Mic Check! Podcast

New leadership is constantly emerging in organizations — how can we find ways to celebrate, honor, and document important stories of shared leadership and healthy transitions? As our current Co-Directors, Ana Conner and Kiyomi Fujikawa, prepare to transition out of their roles in early 2024 and two new leaders join us, we’re reflecting on a long lineage of transformative leadership that has shaped...

Conflict is inevitable–so how do we fortify our relationship to it? What approaches to conflict can we take when it shows up in our organizations and communities? What are some ways philanthropy can strengthen its support for organizations leading transformative justice work? At Third Wave Fund, we have been dreaming alongside some of the most inspiring organizers and leaders in transformative jus...

Why are sex workers uniquely positioned to lead reproductive justice efforts? In what ways can philanthropy shift to better bolster and sustain sex worker-led organizing? Continuing our conversation from last week's episode with sex worker organizers Jenna Torres and Raquel Savage, we discuss the ways in which sex worker-led organizing and reproductive justice overlap, and how philanthropy can ste...

What is sex-worker led organizing, and why is it important to center sex workers in gender justice organizing? As an organization that houses the Sex Worker Giving Circle and has been supporting sex worker-led organizations since 1998, we have always believed in the power of centering and resourcing the gender justice work that sex workers lead. Along with sex worker organizers Jenna Torres and Ra...

Did you know that Third Wave Fund almost completely shut down during the 2008 economic recession? What the heck happened? How did Third Wave make it through? More importantly, who helped us out of the hole to thrive and exist as the feminist community fund we are today? We’re excited to welcome back former Executive Director Rye Young to be in conversation with our current Co-Directors, Ana Conner...

What is the glue that binds our resistance work? How does healing justice fit into our resistance for the long haul? We sat down with Kifu Faruq of the Icarus Project to discuss healing justice as a foundational part of organizing and activism work. As we're witnessing the philanthropy field moving more funds towards healing justice work, we want to make sure the message is loud and clear that hea...

Transitions in organizational leadership always get a bad wrap, but are they truly moments of crisis, or critical opportunities for growth and transformation? On this episode, Monica Trinidad is joined by guest host Pidgeon, an internationally-recognized intersex activist, academic, writer and artist. We join Third Wave Fund's Outgoing Executive Director, Rye Young, to talk about his time at Third...

Our 2nd episode comes to you live from the Allied Media Conference in Detroit, MI this past June! We sat down with Phoenix-based organizers, Xyra and Crystal of Trans Queer Pueblo, an autonomous LGBTQ+ migrant community of color who work to generate community power for liberation. Xyra and Crystal dive deep into the importance of healing justice within anti-criminalization work, the value of disru...

In this inaugural episode, we chat with LA-based organizer Yessica Gonzalez of Immigrant Youth Coalition, and Chicago-based organizer Hannah Baptiste of Assata’s Daughters. From police abolition to dismantling ICE, we dive deep into conversations around shared visions of liberation, Black & brown solidarity across the work, and how funders can do better at respecting organizers' time and labor. Bo...