Best Rita S Fierro. Ph.D Podcasts (2024)

1
Caucus Crises: A Break in Reciprocity and Trust with Michael Lawson 1:01:47

23d ago1:01:47

1:01:47

In this episode our Hosts Dr. Rita and Diane Little welcome our guest, Michael posits that the Democratic Party is always in crises, by its inclusive nature, because it tends to fold within it, the crises of the communities it attempts to represent. We review the variety and intent of Caucuses: their history, purpose and relevance: the Black caucus…

1
The heart to serve: with Marshville, NC Town Manager, Franklin Deese 51:27

1M ago51:27

51:27

In this episode, current town manager and former Mayor of Marshville, NC of 14 years Franklin Deese discusses with our co-hosts Dr. Rita and Diane Little tells the riveting experience from incarceration to become his town's mayor. He talks passionately about the importance of public service and how truth and trust led his journey. Even if things do…

1
Seeing the System doesn't mean giving up, with Joel Ford 56:31

2M ago56:31

56:31

In this episode, Hosts Dr. Rita and Diane Little interview interview Joel Ford, former North Carolina State Senator. We talk about his disappointment with the Democrat party and his concerns with progressive approaches to change. With economic freedom as his primary goal, he unpacks his approach to questions about school choice, vouchers, education…

1
What's the difference between governing and ruling? with NC House Rep John Autry 1:00:24

2M ago1:00:24

1:00:24

In this episode, Dr. Rita and Diane Little we talk with NC House Rep. John Autry. We talk about the difference between governing and ruling and share examples of how polarization in government and opposition towards anything the other party does gets the democratic process stuck and frustrates legislators themselves. In the face of the challenges o…

1
Skin in the game: why should white people want racial justice? With Jill Nagle 57:49

11M ago57:49

57:49

In this episode, consultant and author Jill Nagle join us for a discussion on the book she’s writing —Skin in the game: how white people benefit from dismantling white supremacy. We face the question: Why should white people want change? What do we get out of it? We look at whiteness as a system that has created a set of mindsets with negative cons…

1
Trailblazer Series: Making your truth your life with Sharon Hurley Hall 48:01

2y ago48:01

48:01

In this episode, we zoom in on the journey of a trailblazing leader and her passage from being a corporate writer to full-time antiracism professional. We explore how a personal calling can shift from side-kick to a way of being that doesn't allow us to walk any other way in the world. As for the antiracism conversation, we touch upon self-care, gl…

1
Love and Fear Series: Power is Neutral with Organizer Pastor Daniel Hughes 41:56

2y ago41:56

41:56

In this episode, we look at the Church's participation in white supremacy as the complete opposite of Jesus' tradition as a community organizer, himself. We look into religious concepts such as mercy and grace as they inform our personal, relational, and social way of organizing our society. Two GenXers in conversation about relationships, connecti…

1
Love and Fear Series: Racial Justice Organizing beyond Fear with Robin Wright-Pierce 45:02

2y ago45:02

45:02

In this episode, we talk about our bodies play a crucial role in requiring us to shift from unsustainable social justice organizing from fear, anxiety, hyper-vigilance, and chaos to organizing from the more sustainable care, trust, love, and even joy. We also talk about the how organizational dynamics such as perceived leadership, funding, and resu…

1
Educational Excellence despite the system with Dr. Ishmail Conway and Dr. Rodney Hopson 1:00:39

2y ago1:00:39

1:00:39

In this episode, we look at examples of educational excellence throughout African American history in the face of tremendous challenges. Two deeply committed educators challenge us to think about the educational system more broadly given the many ways we learn. They offer examples of questioning language and reconnecting to self, community, and lan…

1
Love and fear series: What we fear most is ourselves with amy j howton, Ph.D. 48:25

2y ago48:25

48:25

In this episode, we review ways in which fear can be not a stop sign, but an invitation into deeper practice. We need others to be the mirror with us, and liberation is in community and in relationship , so as we build a deeper relationship with each other, through fear, we discover that the system is not separate from us, but we uphold it with our…

1
The Power of Intention with Yvonne DeVastey 56:44

2y ago56:44

56:44

In this episode, we navigate the importance of intention as the fuel that mobilizes life. We look into how intention helps direct the flow of life and face the unknown, but also how we must release control for it to show its full power. We also discuss some current events such as war that tend to disempower--and reveal how we can indeed stand in ou…

1
Data Geek Series: Family Preservation Works! the Child Welfare System with Richard Wexler 53:48

2y ago53:48

53:48

In this episode, we look at data on racial bias in the child welfare system, and on the case for family preservation against the current family policing system and its biases, since COVID-19. We also talk about data collected in NYC, on how COVID-19 activated local networks and how the child welfare system can be changed to suit the data we know. O…

1
Data Geek Series: Legal (Criminal InJustice) Systems with Attorney Karla Cruel 56:14

2y ago56:14

56:14

In this episode, Attorney Karla Cruel walks us through the components of the legal system for criminal law and the ways in which these different processes are flawed. "The very fact that we know there are frequent innocent convictions, in and of itself, tells us the system is flawed," she says. She walks us through various stages of bias and misjud…

1
DataGeek Series: The Music Business System is Designed to Keep Artists in Debt with Andrae Alexander 46:53

2y ago46:53

46:53

In this episode, we take a systems look at the music industry and how it sets up artists and composers to be in constant debt through the lack of fair and transparent contracts and the restrictions in regulations and contract terms. We envision a music industry where artists and composers are more informed about their contracts, their rights, and t…

1
DataGeek Series: Technology-Innovation Pipeline System with Anne Heberger Marino 56:53

2y ago56:53

56:53

In this episode, we look at how the technology innovation happens pipeline happens from research, to industry, to community. We look at how these relationships are typically extractive and how they can become more sustainable. How high levels of collaboration and collective intelligence and emergence work can enrich the way we think about nature an…

1
DataGeek Series: The Philanthropy-Evaluation system with Audrey Jordan 48:28

2y ago48:28

48:28

This episode looks at the relationship between Program Evaluation and philanthropy as a system, one that allocates small monies to communities in need while controlling the definitions and management of standards of success. We propose engaging stakeholders more, shifting what we measure, and ..... Dr. Audrey Jordan is the Jerry D. Campbell Profess…

1
Data Geek Series: Data Are Never Gospel Disrupting whiteness in Health Systems with Dr. Sharon Attipoe, Rachel Dungan, and Janice Tufte 56:35

2y ago56:35

56:35

In this show, three experts of health systems data bring us insights into how racism and bias contribute to all points of health data collection, from uncovering old assumptions--like assuming lower thresholds of pain for African Americans, competition among groups, inappropriate diagnoses for bodies of color. Our guests invite us to recommend enga…

1
Relationships Series: How Do We Build Authentic Partnership Across Race Lines? with Dr. Audrey Jordan 1:02:23

2y ago1:02:23

1:02:23

This episode is an exploration of what gets in the way of partnerships between Black women and white women: control, superiority, power struggles, and plantation narrative. We also talk about the white wounds that we unwillingly bring into the work and what's possible when we heal and move beyond the wounds. Dr. Audrey Jordan is the Jerry D. Campbe…

1
DataGeek Series: The Juvenile (In)justice system: Are we punishing youth who are grieving? with Deven Wisner 50:08

2y ago50:08

50:08

In this episode, we look at some data as relates the the juvenile (In)justice system and ways in which our systems perpetuate disproportional representation of youth of color and don't support what we know works. Our guest invites us to look at how our system is based on society having deprived youth of opportunities to grieve. Programs that provid…

1
Data Series: How does the use of data in Higher Education reinforce white supremacy? with Libby Smith 1:03:19

2y ago1:03:19

1:03:19

In this episode, we discuss how higher education reinforces white supremacy by design. We highlight the data that exposes these contradictions. In particular, we talk about three ways higher education enforces white supremacy: 1) Quality of life for millennials will not higher than parents' generations; 2) There is a gap between white students and …

1
It's All One System: Moving Beyond Shame with Jeanette Vega 38:20

3y ago38:20

38:20

In this episode, we discuss how parents who have been targeted by the family policing system (child protective services) experience all the systems, together, allied to the detriment of their own families. By sharing her powerful-first hand experience, Jeannette Vega inspires a life beyond fear and shame, where the experiences of parents who had th…

1
It's all one System: Changing the Formula of our Purple Country 58:32

3y ago58:32

58:32

In this episode, we use the mathematical definition of a "system" as a set of rules that preserve a certain result, to look at the ways that the System as a whole preserves itself. Our guest, Attorney Karla Cruel, walks us through her approach to re-write the constitution--laid out in a new article she co-wrote with Rita Fierro on Medium (link belo…

1
white Supremacy in the Body: Make Pearls, Not War with Lisa Jo Epstein, Bernadette Pleasant, and Roz Thomas 59:13

3y ago59:13

59:13

In this episode we engage in conversations with three expert facilitators on their personal stories that led them to experience, understand, and value how white supremacy is stored in our bodies and how healing in community is an essential way for what's next. By healing together, we can shift from inherited fear through being witnessed and being c…

1
white Supremacy in the Body: Facing the Ring of Fire--Unlearning Racism with Bernadette Pleasant 53:04

3y ago53:04

53:04

In this episode, through storytelling and reflection, we review the somatic experience that people of color have of how the System can unleash itself against them at any time. We highlight how bodies of people of color retain memories of traumatic events and how the retriggering is unlikely for white people to understand. We offer ways to weave the…

1
white Supremacy in the Body: Democracy is Freedom from Inner Tyranny with LisaJo Epstein 49:08

3y ago49:08

49:08

In this episode we break down several aspects of internalized white supremacy: perfectionism, conflict as danger, defensiveness, not-good-enough story, and obsession with product over process and doing the right thing. We also highlight how the discomfort and dissonance between our perception of ourselves and the realties we are confronted with are…

1
white Supremacy in the Body: Body Memory, Honesty, and Health with Roslyn Thomas 59:44

3+ y ago59:44

59:44

In this show, we talk about how racism assaults the body and stores emotions and pains for decades. By walking through some key concepts of Resam Menakem's My Grandmother's Hands, we highlight some ways that meditation, dance, exercise, expressing clean pain, and releasing grief, can help release trauma from the body providing a way to lighten up, …

1
Economic System: An Economy that Serves Humanity and the Earth with Wayne Armitstead, Matt Birkhold, David Caplan, Erick Murillo Ramos, Gagan Oberoi 1:01:45

3+ y ago1:01:45

1:01:45

In this provocative episode, we move beyond the definitions of capitalism, socialism, and communism, through the assumptions of inequality as the backbone of our system, to a vision for a new economy. Our guests have knowledge of and insights from different corners of the economic world. Wayne Armitstead having authored Capitalism Perverted, as a p…

1
Economic System Basics: Economy is not Accounting with Gagandeep Oberoi 59:52

3+ y ago59:52

59:52

In this episode, we review the basic concepts of the economic system that we mostly take for granted: money, economy, accounting, transactions, growth. Our Guest, Gagandeep Oberoi is a global citizen, currently living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. who stands for ‘everyone winning’ with a possibility of love and happiness for all. Gagan believes that w…

1
Economic System: Bubbles Don't Have to Burst with Wayne Armitstead 45:10

3+ y ago45:10

45:10

In this episode we review many of the mechanisms that keeps the economy stuck in bubble growths and bursts. From the uncovering the fake economic boost of right now, to the dark money in politics, and the elimination of the gold reserve, we walk from what has become morn in our current economic system and what we can actually shift for the world we…

1
Economic System: Love, Racism, and the Economy with Matt Birkhold 47:32

3+ y ago47:32

47:32

In this episode, an old colleague of mine and I meander on the importance of Love in overcoming the restraints of racism and the economy in the USA. We discuss how knowledge won't set us free, how healing is essential, and how we can build our economic power in the face of capitalism--a very knew system in the history of humanity, despite we think …

1
Economic System: GDP Growth Is NOT Wealth with Erick Murillo Ramos 53:28

3+ y ago53:28

53:28

In this episode, we look at international economic and some somecreen dynamics to inequality: the GDP, disparities, and fake choices. Our guest, Erick Ramos Murillo, is an economist and entrepreneur with wide experience serving as a strategist and consultant for a number of private companies, government and multinational organizations. Mr. Ramos wa…

1
Economic System: A Country is Not a Business with David Caplan 50:16

3+ y ago50:16

50:16

In this episode, we explore some misperceptions of the economic system: trickle down economics, trade deficits, and managing countries like businesses. We also look at how our states are different and how the Federal and Commonwealth structures were established to maintain differences, too. Our guest, David A. Caplan, has been a sole practitioner s…

1
Election Results: Systemic Bridge-Building is Next with Raphael Freeman 54:55

3+ y ago54:55

54:55

This episode was recorded when the results of the election were clear, but not yet declared. We engage in a conversation beyond the angst of the results by discussion what the elections say about where our country is and what's next. What would it be like if we built systems that all across the country would connect people instead of separating us?…

1
Sharing Visceral Fears of Extinction with Dove 45:36

3+ y ago45:36

45:36

In this episode, we talk about breaking the silence by sharing our deepest fears and how transformative that can be for ourselves, but also breaking down barriers within our families and in our society establishing more authentic relationships. We also talk about the failures of the liberal/progressive movement to address the visceral fears of exti…

1
Juvenile Justice Systems: What Humanizing Looks Like with Michael O'Bryan and Sousan 54:07

3+ y ago54:07

54:07

In this show we envision how our Juvenile (In)Justice system could be humanizing, instead of detrimental to youth and society. It's shifting a system from an approach that breaks youth's will by having them cave-in, give up, or get tough and instead align the system with what we know about youth, about learning, and about life. We have two guests: …

1
Juvenile Justice System: Stop Incriminating Young People Like Adults with Joanna Visser and John Pace 39:57

3+ y ago39:57

39:57

In this episode, we talk with two advocates for juveniles who have been working intensely to end youth sentenced to life without parole. They also support other youth to get out of the juvenile justice system, once and for all. John Pace is the Juvenile Life Without Parole (“JLWOP”) Reentry Coordinator with the Youth Sentencing & Reentry Project. I…

1
Juvenile Justice System: Restoring Robbed Childhood with Michael O'Bryan 44:49

3+ y ago44:49

44:49

In this episode, we talk with a youth worker who provides sobering insights on the importance of caring for our youth and having compassion for the ones who go astray. Michael O’Bryan is an expert practitioner and budding researcher in the fields of community development, organizational culture, and human wellbeing. Mike has spent more than a decad…

1
Juvenile Justice System: Data Don't Say what You Think with Adam Serlin 44:07

3+ y ago44:07

44:07

In this episode, we discover the limitations of juvenile justice reform due to the data that is reported and the data that isn't. Our guest, is Adam Serlin who currently serves as a Stoneleigh Fellow with The Center for Government Excellence at Johns Hopkins University. In this role, he is helping Philadelphia’s juvenile justice stakeholders use da…

1
Juvenile Justice System: Breaking the Cycle of Violence to Peace-Making with Iran Nazario 50:13

4y ago50:13

50:13

Trigger warning: this episode has vivid references to physical violence. In this episode, we talk with a prior youth in the juvenile justice system about how the cycle of violence started in his own life and what it took him to break it and become a peacemaker for himself, his family, and his community. Our guest, Iran was a foster child in the cus…

1
Juvenile Justice System: A child not embraced by his village with Sousan 41:37

4y ago41:37

41:37

...will burn it down to feel its warmth" An African Wisdom Saying--that Sousan mentions on the show. In this episode, we talk with a mother who has seen all three of her children in the juvenile justice system. We talk about personal power, race, and the split between how the private juvenile "injustice" facilities offer high quality services--to p…

1
Child Welfare Systems: The Caucus of Denial with Lawanda, Jazmin Banks, and Richard Wexler 59:44

4y ago59:44

59:44

In this episode, by talking with a birth parent, foster parent, a journalist, and a researcher, we look at the way the different mechanism of trauma and family separation work together. We also begin to envision what it would take to overcome the denial of how racism works within these systems and what it would take for us to organize together to c…

1
Child Welfare Systems: Seeds of Bigotry with Richard Wexler 44:46

4y ago44:46

44:46

In this episode, a journalist who has been covering child welfare since 1990, highlights how much about the system hasn't changed, and how it's rooted in seeds of profound bigotry against catholics, that has not been extended to people of color: racism as the backbone of the system. Richard Wexler is Executive Director of NCCPR. His interest in chi…

1
Child Welfare Systems: The Zemblanity of Forced Orphans with Jazmin Banks 52:24

4y ago52:24

52:24

In this episode, a foster parent talks about how she was the "perfect victim" who entered the system to save children only to discover she was complicit in a brutal system that perpetuates psychological abuse against both foster parents and birth parents. Jazmin S. Banks was a “Family and Community Inclusion Specialist” at the Department of Behavio…

1
Law Enforcement System: Liberty and Justice for All is a New Constitution with Damon K Jones, Louis Molina, and Karla Cruel 55:03

4y ago55:03

55:03

In this really phenomenal show (if I say so myself) we talk about how we can leverage our collective power to envision and create a system for liberty and justice for all. We talk about the need for a truth and reconciliation commission, legislative activism, and even a new constitution! It's an explosive episode. Let's go! Our guests from this mon…

1
Law Enforcement System: Accountability and Loopholes with Louis Molina and Karla Cruel 55:36

4y ago55:36

55:36

In this episode, we look at the law enforcement system from two different perspectives, a correctional executive and a lawyer activist provide insights into how the system is, and how it needs to change. Our guests are Louis Molina and Karla Cruel: bios below. Louis Molina is a second generation, decorated veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, with ove…

1
Child Welfare Systems: My Child Was Taken with Lawanda 48:58

4y ago48:58

48:58

In this episode we hear from a birth parent who lost one of her children to foster care how daunting the experience with DHS was an how, the more she advocated for her child's needs, the worse the experience became. Our guest, Lawanda, is a single mother of three. "I'm college educated and hard working. I'm a survivor of DHS. My story is a little d…

1
Law Enforcement System: Calling for State and Federal Police Criminality Laws with Damon K Jones 51:43

4y ago51:43

51:43

In this episode Our guest, Damon K. Jones, a corrections officer, and leader in Blacks in Law Enforcement organization offers insights on how racism plays our inside and outside law enforcement. He also highlights how extended community policing from the 70s was co-opted and maps a way to create systems of accountability at different systemic level…

1
Political Systems: Colonialism in Local and State Politics with Alicia Dorsey 46:19

4y ago46:19

46:19

In this episode, we look at how local and state political systems have been contributing to perpetuating colonialism for centuries. Our guest, Alicia Dorsey is a family community advocate. She aims to empower voters by ending various forms of voter manipulation. She also educates the disenfranchised so they can register as independent and not be ti…

1
Political Systems: Community is the Way by Raphael Freeman and Alicia Dorsey 43:18

4y ago43:18

43:18

Our guests come back to discuss the political system. Our guests Alicia Dorsey, activist, and Raphael Freeman, political scientist, come back and discuss how enslavement shaped our political systems, how capitalism shapes our individualism, and how COVID-19 is exposing the limits of all of it. They also chart a way for us to leverage our Collective…

1
Law Enforcement System: Peace is when People Protest and are Heard 56:39

4y ago56:39

56:39

In this episode, we explore with an expert of violence intervention and police-community relationships how our law enforcement systems need to name they were founded in enslavement and historical trauma, and we need to install sensors that help us identify systemic racism and injustice, so we can transform our systems towards peace. Our guest, Fati…

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