Ellie 2.0 Radio

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We start out with featuring the idealistic MSNBC host Chris Hayes and his meteoric rise in broadcast journalism (he is the youngest person to ever host a news show) and my belief in his honesty. The Big Interview is with Emily Strasser, author of Half-Life of a Secret: Reckoning with a Hidden History, a fascinating…

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This week’s featured idealist is LeBron James, who just broke the NBA scoring record. In August 2018, I shared about the “I Promise” school his family foundation helped to create in LeBron’s hometown of Akron, Ohio. Today we revisit how that initiative is impacting hundreds of students who might otherwise get lost in the educational…

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To commemorate World Holocaust Remembrance Day, we begin with a story about CANDLES (Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiments), a nonprofit in Terre Haute IN and the stories of three Holocaust survivors who lived in Terre Haute. It’s quite a collective story about survival and idealism, with the survivors believing that if their personal…

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It’s a live show! We begin with an interview of Lehman Riley, the author of the Papa Lemon children’s books series—stories that seek to teach children the basics about respect, equality, allyship and how not to bully. Lehman is a magnetic personality who goes into the classrooms to help children get excited about learning and…

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We start off the brand new year with our featured idealist, Hakeem Jeffries, the newly elected House Minority Leader, who’s proven to be determined and persistent in his professional and political careers. The Big Interview is with Greg Anderson, the curator of the podcast, Living in Carver County, who talks about the need to get…

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Ellie talks about the political scene in Iowa.

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It’s a live show beginning with James Curry of Building Remembrance 4 Reconciliation, a nonprofit that’s working to help Hastings MN and other communities heal from histories of racial intolerance. From there, I talk about how the Respect for Marriage Act, contrary to popular opinion, is not a federal law guaranteeing marriage equality or biracial…

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A live show where I talk about CNN journalist Jake Tapper’s article in The Atlantic highlighting the injustice of our legal system that appoints incompetent attorneys to represent the indigent. I also share about idealist Chris Stout, a wounded service member who has devoted his life to creating the Veterans Community Project in Kansas City,…

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(10/22/22)—For this live show, I begin with a Time Magazine piece, “The U.S. is Heading Toward a Second Civil War. Here is How We Avoid It,” by Peter T. Coleman. The solution—surprise—is that we need to talk to each other. I also highlight California Congresswoman Katie Porter’s most recent whiteboard re: how corporate profits are…

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We begin this week’s show by highlighting Rex Chapman, a former NBA superstar turned addict turned Twitter king with 1.5 million followers—he talks about his life’s challenges to help others and in my book that makes him an idealist! The Big Interview is with Dr. Dan Kessler, who’s running for MN’s District 48 senate seat.…

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Our featured idealist is Alfred Nobel, the genesis for the Nobel Peace Prize and other esteemed honors in physics, chemistry, medicine, economics and literature. Nobel’s motivation to be remembered for something good, rather than for inventing dynamite, was grounded in reading his obituary that mistook him (still alive) for his brother who had passed. The…

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(9/24/22)—We begin with highlighting Goldie’s Bagels in Columbia MO and J. Selby’s in St. Paul for their programs of giving a free meal to anyone who asks for one—nice charity! At Goldie’s there’s a “neighbor account” where customers can contribute; what a great idea! The Big Interview is an encore of my October 2021 interview…

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(9/10/22)—Our Featured Idealist is Mary Peltola, the congressperson-elect from Alaska, and the first native Alaskan to ever be elected to Congress. The Big Interview is with Katie White, a heart transplant recipient who discovered her artistic bend through a program named, “Art at the Bedside,” while waiting for a new heart at the Mayo Clinic.…

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Ellie talks with David Edgerton Jr about increasing diversity in the professional workforce.

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It’s a live show! The Big Interview is with 13-year-old Grayson Lee White and his mother, Molly; Grayson is the author of Dotson, a book about Grayson’s journey in understanding that he is transgender and his family’s loving support. Our featured idealist is RIP Medical Debt, created by two former debt collectors who now buy…

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This week, in lieu of a featured idealist, I talk about how a stranger’s compassion and gift of $100 to two refugee teen girls resonated for nearly a quarter century; I also talk about Peace of Mind Dog Rescue in southern CA the helps care for the dogs of aging seniors. The Big Interview is…

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Our featured idealist of the week is Nora Spencer and her North Carolina nonprofit, Hope Renovations, which trains women and nonbinary humans on basic skills for the construction trades and then supports them to increase the number of women in the trades. This week’s Big Interview is with Lloyd Campbell, the newly elected governor for…

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This week’s featured idealist is Lorraine Hansberry, who at age 29 became the first black female playwright to have a play, A Raisin in the Sun, performed on Broadway. The Big Interview is with Taylor Lyons, one of the founders of Moms for Social Justice, and who took on the Chattanooga TN school board for…

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Our featured idealist is Mary McLeod Bethune, who was born in a South Carolina log cabin in 1875 to parents who had been enslaved. She understood the power of education and would go on to found what eventually became Bethune Cookman University in Daytona Beach FL. But she was much more—Eleanor Roosevelt declared that Mary…

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This week’s featured idealist is Summer Clayton, who’s amassed nearly 3 million Tik Tok followers with his “Proud Dad” videos where he talks to children and youth in imaginary 2-way conversations. His messages are uplifting and supportive and filled with kindness/compassion! The Big Interview is with Mark Wilkening, the executive director of Twin Cities-based Bridging,…

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Ellie talks with Pastor Dean Seal of Shepard of the Hill Presbyterian Church in Chaska, MN.

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The Dobbs v. Jackson decision broke just before I taped the show, so the Big Interview is with Pastor Dean Sloan of the Shepherd of the Hills Presbyterian Church in Chaska, MN where we talk about how not all religions are anti-abortion. Our featured idealist is Jim Obergefell, who was the named plaintiff in the…

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I begin with our featured idealist, Edie Windsor, who succeeded in getting the Supreme Court to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act’s provision that prevented domestic partners from securing the same rights as married couples. From there, I talk about the Nativity School of Worcester MA, a Catholic school for middle school boys from…

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Our featured idealist is an organization, Sandy Hook Promise, which was created by parents who lost children in the horrific school shooting that occurred on December 14, 2012. SHP works to end gun violence in our schools and in doing so, promotes inclusivity and compassion for all students. The Big Interview is with Cheryl Thomas,…

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It’s a live show! The Big interview is with Ken Lawrence and Paul Johnson, creators/curators of The Modern White Man podcast, who talk about their efforts to fight back against white supremacy and fear of “Other.” This week’s featured idealist is Chris Smalls, a former Amazon employee who successfully worked to unionize one of Amazon’s…

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A Live Show! We begin with a May 2022 Atlantic Magazine article by Ko Bragg titled, “Tour Guides to a Tragedy,” which details how the town of Philadelphia MS refuses to acknowledge one of the most horrific crimes of the Civil Rights movement—the 1964 murder of civil rights workers Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James…

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This week’s show begins with a lengthy review of how social media has made America more divided and stupid, based on a May 2022 Atlantic Magazine piece by Jonathan Haidt. The Big Interview is a reprise of my interview with David Liners, a priest-turned-nonprofit founder, who oversees WISDOM in Wisconsin—a collection of religious organizations working…

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This week it’s a Live Show where I feature an idealist, Malcolm Nance, a 20-year Navy veteran who engaged in multiple ground combat operations. Nance recently left his cushy media commentator gig with MSNBC and anti-terrorism consulting company to fight for Ukraine. I also talk about how Florida’s governor DeSantis has sought to punish Disney…

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**This show originally aired April 27, 2020** This week I talk about the 50th anniversary of “Earth Day” and feature its architect, Denis Hayes. The Big Interview is with Diane Muntean, who I worked with to help training 1200 people in Steamboat Springs CO last September. In the C-Block I talk about the first Earth…

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In lieu of a featured idealist, I share from a 4.8.22 NYT piece titled, “How did LGBT Rights Again Become the Subject of a Culture War?” by David Leonhardt and Ian Prasad Philbrick. In particular, the authors theorize that Republicans briefly stayed away from attacking LGBTQ+ rights for fear of alienating younger voters. However, that…

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Our featured idealist is Reporters Without Borders, which works to bring truth and information in countries where there isn’t a free press. I also note that as of the date of my show, five journalists/reporters had been killed in Ukraine. I then pivot to talking about the on-going attacks against transgender people, particularly trans youth,…

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This week’s featured idealist is Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, whose idealism led him to run for president in 2019 and win with 73% of the vote. With his wartime videos, we’ve seen this comedic actor-turned president become the most inspirational figure of our time! The Big Interview is with Jeffrey Siminoff, Sr. Vice…

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Our featured idealist is Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson—her work to this point in her life points to a real idealist. The Big Interview is with Dean Holt, a Children’s Theater Company actor who appears in Something Happened in Our Town, a wonderful, thought-provoking play adapted from the children’s book with the same…

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Another live show, with our featured idealist being Baton Rouge native Gary Chambers, Jr., who is challenging John Kennedy for the Senate; last month, Chambers announced his candidacy by sitting in a stuffed chair in a farm field wearing a suit and smoking a blunt. He spoke about how black persons are arrested for marijuana…

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Another Live Show! The Big Interview is with Ellen Kennedy of World Without Genocide, a St. Paul nonprofit that works to educate about genocide and end it throughout the world. I then pivot to proposed legislation in Tennessee that would prohibit gender-affirming medical or therapeutic care for all minors in the state. I also highlight…

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A Live Show! We begin with our featured idealist, NFL football coach Brian Flores who this week filed a class action lawsuit against the NFL and three teams alleging that he was racially discriminated against. Brian explained that he understood his entire future coaching career is at risk, but said he was doing it for…

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We begin this week’s show talking about how there’s a push to ban books that make people “uncomfortable” or which contain “obscenity” (loosely defined as anything related to LGBTQ+ topics). Our featured idealists are four female Granbury, Texas high school students who bravely spoke out against their school’s efforts to review books for banning. The…

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Our featured idealist is Muhammad Ali, whose resistance to the Vietnam war and advocacy for the rights of black Americans is often overlooked; make sure you listen to the clip of Ali taking on white college students at the end of the segment. The Big Interview is with Danna Nelson, a 25-year-old woman who is…

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For this Live Show we begin with our featured idealist, Heather Abbott, a survivor of the April 2013 Boston Bombing. Heather lost her lower left leg in the incident and because health insurers provide only one minimally functioning prosthesis for amputees, Heather created a foundation to assist other amputees with their prosthetic needs. I then…

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This week’s featured idealist is radio host Joe Madison, who started a hunger strike (subsisting on liquids only) on November 8, 2021, to advocate for a federal voting rights bill being signed by President Joe. The Big Interview is with Kelsey Waits, whose 8-year-old nonbinary child was outed by persons opposing Kelsey when she ran…

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A Live Show! We begin with our featured idealist, bell hooks, who died this week. The author of Ain’t I a Woman? Black Women and Feminism and 30 other books, hooks wrote about growing up in Jim Crow Kentucky and covered social theory, critiques of patriarchy, white supremacy and capitalism. My regret is that I…

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Our featured idealist is Fred Guttenberg, the father to Jaime Guttenberg, who was one of the 17 people murdered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida on February 14, 2018. Fred has gone on to advocate again gun violence, and he’s worked to have Congress consider “Jaime’s Law” to require background checks for…

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This week’s featured idealist is Norma McCorvey, “Jane Roe” in Roe v. Wade. While Norma’s role in securing abortion rights for women was certainly idealistic, Norma’s life—filled with poverty and exploitation—points to her simply attempting to survive the Human Condition. The Big Interview is with Patrick Coolican of the Minnesota Reformer, an online local journalism…

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It’s episode number 200! Hooray! We celebrate with my producer, Brett Johnson, and me sharing clips from some of our favorite interviews, including that with Daryl Davis, a black musician who befriends Klu Klux Klan members, and John Blake, the CNN correspondent who talks about “radical integration” as a way to get people past their…

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This week’s featured idealist is Boyan Slat, founder of The Ocean Cleanup who has envisioned and worked to rid the world’s oceans of plastic waste. And he’s succeeding–https://theoceancleanup.com/oceans/. The Big Interview is a reprise of my January 2021 interview of Dr. Keith Mayes who speaks about structural racism in MN and the U.S. In my…

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We begin with me urging listeners to vote for incumbents on their local school boards in next week’s elections as a way to counter the conservative attacks on those boards. Then, it’s an expanded Big Interview with Sondra Samuels of the Northside Achievement Zone in Minneapolis—you won’t want to miss her exceptional discussion about systemic…

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Another live show! This week’s featured idealist is Nicholas Kristof, a New York Times columnist and two-time Pulitzer winner, who has announced his intention to explore running for governor in Oregon, his home state. I also discuss the dangerous (and increasingly common) talk of America falling into a civil war. From there, I discuss how…

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This week is a live show! Our featured idealist is Frances Haugen, the Iowa-born-and-raised Facebook whistleblower. Then, in commemoration of National Coming Out Day (October 11), I talk about coming out as a transgender woman in May 2009. We also have a couple callers, to my delight! Hooray!

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We begin with our featured idealist, Pauli Murray, who broke barriers as a trans/nonbinary human, feminist, civil rights activist, and someone way before her time. The Big Interview is with Art Cullen, editor of The Storm Lake Times in Storm Lake, Iowa, who talks about a documentary, Storm Lake, that details a small town that’s…

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Our featured idealist is Dr. James Whitfield, a Colleyville TX high school principal (the first black high school principal) who in June 2020 wrote an impassioned letter to his school colleagues about the need to fight white supremacy; 14 months later, after only getting tremendous supportive responses to his letter, he was fired. Someone claimed…

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I begin the show by sharing about how 9/11 changed my life twenty years ago—it was the day that I realized I would die a coward if I didn’t accept my true gender as female. The Big Interview was a return visit with Michael Rexford (who I first interviewed in November 2019); we talked about…

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We begin this week’s show by featuring George McLaurin, who in 1948 at age 61 decided he would be the one to desegregate Oklahoma University, proving that idealism is ageless. The Big Interview is with Kevin Lindsey, Chief Executive Officer of the Minnesota Humanities Center, who talks about how—with wonderful imagination—the MHC is working to…

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It’s a rare live show! We start out with the Big Interview featuring Marcus Pope with Youthprise, a Twin Cities youth empowerment and advocacy nonprofit, and Dan Haugen, a board member of Youthprise. Together, they talk about the value of mentoring and highlight their 20+ year relationship of mentoring to each other in a variety…

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Ranae Lenor Hanson is the author of the new book Watershed: Attending to Body and Earth in Distress and she speaks with Ellie about the rural and urban cultural and political divides in Minnesota.  

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Ann Hopkins is Ellie’s Featured Idealist profile this week; Ellie talks about the rural/urban divide in Minnesota with Northern Minnesota-based author Ranae Lenor Hanson in the Big Interview.

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Ellie’s featured idealist is seminarian and activist Jonathan Daniels; Ellie’s Big Interview is an encore presentation of her August 2020 conversation with author Michael Fosberg; Ellie has a lot of updates for us in her C-block this week.

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Ida B. Wells is Ellie’s featured idealist, the Big Interview is with Jennifer Halpus, parent of a transgender student who filed suit against the Anoka-Hennepin school district for discrimination; Ellie speaks about her recent advocacy.

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With this being Pride Weekend in the Twin Cities, our theme is “Pride and Puppies.” We begin by highlighting the recent executive order of Governor Walz that directs health insurers in MN to attest that they don’t provide coverage for conversion therapy—the practice of trying to counsel LGBTQ youth to suppress their sexual or gender…

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It’s an Ellie’s Talking Head Show! We start with our featured idealist, Lauren Underwood, a second-term congresswoman who represents Illinois’s 14th District who at 32 was the youngest black woman ever elected to Congress. Her political trajectory was unusual—she started as an RN focusing on health care policy but became politically motivated when the ACA…

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This week’s featured idealist is the late Robert Katzmann, a judge who President Clinton appointed to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in 1999. Judge Katzmann used his imagination and position to innovatively increase legal access, and as well, he gave diverse students a glimpse of how their lives can be different. The Big Interview…

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To commemorate today’s first-ever federal Juneteenth holiday, I talk about Opal Lee, a 94-year-old idealist who began pushing for federal recognition of June 19, 1865 (the date when federal troops ended slavery in Texas) when she was 89. The Big Interview is with Torrie Allen, executive director of Arts Midwest, which just received an $8…

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David Edgerton Jr fills in for Ellie on today’s show!

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We start out talking about the 1919 massacre of 200 black men, women and children in Elaine, Arkansas when white-color farmers/townspeople asserted Jim Crow power after black farmers sought to unionize in order obtain fair prices for their cotton crops. The Big Interview is with David Edgerton, Jr. of the DEJ Group, which provides diversity,…

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We begin this week featuring Mercy for Animals (MFA), an international animal protection nonprofit that works to prevent cruelty to farmed animals, and which promotes compassionate food choices and policies. One of the ways that MFA operates is through investigations where people go undercover into factory farms or animal processing sites to document and record…

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We have a rock star show this week! We being with the featured idealist: Liz Cheney—yes, I know, that Liz Cheney.  But there’s no getting around the fact that her brave stand against the former president and the Big Lie is about as idealistic as anyone can be. The Big Interview is huge—we have John…

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To begin, I share about how conservative media has coined the phrase “Critical Race Theory” as a way to attack the efforts of many who seek to end  America’s problems with systemic racism. The Big Interview is with Julia Gay of the Coalition of Asian American Leaders. In my C-Block, I talk about a recent…

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Our featured idealist is Van Jones, best-selling author, nonprofit creator, and CNN commentator, who’s used his imagination to change the social justice landscape. The Big Interview is with Fawzia Kahn, a physician-turned-artist, whose installation, “Becoming Visible,” highlights the invisible roles that women play. I’m happy to say that I was one of the women featured…

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This week’s show begins by highlighting Darnella Frazier, the then-17-year-old who videoed Derek Chauvin as he suffocated the life out of George Floyd. I refer Darnella as a “defacto idealist” who may not have intended to change the world that afternoon, but yet still did so in a way that few could ever seek to…

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Our featured idealist is Katie Porter, the California Congresswoman who represents Orange County and who’s known for using a whiteboard when questioning witnesses testifying before Congress. The Big Interview is with Sondra Samuels who shares about The Itasca Project’s “First Thousand Days” initiative aimed at protecting the physical and mental health of babies in their…

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We begin by learning about McKenzie Scott, the former Mrs. Jeff Bezos, whose estimated $63 billion net worth makes her the richest woman in the world. An accomplished author, she has signed onto the Giving Pledge, vowing to give away half her wealth before she dies. The Big Interview is an encore interview of Mary…

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This week’s idealist is Steven Donziger, an attorney who took on Chevron for polluting the Ecuadoran jungle and won a $9.5 billion judgment. When Donziger attempted to collect the judgment, Chevron fought back; now Donziger is on his 600th+ day of home confinement awaiting a contempt of court trial. The Big Interview is with Jamey…

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A Live Show! Our theme is “Making Amends” and we begin by highlighting “The Longoria Affair” that arose in 1949 when a Three Rivers, Texas funeral home refused to allow a wake at the funeral home for Felix Z. Longoria, Jr., a Latino Army private killed in WWII and whose body was returned 4 years…

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Our highlighted idealist is Marc Elias, an attorney who’s represented the Democratic National Committee and many other Dem entities; he also served as general counsel to the election campaigns of John Kerry and Hillary Clinton. Most importantly, he oversaw efforts to protect President Biden’s win versus the Big Lie about election fraud and he’s now…

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We begin with a story about Stockton CA’s experiment of giving 125 random people $500/mo. for two years, no string attached. The results of this experiment are in and they show that overwhelmingly, people didn’t spend the stipend on cigarettes or alcohol, but instead on necessities in ways that greatly improved their lives. I also…

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Our featured historical idealist is Chiune Sugihara, who as a Japanese diplomat posted to Lithuania in the summer of 1940 provided thousands of visas to Jews seeking to escape persecution. By some estimates, Chiune’s actions benefited 100,000 people (those who escaped and their descendants). The Big Interview is with Benya Kruas, co-founder of Lead for…

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With this Ellie’s Talking Head Show, I start out highlighting Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland’s 8th District, who served as impeachment manager for the second impeachment. I then pivot to a wonderful story about a Louisiana man buying a basketball hoop for an eight-year-old-boy he saw using a garbage can for a hoop. From there,…

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It’s a rare live Show! The theme is “Sacrificing for the Common Good”; would you be willing to give up money or resources or time or a luxury to benefit others who didn’t have the same opportunities as you? I also highlight U.S. Capitol police officer Eugene Goodman, who’s quick thinking and bravery on January…

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We start the show with an explanation of how Black History Month originated; from there, we pivot to Rosa Parks and the little-known story of the sacrifices she and her family made in the wake of her 1955 arrest for refusing to give up her Montgomery, Alabama bus seat for a white-color person. The Big…

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This week I give an update on Amanda Gorman, who’s been selected to read poetry at the Super Bowl—a first! I also share about a man who was spotted $12 by a Cedar Rapids HyVee checker; that man later launched a GoFundMe to honor the checker’s generosity. So far, the GoFundMe has raised $4700+. The…

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It’s an Ellie’s Talking Head Show and this week’s featured idealist is Amanda Gorman, the 22-year-old Poet Laureate who recited at the Inaugural. I also share about two instances of humans being good to other humans. In my C-Block, I make an offer to speak at schools and churches in my effort to spread a…

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We begin with an audio blog post by Frank Schaeffer, a former evangelical conservative turned liberal democrat who talks about the January 6th insurrection being the product of evangelical white nationalism. The Big Interview is with Jen Bowen of the Minnesota Prison Writing Workshop, which helps humans experiencing incarceration tell their written stories. In the…

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Our first show of ’21 has a nonprofit, Invisible People, and its founder, Mark Horvath, featured for their work in telling the stories of humans who are experiencing homelessness. The Big Interview is with U of M professor Dr. Keith Mayes, who talks about historical and current-day structural racism in the Twin Cities. In the…

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We’ve got a holiday show with Attorney Larry McDonough, a nationally-recognized expert on landlord-tenant law, who talks about the plight of renters in Minnesota and the eviction moratoriums that are in place. Larry—a man for all seasons—is also an accomplished pianist and vocalist, so in between important information sharing about how the virus has adversely…

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We start today’s show highlighting PandemicofLove.com, a mutual aid organization that directly matches donors with people in need; in barely 9 months, the organization has helped to transfer $40M in resources to folks in need. The Big Interview is with Kate Cimino of Citizens League, where we hear about the incredible work this 6-person nonprofit…

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It’s an Ellie’s Talking Head Show! We start out highlighting Poetic Justice, an Oklahoma nonprofit that teaches writing and poetry to women who are incarcerated. In lieu of The Big Interview, I talk about allyship and share stories of how a neighborhood in North Little Rock Arkansas showed unique support for a family that was…

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We begin by highlighting an Atlantic Magazine interview of the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II re: the need to avoid returning to “normal” (e.g. historical inequity) with the Biden-Harris Administration. The Big Interview is an encore of my March 2020 interview with Caitlin Rogers of Next Day Animations—you’ll love this young idealist’s spunk and…

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We start the show highlighting Melissa Statz, a fourth-grade teacher at Cooper School in Burlington, WI, who ignited controversy by teaching her students about Black Lives Matter and structural racism. The Big Interview is an encore of my interview of another Wisconsinite, Jessica Greb, from earlier this year—she had organized other women to support restaurant…

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