The Opt-In

Jeff James was one of the good white guys—or so he thought. But when he asked an African American friend how he could help fight the rising tide of racism, he had to think again. "Simple," she shot back, "get rid of whiteness."  Thus began his journey to discover, name, and dismantle the racial category that had defined and advantaged him for a lifetime. Aurora + Kelly sit with Jeff as he shares his discoveries on just how deeply the forces of race have shaped his own choices and how the things we can't see yield the most power.  Us well-meaning white people have a lot of work to do and it's past time to Opt-In.

Find out more about Jeff James here: www.givingupwhiteness.com

Opt-In on Instagram, Facebook, + Twitter @theoptin.

Produced by Rachel Ishikawa
Music by Jordan McCree
Hosted by Aurora Archer + Kelly Croce Sorg

If you enjoyed this conversation and would like to support Aurora + Kelly curating more conversation to propel your introspection, growth and being better a human, we invite you to consider donating a minimum of $8 to our Patreon account or the sky-is-the-limit for our Venmo and Paypal accounts at theopt-in.com! If we connect with you, please subscribe, rate + review The Opt-In podcast, It takes all of us together to make transformational change. Visit us at www.theopt-in.com to stay tuned in. 

In such turbulent + expansive times, we call on every drop of equanimity we can muster.  Reverend Rhetta Morgan has been gathering tools for healing + inspiration over a lifetime and joins Aurora + Kelly in cultivating hope + connection as a pathway back to wholeness. Regardless of election results, there is transformation to be birthed.  This work of bringing our whole selves to joyful expression contributes to internal, communal + global healing, helping us envision liberation and feel into the futures we are wanting to build.

Opt-In on Instagram, Facebook, + Twitter @theoptin.

Produced by Rachel Ishikawa
Music by Jordan McCree
Hosted by Aurora Archer + Kelly Croce Sorg

If you enjoyed this conversation and would like to support Aurora + Kelly curating more conversation to propel your introspection, growth and being better a human, we invite you to consider donating a minimum of $8 to our Patreon account or the sky-is-the-limit for our Venmo and Paypal accounts at theopt-in.com! If we connect with you, please subscribe, rate + review The Opt-In podcast, It takes all of us together to make transformational change. Visit us at www.theopt-in.com to stay tuned in.

Connect with Rev. Rhetta Morgan on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/Rev-Rhetta-Morgan-62807784639/

Named one of TIME Magazine's top 100 Influential people of 2020, Sister Norma Pimentel has been providing food, shelter, dignity + compassion to migrants seeking refuge in the US. Aurora + Kelly are invited into Sr. Norma's grounded and joyous space to discuss the community which refugees of all different countries create under hazardous circumstances, why we are stuck in our individualism and what we can do to wake up to our sense of belonging. She urgently asks are we on the side that is defending life?

Watch Sister Norma Pimentel's Ted Talk here: https://www.ted.com/talks/norma_pimentel_restoring_human_dignity_at_the_us_southern_border
Learn more about Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley here: http://www.catholiccharitiesrgv.org/Home.aspx/

Find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @theoptin.

Produced by Rachel Ishikawa
Music by Jordan McCree
Hosted by Aurora Archer and Kelly Croce Sorg

If you enjoyed this conversation and would like to support Aurora + Kelly curating more conversation to propel your introspection, growth and being better a human, we invite you to consider donating a minimum of $8 to our Patreon account or the sky-is-the-limit for our Venmo and Paypal accounts at theopt-in.com! If we connect with you, please subscribe, rate + review The Opt-In podcast, It takes all of us together to make transformational change. Visit us at www.theopt-in.com to stay tuned in.

How do we heal the trauma of a country built on stolen land with stolen people? Look no further for a holistic plan for America, than Dr. Gail Christopher.  Dr. Gail is the visionary and architect for the Truth Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Commission, a resolution going in front of the US House of Representatives. Healing is a natural process, whereas our structures of human value is not. Aurora + Kelly sit down in pure reverence with Dr. Gail as she drops truth bombs one after another inciting hope, health, love + justice for ALL.

Find out more about Dr. Gail Christopher here: https://drgailcchristopher.com/
Follow her on twitter here.

Find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @theoptin.

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Facebook

Produced by Rachel Ishikawa
Music by Jordan McCree
Hosted by Aurora Archer and Kelly Croce Sorg

If you enjoyed this conversation and would like to support Aurora + Kelly curating more conversation to propel your introspection, growth and being better a human, we invite you to consider donating a minimum of $8 to our Patreon account or the sky-is-the-limit for our Venmo and Paypal accounts at theopt-in.com! If we connect with you, please subscribe, rate + review The Opt-In podcast, It takes all of us together to make transformational change. Visit us at www.theopt-in.com to stay tuned in. 

Colette Pichon Battle is a climate justice WARRIOR. A generational native of Bayou Liberty, Louisiana, she is founder + ED of the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy, developing programming focused on Equitable Disaster Recovery, Global Migration, Community Economic Development, Climate Justice + Energy Democracy.  Colette works with local communities, national funders and elected officials in the post-Katrina/post-BP disaster recovery. An Obama fellow and TED Women speaker, she develops advocacy initiatives that intersect with race, systems of power + ecology, and Colette's here with Aurora + Kelly to break it down: climate. justice.

Find out more about the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy here: https://www.gcclp.org/
Watch Colette Pichon Battle TED talk here: https://www.ted.com/talks/colette_pichon_battle_climate_change_will_displace_millions_here_s_how_we_prepare
and check out the Jemez Principals here: https://ecology.iww.org/PDF/misc/jemez.pdf

Find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @theoptin.

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Facebook

Produced by Rachel Ishikawa
Music by Jordan McCree
Hosted by Aurora Archer and Kelly Croce Sorg

If you enjoyed this conversation and would like to support Aurora + Kelly curating more conversation to propel your introspection, growth and being better a human, we invite you to consider donating a minimum of $8 to our Patreon account or the sky-is-the-limit for our Venmo and Paypal accounts at theopt-in.com! If we connect with you, please subscribe, rate + review The Opt-In podcast, It takes all of us together to make transformational change. Visit us at www.theopt-in.com to stay tuned in. 

Water is LIFE. As a water scientist and protector, Dr. Kelsey Leonard seeks to establish Indigenous traditions of water conservation as the foundation for international water policy-making. Fighting for legal personhood of water, Dr. Kelsey Leonard represents the Shinnecock Indian Nation on the Mid-Atlantic Committee on the Ocean, which is charged with protecting America's ocean ecosystems and coastlines. With Aurora + Kelly captivated, Dr. Leonard discusses building Indigenous science and knowledge into new solutions for water governance and sustainable oceans.

Learn more about Dr. Kelsey Leonard here: http://www.kelseyleonard.com/
Follow her on Twitter here.

Find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @theoptin.

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Instagram
Facebook

Produced by Rachel Ishikawa
Music by Jordan McCree
Hosted by Aurora Archer and Kelly Croce Sorg

If you enjoyed this conversation and would like to support Aurora + Kelly curating more conversation to propel your introspection, growth and being better a human, we invite you to consider donating a minimum of $8 to our Patreon account or the sky-is-the-limit for our Venmo and Paypal accounts at theopt-in.com! If we connect with you, please subscribe, rate + review The Opt-In podcast, It takes all of us together to make transformational change. Visit us at www.theopt-in.com to stay tuned in. 

We are getting SCHOOL-ed with co-authors, lifelong educators, parents, + great friends Alli Frank + Asha Youmans. Their debut novel, Tiny Imperfections, offers a lighthearted take on race, family, and friendship in the world of elite private schools—a product of their shared experiences as educators and also their differences: Asha, a black woman from Seattle and Alli, a white woman from rural Washington. From elitism in private schools to racism in the publishing industry, Asha + Alli use their stories from in and out of the classroom to encourage each of us to actively seek out differences and to find our inner teacher and student.

Learn more about Alli + Asha here: https://alliandasha.com/
Buy Tiny Imperfections here.

Find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @theoptin.

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Facebook

Produced by Rachel Ishikawa
Music by Jordan McCree
Hosted by Aurora Archer and Kelly Croce Sorg

If you enjoyed this conversation and would like to support Aurora + Kelly curating more conversation to propel your introspection, growth and being better a human, we invite you to consider donating a minimum of $8 to our Patreon account or the sky-is-the-limit for our Venmo and Paypal accounts at theopt-in.com! If we connect with you, please subscribe, rate + review The Opt-In podcast, It takes all of us together to make transformational change. Visit us at www.theopt-in.com to stay tuned in. 

How do we raise our kids to talk, play, learn and rise up for racial justice? Aurora + Kelly virtually sit with Tia Mathisen, the managing director at The Philadelphia Citizen, whose interest resides in connecting people and building community. Tia is deeply intrigued and ignited by the disparities within the socio-economic structures in society and seeks solutions to combat them. As a social-justice facilitator and co-founder of the Philly's Children's Movement, she is committed to civic engagement and an optimistic believer in the common good. She is also the mom of three amazing disruptors in training who know just how to protest. 

Find out more about the Philly Children's Movement here: http://phillychildrensmarch.org/

Find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @theoptin.

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Facebook

Produced by Rachel Ishikawa
Music by Jordan McCree
Hosted by Aurora Archer and Kelly Croce Sorg

If you enjoyed this conversation and would like to support Aurora + Kelly curating more conversation to propel your introspection, growth and being better a human, we invite you to consider donating a minimum of $8 to our Patreon account or the sky-is-the-limit for our Venmo and Paypal accounts at theopt-in.com! If we connect with you, please subscribe, rate + review The Opt-In podcast, It takes all of us together to make transformational change. Visit us at www.theopt-in.com to stay tuned in. 

Jenna Arnold pulls the curtain back on the proverbial White Woman of Oz to reveal why America's most powerful demographic seems to think they're, well, powerless. She is the author of Raising Our Hands, an educator, social entrepreneur, activist + mother who lives in New York City with her husband and two children. Jenna was one of the National Organizers of the Women’s March in 2017 and Oprah named her as one of her “100 Awakened Leaders who are using their voice and talent to elevate humanity”.  Aurora + Kelly have a lot of questions about white women for Jenna and she gets into how white women can stop avoiding hard conversations, start accepting responsibility, and find their place on the new frontlines.

Learn more about Jenna Arnold's work here: https://www.jennaarnold.com.
Buy Raising Our Hands here.

Find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @theoptin.

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Facebook

Produced by Rachel Ishikawa
Music by Jordan McCree
Hosted by Aurora Archer and Kelly Croce Sorg

If you enjoyed this conversation and would like to support Aurora + Kelly curating more conversation to propel your introspection, growth and being better a human, we invite you to consider donating a minimum of $8 to our Patreon account or the sky-is-the-limit for our Venmo and Paypal accounts at theopt-in.com! If we connect with you, please subscribe, rate + review The Opt-In podcast, It takes all of us together to make transformational change. Visit us at www.theopt-in.com to stay tuned in. 

For Aurora, community is love, family and life.  For Kelly, community is joining a pool or gym. To break down what community means and how we need it more than ever, they're joined by great friends on the journey small-biz owner Bonkosi Horn of Freedom Apothecary and yogi/entrepreneur Mariel Freeman of Three Queens Yoga to have an intimate conversation about what community means to them and what we yearn for during this fearful time of massive growth and expansion.

Find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @theoptin.

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Facebook

Produced by Rachel Ishikawa
Music by Jordan McCree
Hosted by Aurora Archer and Kelly Croce Sorg

If you enjoyed this conversation and would like to support Aurora + Kelly curating more conversation to propel your introspection, growth and being better a human, we invite you to consider donating a minimum of $8 to our Patreon account or the sky-is-the-limit for our Venmo and Paypal accounts at theopt-in.com! If we connect with you, please subscribe, rate + review The Opt-In podcast, It takes all of us together to make transformational change. Visit us at www.theopt-in.com to stay tuned in.