Hope & Hard Pills

Cole Arthur Riley is the creator of Black Liturgies, a space for Black spiritual words of liberation, lament, rage, and rest; and a project of The Center for Dignity and Contemplation where she serves as Executive Curator. Born and for the most part raised in Pittsburgh, Cole studied Writing at the University of Pittsburgh. She once took a professor’s advice very seriously to begin writing a littl...

Amanda Litman is the co-founder and executive director of Run for Something, a PAC that helps recruit and support young, diverse progressives running for down-ballot office. Previously, she was the email director for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, digital director for Charlie Crist’s 2014 Florida gubernatorial campaign, deputy email director for Organizing for Action, and an email w...

Candice Marie Benbow is a theologian, essayist, columnist, baker, and educator whose work gives voice to Black women’s shared experiences of faith, healing, and wholeness. The author of Red Lip Theology, she was named by Sojourners as one of “10 Christian Women Shaping the Church in 2020” and has written for Essence, Glamour, The Root, VICE, Shondaland, Madame Noire, and the Me Too Movement.  Cand...

Jemar Tisby is the author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the Church's Complicity in Racism. His latest book is How to Fight Racism. Jemar has been a co-host of the "Pass the Mic" podcast since its inception seven years ago. His writing has been featured in the Washington Post, The Atlantic, and the New York Times among others. He is a frequent comm...

Tarika is a queer, neurodivergent environmental policy professional who specializes in helping communities fight against large-scale fossil fuel terminals. Over the past decade, she helped kill dozens of proposed fossil fuel projects in the Pacific Northwest. She was a protester at the police precinct occupation in Seattle in 2020, and is a vocal critic of both police violence and the commodificat...

Lettie Elizabeth is a historian, educator, and advocate living in Wilmington, NC. She is also the host and owner of her podcast History Shows Us. Lettie’s passion for telling history’s truths and connecting the past to today’s racial and social justice issues is evident in the work she does.  She received her MA in History in 2015, focusing primarily on American history and specializing in African...

Host of the Words to Win By podcast and Principal of ASO Communications , Anat Shenker-Osorio examines why certain messages falter where others deliver. She has led research for new messaging on issues ranging from freedom to join together in union to clean energy and from immigrant rights to reforming criminal justice. Anat's original approach through priming experiments, task-based testing and o...

Erica Woodland is a black queer/genderqueer facilitator, consultant and healing justice practitioner born and raised in Baltimore, MD. He is also a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than 18 years experience working at the intersections of movements for racial, gender, economic, trans and queer justice and liberation. He has extensive experience working with youth, people of color, LGBTQ pe...

Danté Stewart is a speaker and a writer whose work in the areas of race, religion, and politics has been featured on CNN and in The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Sojourners, The Witness: A Black Christian Collective, Comment, and elsewhere. He is the author of the recently released SHOUTIN' IN THE FIRE (Convergent, 10/5/21). He received his BA in sociology from Clemson University and is cur...

Jill Louise Busby (more affectionately known as jillisblack) is a writer and filmmaker critiquing, imploding, and barrel-laughing at our personal and communal hierarchies; the myth of white fragility (and other words for racism); the endlessly-pending and highly-exclusive revolution, identity, and reaction-based illusions of societal progress; and the boundaries that all place on our lives.  Belie...

Blythe Hill is the CEO and Founder of the Dressember Foundation, an anti-trafficking nonprofit organization. Through their annual campaign, thousands of people across the world commit to wearing dresses or ties for the month of December as a way to raise awareness and funding for anti-trafficking work. Since 2013, Dressember advocates have raised $13MM USD and resourced dozens of anti-trafficking...

Multidisciplinary artist TRISHES challenges the confines of art and constructs of self by using live looping, visual art and spoken word to delve into our psyches. Her undeniably original songwriting, fleshed out by hip-hop beats and pop hooks, examines human struggle through an anthropological lens to prompt listeners on a journey of self-inquiry.  As a musician, the Trinidadian-American has been...

Alex S. Vitale is Professor of Sociology and Coordinator of the Policing and Social Justice Project at Brooklyn College and a Visiting Professor at London Southbank University. He has spent the last 30 years writing about policing and consults both police departments and human rights organizations internationally.  In This Episode: Alex's website The Policing & Social Justice Project The End of Po...

Sonali Fiske is a Sri Lankan-American, woman-identified leadership mentor to BIWoC revolutionaries, an executive producer, curator, and talk show host. Her private and group courses teach those who are revved up about taking a bigger platform, speak truth to power, and share their personal narratives to help disrupt the disparities in race, power and wealth and thereby reimagine the current cultur...

Nandi, Andre, and Mitchell talk about the insurrection at the capital, what resisting  oppression looks like. Download the Make Oppression Backfire PDF. Sign up for Andre's Hope & Hard Pills Newsletter at his  website . Catch up with Andre on  Twitter ,  Instagram , &  Facebook . Nandi can found online on their Twitter and Instagram . Find Mitchell over on Twitter .

Thank you for being part of something incredible as we explore practical insight on racial justice and social change. Sign up for Andre's Hope & Hard Pills Newsletter at his  website . Catch up with Andre on  Twitter ,  Instagram , &  Facebook . Alicia is online at her  website  and on  Twitter ,  Instagram , and  Facebook . Nandi can found online on their Twitter and Instagram . Ross will be arou...

Aric McBay is an organizer, a farmer, and author of four books. He writes and speaks about effective social movements, and has organized campaigns around prisoner justice, Indigenous solidarity, pipelines, unionization, and other causes. His newest book, Full Spectrum Resistance, is a two-volume exploration of how to build effective movements and knit together struggles using diverse tactics. More...

Note : This interview with Latasha was recorded in the fall of 2019. Latasha Morrison is a bridge-builder, reconciler, and a compelling voice in the fight for racial justice. In 2016, she founded Be the Bridge, a non-profit organization equipping more than 1,600 sub-groups across five countries to serve as ambassadors of racial reconciliation. Numerous organizations have recognized her as a leadin...

The elections process has a lot working for it. When those in power seek to undermine it they can do so with precision or by it blowing up. Nandi walks through what that process looks like since we are still in the middle of it.

Note : This episode with Tori was recorded at the end of 2019. She is in full swing with her White Homework project mentioned in this episode. Tori is a writer, speaker, and educator. She is the host and creator of White Homework , a course on race, racism, and restorative justice. She is also active on Twitter and Instagram . Share your own Hope Notes and Hard Pills with us on social media using...

Hardy and Marium discuss starting the Hold The Line Guide and what it means to "hold the line" in our spaces of influence. You can follow what Hold The Line is up to on the website , Instagram ,   Twitter . 

With the election nearing every day, how do we prepare ourselves whatever the outcome? Andre Henry fills you in on what this limited series is about and what you can expect.

NOTE : The interview with Lauren took place in November, 2019. We feel this conversation is still important today. Lauren Duca is an award-winning and -losing journalist focused on building equitable public power by empowering young people — and especially young womxn — to insist on their right and duty to the political conversation. Since being catapulted to the public eye shortly after the 2016...

Bree Newsome is a writer, artist, and activist who drew national attention in 2015 when she climbed the flagpole in front of the South Carolina Capitol building and removed a confederate battle flag that was originally raised in 1961 as a racist statement of opposition to the Civil Rights Movement and lunch counter sit-ins occurring at the time. The massacre of nine black parishioners by a white s...

No White Saviors is an advocacy campaign lead by a majority female, majority African team of professionals based in Kampala, Uganda. Our collective experience in the development & aid sectors has lead us to a deep commitment to seeing things change in a more equitable & anti-racist direction. You can follow them on  Instagram , check out their  podcast , or learn more on their  website . Season Fi...