On The Issues With Michele Goodwin

On March 31, the Biden administration released the American Jobs Plan, which establishes broad goals for achieving a cleaner and more equitable future, including significant investments in green jobs like caregiving and clean energy infrastructure. On April 22—Earth Day—Biden further raised the stakes, committing the U.S. to cutting greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. Even still, there are legislators at local, state and federal levels that continue to deny climate change as real.

Meanwhile, in Flint, Michigan, after a five-year water crisis, reports say the water is now clean—but many locals still refuse to drink it to this day, due to a loss of trust.

How do global warming and other environmental concerns affect the lives of listeners in coastal areas, or those who live near waste sites, or in areas where environmental concerns are hidden? What does environmental and climate justice look like? 

Now that the U.S. has reentered the Paris Climate Agreement, what next steps must be taken to address climate change and environmental injustice here at home? What can we expect from the Biden-Harris administration? 
 
Helping us to sort out these questions and more are very special guests:

• Nourbese Flint, a program manager with Black Women for Wellness, where she directs environmental and reproductive health work, organizes community advocacy and works on policy. In addition, Nourbese serves as the head of civic engagement with Californians for a Healthy and Green Economy, is founding member of Trust Black Women, and an active member of the Women’s Intercultural Network. 
• Osprey Orielle Lake, founder and executive director of the Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN) International. She is co-director of the Indigenous Women's Divestment Delegations, was the visionary behind the International Women’s Earth and Climate Summit, and co-founded the International Women’s Earth and Climate Initiative, the precursor initiative of WECAN International. She is the author of the award-winning book, Uprisings for the Earth: Reconnecting Culture with Nature.

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In this episode, we confront the question at the center of Derek Chauvin’s trial: Who killed George Floyd? Our guests unpack that question as an issue central to police and societal violence. Examining who killed George Floyd means taking stock of legacies of racism in the Twin Cities, including redlining, school segregation, policies that undermine equality, and disparate rates of policing and mass incarceration.   
 
As attention has turned to the horrors of the old South, has racism of the new North been overlooked? And at what cost to Black lives? Have liberal allies made a difference or exacerbated harms in the Twin Cities?  
 
We also explore the trauma associated with George Floyd’s death and other officer-involved killings.  Experts on our show explain how racism produce physical and psychological health harms. 
 
Helping us to sort out these questions and how we should think about these issues and more are very special guests:

• Judge Pamela Alexander, a Fourth Judicial District judge for Hennepin County, Minnesota. She began her legal career as a criminal defense attorney with the Legal Rights Center and then moved to the Hennepin County attorney’s office as a prosecutor in the criminal division. Since 1983, she has been a Hennepin County district court judge where she presided over the juvenile division and served as assistant chief judge for the court as a whole. 
• Dr. Patricia Jones Blessman, a licensed clinical psychologist with over three decades of experience as a clinician and administrator of mental health programs. Jones Blessman is the founder and former president of the Institute for Psychodiagnostic Interventions and Services—one of only a few minority-owned, private sector psychological service corporations nationwide. 
• Tasha R. Green Cruzat, executive director of Voices for Illinois Children, an independent child advocacy group that champions strong public policies and investments for all Illinois children and their families. A U.S. Navy veteran, she brings more than 25 years of experience in the public and private sectors of education, business and government. Prior to joining Voices, Cruzat first served as deputy chief of staff then chief of staff to Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle. 
• Dr. Roderick A. Ferguson, professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies at Yale University. An interdisciplinary scholar, his work traverses such fields as American studies, gender studies, queer studies, cultural studies, African American Studies, sociology, literature and education. Most recently, he is the author of One-Dimensional Queer (Polity, 2019). He is currently working on two monographs—In View of the Tradition: Art and Black Radicalism and The Bookshop of Black Queer Diaspora. Ferguson is the 2020 recipient of the Kessler Award from the Center for LGBTQ Studies. 
• T. Mychael Rambo, a regional Emmy Award-winning actor, vocalist, arts educator and community organizer.  He also an accomplished residency artist and professor in the College of Liberal Arts, Theatre Arts and Dance at the University of Minnesota. 
• Dr. George Woods, a practicing physician, specializing in neuropsychiatry. His private practice focuses on neurodevelopmental disorders, acquired neurocognitive disorders, cognitive impairments secondary to neuropsychiatric disorders, traumatic brain injury, ethnopsychopharmacology and workplace safety. In addition to his clinical practice, Woods consults with legal teams dealing with complex criminal and civil litigation. 

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It's tax season! It’s time to talk race, taxation and D.C. statehood. The U.S. tax system raises serious questions about equity and inclusion and—according to our guests—taxation is at the root of many social and economic injustices. 

So, who does the U.S. tax code benefit? Who does it leave behind? How does racism manifest in the U.S. tax system? What role does D.C. statehood play in all of this? What roles can we expect the Biden administration to play in the fight for D.C. statehood and the larger fight for racial and economic justice? 
 
Helping us to sort out these questions and more are special guests:
 

• Dorothy A. Brown, an Asa Griggs Candler professor of law at Emory University School of Law and an advocate for economic and social justice. Most recently, she is the author of The Whiteness of Wealth: How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans—and How We Can Fix It (Crown, March 2021). She has appeared on CNN, MSNBC and Bloomberg, and has written numerous opinion pieces addressing current events in the New York Times, The Atlantic, CNN Opinion, Washington Post, Forbes, National Law Journal and Bloomberg View, to name a few. 
• Maura Quint, co-founder and executive director of Tax March, an organization that fights for an economy that works for everyone. She can be found talking taxes in publications such as the Hill, Ms. and Vox and can be heard on programs such as Pitchfork Economics and Stand Up with Pete Dominick. Quint also writes comedy and contributes to the Onion, The New Yorker, McSweeneys and other humor publications. She lives in Pennsylvania with her children and various part-time dogs.  
• Demi Stratmon, lead organizer with 51 for 51, a grassroots coalition to make D.C. the 51st state with 51 votes in the Senate. She works to combine the power of young advocates and national organizations to fight for representation for over 700,000 Washingtonians. In 2019, Demi traveled the country to make D.C. statehood a national issue, earning endorsements of 51 for 51's mission from leaders including President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Demi Stratmon is a recent graduate of Dartmouth College, majoring in government and minoring in Middle Eastern studies. 

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Brooke Baldwin is a renowned CNN anchor and author of a new book, HUDDLE: How Women Unlock Their Collective Power, out this month. Huddle examines the phenomenon of "huddling,” or what happens when women lean on one another—in the arts, activism, politics, Hollywood and everyday friendships—to lift up each other and to provide empowerment, support, inspiration and the creativity and courage to enact change and solve problems.

Brooke Baldwin is a veteran journalist and Peabody Award finalist who has served as an anchor on CNN and in its newsroom for more than a decade. She played a major role in anchoring coverage of the Obama and Trump administrations and has also reported on stories from Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. She has covered gun violence, including the tragedies in Sandy Hook and too many others. As the creator and host of CNN’s digital series American Woman, she has dedicated the latest chapter of her career to shining a light on trailblazing women in politics and culture. She is the author of HUDDLE: How Women Unlock Their Collective Power—her first book.

Rate and review “On the Issues with Michele Goodwin" to let us know what you think of the show! Let’s show the power of independent feminist media.

Check out this episode’s landing page at MsMagazine.com for a full transcript, links to articles referenced in this episode, further reading and ways to take action.

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Gender-based and sexual violence are pervasive symptoms of a larger violence issue in this country. This reality is exemplified by recent reports that some insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol on January 6 have histories of violence against women, including domestic violence and sexual assault. Of course, we also remain in mourning for the lives lost to gun violence in America—most recently the horrific killings of eight people, including six women of Asian descent, in Atlanta, and 10 people at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado.
 
What do these events convey about the U.S. and our culture of sexual violence? What connections can we make from gender-based violence and sexual violence to a broader culture of violence in the U.S.? How does gender-based violence intersect with race and racism? What can we do to begin to disrupt this culture? 
 
Helping us to sort out these questions and more are very special guests:

• Carmen Vasilio Balentine has spent 25 years working in the public sector to empower youth and to help them tell their stories.  He is the founder of CVB Wellness, which promotes wellness, equity and healing in underserved communities.  Most recently, he served as major gifts officer at American Foundation for AIDS Research.   
• Dr. Terrion Williamson, associate professor of African American and African studies with appointments in gender, women and sexuality studies and American studies at the University of Minnesota, as well as a Ms. contributor. Her research has tracked the serial killings of Black women. Her current book project, which builds upon work started in the last chapter of her first book, Scandalize My Name: Black Feminist Practice and the Making of Black Social Life, is a victim-centered study of the more than 60 cases throughout the U.S. in which Black women have been the sole or primary targets of serial killers since the 1970s. 

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Check out this episode’s landing page at MsMagazine.com for a full transcript, links to articles referenced in this episode, further reading and ways to take action.

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The 2020 election revealed the deep fractures in U.S. democracy and its electoral system. Many were already there, but this past election truly pushed our voting system to its limits. 
 
“Many of the familiar procedures for translating the people’s will into the choice of a president depend on norms of behavior, not laws,” guest Rick Hasen put it—evident from the significant efforts undertaken to undermine and interfere with the results of the election. 

Part of this dysfunction played out in the Senate, where the institution itself protects arcane rules and undemocratic processes. Is the Senate truly representative? Is the electoral system fair? Is it time to eliminate the electoral college? What other electoral reforms should we be considering? What does contemporary voter suppression look like? 
 
One of the important Senate rules at issue today is the filibuster, which has been weaponized at various times to defeat important legislation. What purpose does the filibuster serve? Is it a barrier to real progress? 
 
Helping us to sort out these questions and more are very special guests:

• Rick Hasen, chancellor’s professor of law and political science at the University of California, Irvine and a nationally recognized expert in election law and campaign finance regulation. He is co-author of leading casebooks in election law and remedies, and served in 2020 as a CNN election law analyst. He has authored over 100 articles on election law issues, published in numerous journals including the Harvard Law Review, Stanford Law Review and Supreme Court Review. 
• Barbara R. Arnwine, president and founder of the Transformative Justice Coalition. She also served as the executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law from 1989 until 2015. Arnwine is internationally renowned for contributions on critical justice issues, including the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1991 and the 2006 reauthorization of provisions of the Voting Rights Act. She also serves as co-chair and facilitator of the National Commission for Voter Justice, the Millennial Votes Matters Convenings and the Voting Rights Alliance. She is the radio host of Igniting Change and is a regular presence in the national media.
• Cynthia Richie Terrell, founder and executive director of RepresentWomen (formerly Representation2020), a regular Ms. contributor and an outspoken advocate for rules and systems reforms to advance women’s representation and leadership in the United States. Terrell has been published in numerous print journals; appeared on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal; and has participated in numerous radio shows and panel discussions on the topics of electoral reform and structural strategies to elect more women.  

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"Women’s rights are human rights," proclaimed then-First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in September 1995 at the United Nations’ Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. This groundbreaking speech marked a turning point for feminism and international efforts toward gender equality, articulating women’s rights as a basic fundamental concept of civil rights, human rights and dignity. During the conference, 189 countries unanimously adopted the Beijing Declaration and the Platform for Action for women’s equality.   

In this show we consider the impact of the U.N. agenda for gender equality and women’s empowerment. Where has there been progress?  What are the setbacks? What comes next in the global agenda on women’s rights?
 
Helping us to sort out these questions and more is our very special guest:
 
Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, United Nations under-secretary-general and executive director of U.N. Women. Sworn into office on August 19, 2013, Mlambo-Ngcuka brings a wealth of experience and expertise to this position, having devoted her career to issues of human rights, equality and social justice. Mlambo-Ngcuka has worked in government and civil society, as well as within the private sector, and was actively involved in the struggle to end apartheid in her home country of South Africa.

Rate and review “On the Issues with Michele Goodwin" to let us know what you think of the show! Let’s show the power of independent feminist media.

Check out this episode’s landing page at MsMagazine.com for a full transcript, links to articles referenced in this episode, further reading and ways to take action.

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As women continue to be hit by job loss, increased home responsibilities, family caretaking, unaccounted for invisible labor, homelessness and domestic violence, it’s clear the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed underlying institutional and infrastructural inequalities in our society. 

It’s time to check in on and reimagine the international status of women and girls. What would a feminist foreign policy agenda look like in the United States? How does it look globally? How does it take into account vulnerable women and girls? What hope exists for ending inequality based on race, sex and gender? What differences do women and girls make as social, political and economic motivators for change? 
 
Helping us to sort out these questions and more are very special guests:
 

• Karen Greenberg, director of the Center on National Security at Fordham Law, an international studies fellow at New America, and a permanent member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She is the host of "Vital Interests Podcast," the editor-in-chief of three online publications, and has written and edited numerous books including Rogue Justice: The Making of the Security State. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the L.A. Times, the Nation, the Atlantic and many other major news outlets. 
• Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, author of the New York Times bestsellers Ashley’s War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield (2015)—currently being developed into a major motion picture at Universal—and The Dressmaker of Khair Khana (2011). Her newest book, The Daughters of Kobani, was published in February 2021. Lemmon serves as an adjunct senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, along with private sector leadership roles in emerging technology and national security. 
• Pardis Mahdavi, dean of social sciences and director of the School of Social Transformation at Arizona State University (ASU) and former acting dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. She has published five single-authored books and one edited volume in addition to numerous journal and news articles. She has been a fellow at the Social Sciences Research Council, the American Council on Learned Societies, Google Ideas and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.  
• Lyric Thompson, senior director of policy and advocacy at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) and frequent Ms. contributor. She is an adjunct professor at the George Washington University, where she teaches a graduate level course on women’s rights advocacy. Thompson is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations Advisory Committee on Advancing Gender Equality in Foreign Affairs and a member of the Civil Society Strategic Planning and Leadership Group for the Global Forum for Gender Equality. 

Rate and review “On the Issues with Michele Goodwin" to let us know what you think of the show! Let’s show the power of independent feminist media.

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In this special bonus episode, we remember our friend and advocate for women in prison, Sue Ellen Allen, who died this week on February 24, 2021.  In the latter part of her life, she became an internationally renowned advocate for incarcerated women and girls.  She championed banning the box, promoting reentry, and protecting the integrity and dignity of people tethered to the criminal justice system. She was a reformer.  She spoke with tremendous grace and power about being formerly incarcerated.   

Take a listen as we revisit Sue Ellen Allen’s final interview—a wide-ranging and intimate conversation with her long-time friend, Michele Goodwin. 

Rest in power, Sue Ellen.

Sue Ellen Allen is the founder and executive director of Reinventing Reentry. A University of Texas grad, educator, community leader, former inmate at Arizona State Prison and current activist, she found her purpose from serving time in prison. She is the author of The Slumber Party from Hell, a memoir about prison life, and the recipient of the Dawson Prize in Memoir in the 2009 Prison Writing Contest for PEN American Center.

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On January 16, 2021, the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Dustin Higgs became the 13th and final person executed by the Trump administration—just days before Inauguration Day for President Joe Biden, the first sitting president to openly oppose the death penalty. 

President Trump’s spate of executions began six months before Biden's inauguration, with six executions occurring in the period after he lost the election. Overall, the former president oversaw “the most consecutive civilian executions by the federal government or any state in the 244-year history of the United States” and “ended a 17-year bipartisan federal moratorium” on executions, according to this week’s guest Stephen Rohde.
 
What purpose does the death penalty serve? How have race and racism marked the implementation of the death penalty? Is there ever a humane way to kill another person? With public support for the death penalty waning in the U.S. and across the world, how can the U.S. continue to justify it, both federally and in individual states?
 
Helping us to sort out these questions and more is a very special guest: Stephen Rohde, a constitutional scholar, lecturer, writer, political activist and retired civil rights lawyer who serves on the board of Death Penalty Focus. Rohde has represented two inmates on California’s death row. He is a founder and chair of Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace, past president of the ACLU of Southern California, and past chair of Bend the Arc: a Jewish Partnership for Justice. Rohde is the author of two books and has written for Ms., the Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, Truthout and American Prospect and is a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Review of Books. 

Rate and review “On the Issues with Michele Goodwin" to let us know what you think of the show! Let’s show the power of independent feminist media.

Check out this episode’s landing page at MsMagazine.com for a full transcript, links to articles referenced in this episode, further reading and ways to take action.

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