The Latino electorate is maturing in a way that even an optimist might not have seen coming a decade ago
Release Date: 06/29/2026
We are feeding the nation, we are essential workers and we truly do belong here
Power Station
All parents know the heart wrenching feeling of having to work when they are worried about the safety of their children. Imagine if those parents are farmworkers who start their workday at 3:00am and use their remarkable and underpaid skills to harvest the crops that end up as food on our tables. Imagine if their only option for childcare is to bring their babies and toddlers into the fields with them. That scenario has become increasingly rare because of a highly committed and expert network of caring professionals who operate Migrant and Seasonal Head Start Centers, highly specialized early...
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Small business owners have a vitally important role to play in our elections as community anchors and civic narrators
Power Station
What is more American than entrepreneurship, not the faux version appropriated by heirs to affluent parents but the creation of small businesses by risk takers seeking to support their families, innovate goods and services, and invigorate their communities? As Audrey Roofeh explains on this episode of Power Station, it was small business owners who gambled their own safety to take care of community members during Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis by the US Department of Homeland Security and ICE. An entrepreneur herself, Audrey’s firm Mariana Strategies, which helped federal...
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Political violence is deeply affecting how women show up in public life
Power Station
There is a sea change underway in the social change and political activism arenas, and it is led by a burgeoning network of girls and women. A major force behind this transformation is Her Rising Initiative, a nonprofit founded by Cherie Animashaun who, as a teenager, was inspired to create a space for girls with aspirations to become changemakers. Its mission, to close the opportunity gap for girls and women in the social, business and political sectors is advanced by helping them to build the confidence needed to lead. My guest on this episode of Power Station is Carolina Nazario, who leads...
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The Latino electorate is maturing in a way that even an optimist might not have seen coming a decade ago
Power Station
I love speaking with leaders whose innate capacity for engaging communities and influencing progress in politics, policy and culture comes from their character and not just their title. Rafael Collazo, executive director of the UnidosUS Action Fund, the 501c4 sister organization of UnidosUS, our nation’s largest Latino civil rights organization, is that leader. UnidosUS, the organizational champion of 64 million Latinos who contribute $4.1 trillion to the U.S. economy has deepened its impact on politics and policy by through this tax designation and Action Fund. Rafael, a consummate...
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There is no wrong door, we accept anyone needing help with their mental health, substance abuse disorders or housing
Power Station
This moment in America is living proof that the path to a just society requires the shedding of false narratives that demonize people and communities for social currency and political gain. These narratives influence how elected officials expend fiscal resources and which policies and regulations they enact. And it takes education, organizing and relationship building by nonprofits and people with lived experience to dispel myths and adopt new-found truths. In this episode of Power Station, Damien Cabezas, President and CEO of Community Connections DC, the largest nonprofit provider of mental...
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Internal podcasting can be an organizing tool
Power Station
Charlie Birney was way ahead of the curve when he became an early adopter of podcasting in 2012. His love of listening to and telling stories through this platform made the years of explaining to friends and family how to access them on an iPhone worthwhile. He started Launch Podcasts in 2014, and its purpose was not what you might expect. He was not interested in growing the audience or monetizing the show. Instead Launch Podcasts was a tool for speaking directly to the group of people, previously unconnected, in a co-working space they shared. Charlie had a vision for internal podcasting...
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I always say that organizing is about deep personal relationships
Power Station
For Sophie Miyoshi and Helen Abraha, advocating for the rights of restaurant workers reflects their values and is also highly personal. Both started working in restaurants as teens and over time they experienced the isms and injustices that define the industry, from sexism and racism to immigrant exploitation and wage theft. They found a home at the Restaurant Organizing Collective DC where Sophie is now the executive director and Helen is lead organizer. What they have accomplished, hard-fought legislative victories from wage increases to paid sick leave is even more impressive given the deep...
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If we don't properly educate 1 in 10 students what does that say about America?
Power Station
This president and his minions in Congress are relentless in their messaging about who counts as an American and what government owes to its people. And their narrative is rationalizing the elimination of policies and programs that we once embraced as being quintessentially American, in particular the education the education of our children. U.S. Department of Education Commissioner Linda MacMahon is charged with dismantling the agency she leads, and she has prioritized shuttering the Offices of Civil Rights, Special Education and most recently, English Language Acquisition. For two decades...
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The story of Black Wall Street and the Tulsa Massacre is unique but also in many ways emblematic of the Black experience in America
Power Station
Despite all efforts to whitewash our nation’s history, the truth cannot be erased. Case in point: In 1906, the first generation after slavery, African Americans created an extraordinary cultural, economic and entrepreneurial hub, dubbed Black Wall Street, in the Greenwood District of Tulsa, Oklahoma. This thriving center of enterprise, where dollars spent circulated 9 to 30 times before leaving the community, was destroyed in 1921 by a violent and unrelenting white mob. Thirty-five square blocks were reduced to rubble, and 300 community members were murdered. The failure of white political...
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You cannot be the jailer and the rehabilitator
Power Station
When someone tells you their story, listening is an honor. It is an opportunity to connect to someone else’s life experience, to recognize that we are all shaped by the inequities and privileges we are born into and that the consequences of both reverberate through families, communities and public systems. In the case of Courtney Stewart, my guest on this week’s episode of Power Station, his story is his calling. It informs his leadership as founder and CEO of the National Reentry Network for Returning Citizens, a community based nonprofit that offers a continuum of care, from meeting...
info_outlineI love speaking with leaders whose innate capacity for engaging communities and influencing progress in politics, policy and culture comes from their character and not just their title. Rafael Collazo, executive director of the UnidosUS Action Fund, the 501c4 sister organization of UnidosUS, our nation’s largest Latino civil rights organization, is that leader. UnidosUS, the organizational champion of 64 million Latinos who contribute $4.1 trillion to the U.S. economy has deepened its impact on politics and policy by through this tax designation and Action Fund. Rafael, a consummate political organizer, collaborates with the organization’s members, a savvy network of community based organizations, to build the power needed for Latino families to thrive. This involves both supporting candidates who motivate the electorate and leading public policy campaigns in state legislatures and on Capitol Hill. As Rafael shares on this episode of Power Station, being responsive starts with listening to what the community aspires to. Those insights are embedded in the UnidosUS National Latino Economic Prosperity Agenda. Latinos wants to not just subsist, they want to achieve the American Dream, an increasingly elusive goal when the cost of housing is displacing families from their own neighborhoods. Rafael has much more to say here.