This is a short episode – about why we vote, and why we hold onto hope today and going forward – and it may be the episode that you need to hear today.
If you’ve already voted: THANK YOU.
If you haven’t voted yet, pause this and go do that.
Spread the word. Please VOTE.
Read MoreWhen we first recorded this episode, we were at the end of the Trump presidency, when we still had a legal right to abortion in this country. Roe v. Wade was still the law of the land, and women had access to safe abortion options in many states.
Now, on the eve of the 2024 Presidential elections, abortion is on the ballot in a post-Dobbs world, where we have women dying because they cannot get legal abortions, and there’s a whole bunch of lawmakers (mostly White dudes) who want to tell women what they can and cannot do with their own bodies. Oh, and don’t be fooled by Melania’s sudden desire to be pro-choice: there’s only one Presidential candidate who cares about women’s health and human rights (of which abortion is one), and her name doesn’t end with Trump.
So, take this as your reminder to vote for the candidate who cares about women - not about sexually assaulting them, but about their healthcare, their agency, and their bodies. And also, hopefully, as you listen to this re-release, you find that there are so many people out there fighting for women’s health care and reproductive justice, just like If/When/How and Mariko Miki are, and that there is a real community in this. That part is hope personified. And that is what we need to lean into now as well. So vote. And hold onto that hope.
Have questions, comments, or concerns? Email us at hello@dearwhitewomen.com
Read MoreTrump lies repeatedly. He’s shown us who he is. He’ll continue to try distancing himself from Project 2025 because it’s come under fire in public and he’s very image-savvy, but be very, very clear - this is his policy agenda outline. Listen to more of Trump’s policies in his own words, along with more on Project 2025, in this episode.
And if you want to do more, consider doing these things:
Register to vote and text your entire family and friend network to ensure they’re registered to vote - and ask if everybody has a plan for how to get their ballots in
Go to VoteForward and Center for Common Ground and write postcards - do this quick
Follow Erin Gallagher and the #hypewomen for Kamala - they’re mobilizing white women to take action, and the latest even got Oprah’s attention!
Listen to Episode 254 with activist Sam Chavez on what else you can be doing.
Read MoreYou know how we both feel about the phrase “oh, stop being so political” for the simple reason that politics IS personal.
Political choices impact most things you do on the daily, and often involve the things you care about the most for your community.
That’s why, today, we wanted to speak to someone who may not look like who you think of when you think “politician” - or at least, not until VP Harris stepped even further into the spotlight.
We hope you hear what it takes to be a woman of color running for office, the importance of representation, and why it’s important that every single one of us vote in this upcoming election.
Read MoreThis episode is for all of you who may think: “My vote doesn’t matter.” “I don’t vote.” “I would get involved but I don’t know how or where to volunteer.” “I don’t have any special election-related skills.” Or anything along those lines. You may have even said this out loud, or you may have heard friends or family say this. Either way, this is for you.
We said in our email this week that we were getting ready to dive into Election 2024 - because “I’m not political” or “I don’t talk about politics” is NOT going to cut it; these days, politics is invading our libraries, schools, wallets and bodies and those of our children as well.
So we bring you an incredible activist and supporter of activists, who will leave you with not only the best approach to engage people in your life who say they don’t do politics but also a bunch of organizations you can get involved with between now and November that we think will make a huge difference to the trajectory of our nation.
PS, if you aren’t yet on our email list, what are you thinking!? Get on it! Register at
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Read MoreWhat comes to your mind when you picture someone who’s resilient? Usually, we hear that it’s one person who’s faced a setback, and they remain hopeful and willing to work through the challenges to return to some sort of life they had before. Maybe you’ve heard the phrase “pick themselves up by their bootstraps” to describe this type of person. We know we have. But that doesn’t always work, as we continually say.
We have a guest today who’s going to help us critically examine that image we have - and help us understand what we’re missing. She’ll tell us we need to think critically about when it comes to glorifying resilience, especially if we’re doing it for individual gain or to showcase individual strength, without realizing that the opposite of resilience is loneliness – we have to remember the communal and community contribution to the ability to be resilient.
We’re at a time in history where it feels - no matter your perspective - like the world is burning down around us. We want to trust that we will still be standing. To do it, we need to know when to be optimistic and when to be strategically pessimistic, not beat ourselves up when we’re coming up against moral injury, embrace certain ways of thinking - cognitive flexibility, for those who want the big words - and hold onto hope for the collective, above all.
Read MoreMost of us say we’d speak up and do the right thing - that we’d not conform to horrible societal standards. We hear that, for example, when people speak about what happened during World War II in Europe. Would you have been part of the Resistance, knowing that the risk included not only social shunning but indeed death? But we also hear that so many of you have a hard time speaking up when it comes to interrupting moments of racism, sexism, misogyny, ageism, homophobia - I mean, it can be really intimidating to use your voice. Like, you *want* to do the right thing, but feel like you don’t have all the information, don’t know what to say, what the repercussions might be, for example.
We’re here to say that if there ever was a time for us to use our voice - from interrupting with people who want to take away other people’s rights, to promoting equity, looking out for ourselves by getting what we need from relationships and communities, and using our right to vote in the voting booths this fall (because yes, a vote can be your voice as well) - now is the time. We’re so grateful we get to bring you a meaningful and practical conversation that can help you reframe your understanding of why we become silent - and how to unlearn all of that intentionally, so we can start using our powerful voices again.
Read MoreWe’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.
Read MoreSo 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.
Read MoreIn 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 from what we’ve seen out there thus far.
Can’t wait for you all to listen and learn more.
Read MoreThis 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.
Read MoreI 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 well-being, 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?
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