In December 2025, the University of Utah became the first major college athletic program to take private equity investment, spinning off its commercial operations into a for-profit company. Half a billion dollars and a public university now answering to Wall Street. In this episode of our series The Private Equity Playbook, host Manpreet Kaur Kalra is joined by collaborator Anna Canning to trace how college athletics went from extracurricular programs serving educational missions to financialized assets in a private equity portfolio.

This is a story about what happens when the logic of investor returns takes the wheel at a public university, and ultimately, who gets left behind. Spoiler: it's not the programs already generating millions. It's women's sports and all those other sports that may no longer make financial sense to a firm looking to make quick returns on their investment.

For decades, the NCAA built a billion-dollar industry on the backs of athletes classified as "amateurs," barring them from receiving fair compensation while coaches pocketed millions and broadcast deals soared. That system only cracked when courts forced it to. NCAA v. Alston. The House v. NCAA settlement. We trace how a wave of legal pressure cracked open the system and how private equity arrived right on cue to profit from the chaos.

In this episode, we explore:

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Starbucks built its brand on the idea of the “third place.” But over the past decade, the company has quietly unraveled the very conditions that made that promise possible.

In this episode of Art of Citizenry Podcast, Manpreet Kaur Kalra speaks with Megan Erickson, a Philadelphia-based barista and member of Starbucks Workers United, about the growing labor movement inside Starbucks. Together, they examine the widening gap between the company’s “third place” narrative and the working conditions faced by baristas across the United States.

From unpredictable scheduling and low wages to stalled union contract negotiations and ongoing allegations of union busting, this conversation examines how Starbucks became one of the most prolific labor law violators in modern U.S. history and how organizing by Starbucks Workers United has helped reignite the labor movement across the United States.

This podcast episode breaks down what union organizing looks like in practice, what “good faith bargaining” requires under U.S. labor law, and why thousands of Starbucks workers have gone on strike demanding fair pay, reliable hours, and workplace protections.

In this episode, we explore:

“When the systems in place fail to care for the people who make them run, solidarity gives us the power to build our own systems of care.” – Megan Erickson

How to take action:

📌Support the Podcast: Art of Citizenry is proudly independent. Support us as we critically explore, challenge, and unravel mainstream narratives by empowering listeners with accessible, nuanced perspectives. 

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is often framed as a technological breakthrough. But behind the headlines is a deeper question: who owns the infrastructure shaping how we communicate, create, and understand truth?

In this episode of Art of Citizenry Podcast, we slow down the AI conversation to ask harder questions – not just about what these systems can do, but who built them, who profits from them, and what we give up by using them. Manpreet Kalra is joined by Vauhini Vara, author of Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age and longtime journalist covering Big Tech, to unpack the structural forces at play behind the AI boom.

Together, we explore how AI is less a neutral technology than a mirror of the economic and ideological forces that built it. A social system shaped by corporate incentives, embedded bias, and the quiet erosion of our ability to define truth for ourselves and what it means for all of us when the infrastructure shaping that truth is privately owned, profit-driven, and constantly learning from us.

This isn't a conversation with easy answers. It's about sitting with complexity, and the uncomfortable reality that opting out is rarely simple.

In this episode, we explore:

AI isn’t just a technical system. It’s a social and economic one. The outputs we see reflect the data they’re trained on, the incentives of the companies building them, and the broader political economy of the internet. If we want different outcomes from AI, the conversation must expand beyond engineering fixes to include questions of ownership, accountability, and power.

Vauhini Vara is the author of Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age, named a best book of the year by Esquire, Slate, and Publisher’s Weekly and a winner of the Porchlight Business Book Award. Her previous books are This is Salvaged, which was longlisted for the Story Prize and won the High Plains Book Award, and The Immortal King Rao, a Pulitzer Prize finalist and winner of the Colorado Book Award. She is also a journalist, currently working as a contributing writer for Businessweek.

📌Support the Podcast: Art of Citizenry is proudly independent. Support us as we critically explore, challenge, and unravel mainstream narratives by empowering listeners with accessible, nuanced perspectives. 

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For more, you can find the full show notes of every episode at https://www.artofcitizenry.com/episodes

In this episode of Art of Citizenry Podcast, Manpreet Kaur Kalra speaks with Minnesota State Senator Erin Maye Quade from the epicenter of ICE’s siege. Across Minnesota, intensified immigration operations have made daily life unsafe and unpredictable, destabilizing families and threatening people’s basic autonomy and human rights. From masked agents going door to door and idling near schools to racially profiling and arbitrarily kidnapping children and adults, the federal government has carried out an occupation marked by unlawful tactics designed to intimidate and detain. 

The conversation moves beyond the headlines to unpack the lived reality on the ground. Senator Maye Quade explains why documentation and constitutional observing have become critical tools of protection, how mutual aid networks are sustaining families, and what meaningful accountability could require in the months and years ahead.

We explore:

• What Operation Metro Surge looks like on the ground and how ICE is using racial profiling to terrorize communities.
• The importance of constitutional observing and documentation as tools for accountability.
• Community resilience in the face of state violence and how mutual aid networks are sustaining families through rent support, food distribution, childcare, and emergency response as families shelter in place.
• The possibilities of state-level action amid federal overreach.
• What other states and communities should prepare for if this playbook spreads.

Meet Our Guest

Minnesota State Senator Erin Maye Quade made history in 2022 as the first out lesbian, the first Black mom, and one of the first Black women elected to the Minnesota Senate. She serves as Vice Chair of both the Education Policy and State and Local Government Committees, and she is a member of the Human Services and Education Finance Committees. Senator Maye Quade has successfully led initiatives to expand reproductive freedom, protect LGBTQ+ rights, safeguard election integrity, and promote literacy, among other key priorities.

Pay Attention. Stay Informed. Take Action. 

• Want to show up in a meaningful way? Visit StandWithMinnesota.com to contribute to mutual aid efforts and connect with trusted support resources.
• Know your rights and build communication networks with neighbors. Preparation and community are powerful forms of defense. Download red cards in your preferred language: ilrc.org/redcards

Content warning: This episode includes descriptions of state violence, please take care while listening. 

📌Support the Podcast: Art of Citizenry is proudly independent. Support us as we critically explore, challenge, and unravel mainstream narratives by empowering listeners with accessible, nuanced perspectives. 

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Explore Past Episodes of the Art of Citizenry Podcast with Manpreet Kalra: https://www.artofcitizenry.com/podcast

For more, you can find the full show notes of every episode at https://www.artofcitizenry.com/episodes

JOANN (forever “Joann Fabrics” in our hearts) didn’t just “go out of business,” it was engineered to collapse. In this episode of our series The Private Equity Playbook, host Manpreet Kaur Kalra is joined by collaborator Anna Canning to trace how a beloved craft-store chain went from being a hub for makers to a debt-loaded financial instrument. 

This isn’t a story about changing consumer tastes or “retail trends.” It’s actually about debt, extraction, and what happens when the logic of Wall Street collides with the fabric of daily life. 

From JOANN's origins in Cleveland’s garment-manufacturing era to its pandemic boom and rapid collapse, we break down what happens when private equity enters the picture: a leveraged buyout that loads a company with debt, management fees that drain resources, and cost-cutting that hollows out the very labor and expertise the business depends on. Along the way, we connect JOANN’s downfall to the rise of fast fashion, the history of DIY economics, and the way private equity continues to enter our lives. 

In this episode, we explore:

• How Joann Fabrics went from zero debt to total collapse after a private equity-led leveraged buyout loaded the company with over a billion dollars in obligations and ongoing management fees.
• What a leveraged buyout actually is, and how private equity firms use company debt, not their own money, to finance acquisitions and extract returns.
• The history of U.S. garment manufacturing, from unionized apparel hubs like Cleveland to offshoring, fast fashion, and the shift of sewing from necessity to hobby.
• How private equity hollowed out JOANN's core strengths (the expertise of its employees) while using a brief boom during the pandemic to obscure deep structural damage, and how JOANN's collapse rippled outward to destabilize adjacent industries.
• The bipartisan political support underpinning private equity’s takeover of our lives and why consumer choice can’t solve this.

📌Support the Podcast: Art of Citizenry is proudly independent. Support us as we critically explore, challenge, and unravel mainstream narratives by empowering listeners with accessible, nuanced perspectives. 

Contribute via Paypal: https://visit.artofcitizenry.com/paypal

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For more, you can find the full show notes of every episode at https://www.artofcitizenry.com/episodes

Impact investing is often framed as a win–win: do good, generate a positive social or environmental impact while still earning a financial return. But what does that actually look like in practice and who carries the risk when things don’t go as planned? 

In this episode of Art of Citizenry, Manpreet Kaur Kalra is joined by Dr. Peter Hinton, impact investor and Associate Fellow at Oxford’s Saïd Business School, to unpack the financial architecture behind impact investing — debt, equity, and quasi-equity — and what these instruments really mean for social enterprises and impact-driven businesses on the ground.

Together, they trace the field’s roots from faith-based socially responsible investing and the rise of microfinance to today’s trillion-dollar impact investing market. Along the way, they dig into the hidden risks of hard currency loans and the tension between investor expectations and the realities faced by entrepreneurs and communities. They tackle one of the field’s thorniest questions: how do you measure social impact without overburdening the very organizations you’re trying to support? 

This episode dives into:

• The financial architecture of impact investing: how debt, equity, and quasi-equity shape risk, power, and investor-investee relationships.
• Historical roots of the field, from faith-based socially responsible investing and microfinance to today’s global impact investing ecosystem.
• Global power dynamics, including currency risk, capital flows, and the implications of hard-currency loans for entrepreneurs in emerging markets.
• The challenges of measuring social impact, why standardized metrics fall short, and how reporting requirements can burden social enterprises.
• Community-centered evaluation and accountability, exploring methods that elevate beneficiary voices and prioritize cultural and linguistic contexts.

Whether you’re new to impact investing or wrestling with its limitations from the inside, this episode offers a grounded, critical, and hopeful look at what a more equitable approach could look like.

📌Support the Podcast: Art of Citizenry is proudly independent. Support us as we critically explore, challenge, and unravel mainstream narratives by empowering listeners with accessible, nuanced perspectives. 

• Contribute via Paypal: https://visit.artofcitizenry.com/paypal
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For more, you can find the full show notes of every episode at https://www.artofcitizenry.com/episodes

Coffee, Silicon Valley, and… George W. Bush's former roommate? In this episode of Art of Citizenry Podcast, host Manpreet Kaur Kalra is joined by long-time collaborator Anna Canning as they kick off a new series on private equity by tracing what happens when big finance meets something as everyday as your morning cup of coffee.

Philz Coffee made headlines earlier this year when the iconic San Francisco coffee company got bought by private equity firm Freeman Spogli in a deal that cancelled all employee common stock options. Together, Manpreet and Anna dig into what happened, breaking down the complex financial maneuvers and unpacking how this conclusion was both unexpected and not all that surprising.

In this episode, we explore the case of Philz Coffee while touching on:

• What private equity is and how “leveraged buyouts” and high-risk financial engineering shape our daily lives
• The hierarchy of who gets paid when investors are involved and what Philz’s decision to cancel worker stock tells us about whose investments really matter
• How consolidation in coffee offers insights into the  broader patterns of the global economy where consolidation has become the name of the game
• The people, let’s be real…men…behind Freeman Spogli, the firm’s origins, and ties to U.S. politics.
• Why transparency, journalism, and informed communities are essential for pushing back on corporate impunity

Tune in as we begin to unmask corporate consolidation in coffee and beyond: Nestlé’s and JAB’s coffee empires, the pressure on small ethical roasters, historic low coffee prices for farmers, and how firms like Freeman Spogli have been quietly reshaping everything from grocery chains to farmers’ livelihoods. We connect the dots between colonialism, capitalism, and financialization, showing how risk is repeatedly pushed down onto workers (and farmers) while profits are siphoned off at the top.

📌Support the Podcast: Art of Citizenry is proudly independent. Support us as we critically explore, challenge, and unravel mainstream narratives by empowering listeners with accessible, nuanced perspectives. 

• Contribute via Paypal: https://visit.artofcitizenry.com/paypal
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Explore Past Episodes of the Art of Citizenry Podcast with Manpreet Kalra: https://www.artofcitizenry.com/podcast

For more, you can find the full show notes of every episode at https://www.artofcitizenry.com/episodes

Storytelling shapes how we see the world, and our place in it. The stories we tell and the ones we choose to believe define our understanding of truth, power, and belonging. They decide whose pain is seen, whose resistance is remembered, and whose voices are erased.

In this episode of Art of Citizenry Podcast, host Manpreet Kaur Kalra is joined in conversation with Noor Tagouri. Together, they interrogate how narratives influence systems — reflecting on what it means to tell stories with transparency, courage, and care in an era where journalism itself is being redefined.

We explore:

• The transformative power of storytelling when rooted in self-investigation
• How a rapidly evolving media landscape is reshaping the role and responsibility of independent journalists
• The far-reaching consequences of representation and misrepresentation in shaping politics, pop culture, and public opinion
• How cross-community solidarity among marginalized groups can reclaim narrative power and deepen the integrity of storytelling

Storytelling isn’t neutral. Self-investigation asks us to move through our own stories with courage — allowing curiosity to become our compass as we explore our own identities, stories, and beliefs. This conversation is an invitation to listen deeply, ask hard questions, and question the stories we inherit — letting each question reshape what we know.  

📌 Support the Podcast: Art of Citizenry is proudly independent. Support us as we critically explore, challenge, and unravel mainstream narratives by empowering listeners with accessible, nuanced perspectives. 

• Contribute via Paypal: https://visit.artofcitizenry.com/paypal
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Explore Past Episodes of the Art of Citizenry Podcast with Manpreet Kalra: https://www.artofcitizenry.com/podcast

For more, you can find the full show notes of every episode at https://www.artofcitizenry.com/episodes

One Neighborhood, Nine Elders, and the wisdom that held a community together. They've seen an interstate cut their once-thriving neighborhood in half. They've seen their community cut off from the commercial and cultural engines of the city. They've seen terror visited on their own backyards. But through it all, they've fought to hold onto the place they love.

We Are North Nashville: The Podcast is about the lives of elders who call North Nashville home, in their own words. It's about the ways the elders have kept joy alive in their neighborhood in spite of all the challenges it has faced. It's about the history that newcomers to the city don't always know, or even think to ask about. It's about walking the streets and still seeing the way people held this place together, even when city planners set about ripping it apart.

This is a show about North Nashville. It's also a story about the United States, where Black communities have been cut apart, razed and deprived for generations in the name of progress that does not include them. More importantly, We Are North Nashville is what happens when the people who live history get to tell it.

Executive Producer: Andrea Tudhope

For more, you can find the full show notes of every episode at https://www.artofcitizenry.com/episodes

October marks both Fair Trade Month and National Co-op Month – a fitting moment to examine how global trade policies are reshaping the landscape for ethical businesses.

In this episode of Art of Citizenry Podcast, host Manpreet Kaur Kalra is joined by Nicole Vitello, Vice President at Equal Exchange, a worker-owned co-operative with the mission to build long-term fair trade partnerships that are economically just and environmentally sound. Together, they unpack how tariffs, trade wars, volatile commodity markets, and climate pressures are colliding to threaten the survival of ethical supply chains.

From a 39% tariff on Switzerland to 50% tariffs on Brazil and India, industries ranging from chocolate and coffee to fashion are under immense strain. For fair trade, ethical businesses and co-ops, it’s not just about surviving the current administration’s tariff strategy – it’s about whether ethical supply chains can survive in a system tilted toward multinationals and shareholder profits. While these taxes are marketed as efforts to “bring manufacturing home,” the real impact lands on those least able to absorb the cost – smallholder farmers, small businesses here domestically, and ultimately consumers.

We explore:

• How the trade wars, increases in tariffs, and high commodity prices are destabilizing ethical, sustainable, and fair trade supply chains – causing cost and pricing spikes from farmers to consumers
• Why ethical businesses and co-ops are uniquely vulnerable under protectionist trade policies
• How climate change, tariffs, and inflation are compounding global price volatility and putting financial pressure on farmer coops
• The impacts of USAID cuts on economic development programs 
• Why cooperative business models and consumer solidarity may be the last line of defense against exploitative trade

🎧 Ethical supply chains that center fairness and sustainability remain the exception, not the rule. Tune in as we examine the human cost of tariffs and the structural inequities baked into modern capitalism and global trade systems.

📌Support the Podcast: Art of Citizenry is proudly independent. Support us as we critically explore, challenge, and unravel mainstream narratives by empowering listeners with accessible, nuanced perspectives. 

• Contribute via Paypal: https://visit.artofcitizenry.com/paypal
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Follow the show on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artofcitizenry

Follow Manpreet on Instagram: https://instagram.com/manpreetkalra

Explore Past Episodes of the Art of Citizenry Podcast with Manpreet Kalra: https://www.artofcitizenry.com/podcast

For more, you can find the full show notes of every episode at https://www.artofcitizenry.com/episodes