America@250

My guest for this Episode is Robbie McDonald. Robbie is a native Angeleno, born in Los Angeles to Irish immigrant parents. Robbie found early success in what were known as “hair bands” then gracing L.A.’s iconic Sunset Strip. At the same time his inner songwriter soul was forever deepened by his time living in Ireland, where he absorbed centuries of timeless poetry and song.

His 2006 release, Mighty Quiet, documented the end of his eleven-year relationship when his partner joined a religious order to become a monk. The album was beloved in Ireland especially, where it received widespread critical acclaim, and especially among its LGBTQ publications.

Robbie is working on re-releasing that album, and you will be able to find it and his other work wherever you stream your music, just search for him under the artists name Robbie McDonald…his body of work includes;

Two albums: Mighty Quiet (originally released in 2006) and Say Yes (2015)

As well as four singles: They Were You, Morningtime, and I Needed You Here (all released in 2025), and his latest release, He4Him-Something (2026).

Here are the lyrics to the unreleased song we discuss in our first conversation:

Red Handbag

Robbie McDonald

Hand-written verse, a Barbie doll, my extra firm-hold aerosol, my Tiger Beat collection...

Were swept away, in God we trust, they hoovered up my fairy dust

My red handbag went missing

So I combed through my blonde curls pasted up my dreams from magazines with diamonds and furs

And decided in some gentle way that the lesson that day was:

Save another world

They didn’t want to make a fuss, they didn’t talk about it much you don’t when you’re just guessing)

And I was left to to toe the line, invented my own paradigm,

My red handbag was missing

So I searched throughout the land, then I took a beat, caressed my feet and porcelain hands,

And decided in some gentle way that the lesson that day was:

Save another world

So I handled me with care, when I found that all these precious things had vanished in thin air,

I decided in my gentle way that the lesson that day was:

Save another world

Welcome to the America @ 250 Podcast, devoted to enabling us to see and feel America through the eyes and hearts of others, and as a result take concrete steps to make America truly great.

This Episode is my second interview with Tamara Lanier, author of the book, ‘From These Roots.”

In this conversation we explore recovery, restitution, reconciliation, and the difficult topic of reparation. I believe we land on a sense of hope, but it is hope grounded in the reality of the fact that making America great will require hard work, focused wills, and a willingness to tell and hear difficult truths.

Tamara grew up listening to her mother’s stories about her ancestors. As her mother’s health declined, she "commissioned" her daughter: "Tell them about Papa Renty." Her mother’s last wish turned into Tamara’s remarkable commitment to document that story.

Her discovery of a nineteenth-century daguerreotype at Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, one of the first-ever photos of enslaved people from Africa, reveals a dark-skinned man with short-cropped silver hair and chiseled cheekbones. The information read “Renty, Congo.” All at once, Lanier knew she was staring at the ancestor her mother told her so much about—Papa Renty.

After more than a decade of her own research, Tamara battled with Harvard to prove her genealogical bloodline to Papa Renty’s. The story centers around a fundamental question:

“Who ‘owns’ the stories, artifacts, and remnants of America’s stained history? Is it the institutions who acquired and housed them for generations, or the descendants who have survived?

Tamara’s story is a call to justice that fights for all those demanding to reclaim, honor, and lay to rest the remains of mishandled lives and memories.

This story is profoundly necessary during a period of history in which we are witnessing attempts to erase the history of slavery, remove people of color from official websites, and scrub America’s communal memory from the terrible truths of our past, a past still very much alive in the present.

These interviews with Tamara Lanier are especially fitting in 2026, the year in which America turns 250. What will it take to make America great at the age of 250, and beyond?

Please purchase “From These Roots,” by Tamara Lanier, wherever you purchase your books.

Welcome to the America @ 250 Podcast, devoted to enabling us to see and feel America through the eyes and hearts of others, and as a result take concrete steps to make America truly great.

My guest for this Episode is Tamara Lanier, author of the book, ‘From These Roots.”

Tamara grew up listening to her mother’s stories about her ancestors. As her mother’s health declined, she "commissioned" her daughter: "Tell them about Papa Renty." Her mother’s last wish turned into Tamara’s remarkable commitment to document that story.

Her discovery of a nineteenth-century daguerreotype at Harvard University’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, one of the first-ever photos of enslaved people from Africa, reveals a dark-skinned man with short-cropped silver hair and chiseled cheekbones. The information read “Renty, Congo.” All at once, Lanier knew she was staring at the ancestor her mother told her so much about—Papa Renty.

After more than a decade of her own research, Tamara battled with Harvard to prove her genealogical bloodline to Papa Renty’s. The story centers around a fundamental question:

“Who ‘owns’ the stories, artifacts, and remnants of America’s stained history? Is it the institutions who acquired and housed them for generations, or the descendants who have survived?

Tamara’s story is a call to justice that fights for all those demanding to reclaim, honor, and lay to rest the remains of mishandled lives and memories.

This story is profoundly necessary during a period of history in which we are witnessing attempts to erase the history of slavery, remove people of color from official websites, and scrub America’s communal memory from the terrible truths of our past, a past still very much alive in the present.

These interviews with Tamara Lanier are especially fitting in 2026, the year in which America turns 250. What will it take to make America great at the age of 250, and beyond?

Please purchase “From These Roots,” by Tamara Lanier, wherever you purchase your books.

Borders are not just geo-political…they are linguistic and cultural…and psychological. This Episode explores some aspects of these other borders and suggests that at least one avenue to greatness in America is more diversity, not less. More languages and cultures, not in isolated pockets, but embraced and welcomed and celebrated.

This is my second interview with Gabriella Gutierrez y Muhs.

Please see some of the titles to her work as a poet and scholar below.

Professor Gutierrez y Muhs is a renowned poet whose work has been published in numerous journals and collections in the U.S., France, Spain, and Chile. She is a full professor of Modern Languages and Cultures, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the Seattle University.

She received a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2000 in Spanish, Latin American Studies, and U.S. Latinx/Chicanx. She is a well-known scholar in the fields of Chicana and Latin American literature, cultural studies, and feminist theory. Gutiérrez y Muhs received two B.A.s from Occidental College, in Spanish and French, as well as two minors in Anthropology and Sociology and a Latin American Studies minor.

She has worked as Director of Women's Crisis Support and Shelter Services, South County Commission on Alcoholism, Youth Services and as a High School Counselor art Watsonville High School, where she also taught French.

After being tenured in March 2006, Gutiérrez y Muhs was named the 2007-2009 Wismer Professor for Gender and Diversity Studies at Seattle University. She was appointed as the Theiline Pigott-McCone Chair at the university for the period 2018–2020. In 2011, she represented the United States at the Kritya International Poetry Festival held in Nagpur, India, along with two other American poets.

She gained attention for her work as First Editor of the 2012 book Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia, which discussed the experiences of various women of color in academia and later for her 2013 book Rebozos de Palabras.

Dr. Gutiérrez y Muhs speaks five languages fluently: Spanish, English, French, Italian, and Portuguese. She has taught and presented internationally in Spanish, English and French.

Gabriella grew up in Mexico and was named after the Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral.

Works to explore, in chronological order, from most recent:

Muhs, Gabriella Gutiérrez y (2022). ¿How Many Indians Can We Be? Flowersong Press. ISBN 9781953447555.

Muhs, Gabriella Gutiérrez y (2017). Word Images New Perspectives on Canícula and Other Works by Norma Elia Cantú. University of Arizona Press. ISBN 9780816534098.

Muhs, Gabriella Gutiérrez y (2013). Rebozos de palabras: an Helena María Viramontes critical reader. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. ISBN 9780816521364.

Muhs, Gabriella Gutiérrez y; Harris, Angela P.; Flores Niemann, Yolanda; González, Carmen G. (2012). Presumed incompetent: the intersections of race and class for women in academia. Boulder, Colorado: University Press of Colorado. ISBN 9780874219227.

Muhs, Gabriella Gutiérrez y (2010). Communal feminisms: Chicanas, Chilenas, and cultural exile: theorizing the space of exile, class, and identity. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books. ISBN 9780739144596.

Muhs, Gabriella Gutiérrez y (2002). A most improbable life: poems. Georgetown, Kentucky: Finishing Line Press. ISBN 9780972613668.

Imagine looking at AMerica as we know it, not as if there were a map, not as oif we are looking down from the sky, but as if we are on our backs looking up…from ancient land, before SPain and Russia, and the rest of Europe. Before Mexico. Before America.

How would things look?

That is just one topic I will talk about with my guest in this interview, Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs.

Please see some of the titles to her work as a poet and scholar below.

Professor Gutierrez y Muhs is a renowned poet whose work has been published in numerous journals and collections in the U.S., France, Spain, and Chile. She is a full professor of Modern Languages and Cultures, and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the Seattle University.

She received a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2000 in Spanish, Latin American Studies, and U.S. Latinx/Chicanx. She is a well-known scholar in the fields of Chicana and Latin American literature, cultural studies, and feminist theory. Gutiérrez y Muhs received two B.A.s from Occidental College, in Spanish and French, as well as two minors in Anthropology and Sociology and a Latin American Studies minor.

She has worked as Director of Women's Crisis Support and Shelter Services, South County Commission on Alcoholism, Youth Services and as a High School Counselor art Watsonville High School, where she also taught French.

After being tenured in March 2006, Gutiérrez y Muhs was named the 2007-2009 Wismer Professor for Gender and Diversity Studies at Seattle University. She was appointed as the Theiline Pigott-McCone Chair at the university for the period 2018–2020. In 2011, she represented the United States at the Kritya International Poetry Festival held in Nagpur, India, along with two other American poets.

She gained attention for her work as First Editor of the 2012 book Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia, which discussed the experiences of various women of color in academia and later for her 2013 book Rebozos de Palabras.

Dr. Gutiérrez y Muhs speaks five languages fluently: Spanish, English, French, Italian, and Portuguese. She has taught and presented internationally in Spanish, English and French.

Gabriella grew up in Mexico and was named after the Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral.

Works to explore, in chronological order, from most recent:

Muhs, Gabriella Gutiérrez y (2022). ¿How Many Indians Can We Be? Flowersong Press. ISBN 9781953447555.

Muhs, Gabriella Gutiérrez y (2017). Word Images New Perspectives on Canícula and Other Works by Norma Elia Cantú. University of Arizona Press. ISBN 9780816534098.

Muhs, Gabriella Gutiérrez y (2013). Rebozos de palabras: an Helena María Viramontes critical reader. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. ISBN 9780816521364.

Muhs, Gabriella Gutiérrez y; Harris, Angela P.; Flores Niemann, Yolanda; González, Carmen G. (2012). Presumed incompetent: the intersections of race and class for women in academia. Boulder, Colorado: University Press of Colorado. ISBN 9780874219227.

Muhs, Gabriella Gutiérrez y (2010). Communal feminisms: Chicanas, Chilenas, and cultural exile: theorizing the space of exile, class, and identity. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books. ISBN 9780739144596.

Muhs, Gabriella Gutiérrez y (2002). A most improbable life: poems. Georgetown, Kentucky: Finishing Line Press. ISBN 9780972613668.

In this second interview with Joey Williams (see below for more about him) we explore more tangible ideas about what might make America Great.

There are a number of things Joey talks about that we could have learned, and should have learned, and still CAN learn, from indigenous peoples. These are things that, had we learned them, would have helped to make us great.

Things which, if we do learn them, still can help to make us America Great.

+Listen for a different way to differ when we face political divides.

+More egalitarian relationships between mean and women.

+A different relationship to the earth and natural resources.

+What we can learn about being indigenous, respecting the things that are unique in each peoples' histories and cultures and DNA, but also how those of us who can no longer trace our indigenous roots can still apply what it means to be truly indigenous as human beings.

To learn more about the work Joey does, check out the Coalition of California State Tribes.

More about Joey Williams:

My guest for Episodes 2 and 3 is Joey Williams. Mr Williams is a member of the Nuwa (Kawaiisu) people from the Kern Valley Indian Community. He is President of the Coalition of California State Tribes and Vice Chair of the Kern Valley Indian Community.

Joey began organizing over 17 years ago as a youth pastor, working to dismantle the school-to-jail-and-prison pipeline in Bakersfield. He has been a product of the foster care, jail, and probation systems since age 7, and went on to earn his AA at Santa Barbara City College, and his BA and MA at Cal State Bakersfield (History, Sociology, and Political Science). Joey has committed his life to bringing people of color, young people, and disenfranchised communities off the sidelines and into the fight for good jobs, quality education, and the end of mass incarceration and police brutality. Joey served as the Co-Vice Chair of the LA County Cares First Community Investment Advisory Board (CFCI, Measure J) in 2021–22, representing the Native American community. The board is allocating $100 million from the LA County Sheriff's Department and investing it back into the communities it has harmed.

Joey is formerly the Director of Organizing at the CA Native Vote Project and a former Senior Program Manager at The California Endowment (Native Power Building)..He is committed to dismantling white supremacy and building Native power, sovereignty, self-determination, and collective liberation.

The America @ 250 Podcast is devoted to enabling us to see and feel America through the eyes and hearts of others, and as a result take concrete steps to make America truly great.

That seems like a fitting question during the year in which America turns 250.

I am Kevin Caldwell, and in order to pursue the purpose of this project, throughout the podcast I will be inviting a very diverse set of guests to share how they experience America, and how they would answer “what would make America Great?”

In this Episode, I sit down with Joey Williams to try to see and feel the experience of America through his eyes and heart as a a descendant of the original inhabitants

Mr Williams is a member of the Nuwa (Kawaiisu) people from the Kern Valley Indian Community. He is President of the Coalition of California State Tribes and Vice Chair of the Kern Valley Indian Community.

Joey began organizing over 17 years ago as a youth pastor, working to dismantle the school-to-jail-and-prison pipeline in Bakersfield. He has been a product of the foster care, jail, and probation systems since age 7, and went on to earn his AA at Santa Barbara City College, and his BA and MA at Cal State Bakersfield (History, Sociology, and Political Science). Joey has committed his life to bringing people of color, young people, and disenfranchised communities off the sidelines and into the fight for good jobs, quality education, and the end of mass incarceration and police brutality. Joey served as the Co-Vice Chair of the LA County Cares First Community Investment Advisory Board (CFCI, Measure J) in 2021–22, representing the Native American community. The board is allocating $100 million from the LA County Sheriff's Department and investing it back into the communities it has harmed.

Joey is formerly the Director of Organizing at the CA Native Vote Project and a former Senior Program Manager at The California Endowment (Native Power Building)..He is committed to dismantling white supremacy and building Native power, sovereignty, self-determination, and collective liberation.

Welcome to the America @ 250 Podcast, devoted to enabling us to see and feel America through the eyes and hearts of others, and as a result take concrete steps to make America truly great.

That seems like a fitting question during the year in which America turns 250.

I am Kevin Caldwell, and in order to pursue the purpose of this project, throughout the podcast I will be inviting a very diverse set of guests to share how they experience America, and how they would answer “what would make America Great?”

In this first Episode however, it is just me!

I will give some background about how this got started and an overview of what to expect...and why.