Podcast appearances and mentions of Loretta Ross

Loretta Ross (1953 - present) is an activist who has dedicated her life to advancing women’s rights. She helped coin the terms “women of color” and “reproductive justice,” providing the language that has allowed women across racial and ethnic backgrounds to organize collectively for their human rights and reproductive freedoms. For Further Reading: Biography: Loretta Ross Transcript of interview with Loretta J. Ross Eugenicists Never Retreat, They Just Regroup: Sterilization and Reproductive Oppression in Prisons Loretta J. Ross Calling In | Book by Loretta J Ross This month, we’re talking about Word Weavers — people who coined terms, popularized words, and even created entirely new languages. These activists, writers, artists, and scholars used language to shape ideas and give voice to experiences that once had no name. History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should. Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures. Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Sara Schleede, Paloma Moreno Jimenez, Luci Jones, Abbey Delk, Adrien Behn, Alyia Yates, Vanessa Handy, Melia Agudelo, and Joia Putnoi. Special thanks to Shira Atkins. Follow Wonder Media Network: Website Instagram Twitter See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a re-run episode recorded in 2024 - importantly - before the 2024 Presidential Election, but its insights and lessons about ChangeMaking are still deeply relevant!What are some of the skills or insights shared by some of America's extraordinary change makers, people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Alicia Garza or Loretta Ross? In particular, what can these people teach us about how to build larger movements for change?Anand Giridhardhas, author of Persuaders, talks us through what he discovered when he interviewed these and other American change makers. In this chat Anand shares the story behind why he came to write this book – about his own story as a bridge builder between cultures and the lessons he learnt about how people navigate change.The chat then turns to his book Persuaders – identifying lessons about how persuaders communicate, how they work across difference, and how important it is for movements to be able to think about the kind of implications that change making has on communities while they are prosecuting change with communities.This chat is all about Persuaders, but Anand has written four powerful books: India Calling, True American, Winners Take All and Persuaders. You can find out more about Anand here – https://www.anand.ly/. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is a re-run episode recorded in 2024 - importantly - before the 2024 Presidential Election, but its insights and lessons about ChangeMaking are still deeply relevant!What are some of the skills or insights shared by some of America's extraordinary change makers, people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Alicia Garza or Loretta Ross? In particular, what can these people teach us about how to build larger movements for change?Anand Giridhardhas, author of Persuaders, talks us through what he discovered when he interviewed these and other American change makers. In this chat Anand shares the story behind why he came to write this book – about his own story as a bridge builder between cultures and the lessons he learnt about how people navigate change.The chat then turns to his book Persuaders – identifying lessons about how persuaders communicate, how they work across difference, and how important it is for movements to be able to think about the kind of implications that change making has on communities while they are prosecuting change with communities.This chat is all about Persuaders, but Anand has written four powerful books: India Calling, True American, Winners Take All and Persuaders. You can find out more about Anand here – https://www.anand.ly/. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Activist and professor Loretta Ross, author of "Calling In," discusses the excesses of cancel culture and the need for a more inclusive way to hold people accountable in the age of social media. Prof. Ross, who was sexually abused as a child, also talks about her past work with convicted rapists and white supremacists. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Activist and professor Loretta Ross, author of "Calling In," discusses the excesses of cancel culture and the need for a more inclusive way to hold people accountable in the age of social media. Prof. Ross, who was sexually abused as a child, also talks about her past work with convicted rapists and white supremacists. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Guest: Loretta J. Ross is an activist, public intellectual, and a professor of women, gender studies, reproductive rights, white supremacy, and human Rights.  She is the author of many books including her latest “Calling In: How to Start Making Change with Those You'd Rather Cancel.” Photo: Center for American Progress's photo (licensed as Attribution-NoDerivs) The post Loretta Ross: Working with Opposition to Affect Change appeared first on KPFA.

As a public intellectual, activist and professor at Smith College, Loretta Ross is no stranger to confrontation and debate. But years of working to change the minds of others have led her to rethink her own ideas about approaching difficult conversations. Loretta and Adam discuss why shaming rarely changes behavior and her powerful alternative to cancel culture. They also reflect on personal moments of confrontation and explore strategies for talking others out of hate. Available transcripts for ReThinking can be found at go.ted.com/RWAGscripts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We've been conditioned to think that if we can't measure it, it doesn't matter. But what if the opposite is true? What if the most meaningful things—art, kindness, justice, human connection—can never be captured in numbers?In this episode, I argue that we need to do away with KPIs entirely because they'll never truly measure real impact. I reference Loretta Ross and her work on “calling in”, share my own experiences—like a book I discussed in my monthly book club (https://youtu.be/vPgWM5rOFqA?si=W3sJ1GFyVvsLC1Xt) and the premiere of my second film—where the ripple effect of our actions is unknowable.Takeaways:

Host Piya Chattopadhyay speaks to Rob Russo and Tonda MacCharles about how Canadian politics are being affected by Donald Trump's promised tariff threats, social justice activist Loretta Ross discusses her new book Calling In and her alternative ideas to cancel culture, we get the latest on developments around the Gaza ceasefire deal from The Economist's Gregg Carlstrom, and podcaster and writer Kelsey McKinney breaks down the origins of gossip, and why people everywhere love to do it.

As a public intellectual, activist and professor at Smith College, Loretta Ross is no stranger to confrontation and debate. But years of working to change the minds of others have led her to rethink her own ideas about approaching difficult conversations. Loretta and Adam discuss why shaming rarely changes behavior and her powerful alternative to cancel culture. They also reflect on personal moments of confrontation and explore strategies for talking others out of hate.Available transcripts for ReThinking can be found at go.ted.com/RWAGscripts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As a public intellectual, activist and professor at Smith College, Loretta Ross is no stranger to confrontation and debate. But years of working to change the minds of others have led her to rethink her own ideas about approaching difficult conversations. Loretta and Adam discuss why shaming rarely changes behavior and her powerful alternative to cancel culture. They also reflect on personal moments of confrontation and explore strategies for talking others out of hate. Available transcripts for ReThinking can be found at go.ted.com/RWAGscripts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode discusses the topic of suicide. Please take care when listening. https://afsp.org/suicide-prevention-resources Loretta Ross: https://lorettajross.com/callingin-online Safety Plan: https://sprc.org/online-library/stanley-brown-safety-plan/ Joy and Claire dive deep into the swirling anxieties surrounding recent political events, contemplating the benefits of focusing on positivity and actionable steps to combat feelings of helplessness. They discuss the importance of being able to […] The post Mental Health in Menopause and Navigating the Current Political Climate appeared first on This is Joy & Claire.

Today's episode started with the Albert Einstein quote about whether or not God plays dice with the universe. Is the world a friendly place, neutral, or unfriendly? That perspective will influence the way each of us lives our lives. I share information about Loretta Ross and her TED talk as well as her book, "Calling In the Calling Out Culture." If we only ever fight against the situations and the conditions we don't desire, we can't be surprised that that's what keeps showing up. Or, if we are, it will behoove us to begin to take responsibility for our part in that. (Please forgive the random dings. I got a new smart watch and haven't figured out how to silence that notification!)

In this episode we're exploring the role of voting in our movements through an intergenerational conversation between elder and younger organizers based in Georgia and New York. In this conversation National Council of Elders members and younger organizers dig into questions such as: Where do elections fit in our concept of real democracy? How important is our vote? How close are we to tyranny in this country, as most clearly outlined in Donald Trump's Project 2025 vision, and how much is that tyranny already here?  What are the paradoxes that we must grapple with as we face another election cycle in the U.S.?  This episode is hosted by Frances Reid (she/her) based in Oakland, California.  Frances is a member of the National Council of Elders and a veteran of 40 years of activist documentary filmmaking. Joining Frances in this conversation are: Loretta Ross (she/her) based in Northampton, Massachussetts and Atlanta, Georgia. Loretta is a long time activist and scholar who teaches at Smith College, was a Director at the first rape crisis center in the country in the 1970s, and whose latest book is Calling in the Calling Out Culture.  Barbara Smith (she/her) based in Albany, New York. Barbara is an activist and author, who played a groundbreaking role in opening up the dialogue about the intersections of race, class, sexuality and gender. She's a co-founder of the Combahee River Collective and of Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press and served two terms as a member of the Albany Common Council from 2006 to 2013. Nautica Jenkins (she/her) based in Atlanta, Georgia. Nautica is an organizer and Youth Programs MultiMedia Specialist at Project South. Her role is to assist young people in creatively communicating their stories and messages through various forms of media. Hannah Krull (she/any) based in Buffalo, New York. Hannah has been in the streets and engaging in popular education in her home region of Northern Appalachia for nearly a decade. She has worked on a number of local and national campaigns, and in recent years has organized on her university campus against sexist oppression, queerphobia, and for a Free Palestine. Hannah is a knowledge worker who grounds her work in hyperlocality and pushing back against structures of power and dominance.

In this episode, New York Times bestselling author Elise Loehnen discusses her book On Our Best Behavior, which is about the seven deadly sins and their impact on women's lives and roles in society. She also shares how women are often conditioned to disconnect from their bodies and emotions due to societal and cultural pressures and how health coaches can help them reconnect with their desires, boundaries, and suppressed feelings.   In this episode, we talk about: The inspiration behind Elise's book On Our Best Behavior  How writing the book helped Elise with her personal transformation and how it impacted her well-being and relationships The need for collective work to recognize unhealthy language and behaviors toward women Elise's journey toward self-definition away from cultural and social expectations How can people reconcile their faith with the empowerment and reevaluation of women's roles in society The role of health coaches in helping women reconnect with their desires, suppressed feelings, etc The concept of envy and how it is reframed in a positive way in the book Memorable Quotes “It's really difficult to liberate yourself from these ideas of what it is to be a good woman and stand alone, because you'll be vilified and continually sort of painted as a bad person.” “If patriarchy were so natural, we wouldn't chafe against it.” “We women, through trauma, self-hate, etc., are generally totally disembodied... So the most loving thing a health coach can do is to get women re-embodied and re-in touch with our appetites, our desires, our boundaries, our suppressed and repressed emotions.”   BIO:  Elise Loehnen is a New York Times bestselling author and the host of the podcast, Pulling the Thread, where she interviews cultural luminaries about the big questions of today, including people like Jo Harjo, Loretta Ross, Pico Iyer, Dr. Gabor Maté, and Terry Real. She's the author of the New York Times bestselling On Our Best Behavior: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to be Good. Elise lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Rob, and their sons, Max and Sam. Elise has also co-written 12 books, including five New York Times Best Sellers Previously, she was the chief content officer of goop. While there, Elise co-hosted The goop Podcast and The goop Lab on Netflix, and led the brand's content strategy and programming, including the launch of a magazine with Condé Nast and a book imprint. For the podcast, she interviewed 100s of thought leaders, doctors, and experts, including Ibram X Kendi, Bryan Stevenson, Nicholas Kristof, Ambassador Samantha Power, Rebecca Traister, John & Julie Gottman, among others. Prior to goop, she was the editorial projects director of Conde Nast Traveler. Before Traveler, she was the editor at large and deputy editor of Lucky Magazine, where she also served as the on-air spokesperson, appearing regularly on shows like Today, E!, Good Morning America, and The Early Show. She has a B.A. from Yale and majored in English and Fine Arts; she also went to St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire. Before that, she attended a school where lunchtimes were spent jumping an irrigation ditch. Originally from Missoula, Montana, it's important to her that people know that she went to the National Mathletes Championship when she was in 8th grade and that she's a horse whisperer. These days, she serves on two boards (Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams and Skinfix), advises a beauty bio-tech start-up (Arcaea), and spends her time writing, reading, and fundraising for causes and politicians focused on environmental action, social justice, women and children's health, and a more equitable world.   Mentioned In This Episode: Pulling the Thread with Elise Loehnen: https://eliseloehnen.substack.com/ Elise Loehnen's Website: https://www.eliseloehnen.com/ On Our Best Behavior Book: https://www.eliseloehnen.com/onourbestbehavior   Links to resources: Health Coach Group Website https://www.thehealthcoachgroup.com/ Use the code HCC50 to save $50 on our website Leave a Review of the Podcast

What are some of the skills or insights shared by some of America's extraordinary change makers, people like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Alicia Garza or Loretta Ross? In particular, what can these people teach us about how to build larger movements for change?Anand Giridhardhas, author of Persuaders, talks us through what he discovered when he interviewed these and other American change makers. In this chat Anand shares the story behind why he came to write this book - about his own story as a bridge builder between cultures and the lessons he learnt about how people navigate change.The chat then turns to his book Persuaders - identifying lessons about how persuaders communicate, how they work across difference, and how important it is for movements to be able to think about the kind of implications that change making has on communities while they are prosecuting change with communities.This chat is all about Persuaders, but Anand has written four powerful books: India Calling, True American, Winners Take All and Persuaders. You can find out more about Anand here - https://www.anand.ly/.ChangeMakers 2024 is supported by the Civic Power Fund and work with the UCL Policy Lab. This year they are supporting ChangeMakers to bring together a collection of Chats filled with extraordinary ideas and everyday experience to understand how we can change the world, www.ucl.ac.uk/policy-lab/ucl-policy-lab and www.civicpower.org.uk/.For more on ChangeMakers check us out:Via our Website - https://changemakerspodcast.orgOn Facebook, Instagram, Threads - https://www.facebook.com/ChangeMakersPodcast/On X/Twitter - @changemakers99 or @amandatattsOn LInkedIn - Amanda.Tattersall Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chelsea Gerlach shares some incredibly practical next steps for engaging in polarizing conversations.   In this conversation Chelsea references Loretta Ross, and you can find her work here

Professor of Law Kimberly Mutcherson joins Gail and Nate to discuss the history of abortion access in the US, the current landscape of women's healthcare, and the need for reproductive justice in the pro-choice conversation.Professor Mutcherson was the former co-host of the Anthem-Award-winning podcast—The Power of Attorney—which is produced by Rutgers Law School. Follow Professor Mutcherson on Bluesky: @professormutch.Resources mentioned in this episode:Randall Balmer - "The Religious Right and the Abortion Myth," Politico 10 May 2022Reproductive Justice by Loretta Ross and Rickie SolingerKilling the Black Body by Dorothy RobertsCenter for Reproductive Rights---Follow us on Facebook at fb.com/fullmutuality and on Instagram at @fullmutuality. Join the conversation in our Discord server at dauntless.fm/discord-server. Visit fullmutuality.com for more ways to connect with us.Full Mutuality is a Dauntless Media Collective podcast. Visit dauntless.fm for more content. Join as a partner on Patreon for exclusive content! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2/9/24: Rep Natalie Blais: road repairs, revenue & reparations. MTA Pres Max Page: teachers' right(?) to strike. Donnabelle Casis with Karen Webb: the exhibit "Queer Voices." Smith profs Carrie Baker & Loretta Ross - freedom fighters!  SCMA Dir. Jessica Nicoll: amazing exhibits -- now free.

2/9/24: Rep Natalie Blais: road repairs, revenue & reparations. MTA Pres Max Page: teachers' right(?) to strike. Donnabelle Casis with Karen Webb: the exhibit "Queer Voices." Smith profs Carrie Baker & Loretta Ross - freedom fighters!  SCMA Dir. Jessica Nicoll: amazing exhibits -- now free.

2/9/24: Rep Natalie Blais: road repairs, revenue & reparations. MTA Pres Max Page: teachers' right(?) to strike. Donnabelle Casis with Karen Webb: the exhibit "Queer Voices." Smith profs Carrie Baker & Loretta Ross - freedom fighters!  SCMA Dir. Jessica Nicoll: amazing exhibits -- now free.

2/9/24: Rep Natalie Blais: road repairs, revenue & reparations. MTA Pres Max Page: teachers' right(?) to strike. Donnabelle Casis with Karen Webb: the exhibit "Queer Voices." Smith profs Carrie Baker & Loretta Ross - freedom fighters!  SCMA Dir. Jessica Nicoll: amazing exhibits -- now free.

2/9/24: Rep Natalie Blais: road repairs, revenue & reparations. MTA Pres Max Page: teachers' right(?) to strike. Donnabelle Casis with Karen Webb: the exhibit "Queer Voices." Smith profs Carrie Baker & Loretta Ross - freedom fighters!  SCMA Dir. Jessica Nicoll: amazing exhibits -- now free.

Toute personne qui a déjà organisé un repas de famille le sait : un repas sans accroche peut parfois relever de la mission impossible. Pour ce dernier épisode de la saison 1 de Grand écart, on a décidé de vous donner la parole : qu'est-ce qui fait le sel de vos dîners de famille ? Qu'est-ce qui vous lie les uns aux autres ? Au contraire, quels sont les sujets récurrents qui vous opposent ? Et finalement, comment aborder sereinement les repas de famille ? Lucie et Solène s'interrogent sur comment faire de ces repas des moments de joie et sans trop de prises de bec ! RÉFÉRENCES Pierre Bourdieu : À propos de la famille comme catégorie réalisée. In: Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales. Vol. 100, décembre 1993. pp. 32-36; ⁠https://www.persee.fr/doc/arss_0335-5322_1993_num_100_1_3070⁠ Sur Mary Parker Follett et le conflit : MOUSLI Marc, « Éloge du conflit. Mary Parker Follett et le conflit constructif », Négociations, 2005/2 (no 4), p. 21-33.  Sur le calling in/ calling out de Loretta Ross ⁠https://lorettajross.com/⁠  La page Soundcloud de la géniale Talia : ⁠https://soundcloud.com/user-21352821⁠ CRÉDITS Grand Écart est un podcast produit par makesense. Co-écriture : Solène Aymon et Lucie Chartouny. Montage/réalisation : Aurore Le Bihan. Identité sonore : Simon Drouard. Accompagnement éditorial : Hélène Binet. Chanson originale et interprétation : Talia Sarfati. Identité graphique : Daniel Buendia.

I'm Anita Lustrea and I'm privileged to be a spiritual director. Each time I begin a session, I use a quote or poem or prayer.  As I share one of these with you, see what might catch your attention. Maybe there's something here for you today. Today I offer a... The post Poem/Prayer 28 Madeleine L'Engle & Loretta Ross-Gotta appeared first on Anita Lustrea.

City Lights LIVE! celebrates the publication of “Women Who Change the World: Stories from the Fight for Social Justice” from City Lights Books, edited by Lynn Lewis, with a conversation between the editor and contributors Hilary Moore and Malkia Devich-Cyril. – Edited by Lynn Lewis – published by City Lights Books “Women Who Change the World” examines the inspiring oral histories of women fighting for justice and radical social change at community, state, and national levels. Award-winning oral historian Lynn Lewis brings together the stories of nine exceptional women, from their earliest formative experiences to their current strategies as movement leaders, organizers, and cultural workers. Each chapter is dedicated to one activist–Malkia Devich-Cyril, Priscilla Gonzalez, Terese Howard, Hilary Moore, Vanessa Nosie, Roz Pelles, Loretta Ross, Yomara Velez, and Betty Yu. Reflecting on the paths their lives have taken, they talk about their struggles and aspirations, insights and victories, and what keeps them in the fight for a better world. The life stories of these inspiring women reveal the many ways the experience of injustice can catalyze resistance and a commitment to making change. They demonstrate how the relationships and bonds of collective struggle for the common good not only win justice, but create hope, love, and joy. Lynn Lewis is an oral historian, educator, and community organizer. She is the author of “Love and Collective Resistance: Lessons from the Picture the Homeless Oral History Project” and is the former executive director and past civil rights organizer at “Picture the Homeless.” Lewis is the recipient of many honors and awards, including a 2022/2023 National Endowment for the Humanities Oral History Fellowship. She makes her home in New York City. Malkia Devich-Cyril is an organizer, activist, movement builder, writer, poet, educator, public speaker, and social justice leader in the areas of Black liberation and digital rights in expansive and profound ways that connect racialized capitalism to the digital economy. In her “Women Who Change the World” oral history, Malkia reflects on the responsibility of lineage, conferred by her mother, a leader of the Harlem Chapter of the Black Panther Party. Related to this is the theme of belonging: to family, community, and movement and the importance of narrative struggle to make meaning and build power to change material conditions. At the time of this interview, Malkia was formulating an analysis around the relationship between grief, grievance, and governance as a critical strategy to win freedom. Malkia, who also goes by Mac, was born and raised in New York City, and lives in Oakland, California. Hilary Moore is an organizer, educator and author who works within an anti-racist framework that links movements to abolish the police and the military with environmental justice, racial justice, and anti-imperialist struggles in the U.S. and internationally. She draws connections between eco-fascism, white supremacy, policing, the military, and surveillance that forecasts many of the dynamics we see today. In her “Women Who Change the World” oral history, she reflects on the process of her own political development and explores the meaning of belonging, creating community and connection. She describes the importance of mentorship and the role of storytelling as a way to build connection, leadership, and movement. Born in Sacramento, California, and raised in rural northern California, Hilary now lives in Louisville, Kentucky. You can purchase copies of “Women Who Change the World: Stories from the Fight for Social Justice” at https://citylights.com/city-lights-published/women-who-change-the-world-stories-from/. This event is made possible with the support of the City Lights Foundation. To learn more visit: https://citylights.com/foundation/.

Every day, we witness some majorly bad behavior all around this big country of ours, and it seems our tolerance for any human error is at basement level. But what happens if we cancel everyone who makes a mistake? An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind, as they say. Wendy's had enough and wants to cancel canceling. Listen in as Wendy takes a page from the Loretta Ross playbook (“...when you're on social media, act like you're holding someone's heart in your hand”) and offers her thoughts on Elise Loehnen's new book, “On Our Best Behavior.”

A special presentation of Inform Your Resistance: Abortion abolitionists: who are they, what drives them, and how do their tactics overlap with those of other far-right movements? Join host, Koki Mendis, and PRA Senior Research Analyst, Cloee Cooper, as we reveal the chilling facts about this nationwide syndicate of militant anti-abortion Christians. We unravel the differences between the broader pro-life movement and the abortion abolitionist movement and observe how the latter attempts to impose biblical law in the US, rallying with extreme anti-abortion leaders from the 1990s. Subscribe here: https://www.axismundi.us/inform-your-resistance/ EPISODE RESOURCES No Sanctuary: Anti-Abortion “Abolitionists” Go to City Hall by Cloee Cooper and Tina Vásquez How the anti-abortion movement fed the Capitol insurrection by Tina Vasquez The anti-abortion abolitionist movement is dangerous. Here's what you need to know by Cloee  Cooper and Tina Vásquez The New Abolitionists: The Christian Anti-Abortion Movement Gaining Ground in State Legislatures by Heidi Beedle The Army of Gideon: Anti-Abortion Activism in Wichita by Heidi Beedle Convergence of Far-Right, Anti-Democratic Factions in the Northwest Could Provide a Model for the Rest of the Nation by Frederick Clarkson and Cloee Cooper The Prochoice Religious Community May Be the Future of Reproductive Rights, Access, and Justice by Frederick Clarkson Mobilizing for Reproductive Freedom in the Battle Over Bodily Autonomy by PRA featuring Adaku Utah, Cloee Cooper, Loretta Ross, and Tara Romano --------- EPISODE KEYWORDS --------- Abortion Abolitionists, Christian Right, Christian Reconstructionism, RJ Rushdoony, Capitol Insurrection, Anti-Abortion Legislation, Homeschooling Movement, Overton Window, Pro-Choice Religious Community, Movement Strategies, Collective Power for Reproductive Justice Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://swaj.supportingcast.fm

9/12/23: Rep. Patricia Duffy on proposed firearms and health care laws; Duke Goldman on the Red Sox, the Yankees, and the Negro Leagues; Loretta Ross on “Women Who Change the World: Stories from the Fight for Social Justice;” Hampshire County Sheriff Patrick Cahillane, with Stacey Nee from the Children's Trust, on the Sheriff's Award for the Nurturing Fathers Program.

Our guest in this episode, Rie Algeo Gilsdorf, describes herself as someone who believes in “seeing and integrating the big picture”. She believes in the whole person and integrating us all. She comes by this attitude honestly as you will hear. From attending a number of different schools while still living in the same house to how she learned through the years to live her life, Rie has made it her mission in life to help eliminate inequality in mind, body, and spirit. One of the fascinating things Rie talks about is why she obtained master's degrees in Biology and Dance. As you will hear, it's all about understanding the mind and body as part of the whole person picture. We get to have an interesting discussion about making choices, or not. As Rie discusses she was told often while getting her Dance Master's degree, “You have to make a choice of either being a dancer or a choreographer. Her response from the “big picture standpoint, “Why can't I be both is I choose to?” As we discuss, often people tell us to make choices, but it is because of simply the other person's point of view, not from a more general viewpoint or the point of view of the person who is thinking about what choice to make. I promise that our discussion will intrigue you. One very important concept Rie discusses concerns leaning into what we don't know. That is, when we do not know something or how to accomplish a task stop and look at the problem Learn from all your tools and sources how to deal with the issue. Most important, do not hesitate to ask others and especially don't hesitate to ask those who will be affected by your decisions. Big picture mentality again. My time with Rie is why Unstoppable Mindset is such a great podcast not only due to inclusion and Diversity but because we really do get to encounter the Unexpected in so many ways. As usual with our guests, Rie gives us all life lessons we can value and use. Enjoy, please. About the Guest: Rie Algeo Gilsdorf (She/Her) is passionate about seeing and integrating the big picture. Whether she's connecting people across distance and difference, integrating mind and body, science and art, or healing and change-making, Rie is dedicated to restoring wholeness to our common culture that heals and upholds us all. With Masters' degrees in Biology and Dance, Rie has an appreciation for the perceptions of the mind, heart and body, and the critical thinking and creativity they can provoke. Rie integrates Systems Change and Embodiment with an understanding of the physiology of trauma and the history of dominant and marginalized groups, applying all of this to overcoming systemic racism on a personal, social and global level. She is a national leader in the use of Social Presencing Theater (SPT) in antiracism work. Throughout her career Rie has facilitated adult learning that develops capacity to achieve equity across race, gender, sexuality and ability as well as urban, suburban and rural cultures.Currently, she provides Cultural Ways of Being audits, facilitation, coaching and SPT practice groups to individuals, schools, organizations and faith communities via Embody Equity. Ways to connect with Rie: Links for my website, LinkedIn, Instagram, class registrations and more are all found on LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/embodyequity About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app. Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes Michael Hingson  00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i  capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.     Michael Hingson  01:20 Well, hello, once again, it is time for another episode of unstoppable mindset where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Oh, and our guest today is Rei Gilsdorf. And she's going to yell at me because I didn't include equity. I just said inclusion and diversity. But that's okay. We'll get to that. Rie is a big picture person. And she will tell you and she has master's degrees in biology and dance, which is pretty unique, and a lot of other kinds of things to go along with that. So I think we're gonna have a lot of fun today. I am certainly looking forward to it and looking forward to learning a lot and having a wonderful discussion. So Rie welcome to unstoppable mindset.   Rei Gilsdorf  02:05 Well, thank you so much, Michael. It's good to be here.   Michael Hingson  02:09 I'll it's always a pleasure to have somebody who comes on and really does look at the big picture. So we'll get there. But yes, let's let's talk about you growing up a little bit, your childhood and all that sort of how did you get somewhere and moving forward and all that? Yeah.   Rei Gilsdorf  02:27 Well, you know, the interesting thing is, I grew up in California in a small town, and my town at Santa Ynez, California, also also very close to solving that more people have put up right, with the cookies in the ABL fever.   Michael Hingson  02:44 But Zaca Mesa wine comes from Santa   Rei Gilsdorf  02:48 does, yes, it certainly does. And lots of other good ones. So when I was a child, my dad was in agriculture. He was an animal nutritionist, actually. And he worked mainly with large animals, cattle and horses. And so our fortunes were directly tied to those markets, which are very cyclical. And so what would happen for me is I started out my educational life in a private school, and then the bottom fell out of the Cadillac, and then I landed in a public school, and then I would be there for a couple of years until some egregious thing happened. Like, you know, they're going to put 24 Children in one classroom, which, of course, by today's standards, you know, there are teachers that would kill to have only 20. in their room, right. But back in the day, that was just unheard of. And so then,   Michael Hingson  03:40 when was that roughly?   Rei Gilsdorf  03:41 That was that would have been in the late 60s. Okay. So so you know, then I would move to a private school, and we'd be there for a few years, and then the market would fall, and then I'd go back to public school, and then some awful thing would happen, then I go back to private school. So even though I grew up my entire childhood in one house, I went to five different schools. So for me, I didn't have language for it at the time, of course, but there were cultural differences between those programs, right? So I would say things like, as a seven year old, I said to my mom, when I first went to public school, mom, they were in their 20s to school, because at the private school, there was a uniform and you had to have leather shoes, and then you came home and you changed into your play clothes and your tennis shoes. Right. So so like, I didn't understand what that meant. Or, you know, socioeconomically, that you know, not everybody has shoes for every occasion, you know, and that it's funny to wear your tennis shoes to school. It was just different to me. And over the course of all my schooling, I think the message that I got was, there are more than one way to be. There's one more than one way that is considered normal in different places. And so there's a skill of figuring out what is called for, and how I need to be in different places.   Michael Hingson  05:11 When you were when you were growing up, and you made that comment to your mom, I'm curious if you remember, what did she say?   Rei Gilsdorf  05:18 You know, I don't think she just said, Oh, honey, that's just how, you know, that's just a different school, and they just have different ways. And she started just minimize that she didn't really talk about it much.   Michael Hingson  05:30 Anyway, go ahead.   Rei Gilsdorf  05:32 Yeah. So anyway, I think that that like looking back on it, I think that's really, you know, how I first began to understand that there's more than one way to be, right, and that, that things that seem perfectly normal in one environment are like really not normal in another environment. And, and that, you know, like, wow, there's the way that we act in my home is not the way that everyone acts in their home. So then, you know, fast forward is that I go, and I get a degree in biology, and I get a degree, I get a degree in biology, because, you know, my dad, in agriculture thought that that would be great, because I could go to vet school, or I could go to med school, or I could go into research, or I could, you know, so I was, you know, didn't really know what I wanted to do. And I did that. And then actually got a master's in zoology and animal behavior. And, and it's very interesting if you if you want to learn the skills about observing, and describing animal behavior is a great place to start, because you don't know what that Sparrow is thinking. But you know, that he's trying to get to the top of the dominance hierarchy. And he's, he's like, there's a literal pecking order, and he's picking on the next slightly smaller Sparrow. Right. So so there are, there are things I think I learned about describing that, as opposed to interpreting and laying my story on that have been really helpful, because as much as we are all humans, and we all share, you know, one physiology and, you know, there's a lot of really lovely sentiments about, you know, we all smile on one language. And also, people have really different experiences. And it can feel like you're being erased, if somebody who has more power or is little more dominant in that situation just sort of is like, Oh, we're all alike, comma, you're like me? Well, like Michael, you're just like me, except for that. You're blind. And I'm not, but I'm just gonna say we're all alike. You know, so there's something that's just a little it again, it doesn't capture the big picture, we have to go out to the big picture of people's different experiences and needs, and then we can come back in to the immediate picture of okay, what does everybody need right now? And how are we like, and how are we going to be one group here today?   Michael Hingson  08:08 But what really got you to the point where you emotionally and intellectually understood the value or need for the big picture? Oh,   Rei Gilsdorf  08:18 you know, what? That's? That's an excellent question. Part of it is, I think that I have kind of always had a propensity for that when I was about 12, or 13, a pastor, actually, who was a friend of my older sisters said to me, you know, what, you're a middle person, you can see both sides, and people are going to try to make you choose. And really your gift is see both sides. And it was one of those moments where I knew that he had said something profound, even though you don't like it, well, I wasn't quite ready for it to be that profound. But then, you know, then the other piece is, then I go, and I get a degree in dance. And you know, my mother is beside herself, because like, what are you going to do with these two things that are so do science degree and an art degree and how you know, but really, I can see that it's all about the body. And there's, you know, like, cognitively, understanding how the body works, and the systems and all of those kinds of things. And then there's physically understanding what it is to inhabit your body and express something or understand body language or that sort of thing. So I think that I think it was probably in those years when I was, you know, getting my dance masters. So I would have been in my 20s when, you know, I began to really go Okay, wait, there's a bigger picture here. And even in dance, people were saying, you know, you have to choose, you have to either be a teacher or a performer you have to either be a choreographer or a teacher, you know, and realizing like, Well, no, those aren't, you know, what, why couldn't a person do both of those things? Life is long.   Michael Hingson  10:04 Yeah. And everybody always wants you to make a choice according to their definitions. And of course, that's the real issue is it's their view, and they don't look at other views that may cause them to stretch and grow, because they're too comfortable with the one thing that they know.   Rei Gilsdorf  10:25 Yes, very well said, really well said, Yeah. And because, you know, for that person, making some drastic choice early in their life might have been a really smart decision for them, it might be the best choice they ever made. Right? But that doesn't necessarily mean it's the right choice for me.   Michael Hingson  10:43 Yeah, it's, it is an interesting world we live in. And it's all too often that people just don't see the value of a big picture. And I also think that it is important that although you see the big picture, it's important to be able to bring it back down and focus in on whatever it is that you have to deal with the endeavor or whatever at the time.   Rei Gilsdorf  11:06 Absolutely. zooming out and zooming in. View, and then you've got because if you say the whole time with your head in the clouds really, then then you're not practical. And that's, you know, that there are people who use the big picture to kind of bypass that, you know, they get to that we all smile in the same language place, and then they, they don't get to like it. Okay, well, how are we going to make that work? Right?   Michael Hingson  11:34 What Where did you go to college,   Rei Gilsdorf  11:36 I took my first degree at Occidental College in Los Angeles, which is a small liberal arts college, which was a good step for me coming from a very small town going through a smallish college, you know, I think if I had gone to Washington State, which was my next step, which had probably 30,000 students at the time, you know, that would have been a too big of a step for me at the time. But, but yeah, then I went to Washington State for my science degree, and then I was dancing all along. And I had in my head, this, this old trope about how you know, you don't make it and dance by the time you're 30 your career is over, you know, and so I didn't allow myself to realize how much I love to dance and, and you know, how it could be a career path. Until, until I was almost done with my though ology masters. And so then I went to the University of Utah, because they have a great choreography program. And also, by the way, they have what's called the kinesiology program, dance, kinesiology. So that's the study of the body in motion. And so that was really kind of a sweet spot for me, you know, it really allowed me again, to develop both halves of that, although, you know, I was the first graduate student in their history, to write a thesis and produce a concert, you know, like, usually, if you're a choreography major, you're going to produce a concert. And if you're a science major, you know, kinesiology major, you're going to do a thesis. And I was like, No, I don't really do both of these things.   Michael Hingson  13:11 So you had a lot of fun doing it. I should it. What made you pick combination of science and dance, though? They are very different in a lot of ways. Which isn't to say, it's a good idea or not, but what what made you do both of those,   Rei Gilsdorf  13:29 you know, well, like I said, my dad had a science background, he was an animal scientist to be exact. And so really, I got my biology degree just to be compliant, you know, and my, my mom said to me, don't worry, if you don't know what you want to major, and you're like, Go start your biology major, and go, you're going to a liberal arts school and take a lot of classes, and you're going to meet some professor that just excites you and sees your potential, and you're going to just want to hang out with them and learn from them. And then you'll know like, that's where you should go. And I got into my senior year of college, and then I was really disappointed because I thought, oh, my gosh, I never met that professor, like, what's wrong with me? And then I realized that actually, it was my dance teacher. And because dance was an adjunct subject at that school, you know, she she wasn't a professor, right. So. So then what happened was, I went up to Washington State because I'd gotten a teaching assistantship, and by the way, that's where I fell in love with teaching because there were there were graduate students who had research assistantships, and teaching assistantship and the research assistant people were like, the people with the spotless transcript and the, you know, they were like that was that the you know, prize position. And other people like, well, I guess you're gonna have to teach and then even amongst Teaching, I got assigned biology 101 basic basic class. And I loved those beginners, you know, and I realized that I actually had a gift for helping make things clear to beginners. So, so I went up there, and I was part of a dance group, you know, just as an extracurricular thing. And, you know, the, the poor fortune of my professor there was that she was going through a very messy divorce, and she was depressed, and she didn't really have the wherewithal to run the group. So she turned it over to us. So then that was my good fortune, because that's where I found choreography. And I was like, Oh, wow, you could keep choreographing. But you know, like, it wouldn't matter if your viewer aging. So, so that's where I really got turned on by, you know, that bit by the choreography bug. And then, you know, finished out my thesis and went went on down to Utah from there.   Michael Hingson  16:02 Wow. So then what did you do once you have these two degrees, and you had to go out into the workforce and do something with them all?   Rei Gilsdorf  16:13 Exactly. So for a long time, I had a day job.   Michael Hingson  16:18 To have one of those occasionally.   Rei Gilsdorf  16:20 Yeah, yes. Gotta have those. And, and then, interestingly, you know, some years later, well, what   Michael Hingson  16:28 was your day job?   Rei Gilsdorf  16:29 Oh, my gosh, I had a sequence of data ups. But I'll tell you the most astounding one is I, I worked at a medical clinic, because growing up, I had worked in my dad's office, so I knew how to do office things. And and I worked at a medical clinic in the collections department. Like, I'm not exactly who you would think of the collector, just not, you know, firm in that way. Like I am not someone you think is going to break your kneecaps at all, you know. And so, so that was a rough job. And then actually, when I first kind of Mind, Body Jobs was the last year we were living that we were living there, because my husband at the time was getting his degree at Cal Poly University in San Luis Obispo. Yeah. And so I actually got offered a job being the physical therapy assistant at a day program for disabled adult. And they mainly were folks who had mild cognitive impairment and significant mobility issues. So a lot of folks that had had head injuries or, you know, cerebral palsy, or those sorts of things. And I, part of how I got this was that in college, I had done a semester with a professor who was really a pioneer in dance for folks with disabilities. And so I remember calling her because I was so nervous that I'd been offered the job. And I said, and I just feel like, you know, how do I know if what I'm doing is hurting them? Are they? And she said, Oh, well, there's a way to know. And I said, What is it? And she said, Why you ask them? They've been living in their body their whole life? Oh, God,   Michael Hingson  18:24 and how often we don't in all seriousness, and how often we don't we, we, and one end of the scale, we think we're the experts. And so we don't need to ask, and I've seen that so many times. The other end, we just don't think about asking even though it's the logical thing to do, and we don't, we don't work view ourselves as the expert.   Rei Gilsdorf  18:45 Exactly. Or there's the scripts about how it's not polite, you know, like when your mother has taught you that it's not polite to look or point at someone who is different, right, who has a disability, then that gets internalized? Well, I'm certainly not going to talk about it, but you like they've been living in their body their whole life, they would certainly rather, you know, my clients would certainly rather have me ask them, then, like, try some idiotic thing that does hurt, right. Oh, anyway. So that was really one of my first places of combining, you know, because we were doing physical therapy. But it was so you know, such a sort of great outlet and then i i Of course put some dance in there. And, and then from there we we moved to Colorado and then I was able to work in both like a it was probably a for profit colleges called Denver Technical College. So I was able to teach you know, anatomy physiology, those things there and then there must have been a baby boom like three years earlier in Colorado Springs because There were so many preschool programs that wanted to have a creative dance thing. So I was teaching, you know, college kids at night and little four year olds, and three year olds in the daytime. So that was a little schizophrenic, but lots of fun. And and then we ended up moving to Portland, Oregon. And at that point, there was a, an arts high school being built. And I ended up getting hired into that program. And amazingly enough, you had to have an art and an academic to teach full time, because they put the academics in the morning, when people's minds were fresh. And then they put the arts which are all things that you physically do in the afternoon, and which also are things that kids you know, tended to love. So they would like show up and focus and, you know, and all of that sort of thing. And because I had a background in biology and dance, I could teach full time there. And if the time was, when it opened, it was an alternative school. So it didn't matter like that. I didn't have the right licensure, and really, not very many states were licensing dance teachers in those days. And then along comes No Child Left Behind. And they had requirements for being a quote, unquote, highly qualified teacher. And even though by that point, I had been teaching dance and integrating, I mean, part of that program was that we integrated the art and the academics together, because we knew that children learn what we all learned, we don't learn in a box, right? Like, I never really thought a whole lot about math until I had to replace the floor and a bathroom. And I had to figure out the foreign tile, right? There was a lot of math in that. So the learning by doing thing is is very important. So anyway, I, I was very happy, happy as a clam there for 10 years, then No Child Left Behind came along, and they were like, well, you're gonna have to quit, and you're gonna have to go get your teaching degree. And in fact, it means that you're going to have to student teach in someone's classroom, that probably has less experience than you. And I just couldn't do I mean, a lot of my colleagues did it, bless their hearts. But at that point, then I got to principals license, and then shortly after that, I ended up moving to Minnesota, to be the principal of a different arts high school,   Michael Hingson  22:27 you certainly moved around a lot from California to Colorado to Oregon and then in a soda.   Rei Gilsdorf  22:35 Exactly, did a lot of moving.   Michael Hingson  22:40 So was was it all because of you or husband? Or was it job related? Or just you guys decided you wanted to see different kinds of snow?   Rei Gilsdorf  22:54 Well, you know, we did find that both Colorado and Oregon are the Birkenstocks was sock state. So um, so we moved to, we moved to Colorado for his job. And then he was really sort of burning out from that job. And he had gone on a trip to Portland, actually a whole bunch of West Coast cities and fell in love with Portland, he said, You have to come out here and see this. So we up and move to Portland, just because it felt really good. And managed to both get jobs there. And then move to Minnesota for my job. He has been the trailing spouse, as we say. So.   Michael Hingson  23:41 So when did you move to Minnesota? What What year was   Rei Gilsdorf  23:44 moved there? It moved here in 2004.   Michael Hingson  23:48 Okay. And then you put your principals license to work   Rei Gilsdorf  23:52 with the principals license to work. And as I got hired in that job, the superintendent who hired me, said he told me this little story about how the year before the prior principal, had had 11 openings for teachers, which I mean, I think there were only about 25 teachers in the school. So that's, that's a huge number of staff. And despite, you know, some pressure to diversify, the staff had managed to hire 100%, white able bodied folks, and even when those folks were, you know, like met each other for the first time, you know, I get the back to school, you know, welcome new teachers kind of event. They were kind of surprised and disappointed. And so this superintendent said to me, if you can't hire at least 50% diverse staff staff of color in particular, you will lose the trust of your faculty. And so I thought, wow, okay, so he's telling me to This is very important. And Hmm, I'm not sure I know how to do that. So at that point, I leaned into what I didn't know and started, you know, started my educational journey. And, and really, it was probably about 10 years after that, that I ended up kind of really fully going into this work. But I think that's another really important point is, you know, like this, this is the same thing as as asking people what their preferences are, or what what, you know, what they need, or whatever, that, you know, leaning into what we don't know. Like, there is no shame in that none of us knows everything. And if you try to make like, you know, things, then you're not really going to make progress. You've got to say, Well, okay, can I go to this conference? Can I pull together this learning group? Can I, you know, Can I try this? Can I try that? And that's, that's how we progress.   Michael Hingson  26:05 Did you happen to think of asking any of your faculty members for help and ideas about how to hire a more, at least racially diverse population and seizures?   Rei Gilsdorf  26:17 Yes, definitely. Good. Because the, you know, like, often the wisdom, a lot of the wisdom is in the room. Right. And there also are people that have networks of, you know, beyond I mean, certainly, especially as I was a brand new person in Minnesota, it's not like I knew a lot of people here, you know, and other people did. So. Yeah.   Michael Hingson  26:39 Well, and you'd already had lessons in the value of asking, so that's why I asked that question.   Rei Gilsdorf  26:46 Yes, definitely. Well, so   Michael Hingson  26:47 what do you do today? Exactly.   Rei Gilsdorf  26:50 So what I do at this point is, I have a little company, I'm a sole proprietor, it's called embody equity, because, of course, I'm gonna bring the body into thing. And, and I kind of do this on two levels. So there's the personal level, where people need to, myself included, you know, we need to learn how to listen to our bodies, which sometimes means quieting our minds in our mouths. And we need to overcome some of these fears and biases. I love that in one of your taglines, you talk about how, you know, we can't be inclusive until we tackle what's inside of ourselves. And I think that is so true. And very often, people will understand cognitively why it's a good idea to be inclusive, and all those things, but they can't quite, you know, when when a situation happens, things come out of their mouth, or they make decisions that they perhaps aren't real proud of, or wouldn't have if they'd had more time to think or whatever. And, and a lot of that is because a lot of these a lot of these fears and biases are things that we hold in our bodies. And again, if we've been trained that it's like, it's not polite to think about that or talk about that, it's certainly not polite to feel a feeling that doesn't feel good about another person. And so part of that is just like learning to feel into that feeling, allow it to come over, you understand what it's coming from, and then you can get to like, oh, well, that's a silly thing to be afraid of. I guess that's nothing to beat. That's nothing to worry about. Or, oh, wow, I guess, I guess that person might have a different perspective. And maybe I could listen to that. But if you, if you start from the body, then you can understand that, you know, a lot of wisdom and a lot of opening up can come out and a lot of letting go can come out of working with your body. So so really, you know, I also like to say the body's like that person in the meeting that doesn't speak up until the end of the meeting. And then they open their mouth and they just wow you that this amazing thought comes out that sums everything up. And clearly they've been paying attention the whole time. Your body's like that person in the meaning of you, your mind and your body. Your body is the one who's like very quiet they're not going to assert themselves but they know a lot and a lot of it is getting the mind to be a little quiet so we can listen to the body now. So that's one level. And you know, sometimes people even come to me for coaching on you know, gosh, I have a new daughter in law that's a person of color or I have a new co worker or I'm supervising this group of people and I realized that I'm I'm acting nervous around people who are different than me. So those kinds of things you know, I can do coaching on on those kinds of things. And then the other thing is, whole organizations need to embody that, that the statement that they have, right or that that eloquent thing that they came out with, after some hideous situation was in the news. And they wanted to differentiate themselves. And they said, We stand with the cause. And yet, then they don't actually know how to, as an organization, stand with the cause. So So really, what I do is I look for I have gotten in the habit of looking at people's documents, like, personnel, manual job posting those sorts of things, and finding the language in there that is pushing for the status quo. Because it's going to be in there because it's it's been written, like, you know, companies occur out of the status quo, companies, churches, schools. In fact, I thought it was fascinating. You had told a story about being in a church that was considering putting, I think, an elevator in place. And what was fascinating about that, Michael, is the pushback on that sounds exactly like the kind of pushback that I hear about other situations that are about race or gender or other other aspects of diversity. So see, that's where, like, I'm so tempted to then like, oh, let's come out to the big picture, what is this consciousness that people are inhabiting? That I'm only safe if things stay exactly like they are. And there's something vaguely unsafe about us putting an elevator here, because someone different than me is going to come to this church, you know, and how, like, if you if you really just play that tape on out to the end, like the logical end of that statement, that's, that's ridiculous on the face. You know,   Michael Hingson  32:02 so isn't it, and it's, it totally violates the the doctrine and the precepts of the church to not be inclusive, and it happens a whole lot more than we would like to think some people just think they own the church, it's theirs. It's not theirs, the last time I checked, but you know, it is amazing. And there's so many things, it's not ours, we're a part of a community. And the sooner we truly recognize that we're part of a bigger community, the better it will be all the way around. But as much as we hear it takes a village, we, when it comes to us, we don't like to think about that.   Rei Gilsdorf  32:42 Absolutely. You know, when I was at that first art school in Vancouver, Washington, where you know, you had to have an art and an academic to teach full time. That meant that we all shared classrooms, because I might be in a classroom in the morning that was suitable to do science in because it had sinks and counters and that sort of thing. Well, that's also a great kind of room to do visual art in and mix paint is not a great room to dance in. So I was gonna go to a gym, or some other large room to teach dance and an art teacher was going to come in behind me. So we all shared not only the children, but also the rooms and the resources. And as we were planning the school, our principal actually instituted what she called the my jar, which is kind of like the swearing jar and put 25 cents in if you say a bad word. So if anybody said, my kids, my kid my room, we had to put 25 cents into my jar. And let me tell you, that was quite an education about this idea that it's, it's ours, it's not mine. And it was hard was surprisingly hard again, even though on a cognitive level, I was all about this community. It took a couple of years to really learn how to live into that. Yeah.   Michael Hingson  34:00 And it is one of those things that all too often we don't learn very fast, and we should learn it more quickly. It isn't, there's no I in team, that's what it really comes down to. And there's a lot to be said for that. Exactly. So when did you actually give up being a principal?   Rei Gilsdorf  34:20 Um, you know, I did that job. I will tell you that that job. The thing about the State Arts High School is that it is a line item in the governor's budget. It's not a regular school district, and the governor appoints your school board. So I was politically over my head almost immediately. You know, came from out of state didn't really get Minnesota politics to begin with, and then had these board members who may or may not have really been interested in being a board member may have donated to a governor's campaign, you know, and so, so I left there after three years, but I went to another school to be they had a brand new position opening up, that was an arts department chair. So that was lovely, because then I got to really do a lot of coaching of teachers, which is one of my favorite things, you know, watching teachers teach. And coaching them was really a lot of fun. And then though, that was a private school, and I and I missed, oddly enough, the public school environment of like, really, you know, in a public school, you you accept the children that come to your doorstep. And in a private school, you have to go looking for diversity. And so it's, it's just a slightly different mindset there. So I went back to that school. And then that's where I really met the folks from courageous conversation, because that school was what was called an integration district. It's something that there had been a number of I wouldn't want to say in the late 1990s and early 2000s. And so it was a joint powers district of Minneapolis in the 11 surrounding suburbs, because what was found was that, that different suburbs were able to segregate themselves by having their own school district. And so this was a way that all of those districts had to submit an integration plan, you know, it got very wonky, but yeah, what we did, one of the things that we realized was, okay, so, so different kinds of children are going to these different districts and these teachers, it's not like normal, neighborhood change has happened, and you have, you know, a few kids who are different than you when you're in and then a few more, a few more, and you gradually learn your way into it, it's like, suddenly, now they've got a busload of children coming from this other part of town. And then they would do these things that just, you know, like, sometimes just getting out of yourself, and seeing, you know, having a set of outside eyes is really important. So for instance, there was a suburban school district here that was majority white. And they started getting a busload of mostly black children in and those children like that bus was arriving, like at a slightly earlier or later time, there was something weird about like, the timing and what was going on at the front entrance. And so they they just decided that they would have that bus come to the back door, you know, not thinking what does it look like when the black children have to come through the back door? Like what's, what's the inclusion message there? Yeah. Oh, and and given our shared history in this country, what's the message there? You know, so, so? Yeah, so we put together this thing that was called the cultural collaborative, that was a learning exchange for teachers, and, you know, at school administrators, and one year, my boss said to me, because at that point, and I was a, I was like, the curriculum integration specialists. So I was helping people pull the arts into the academics and, and by the way, look at how we can have different kinds of kids work together on arts projects, and learn from each other, and just have the experience of being together. So, so when you're my boss said to me, you know, we have this one company called courageous conversation that's coming in, and they're doing a lot of our classes, and then we have a whole bunch of other people. And I would like you to take as many of these classes as you can report back to me just as a quality control. And so in one year, I think I took 36 different one and two day courses. I mean, I really, I probably should have written up another Master's degree for that, but having to I didn't feel like getting a third. But at that point, you know, I learned a lot more of the technical pieces of it. And then there was a huge budget issue and all the people who were teachers on special assignment, in other words, who didn't have a classroom like B got laid off. And so after that, I ended up going to work for courageous conversation, which was the consultancy that was providing a lot of that. So I worked there for about six years. And then, at the beginning of the pandemic, by that time, I had really I discovered social presencing Theatre, which is the physical discipline that I'm working in now. And, and of course, when you work for someone that has conversation in the name of the business. And you say, Hey, I think we should do some movement seminars that aren't so heavily talk oriented, that you said, you know, our brand is conversation   Michael Hingson  40:15 comes in many forms.   Rei Gilsdorf  40:17 Exactly. So, you know, at the beginning of the pandemic, you know, of course, conversation was not a good idea in person. And so they laid off almost all of us. And at that point, I just knew like, oh, okay, right. So now's the time for me to really pull this together and figure out how this works. How do I work together with people to, to really embody equity. So that's, that's how I got there.   Michael Hingson  40:44 So you, you started your company, then somewhere in the early 2020? Yes, that's about three years old, which is, which is good. But you talk about equity, and you don't talk about or you don't have in your name, inclusion or diversity. Now, why is that?   Rei Gilsdorf  41:07 Yeah, so that's. So here's the thing. I think that diversity and inclusion are weak T compared to equity. And I'll tell you why. Diversity is the easiest thing to measure, because you can measure diversity just by counting and there are many categories that people disclose or, or are just visible. And so that, you know, in a way, that's the easiest your hat, what is what is the C suite look like who's in there who's not in inclusion is, there's a great book called The person you mean to be by Dolly too, and she talks about the metric of inclusion is how did your last meeting go? Like, who was talking, who was not talking? Who was even allowed in the meeting, you know, so so. So that's one way to think of it, I first really heard about inclusion when I was working at a school, and the parent association of the elementary part of the school had decided that if birthday invitations are going to be handed out at school, then you'd have to invite everyone in your class. And so I decided that that's a really fitting metaphor for inclusion, because I'm going to invite everyone to my party. And you know, of course, we're, we're all offered the same cake in the same punch and whatever, but it's still my party. And I might not be playing music that you like, and I might not have a cake that you like, or that you're even allowed to eat. And by the way, you have to bring me a present. So in a corporate sense, or in a school sense. Inclusion means I'm gonna make some overtures to make you minimally comfortable, you know, I'm going to acknowledge that you're here. And that you might have a couple of different needs, I might make a few accommodations, as I'm required to by law. But the program was designed for me, and for people like me. And so equity is about requires you to pull back and look at the big picture and say, Okay, if you have a diversity problem, what's the pipeline? Why aren't people finding their way to your business, or organization or church or whatever it is? What's going on, that is off putting, or that is disqualifying for people. And in the inclusion realm, equity is going to say, Okay, well, what are the cultural things that you are doing that, you know, you're like a fish in the water, you don't see your own culture, but people from outside your culture for sure can see it? And so what are the tools that you know, how can we expand your tool belt for equity, so that you can respond to multiple kinds of people, and so that it doesn't feel like a little weird exception has been made for this one person?   Michael Hingson  44:16 Yeah, it's interesting. I have to think about that. And what you said, my, my general experience is, certainly diversity does not include disabilities. Because as a society, we still believe disability means a lack of ability. And I think that in reality, we can change words. We can change definitions, we don't need to create necessarily new words. So diversity doesn't mean disabilities anymore, because that's what everyone has allowed to happen. So from my perspective, I I won't accept and I encourage people not to accept that inclusion doesn't include disabilities, either you are inclusive or you not it is a quantum, one way or the other, there is no partial inclusion, you either fully include all or you don't include anyone. And that disabilities are not things that mean a lack of ability, but rather, disability is a characteristic. And in some my point of saying that is, you are a person with a disability because you're light dependent. And, and the reality is, if the lights go out, power goes out, you run to find a smartphone, or a flashlight or a candle or something to keep light. Because mostly, the world has invented technologies to continue to allow you to have light all the time. And so for some of us, that's a catching up, and technology is getting better. But still intellectually, society doesn't accept that. So they don't include, for example, my need for a screen reader software package, as opposed to using a computer monitor like you use, although inclusion ought to be part of the cost of doing business, period.   Rei Gilsdorf  46:14 Okay, so the big picture, I'm fascinated, because what what just came to me when you're talking is, one could think of the desk lamp that I have in my office as an assistive device, it allows him to work past 5pm Yep. Whereas you would not need that assistive device. And and the thing is, none of us thinks of my desk lamp as an assistive device, whereas it is pretty early reader, it is an in in, you know, in the in the kind of historical equity work that I do often. There's this, there's a lot of talk about affirmative action, and who does that benefit and so on. But we don't think back to, you know, the 40 acres and a mule thing that actually, after the Civil War, the idea was that, that the enslaved people who had been freed, were going to get this little land grant so they could start their own farm and do their own work. And then that was actually reversed after a while into that administration. But meanwhile, the what would they call the Sooners and the boomers who like went through Oklahoma and everything they were given, like, more acres, a mule and several sacks of grain, right. So that was affirmative action for white people, white and indentured, you could get that. So there are these things where we don't think of it as affirmative action for the dominant group. But that is how the dominant group got dominant. And then I would say, we also don't think of assistive devices for the dominant group. But that's part of what keeps us dominant.   Michael Hingson  47:57 But the reality is that assistive technology was mostly first invented for the dominant people. Yeah, the dominant, the dominant. I won't say race, because it's different races, but the the dominant force. And what happened as a result is that that occurred, and those who were not classified by the dominant people as part of the dominant group, were left behind. And, and it has become worse, which is very unfortunate. But that is the reality of it that in fact, assistive technology was invented for you, long before it really was invented for me. Now, we can take it the other way. So Apple, for example, has put assistive technology in every one of its devices. If you go buy an iPhone, you can take any iPhone and Acrobat, activate a screen reader called VoiceOver. And it will verbalize whatever is coming up on the screen. Except that they haven't mandated that app developers make sure that they accommodate voiceover necessarily as they're creating their apps. So an app can be accessible one day and not the next, but leave that alone for them. But leave that alone for the moment. What I don't see Apple doing still is saying, you know, we've got this great verbal technology, audio technology, and creating new and better ways for you like dependent people to be able to use it. For example, when you're driving a car, you don't turn on VoiceOver so that it will tell you who's calling. And so you have to still look at the phone to see or you have to look at the phone to answer it. And we as much as we talk about safe driving and all that. We encourage people to look elsewhere other than just the road look at Tesla. Tesla uses touchscreens to control most What goes on in his cars? That means, yeah, you do have copilot, and so on, which in theory work to some degree. But why is it that we discourage people from continuing to look at the road, and not use the other technologies that in reality benefit me, but would also benefit you? And would benefit me more if we did it? Right. So the the Tesla, for example, it's all touchscreen. So I can't turn on the radio, I can't change a radio station. I can't do anything with it, because it's all touchscreen. And we don't we don't accommodate that stuff. We don't recognize the value of things like audio output, and, and using even audio input more, because we still have the dominant group that doesn't recognize that in reality, alternatives might improve their lives as well. Oh, wow.   Rei Gilsdorf  50:51 Yeah. Oh, for sure. For sure. And you know, what you're saying about it being because it's visual, it's, it's distracting. You know, my son has an electric car, not a Tesla. But it is like, it's, it's difficult for me, like I have to set things and adjust them before I start moving in the car, because it's too distracting for me, you know, so interesting.   Michael Hingson  51:14 Yeah. And it would be very easy to make the world much more inclusive for all, but it is a mindset change that we have not developed yet. But we need to have that conversation. And really encourage it because it would make life better. In 2010, the National Federation of the Blind were to get a law passed, called the pedestrian enhancement Safety Act, more and more cars were going hybrid or totally silent or becoming very quiet. So we don't hear that when they're coming down the road a lot of times, yeah. And a law was eventually passed, saying that cars needed to make a noise. Now, they're still working on citing white noise to us 12 years later, which is unfortunate. But leave that alone for the moment. The law didn't really get traction at being passed until NITSA, the National Institute for Highway or transportation, safety and so on, until NITSA, discovered that there were 1.5 times as many accidents that would happen to pedestrians, as a result of encountering a quiet car or hybrid vehicle, then would be encountering just a regular internal combustion engine. So when they discovered that other people, then people who happen to be blind, also were affected by my cars, then people's attitude started to change. You know, we're still not dealing with the inclusive mindset. And we need to well, you started your company. And so what exactly do you do today?   Rei Gilsdorf  53:05 Well, I do a couple of things I do, what I call equity audits, I'm beginning to to switch that name around to cultural ways of being audits. Because there are, you know, 18, different things that people do that are called equity audit, like sometimes it has to do with going in, and having focus groups of people of color and seeing what's working, what's not working. And so what that when I hear that I refer to that as a functional audit, like what is going on what's working, what's not working. And what I do is more structural, and it has to do with really looking at those, you know, hiring documents, policy manuals, I and I've done audits for, you know, churches and, like larger Diocese of churches. I did one, I've done a couple that have to do with what's the route to becoming a clergy member? And how is that like? What's the application? What's the selection process? What are the criteria, because if your organization was founded by people in the dominant, the, you know, the words are going to express that and they're going to express it in a way that is, you know, it's it's hidden in plain sight. It's just absolutely hidden in plain sight. So one of the one of the main ones, boy, let me back up and say, What I love about this approach is, you know, where I used to work, they would just come in, and they would do a seminar that was about, you know, Equity and Diversity, right? And it's very easy for people to launch that into the abstract realm and not bring it down to earth, right, like, oh, well, theoretically, that could happen. But surely we don't do that. Like I don't, you know, and so it's really lovely to come back with a report that says, Here are these things things that are in your documents. And can you see why, then when you go to hire someone who is different on any axis, that there's this conversation among the hiring committee afterwards, and they say, you know, what, just don't know if they're a good fit. And they're not a good fit. You know, your your your hiring document hasn't captured. You know, what, what do you hope to gain from this more inclusive atmosphere that's more inclusive, higher? And if all you can say is, well, we want more people who are different than you need to think more about, like, what are the unique perspectives that people could be bringing to you, and you write those into the job description, and then magically guess what more different kinds of people apply? And they answer the questions in such a way that shows what they have to offer. And at the end, the conversation is not about like, Hmm, they don't quite fit. It's like, wow, they've got some perspectives we really need. Right? So. So anyway, one of one of the things that comes up often is this idea of professionalism. Word, you know, I'm not advocating that we go away from being professional. And you know, each profession has some standards, they need to do tap, right. But if you don't define it, then it falls back to what is the dominant group do? Right, and, and all the other things are considered unprofessional. And so one of my favorite things that I love to do is if I'm talking, for instance, to a white group, I say, what was the consequence in your childhood home for showing up to supper late? Or? Another way to think of that is, what was the vibe in your house when you had to get the whole family bundled into the car at the same time to go somewhere to be at a place on time? And, you know, I don't know, Mike, what was what was it? What consequences in your house for showing up late to dinner was that a bad thing   Michael Hingson  57:05 was a bad thing, unless unless you had let mom and or dad know in advance, then there was a reason for it, which is a different animal. But if you just showed up late, or even getting everyone in the car, well, there were only four of us mom, dad, brother in me. So it was pretty easy, because we had afford our cars. Everybody had their own door, but But still, there were expectations that you you abide by rules, and the rules could change. And the rules were created to accommodate everyone. And I think that's part of the issue is that when you're making rules, if you have rules that don't work for some people, then that's a different animal to   Rei Gilsdorf  57:54 write well, and then the other piece is, over time, we attach values. So Punctuality is a good thing. When I go to the doctor, I like that, you know, they haven't slipped me down 18th in line when I had an appointment, right. But I'm sure you have been in a meeting, because I think we all have where somebody said, we're going to respect everyone by starting and ending on time, right. And of course, like today, you and I have an appointment, we're going to try and start it in on time. But if one of us had to leave, because there was a family emergency, you know, if you had to run out of the room right now, I wouldn't feel disrespected. You know, I don't have to feel this perspective. That's just a story, a cultural story that's been told. And another story to just like, tie this one up in a bow is that I recently had a hip surgery. And I was in the hospital. And one of my excellent nurses was this black woman who was an African immigrant. And she, you know, she was very charming and hospitable. And trying to get my mind off of the pain and all that stuff. She would chat me up and everything. She asked me what I did. And so I was telling her about this. And I asked her, like, what's the consequence in your child at home, growing up for not getting to supper on time, and she was like, she couldn't get her head around the idea that there would be a consequence for that. She was like, What are you kidding? It's like where, you know, our value is hospitality. And whenever you show up, we're going to try to show you the most hospitality. We grew up in a different culture. And it's not that they don't have values, it's that they're pulling out a different thing to value more highly than the actual punctuality. Right. So, so, you know, I had to appreciate that. And the other thing that I love about this story is and karma I appreciated that she was punctual in checking in on me to see if my payments had worn off or not right, so that she can help me man Just paying by not letting it get like way too bad and having to take an extra dose and all that sort of thing. So the reason I'm saying that is that often, you know, time is a great example, because we all have some experience with time. But what will happen if people don't want to understand this, and I honestly think it's a willful thing, they'll say, your thing that black people can't tell pride. And I'm not saying that at all, I'm saying that there are different tools to have in our arsenal in our tool belts. And one of them is when to be sticking to the agenda and getting people through, through so that we can leave here on time, and when to like, bend the agenda to attend to somebody's needs, and when to just straight up, be hospitable and say, hey, it's a party show up when you need to, you know, so all of those are possibilities. And it's about becoming aware of what the water that you and your fish are swimming it.   Michael Hingson  1:00:55 And that's exactly the point is that there is something to be said for all of those things. And there is something to be said for if someone is late, before you condemn, understand. And that is just something that we don't see nearly as often as we should, which brings up the point of there are so many people today who are afraid, afraid of saying the wrong thing, you know, and how do you deal with that? Because what really is the wrong thing. And I think that we can define and we do define the wrong thing, if you will, in terms of like how we deal with people who are different than us and so on. But we also don't really know how to deal with that. Yes.   Rei Gilsdorf  1:01:36 So so there's this, there's a there's a whole lot about this. Because there's, you know, am I overhearing someone say the right thing, did somebody say the wrong thing to me, and I say the wrong thing and realize it when it was halfway up my mouth, but I couldn't call it back. Right? So let's start with that one, because that's the easiest one to me is, you know, if you're just genuine and say, oh, that didn't come out at all, like I wanted it to, I'm so sorry. And can we talk about how that landed on you? And just own it, you know, because things come out of our mouth, right. And I think most people understand when you do that. So again, just like at being honest with it. I am a big follower of a woman named Loretta Ross, who is all about what she calls calling in, instead of calling out and her whole thing is, you know, you need to admit that other people's interior lives could be as complicated as yours. Right? So if somebody has said something, you know, who knows what was going on in their mind, we, a lot of times we make an assumption, we jumped to a conclusion about like, oh, my gosh, how mean they're being or how racist or biased or whatever it is. And, you know, her idea is, first of all, if it's happening online, you need to take it offline, you need to have a private conversation, because a conversation about something that has harmed someone or, you know, really touched a nerve that does not benefit from having an audience, you know, that just doesn't. So taking it offline, talking about it, and listening to the other person to see like, what did you mean, when you said this thing? What did you mean? Like, because that is the thing that we don't know, like, we might, you know, we might assume, and sometimes they really did mean to be mean.   Michael Hingson  1:03:40 Always that,   Rei Gilsdorf  1:03:41 there's always that. And if that's the case, you can do what's called calling it off, which means you say, wow, you know, I'm starting to get kind of upset in this conversation. And I feel like I'm not very grounded. And so I'm gonna end this conversation, and then it's up to you whether you want to come back to me like if it's a relative of yours that you care about, maybe you come back when you're both cooler, right? If it's a random person who was trolling you online, that you just just block them, block them and move on.   Michael Hingson  1:04:13 Or if you're somebody who may be a stranger or not a friend, but you decide, well, maybe I handled that wrong, or whatever. And it wasn't intended to be mean, but it's not either, or the first two things you described, then you figure out a way to go back and deal with it.   Rei Gilsdorf  1:04:30 Yes, exactly. And there's even another possibility that there's a woman named Sonya, Renee Taylor that has has suggested is that like, if you're just too exhausted by the situation, and you don't use it, you're gonna call someone in. That's probably even a series of conversations. Just take them some investment of your time and emotional energy. But you could also say, you know, Michael, I have heard many of your podcasts and You are such a compassionate human being. And that just doesn't square with that last thing that you said whatever it was. And I would just like you to think about that.   Michael Hingson  1:05:12 And help me understand it, or help me understand. Right?   Rei Gilsdorf  1:05:15 I would just like, yeah. So so you can put the work on the other person as well. You know, and that's   Michael Hingson  1:05:21 fine. If you do it in a constructive way, that should always be a reasonable thing to do.   Rei Gilsdorf  1:05:30 Yes, yes, absolutely. And then the only other thing is, if you're, for instance, a university presidents, like someone with a significant amount of power, and a group of students is protesting a thing, and they've called you out. One of the things that Loretta Ross says about that is, you have just gotten 1000s of dollars worth of consulting feedback for free. So the thing again, is to Job, listen, ask, engage, understand what they're trying to tell you. Because a, an actual call out from a group of people who really are less powerful like that. That is them saying Ouch, in the only way they can get it to register. And so if you can find another way to listen, that doesn't have to be so dramatic. And if you're actually willing to make some kind of change, then then often that's the way to defuse the situation. But again, it's leaning into it, you know, and it's valuing the other person's experience and what they're telling you.   Michael Hingson  1:06:41 Yes, absolutely. And it gets back to the gift that you just said, but those are very important. If and, yes, we all need to be more open, positive intentions aren't enough. It's the actions that come outside of the positive intentions, you can say, well, I really did want to do that. But what do you really do? And the positive intentions don't mean a thing, unless you add more substance behind them? Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Which is extremely important. And we should do? Well, I have to tell you, this has been fun. And we went over our hour, but I'm not complaining. It was fun to do. But, you know, we've got to let you go get ready for dinner. It's getting closer to five o'clock there. And it'll be five o'clock soon enough. And then you can go off and decide if you're going to drink alone or with someone. Or whatever.   Rei Gilsdorf  1:07:38 Yeah, thank you so much, Michael, this has been great. How do people   Michael Hingson  1:07:42 reach out to you and learn about your

In the mid 1990s, the Reproductive Justice movement was formed by Black and indigenous women as a response to the limitations of the "reproductive rights" movement. Movement leaders argue, "rarely do we find ourselves fighting for just one aspect of reproductive justice such as abortion rights" - SisterSong. Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs, scholar and writer, joined us to talk about her book Revolutionary Mothering: Love on the Frontlines, her experience being a teenager during the formation of the Reproductive Justice Movement and what she's reading now to inform this moment.  Like this program? Please show us the love. Click here: http://bit.ly/3LYyl0R and support our non-profit journalism. Thanks!   Featuring: Dr. Alexis Pauline Gumbs  Making Contact Staff: Producers: Anita Johnson, Salima Hamirani, Amy Gastelum, Lucy Kang Host: Amy Gastelum Executive Director: Jina Chung Interim Senior Producer: Jessica Partnow Engineer: Jeff Emtman Music Credits: Catching Feelings by Audiobinger Image Credit: Alexis Pauline Gumbs   Learn More:  Alexis Pauline Gumbs Loretta Ross BYLLYE Y. AVERY SisterSong SisterLove Alice Walker June Jordan Listen to June Jordan Angela Davis Adrienne Maree Brown Audre Lorde Feminist Studies Journal

Today marks the last day of Black Maternal Health Week. A week that sheds light on the rise of maternal mortality in the US. We speak with Loretta Ross an activist, educator, author, and co-founder of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, as well as the co-creator of the theory of reproductive justice. Ross has traveled the world at the invitation of leaders and activists to speak about reproductive justice, and in 2022 she was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship “Genius Grant.” She is currently an Associate Professor for the Study of Women and Gender at Smith College. She joined us for some takeaways on this final day of Black Maternal Health Week.

Today marks the last day of Black Maternal Health Week. A week that sheds light on the rise of maternal mortality in the US. We speak with Loretta Ross an activist, educator, author, and co-founder of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, as well as the co-creator of the theory of reproductive justice. Ross has traveled the world at the invitation of leaders and activists to speak about reproductive justice, and in 2022 she was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship “Genius Grant.” She is currently an Associate Professor for the Study of Women and Gender at Smith College. She joined us for some takeaways on this final day of Black Maternal Health Week.

This Women's History Month, we're wondering: What will it take to achieve a society that prioritizes—and achieves—true equality? Our answers to those questions are the Majority Rules: a series of rules, created by Supermajority, intended to guide us to our ultimate goal of gender equality.Today, we're diving into Rule #2, “Our bodies are respected.” In the wake of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, it seems like our rights to our very own bodies are increasingly under attack. In South Carolina, lawmakers are calling for the execution of women who would have abortions. In Texas, five women are suing the state, individuals who wanted to carry pregnancies to term but their lives became at risk and their doctors were unable to help them fearing criminal punishments and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines. In one of their cases, the woman was not helped in managing her miscarriage until she was septic and near death.Given these various challenges and attacks on reproductive freedom, are our bodies respected? And how can we fight to obtain that respect, in this uniquely dangerous moment?Joining us for this episode is a very special guest:Loretta Ross. Loretta Ross is an activist, educator, author and co-founder of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, as well as the co-creator of the theory of reproductive justice. Ross has traveled the world at the invitation of leaders and activists to speak about reproductive justice, and in 2022 she was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship “genius grant." She is currently an Associate Professor for the Study of Women and Gender at Smith College.Check out this episode's landing page at MsMagazine.com for a full transcript, links to articles referenced in this episode, further reading and ways to take action.Tips, suggestions, pitches? Get in touch with us at ontheissues@msmagazine.com. Support the show

We've hosted several episodes about Dobbs and its aftermath. On this episode, Lindsay Langholz is joined by Khiara M. Bridges for a broader conversation about forced birth in America and what it means for pregnant people, families, and the law when forced birth becomes a banality. Join the Progressive Legal Movement Today: ACSLaw.org Today's Host: Lindsay Langholz, Sr Director of Policy and Program Guest: Khiara M. Bridges, Professor, UC Berkeley School of Law Link: "Race in the Roberts Court," by Khiara M Bridges Link: National Network of Abortion Funds Link: Sister Song Link: "Reproductive Justice," Loretta Ross and Rickie Solinger Visit the Podcast Website: Broken Law Podcast Email the Show: Podcast@ACSLaw.org Follow ACS on Social Media: Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn | YouTube ----------------- Production House: Flint Stone Media Copyright of American Constitution Society 2023.

Jarred's segment of Loretta Ross includes topics of sexual assault, abortion, and medical malpractice. You can skip to 31:37 to bypass this segment. Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thebossassbitchawardsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_boss_ass_bitch_awards/Email: TheBABAwards@gmail.comSociety6: https://society6.com/jsleetsYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/@thebossassbitchawards3988

We've become infinitely creative at coming up with ways to divide ourselves and because of that, I challenge us to focus on the similarities. And there are many, despite what we may believe. Loretta Ross reminds us of this. So does CEO Coach Matt Mochary (https://tim.blog/2023/03/01/matt-mochary/), among others. So check out this episode and please share your thoughts down in the comment section or hit me up on social media @PhilSvitek. Lastly, for more free resources from your 360 creative coach, check out my website at http://philsvitek.com. RESOURCES/LINKS: -Coach or Consultant Services: https://philsvitek.com/lets-work-together/ -Podcast Services: http://philsvitek.com/podcastservices -Love Market Film: https://www.amazon.com/Love-Market-Amy-Cassandra-Martinez/dp/B09DFS3FTZ/ref=sr_1_14 -Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/philsvitek -Merchandise: https://shop.spreadshirt.com/phil-svitek---360-creative-coach/ -Instagram: http://instagram.com/philsvitek -Facebook: http://facebook.com/philippsvitek -Twitter: http://twitter.com/philsvitek -Financially Fit Foundation: http://financiallyfitfoundation.org -Master Mental Fortitude Book: http://mastermentalfortitude.com -Elan, Elan Book: http://philsvitek.com/elan-elan -In Search of Sunrise Book: http://philsvitek.com/in-search-of-sunrise -A Bogotá Trip Film: https://philsvitek.com/a-bogota-trip/

Join us as we reflect on one of our favorite annual events, the 2022 Harry Potter Academic Conference at Chestnut Hill College. Katy and Emily talk with attendees and presenters from the 11th annual HPAC: Laurie Beckoff, Lauren Camacci, Louise Freeman, and Lana Whited. The conference was held entirely in person until 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic necessitated moving the conference online. In 2021, the organizers decided to try a hybrid approach, which continued this year. We discuss the benefits and drawbacks of that style, which allows presenters and attendees to join from all over the world and enables active discussion during presentations but can bring technical difficulties and make it difficult to engage with people attending in a different manner. As usual, this year's conference offered a huge variety of subjects, spanning literature, psychology, religion, education, and more. The first part of our chat focuses on some of our favorite talks. Lana, who usually connects intellectually with papers, felt emotionally stimulated by some of the presentations. Plenary speaker Loretta Ross, a recent recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant, spoke on “Calling In, Not Calling Out” as a revolutionary strategy to discuss human rights issues. In the wake of J.K. Rowling's comments about transgender people, fans and scholars have struggled with how to broach this topic. We consider Loretta's suggested approaches and social media as a platform for serious and sensitive discussions. John Anthony Dunne and conference organizer Patrick McCauley both examined death, an ever-present topic in Potter scholarship, while David Martin considered secrets, lies, and deception. Such weighty topics were balanced out by more light-hearted papers. Caitlin Harper, a regular presenter on (and defender of) Quidditch, this year talked about how the sport makes exactly as much sense as it needs to, comparing it to real-world sports that have odd or complicated rules. Laurie shared literary antecedents for Peeves and analyzed his overlooked role as a prankster in the series. Other character studies included Beth Sutton-Ramspeck's examination of Ron's transformation into Reg Cattermole, bringing a minor character to the forefront and analyzing his position in wizarding society and Ron's experience of literally putting himself in someone else's shoes. Mark-Anthony Lewis looked at Snape alongside Victor Frankenstein in their relationship to techne, which encompasses art, science, and ethics. Katy, inspired by our episode on Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, looked at mirrors in the new film and how the various Dumbledores interact with them. Stay tuned for part two, where we discuss current themes in Potter scholarship, the conference's special section on J.K. Rowling and the transgender community, and why we keep coming back to Chestnut Hill year after year.

"Call-out culture" - a term coined within the last few years, but a concept that has existed long before. With a society immersed in technology, there are many positives about the seemingly never-ending conversation, but with the increase in connection, there's also an increase in the ability to speak negatively to and about one another. How do we educate others without tearing them down? In a divided world, changing our approach can help create social change. Loretta J. Ross, an activist, professor, and self-proclaimed "professional feminist" has dedicated years of her life to understanding how and why this culture has evolved. Follow along in her insightful discussion with co-host, Sue Marriott as they explore the intentions behind these actions, the root of the issue, and how to more effectively "call-in" without "calling out" using the "Five C Continuum" process.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

If you're tired of the venom, preening, and predatory listening so common on all sides of our various cultural divides, this episode is for you. My guest today is Loretta Ross, who believes that “calling out,” which is quite common on social media these days, is adding way too much toxicity to the discourse and alienating people who might otherwise be allies. Instead, she believes in “calling in,” which steadfastly insists on a large measure of grace, and rejects the impulse to dehumanize. On today's show, Loretta offers a compelling mode of engagement that is insistently open-minded and large-hearted, no matter where you stand on the political divide. Loretta describes herself as a radical Black feminist, activist, and public intellectual. She's a visiting Associate Professor at Smith College, and she also teaches an online course called, Calling in the Calling Out Culture. Full Shownotes: https://www.tenpercent.com/podcast-episode/loretta-ross-316-rerunSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What is the purpose of calling someone out? Do you think calling out is effective at achieving its goals? If you have ever been called out, how did it make you feel? On today's episode we discuss the theological merits of call-in rather than call-out culture. The primary question that guided our conversation today is: how might we practice calling folx in rather than calling them out?  Loretta Ross coined the term call-in culture and you can read more about her amazing work and watch her Ted talk using the links provided below. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/19/style/loretta-ross-smith-college-cancel-culture.html https://www.ted.com/talks/loretta_j_ross_don_t_call_people_out_call_them_in

This week on Under the Radar with Callie Crossley: Last month, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation named its class of 2022 “Genius” grant fellows — 25 recipients across academia, the arts, and sciences all of whom have demonstrated outstanding talent in their fields. In our series, “The Genius Next Door,” we gathered three of the awardees who work and teach here in Massachusetts. And, the daughter of one of New York's most prominent rabbis has a secret that only her best friend knows. Plus, a successful website designer dreams of her own Jewish food show. Both of them are temporarily stymied by the reappearance of young loves gone wrong. Their stories are the heart of two new romance novels set during Hanukkah, the annual festival of lights. Romance novelists Stacey Agdern and Jean Meltzer are the authors of “Love and Latkes” and “The Matzah Ball” our December selections for “Bookmarked: The Under the Radar Book Club.” Guests:  Danna Freedman is a chemistry professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an associate editor for the Journal of the American Chemical Society.  Melanie Matchett Wood is a mathematics professor at Harvard University studying pure math and number theory. Loretta Ross is a reproductive justice and human rights activist, as well as a professor at Smith College.  Stacey Agdern is the author of four Hannukkah romance novels; her latest is “Love and Latkes.” The former award-winning bookseller has both reviewed and given talks on the romance genre. She also writes a romance/hockey for an anthology series called Connected Stories. And has written for HEA Happily Ever After, USA Today's online romance blog, and Romantic Times magazine.  Jean Meltzer is the author of two romances; The Matzah Ball is her first. She studied dramatic writing at New York University's Tisch. The Emmy award-winning former TV writer spent five years in rabbinical school before she started writing romance novels. “The Matzah Ball” will soon be a movie. 

What becomes possible when we anchor our pedagogical praxes in frameworks of reproductive justice and intersectional feminist care? What coalitions grow? What visions are revealed, and what worlds become more possible?Teacher, organizer, storyteller, and freedom-fighter Loretta Ross shares her wisdom on these questions and so much more. From judicial attacks on reproductive autonomy, to politicized teaching in a democratic classroom, to the history of Black women's organizing, to creative and effective protest tactics, to the "rotating international favorites" served at the West Point Military Academy dinner club.Loretta Ross is a movement visionary recently recognized as a Class of 2022 MacArthur Genius Fellow. After working at the Center for Democratic Renewal in Atlanta, she went on to found and then become the National Coordinator of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective. She has taught very widely, in and out of the university, as Founder of the National Center for Human Rights Education, as Program Director of the National Black Women's Health Project, and now as the Associate Professor in the Program on Women and Gender at Smith College.She is a prolific author, whose authored and co-authored works include Reproductive Justice: An Introduction (2017), Radical Reproductive Justice: Foundation, Theory, Practice, Critique (2017), and Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organizing for Reproductive Justice (2004). Her forthcoming book, Calling In the Calling Out Culture, will be out in 2023.Credits: Outro Music by Akrasis (Max Bowen, raps; Mark McKee, beats); audio editing by Aliyah Harris; production by Lucia Hulsether and Tina Pippin.Support us on Patreon!

Recommend this show by sharing the link: pod.link/2Pages Despite its good intentions, activism can be exhausting. Finding motivation to keep the fight going can be a struggle, but connecting with others is key. A small circle of compassion goes a long way. I am delighted to speak with Loretta Ross, an activism pioneer in the human rights and reproductive justice movements, professor, public intellectual, nationally recognized speaker, and co-author of best-selling books on reproductive justice. Get‌ ‌book‌ ‌links‌ ‌and‌ ‌resources‌ ‌at‌ https://www.mbs.works/2-pages-podcast/  Loretta reads two pages from Jamil Zaki's inspiring book, ‘The War for Kindness.' [reading begins at 11:36] Hear us discuss: “At the heart of all activism is hope; the belief that things can change, and that you can make a difference in bringing about that change.” [7:02] | “The people who are opposed to human rights think they're fighting us, the human rights movement, but they couldn't be more wrong. They're fighting forces way bigger than us because they're fighting truth. They're fighting evidence and history, and most of all, they're fighting time.” [8:40] | Making mistakes and being afraid to mess up: “I've learned over time to not do things that I can't look in the eye the next day.” [18:51]

Todd and Cathy discuss Loretta Ross' 2021 TED Talk titled Don't Call People Out, Call Them In, about how the most effective activism begins with conversation, connection, and curiosity. They discuss how this applies to partnership and parenting, and how reactiveness and righteousness can get in the way of growth and change.

Todd and Cathy discuss Loretta Ross' 2021 TED Talk titled Don't Call People Out, Call Them In, about how the most effective activism begins with conversation, connection, and curiosity. They discuss how this applies to partnership and parenting, and how reactiveness and righteousness can get in the way of growth and change.

Today we focus on two powerhouse activists in the world of reproductive rights and justice: Grace Kodindo and Loretta Ross.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Part 3 of Abortion: The Body Politic focuses on Roe and its unraveling. The last living Roe prosecutor, Linda Coffee, shares her recollections of that historic Supreme Court case and how she found out she had won. We learn of  the immediate failings of Roe, especially for Black women, and the birth of the Reproductive Justice movement. Experts trace the politicization of abortion, the belated moral-issue grab by evangelicals,  the violence that hit abortion doctors and clinics in the 1990s, and the anti-abortion strategy that forever altered American politics. We hear first-person experiences of long-time abortion doctors as well as fresh medical students who share why they felt inspired to join the cause. We also hear from two abortion storytellers about their experiences navigating a convoluted system that can be particularly apathetic to the needs of those seeking later abortions. More information on this episode's guests and resources: Access Reproductive Justice Boulder Abortion Clinic The Bixby Center for Reproductive Health Physicians for Reproductive Health The Doula Project Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast Books and more Roe v. Wade's secret heroine tells her story [Vanity Fair] Abortion and the Law in America: Roe v. Wade to the Present, by Mary Ziegler Dollars for Life: The Anti-Abortion Movement and the Fall of the Republican Establishment, by Mary Zeilger Reproductive Justice, by Loretta Ross and Rickie Solinger Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the Religious Right, by Randall Balmer See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Part 2 of Abortion: The Body Politic, we step into the past, long before Roe, and trace the roots of today's abortion's debate to understand  — if abortions have always happened and the majority of Americans have always believed they should be legally accessible — why is abortion such a conentious, even volatile, issue in this country. In this journey, a new narrative of reproductive resistance comes to the surface. Women, particularly Black, brown and indegenous, have always made choices that are best for their bodies, families, and lives — no matter the obstacles men have placed before them. In these stories of resistance we also hear first-hand accounts of surprising allies in underground abortion access, courage in the face of limiited reproductive choices, and a relentless push for bodily autonomy. The illegal period before Roe is a mirror to our impending, post-Roe future. It's vital that we pay attention. More information on this episode's guests and resources: Guttmacher Institute The Bixby Center for Reproductive Health Grandmothers for Reproductive Rights Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice Boulder Abortion Clinic Books and more: Reproductive Justice, by Loretta Ross and Rickie Solinger When Abortion Was a Crime: Women, Medicine, and Law in the United States, 1867-1973, by Leslie Reagan The Janes, available to stream now on HBO Max Defenders of the Unborn: The Pro-Life Movement Before Roe V. Wade, by Daniel K. Williams See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Professor Loretta Ross talks about "calling people out" in social media for bad behavior or offensive speech, and offers an alternate viewpoint on so-called "cancel culture".