Poc Talk

Oscar Salinas joins us to chat about his experience in the non-profit world and his involvement with FIRST, an organization that blends STEM (science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and sports culture. We learn how the program is changing the lives of under-privileged youth and inspiring them to go into world of STEM.

Mentioned in this episode:

FIRST, AmericorpsVista, Oscar's IG

Musician and writer, Courtney Ariel joins us in this special episode to share the themes in her recent piece, "For Our White Friends Desiring to be Allies", which has been shared 200k+ times in the last 2 weeks. We discuss Courtney's life, her eye-opening experience traveling cross-country by herself, and the online community's reception to her article. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Courtney's Article, The New Jim Crow, Between the World and Me, House on Mango Street

Connect with Courtney:
Spotify, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter

Entrepreneur Lesly Flores joins us to talk about The Social Enterprise - a movement that blends making profits and giving back. Lesly shares her experience running Dance 2 Serve, a program that offers the dance classes at affordable prices. We explore why POC millennials are choosing to put their money behind this movement and disrupting the system. Shout out to everyone grinding out there! (Also, we got a new jingle!)

Mentioned in this episode:

Lesly's Instagram, Dance2Serve, Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos, SASPAP, Salvation Army, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Tumbleweed Project, Homeboy Industries, Animals As Leaders, Ambiguous Culture, Resist Average Academy

Luis Villanueva - Artist, Designer and Architect from Sylmar, CA - talks to us about his experience starting The Mural Experiment, a non-profit which highlights art and brings art education to kids who otherwise would never be exposed to. We learn about what it takes to run an organization like this and one of the biggest motivations for getting this project off the ground.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Mural Experiment

Luis' Insta

We take a deep dive into the world of fashion explore the themes that Zarina writes about in her blog (www.EstiloYAlma.com). We talked about sustainable fashion, appropriation and basically her whole life story. She shares how her family didn’t cross the border, the border crossed her family! 

Mentioned in this episode:

B. Yellowtail
Zarina's Brother
Jane The Virgin
Orange is the New Black

Steven Almazan joins us. He’s a former teacher and is getting his Masters in Public Policy at Berkeley. He's doing research and analysis on gentrification, displacement, affordable housing and potential opportunities for low-income families to build equity/capital in marginalized communities throughout California. We invited him to come on board and share how he got into teaching and the work that he’s doing in his hometown of Boyle Heights.

Mentioned in this episode:

The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein

Los Angeles Times

Steven's Twitter

We got David Flores in the building. David is a public school educator, public speaker, activist, writer, and DECOLONIZER. He stops by to share his experience in public and charter school systems, male privilege and how to decolonize the mind. 

We got a little deep, so to protect the privacy of certain people and institutions, we’ve cut out certain words in the episode. 

Mentioned in this episode:

David's dad's shop
David's soccer team
People's Education Movement
12 Books banned by the Arizona School Board
David's Instagram
David's E-mail: [email protected]

MAMA WE MADE IT!

Meet Brian, Zarina and Axel as they embark on this journey to Wokeness! Learn a little about us, our lives growing up in public school, private school and get a crash course on the Aztec goddess Tonantzin. 

Mentioned:

Estilo Y Alma

George Washington Gomez by Americo Paredes

Red Bone by Childish Gambino

Sons of Anarchy