How To Plug Into The Green New Deal - Rhiana Gunn-Wright

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Meet the woman who helped develop The Green New Deal--and hear how you personally can make a difference in the climate crisis. Rhiana Gunn-Wright is the former policy director for New Consensus and Abdul El-Sayed’s 2018 Michigan gubernatorial campaign. She warns that without a shift in our policies and systems, we could become a nation of "fortresses" and "sacrifice zones". We’ll hear where she came from and how can the way she thinks about solving problems, can solve the biggest crisis of our time. A 2013 Rhodes Scholar, Gunn-Wright has also worked as the policy analyst for the Detroit Health Department, was a Mariam K. Chamberlain Fellow of Women and Public Policy at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, and served on the policy team for former First Lady Michelle Obama. She graduated magna cum laude from Yale in 2011 with majors in African American studies and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies.

Listen to Rhiana’s Toolkit for how you can make the Green New Deal resolution a reality.

Read the Green New Deal.

Take action with the Sunrise Movement.

Universal Basic Income is a radical idea. In Stockton, CA they've started to experiment.

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This week, we hear about a radical plan to end poverty: Universal Basic Income. Lauren talks to the team behind an experiment with Guaranteed Income taking place in Stockton, CA the one-time foreclosure capital of America where 1 in 4 people live below the poverty line. Featuring conversations with Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs, Natalie Foster of the Economic Security Project, and the co-principal investigators on this experiment: Dr. Amy Castro Baker of the University of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Stacia Martin West of the University of Tennessee.

Guaranteed Income and Universal Basic Income—where money is given with no strings attached represents a radical shift in the way we think about the social contract. Could this be what a Feminist Economy looks like?

Special thanks to Mia Birdsong for providing voices of Stockton residents, from her “More Than Enough” Podcast.

Additional thanks to First Lady of Stockton, Anna Tubbs and Sukhi Samra, Executive Director of SEED.

Learn more about the Stockton Demonstration.

Learn more about the Magnolia Mother’s Trust, another project of the Economic Security Project.

Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs

Photo courtesy of Cassius M. Kim

How Girls Are Changing The World - Paola Gianturco and Alex Sangster

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When we work so hard to preserve what we see as the innocence of childhood, are we actually holding our kids back from the courageous work they can be doing in this world? Twelve-year-old Alex Sangster and her grandmother, accomplished photojournalist Paola Gianturco partnered to interview and photograph over 102 girls aged 10 through 18 who aren’t waiting for a new day to begin their activism: they are rolling up their sleeves and ushering in that new day right now. 

Listen to my conversation with Paola Gianturco and Alex Sangster, co-authors of Wonder Girls: Changing Our World, about what it looks like when we let girls lead. 
 

How Jeannette Walls Claimed Her Truth - Author, "The Glass Castle"

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When she was young Jeannette Walls wanted nothing more than to escape her crazy, chaotic family. She grew up in poverty, in a crumbling home, where her parents couldn’t always put food on the table. They moved from place to place and school to school. After putting her past behind her to become a successful journalist and author, Walls finally revisited her upbringing in her memoir, "The Glass Castle." Her book was recently adapted into a film, and this week on “Inflection Point,” Walls discusses her unusual upbringing and how she rose out of a seemingly impossible situation. 

Jeannette Walls on the set of "The Glass Castle" photo by Jake Giles Netter

Mia Birdsong & Pam Scott-Redefining Solutions

The poverty level for American families has hovered at 25% for decades, in spite of billions of dollars spent. This week, we speak with Mia Birdsong of Family Story, who offers a new perspective--redefine the definition of a 'traditional family.' And my guest Pam Scott is a philanthropist who brings her corporate experience to sub-Saharan Africa: using human-centered design to reduce unwanted teen pregnancy from 50% to a 'new normal.' Learn more about this topic at PSI.org.

Special Episode: The Bottom Line--New Diaper Banks "Help a Mother Out"

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Public Assistance does not cover the cost of diapers--as a result, nearly 30%  of mothers report a time when they couldn’t afford diapers for their children. Our guest Lisa Truong started Help A Mother Out to increase access to diapers for families in need. And this Fall, she was awarded a grant from the city of San Francisco to establish and operate the San Francisco diaper bank, making it the first city in the nation to offer public assistance for diapers.

If you'd like to help a mother during this season of giving, donations can be made at helpamotherout.org.

LISA TRUONG