This is a show about how child welfare transformation actually starts with personal transformation. Follow Matt Anderson, a former child welfare executive with 20 years of experience, as he goes deeper into his own process of becoming who he needs to be. Matt has conversations with creative disruptors who help us see how systems can harm and oppress people. Each episode is an invitation to go deeper into your own process of being in service of people rather than systems.
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Think you know everything about some of modern history’s most recognizable figures? We’re Amit and Michael, two pop culture enthusiasts who upend your assumptions about the iconic and the famous. Because that’s where you find the “gravy” – the rich, flavorful sauce that brings out the best parts of the dish that is life. Each episode we’ll put the lives of recently deceased celebrities under the microscope to consider the not-so-obvious ways these icons of culture left their impact and impri ...
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Michigan Supreme Court's Decision on TPR and What's Next with Vivek Sankaran
57:17
57:17
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Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. This week's episode is the next in a series of conversations with a variety of guests on the topic of Termination of Parental Rights. The question we've been asking is, what if TPR didn't exist? In past episodes with Vivek, we've talked about two TPR cases he's been appea…
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Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. In this week's episode I talk about why I'm cofounding the Imagination Factory and what I'm learning about myself and the work to advance justice. Systems change, changing the structures of what currently exists, is not enough to advance justice. We need to imagine and cr…
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Systems Change Starts with Personal Transformation with Dr Bruce Perry
58:40
58:40
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Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. In this episode I talk to leading trauma expert, Dr. Bruce Perry. I wanted to continue an ongoing conversation Bruce and I have been having about why systems don't change and the important role of storytelling in personal transformation. Dr. Perry is working on a new book…
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This person died in 2003 at age 71, He is considered a pioneer of rock 'n' roll, and in 1992 he was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, after he had also been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In the early 2000s, a video of his won six nominations at the MTV Video Music Awards. He fought a long battle against addiction. His voice…
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Am I in Right Relationship and What Can I Do About It?
14:16
14:16
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Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. In this week's journal episode, I talk about the practice of Right Relationship and how it has been a significant part of my process. I share a few different definitions that can be helpful in how we think about what this principle and practice actually means. I also walk…
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We’re back, and we’re sharing the exciting news that Famous & Gravy is now part of Wondery! Amit and Michael also discuss some of the behind-the-scenes work they’ve been doing to better the show in the runup to this exciting announcement. New Famous & Gravy episodes will start releasing again every other Wednesday, and also will now be available on…
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Building Technology to Improve Parent Legal Representation with Ryan O'Donnell
57:54
57:54
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57:54
Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. I'm excited to bring you the third installment of an ongoing conversation with Ryan O'Donnell. Ryan embodies the idea of systems change starting with personal transformation. In previous episodes we hear about how Ryan went from being a tech entrepreneur, to foster parent…
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Journal Entry: Our Future is a Declaration Away
13:49
13:49
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Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. This week's episode was prompted by a quote I read in the book, Buddhism Without Beliefs, by Stephen Batchelor. The chapter on imagination began with this quote, "A talent for speaking differently, rather than arguing well, is the chief instrument of cultural change." In …
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This person died 2016 at age 69. He suffered a blow in a teenage brawl that caused his left pupil to be permanently dilated. He experimented with startling transformations, often playing up an androgynous image. In the 1980s he had a Broadway run in the demanding title role of “The Elephant Man”. Nirvana chose to sing one of his songs in their lege…
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Should I Leave My Job with Brendalyn King
1:08:58
1:08:58
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Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. This week's episode is a conversation with my coach, Brendalyn King. Brendalyn is a talented ontological leadership coach, an experienced entrepreneur, and one of the more influential people in my process. I wanted to talk to Brendalyn about the recurring question that co…
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Dimpled Ambassador (Shirley Temple)
1:00:31
1:00:31
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This person died in 2014 at age 85. In the 1930s, she was a determined child actress who sang and tap-danced her way to the height of Hollywood stardom. For at least 5 consecutive years, she was the most popular movie star in America. She was appointed as a delegate to the United Nations General Assembly by Richard Nixon. In 1972, she held a news c…
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Journal Entry: Am I Living a Life that is a Full Expression of Who I Am
11:48
11:48
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Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. In this week's journal episode, I share the origin story of my search for the world's best chocolate chip cookie. This is not the first time I've been on this search. Sometime around 2007 I found the best cookie in the world and the search was over. When I left my job in …
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How to Launch a 100-Year-Old Start Up with Dave Newell
1:01:11
1:01:11
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Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. In this episode I talk with Dave Newell who is the CEO of Akin in Seattle, WA. Akin is a new organization (kind of) that formed as the result of a merger of two 100+ year old organizations, Children's Home Society of Washington and Childhaven. I wanted to talk with Dave a…
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This person died in 2019, age 76. In 1958 when he was 14, his father died immediately after performing a roast for Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. His dry delivery piqued the interest of Tom Smothers, who offered him a job in the late 1960s as a writer on the “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.” He was roommates with Steve Martin for a number of years…
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Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. Today's episode is much more personal and emotional that most. I recorded this on the four-year anniversary of losing my cousin and friend, Patrick. I wanted to honor him and our relationship. I also tell the story of how Patrick's death led to me and "Tex" (this show's p…
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Our Whiteness is not Connected to Our Humanity with Maleeka Jihad
57:23
57:23
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Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. Today's conversation with Maleeka Jihad (MJ) dives into the difference between whiteness (white ideology), white identity, and humanity. MJ is the Executive Director of the MJCF: Coalition and runs a consulting business. She's also earning her PhD in Leadership and Develo…
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This person died in 2016 at age 69. In an acting career spanning more than 40 years, he played a panoply of fascinating characters. He had his early successes in stage works involving the Royal Shakespeare Company. Though he was never nominated for an Academy Award, he won many accolades, but shrugged off the value of awards in general. He gained a…
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Journal Entry: Making the Invisible Visible
10:29
10:29
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10:29
Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. I recorded this week's journal episode about 15 minutes after the weekly Proximity Podcast Club ended. I had a plan for this week's episode but the conversation that played out in the Podcast Club changed my plan. One of our goals for this show is to use it as a platform …
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TPR and the Michigan Supreme Court with Vivek Sankaran
47:05
47:05
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47:05
Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. In our first conversation with Vivek Sankaran, we talked about the morality, necessity, and constitutionality of Terminating Parental Rights. At the end of the conversation, he mentioned that he would be presenting two TPR cases to the Michigan Supreme Court in May. That …
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Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. We're doing something new! We decided to bring back episode one, which goes into a bit of my origin story! We've added a lot of new listeners over the past couple of months and I thought it would be a good idea to reintroduce myself and the inspiration for the show. And, …
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This person died in 2016 at age 57. He won an Academy Award in 1985, and a Webby Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006. He was still a teenager when he was signed to Warner Bros Records, in a deal that included full creative control. His work inspired the formation of the Parents’ Music Resource Center, which pressured record companies into labeling a…
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From Agent to Advocate to Activist with Dr Jessica Pryce
1:05:54
1:05:54
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Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. I'm excited to bring you this week's conversation with Dr Jessica Pryce. Dr Pryce's new book, Broken: Transforming Child Protective Services, gave us a great backdrop to a wide-ranging conversation. At the beginning of the book, she lays out a framework or process of movi…
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This person died in 2016 at age 99. She appeared as a nightclub manager in Orson Welles’ 1958 “Touch of Evil”, and the same year as a sexy alien in “Queen of Outer Space”. She appeared on scores of talk shows, game shows, comedy specials, and episodic dramas. In 1989, she was arrested for slapping a police officer. She was married at least eight ti…
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My Journal: Am I Afraid to Address Racism Publicly
7:56
7:56
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7:56
Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. This episode is a follow up to the previous journal episode, Am I Biased? One of our ambitions with this show is to build community and engage the community in a conversation. So, the series of episodes about termination of parental rights led to some feedback that prompt…
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Ask Me Anything with guest host Kathleen Creamer
46:38
46:38
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46:38
Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. I'm super excited to bring you the first ever (but not the last) Ask Me Anything episode. We put out a call for questions and you all came through. We received more questions than we could get to in one episode. We also asked the Proximity Podcast Club if someone wanted t…
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This person died in 2014 at age 86. She was a Tony-nominated stage actress, and a calypso dancer for a period of time. In 2011 she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. She was a college professor and a ubiquitous presence on the lecture circuit, and also made several appearances on Sesame Street. Throughout her writing, she explored the c…
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Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. In this week's episode I start with the journal prompt, am I biased? This was prompted by some of the feedback to our most recent episodes on Termination of Parental Rights. I thought I would let you all into my process of how I try to approach feedback that is critical o…
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Termination of Parental Rights with Vivek Sankaran
1:01:13
1:01:13
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Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. This week's episode continues our series of conversations about Termination of Parent Rights. I wanted to talk to Vivek Sankaran because he has a unique depth of knowledge to bring to the thought experiment that we've been bringing to these episodes, which is to imagine w…
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This person died in 2021 at age 61. He almost joined the newspaper business as a young man, but deliberately botched an interview. By 1984, he spent four months opening for the comedian Sam Kinison. His sense of humor sometimes got him in hot water. A 2018 article about him said “The dedicated fan will identify two patterns in his television work: …
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Termination of Parental Rights with Mollie Warren
52:23
52:23
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Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. Today's guest, Mollie Warren, is the Director of Family and Children's Services in Boulder County, Colorado. I wanted to return to the conversation about Termination of Parental Rights with someone who is in a "practitioner" role and a position to make decisions about to …
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Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. In today's journal episode I share some of the questions and ideas that came up on this week's Proximity Podcast Club conversation. The jumping off question this week was what shifts are happening for each of us as we think more deeply about prevention. In other words, wh…
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The Masterclass Act (Philip Seymour Hoffman)
58:30
58:30
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This person died in 2014 at age 46. His mother was a former family court judge, and his father worked for the Xerox corporation. The New York Times once said “He does terminal uncertainty better than practically anyone.” He was a sleepy-looking man with uncombed hair who favored rumpled clothes. He was perhaps the most ambitious and widely admired …
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Prevention as Social Justice with Dr Melissa Merrick
48:40
48:40
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48:40
Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. April is National Child Abuse Prevention Awareness Month. This is a perfect time to step back and ask ourselves, what is prevention? What values and narratives underpin our ideas of who and what we are preventing? In my conversation with Dr Melissa Merrick, President and …
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Taking Personal Responsibility with Mike Shaver
1:08:38
1:08:38
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Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. Today's episode is a conversation I had with my friend and colleague, Mike Shaver, who is the CEO of Brightpoint in Illinois. Brightpoint began as Children Home & Aid in 1883 and is going through a significant shift in how they see their role in advancing justice for fami…
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This person died in 2015 at age 76. He taught English at Westminster College in Pennsylvania, and was also a high school teacher. He directed the drama “Music of the Heart”, based on the true story of a woman who taught violin to underprivileged children in Harlem. He directed his first feature film In 1972, “Last House on the Left”. He also direct…
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My Journal: A Practice for Avoiding Status Quo
11:30
11:30
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11:30
Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. In this week's journal episode, I talk about a simple practice that I have used throughout my career to remain curious, adaptable, and in service of people. This is something that you can start doing today. This practice has helped me avoid falling into status quo and one…
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Measuring the Right Problem with Susan Smith
53:47
53:47
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Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. I remember learning about the 2020 Vision in 2007 when I started working in child welfare. It was a new national initiative with the goal of reducing the number of kids in foster care by 50% by the year 2020. I was working with kids aging out and watching the impact of gr…
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Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. This week's episode is a journal entry that was prompted by the Proximity Podcast Club conversation. We were talking about a question posed to the group by Corey Best, who am I without the family policing system? This immediately got me thinking about a few fundamental qu…
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This person died in 2015 at age 82. When he moved to California in the early 1960s, he befriended the poet Thom Gunn, began entering weight-lifting competitions, and joined the Hells Angels on motorcycle trips to the Grand Canyon. As a medical doctor and a writer, he achieved a level of popular renown rare among scientists. He first won widespread …
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Termination of Parental Rights with Kathleen Creamer
54:48
54:48
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Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. Today's episode is a conversation with Kathleen Creamer that you don't want to miss. Kathleen is the Managing Attorney at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia where she and her team use a holistic family defense model to help parents maintain custody of or reunite wit…
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This person died in 2022 at age 94. In 2009, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Although often simmering with repressed anger, his characters responded to injustice with quiet determination. He once wrote “I felt very much as if I were representing 18 million people with every move I made.” In a departure from acting, he directed the…
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Father and Son Reunion with Corey Best (pt. 2)
1:03:16
1:03:16
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Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. This is part two of my conversation with Corey Best. You may want to go back and listen to episode one where Corey talks about growing up in DC, his son being born, and his experience of termination of parental rights (TPR). We end that conversation as Corey was hours awa…
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Father and Son Reunion with Corey Best (pt. 1)
1:11:39
1:11:39
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Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. This is part one of a two-part conversation with Corey Best. We cover a lot of ground in these conversations, but we center around Corey's relationship with his son who, until very recently, he hadn't seen or talked to in 19 years. We get into Corey's early years of growi…
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Surely You Can’t Be Serious x Famous & Gravy
1:07:20
1:07:20
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Special crossover episode! Imagine this: You’re on a desert island, and you can choose one actor or actress – and ONLY ONE – for whom you get their entire IMDb catalog to pass the time. It’s just you, a palm tree, a DVD player (streaming hasn’t reached this desert island), and the IMDb catalog of a single performer. Who would you choose? This thoug…
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Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. This week is a journal episode. This episode was inspired by the recent Hill Briefing that was organized by the Repeal CAPTA Coalition. What came across so clearly in the briefing is that we don't have to wait for justice, we can act now to advance justice. Part of the pr…
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Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. This week's episode is a recently released conversation I had as a guest on the Leaving Well with Naomi Hattaway podcast. Naomi is a skilled interviewer, and it was a joy to talk to her about my experience of leaving well, including the one regret that I had in the proces…
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This person died in 2022 at age 65. In his last year of college, he won a student Academy Award for a documentary. After his sister died of a rare autoimmune disease called systemic scleroderma, he became a board member of the Scleroderma Research Foundation. He was cast in the 1987 Richard Pryor film, “Critical Condition.” He directed “Dirty Work”…
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Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. On this episode I share some of my reflections on Shawn A Ginwright's book The Four Pivots: Reimagining Justice, Reimagining Ourselves. I talk about the first pivot, which is from lens to mirror. The way Shawn talks about this pivot speaks directly to how I have come to u…
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Making the Invisible Visible with Dr. Kimberly Offutt
52:56
52:56
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Text us is you have a question for Matt or a guest. We want to hear from you. Today's episode is a conversation with my friend, colleague, and Podcast Club collaborator and co-host, Dr. Kimberly Offutt. We tell the origin story of how we decided to create the weekly Proximity Podcast Club. The story starts with Kim listening to episode one and call…
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