Living Cities is Voicing Race

In 2017, Living Cities launched a new podcast called “Voicing Race,” as part of our Closing the Gaps work. The podcast focuses on how various industries and sectors are talking about race and addressing systemic, institutional and individual biases that lead to racial inequities.

The inaugural podcast featured journalists Tanzina Vega of CNN and Barrett Pitner of the Guardian and the Daily Beast discussing race in the media.

In the podcast, which was inspired by Ava Duvernay’s 13th (the recent Netflix documentary on slavery and mass incarceration), Vega and Pitner spoke candidly about how they approach race in their work, and how storytelling can both build empathy and foster positive conversations on racial inequities. In addition to discussing recent news and media topics, the two journalists offered timely advice for those working on issues of race and poverty.

The second podcast, which was recently released, concentrates on the five cities participating in Living Cities’ and the Government Alliance on Race and Equity’s Racial Equity Here initiative. I, along with my colleague Hafizah Omar, spoke with mayors and city staff from Austin, Grand Rapids, Albuquerque, Louisville and Philadelphia on their work to close racial opportunity gaps.

In future episodes, we’ll continue to dig deeply into how organizations are doing the tough work of dealing with racial inequity and injustice, with an eye on actionable advice for our listeners.

Subscribe to Voicing Race on SoundCloud.