Power Station

For Ty Hobson-Powell, being a child of Washington DC goes deeper than living with the United States Capital and the White House as a backdrop. It is not just that politics is in his bones and that he has worked in national campaigns and in District government to generate policy change for people and communities. What motivates his fight for justice is the unique experience of living in the seat of this nation’s federal government while being one of 700,000 Washingtonians who raise families, work and build communities, all without statehood or full representation in Congress. In this episode of Power Station, Ty shares what his activism looks like now, his call for less apathy and more care for others and how his book, The Fire This Time memorializes his message, especially for young people of color about leadership, courage and using your voice with purpose and power. At a time when our nation’s democratic principles and institutions are under assault and DC is under federal control this conversation brings,

The advent of the internet changed how we interact with friends, our nation and the world. We are all there now, accessing news and popular culture through social media apps, attending school, working and connecting with friends. At our best we are also engaging, as nonprofits and political campaigns, in mobilizing voters and organizing public policy campaigns that advance equity and strengthen democracy. All of this exists while social media companies profit from disseminating hate-based disinformation peddled by authoritarian politicians and their surrogates. In this episode of Power Station, the awesome public interest technologist and social justice activist Mallory Knodel poses a vital question. What if we looked at the internet and social media apps not as the final arbiter of politics and culture but as a tool over which we, collectively and individually have choice and agency? What if the technical design of the platform we uses supported human rights and democracy? Mallory and her co-creators at the

At the highest levels of government our elected officials are violating the Constitution, ignoring court orders and trampling societal norms to undermine decades of progress in America. They are demonizing schools, corporations and nonprofits that practice diversity, equity and inclusion, taking back federal grants intended for housing and climate change mitigation in communities of color and cutting nutrition programs in public schools. In this episode of Power Station I speak with Celina Stewart, the inspiring and unstoppable CEO of The League of Women Voters who is making history of her own. Celina, an expert in redistricting, the Census and voting rights is the League’s second African American CEO. She describes leading during a constitutional crisis, pushing back against harmful executive orders while supporting members tackling hyperlocal threats to their communities. The League of Women is fueled by people power, those who join school boards, testify at city council hearings, and stand with immigrants

For José Vasquez, leading Common Defense, a national nonprofit comprised of 200,000 veterans who share progressive values, is an extension of the oath he took as a 17 year old enlistee. He swore to and has remained steadfast in defending the Constitution and advocating for the well-being of those who serve. He and a cohort of activist vets launched Common Defense in 2016 to provide a civic engagement platform for veterans who are anti-racist, pro-democracy and anti-authoritarianism. Collectively they are advancing progressive policymaking in state legislatures, on Capitol Hill and in the White House. Common Defense organizes around the issues that resonate deeply for its members, including climate change and healthcare. A current campaign demands accountability for the president’s dismantling of the Veteran’s Administration, which is putting the health of 16.5 million veterans at risk. On this episode of Power Station, I speak with José about his life’s journey, from joining the Army, to living out his family

How is it possible that in 2025, America is funding and operationalizing daily raids on Latinos in the form of arrests, detainments, deportations and disappearances? What can justify the vilification of Latinos, a community that includes families that have been established here for generations and newer arrivals seeking citizenship in a broken immigration system? Meanwhile, Latinos, working across sectors, contribute $4.1 trillion dollars to this country annually. While the president and congressional leadership are the architects of this cruel, and often illegal campaign targeting 20% of the nation’s population, both political parties have failed Latinos as a whole. Neither has modernized our immigration system or fully recognized their economic, cultural and social contributions. I am  honored that Sindy Benevides, founder of Aqui: The Accountability Movement, shared her organizational story on this episode of Power Station. Sindy explains that achieving a just future for Latinos in America requires a narra

Organizing is a superpower. It allows us to make our voices heard, to influence the decision-makers, from corporations to landlords to the elected officials who determine clean air standards, the cost of childcare, the minimum wage and whether voting rights will expand or become more restrictive. And in a moment in which politicians are defunding healthcare and other public systems to finance tax cuts for the wealthiest in our society, organizing provides a skillset and framework that prepares nonprofit organizations, their staff and community-based volunteers to lead impactful and changemaking campaigns. In this episode of Power Station I speak with the invincible Elyssa Feder, who has trained thousands of new entries in the organizing field since launching Rising Organizers in 2016. She is positioning a new generation of organizers to save and strengthen our battered democracy and is creating the organizing infrastructure that nonprofits need to activate their communities and fulfill their mission. And Elys

What makes culture change possible? Not the kind that divides people, which we are experiencing now but change that which empowers individuals, builds community and in some cases saves lives. Active Minds, a nonprofit founded by Alison Malmon after losing her brother Brian, a college student, to suicide 21 years ago demonstrates how normalizing conversations about mental health and prioritizing the well-being of youth and young adults is transforming America. Active Minds has activated student-led mental health advocacy chapters across 500 college campuses and high schools and is now expanding into middle schools. In this episode of Power Station I speak with Brandi Pretlow, Active Minds Vice President for Community Initiatives whose clinical expertise, deep empathy and strategic savvy is engaging diverse communities, from educational systems to influencers and athletes, in elevating mental health care as a shared value. Brandi speaks to the resources we all need, from housing to health, to maintain our menta

We have a long history in America of institutions and public systems that do not serve all members of the public equally. As Erin Kilmer-Neel shares on this episode of Power Station, the financial services industry, banks in particular, have routinely failed to approve loan applications for small businesses and mortgages from borrowers of color on par with their white counterparts. Perceptions of unworthiness is rooted in a well-documented history of racism in public and corporate policymaking. As executive director of the Beneficial State Foundation, the nonprofit that owns and partners with Beneficial State Bank, an equity-driven enterprise, Erin is powering a movement to unlearn the biases that undergird perceptions of risk and reimagine policies and practices that meet the capital needs of borrowers of color. Take Underwriting for Justice, an initiative that is upending racially discriminatory lending norms. It is engaging banks in signing on to methodologies that lead to systemic yeses. Erin is a bright

What stories have we heard, and beliefs have we internalized, to explain the crisis level numbers of Americans who are on the brink of losing their housing or are already experiencing homelessness? Do we blame the individuals? Is the problem intractable? Years of study illuminates the facts: we have a profound dual problem of affordability and supply. Our federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour is responsible for a wage to rent disparity that causes extremely low income Americans to pay more than half of their income on rent. And a shortage of 7.1 million affordable housing units makes it inevitable that 77,000 Americans have no home at all. That data and more is captured in seminal reports produced by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, which has been at the forefront of tenant-led policy advocacy for decades. On this episode of Power Station, Renee Willis, the Coalition’s exceptional new President and CEO shares the life experience that guides her leadership in this most challenging of times. As she s

If you think that young people are not informed about, paying attention to or taking action to counter the harm, in rhetoric and policy, practiced by the current administration, you will be encouraged by this episode of Power Station. My three outstanding guests, Jean Garcia, Hannia Hernandez-Mendoza and Bryan Juarez Ruiz, are college students whose academic successes and commitment to shaping a more just future led to their selection as summer interns with the National Migrant & Seasonal Head Start Association. NMSHSA is the advocate and support system for 24 migrant head start centers that provide high-quality educational services to 26,000 children of farmworkers in 34 states.  Jean, Hannia and Bryan have all experienced the extreme challenges of agricultural work first-hand. And they all credit their early childhood days in migrant head start centers as foundational to their educational development and capacity to, as their immigrant parents expect, build a life for themselves beyond the fields in whi

It is meaningful and instructive that the Legal Defense Fund, which has championed racial justice at the voting booth, in education, housing and in the criminal justice system since its founding by Thurgood Marshall in 1940, is on the frontlines today, winning legal victories in a perilous moment for American democracy. LDF is defending the hard-won civil rights of Black Americans against racially imposed barriers, laid out in Project 2025 and implemented by President Trump and the 119th Congress. As LDF Associate Director-Counsel Todd Cox explains on this episode of Power Station, Congress has abdicated its responsibility as a check on the executive and the U.S. Department of Justice has rejected its mandate to enforce civil rights laws, leaving the LDF and its sister organizations to carry out the fight in the courts. LDF brings the expertise and infrastructure needed to litigate, advocate in state legislatures and on Capitol Hill, organize in impacted communities and educate the public and policymakers abo

When UnidosUS convenes its annual conference this August, it will provide a safe space for the leaders of its 300 affiliates (community based nonprofits) to process and strategize over President Trump’s targeting of immigrants, assault on Medicaid and threats to their nonprofits’ tax exempt status. As Janet Murguía, President and CEO of UnidosUS shares on this episode of Power Station, it is an opportunity for thousands of leaders, stakeholders, allies and partners to draw strength from each other. As this nation’s largest Latino civil rights organization, UnidosUS is a powerhouse nonprofit whose expertise in organizing, research, policy advocacy, educational programming and civic engagement has advanced the rights and well-being of Latinos and other underinvested communities for 57 years. It remains a non-partisan frontline force for intergenerational wealth building, increasing opportunities for homeownership and educational opportunity through programs delivered by affiliates across America.  We talk about

In 1963, a time of heightened suppression of Black Americans to their civil rights, President Kennedy invited 244 lawyers to the White House, calling on them to use their expertise and influence to move the civil rights struggle from the streets into the courts. That call to action launched The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a nonprofit that for 63 years has tackled discrimination against people of color and championed the right to full participation in civic life. In this episode of Power Station, I am honored to feature Rob Weiner, Director of the Committee’s Voting Rights Project. which challenges efforts at the state and national levels to disenfranchise voters of color. It is notable and moving that until recently Rob was Senior Counsel at the Voting Rights Division at the US Department of Justice. He explains that under the Trump administration, the DOJ has abandoned its mission to protect the right to vote and is instead trafficking in disproven claims of voting scams and election fraud

It started, as promised, on Day 1 of this super-charged Trump Administration. His targeting of political foes, immigrants, the LGBTQ community, people of color and the nonprofit organizations that defend their rights morphed into punitive and legally dubious executive orders. Fortunately, the civil rights community was prepared for the onslaught. They had studied Project 2025, pre-election, the administration’s playbook for autocratic rule. John C. Yang, President and Executive Director of Advancing Justice - AAJC, my guest on this episode of Power Station, is one of those insightful and courageous leaders. He and his team at Advancing Justice - AAJC are standing up, in court and on Capital Hill, to the administration’s efforts to defund Asian American organizations, decimate the federal workforce (8% of which is Asian American) and deport community members, including naturalized citizens. Advancing Justice - AAJC is working in concert with civil right and public interest organizations representing all commun

As a nation we are learning a powerful lesson in real time. In the just completed first 100 days of the Trump administration, the president has led a reckless campaign of retribution that relies on the flouting of laws, courts and the constitution itself. From freezing federal funding to nonprofits that keep families fed to seizing immigrants and dispatching them without due process to foreign prisons he is adhering to Project 2025, the administration’s autocratic playbook for diminishing civil rights, a precursor to dismantling democracy. In this week’s episode of Power Station I speak with Skye Perryman, the intrepid and unbowed President and CEO of Democracy Forward, the national nonprofit on the frontlines of defending those whom the administration targets from his attacks. Democracy Forward is winning in the courts and in communities by giving a voice to those who are under attack. Its communications team is telling the stories of nonprofit leaders, lawyers and immigration advocates who are standing up f

To see disenfranchisement in action, look no further than Washington DC, whose 700,000 residents pay the highest taxes per household in our nation and yet have no voting members in the U.S. Congress. This inequity has persisted through both democratic and republican administrations and is intensifying in the 119th Congress and the Trump presidency. For almost 3 decades, DC Vote, a local nonprofit with national reach has led the movement for DC Statehood. It achieved the passage of Home Rule, but our elected leaders still do not control their budgets, and their legislation can be overturned by members of Congress who do not respect the right of a majority Black and Brown citizenry to govern itself. In this episode of Power Station I speak to DC Vote’s Organizing Director Kelsye Adams whose political savvy and organizing know-how is generating powerful pro-statehood coalitions across the nation. Kelyse, an organizing superstar, co-founded Free DC, which invites everyone, not just the organizationally affiliated

There is one fact that Lisa Countryman Quiroz, CEO of Jewish Vocational Service Bay Area (JVS) wants you to take away from our deeply data-informed conversation. There is a proven pathway for people stuck in low-quality jobs to secure high-quality employment that moves families into the middle class. And doing so generates a quantifiable return on investment. That fact is documented in unimpeachable quarterly earnings data collected by the state of California’s Employment Development Department. Job seekers, primarily women of color, come to JVS with aspirations and the need to provide for their families. JVS’s investments in them, customized training for specialized positions in industry and public agencies, one-on-one staff support and advocacy for systems change, make a better life for families achievable. Jobseekers come to JVS having earned around $40k annually. Post training, they earn $60k and in 5 years their salaries are over $100k. These results are life-changing for families and a huge win for econ

What is more powerful than a book that delivers a new framework for understanding and repairing the most foundational injustice in our nation, the gap in wealth and power between white and Black Americans? The first revelatory moment I experienced reading Black Power Scorecard by Dr. Andre Perry was his description of Black power, a data-driven and additive definition, which can be summarized as the ability to live a long and full life. What follows is a deep and data-driven dive into the conditions that make a long life possible, from communities with clean air, to home and business ownership to incomes that empower families. Understanding where these gaps in wealth and power lie, provides an unimpeachable policy framework for advancing Black Power in America. Most importantly, Andre Perry connects us to Black communities that are flourishing because of Black entrepreneurs and leaders, including Lanier Richardson whose business investments are creating a new class of owners in Black communities. These storie

There is no question that disinformation, the invention of narratives founded in lies to influence how Americans think was instrumental to the election of Donald Trump. The far right has transformed our media eco-system by repeating hateful messaging on questionable platforms now perceived by true believers to be legitimate. The repercussions are upon us: deportations without due process, federal funding freezes for resources that meet human needs, a campaign to eliminate the tax exempt status of social change nonprofits, the acquiescence of republican members of Congress to their leader and the largely uninspired response to this moment by democratic leaders. On this episode of Power Station, I turn to Kevin Peréz-Allen, Senior Vice President of the non-partisan Signal Group, which lives up to its descriptor as a modern public affairs firm. Kevin shares data from his deep dive into right-wing messaging and his experience with clients: nonprofits, businesses, law firms, embassies and universities that are nav

In 1984, at the height of the AIDS crisis, the LGBTQ community was pushing back hard against prejudice, transphobia and the failure of the public health system to meet dire medical needs. When queer youth, some of whom identified as trans, were hospitalized at the then-notorious St. Eliabeth’s hospital in Washington DC, a group of community members and health professionals founded SMYAL, a nonprofit that provides housing, mental health support and safe spaces for LGBTQ youth. As SMYAL’s executive director Erin Whalen explains on this episode of Power Station, our president wants to return to that punishing era . Erin are her team are not collapsing in the face of federal funding cuts, the targeting of LGBTQ youth, particularly those who are undocumented, and the rising incidents of hate they are navigating. They are taking steps to care for each other and to support the little SMYALs, the 6-12 years old children and their parents, some of whom are now losing access to vital gender affirming care. As Erin shar