Let’s Hear It

In the past month, nonprofits and foundations across the country have made strong statements of commitment to racial justice, in particular to support the Movement for Black Lives. At the center of this work is an understanding that we need to create new narratives about what we want our future to look like and how we move forward.

As we create these narratives, we will need to harness the power of stories. Our guest this week is Thaler Pekar, who specializes in gathering stories of foundations, nonprofits, and companies. Among her many achievements, Thaler traveled around the world to collect 178 oral histories for Atlantic Philanthropies, which are archived at Cornell University.

In addition to her work on oral histories, her firm Thaler Pekar & Partners produces videos, conducts workshops, and coaches executives on how to tell their stories.  

Eric and Thaler spoke back in February, but their conversation could not be more timely. Thaler reminds us of the importance of collecting and sharing stories. As so many of us turn our sights to creating a new narrative of change, this episode serves as a valuable lesson in the curriculum.

We hope that you are staying well and healthy and safe.

As we were thinking this week about what show to share with you, we kept returning to this conversation with Ben McBride that aired last year.  

Ben is a pastor and activist who has devoted his career to healing and reconciliation. He lives in Oakland, California where he's the co-director of PICO California.

We’ve been looking to Ben for wisdom and inspiration a lot these days – especially his work at Bring the H.E.A.T., which is an effort to increase the peace in California by transforming the public safety system into one everybody can trust.

In the aftermath of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others, this conversation with Ben feels particularly relevant.

So this week we bring you a replay of Eric’s conversation with Ben. Thanks for listening.

Welcome to another episode of Let’s Hear It. We hope you are staying as physically distanced and emotionally connected as you can! This week, we had the honor of speaking with Dominique Derbigny, the Deputy Director of the Closing the Women’s Wealth Gap initiative and author of an extraordinary piece on the inequity of aid policy in the time of COVID. Dominique has previously worked with Prosperity Now and United Way of Greater Richmond and Petersburg, and contributes regularly to the publication #BlackHer on issues facing Black women.

Dominique’s report, On the Margins: Economic Security for Women of Color through the Coronavirus and Beyond, was released only a few weeks after the lockdown began. It is a careful examination of the recent coronavirus relief packages and assesses the benefits, shortcomings, and implications for women of color.

This is a terrific conversation with a woman who is helping to shine a light on racial equity and economic inclusion.

You know that old saying “see a problem, it’s yours”? Alexis Madrigal and his colleagues at The Atlantic have taken that to extremes.

As the coronavirus story was developing in early March, Alexis, a staff writer at The Atlantic, had trouble getting good data about COVID-19, so he and a few colleagues started the COVID Tracking Project. Little did he know that it would become one of the most reliable sources of data about COVID-19 in the country. In fact, even the White House is citing their data.

Alexis has also partnered with the Antiracist Research & Policy Center to create the COVID Racial Data Tracker, which provides the most comprehensive information on the racial disparities of the pandemic.

In the midst of all this, Alexis generously found time to speak with Eric about the extraordinary efforts of his team, the duties of journalists in times of crisis, and the shockingly disparate effects of the virus on different communities in the U.S.

Ann Christiano, the Frank Karel Chair in Public Interest Communications at the University of Florida at Gainesville, did not set out to be an academic. Before she came to the University of Florida, Ann spent more than a decade as a senior communications officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. But she has now truly made her mark in academia. She has helped build a discipline in public interest communications, leading new research, writing in a wide variety of publications, and now launching the Center for Public Interest Communications at UF.

In this episode (a flashback to days gone by, when people could actually meet in person), Eric and Ann meet during the frank gathering (an annual communications event inspired by Frank Karel) and have an exit interview of sorts, discussing Ann’s incredible ten years of work as the Frank Karel Chair and her plans for the future of public interest communications. In this candid and emotional exchange, you can hear Ann’s delightful and hopeful approach to the future of education and research in the public interest communications world.

For those folks who are fortunate enough to be able to work in these challenging times, much of their time is spent staring at a screen in “meetings.” Many of these “meetings” involve what we can charitably call “presentations.” The chilling fact is that far too many folks are forced to endure presentations that look as if they were designed by sadistic engineers in a bunker in Seattle. The poor souls subjected to these onslaughts of bullet points, charts, and statistics almost invariably come away from those experiences neither smarter nor more inspired, just older and a bit sadder.

If most presentations we suffer resemble Soviet-style brutalist architecture, this week’s guest, Nolan Haims, is like whoever designed Notre Dame, or maybe the Sydney Opera House. His designs are elegant, clever, and most important, they help the audience learn. Nolan has been a master of presentation design for over two decades. He’s the founder of Nolan Haims Creative, and he’s the former Vice President and Director of Presentation for the global PR giant Edelman. He is also co-host of The Presentation Podcast.

Nolan talks to Eric about how anyone can create presentations that appeal to the hearts and minds of their audience, uttering the phrase that may go down in Let’s Hear It History – “make your content like a Twinkie.” Have a listen to find out the secret to that epic concept. (And listen for a special little surprise at the very, very end.)

Eric sat down with Saru Jayaraman five weeks and a lifetime ago. Few of us fully appreciated the implications of the COVID crisis at the time, but the conversation centers on the very issues the crisis has raised around service workers and equity.

Saru is an attorney and activist who is changing the way our country treats workers who are forced to rely on tips to make a living.

Saru’s CV is about twelve pages long. She is president of One Fair Wage, which fights for one fair minimum wage for all workers in the U.S. (and which, by the way, has put together an Emergency Coronavirus Tipped and Service Workers Support Fund that you can look into here). She co-founded the Restaurant Opportunities Center United, she directs the Food Labor Research Center at UC Berkeley, where she is also an adjunct professor of public policy, and she has written several books, including: Forked: A New Standard for American Dining; Behind the Kitchen Door; Bite Back: People Taking on Corporate Food and Winning (to be released this month); and The New Urban Immigrant Work Force, which comes out in 2021.

Saru is an extraordinary storyteller, a passionate speaker, and a fierce advocate for fairness in the food service industry. In this episode, you will be treated to a conversation that runs the gamut from how the vestiges of slavery are still supported by the restaurant industry to how food service corporations are dictating our democracy. She will absolutely knock your socks off. This isn’t an episode to skip.

Joanne Krell is the kind of communications expert you want in your corner when it matters most. She has led communications at the WK Kellogg Foundation AND General Motors, and when she talks, we listen.

Joanne, who is the co-founder and Managing Partner of Defy Communications in Ann Arbor, Michigan, led a webinar hosted by the Communications Network that should be its own college course on how you lead in a crisis. It's packed with really useful information on how to connect with your colleagues, your constituents, and how to focus on what really matters when it matters most.

We hope that all of our Let’s Hear It listeners are staying safe and socially connected while heeding prudent calls from public health experts to practice physical distancing.

With the rush of news related to COVID-19, we checked in with two experts who have tremendous experience communicating during epidemics - Dr. Barbara Reynolds and Thomson Prentice. Both have impressive public health communications credentials, Dr. Reynolds with the Centers for Disease Control, Mr. Prentice with the World Health Organization, and have written extensively on crisis, risk, epidemic, and public health communications.

We were reminded during our discussions that each of us has a role in communicating the specific way we can help support a return to healthier, safer times for us all as soon as possible. A hearty thank you to both of these guests for joining us on little notice and providing such helpful perspectives.

Sending best wishes to all our listeners as we adapt to our current circumstances. Thank you for joining us on Let’s Hear It.

If you are ready for just a minor departure from COVID-related communications, we offer an interview with Shanelle Matthews, the founder of the Radical Communicators Network. In the aftermath of the 2016 election, Shanelle founded the Radical Communicators Network, an organization that connects progressive communicators with research, meetings, and even an old-school listserv. She is also in the process of writing the kind of radical guide to social change communications that we all wish we’d all had when we got started in the field.  

Shanelle is a multi-hyphenate strategic communications pro whose extensive credits also include work at the Sierra Club, ACLU, and the Black Lives Matter Global Network. Shanelle is also an adjunct professor at the New School in New York, where her commitment to her students speaks volumes about the kind of leadership we need in this field.

In this episode, Shanelle and Eric sit down to talk messaging, maintaining integrity, and discuss what it takes to radically communicate. Don't miss this.