Good Things from Lemonada

As the federal government has been making unprecedented funding cuts, many communities are facing more uncertainty and less support. In response, the Marguerite Casey Foundation is making a bold move: they’re distributing $130 million this year to organizations working for racial and economic justice. In this episode, Carmen Rojas, the foundation’s president and CEO, gets into the reasons behind t...

Gun violence in America is at a crisis point. It’s now the number one killer of kids and teens – a stat that should make us all pause. But instead of throwing up their hands, healthcare leaders, gun violence survivors, physicians, community members and faith leaders are doing something about it. In this episode, we’re diving into Northwell Health’s groundbreaking Gun Violence Prevention Forum, whe...

The rent is too damn high, housing quality standards are far too low, and Tara Raghuveer is doing something about it. Tara is director of Kansas City Tenants, a tenant union which organizes to ensure that everyone in KC has a safe, accessible, and truly affordable home. In this powerful conversation with host Gloria Riviera, Tara explains how the union of more than 10,000 members is fighting again...

Is it time to rethink how we do school? In 2022, over 2 million students between the ages of 16 and 24 left school without earning a high school diploma or GED. But what if we could change that by taking an innovative approach to education? In part three of our three-part series about helping young people thrive economically within safe communities, Allison Gerber (The Annie E. Casey Foundation) a...

Does the key to preventing gun violence lie within our own communities? In this episode, guests DeVone Boggan (Executive Director, Advance Peace) and Timmeka Perkins (Senior Associate, The Annie E. Casey Foundation) share the data about the power of credible messengers to transform neighborhood safety. In part two of our three-part series about helping young people thrive economically within safe...

What happens when an award-winning actress, producer, director, author, and activist uses her platform to shine a light on the criminal justice system? Kerry Washington's recent projects, UnPrisoned and Daughters, tell stories of incarceration, family separation, unification, and love that we rarely get to see. In our conversation, she explains how portraying a daughter navigating her father's ret...

In Baltimore, young people are finding ways to create their own economic opportunities through entrepreneurship. Dr. Ron Williams (Coppin State University) and Sara Cooper (The Annie E. Casey Foundation) join us to dig into research about youth entrepreneurship in Baltimore and show how community collaborations  like the Baltimore-based Excellence in Entrepreneurial Learning (EXCEL) Research Proje...

What does it mean to be smart on crime? Jeanne Woodford, former warden at San Quentin State prison, has been a longtime advocate for rehabilitation. In our conversation, she offers a new vision of what prisons could look like, from removing prison cells to providing opportunities for incarcerated people to garden, take college courses, and even play chess with correctional officers.  Follow When i...

In Illinois, like in other places affected by the War on Drugs, many people are feeling the impacts of incarceration and its negative, prohibitive effects on their futures. In this episode, Richard Wallace, founder of the organization Equity and Transformation (EAT), shares how guaranteed income has proven to be a transformative tool for this kind of systemic disruption. EAT is built on a reparati...

What happens when we give someone a second chance? For Glenn Dahl, it led to Dave's Killer Bread, a family business success story that not only revolutionized bread, but also changed how companies think about second chance hiring. Glenn, the former CEO, opens up about taking a chance on his brother Dave after his release from prison, and continuing to take a groundbreaking approach to hiring peopl...

The juvenile court system in Pierce County, Washington recognizes that most youth who get in trouble with the law can get back on track without incarceration. And they're more likely to thrive in their own communities than in detention. Kevin Williams, Manager of Probation Services for Pierce County Juvenile Court, and Steve Bishop, Associate Director for Probation and System Transformation at the...

What happens when the criminal justice system invests in education instead of punishment? Larry Miller is the Chairman of the Jordan Brand Advisory Board and played a pivotal role in the brand’s growth. Yet behind his success was a secret – at age 16, he was convicted of second degree murder, which he shares in his book, “Jump: My Secret Journey from the Streets to the Boardroom.” For Larry, it wa...

Steve Bishop used to be a youth probation officer. He wanted to help young people navigate out of a juvenile justice system he knew was flawed. Now, as the Associate Director for Probation and System Transformation at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Steve works to transform youth probation systems around the country – from one that punishes making mistakes in ways that leave young people worse off...

How can art transform a life? For Clarence Maclin, the answer unfolded during his incarceration at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. Through a program called Rehabilitation Through the Arts, he used theater as a way to process trauma onstage and off. Now starring in the A24 film "Sing Sing", Clarence tells us what it was like acting out his own story on the big screen. Plus, how a more compassionat...

A lot of us did some questionable things as teenagers, like drinking alcohol, doing drugs, and shoplifting. We’re likely not proud of these moments, but they happened, and we moved on. For some of us though, this normal adolescent boundary-testing can lead to involvement in the juvenile justice system, which is ripe with racial disparities and poor results. Nate Balis, Director of the Juvenile Jus...

What’s it like to spend years in a state penitentiary and then make it big in Hollywood? What makes a death row warden become a leading voice in prison reform? How does a conservative Christian in the deep South decide we can’t incarcerate our way out of a drug crisis? For all of these people, they had a moment when their thinking about justice and safety changed. In this series, host Ana Zamora –...

In the final episode of our CAPS series about community violence intervention work we talk about how improving the criminal justice system is a huge piece of the puzzle. Travon checks in on Indianapolis, Indiana and sees how people there are pushing for less incarceration and breaking cycles of recidivism. Executive Director at the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform David Muhammad and...

In the third episode of our series about The Coalition to Advance Public Safety (CAPS) and its partner organizations making a difference in communities across the U.S., we take a closer look at Baton Rouge. Antohony Smith is the Executive Director of Cities United which works closely with the local community street team to reduce crime and boost violence prevention efforts. He tells Travon why thi...

In the next episode of our series about The Coalition to Advance Public Safety (CAPS) and its partner organizations spearheading community violence intervention efforts throughout the U.S., we hear from changemakers in Newark, New Jersey. Travon chats with co-founder of the Community-Based Public Safety Collective, Aqeela Sherrills, and CEO of New Direction, Shadee Dukes. We learn how they are lev...

In this special 4 part series, we’ll be highlighting The Coalition to Advance Public Safety (CAPS), a coalition of organizations working to intercept and prevent violence in communities across the U.S. The coalition’s work builds on years of knowledge of public health, gun violence prevention and the particular needs of different locales, as well as the lived experience of community members on the...

In episode three of Making of an Activist we discover that after stints in Baltimore and Harlem Children’s Zone, DeRay Mckesson heads to Minneapolis to lead the human capital department for Minneapolis Public Schools. In the safety and security of a career-defining role, DeRay watches the immediate aftermath of Mike Brown’s brutal murder at the hands of a police officer in Ferguson and simply cann...

Aldine Independent School District in Texas began the journey of drastically changing how reading is taught in 2020 – not knowing that a global pandemic was on the horizon. When COVID hit, the district didn’t abandon the plan; they persevered. In part three of our series on literacy, host Gloria Riviera talks with Aldine Superintendent LaTonya Goffney and Executive Director of Literacy and Social...

What does the upcoming Trump presidency mean for the care economy and the over 105 million family caregivers in our country? In this post-election bonus episode, caregiving expert and policy advocate Ai-jen Poo returns to tell us what challenges lay ahead for families and care workers, and how we can keep fighting for a better system that allows us to truly show up for care.  This season of Uncare...

In episode two of Making of an Activist we dive into DeRay Mckesson’s college years where he was the first and only class and student body president at Bowdoin, DeRay was the centre of civic life on campus. We explore the formative experiences on and off campus, what drew him to the classroom, and revisit what key people in his life at that time remember about DeRay the student, leader, and teache...

At age 14, Luz Hernandez left her home country of Honduras to cross borders into the U.S. She was fleeing poverty, sexual abuse, and medical malpractice. The journey was harrowing and so was making a new start in the U.S. Eventually, Luz became a social worker and now offers youth and families the support she had needed when she arrived. In the second episode of our two-part series created with Vo...