Alyssa Milano: Sorry Not Sorry

Our guest this week is Samantha Busch. Samantha is a lifestyle blogger, writer, business owner, and infertility activist. Her husband, Kyle Busch, is a two-time NASCAR cup champion. The  pair founded the Bundle of Joy Fund to help couples struggling with infertility to afford their treatments.

So the 2020 election is in the history books. On Thursday, November 5th – two days after the polls closed – we hosted the first ever live episode of Sorry Not Sorry to put it in perspective. Our guests had such great information, and so many smart things to say that I know you’ll forgive the slightly less than perfect audio that comes from a live streamed event.  

But the issues in this election go far wider than the presidency. Control of the senate still hangs in the balance, and won’t be decided until January. The conronavirus just reached its highest daily rate of new infections since the pandemic started and the fate of the affordable care act will decided by the Supreme Court, and what happens with healthcare by the new government next year. More than 100,000 Americans are victims of gun violence each year, and 40,000 of them die. And we can’t find the families of more than 500 immigrant children we separated at the border.

It’s a lot. To help us make sense of it all, I’ve invited an incredible group of experts here tonight. We were joined by E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of Code Red: How Progressives and Moderates Can Unite to Save Our Country, Jesse Wegman is a member of the New York Times Editorial Board and the author of Let the People Pick the President: The Case for Abolishing the Electoral College, Po Murray is Chair of the Newtown Action Alliance, Laura Packard is National Co-Chair of Health Care Voter, and Hassan Ahmad is an immigration attorney and immigrant rights activist.

Angela Glover Blackwell is an attorney and founder in residence of PolicyLink, a national research and action institute advancing racial and economic equity by lifting up what works. Her work changes lives and changes hearts, and our conversation was so enlightening. Please listen to her words, take them in, and channel them into action.

This episode features two amazing women doing hugely important things for our democracy. Our first guest is Amanda Litman. Amanda is the co-founder and executive director of Run for Something, an organization supporting young candidates running in state and local elections. Later in the program, we hear from Kat Calvin, founder and executive director of Spread the Vote, a non-profit dedicated to clearing obstacles that keep poor people from getting the IDs needed to vote.

Elizabeth Lesser is a bestselling author and the cofounder of Omega Institute, the renowned conference and retreat center located in Rhinebeck, New York. Elizabeth’s first book, The Seeker’s Guide, chronicles her years at Omega and distills lessons learned into a potent guide for growth and healing. Her New York Times bestselling book, Broken Open: How Difficult Times Can Help Us Grow, has sold almost 500,000 copies and has been translated into 20 languages. Her newest book Cassandra Speaks: When Women are the Storytellers, the Human Story Changes reveals how humanity has outgrown its origin tales and hero myths, and empowers women to trust their instincts, find their voice, and tell new guiding stories.

Julian Castro has been many things: Mayor of San Antonio, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development during the Obama Administration, Author of An Unlikely Journey: Waking Up from My American Dream, 2018 presidential candidate, and now is hosting the new podcast "Our America." He’s a brilliant advocate for making sure everyone who is searching can find the American Dream

Our guest this week is Ebony Underwood. Ebony is a Soros Justice Fellow and the daughter of William Underwood, who has served decades of a cruel and unnecessarily harsh mandatory life sentence without parole. As the founder and CEO of We Got Us Now, Ebony is an advocate for children impacted by parental incarceration and keeping families connected and doing incredible and important work.

In the new book Shattering Glass: A Nasty Woman Anthology, Kelli Stanley of Nasty Woman Press brought together essays from so many remarkable women, and she’s brought two of them here with her today. From 1993-2017, Barbara Boxer represented California in the United States Senate, where she was a hero for women’s rights. Valerie Plame served as an undercover agent in the CIA protecting our national interests until she was outed by senior members of the Bush Administration. All three of these remarkable women joined Alyssa Milano for a very spirited discussion. Enjoy!

Chris Murphy is the United States Senator From Connecticut. Before his election to the senate in 2012, he served the people of Connecticut’s fifth congressional district in the House of Representatives.  He’s the author of the remarkable new book The Violence Inside Us: A Brief History of an Ongoing American Tragedy. This powerful examination traces the roots of violence in America to our shameful history of slavery and American gun culture. It is now available to order.