Inclusive Life with Nicole Lee

About Inclusive Life with Nicole Lee

Inclusive Life is for anyone who is interested in transforming their lives to be more inclusive, equitable and just. Join Nicole Lee, human rights attorney, activist, mom and founder of Inclusive Life for conversations with expert and badass guests. In these messy conversations, we will explore the ways in which we can live more inclusive lives in every aspect of who we are, with every role each of us plays. We will bring our most authentic selves to this work, link arms, and together move into aligned action.

Publisher

Nicole Lee

Category

education · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

26 Oct 2020

Latest episode

23 Aug 2022

Latest episodes

18 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   23 Aug 2022

   S2 EP8: with Camille Leak: Exploring the Intersection of DEI and Trauma

   “Become a witness to yourself.” - Camille Leak In Inclusive Life, we are continually looking at the ways in which we can reach across differences as a path to connection and liberation. We often explore the impediments to being with one another authentically such as defensiveness, perfectionism, guilt, and shame. Camille Leak brings this conversation even deeper. She brings us to what’s beneath these obstacles to connection: trauma. Camille Leak is a DEI practitioner who believes that folks’ inability to be with other people’s differences is their fundamental lack of capacity to be with their own marginalization and trauma first. And what feels really new here is the way in which Camille deliberately and continually connects marginalization with trauma and trauma with marginalization. Because we’ve been taught--some more than others-- to “bypass and ignore our own marginalization and trauma for the comfort of other people,” Camille asserts that we will bypass and ignore others’ trauma and marginalization. We cannot do for others what we cannot do for ourselves. Awareness comes first. It helps to know what trauma responses are. We may have heard about the trauma responses fight, flight, freeze or fawn (appease), but can we recognize those responses as they show up in our bodies and in our behavior patterns? For example, flight can show up as chronic busyness. Fawning can show up in a tendency to inauthentically compliment or agree to stay connected and liked. And this is where becoming a neutral witness to ourselves enters in. Can we witness ourselves in pain with curiosity and kindness rather than judgment and a desire to fix? According to Camille, this is often where DEI efforts shut down: we want to keep it comfortable. We especially do not want to deal with our own pain. Let’s just do a bias training and keep it movin’. As Nicole points out, growing up requires increasing our capacity for discomfort. As kids, we experience bumps and bruises as we learn a new physical skill. We learn to wait our turn, to confront challenges without falling apart, and to win and lose gracefully. And so the work of liberation requires us to exercise these same discomfort muscles as the stakes get higher and higher. We have to get in our reps, practicing staying with ourselves in discomfort. As we do that, we become better equipped to be neutral observers of others. Camille offers that we can begin to discern whether we are dealing with another person, or actually dealing with someone’s trauma response. In the face of differences, there is the reality that one’s marginalization has happened because of another’s privilege. Can we develop the capacity to be with someone’s marginalization that we are, on some level, perpetuating and benefiting from?  It’s deep and necessary work that requires and generates empathy. And empathy is connection across difference. This conversation will make you pause and will invite you to look through the lens of trauma when approaching yourself, others, and all equity and inclusion work. We encourage you to seek out the support and facilitation Camille is offering. It so beautifully complements the work of Inclusive Life. In this conversation, Nicole and Camille discuss: How Camille’s work in market research led her to her current work in DEI and somatics The problem: our inability to sit with other people’s trauma What trauma actually is Why organizations and their leaders want so desperately to avoid the discomfort The fallout that ensues when leaders won’t get in touch with their own trauma What trauma is not The cost of not dealing with trauma and how it relates to white supremacy culture Trauma response as a visceral mechanism to ensure safety and position There’s not necessarily more trauma, there’s more willingness and ability to verbalize traumatizing experiences and systems How can we acknowledge varying degrees and layers of trauma in ourselves and others without playing “oppression Olympics”? The importance of relationship and how to begin to cultivate relationships across differences What it means for Camille to live her best Inclusive Life About Camille Leak: Camille Leak (she/her) is a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Practitioner, truth teller, and story teller. She often says, “I’m not doing my job if I don’t do two things: 1) tell you how DEI impacts your bottom line, e.g., how it makes you money, drives growth, or increases relevancy and 2) make you really uncomfortable; being uncomfortable is the only way you know you are doing DEI right.” Via her practice, Real Talk & Brave Spaces, she provides group facilitation, workshops, and one-on-one coaching about a variety of DEI topics, cultivating spaces where individuals and groups can fearlessly confront the most uncomfortable elements of DEI. Additionally, Camille is the Community Manager of Holistic Life Navigation, a company and community that serves to support people as they release stress and trauma by listening to their bodies. She got into trauma healing, facilitation and community management because she loves asking people questions that help them reach that “a-ha!” moment. Camille was the DEI Learning & Development Program Manager for Amazon Web Services in which she supported the strategic direction of DEI by leading key initiatives across the enterprise, including Sponsorship/Mentoring Programs, Communication Strategies, and Learning & Development initiatives. Prior to joining Amazon Web Services, Camille was also the ID&E Manager at Altria, leading key initiatives across the enterprise, including Data Analyses, Communications, Employee Resource Groups, Self-ID Campaigns and Learning & Development programming. At Altria, Camille held previous roles in the Consumer & Marketplace Insights and Corporate Affairs functions. Prior to joining Altria, Camille was the Associate Head of Multicultural Insights at Kantar Futures, where she led the development and implementation of the annual Multicultural MONITOR and consulted with clients, offering actionable insights for engaging specific under-represented or marginalized consumers and an evolving general market that is increasingly diverse and requiring more of the companies and brand they choose to support. Camille earned her B.S. in Business Administration along with a minor in Spanish from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She later earned her MBA at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School with a concentration in Marketing and Strategy. Find Camille Leak: Course Link: Real Talk & Brave Spaces: Getting Comfortable with Being Uncomfortable Website: Holistic Life Navigation LinkedIn: @camilleleak

2. 

   9 Aug 2022

   S2 EP7: with Dr. Crystal Menzies: Finding Inspiration from Maroon Communities to Guide Us Forward

   One of the barriers for well meaning white folks and BIPOC who want to see a better world is this belief in the inevitability of positive outcomes. Dr. Crystal Menzies When Dr. Menzies drops this pearl of insight into the latest Inclusive Life Podcast conversation with Nicole, Nicole names the “inevitability of positive outcomes” as “a uniquely U.S. American specific ‘cultural hiccup.’” The belief that it’ll all work out in the end suggests a reality that doesn’t comport with the history of revolutions. There’s no one “out there” who is going to save us. Dr. Crystal Menzies is a Black educator who has been on a quest for liberatory co-collaborators. She didn’t find them within the education system. She didn’t find them in non-profits, even within those organizations with anti-racist mission statements and rhetoric. Her truth telling was met with vilification and ostracization, even from her allies. Ultimately her quest- motivated by a desire to share the story of Black resistance, genius, and joy with her students- led her to the history and living reality of Maroon communities. Maroon communities are communities of self-emancipated Africans, folks who escaped from enslavement and started their own free rebel Black communities living in resistance to white supremacy and chattle slavery. These communities, varying in size, are a historical and living example of how, as Dr. Menzies shares, “folks get their freedom and maintain their freedom when surrounded by an oppressive system.” Her study of Maroon cultures were the impetus for her current work, EmancipatEd, where the vision is to soak in the Black history of resistance, joy, and innovation to reimagine what is possible for Black communities. The work of EmancipatEd is done in collaboration with people who are (actually factually) from Maroon communities from Accompong, Jamaica, San Basilio de Palenque, in Colombia and Helvecia Bahia, Brazil. Nicole and Dr. Menzies discuss that it is with these communities of resistance (and antagonism!) that we find a path forward in a time when the arc desperately needs more bending. Rather than a trust in the inevitability of justice, In Maroon communities, there is a fundamental “by any means necessary” determination. Maroon communities, both those that survived and didn’t, are rooted in self-defense, self-determination, and the building of alliances and community with like minded people. In Maroon communities, there is a unity of purpose upon which their survival depends. This unity doesn’t imply agreement on all things. In fact, embedded in this unity is the understanding that there will be trade-offs and radical sacrifice: it’s not going to be pretty. It’s so important to know this history and these amazing humans, and Dr. Menzies is devoted to bringing Maroon stories to her Black students. These stories awaken these children and teens to their own freedom stories already unfolding in themselves, their families, and their communities. It helps them thrive outside the white gaze. When people believe the arc of justice is already bent, it keeps them complacent and believing that somewhere out there is someone who will get us across the finish line to justice and liberation. The stories from Maroon people tell a different story: that we must actively, tenaciously, by-all-means-necessary bend it ourselves. We hope you enjoy this conversation! If you’d like to know more about Maroon communities throughout the world, you can begin here, and also explore EmancipatEd Hidden History Cards. About Dr. Menzies: Crystal Menzies, PhD (she/her) is an educator of Black and Brown youth, a postdoctoral researcher studying cultural community wealth, and the founder of EmancipatED. A former culturally responsive teacher in urban schools, Crystal aspired to teach her students about ways of being and thinking that did not center whiteness. However, she quickly realized that it would take more than being a “good teacher” to dismantle the systems of oppression that led to the systemic violence she and her students experienced. In an effort to tell a more expansive story of the Black experience across the Diaspora that didn’t perpetuate trauma narratives, Crystal traveled the globe to learn about the rich history of resistance and liberation movements that are often made invisible in our collective history books. Drawing on her Guyanese and African American roots, the legacy of Black educators, educational psychology, liberatory pedagogy, and African-Diasporan history, Crystal founded EmancipatED to uncover our hidden Black history. Through research-based educational products that center Black communities, Crystal hopes to create environments in which Black people, as a collective, can find joy, empowerment, and community through multi-generational learning. Her flagship product is an exploration kit that shares the stories of Maroon communities, which offers Black and Brown families a model for how to navigate as liberated beings within oppressive systems. She lives in the Bay Area (or the Yay area as she affectionately refers to it) and enjoys reading, Marvel movies, and daydreaming of Black Futures. Find Dr. Menzies: Website: EmancipatedEd IG: @emancipate_ed Tik Tok: @emancipate_ed

3. 

   25 Jul 2022

   S2 EP6: A Roadmap for Black Women to Thrive in the Workplace with Ericka Hines

   There is something about the Black Women Thriving (https://everylevelleads.com/bwt/) research project that feels a lot like love. It began with a personal need and grew into a much larger question: What would it take for Black women to thrive - not just survive - in the workplace? From this question, a massive project took shape. In this project, Founder of Every Level Leads, Ericka Hines and her team set out to understand Black cis and transgender women and Black gender expansive professionals and their experiences. Their goal was to understand them in all of their complexity. Ericka and Dr. Mako Fitts Ward wrote the report based on findings from 19 facilitated focus groups and a survey of over 1,400 Black cis and transgender and gender expansive professionals. Black Women Thriving was designed to find out - by listening to Black women - how organizations and businesses need to adapt so that Black women can thrive within them. It was created to understand exactly what thriving means to Black women. During this conversation with Nicole, Ericka shares a hope about the recently published Black Women Thriving Report: “I hope that Black women who read this feel the care and respect in which we held their stories.” For Black women and gender expansive folks to be seen (without being scrutinized), listened to, and centered in the workplace is exactly what Black Women Thriving is all about. Nicole and Ericka discuss the ways in which typical DEI efforts usually result in benefitting white women and do very little to create organizational excellence, let alone a workplace in which everyone can thrive, because those efforts are not rooted in intersectionality. Because businesses and organizations are typically built to honor the needs and norms of white men, people within these organizations do not necessarily even have eyes to see the solutions-based leadership skills that Black women bring to the workplace. And without eyes to see, these skills go unrewarded. According to the BWT Report, only 33% of Black women surveyed believe that job performance is evaluated fairly and only 50% of Black women surveyed who applied for a promotion within their organization received the promotion. And what will it take for Black women and gender expansive professionals to thrive in the workplace? It will take organizational change. Ericka is adamant: The recommendations in the report are for changes organizations must make. They are not changes for Black women to make to fit into a broken system. Ericka says, “We’re not going to ask Black women to do another thing,” namely contort themselves to fit into an organization that is not designed for them. The BWT Report is a blueprint, offering not only unique data, but straightforward recommendations for organizations to implement. And although these recommendations are not necessarily “plug and play” as Ericka mentions, they are specific, usable strategies. In their conversation, Ericka and Nicole discuss the reality that if organizations make recommended changes-- common sense but overlooked practices like providing mentorships and sponsorships from other women and People of Color-- then the organization becomes better for everyone. The BWT recommendations “literally make it fair” for all folks in the workplace. These recommendations have the potential for organizations to reach beyond mediocrity. Where does the report and its recommendations go from here? Now that it is complete, the Black Women Thriving Report is ready for us to give it both roots and wings. The roots will come from our commitment and time. The wings will come from our ingenuity, courage, and imagination. Ericka Hines and her team at Every Level Leadership have done their work. Now it's time to do ours. Read more about how each of us in the Inclusive Life community can support Black Women Thriving. About Ericka Hines: Ericka Hines is the Founder of Black Women Thriving and creator of the Black Women Thriving research project, an innovative and groundbreaking exploration of the lived experience of Black women in the workplace. This work is rooted in the belief that Black women deserve workplaces that support their care and healing, and that invest in their professional development at every level. Ericka is also the Principal of Every Level Leadership. She is an advisor and strategist who works with organizations to align their commitment to inclusion and equity with their everyday actions and operations. She has worked with government agencies, nonprofits, and foundations across the country to help their staff and stakeholders learn how to create inclusive culture. To date, Ericka has trained over 3,500 individuals in skills that will help them to be more equitable leaders for their teams and organizations. Ericka has served as lead researcher and a contributing author to the national publication: Awake to Woke to Work: Building a Race Equity Culture (https://equityinthecenter.org/aww/) published in 2018 by Equity in the Center. She holds a Juris Doctor from the University of Georgia School of Law and a BA in Political Science from Wright State University. Find Ericka: Every Level Leadership (https://everylevelleads.com/) Facebook: Black Women Thriving Instagram: blackwomxnthriving Twitter: @everylevelleads Download the BWT Report (https://everylevelleads.com/bwt/)

4. 

   12 Jul 2022

   S2 EP5: Processing the Post-Roe Reality with the Inclusive Life Team

   This episode of the Inclusive Life Podcast is an intimate conversation between Nicole and two members of her Inclusive Life team, Christina Hernandez and Laura Halpin. We convened to talk about our personal responses to the overturn of Roe v. Wade. We began with our own reactions, exploring our immediate sense of how each of our lives and our loved ones will be impacted. The Dobbs v. Jackson decision impacts all of us, and yet it is vital that we place this decision in a historical, social, and political context: the overturning of Roe v Wade is a massive step in a long history of reproductive oppression targeting Black, LGBTQ+, and other marginalized communities, who will be — and already are – most harmed by the protections that Roe v. Wade ensured. Forced pregnancy is a human rights violation, defined by the United Nations as a crime against humanity. Without access to abortion, all people with a uterus lose their ability to control their own destiny. We are seeing the immediate and chilling effects as it interferes with people, including children, getting the protection, health care, and medications they need. The political landscape has shifted dramatically in the past few weeks as Supreme Court decisions have eroded many of our basic rights. And we know that more rights are on the chopping block. In this conversation, Nicole refers to Clarence Thomas’s “stand back and stand by” concurring opinion in which he offers a road map for what the court will overturn next: the right to contraception (Griswold v. Connecticut), same-sex consensual relations (Lawrence v. Texas), and same sex marriage (Obergefell v. Hodges). We must remember – in our desire to respond in the chaos created by this decision – there is a web of reproductive health and reproductive justice organizations working to connect folks in need of reproductive care with protection and services. This is no time to reinvent the wheel which has the likely outcome of putting people in need of abortions at incredible risk. Voting is essential, but we must not stop there. If we are not mobilized beyond voting, we are as good as giving up. As Nicole shared, “Our actions need to be aligned with our values.” Values without action are empty and meaningless. At Inclusive Life, we know that we cannot act effectively or sustainably alone. We must be embedded in community, working against the forces that are designed to keep us isolated and fragmented. And so, in the next weeks, we will be creating a structure to build community around the strategies for the ground war ahead previously defined by Nicole. We are eager to tap into the expertise and leadership of Inclusive Life members. We are in this fight for the long haul because we must win. Pertinent Links: • The War on Our Bodies: The Phase of Cold Clarity (https://inclusivelife.co/the-war-on-our-bodies/) • There’s No Equity Without Reproductive Justice from the Adaway Group • Operation Save Abortion: It’s Not a March, It’s Your Training Day a day long training offered by Abortion Access Front on Sunday, July 17th. In this Episode Nicole, Christina and Laura touch on: • Where we were and what our initial reactions were when we first heard that Roe v Wade has been overturned • Shame and the way it made conversations about abortion avoidable • The implications of Dobbs for women’s healthcare • Clarence Thomas’s “Stand Back and Stand By” message • A court run amok: where are the checks and balances? • Democrats: what’s the plan? • Aligning actions with our values, no matter how the actions poll • The next steps for each of us • The implications of Dobbs on our parenting • The next steps for Inclusive Life in light of Dobbs

5. 

   16 May 2022

   S2EP4 Part 2: Fat Phobia is a Social Justice Issue with Dana Sturtevant, HIilary Kinavey, and Sirius Bonner

   “The white gaze is upon us at all times, and the ways in which Black bodies have been destroyed by whiteness are many. But this is just one of them.” - Sirius Bonner One thing to get straight: divorcing yourself from diet culture isn’t just about being fat, loud, and proud. Sirius Bonner, who joins Hilary Kinavey and Dana Sturtevant for Part 2 of this two-part Inclusive Life podcast, drives home the importance of rooting our own relationship with our bodies in the broader political context. The context? Fat bodies are subjected to systemic oppression. Sirius deepens the conversation Nicole, Hilary and Dana began in Part 1 around diet culture and racism. She shares “...There is a deeply connected root of anti-fatness and anti-Blackness from the time of slavery in the United States.” The conversation weaves from there into the complex ways anti-fatness shows up in the Black community—similar to the way colorism exists—as a means to keep themselves and their loved ones safe. Internalized oppression in the shape of internalized anti-fatness is tragically logical: Sonya Renee Taylor, in her book The Body is Not an Apology, writes: “We must not minimize or negate the impact of being told to hate or fear our bodies and the bodies of others. Living in a society structured to profit from our self-hate creates a dynamic in which we are so terrified of being ourselves that we adopt terror-based ways of being in our bodies.” These terror-based ways of being in our bodies cause so much daily suffering, resulting from, as Nicole says, “...living in a system that consistently tells you that from the moment of birth, you’re never going to be enough.” What’s difficult to see are the ways that white body supremacy couples' health and size. High blood pressure?  A person with a thin body is provided medication and other medical advice. A person with a large body is told to lose weight and then come back for additional medical care. Both fat and thin people develop high blood pressure, so identifying fatness as causative doesn’t make sense. Yet doctors still center weight as the cause of disease and weight loss as the cure. Just like the war on drugs, the war on obesity is a war on people, both rooted in anti-Blackness. Where can we begin to decouple fat and health? Fat and laziness? Fat and “you should try harder?” Fat and “it’s your fault?” First, we can each begin by developing and deepening an appreciation for the diversity of bodies. Body diversity has always existed and will always exist. We can lay down our arms. Second, we can shift our focus away from size and onto the social determinants of health, to understand the impact of fatphobia on fat folks’ health outcomes. Third, we can continually center the voices and lived experiences of Black queer women in this conversation. In this episode, Nicole, Sirius, Hilary, and Dana talk about: What’s beyond Body Positivity The marginalization of fat, Black, queer women in the Health at Every Size and Body Positivity movements De-centering the pursuit of health Taking an intersectional approach to size bias Rejecting dieting without an analysis The root of anti-fatness is anti-Blackness How diet culture shows up in a Black culture Fatness and proximity to whiteness Decoupling size and health Shifting the conversation to the social determinants of health Learning to become one’s own advocate Bios: Sirius Bonner is a passionate and noted presenter and facilitator. Sirius’ work focuses on the intersections between social justice issues such as racial oppression, reproductive justice, queer rights, anti-fat bias, educational equity, poverty, sexism, and liberation, recognizing that as we begin to untangle one issue, we can untangle them all. Sirius’ currently works at Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette as the Vice President of Equity and Inclusion. You can find Sirius at: On Instagram: Siriuswhileblack On TikTok: Siriuswhileblack Pre-order Dana and Hilary’s book Reclaiming Body Trust: A Path to Healing and Liberation set for publication in August 2022. Resources: Beyond Body Positivity: Adding Fatness to Your Intersectional Lens Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da’Shaun Harrison

6. 

   3 May 2022

   S2EP4 Part 1: Fat Phobia is a Social Justice Issue with Dana Sturtevant and HIilary Kinavey

   “We all eat for emotional reasons. That’s normal. Food is flavored with complex meanings. It connects us with our culture and our ancestry and heritage. We eat to celebrate. We eat to grieve. Food is an emotional thing for human beings. When we dumb it down to its nutritional components and see it only as a vehicle to give us nutrients, we are missing so much.” - Dana Sturtevant If you haven’t yet considered weight stigma as a social justice issue, today is the day you begin. Diet culture is an insidious arm of white supremacy culture that has removed us from our bodies, from pleasure, and from our connection to our heritage. It has caused untold suffering to folks in fat bodies, impacting access to health care services, opportunities, and access to simply feeling good moving about in the world without shame and blame. This conversation between Nicole and Dana Sturtevant and Hilary Kinavey, part one of a two-part episode, is one that lifts the lid on grief and loss. We have been fed so many lies. Diet culture shapeshifts when we start to catch onto its oppression. We may have given up on counting calories and tracking points, but we strive to “eat clean” and “make healthy lifestyle changes” or go paleo or do intermittent fasting…whatever the latest trend to make our own bodies more acceptable or to weaponize against folks in larger bodies. We learn early on that our bodies are problems to be solved, and that restricting food or eating just the right combination of nutrients will solve the problem. We are taught that there are right and wrong ways to live in a body. Hilary shares, “People who occupy [fat bodies] are not able to function in the culture or pursue their joys, their lives, their bliss in the culture because fatness is considered something they have to resolve before they can get access to what they need.” As Dana and Hilary share, the healthcare industry has centered “health care” around the Body Mass Index, the creation of a white statistician and founder of phrenology, a racist pseudoscience. The BMI was created not as a measurement of individual health, but as a tool to track populations for the insurance industry. The Body Mass Index has now been used for years in doctors' offices, in the field of dietetics, by the diet industry, and by professional trainers as a tool to measure health by means of body size. It’s bogus. It’s racist. One alternative to the conventional paradigm of food, body image, and weight-centered health care is Body Trust, a process by which we can all learn to live more peacefully and compassionately in our bodies. As with all our social justice work, in the work of fat liberation, we must center the voices, work, and lived experiences of the most marginalized, namely fat Black queer femmes. We encourage you to disrupt diet culture and weight stigma in your own life by listening to the folks most harmed and developing an analysis so you can see the ways in which diet culture is expressing itself in your relationship with your body and other bodies. It is time to divest. As a community, let’s hold one another in generous accountability for doing this work. In this episode, Nicole, Hilary, and Dana talk about: • The origin story of Be Nourished • “Healthy lifestyle” behavior is dieting behavior • The empty promises of weight loss • What happens when we compliment someone’s body after weight loss • The racist roots of the BMI (see sources below for further reading) • Our indoctrination into diet culture • Diet culture’s focus on pathologizing foods of Black and Brown people • White dominance in dietetics • Weight stigma as a social justice issue • Reclaiming “fat” as a neutral descriptor • Beginning the journey of body trust About Dana and Hilary: Dana Sturtevant is the co-founder of Be Nourished, LLC and co-creator of Body Trust®. She is a registered dietitian, educator, and trainer whose work focuses on humanizing health care, advancing health equity, and advocating for body sovereignty and food justice. A member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers since 2002, Dana travels around the country training helping professionals in communication and engagement strategies that lead to positive change. As a sought after speaker and writer, Dana is a champion for compassionate, weight-inclusive models of care and offers supervision, training, and consultation for helping professionals and health care organizations. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Scientific American, Self, Real Simple, Huffington Post, and on the TEDx stage. Learn more at benourished.org. Hilary Kinavey, MS, LPC is the co-founder of Be Nourished, LLC and co-creator of Body Trust®. Her work as a licensed professional counselor, coach, educator and writer is informed by a relational, systemic and social justice lens. Her career has been a study of what interrupts our sense of wholeness and how we can return to ourselves in a culture that profits from fragmentation. She is a sought-after speaker and facilitator on topics such as weight-inclusive approaches, weight bias, Body Trust® and the intersections of activism and therapy. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Scientific American, Huffington Post, and on the TEDx stage. Learn more at benourished.org. You can find Dana and Hilary at BeNourished.org (https://benourished.org/) On Instagram @benourishedpdx On Twitter @BeNourished Pre-order Dana and Hilary’s book Reclaiming Body Trust: A Path to Healing and Liberation set for publication in August 2022. Resources: An article on the racist history of the BMI Fearing the Black Body: the Racialized Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness as Anti-Blackness by Da’Shaun Harrison Research article evaluating the evidence for a weight inclusive approach to health: The Weight-Inclusive versus Weight-Normative Approach to Health Podcast episodes for further investigation: Healthism: The Desire to Be Healthy Gone Wrong Rebuilding Body Trust: the Importance of Unlearning and Why Body Liberation is for Everyone Anti-Fat Bias and Weight Stigma in Psychotherapy

7. 

   19 Apr 2022

   S2EP3: Joy & Revolution Now with Jennifer Davis

   "Creativity and engaging in creativity can offer insight into how we move forward." - Jennifer Davis There’s a sturdy and subversive thread woven through Jennifer Davis’s life and work: Where there’s an expectation to do things a certain way, of conformity or straight lines, because that’s how it’s always been done, Jennifer’s life is all about saying, “Nope. I’m doing it differently.” It feels like the “yes” and the path for Jennifer is in the joy, in the curvy unpatterned strokes of her paintbrush, in the “let’s try this and see what happens.” In her work and life, Jennifer is exploring where creativity and liberation intersect, asking how creativity as a practice can inform the work of liberation. She shares, “Creativity, in so many ways, is almost the exact opposite of oppression and oppressive systems, which demand perfection and accuracy and get-it-right-everytime.”  In her work alone and with other folks, she explores how creativity can provide a way forward, with its space for play, questions, and mistakes that turn out to be openings for something new to emerge. And although social justice is a serious endeavor, the “work of liberation” has to be infused with play and joy.  Nicole identifies this in Jennifer’s art, this pairing of the whimsical and innocent with powerful political statements. The conversation lands on a “press pause” moment when they identify that their ability as Black women to find joy, innovation, and art is inherent in the struggle-- a truth that’s easy to miss if you’re not living it. Jennifer makes it harder to miss. In this conversation, in Jennifer’s work, in her love of texture and color, in her completely joyful lip synch/dance thing on Instagram, there’s an irresistible invitation into joy and play. Joy and revolution now. Joy is the revolution now. Please listen in, and after you do, let us know how the conversation surfaces for you. We’d love to hear from you. We also invite you to check out Jennifer’s Play and Healing at the Intersections: Conversations on Creativity and Liberation, monthly gatherings where folks convene to talk and “make marks” together. In this episode, Nicole and Jennifer touch on: • Jennifer’s intention in pairing the whimsical and the political in her art • How getting stuck in outgrown ideologies can steal the joy • Art and healing • The importance of “marrying joy and challenges” • Jennifer’s insistence on centering her existence on joy and community, not oppression • Exploring the intersection of creativity and liberation • Their refusal to engage in “trauma wasting” • “Get in bitches. We’re being inclusive.” Bio: Jennifer Price Davis is a Cleveland-based painter, illustrator, and writer.  As a primarily self-taught artist, as a practice, Jennifer paints what pops into her soul and demands to come to life.  Jennifer has a BA in psychology and an MA in art therapy counseling. Until very recently, she was a teacher of 1st through 3rd graders. Prior to her work as a teacher, she was a career counselor. Jennifer’s work focuses primarily on black culture and what it means to exist in black bodies, with emphasis on black women and girls. She is particularly interested in illuminating the ordinary. In the ordinary, Jennnifer sees something both achingly beautiful, immensely political, and even revolutionary, about the ability to exist and move about the world safely and confidently in ordinary ways. Her goal is to participate in the progress of liberation through every bit of her work. You can find Jennifer at jenniferpricedavis.com (https://www.jenniferpricedavis.com/) On Instagram: @jenpdavis You can purchase her products at Redbubble: JenPriceDavis Learn more about Play and Healing at the Intersections: Conversations on Creativity and Liberation You can support her work at Patreon

8. 

   5 Apr 2022

   S2EP2: Disrupting Business as Usual with Pamela Slim

   “If you’re designing a space for the most marginalized folks, by definition, the entire experience is going to be more inclusive for everybody.” It is a gift to have Pamela Slim as our guest for the official start of Inclusive Life Podcast Season 2. The conversation illuminates Pam’s skills at disrupting business as usual. She points out over and over again the choices business owner’s can make to cultivate one’s business as an ecosystem versus approaching business building as an empire, amassing market power through competition, extraction, and hierarchy. The conversation opens with the metaphorical opening of Pam’s new book, The Widest Net, which she’s dedicated to her dearest friend, Desiree Adaway (https://adawaygroup.com/). Pam holds up Desiree as a model for inclusive business leadership. Clarity, honesty, and revolutionary love are what she brings both to their friendship and to those she manages. What Pam and Nicole are highlighting in this opening tribute to Desiree is the tap root of a thriving ecosystem: companionship and community built around shared values. As listeners, you will feel the strong weaving of the net. A competitive, scarcity-based, transactional approach to business success is isolating and rigid. There is little room for mistakes or authenticity. And if there is no room for authenticity, then there truly is no room for inclusion. Many of us are in the process of building business, with all the insecurity and fear that accompany this journey. Often, equity and inclusion are values we want to work in AFTER our businesses have reached a certain level of stability. Once we get “there,” we’ll really focus on equity. What Pam has seen in her long career in coaching business owners is that it doesn’t get easier to prioritize equity and inclusion later. In fact, without centering equity and inclusion at the outset (or starting now), business owners inadvertently build their businesses with practices that center whiteness and hierarchy. Nicole and Pam weed out the central themes of The Widest Net and Pam’s evolving approach to business and coaching. They identify that practicing clarity, consistency, and ecosystems in an iterative, synergistic, and curiosity-fueled cycle is a way to weave a wide supportive, inclusive net. Mind you, Pam is not talking about casting a net, which is much more of an empire building approach. She’s talking about weaving a net that draws folks (including you!) into a supportive, connected community where everyone’s unique gifts and lived experiences are valued and each can thrive. This is not easy work. And that’s exactly why we need a wide net. Listen in. We can’t wait to hear your takeaways. The conversation also includes: Equity and inclusion: not “nice to haves” but qualities and practices that fuel businesses The validation that all of us business owners and managers are agents of change doing transformational work The importance of being open Why there is never a better time than now to build an inclusive and equitable business Choosing curiosity as a posture when leaning into inclusion and equity, especially as a new business owner Disrupting empire building while building our businesses A discussion of transformation and transaction that transcends the binary The three themes of The Widest Net Bio: Pamela Slim is an award-winner author, speaker and business coach who works with small business owners ready to scale their businesses and IP. She is the author of Escape from Cubicle Nation (https://pamelaslim.com/books/) (Penguin Portfolio, 2009), Body of Work (https://pamelaslim.com/books/) (Penguin Portfolio, 2014) and The Widest Net (McGraw Hill, November, 2021). Pam and her husband Darryl Slim (https://darrylslim.com/) co-founded the K’é Main Street Learning Lab in Mesa, Arizona, where they host scores of diverse community leaders and regular small business programming. You can find Pam at: PamelaSlim.com (https://pamelaslim.com/) Twitter: @pamslim Facebook: @pamela.slim LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pamelaslim/ Instagram: @pamslim

9. 

   8 Mar 2022

   S2EP1: The Russian-Ukrainian Conflict from an Antiracist, Progressive Perspective: a Conversation with Dr. Clarence Lusane

   For many people alarmed at the very visible anti-Black racism at the outset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine two weeks ago, it’s important to understand more about the history of Afro Ukrainians and Africans in Ukraine. This conversation between Dr. Clarence Lusane and Nicole Lee sheds some light. We’ll learn that it is not a new history. Dr. Lusane, who has traveled and taught in Ukraine and all over the world, shared that after Ghana became independent from British colonial rule in 1957, and in 1960 when 17 other African countries gained their independence from colonial rule, thousands of students arrived in both Russia and Ukraine to study from countries all over Africa, including South Africa, Morocco and Tanzania. Thousands. African students over the years have been drawn to Ukraine for studies including in STEM and medicine because it was relatively welcoming, inexpensive and easy to study there. In 2014, after Russia invaded Crimea, pro-Russian, fascist, nationalistic militias rose up in eastern Ukraine, taking over the Donetsk and Luhansk republics. It was here in the east that African students were kidnapped and violently abused by these pro-right insurgents. Now, in addition to these Africans having arrived to study 60-65 years ago, there are second and third generation Afro-Ukrainians in Ukraine, as well as other diasporic Africans. When Putin refers to neo-Nazism in Ukraine he is, not surprisingly, twisting facts and history. As is true most everywhere in the world, there are neo-Nazis in Ukraine, even serving in the Ukrainian government. Despite that, neo-Nazism does not drive Ukrainian public policy. This conversation gets to the important nuance missed in reporting and social media. There is an important challenge toward the end responding to the question “What is the way forward for progressives?” We hope you’ll listen in. About Dr. Clarence Lusane: Dr. Clarence Lusane is a full Professor and former Chairman of Howard University’s Department of Political Science.  He is an author, activist, scholar, lecturer, and journalist. He has been in the fight for national and international human rights and justice for well over 40 years. He is a pioneer in anti-racism politics. He has written about and been active in U.S. foreign policy, democracy building, and social justice issues such as education, criminal justice, and drug policy.  His research focuses on the intersection of race and politics in the US and globally ranging from human rights and social equity to social movements and public policy. As a scholar, researcher, policy-advocate, and activist, he has traveled to over 70 nations. He has lectured on U.S. race relations and human rights in Brazil, Colombia, China, Cuba, Germany, Guyana, Guadeloupe, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, North Korea, Pakistan, Panama, Rwanda, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, Turkey, and Ukraine among others. He has taught and been on the faculty at Medgar Evers College, Columbia University and American University, and been a visiting professor and lecturer in the UK, Ukraine, France, Russia, South Korea, New Zealand and Japan. In addition to his forthcoming book,Twenty Dollars and Change: Harriet Tubman vs. Andrew Jackson, and the Future of American Democracy, he is also the author of The Black History of the White House, Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice: Foreign Policy, Race, and the New American Century; Hitler’s Black Victims: The Experiences of Afro-Germans, Africans, Afro-Europeans and African Americans During the Nazi Era; Race in the Global Era: African Americans at the Millennium; and Pipe Dream Blues:  Racism and the War on Drugs among others.

10. 

    2 Feb 2021

    EP9: Rest: a Practice to Meet Urgent Times with Jen Lemen

    “There’s a way that we can meet urgent moments without the spirit of urgency. That requires a competency and capacity that comes from deep grounding and regulation. Being able to show up consistently in ritual, rhythm and routine.” This conversation with Jen Lemen feels like strong medicine. With so many of us understandably depleted and exhausted, this topic of rest and sensitively responding to the needs of our bodies is so important and resonant. Jen has learned, through her own relationships forged in times of urgency and danger, to “interrupt” urgency. The interruption can be as simple as an intentional step outside, or a deliberate hand on the heart while taking a deep breath. But these interruptions can not be a “one and done” deal. What was fascinating is that Jen talks about stepping away and resting as a ”competency,” which suggests that rest is a learnable skill acquired through practice. If we practice day to day, in the form of simple supportive rhythms, rituals and routines, we cultivate stamina and resilience, thus equipping ourselves to arrive in urgent times with clarity and creativity. What Jen is talking about is taking some level of ownership over our nervous system regulation. She shares, “Regulation is the secret sauce.” This regulation can be sourced from one’s own competence, and also from co-regulation, or synching to the nervous systems of others. We do this naturally, whether the people we are with are well-regulated or not. Thus we can see our own self-tending as a way to care for our people as well. The activity of our pre-frontal lobe is inhibited in times of fear and heightened stress. This is the part of our brains that is associated with impulse control, critical thinking, long term planning and even optimism -- all necessary components to imagining and creating new systems of care. With rhythms, rituals and routines, the body is coaxed out of a fight or flight mode. We instinctively lean on rhythms, rituals and routines for babies and small children, but we lose sight of these vital practices. Actually, white supremacy culture, with its emphasis on perfectionism, urgency and relentless productivity, socialize us to let go of these practices, making stopping and resting seem superfluous and self-indulgent. A Black leader of this counter-cultural rest movement is Tricia Hersey, the founder of the Nap Ministry, who promotes rest for individuals and napping as a public communal practice. The need for rest is of particular importance for Black Americans whose ability to rest and sleep deeply has been damaged over generations by white supremacy culture, with significant physical and psychological health fall out. Not only is rest more difficult because of the trauma of anti-Black racism, but Hersey says, “...Black people...have been socialized to believe you have to do more and work harder to equalize yourself....It’s a disservice to paint it that way because it’s not true. It’s a lie. It adds to the sleep deprivation that is mental and psychological that we don’t deserve rest.” The reminders and exhortation to rest, to pause, to create deliberate interruptions to busy-ness are so helpful to hear. It may take time to unlearn urgency and busy-ness. That’s why Jen’s reminder to begin with self-compassion feels like a good starting place. It doesn’t make sense to berate ourselves into taking a nap or getting some sunshine on our faces. We can’t wait for you to listen in and share your takeaways with us. Nicole and Jen talked about: Being grounded and rested as a core competency of activism Practicing rest as an act of resistance How to meet urgent moments without the spirit of urgency The ways in which white supremacy culture show up in movement spaces The power of stillness and co-regulation to move our movements forward How not to use this practice to bypass people’s pain and harm “Above the Line/Below the line” Mutual aide: what it looks like, what it feels like Where and how to begin with rhythm, rituals, and routines if you’re exhausted and disconnected Why rest is necessary to access creativity, defiance and compassion What an Inclusive Life means to Jen Bio: Jen Lemen is a mother, a friend and spiritual resource to activists, organizers and emerging leaders around the country and the globe. Jen's thought leadership work in the Path of Devotion and The Nest emphasizes the (un)learning required in body, mind and soul in order to embrace radical collective care. An avid map maker, Jen charts the processes we go through to shed conditioning, break with ancestral patterns of harm and renounce staunch individualism for greater response-ability to our local communities and the collective. Through online gathering and on the ground organizing, Jen believes that resistance happens in community and that we get to the work at hand in our bodies, connected to our intuition and able to move with our collective guidance together like starlings. Jen's work seeks to make granular and specific the ways oppression operates in us to interfere with that process and offers ways to break with the embodied patterns that harm. Jen lives in Silver Spring, Maryland with her son Carter and her dog Pip. Find Jen: Path of Devotion (https://thepathofdevotion.com/) On Instagram: PathofDevotionBasics jenlemen (https://www.instagram.com/jenlemen/) Mentioned in this episode: “The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House,” by Audre Lorde The Nap Ministry (https://thenapministry.wordpress.com/)

11. 

    20 Jan 2021

    EP8: “Stop the Steal” Insurrection: the Black Movement Law Project Responds with Tanay Lynn Smith, nash Shearer, Abi Hassen, and Marques Banks

    This conversation amongst friends is a peek into the deep complexities of keeping Black, Indigenous, People of Color, and other marginalized folks safe while they activate and organize for liberation. Black Movement Law Project is about the intentional and deliberate work of first protecting (physically and legally) the people in movement spaces. At the same time, the work of BMLP is supporting local communities to develop sustainable infrastructure so that the people within movement spaces are empowered and cared for. BMLP’s origins thread back to Ferguson and with nash, even further back into the Occupy Movement.  Their work has been fundamental across the country as people protest police brutality and the terrorizing of Black and other mariginalized people by police. What surfaces in this conversation is the strategy and forward-thinking necessary to liberate marginalized folks when working within systems that are designed to subjugate them. Every move must be carefully turned over, anticipating the fall-out way down the road. Historically, as Abi asserts, the very institutions that cause the crises usually come out twice as strong in the end. Thus, with loud calls for accountability for the crimes of the white supremacist insurrectionists, movement people must be mindful of the unintended consequences. During this conversation, for example, Tanay, Nicole, Abi, nash, and Marques carefully turn over how policies regulating hate speech can eventually be used to clamp down on marginalized people trying to organize around systems of oppression. It was fascinating to listen to this “think tank” do its thinking. and see their understanding of the current state of anti-oppression work evolve. Their strategizing and BMLP operations are rooted in their lived experiences as People of Color on the ground during uprisings and their desire to support movement spaces from a place of relationship. No one gets thrown away. As nash says, “Liberation is collective or it’s non-existent.” In this episode, we talked about: The origin story of the Black Movement Law Project, with its intention to create a proactive space for Black leadership in jail and legal support for the Black Lives Matter activists The priority and focus of  BMLP: to help build up the capacities and infrastructure in local Black-led communities to make movement work sustainable The work now in movement work: to create opportunities for entry The glaring differences in policing white supremacists v. Black activists fighting for their lives and Constitutional rights Monitoring hate speech on social media platforms The level of organization amongst white supremacists during the insurrection and the likelihood of support from the inside How white supremacist mobs in DC highlight Washingtonian’s need for statehood, a community that is mostly Black and without representation in the federal government The very complex difficulties in demanding accountability for the traitors while not putting Black and other marginalized folks at greater risk long term. The systems of accountability are built to oppress marginalized people. The way discernment and intuition guides each of their decision making in dangerous, critical moments What it means to live an inclusive life Bio: Tanay Lynn Harris Tanay Lynn Harris is the Founder and Principal Strategist of Tenacity Consulting. As a facilitator, organizer, and abolitionist, she advises and supports organizations to achieve equitable and transformative change through learning journeys and critical social consciousness. She is committed to holistic approaches to cultivating change-makers and ushering in liberation and transformation through the building and cultivation of relationships and reimagining a world anew. Tanay worked for the Center for African American Research and Public Policy at Temple University as a co-coordinator and was an educator in Philadelphia. Her time as a grassroots organizer in Philadelphia learning from leading activists, scholars, and building in the community, she learned more deeply Tanay has worked on some of the nation's leading high-profiled legal cases and pressing issues of our time. She is a former national organizer at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc (LDF) in New York City. Tanay worked with leaders and community members in various cities across the country to help build capacity and momentum, based on their collective needs and wants. She worked on several Supreme Court cases and was a member of the legal team for Mumia Abu-Jamal. Her work at LDF was at the intersection of death penalty abolition, criminal justice, juvenile justice, educational equity, and voter suppression. After her time at LDF, she worked with global ecumenical faith leaders around social justice and human rights issues through a liberation theology lens. Tanay leveraged legal support in Ferguson and Baltimore during the Uprising, to protect the rights of protestors and the community through holistic legal and technical support. She works with Black Movement Law Project where she continues to support as a community coordinator. Building the power of and with impacted people and communities is critical to creating meaningful and lasting change. Additionally, Tanay is dedicated to maternal and birthing persons' health and reproductive justice as a birth worker, researcher, and care worker. She is a Kindred Partner with the Black Mamas Matter Alliance and a member of the Maryland Maternal Health Taskforce. She is on the Advisory Board of CLLCTIVLY in Baltimore, which provides an ecosystem of support for Black-led businesses and organizations. Tanay is a graduate of Africana Studies/African American studies at Temple University and the Center for Social Impact Strategies from the University of Pennsylvania. Nathan “nash” Sheard Nathan "nash" Sheard is a cofounder and legal organizer with Black Movement Law Project (BMLP). nash's work is informed by lived experience with aggressive and militarized policing, including racial profiling, the effects of biased broken windows policing tactics, and police brutality. nash has worked extensively to help mitigate the damage of harmful interactions with law enforcement online and in over-policed communities. In addition to organizing with BMLP, nash is a founding member of the Mutant Legal activist collective and Associate Director of Community Organizing at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). nash has spent close to a decade training communities in crisis on how to document police conduct, exercise their legal rights, counteract state repression, and actively participate in their own legal defense. Marques Banks Marques Banks Works as a Justice Project Staff Attorney at the National Office of Advancement Project, a next generation, multi-racial civil rights organization. Prior to joining, Advancement Project in 2020, Marques worked at the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs as an Equal Justice Works Fellow sponsored by Covington & Burling, LLP. During his fellowship, Marques challenged the criminalization of poverty, through direct representation and policy advocacy for individuals subject to overly onerous fines, fees and jail time for minor offenses. After his fellowship ended, Marques continued to work at the Washington Lawyers’ Committee challenging policing practices in the D.C. area. During law school, Marques interned at NAACP Legal Defense Fund. He worked as a research assistant for Professor Justin Hansford, Saint Louis University School of Law. He also participated in Columbus Community Legal Services’ Advocacy for the Elderly Clinic, representing individuals denied social security benefits. Marques helped create Black Movement-Law Project (https://bmlp.org/), an organization providing legal support to the activists and organizations of the Movement for Black Lives. He provided legal support in Ferguson, MO, Baltimore, MD, and other cities across the U.S. During the 2015 uprising in Baltimore, Marques trained hundreds of legal observers. Marques is a graduate of The Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law. He is a member of Law 4 Black Lives DC (http://www.law4blacklivesdc.com/) and Black Lives Matter DC. Abi Hassen Abi Hassen is a political philosophy student, attorney, technologist, and co-founder of Black Movement Law Project, (https://bmlp.org/) a legal support rapid response group that grew out of the uprisings in Ferguson, Baltimore and elsewhere. Abi is currently a partner at O’Neill and Hassen LLP (http://oandh.net/), a law practice focused on indigent criminal defense. Prior to this current work, Abi was the Mass Defense Coordinator at the National Lawyers Guild. He has also worked as a political campaign manager and strategist, union organizer, and community organizer. Abi is particularly interested in exploring the dynamic nature of institutions, political movements, and their interactions from the perspective of Complex Systems studies. Resources: Bios for Tanay, nash, Marques and Abi Mumia Abul Jamal is an internationally celebrated black writer and radio journalist, a former member of the Black Panther Party who has spent the last 30 years in prison, almost all of it in solitary confinement on Pennsylvania’s Death Row. Dr. Ashon Crawley is a teacher, writer, and artist who engages a wide range of critical paradigms to theorize the ways in which “otherwise” modes of existence can serve as disruptions against the marginalization of and violence against minoritarian lifeworlds and as possibilities for flourishing. Section 230: “The most important law protecting internet speech.” Kettling: is a controversial police tactic for controlling large crowds (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowd_control) during demonstrations or protests (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protest) where police officers form large cordons which move to corral a crowd within a smaller, contained area. This tactic has resulted in the detention of  bystanders as well as protesters. — Thank you so much for joining us! Our conversation continues on Facebook in our Inclusive Life Community. You can also follow us on Instagram and learn more at www.inclusivelife.co. Please click here to leave a review for The Inclusive Life Podcast. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app to get notified when a new episode comes out! Instagram @inclusivelife (https://www.instagram.com/inclusivelife/) Facebook @inclusivelife (https://www.facebook.com/inclusivelife) Facebook Group @Inclusive Life Website www.inclusivelife.co Subscribe to The Inclusive Life Podcast Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts

12. 

    6 Jan 2021

    EP7: What is Your Role? Understanding the Ecosystem of Social Change and Where You Fit In with Deepa Iyer

    We’ve all heard the phrase “stay in your lane,” an admonition that can actually cause paralysis for people just stepping into social change work. When thinking about activism, I wanted to share a framework that holds the concept of “lanes” more loosely and graciously. Deepa Iyer, author of We Too Sing America: South Asian, Arab, Muslim and Sikh Immigrants Shape Our Multiracial Future and creator of the podcast Solidarity Is This, created a tool, “Mapping our Roles in Social Change Ecosystems” in 2017.  Deepa describes the framework as a tool that “can help individuals, networks, and organizations align and get in right relationship with social change values, individual roles, and the broader ecosystem.” It is a framework that can deepen our understanding of the many necessary roles that people play in social change. The Social Change Ecosystem Map can be a mirror we hold up to ourselves, prompting necessary introspection. Looking at the wheel of roles I might ask myself: Is my “occupation” of multiple roles actually harming the success of this organization? Is there someone else who might step into a role I’ve traditionally held onto? Is the role I play the best use of my interests and skills? Does it give me joy? A map is also a tool that helps us understand the nuance and dynamism of social change organizations. Importantly, it can help each of us respond more confidently to the question “Where do I fit in? What is my role?” Like most frameworks, the Social Change Ecosystem allows for fluidity and change. For example, we might find that in one organization or area of social change, we play one role. In another organization, we may find we fit most comfortably into another role. In addition, our roles may change over time. The beauty of this framework is that it compels us to see these roles as equally important, even though traditionally, we may hold up Frontline Responders or Disruptors as more important than, say, the Caregivers or Storytellers. It is interesting to consider the ways that white patriarchal supremacy has infiltrated the social change ecosystem, causing us to hold certain roles as more or less valuable. Deepa and I begin the conversation by talking about co-liberation and the importance of centering anti-Black liberation as a means of liberation for all. At the same time, centering anti-Black liberation does not mean that understanding other forms of oppression is not important. Again, we must be on the lookout for the ways that supremacy divides us even in our anti-racism work. We’d be delighted to hear what questions this conversation raises for you and encourage you to take advantage of the Roles for Social Change Map and Reflection Guide (see below). Consider not only your role in your organization but also in your family and community. In this podcast, Deepa and I talked about: How galvanizing moments invite us to integrate action into our lives; What solidarity means: a bridge between our internal commitment and an active commitment to end anti-Black racism; Why a commitment to ending anti-Black racism is a commitment to ending racism altogether against everyone; Why social change work is at its core relationship building; Deepa’s Social Change Ecosystem and its roles; How to use it personally and within organizations How it can push a person to step more deeply into a role, or let go of outgrown or less aligned roles; How organizations can use it as a tool for analysis about its ecosystem Why the Ecosystem of Social Change disrupts the concept of hierarchy in social change Bio: Deepa Iyer is a South Asian American writer, strategist, lawyer, and racial justice advocate. Currently, Deepa is a Strategic Advisor at Building Movement Project and Director of Solidarity Is, a project that provides trainings, narratives, and resources on building deep and lasting multiracial solidarity. Deepa’s areas of expertise include the post 9/11 America experiences of South Asian, Muslim, Arab and Sikh immigrants, immigration and civil rights policies, and racial equity and solidarity practices. Deepa has worked at various national and local organizations with a focus on immigrant and racial justice. She served as executive director of South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) for a decade, and has also held positions at Race Forward, the US Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, the Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center, and the Asian American Justice Center. Deepa has received fellowships from Open Society Foundations and the Social Change Initiative, and in 2019, she received an honorary doctoral degree from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. Iyer serves on the Advisory Council of the Emergent Fund, which resources grassroots organizing and power building in communities of color who are facing injustice based on racial, ethnic, religious and other forms of discrimination. Deepa’s first book, We Too Sing America: South Asian, Arab, Muslim and Sikh Immigrants Shape Our Multiracial Future (The New Press 2015), received a 2016 American Book Award and was selected as a top 10 multicultural non-fiction books of 2015 by Booklist.  Since We Too Sing America was published, Deepa has been part of over 50 community conversations around the country on the themes in the book, at college campuses, non-profit organizations, faith-based institutions among others. Deepa hosts a podcast called Solidarity Is This (https://www.solidarityis.org/), available on iTunes, and provides trainings on racial equity and solidarity to non-profits, government agencies, public and private stakeholders, educators, and institutions of higher learning.  Iyer also regularly facilitates group gatherings and strategy sessions. An immigrant who moved to Kentucky from Kerala (India) when she was twelve, Deepa graduated from the University of Notre Dame Law School and Vanderbilt University. Follow her on Twitter @dviyer. Resources: Deepa Iyer’s Social Change Ecosystem, including the Map, the Roles and the Reflection Guide In the Midst of the Pandemic, Why is the IMF Still Pushing Austerity on the Global South? By Soren Ambrose — Thank you so much for joining us! Our conversation continues on Facebook in our Inclusive Life Community. You can also follow us on Instagram and learn more at www.inclusivelife.co. Please click here to leave a review for The Inclusive Life Podcast. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app to get notified when a new episode comes out! Instagram @inclusivelife (https://www.instagram.com/inclusivelife/) Facebook @inclusivelife (https://www.facebook.com/inclusivelife) Facebook Group @Inclusive Life Website www.inclusivelife.co Subscribe to The Inclusive Life Podcast Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts

13. 

    25 Nov 2020

    EP6: Navigating Holiday Conversations, Version 2020

    In this conversation with Ericka Hines and Heather Laine Talley, we are looking at Holidays 2020 as a new and different creature. We are approaching the holidays desperately needing connection and yet we are divided not only by our political beliefs but our differing boundaries around COVID social distancing and even our varying attachments to reality. It is tough terrain. Obviously, we need to think this through and reexamine the tools we usually bring to navigate holiday gatherings. What isn’t working? What tools might work better at bridging divides at the holiday table? For one, Ericka, Heather, and Nicole discuss the need to make our fluid and implicit boundaries clear and explicit. Will we gather in the same room with masks? Get tested prior to meeting? Skip in-person celebrations all together? We have to say out loud what we need to feel safe this season. Second, we need to shift our understanding of boundaries. Ericka brilliantly suggests that we see boundaries as a form of cooperation, not separation. For example, how might we see one’s decision to wear a mask as a “tiny gesture of care” rather than a political statement? Third, how can we enter spaces in a way that invites our own and others’ humanity? Where “being right” isn’t as important as connecting and listening? This doesn’t mean that we avoid difficult topics, but instead, we employ curiosity, compassion, and empathy as tactics to create opportunities for transformation. No matter how righteous we feel in our beliefs, as Heather puts it, “How can I be a pleasant person that others want to be in conversation with?” We move into a fascinating exploration of “cancel culture.” We look at what “cancel culture” as a solution actually accomplishes. For example, what happens to the Amy Coopers of the world after their social media takedowns fade? Are they more or less open to antiracist practices? How is “cancel culture” supported by Black queer feminist pedagogy with its teaching “All of us or none of us”? This holiday season, no matter how exhausted and stressed we might be, it’s so important to soften to one another’s humanity. After the bleakness of 2020, it’s medicinal to look at creative solutions for healing and thriving. Ericka Hines’ work provides us with an opportunity to do that. Black Womxn Thriving is a research and solution generating project that was born from Ericka’s own need in the workforce. Over the next decade, Ericka will be looking at what keeps Black womxn from thriving and then coming up with data-driven solutions to help Black womxn to thrive in their chosen work environments. We are thrilled to support this work Ericka was born to do. Knowing how the country’s election results were determined by the strategizing, organizing, and work of Black womxn, the very least we can do is support their care and healing through this project. Support Black Womxn Thriving Fund: Ericka, Heather, and I talked about: Vigilance, introversion, and loneliness The need for explicit boundaries Navigating boundaries in a time where people can’t agree on what’s real Wearing masks as a gesture of care Entering conversations to create shift and possibility Compassion and empathy as tactics rather than feelings “Cancel Culture” Black queer feminists: “It’s going to be all of us or none of us.” Ericka’s new research project, Black Womxn Thriving, and its inherent optimism and vision What it means to live an “inclusive life” Ericka Hines Ericka Hines, Principal of Every Level Leadership, is a consultant, advisor, strategist, and senior trainer who works with organizations to align their commitment to inclusion and equity with their everyday actions and operations. She has worked with government agencies, nonprofits and foundations across the country to help their staff and stakeholders learn how to work in more inclusive cultures. To date, she has trained over 8,000 individuals in skills that will help them be more inclusive , equitable, and skilled leaders for their teams and organizations. She has also served as a lead researcher and a contributing author to the national publication: Awake to Woke to Work: Building a Race Equity Culture published in 2018 by Equity in the Center. Clients have included the Promise Venture Studios, The Climate Service, Join For Justice, ProInspire, Equity in the Center, Save The Children, National Human Services Assembly, Urban Institute, Friends Committee on National Legislation and the National Civilian Conservation Corps. Ericka holds a Juris Doctor from the University Of Georgia School Of Law and a B.A. Political Science from Wright State University. Find Ericka here: Website: Every Level Leads Email: info@everylevelleads.com Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erickahines Twitter: https://twitter.com/everylevelleads Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/socialchangediva Heather Laine Talley Heather grew up in South Louisiana, where she was first mobilized by queer, Cajun Catholic workers who organized for redistribution of wealth while building wildly inclusive community. Since that time she has found a political home with wide-ranging community organizations and grassroots projects organizing for queer justice, a transformed criminal justice system, the eradication of white supremacy, and a world where women and girls’ lives are valued and celebrated. She established her roots in Asheville in 1998, drawn there by vibrant queer and deeply Southern community. Heather has worked as a sociology and gender studies professor, editor at The Feminist Wire, facilitator, grrrl cheerleader, writer, and group fitness instructor.  Her writing explores wide-ranging questions about feminism, anti-racism, romance, food, activism, and pop culture. Her book, Saving Face: Disfigurement and the Politics of Appearance, illustrates how beauty culture and ableism collide to diminish our humanity. Outside of her work with Tzedek, the Jewish value of justice, Heather holds space for people at the end of life as a death doula. Regardless of what her paid work is, Heather aims to use transformative hospitality, sincere words, delicious food, deep analysis, and honest storytelling to heal herself and her community. Her greatest joy is cooking for and feeding her partner Lee, their child Hollis, and her abundant and beloved chosen family. You can find her and her offerings at http://www.heatherlainetalley.com/ The population of Washington, D.C. as of 2020 is 720,687. “Relationships are primary. All else is derivative” is a quote from Harvard Kennedy School of Government Professor Ronald David. More information about the context can be found in this article by Troy Holt, How the Science Behind Human Connectedness Impacts Organizational Culture. — Thank you so much for joining us! Our conversation continues on Facebook in our Inclusive Life Community. You can also follow us on Instagram and learn more at www.inclusivelife.co. Please click here to leave a review for The Inclusive Life Podcast. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app to get notified when a new episode comes out! Instagram @inclusivelife (https://www.instagram.com/inclusivelife/) Facebook @inclusivelife (https://www.facebook.com/inclusivelife) Facebook Group @Inclusive Life Website www.inclusivelife.co Subscribe to The Inclusive Life Podcast Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Podcasts

14. 

    20 Nov 2020

    EP5: Book Launch: Raising Antiracist Kids: The Power of Intentional Conversations about Race & Parenting

    “This is part of parenting. This is part of the process. If we are raising humans to live in this multicultural, multiracial society, we have an obligation first to them, but also frankly to humanity, to be willing to be vulnerable and have those deep conversations.” In celebration of Nicole’s new book, Raising Antiracist Kids: The Power of Intentional Conversations about Race and Parenting, DEI expert Desiree Adaway interviews Nicole about how to have difficult conversations with children about race. What is revealed: the research is well established and uncontroversial when it comes to what children need to understand and better navigate race and racism. They need consistent, imperfect engagement throughout their lives with their parents. What gets in the way?  The discomfort of adults. Throughout this conversation it becomes more and more clear: we begin with our young children with simple, basic explanations and conversations, and as they mature, so do the conversations. We weave in more nuance and complexity. This seems obvious, and yet parents and caregivers get bogged down with not having all the answers upfront, or are silenced by myths such as “my kids don’t see race” or “talking about race will scare my child.” Desiree and Nicole together make it clear that even though these conversations may be difficult for parents, for our children it eases a burden. Parents can and need to create a space for children to come and grapple without shame. Rather than having to make meaning on their own, they learn they can rely on and trust their parents for support. Parents’ avoidance and silence give children information as well. Children learn what we believe by our body language, “shushing” and facial expressions. They learn there are certain topics that are bad or shameful. Add in racist messaging (whether implicit or explicit) from the media, our schools, and houses of worship, and with yet another generation, we’ve perpetuated a cycle of harm rather than interrupted it. This conversation is a rich one. It will give you tools and more confidence to jump in. And yet, because we are working against generations of avoidance, you may need more support. Purchase a copy of Raising Antiracist Kids: The Power of Intentional Conversations about Race and Parenting  and get in community. Gather some parenting friends together to read and support one another. Share a copy with someone else in your family to begin to shift the culture in your own extended family. And please join us in the Inclusive Life community on Facebook where you will find like minded people who are devoted to their antiracist journeys. Desiree and Nicole talked about: The origin story of Raising Antiracist Kids: The Power of Intentional Conversations about Race and Parenting Nicole’s interview project with white parents and her findings The importance of white parents learning to talk to kids about being white How children are learning about race from our non-verbal cues Why it’s important to talk to your children about race before they’re 10 years old (and actually much earlier!) How kids who say or do racist things most often are not being raised by racist parents The importance of reading children’s books about Black brilliance and Black people living normal lives The research is clear and established: we know what children need when it comes to conversations about race Doing antiracism work in community. Read Raising Antiracist Kids: The Power of Intentional Conversations About Race and Parenting with your friends and family Bio: Desiree Adaway (she/her/hers), Founder of The Adaway Group (https://adawaygroup.com/),  is a seasoned non-profit consultant, trainer, coach and speaker building resilient equitable and inclusive organizations. She has over 25 years of experience creating, leading and managing international, multicultural teams through major organizational changes in over 40 countries. Desiree has crafted and administered partnerships that have secured over $10.5 million in funding from a variety of private and corporate resources (https://adawaygroup.com/clients/). As the Senior Director of Mobilization for Habitat for Humanity she was responsible for planning the strategy and training for hundreds of membership organizations, totaling more than 50,000 members. She was responsible for the overall strategy and DEI plans for 1,600 US affiliates and one million volunteers globally. From this experience Desiree knows that if you want to create real and lasting change in the world you can’t expect to get something better if you’re doing the things you’ve always done. Desiree’s presentations have a mix of thought-provoking content presented with humor and wit. When she teaches, she makes a point to connect with every person and create a brave space for their growth. Desiree is known by staff, senior leadership, peers, and partners as facilitating open, honest, and productive conversations that transform organizational culture.She is not  afraid of addressing anything that gets in the way of the work. Her style is positive, approachable, engaging, service-oriented, and audience-centered. Desiree holds a vision for people’s lives, workplace and communities until they can hold it for themselves. Click here to get the book Raising Antiracist Kids: The Power of Intentional Conversations About Race and Parenting --- Thank you so much for joining us! Our conversation continues on Facebook in our Inclusive Life Community. You can also follow us on Instagram and learn more at www.inclusivelife.co. Please click here to leave a review for The Inclusive Life Podcast. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app to get notified when a new episode comes out! ++ Instagram @inclusivelife ++ Facebook @inclusivelife ++ Facebook Group @Inclusive Life ++ Website www.inclusivelife.co Subscribe to The Inclusive Life Podcast ++ Apple Podcasts ++ Spotify ++ Google Podcasts

15. 

    11 Nov 2020

    EP4: Don’t Forget Your People with Rebecca Cokley

    “Inclusive Life for me means our movements have an understanding that it’s your vulnerabilities that make you strong.” This conversation with Rebecca Cokley is, in part, a peek into the disability rights movement from the intimate perspective of Rebecca’s childhood. Rebecca is an only child of two disabled and rather subversive activists whose family core value was speaking up when something wrong was happening to someone else. Cokley learns from her parents’ modeling how to navigate across movements, building coalitions to “rebuild a table that works for all of us.” She’s become a powerful and skilled advocate and policy expert for the disability community. It was fun to hear of her first encounter with Barack Obama, and how her work as his Diversity Officer in the Obama Administration made it possible for her to attend the best parties in DC all  to advance Obama’s diversity agenda. Rebecca wrote Obama’s special education policy and helped him develop his platform for people with disabilities. She has been instrumental in shaping the disability platforms of the  2020 US Presidential candidates. In fact, twelve of the candidates developed disability platforms. Rebecca was pleased to note that even as the candidates exited the Presidential race, many are still involved in politics and are showing  commitment to the platforms they adopted, influencing their work in response to the COVID pandemic. Rebecca walks us back through some of the important learnings of the disability community stemming from the AIDS epidemic and further back to the elders of the disability community: those who suffered from polio. This is a fascinating conversation and one that will help us all better understand that liberation movements are about people, and more than anything else, we’ve got to hold onto our people. Rebecca and I talked about: How her family shaped Rebecca as a leader and connector of movements; How the activism of the disability community laid the groundwork for necessary accommodations during COVID; Rebecca’s early work promoting diversity in Victoria’s Secret, of all places; Rebecca’s work in the Obama administration as the President’s Diversity Officer; Allyship; Strategies for pushing forward change; Why Rebecca’s work writing policy for 2020 US Presidential candidates has built an important foundation for people suffering as a result of the pandemic; Why Elizabeth Warren called; What’s at stake if the Affordable Care Act is dismantled; John Lewis’s inspiring words of advice to Rebecca BIO: Rebecca Cokley is the Director of the Disability Justice Initiative at The Center for American Progress, where her work focuses on disability policy. Most recently, she served as the Executive Director of the National Council on Disability (NCD), an independent agency charged with advising Congress and the White House on issues of national disability public policy. She joined the NCD in 2013 after serving in the Obama administration for four years, including time at the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as a successful stint at the White House where she oversaw diversity and inclusion efforts. Cokley got her feet wet in advocacy while working at the Institute for Educational Leadership, where she built a number of tools and resources designed to empower and educate youth with disabilities and their adult allies. Since then, she has spent the last 15 years helping make stronger and deeper connections across civil rights communities and continues to see cross-movement solidarity as the only means of surviving these next four years. She is also currently working on her first book. In 2015, she was inducted into the inaugural class of the Susan M. Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame and was the recipient of the Frank Harkin Memorial Award by the National Council on Independent Living. Cokley has a Bachelor of Arts in politics from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and is the proud spouse of Patrick and mother of Jackson and Kaya. --- Thank you so much for joining us! Our conversation continues on Facebook in our Inclusive Life Community. You can also follow us on Instagram and learn more at www.inclusivelife.co. Please click here to leave a review for The Inclusive Life Podcast. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app to get notified when a new episode comes out! ++ Instagram @inclusivelife ++ Facebook @inclusivelife ++ Facebook Group @Inclusive Life ++ Website www.inclusivelife.co Subscribe to The Inclusive Life Podcast ++ Apple Podcasts ++ Spotify ++ Google Podcasts

16. 

    28 Oct 2020

    EP3: Renegotiating the Relationship between Politics and Spirituality with Sarah Love McCoy and Lindsay Pera

    “I’ve got my eye on the future. The future that keeps me going forward is one that is built in a more loving way. A more compassionate world is the one that I keep in my mind’s eye as my guidepost and my true north.” – Sarah Love Politics and spirituality have a long-standing dysfunctional relationship. In this conversation with artist and writer Sarah Love and Lindsay Pera, founder of the Modern Mystic Institute, we begin to dig for the roots of this dysfunction. We already know the damage: On the right, spirituality has been manipulated and melded with politics and patriotism to oppress people and rigidly control the narrative about values in our country. The consequences are disempowering. On one hand, we’ve got the “love and light” spiritual practitioners who resist analysis and truth-telling about political and social realities. On the other hand, we have political activists who have rejected spirituality because it’s been used to bypass the harsh realities of white supremacy, cis-hetero patriarchy, and capitalism. It’s time to rewrite the narrative and to push back on constructs that narrowly define what it means to love and what it means to be a peacemaker. What if we refuse to be divided by the pundits and politicians who insist that protest, patriotism and action have to look just so? That our protestations must be polite and palatable? What if we get super clear amidst the gaslighting about what loving our country looks like? If we are going to change the trajectory of our country, we’ve got to move forward as whole people, not as people who are compartmentalized, divided and constricted. It’s time to unapologetically reclaim, redefine and sharpen our tools. We can unapologetically infuse love and spirituality with politics and politics with spirituality. The Way Station, with Lindsay, Sarah and I as your guides, will take you deeper into this re-tooling and revision of our narrative. The Way Station is a place for those working to dismantle systems of oppression can gather, refuel, get tools and get grounded in strategy. Participants will be bringing our political expertise as well as our embodied wisdom and intuitive tools. We will explore the ways in which we can stay active, involved, creative and aligned in this moment of flux and crisis. Expect rigor and magic, love and analysis. No matter the outcome on November 3rd, our work is not over.  We are in it for the long haul of liberation.Please join us. Sarah, Lindsay and I talked about: The ways in which we’ve been socialized to avoid discussing politics and systems of oppression; Why politically progressive people shy away from spirituality; How spirituality and politics, when used together, have historically been weaponized to oppress people; The importance of questioning, pushing back, redefining and expanding our understanding of engaging politically with the tools of faith, peacemaking and love; Our “pivot points”: those moments in our lives where we saw more clearly our role as activists and how we could wield spirituality as a powerful force for change; Our upcoming retreat, Way Station, on October 30th, which is an opportunity to come together to refuel, get tools, and ground strategies for the work ahead; Linday’s and Sarah’s divination on the energies of 2021. About Sarah and Lindsay: Sarah Love McCoy is an artist, writer and teacher working on expanding and awakening the power of love in herself and human hearts the world over. Creator of the “I Stand for Love” Calendar (in its 17th year in print!), Sarah’s best known for her daily nuggets of inspiration. The belief that healing our inner wounds, learning to trust our hearts, moving energy through our hands (while getting out of our heads) and coming together in a community as a path towards a more loving tomorrow is the philosophy behind Sarah’s mission and purpose. Lindsay Pera is the CEO of the Modern Mystics Institute and founder of the Mystics Society. As a Mystic mama, tech entrepreneur and intuitive strategist, she’s a sought after contributor and motivator on the topics of health, wealth and transformation. When she is not extolling the virtues of “Sacred Commerce” or “Resonance” based business, you can find her knocking almonds and generally getting her gratitude on. Lindsay's new paradigm business community, The Mystic’s Society, is a safe haven for entrepreneurs weaving magic into their *work* in the world. It is her passion to direct resources into the hands of entrepreneurs, creatives, and world changers. --- Thank you so much for joining us! Our conversation continues on Facebook in our Inclusive Life Community. You can also follow us on Instagram and learn more at www.inclusivelife.co. Please click here to leave a review for The Inclusive Life Podcast. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app to get notified when a new episode comes out! ++ Instagram @inclusivelife ++ Facebook @inclusivelife ++ Facebook Group @Inclusive Life ++ Website www.inclusivelife.co Subscribe to The Inclusive Life Podcast ++ Apple Podcasts ++ Spotify ++ Google Podcasts

17. 

    28 Oct 2020

    EP2: The Power of Belonging with Dr. Rodney Glasgow

    “School is the absolute savior of my life. It changed the whole trajectory of who I would have been. Growing up in the 90s to teenage parents in the ghettos of Baltimore, school changed my survival rate. That’s absolutely the truth.” Dr. Rodney Glasgow is a product of a childhood in a culturally diverse community on the north east side of Baltimore. He’s also a product of independent and Ivy League schools. He brings deep understanding to the experience of Black students in the United States. We talk about a topic that’s near and dear to both our hearts: diversity, equity and inclusion. What I love about this conversation is that Rodney extends the reach of our liberation work out to a place of belonging. He speaks to the trauma Black students experience when they are included but still don’t belong; when they are excluded and erased even by teachers who love and care for them. And today, in 2020, there is a reckoning happening in our schools. Students are publicly calling out their administrators and educators as sources of harm. Then, Rodney brings us beyond belonging to ownership, something that cannot happen until educators understand and teach the United States’ true history to our students: that the very people fleeing persecution to form a more perfect union were the same who created and perpetuated persecution and trauma from the day they arrived. According to Rodney, we are facing a pandemic of many manifestations, “Americanism.” “We are now who we have always been and that’s what we need to be teaching students. And then look at moments [in our history] when we took major leaps to not be that.” Rodney and I talked about: His childhood in a multigenerational, multicultural, LGBTQ+-friendly apartment building on the northeast side of Baltimore How children easily adapt to difference by listening and watching Rodney’s experience coming out as a gay man in the 90s The role of education in Rodney’s life and how hiding his intelligence resulted from generational educational trauma How education in the US is a vehicle to propel Black kids to success yet results in ongoing trauma How our country, with its fixation on individualism, is not clear if LIFE even matters What it will take for Black folks to be whole again Going beyond diversity to belonging, and beyond belonging to ownership About Rodney Glasgow Rodney Glasgow is a speaker, facilitator, trainer and activist in the areas of diversity, equity, and social justice.  He has over 20 years of experience in progressive education as an educator, trainer, and administrator for students and faculty in grades kindergarten through post-graduate. Rodney is devoted to understanding and transforming student and faculty experiences by facilitating conversations and conflict resolution to achieve not only equity, but belonging. He is one of the founding members and now Chair of the National Association of Independent School’s annual Student Diversity Leadership Conference, a 20 year-old training ground drawing over 1500 high school students nationwide.  Rodney recently launched the National Diversity Practitioners Institute, a summer intensive for diversity practitioners. Rodney is also President of The Glasgow Group (http://www.theglasgowgroup.org/), a consortium of dynamic, innovative consultants. Dr. Glasgow is currently the Head of School at Sandy Spring Friends School in Sandy Springs Maryland and the Founder of the Student Diversity Leadership Conference of the National Association of Independent Schools. Rodney graduated from Gilman School, an independent school in his hometown of Baltimore. He is a graduate of Harvard University with a joint degree in Afro-American Studies and Psychology, holds a Master of Arts in Organization and Leadership from Columbia University, and a doctorate from George Washington University. Rodney is a featured writer in the book Diversity in Independent Schools, and wrote the prologue for the recently released One Teacher in Ten in the New Millennium:  LGBT Educators Speak Out About What’s Gotten Better…And What Hasn’t. --- Thank you so much for joining us! Our conversation continues on Facebook in our Inclusive Life Community. You can also follow us on Instagram and learn more at www.inclusivelife.co. Please click here to leave a review for The Inclusive Life Podcast. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app to get notified when a new episode comes out! ++ Instagram @inclusivelife ++ Facebook @inclusivelife ++ Facebook Group @Inclusive Life ++ Website www.inclusivelife.co Subscribe to The Inclusive Life Podcast ++ Apple Podcasts ++ Spotify ++ Google Podcasts

18. 

    26 Oct 2020

    EP1: An Introduction to the Inclusive Life

    Welcome to the first episode of Inclusive Life! I'm your host, Nicole Lee, human rights lawyer, DEI consultant, activist, mom and founder of Inclusive Life. It is a joy and a privilege to bring this project into being. I believe it’s important. Because I believe if we want to have a just and equitable society, we are going to have to build it. I believe being committed to eradicating systemic inequities is the highest calling one can have. It’s the most important thing we can do as individuals. Yet, I believe we must do this work in community. We have to work together. Why? Revolutions and movements have changed societies. And revolutions and movements rely upon many people putting in their time, effort and energy. There is no one coming to save us. It’d be nice to believe that there is a savior or guru on their way, but I don't believe in individual heroes or hero worship. We have to save ourselves. But none of us are alone, even though it might feel that way. There are so many of us doing the work. And no matter how long you’ve been at it, I want you to know that we come to this work as imperfect humans. We all have areas to grow. You get to be where you are at. The Inclusive Life Podcast is not a forum where we are going to be debating that white supremacy culture is real, or that diversity, equity, and inclusion are important. We are not going to waste our time sparring with devil’s advocates. Instead, we are going to be in dialogue. We will be listening, growing our understanding, building our skills of analysis and discernment, and moving into aligned action. We will hold one another accountable to learn, push beyond our comfort zones, and do necessary repair work. Let’s link arms. Let’s create something that perhaps has never existed before. Please join me as we shape a more compassionate and just world one conversation at a time. Join me in cultivating a more Inclusive Life. What You’ll Learn from this Episode: What is an “inclusive life”? What is Inclusive Life all about? The inspiration behind Inclusive Life Podcast What to expect from this podcast --- Thank you so much for joining us! Our conversation continues on Facebook in our Inclusive Life Community. You can also follow us on Instagram and learn more at www.inclusivelife.co. Please click here to leave a review for The Inclusive Life Podcast. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app to get notified when a new episode comes out! ++ Instagram @inclusivelife ++ Facebook @inclusivelife ++ Facebook Group @Inclusive Life ++ Website www.inclusivelife.co Subscribe to The Inclusive Life Podcast ++ Apple Podcasts ++ Spotify ++ Google Podcasts

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Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

9 ratings

Contact Inclusive Life with Nicole Lee

Guest appearances

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Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.