Humanize: Stories from the Heart about Social Justice

How does perfectionism undermine our activism? This conversation today is so important. We're with Dr. Melissa Bird, discussing how our fears of messing up and being judged impedes our activism, and how our shame and guilt are leading us to action instead of our intuition.    Dr. Melissa Bird has spent her major professional life creating events, workshops, and retreats that bring people together...

Anti-oppression work requires great introspection and learning of self and habits. According to Brenda Herrera Moreno, the role that we have to play in combating oppression is equivalent to the life journey of getting to know ourselves better.  In our conversation today, Brenda explains how white supremacy invisibilizes and intentionally creates distance from the systems it exploits and extracts....

The world is an intense place. We are bombarded with news of tragedies and injustices and many of us wonder, "what can I do?", before we are swept back into our busy lives. Sirad Zahra joins us today to talk about the injustices that land on our own doorstep, and what we choose to do with them. Sirad Zahra, a founding member of MAAPB Mass Action Against Police Brutality. Sirad describes herself as...

How do you tell your own story? Often when we think about our lives we focus on our shortcomings and struggle to see how all the parts of our story are weaved together. Adriana Ortiz believes that understanding our own story is critical to living a successful life, and she is dedicated to helping others do this.  Adri has been passionate about storytelling since she was a kid, finding that the lit...

Each of us have different strategies when it comes to shifting people's perspectives. For last week's guest, Awa Diaw, it can be choosing to end the conversation when it no longer feels productive. For Humanize co-host, Courthney Russell Jr, it's diving even deeper into the heat. Join us as we deconstruct last week's episode with Awa about creating influence. We're diving deeper into how we do thi...

We've got a fun role swap for you today: in this episode, we're bringing you an interview where we had the opportunity to be the guests! We were interviewed by the amazing Sage Hobbs and Erica Howard for their podcast Race, Culture, and Beyond: A Naked Conversation Series to explore friendship across race (which they share with us!)   Sage and Erica share our passion for doing antiracism work thro...

We know very well what change still needs to happen around race in the US, but what about abroad? Today we're bringing you a fascinating and unique perspective on this from Awa Diaw who is not only the Global Diversity and Inclusion Project Manager for Microsoft, but a Black woman born in Senegal, raised in the US, and now living in France.   Join us for this powerful episode as we break down Awa'...

What's code switching? If you've ever found yourself changing who you are as a person in a given situation in order to gain acceptance, you've code switched. That need to shift how you show up in the world in order to adhere to a standard set by others is unfortunately a reality we live with and something our last guest, Imran Rehman, so poignantly brought up in episode 8.   In today's episode we'...

Sometimes you read or hear about a situation that breaks your heart and you think, "How can those people DO that?! How do they live with themselves? I could never do that!" But could you?   As humans, we're exploring this idea that we all have the capacity to disconnect from other people so much that we treat them inhumanely. So in this episode, we're exploring why and how humans do this and how w...

How do we create dialogue when there are such huge power differences in the room? How do we make sure we have different voices at the table and still work together?  Today we sit down with Imran Rehman, CEO of Kokoro, a web based company striving to effect change by building better environments for teams to thrive in.  Imran reaches to his childhood in London's East End and his upbringing of many...

We know the important place The 1619 Project takes in DEI work. Nikole Hannah-Jones' speech at a prominent elite school was canceled, but her message is definitely not. Join us as we break down our previous episode with Nikole and talk about the importance of using our platforms to enact change. We are digging deep into how we can use our past to change our future, what hope really means, and what...

How do we distinguish between sadness and remorse and individual guilt? How do we teach the youth that you can feel shame for something your country did, without feeling responsible? We have all heard about the controversy surrounding Nikole Hannah-Jones and The 1619 Project. Now you can hear directly from Nikole herself. As an award winning investigative reporter for the New York Times and a Puli...

TW: Abortion   What is freedom? It's the 4th of July, and while we are grateful for our veterans who fought for our country's freedoms, we are finding it hard to celebrate when not all of us are truly free. On Friday, June 24, the Supreme court overturned Roe vs Wade and our hearts are HEAVY. Historically those with means have always been able to get safe abortions and always will, so while t his...

90% of the profits from Idelette's book, Recovering Racists, is going to different communities of color that have been oppressed and discriminated against. And she's doing a beautiful job of just asking where this money should go. This question got us on the topic of reparation and how it's synonymous with money in most people's minds. Join us as we break down our previous episode with Idelette, d...

After being set up to live with privilege in South Africa, unsure of the world she was grown up in, our guest and author of the book Recovering Racists, Idelette McVicker, speaks to us about feeling like her soul was forgotten once she discovered the truth. She shares what it was like to live in the Apartheid, how it was created to separate people based on the color of their skin, the journey from...

So many times since we started this podcast, we have been here discussing mass shootings and how we can really effect change.  Here we are again.  Today in the wake of the Buffalo grocery store shooting, we sit down and talk about the ongoing gun violence in the US and how centering hate is at the heart. This isn't about politics or political parties, but the situations at hand.  Let's dig in.   W...

It seems like we just started Humanize, but somehow we are already back for Season 4! We have lots in store for you, including an update on what we have each been up to and a preview of what we have planned for this season. We're looking into an international focus on DEI, and have some great guests and conversations to tune in to!   We're exploring:   The 1619 Project - we are digging into this b...

It's a wrap on Season 3! Join us today as we look back and unpack what this season has brought: the work we've done, the discomfort and pain we've faced, and the guests we've all learned from. Listen in as we detail some of the BIGGEST learning points that have settled in for each of us. We'll also utilize some prompts to reflect on how our Humanize workplace is measuring up on dismantling the cha...

Have you ever been on the receiving end of a supposedly well-intended — but actually incredibly offensive — comment, question, or microagression? Well today's guest, Nadia Ali, knows this feeling all too well. Nadia is the CEO and founder of Idea Labs in Action, a mission driven consulting firm designed to advance equity, diversity, and inclusion in the workplace and across communities. In today's...

The intersection between toxic masculinity and white supremacy is one that deserves another look, don't you think? On today's episode we dive back into the ideas discussed last week with artist, poet, and educator, Kyle 'Guante' Tran Myhre. Join us as we further explore the violence of normality, the ways that white supremacy doesn't exclusively benefit whites, and why it's still a toxic system th...

Poetry and art can move us in a way that lectures or courses cannot, am I right? THIS is why today's guest loves this medium and uses it so powerfully in his social activism work, particularly around white supremacy and toxic masculinity. In this episode, we're joined by poet, educator, and activist, Kyle 'Guante' Tran Myhre, to break down the relationship between power and resistance, the MOST im...

Originally Released June 28, 2021 If you know better, you can do better. Join us in today's episode, where we're joined by writer, journalist, and antiracism coach, Courtney Napier, to explore the role our ancestors play in our lives as well as the illusions and fuckery of white supremacy that affects us all.   We're digging into: The "crack in the veneer" moment that changed everything for Courtn...

  Originally Released JAN 11, 2021 This episode is a fan favorite. So much happened last week in this country that we just had to create a bonus episode to share our conversation around it. For the first time in history, Georgia is blue with its first Black man as senator! And on the same day, hypocrisy and entitlement were on parade at the Capital as a mass of vastly white Trump supporters rioted...

When you hear a lot of conversations around racism and white supremacy, it can be easy to assume that it's just a Black and white thing. But we don't believe that's true, and in today's episode we're debriefing last week's conversation with Dr. Reiland Rabaka where we discussed this as well as radical inclusivity and critical race theory. Join us as we take a deeper dive into the importance of cul...

What exactly IS radical inclusivity and what does it have to do with Critical Race Theory? On today's episode we're excited to be joined by Dr. Reiland Rabaka to dive into this with us and explain how radical inclusivity goes beyond race. Dr. Rabaka is a professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and the founder of the groundbreaking Center for African and African American Studies (The CAAA...