Sometimes there are those books that are so hauntingly beautiful, disturbing, or touching (or all three) that you can’t stop thinking about them for days after you finally put them down after binge reading them. Some of those for us are The Handmaid’s Tale, or Americanah, or Song of Solomon. But recently, we found another book that we’ve been thinking about ever since putting it down - Beautiful Country.

In her debut memoir, which she started writing in 2016 while on the subway on her iPhone, Qian Julie Wang tells her story of being an undocumented seven-year-old who arrives in New York City in 1994 with her parents from northern China - and all of the wonders and heartbreak and LIFE that happens as you come of age in a country that has expressly shown you that you don’t belong, in so many ways. Talking to her was like seeing this book come to life - but we didn’t just stop with the book. Listen in to hear about Beautiful Country, but also so much more, in this conversation that we didn’t want to end.

Last week’s episode was all about QAnon and how conspiracy theories can divide us as a nation. One of the things we think we can do to bridge the divide is bring mindfulness and skills around living with mindfulness into conversations about race, racism, identity, and beliefs - and to do that, we got to speak with an incredible law professor named Rhonda McGee.

In speaking with Rhonda, we learned not only about the role of law in helping - and hurting - racial divides, but we also discussed the role of mindfulness in helping people come into a grounded space to do this work in the first place. Once we added in her own brand of racial awareness called ColorInsight, we left this conversation with not only some reframed concepts but a deeper understanding of why we all need to be doing this work.

This fall we’re focused on hot-button topics. If you remember, we kicked off the fall with a conversation about the census and representation, which then moved into representation in the media and movies with Kamala Avila-Salmon, the head of inclusive content at Lionsgate Films. Today, we’re here to talk about another hot button topic that we’ve all heard about the last couple of years but we’ve never touched yet on the show: QAnon.

This conversation we’re about to share gave us some perspective on what really was happening with the development of the conspiracy theory, what risks we face as a country if we let this fester (it’s not good), and what we can each do differently that we weren't doing beforehand.

ALSO - we have one month until our book launch! For those of you who are at all interested in joining our book launch team, email us at hello@dearwhitewomen.com for details on what’s involved. We’d love to have you be a part of our book community!

Hello and welcome to Fall! What we’re really excited about - besides our book coming out in mid October! - is our fall lineup of episodes. Now that we’re done with our Summer of Action, we’re focused on issues that have not only been in our consciousness, but ones that we’ve been hearing about throughout 2021 and ones that we’d like to highlight for the fall.

In September, we’ll be focusing on current events and topics that you may have heard about in the news - including representation in the media, Qanon, and so much more. October will be devoted to all things voting and our political systems as we look at the practical things we all need to be aware of when we vote this November, or in 2022 - or as we read or listen to the news. Finally, in November, we’ll be talking to people who are working on transformative change in their own spheres of influence, and see how they got involved in doing this impactful work.

And to kick this off - let’s talk about the Census. Because we’ve learned a lot about who we are and our own communities with the news that’s been coming out over these last few weeks.

Let’s talk about workplace safety. No, not that kind of workplace safety - we’re here to talk about building psychologically safe workspaces, which in our opinion is a crucial conversation especially as we’re reimagining workspaces in this era of COVID. And you’ll want to hear this WHOLE conversation, because there are knowledge bombs just being tossed around by our guest throughout this entire episode.

Today we’re talking to Jeff Harry, who is the founder of Rediscover Your Play, and who works with companies and individuals to help lift their veil of BS in order to make their work more fulfilling and rediscover their joyful purpose, all the while removing what is getting in the way of their success. This conversation got us thinking, and we hope it gets you thinking too.

After this episode, which sadly is the very last in our Summer of Action, our ask is this: tell all your friends to listen to this episode, especially those with workplaces. And take a good hard look at your own workplace. How can you make it more psychologically safe for EVERYONE who works there?

If you’re listening to this episode at the time that it’s being released, and you’re thinking about work, you’re probably thinking about returning to a physical office in this new land of the Delta variant, or perhaps you’re looking for a job, or you’re figuring out how to get a new job because you’re done with the one that you have. Or maybe you don’t want to talk or think about work at all. But the reality is - we all understand work dynamics and most of us cannot escape the reality that we do need to belong to a group that provides us with money to make a living.

So here’s our question: what happens when you make a mistake at work?

What if we told you that there’s another way to do business - one that focuses on love?

We were convinced that this might work after we spoke with our guests today - and read their book. Mohammed Anwar and Jeff Ma are executives at Softway, a company whose mission is to bring humanity back to the workplace. In their book, Love as a Business Strategy, they break down how this is possible. After you’ve heard what they have to say, here’s what we’d like you to do: tell all your friends to listen (you knew that was coming!). Then buy their book from their website, and download the free resources too. Read it, and share it with your teams - both at work, and in other spheres. And then let us know what most resonated with you by emailing us at hello@dearwhitewomen.com.

Let’s put humanity first at work and see where that gets us.

After last week’s episode with Christine Platt (aka the Afrominimalist), this scenario may sound familiar: You look around your house. It’s full of stuff - stuff that you don’t wear, stuff that you don’t use, stuff that you don’t need. You gather everything up in bags and boxes and, once the Donate pile is big enough, you move it to the garage or outside, ready for the next step. But then you pause. What IS the next step? Where do you take what you don’t need anymore, that can provide the most help for people who really do need these things?

We sat down with Sable Schultz, the Director of Transgender Services at the Center on Colfax in Denver, Colorado, to talk about a very different - and important - way in which your donations can make not only an impact, but really show someone that they matter.

After you tell all your friends about this episode, look up the organizations that Sable mentions. Do the Google search for your own city. Think twice about where your donations go, because sometimes, even if it’s not the easiest option, it’s the most impactful. And remember that small things, like adding your pronouns to your email or asking someone for theirs, can make all the difference.

When you think about liberation, what comes to mind: Intentional action? Physical protests? Thoughtful contemplation? One thing we didn’t really think about was minimalism as a form of liberation. We didn’t see the connection then between liberation and simplifying until after we spoke with our guest, and read her book. Now we believe: less can be liberation.

Today we interview Christine Platt, who is also known as the Afrominimalist. And in preparation, ask yourself: what is a minimalist space? Once you’ve got that vision, the next question is: whose aesthetic is this? After you listen to this episode, we challenge you to tell five people about this episode - and then start examining how minimalism can be liberation in YOUR life, and other ways to view minimalism that aren’t part of the mainstream narrative. And then go and buy her book, The Afrominimalist.

As we’re still in our summer of action, we had a conversation lately behind the scenes to ask ourselves: are these episodes actionable enough? And we really believe that to make all of this work sustainable, sometimes it has to be in the little things. It has to be in which link you send to your friend about a book you’re recommending - Amazon or Bookshop? - and it has to be in looking deep within yourself and looking around to build a more diverse community. But sometimes it’s also about doing work - social activism, DEI work in your organizations, and the groups you’re a part of.

We’re back with Part 2 of our fabulous conversation with Kelly and Aurora of The Opt-In to look at all different forms of activism, ways to think about where we’ve collectively been and where we are in this realm, and suggestions for courses and people to look at. And fundamentally the message is: we can do hard things. This isn’t even one of the hardest things we’ll do in our lives, but it may be what has the most lasting impact - not only for ourselves, but for our kids. Remember: it’s seemingly little things and little choices that make lasting, much larger changes in our communities and our world.

We’re continuing our summer of action and diving deeper. And as we’re releasing this episode, we’re also in the midst of a summer that’s been filled with more friends and family and conversation and ability to BE TOGETHER in a way that we haven’t been able to be since March of 2020. #vaccines

It makes us think of friendship, community, and how much we learn from each other - not only through our similarities, which is how we often create friendships, but also our differences, which can be particularly true when we think about cross-racial friendships and communities.

Today we’re excited to have Kelly and Aurora from the Opt-In, two of our very favorites, to discuss community, cross-racial friendships, and so much more. What we love about these women is that they are real - real about the good parts of their friendships and identities, and also the tough parts. And because we loved them so much, we split our conversation with them into two parts. Part I is this episode. Part II - well, you’ll have to stay tuned. But it centers around what we can all do in terms of social activism and moving the needle - and spoiler alert, it starts from within.

If you’ve been listening to our episodes in order, you know we’ve been focused on the role of community, as well as small business in community - and how we can show up for one another when we support the amazing people who run these.

Today we have Bunnie Hilliard, the owner of an Atlanta-based bookstore called Brave+Kind, on the podcast. She talks about her move from corporate America to opening Brave+Kind, the intentionality that comes into all of her decisions about the physical space of her store as well as how that showed up online during the pandemic, and what she’d like us all to know not only about children’s books but how we can take those conversations into our own homes, and have our buying patterns reflect what we truly believe in.

Our ask for you after you listen: Take those books out of your Amazon cart and find them in an independent bookstore - online, or in your community. Tell all your friends to do the same thing. And if you’re looking for recommendations - shoot us an email at hello at dearwhitewomen dot com. We’ve got you.

Let’s face it: we are an app-based, “easy button” based, instant gratification kind of society. One click of a button and we get something brought to our house: food, alcohol, flowers - basically anything you can ask for. If it’s not instant, you can get it for free shipping and in two days if you’re an Amazon Prime member. But, as we’ve often asked on this podcast, what is the true cost of your purchases when you’re getting them through these apps, and not through your community and local store owners?

Today we talk to one of those businesses - and the women behind it. Nirvana Soul isn’t only about providing amazing coffee to the people of San Jose, California - it’s about creating community through shared spaces, carefully curated art, and so much more. Be’Anka and Jeronica opened their doors during a pandemic, but in so doing they brought community to their own community - and that’s priceless. Our ask for you after you listen: go find one of these spaces in your own community, go support them (and for real - not in a performative way), and then tell all your friends to do the same. We rise by lifting others, and we need each other right now more than ever.

Every once in a while, we both read a book that makes us immediately text the other to say: have you read this? Isn’t it amazing? That’s what happened when we read A Radical Awakening.

We were blown away by the revolutionary way of thinking and being that is suggested for women in this book, and were so deeply grateful to find that Dr. Shefali’s energy and authenticity match her reputation.

There’s little else left for us to say, other than this is a can’t-miss episode, and that you should go to Bookshop to order this book immediately.

Mamas, here’s a real question for you: How Whyte are your spaces?

We write that word that way because the censors seem to be limiting our ability to write it as w-h-i-t-e without being hurt by the algorithms.

But really, when we talk about a summer of action, we mean starting within your very own spheres of influence. And as moms, we have a lot of influence. So let’s start by looking at our own circles!