towards social justice work to a fire that ignited during her first experiences with race and racism in the 1st grade, defining further memories and experiences as the logs that kept…
Read MoreFunky Production: Social Work, Race, Class, and Education with l o t i walker | Design Decisions
Made with minimal equipment and rooted in the belief that ideas need time to grow, this bonus crossover episode between Notes From an Aspiring Humanitarian (NAH) and Social Justice Origin Stories revisits my very first recording from 10 years ago with…
Read MoreRejecting The Path Of Least Resistance and Refusing To Be A Passenger With Tyler Adams
Tyler Adams of the GoodPain Podcast opens up about how a life-altering event involving his youngest daughter cracked his heart open and expanded his understanding of privilege, complicity with oppressive systems, and what it really means to live in…
Read MoreStop Believing In Things That Don’t Believe In You: On Asymmetrical Vulnerability with Kwesi A. Robertson
Kwesi A. Robertson shares about his journey through corporate America, pop culture, and the experiences that shaped his awareness of social justice. He describes the patterns that led him to recognize why access to vulnerability isn't a level playing…
Read MoreThe Power of Relationships and Lived Experiences with Sharman Spieser
After witnessing the racism her Black students experienced up close on a bus trip to Kentucky, Sharman Spieser’s awareness shifted from understanding how racism operates on an intellectual level to a deeper understanding gained from lived-experience.…
Read MoreBoundless Awareness with Pooja Kothari
Pooja Kothari, Esq. begins her social justice origin story with memories of her father, who helped cultivate her abilities to think critically as a child, her early awareness of sexism in gender-segregated cultural spaces, and her later experiences with…
Read MoreLook For Hope Everywhere With William “Bill” Vanderwill
Reflecting on his 50-year career as a Social Worker, William "Bill" Vanderwill speaks on the importance of strengths-based practice, intergenerational communication, community organizing, and the grassroots power of everyday people taking actions for…
Read MoreHumanizing Our Neurodivergence: Lessons of Love From The People’s Platypus with Sheldon Gay
Sheldon Gay shares his journey of late identification as gifted and neurodivergent, which fostered his commitment to humanizing Black, gifted, and otherwise neurodivergent experiences to promote acceptance and self-love. Through his podcast 'I Must Be…
Read MoreReimagining Leadership and Finding Our Role in The Movement with Beca Velázquez-Publes
Beca Velázquez-Publes, Founder, Coach & Consultant at The Liberated Leader, opens up about the lessons she learned early on from her parents that made working for social justice a part of her DNA. She talks about the evolving nature of purpose and how…
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Interviews with individuals sharing their personal experiences and defining moments on their journey to work for social justice in the ways that they do. Sharing can include stories about people or experiences that were influential in forming their current social/political analysis and activism/solidarity at the individual, interpersonal, or macro level, as well as work/community accomplishments that were transformative for them on their journey. Interviews for episodes from this perspective can also include stories about how they’ve worked to interrupt and resist the impacts of internalized oppression to move toward liberation in consideration of their marginalized identities and/or how they have, from their places of privilege, sought to betray the systems that grant those privileges and work for liberation as well.