Power Station

When Kat Guillaume-Delemar was six years old she was already an engaged community member. When a fire took the house next to her apartment building, she wondered about the elderly woman who had lived there and whether a new home would replace hers. As often happens in disinvested neighborhoods, that space became a vacant lot that remained the same for decades. Kat now leads the Center for Communit...

What happened to Dakarai Larriett is shocking, horrifying even, and yet it is not entirely remarkable for a Black man in America. In 2024, Dakairi, an Alabama native who spent years on Fifth Avenue in NYC as a corporate executive, was unlawfully detained at a traffic stop in Michigan.  What followed was hours of race baiting, an attempted planting of drugs and later, in a cell, literal torture. Th...

This is my 401st episode of Power Station!! Reaching the 400 mark is a major milestone for me. because I created this unique platform and have sustained it throughout some very turbulent years. Power Station is an audio library of changemakers in America. My guests do the hard daily slog of building organizations, engaging community members in organizing and pushing for policies that that hold the...

At Live Free Illinois, the nonprofit she founded, Rev. Ciera Bates-Chamberlain advances a critical mission: ending gun violence and mass incarceration by employing a powerful trifecta of strategies: education, organizing and advocacy. It starts with mobilizing a network of over 130 congregations across the state to advocate for public safety and law enforcement accountability. And it requires stan...

I consider Power Station to be a living library, one that contains the stories, strategies, struggles and accomplishments of some of our nation's most impactful social change leaders. And I have been moved, enlightened and challenged in my thinking by many of my guests. This episode, featuring Chris Torres, executive director of Leadership for Democracy and Social Justice (LDSJ), is among the most...

Tia Bell is a powerful, determined and impactful force for her community, city and this nation. She has taken her formative childhood experience, the shooting of her mother, who thankfully survived, and subsequent murders of other family members and friends as a blueprint for acting proactively to prevent the scourge of gun violence. Her academic grounding is at the intersection of youth developme...

Storytelling changes everything. It introduces us to other people's life experiences and cracks open our capacity to care and connect. For the storyteller, it provides what may be a first in a lifetime opportunity to express oneself and be heard. Some of the most powerful stories illuminate aspects of society that we lack the will to confront. Glen McGinnis wanted the nation to know about young Bl...

This episode is...just me. I have some thoughts and some feelings (don't we all) to share about how nonprofits  are perceived in our society. how their leaders are using their voices in this moment, the barriers they face and where true and consistent power lies. Not your traditional holiday messaging but then again, this is me speaking! What I hope comes through is the potential I see for this na...

When we talk about healthcare in America, I mean among friends and family, not reporters and pundits, it is difficult to know which headline-making topic to tackle first. Some conversations focus on disparities in health outcomes, preventable gaps based on race, income and geography that require political will to overcome. Others focus on the profound impacts on the horizon for 22 million American...

Its theory of change may sound brand new, designed in response to this administration's increasingly authoritarian agenda but California Donor Table has led with a power building model of philanthropy for over two decades. It starts with donors who are committed to using their resources to generate a more just California and nation by investing in progressive communities of color. Their funding pr...

Facts matter but facts alone will not influence change when the truthtellers are not believed. Millions of girls and women see their doctors about debilitating symptoms only to be told that what they are experiencing is not real. Such is the case with endometriosis, a medical condition that among other harms, is a leading cause of infertility in women. As Shannon Cohn, my guest on this episode of...

It is one year before the mid-term elections of 2026, and America faces a high stakes scenario that goes beyond who will run for public office. The conversation now is about who will be able to cast a ballot and whether all votes will be counted. The threats can be found in state legislative actions and presidential executive orders that seek to limit access to the ballot box based on disproven ac...

America has a long history of being a welcoming, if imperfect, home to those who have been forcibly displaced from their countries of origin because of conflict. persecution, and violence.  And we are not alone. Nations across the globe have taken in millions of refugees—men, women, and children who have crossed international borders to survive. Some nations have developed systems that allow adult...

Shannan Herbert is undeterred by the chaos, economic shifts and uncertainty of this moment in America. She remains laser-focused on building wealth and opportunity in the DMV, especially in communities that have been historically underserved. As CEO of Washington Area Community Investment Fund (WACIF) a nonprofit that brings financial education, coaching and capital to promising entrepreneurs work...

Latino Economic Development Center was born out of the Mount Pleasant riots, an historic event in Washington DC ignited in 1991 by police violence and the city's failure to meet the pressing needs of thousands of newly arrived Salvadorian civil war refugees. Since then, LEDC has been at the forefront of equipping Latino communities in DC, Maryland and Virginia with the knowledge and resources need...

Why would a president who speaks in dystopian terms about crime call for the Department of Justice's cancellation of $820 million in grants to hundreds of community-based and national nonprofits with a track record of reducing violence, caring for crime victims and increasing public safety? The evidence is clear. He demonizes people of color and spends millions on the militarization of cities over...

Equal justice under the law may be a goal of our court system, but it is not a guaranteed outcome. There is no right to counsel in civil cases, making low-income tenants in Housing Court at great risk of eviction and potentially homelessness. These cases are high stakes, especially in jurisdictions where affordable housing is out of reach for most low-income individuals and families. Nationally, o...

Organizing is collective action. It is the tool we employ to overcome harms sanctioned by the state and committed against those who are perceived to be powerless. Organizing exposes inequities, identifies who perpetuates them, and generates solutions to systemic injustices. At a moment when our national leaders are leveraging their powers to undercut civil rights, detain and deport Latinx men, wom...

Democracy is not just a concept; it is a practice. America's belief in its citizenry's right to self-expression, to dissent and to elect our political leaders is codified into constitutional amendments and federal laws. Those principles, which are fundamental to our national identity, have been severely tested by a history rooted in genocide, slavery and ongoing economic inequity. Now, we persever...

For Ty Hobson-Powell, being a child of Washington DC goes deeper than living with the United States Capital and the White House as a backdrop. It is not just that politics is in his bones and that he has worked in national campaigns and in District government to generate policy change for people and communities. What motivates his fight for justice is the unique experience of living in the seat of...

The advent of the internet changed how we interact with friends, our nation and the world. We are all there now, accessing news and popular culture through social media apps, attending school, working and connecting with friends. At our best we are also engaging, as nonprofits and political campaigns, in mobilizing voters and organizing public policy campaigns that advance equity and strengthen de...

At the highest levels of government our elected officials are violating the Constitution, ignoring court orders and trampling societal norms to undermine decades of progress in America. They are demonizing schools, corporations and nonprofits that practice diversity, equity and inclusion, taking back federal grants intended for housing and climate change mitigation in communities of color and cutt...

For José Vasquez, leading Common Defense, a national nonprofit comprised of 200,000 veterans who share progressive values, is an extension of the oath he took as a 17 year old enlistee. He swore to and has remained steadfast in defending the Constitution and advocating for the well-being of those who serve. He and a cohort of activist vets launched Common Defense in 2016 to provide a civic engagem...

How is it possible that in 2025, America is funding and operationalizing daily raids on Latinos in the form of arrests, detainments, deportations and disappearances? What can justify the vilification of Latinos, a community that includes families that have been established here for generations and newer arrivals seeking citizenship in a broken immigration system? Meanwhile, Latinos, working across...

Organizing is a superpower. It allows us to make our voices heard, to influence the decision-makers, from corporations to landlords to the elected officials who determine clean air standards, the cost of childcare, the minimum wage and whether voting rights will expand or become more restrictive. And in a moment in which politicians are defunding healthcare and other public systems to finance tax...