Empowerment Starts Here

Empowerment Starts Here is a podcast that explores power, social change and disrupting the margins.

Ep72- The Case of BLM with Dr. C. Eric Ervin 09/05/2021

Ep72- The Case of BLM with Dr. C. Eric Ervin Dr. Ervin talk about the collapse of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for black people. He also talks about the choice between gradual change in contrast to “cataclysmic change” (his words) as relating to the liberation of black people around the globe. /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/20371391

Ep71- The Case of BLM with Reverend Valerie Bridgeman 10/31/2020

Ep71- The Case of BLM with Reverend Valerie Bridgeman This episode is the fourth conversation in the Black Lives Matter series where empowerment starts here with Reverend Dr. Valerie Bridgeman. In this call, Rev. Valerie links BLM to the spiritual. She talks about God as not sharing, about Jesus being a black woman, and about uprooting historical systems such as the police department so we can properly replant and rebuild. /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/16629503

Ep70-The Case of BLM with Senator Lena Taylor 10/14/2020

Ep70-The Case of BLM with Senator Lena Taylor In this episode, Empowerment Starts Here with Senator Lena Taylor from Wisconsin. The Senator joins this BLM series as a public servant trying to disrupt social margins for her constituents while personally being in those margins. She talks about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness by going right to the U.S. Constitution and then directly connecting it to George Floyd. She also talks about black lives matter being a general movement about social unrest, social injustice, social inequities. /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/16394741

Ep69- The Case of BLM with Demetrius Bennett (Y-DOT) 09/29/2020

Ep69- The Case of BLM with Demetrius Bennett (Y-DOT) In this episode, the Informant, a local artist, talks black lives matter through the lens of a black man growing up in Milwaukee, WI. He talks about his lived experiences with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and his encounters with police. In the close out, the host will explore humanization, self actualization and liberation as specific points captured in the call. /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/16197662

Ep68-The Case of BLM with Henry Leonard 09/16/2020

Ep68-The Case of BLM with Henry Leonard In this episode, Henry Leonard (the informant) talks about public education and black lives matter through the lens of a union worker. He also shares his perspective on life as a contested experience for blacks yet a privileged experience for whites. Finally, in the close out, the host will consider white supremacy and its relatedness to the education of black minds. /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/16028396

Ep67- Introducing Season 6: The Case of Black Lives Matter 09/15/2020

Ep67- Introducing Season 6: The Case of Black Lives Matter This episode is the first of a season of seven where the host explores what black lives matter means to her on a personal level and then engages with others to find out what it means to them as well. To learn more about this episode and to access the show notes, please visit our webpage. /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/16020722

The Case of ESH (Ep61) 02/05/2020

The Case of ESH (Ep61) This episode will be of special interest to show fans who have committed to travel with the hose in the project. She's transparent, sincere, and quirky. Take a listen to learn what cases she will cover next! /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/13022834

Ep54- The Case of Capital and School Choice 06/26/2019

Ep54- The Case of Capital and School Choice In this episode, the informant talks about the capital required for parents to enroll their children in charter public schools and the ways in which this requirement violates the tenets of free education. In the close out, the host adds to the conversation by talking about democratic education from the angle of property, privilege and power. Visit empowermentstartshere.net (2019 Reflections) to access the show notes. /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/10294307

Ep53- The Case of EduColor 05/30/2019

Ep53- The Case of EduColor In the recorded conversation, the Informant talks about public school employment for educators of color and how it differs from what their white counterparts experience. He also talks about educators of color only being allowed to teach in under-resourced schools and finally, he talks about different access points to privilege and power. /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/9979460

Ep52- The Case of Racism 05/01/2019

Ep52- The Case of Racism Contrary to public treatment, racism is not just about the n-word. It is also not just about blatant discrimination on the grounds of color. In this episode, the host talks about the subtleties of racism at the interpersonal level relating to legitimacy, authority and the control of resources. For a full description and the show notes, please click here. /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/9599237

Ep51- The Case of Black Love 04/17/2019

Ep51- The Case of Black Love In the Case of Black Love, the informants talk about happiness, love, sex, sexuality, sexual assault, black men, black women, black consciousness, R. Kelly, Judge Kavanough, polyamory and monogamy, white patriarchy, black matriarchy, and much, much more! /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/9425660

Ep50- The Case of Words 04/03/2019

Ep50- The Case of Words In this episode, the informant shares insight on words and the human experience those words represent. She talks about writing, publishing and the development of the mind. In the close out, the host talks about a mental function called chunking and how it is essential for experts and the highly creative mind. /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/9247055

Ep49- The Case of Sex 03/20/2019

Ep49- The Case of Sex In this episode, the informant and host talk about sex from a sociological perspective. Together, they interrogate ideas on sex as an act of pleasure, the right to have pleasurable sex, and the dignity of sex as related to being human. In the close out, the host explores sexual self schemas and the cognitive dissonance that occurs when new sexual schemas are understood through pre-existing paradigms. /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/9070946

Ep48- The Case of the Sunken Place 03/05/2019

Ep48- The Case of the Sunken Place The Sunken Place is a term/metaphor borrowed from Jordan Peele's movie, Get Out. In this episode, the host proposes four conditions that creates this condition. Instead discussing racism, as was the premise of Peel's interpretation of the Sunken Place, she explores how other conditions in the physical, social and political world also creates causes disunity with one's sense of self. /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/8878901

Ep47- The Case of the Critical 12/11/2018

Ep47- The Case of the Critical What actually makes someone critical (as in a champion critical theory)? This is the question that the host attempts to answer. Talking about marginalized bodies, childhood trauma, dominant wiring for intuition, and academic training for higher order processing and abstract thinking, she explains how two people can have different comfort levels with critical theory. /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/7879649

Ep46- The Case of Role Reversal 11/20/2018

Ep46- The Case of Role Reversal In this episode, the informant talks about three levels of power shifting: the power shift that happens at the classroom level when whiteness is de-centered in the literature read by black and brown students; at the local level when gentrification takes over black and brown communities; and at the global level when white Americans must confront their relevance (or lack thereof) in a global economy. /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/7638572

Ep45- The Case of White Male Privilege and Identity 11/13/2018

Ep45- The Case of White Male Privilege and Identity In this episode, four ESH returns come back to talk about a common theme they share: being white, male and privileged. In this conversation is Chris Thinnes from Ep03 (The Case of Allyship in Context); Peter Anderson from Ep09 (The Case of Gradelessness); Dr. Paul Thomas from Ep10 (The Case of Critical Literacy) and Justin Schleider from Ep24 (The Case of Learning and Moving). /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/7548293

Ep44- The Case of the Awkward White Feminist 11/06/2018

Ep44- The Case of the Awkward White Feminist In this episode, the informant models what it means to be unapologetic around issues relating to women. She talks boldly about birth control, about abortions as a reproductive right, about being child-free, and about her relationship with women of color and queer women. Also in this conversation, you will learn that it is quite difficult to talk about gender without talking about race. /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/7455680

Ep43- The Case of Social Class 10/30/2018

Ep43- The Case of Social Class In this episode, the host talks about property, power and prestige as conditions of social class; about class inconsistency and class stratification; and about the consequences of a social class system. /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/7369124

Ep42- The Case of Being Black at School 10/23/2018

Ep42- The Case of Being Black at School In this episode, the informant talks about being black at school as a psychosocial phenomenon impacting black students and families, black educators, and black community stakeholders. /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/7291448

Ep41- The Case of Standardized Tests 10/16/2018

Ep41- The Case of Standardized Tests In this episode, Dr. Marachi offers a critique on standardized testing as part of a larger phenomenon of big data and predictive analytics. /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/7209857

Ep40- The Case of Rejecting the Middle 10/09/2018

Ep40- The Case of Rejecting the Middle In this episode, the informant talks about individualism versus collectivism; about traditionalism versus innovation; and about the English language as a power tool of culture and privilege. /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/7146933

Ep39- The Case of Judge Kavanaugh 10/02/2018

Ep39- The Case of Judge Kavanaugh Whereas other programs have discussed Judge Kavanaugh in terms of upper-case P Politics (rule of law, advice and consent, and FBI investigations), this episode explores lower-case p politics (relating to gender, race, emotions, structural power, latent power and psychological trauma). /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/7116981

Ep38- The Case of Giftedness 09/25/2018

Ep38- The Case of Giftedness In this episode, we spend a good chunk of time talking politically about giftedness, about the federal definition provided for gifted and talented programming, and about the ways in which capitalism and commercialism make space for some gifts while ignoring/invalidating others. /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/7091291

Ep37- The Case of Bioethics and Race 09/19/2018

Ep37- The Case of Bioethics and Race In this episode, the informant talks about medicine and the health profession in terms of how prepared it is (or not) in dealing with communities of color. /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/7062808

Ep36- The Case of Low-income Black Fathers 09/11/2018

Ep36- The Case of Low-income Black Fathers In this episode, the informant talks about socioeconomic conditions of fathering and challenges faced by black, low-income dads (unemployment, housing and mental health). In the closeout, the host talks about the physiological impact of children (even adult children) when neglected by a parent during childhood. /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/7034087

Ep35-The Case of Social Change from the Margins 09/04/2018

Ep35-The Case of Social Change from the Margins When you have multiple access points to powerlessness, the work of social change can seem impossible—even secondary to the work of survival. But nonetheless, there are those of us fighting for our wholeness, fighting for our humanness, all while trying to pursue a vision for a better tomorrow for us all. This episode talks intimately about the work social change from the margins. Please visit our webpage to access more information about this case as well as the resources mentioned in the episode. /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/7004625

Ep34- (Part 2) The Case of Self and the Resistance 06/16/2018

Ep34- (Part 2) The Case of Self and the Resistance In the is Episode, the host focuses on the social world as relating to the power and privilege afforded to specific cognitive functions (within Meyers Briggs personality theory). She also brings attention to the challenges that exist when certain functions are embodied by women of color. /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/6710669

Ep33- The Case of Self and the Resistance 05/30/2018

Ep33- The Case of Self and the Resistance The final case is being presented over two episodes allowing for an adequate representation of two related yet distinct discussions. In the first episode (Ep33), the host provides an argument for why knowing the landscape of one's internal world is essential to disrupting margins. /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/6651492

Ep32- The Case of Critical Race Feminism 05/22/2018

Ep32- The Case of Critical Race Feminism In this episode, the informant talks about self-love and self-care as liberatory practices. She provides a five-part construct on critical race feminism. She also talks about the bleeding nature of the subthemes within critical race theory: critical feminism, feminism, jurisprudence, and critical legal studies. /episode/index/show/eshpodcast/id/6620712

Empowerment Starts Here

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