Welcome to Real Solutions, a special 8-episode podcast series from the Othering & Belonging Institute featuring people leading efforts across the country that show what bold policy solutions would move the country towards belonging and wellbeing for all people.
The othering of people who have already been marginalized is a false solution claiming to respond to real problems. Think of messages like, "Your rent is too high, so the government should deport immigrants." "You’re worried about your kids’ future, so trans kids should lose their rights." These are real problems but false solutions. Real problems deserve real solutions.
By creating space to discuss promising policies from around the country, the podcast aims to make visionary policy voices widely accessible and foster conversations about real solutions among advocates, policy makers, and other agents of change. This podcast is co-hosted by OBI's Eli Moore and Richard Aviles.
Listen to Real Solutions on your favorite podcast platform, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, ListenNotes, PocketCasts, PodChaser, Boomplay, Amazon Music, and others. Prefer video? You can also watch Real Solutions on YouTube!
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EP 1: Real Solutions Podcast Launch!
In this premiere episode of our Real Solutions podcast series we hear from 10 leading advocates from organizations around the country fighting for a fair and just society! In the three-part conversation, the speakers delve into three critical questions:
In a moment of such dramatic attacks on communities and public institutions, why not just focus on defense? What is the power of putting forward real solutions even when it may feel impossible to achieve them? What are real solutions and what values do they need to embody? What ‘north star’ vision of the future do they move us towards?
Guests include: Christina Livingston, ACCE; Gordon Mar, NUHW; Ivan Luevanos-Elms, Local Progress; Irene Kao, Courage California; Jane Kim, Working Families Party; Lucas Grindley, Next City; Rithika Ramamurthy, Climate & Community Institute; Saqib Bhatti, Action Center on Race & Economy; Sara Hudson, Nonprofit Quarterly; Tony Samara, Right to the City; Zach Lou, California Green New Deal Coalition
EP 2: Baby Bonds
Over 13 million Americans have zero or negative wealth, and vast racial inequities in wealth persist. Baby Bonds are a way to ensure every young adult has some wealth to invest in their future. Baby bonds are publicly funded trust accounts established at birth for children, particularly those from low-wealth families. Upon reaching adulthood, beneficiaries can use the funds for purposes such as education, homeownership, or entrepreneurship.
Connecticut was the first state to create a Baby Bonds wealth building initiative. In this episode, we hear from two guests. One is David Radcliffe, who was the policy director for the Office of Connecticut State Treasurer, where he championed implementation of the first-in-the-country “Baby Bonds” program. David grew up in a small factory town in the Appalachian foothills of western Pennsylvania. David is now the State and Local Policy Director with the New School’s Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy.
And the second guest is Amit Khanduri, Director of Programs at the Georgia Resilience & Opportunity (GRO) Fund, where he leads efforts to narrow wealth inequality in Georgia — including through GRO’s Baby Bonds program. In Georgia, an accelerated baby bonds program has launched where young adults receive an investable lump sum (“Baby Bond”), a $500/month guaranteed income, and financial advising services.
EP 3: Crisis Response
Police were made the one-size-fits-all response to social problems in the US, driving a racist system of mass incarceration. To create an alternative, over 100 communities across the country have launched community crisis response programs that provide emergency public services responding to 911 calls by sending a community health worker, emergency medical technician or other non-police professional. This provides people in crisis with a healing-focused response, such as de-escalation, mental and physical health support, and connections to services. Ultimately these services promise to reduce police violence and rates of incarceration, and improve community health and stability.
In this episode of Real Solutions we hear from two experts on this topic: The first is Michelle Perin, who has spent 27 years working in community safety. Perin has been working at the community level in the oldest crisis response service in the country, in Eugene, Oregon. She has experience in traditional public safety roles (9-1-1 Dispatcher, Firefighter/EMT) and behavioral health. She began with the community crisis response service CAHOOTS in 2016. She worked on the van, as a clinical supervisor and coordinator and provided community training, especially to law enforcement and EMS partners.
And the second guest is Tahir Duckett, who is the Executive Director of Georgetown Law's Center for Innovations in Community Safety and an Adjunct Professor at the Law School. Duckett is a national expert on community crisis response programs who has a pulse on the range of programs around the country. His scholarship focuses on community safety infrastructure, including violence prevention and crisis response. He is a member of the non-partisan Council on Criminal Justice and sits on the Board of Directors of the Alternative Mobile Services Association. He was a founding executive committee member of Law For Black Lives-DC, an organization providing legal and policy support to the Movement for Black Lives in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.
EP 4: Wealth Tax
In this episode of Real Solutions we explore the policy of a wealth tax, which focuses on creating new funding for community investments by taxing the people and companies who can most afford to pay. A wealth tax corrects the tax system so that the wealthy pay their fair share, with the revenue going to advance community wellbeing. The guests are Darien Shanske, who is a Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of Law at UC Davis School of Law who has worked on wealth tax proposals at the federal level across many states; and Christina Livingston, who is the Executive Director of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE), who has worked on campaigns that addressed equitable infrastructure investment, progressive revenue solutions, and more.
EP 5: Social Housing
In this episode of Real Solutions, we discuss the issue of social housing as a response to the housing crisis. Social housing goes beyond simply building more housing units and demands those units be permanently affordable, promote social and racial equity, and include residents in decision-making that affects their homes. It’s a concept that can take many forms when it comes to implementation, and involves reimagining the government's role in, and commitment to, creating permanently affordable homes for all those who need them. The guests are Fernando Abarca and Roberto Jimenez. Fernandno is Associate Director of Capital Strategies at Right To The City Alliance. He is a Salvadoran-American housing justice organizer based in Los Angeles/Tongva Lands, CA. And Roberto is Executive Director of Seattle’s groundbreaking Social Housing program. He has more than 20 years experience planning and developing social housing, affordable housing for farm workers, and other types of housing.
