Freedom Means...

In this episode we explore the idea that white means a color and a (made up) group of people. We role play a reflection after a child is called white and she responds that she doesn't look the color white. Our conversation begins by sharing a historical context for the creation of race--land owning Europeans making a group to be legally empowered to exploit and harm other groups. We then move...

In this episode we work through a simple and profound question about the police. We attempt to offer historical context about the history of policing, as well as use metaphors to try to explain some of the essence of the job. We consider together if police play too many roles in our community and then end by considering if there is actually any safe role at all for police. Grace and Emma reflect o...

This episode explores skin color. We role play responding to a child who asks about the skin color of someone in the grocery store. We talk about melanin, ancestry, and the sun. Grace and Emma reflect on how to prioritize relationships when having conversations publicly, the need to spread out conversations over longer periods than is modeled in the episode, and how to use questions as a way to gu...

In this very first episode of Season 1, on Indigenous People's Day, we role play three short imaginary conversations with a child. We explore why Columbus day has been renamed Indigenous People's day, we re-frame the untrue story that he "discovered" anything, and we discuss what he did to the indigenous peoples when he arrived. We talk about the history of the organizing to ma...

Season One of Freedom Means is about to begin! This season we, Grace Aldrich and Emma Redden, explore the question, “How do you find the words for complicated conversations about race with children?" We try to answer this question by practicing and experimenting with the language together. This first episode shares with listeners the foundational beliefs behind our work: children are complex...