Power Station

It takes exceptional people and organizations to solve our nation's purportedly intractable problems. In this episode of Power Station, Marta Urquilla, who has led social justice initiatives in community groups and the White House, shares how the pioneering organization she leads, the Centri Tech Foundation takes a housing centered approach to bridging our nation's digital divide, the deep gulf be...

This may sound unconvincing coming from someone who speaks into a microphone every week, but I don't love talking about myself. What I do love is speaking with and amplifying the voices of those who confront and generate solutions to injustice in America. They are leaders of nonprofit organizations who use their values, know-how and expertise to bring capital to under-resourced communities, compel...

When Liz O'Donnell, a first-grade teacher in Washington DC, arrived at the hospital to give birth she could not have imagined that she would leave without baby Aaliyah or the resources she needed to recover. She had experienced a change in fetal movements a few weeks before and did not realize, after an easy pregnancy, the urgency of her situation. The nurse could not detect a fetal heartbeat and...

Rajiv Vinnakota, president of the Institute for Citizens and Scholars, is testing a hypothesis. He wants to know whether the right interventions, from mentorship to education and opportunities for putting ideas into action will yield effective citizens, young people with the will and capacity to strengthen our embattled democracy. The Institute's recent survey of 18-24 year old's reveals an alarmi...

  Small community based nonprofits are some of the most powerful change agents in America. They solve for inequities in education, childcare, mental health, and other needs in communities that have been marginalized by racism, discrimination, and poverty. These nonprofits are underestimated by national foundations and their accomplishments are underreported by the media. In this episode of Power S...

This is a story about civic engagement and political power that should be headline news. In 2020, EMGAGE, a national nonprofit, was instrumental in motivating over one million registered Muslim American voters to cast a ballot in one of our nation's most consequential elections. This milestone is particularly meaningful because Muslim Americans have been marginalized, underrepresented and subject...

Sometimes numbers speak louder than words. In Washington DC, a single grocery store serves the 85,000 residents of Wards 7 and 8, the historically disenfranchised neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River. Zooming further out, 35% of people living in our nation's capital are designated as food insecure, lacking an adequate amount of food for a healthy life. Again, the data tells the story. The leg...

In 1996, a group of Asian/Pacific Islander women came together to confront gender-based violence in their communities. As survivors themselves they knew that mainstream social service organizations lacked the linguistic and cultural knowledge needed to meet their diverse needs. They persevered, eventually launching the Asian/Pacific Islander Domestic Violence Resource Project, which remains the so...

If we have learned anything since 2016 it is that elections have consequences. Donald Trump was not the first politician whose worldview is steeped in racism, misogyny, and anti-immigrant ideology. But he is an outlier in using his platform to undermine our democratic systems and encourage violence. In this episode of Power Station, Daria Dawson, Deputy Executive Director, and National Political D...

What if we looked at homelessness as solvable rather than intractable? What would we do if we considered the 580,000 people who are homeless on any given night in America as having been failed, as opposed to being failures? That is the perspective that Ann Oliva brings to her leadership of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, the organization that inspired her throughout highly productive te...

Amy Javaid first encountered A Wider Circle as a chaperone for her daughter's kindergarten field trip. She was struck by how staff engaged 5 year old kids in talking about neighbors, a less othering term than clients, who lack clothes and a home. They learned that their actions, sorting clothes, helps neighbors, some of whom are also 5 years old. Amy volunteered and held various positions before b...

"What am I doing to enfranchise people or how am I participating in their disenfranchisement?" That question, posed by this week's guest, Dr. Marla Dean, to all of us, stopped me in my tracks mid-interview. It has guided her own life and career, first as an educator in troubled and under-resourced schools and then as CEO of Bright Beginnings, a celebrated nonprofit in Washington, DC, that provides...

As Monte Pollard approached the end of a six year sentence in federal prison, he was so overwhelmed by the prospect of reentry, he considered committing a violation that would keep him locked up. His lack of confidence made sense. Over 6 years in multiple facilities, he did not have access to a single training or educational opportunity. When he lost his mother to domestic violence, counseling was...

In 2016, Andrew Lee received a call that changed his life and created a cultural sea-change in Washington DC. A conservatory-trained musician he juggled professional performances, running music festivals, and, as a community leader and volunteer, bringing classical music to under-resourced neighborhoods. He was invited to perform that night in a concert featuring brilliant musicians from across th...

When Allen Morris is asked what a policy director does he gets to the point and is not shy: "I tell the President and Congress what to do." As policy director of the National LGBTQ Task Force, Allen advocates for his community in Congress and in state houses where xenophobia, transphobia, and anti-Blackness dominate policy making. In states where the very humanity of LGBTQ people is under attack,...

  To understand the long and twisted journey to the Supreme Court's chilling decision to dismantle affirmative action in higher education and its implications, you cannot do better than to ask civil rights champion and self-described optimist John Yang. As president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, John has navigated the drumbeat to defeat affirmative action for years a...

As listeners know I record from Podville Media, a vibrant audio and video studio in Washington, DC. After 277 episodes, it's my turn to be the guest, admittedly a reluctant one. Robb Spewak, a 30 year broadcast professional and a podcast host in his own right who has produced almost every episode of Power Station is my co-host and interviewer. It was a great experience, evidence of my trust in Rob...

None of us, from the Supreme Court to our elected representatives to corporate CEOs, should underestimate this nation's young people. On the same day that the Supreme Court struck down President Biden's student debt cancellation plan, blocking relief for 40 million Americans, the 18 to 34 year old's that animate Young Invincibles, a nonprofit founded during the nation's tumultuous debate over the...

  Do you know the old idiom, the devil is in the details? In this episode, Natalie Davis, co-founder, and CEO of the nonprofit United States of Care, tells Power Station about the importance of treating every detail in the policy making process as an opportunity to produce the most impactful legislation possible. And she is admittedly obsessed with public policy implementation, creating a plan tha...

A conversation with Families USA executive director Frederick Isasi is a masterclass in how to transform our expansive, inefficient, and poorly performing health care system. America spends more money per person on health care than any other nation yet our health outcomes, including some of the world's worst life expectancy and highest infant mortality rates are appalling. In this episode of Power...

  Do we stop to think, when enjoying a meal at a favorite restaurant, about what is happening in the back of the house? While servers and bartenders are working hard, their counterparts, dishwashers, food runners and bus boys, face far greater challenges. In Washington DC, less visible workers receive hourly pay as low as $3.89 and depend on tips distributed by "the house" to make minimum wage. Bu...

Every person, in every city, deserves to live the healthiest possible life. You could assume this is a shared national value, but our health outcomes tell a different story about America's aspirations. Residents from the most marginalized neighborhoods in underinvested cities are subjected to living in unsound housing conditions under persistent threats of eviction, compromised by poor air quality...

Annabel Collinson wants you to know that if you feel anxious and helpless about environmental conditions around the globe you are not alone. She shares the climate anxiety that is pervasive among young people whose futures are compromised by rising temperatures and their real-time harms, from warming oceans to sea level rise, economic disruption, food insecurity and the displacement, primarily of...

There are many versions of our American story. For some it is a gateway to freedom and opportunity, for others it is where only some can thrive, often at the expense of less valued communities. As always, the truth is complex and nuanced and data, when our public leaders choose to collect it, tells the true story. A global pandemic exposed and deepened America's fault lines, revealing how historic...

  When George Jones talks about his mission to make Washington, DC an anti-racist city he is sometimes met with discomfort and even denial. But when he talks about the tremendous disparities in wealth and income that separate white communities in the NW portion of the city from Black families in the SE the very same business, academic and foundation leaders agree that the data is unimpeachable and...