Let’s Hear It

We’re back! It’s been an exhausting couple of weeks, and if you’re looking for a podcast to soothe your stressed-out soul, look no further than this episode featuring Daniel Lee, the Executive Director of the Levi Strauss Foundation. Daniel was raised in South Dakota, where his was only the second Korean family in the history of the state. His experience as an “insider and outsider” working with issues as potentially divisive as religion and LGBTQ+ rights is informed by the curiosity, empathy, and caring he brings to his work.

We have a doozy for you this week. Kirk sits down with David Roberts, the outspoken energy and climate change writer for Vox, to talk about power, climate, and (Kirk’s favorite) conspiracy theories. David started writing in 2000 when he answered a Craigslist ad for a new environmental publication called Grist, and he has been blowing our minds ever since with his engaging writing on energy and climate – a “beacon in the smog”, as Grist used to say.  

David has some amazing takes on how to inspire the left and on the shortcomings of philanthropy. His words might scandalize nonprofit purists, but they ring true nevertheless.  

If you missed ComnetworkV or if you would like to revisit that truly exciting week, you’re in luck. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be posting some of the highlights of the conference.

We begin this week with a fascinating conversation with Alexis McGill Johnson, the President and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Alexis sits down with Kristen Mack, Managing Communications Director at the MacArthur Foundation (and previous Let’s Hear It! guest).

Alexis and Kristen have a candid discussion about RBG, hope, and the urgency of this moment in history.

Stay tuned for more highlights from ComNetworkV. This year’s virtual conference was almost as magical as it is in person, and certainly contained some of the most exciting programming we’ve ever seen. 

Susan Vandergriff walked away from a seventeen-year career as a banker because something was missing in her life. She went back to school, studied social work, and ended up with a part-time office manager job at a new organization called A Step Ahead Chattanooga, whose mission was to provide free reproductive health care to women who weren’t ready to become pregnant.

In just a few years she was running the organization. This week she takes the virtual stage at the Communications Network’s virtual gathering ComNetworkV to accept the Clarence B. Jones Impact Award which is given annually by The Communications Network to a social sector individual, team, or organization whose work best represents the extraordinary impact of our craft.

Susan gave us a sneak preview of her amazing story, which is just another reminder of how lucky we are to be in the field of social change.

There are no excuses not to make it to ComNet this year – it’s free and it’s virtual. So you don’t have to leave the house and you can attend in your pajamas.

Eric speaks with the Communications Network’s CEO Sean Gibbons about all the amazing keynotes, breakouts, and the annual Day of Service, which will give participants the opportunity to support a fair count of the US Census.

And if you haven’t signed up yet, it’s not too late – go to comnetworkvirtual.org until September 21. Did we mention that it’s free?

Our cultural institutions shape how we view the world, and Javier Torres-Campos, the Director of the Thriving Cultures Program at the Surdna Foundation, is doing his part to help shape those cultural institutions for the better. Javier doesn’t just fund the arts, either. He is looking at how changes in city planning, design, and even architecture can help build a more equitable society.

Javier and Eric had a freewheeling conversation about the role cultural institutions can play in helping open up the American mind. They also had a fascinating exchange about a document called “We See You White American Theater” that challenges the structure for creating, funding, and administering theater in this country.

If you care about the future of arts in America, or even just the future of the American mind, don’t miss this episode.

With so many people out of work and low on hope, we look to the leaders who are blazing new trails to success. Eric had the incredible luck to connect with Ruben Harris, co-founder of Career Karma, a startup that helps people network, learn, and find employment in tech. Ruben might as well be listed under the word “trailblazer” in the dictionary; in the wake of mass unemployment that has left this country reeling, he’s started a campaign called Reskill America, which provides laptops to underestimated folks (a term borrowed with gratitude from a venture capital trailblazer in her own right, Arlan Hamilton). Ruben is nothing but audacious – he hopes to benefit one billion people in the next ten years. He also hosts the Breaking Into Startups podcast, which definitely warrants a listen.

Eric has proclaimed this episode to be his favorite of 2020 so far, and no wonder. Ruben provides much food for thought on how nonprofits can learn from the business world. He also offers some very honest feedback for how foundations can improve their practices. And he reminds us that there’s no time like the present to achieve your dreams.

If this week, month, or year has got you feeling unempowered, this is the interview you must listen to.

This week, Disinformation King Kirk Brown sits down with Renée DiResta, Technical Research Manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory, a multidisciplinary research center that works on understanding how information moves on the internet. Renée has written extensively on the topic of disinformation, much to the chagrin (or delight?) of comment trolls, and has recently done fascinating work on disinformation as it pertains to COVID-19 responses.

Renée and Kirk’s conversation runs the gamut of topics from the power of the internet to the effect of malign narratives, with lots in between. This is a conversation that will especially appeal to those with the disinformation scaries. Renée and her work are vital to changing how we talk about the internet as the information environment of today, and her insight is not to be missed.

Bonus: The Communications Network has just announced that Renée will be one of their speakers this year at ComNet’s first-ever virtual gathering, which will happen from September 22nd to September 25th. Better yet, it’s free! You can find out more here: https://www.comnetworkvirtual.org/.

Sabeel Rahman is a leading progressive thinker, movement builder, convener, and collaborator whose specialty is linking big ideas to social change strategies.

Since 2018, he has been the president of Demos, an organization that was started in 2000 by progressive foundations that wanted to respond to right wing think tanks with a focus on progressive policy development and advocacy. One of its early board members was a State Senator from Illinois named Barack Obama.

Under Sabeel’s leadership, Demos has built on its reputation as an essential voice in the movement for a just, inclusive, multiracial democracy. In this edition of Let’s Hear It, Eric and Sabeel have a free-flowing conversation about dismantling institutions and systems that are responsible for ongoing inequality in race, gender, and class. Sabeel talks about how to create new models for how the world will need to work as we attempt to create a new social contract based on justice.

Unless you've been living under an extremely large rock for the past four years, by now you are well aware that the information we receive on a daily basis isn't always what it seems to be.

This week, Kirk interviews Nina Jankowicz, whose new book, How to Lose the Information War: Russia, Fake News, and the Future of Conflict is a stark reminder that American democracy is under siege.

And if you are doing communications today, you are doing it in a sea of disinformation that has been designed to create chaos and foment distrust in the American system.

And yet, it's never been more important to know what we're up against. This episode is a stark reminder of just how vulnerable our messages are to abuse and subversion.

Have a nice day!