Riverside Chats

In today's episode, Michael speaks with Lucia Pedroza-Estrada, Elevate Omaha’s advocacy and grantmaking director.

Born in Guatemala, and a self-described lifelong lover of politics, Pedroza-Estrada’s work involves acting as a connector to elected officials and other advocacy groups. She also makes the grantmaking process more accessible to youth and develops advocacy strategies that are youth-led.

The Omaha Summer Arts Festival is a weekend-long, annual celebration of the city’s culture. The festival includes an artist market with more than 130 vendors, a lineup of local musicians, and lots of local food. This year’s festival is June 7 through June 9 in Aksarben Village, and it’s a milestone: number 50.

Today, Michael is speaking with Maggie Winton, the Omaha Summer Arts Festival’s marketing manager. She’s here to give a rundown of the festival’s 50-year history, how it adapted during the pandemic, and the future of the festival as a bridge between artists and the wider community.

Susi Amendola is a yoga therapist, author and Ornish Lifestyle Medicine trainer. She has more than 30 years experience in yoga and stress management. Her studio Yoga Now, where she still teaches, opened in Benson in 1983. Amendola also directs the studio’s annual yoga teacher certification program, which begins this September.

Amendola’s new book is “The Centered Heart: Evidence-Based Mind Body Practices to Stress Less and Improve Cardiac Health.”

The book explores the relationship between stress management and overall health, and encourages readers to try seven yoga and other mind-body practices to reduce stress and manage chronic health problems like heart disease. “The Centered Heart” was released May 7 and is available where you get books.

The Omaha Mobile Stage is a traveling performance venue that was built out of an 18-foot box truck. The truck is rented for block parties, markets, youth talent shows and other community-centered events as a platform for all kinds of live performance.

On this episode, Jessica Scheuerman and Keiria Marsha talk about their goals for the stage as a creative placemaking effort, and what’s planned for the venue this summer.

Scheuerman is the founder and executive director of Partners for Livable Omaha, Omaha Mobile Stage’s parent nonprofit. Marsha is a musician and the event organizer behind Pull Up and Vibe.

Qasim Shabazz Asad is a co-founder and co-chair of the Black Agenda Alliance, a Pan-African group working to improve social, economic and cultural conditions in Omaha’s Black community

In 2019, Asad and other community members formed the Black Agenda Alliance to bring a new perspective to advocacy in Omaha. The organization’s goals include youth education, strengthening families, building economic independence and political engagement.

In this conversation, he speaks with Chris Bowling about overcoming the circumstances of his upbringing and his road to advocacy.

Miah Sommer is the founder and executive director of Astute Coffee, formerly known as the Bike Union. The nonprofit coffee shop employs young adults impacted by the foster care system and creates programming to give them the tools to succeed in the workforce and their personal lives. Sommer was born and raised in Omaha. His mission with Astute Coffee was informed and inspired by his childhood.

Maurtice Ivy was a record-breaking basketball player as a student at Central High School in the 1980s. She went on to play for the Nebraska Cornhuskers women’s basketball team, where was the first player in Husker history to surpass the 2,000-point barrier. Her jersey was retired in in 2011. She was inducted into the Nebraska Athletics Hall of Fame in 2020.

Today, Ivy is pursuing her doctorate degree in educational leadership at Doane University. She’s also the founder and CEO ofIvy League Youth Sports Academy, which provides sports coaching and mentorship to adolescent girls in Omaha.

In this conversation, Ivy and Michael Griffin discuss Ivy's career, how the landscape has and hasn’t changed for Black women in sports, and her aspirations for the next generation of athletes.

Today's episode features a conversation between Tom Knoblauch and Matthew Wurstner, an attorney from Omaha, Nebraska.

If you've ever watched Supreme Court proceedings, a word that you've heard a lot is "precedent." How much does precedent matter? How much should we revere the standards of the past, and how much should we look to rewrite the rules of the future?

These questions don't have firm answers, but people have strong opinions about them — particularly in an age of gridlocked Congress and a historically empowered Supreme Court.

Matthew Wurstner is back on the show to discuss the concept of precedent. What is it? Where does it come from? What are the arguments for and against it?

Wurstner is a partner at the law firm Carlson Blakeman in Omaha.

Today's show is a conversation between Michael Griffin and Tena Hahn Rodriguez, co-interim executive director of Black & Pink National, a nonprofit prison abolition organization headquartered in Omaha.

Hahn Rodriguez is a dancer, educator and Omaha native. She’s worked at various nonprofits in Omaha, including Inclusive Communities and Heartland Pride, and co-founded the queer nightlife event Revel in 2014.

Today, Hahn Rodriguez discusses her Omaha upbringing and how it shapes her advocacy, how dance shows up in her work, what prison abolition would really look like, and Black & Pink’s mission of supporting incarcerated LGBTQ+ folks.