Solving #MeToo

This interview was first recorded in February 2020. The world was a very different place then from the one we face in June 2020, at the time of its release. First coronavirus, then worldwide peaceful protests in response to the murder of George Floyd by an on-duty cop, have caused seismic global convulsions that are still reverberating. Because none of that had happened yet, it wasn't directly addressed in this conversation. Solving #MeToo stands with the Black Lives Matter protesters. Not only that, it is a fundamental part of our mission to seek out solutions to workplace sexual harassment and assault that work for ALL women, not just straight white affluent women. We do that by looking at the problems (and possible solutions) from a diversity of perspectives, as well as actively seeking out a diversity of voices to speak. Near the top of today's show, we invite you to listen to the trailer for The So-Called Oreos Podcast, a terrific project from 4 young Women of Color - Kia, Janae, Rachel and Amari. Their show addresses everything from career advancement to feminism to dating through the lens of being so-called oreos (black on the outside, white on the inside). https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/so-called-oreos/id1462012568 Today's episode of Solving MeToo features Sharmili Majmudar, the EVP of policy and organizational impact at Women Employed, an almost 50 year old organization widely recognized for its innovative work to improve women's economic status and remove barriers to economic equity. As in most episodes, we tackled the big philosophical questions this podcast seeks to address; and the back and forth that we had about restorative justice was really illuminating and thought provoking. We went on to discuss what companies can and should be doing to provide safer and more inclusive workplaces for all their employees. Here are a number of the resources referenced in the conversation: The recommendations to Uber, compiled by Eric Holder and the law firm Covington & Burling https://www.cnbc.com/2017/06/13/eric-holder-uber-report-full-text.html EEOC Promising Practices Guide for Preventing Harassment, from Nov 2017: https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/promising-practices-preventing-harassment "Men agree that gender diversity is important on boards - but they're sick of hearing about it," by Emma Hinchliffe for Fortune, Oct 8, 2019 https://fortune.com/2019/10/08/pwc-gender-diversity-boards-men-2019/ So if you're the leader of a company or organization, we offered you the spectrum of accountability that you need to create, as well as the outcomes you should be expecting from your employee education. Spoiler: it's not just about checking a box to protect yourself from legal liability.

Joan has been a fixture in the Chicago media landscape for more than 35 years. She first came to Chicago in 1981 as a 27-year-old reporter and weekend anchor at WGN-Channel 9, then became a Monday-Friday anchor star at both the local ABC and NBC affiliates. Since leaving NBC 5 in 1999, Esposito formed J2 Strategic Communications, a media training firm. She is now back to her roots in radio. In Feb 2020 she took over as host of WCPT AM 820's afternoon talk show, after the legendary Ben Joravsky stepped down from that slot. Joan was the victim of false accusations back in the 90s - not about sexual harassment, but terrible character assassination. We talked about how she sued the local shock jock who fanned the flames of the allegations on air, and how she found - and he earned - forgiveness. We also talked a lot about beauty, and what a double edged sword it is. As she said, "You wanted the boss to think you were pretty ... but not too pretty." And how neither of us ever felt that our beauty was a tool in our arsenal, something we could wield as we saw fit. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Would you like us to keep making more episodes like this one? Make a contribution here. Join the Solving #MeToo community: email: feedback@solvingmetoo.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/199718984507390/ Twitter: @Julia_Kline, @SolvingMeToo #TheSMTPodcast, #SolvingMeToo

Jennie Willoughby became a symbol of forgiveness and compassion in early 2018 when she wrote a blog post that became a viral sensation - and sparked the global hashtag #AndSoIStayed - detailing the abuse she suffered at the hands of her ex-husband, a top aide to President Donald Trump. Jennie is now a writer, speaker and singer whose message encourages us all to strive for empathy, connection and self-compassion. The reason I wanted to talk to Jennie is that the work that she's doing is so in alignment with this podcast, and the movement behind the podcast: Stop the abuse. Foster healing. Fix broken systems. But wrap all of it in as much compassion and forgiveness as possible, without diminishing the first three. Jennie's performance of her blog post + 2 songs, at a fundraiser for the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence in October 2019. Jennie's interview with Mark Halperin (edited by Mark's people prior to publication, so it's lost much of Jennie's perspective unfortunately) The detailed allegations against Mark Halperin, in the words of the women he harmed ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Would you like us to keep making more episodes like this one? Make a contribution here. Join the Solving #MeToo community: email: feedback@solvingmetoo.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/199718984507390/ Twitter: @Julia_Kline, @SolvingMeToo #TheSMTPodcast, #SolvingMeToo

Alicia Garza is a civil rights activist and author with a lot of irons in the fire: Black Lives MatterNational Domestic Workers AllianceSupermajorityBlack Futures Lab We went deep fast in this conversation! We talked about transforming anger into love; we went deep into the topic of redemption; and Alicia presenced for us the idea that black communities are a part of the antidote to the poison that is spreading throughout this country. Bryan Stevenson's book, Just Mercy The Equal Justice Initiative Dr. King's speech, "Beyond Vietnam" The crimes of convicted serial sexual abuser, Harvey Weinstein Bill Cosby's sexual assault cases The sexual assault allegations against R Kelly Read the transcript of this episode or leave a comment here, on the Solving Me Too website ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Would you like us to keep making more episodes like this one? Make a contribution here. Join the Solving #MeToo community: email: feedback@solvingmetoo.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/199718984507390/ Twitter: @Julia_Kline, @SolvingMeToo #TheSMTPodcast, #SolvingMeToo

In this episode Julia interviews Daniel Epstein, a lawyer and former candidate for the Illinois Supreme Court. Daniel and Julia discussed a number of the shortcomings of our current criminal justice system - especially in Illinois, but also around the country - as well as specific recommendations for reforming them. They discussed everything from cash bail to the widespread use of private arbitration courts and NDA's. As the conversation turned to a discussion of how to implement transformative justice inside of American workplaces, Daniel had a number of interesting recommendations. View the transcript or leave a comment on this episode here, on the Solving MeToo website. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Would you like us to keep making more episodes like this one? Make a contribution here. Join the Solving #MeToo community: email: feedback@solvingmetoo.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/199718984507390/ Twitter: @Julia_Kline, @SolvingMeToo #TheSMTPodcast, #SolvingMeToo

Christian Picciolini is an award winning television producer, peace advocate, and a former violent extremist. After leaving the Neo Nazi skinhead movement that he helped to create in Chicago in the 1980s and 90s, he began the painstaking process of making amends and rebuilding his life. In 2016 he won an Emmy award for producing an anti hate advertising campaign aimed at helping people disengage from extremism. Julia wanted to talk to Christian about redemption and forgiveness: As someone who has himself done bad things, what makes him now worthy of being loved? And what about the men he works with - violent extremists who, in Christians words, are simply children with emotional potholes needing to be filled. Once he reaches them and they decide to leave the hate movements they're a part of, do they deserve forgiveness from society too? Christian's life since leaving the white power movement over two decades ago has been dedicated to helping others overcome their own hate. He now leads The Free Radicals Project, a global extremism prevention and disengagement network. His involvement in, and exit from, the early American white supremacist skinhead movement is chronicled in his memoir, White American Youth. His latest book Breaking Hate: Confronting the New Culture of Extremism was released in February, 2020. His disengagement work is also spotlighted in his MSNBC documentary series, Breaking Hate. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Would you like us to keep making more episodes like this one? Make a contribution here. Join the Solving #MeToo community: email: feedback@solvingmetoo.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/199718984507390/ Twitter: @Julia_Kline, @SolvingMeToo #TheSMTPodcast, #SolvingMeToo

"I had to stop being sexist against myself before I could really impact the behavioral sexism I was seeing in the environment." -- That's from this week's guest, attorney turned conflict resolution coach, Meredith Holley. Meredith is an attorney in Oregon who was working in 2013 at a law firm representing victims of sexual harassment. Yet at her law firm, one of her male bosses was sexually harassing HER. She said she found it to be an extremely humiliating problem to have; and yet she ultimately found a way to not just get the harassment to stop, but to continue working successfully at that same firm - with her harassy-y boss, no less - for several years to come. Throughout the conversation, Meredith had lots of helpful suggestions for women facing similar situations. And she delivers it all with a heavy dose of humor - there was lots of laughter throughout this episode. Julia and Meredith also talked about male backlash to the #MeToo era - and Meredith offered a (hopefully) reassuring story to the men listening, about a male client of Meredith's who said something sexist and dumb at a public event, came clean about it, and experienced a more positive outcome than he ever imagined he would as a result. (See, men? We aren't all out to get you! We just want you to take responsibility for your behavior, and demonstrate that you've changed. If you do that, we're pretty much all good!) Meredith is also the author of two books: Career Defense 101: How to Stop Sexual Harassment Without Quitting Your Job, by Meredith Holley The Inclusive Leader's Guide to Healthy Workplace Culture, by Meredith Holley To accept Meredith's generous offer of receiving BOTH her books, in digital form, free of charge go to https://CareerDefense101.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Would you like us to keep making more episodes like this one? Make a contribution here. Join the Solving #MeToo community: email: feedback@solvingmetoo.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/199718984507390/ Twitter: @Julia_Kline, @SolvingMeToo #TheSMTPodcast, #SolvingMeToo

In our mission to Solve #MeToo, we must be on the lookout for people who are deeply personally empowered - and Karine Jean-Pierre is one of these people. I knew it from the way she leapt up to protect Senator Kamala Harris when, onstage in the summer of 2019, a protester charged the stage at the MoveOn.org Big Ideas forum. And both her power and her heart were on display the night we met, when I broke into tears in a very public way on her book tour. We talked about heart, and courage, and the importance of taking action in these critical times we're all living through. To pick up a copy of Karine's book, Moving Forward, click here To get involved with MoveOn.org, start here ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Would you like us to keep making episodes like this one? Make a contribution here. Join the Solving #MeToo community: email: feedback@solvingmetoo.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/199718984507390/ Twitter: @Julia_Kline, @SolvingMeToo #TheSMTPodcast, #SolvingMeToo

Julia's guest on today's podcast is Ai-Jen Poo. She's an award winning organizer, social innovator, author, and a leading voice in the women's movement. She's the executive director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, co-director of Caring Across Generations, cofounder of Supermajority and trustee of the Ford Foundation. Ai-Jen is a nationally recognized expert on elder and family care, the future of work, gender equality, immigration, narrative change, and grassroots organizing. She is the author of the celebrated book, The Age of Dignity: Preparing for the Elder Boom in a Changing America. The conversation that Julia and Ai-Jen had focused around a theme of integrating healing and action. Ai-Jen told us the story of recovering from her own experiences of both harassment and assault and what an important part of her healing journey it was to get into action. She also talked about how important it was to have a community of people who could hear her story and believe her story and get into action with her to help change the conditions that so many workers like herself still face on a daily basis. She listed for us a number of different healing resources that are available out there, whether you are a domestic worker or you're anybody who is the survivor of workplace discrimination, harassment, or assault. https://metoomvmt.org/ https://www.domesticworkers.org/ info@domesticworkers.org - to get in touch directly with an organizer who can help you if you've experienced harassment or discrimination as a domestic worker The Time's Up Legal Defense Fund Julia and Ai-Jen also talked about a number of the different legislative actions that she is undertaking with the various organizations that she leads and which you can get involved in, helping to change the law to improve the lives of workers everywhere: National Domestic Workers Bill of Rights The Be Heard Act Universal Family Care Supermajority.org Read the transcript of this episode or leave a comment here, on the Solving #MeToo website. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Want to support us, so we can keep making episodes like this one? Make a contribution here. Join the Solving #MeToo community: email: feedback@solvingmetoo.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/199718984507390/ Twitter: @Julia_Kline, @SolvingMeToo #TheSMTPodcast, #SolvingMeToo