LaTosha Brown on our “Moment of Reckoning”
Please note: This transcript has been automatically generated.
Brittany Packnett Cunningham He y’all. It’s Brittany. This was a big week for your girl. I filmed an episode of PBS’s “Finding Your Roots” all the way last year, and it finally aired. Host and Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and his team of incredible researchers revealed that my ancestors included Civil War heroes, activists, a nurse who saved lives during an active shooter situation in 1981, and my four time maternal great grandmother, Joanna, who was born enslaved, mothered twenty-four children and lived to be at least 98. She died free and kept three generations of her family together through the atrocities of slavery to see them through into emancipation. This was a terribly difficult thing to do, practically unheard of at the time, to keep three generations together.
Professor Gates even found my paternal grandfather, a man I never knew, and for years I thought was somebody else entirely. I have a whole new part of my family to get to know and their generosity in sharing my grandfather’s story has me in all my feels, because they unlocked a door I never even knew was closed. So now these days, when I say that our ancestors did far more with far less, I’ll know exactly who I’m talking about. Freedom fighting is officially in my bloodline, and the names of my people are no longer in ancestral purgatory. So here’s to Joanna, my grandfather, James, Ebenezer, and all of our ancestors who are still shining their light to light the path to our future. We are UNDISTRACTED.
On the show today, our friend, LaTosha Brown. I’ll be talking to the co-founder of Black Voters Matter about why she and several other voting rights groups in Georgia sat out from President Biden’s speech in Atlanta this week.
LaTosha Brown We’re saying that we are frustrated, that we are tired, and it is time up— that at this point, what we expect is just as we deliver to the President, you know, we believe that we should have voting rights delivered to us.
Brittany Packnett Cunningham That’s coming up. But first, it’s your UNtrending news.
Brittany Packnett Cunningham Michelle Obama says we have to vote like the future of our democracy depends on it. My forever first lady wrote that in a letter titled ’Fight for Your Vote’ that was published in The New York Times on Sunday. In it, she said her voting rights group, When We All Vote, will work together with other organizations to register a million new voters before the midterms in November. The letter also said they plan to train at least 100,000 volunteers to help people register, and recruit thousands of lawyers to protect voters in states where, “the freedom to vote is threatened.”
Michelle Obama Right now, dangerous legislation is being proposed across the country that limits the freedom to vote, cast our ballots, and have our votes counted.
Brittany Packnett Cunningham Organizations such as the NAACP, Stacey Abrams’s Fair Fight Action, Voto Latino Foundation, and 27 others signed the letter in solidarity.
Michelle Obama It’s about a country that belongs to all of us.
Brittany Packnett CunninghamThis is why a diversity of tactics is always necessary. Voters have to get registered and When We All Vote is leading the way on that. And also, lawmakers sometimes have to be pressured into moving with urgency. As you’ll hear about in my conversation with LaTosha Brown. In the 2022 midterms, thirty five seats in the Senate are up for reelection, as are all of the 435 seats in the House. In other words, way too much is at stake for us to leave any tool unused. It’s time to get it all done.
Michelle Obama It’s not going to be easy, but nothing this important ever is.
Brittany Packnett Cunningham The US Mint has begun rolling out quarters featuring Maya Angelou. The legendary poet and activist is the first Black woman to be celebrated on any coin. It is part of the American Women Quarters Program, which will also feature other trailblazers like astronaut Sally Ride, Cherokee Nation chief Wilma Mankiller, Chinese-American movie star Anna May Wong and Nina Otero-Warren, the first female superintendent of Santa Fe, New Mexico Public Schools. Maya Angelou’s quarters will be available later this month, and the rest of them will be in circulation this year.
Maya Angeelou Imagine it—a Black girl from a little village in Arkansas, now considered one of the most important writers. Imagine it.
Brittany Packnett Cunningham So here’s what the Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen had to say in a statement: “Each time we redesign our currency, we have the chance to say something about our country, what we value and how we’ve progressed as a society.” Yeah. And many commentators, including our friend Brittney Cooper, have pointed out that Black people were once American currency, and America is still doing very little to give Black people actual capital. And I got to say, I agree. Well, listen, we can talk all day about who belongs on the money and who doesn’t. But I really want to spend our time talking about who and which communities we need to make sure are resourced with that money, no matter who’s on it.
And last but not least two amazing trans women made incredible wins this past week. On Sunday night, mother Michaela Jaé, a.k.a. Mj Rodriguez, became the first openly transgender actress to win a Golden Globe. There was no ceremony, but here’s what Mj had to say on Instagram.
Michaela Jaé Rodriguez This is for the LGBTQ, Black, Latino, Asian. The many malls have beautiful colors of the rainbow around the freaking world. This is not just for me, this is for y’all.
Brittany Packnett Cunningham Oh sis, you are a true inspiration. And this week, Amy Schneider became the first woman on “Jeopardy” to surpass one million dollars in winnings.
Ken Jennings Your total today, $42,200 dollars and a 28-day total of $1,019,600. Amy Schneider, you are just the fifth millionaire in “Jeopardy” history and only the fourth to do it in regular season play.
Brittany Packnett Cunningham In late December. Amy already broke the record, becoming the highest earning woman in the show’s history, and Amy is, of course, spending time celebrating her wins and gently dragging transphobes on the internet.
Amy Schneider Yes, thank you. Thank you.
Brittany Packnett Cunningham Y’all met thing pisses off anti-trans extremists more than seeing trans folks win. Personally, I love to see it, so let’s give Mj Rodriguez and Amy Schneider all their flowers. Coming up, I’ll be talking to activist LaTosha Brown, who says she wants federal legislation on voting rights, not more speeches right after this short break.
Brittany Packnett Cunningham And we are back. So y’all, tears have not stopped streaming down my face since my “Finding Your Roots” episode aired. It has me thinking about so much like how do I truly honor my ancestors and what kind of ancestor am I becoming? And frankly, how long have we been fighting for freedom and how much longer are we going to have to? That last question is especially relevant, given the continual fight we wage for our most basic inalienable rights, like the right to vote. On Tuesday, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to Atlanta to talk up the importance of voting rights bills.
Kamala Harris I have met with voters in Georgia. I have heard your outrage. We will fight to secure our most fundamental freedom, the freedom to vote.
Joe Biden It’s also time to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. I’ve been having these quiet conversations with members of Congress for the last two months. I’m tired of being quiet.
Brittany Packnett Cunningham Sounds great, and I’m glad they finally came around to publicly pushing for some of what organizers have been demanding since the people carried Biden to victory last year. Still, a coalition of voting rights groups in Georgia chose a different tactic. They skipped the event, saying that they want concrete action instead of speeches. LaTosha Brown is the co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund, one of the organizations that led the way to Georgia’s historic 2020 victories, and that signed a letter last week asking Biden and Harris not to come to Atlanta without a clear plan of action to pass federal voting rights protections. After all, it’s been nearly a year since Georgia passed Senate Bill 202, which Biden himself called Jim Crow in the 21st century. At least 19 states have passed 34 voter restriction laws in 2021, and 88 more restrictive bills across nine states have carried over into the 2022 session. So much is at stake y’all, and we are running out of time. I spoke to LaTosha about what actual legislation needs to be signed into law.
Brittany Packnett Cunningham Miss LaTosha Brown, it is always fantastic to talk to you. Thank you so much for spending time with us.
LaTosha Brown Thank you for having me.
Brittany Packnett Cunningham So let’s just dive right into it because we got a lot to cover. Yesterday, we know that President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris were in Atlanta where you live to talk about voting rights. But you, alongside several other people, said no thanks, and you decided not to show up to that speech. Why did you make that choice? Just how frustrated are you?
LaTosha Brown Our intention wasn’t to be antagonistic or combative. You know, some have said ’we called for a boycott.’ No, we haven’t. That wasn’t the spirit of why we didn’t attend. We didn’t attend because we were very serious around sending the message of how serious this was for us. While I think that the speech was a good speech, that time has come and gone, that we’re at the point now that we’re in action time. It has been a year since the election and a year, you know, as I reflect, a year ago, I was displaced from my home and in a safe house because we had received credible threats that we couldn’t even be in our homes right after the 6th insurrection and we were away from our homes for 10 days. And so I’m raising that, that this is real. This is literally around how our lives, just because we’ve been helping to mobilize voters to go to the polls, that our lives have been threatened, that we have literally used our resources, we’ve done everything that we could to actually get the President and Congress to hear us, that we desperately needed help. And we thought that it was really important to amplify that message yesterday, that it was important that the President knows that we are serious, that at this moment, that we need him to use the full weight of his office and his position to support voting rights legislation.
Brittany Packnett Cunningham And those credible threats that came when you were displaced, they didn’t just come after January the 6th and that insurrection, they also came after January the 5th when you and a number of other groups created historic turnout and had a historic electoral result in Georgia. And it was a number of those same groups who organized alongside Black Voters Matter that signed this letter, urging President Biden to skip his Atlanta trip if they were not going to come with a discernable plan. We’re talking about the Asian-American Advocacy Fund, Galeo Impact Fund, New Georgia Project Action Fund. We know that Stacey Abrams also had to miss the speech yesterday due to a conflict. I mean, this was really a team decision.
LaTosha Brown Absolutely. And even the Labor Council, so there was labor. There were the coalition of voters Galeo, which is the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials. We had the coalition of people who represent on the ground that are doing the work, mobilizing, helping to mobilize voters that we’re saying that we are frustrated, that we are tired, and it is time up. That at this point, what we expect is just as we deliver to the President, you know, we believe that that we should have voting rights delivered to us. You know, I – let me say this. The part around that I will offer to commend President Biden is, I think it takes a lot of courage and character to be able to acknowledge publicly when you are wrong, or where there was a shortcoming. He himself, in his speech yesterday, said that I have been silent for far too long. And he talked about that, and I’m raising that because I think it’s important to give context to the listeners that this is what we’ve been saying. We’ve been saying: Where are you? We are fighting, we’re getting arrested, we are putting our resources. We are fighting on every level, not just in D.C. even yesterday, when the speech was happening, there were organizers that are part of the coalition that were in Lincoln County, Georgia, which is a county in Georgia, rural county in Georgia, where the Republicans are seeking to close all of the polling sites and only leave one polling site for the entire county in a county that they don’t have public transportation. And so I’m raising this because I want people to really understand that for us, it was about accountability. It wasn’t just about a calling out, it was about a calling in. We’re saying: stand with the people of Georgia as we’re doing this work because this is serious and we need action now.
Brittany Packnett Cunningham So in that calling in together as a group, you wrote an open letter and that letter said quote that “you all reject any visit by President Biden that does not include an announcement of a finalized voting plan that will pass both chambers, not be stopped by the filibuster, and be signed into law. Anything less is insufficient and unwelcome.” Has the White House responded formally to that letter yet?
LaTosha Brown They have not. We remain, you know, cautiously optimistic that the White House will put, and the President, will put actions behind his words. I think what was interesting to hear, even in the speech yesterday, in many ways I tell people, you know, community organizations wrote that speech yesterday, the things that he noted in his speech, that’s what folks have been saying. We’ve been saying that there has to be a carve out of the filibuster. And he, as well as man- and several others have said, no, no, no, no, they have actually wanted to preserve the filibuster, even at the expense of not having voting protection for the base of voters that actually helped get them in office. And so what we have been saying, we didn’t tell them, like, we don’t want you in Georgia. Yes, you’re welcome to come to Georgia. What we’re saying is if you’re going to spend time in terms of coming to Georgia, come with a plan. If you are coming just for a speech, it would probably be a better service to do a speech on the well of the Senate that you need to hear it. We understand what’s at stake. But aside from that, we’ve moved past that. We’re at a different state now. We’re at a level now, the speeches happened. We’ve sent our message and what we’re saying is it is time for work. You know, it’s game day. It is time for work. Are the Democrats going to deliver or not? And while we are holding accountable the Democrats, the truth of the matter is we have got to call out that it is the Republicans that have been leading this effort. Not a single Republican will stand up and say that they support voting rights. That is an indicator that we have to have some major structural change in this country, Brittany.
Brittany Packnett Cunningham Absolutely. So like you said, for many reasons, including activist accountability, President Biden has now finally fully said that he’s in favor of changing the Senate filibuster rules in order to specifically pass voting rights. Senate Leader Chuck Schumer has also said that he will attempt to get that rule change passed by January 17th, notably that his Martin Luther King Day. What do you think about that? Do you feel like those are the right next steps? And what has to come after?
LaTosha Brown No, I think they’re the right next steps. I am really trying to keep my mind on what’s going forward, but I do think part of the reason why we were begging the President to make this a priority at the beginning of last year, for a number of reasons. One, there was a lot of momentum that Democratic voters had come out in record numbers, in historic numbers, and we felt that was the time to actually have the power and the wherewithal to go in and push and make this as a priority issue because you’ve got the momentum of the voters with you and then coming right off of, like you said, it was January 5th and then January 6th, the insurrection that there were people that were frustrated about that. And so all of that energy, we do feel that in many ways, the Democratic Party squandered a lot of what we think is the momentum and the energy last year of not making this a priority. Now we are where we are right now. And so I’m not romanticizing this, it’s going to be a colossal feat. We have two members of the Democratic Party who are literally standing, I call them, they’re obstructionists,
Brittany Packnett Cunningham At least, right at least, and they’re probably others hiding behind them. You’re talking about Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.
LaTosha Brown Joe Manchin and Sinema. And as you said, there’s probably others that are hiding behind them. And what we’re seeing is smoke them out. At the end of the day, smoke them out. This is a moment of reckoning to either deliver or you got to deal with the consequences. But the bottom line is we have to turn the pressure up. We’ve got to even be more relentless. The people who are listening to your show, what can you do? You can call and make sure that those congressional lines, that we are tying those lines up and saying we demand voting rights today. You need to call your senator, your representative, whether they are for it or against it. Tell them we need you to work harder. We need you to prioritize this. And the third thing, we need you to stay in and coalition with organizations that are on the front lines doing this work. You know, one of the challenges around activism is, those that put themselves in front in the line of fire oftentimes left there right when they’re not convenient. That there’s this notion the way you deal with activists is we’re going to pull them out like we pull them out of our pocket like they’re bulldogs when we need to sic em somebody, right? But when the day of accountability comes that there’s a different kind of space that we see. And so I think it’s really important for your listeners to understand that we need everybody to have a political home or at least support those grassroots organizations that are on the ground doing this work, whether that’s in your own community, in your state or even the groups that are doing the work that we know in some of these states that are really under severe attack right now.
Brittany Packnett Cunningham So beyond the filibuster, we make the calls to our congresspeople, to our senators. What more do we need to tell them to do?
LaTosha Brown You know, I think there’s a couple of things. I think one is part of the reason why we’ve been pushing voting rights is not just on the issue of voting rights in itself. There’s a whole agenda. We don’t have criminal justice reform, right? We’re talking about student loan debt. Right? That we want a cancellation of student loan debt. What we’re saying is the baseline as a support voting rights and that we need them to support the agenda that we put them in office. We also need to recognize this is a critical election. Obstructionists – we should be running against them. In every single seat, someone should be challenging those that are standing in the way of not passing voting rights and all those other agendas. If we want things to be different, what is clear to me, Brittany, is we have to change what the political landscape looks like. We can’t continue to operate in this context and that, say, it’s okay. You know, the bottom line is we have to move beyond our own comfort zone and recognize if democracy is going to happen. It’s kind of like in the name of your podcast. We can’t be distracted, right?
Brittany Packnett Cunningham Yes.
LaTosha Brown We have to be focused, lean into this, push for the agenda that we want now and do everything we need to do to change the entire political structure, infrastructure and landscape in this country, so that we are not constantly being held hostage, right, by political parties that think that we’re a pawn and part of their game instead of really seeing that they work for the interests of the people that put them in power.
Brittany Packnett Cunningham So what I really hear you as saying is that voting is the gateway drug, right? That voting is the door that opens the ability to transform everything else. So we’ve got two particular voting rights bills right now. We’ve got the John Lewis Voting Rights Act that would reinstate federal oversight over changing voting or election laws, right? So this is important for all those state laws that we’ve been seeing. We need the federal government to actually be able to reach their hand in and say what’s allowed and what’s not. And there’s also the Freedom to Vote Act, which would make Election Day a holiday. It would limit voter purges. It would allow people to register to vote and cast ballots on the same day. It would create national standards for redistricting, early voting, drop boxes, voting by mail. I mean, we’re talking about really comprehensive bills. How hopeful are you that we will see the passing and signing of both the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act again as an opening salvo to the kind of transformation that needs to happen over time.
LaTosha Brown You know, we have been saying this from day one, we are going to have voting rights legislation in this country. Now there’s a question of the timing of when, we are not going to accept anything else, right? That we are going to win. You know, it is unfortunate that we’ve got to work this darn hard, that we’ve got to let this much time go. But we are going to we’re going to have voting rights protection and that ain’t going to be the end. That’s just the beginning that there literally, we’re going to move towards having structural change. It’s the same way that I see when people ask me about Black liberation. That ain’t optional.
Brittany Packnett Cunningham Yeah.
LaTosha Brown You know, as a matter of how do we keep moving the ball forward that we build a representative democracy that we all desire and we deserve? And so I feel very confident that during this administration, we will have voting rights legislation. You know, I think that is extremely ambitious to think that it will happen, you know, on Monday. You know, I think part of that, I’m still also really recognizing and I don’t think that, if we’re now at the 11th hour.
Brittany Packnett Cunningham Yeah.
LaTosha Brown And the president is just now coming out saying he been silent for the last year and Manchin, Senator Manchin and Sinema who have been openly saying that they’re not going to budge on the carve out of the filibuster, then I don’t know where that leaves us in this moment. I don’t know where that leaves the Senate in this moment. What I will say is that we are going to be relentless in our effort to make sure that we do get voting rights legislation passed this year and absolutely, definitely during this current administration.
Brittany Packnett Cunningham I mean, you say that there’s no other option and I couldn’t agree with you more. But really set the stakes out for us. How urgent is the passing of this legislation? What happens if we don’t get this done and we don’t get this done? As we say, ASAPtually.
LaTosha Brown You know, we are seeing democracy be unraveled in front of our eyes. We cannot look at this as this is just another policy. This is just another bill that will get passed or not, no. If this bill doesn’t get passed, we won’t get anything done y’all like nothing that was actually going to look for the interests of the kind of pluralist society that we represent and that exists. And so we don’t have a choice or we have to literally insure and push this forward. What we are seeing already has happened, and we saw it last year. Immediately after the election, you saw in over 48 states around the nation where there were legislation that was being introduced carried by Republicans to actually in some way restrict access to the ballot, making it harder to vote, weaponize the administrative process, creating processes like what we see in Georgia, that they are literally empowering themselves to be able to take over the election boards, to actually be able to put themselves in a position that if they don’t like the results, that they can actually overturn the results, that is really how serious it is. This precedent that has been set. What we’re seeing happen in Georgia with the SB 202 bill that was passed last year that talks about you can’t give water in lines. They shortened the absentee ballot period. You know, when you looking at those kinds of things, they’re not just happening in a vacuum in Georgia. They’re happening all over this country. When people show up to vote for a candidate, and they are punished, right, because of who they voted or how they voted for, that is such a dangerous precedent. No matter where you are on the spectrum, that opens us up to a whole new world of how we engage in elections. And so we want people to understand the critical nature of this because this isn’t just about a win or loss of a bill. This is really around the dismantling of the infrastructure that protects at least the rights of citizens to be able to participate in a process of deciding who governs them and under what conditions they’re governed.
Brittany Packnett Cunningham Which is the most basic aspect of a democracy. So if we’re not preserving that, there’s no democracy at bottom, at base. You talk about Georgia. Georgia is certainly everywhere in terms of the kind of challenges we’re seeing to voting rights. But Georgia also has some very specific battles coming up in this midterm season. We’ve got Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock, Reverend Warnock, who of course, defeated Republican Kelly Loeffler in the runoff election last year. He has to run again because his term expires in 2023. And then, of course, there’s Stacey Abrams, who is once again running for governor of Georgia. Lots of us feel like she actually won last time. But what’s your sense of voters’ feelings and organizers’ feelings? Is there a worry that frustrations may lead to disengagement? Or do you feel like folks are just as ready as ever to show up and fight?
LaTosha Brown Listen, I can’t in good faith say that we aren’t tired. Yes, we have been working nonstop. We are tired, right? But what is driving us is never been, we- I’ve never been driven because of a candidate or political party. I actually am driven on principle, and my passion on this principle around the folks in Georgia. There is a new coalition in Georgia. The people in Georgia deserve better and more. That is what’s driving me is, that’s going to drive other organizations that are on the ground that have said consistently, we’re not going to stop do the work. Matter of fact, we go lean in. So that’s what we’re telling the Senate. Like, how dare you tell us what you can’t do? You better get it done. But you got to lean in. Right? And so that’s part of what we will do this next year. If there’s any time that it was clear that we need, this state needs, desires and deserves the kind of leadership that is literally inclusive of all Georgians, the kind of leadership that is going to set a context that we’re not punished because of how we voted, who we voted for, but that there is some sense of equity and justice in this state, regardless of whether you are on this political spectrum, regardless of what your identity is, that this is the moment that that gubernatorial election, in my opinion, is probably one of the most critical moments that we have coming up, not because it’s about a candidate, even a candidate that I love and desire and support, but it really is around. It is time for people to take power for us to put the kind of leadership in office that is going to be accountable to us, that’s going to create the kind of state that’s going to move us forward, not move us backwards. A state that literally is going to be the leader, right? What, as I think about Georgia, Georgia has a possibility and the potential to be the leader in the south to create and bring into being this full new south that this coalition of when you see Asian Americans and Latinx brothers and sisters, and African-American communities, and our white brothers and sisters and our Indigenous brothers and sisters, and our first generation brothers and sisters that are working here, and our immigrant brothers and sisters that are working together. That is what happened. That’s how we flipped Georgia. That is, how are we going to change Georgia. Even just start.
Brittany Packnett Cunningham Yeah.
LaTosha Brown About a presidential election. It wasn’t about one transaction, one transactional election for us. It has always been Brittany about: how are we going to transform the lives of our people? How are we going to create the kind of context, right, that the very state that our people were enslaved will be the state that is actually going to break it open for New South to rise up so that our people can take our rightful place, that we can literally live the kind of life that we want and we deserve like everybody else. What do Black people want? We want what everybody else wants. We want quality education. We want quality jobs. We want to be treated and fairly. We want our humanity to be respected. It’s really that simple. And what I am really happy about is this is one of the moments in my life that gives me hope. The kind of coalition that is developing in Georgia, that is intergenerational, that is literally multiracial, that people are coming from all different walks together and we’re working together and forming this new coalition. That’s the new south that’s rising, that new south is rising. And the truth of the matter is they may be able to delay it, but they can’t stop it.
Brittany Packnett Cunningham And that is the perfect place to end it. Can’t stop, won’t stop, LaTosha Brown. I always appreciate your energy, your fire, your passion and your absolute love for humanity. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for what you do. And thanks for joining us at UNDISTRACTED.
LaTosha Brown Thank you, Brittany.
Brittany Packnett Cunningham LaTosha Brown is an activist, political strategist and co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund. For more information and to support, you can go to blackvotersmatterfund.org.
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has, and it never will. Let me tell y’all, Frederick Douglass knew exactly what he was talking about when he said that. Alongside Harriet Tubman and other Black abolitionists, he publicly admonished a very centrist Abraham Lincoln, who, yes, actually needed to be convinced to swiftly and decidedly abolish slavery.
And it could be terrifying to challenge our political allies and friends. But there is always a multitude of tactics we have to employ for our freedom and the outside game matters just as much as the inside game. So no matter what position you decide to play in this fight for our voting rights – shifting policy from the inside, agitating from the outside, organizing communities or all of it at once – just make sure you get in on the action because none of this is a game.
Brittany Packnett Cunningham That’s it for today, but never for tomorrow.
UNDISTRACTED is a production of The Meteor and Pineapple Street Studios.
Our lead producer is Rachel Matlow.
Our associate producer is Alexis Moore.
Thanks always to Treasure Brooks, Grace Chen, and Hannis Brown.
Our executive producers at The Meteor are Cindi Leive and myself, and our executive producers at Pineapple are Jenna Weiss-Berman and Max Linsky.
You can follow me at @MsPackyetti on all social media and our team @TheMeteor.
Subscribe to UNDISTRACTED and rate us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you check out your favorite podcasts. Thanks for listening. Thanks for being, and most definitely, thanks for doing. I’m Brittany Packnett Cunningham. Let’s go get free.
MORE UNDISTRACTED TRANSCRIPTS
UNDISTRACTED: September 26, 2024
S3 Ep3: Our Right to Party with Rep. Ruwa Romman and Maurice Mitchell
UNDISTRACTED: September 19, 2024
S3 Ep2: “We Elect Partners, Not Saviors”: Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Dr. Brittney Cooper
UNDISTRACTED: September 12, 2024
S3 Ep1: - Ava DuVernay Want Us to Dig Deeper
UNDISTRACTED: September 06, 2024
Season 3: We’re Baaaaaack
UNDISTRACTED: June 21, 2023
Exclusive: Vice President Kamala Harris on a Year Without Roe
UNDISTRACTED: October 20th, 2022
“Every Hashtag is a Human Being”: Honoring the Five-Year Anniversary of #MeToo
UNDISTRACTED: October 13th, 2022
The End of the World as We Know It? Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson Rates our Climate Future
UNDISTRACTED: October 6th, 2022
“You Can’t Win if You Don’t Start”: Rep. Cori Bush on Running for Office—and Making a Difference
UNDISTRACTED: September 29, 2022
Derecka Purnell on Living (and Loving) Outside the Police State
UNDISTRACTED: September 22, 2022
The Queen Died. Now What? Three Brilliant Women on Colonialism and the Future
UNDISTRACTED: September 15, 2022
The Hidden Latinx Stories We Don’t Hear, with Julissa Natzely Acre Raya
UNDISTRACTED: September 1, 2022
The Kids Are All Right. The Adults Are F***ing Up!
UNDISTRACTED: August 25, 2022
Will We Be Smarter About the Next Epidemic? Two Experts Break it Down.
UNDISTRACTED: August 18, 2022
A Future Without Police? Andrea Ritchie on Crime and Abolition
UNDISTRACTED: August 11, 2022
“People’s Kids Are the Center of Their World” - Caitlin Dickerson on the Horrors of Family Separation
UNDISTRACTED: August 4, 2022
Beyoncé’s Renaissance, According to Four Brilliant Black Women
UNDISTRACTED: July 28, 2022
“The System Works For Those Who Occupy It”: María Teresa Kumar on Voting Rights
UNDISTRACTED: July 21, 2022
Phoebe Robinson is Writing Her Own Rules (on TV and in Life)
UNDISTRACTED: July 14, 2022
“Covering the End of the World”: A Reporter on Gun Violence
UNDISTRACTED: July 7, 2022
Tiffany Cross on Roe, Resistance and What Comes Next
UNDISTRACTED: June 30, 2022
Michelle Colón is Living Through The Last Days of Legal Abortion in Mississippi
UNDISTRACTED: June 25, 2022
The Roe v. Wade News—and Finding Hope
UNDISTRACTED: June 23, 2022
Having a Baby While Black: Martina Abraham and Gabrielle Horton Know *All* The Stories
UNDISTRACTED: June 16, 2022
You Can Be Successful Where You Are: Majora Carter on Reclaiming Communities
UNDISTRACTED: June 2, 2022
God is Big Enough for Our Questions:” Candice Benbow on Faith, Feminism, and Lipstick
UNDISTRACTED: May 26, 2022
During a Dark Time, A Little Light with Bevy Smith
UNDISTRACTED: May 19, 2022
“Tell the Truth to Set Us Free”: Kimberlé Crenshaw on White Supremacy, CRT and Lies
UNDISTRACTED: May 12, 2022
WTF, TEXAS?! Cisneros, Crockett and O’Rourke on The Madness (and Promise) of The Lone Star State
UNDISTRACTED: May 5, 2022
What Happens Now? Gloria Steinem and Renee Bracey Sherman on the Future of Abortion
UNDISTRACTED: April 28, 2022
The Senator of TikTok: Morgan Harper’s Run for Office (and Our Hearts)
UNDISTRACTED: April 21, 2022
Motherhood, Love and the “Trayvon Generation,” with Elizabeth Alexander
UNDISTRACTED: April 7, 2022
“I’ve Been Proud So Many Times”: A Texas Family Fights the Anti-Trans Laws
UNDISTRACTED: March 31, 2022
“We See Who Pays the Price”: Muzoon Almellehan on War and Refugees
UNDISTRACTED: March 24, 2022
“You Deserve to Be Safe”: Nicole Chung on Parenting in a Wave of Anti-AAPI Violence
UNDISTRACTED: March 17, 2022
“Buckle Up:” Senator Elizabeth Warren still has a plan for change
UNDISTRACTED: March 10, 2022
“I don’t believe in the guilt:” Real climate talk, with Mary Annaïse Heglar
UNDISTRACTED: March 3, 2022
Anita Hill on the Supreme Court’s future—and its past
UNDISTRACTED: February 24, 2022
“We are here to fight disinformation”: Sara Lomax-Reese and Akoto Ofori-Atta build the future
UNDISTRACTED: February 17, 2022
Ai-jen Poo on caregiving: “We take for granted that women will just figure it out”
UNDISTRACTED: February 10, 2022
Jemele Hill and Cari Champion on racism (and liberation) in sports
UNDISTRACTED: February 3, 2022
Dr. Uché Blackstock on pandemic fatigue—And the new COVID normal
UNDISTRACTED: January 27, 2022
Elaine Welteroth on the “Great Resignation” and rewriting your own definition of success.
UNDISTRACTED: January 20, 2022
“This big old lie:” Heather McGhee on the real cost of racism
UNDISTRACTED: January 6, 2022
One Year Later: “The Next Coup is Already Happening”
UNDISTRACTED: December 17, 2021
Nikole Hannah-Jones on America’s “400-Year Racial Pandemic”
UNDISTRACTED: December 9, 2021
Beyond Roe: Gloria Steinem and Renee Bracey Sherman on How We Got Here and What Happens Next
UNDISTRACTED: December 2, 2021
From SCOTUS to white womanhood: Dr. Brittney Cooper decodes our world
UNDISTRACTED: August 19, 2021
Bonus: Your UNDISTRACTED Highlights Reel
UNDISTRACTED: August 12, 2021
Tarana Burke on her powerful new memoir — and the future of #MeToo
UNDISTRACTED: August 5, 2021
Pleasure activist adrienne maree brown on conflict, canceling, and community
UNDISTRACTED: July 29, 2021
Jemele Hill on “The Cursed Olympics”—and Simone Biles choosing her peace
UNDISTRACTED: July 22, 2021
The billionaire space race and patriarchy in physics, with Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
UNDISTRACTED: July 15, 2021
Connie Walker on covering the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women
UNDISTRACTED: July 1, 2021
Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw on the truth about Critical Race Theory
UNDISTRACTED: June 24, 2021
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand on finally fixing the military’s sexual assault problem
UNDISTRACTED: June 17, 2021
The “grandmother of Juneteenth” on the holiday’s past, present, and future
UNDISTRACTED: June 10, 2021
Lawyer Chase Strangio on “genocidal” anti-trans laws—and resistance
UNDISTRACTED: June 3, 2021
Amani on why this moment “feels different” for Palestinians
UNDISTRACTED: May 27, 2021
"Queen Sugar" author Natalie Baszile on the new black farming revolution
UNDISTRACTED: May 20, 2021
Travon Free wants to flip the script on masculinity
UNDISTRACTED: May 13, 2021
Nikole Hannah-Jones wants us to confront the truth of who we are
UNDISTRACTED: May 6, 2021
Insecure's Yvonne Orji on Black joy...and her "homie" Jesus
UNDISTRACTED: April 29, 2021
Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson on the "feminist climate renaissance"
UNDISTRACTED: April 22, 2021
Andra Day on the tragedy and triumph of Billie Holiday
UNDISTRACTED: April 15, 2021
Sophia Bush on surviving "relentless" harassment in Hollywood
UNDISTRACTED: April 8, 2021
Alexis McGill Johnson on the “Dire” Landscape for Abortion Rights
UNDISTRACTED: April 1, 2021
Shannon Watts Believes We're at a Tipping Point for Gun Reform
UNDISTRACTED: March 18, 2021
Rep. Cori Bush Is What "Keeping It Real" Looks Like
UNDISTRACTED: March 25, 2021
Comedian Amber Ruffin Wants to "De-Gaslight" America
UNDISTRACTED: March 11, 2021
Lisa Ling on Anti-Asian Violence—And the Rising Movement Against It
UNDISTRACTED: March 4, 2021
Padma Lakshmi on the New Food Revolution
UNDISTRACTED: February 25, 2021
The Squad is Big, Y’all: Rep. Ayanna Pressley on the Power of the People
UNDISTRACTED: February 18, 2021
What Would a Future Without Prisons Look Like?
UNDISTRACTED: February 11, 2021
Opal Tometi on the Righteous Rise of Black Lives Matter
UNDISTRACTED: February 4, 2021
Raquel Willis Believes in Black Trans Power
UNDISTRACTED: January 27, 2021
Want A Safer Internet? Listen To Black Women
UNDISTRACTED: January 18, 2021
A Historic Day… And Why The ‘Nap Bishop’ Believes Rest Is Radical
UNDISTRACTED: January 14, 2021
Valerie Jarrett on Impeachment...And the Next 100 Days
UNDISTRACTED: January 7, 2021
America Ferrera Is Talking ‘Bout a Cultural Revolution
UNDISTRACTED: December 24, 2020
Jenna Wortham and Kimberly Drew Are Building Black Futures
UNDISTRACTED: December 17, 2020
Flattening the Curve of Inequality
UNDISTRACTED: December 10, 2020
Sue Bird Won't Shut Up and Dribble
UNDISTRACTED: December 3, 2020
Tracee Ellis Ross Is The Lead in Her Own Life
UNDISTRACTED: November 26, 2020
Nikki Giovanni Believes Your Dreams Are Worth It
UNDISTRACTED: November 19, 2020
Rebecca Traister Is Still Good and Mad
UNDISTRACTED: November 12, 2020
LaTosha Brown Is Betting On the South
UNDISTRACTED: November 5, 2020
Soledad O’Brien Is Calling It Like It Is
UNDISTRACTED: October 29, 2020
Cecile Richards Is Ready for the Uprising