Roxy Manning: Consciousness, Compassion, and Nonviolent Communication

Today we are very lucky to be joined by the amazing Roxy Manning, who is here to talk to us about her work in non-violent communication, and commitment to building a more equitable and compassionate future. Roxy is an Afro-Caribbean immigrant to the US, a licensed clinical psychologist, a trainer at the Center for Nonviolent Communication, and a lead consultant for the Center for Efficient Collaboration.

Our guest has a strong passion for working towards social change on multiple levels, from the personal and interpersonal, right down to the systemic level. Her goal of helping opposing voices hear each other is a tool toward the larger aim of combatting the structures that contribute to the disparity we so often experience.

In this episode, we get to hear from Roxy about how to approach resistance from different people, some of the many challenges that business owners of color face, the importance of being able to ask for help and support, and how our listeners can reach out and get involved in this powerful work. So for all this and so much more, join us to hear what Roxy has to say!

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Key Points From This Episode:

• The roots of Roxy's drive to work with the themes of communication and compassion.

• Information on the revolutionary workshop on self-compassion that Roxy is currently involved with!

• Unpacking the concept of nonviolent communication; the foundations of better alignment.

• Roxy's experiences of resistance to difficult conversations about race and white supremacy.

• Examples from Roxy's work in workplaces in which these racial dynamics play out.

• Pathways to consciousness and starting with the raising of awareness through feedback.

• Recommendations from Roxy for helpful resources for getting started with NVC.

• Working with microaggressions and the ubiquity of these types of interactions.

• How to get involved and connect with Roxy; the mutual benefit of promoting this kind of work.

• The journey of improvement and the self-compassion that is necessary to learn from mistakes.

---

Tweetables:

“I realized that I had lived a life of always putting other people's needs first. Always putting what is important to other people first. And always trying to take care of other people first.” — @roxymanningphd

“I have always been an activist, even when I was relatively small.” — @roxymanningphd

“There were so many different confluences that led me to think that the only way I could be successful was to follow all of these unspoken rules and learn how to put other people first.” — @roxymanningphd

“For me, self-compassion and compassion are the only counters that will be effective in the long-run.” — @roxymanningphd

“Changing the systems that we have, to me, will not be a success if all I have done is flip who is on top.” — @roxymanningphd

---

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Roxy Manning — http://www.roxannemanning.com/

NVC — https://nvctraining.com/

Roxy Manning on Twitter — https://twitter.com/roxymanningphd

Howard University — https://home.howard.edu/

Myisha Cherry — https://www.myishacherry.org/

Sarah Peyton — https://sarahpeyton.com/

'How can Nonviolent Communication (NVC) Be Helpful in These Transformative Times?' — https://www.nonviolentcommunication.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/How-can-NVC-be-helpful-in-these-transformative-times_-PuddleDancer.pdf

An Introduction to NVC — http://www.roxannemanning.com/2021/01/18/an-introduction-to-nvc/

---

LIFT Economy Newsletter

Join 7000+ subscribers and get our free 60 point business design checklist—plus monthly tips, advice, and resources to help you build the Next Economy: https://lifteconomy.com/newsletter

---

Next Economy MBA

This episode is brought to you by the Next Economy MBA.

What would a business education look like if it was completely redesigned for the benefit of all life? This is why the team at LIFT Economy created the Next Economy MBA (https://lifteconomy.com/mba).

The Next Economy MBA is a nine month online course for folks who want to learn key business fundamentals (e.g., vision, culture, strategy, and operations) from an equitable, inclusive, and regenerative perspective.

Join the growing network of 250+ alumni who have been exposed to new solutions, learned essential business skills, and joined a lifelong peer group that is catalyzing a global shift towards an economy that works for all life.

Learn more at https://lifteconomy.com/mba.

---

Show Notes + Other Links

For detailed show notes and interviews with past guests, please visit https://lifteconomy.com/podcast

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It really helps expose these ideas to new listeners:

https://bit.ly/nexteconomynow

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LIFTEconomy

Instagram: https://instagram.com/lifteconomy/

Facebook: https://facebook.com/LIFTEconomy/

YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/Lifteconomy

Music by Chris Zabriskie: https://chriszabriskie.com/

Janine Firpo: Activate Your Money

The rising tide of women in the world of investing has already been shown to be facilitating positive results. Our guest today is Janine Firpo, a champion of this wave, and an individual who is staunchly committed to transformation in the financial sector and beyond. She has worked at the World Bank and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and she is here to tell her personal story and share some of the amazing wisdom she has accrued in her professional career.

Janine's mission is to consolidate and spread her knowledge to help other women to take control of their money, and thus aid positive change in the world. She speaks about the role of technology in solving social problems, and how the concept of impact investing can be a powerful tool on many levels. She speaks about the simple yet revolutionary idea that investments can transform the world and the economy, and the part that shifting the narrative around women and money can play in these changes.

We also hear from our guest about why she is most concerned by the current state of politics, what investors should be aiming for, and why she is so excited by the increases in success and action from women with regards to their money. For a truly inspiring conversation with a generous authority on the financial sector, be sure to listen in.

---

Key Points From This Episode:

• The primary role that Janine's mother played in her money education.

• Janine's professional and investing backstory and early days in Silicon Valley in the 1980s!

• Why Janine is most excited by the prospects of women and young people.

• Janine's motivations behind her book, Activate Your Money and companion website.

• The types of investments that Janine has targeted for her personal portfolio.

• Things that currently worry Janine: politics and the speed of change.

• Examples of what Janine views as powerful investments that create the right kind of change.

• Patterns and themes that Janine has noticed in her work with women and their money.

• Looking to the future with Janine and how to get involved in her great work!

• Janine's thoughts on retirement investment and taking independent control of it.

---

Tweetables:

“I credit my mother with a lot of my knowledge today, she started teaching me about money when I was in my teenage years.” — @janinefirpo

“We can literally change the economy to a more sustainable, equitable economy by the way we invest.” — @janinefirpo

“Power goes where the money flows.” — @janinefirpo

“I think it is really time for women to recognize that we do not have to be afraid of our money, that we can actually take control of it, and we can be great investors.” — @janinefirpo

“Every chapter ends with a section that tells you exactly what you need to do to move your money or invest that way.” — @janinefirpo

---

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Janine Firpo on Twitter — https://twitter.com/janinefirpo

Activate Your Money — https://www.powells.com/book/activate-your-money-9781119777083

Activate Your Money Website — https://activateyourmoney.net/

Activate Your Money on YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvu1ZRakODsxDjEzTTCkYNw

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — https://www.gatesfoundation.org/

Stony Creek Colors — https://stonycreekcolors.com/

Invest for Better — https://investforbetter.org/

Women and Capital — https://www.womenwithcapital.com/

---

LIFT Economy Newsletter

Join 7000+ subscribers and get our free 60 point business design checklist—plus monthly tips, advice, and resources to help you build the Next Economy: https://lifteconomy.com/newsletter

---

Next Economy MBA

This episode is brought to you by the Next Economy MBA.

What would a business education look like if it was completely redesigned for the benefit of all life? This is why the team at LIFT Economy created the Next Economy MBA (https://lifteconomy.com/mba).

The Next Economy MBA is a nine month online course for folks who want to learn key business fundamentals (e.g., vision, culture, strategy, and operations) from an equitable, inclusive, and regenerative perspective.

Join the growing network of 250+ alumni who have been exposed to new solutions, learned essential business skills, and joined a lifelong peer group that is catalyzing a global shift towards an economy that works for all life.

Learn more at https://lifteconomy.com/mba.

---

Show Notes + Other Links

For detailed show notes and interviews with past guests, please visit https://lifteconomy.com/podcast

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It really helps expose these ideas to new listeners:

https://bit.ly/nexteconomynow

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LIFTEconomy

Instagram: https://instagram.com/lifteconomy/

Facebook: https://facebook.com/LIFTEconomy/

YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/Lifteconomy

Music by Chris Zabriskie: https://chriszabriskie.com/

Bex Kwan and Jenna Peters-Golden: Facilitation as a Craft

Today we host two guests with a passion for facilitation. Bex Kwan and Jenna Peters-Golden both work at AORTA, a worker-owned cooperative devoted to helping movements renew a stronger sense of liberatory vision, values, and purpose. Their name is based on the acronym for Anti Oppression and Resource Training Alliance and in today's conversation, we get to hear all about our guests' passion for facilitation, the limits of personality in this work, and their thoughts on the craft and power of facilitation.

Bex is an artist, organizer, athlete, and worker-owner at the coop. Their heart lies in conflict work, having been involved with grassroots organizers, cooperatives, non-profits, and universities. Jenna is a founding member of AORTA, and is an organizer, visual artist, and parent with a strong passion for transformative justice, and community solutions to preventing violence.

Listeners can expect to gain some great insight into progressive approaches and frameworks for facilitation work, and how our guests' skills have developed over the past few years. They also fill us in on the current projects and initiatives on the go at AORTA, and explain how to get involved and make the most of their great offers and resources.

---

Key Points From This Episode:

• The roots of our guests' current roles and facilitation work at AORTA.

• Visions for better connections and information on the current Headwaters project at AORTA.

• Traits attached to good facilitation; listening, performance, processes, and more!

• Pursuing the craft of facilitation and who might be best suited to this kind of work.

• Reflections on the development and tendency towards particular styles of facilitation.

• The framework and vision that guide the work that AORTA does with different groups.

• Lessons learned recently: questions about feelings and articulating approaches to adaptation.

• Some of the exciting programs that AORTA is currently offering for listeners to check out.

---

Tweetables:

“There is just something about finding and creating deep collaboration around stuff that I really care about that has been really nourishing for me amidst unreasonable chaos around me.” — Bex Kwan

"We are coming from a really specific political framework where we are actually actively promoting specific directions based on our political values and vision.” — Jenna Peters-Golden

“If someone wants to be a facilitator and is actually facilitating, you're a facilitator. I don't think there is any qualifying test or anything like that. To me it is about cultivation of craft.” — Bex Kwan

“I think there is a little bit of a myth of neutrality, which I think is rooted in patriarchy.” — Jenna Peters-Golden

“I don't think our facilitation aims to reflect a group perfectly. We are not trying to be perfect mirrors.” — Bex Kwan

---

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

AORTA: https://aorta.coop/

AORTA’s Headwaters Training Program: https://aorta.coop/headwaters

Bex Kwan: https://aorta.coop/bex

Jenna Peters-Golden: https://aorta.coop/jenna

---

LIFT Economy Newsletter

Join 7000+ subscribers and get our free 60 point business design checklist—plus monthly tips, advice, and resources to help you build the Next Economy: https://lifteconomy.com/newsletter

---

Next Economy MBA

This episode is brought to you by the Next Economy MBA.

What would a business education look like if it was completely redesigned for the benefit of all life? This is why the team at LIFT Economy created the Next Economy MBA (https://lifteconomy.com/mba).

The Next Economy MBA is a nine month online course for folks who want to learn key business fundamentals (e.g., vision, culture, strategy, and operations) from an equitable, inclusive, and regenerative perspective.

Join the growing network of 250+ alumni who have been exposed to new solutions, learned essential business skills, and joined a lifelong peer group that is catalyzing a global shift towards an economy that works for all life.

Learn more at https://lifteconomy.com/mba.

---

Show Notes + Other Links

For detailed show notes and interviews with past guests, please visit https://lifteconomy.com/podcast

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It really helps expose these ideas to new listeners:

https://bit.ly/nexteconomynow

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LIFTEconomy

Instagram: https://instagram.com/lifteconomy/

Facebook: https://facebook.com/LIFTEconomy/

YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/Lifteconomy

Music by Chris Zabriskie: https://chriszabriskie.com/

Zoe Spencer: Critical Race Theory, the Law of Ma’at, and Co-Creating a More Equitable Future

Today we are extremely lucky to be joined by Black mother, grandmother, lover, professor, and activist, Dr. Zoe Spencer! Zoe is a published author who currently teaches at Virginia State University, where she is dedicated to educating and opening the minds of her students, in order to build a better and more equitable future. She has dedicated her life to fighting for the rights of oppressed people and in this episode, we get to talk about what her vision for the future looks like.

Our guest explains how oppression has been held in place by the belief that it is necessary for certain groups to be down so that others can be up. We also get into some very useful information on critical race theory, the development of the sociological framework, and how it can be impactful in today's context.

Throughout this inspiring conversation, Zoe shares her personal experiences with honesty and purpose, talking about her evolving opinion of working with police and white men, groups she previously avoided at all costs. We also get to hear from her about what keeps her inspired and fighting the good fight in spite of its challenges. For all this and more, be sure to listen in to this great episode.

---

Key Points From This Episode:

• Zoe's personal and professional background and her path to her current academic and community work.

• An introduction to critical race theory and situating its recent rise in popularity.

• Confronting the privilege and power of US history and how it is taught.

• The necessary steps in creating a future that has more compassion and liberty.

• Rethinking ownership in the social economy and a more equitable model for society.

• An explanation of the ancient laws of Ma'at and how they could be applied today.

• Mobilization from the grassroots level and the important network of connected goals.

• How Zoe's belief about working with police departments and white men has evolved.

• Zoe's main sources of inspiration throughout her life; God, books, and intellectuals.

• The wish that Zoe has for an elevation of consciousness towards more connection.

---

Tweetables:

“Being in a family where things weren't handed to us, you are forced to view life, even at a young age, in a different way.” — @dr_zoespencer

“My students absolutely give me life because I view them as being extensions of myself.” — @dr_zoespencer

“Critical race theory looks at how these ideologies are embedded in our systems, and how as they are embedded in those systems, it manifests itself in our social interactions with our institutions and each other.” — @dr_zoespencer

“The struggle is not about people, and sometimes people want to kidnap the struggle and snatch the mics away from the people, and that weakens the movement.” — @dr_zoespencer

“In this work, I am not watching or listening for anybody other than my creator's guidance, because that is important. I am fallible, and humans are fallible.” — @dr_zoespencer

---

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Dr. Zoe Spencer: https://www.drzoespencer.com/

Virginia State University: https://www.vsu.edu/

Derrick Bell: https://law.marquette.edu/facultyblog/2011/10/r-i-p-derrick-bell-pioneer-of-critical-race-theory/

Kimberlely Crenshaw: https://www.law.columbia.edu/faculty/kimberle-w-crenshaw

Richard Delgado: https://www.law.ua.edu/directory/People/view/Richard_Delgado

Jean Stefancic: https://www.law.ua.edu/directory/People/view/Jean_Stefancic

Dr. Jennifer Harvey: https://jenniferharvey.org/

Raising White Kids: https://www.powells.com/book/raising-white-kids-bringing-up-children-in-a-racially-unjust-america-9781501878077

Erykah Badu: https://pitchfork.com/artists/537-erykah-badu/

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781788731188

Cointelpro: https://www.abebooks.com/9780937091043/Cointelpro-FBIs-Secret-Political-Freedom-0937091049/plp

Ida B. Wells: https://www.biography.com/activist/ida-b-wells

Bell Hooks: https://www.britannica.com/biography/bell-hooks

---

LIFT Economy Newsletter

Join 7000+ subscribers and get our free 60 point business design checklist—plus monthly tips, advice, and resources to help you build the Next Economy: https://lifteconomy.com/newsletter

---

Next Economy MBA

This episode is brought to you by the Next Economy MBA.

What would a business education look like if it was completely redesigned for the benefit of all life? This is why the team at LIFT Economy created the Next Economy MBA (https://lifteconomy.com/mba).

The Next Economy MBA is a nine month online course for folks who want to learn key business fundamentals (e.g., vision, culture, strategy, and operations) from an equitable, inclusive, and regenerative perspective.

Join the growing network of 250+ alumni who have been exposed to new solutions, learned essential business skills, and joined a lifelong peer group that is catalyzing a global shift towards an economy that works for all life.

Learn more at https://lifteconomy.com/mba.

---

Show Notes + Other Links

For detailed show notes and interviews with past guests, please visit https://lifteconomy.com/podcast

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It really helps expose these ideas to new listeners: https://bit.ly/nexteconomynow

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LIFTEconomy

Instagram: https://instagram.com/lifteconomy/

Facebook: https://facebook.com/LIFTEconomy/

YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/Lifteconomy

Music by Chris Zabriskie: https://chriszabriskie.com/

Dr. Jennifer Harvey: Raising White Kids

We live in a white supremacist system, and if white parents cannot help their children make sense of this environment self-reflexively, they will grow up to perpetuate this system rather than dismantle it. Today, we are joined by Dr. Jennifer Harvey to discuss the question of raising children who will grow up to have anti-racist values.

Dr. Harvey is a writer, teacher, and activist who has been long engaged in work for racial justice and white anti-racism. Her books include the New York Times bestseller Raising White Kids and Dear White Christians. Our conversation begins with Dr. Harvey talking about how she got involved in the work of racial justice. She talks about how she realized that white people can show active commitment in solidarity across racial lines while she was engaged in forms of anti-racist activism in her 20’s. From there she talks about her work with the church and how it sparked the process of writing her books.

We then take a deep dive into the subject of the legacy of white racism and how to break it by the way we raise our kids. We get into the idea that as white people we have inherited internalized taboos around talking about race and these stand in the way of healthy parenting. Dr. Harvey shares her thoughts on how to help children think in more sophisticated ways about race. As parents, it is important to not shield our kids from the realities of injustice and we explore different ways of keeping an open dialog at home from the time they are very young.

---

Key Points From This Episode:

• Race and theology and how Jennifer got interested in the work she does today.

• What Jennifer learned in her early activism with the slim resources available for confronting racism.

• Reconciliation versus reparations and the thinking behind Dear White Christians.

• Committing to raising white kids who are not racist and why Jennifer wrote Raising White Kids.

• How children interpret the world racially and how to help them become self-reflexive about this.

• Perspectives on what ages kids should be to hear explicit conversations about race and violence.

• The work adults need to do to get to the point where conversations about race with their kids are easy.

• Modeling by showing vulnerability and learning alongside your children in an ongoing conversation.

• Resources to help adults raise children with anti-racist values.

• Common ways adults avoid talking about race with their kids.

• How to deal with children speaking about race in ways that sound racist but might not be.

• Early conversations about race as forms of making your kids do things before they understand why.

• Positive steps forward and some of the main things that keep Jennifer motivated.

• How listeners can get involved and help to build a more just system.

---

Tweetables:

“It was helpful for me to realize in my 20s that I was not wallowing in white guilt because I was a bad person but because I have never seen a white person do something different. This is a legacy that we have inherited.” — @drjenharvey

“My ten-year-old only grows able and ready to talk in increasingly sophisticated ways about race and racism if from the very beginning of their life I am chattering about difference.” — @drjenharvey

“When we say that we value equality and thus we don’t notice difference we are first creating incredible cognitive dissonance in our children because they do see difference.” — @drjenharvey

“People’s lives depend on white parents doing differently with this next generation.” — @drjenharvey

---

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Dr. Jennifer Harvey: https://jenniferharvey.org/

Dr. Jennifer Harvey on Twitter: https://twitter.com/drjenharvey?lang=en

Raising White Kids: https://www.amazon.com/Raising-White-Kids-Bringing-Children/dp/1501856421

Dear White Christians: https://www.amazon.com/Dear-White-Christians-Reconciliation-Christianity/dp/0802872077

Race Conscious: http://www.raceconscious.org/

Embrace Race: https://www.embracerace.org/

Integrated Schools: https://integratedschools.org/

---

LIFT Economy Newsletter

Join 7000+ subscribers and get our free 60 point business design checklist—plus monthly tips, advice, and resources to help you build the Next Economy: https://lifteconomy.com/newsletter

---

Next Economy MBA

This episode is brought to you by the Next Economy MBA.

What would a business education look like if it was completely redesigned for the benefit of all life? This is why the team at LIFT Economy created the Next Economy MBA (https://lifteconomy.com/mba).

The Next Economy MBA is a nine month online course for folks who want to learn key business fundamentals (e.g., vision, culture, strategy, and operations) from an equitable, inclusive, and regenerative perspective.

Join the growing network of 250+ alumni who have been exposed to new solutions, learned essential business skills, and joined a lifelong peer group that is catalyzing a global shift towards an economy that works for all life.

Learn more at https://lifteconomy.com/mba.

---

Show Notes + Other Links

For detailed show notes and interviews with past guests, please visit https://lifteconomy.com/podcast

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It really helps expose these ideas to new listeners:

https://bit.ly/nexteconomynow

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LIFT_Economy

Instagram: https://instagram.com/lifteconomy/

Facebook: https://facebook.com/LIFTEconomy/

YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/Lifteconomy

Music by Chris Zabriskie: https://chriszabriskie.com/

Kevin Bayuk: Is Cryptocurrency "Good" for the Next Economy?

Today, LIFT Partners Kevin Bayuk and Ryan Honeyman chat about the topic of decentralization and how this manifests to varying degrees within the blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

We start off with some simple definitions, clarifying the differences and relationships between the concept of a decentralized ledger, the blockchain, and the cryptocurrencies that use it.

The important questions here are around who benefits from these systems and platforms, and whether it is possible to create cryptocurrencies and decentralization that serve more people. This raises the important theme of governance and how it can decide the fate of a technology or company.

The last part of our chat is spent looking at historical and contemporary examples of decentralization, and how these can inform our vision of what a decentralized world might look like.

One of the most valuable ideas here is to position new technologies as ethical tools to build cornerstones of a more equitable world, with less self-interest and wealth accumulation.

Key Points From This Episode:

• A quick definition of terms; decentralized ledger, blockchain, and bitcoin

• The opportunities and challenges of reducing the exploitation associated with intermediaries

• Looking at some of the more equitable examples of cryptocurrency such as FairCoin.

• A litmus test for blockchain projects; avoiding self-interested wealth accumulation

• The exciting work being done by the team at Regen Network on the Terra Genesis project

• Considering a few historical examples of successful decentralized communities

• Contemporary initiatives that are running against mainstream economic trends

• Imagining a future of locally-reliant economies and the language necessary for this

Tweetables:

“I think it's helpful to disambiguate cryptocurrency from blockchain. And even to disambiguate blockchain as a form of decentralized ledger.” — Kevin Bayuk, @LIFT_Economy

“Bitcoin shows up as concentrating wealth in very few hands, if you look at the ownership.” — Kevin Bayuk, @LIFT_Economy

“There are some things that add value over time, but in the long run, they decay. Imagine if we could design our currencies to be in alignment with the natural world.” — Kevin Bayuk, @LIFT_Economy

“The allure of hyper-accumulation of wealth becomes the main driver for a lot of the projects.” — Kevin Bayuk, @LIFT_Economy

“When we are able to help each other meet our needs without having these intermediaries there is less leakage and more local self-reliance.” — Kevin Bayuk, @LIFT_Economy

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

• FairCoin — https://fair-coin.org/

• Holochain — https://holochain.org/

• Regen Network — https://www.regen.network/team/

• Nori — https://nori.com/

• For All the People — https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781604865820

• NEXTSYSTEMS — https://nextsystems.com/

LIFT Economy Newsletter

Join 7000+ subscribers and get our free 60 point business design checklist—plus monthly tips, advice, and resources to help you build the Next Economy: https://lifteconomy.com/newsletter

Next Economy MBA

What would a business education look like if it was completely redesigned for the benefit of all life? This is why the team at LIFT Economy created the Next Economy MBA (https://lifteconomy.com/mba).

The Next Economy MBA is a nine month online course for folks who want to learn key business fundamentals (e.g., vision, culture, strategy, and operations) from an equitable, inclusive, and regenerative perspective.

Join the growing network of 250+ alumni who have been exposed to new solutions, learned essential business skills, and joined a lifelong peer group that is catalyzing a global shift towards an economy that works for all life. Learn more at https://lifteconomy.com/mba.

Show Notes + Other Links

For detailed show notes and interviews with past guests, please visit https://lifteconomy.com/podcast

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It really helps expose these ideas to new listeners: https://bit.ly/nexteconomynow

• Twitter: https://twitter.com/LIFT_Economy

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/lifteconomy/

• Facebook: https://facebook.com/LIFTEconomy/

• YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/Lifteconomy

• Music by Chris Zabriskie: https://chriszabriskie.com/

David Jackson: Marrying Purpose, Passion, and Profession

We are excited to welcome the CEO of Evolve Oakland, David Jackson, to the show today to talk about his work, philosophy towards positive impact, and the important work that is happening and still needs to be done right now. David anchors his life with three 'Ps'; purpose, passion, and profession, and it was through the marriage of these that he found his calling at Evolve, helping marginalized people of color grow business and become their best selves.

In our conversation, we hear about the time that David spent working with the Golden State Warriors, the development of his message of having faith, fun, and fight, and also how he and Evolve have reacted to the pandemic to rebuild what was lost. David's dedication to creating pathways to Black ownership is truly inspiring, and the priority he places on this area sheds much light on the hurdles that we have yet to overcome as a society.

David aims to create gathering spaces for Black folks, with an eye on a future without the lack that is still so prevalent in today's world. He talks about collectivism and mobilization, and what exactly is needed to build this future. We also get into some of David's favorite things to do and read, and the fountains from which he currently draws inspiration.

Key Points From This Episode:

• David's professional history and entrepreneurial journey leading to his work with Evolve.

• Unpacking what Evolve does, its model, and how it serves the community.

• The impact of the last year and the pandemic on Evolve and the work they do.

• Next steps for Evolve and their current move to downsize and relocate.

• White supremacy, anti-blackness, and a vision for the future; things that keep David up at night.

• David's most recommended book: The Medici Effect by Frans Johansson.

• Creating a space to call home and financial partnership; the biggest priorities for David and Evolve.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-jackson-582a2451

https://evolveoakland.com/

https://www.instagram.com/evolveoakland

https://www.facebook.com/evolveoakland/

The Medici Effect: https://bit.ly/2U3DYSJ

Darcelle Lahr: https://www.mills.edu/faculty/darcelle-lahr.php


LIFT Economy Newsletter

Join 7000+ subscribers and get our free 60 point business design checklist—plus monthly tips, advice, and resources to help you build the Next Economy: https://lifteconomy.com/newsletter


Next Economy MBA

This episode is brought to you by the Next Economy MBA.

What would a business education look like if it was completely redesigned for the benefit of all life? This is why the team at LIFT Economy created the Next Economy MBA (https://lifteconomy.com/mba).

The Next Economy MBA is a nine month online course for folks who want to learn key business fundamentals (e.g., vision, culture, strategy, and operations) from an equitable, inclusive, and regenerative perspective.

Join the growing network of 250+ alumni who have been exposed to new solutions, learned essential business skills, and joined a lifelong peer group that is catalyzing a global shift towards an economy that works for all life. Learn more at https://lifteconomy.com/mba.


Show Notes + Other Links

For detailed show notes and interviews with past guests, please visit https://lifteconomy.com/podcast

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It really helps expose these ideas to new listeners:

https://bit.ly/nexteconomynow

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LIFT_Economy

Instagram: https://instagram.com/lifteconomy/

Facebook: https://facebook.com/LIFTEconomy/

YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/Lifteconomy

Music by Chris Zabriskie: https://chriszabriskie.com/

Erin Heaney: Showing Up for Racial Justice

In today’s episode of Next Economy Now, your host, Ryan Honeyman, gets together with Erin Heaney, executive director of Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ).

Erin shares about her family history of involvement in activism, from the struggles in Northern Ireland to Union groups in America, and how her queer identity has connected her to her work in social justice reform.

Erin explains that while SURJ was founded relatively recently in 2009, its mandate strives to respond to a call from The Black Panthers, made in the 1960s, on white folks to address racism in their communities.

The conversation centers on the important work being done at SURJ and the role that white folks can play in social justice reform by supporting solutions that have been set by those most affected by white supremacy.

Erin unpacks the importance of discussing race and class concurrently in activism and reform work, and how racism and white supremacy have undermined every single social justice movement in the USA by weaponizing racial divides.

Later she discusses what SURJ has been doing to prepare for the 2020 election through voter education and outreach. Tune in today for a thought-provoking conversation about what it means to be involved in social justice reform and much more!

Key Points From This Episode:

• Meet today’s guest, Erin Heaney.

• Erin shares her family history of involvement in activism, from the struggles in Northern Ireland to Union groups in America.

• How Erin’s queer identity has connected her to her work in social justice reform.

• Erin shares how she found a political home at SURJ during the Ferguson Protests.

• The founding of SURJ in 2009 and how its mandate is connected to the 1960s and The Black Panther’s call on white folks to address racism in their communities.

• Why it’s important to discuss race and class concurrently in activism and reform work.

• The importance of communicating to white constituents the stake that they have in social justice work and reform.

• Recognizing how racism and white supremacy have undermined every single social justice movement in the USA.

• How the Black Lives Matter movement centers on policy that would benefit all poor people.

• The merits of convergence theory: how the interests of Black folks, and achieving racial equality will only be accommodated when it converges with the interests of white folks.

• How SURJ approaches maintaining accountability without making themselves a burden to communities of color.

• How SURJ is reaching out to voters, and conducting voter education in preparation for the 2020 election.

• The level of pragmatism that needs to be applied in politics, while also balancing long-term goals like abolishing the police and medicare for all.

• Moving white folks from consciousness into action and ensuring they remain active and engaged for the long haul without overcorrecting, centering themselves, and taking over.

• The importance of supporting solutions that have been set by Black, Indigenous, and people of color.

• The lifelong project of unlearning white supremacy as a white person.

• Erin shares her expectations for the 2020 election and lists the movements and individuals that have been giving her hope.

• What surge is doing to push The Breathe Act and address the failings of an unjust economic system.

Tweetables:

“This goes back as long as this country has existed. There has been an intentional strategy by those at the top to make sure that, in particular, poor and working-class, white folks don't see their fates as connected to working-class communities of color.” — @heaney_erin

“Racism and white supremacy has been used to undermine every single social movement in this country, whether it was rights for women, or the labor movement, or the populist movement.” — @heaney_erin

“For those of us who are white, it's not our responsibility to set the solutions, it's to build power in our communities so that the solutions that have been defined by people most directly impacted by white supremacy have a shot at winning.” — @heaney_erin

“Communities of color have been on the frontlines of electoral justice for many years. So we're trying to make sure that we're taking responsibility for organizing our own.” — @heaney_erin

“I think our success will in part be determined by turning this into concrete action over time and be connected to how well we can build ongoing political homes for people that they want to be part of, and then asking people to take action on a regular basis.” — @heaney_erin

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ)

Erin Heaney on LinkedIn

Erin Heaney on Twitter

Erin Heaney on Instagram

Next Economy Now Podcast

LIFT Economy

---

LIFT Economy Newsletter

Join 7000+ subscribers and get our free 60 point business design checklist—plus monthly tips, advice, and resources to help you build the Next Economy: https://lifteconomy.com/newsletter

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Next Economy MBA

This episode is brought to you by the Next Economy MBA.

What would a business education look like if it was completely redesigned for the benefit of all life? This is why the team at LIFT Economy created the Next Economy MBA (https://lifteconomy.com/mba).

The Next Economy MBA is a nine month online course for folks who want to learn key business fundamentals (e.g., vision, culture, strategy, and operations) from an equitable, inclusive, and regenerative perspective.

Join the growing network of 250+ alumni who have been exposed to new solutions, learned essential business skills, and joined a lifelong peer group that is catalyzing a global shift towards an economy that works for all life.

Learn more at https://lifteconomy.com/mba.

---

Show Notes + Other Links

For detailed show notes and interviews with past guests, please visit https://lifteconomy.com/podcast

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It really helps expose these ideas to new listeners:

https://bit.ly/nexteconomynow

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LIFT_Economy

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Facebook: https://facebook.com/LIFTEconomy/

YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/Lifteconomy

Music by Chris Zabriskie: https://chriszabriskie.com/

Alicia Kidd / Mari Kemp: Elevating Women and Winemakers of Color

CoCo Noir Wine Shop & Bar is a woman and BIPOC-owned urban wine shop and online store located in downtown Oakland, CA in the heart of the Black Arts Movement Business District. The company brings culture, life, and global experience to amazing wines, foods, and art. CoCo Noir is committed to always providing and sourcing the best wines produced by women and winemakers of color. To learn more about this exciting project, visit: https://www.coconoirwine.com/

You can also be an investor in the CoCo Noir Wine Shop & Bar for as little as $100! Visit their Wefunder page for more information: https://wefunder.com/coco.noir.wine.shop

About the Founders:

In addition to confounding CoCo Noir, Alicia Kidd is the founder and CEO of The Wine Noire LLC., an import, export, and wholesale distribution company based in Berkeley, CA. Launched in 2017, The Wine Noire specializes in helping winemakers who are women and people of color get their wines into the marketplace, as well as directly into the hands of consumers. Learn more: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliciamar...

Mari Kemp, a native of San Francisco, brings over 20 years of global human resources management experience with expertise in supporting overall business strategy through the identification and development of people, processes and systems. Previously, Kemp held leadership positions at Nokia, Google and several start-ups. Learn more: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mari-kemp...

Interview highlights:

- Learn how Alicia and Mari first got interested in the work they are doing today

- What the CoCo Noir Wine Shop & Bar is, where it will be located, and when it will be opening

- Why it is important to highlight and elevate BIPOC and women winemakers

- How Alicia and Mari are raising money via investment crowdfunding on Wefunder

- The long term vision for CoCo Noir Wine Shop & Bar

Make sure to visit https://www.coconoirwine.com/ to learn more!

---

LIFT Economy Newsletter

Join 7000+ subscribers and get our free 60 point business design checklist—plus monthly tips, advice, and resources to help you build the Next Economy: https://lifteconomy.com/newsletter

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Next Economy MBA

This episode is brought to you by the Next Economy MBA.

What would a business education look like if it was completely redesigned for the benefit of all life? This is why the team at LIFT Economy created the Next Economy MBA (https://lifteconomy.com/mba).

The Next Economy MBA is a nine month online course for folks who want to learn key business fundamentals (e.g., vision, culture, strategy, and operations) from an equitable, inclusive, and regenerative perspective.

Join the growing network of 250+ alumni who have been exposed to new solutions, learned essential business skills, and joined a lifelong peer group that is catalyzing a global shift towards an economy that works for all life.

Learn more at https://lifteconomy.com/mba.

---

Show Notes + Other Links

For detailed show notes and interviews with past guests, please visit https://lifteconomy.com/podcast

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It really helps expose these ideas to new listeners:

https://bit.ly/nexteconomynow

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LIFT_Economy

Instagram: https://instagram.com/lifteconomy/

Facebook: https://facebook.com/LIFTEconomy/

YouTube: https://youtube.com/c/Lifteconomy

Music by Chris Zabriskie: https://chriszabriskie.com/

Yana Ludwig: Moving Toward Cooperative Culture

Yana Ludwig: Moving Toward Cooperative Culture

The United States is one of the most individualistic, competitive, materialistically-oriented cultures in the world. To move forward to a less oppressive environment we need to radically shift our values and learn to work together.

Here to discuss these important topics today is Yana Ludwig, cooperative culture pioneer, intentional community advocate, and oppression activist.

Yana is the author of Together Resilient and The Cooperative Culture Handbook and today we explore the ways that she is confronting power, oppression, privilege, and individualism in her writing and intentional actions.

We talk about the focus on local community-based responses to climate destruction in Together Resilient and how the themes of culture and group process work in that book grew into The Cooperative Culture Handbook. 

On the topic of organizations struggling to cooperate, Yana weighs in on her approach to remedying this by positing sustainable cooperative culture as a middle ground between the two extremes of mainstream and counter culture.

A few of the themes Yana discusses in her book are around how our culture thinks about security and listening, and the effects that disintegration has on us psychologically.

Part of the work she tries to do is reframe these concepts so they can underlie a more equitable cultural value system or drive a behavior change.

Our conversation also explores the difficult terrain of oppressor cultures confronting their privilege, cultural appropriation and Yana’s decision to change her name multiple times, and a few organizations that are pushing the needle forward as far as cooperative culture.

So for all this and more about moving to a more equitable society through reframing our values, tune in today.

Key Points From This Episode:

• Hear about the commune Yana lives on and the philosophy they follow.

• The focus on responses to climate change in Yana’s first book and how this research led to her second book.

• Problems with mainstream and counter culture and the healthy balance between them written about in The Cooperative Culture Handbook.

• The ‘this is why consensus doesn’t work mentality’ that led to Yana writing her book.

• Cultural appropriation and how this fits into Yana’s name-changing experiences.

• How Yana’s book approaches redefining culture, power, and confronting conversations around race and class.

• Conscientizing oppressor classes to the idea that their lives are racialized.

• Examples of different books and groups who are setting examples of new ways of living.

• How to create a culture where not only the loudest voices get heard.

• The theme of the psychological damage caused by disintegration and code-switching in Yana’s book.

• Getting back to a place where our lives are values-aligned.

• How Yana and her community are grappling with the problem of intentional communities being something privileged people only have access to.

• Yana’s experiences and lessons learned while running for US senates.

• North stars for Yana as far as what to focus on to move forward to a better economy.

• The projects that Yana is involved with and how to support what she does.

Tweetables:

“In the United States, we are the most individualistic, competitive, materialistically oriented culture in the world, and that is incredibly problematic. If you can’t compete in a capitalistic, hyper-competitive framework you are kind of worthless in that mainstream culture.” — Yana Ludwig [0:05:18]

“Noticing who you don’t bother to listen to as a daily practice can be really powerful.” — Yana Ludwig [0:27:59]

“If there is a capstone to the book it is this phenomenon of disintegration versus having our lives reintegrated, and being able to be whole, coherent people is a rare gift.” — Yana Ludwig [0:33:18]

“I want to move to a place where we are asking questions about how do we get back to a place where our whole being is values-aligned for us.” — Yana Ludwig [0:33:38]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Yana Ludwig

Yana Ludwig’s Patreon

Together Resilient

The Cooperative Culture Handbook

Surrendering Ma’ikwe: A Step Back From Cultural Appropriation

The Solidarity Collective

Solidarity House Patreon

How It Is

Tawana Petty

The People of Color Sustainable Housing Network

Acorn

The Foundation for Intentional Community

All We Can Save

Next Economy Now Podcast

Yana is now the Executive Director of Leadership East Side

LIFT Economy Newsletter

Sign up for the LIFT Economy newsletter! Join 5000+ subscribers and get our free 60 point business design checklist—plus monthly tips, advice, and resources to help you build the Next Economy: https://www.lifteconomy.com/newsletter

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Next Economy MBA

This episode is brought to you by the Next Economy MBA.

What would a business education look like if it was completely redesigned for the benefit of all life? This is why the team at LIFT Economy created the Next Economy MBA (https://www.lifteconomy.com/mba). 

The Next Economy MBA is a nine month online course for folks who want to learn key business fundamentals (e.g., vision, culture, strategy, and operations) from an equitable, inclusive, and regenerative perspective. 

Join the growing network of 250+ alumni who have been exposed to new solutions, learned essential business skills, and joined a lifelong peer group that is catalyzing a global shift towards an economy that works for all life.

Learn more at https://www.lifteconomy.com/mba.

—

Show Notes, Review Request, and LIFT’s Social Media Links

For detailed show notes and interviews with past guests, please visit www.lifteconomy.com/podcast

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It really helps expose these ideas to new listeners:  https://bit.ly/nexteconomynow

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LIFT_Economy

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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LIFTEconomy/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Lifteconomy

Music by Chris Zabriskie: https://www.chriszabriskie.com/

Sarah Peyton: Using Relational Neuroscience to Enable Change

Subscribe to Next Economy Now on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

While there is an ever-growing pool of ideas on how to use business as a force for good, and how to change systems, getting people to open their hearts and listen to one another can often be a sticking point in enabling systemic change.

Sarah Peyton is a neuroscience educator, constellations facilitator, Certified Nonviolent Communication trainer, and author of the book, Your Resonant Self. She invites her audiences to understand how trauma affects their brains, and teaches them about their brain’s capacity for healing.

In this episode, Sarah talks about how we can use neuroscience to understand people in the workforce. When we understand people’s inability to meet expectations, not only can we soften, but we can also create organizational structures and interventions that foster people’s healing. Although viewing employees as whole people is becoming increasingly common, it is still not the dominant business culture. We talk about what it means to go against the status quo and the implications this has.

Our conversation also touches on sustainability, and expanding the definition of the concept, the importance of community, and what can happen when we allow emotions into the workplace. Opening the hearts and minds of others is not a simple task, but incredible change is possible with these shifts can happen.

Key Points From This Episode:

• What Sarah’s work entails and how she came to be interested in this line of inquiry. 

• How we can use relational neuroscience to better understand how individuals fit in the workforce. 

• Some questions to ask when thinking about bringing a whole person into an organization. 

• The importance of understanding how our patterns have impacted past experiences. 

• What we can do when people do not meet performance expectations. 

• When we understand the root cause of people’s ‘bad behavior’, we can help them better. 

• Some evidence-based practices that have been proven to help people in organizations. 

• The decision-making shifts that happen when organizational power structures are flattened. 

• Reflecting on the power of giving people autonomy and creativity in their roles. 

• Why Sarah believes that we have to rethink the definition of sustainability. 

• Unpacking the differences between the right and left hemispheres of the brain. 

• How we can bring our right and left-brain hemisphere knowledge into the workplace. 

• The extraordinary shifts that happen when we allow space for emotion in organizations. 

• Some strategies for how we can make space for our colleagues’ feelings. 

• We live in a dominant culture and when we go against the status quo, we pay a price. 

• The value of creating communities where there are spaces for narratives counter to the dominant ones. 

• What Sarah means when she says we have all made contracts with ourselves. 

• How to connect with Sarah and some of the work she has in the pipeline.  

Tweetables:

“One of the things that relational neuroscience gives us is that it gives us a sense of what kinds of patterns we repeat and why we repeat them.” — @resonantself [0:06:38]

“I always take the word sustainable with a grain of salt because are we talking about sustainable where we’re making sure that those who have a stock share in your organization are getting a good return on their investment? Or are we talking about sustainable in terms of everyone getting a living wage and being able to create a good solid mission in this world that changes the world?” — @resonantself [0:24:10]

“There is something quite extraordinary that happens when we do make room for emotion.” — @resonantself [0:29:07]

“There’s a way that our little personal systems are no different than our business systems and our bigger systems, and we make contracts, very often with ourselves in order to avoid the pain and discomfort of previous traumatic experiences.” — @resonantself [0:39:49]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Sarah Peyton

Sarah Peyton on Twitter

Your Resonant Self

Marshall Rosenberg

Reinventing Organizations

Phoenix Soleil

— 

Sign up for the LIFT Economy newsletter! Join 5000+ subscribers and get our free 60 point business design checklist—plus monthly tips, advice, and resources to help you build the Next Economy: https://www.lifteconomy.com/newsletter

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This episode is brought to you by the Next Economy MBA.

What would a business education look like if it was completely redesigned for the benefit of all life? This is why the team at LIFT Economy created the Next Economy MBA (https://www.lifteconomy.com/mba). 

The Next Economy MBA is a nine month online course for folks who want to learn key business fundamentals (e.g., vision, culture, strategy, and operations) from an equitable, inclusive, and regenerative perspective. 

Join the growing network of 250+ alumni who have been exposed to new solutions, learned essential business skills, and joined a lifelong peer group that is catalyzing a global shift towards an economy that works for all life.

Learn more at https://www.lifteconomy.com/mba.

—

For detailed show notes and interviews with past guests, please visit www.lifteconomy.com/podcast

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It really helps expose these ideas to new listeners:  https://bit.ly/nexteconomynow

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LIFT_Economy

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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LIFTEconomy/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Lifteconomy

Music by Chris Zabriskie: https://www.chriszabriskie.com/

Autumn Brown: Anti-Oppressive Facilitation for Democratic Process

Subscribe to Next Economy Now on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

In today’s episode of Next Economy Now, your host, Ryan Honeyman, sits down with Autumn Brown, mother, organizer, theologian, artist, facilitator, and worker-owner at AORTA, the Anti-Oppression Resource and Training Alliance.

As a fellow worker-owned co-op devoted to strengthening movements for social justice, AORTA brings valuable cross-issue experience garnered over 10 years of seeing patterns and common mis-steps across organizations whose purposes are rooted in racial, gender, economic, environmental, and disability justice, trans and queer liberation, and anti-capitalism and anti-imperialism.

This discussion revolves around anti-oppressive facilitation for democratic process, the daily decisions we make, whether conscious or unconscious, and some of the assumptions underlying those decisions.

Autumn also reflects on the roles of the facilitator and shares some practical advice and techniques for those looking to use this important skillset as a means for furthering systemic change.

Tuning in, you’ll learn some of the key principles of facilitation and why Autumn believes it is a skillset that everyone can (and should!) develop, so make sure not to miss this episode!

Key Points From This Episode:

• What has (or hasn’t) changed for Autumn since she was last on the podcast in fall 2019.

• Find out why anti-oppressive facilitation for democratic process is an important topic.

• The experiences that led Autumn to a career in facilitation.

• Why she believes facilitation is a skillset that anyone can and should develop.

• Some of the key principles of facilitation, including presence over preparation.

• The importance of putting your ego aside as a facilitator and paying attention to the process.

• Practical tips and tricks for facilitators; why Autumn says “access is magic.”

• Using techniques like ‘weighted stack’ and skillful confrontation to address the group dynamics of systemic power and privilege.

• Autumn explains why the politics of blame don’t work inside a democratic space.

• Supporting people to feel they can take the risk of stepping into their power and inviting a level of shared responsibility.

• How to identify when and how to address problematic behavior in a group setting.

• Understanding that there is no such thing as a neutral facilitator; how to be multi-partial.

• Autumn emphasizes that part of the journey is becoming comfortable with the power that you, as the facilitator, has to name dynamics.

• Hear about AORTA’s Facilitate for Freedom Fundamentals Training and the initiative Autumn is developing within AORTA, The Whiteness Institute.

Tweetables:

“Having someone whose job it is to facilitate people making a decision together makes the work of democratic practice more obvious and transparent.” — @meansaggitarius [0:09:15]

“I believe that anyone can and should develop the skillset of facilitation. I don’t think it's one of those skillsets that should be held by just a few people. Everyone benefits from learning how to listen, and how to recognize patterns, and how to support people to come to consensus.” — @meansaggitarius [0:15:07]

“When we’re engaged in democratic practice, one of the things that we have to do is take full responsibility for what is happening in the room. The politics of blame don’t work inside a democratic space.” — @meansaggitarius [0:29:41]

“You have to do two things at the same time that may seem contradictory – one is get really comfortable with your own power, and two is practice a lot of humility around your role.” — @meansaggitarius [0:39:29]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Autumn Brown on LinkedIn

Autumn Brown on Twitter

Autumn Brown on Instagram

Autumn Brown

AORTA

AORTA on Instagram

Facilitate for Freedom Fundamentals Training

How To Survive the End of the World Podcast

Episode 172 with Autumn Brown

— 

Sign up for the LIFT Economy newsletter! Join 5000+ subscribers and get our free 60 point business design checklist—plus monthly tips, advice, and resources to help you build the Next Economy: https://www.lifteconomy.com/newsletter

—

This episode is brought to you by the Next Economy MBA.

What would a business education look like if it was completely redesigned for the benefit of all life? This is why the team at LIFT Economy created the Next Economy MBA (https://www.lifteconomy.com/mba). 

The Next Economy MBA is a nine month online course for folks who want to learn key business fundamentals (e.g., vision, culture, strategy, and operations) from an equitable, inclusive, and regenerative perspective. 

Join the growing network of 250+ alumni who have been exposed to new solutions, learned essential business skills, and joined a lifelong peer group that is catalyzing a global shift towards an economy that works for all life.

Learn more at https://www.lifteconomy.com/mba.

—

For detailed show notes and interviews with past guests, please visit www.lifteconomy.com/podcast

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It really helps expose these ideas to new listeners:  https://bit.ly/nexteconomynow

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LIFT_Economy

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifteconomy/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LIFTEconomy/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Lifteconomy

Music by Chris Zabriskie: https://www.chriszabriskie.com/

Resmaa Menakem: We Will Never Go Back to “Normal”

In addition to the link above, you can listen to this episode on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Resmaa Menakem, New York Times bestselling author of “My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies,” is a visionary Justice Leadership coach, organizational strategist and master trainer. Resmaa is a leading voice in today’s conversation on racialized trauma.

As a therapist, trauma specialist, and the founder of Justice Leadership Solutions, a leadership consultancy firm, Resmaa Menakem dedicates his expertise to coaching leaders through civil unrest, organizational change, and community building.

Resmaa is a highly sought after keynote and public speaker, radio, television, and social media personality, author, international trainer and effective communicator among diverse ethnic populations. Resmaa has hosted his own radio talk show as well as appeared on programs ranging from The Oprah Winfrey and Dr. Phil shows as an expert on conflict mediation, self-care and healing to Minnesota Public Radio as an expert on racialized trauma during civil unrest.

Interview Highlights:

• How Resmaa got into the work he is doing today

• Resmaa’s time in Afghanistan as a trauma counselor to US military contractors

• Why white people forming book clubs is not “the work”

• Why white people need to use Google instead of asking Black and brown folks what they can do to support racial justice

• What gives Resmaa the most energy right now

• How listeners can support his work

— 

Sign up for the LIFT Economy newsletter! Join 5000+ subscribers and get our free 60 point business design checklist—plus monthly tips, advice, and resources to help you build the Next Economy: https://www.lifteconomy.com/newsletter

—

This episode is brought to you by the Next Economy MBA.

What would a business education look like if it was completely redesigned for the benefit of all life? This is why the team at LIFT Economy created the Next Economy MBA (https://www.lifteconomy.com/mba). 

The Next Economy MBA is a nine month online course for folks who want to learn key business fundamentals (e.g., vision, culture, strategy, and operations) from an equitable, inclusive, and regenerative perspective. 

Join the growing network of 250+ alumni who have been exposed to new solutions, learned essential business skills, and joined a lifelong peer group that is catalyzing a global shift towards an economy that works for all life.

Learn more at https://www.lifteconomy.com/mba.

—

For detailed show notes and interviews with past guests, please visit www.lifteconomy.com/podcast

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes? It really helps expose these ideas to new listeners:  https://bit.ly/nexteconomynow

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LIFT_Economy

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifteconomy/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LIFTEconomy/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Lifteconomy

Music by Chris Zabriskie: https://www.chriszabriskie.com/

Noran Sanford, Ravin Patel, & Norman Garcia-Lopez: "Flip Your Prison" with Growing Change

Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good. 

SUBSCRIBE & RATE us on iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, or anywhere you find podcasts!

Founder of Growing Change, Noran Sanford grew up in an abusive, working-class Scot-Irish family in rural North Carolina. Ever since a young age he had a strong sense of justice, and took a stand against racism in his home even though it meant getting knocked down.

Scholarships for community involvement in high school helped Noran attend university at UNC-Chapel Hill. There he co-founded one of the few college Habitat for Humanity chapters in the country and, when then-President Reagan’s policies resulted in large populations of people shifting from mental health institutions to homeless shelters, he rallied UNC’s athletes to volunteer in shelters, helping deescalate violent situations and prevent police intervention. As a young professional, himself diagnosed with PTSD, he won awards his work in the passage of mental health parity laws in Virginia and for his work advocating for students with disabilities.

In 2000, Noran got married and moved back to Laurinburg to provide home care for his mother who was an Alzheimer’s victim. He “was stunned to find that our challenged area had grown more difficult.” Noran had been heavily involved in community work but, after 20 years “in the trenches”, he became disillusioned with the impact he was having as a counselor. Then, five years ago, at the funeral for “another young man who was lost to gang violence” he made the commitment to “never stand at another graveside for a young person I worked with asking myself if I could have done ‘more.’ This is the 'more.'”

Interview Highlights:

• How Growing Change is a youth-empowered model taking closed prisons locally – among the hundreds nationally – and transforming them into a replicable model with sustainable farms that generate revenue and livelihoods while regenerating the land and local communities.

• Hear directly from youth leaders Ravin Patel and Norman Garcia-Lopez about their skills and experience with Growing Change

• Stay tuned for the Growing Change youth-led DIY “Flip Your Prison” series on their YouTube channel and the “Prison Flip Toolkit” soon to be available on their website (where you can support their work by donating via their PayPal link)

Resources:

Youth Are Flipping an Abandoned North Carolina Prison into a Sustainable Farm

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LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.

Erin Axelrod is a Partner at LIFT Economy, helping to accelerate the spread of climate-beneficial businesses, specializing in businesses that address critical soil and water regeneration. She is an avid ecologist, grassroots organizer and regularly forages for wild food in her home in rural Sonoma County. You can follow Erin on Twitter @erinaxelrod or email her erin@lifteconomy.com.

Avi Lewis: A Message from the Future II: The Years of Repair

Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good. 

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Avi Lewis is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, journalist, and lecturer in Journalism and Media Studies at Rutgers University. His 25-year journalism career has spanned local news reporting to hosting and producing a variety of current affairs shows for television networks worldwide, to directing theatrically released documentaries, The Take and This Changes Everything, that premiered in festivals like TIFF and the Venice Biennale. In 2017, he co-founded and is now Strategic Director of The Leap – an organization launched to upend our collective response to the crises of climate, inequality and racism. He produced, and co-wrote with Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Emmy nominated short film, A Message from the Future and is producer and co-writer with Opal Tometi of the new short film, A Message from the Future II: The Years of Repair.

Interview Highlights:

• Avi shares the backstory on his film The Take, which highlights the surge of worker-owned cooperatives in Argentina and how he wound up co-founding The Working World with Brendan Martin (catch the interview with Brendan Martin on the Next Economy Now podcast here)

• How Avi’s experience with The Leap Manifesto transformed him into an activist and inspired him to found The Leap

• Avi humbly admits that he was slow to see that the climate crisis is not the overarching crisis but that it’s merely an expression of the multiple deeper social justice issues that give rise to it

• Driving a vision of hope through a compelling collective vision that integrates justice movements globally through Avi’s and Opal Tometi’s new short film, A Message from the Future II: The Years of Repair

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LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.

Erin Axelrod is a Partner at LIFT Economy, helping to accelerate the spread of climate-beneficial businesses, specializing in businesses that address critical soil and water regeneration. She is an avid ecologist, grassroots organizer and regularly forages for wild food in her home in rural Sonoma County. You can follow Erin on Twitter @erinaxelrod or email her erin@lifteconomy.com.

Ian Haney Lopez: Fusing Race and Class, Winning Elections, and Saving America

Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good. 

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Ian Haney López is a law professor and commentator on coded racism in American politics. His most recent book is Merge Left: Fusing Race and Class, Winning Elections, and Saving America (New Press, Fall 2019).

Merge Left builds on his previous book, Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class (2014). That book anticipated the political tactics of Donald Trump by tracking the fifty-year history of politicians helping the new oligarchs through a strategy of racial divide-and-conquer.

Merge Left explains how the political exploitation of coded racism has evolved under Trump—and outlines an evidence-based approach on how to beat it. The evidence comes from the two-year race-class narrative research project involving focus groups and national polling. The main takeaway from the extensive research is that naming racism as a weapon of the rich and calling for coming together across racial lines proved to be the most effective way to defang the Right’s racial fear narratives and to build broad cross-racial support for racial justice as well as for economic populism.

Ian holds an endowed chair as the Earl Warren Professor of Public Law at the University of California, Berkeley, where he teaches in the areas of race and constitutional law.

Interview Highlights:

• How Ian first got interested in the work he is doing today

• The work of the Race-Class Project and how it identified a winning message

• Why naming racism as a weapon of the rich and calling for cross-racial solidarity builds unity across the base and enlists the broad middle in supporting progressive dreams

• What folks can do now to engage with this exciting new information

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LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.

Ryan Honeyman is a Partner at LIFT Economy and author of The B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as a Force for Good (Berrett-Koehler Publishers). You can follow Ryan on Twitter @honeymanconsult or email him ryan@lifteconomy.com.

Doria Robinson & Princess Robinson: BIPOC Community Wealth Building at Cooperation Richmond

Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good. 

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Growing up with a mother who was an illegal resident from Samoa, a single parent of 4 children with no educational background, Princess Robinson was raised in a low income community in Richmond CA with little resources and an unstable home.

Now herself a mother, wife, Richmond resident, and community advocate, Princess Robinson has worked with Urban Tilth, as an environmental steward, restoring creek ecosystems and providing fresh locally grown produce in food deserts throughout Richmond.

After years of community service, neighborhood meetings, community boards, and serving in many initiatives working toward a Just Transition economy throughout her community (such as beautification projects, alternative housing solutions, and implementing sustainable practices through climate justice systems), as a returning college student, Princess graduated 2019 with 3 AA degrees in business, sociology, and liberal arts.

Currently, she serves as a Project Manager for Cooperation Richmond where she supports her community members develop and launch worker-owned cooperative businesses in their community.

Doria Robinson is a 3rd generation resident of Richmond, California and the Executive Director of Urban Tilth. She is also a cofounder of Cooperation Richmond, a Richmond-based, resident-led worker-owned cooperative developer and small loan fund that builds community controlled wealth through worker-owned and community-owned cooperative businesses and enterprises by and for low-income communities and communities of color in Richmond whose wealth has been extracted.

Doria is also a dedicated Food Sovereignty, Climate Justice and Just Transition Activist, as well as the co-convener of US Food Sovereignty Alliance Western Region and an active member of the Climate Justice Alliance and Richmond Our Power Coalition. Doria currently lives in the neighborhood where she grew up in Richmond with her wonderful 18-year-old twins.

Interview Highlights:

• The genesis of Cooperation Richmond, from Urban Tilth to leveraging values-aligned enterprise through cooperative development that supports and really meets people where they’re at

• Some background on the Seed Commons, spawned by The Working World, and it’s relationship with Cooperation Richmond

• An overview of the racialized and economic history of Richmond California – from the impact of wartime industries to Chevron and the significance of these community efforts in that context

• A call for listeners to create local loan funds or investment clubs that advance Cooperation Richmond’s model in your local community

Resources:

Urban Tilth

The Working World

Rich City Rides

Star Wyngz

Princess Robinson’s work w/ Wildcat Creek

Richmond Progressive Alliance

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LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.

Erin Axelrod is a Partner at LIFT Economy, helping to accelerate the spread of climate-beneficial businesses, specializing in businesses that address critical soil and water regeneration. She is an avid ecologist, grassroots organizer and regularly forages for wild food in her home in rural Sonoma County. You can follow Erin on Twitter @erinaxelrod or email her erin@lifteconomy.com.

Claudia Arroyo: Advancing Latina Economic Empowerment for the Benefit of All

Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good. 

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Claudia joined Prospera in August 2014 as a consultant, providing outreach, recruitment, and training services, and in January 2015 she joined the staff as the Training and Capacity Building Director. She has been a key member of the Program Team, designing all of Prospera’s new programs.

Claudia brings her passion for social justice and equality to her role. She has been an active leader in immigrant rights, gender and violence prevention, gay and queer rights, and health promotion for underserved communities for more than 15 years.

Using Popular Education, video editing, and culture, she has served the community by creating plays to denounce and prevent social and health problems. In 2010 she founded the Latino Coalition against domestic and gender violence, La Red Latina that brought together more than 35 organizations that serve, protect and empower Latina women in the Bay Area.

Claudia is also an entrepreneur and is the founder of a new cooperative business in the Laurel District of Oakland. As an immigrant woman, Claudia has experienced the challenges that are implied in coming to a new country. With a BA in Communications from el Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico, one of the most prestigious universities in Latin America, she worked for almost 10 years in the food industry as a waitress.

She recognizes that the immigrant community has a lot of challenges to face but at the same time, she also highlights its strength, power, wisdom, spirit and honesty! Hence, becoming a community worker has not been a choice but a need to demand equality and dignity in oppressed communities.

Interview Highlights:

• How Claudia first got interested in the work she is doing today

• How Prospera was started, and how it helps Latina entrepreneurs

• Why cooperatives are central to economic empowerment

• Challenges and opportunities for the Latinx community during COVID-19

• How listeners can support Prospera and the  Latina Entrepreneur Resiliency Fund

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LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.

Ryan Honeyman is a Partner at LIFT Economy and author of The B Corp Handbook: How to Use Business as a Force for Good (Berrett-Koehler Publishers). You can follow Ryan on Twitter @honeymanconsult or email him ryan@lifteconomy.com.

Natalie Reitman-White: Restructuring Organically Grown Co. to a Perpetual Purpose Trust

Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good. 

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Natalie Reitman-White served as Vice President of Organizational Vitality and Trade Advocacy at Organically Grown Company, one of the largest independent distributors of organic produce in the country, where in 2018 she led an groundbreaking move to restructure the company ownership under a Perpetual Purpose Trust.

This initiative was featured in 2019 Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas, and Natalie was recognized as “a leading executive and change-maker in efforts to make food supply greener, healthier and equitable.”

She founded and served as the Executive Director of the Sustainable Food Trade Association (2008-12), she was on the faculty of the Institute for Sustainable Environment, serves on numerous advisory boards throughout the organic food sector.

Recently Natalie has shifted her focus to transformative finance and ownership models that ensure mission maximization, shared prosperity for multiple-stakeholders and lasting independence through growth or business transition.

In the last year she supported the launch of the Purpose Foundation to grow the movement toward a new paradigm of “steward-ownership” in the U.S. through field building, infrastructure development, and investment.

In 2020 she co-launched Alternative Ownership Advisors, is a Trustee of the Sustainable Food & Agriculture Purpose Trust, and is in Cohort 5 of the New Zealand Edmund Hillary Fellowship for Global Change Makers.

Interview Highlights:

• Natalie’s background as an activist that informed her work to shift corporate behavior that is irresponsible to it’s stakeholders

• Translating principles of regeneration in a farming context to a business context

• Examining the purpose of a corporation and making a distinction between driving shareholder value and actual value

• A background on Organically Grown Company’s mission, operations, and iterations of the company’s structure to be ever closer to the values that inform the mission

• Organically Grown Company’s innovating on the Employee Owned Trust model by making it multi-stakeholder and anchoring it in the purpose of transforming food and agriculture – a “Perpetual Purpose Trust”

Resources:

Alternative Ownership Advisors: A Steward Ownership Consultancy

Fast Company: This company pioneered a new business structure to preserve its mission

Next City: Why Employee Ownership Wasn’t Good Enough for This Organic Food Company

The National Center for Employee Ownership

Christopher Michael: Could the Employee Ownership Trust Better Sustain Perpetual Employee Ownership?

Christopher Michael P.C. – Employee Ownership Law

The Climate Collaborative

Sustainable Food Trade Association

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LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.

Shawn Berry is a Partner at LIFT Economy, where he works as an organizational strategist inspired to harness the power of business to create resilient local economies as patterns to be documented, open sourced, scaled globally and adapted regionally.

Makani Themba: “Curing” What Truly Ails Us: Movement Strategy in the Time of Coronavirus

Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, equitable, transparent, and whole-systems approach to using business as a force for good. 

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Makani Themba is Chief Strategist at Higher Ground Change Strategies based in Jackson, Mississippi. A social justice innovator and pioneer in the field of change communications and narrative strategy, she has spent more than 20 years supporting organizations, coalitions and philanthropic institutions in developing high impact change initiatives.  Higher Ground Change Strategies provides her the opportunity to bring her strong sense of history, social justice and organizing knowledge, and deft movement facilitation skills  in support of change makers seeking to take their work to the next level.  Higher Ground helps partners integrate authentic engagement, systems analysis, change communications and more for powerful, vision-based change.

Previously, Makani served as the founder and executive director of The Praxis Project, a nonprofit organization helping communities use media and policy advocacy to advance health justice.  Under her leadership, The Praxis Project raised more than $20 million for advocacy organizations working in communities of color and provided training and technical assistance to hundreds of organizations and public agencies nationwide.  These initiatives include Communities Creating Healthy Environments (C-CHE), an initiative of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to support policy advocacy to advance healthy food outlets and safe places to play in communities of color and Building Capacity Building Power, a partnership with Ford Foundation to support grassroots civic engagement and Policy Advocacy on Tobacco and Health (PATH)

Makani is a highly sought-after public speaker, capacity builder, and trusted facilitator.  Her publications have helped set the standard for policy advocacy work and contributed significantly to the field of public health’s current emphasis on media and policy advocacy to address root causes of health problems.  

Makani has published numerous articles and case studies on race, class, media, policy advocacy and public health. She is co-author of Media Advocacy and Public Health: Power for Prevention, a contributor to the volumes We the Media, State of the Race: Creating Our 21st Century, along with many other edited book projects. Makani was chosen as one of “Ten Black Thinkers” asked to comment on Black conditions as part of the NAACP Crisis magazine’s 60th anniversary commemoration of the landmark article What the Negro Wants.  She is author of Making Policy, Making Change, and she has also co-authored with Hunter Cutting Talking the Walk: Communications Guide for Racial Justice and Fair Game: A Strategy Guide for Racial Justice Communications in the Obama Era (under The Praxis Project).

Interview Highlights:

• Exploring Makani’s work in the context of the global pandemic

• Links between our electoral system and white supremacy

• Asking what does it mean to have agency and govern our own lives

• A deep dive into some of Makani’s article “Curing” What Truly Ails Us: Reflections on Movement Strategy in the Time of Coronavirus

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LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life.

Kevin Bayuk, Co-founder and Partner at LIFT Economy, works at the intersection of ecology and economy where permaculture design meets next economy organizations intent on meeting human needs while enhancing the conditions conducive to all life. He is the Senior Financial Fellow at Project Drawdown and a founding partner of the Urban Permaculture Institute.  You can follow Kevin on Twitter @kevinbayuk or email him kevin@lifteconomy.com.