We’re going to be sharing this episode today, which if you’re listening in real-time, is shortly after President Biden stepped aside, not accepting the Democratic nomination and instead, getting behind his VP Kamala Harris - our country’s first female VP, and first Asian and Black VP as well.

Today’s episode is focused on acknowledging the contributions of people who came before Ruby Bridges, who we all think of when we think of school integration. Little did we know that back in 1868 in Iowa, there was a young Black teen who was actually the first known person to integrate a school. What would happen if we all read children books that included the story of Susan Clark? How would knowing about our country’s real history, with all its nuances, false starts, hope, and persistence change our understanding of where we are as a country today - and what it really will take to move it forward into a more tolerant, accepting, integrated, supportive, community-driven nation? Maybe it would teach us that history isn’t linear, that backlashes do happen, but that the desire to fight is a sign that we all still hold onto hope, which is really what we need collectively now.

What to listen for:

• What’s so important about understanding real history - in particular, the contribution of girls and women

• What the story of Susan Clark tells us about how change does NOT come easily, does not come linearly, and that history repeats itself.

• Why this story was written as a children’s book

About Joshalyn:

Joshalyn Hickey-Johnson, aka Ms. Rocki, was born and raised in Waterloo, Iowa, and attended Waterloo public schools. She is the mother of two and grandmother of seven. Ms. Rocki took on the challenge of working a traditionally male job at Viking Pump in Cedar Falls, Iowa, and worked there for 30 years. She began writing books featuring real-life experiences from her children’s lives as they were growing up. Her debut book, “GOOD MORNING, LOVEY!” was published in 2005, followed by “Travis It’s NOT Your Birthday!” in 2008. She partnered with Chaveevah Ferguson, serving as a publicist with BaHar Publishing, the first African-American-owned book publishing company in Iowa. She co-authored “Ropes In The Kitchen” with her father, Naaman ‘Jock’ Hickey. Ms. Rocki started NORTH END UPDATE, a weekly live interactive show highlighting good things in her local community and featured on Iowa Public Television’s “Greetings from Iowa.” Since 2017, she has worked on the show with her best friend and co-host Chaveevah. Ms. Rocki recently hosted Iowa PBS’s “Juneteenth: THE MOVEMENT.”

So we’ve spoken inspirationally and aspirationally about wellbeing, the power of the pause, about spirituality.

But what if my brain is still going, but I can’t wrap my head around this all – I need some more structure, some more tools, some more intellectual perspective!?

We’ve got a book for you!

And if you’ve been a longtime listener to the podcast, you know that we very rarely do repeat guests, unless we (a) love them and (b) feel like they’ve got another message to bring to our community.

Dr. Sue Varma fits the bill for both, and so much more. We’re bringing her back to talk about her new book, Practical Optimism, with excellent frameworks around well-being, how to survive this rollercoaster of a year, and so much more.

What to listen for:

• A three-point framework on how to make (tough) decisions

• The importance of balancing a life of purpose with a life of joy - yes, busy women, even us! That scale imagery got us…

• Practical ways to challenge ourselves when we’re not seeing things clearly

• How culture plays into our lives and our sense of belonging

About Sue:

Dr. Sue Varma, one of the nation's foremost mental health authorities, is truly a multidimensional expert. Dr. Varma is an esteemed physician and board-certified psychiatrist practicing in Manhattan for over twenty years, specializing in cognitive behavioral therapy, psychopharmacology, and couples counseling. She is a nationally acclaimed medical commentator and has been at the forefront of some of the most important mental health conversations of the day. From breaking news and documentaries to primetime specials across the major networks, Dr. Varma has been a long-time contributor to the Today Show, CBS Mornings, Nightly News, GMA and has given over 2000 media interviews over the last two decades and has been featured in Washington Post, Time Magazine, NY Times, and numerous health and wellness magazines. Dr Varma is a media advisor and consultant to medical organizations and news groups,  and an internationally renowned keynote speaker across industries. She is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Dr. Varma’s dedication to mental health is underscored by her pioneering role as the inaugural medical director and psychiatrist of the esteemed 9/11 mental health program at NYU, for which she was awarded a Mayoral Proclamation. She is a two-time Sharecare Emmy Award recipient, the Ivan Goldberg Public Service Award and is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the highest distinction bestowed upon its members. Dr. Varma  was recognized as one of the world’s top five leading health experts by Global Citizen for her contributions during the pandemic. Her new book, Practical Optimism: The Art, Science and Practice of Exceptional Well Being, has not only been resonating with readers in the U.S with rave reviews- Publishers Weekly says "Readers don’t have to bury their heads in the sand to live 'fully and joyfully' in an imperfect world, promises psychiatrist Varma in her buoyant debut." and "Studded with catchy pearls of wisdom, this can-do guide uplifts. Practical Optimism, now available everywhere, was featured in the NY Times twice this year and is now being translated into more than nine languages worldwide. 

Website: www.doctorsuevarma.com, IG @doctorsuevarma, Book: Practical Optimism

In the five-plus years of the podcast, I’d say that we have spent a LOT of time on various “hot button” issues - I mean, we live quite squarely in the ones that surround race and identity, wouldn’t you say? - but one of the facets of identity that we don’t often explore is that of religion. Not because we don’t want to talk about it, but a lot of times the opportunity doesn’t really present itself.

That’s why we were so excited to talk to one of the authors of Healing Our Way Home, a new book that addresses white supremacy and identity through the lens of Black Buddhist teachings.

What started out as a series of conversations between three practitioners morphed into a whole book, focusing on self-care and Buddhist teachings with the goal of collective liberation in mind, but in a way that’s totally different than what we’ve seen out there thus far.

Can’t wait for you all to listen and learn more.

What to listen for:

• A brief explanation of the Buddhist history and teachings

• What it was like knowing Zen Master Thich Nhat Han

• Three powerful questions we should all be asking ourselves, as we work to remain centered in our own selves while experiencing the world in its current poly-crisis state.

About the authors:

KAIRA JEWEL LINGO is a Dharma teacher with a lifelong interest in spirituality and social justice. Her work continues the Engaged Buddhism developed by Thich Nhat Hanh, and she draws inspiration from her parents’ lives of service and her dad’s work with Martin Luther King, Jr. After living as an ordained nun for 15 years in Thich Nhat Hanh’s monastic community, Kaira Jewel now teaches internationally in the Zen lineage and the Vipassana tradition, as well as in secular mindfulness, at the intersection of racial, climate and social justice with a focus on activists, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, artists, educators, families, and youth. Based in New York, she offers spiritual mentoring to groups and is the author of We Were Made for These Times: Ten Lessons in Moving through Change, Loss and Disruption and co-author of the forthcoming, Healing Our Way Home: Black Buddhist Teachings on Ancestors, Joy and Liberation (Feb 2024) from Parallax Press. Her teachings and writings can be found at www.kairajewel.com.

VALERIE BROWN, True Sangha Power (pronouns she/her), is a Dharma teacher in the Plum Village tradition, ordained in 2018, and a member of Religious Society of Friends. She transformed her twenty-year, high-pressure career as a lawyer-lobbyist into human-scale, social-equity-centered work, guiding leaders and organizations to foster greater understanding, authenticity, compassion, and trust.

MARISELA B. GOMEZ is a co-founder of Village of Love and Resistance in Baltimore Maryland, organizing for power, healing, and the reclamation of land. She is a meditation and Buddhist teacher, physician-scientist, and holistic health practitioner. She lives in the lands previously stewarded by the Piscataway, Lumbi, and other tribes, colonized as Baltimore Maryland in the USA. She is the author of Race, Class, Power, and Organizing in East Baltimore along with other scholarly, political, and spiritual writings.

For more information: https://www.parallax.org/product/healing-our-way-home/

This one goes out to all the busy women in our community.

Whether you’re a Type-A, a Recovering Type-A, a paid working mom or a working mom in the home - we hear it over and over again: we women are feeling stretched super thin, exhausted, and overwhelmed.

Enter a radical mindset shift: the power of rest.

We’re excited to bring you a conversation with Kibi Anderson, who drops brilliant reframing of what we think of as rest (it’s not always what we’ve been led to believe) and other life advice that helped us breathe a little better.

What to listen for

• Kibi’s story to becoming the Rested Rebel!

• What is rest? Anything that gives you joy, moving from me-care to we-care.

• Other life advice including not to take things personally, and not to make assumptions - from The Four Agreements.

• All about the multi-author book, Point Taken, that Kibi was part of, and why you should buy a friend a copy.

About Kibi

Kibi Anderson is an author, coach, keynote speaker, and Emmy Award-winning content producer. She is a graduate of Harvard College and NYU Stern Business School, and the founder of Life Editor, a firm providing communications and leadership coaching to C-Suite & Senior Leaders. She has helped drive millions of dollars in annual revenue, created international content campaigns, and offered counsel to global Fortune 100 and startup clients. She has traversed an illustrious career in international management consulting, film production, and technology entrepreneurship while also managing a chronic auto-immune condition. She believes and teaches that the key to ultimate professional success is not through working harder, but embracing the power in the pause.

I don’t know that there’s a better book and conversation to kick off our summer author series with than this one.

We’ve said for a while now that there’s a benefit to applying a psychological, human-based lens to the social justice learning we’ve been sharing on this show for the last five years.

This conversation shows us why we are spending our summer talking about that bridge, which over the course of the next few months will center discussions about wellbeing, about the power of the pause, practical optimism, meditation, and more.

Because in the midst of such a turbulent, divided time, don’t you want to feel better?

With social psychologist Dolly Chugh, we’ll get into some beautiful stories that let us all remember there are times we prioritize comfort over discomfort – but that not knowing facts creates its own sense of discomfort too. Why not join us in the learning and unlearning?

What to listen for

• How unlearning is not just intellectual work, but emotional work too.

• The on-the-spot example that gamers might really relate to

• A brilliant takedown of nostalgia, which we all fall for, and the impact it can have

• How to spot simplified fables (clear cause & effect, flawless heroes, good guys beating bad guys) to know when we need to be mindful when reflecting on history

• Apologies

About Dolly

Dolly Chugh (she/her, hear my name) is an award-winning professor at the New York University Stern School of Business where she teaches MBA courses in leadership and management. Her research focuses on “bounded ethicality”, which she describes as the “psychology of good people.” She is the author of The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias (HarperCollins, 2018), A More Just Future (Simon & Schuster, 2022), and the popular Dear Good People newsletter. Dolly’s TED Talk was named one of the 25 Most Popular TED Talks of 2018 and currently has more than 5 million views.

This episode is a continuation of last week’s episode, so if you haven’t already listened to that one (it should be right above this one in your podcast feed), stop and go listen now, as it will make the most sense when listened to in order. This week we pick up where we left off, with the remaining four independent dimensions of well-being: spiritual, vocational, financial, and environmental. Let’s just get right to it.

What to listen for?

• In today’s episode, we talk about the four remaining dimensions of wellness - spiritual, vocational, financial and environmental;

• Trump’s support of extreme Christian viewpoints and his own view of himself as “The Chosen One” go against Constitutional and foundational principles of separation of church and state;

• Despite being the politician for “every man,” Trump dislikes unions (and the feeling is mutual) because he’s first and foremost his own supporter;

• Trump’s financial policies are aimed at making his own life (and those of the extremely wealthy) easier, whereas Biden’s economic policies helped all of us;

• Trump is actively working to remove America from climate accords that will negatively impact our world and future generations (plus he doesn’t believe in climate change)

• How we can get involved to protect our own, and everyone else’s, wellbeing

Link to last week’s episode HERE.

In our last episode, we went through reasons - issue by issue (not all of them, but a lot of them) - about why our freedom and democracy are at risk if you vote for Trump and he gets elected for president again in 2024.

In brief, things like his stance on immigration and making America a white-supremacist-centered nation; Ukraine and what that says about his desire to pander to the influence of outside nations; his hatred of the press and what that indicates about his desire to turn America into an authoritarian state; abortion, and what this means for every woman, mother, and person capable of bearing a child, including the freedom of families overall. Notably, all through his own words because he’s been telling us what he’s going to do for years.

In today’s episode, we’re going inside (ourselves) to talk about wellness and thriving, and whether or not we value societies that make it possible for us to feel - and be - well. We’ll do this through the lens of a possible second Trump presidency, because we firmly believe that a second Trump presidency is bad for our well-being - mine and yours, both mentally and physically - and bad for us all, as human beings.

What to listen for?

• The eight dimensions of wellness/wellbeing (in today’s episode, we talk about four of them - physical, intellectual, emotional, and social);

• Trump’s policies that impact our physical well-being, including ACA and access to abortions;

• How Trump’s disbelief in scientific fact and restrictions around schooling harm go directly against building intellectual well-being, especially for our future generations;

• The emotional effects that we’re already feeling from a possible second term for Trump; and

• How a Trump presidency could result in increased social isolation and divisiveness for our communities.

In case you missed it, here’s the link to our last episode on the risks to our freedom and democracy: https://www.dearwhitewomen.com/episodes/244-why-we-need-to-take-trump-at-his-word-dont-look-away

You know that person you know - the one who exaggerates everything?

It’s kind of like that story of the blameless “boy who cried wolf” who lives in fantasy land and never takes responsibility for anything - and this person seemingly has not only the best life anyone could ever imagine, with loads of money, tons of friends, amazing vacations, but also, nothing ever seems to go wrong? (Instagram is a drug, friends).

Now imagine that friend is running (again) for President of the United States.

And that friend is bringing that energy into the race in the most destructive, divisive way possible, in which he’s only out for himself - which his statements prove every.single.day.

Those statements that you would roll your eyes at and dismiss? Now, you no longer can, because those statements tell you who he is, and exactly what he plans to do if he gets re-elected (spoiler alert: it’s going to be hugely destructive to our lives as we know them, and most, if not all, of our freedoms that we take for granted.).

You guessed it - we’re talking about Trump, and why we need to take him at his word. In other words, even though it’s painful - don’t look away.

He’s giving us the blueprint of how a Trump presidency would be, and not only is it worse than last time, it will destroy our democracy and our freedom along with it.

What to listen for?

• Why we think the risk of having Trump in a second term is FAR more dangerous than having Biden.

• Looking specifically at the harms that will befall our country because of things like his views on:

• • Immigration and making America a white-supremacist-centered nation,

  • Ukraine and what that says about his desire to pander to the influence of outside nations,

  • His hatred of the press and what that indicates about his desire to turn America into an authoritarian state,

  • Violence, and how a deeper threat of control and violence will eventually impact every American citizen

  • Abortion, and what this means for every woman, mother, and person capable of bearing a child, including families overall.

• Do not look away from the massive threat Trump poses for our country.

Link to Trump’s Authoritarian Playbook 2025: https://www.authoritarianplaybook2025.org/

Resources:

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