Art of Power episodes:

• February 17, 2023Special: Shoes Off

  WBEZ Chicago has a new podcast that we think Art of Power fans will enjoy.

  It's called Shoes Off: A Sexy Asians Podcast! It's a show celebrating badass Asians

  who are making a mark on pop culture and entertainment. Give it a listen!

  ...more

  

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• May 12, 2022Franklin Leonard finds the best scripts in Hollywood

  His annual ‘Black List’ elevated films like ‘Juno,’ ‘Argo’ and ‘The King’s

  Speech.’ Now he wants to change how Hollywood finds its talent.

  Franklin Leonard tells Art of Power’s Aarti Shahani how his nerdy beginnings in

  Georgia set the precedent for his career as a revered film executive. He explains

  how creating his first 'Black List' broke an unwritten Hollywood rule, what show biz

  can learn from the NBA about finding the best talent, and the power of imagery in

  dismantling racism and asserting personhood.

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• May 05, 2022Former ‘Roe’ attorney Gloria Allred on NDAs, empowering victims and a world without legal abortion

  Back in the 1960s – before Gloria Allred became one of America’s most

  prominent women’s rights attorneys – she says she was raped at gunpoint. She became

  pregnant and had a back-alley abortion that nearly killed her.

  “It did teach me a lesson,” Allred tells Art of Power host Aarti Shahani. “And the

  lesson is that abortion should be safe, legal, affordable and available.”

  In conversation with Shahani, Allred explains how that traumatic life event changed

  her worldview and preceded her decades-long career in civil rights law (10:20). She

  explains why she uses a cheeky sense of humor to get what she needs (4:30) and how

  she’s represented some of the most famed names in women’s rights, including “Jane

  Roe” of Roe v. Wade and O.J. Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson (14:35). Plus,

  Allred defends a long-standing practice she’s been criticized for: negotiating

  non-disclosure agreements (26:20).

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• April 28, 2022Dolores Huerta on organizing, motherhood and ‘sexual coercion’ in her labor rights movement

  She helped organize one of the largest labor movements in history, but her

  name is often left out of the narrative. As an organizer in the 1960s, Dolores

  Huerta says it was not always easy to assert her power.

  “As a woman, I had to do something about the way the women were being treated,” she

  told Art of Power’s Aarti Shahani.

  Huerta explains how she raised 11 children in voluntary poverty while leading a

  nationwide civil rights battle (01:45). She dissects the mechanics of the famous

  1965 Delano grape boycott, including how she allied with some of America’s biggest

  leaders (13:50). And for the first time, she reveals how higher-ups within the

  organization handled an alleged case of what she calls “sexual coercion” less than

  gracefully (30:40).

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• April 21, 2022‘Hangover’ producer Scott Budnick cannot be pigeonholed

  Scott Budnick might be best known for producing The Hangover trilogy, one

  of the most successful R-rated comedy franchises ever. But making frat-boy comedies

  and spending years among ladder-climbers and clout-chasers in Hollywood left Budnick

  wanting.

  “I just felt empty inside,” he tells Art of Power’s Aarti Shahani.

  Budnick tells Shahani about the turn of events that led him to become one of

  California’s foremost advocates for criminal justice reform. He explains how he

  broke into the film industry — and then why he left it to found the non-profit

  Anti-Recidivism Coalition. And he describes his pivot back to creating films —

  including the 2019 Michael B. Jordan drama Just Mercy — through One Community, a

  production company with an explicitly political agenda.

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• April 14, 2022How 'Queer Eye' Changed The Culture

  'Queer Eye,' both the original version on Bravo and the newer Netflix

  reboot, is one of the most celebrated reality TV shows on the planet. But it was no

  sure thing.

  Creator David Collins tells Aarti Shahani the show's amazing creation story. He says

  God used him as a vessel to help gain cultural acceptance for the LGBTQ community.

  And he reflects on how others can do for their community what 'Queer Eye' has done

  for the LGBTQ+ movement.

  This episode was originally published on May 6, 2021.

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• April 07, 2022Stacey Abrams does everything

  Stacey Abrams is one of the highest profile democracy activists on the

  planet. She's also an entrepreneur, lawyer, novelist, and she nearly became the

  first Black woman to govern a state in the U.S.

  In conversation with Aarti Shahani, Abrams opens up about her inner wiring. She says

  she writes novels in order to live the adventurous lives she cannot, she explains

  why neither victory nor defeat are permanent, and she reflects on her 2018 election

  loss.

  "Crisis sometimes changes us, but more often it reveals us," she tells Shahani, "and

  my crisis was a revelatory moment."

  How does Stacey Abrams recover from heartache? “Slowly.”

  This episode was originally published on July 15, 2021.

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• March 31, 2022Sal Khan, Founder Of Khan Academy

  First, a lovely update from Aarti. Then, Sal Khan, a man who challenged the

  education model we’ve been using for centuries. In so doing, he created the largest

  school in existence.

  Khan tells Art of Power host Aarti Shahani about the humble origins of Khan Academy,

  how he wanted to offer a world class education — like a Harvard or an Oxford —

  except online and free for everyone, and how he had the confidence to revolutionize

  education.

  This episode was originally published on May 20, 2021.

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• March 24, 2022From BLM activist to Congress: Rep. Cori Bush

  In this week’s episode of Art of Power, host Aarti Shahani sits down with

  Congresswoman Cori Bush (D-Mo.), a former Black Lives Matter activist who lost two

  elections before finally winning Missouri’s 1st congressional seat in 2020.

  Rep. Bush tells Shahani about her early exposure to politics (12:36), the

  adversities she endured in her early life — including eviction, homelessness and

  rape (19:12), the 2014 shooting death of Michael Brown Jr. in Ferguson that pushed

  her to seek public office (4:00), and why she didn’t quit after two lopsided

  electoral defeats (32:45).

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• March 17, 2022Indra Nooyi smiles through the BS

  In this week’s episode of Art of Power, host Aarti Shahani sits down with

  Indra Nooyi, who became the first woman and immigrant to head a Fortune 50 company

  when she was named CEO of PepsiCo in 2006.

  Nooyi and host Aarti Shahani discuss her unusual family – where the men pushed her

  to be more ambitious. Aarti asks Nooyi how she manages to stay so light-hearted when

  people cut her down at work. (It’s something she does over and over again.) Her

  answer? It’s not what Aarti expected.

  Indra Nooyi’s book, My Life In Full, has a provocative passage. Describing the times

  she’s been invited into rooms with the most influential people on the planet, she

  writes: “The titans of industry, politics and economics, talked about advancing the

  world through finance, technology, and flying to Mars. Family – the actual messy,

  delightful, difficult and treasured core of how most of us live – was fringe. This

  disconnect has profound consequences…In a prosperous marketplace, we need all women

  to have the choice to work in paid jobs outside the home and for our social and

  economic infrastructure to entirely support that choice.” (emphasis added)

  Aarti dissects that call to action with her. It sounds like the call of a feminist

  or labor leader. Nooyi posits her argument is simple economics.

  “If you think like an economist, not a feminist, then you say you want the best

  resources available, which means that men and women, the best talent, have to be in

  the service of the economy,” Nooyi says. “And that requires some social support. …

  If you don't provide them a support structure, and then lament about the great

  resignation, it's crazy.”

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