Tiny Spark

As the federal government pours billions of dollars into private detention facilities, new research shows political donations from these for-profit companies are influencing policymakers to support legislation criminalizing undocumented immigrants. University of New Mexico associate professor Loren Collingwood talks about his findings, and emotionally shares why they matter.

As the U.S. deals with a severe crisis with up to 600,000 people experiencing homelessness each night, we tour the Community First! village in Austin. This unique community was established to provide affordable, permanent housing for the chronically homeless in Central Texas. Why do the residents think it works? 

Broadway has returned after closing eighteen months ago. We speak to actors, writers and directors about what the break meant for their lives and work. One prepares to make his Broadway debut, another looks beyond the stage, and all tell us that they hope the future improves representation and equity in the theater.

In light of troubling events in Afghanistan, we speak to collaborating artists Chitra Ganesh and Mariam Ghani on threats to the country's archives, the ‘radical archivists’ who have preserved them to date, and how this pair of artists practice radical archiving as way to confront and surface government erasures.

For Nora Kenworthy, GoFundMe is “the research topic that I can't escape.” She recently studied 175,000 GoFundMe campaigns from the COVID era and discovered nearly half didn’t receive a single donation. We discuss the stark inequities around these platforms and ask whether crowdfunding can offer equitable relief during a complex public health disaster.

Are women and girls forgotten in crises and conflicts in Myanmar, Ethiopia and Afghanistan? We speak to women's rights activists about what drives them, and ask whether they feel women & girls are sidelined in these kinds of conflicts.

TW: This podcast discusses sexual violence.

We speak to Dr. Sophia Yen, entrepreneur and outspoken advocate for women’s reproductive health and empowerment. Dr. Yen founded a birth control startup to “just ship women birth control and keep shipping it until they tell us to stop.” She speaks frankly about sexual health, health justice, and the sexism she has experienced in her career. 

The People's Kitchen Collective uses food and art to address racial and social justice issues. Co-founder Jocelyn Jackson talks to us about their large-scale meals, which offer time and nourishment for communities to heal.  

Food Rescue Hero gets volunteers to pick up excess food from restaurants and grocers and deliver it to people who need it. Founder and CEO Leah Lizarondo shares her journey creating a tech tool that says it has rescued some 50 million pounds of food.

Climate scientist Ndoni Mcunu and climate activist Evelyn Acham celebrate the African scientists and activists fighting for the planet. We speak to the pair about the difficulty of this work, and learn what inspires them to keep going.

Found in Translation, a Boston-based nonprofit, trains bilingual women as medical interpreters. In this podcast, founder Maria Vertkin and three graduates who speak Vietnamese, Cape Verdean Creole and Portuguese, explain why this life-changing work is so necessary.

Independent art curator Kelli Morgan shares personal, painful experiences of institutional racism and says it’s time to call out the art world’s toxic white supremacist culture.

Physician and anthropologist Eugene Richardson’s book ‘Epidemic Illusions: On the Coloniality of Global Public Health’ critiques practices that perpetuate inequality. In this podcast, he argues that global health equity requires not just medicine, but reparations that undo Western colonial harms.  

A diverse group of women discuss the power of giving circles as a way to build community, democratize philanthropy, and support local grassroots organizations.