53206 Cast

The economic opportunities for the poor are few and far between. This week, Meg and Alex talk about one of those opportunities and talk about some of the factors that lead up to someone choosing to take advantage of that opportunity. 

This week, Meg and Alex talk about the power that perspective has when trying to understand what we see in the world around us. 

Solving complex problems requires a nuianced understanding of the problem. This week Meg and Alex talk about the psycology of the dumper and give a quick We Got This update. 

Sometimes in life, the opportunity to do good in the world stems from aggrivation around a circumstance. This week, Meg and Alex talk about how to spot opportunities to be the change hidden within circumstances you may not love. 

This week, Meg and Alex discuss differing viewpoints on solving the cities litter problem. 

This week, Meg and Alex give an update on what has been going on in the neighborhood. Specifically, the two talk about house fires and another recent instance of someone losing their home to a house fire. 

In life, things either get better or they get worse, but they rarely stay the same. This week, Meg and Alex talk about some of the new things happening at We Got This for the 2025 growing season. 

Dumping has been in the news a lot lately here in Milwaukee. This week, Meg and Alex talk about what someones option are when their property is dumped on and give some insights on the current response system that exists. 

What does it say about a neighborhood when it's treated like a garbage dump? This week, Meg and Alex discuss this and share on the topic of dumping, which is a common practice in inner city neighborhoods. 

This week, Meg and Alex talk about the mechanics and give a little history lesson around the purchase of their latest property. The two share about housing inequities and the injustice that exists in their neighborhood around housing values as well as what can happen when an out of state landlord buys a property they cannot manage. 

This week Meg and Alex talk about the transferring of problems in the tenant/landlord relationship and fixing broken furnaces. 

For those of us that are socially justice minded, it can be challenging sometimes to take that inclination and turn it into action. This week, Meg and Alex give some tips for going from calling to action. 

The news can be unsettling, unnerving, or even aggrivating. This week, Meg and Alex talk about a different way to think about calls to serving a community, state, or even a nation with the hope of funneling discomfort toward action. 

This week, Meg and Alex share an excerpt from the book Bad Neighborhoods. If you like the 53206 Cast, Bad Neighborhoods is similar in concept, but is more of a deep dive into the issues facing areas of concentrated poverty. The audio version of the book can be found on the Bad Neighborhoods podcast feed or by using this link: https://open.spotify.com/show/2U5tj17PnVr8uV52pDsDjB

This week, Meg and Alex talk about the added responsibility put onto residents in areas of concentrated poverty to keep the standard of living within their community at a baseline level.  Interested in checking out the book Bad Neighborhoods? Bad Neighborhood can be found anywhere you listen to podcasts or by clicking the link here: https://open.spotify.com/show/2U5tj17PnVr8uV52pDsDjB

In this episode of The 53206 Cast , Meg and Alex reflect on the complexities of making a positive impact in the community. They share their thoughts on a recent early morning hit-and-run accident that hit close to home, and how it underscores the nuiances within collective and individual responsibility. They also highlight an event at the We Got This Community Garden, where kids chose gifts for th...

  Memory updated The 53206 Cast: A Conversation with Andre Lee Ellis In this episode of The 53206 Cast , we're excited to welcome Andre Lee Ellis , founder of We Got This and the visionary leader of  The Cage , a transformative initiative making a profound impact in the heart of Milwaukee. Andre shares his powerful journey of mentoring youth, building community, and addressing systemic inequities....

While being motivated by fear can by helpful sometimes, when we make everyday decisions about how we interact with the world, fear is one of the least useful tools we have. This week, Meg and Alex discuss how fear has impacted their neighborhood and offer some alternatives to a fear based approach. 

This week, Meg and Alex sit down with Jamie DeJesus. Jamie is a leader in the community helping facilitate the re-entry process for justice involved individuals through career training. You can find out more around the work Jamie does at www.iesinstitute.org .

Legacies are something we leave whether or not we do so intentionally or not. For a lot of us, we want to leave the world better than we wound it. This week on the podcast, Meg and Alex talk about legacies and give some thoughts on building the legacy you want to leave. 

This week Meg and Alex discuss the philosophy that everything is an opportunity to make the world the way you want it to be. 

Meg is out of town this week and we couldn't get a podcast in before she left so it seemed like a good opportunity to share a chapter of the book Bad Neighborhoods.

This week, Meg and Alex sit down with long time community activist Ajamou Butler. 

For over 10 years we have been trick or treating in the same neighborhood outside of ours. Each year, we leave the inner city along with 300 or so of our neighbors and drive roughly 3 miles to an affluent neighborhood just outside of the city. This week we discuss the changing climate of the city as it pertains to inclusiveness and the changes we have seen over the last decade.