Care Work with Alida Miranda-Wolff

How do you recognize when staying true to your values means stepping back? Over the past two years, the Care Work podcast has explored the challenges, necessity, and beauty of caregiving. Often, the conversation turns to the need for caregivers to take care of themselves in this difficult work—something that can be hard to prioritize for individuals so tuned to caring for others.  With these lesso...

How can creators innovate to instill more humanness into their designs? Despite being at the root of almost everything we interact with day-to-day, designers can forget to consider the humans for whom they design.  In this episode, executive design leader, illustrator, podcaster, and educator Antonio Garcia shares his thoughts on the essentialness of human-centered design and innovations that cons...

How connected are you to the food you purchase and consume? Over the past century, society’s focus on the food it consumes has shifted from origins and process to the latest price increase. Many communities also face uncertainty about the availability and quality of fresh foods in their nearest store.   In this episode, Alida Miranda-Wolff speaks with Lisa Tallman , the Executive Director of Commu...

How does a culture of care transform the workplace experience? The call for safe, caring workplaces is becoming increasingly loud, which means building these environments is an essential consideration for founders. In this episode, Alida Miranda-Wolff speaks with Michel Fabode, the author of Cultura: A Guidebook for Founders Building Diverse Teams . Michel’s work focuses on helping founders naviga...

As a manager, how do you balance offering care and corporate responsibility? Many managers may not apply the label of caregiver to their work, but Claire Podulka, the Chief of Staff for TXI, a Chicago-based digital consultancy firm, points out that it is the manager “who can operate at the nexus of care and strategy and efficacy” who really brings out the best in their team—and therefore their com...

In 2022, Care Work host Alida Miranda-Wolff celebrated the publication of her first book: “Cultures of Belonging: Building Inclusive Organizations That Last.” In May of 2024, her second book was released: “The First-Time Manager: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.” Over the next episodes, Alida will explore two intriguing topics: what it takes to be a truly inclusive manager and leader; and how to...

For many of us, working to care for others doesn’t stop when we head home from work at the end of the day. The other relationships in our lives, including the intimate one we share with our partner, also require care—of both ourselves and the other person. In this episode, Alida Miranda-Wolff sits down with Dr. Alexandra Solomon, a therapist, author, and speaker who, over the past two decades, has...

How do you define and process grief? Over the next three episodes, Care Work is exploring grief—the collection of emotions and experiences we have with any loss. Essential within this work is inspecting how we process and continue to live within this universal experience.  In this episode, Alida is joined by Dr. Sunitha Chandy, a clinical psychologist specializing in helping transform both individ...

How do we dismantle the disability stigma? This latest arc on the Care Work podcast explores the concept of disability justice from the perspectives of three people—Tim Villegas, María Emilia Lasso de la Vega, and Lauren Schrero Levy—who are working to change our social approach to accessibility and inclusivity. In this episode, Alida Miranda-Wolff reflects on the ways stigma and a repurposed defi...

From elementary school classrooms to adult care homes, so many of our care structures for disabled people are designed without their participation, often in direct opposition to their stated desires. But why?  When we pose the question of why people with disabilities are so often excluded from general society, the best answer is often “that’s just how it’s always been.” However, research and the l...

How can we design inclusive spaces—physically and virtually—that support neurodiversity? The Disability Justice movement is increasing the recognition and adoption of inclusive spaces and accessible interaction for people who are neurodivergent and on the autism spectrum. It continues, however, to rely largely on individuals to disclose their diagnoses in spaces where they may initially be uncerta...

How can we show everyone the benefits of inclusive educational spaces? Tim Villegas is the Director of Communications at the Maryland Coalition for Inclusive Education. His work centers around helping school systems build support for more inclusive classroom environments, and he sees firsthand the value of spaces where children with different learning styles learn together . These classrooms benef...

In the most recent episode arc, the Care Work podcast explores educational equity with guests who are experts in impactful social education for teens, supportive higher education spaces, and inclusive literacy. In this reflective episode, Alida Miranda-Wolff investigates the parallel themes that emerged throughout these episodes to reveal a multi-faceted definition of educational equity and how it...

When you think of literacy, what comes to mind? Is it reading, writing, or something else?  Our definition of literacy is often oversimplified, much like the limits often placed on the question of who is and who is not “literate”. In this episode, Alida discusses literacy equity with Ken Bigger, the Director of Thought Leadership at the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy.  A vital figure...

How can educators create unifying classroom spaces where resistance skills can be safely practiced and cultivated? This is the “freedom dreaming” Johnnie Campbell and Alida Miranda-Wolff do together in this episode of Care Work . As a resistance scholar, educator, and PhD candidate, Johnnie Campbell is putting in the work to build danger-free, liberatory spaces and explore the way Black young adul...

What supports would have helped ease your transition to adulthood? Growing up is hard, and young people are repeatedly faced with circumstances they are expected to understand despite their lack of life experience. Then, in these tedious and confusing scenarios, the choices they make follow them throughout their early academic years. Debra Giunta is the founder of Prismatic, a youth career develop...

How do we even start to tackle the challenges of caring for underserved youth? When you consider the sheer number of young people who are entangled in poor home environments, gang initiations, judiciary systems, and more, it’s easy to feel like the situation is verging on hopeless.  In this episode, Alida Miranda-Wolff asks listeners to remember the benefits of smaller steps. You might not be able...

How do we care for people trapped in a broken system and still take care of ourselves? This is the question Alida poses to Jennifer Soble, a former public defender, lawyer, and the founder of the Illinois Prison Project. Jennifer’s organization is striving to update the outdated and oppressive laws that govern the U.S. prison system, helping prisoners serving long-term sentences who deserve freedo...

Why are we so good at finding problems, but so poor at solving them? This is the question Alida Miranda-Wolff puts to Chicago Deputy Mayor of Community Safety Garien Gatewood and the conversation that spans juvenile justice reform and implementation disconnects to real-life examples from the world of cannabis legalization.  You’ll be inspired by Garien’s insights, gleaned from years of working on...

How does loneliness affect your ability to care for others? Loneliness and burnout are endemic in American society these days, and their impact on care workers and, by extension, the people they care for, is significant.  In this episode, Alida Miranda-Wolff questions the widespread belief that creators, specifically, are unable to form meaningful relationships. She expands this concept to explore...

How would the professional world change if it were truly equitable? And what would this mean for women-identifying people, specifically? In this episode, Alida talks with Minal Bopaiah, the founder of a groundbreaking DEI-focused design and strategy firm and the author of Equity: How to Design Organizations Where Everyone Thrives. They explore the idea of a future where the system prioritizes the...

When gathering a community together, how do you make sure every experience is celebrated and every voice is heard? On this episode of the Care Work podcast, join your host Alida Miranda-Wolff as she talks with Kim Hunt, an activist and community initiative facilitator, about ensuring every citizen is heard and valued in the effort to enact social change. Together they explore the winding road that...

What’s the last digital product you wish you hadn’t bought? From paid newsletter subscriptions to full-fledged how-to guides on making your first million, too few online offerings these days are created with enough care to be helpful to those who consume them. In this episode of Care Work , Tara McMullin—host of the What Works podcast, author of the book of the same name, speaker, and business str...

Caring for patients, clients, or family members keeps care workers incredibly busy—but where does that time go? Our society and economy are so focused on win-lose scenarios, it’s easy to forget that when we give freely of our time and care, we don’t come out at a loss. Instead, we—not to mention our community—get so much more in return. In the second minisode of the Care Work Podcast , host Alida...

How do you strike a balance between committing to your work and honoring your own personhood? The simple answer is by setting boundaries. What’s more complicated, though, is that these boundaries are hugely individual and can be difficult to set and to maintain, especially for people in care work. In this interview, Karyn Oates, the consulting director for Ethos and a former nonprofit leader, shar...