Pod for the Cause

Our host Vanessa Gonzalez is joined by Sakira Cook, Senior Director of the Justice Program at The Leadership Conference and the The Education Fund, and Reginald Belle, Campaigns and Programs Fellow at The Leadership Conference and The Education Fund to discuss how we can transform the criminal-legal system through voting and other forms of civic participation.

Our host Vanessa Gonzalez is joined by Arekia Bennett-Scott, executive director of Mississippi Votes, and Jordan Johnson, executive director of Georgia Shift, to discuss the legacy of Black-led civil rights organizing, the importance of youth in these movements, and how to evolve to meet the present moment. 

Our host Vanessa Gonzalez is joined by Diego Sanchez, Director of Advocacy, Policy & Partnerships at PFLAG and Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality to discuss the intersectionality of inequity and how it impacts the transgender community. They discuss dismantling systems of violence, among other topics.

What is narrative and why should it matter to activists? Vanessa is joined by Ellen Buchman, President at The Opportunity Agenda, Dr. Jiggy Geronimo, a progressive research and messaging expert, and Tyler Lewis, Director of Messaging and Project Management at Third Sector to discuss how civil rights advocates can craft messaging that leverages the power of narratives.

Our host Vanessa Gonzalez is joined by Sofia Ongele, Founder of ReDawn and Creative Advisor Intern at Kode with Klossy, and Laura Murphy, President of Laura Murphy & Associates, LLC and Author of The Rationale for and Key Elements of a Business Civil Rights Audit, to discuss the intersection of technology and civil rights.

Our host Vanessa Gonzalez is joined by Lia Parada, Director of Legislative Advocacy at The Immigration Hub, and Abraham Paulos, Deputy Director at the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, to discuss asylum, temporary protected status, and the state of immigration in the United States.

Our host Vanessa Gonzalez is joined by Lena Zwarensteyn, Senior Director of the Fair Courts Campaign at The Leadership Conference and The Education Fund, and Patricia Richman, National Sentencing Resource Counsel at Federal Public and Community Defenders, to discuss the promises President Biden made to voters, unpack his record on judicial nominations and criminal justice reform, and how else our communities need him to show up. 

Our host Vanessa Gonzalez is joined by Aimee Arrambide, Executive Director at Avow Texas; Leila Abolfazli, Director for Federal Reproductive Rights at National Women’s Law Center; and Nancy Cardenas Pena, Texas Director of Policy and Advocacy at the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice to discuss how recent abortion restrictions ​and laws that are chipping away at the right to vote are rooted in white supremacy and how to fight against them.

On the finale of the Vision for Justice miniseries, our guest host, Monifa Bandele, Movement for Black Lives Leadership Team, reimagines public safety with Thea Sebastian, Director of Policy, Civil Rights Corps, Alphonso David, President of Human Rights Campaign, and Eunisses Hernandez, Executive Director and Co-founder of La Defensa.

Our host Vanessa Gonzalez is joined by Congressman Ted. Lieu (D-Calif.) to discuss pretrial justice, its current framework, and the inequities that exist within it. Then, in a special Pod Squad segment, Sakira Cook, Senior Director, Justice Program, The Leadership Conference and The Education Fund, reimagines transforming the pretrial justice system with DeAnna Hoskins, President and CEO of JustLeadershipUSA; Katherine Hubbard, Senior Attorney at Civil Rights Corps; Chesa Boudin, the District Attorney of San Francisco; and Sharone Mitchell, Public Defender of Cook County, Illinois.