Been There Done That

Been There, Done That
A pandemic Podcast

The "Been There, Done That: A Pandemic Podcast" is a long form conversational interview podcast that checks in with the same 30 folks, from across the US, during the 1st year of the Covid19 Pandemic. From community activists to public school teachers and students, to new doctors and seasoned patients, this podcast is dedicated to talking to "Real-Life Experts" on how they are getting through the current Covid19 time. While it is filled with unexpected changes, challenges & feelings of helplessness, those "experts" are everyday people like you and me, because as the conversations reveal, our past personal experiences may have prepared us for this moment more than we realize.

Scroll down to the bottom of this page to begin listening to an episode via:

OR, click on any of the below season headers (in yellow - Sample: "Season 1") to begin listening immediately to that particular interviewee episode.

MEET THE PARTICIPANTS

On Been There, Done That we follow the same 30 people across the country, as they share with listeners details regarding how they are managing & dealing with the current Covid19 global pandemic, between March 2020 - January 2021. Scroll down to learn a little bit more about the folks who you will hear from in the podcast.

In each season, host Felicia Perez interviews each of the participants over Zoom (the app of the moment to connect best). None of the interviews are edited so you get all the "Zoom-like" audio quality and all the explicit language humans are needing to use right now to get by.

You can choose to listen to an entire season, to get a sense of what folks were dealing with at that particular time, or you can elect to listen to the same person and follow them over time on their own.

Angela Peoples
(Washington D.C.)
I am a Black queer mama living in Washington DC. Im 33, almost 34 years old. I spend most of my time working to build and organize strategic people powered movements for progressive social change. I believe that another world is possible and that 2020 is a portal to that new world. I believe in abundance and prosperity and that joy must be at the center of the revolution.

Season 1
Listen to Angela share just how direct action organizers may be best prepared for this current pandemic moment and how leaning in to uncertainty may just be the thing that serves us best right now.
Season 2
Listen to Angela share what sci-fi she is re-reading these days and how consuming texts about a post apocalyptic world can help ground us in at least knowing that our elders also had to envision and plan for worlds that were entirely different from their own. How can game playing aid in your practice of a particular theory or values? How can you best build your strategy muscles? Why is the news harder to consume now? If you were sick of driving before, do you now miss it? If we don't know what we miss until we miss it, is it possible we will entirely forget how important some things are to us if we may not be allowed to access them for years?
Season 3
Listen to Angela give important insight in to this new chapter of the global pandemic where police murders and state sanctioned violence are creating even more harm to folks who so desperately need care, safety and trust instead. She shares tangible ways that folks can share potentially disturbing information and news with one another in a safe way. And she gives advice to educators on how they can go about talking about these hard issues in a classroom.
Season 4
Listen to Angela share what it's been like for her to have moved from Washington D.C. to south Florida in the middle of the pandemic and the election. What's different and what's the same? We talk deeply about the "racial climate change" that the US has been struck with the last decade, as well as the the " global warming of white supremacy" taking foot on a global level. Is it possible to take down white supremacy without centering whiteness? And finally, compared to 4 year sago when Angela held up a sign that the first Women's March that read, "Don't forget: white women voted for Trump," what new sign would Angela hold up at post this election and why?
Season 5
Listen to Angela share their final reflections about this last year. Having recently moved from Washington D.C. to South Beach Florida, Angela shares her thoughts on the insurgence of January 6th. Is she sad or grateful that she "missed" the insurgence? We talk about the real take-aways from Oprah Winfrey's interview with Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. And finally, we discuss this year's rise in so called "cancel culture" and whether or not we should, well, cancel it or not.

Cristobal Lagunas
(Massachusetts)
I'm from Chile pero I moved back to Boston. I'm 31 and work as an organizer. Mostly working on climate change and safe migration.

Season 1
Listen to Cris share how this time reminds him of his early days living in the U.S., when he was a young person who had just migrated from Chile. Sit in on a discussion about how the narrow framing of stories in this time is informing the larger health narrative being developed at the moment.
Season 2
Listen to Cris share the power of commitment and intentionality during this time. We're talking coffee, exercising at the gym, intermittent fasting, self care and learning to love yourself ---- all after major "wake up" calls. It's a deep conversation about the "psychological nurturing that goes along with misinformation."
Season 3
Listen to Cris share his thoughts on all that has transpired over the last 6 weeks that has gotten us to this point on July 4, 2020. Coming to us from the center of the nation's history in Boston, MA Cris shares thoughts on what we can learn from this moment including what kind of self care is needed for this moment and the long haul of social justice organizing. Should you watch all the videos of violence as they come out? Is attending a march or rally the only way to support political change? And what is the importance of exercise?
Season 4
Listen to Cris and I talk about surviving under conditions of uncertainty, gratitude and capitalism. We talk about "Zoom Fatigue," giving big tips these days to essential workers and all the pros and cons to how we are forced to interact these days. And finally, check out Cris' 2020 US Presidential election predictions.
Season 5
Listen to Cris share his final thoughts on what lessons this first year of the Covid19 Virus has taught him about to live through hard times. What events, struggles and challenges seem to be universal and not just part of an American Pandemic Year Story? Should we call the events of January 6 at the US Capital, in D.C. an "coup," or a "terrorist attack," or "an insurgence"? Finally, what do Zapatistas have to teach us about this moment? And what role does listening play in getting through hard times?

Danielle Coates-Connor
(Massachusetts)
Danielle's creative work spans mediums, from award-winning documentary film, photography and writing to podcasts and immersive video installation. She is the founder of Infinite Growth where she designs and facilitates interactive learning experiences for online and face to face environments, developing vision and voice with groups and individuals. Danielle lives north of Boston with her wife Erin and dog Clover, on the Ipswich River. She is also at home floating in the ocean, growing food, laughing, cooking, meditating, talking about communications strategy, story-telling, and imagining new realities – in her own life and in our society.

Season 1
Listen to Danielle share how the 2020 pandemic has changed the day to day landscape of her hometown in Massachusetts & her day to day relationship to work and her local co-working community.
Season 2
Listen to Danielle share details about her recent consumption shift from how listening to music as playlists of individuals songs to taking the time to hear an entire album. How can consuming the whole instead just a part/slice change how we preserve items and ourselves? What is it about sound and songs that they have the power to teleport us back to other times when we heard them last? How are memories connected to sound? And can we use music right now to intentionally trigger us in to positive thinking and hope? What is your go to song or album to change your mood? How can making the invisible visible or felt be the most powerful shift that is need right now.
Season 3
Listen to Danielle share insight into what it's like to "discover whiteness" and just how it is that we are taught white supremacy. In this interview we also discuss what possible actions can be taken at protests when armed militia arrive to challenge their narrative that they exist to "keep us safe."
Season 4
Listen to Danielle share about how to take Marie Kondo to the next level during the pandemic. We review how polarized the country is, how it got this way, and how we are describing the many ways that folks are choosing to protest lately. Learn, in detail, about a very on point and just so 2020 election website called isthisacoup.com. We learn all about the Coup--o-Meter, what it measures, and what it can tell us about the current state of affairs.
Season 5
Listen to Danielle's final thoughts as we conclude the first year of the pandemic. We talk about the power of what we call events as they happen or in hindsight. And we get in to a deep debate about the differences and relationships between an uprising and a coup. Finally, we talk about the importance of relationships during hard times and that includes one's relationship with themselves. All in all the true summary of this interview comes down to this: When it comes to how you live your life, are you a bubble blower or a kite flyer?

Dante Garcia
(California)
Dante recently relocated to San Francisco where he is currently figuring out what happens next after you turn 30 and leave the worker cooperative you founded. In the meantime he’s taken an interest in exploring the coastal ecosystem and the local Craigslist ‘free’ section. He continues to be a practitioner with the Center for Story-based Strategy and designer and strategist helping organizations overhaul their brands and websites. He’s currently on the lookout for opportunities to build digital infrastructure for a new economy.

Season 1
Listen to Dante share his story about traveling to Washington State during the early days of the pandemic and what it means to work AND live home with your loved ones.
Season 2
Listen to Dante discuss new traveler policies that will change how we act and dress for future air travel, how the political left and right are framing the global pandemic in current narratives and the importance of mutual aid right now.
Season 3
Listen to Dante share the challenges of being on sabbatical during both a global pandemic and a summer of social uprisings. What role does self care play in social justice work? What is burnout exactly? And how can we prevent burnout when there never seems to be a "right time" to step back from support work?
Season 4
Listen to Dante share what's been keeping him up at night, and trust, it may not be what you think. We talk at length about the current US Presidential Election and how unique it will be. And finally, we talk about what are the best and worst election outcomes that we hear folks are preparing for.
Season 5
Listen to Dante update us on who in his family has been able to get the vaccine and the status of a working prototype to his smart phone app for mutual aid work. We discuss when or under what condition Dante may ever travel by plane again. It becomes a deep conversation about risk assessments, the role it has in our decision making and how it has changed under this first year of the pandemic.

Elana Levin
(New York)
Elana Levin teaches digital strategy to nonprofit organizations and community groups. Elana lives in Brooklyn NY and is active in local left wing political organizing, serving on the steering committee of The Jewish Vote. Elana has hosted the Graphic Policy Radio podcast since 2012-- a podcast at the intersection of comics, geek culture and social change. Elana is active in local queer, Jewish and labor organizing doing a lot of work around digital organizing and involving pop culture and art in campaigns. Elana is a published critic who's written or spoken about super hero comics, movies and 70s and 80s rock music for a range of outlets.

Season 1
Listen to Elana share the effects of a global pandemic on things like in-person trainings, conferences, and gatherings. What are folks doing instead? What kinds of event planning issues remain even when things go “virtual”? And what can we learn fantastic worlds in comics and superhero narratives that can serve us doing this time?
Season 2
Listen to Elana share how her relationship to food and work and how it has and hasn't changed during this time. If you were working online and from home before the pandemic would anything change for you now? Elana shares her feelings around needing to "problem solving" around unexpected produce in the CSA Box (Community Supported Agriculture) and eating your comfort food that was held on reserve not realizing that this is when comfort is needed.
Season 3
Listen to Elana share about the recent surge in ongoing fireworks being set off all over major urban cities. What's the cost of such fireworks going off all night long? Who benefits from such noice and disturbance? How are firework disturbances connected to the direct action organizing to defund the police? We also talk about the role of popular culture during this time. Does it matter that the reality tv show Cops has been cancelled? Will such changes be enough?
Season 4
Listen to Elana share what it was like to hear the news that the Presidential Election was over and that Joe Biden had won. Where were you? What were you doing? How did it feel? We talk about the political narrative importance of showing such joy out in public. We talk about the days leading up to Election Day and what was rumored and/or planned by the opposition. And we talk about the significance of the phrase of this US Presidential Election, "Count Every Vote!"
Season 5
Listen to Elana share what the initial vaccine roll out has been like New York City. What are some of the hurdles and challenges to this initial process so far? How are some of the pre-pandemic inequities (based on class, race, ability, language, internet literacy and on) showing up and causing issues in this current vaccine dissemination process? We talk about what is really at the heart of so many frustrations with folks, "cutting the line," for getting access to the vaccines. HINT: It's not about the length of the lines or the roll out overall once the vaccines are delivered. And finally, we talk about what we want to make sure we learn from earlier historical moments. What did the post 9/11 moment teach us about what we need to NOT do in the coming post-insurgence and post-pandemic times?

Dr. Emily Hobson
(Nevada)
Emily Hobson (she/her) lives, works, and organizes in Reno, Nevada. She is a historian of queer radicalism and its intersections with anti-racism, anti-imperialism, and prison abolition, and is the author of two books, Lavender and Red and Remaking Radicalism. Her favorite protest skills are lettering signs and being a hype girl

Season 1
Listen to Historian and Professor Dr. Emily Hobson reflect on teaching during this pandemic and what AIDS history can tell us about Covid19.
Season 2
Listen to Dr. Hobson share ther thoughts about watching television shows about death during a pandemic (like HBOs "The Outsider" and "Six Feet Under"), documentary films about solidarity and the queerness of everday life (Netflix's "Crip Camp" and "Circus of Books), and what will Pride 2020 and beyond could look like.
Season 3
Listen to Dr. Hobson review what the Summer of 2020 has been like, different from any previous summer, staying home and traveling less. How have "living spaces" been adapted for spending more time at home and what new items have been purchased to accommodate this change in where time is spent? We talk about the various differences between "introverts" and "extroverts" and which between the two is having a harder or easier time right now. We review the many ways in which the recent political uprising has been influenced by the Occupy Movement, The Women's Marches and The March for Our Lives day of actions. And finally we talk about how K-12 and Higher Education can specifically transform to include other forms of practicing "democracy" outside of just voting power. What if the "Student Union" was an actual union? What if we incorporated teaching decision-making models beyond just voting? What power lies in teaching, understanding and practicing consensus?
Season 4
Listen to Emily share her reflections on recent activities that have taken place this fall pandemic season: her mom moving into senior living housing, publishing an anthology, teaching remotely at the university, the most recent Thanksgiving holiday, and just how this time has forced us to think about how we create and/or alter traditions.
Season 5
Listen to Dr. Emily Hobson explain how important the lessons of inequality, injustice are especially when such lessons may or may not be passed down from generation to the next. We talk about the impact of inequity during this pandemic time. How can one mixed race family have such different experiences even though we are all challenged by the same pandemic? And how can one hard life change/shift prepare you for the next? It's a Valentines Day special conversation about the power of romantic love, maybe not to heal, but to at least prevent more harm.

Erin O'Brien
(California)
Genevieve Erin O'Brien is a Queer Vietnamese/Irish/German artist with 20+ years as a community organizer, trainer, cultural producer and chef. O’Brien holds an MFA in Performance from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and was a Fulbright Fellow to Vietnam in 2009. Their short film For The Love of Unicorns has screened internationally. O'Brien received the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles’ Creative Economic Development Fund in 2015 & 2016. As a US Dept. of State/ZERO1 American Arts Incubator Artist, O’Brien traveled to Hanoi to develop a digital media project highlighting LGBTQ visibility and equality in 2016. Recent works More Than Love on the Horizon and Sugar Rebels were commissioned by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. The Critical Refugees Studies Collective of the University of California recently funded O’Brien’s current performance series Refugee Resistance Menu. O’Brien, once a butcher’s apprentice, is also a private chef and chef/owner of sausage enterprise Meat My Friends (www.eatmeatmyfriends.com).

Season 1
Listen to Erin share how one food-based artist in Los Angeles is coping during this time while also having a family member who is currently a first responder during a global pandemic.
Season 2
Listen to Erin share what it's like to move out of and in to a new home during a global pandemic. What do you do with things that need to be sold or donated? Is anyone buying or selling used items? What's the safest way to redistribute used goods without causing anyone harm? Also Erin gives us all an unofficial review of Paleton---sharing all the options, which they most prefer and why.
Season 3
Listen to Erin share how international travel plans have changed during this pandemic time and how one might be able to bring cultural experiences in to your life without actually getting on a plane. They review other political wins of the moment, like California's UC Regents overturn of a previous Affirmation Action ban (25 years after UC students organized to defeat the ban and lost). And we talk about what it's like to become an older social justice activist/organizer. Does one always have to be out in the streets to show support?
Season 4
Listen to Erin share what it's like to go from being an extrovert to finding themselves becoming an introvert during this first year of the pandemic. We talk about alternatives to thrift stores like "hyper local" with new websites and groups with names that say it all, "Buy Nothing." We talk about upcoming election fears and hopes as well as the importance of Tik Tok, cran-rasberry juice while skateboarding on a highway, in particular.
Season 5
Listen to Erin share the details of their virtual wedding that took place over Zoom. What are the cost benefits of a virtual wedding? We hear a story about how a vaccination center, at Dodger's Baseball Stadium, was closed for part of the day because anti-vaccination protesters were blocking the entrances. We consider all the ways in which the country and the planet are filled with divisions and disparities. And finally, we hear Erin's last thoughts for this time capsule project of Covid19 Year 1. What are your Covid19 Memorial ideas?

Eva Perez
(California)
I live in Orange, California with my mom, my sister who is 19 and my Grandma who is 74. I am 11years old and will be in 6th grade in my first year of middle school in the fall. I started playing sports this year; volleyball and basketball and I’m really enjoying it. Before this year of sports, I was dancing competitively since the age of two, but decided to try different things this last year. I also like to skateboard, draw and paint.

Season 1
Listen to Eva share what it’s like to be a 10 year old, in the 5th Grade, coming back to a completely unfamiliar school setting that now only taking place online.
Season 2
Listen to Eva share some of the effects of "sheltering in place" with a multi generational household, from the perspective of a 10-year-old. Eva explains her new love of the fictional TV show Black Lightning and explains just how one could safely watch Youtube videos while in the shower.
Season 3
Listen to Eva share what a birthday party looks like when turning 11-years-old under a global pandemic and days of national protests with uprisings against state-sanctioned murders. She shares what it feels like to be a young mixed raced black child living in these times-- its challenges, its pains and what she is doing to help process all of it.
Season 4
Listen to Eva share what her 11-year-old hopes and fears are for the current US Presidential election results, as well as what her hopes and fears are for this year's upcoming Christmas present list. We get to learn what it's like to start middle school during a global pandemic, from malfunctioning thermometers to the bore of walking in circles for PE, it's affectionately not that different and so differently from non-pandemic times. And finally we talk about the TV show "This is Us." Is it a good thing that TV shows right now our mirroring our current real life experiences?
Season 5
Listen to Eva's final reflections on the first year of the pandemic. We talk about just how much we have all changed during this year and whether or not those changes are positive or negative. What does it feel like to be under 16-years-old, seeing all of your older family and friends get a life saving vaccine, but you can't access it yet because you're too young? We learn some new lingo and slag being used by some tweens at the moment. Finally, it's birthday planning time again as this pandemic year ends and another begins.

Felicia T Perez
(Nevada)
Currently living in Reno, Nevada (but originally from Orange, California) Felicia is the host of the Been There, Done That: Pandemic Podcast. The podcast originated as a short segment radio show on KWNK 89.9FM but soon was too long to air. Remembering what it was like to be a public school teacher in Los Angeles during 9/11, Felicia felt an urgency to document this historic moment so that future generations could listen and learn first hand for themselves just what this time was like for so many different folks across the United States.

Season 1 Podcast Introduction
Listen to the first episode in this series about how to survive a global pandemic by tapping in to previous moments in our lives that felt as foreign and as challenging as these moments today. This first introductory story is from our podcast host Felicia Perez.
Season 1 Finale
Listen to the host of "Been There, Done That: A Pandemic Podcast," Felicia Perez conclude Season I and give us a sneak peak in to what the rest of the seasons will be like.
Season 2 Theme Introduction
Listen to the "Been There, Done That" podcast host, Felicia Perez give us a brief introduction to that what Season 2 will be all about; consumption and development during a global pandemic.
Season 2 Finale
Listen to the host of "Been There, Done That: A Pandemic Podcast," Felicia Perez conclude Season 2 and give us some food for thought around issues of faith, independence, and interdependence.
Season 3 Theme Introduction
Listen to the first episode of Season 3 from our podcast host Felicia Perez as she explains how we got to "The end of the beginning," with the Summer months beginning, the Corona Virus picking flexing its power, and police brutality across the country still going strong.
Season 3 Finale
Listen to the host of "Been There, Done That: A Pandemic Podcast," Felicia Perez conclude Season 3 and share some thoughts on the historical importance of documenting feelings. What do feelings communicate that facts alone do not? And get a preview to what the next two final seasons of the podcast will cover.
Season 4 Theme Introduction
Listen to Felicia ground us in what is in store for Season 4 of the podcast. From fires to presidential elections, what's left to worry about?
Season 4 Finale
Listen to the host recap the 2020 year with a review of Covid19 by the numbers and news headlines. What have we learned? And where might Covid19's lessons take us next?
Season 5 Theme Introduction
Listen to the host bring us to the "beginning of the end" for the Been There, Done That: Pandemic Podcast. With themes of cautious optimism and lessons from history, we use this time to begin to take stock of how far we have come and consider just what it is that we want to make sure gets preserved about these first 365 days of the global Covid19 Pandemic.
Season 5 Finale
Listen to host, Felicia Perez, conclude the entire podcast after 14 months of interviews. How does one finish documenting the effects of a global pandemic when the pandemic is still very much here? And what is the current status of the participants?

Harley Bonner
(North Carolina)
I’m 15-years-old and I live in Havelock,NC. I’m currently in high school and I work at Jersey Mikes. I’m a varsity volleyball and basketball player. I worry about everything that is going on and I want everything to go back to how it was. I think that we need to stand up for the Black Lives Matter movement so we can all have freedom in this country.

Season 1
Listen to Harley share what it likes to be an active high school student during the Covid19 pandemic. Hear her insight on how “learning remotely” doesn’t always translate well across subject matters and different learning styles. And discover what the most powerful resource is to get through unnatural disasters.
Season 2
Listen to Harley and I have an interesting conversation surfacing how we are experiencing this time very differently depending on where we live (geographically) and what the cultural norms are of that given area. What is it likes to go shopping for groceries and needed items during a pandemic? Is everyone wearing PPE (personal protective equipment) and keeping 6ft of distance apart? What are we learning about what is "right" and what is "wrong" for us to during a pandemic? How could/should and are we treating the homeless population during the Covid19 pandemic? And what are the long term effects of young people having to be social distant for so long? If you wanted to be in the medical profession before the pandemic do you still want to now?
Season 3
Listen to Harley share details about what it's like to attend a summer basketball camp during a global pandemic. How does one mask up and stay socially distant while on the court? We cover the complexities of have multi-racial family during this time of political action around race relations. And the challenges of being a light skinned person of color sitting with both privilege and prejudice all at once.
Season 4
Listen to Harley share what it has been like to come of age in the middle of a pandemic, a presidential election and the start of sophomore year in high school. What is it like to go back to in-person instruction in North Carolina? We get to hear about temperature checks in the parking lot, the traffic lanes and direction signs all over the floors and halls on campus, and how normal being a teen right now can still be. From first jobs and first cars to what kind of face mask is your current favorite, it's all here!
Season 5
Listen to Harley share what it's like to currently have one of your parents struggling with Covid19. How do you take care of loved ones while also protecting yourself? We get the details! Then we hear an overview about what it's been like to be a high school athlete during the first year of the pandemic; playing volleyball, basketball, going to school in person and working in the service industry all while wearing a mask. Which mask wearing time is the hardest? You may be surprised to hear the answer.

Ivy Brashear
(Kentucky)
I'm from a small Appalachian community, called Viper, Kentucky. My family has lived there for five generations, meaning my roots there run very deep. I'm now living in Lexington, Kentucky, with my wife and our dog, Poppyseed, and cat, Jaco. I'm 33, and I work at a nonprofit in Berea, Kentucky, called the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development, where I'm the Appalachian Transition Director. My work focuses on narrative shifting, storytelling and policy education. I'm also a writer, and do freelance work with several online publications, including Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity and Yes! Magazine. Storytelling - the making of stories, their power and influence, and why they matter - is my life's work and passion.

Season 1
Listen to Ivy share insight on what “anticipated grief” can teach us right now and what it’s like for introverts having to work from home during this time.
Season 2
Listen to Ivy explain the difference between sharing a moment vs having a shared experience. And the power of collecting/sharing wide ranging stories to paint a more complete picture of a time and place.
Season 3
Listen to Ivy share what is currently going on right now in the state of Kentucky (still dealing with a global pandemic) where there are also local protests taking place around the murder of Breonna Taylor, an EMT who was asleep in her bedroom when the police mistakenly executed a search warrant at the incorrect home. How can not having a video of the atrocity affect public response? What role does surveillance play right now? What role does media have during this time? What power do they have and how could they use it better?
Season 4
Listen to Ivy share what the last few months have been like in Kentucky, considering some of the long term effects of Breonna Taylor's civil and criminal court cases. We talk about what we are most afraid of post this upcoming US Presidential Election as well as what we find ourselves being most grateful for simultaneously.
Season 5
Listen to Ivy share their insights on what the most recent events of this year have looked like for folks living in Kentucky. Was the insurgence of January 6th something to fear or something to be proud of? Will Mitch McConnell ever have less power? We review how issues of housing scarcity, failing wages, drug addiction and climate change have all been effected by the pandemic. We talk about the importance of real narrative changes that need to transpire in order for justice to become inevitable and QAnon to become exposed for what it really is. Finally, we talk about what our plans are for THAT moment after when our closest loved ones are vaccinated. What will we do now and for how long?

Jamie Hemingway
(Nevada)
Jamie Hemingway is a Reno, NV based mover and shaker with one foot in the library and the other foot on a stage. A Californian by birth, she's got Reno to thank for finally getting her performer side to truly blossom. From teaching double dutch to co-hosting awards shows and dabbling in improv comedy, she's done a little bit of everything. She's currently a Library Assistant in Washoe County where she works in library marketing, which often includes making librarians do things like yell really loudly while marching in local parades. She lives with her hip-hop and vinyl-obsessed boyfriend and their two cats.

Season 1
Listen to Jamie talk about the kinds of effects a global pandemic can have on local public library access and how to safely and successfully try new things in this time.
Season 2
Listen to Jamie share how she's adapted so social isolation by deciding to make and eat specific familial food to stay connected to family, culture and personal memories.
Season 3
Listen to Jamie share just how folks can still use the local library during this time using online reservations and drive up window pick ups. In this interview you'll even learn how to get a library card online! We also start to recap what businesses are currently doing to stay and still provide their services. What's it like at Starbucks right now? What about Taco Bell? Finally, we talk about it's like to be biracial in the middle of a racial uprising. What is your responsibility when you can "pass" and are seen as "racially ambiguous"?
Season 4
Listen to Jamie share updates us on all things J-Me. From super rad tape dispensers, new career opportunities at the Library, and euthanasia to living in "that neighborhood" with the good candy for Halloween. We've got you covered with all the tricks and treats this world is currently providing.
Season 5
Listen to Jamie share details about how library services have changed over this first year of the pandemic. From what is needed to become a librarian to what the general day to day work looks like, Jamie shares 20 years of experience with us. We talk about daily word capacity limits, color based book sorting, and just what a "librarian's nightmare" would look like. Finally, we hear the details about Jamie's recent engagement which involved Christmas decorations and lots of gestures of love that won't soon be forgotten.

Dr. Jennifer Perdomo
(California)
I am 28-years-old born, raised and still living in Los Angeles, CA. I am a newly minted family medicine intern physician in Long Beach, CA. First generation and recent graduate of USC medical school. I enjoy practicing yoga, trying new foods, and dancing (in front of my mirror). Some of the issues that I care the most about include: mentorship of minority students, women's health, family planning, and social justice in medicine.

Season 1
Listen to Jennifer share what it is like to be finishing medical school and starting a medical residency in the middle of a global pandemic. How is this time transforming medical schools overall? What are the long term effects of this time on our medical system and our personal health outside of contracting Covid19? What does it mean when doctors and teachers are both lacking the day to day resources needed to do their jobs successfully?
Season 2
Listen to Jennifer share some of frustrations that medical professionals have when patients don't follow recommendations for better health and how important the issue of trust is right now. Also in this episode we learn that Jennifer is not only graduating from medical school this month but she is also pregnant and expecting her first child. What should expecting parents think about and prepare for during this pandemic? What do we know and not know yet about the effects of the pandemic on newborns?
Season 3
Listen to the new Dr. Perdomo share what is has been like to officially begin a medical residency during this time while I also being pregnant. What was it like to graduate from Medical School while being forced to shelter in place? She shares a story about her first week experience in residency where a co-worker tested positive for Covid19 and forced her in to quarantine and get 2 Corona Virus tests. More importantly, the interview begins with an important conversation about the role of the Latinx community during the Black Lives Matter movement protests. What does anti-blackness look like in day to day conversations with family?
Season 4
Listen to Dr. Jennifer Perdomo share what it's like since we last spoke now that they are both a new mom and a new doctor. What was it like to give birth during the pandemic? What were the particular "Covid19 Pandemic" differences and what were the similarities regardless of the virus? What is it like to go from doctor to patient and then back to doctor again? It's an endearing and special conversation about how to juggle expectations, guilt, new relationships and well lots of lack of sleep and worry about others.
Season 5
Listen to Dr. Jennifer Perdomo share her final thoughts reflecting on all the many ups and downs from this last year. Which is harder these days: being a new doctor during a global pandemic or being a new mom during a global pandemic? She answers by sharing very detailed stories of various patients who contracted Covid-19 and needed to be admitted as well as stories about her family's current challenges being new parents. How has the Covid-19 pandemic challenged the notion of medical professions "doing no harm"? When are you doing "enough"? What does "enough" look like? It's a powerful conversation about new and old challenges and just how important quality over quantity is.

Kimi Lee
(California)
Kimi lives in East Oakland with her family of 2 kids, 2 turtles, 1 dog and an amazing husband who likes to cook and tell bad jokes. She loves to craft and hoards crafting supplies. She is the Director of Bay Rising, a regional alliance of 30 grassroots organizing groups that come together for voter education, policy advocacy and campaign alignment. During this time, she started Masks for the Movement, a project to employ garment, domestic and immigrant women workers to sew 10,000 masks and distribute masks to gig workers.

Season 1
Listen to Kimi share how the necessities of this current pandemic are intricately connected to the ongoing needs of everyday people leading up this moment. And listen to one of the sweetest stories of the time, featuring her family’s recent "virtual road trip" that took place while sitting in the car as it was parked in the driveway.
Season 2
Listen to Kimi give insight on what it's like to "shop in place" by cleaning out closets and storage spaces. Kimi shares the connection between organizing the public distribution of 60,000 N95 masks during Northern California's fires of the last couple of years and her current project making and selling cloth masks now for the pandemic. How can you buy time by making space? How can one seed feed up to 6 birds? How did personal protection around health become the most central organizing issue of our time? And finally we talk prototyping mask updates, based on what we are learning from wearing them all the time these days.
Season 3
Listen to Kimi share about the political activism happening in Oakland, CA over the last few weeks that lead to significant and maybe even unimaginable police budget changes. We hear about just how organizers successfully removed funding for the Oakland School District Police Department and what is being done to pressure the city council do the same. Kimi shares what giving yourself a Covid19 test is like. And she details a recent visit to her parent's house after 4 months of no physical visits with them.
Season 4
Listen to Kimi break down her insight on how the state of Arizona was able to go from being a traditional "Red State" to a "Blue State." It's a background story about what has transpired there over the last decade, and not just the last few months. We talk about the importance of "seeding" our organizing work and knowing that it will take a moment to flower and produce the nutrients we need. Finally, we talk about the need for organizing to center cultural work in or to both move people in to action AND help us sustain the work behind the scenes that is too often exhausting when metrics and numbers are the only thing focused on.
Season 5
Listen to Kimi share her reflections on recent events that she is deeply and personally connected to as an Asian American living in the Bay Area of Northern California. From the coup in Burma (where her parents migrated to the US from) to the violence against the Asian elders in Chinatown, we talk about the systemic historic causes and roots. It's a reflection conversation about what we can literally sit with and the importance of not seeing justice as a destination but instead as a practice that you seed and water.

Lena Perez
(California)
I am a 48-year-old single mother living in Orange, California with my two daughters and my mother. My youngest child will be entering the 6th grade and my oldest will be a junior in college in the Fall. I am currently searching for a new employment. I lost my job during the pandemic. I was working in accounting in the entertainment industry but my background is in the legal field. I hope to find a position at a university or in the public sector. My biggest priority are my children and my family. One of my goals is making myself a priority too.

Season 1
Listen to Lena give very personal insight on how we can support those around us who struggle with depression during this global pandemic time. She shares her own personal acts of courage and vulnerability to inspire us to remember to be gentle with ourselves and with those around us.
Season 2
Listen to Lena share an update on what it is like to "shelter in place" with family spanning 3 generations (10-years-old to 74-years-old). Are you missing your audio books as much as Lena is? How is the current pandemic life continuing to effect folks struggling with mental health? What's it like to be in a location that is heating up, with the summer months, and seeing folks at open beaches? Are folks wearing masks at the beach? Are folks being socially distant while sunbathing? How can we enforce folks having and wearing PPE (personal protective equipment)?
Season 3
Listen to Lena break down what it is like to be a single mom with two biracial children (Mexican and Black) trying to manage end of summer with returns to work, middle school and college all in one household. What kinds of challenging conversations and activities are some families having? What kinds of precautions will be taken when considering going to back to school in person? And in what ways does a parent's life experiences influence their child/s? It's a long in depth interview about complicated multi-household families and how they help make us the resilient folks that we need to be right now, full of compassion and empathy.
Season 4
Listen to Lena share her reflections on the last 4 years, what it was like last US Presidential Election Eve and what it's been like ever since. We talk about the superpowers that maybe only parents seem to have, to get through hard times. Is it possible that caregiving surfaces such said power? We get an update on what it's like to be a pandemic parent when your kids go back to school in "hybrid instruction" with in-person classes (middle school and college levels). Finally, we chat about what, if any, plans are in the works for how to respond tomorrow's election results.
Season 5
Listen to Lena reflect on the last two and a half months, from the January 6th insurgence to receiving the first dose of the vaccine. And we discuss the current "return to normal" with the return of mass shootings.

LJ Amsterdam
(New York)
LJ is a direct action trainer and a dancer and believes that our bodies are the most essential elements of building community power. Currently she is a collective member of Mayday Space (an organizing center in Brooklyn), a trainer for The Center for Story-Based Strategy, a board member of About Face: Veterans Against the War, and a NYC free radical. She is fighting for a world where no kid has to sit in a plastic chair and watch their parent wearing chains ever again. Since COVID-19 hit, she's been part of a mutual aid project that distributed over 300,000 pounds of fresh food in 3 months to families residing in public housing. She also got good at parallel parking. Her very favorite things are: outer space, octopuses, nighttime walks, Adidas track jackets, this magic lagoon in Jamaica, making people laugh, and love.

Season 1
Listen to LJ share what direction action organizing looks like during a global pandemic.
Season 2
Listen to LJ share how feelings of love, seeing and being seen all effect what we consume, purchase and believe. It's a deep conversation about the political power of providing mutual aid and faith in political systems.
Season 3
Listen to LJ give a detailed report on some of the direct action organizing that has been happening over the last 6 weeks in NY City around defunding the police and in defense of all Black lives. What makes East Coast and West Coast organizing so different from one another? What cultural and policy wins has NY had during this time? Could the recent political uprisings have happened during any other time? What role does the Covid-19 pandemic have in the calls to defund police departments across the nation?
Season 4
Listen to LJ share details on how 75 million people voted successfully in this 2020 US Presidential Election. What are "Election Defenders" and what exactly did they do? We talk narration, monitoring, baring witness and reporting. More importantly though, we go deep in to talk about the significance and role of community, joy and desire in long term social justice organizing.
Season 5
Listen to LJ really good deep and expand on describing both the individual and systemic ways in which mutual aid is really political powerful building work. We break down each word one at a time to really analyze what they mean and what they look like in reality - "mutual" and then "aid." Ultimately, it's a rich conversation about relationships and how building them and cultivating them is how we really become "disaster prepared."

Mariana Mendoza
(California)
Born and raised in Mexico City, currently living in Los Angeles, Mariana brings experience in community and youth organizing, narrative strategy, and popular education. She is committed to using her labor, energy and love into building collective-determination, demanding justice, asserting our right to healing and care, and creating opportunities for imagination and ideological change. Mariana currently works in implementing alternatives to incarceration programs for young people and adults in Los Angeles, and is a trainer and board member of the Center for Story-based Strategy. When she is not organizing, studying, or eating with loved ones, she is usually climbing rocks.

Season 1
Listen to Marianna explain what it feels like to warn family members living in another country, who haven’t begun to prepare for the pandemic. And hear about the current incredible work to safely transport folks who are suddenly being released from jail in LA County.
Season 2
Listen to Mariana share what is like to transport folks being released from the Twin Towers of Los Angeles. What is the process? Are folks positively responding to the process and protocols? Who is being released and why? What does it feel like to be doing prison abolition work during a global pandemic?
Season 3
Listen to Mariana share the impacts of both the Covid-19 outbreak with the addition of a 7.3 Earthquake in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. We talk about the cultural influences of US on Mexican culture and white supremacy practices in Mexican families. What do the US and Mexican police and military have in common and how are they different? And more importantly what does a difference or lack there of mean?
Season 4
Listen to Mariana share her renewed love and appreciation for Octavia Butler's Sci-Fi writing during this time. Is Butler a writer, a prophet, or both? Plus we talk about different cultural responses to Covid-19 via talking about music, sad songs in particular.
Season 5
Listen to Mariana share in detail what is was like for them to have recently contracted Covid19, along with her entire immediate family, while she was visitng them in Mexico. What is it like to be sick while also being a caretaker to others around you who are also sick with the virus? What was the recovery process like outside of the US? Where any folks needing hospitalization and were there any open beds? It's an emotional roller coaster of a story filled with as much fear as there is gratitude. And at its core it's a lesson on the importance of family unification and the healing powers of love.

Matt Howard
(New York)
Matt Howard is the former Co-Director of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) a member-led Post-9/11 veterans organization focused on ending militarism. He has worked with IVAW in various capacities since 2011 including as Chapter president in the Bay area, local organizer in Texas with the Operation Recovery campaign, and as Communications Director. Howard served in the Marine Corps as a helicopter mechanic from 2001 to 2006 and deployed twice to Iraq where he became deeply opposed to the occupations and discovered a commitment to social change work. Howard is presently based in New York City.

Season 1
Listen to Matt (former IVAW Co-Director and Iraq War Vet) explain what it was like to work in the food industry while living in NY during a pandemic.
Season 2
Listen to Matt share thoughts about the danger of armed militia members joining "anti-shelter in place" activism and how important experience proximity to care and harm are to trusting elected officials and medical professionals.
Season 3
Listen to Matt share what new ways the restaurant industry is trying to stay open and return to some sort of "normalcy" in NYC. And hear Matt share his insight on how the police and military address issues of violence in a way that skirts any really systemic change. We talk about the connections between Breonna Taylor & Vanessa Guillen's murders and the state responses to it. We go deep into the back story of Breonna Taylor's murder specifically around the role of gentrification in Kentucky. Just what does gentrification have to do with "no-knock warrants"?
Season 4
Listen to Matt share his insights on the work of the 2020 "Election Defenders" and the overall de-escalation organizing that took place in Philadelphia earlier this month. How did music and dance stand up to armed militia groups and ongoing threats of violence? What does it mean to "change the temperature"? And are cultural organizing tactics something new or are they instead just part of a larger legacy of non-violent direct action organizing?
Season 5
Listen to Matt update us on his recent move from NYC to Philly. It's a recount of just how the pandemic has effected food service industry. We also do a deep dive in to the January 6th insurgence and how it was pulled off with what seems like such important inside levels being pulled to weaken protections and strengthen those seeking to derail the approval of the presidential election results.

Dr. Meredith Oda
(Nevada)
I am a professor of Asian American history, so I'm mostly interested in studying how came to think with the racial categories we use; I think we need to understand this process if we want to dismantle the inequity these categories foster. Right now, I'm working on a book about what happened to Japanese Americans after they left the WWII incarceration camps - where they went and what they did. My first book was a transpacific history of San Francisco. I live in Reno, NV with my significant other and our six-year old daughter.

Season 1
Listen to Dr. Oda share insights on her current research on WWII Postwar Japanese American Resettlement, how it is connected to a possible post pandemic future and its relationship to the process of reconciliation.
Season 2
Listen to Dr. Oda update us on how things are evolving for her family during this time. Are remote schooling and remote work schedules still working and being followed? Are folks still following the upcoming presidential election news? And how can looking at where folks live give us a broader explanation of how/why people are dying from Covid19?
Season 3
Listen to Dr. Oda share thoughts on what it's like to remember that we are still in the middle of a global pandemic and be preparing for your child to physically return to school in the Fall. What will that look like? And hear Meredith speak to what she anticipates her own classroom teaching adaptions may be for when she returns to teaching at the local university in the Fall as well. How could increased funding for public school make things safer? What does funding have to do with this entire pandemic?
Season 4
Listen to Meredith reflect on what it's been like to parent during this 2020 Fall Season of the Covid19 Pandemic. How do you make adjustments to your personal life and to how you spend your time as a family with a first grader? We theorize about why this year's Thanksgiving meal was so short or went by so fast. We hear some amazing stories about recent Pandemic Purchases like a 8 foot stock tank pool and a Christmas tree that you get to cut down yourself. And we talk about trying to remember that last person that we hugged, that was not from our current home/family.
Season 5
Listen to Dr. Oda share her final thoughts on what this last year was like for her family and specifically as a full time working mom of a first grader. What have we learned about the extra labor performed by the "anchor parent" in the household? How can we put in to balance things that are out of balance? Finally, we talk about what we can learn about what we need to do next by looking back at Japanese American reintegration post WWII? How can we continue to live in a divided country without a process for reconciliation?

Michaela Perez-Kelly
(California)
I’m currently attending UC Santa Barbara as a full time dance major. I love dancing/taking classes, watching tv shows and movies and I enjoy listening to new music/ making playlists. Random, but I would like to state that breakfast food is the best food in the world. Anyways, some things I care about are just general equality based on more than just race, better and more fair healthcare, and bettering the education in working class communities. I want to be remembered as doing what is best to be sane during this time and learning more about myself and others around me.

Season 1
Listen to Michaela share about what it’s like to be a 19 year old college sophomore dance major who also happens to be living under the extreme stress of a chronic health condition during a global pandemic. Moving to online classes?! That’s the least of her worries.
Season 2
Listen to Michaela update up us on what it's been like to "shelter in place" for almost 6 weeks while being a 2nd year dance major in college. She'll talk about the long and short term effects of living life such a strict schedule and you'll hear about how to keep a daily dairy with using your Spotify account.
Season 3
Listen to Michaela share what it was like to take college classes, from start to finish, remotely during both a global pandemic and political uprising. She shares her current plans are for returning to college, physically, in the fall. And she shares what it likes to be a young adult, mixed raced and Black during this time. Who should be watching videos of Black bodies dying at the hands of the police and what purpose does it serve?
Season 4
Listen to Michaela share what it's been like to move back to Santa Barbara to attend some college classes in person. She shares what UC Santa Barbara's protocols for attending in person classes have been like, with weekly rapid testing for Covid19, and the inevitable false sense of security that kind of culture can create for socializing outside of school. We talk about the many different kinds of ways folks in their 20's make mistakes and how today's young adults have less room for error.
Season 5
Listen to Michaela share in detail a retrospective analysis of just what it has taken to finally get to a point in the pandemic where things feel "manageable" as a college student in their junior year. What roles do being independent and good mental health practices play? She shares the ways in which her college experience has been effected by the pandemic as well as her post college plans. Who could've predicted how much our personal schedules and lives would be effected by not physically moving as much as we did before the pandemic?!

Olivia Piccirilli
(Nevada)
I am a queer 23-year-old kindergarten assistant teacher (or was pre-covid) and girl scout leader. I'm from Reno and live in Reno but am getting ready to move up to Washington with my partner Clark. Since being laid off of my kindergarten job due to covid I've been learning to skateboard, doing virtual girl scout meetings, organizing with Food Not Bombs and making art.

Bailey Clark Watkins
(Nevada)
I am 24 and live in Reno, NV, where I've lived my whole life. I'm getting ready to move to Seattle for grad school! I will be studying environmental education, which is one of my biggest passions. I am also a prison abolitionist. And I love bugs and plants! I also love tea, singing, and reading. I want to always be learning.

Season 1
Listen to Olivia and Clark share the kinds of activities that are bringing new types of joy into their lives--- puzzles vs crocheting. We get updates on how the Girls Scouts are trying to still have successful troop development during this time.
Season 2
Listen to Olivia and Clark share the kinds of activities that are bringing new types of joy into their lives--- puzzles vs crocheting. We get updates on how the Girls Scouts are trying to still have successful troop development during this time.
Season 3
Listen to Olivia and Clark share the details of an incident whereby a stranger left a 7 page letter full of hateful comments (based on race, gender and sexual orientation) on their car in response to the messages that were scribed on their vehicle, from a car march in support of defunding the police. We get an update on how Girl Scout troops are adapting annual summer camps during this time. And we talk in depth about how parents and families influence our interests in either standing up against social injustices or being an accomplice to them.
Season 4
Listen to Olivia and Clark check in about what life has been like since moving from Reno (Nevada) to Seattle (Washington). What are rain pants and why would you ever need them? We get to hear stories about what it's like to support kindergarten and first graders who are attending school virtually inside the local Boys and Girls Club. And we get to hear about what it's like to support young learners with extra curricular outdoor education. Inside or outside, which is a better learning environment? Which is a better working environment?
Season 5
Listen to Olivia and Clark catch us up on how this winter was so different for them since they moved from the deserts of Nevada to the constant rainy air of Seattle, Washington. They also share what they have learned over the last year working with elementary school aged children. We talk about the importance of playgrounds and hugs! Finally, we reflect on accountability and the power and harm of shame.

PaKou Her
(Missouri)
PaKou Her is a second generation Asian American of Hmong descent. Born and raised in the Midwest, she takes great pride representing AAPIs living in the nation’s midsection, and believes there are invaluable stories to be told by People of Color living in the most rural areas of the United States. She is Principal of Tseng Development Group, LLC, a consulting firm that provides lectures, workshops, trainings, organizational development, transformative leadership coaching, and grassroots strategy development designed to build racial equity, create systems change, and shift culture. PaKou has 22 years of anti-racism organizing experience, a decade of which was as the Director of a national racial justice training program with Crossroads Antiracism Organizing and Training. She also has extensive experience as a digital campaigner. When she's not organizing or working, PaKou spends her time chasing culinary dreams her home kitchen, carting two child athletes to and fro, and dreaming about reviving a long-lost singing career.

Season 1
Listen to PaKou share the effects of daily family life shifting from high gear, to then low gear and then a screeching halt. And how we can leverage our past experiences walking through grief to empower us in this moment.
Season 2
Listen to PaKou share insight on how consumption habits can form and change over time being influenced by migrant status, class status, health status and on. It's a deep conversation about the difference between efficiency and effectiveness. And best of all learn about the true power of pinwheels!
Season 3
Listen to PaKou and I share the complexities of what it's like to be a non-black person of color during a pandemic and social unrest. Should young children be watching or reading the news right now? What's the cost? And what's the benefit?
Season 4
Listen to PaKou share how exhausted she is these days. Hear her break down that this fatigue is stemming from everything these days being politicized; from which US presidential candidate you supported to choosing whether or not to wear a mask. What does it mean if the entire country is dealing with a mental health crisis at the same time? Is "Trumpism" just a cult? What role does empathy play in helping us move forward and heal as a nation? And what can we learn from the recent incredibly short season of the TV show, "This is Us."
Season 5
Listen to PaKou share about the hardships of parenting pre-teens during a global pandemic. What counts as "normal" during "abnormal" times? We talk about how to mourn those we've lost while also celebrating what and who is still here. And we talk about how being dedicated to self care usual comes with a fair amount of personal sacrifice. Finally, we have some unsolicited This Is Us (TV Show) loyal fan feedback for the writers.

Patrick Jackson
(Nevada)
I am a partner, father, son, brother, uncle, wanderer, skier, angler, occasional mechanic, phenomenologist of music, and best friend of a good dog. I am trained as a cultural anthropologist and am a lecturer in the Department of Gender, Race, and Identity, where I teach courses in the subjects of gender, race, class, power, and cultural difference. I'm 53 and lucky enough to live in the Truckee Meadows, fetched up on the shores of the Range of Light.

Season 1
Listen to Patrick share the importance of getting outside while also not jeopardizing needs of others during this time.
Season 2
Listen to Patrick J share his insight from an anthropologist's perspective and learn about the impact of "shelter in place" on all of us because we are social animals.
Season 3
Listen to Patrick J share what it's like to travel to the Oregon coast during 53+ consecutive days of protesting at the state capital in Portland. As someone who grew up in Portland, Patrick shares his personal insight as to why he thinks the current protests there are having such a rich response from both the federal government and the local community.
Season 4
Listen to Susan share the positive impact teaching remotely has had on her ability to get through this most recent pandemic time. We hear Susan share a story about personal history, reflection and reparation. It's the kind of conversation that leads to learning lessons about the long term effects of colonization and white supremacy. More importantly, it's a story that helps to explain the massive inequalities that are becoming undeniably present during this pandemic.
Season 5
Listen to Patrick share his final reflections on this personal and social learnings of the last year. We talk about the many challenges of working and living mostly online; the blurriness between week days and weekends, how we talk more frequently with loved ones who we used to only see a few times a year- if that, and how our laptops and smart phones are more like vehicles to work and school then our actual cars, bikes and feet are. Finally, we talk about the irony behind over half a million people dying this first year from Covid-19 meanwhile the US just successfully launched and landed a robot with a camera on to the planet Mars.

Patrick Peterson
(Nevada)
I currently live in Sparks, Nevada with my partner Kyler. We have 5 cats and a little doggy so we do like our animals. I have worked for the school district in facilities/housekeeping dept for almost 10 years. I work at the high school level and am one of those weird people that really loves my job. I follow politics, current events, and am very passionate about recovery and HIV/AIDS being both a recovering alcoholic and addict myself. Also I have been HIV positive for 28 years so have experienced many highs and lows in my life not knowing what the future will bring. Not burying my head in the sand and listening to what is happening in life right now is very important to me. I would hope that I would be remembered during this time as someone who is trying is best to stay alive and healthy not just physically but my entire health and well being. Not just for myself but for those I love in this life. I hope that I can bring some sense of optimism to an otherwise chaotic time. Some days I know I fall short but I just keep putting one foot in front of the other and take it a moment at a time.

Season 1
Listen to Patrick P share what it’s like to currently be a school custodian during this time and what it means to have already survived a previous health epidemic once before.
Season 2
Listen to Patrick P share changes in his practice and interest right now in communicating with family, friends, and adversaries. This episode begs the question, "Can you express yourself without putting others at risk?" And also in this episode -- pandemic dream analysis!
Season 3
Listen to Patrick P talk about the power of sharing one's story and the importance of having diverse friends/community in your life. It's an insightful conversation about stigmas, how to eradicate them and the role of popular culture on influencing our societal opinions/values. If you are interested on learning about the many subtle ways to be a powerful ally during this time, this is for you!
Season 4
Listen to Patrick update us on what it's like to still physically go in to work everyday at the local high school. Can you still see the cliches and social groups while having to wear a masks and with no sports seasons or other in person extra curricular activities? Patrick shares what it's been like to lose a friend to Covid19 and to currently have another close friend currently sick with the virus and struggling to breathe. We talk about how the local Alcoholic Anonymous meetings have adapted to current times. And we talk about what it means to hold one another accountable to engaging in anti-racist work in our everyday lives.
Season 5
Listen to Patrick share his detailed account of what it was like to get the Pfizer Vaccine in Northern Nevada. From an emailed survey sent out from his work to the drive through vaccine shot process, we hear it all! We do a venn diagram of sorts comparing HIV medication to the current vaccination moment to see where there are similarities and differences between one pandemic to another. Finally, we wrap up by talking about the important role of stories, repetition, and the size of your megaphone when it comes to politics and health care.

Rebecca Solomon
(California)
I live, love, and work in Los Angeles. I have been teaching history for 21 years. I am involved in building change - in my school, in my union, and on social movements alongside youth and community- fighting against anti-Black racism, for abolition, and for social transformation and alternatives that can serve our needs, bring us joy, and center people of color and working people.

Season 1
Listen to Rebecca connect last year’s historic Los Angeles teacher’s strike to the current pandemic community care and her amazing advice that this is no longer a time to take no for an answer and to instead deeply lean in to imagining what is needed and possible.
Season 2
Listen to Rebecca share what the future of K-12 classrooms could look like this coming Fall from both a learning and teaching perspective. What would it look like to have/hold class outside of the traditional classroom environment? How can we transform public education by changing the goal of learning entirely--- no longer preparing you for work but instead preparing you for life? And how can the relationship between consumption and development get closer to one another if we allow ourselves time to sit with ideas and feelings to give let time them sink in?
Season 3
Listen to Rebecca share details of the fight to defund police budget in public schools. What is the history of policing in the US? What is the history of police on school campuses? What have previous police reform efforts accomplished? What does it mean to teach abolition (the history of oppression and joy)? And what does it mean to be an "accomplice to justice" at this moment?
Season 4
Listen to Rebecca share the continued challenges of being a high school teacher in "Crisis Learning" times. Sure, we talk Halloween and plans for how to celebrate it differently this year, and we also talk about former "scary times" reminiscing about teaching under former horrendous conditions where we as teachers didn't have dedicated classrooms but instead had dedicated roving carts and partitioned walls. We talk about loss, grief and of course love.
Season 5
Listen to Rebecca share what it's like to prepare to return to the physical classroom for in-person instruction. And we talk about the pros and cons to California's four-tier, color-coded classification system that alerts residents about how safe and open public spaces are at the moment.

Rose Miyako
(Nevada)
Rose Miyako is a mom, writer, and artist who resides in Reno, Nevada. She is passionate about mental health awareness and believes in health care and housing for all. Through the course of her career she has worked in non-profit, tech, and higher education, and currently works for the University of Nevada, Reno. She loves to hear people's stories about their work, life, friends, families, and histories.

Season 1
Listen to Rose share her story about how she is translating survival skills learned during times of unemployment to times of uncertainty today.
Season 2
Listen to Rose share how we are marking the time, during the pandemic, with projects and events. Who are we without others? What happens when you decide to give up caffeine during a global pandemic?
Season 3
Listen to Rose share her updates on what life has been like during this time with starting a new job and now also move into a new home. We talk about how some of the first times folks started to leave their homes was as protests to defend Black lives were starting. What can the current protests teach us about how to move forward together? We also then go deep in to thinking about how can we incentivize folks to start wearing masks in public and to stay socially distant. What can we learn from the initial marketing of the Walkman? How are folks incentivized to wear seatbelts now? What marketing strategy and other cultural changes were needed to make that change a reality?
Season 4
Listen to Rose reflect on what she is noticing about potential long term effects of "Pandemic Living" on her 7-year-old. We talk about possible solutions like "podding up" with other families that have same aged kids, so that adults and children can continue to have some sort of safe social interaction with others. We also take a minute to talk about the recent US Presidential Election particularly focused on: 1. The positive impact of having a mixed race Asian and Black Vice President, when you and your family are also mixed race AND 2. Would the Biden/Harris ticket have won the election if there was no pandemic? Was that they only reason why folks were willing to look for an alternative to President Trump?
Season 5
Listen to Rose share about her experience disseminating polio vaccines in Ghana, several years ago, with a comparison to how the Covid-19 vaccine has been made available here and now. She goes on to share her thoughts on the complexity and nuance of conversations related to gun violence in the U.S. And finally Rose shares about what it has been like to date during the pandemic.

Dr. Sandra Georgescu
(California)
I'm a psychologist, a contextualist, an immigrant and a lover of music. I'm located in the bay area & I would like to "righten" the world juuuust a little bit at a time. That means I like to move contexts around, including the verbal contexts and policies. I'm therefore likely to ask some strange questions to get people to notice the verbal bullies that live in our heads & pay more attention their hearts/experiences. See, even that sounds weird.

Season 1
Listen to Dr. Georgescu share her insight and guidance on what tangible actions we can start taking to support our mental health during this time.
Season 2
Listen to clinical psychologist Dr. Georgescu share thoughts on forgetting vs not remembering and how to continue to stay grounded in this moment by controlling what you put in to your body and how you use it during this time.
Season 3
Listen to Dr. Sandra explain the differences between trauma and PTSD. Can trauma be passed down from one generation to the next and what does that matter? She shares critical insight about the role of story and how that informs whether an event will be become traumatic or not. If you are thinking about how to best be prepared for the long term effects of this moment on our hearts and minds, this will be a particularly interesting interview for you.
Season 4
Listen to Dr. Sandra share details about what Covid19 testing is like today. From do it yourself to assisted and corporate tests to those on the black market. Living in Northern California, we hear her share what it was like to live in the middle of the many fires of this summer with the van packed and ready to go, water hoses in hand spraying down the roof of her home. It's an interesting conversation about migrating to survive from Romania to Canada to the US and an anticipation for even more.
Season 5
Listen to Dr. Sandra reflect on what this last year has surfaced for us emotionally and where it may lead us. We talk about a recent speech given by Dr. Angela Davis and a comment they made about imagining what is possible once white supremacy is acknowledged and talked about from those in the highest offices of the land. And finally we talk about the kinds of systemic changes that are needed to prove that we learned anything at all during this first year of the pandemic.

Sara Ballesteros
(California)
My name is Sara I’m 44 and I was born and raised in Orange, California. I’ve been in the medical field for over 20 years. I am currently unemployed since right before COVID-19 hit . I had planned to take a little time off for myself and to regroup and didn’t know the entire world was going to change as well. I have an amazing 22 year-old-daughter who just graduated from a design school in New York. I have the best parents who have been together since they were teens. I’m engaged to my soulmate and his 2 incredible boys. And of course I have the cutest rescue dog named Guadalupe! My passion is mission work and helping anyone who needs it. I can’t juggle, but I can love like no other!

Season 1
Listen to Sara share how recent life changes at work seemed to have unintentionally prepared her for this current pandemic moment, the power of local community gestures of kindness and what it’s like to be apart from loved ones in this time of great uncertainty.
Season 2
Listen to Sara share updates on how grocery shopping has changed from a leisure activity to more of a "get in and get out" survival chore. How can you tell someone to please wear a mask by asking, "Excuse me do you need a mask?" How are we transferring what we can't control (family member's behaviors/actions) to what we can control (our pets, house cleaning, driving)? And just how can you gamify cooking time between you and your friends?
Season 3
Listen to Sara share what it has been like to have her daughter back home in the states from London, but is now unable to return since currently folks traveling to from the U.S. are not allowed to enter the EU because of our high Covid19 positive numbers. We hear about how difficult it is to get tested and receive the results in a timely manner. What are parents to do during this time when children of all ages are full of sadness, disappointments and uncertainty? We talk Tik Tok, the Orange International Street Fair, our favorite masks to wear and where do we go from here.

Sophie Fanelli
(California)
Sophie Fanelli is the President of the Stuart Foundation where she is responsible for leading the foundation’s investments to advance whole child education in California and Washington State. Previously, she served as Director of Research & Policy at the Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access (IDEA) at UCLA where she oversaw public policy and legislative efforts focused on education equity & access. She also worked at the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California where she concentrated on a range of social and racial justice issues including advancing education equity, LGBTQ issues, immigrants rights, and advocacy for the homeless. Sophie was trained as a lawyer in France, Italy and at the University of Texas in Austin where she focused on criminal justice issues.

Season 1
Listen to Sophie shed light on what it means to be a leader or in a leadership position during a health crisis and how challenging it is to find comfort right now if your family members live in other countries miles away.
Season 2
Listen to Sophie share about her intense two weeks in self isolation with all the Covid19 symptoms. Learn about how shopping locally and stocking up on things you may not need right away is actually the smartest thing one could've done to be best prepared for this moment. We also talk about how important developing hands-on learning at a very early age is so essential, specifically learning about the baking tradition of the French Yogurt Cake and learning to play an instrument.
Season 3
Listen to Sophie share insight on how influential previous historic moment are to this one being made today. How did the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, CA influence the organizing happening across the country today? And we talk in detail about the power of narrative framing taking place right now both in DC and on the airwaves with the media. What is the difference between a "protester" and a "rioter"?
Season 4
Listen to Sophie share her thoughts on all things related to a Covid19 vaccine and political leadership during this time. From the responses and lack of information sharing by the US President to those of the French President, we review the fall out in numbers of infections and deaths from both nations. Who lost their job or quit their jobs in government due to all that has transpired over the last few months? It's a sobering conversation about where we have been and what it may look like in the coming months.
Season 5
Listen to Sophie share what is happening now, a year later from the first shelter in place orders, in both her home in Northern California and her country of origin - France. Why would France be on the cusp of a third pandemic wave, and how can we avoid that same path here in the U.S.?

Susan Chandler
(Nevada)
I'm 76, live in Reno NV, and am retired from university teaching. I've been out in the streets marching against war and for a better world since the sixties. Of all the issues, racial justice has always been at the top of my list, so it is beyond frustrating to be confined to my house by the virus in this great historic moment.

Season 1
Listen to Susan share how her experiences as a Civil Rights and Anti War activist, along with her recent teaching in the men’s local prison have shown her how deeply important love and connection are to getting through this time.
Season 2
Listen to Susan share some of the joys of retired life that she is currently missing during this "shelter in place" time. It's an endearing conversation about thrifting, antiquing, book clubs, the future of community consumption of culture (ie art exhibits, music, films) and how retired adults can continue to "contribute & develop" during the pandemic.
Season 3
Listen to Susan share insight on the relationship social work has to local policing. We talk about how the Summer of 2020 is now in its final stages and what that means for the upcoming school year. Susan shares just what she means by, "Staying alive right now is a political act." And we talk deeply about the power of education in social justice work.
Season 4
Listen to Susan share the positive impact teaching remotely has had on her ability to get through this most recent pandemic time. We hear Susan share a story about personal history, reflection and reparation. It's the kind of conversation that leads to learning lessons about the long term effects of colonization and white supremacy. More importantly, it's a story that helps to explain the massive inequalities that are becoming undeniably present during this pandemic.
Season 5
Listen to Susan share what it's been like to teach a class where the students are older seniors in the community looking to stay engaged and learn with academic leaders from the local university in Reno. What are the similarities and differences between teaching such a wide span of adults (undergraduates to seniors)? And finally we talk about the importance of recognizing the every day lessons and teachers amongst us, from before the pandemic to now. It's a rich conversation about the importance of sharing, inviting and staying in contact not just when times are rough but also when times have no distinguishing markers at all. It's a love letter of sorts to teachers ---- in all the forms that we know them to be.

Tori Kuper
(New York)
Tori is a Buffalo-based solidarity economy organizer and mom to an amazing 5 year old who is fighting cancer like a champ! Tori's days are dedicated to building co-ops, community, and just about anything you can imagine out of Legos. Although she has not yet truly realized her dream as a traveling circus performer, she works to bring a sense of imagination, possibility, and resilience to all she does.

Season 1
Listen to Tori share what it’s like to be a “cancer mom” shuttling your 4-year-old back and forth to life saving treatments while living in NY in the middle of a global pandemic. It’s a deeply moving story about what it means to truly lean into a, “no going back,” way of life.
Season 2
Listen to Tori share her thoughts on how "progress" during this time may actually mean a "return" to practices of the past, like for example the return of milk home delivery. It's a deep conversation about --- Can we live a life full of abundance and yet still not have what we need? What kind of development growth spurts and/or delayed damage might communities see once this pandemic is over (much like children after medical procedures)?
Season 3
Listen to Tori share what it's like for her, now 5-year-old, son to get tested for Covid-19 ten times in the last 6 months. We hear updates on what Covid-19 precautions look like from Cleveland, Ohio to Buffalo, New York. She shares stories of two friends who have tested positive for the virus and what their lives are like now. We talk about the power of Covid-19's invisibility, from contraction to treatment, to too often death. And we talk dinosaurs. What we can learn from those who have come before and from those who study them?
Season 4
Listen to Tori share a few details on the power of our imaginations and practicing acceptance. We talk music, sci-fi, time traveling and what happens next if the Affordable Care Act is gutted. What song gives you renewed power and grounds you in your personal strength? If you could go back in time and prevent the pandemic from happening, just when and where would you need to go back to?
Season 5
Listen to Tori share her thoughts on what the future may hold for folks who are not able to be fully vaccinated at this time. What will happen to her 5-year-old who has had multiple bone marrow transplants and is unable to get any vaccine? She shares a story of a friend who had a major allergic reaction to the 1st does of a vaccine. Can this person take the 2nd shot now? And if they can't, then what? Finally, we talk about the long term effects of trauma and how we all may be changed forever as we move in to survivorship mode. What does collective or societal PTSD look like?

Podcast Sponsors

The New Economy Coalition is a membership-based network representing the solidarity economy movement in the United States. We exist to organize our members into a more powerful and united force, in order to accelerate the transition of our economic system from capitalism to a solidarity economy. Visit NEC at www.neweconomy.net and get their rad newsletter every two weeks, "The New Economy Roundup" for the latest from across the solidarity economy!"

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