Star Wars, Spoilers, Relevance, Podcasts

This week Roxana and I talk about about who the force belongs to, Mark Hamill’s brooding, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

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Roxana Hadadi is a writer with a lot of thoughts about a lot of things, but mostly movies, TV, books, and pop culture. She is a member of the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association, a Tomatometer-approved criticon Rotten Tomatoes, is the movie reviewer for family magazine ChesapeakeFamily.com and Pajiba.com, and shares her opinions, judgments, rants, and raves at RoxanaHadadi.com and at @roxana_hadadi. 

Check out Roxana's review for Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Courage, Growth, Choice, Podcasts

This week I sit down with Erin, to talk about courage, growth, and finding light in the dark.

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Erin Essenmacher is an award-winning writer, director and producer with more than 20 years of experience in writing, broadcast and non-broadcast production with a strong focus on documentary.

She currently serves as the Chief Programming Officer for the National Association of Corporate Directors where she oversees content, programming and strategy for more than 60 virtual and brick and mortar education programs for NACD’s 18,000 members.

Erin began her production career at Hedrick Smith Productions, where she was responsible for all phases of production and outreach on several prime-time specials for PBS, including “Critical Condition”, “Juggling Work and Family” and “Rediscovering Dave Brubeck.” She has since worked as writer, producer and director on documentary films for PBS, The Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, the History Channel and Court TV, including “Duel: Hamilton vs. Burr” a special for the History Channel featuring actor Richard Dreyfuss, and the series “Body of Evidence” for Court TV.   

She was produced work for corporate and non-profit organizations including Acura, Sony, the Gap, Little Pim, The Non-Profit Housing Coalition of the Bay Area, SEIU and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Erin produced and co-wrote the independent film “MINE” which won the Audience Award for Best Documentary at both the 2009 South by Southwest Film Festival and the 2009 SF Doc Fest. The film received critical acclaim from a wide variety of news outlets from Entertainment Weekly to the New York Times, and enjoyed a successful theatrical run. “MINE” also aired on Independent Lens as part of the 2010 season, where it won the Audience Award for best doc.  

Erin is served on board of directors of Gandhi Brigade and is former president of the board of Women in Film and Video, Washington, DC. She has served as judge for various film and art competitions including AFI Docs and the Bethesda Film Festival.

Erin holds a degree in Political Science and American Culture with a minor in Communications from the University of Michigan. 

Policy, Politics, Security, Podcasts

This week I sit down with Charlie to talk about cyber security, the difference between politics and policy, and ways to make the world better in our everyday lives.

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Charlie Germano has spent the last 25 years trying to make your life better by designing, building, and managing software products. If you've ever been on an airplane, stayed at a hotel, gone to the movies, or used a GPS, he's definitely had a hand in the technology that made it happen. When he's not safely in front of a computer or on the road, these days you can usually find him protesting something, somewhere.

History, Narrative, Truth, Podcasts

This week I sit down with Amber to talk about thanksgiving, historical revisionism, and how understanding our past is a first step toward a better future.

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Amber Richardson is an enrolled citizen of the Haliwa-Saponi Indian Tribe, which is primarily located in Hollister, North Carolina. She grew up in Hollister, attending the Haliwa-Saponi Tribal School, then the North Carolina School of Science and Math in Durham, NC, and finally, Duke University, where she earned her BA in Psychology as a Gates Millennium Scholar. Amber's professional career has been driven by a passion for minority youth engagement. She started with the BOOST Program (Building Opportunities and Overtures in Science and Technology) which increases access to mentorship and STEM opportunities for minority students in Durham. She also served the North Carolina Native American Youth Organization (NCNAYO) in many capacities, including facilitator of a youth grant-writing education program called North Carolina Giving Indians Volunteer Experience (NCGIVE). Now, Amber supports Native youth on a national level, as Communications Associate for the Center for Native American Youth at The Aspen Institute in Washington, DC. 

Amber is roommate to Bruno Falcon, creator of Applying to Everything. They share a lovely home in Columbia Heights where Amber enjoys processing her feelings through rounds of Halo, pints of Ben & Jerry's, and Sims 4 marathons.

A note from Amber: As I said in the beginning of the episode, I am not an expert on US-Federal Indian policy. Here are a couple resources I've found most helpful in my own journey to learn and share our true history: 

• An Indigenous People's History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. Must read. Great stuff about the war tactics discussed in the episode. 
• The blog and Twitter account of Dr. Adrienne Keene, Cherokee professor at Brown University who primarily writes about cultural appropriation and erasure of Indigenous history and culture. Great stuff including why it's not ok for non-Native people to wear headdresses. 

And a few other helpful resources/notes: 

• NPR's 1A episode on Indigenous People's Day. Good for understanding how inaccuracies in the U.S. public education system actually affect Native peoples and Native youth. 
• Note about tribal belonging: Each tribe has their own enrollment criteria. My tribe requires that one parent be enrolled Haliwa, and that the applicant be able to prove social and community ties. Other tribes determine enrollment by blood quantum, matrilineal affiliation (i.e. enrollment is determined by the mom), or other policies. The important takeaway here is that tribes are sovereign political entities, not racial identifications. Thus the varying citizenship prerequisites. 
• Note about Indian vs. Native American vs. Native vs. Indigenous. I use them interchangeably, but the best way to identify someone is by first and ALWAYS asking what they prefer; however it's generally best/safe to call them by their tribe or use the term Indigenous. 

Music, Culture, Mastery, Podcasts

This week I sit down with Jonny Grave, to talk about music, craft, and how things change and stay the same.

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Jonny Grave is a guitarist, songwriter, singer, bandleader, teacher, musical historian, journalist, and Blues-man from Washington, D.C. Growing up in a musical family, Jonny Grave was introduced to the sounds of American traditional folk music early on.  At age fifteen, he found himself learning slide guitar techniques from old Blues records, and by seventeen he was performing them live. Grave has performed at hundreds of venues from the red dirt floor of Gip's Juke Joint to the red carpet of the Kennedy Center.

Check out Jonny's upcoming shows here, and follow him on facebook, twitter, and instagram, @jonnygrave

Also, here is a link to a photo of a Fender Katana. It is as rediculous as it sounds.