Into the Mix

Antonio and other business owners in Florida sued the state after the Stop WOKE Act was signed, and won. What does that mean for the future of the act, and for business owners in the state? In our final episode of the season, we’re taking a deep dive into the fraught conversation of D.E.I., the “war on woke,” and what it really takes to dismantle white supremacy. 

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is on a mission to curb conversations about race, diversity, and inequity of all shades. He’s banned books, trainings, and classes. He’s introduced laws and attacked businesses of all sizes.  But why? What is the motivation behind the so-called “War on Woke” and where do we go from here?

According to Antonio McBroom, a day without dessert is a disaster. So it makes sense that he’s now an ice cream entrepreneur, slinging scoops of Ben & Jerry’s up and down the Florida coast.  At the core of Antonio’s business model is leadership training and mentorship for all of his scoop shop managers. So when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis introduced the Stop WOKE act in 2021, he had two options:...

We'll be back in November with our final mini-series of this season which delves into Florida's War on Woke and the ongoing fight to protect diversity, equity and inclusion programs. In the meantime, listen to some of our past episodes of Into the Mix. To learn more about how to support communities in Florida impacted by hurricane Milton, visit HERE.

Ms. Livvy’s heroic efforts to protect voting rights have come at a cost. Her health has suffered, and she’s tired. But she knows there’s more work to do, especially with the November election on the very near horizon. In our final episode from Georgia, we’re diving into why your vote matters, why it’s a fundamental right, and the key ingredient to sustaining the fight for voting rights: joy. Learn...

Ms. Livvy has watched as Georgia has become ground zero for voter suppression efforts. Laws that wipe people from the polls are popping up left and right, all claiming to curb so-called voter fraud… even though studies have shown over and over again that rates of voter fraud are between 0.0003 percent and 0.0025 percent. Here’s what is a real issue: voter suppression. And as we get ready to cast o...

Voters in Coffee County, Georgia have another name for this place: Crooked Coffee, where elections officials have waged war on voters of color for decades.  So residents weren't shocked when their tiny community made national headlines following the January 6th attack on the Capitol, after members of the GOP there allegedly allowed Trump associates to copy software and other sensitive digital elec...

Ms. Sharon never thought she’d be the one to take down the industry harming her community. But as her fight gains momentum, she’s scoring wins that are making big impact.  And Jo Banner never thought she’d own a plantation. But it’s a powerful way to protect the past, while defending her neighbors from the petrochemical industry. In the final episode of our series from the River Parishes, what hap...

The violent history of Cancer Alley began long before the petrochemical industry arrived in the 1960s. Prior to being dominated by plastics plants, this land was home to plantations.  To understand how this stretch of the Louisiana River Parishes became a “sacrifice zone” – a place where plastic is more important than people – we’re taking a look back at the violent legacy of this land. Here’s how...

The beautiful stretch of Louisiana where Ms. Sharon Lavigne lives goes by many names: the River Parishes, The Great River Road, The Mississippi River Industrial Corridor, and, worst of all... Cancer Alley.  This 85 mile stretch of riverbank houses over 150 petrochemical plants. The majority of these plants neighbor predominantly Black communities, many of which are historical free towns created by...

How do you close a jail that’s as old as your city? Step one: gather your people. In the final episode of this series from St. Louis, we’re talking to the politicians, disruptors, and rabble-rousers who joined Inez’s fight to close the Workhouse. Here’s how they did it, and how you can do it, too. Want to close the jail or pre-trial detention center in your town? Learn more HERE. And check out the...

More than half a million Americans are sitting in jail awaiting trial. And 60% of them are there because they can’t afford not to be. That’s why the Workhouse jail in St. Louis stayed so full for so long. Some people jailed there were pulled over for speeding, others learned they had outstanding warrants for probation violations. All of them owed something to the courts.  In the second episode of...

Inez Bordeaux needs you to know three things: she’s a mom of four, a Scorpio, and she always gets her lick back. So when a court error sent her life into a seven year tailspin, she came out swinging on the other side, and set her sights on justice. How? By closing the jail that symbolized the system that nearly buried her: The Workhouse. In this three-part series, we’re taking you to St. Louis to...

Into the Mix is all about joy and justice in action, and this season, Ben & Jerry’s is bringing you four multi-part stories that take you beyond the news headlines, and introduce you to the real people at the heart of some of today’s greatest fights for justice. Host Ashley C. Ford is taking you to meet activists who fought to shut down a notorious jail in St. Louis, a community rising up against...

Johnny Perez worked hard throughout his 13 year prison sentence. He sewed sheets and facilitated classes, met demanding quotas and helped other men prepare for life on the outside. The highest wage he was ever paid was 34 cents an hour. Meanwhile, prison labor generated $14 billion last year.  So why do so many people like Johnny leave prison empty handed? In this Season Two finale, we’re going ba...

When Flo was arrested in 2016, he did not expect to be wrapped into the predatory bail industry. $7,500: that was the amount the judge set for his pretrial release. “$7,500 might as well have been a million dollars to me.” As a result, Flo spent two months in jail even though he was legally innocent. Half a million Americans are in pretrial detention at any given moment, and more than 60% of them...

Priscilla Robinson says the Southside neighborhood of Asheville, North Carolina was once a thriving, tight-knit community. She describes fruit trees and multigenerational homeowners, booming small businesses and neighbors who looked out for one another. But that all changed in 1968, when the city approved plans for “urban renewal” and displaced more than fifty percent of Asheville’s Black resident...

When 3rd year med student Megh Kumar told a mentor she’d decided to go into OB GYN, she got an unexpected piece of advice: don’t.  It’s been more than a year since the Supreme Court revoked constitutional protections for abortion rights with their Dobbs decision. Since then 13 states – including Megh’s home state of Kentucky – have banned nearly all abortions. Some states have criminalized perform...

On a cold night in 2002, Chrissy Isaacs watched yet another logging truck loaded with old growth trees hurtle past her home in the Grassy Narrows First Nation, down the only road into the reserve: built by and for the logging industry.  Enough was enough. That night, she dropped a tree in the road to block the loggers, and changed her community forever. This is the story of land back, and the figh...

Andrea Phillips loves her job. She works at an elementary school as a reading interventionist, teaching struggling readers to love books. When she was told by her district to pack up her classroom library earlier this year, she was devastated.  In 2022, Florida lawmakers passed HB 1467. This new law mandated that every book in Florida public schools be cataloged and reviewed for “harmful content”,...

Most kids in the U.S. go to a school that’s patrolled by police officers. They’re supposed to keep students safe, but after decades of increased surveillance, in-school arrests have skyrocketed for kids of all ages. And most of the kids arrested at school are students of color. A group of students in Des Moines, Iowa didn’t need data to know that police in their school district were harmful, so th...

We’ll be back in August with more episodes!

In January 2021, Zahra Shaheer had to get out of Afghanistan… fast. So when she had the rare opportunity to secure safe passage for herself and her two children, she made the heartbreaking decision to flee, even though it meant leaving her mother behind. Now, Zahra and her mother remain separated by thousands of miles, and insurmountable policies that are designed to prevent her mother from reunit...

As lawmakers consider more than 500 anti-trans bills nationwide, experts warn that these efforts will increase already-high rates of depression and suicidality for trans kids. But what happens when these kids are affirmed and supported in their transition? When their communities welcome them with open arms?  Hear the story of Oli Oski, who, when he was just seven years old, helped convince an LGBT...

Did you know that without migrant farm workers, the price of dairy would be twice as expensive? Dairy farming is one of the most challenging jobs in agriculture, and like a lot of farmwork has notoriously weak legal protections for workers, leading to long hours, poor pay, and unsafe conditions. Host Ashely C. Ford tells the story of how a group of farmworkers came together after a senseless trage...