Tiffany Dena Loftin has been in this work for over two decades — from a TRIO student at UC Santa Cruz organizing against tuition hikes, to leading the United States Student Association, to fighting for student debt cancellation at the NAACP and the Debt Collective. She's a labor organizer, a voting rights strategist, a founding member of Freedom Side, and one of the most disciplined relationship builders in the movement. She also served on the advisory board when Dr. David J. Johns led the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans. Today, she steps into the classroom for the first time.

This conversation goes everywhere it needs to go. They talk about how authoritarianism uses isolation as a weapon — and why people are making intentional, physical, sometimes spontaneous choices to gather again. They get into what it actually means to find an organizing home when you care about everything. Tiffany tells the truth about the Debt Collective, the SAVE program, and what borrowers sitting in default right now actually need to do. And she closes with a charge that lands hard: we are not going to get free being comfortable.

We're dropping this episode the week of Juneteenth. The promise of freedom is real. The weight of this moment is real. Both are true at the same time.

Find your organizing home. Not tomorrow. Now.

SHOW NOTES

Connect with Tiffany Instagram, LinkedIn, X/Twitter, Threads, Bluesky: @tiffanydloftin How We Get Free

Podcast: @howwegetfreepod

Organizations & Resources Mentioned

• Freedom Summer 2026 / All Roads Lead to the South blackpowerwarroom.com/dayofaction 
• The Debt Collective — the first union of debtors in the United States debtcollective.org
• United States Student Association (USSA) usstudentassociation.org and @usstudentassociation.
  
• The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS) ticas.org
• The Education Trust edtrust.org
• NAACP naacp.org 

Referenced in This Episode:

• DeJuana Thompson / Black Voters Matter Courtland Cox, SNCC veteran and mentor Carmen Berkeley — on building relationships, not titles Marshall Ganz — on relationships as the currency of power (Harvard Kennedy School) Kingian Nonviolence Certificate Program

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