Diverse Joy

In this early spring episode, Will’s joy is his local Gallery Night, a festive celebration of local art and artists. Amber’s joy is cherry blossom season in the Pacific Northwest. This episode's discussion topic is “Intersectionality”, a term that had seen widespread attention and some misunderstanding in recent years. Intersectionality is a framework for understanding how our various identities come together (i.e., intersect) in unique ways. For example, the experiences of a straight Black woman and a gay Black man will have some similarities, but also important differences. We have a better understanding of people’s experiences when we consider their many identities that intersect. This episode’s question dispels misconceptions sometimes raised in rude public discourse that intersectionality is just about “adding up” identities for victimization. In story time, Amber shares a couple of powerful stories about difficult and positive interactions she’s had with police officers, and discusses some of the nuances of being Black and dealing with the police. This month’s habit-breaking skill is to Seek Individuating Information. The more you get to know the unique details that make someone and individual, the less likely it is that stereotypes and biases will try to “fill in the gaps” in your perceptions of that person, leading to discriminatory assumptions or behaviors. Will’s joyful recommendation is the hilarious and fun woman-led musical comedy TV show “Girls5Eva”.

We now have merch! Buy some to support the show at https://www.biashabit.com/store

Follow Diverse Joy on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, Threads, and Bluesky.

In this Disability Awareness Month episode, we invite back lawyer Nicki Vander Meulen to talk about the history of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), especially how other movements, including the Black civil rights movement and the gay rights movement, cooperated to bring about the ADA. Nicki's joy this episode is the Marvel character Rocket Raccoon, who many see as an icon for inclusion, especially among the disability community. Amber's joy is that March is also "Disney Bounding Month", when she dresses up daily as various Disney characters, to the delight of all who know her! Will's joy is his annual tradition of throwing big theme parties for all his friends! We discuss the many protests and sit-ins related to the disability rights movement, including the 504 sit-in and the Capitol crawl, both of which succeeded in part due to solidarity and support from other rights movements. Throughout this discussion, we touch on many issues around disability and accommodations, especially highlighting how accommodations help everyone, not just people with disabilities. Nicki shares several stories related to obstacles she's faced as an Autistic person with cerebral palsy, teaching us some ways people fall short in their interactions with people with disabilities, but also giving us guidance on how to do things better! This episode's question centers on why disability is not "just" a feature of people's medical conditions, but of obstacles created by a world that often overlooks differences in ability. Today's habit-breaking skill is learning to catch Untested Assumptions, which, when unchecked, serve to perpetuate biases in our minds. Nicki's joyful recommendation is the amazing "Guardians of the Galaxy" series of movies.

We now have merch! Buy some to support the show at https://www.biashabit.com/store

Follow Diverse Joy on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, Threads, and Bluesky.

Will's joy this episode is "Camp Bingo", a local drag bingo event that fundraises for services for people living with HIV/AIDS, and Amber's joy is after-Valentine's candy sales! This month's episode focuses on weight bias, and Amber and Will discuss terminology for people who occupy bigger bodies, and many ways the world isn't set up for fat people, creating challenges for them. Amber shares stories related to being fat when seeking healthcare. This episode's question is "Isn't supporting fat people supporting them being unhealthy?", and in answer to that we unpack the relationship between body positivity and health, specifically challenging the notion that supporting fat people's body positivity is supporting them being unhealthy. In this discussion, Amber talks about the recent movement to champion "Health at every size". This episode's habit-breaking skill is learning to watch out for and disrupt Confirmation Bias, which results in us giving more mental weight to confirmatory evidence over disconfirmatory evidence. Amber's media recommendation is Lizzo's reality show "Watch Out for the Big Grrrls". (We also acknowledge that, after the recording of this episode, some controversy about Lizzo and that show has come to light. As of this episode's release the allegations have yet to be addressed in court.)

We now have merch! Buy some to support the show at https://www.biashabit.com/store

Follow Diverse Joy on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, Threads, and Bluesky.

In this episode, we mentioned our producer, Eric Roman Beining, and his photography. If you're interested, check it out at erbeining.com.

We now have merch! Buy some to support the show at https://www.biashabit.com/store

Follow Diverse Joy on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, Threads, and Bluesky.

Amber's joy this month is everything festive, most especially the ever-expanding array of Christmas movies! Will's joy is his friend group's annual "Krampus and Crafts" tradition, where they watch the holiday comedy/horror movie "Krampus" and do a holiday craft project. This episode's discussion focuses on some common terms used in diversity discussions (cultural competency, cultural humility, and cultural responsiveness), and how to translate those concepts to practical actions. In brief, we recommend learning common ways people may see the world differently from you (cultural competence), but also recognize that we can never have complete knowledge of this (cultural humility), and we should be receptive and thoughtful in our response to listening to others’ perspectives and feedback about their experiences (cultural responsiveness). This episode's question is "What is justice?" and we discuss how to define and think about social justice in our efforts to be more inclusive. This episode's habit-breaking skill is to Consider Situational Explanations for Behavior. Amber's media recommendation for this episode is the touching and fun reality TV show, "We're Here".

We now have merch! Buy some to support the show at https://www.biashabit.com/store

Follow Diverse Joy on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, Threads, and Bluesky.

For this Trans* Awareness month episode, we bring back special guest Sandy Eichel, who is a transgender nonbinary person themself! We start off addressing notions of tokenism, and specifically discuss the difference between including an underrepresented voice versus tokenizing that person to speak for their whole group. This episode, we share our joy around Will's costume room, Amber's holiday sweater collection, and Sandy's amazing annual Solstice Party! We discuss a variety of trans*-related issues, including pronouns, how to correct yourself if you slip up and misgender someone, and hearing about Sandy's own journey to understand themself as a transgender and nonbinary person. This month's habit-breaking skill is learning to Replace Stereotypes, and we learn about using the pneumonic "Detect, Reflect, Reject" as a way to help us retrain our automatic reactions. Sandy's joyful media recommendations is the powerful documentary "Paris is Burning".

We now have merch! Buy some to support the show at https://www.biashabit.com/store

Follow Diverse Joy on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, Threads, and Bluesky.

For this Halloween episode, Will and Amber are dressed up as Captain Christopher Pike (from "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds") and Lucy Ricardo (from "I Love Lucy"). Bringing us joy this October are Will and Eric Roman's annual "Hallow-Crafts Day" and Amber's traditions of visiting pumpkin patches and going apple-picking! Matching our outfits, we discuss representation of interracial relationships and racial diversity in the media, especially "I Love Lucy" and "Star Trek" (and, in true A&W fashion, we go down a rabbit hole of many others, including Brandy and Whitney Houston's "Cinderella", "Black Panther", "Wakanda Forever", "The Princess and the Frog", and "Champions"!). Representation Matters! We also discuss some of the issues surrounding actors being cast to portray people with identities they don't share. This episode's habit-breaking skill is to Broaden Your Input Via the Media, which is something we emphasize every episode, with our media recommendations! Amber's dual media recommendations for this episode are the hilarious and evergreen "I Love Lucy" and the more recent, fantastic Netflix show, "Bridgerton".

We now have merch! Buy some to support the show at https://www.biashabit.com/store

Follow Diverse Joy on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, Threads, and Bluesky.

With special guest Nicki Vander Meulen, we share our joy about the TV show Star Trek: Lower Decks, back to school, and football season! Nicki is a lawyer focused on disability issues and the first-ever openly Autistic person to be elected to a school board in the U.S., and she shares her perspectives on disability desegregation in schools. We argue that desegregation is best for not only student with disabilities, but those without disabilities as well. We also discuss language norms around disability (e.g., the difference between "person with autism" and "Autistic person"). To develop our bias habit-breaking skills, we learn to Do Perspective-Taking as one powerful way to forge emotional connections to others' experiences that drives our inclusive behavior going forward. Nicki's joyful recommendation is Judy Bloom's amazing novel "Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret".

We now have merch! Buy some to support the show at https://www.biashabit.com/store

Follow Diverse Joy on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, Threads, and Bluesky.

To start off, we explain that, even though we both have doctorates, we describe ourselves as “so-called experts” because diversity and inclusion topics are ever-evolving, and there’s always more to learn. Things bringing us joy this episode are Will’s visits to the Bristol Renaissance Faire in Bristol, Wisconsin and Amber learning to make her Italian grandmother’s recipe for long sauce. Our discussion this episode focuses on our own identities and backgrounds, and we each share our stories of how we came to our career paths. As with many folks, our appearances aren’t complete indicators of our racial/ethnic identities — Amber discusses her Black and Italian heritage, and Will talks about being White and Hawaiian, as well as sharing his story about coming out as gay to his religious, Mormon family. Then we reflect on our answers to the question "Is race a social construct?". To work on our bias habit-breaking skills, we learn to watch out for Impression Justification as one way that biases can influence judgments and decision-making. Our joyful recommendation is the delightfully diverse and absolutely hilarious TV show, “Superstore.”

We now have merch! Buy some to support the show at https://www.biashabit.com/store

Follow Diverse Joy on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, Threads, and Bluesky.

With special guest Sandy Eichel, we share our joy about gardening and working with kids. We discuss ways that stale notions of "professionalism" can stifle authenticity and increase marginalization. People are happier and more productive when they can authentically express themselves through their appearance. In other words, we celebrate Sartorial Joy! We also share our perspectives on how to start diversity discussions in workplaces that aren't talking about diversity issues. To develop our bias habit-breaking skills, we learn to watch out for Norm Enforcement as one way that biases play out. Sandy's joyful recommendation is the fantastic TV show, "Schitt's Creek."

We now have merch! Buy some to support the show at https://www.biashabit.com/store

Follow Diverse Joy on social media, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, Threads, and Bluesky.