Transcript Available: 5th Annual Day of Action & Education
In an effort to make our resources more accessible, we’ve added subtitles to the webinar recording, A Restorative Evolution: Courageously Shaping a Values-Driven Future for Public Media. We’re also a providing a full transcript here:
00:00:03
Good afternoon everyone. I am JC Polk, one of the founding coalition members of Public Media for all. Uh, we are very grateful, um, to have you to make the choice to join us, uh, today. Um, we are not naive to the fact that on a day like today, that your mind and your heart may not be exactly right here. And while we contemplated on postponements and cancellations, one of the things that we thought about is as a day of action and education. What a great moment to demonstrate what it is that many of us in public media are challenged to do each and every day. And that is in the name of compassion, to still be a service provider to our communities and to our constituents that believe in us and that rely on us for information, counseling, sometimes just a listening ear and a communing space. And so what we hope to bring you today and our 2025 day of action education is just that, a moment in which, amongst all that is going on in the recent events in California, which include your colleagues, your friends, family members, for us, many of our coalition members, none are exempt from the impact of those events. And for those of you who have been tuning in today to the services of our 39th president, we recognize that by you choosing to be here today, that that comes at a great weight and a great sacrifice. And so we again, are very grateful for that. What we hope to be able to do is provide you a respite, if not for a moment, but for a brief period in the going week, to be able to come and receive some education so that you can be action oriented. Our theme this year is A Restorative Evolution courageously shaping a values driven future in Public Media. We're going to go into detail of what all that actually means, um, as we'll show you as we go through our agenda for today, we're going to start out by one of the things that we have a great priority on as public media for all, and that is rest. Um, an opportunity to be mindful, an opportunity to kind of take a breath and really put yourself in this place to be able to experience the things that we have today. We have a bevy of speakers that are coming. If we can go to the next slide, and what we want you to be able to do is understand as public media for all. Since the last time we all convened in November of 2023, um, what has happened? What has been our evolution? What have we developed about ourselves? What have we learned? And then we want to slowly go into talking about where we are now, which is being value centered and value oriented. And for us, we want to share with you the values that we've defined, which is going to be the guiding light for us, for our commitment going into, uh, the New Year and beyond. And that will give us what is next. Um, we have one of our former coalition members that is going to join us to provide you the examples of what these values look like. And then, of course, we always ask and challenge you with a commitment to give you a scope of what this work looks like. And we have a renowned guest that's going to be with us. We have several people to to actually share with you. Um, I'm going to leave that in for you to stay tuned. Um, I'll share that shortly. But first, what I want to be able to do. Um. Oh, and then we have our public Media for all award that we're always excited about for this year. And then we're going to leave time for question and answer, which leads us into part of our housekeeping. We're going to ask that your question and answer that. You make sure you submit those to the question and answer box. We will actually curate those. And then make sure that we fill those at the at the end, um, of the 90 minutes. So be sure to stay tuned for that. But make sure you get your questions in now and you can start loading them as soon as now. The other component if in the other side in chat, what we want you to do is let everyone know where you're from. Um, in addition to that, we want to make sure that you take the time that if you're in a group, because we know many stations have decided to make this an Incorporated day with their with their teams. Let us know how many people are actually with you in the room. Um, that provides a valuable feedback for us to see how we can better suit everyone on this given day. This is our fifth annual and we're very proud of that. And again, we're grateful to have you with us. Um, without further ado. Oh, this will be recorded, uh, by the way, and that recording will be made accessible, uh, after the actual webinar. Uh, in addition, we want up top we want to give a special thanks to two of our great partners who are presenting with us today. One is the greater public, um, for being our behind the scenes tech support. Uh, and in addition to that current who is actually with us this year. And you'll hear more from them, um, related to our 2025 Public Media for all award. So without further ado, what I'm going to ask of you now, um, is something that we've done in our webinars and in some of the presentations we've done, and we found it to be very beneficial to those who participate willingly. Um, at this time. I'm going to turn it over to Kimberly.
00:04:54
Hi, everyone. I'm Kimberly Ferguson. Before we dive into the work of transformation, let's take a moment to pause, to breathe, and to remember that rest is not a luxury, but a necessity. As Tricia Hersey, the Nap bishop, reminds us, rest is resistance. It's an act of reclaiming our humanity and a world that often asks us to do too much. This moment is yours to reconnect with your body, your breath, and the abundance that comes with stillness. So let's begin by finding a comfortable position. And if it feels good, let your eyes close or soften your gaze. Take a deep breath in through your nose. And slowly exhale through your mouth. Let's do that again. Inhale deeply. And exhale completely. Feel your body begin to settle. Now shift your awareness to your shoulders. Let them drop a little lower. Release the weight of the day. The week, the month. There's nothing to carry in this moment. There's nothing to prove. You are enough, just as you are. Bring your attention to your breath. You don't have to change it. Just notice it. Feel the rise and fall of your chest. With each. Inhale. Invite ease and calm. With each exhale. Let go of tension, worry or anything that doesn't serve you right now. A picture of space where you feel completely at rest. Maybe it's a sunlit, filled room with plants and nature trail. Or your favorite chair at home. Picture yourself there. Supported and held. Imagine. What does it feel like to rest so deeply that even your to do list takes a nap? Let yourself experience that for a few moments. As we begin to come back, take another deep breath in. And out. When you're ready, gently open your eyes or bring your focus back to the space around you. Rest is a gift we can give ourselves, and it's an act of defiance against the systems that seek to exhaust us. As you move forward in this work, carry this moment with you. Return to it as often as you need. Your rest matters. You matter. So carry this sense of calm and presence with you as we reflect and envision the future ahead. Be well.
00:09:53
We definitely thank Kimberly for that. As I mentioned before, one of the things that we have done at public media for all is that we have begun to look at rest as a supreme priority, something that we do not take for granted. Um, it was one of the takeaways that back in starting with last year, last fall and I'm sorry, two falls ago in 2023. Um, we looked at our coalition and we asked ourselves in question about the fatigue. Uh, we questioned about our effectiveness. We questioned about our planning going into 2024. And we had to ask hard questions of what is it that we need to do in order to be most effective and most serving to to the groups and to the cohorts that we have promised that we would be. And we ultimately came up with the conclusion that we needed to needed to rest. Um, and so at the beginning of last year, 2024, we were transparent with everyone. Um, with all of our cohort members, with all of our member stations, that public media for all will be taking a nap. Um, practicing the Nap ministry, similar to what you heard Tamela share with us. We thought that it was paramount that we spend that time reflecting ourselves. And we we owed it to ourselves to be able to be who we wanted to be for, for everyone else. Um, it was not without trepidation. There was many a conversation that was had. We were worried about what would happen, but we ultimately took that nap. And then we wanted to make sure that we did not leave our cohorts out there hanging. Um, our cohorts are made up of more than 30, uh, organizations that have made a commitment that come together in small teams, and we provided them with resources to look at the year, at a glance, looking at the impending election that will be happening. Uh, all the other transition that was happening throughout the year from a political standpoint, the things that were happening at their local uh stations. Uh, to be able to ask them, have you begin to examine what that looks like? Have you begin to plan? How are you going to address those needs of your community looking forward? So we challenge them in our moment of rest. And they answered the call. They actually sustained it. They brought back even more ideas. While we were able to rest. We learned that that was that gave us a litmus test of the effectiveness of the things that we had done. It gave us a litmus test on their level of commitment. And if nothing else, it made us even more re-energized to come back even stronger and harder. We also, when we came back, uh, this was after the first quarter, we decided to we memorialize the stories of each one of the coalition members and what that rest did to us. We brought that back to our groups, to our stations, and we helped them to understand from an individual level and as a group what it actually what it actually meant to us. Um, we took it to a broader scale. And later in the summer, we had the opportunity to go to PM, DMC and share that with the larger audience. Um, we allowed we had the same, uh, rest exercise and we presented it and we allowed people that attended to be able to come in and actually put together mind boards and actually just have a moment of release and release, release and rest to be able to just clear their mind going into the conference. And we left them with the challenge, asking them, what are you going to use this rest time to do? What do you hope to come out with it? And so we look forward to hearing from them in the coming year, to be able to see if they were able to implement some of those things, that they came out with the restful mind going into the actual PMC. And what we've seen because of that, our resources have increased because we had to empower our cohort to be able to have those resources going forward, to be able to sit and present to the attendees at PMC. We came back understanding that we expanded our resources. We got very specific about those type of things we want to talk about with newsrooms, those things we want to talk about when it comes to community engagement, those things we want to talk about for university licensees, we got very specific. And so we have seen our resources grow and we continue to grow our resource library. And you'll hear more about that, uh, today. And so that leads us to well, where is the relevance, some may ask, is a public media for all who sought out to actually enhance the practices of diversity, equity and inclusion? What does that leave them today? And it is an honor to have one of our former coalition members, founding coalition members, many of you may know, uh, or Nestor Aguilar. And we'll now hear a word from him.
00:14:00
I have the honor of setting the stage today with remarks on the state of public media, and why the work of public media for all is so valuable. The public media landscape is experiencing seismic shifts with finances, pressing organizations to recalibrate operations and mission inspired initiatives across 32 states. Legislative efforts challenge approaches to diversity, inclusion, and workplace culture, creating potential constraint and complexity. The transition in Washington may change key institutions and introduce uncertainty. Yet we have an extraordinary opportunity. We're being asked to listen more, to create spaces that transcend boundaries, and to help our communities to genuinely see one another. Consider the example set by Fred Rogers in 1969, as he eloquently defended public broadcasting before a skeptical congressional committee. In his words, he reminded us that our work has always been about more than transmission, but transformation. In its evolution, public media for all reminds us to recognize that we are architects of empathy and that our greatest strength lies in the belief that meaningful dialogue can illuminate our shared humanity, Even and especially in the most challenging of times. I look forward to doing this work with you together. Thank you.
00:15:45
And thank you, Ernest. It's always good to hear from him. He's done such amazing work in public media. Um, but he's also done such amazing work for public media. For all. He really was a key founding coalition member, and we would not be where we were today without him. Um, we can get the next slide. So Public Media for all has several coalition members that are really big fans of Octavia Butler's quote from parable of the sower. All that you touch, you change. All that you change changes you. The only lasting truth is change. And in that spirit, change, which can sound very scary, I think takes on new meaning. I find this quote so empowering too that you get as much from enacting change as you, um, give and that, uh, sometimes we can feel powerless, like we're not having much of a difference. But every day that we come to work and have any sort of interaction, we touch anything. We change that thing just by bringing our best selves, our most authentic selves, sometimes our most messy selves, to the situation. So on that theme, next slide is Arnesto has alluded. It's crazy to believe, but Public Media for all was founded almost five years ago, and it almost seems like both yesterday. Um, but also, uh, and an entire lifetime ago, if you can just remember, as Vanessa was talking about, that was the summer of the social justice reckoning. We had a global pandemic going on, but actually public media was in a strong space. Uh, a lot of people had managed to transition their listening to home, uh, which we weren't sure if they would do. There was a lot of reasons for people to tune in. They were highly engaged. Now, in 2025, we are facing a moment with a lot of rising anti die policies. Inflation has changed the economy and who's giving and how they're giving. We're going to be dealing with the greatest disruption. And I think you've had in the industry in like 20 years with AI. And the FM audience continues to shrink. Next slide. So as we face these disruptive financial, technical and cultural changes at a critical moment when news deserts are expanding and continued political polarization threatens our democracy, it can be easy to freak out. But I think public media, after all, has actually been really focusing on change as a good thing. Change is a catalyst, and there's also everything that we've built. We have a community of 40 plus public media organizations that meets monthly. Um, that's the leaders of those organizations that are really committing to doing this work on a personal level. As for their entire organizations. We've launched peer support groups at every level of every kind of organization, and we've really learned what works. Culture change works. Any tactics have to be grounded in a fertile landscape of culture change, um, and values and being very values driven. Again, the value of community. We've learned, I think, at a whole new level in the very DNA of what we do, the value of co-creation. Even if it takes a little longer and it's a little messy. And as Jake said, the value of rest. Um, I hate this phrase. Now more than ever is one of the most overused fundraising phrases, but for lack of a better phrase, I think now more than ever, our commitment to creating public media for all remains resolute and is even more essential now as we move forward together in these uncertain times. Next slide. So the next chapter of public media for all. I am very excited about this. We are formally now an LLC, which is going to give us the legal framework. We need to start to do a lot more work, more official, um, sort of collaborations with other organizations, applying for grants with fiscal sponsors. Um, and we are going strong. We have a brand new website that we overhauled last night. You can go check it out. And we've also launched a new LinkedIn group. We're going to be scaling back some of our engagement on other platforms and really focus in on this LinkedIn group as the space for our community to thrive. Um, we'll put some links in the chat, but I do hope that you, uh, request to join our LinkedIn group. Um, let's be clear about a couple of things. First, we are not making these changes out of a reactive fear. This is a proactive approach based on what's working, and our core commitment has not changed. We are working towards a future where public media serves everyone. That is what we launched as. That is That is what we're doing more than ever. But we also realize the need to adapt and to in order to continue to be effective. Next slide. We also have a new mission statement. This is adapted from our old mission statement. And I think it's even stronger. We are a community of public media professionals led by people of color. We are leading the movement to ensure we are co-creating public media for all, especially those that have been historically mischaracterized and adequately represented and underserved. Everyone deserves access to media that reflects their communities, cultures, and humanity. We believe that media that models and reflects the free exchange of ideas is vital to a healthy democracy and society. So next slide. We are going to we are also evolving to focus on values. First and foremost. I think before we were more focused on tactics. We are going to be rooted in the strength that is our is our values. And these are the values to ensure that public media has a thriving future to serve everyone in America. We envision a community of engaged practitioners who continuously grow public media to serve, all by living the following values as radically as we can afford to be every day. Restorative practices. Responsibility and accountability. Mindful integrity and abundant fairness. And there's definitions for all of these values on our website. I'm going to launch into the first one here. Um oh. And community service. My apologies I missed one. So I will be talking about restorative practices. Next slide. For us, this means intentionally bringing people together in dialogue to deepen understanding while centering the humanity of people who have been marginalized. Seeking to provide acknowledgment and repair in order to reduce the likelihood of future harm and encourage healing. I think a think a couple key things to note about this. It's not about restoring the status quo. It's about restoring our values and our shared humanity. I think one way to think about how to do this just in your everyday is to continuously ask yourself, whose comfort are we centering right now? If that answer, if the answer to that question is not the person who was harmed or the person with the least power, then it might be time to adjust. And also, well, repair is the goal. It is not guaranteed. However, even if repair and healing isn't fully achieved, we still believe there is value in dialogue. Listening to understand, asking questions to learn, acknowledging wrongdoings no matter how unintentional. And with that, I'm going to pass to Jake for our next value. Thank you for your time. Your time.
00:23:15
My next value is mindful integrity. And this is practicing work with fierce compassion and a dedicated honor of these values. We're giving ourselves and others grace to learn, grow, and rest, committing to the change that starts with our own thoughtful, questioning and continuous improvement sustained by community, gratitude and delight of discovery. For me, how I've internalized those and my pneumonic device is just making sure that my practices or that our practices as as a coalition and moreover, the practices that we encourage at other stations align with the thoughts, words and actions that align with the core principles. It allows us to basically to be as authentic as we can be. It allows us to be intentional with our decision making, but also being able to be self aware of how it impacts other people. Similar to what Sacha just said, being able to make sure we understand how does that impact the others that are in the room, that are in the community, that are in the world? And is that something that I'm going to allow my integrity to be, I mean, get, uh, evaluated by, um, at a station in my mind, like I said, self-awareness or within your community. It can also be emotional intelligence, like we're talking about today. Being able to understand that the that life does happen, how do we show up when life happens amongst our colleagues, community and friends? Um, and then resilience, making sure that in the face of challenges, what are we actually doing? And is that something that we want to be able to be aligned with what we consider our integrity values. And so we'll go to the next we'll go to the next value.
00:24:59
So before we get started, I want to make a nod as we talk about community, the community where my heart is at today and that is with the LA County People listening. Community service is about listening to, discover, understand and center the Center the needs, wants and aspirations of people who work in public media and the many communities we seek to better serve, helping to build beloved communities that celebrate our differences and empower people to claim their authentic identities while strengthening the connective tissue of our individual dignity and shared humanity. And I'm going to toss to Sam, and we'll need to go back for Sam's, um, slide.
00:25:45
Hi, everybody. I'm here to talk about responsibility and accountability. Um, our value re-written is establishing the duties of individuals in their work with other people to improve and grow community service, ensuring that there are clearly understood boundaries and regular opportunities to check in and receive actionable feedback to support progress in measurable ways. Um, just to break that out a little bit. Uh, really, what we're what we're trying to do is co-create content that's going to be representative. But through this process, make sure that we are co-creating it both within our organizations and with the communities that we're really trying to expand to reach and to, uh, serve better. Um, and then communicate that within your organization so that the message is clear and everybody is on the same page, and then reinforce it, maybe through your annual reviews or, uh, other processes of feedback, but just make sure that it's regular and then set clear expectations of service and representation. What does that look like? Who does that look like? Which communities are you really trying to, uh, to grow and expand with? And what kind of relationship are you trying to develop with that community? Uh, where does the media Creation content that you're making. Uh, where does that go? How does that serve the the organizations and communities? And how does that serve your own organization as well? And then go ahead and be honest about your critique. Look back at what you've done, look at what goals you've set and make sure that you're setting Smart goals. I mean, Smart goals have been often used by, uh, by many of our organizations, I'm sure many of yours. Um, but make your goals specific, measurable, achievable, and time bound so that you can actually tick off those boxes and make clear, specific, uh, goals for you to reach for. And I will hand this off to Aaron.
00:28:02
Thank you. And then we will wrap up with, uh, abundant fairness, which is approaching our work with a joyful additive mindset, beginning by assuming honorable intent and striving for solutions that are more than the sum of their parts to grow our service to all. Leaning into the generative messiness of co-creation and collaboration as the birthplace of innovation and lasting solutions that benefit all. And where this comes into play for us is we intend to lead with an abundance model that we all have the ability to create within this public media landscape, the culture that we desire. And we're also making sure that we are leaving behind the deficit and hoarding model of of ideas and resources, but also giving grace as we navigate these, uh, waters that we are in now, and understanding that all of our stations are dealing with different things in their own communities, uh, within their states federal state legislature. So we just want to make sure that we are all combined in this effort and willing to lean with transparency, vulnerability, and the abundant mindset. And with that, uh, I would like to move into our next segment, which is what is the future of public media? And for that, I will be introducing our next keynote speaker. Uh, Aisha Rasheed Heiman, uh, is the inaugural executive director of Public Media, Women and Leadership. Uh, she has been recognized by her extensive experience as a dedicated public media, uh, professional. Uh, Rasheed Heiman previously was the senior vice president of development at KERA and has a proven track record in fundraising. She also played a pivotal role in membership growth during her tenure at W a W, A, B, e and Georgia Public Broadcasting. Uh. Rasheeda is also a founding member of the Public Media for All coalition, and she is passionate about diversity and inclusion in public media. Please join me in welcoming Aisha Rashid Heiman.
00:30:24
Thank you. Aaron. Um, I'm just really grateful. Thankful to be here with public media for all and the committee. Thank you for having me. This really is an honor, and it's just really great to be here amongst my friends and family and my community. I really do consider, um, public media to be my professional home and my community and my family. So thank you. So first, I want to start out by saying I love public media. I do. I just want to start by saying that here's why I love public media. When I was a little girl, I learned to count with Big Bird and A Snuffleupagus, and I learned to appreciate other cultures with Via Allegra. I don't know if anybody remembers that show. I learned to be a critical thinker with three, two, one contact. Then in my 20s, when I moved to New York, I moved to New York because I wanted to be like Vicki, the character from the Bloodhound Gang on three, two, one contact. Turns out that Lynn Nelson eventually became my mother in law. She played Vicki on three, two, one contact. That's a whole other story. But it's true. And then when I was a mother, Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street helped me raise my children. Literally helped me raise my children. And then my work in public media helped me to find purpose, helped me to find fulfillment. So me and public media, we have a relationship. We've been together my whole life. Um, it has not been perfect all the time, but mostly it's been a loving, supportive relationship for the most part. But we are in a relationship. And the thing about being in a relationship with someone or something is that if you really love it, you tell the truth about it and you tell them the truth. So I'm here today to tell some truths from my perspective about public media. So I just wanted to frame it that the truth comes from a place of love. Alright, so one of the truths that I want to focus on today about, um, public media from my perspective, is that in our community, in our family, when we think that a problem is too big or too scary to fix, we talk about it for years and years and years and years. And then after we talked about it for years, we pretend that it was fixed, and then we move on to the next big and scary problem. And we talk about that problem for years and years and years. We do a research project. We do a study, we do webinars, and then we pretend that that problem was fixed because we talked about it a lot, but it never got fixed. So today, instead of talking about what our issues are and our concepts and our ideas and our theories and our hypotheses about social change within our public media community, I'm just not going to do that because I feel like we we do. We overindex in talking about what we need to fix. I'm just going to talk about actual people and places and events that demonstrate that the challenging things that we need to deal with within our community, our family, our system, you can actually do something about it. Um, you can make change in real time, and it just takes people who are willing to go first. Right? Because when you go first, other people who who may not have been bold enough or brave enough to go first, they join you. So it just takes people who are willing to go first. All right. So going on to restorative practice. Let's talk about that first. All right. So I, uh, had the privilege and honor to travel to South Africa recently. And I was there for I didn't know it before I went on my trip, but I was there for Reconciliation Day. Um, we learned that once we were there that they actually have a holiday called Reconciliation Day. They had in South Africa. They had their first democratic election in 1994. That's crazy to think about that 1994, they had their first democratic election, and now they have a national holiday there that acknowledges that the work of unifying their post-apartheid country is still ongoing. It's still underway. So I just think that's just a really great example of the fact that, um, you know, this work takes a really long time. and the work that we're doing around diversity, equity and inclusion and belonging it, we may not see the consequence of our work, the impact of our work in our lifetime. This is, you know, we talk about the moral arc is the work is long, the journey is long. So when you're doing this work, you've got to have a bigger reason, a bigger motivation than to feel accomplished for yourself. Because you may not have that feeling in your lifetime. It might be for the next generation, um, who will experience this? So, um, putting that as part of our framework too, is just understanding that the work that we do sometimes is thankless, sometimes it's self-sacrificing, and sometimes you don't even see the results of it in your lifetime. That's just the reality. Okay, so going back to talking about the truth and restoration, so there's an African proverb that says that until the lion tells the story, the hunter will always be the hero. In other words, another way to say that is that the hunter is lying. That's just I'm just going to say it. Say what it really is, that the hunter tells their own version of the story, which is usually generally not true. Right? So in many ways, the culture of public media is a microcosm of this aspect of our culture or the culture of our larger society. There are some lies that we tell ourselves in public media. It's just it's just true. There are some lies we tell ourselves. So I want to take a moment to reflect on that, just for a moment. Feel free to put it in the chat if you want to or not. Just say it inside. If you're not comfortable saying it out loud or in the chat or in public. So just take a moment and think about those times when you're doing your job as a fundraiser or a programmer, or you're managing the finances of your organization or your station, and you have that feeling inside. And you, you feel conflicted. You have that pit in your stomach because you know, the thing that you're saying out loud in the public is not true about what's going on inside of your organization or your station. I'll give an example, and I won't name a station. I worked at three of them, but I so I won't name a station. I'll just say broadly that there were many times over the course of my career where we would say things on the air or out in public, like we have programming that reflects, that serves all of our community. When I knew darn well that our programming skewed towards only one particular part of our community that we were supposed to be serving. I knew it, but it was my job to get on the air and present a, you know, a story that it was our goal, it was our aspiration, but it was not yet true. So I want you to just take a moment to think about for for your experience in Experience in public media, whether it be in programming or the finances or your board not being reflective of your community or your staff not being reflected, or how your staff are being treated inside your station, that you know that if the public knew about it, they wouldn't want to continue to fund you. Let's just be honest about that, that there are things about public media that we know we need to change. But what gets in the way sometimes of our ability to spark the change is that we don't want to call it out. We don't tell the truth about it. So I just wanted to just establish that right. Because restoration restorative practices, it requires acknowledgement, it requires truth telling. And I want to call out a couple of examples of of that truth telling. So one of them is, uh, equitable dinners. So here in Atlanta, we have an organization that brings strangers together to, um, have thought provoking conversations with each other about the most challenging aspects of race, issues of race and gender equality, and everything across the board. No topic is off limits. I was so intrigued by this practice that I went through their training and volunteered to be one of the facilitators. There are organizations like this and like the National Center for Civil and Human Rights that does truth telling and around memorialization, around statues and things in our community that present stories about our history that just aren't true and make heroes out of out of, uh, folks in our history who really terrorize our community. So there are organizations like this regionally. You can partner with them to help you have these kinds of conversations inside of your station, with your donors, with your staff, with your community. We did it at WABE. We called it Power Hour. All right. Next slide. So responsibility and accountability are the reason why I have Jennifer and Kenneth and Sherry and Glenda there on the screen is because it really does take a team and your leadership to make sure that you are being responsible and accountable. And I want to talk specifically about Jennifer Dorian. When she came to WABE, one of our first meetings that we had was with all staff. And one of the things she said is that Dei is in our DNA and she wants to be a champion for Dei. So I kind of called her on it, and I asked her for a meeting, and we ended up working very closely together on a lot of the Dei projects at WABE. But what made it possible for us to do this work together is because we were vulnerable with each other. We didn't mince words. We didn't lie to each other. We told each other the brutal truth. I mean, the brutal truth. Um, Jennifer and I. But from there, um, the work continued across the organization. We actually had a Die Dei scorecard as part of our strategic plan. It was part of our performance reviews. It was measurable work that we all had to do together. So that can be done. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. You can find out how other stations who are succeeding with this work, how they're doing it. Call them. They'll share that with you and you can replicate it. Mindful integrity. The next slide. All right. So, um, just using real people, real events, real examples. Bob, Olive and Nancy Hall were the leaders at Georgia Public Broadcasting when I came there. And I see Stacy Wiggins in the chat. So I'm going to use an example. Um, one of my first assignments at GPB was to, um, help plan the stations, all staff barbecue. I know Stacy's probably laughing right now about this story, and I was so upset because I didn't understand what planning the staff barbecue had to do with my fundraising job because I was like, brand new there. But what I learned through the through the process of that, um, why new people were asked to, to help in that way. Is that the leadership? Bob and Nancy understood that fostering a sense of community and connection with your colleagues. You have to know the people you work with if you want to practice inclusion and integrity. How can you do that if you don't know your people? So that I was forced to do something that actually put me in a position to really learn who my colleagues really were. Leadership has to live the values every day, and people need to see you living those values, or they won't trust you and they won't follow you. So that's really important. Fairness. Speaking of Stacy, she doesn't know I'm going to talk about her, but Stacy, Stacy Wiggins and Yvette Cook. Darby, um, I speak their names. I think it's important to to call out, uh, leadership. Um, and people who taught you great lessons. And speaking of leaning into the messiness, um, doing this work, sometimes you're in in situations where you're not You're not supported, especially when you have to lean into the messiness that takes fearlessness. It takes self-sacrifice. As a leader and my career, no one ever embodied this more than Stacey Wiggins. And I call out Yvette Clarke Darby because she came at a time where Stacey and I really needed that support. But Stacey's not the only one. There are so many people across the system who sacrificed their careers by calling out the hard truths about public media and our workplaces. You probably don't even know their names, because a lot of times they go unsung, unrecognized, and even dismissed by the system. They're told, sit down, shut up, go do something else. And they do. People leave our system for this reason, a lot of cases. So it's so important that public media for all presents this award, not just to honor that specific person who's going to get that award today, but to demonstrate to the system as a whole that rabble rousers must be recognized and celebrated if we really want them to stay in the system and help change it for the better. We need moments like this where we recognize people and say, we salute you because it is risky. You're putting your job on the line. Sometimes when you have to call out the difficult truths within your in your organization. Okay, community service. I know I'm going long. I'm trying to I'm trying to speed it up. Okay. So, um, one of my favorite public media mantras is listening is an act of love. StoryCorps. Love it, love it, love it. Listening is an act of love. And in public media, sometimes we forget to listen. We forget to listen to our community. We forget to listen to our staff. Here's what listening looks like. Listening to the community looks like at WABE, one of my favorite models of community service Rose Scott's Closer Look program. That's Rose Scott on the screen. She does two powerful things for Atlanta. She gives a platform to people representing all aspects of our city, whether you have money or you don't, whether you're highly educated or you're not. But these are she invites people in to the station to talk about the pressing issues facing our city, and most of that time she spends listening. And when when a topic comes up and there's disagreement, she doesn't get combative. She continues that compassionate listening process. Lois Reitzes does the same thing, and in doing that, they really are amplifying the diverse voices of Atlanta. So I love their two shows for that reason. But bringing it back into the work that I do with my teams, or that I've done with my teams, at my stations, at home and at work, we have a practice called Compassionate Listening. Um, during that practice with my team members at work, one on one, I listen to them. I ask them very open ended, sometimes soul level questions, because I really want to understand what's really going on with them and what how their work at the job connects with who they are and where they're headed in life. You don't interrupt them, you don't judge them. You don't even gesture. You try not to even gesture on your face. You just bear witness. This is actually a Buddhist practice of Practice of compassion. But what I really want to emphasize about listening is that in order to serve your staff to to be connected to your staff, to be connected to your community, it starts with you being vulnerable enough to listen, to admit to yourself and to to the person you're with, to your community. I don't have all the answers. I know that's hard in public media for us, because our posture is that we're a source of information and we're supposed to know everything, but we don't. If we really want to be honest with ourselves, we have to stop telling ourselves the lie that we have all the answers and that we're perfect. There's a lot that we don't know. There's a lot that we need to do to improve in order to truly understand the needs and the perspectives and the experiences of those we aim to serve. We have to start by listening to them, by listening to our community and our staff, by leaning in compassionately so that we can build trust, empathy, and connection to ensure that our actions reflect the community's priorities and not just our assumptions that might actually be based on a lie. That's my that's my time. I've gone over a bit. I'm sorry about that. Up next, we have Mikael Simmons, executive director at the center for Community Media, and we also have Michelle Faust Raghavan, who is a journalist and founder of the consulting firm Clery Media. Turn it over to them.
00:47:11
Thank you so much, Aisha. And this concept of compassionate listening is directly tied to what we're going to be talking today. Um, Mikael and I work together at the Solutions Journalism Network, where he was the director of New Relationships, and we worked on building lots of relationships together. Relationship starts with listening. So, Mikael, um, we're going to Mikael and I will be talking about commitment to community, what that looks like, and we'll be discussing the multiple levels of community, our audiences, communities, um, the communities that we have within our organizations. We'll touch on that briefly, and we'll also be talking about creating local journalism communities. So, Mikhail, when we spoke before you talked, you said something I thought was gorgeous. It was community is a verb. So please elaborate on what that means.
00:47:57
Yeah, sure. And thank you. Thank you for having me. Um, yeah. When I say community is a verb, I, I, I say that because it should not be static. You know, communities who you're in community with, who you're talking with, who you're listening to, who you're arguing with. It's not just standing there saying, I am part of this community and it's all dandy, right? It's an active relationship you have with multiple people and institutions and organizations. Uh, where do you invest your time? Where do you invest your resources? Who or what feeds you? Uh, your yourself. So what I say. Community is a verb. It's an active living thing. And, um, as I said before, it's listening is super, super important.
00:48:41
That's right. Listening is so important to creating and growing authentic relationships. So where does an organization start in doing this? And how do they ensure that the listening is actually authentic?
00:48:54
You know, when we were at work, one of the things, uh, one of the projects we worked on was what journalists can learn from conflict mediators. And one of the things that stood out to me was, uh, people aren't ready to listen unless they feel heard. Um, and I think a lot of times as a journalist and myself, I'm like, oh, how do I talk to people? How do we talk to people? How do we talk to people? Um, but how do we listen again? Just to build off of what I was saying, like, are we actually listening to what people are saying? And by listening, I don't mean agreement. Right? I really do mean can you tell somebody else where this person is standing from or their point of view. So when I say, you know, people have to feel heard in order to really listen and vice versa. I really mean that. Like that's super important into any relationship we have overall. And it shows in the types of stories we tell and how we tell those stories to begin with.
00:49:50
That's right. Um, listening is so important to what all of us do. And really, when we invest in community engagement and true listening, it requires our physical presence as well as our digital presence. Um, and really investing in listening, not just pushing things out to folks. Um, and then we've got to make sure that we're showing that those voices matter, by the way, that we're responsive afterwards with non-extractive journalism content that reflects listening and follow up conversations, making sure that we're not just going once in a while. And can you talk a little bit about some newsrooms that do this well?
00:50:30
Yeah. You know, one example I'll give is from the Haitian times. Haitian times, a Haitian American outlet started in New York City. Uh, they celebrated their 25th anniversary last year, their digital, um, news outlet. And I would say they're really in community with their audience. Right? They, they when they were started, they lived in Brooklyn. They lived in a large Haitian community. And it has spread across their national outlet now. Um, but they produce news that is relevant to the community because they are part of it and because they listen. But they have had so much clout and so much respect and so much trust. They could push back against the community and have much more robust, interesting conversations. And last year or the year before, they held a town hall about Haitian and Dominican relations. Uh, if anyone knows anything about the history of Haiti slash Dominican Republic, uh, la Hispaniola, uh, you know that that conversation can be, uh, fraught. But because they were really good at good at listening and also creating a feedback loop. They held this town hall and it was very enlightening. It was great to hear people from both countries just talk about their experiences, give history, detailed context, and do something a lot more robust and interesting as opposed to just saying, hey, this is what you care about or this is what you should know about. They could facilitate a conversation and they could really be like a town square, not just a town crier.
00:51:51
Right? They have trust with multiple communities because of what they put in in terms of investment. And that's really what it takes, right?
00:52:00
100%. They really invested in their communities across the board. And one thing I say is, I think we should remember as journalists, because I fall into the journalism world, sometimes we show up or we almost mostly show up on people's worst days and we're like, but we're doing a service to you. But if you're showing us someone's worst days, like you're only showing up for part of their lives, and usually we try to correct by showing up on their best days as well. Right? Festivals, celebrations. And that's important too. Like we need to do that. But I highly recommend also showing up on boring days. A regular Tuesday, just taking a meeting or a coffee, uh, session with someone and just catching up on what's happening. It doesn't have to be tied to breaking news, because if you think about the people you're actually in community with, you should you see them all of the time? You see them on a regular day, you see them on a Sunday. So like it really saying you want to build community, whether it's in your newsroom like of journalists or across ecosystem or with your audience, try to have that as part of the the way you commune, for lack of a better word.
00:53:03
And, you know, we know that this can be difficult with the growing divide in this country. Do you have some examples of how people could get started?
00:53:12
You know, um, so I want to say about experts in this field, but what are they? A great example I saw was with, uh, Chinese American outlets in New York and city wide outlets in New York as well. So just covering all of New York City. And there were two editors who got to know each other. I don't even know where they met initially, but they just got to know each other, and they realized that there were reporting gaps in both of their fields. Right. So the Metro reporter for the citywide outlet said, hey, we're doing a poor job of covering Chinatown and insert all of the long histories of our current realities of racism and all of the isms in that case. And the editor from the Chinese-American outlet didn't have access to NYPD and different city documents. They didn't know, and they didn't have access to insert long history of all the isms we know exist. And they just decided to collaborate on reporting where intersections happened so that the city wide outlet had more accurate reporting and better representations of Chinatown. And the Chinese American outlet had more context and data and, um, and details to give to their audience. And by the way, the audiences are not fully separate because they're both in the city, so it's still an overlapping audience. So that's just like a simple example of where I say the journalists were in community with each other and their audiences. Their communities got better journalism because of that.
00:54:34
So they took an informal relationship and built off of that. And that's where you have to start. What is the relationships that you have that you can deepen and then expand from there? Um, that could be collaborating with a nonprofit that has similar values in your community. Also, looking within the organization and making sure that we're investing in the internal community that we have in our organizations. Um, having a diverse staff and making sure that they can introduce you to communities, but they're not going to do that unless they also feel listened to, invested in, and trusted and respected. Um, and we also have to give work life balance so that folks have the ability to invest in multiple, multiple communities when they're off the clock. Uh, this is really, you know, an important piece of making this happen. Um, and we can use all of those listening skills that we discussed before.
00:55:27
Yeah. You know, we're full human beings, right? With multiple communities are intersecting. And I think it's important also, just showing up into different spaces and being in community with people also helps people understand, like where you are welcome, you know, to again, we're trying to avoid being just, um, extractive. This is again, how do you be in community with people. And sometimes that's the ask and sometimes that's not. But just being in community, people read your vibe. People get to know what you're about. You get to know yourself better. And you're right. You know, a lot of organizations, uh, have similar goals or overlapping goals. So partnerships are potentially there. But you just have to at least get to know people outside your bubble first. And that could lead to like strategies for like, newsletters or translating, uh, stories or pieces. And by and by translations. I don't just mean like English into Spanish. It could be like what is relevant to this community? What do you say or don't have to say? If you only have 90s to say something, it changes how you edit a story, you know in that way. And for me, it's, you know, the word the the core part of community means with. And when we think about it, at least what I think about it is not just like me and you, but it's the whole ecosystem. Right? How are we feeding into the ecosystem and how is it feeding ecosystem feeding back into us? It's like, um, I'm not going to be like very Caribbean here, but it's like not monoculture, but it's like permaculture, right? It's like it's it's whole diverse ecosystem has to exist for society, uh, to be robust, to have a healthy society that not just there for the good times, but really like bolsters us and builds really good foundations for when things get hard and you don't just show up last minute on those worst days.
00:57:13
Yeah. And in these hard times, I mean, we know that this is happening as a reporter who worked in LA. I know that existing relationships have helped cover stories before. I don't know exactly what's happening right now because mostly focused on making sure that my friends and family are safe who are out there working and doing this. But what can we do and ask folks of the resources we can offer them today, tomorrow, next week, six months from now, a year from now? Because this is going to be a major thing. We want to invest ahead of time so that we can really invest now. But what are we doing to support that relationship, the relationships we have in LA. Thank you so much, Michael. I expect the audience will have lots of questions for you at the end. I hope that we still have time. I know we're a little bit over time for questions, but I hope that folks will put questions into the chat. Moving forward, we're going to hear from Doctor Byron Green Polish. Uh, he's a seasoned leader with 13 years of experience in developing and implementing impactful Dei initiatives. He holds a Doctorate of Education from North Carolina State University. His educational and research background centers in the intersection of adult education and Dei, and he currently serves as the Vice President of inclusion, diversity, Equity and Accessibility at PRX. Green College is a comfort and an inspiration to me and so many others. We're honored to have him here today.
00:58:35
Uh, thank you for that. It's always weird to hear a bio read about yourself. Um, even if you write it. Um, but thank you again for that, Michel. Um, I want to say a thank you to everybody that's presented today. Um, I have the really difficult part of coming on the tail end of some really phenomenal people saying some really phenomenal things. Um, from the very top of the conversation. Um, with Ernesto, really, uh, outlining some really fantastic points. Um, Trisha nailing down some as well. And Mikhail and Michelle, you all did a phenomenal job. I wanted to start off this conversation by first thanking public media for all for the invitation. I am such a staunch believer in co-creation and culture change, so it felt like an easy yes, uh, to accept the the invitation to come and talk. I am also really glad to have had, um, you all laid out such a beautiful, um, view of where we are today as a collective. I think our, our, uh, talked really well about and nailed the put the hammer to the nail on the head, um, about the work we are and the future. Um, and I hope that my words build alongside of not only his words, but every what everyone has said today. I want to talk about the future of Dei work in tandem with our future and specifically, retention. Harvard Business Review did a study, um, about last year, this time titled why Dei Leaders are Burning Out and how organizations can help. And I and most part agreed with what they said. Um, but I'd like to offer a few things, um, that I think they left out and that help us center ourselves on where we are currently are that the work needs to center on institutionalization and the work of retention keeping us here in the space. The first thing, first and foremost is take care of yourself. We have got to take care of ourselves. I think recognizing when you are engaging in emotional labor and having a plan for restorative practices on the back end, we the article talks a little bit about acknowledging the ability to stay neutral, often as equity workers or people that are leading equity initiatives or raising the banner for Dei. We often attempt to stay neutral as we are listening. Um, I think you all mentioned that earlier, the ability to stay responsive, Spots list. When confronted with inequity or problematic statements in furtherance of trying to educate this person or keep the channel open for communication and change behavior, but that in itself, trying to keep that channel open is work. And I'm so glad we have a deep conversation about rest at the top of this program. And it's important, um, it's important in this work. And shout out to the author of Rest is Resistance. Uh, Tricia Hersey, um, if you have not read that, uh, that work, please go check it out. It is phenomenal. Um, the next piece is the ability to incorporate research and frameworks from other disciplines. The work that we do is interdisciplinary, and having a really clear understanding that our work is built on so many different things is incredibly important. First, understanding the adult learning theories around shame. There was a conversation early in the racial reckoning around the country, around shame. But we know that shame alone does not lead to sustained, transformed behavior. It is only when it is coupled with self-reflection, um, and deep self-reflection can it be helpful. And often we didn't see that self-reflection come in that space. It was offered. People said, hey, this mental health professional is willing to help you engage in some self-reflection, or you can engage in that self-reflection on your own. But it did not happen. So public shaming in those moments without that self-reflection led to people just feeling bad and helpless. And I think hence we are witnessing the the pushback as a result of some of those moments, people move, uh, this next piece is, I think is really important for us to understand. And something that I was told by a a professor long ago is that people move and change at the rate of self-interest. As we focus on individual change, and I invite you to consider how do we co-create opportunities for a win win? Sachi mentioned this co-creation at the top of the program, as well as one of the values that if we are building together and we are looking to build moments for equity, moments for more inclusion in the space, how do we create opportunities that are win win in that? How do we invite people to engage in behavior that may feel in the moment, like they are losing something and help them reframe it into thinking that they are gaining something greater? The next piece, uh, that we do a ton of, and I think we don't do a great job of naming it, is change management. That looking at change management as a theory and calling it change management is going to take us further using these frameworks like adult learning theory or change management allows for some scaffolding. If folks are unaware of the work that we do or or present resistance, um, being able to name that we are engaging in change management or we're utilizing adult learning theory in this process is helpful in reforming or resituating people in the work that we are doing. The next piece is the focus on systemic change. I know we've spent so many hours focusing very deeply myself on changing hearts and minds, and I think I've had this conversation with other practitioners that some practitioners want to focus on. One thing, some practitioners focus here, but as a collective, doing all of it together is incredibly important. But when we focus on systemic change, what are we looking at? Potentially an integration with HR and not HR leading Dei Dye work, but dye work leading air in the world of policy creation. How are we reviewing policies and processes? Think about this. How are your people experiencing the organization from a policy perspective? I'm talking from recruitment to retirement. Are the things that your employees, your colleagues. Are they experiencing the equity goals of the organization through that process, from that, focusing on measurable outcomes that connect to the business or in our space, also connecting it to the audience or reminder that this is not just your work. Create goal goalposts for other business units. One thing that sway and I had a conversation about, um, and some of you may know Consuela, um, but we talk often about this idea that public media was built on dye work. That dye work strengthens public media's core values and helps fulfill its mission of serving diverse communities. We foster by fostering an inclusive and equitable environment within the organization. Also, that translates to more relevant and engaging content for a wider audience. We want to pull in that wider audience. I think Aisha mentioned that, um, that moment where they mentioned like, hey, we want to have programming that reflects our community, but we know we we don't. This is how we get there. And last, community power. Um, community engagement is our secret weapon in this space. Educating community members and building relationships allows for deeper connections with our organizations. The more that we go out and utilize our deep listening, our empathetic ear, the desire to learn more about the people that are in our community, that are that make up who we are representing, the more we get to learn from them and we're able to build deep relationships with them, the more we're able to create meaningful work with them and not be extractive. I think Michelle mentioned that as well. In addition to that, it also creates the opportunity to be driven for initiatives to be driven in spaces that we will not be invited. Our community is the target audience and our conversation around audience growth. And if our work builds a bridge to get them in the door for how the audience grows. In closing, because I recognize that we were a little bit over time and I don't want to extend my time further. I want to say I am not an oracle with special gifts. I am a researcher and I am a student of history. And this is a reminder that this moment that we find ourselves in is not unprecedented. And I know we have heard this is unprecedented times, but this very specific thing we have seen time and time and time again, where the pushback on this work has happened across time and space. It is our imperative to stay vigilant, to stay passionate, but most importantly, to stay in the fight. Thank you. And I'll pass it back over, uh, to, uh, who am I passing it to? Julie.
01:08:31
Hey, everybody. I want to thank public media for all. For inviting current to be the media sponsor for this year's awards program. This is the only award given to a public media professional who embodies a particularly important piece of public broadcasting's mission, reaching underserved audiences. And that's why this award is so special. It acknowledges individuals who are demonstrating leadership by helping their stations be more inclusive, both on the inside and out in the community. We all know that if public media is going to survive, inclusion and a sense of belonging are essential. Now I want to tell you about rising stars. You might not have heard of it. It's a program current produces to spotlight 20 or more younger talents in public media, like the P.m.for Award. Rising stars are nominated by peers and supervisors who want to celebrate the accomplishments of people 35 years old and younger. We hope this national attention helps public media retain good people. The Rising Stars nomination period will kick off very soon. So think about a colleague on the younger side, who is making your workplace better because of who they are and what they do. Then nominate them. We hope to get a lot a lot of nominations. If you want to be sure you're on the list to get information about the Rising Stars nomination process and the window, go to npr.org and sign up for our newsletter. Easy. And now I want to introduce one of last year's rising stars and last year's winner of the Public Media for all award. The award winning JR Rudolph.
01:10:35
Hello, everyone, and thank you for being here. Um, this year's nominee has been a leader in addressing diversity, equity and inclusion in public media for 25 years, guiding some of the industry's most impactful journalism training programs. Their focus has always been on seeking out and nurturing diverse voices, significantly shaping the lives of budding journalists. This nominator wishes that public media colleagues will recognize this individual as a visionary and a person that makes a meaningful difference in the lives of hundreds, with the goal of diversifying voices present on radio and digital media platforms. They embody public media mission to serve everyone, especially those ideas and stories and dreams that are not represented in mainstream media. Public media would be significantly different without this individual, because it would struggle to reach the artisans across all of the country. Their programs have been designed to specifically meet community needs, and this person was nominated because they are one of the most dedicated visionaries that this, there's that they know and a caring professional in the public media space. Having introduced many new voices to the space of public media over the many years of their work, um, from early to mid life career journalists, the next gen radio program has been broadening talent pool, and they continue to serve as a champion and career coach for participants long after the graduation. Their impact on public media is profound, and they generously volunteer their time and expertise to various journalism organizations and boards. Doug is humble, generous, and a tremendously effective and rare combination. Join me in congratulating Doug Mitchell as this year's award recipient.
01:12:35
I guess that's where I take it, huh? Well, thank you everybody. Um, this was genuinely a a great surprise. Uh, to me, uh, a lot has happened this week, so I'll just, uh, be transparent and say I was initially not going to come because we have so many people in our community who were, who have been and continue to be affected by all the fires there. Um, we started a thread in our next gen slack. Um, and I just essentially did a roll call. Um, I can't remember everybody, so I had to go back to our, our projects and pull some names out and, uh, tag them in our slack just to have them check in. How are things going? Um, tell us, tell us what's up. And we had a very long thread. It's still going. Uh, people checking in. Um, this was all also in the last two days. So, um, I I'll tell you how I changed my mind. Um, this morning. Uh, so last night, I said, I told a couple of people I probably wouldn't be appropriate for me to come. We got all this terribleness going on. It's devastation. People are losing their homes. ET cetera. ET cetera. ET cetera. So I said, I don't think I'm going to come. So this morning I'll back up a little. I'm the guy who gets the newspaper off the the driveway and brings in the newspaper, sits at the at the the kitchen table, has my coffee and physically reads the paper. I got that from my dad. Um, and I continue to do it today until we until there's no longer a physical newspaper. I'm going to continue to do that. So I'm going through the paper I read. I'm drinking my coffee. Um, about the newspaper. And I get on my phone and I check my mail, and I'm going to read to you this email that came in. Hello. My name is Angel scales. I am a student at the University of Alabama majoring in journalism and a creative writing minor. The reason I wanted to reach out to you was because I have seen the work you have done in the industry, and I'm very impressed and in awe with all that you have accomplished. As an aspiring journalist and a young black woman, I truly wanted to reach out to establish to establish black journalists and writers, to ask if you could share some knowledge and advice with me. Thank you so much for simply being a positive and inspiring figure in the community, and a great example of greatness for me. Appreciate you. Angel scales. So, um, I changed my mind because I thought my father had this phrase he called lead by example. And I don't know her. Um, we've never met. And it's clear that there's a message that we're sending. Um, another phrase I use is a sponsor is someone who talks you up when you're not in the room. So apparently somebody was talking this up because she reached out, and I've already connected to her on LinkedIn and. ET cetera. So, um, I just want to say thank you. Um, there are people I need to get back to and check on. Uh, but this is a great surprise. I thank you so much for for recognizing the work that we're doing. Uh, and we all really need to just keep going. Really? That's really what we really need to do. Just keep going. So. Thank you.
01:15:55
Brother Mitchell, we thank you. Uh, it is always a great opportunity to, you know, on behalf of the coalition to actually come to this time of the year where we get a chance to ask everyone to send us the nominations. And when you see the words similar to the email that you receive, it just starts exactly why we do what we do. And so it's an honor to have you to join the illustrious list of our past, list of our past winners, and we welcome you. So thank you.
01:16:21
Thank you.
01:16:22
That's great. And we've reached. Thank you all for for still staying with us. We've now reached the point in which we're going to slide into our question and answer phase. Uh, how this is going to work, similar to a game show, uh, is that I have a set of questions here. I'm going to tease up the person that I'm going to actually, I filled it to first and then leave it open to some of our coalition members or other presenters if they want to chime in. We'll lead off with Doctor Byron. Um, we have a question from Delena miller. Uh, say, how do we convince leadership of the importance of building and maintaining relationships with sources and potential sources when they insist on a firewall? That is not entirely possible when doing that? For example, I wouldn't say that I'm friends with my sources in the trans community, but we are friendly. I check in on them. I share some of them, uh, when appropriate, to build. I share some of myself, when appropriate, to build and maintain that relationship. That's seen as problematic in many newsrooms, but it's absolutely necessary for that population to gain and keep trust.
01:17:34
And the question was, how do we how do we help leadership understand the understand the importance of that relationship building to get that type of um. As a really good question, and I don't know if it's you that helps them get that get to that point. Um, one of the things I am a, a, an aggressive advocate for is coalition building. And sometimes your people need to hear the words from somebody else that they see as a more knowledgeable other. The beauty in public media for all. And our Dei cohort and so many people doing the work across the across the industry, is that we have so many beautiful people that can help in this process. In my experience, I talk to people and pull in researchers. So I was a qualitative researcher in higher education, and we talk about the importance of that and identifying how you can get that rich data from a participant or from a source. And sometimes people need to hear the thing that you are saying from somebody else. So the quick answer is the invitation to bring in a more knowledgeable other to have that conversation with your leadership. Also, the importance of reading books and, um, and engaging an executive coach. We have we have to understand that some populations it is going to be very different. It is not business as usual. And getting new stories onto the air. We have to act and behave differently if we want to get something different on the air. So three options for you. I'm also always offer myself as a resource to have the hard conversations, um, with your station leaders. Uh, I'm in a position of privilege where I don't work for them. Um, so I, I can say the hard things, um, and they often are more likely to, to hear it from somebody that is outside. I hope that answered that question. Jacey, I'm looking at you because I can't see anybody else.
01:19:54
No, no, I think it did. I was I was going to chime in and say, um, and, you know, I'm, I'm a big fan of the work you do and helping, talking about coalition building. Um, I'd love to say that that public media for all has taken that to heart. And the opportunities that we've heard. You talk about that and reach out and try to partner with organizations that allow us to be able to have a louder, amplified voice when it comes to the things that we want to make sure or that we let everyone know about. So I definitely I definitely hear you. Um, we do have another one. Um, Aisha, this is going to come towards you. Um, I'd like to know, uh, any or do you have any advice about instilling the values that we talked about today in long term, long time leadership. What happens when lower and middle tiers of the organization are pro these values and shared humanity? But the upper tier is not.
01:20:46
Mhm. When senior staff don't don't um appreciate or adhere to the values. But the but the rest of the staff do. That's the.
01:20:57
Question. Middle middle tiers uh for the values and the shared humanity. But the uppermost tier is not.
01:21:05
What do you do about it. Because what happens because the way the question is phrased is what happens when that's the case? What happens is that you lose staff. You lose great staff. Um, what you can do about it. It's tough. I've been, you know, been in that position a few times. Um. In those scenarios. Two things made a difference. And this is when it gets a little bit scary. But, um, building relationships with your board and your board members. Um, there were times when I was able to build a confidential, um, trust relationship, trust based relationship with a board member where I could talk to them, get advice from them without sharing names or, you know, identifying which particular leadership staff were, were, um, an issue. But to get some feedback from the board. So just so I could get a sense of what what is the, um, what is the protocol for holding leadership accountable at the organization to get a better understanding of that? So that's one thing you can do is confidentially talk to board members. Um, Another time is middle middle middle management staff because you're it's it's tough because you can't really talk to your people who are reporting to you. And sometimes you you can't talk to the senior leadership staff, but to develop a network of supportive people who are not necessarily in your industry. Um, sometimes they're dealing with similar issues, and you can confide in them and share what's going on with them. And so without, you know, kind of breaking confidence, um, around specific people in situations in your station. So that's another thing you can do. Um, I also I mean, I still call Stacy Wiggins and Glenda Davis on a regular basis. Um, so they're not at my organization or at the they, you know, they weren't at the station I was at, but, um, we manage similar kinds of teams, managed similar kinds of project projects. So whenever I would come to an impasse, I would call my colleagues at other stations. Again, without revealing names or anything like that. Um, the beauty. I think one of the beautiful things of working in public media is that you're not the only person in the world that does your job. There are probably 100 other people who do your same job, um, at another station, at another market. So I think it's really important to develop good relationships, um, with your colleagues in the system who you can really trust. And when you reach those hard moments, um, at your particular station, you have somebody you can talk to to get a different perspective, or maybe who's been down that road before and can tell you kind of how they navigated the situation. I hope that's helpful.
01:24:08
It is. It is indeed. I think there's I think we're all aware that there's no, uh, you know, shotgun answer here. And so, you know, it's I don't know that we're all looking for that that silver bullet. Right? Like we're we're looking for something that that can at least give us food for. Thought I'd like to get, uh, Michelle and Michelle to come to chime in on this as well. Uh, and just to repeat, the question is to talk about how do you entertain where the, the the middle management, they share their humanity and the pros of the work that they want to do, but it's somewhat, um, prevented by leadership.
01:24:45
I think that this ties really well to the past question about being in community with the trans community. Um, and I, I'm just going to repeat what Aisha says when we don't actually have that connection and invest because we've got trans, we've got black, we've got brown, we've got people of all stripes in our community. When we show that we are not invested in all of those communities, we will lose people. It's research that I'm continuing to do and and it's we're seeing it. And other people have also proven this in the past. The hard part right now is that there are certain communities whose whole identity and life have become political, and we have to figure out what our values are and recognize that sometimes, because our values are human rights and human dignity, that we're going to have to take a side. And this is going to be more and more important as we move into what's going on politically in this country this year. Michael.
01:25:48
Um, yeah. I think you answered that perfectly right. Uh, for what Aisha said, it's you're not the only one doing the job. So lean on to the lean on the community you have right now with other people who may be facing the same issues or have faced the same issues, and lean on their wisdom. Sometimes the cases across organizations are the exact same. It's. And sometimes, uh, it just may have something that's a little bit unique. Um, in that case. So I think leaning on your community and leaning on the wisdom of, uh, elders will be helpful in that place. And people who have experienced experienced that. But as Michelle said, just to echo what she said 100%, I think where the rubber hits the road is when somebody's identity is attacked. Just merely talking about their identity makes people feel uncomfortable and you can't. There's no middle ground there. There's no we do it or we don't do it because people have to bring their whole selves, their in. And I don't know, I don't think that's if people don't recognize the humanity of others as full human beings. I don't know how to move forward if you can't even convince them of that basic reality.
01:26:54
I think it's I mean, it's almost hard to say the mic drop. Yeah. I mean, we're and we're kind of hitting on the same, the same values at the same time of like what has to be important and where do we have to focus to be able to make these strides in these different areas. So there is one I'm going to take some executive liberty, um, with this one, because this next question is one that I feel like is almost the elephant in the room in the work that we, that we're all engaged in right now. So what I would ask of our Of our presenters. I'd like for us to go around that full panel and do that real fast. Understanding where our time. And thanks for everyone for staying with us. Um, but here's the question. And I'll let whomever between Michelle or Brother Simmons or Doctor Byron, whoever wants to take it first, just chime in. But remember, we are at time. So if I could just get a word from you, I think it would be beneficial. And this is from Dr. Braun. For those of us in communities where state legislatures are actively drafting and in case in some cases already have anti die legislation. How can we state and public stations and public media for all continue the work when we will be attacked at the state and potentially federal level? What happens if the CFPB is forced to drop their Dei mandate? And how can we as individuals be protected when our employer has shown that they will not? And I know that's the worst question to drop as the last one, but I wanted to make sure that at least we got it in there. And I still encourage everyone to still drop your questions in the Q&A chat. We are recording them, and at the opportunity that we can provide them to our presenters to go even deeper. And so Doctor Byron has already said that, hey, he's open to reach out. He's a testament. He'll do it. But if we can be just get something from the roundtable as we prepare to close out.
01:28:38
Yeah, I've talked about this publicly before, so I'm happy to go first and then I'll talk to you. Aisha. Okay. Um, yeah. So I think what's important to remember is that they can't outlaw values. And that's I we're not again, we're not pivoting to values because we think that they are that this is a reaction. We're pivoting to values because based on our work thus far, we've found this to be the most effective way to drive this work and constantly check in, as well as keep sort of a North Star goal perspective. So, um, you will notice that we have removed the phrase dei from the public media for all website. They are just words. they do not matter. What matters are what we are working towards our values. Those things matter so much more. And I don't I don't want to get mired in a fight about words when what I really care about is values and the effectiveness that we're having in our communities. And so, um, it's not to say to just avoid the phrase, to avoid the phrase. I think the more we focus on what we're really trying to do here, what we really care about here, um, it is so encompassing and so total to, um, our humanity that it gets harder and harder for them to legislate. And if they want to play a game of whack a mole with legislation like let them waste their time doing that. Meanwhile, we're going to be over here doing the work. Um, and I think that, uh, if they do figure out a way to outlaw values, we're in for some much bigger issues than, um, than what we're talking about here today, but I not I don't want to worry about that worst case scenario. When? Today, here and now. We can do the work. We can live our values. And that has nothing to do with whether or not the phrase dei or dei work is being outlawed.
01:30:27
And just to add to that, um, I remember when affirmative action didn't exist. I remember a time in my childhood before that was a term, before that was a phrase, and I can't remember what we called it before that, but it had a different name. And then I remember when it became a bad word, a bad a term we couldn't we couldn't talk about anymore. It was was taboo to talk about affirmative action and quotas and all of that. And then we got into this era of Dei, and then it was dei, and then it was. So to Sachi's point about semantics, social justice, social changes had a lot of different terms. It's had a lot of different names. Some of us, as groups of people, have a lot of different names. It doesn't change who we are and doesn't change, um, the core of what it is that we need to the work that we need to do, what we call it. So I think if we take a step back because, well, let me say this, I truly I fully understand that when you're fighting for something and you're committed to a cause and you're making progress, or you feel like you're making progress, and then you have to take a step back and you get knocked back, you can go into a place of panic and, you know, shock and oh my God, what are we going to do? And all of that like that. That's just a natural human reaction. It totally makes sense after you process your feelings. I think what's important is to take a step back and look at the historical context of what it is that you're doing, and understand that this isn't the isn't the first time that, um, this social justice work came under fire and and had to kind of be rethink what we call it and what we name it and the terminology that we use. This is not new. This has happened time and time and time again. And every time it happens, people who are committed, people who want to do this work, you get creative and you keep going. You take a pause, you rethink. You strategize, you keep going. So this isn't new. I think let's not panic. That's just me. Let's not panic. Let's not lose it. This is not new. We've been here before. And let's take it a step further. Let's learn from those who've been doing this work. And did that work before we did? They found solutions. They got creative, they restrategize, they regrouped. They came back stronger. So we're not the first. Unfortunately, we're not going to be the last. But let's not reinvent the wheel. Let's learn from our our predecessors, our ancestors, and continue to do what we need to do. It's just words, as Saatchi said said, and words change all the time and it will be called something else when we're not here. So that's my take.
01:33:23
I want to add one piece onto it. Um, because I think I mentioned this in in my remarks, Maisha and Saatchi had phenomenal comments that we have been here before, and we do not hold on to our history. We are doomed to repeat it. I encourage each of you that may be concerned, scared about what the future may hold in this moment, to reach out to your Elder Dei workers, to reach out to people that have been around for a minute and ask, how have we survived moments like this in the past? This is an opportunity to lean into storytelling and reach out for those stories. Tell us about the Civil Rights movement. Tell us about the beginning of affirmative action. Tell us about the beginning of diversity period and then how we got to inclusion, and then how equity came into the conversation so that we learn the history of the work that we have done, so that it empowers and informs the work that we move into. But phenomenal comments so far. Thank you all.
01:34:35
I feel like if you had asked about like world Peace, that would have been a quicker answer. Oh, when I heard that question, I was like, well, damn. Okay. Um, um, just to build off of what everyone else says, I the two things I want to keep in mind as well would be, um, holding your values tight and your ideas loose, just that concept, because, as Sashi said, like, it's about our values, how we it presents over time in society, environment, age. Like if you're like 20 something versus if you're 70 something, what you're doing is different, right? But keeping those values close, I think it's super important. And um, to build off the point about rest, uh, I would say joy and celebration as well, in the sense of when times are hard, sometimes we tend to just fold in on ourselves, just like as human beings. But like I come from a culture with Carnival, I'm from Trinidad, right? And Carnival came out of some of the hardest times, um, uh, in Trinidad's history, across carnivals, across the world. And that joy and that celebration, just remembering those things brought people together. And that was not just rejuvenating, but it was also revolutionary in that sense. You have a fully colonial country, and all the colonial powers can do nothing to stop carnival. So party, enjoy yourself, be in communion with other people like that makes such a big difference. That difference. That is not a quote unquote waste of time. It is not about quote unquote productivity, but being your true, your true, authentic, authentic self publicly is in many ways resistance in and of itself.
01:36:21
I think that's a great way I put it in the chat, but I'm rocking with the the values tight ideas loose like that's one that I can walk away with that I think is awesome. Uh, we have come to time. Um, I want to make sure I would encourage all of our presenters, please. Yes, absolutely. Drop your information in the chat while we do our kind of close out, please, so that others can get in contact with you. Uh, I want to take this opportunity to one again. Thank greater Public who has been a partner with us in in the day of action education since its inception. Um, lady, specifically Lady Myers and Gail, had they have been here and have dealt with us being able to make this possible. So I want to highlight them. Um, and, and also Joyce Mack, obviously, uh, in that name, you've all heard the name, those of you who have not had the opportunity to meet sway. Stuart sway. Stuart is a coalition member with us. At one time, she we don't have enough time to talk about how awesome she is, but I want to recognize her and lift her up as we do the legends in this game. Um, lady Julie, uh, from current. Thank you all and current stepping out on faith and saying yes, we will be a part of presenting, uh, being the first presenting sponsor of, uh, our award, the Public Media for all award. That's something to be said for that. I encourage you all to make sure you look in the chat about the links, about what they have in Rising Stars. Talk about coalition building. How is it, uh, is it ironic that we have a rising star and a public media for all award winner all in the same time, and I have people to think about that. And look what that looks like. Um, to all of our presenters. Michelle. Michael. Uh, doctor. Byron. Ernesto. Asia. Thank you all for taking time out. This is a busy time of the year. This is theoretically the first full week of a new year, and I know that we all have things going on. And again, that's not to negate all the things that go on in the world each and every day, especially what's going on right now. So I want to thank them, um, and thank you all for for making the choice to be here. There is one announcement that we wanted to make sure that we made before we disconnected is that public media for all is going to be excited that we are going to, in 2025, begin to potentially look into fundraising opportunities. And so the same way that you showed your support in coming here today and hearing our presenters and being able to listen to what is next, we encourage you to just stay tuned. And for those of us that are in the fundraising house, we know it's when your heart moves you and when you feel as if that you need to find you where you want to put your support. We just ask that you consider us, and so stay tuned for that, as well as other other events that are going to be happening for us with public media for all. The other thing, I am from a Southern Baptist church and this is the epitome. People hate this, but what I am going to ask for all of the coalition members that are on this call, I'm going to ask you, past or present, to please turn on your camera. I think it's important at this moment that people have an opportunity at at your option that you please, you know, allow yourself to be recognized. And for me to say thank you for supporting, for supporting us in what we did today, as well as so that people know who they're actually supporting. So with that, I want all everyone to be able to say, and if I left anything out, please, as you typically do, fill in, fill in my gaps, please. Um, Sam, if I miss anything, but this has been great. Um, I've enjoyed everyone being here. Again, thank you to our presenters. And if I forgot, anyone blame it on my head and not my heart.
01:39:45
Amen. And blessed be. That's all I have to say to that.
01:39:50
That's great.
01:39:52
Thank you all. Day of Action and Education 2025. That would be the wrap.
