Shari Davis first began dreaming about how to empower young people as a teenager, while serving on the Mayor's Youth Council in Boston. In 2014, the Mayor of Boston asked Shari to launch the country's first youth-focused “participatory budgeting” effort—a democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. Today, Shari co-leads the Participatory Budgeting Project, which has helped more than 700,000 people in over 30 cities directly decide how to spend $400 million in public funds. The process has led to new art walls, park renovations, student centers, and imaginative public safety efforts.  In this episode, Shari and Dwayne talk about the key steps in the participatory budgeting process; real-world examples of participatory budgeting in action; and what the Black martial arts tradition taught Shari about how democracy works. Plus, Shari and Dwayne bond over Octavia Butler’s The Parable of the Sower. For more on the work of our guest, Shari Davis: https://www.emersoncollective.com/persons/shari-davis  To learn more about our show and read the transcript of this episode: emersoncollective.com/almost-there-podcast  For more on Emerson Collective: https://www.emersoncollective.com/ Learn more about our host, Reginald Dwayne Betts: https://www.dwaynebetts.com/ Almost There is produced by Eric Nuzum and Jesse Baker of Magnificent Noise for Emerson Collective. Our production staff includes Eleanor Kagan, Julia Natt, Patrick D’Arcy, Amy Low, Alex Simon, and our sound designers Paul Schneider and Kristin Mueller.  Email us at [email protected]. 

You can’t change what you can’t see. And good data, Amy Bach believes, is one of the keys to seeing what’s not working in our criminal justice system. She is the founder of Measures for Justice, a nonpartisan, non-profit organization developing data tools to help both community advocates and law enforcement reshape how the criminal justice system works. Amy believes that data trends from a local criminal justice system – like the racial disparities in diversions for felony convictions, for instance – can become tools to help communities advocate for real change, and can, at the same time, be a way for prosecutors to demonstrate a commitment to reform. “When we can see where things go wrong, we can work to make them right,” Amy says. In this episode, Amy and Dwayne talk about Commons, a new criminal justice data platform; what’s possible when data is used to start difficult, community-driven conversations about reform; and why data can ultimately only ever tell part of the story. Plus, Dwayne reads a Langston Hughes poem to Amy.  For more on the work of our guest, Amy Bach:  To learn more about our show and read the transcript of this episode: emersoncollective.com/almost-there-podcast  For more on Emerson Collective: https://www.emersoncollective.com/ Learn more about our host, Reginald Dwayne Betts: https://www.dwaynebetts.com/ Almost There is produced by Eric Nuzum and Jesse Baker of Magnificent Noise for Emerson Collective. Our production staff includes Eleanor Kagan, Julia Natt, Patrick D’Arcy, Amy Low, Alex Simon, and our sound designers Paul Schneider and Kristin Mueller.  Email us at [email protected]. 

Chuck Yarborough is a sixth-generation Mississippian who teaches American history at one of the best high schools in the state, The Mississippi School of Mathematics and Science. In the midst of a national debate on how we teach American history to young people, Chuck doesn’t just rely on textbooks. Instead, he sends his students to original sources to research overlooked and untold histories, helping them turn what they learn into vivid public performance for their community. “I try to create spaces where students can engage with difficult topics, in an environment where they can be honest and where all they are going to be met with is love,” Chuck says. In this episode, Chuck tells Dwayne about the childhood birthday party that changed his life; about the memorable public performances of his students, which take place in graveyards; and his guiding principles as a high school teacher. Plus, hear excerpts of performances from Chuck’s students, Dairian Bowles and Madison Echols. For more on the work of our guest, Chuck Yarborough: https://www.emersoncollective.com/persons/chuck-yarborough To learn more about our show and read the transcript of this episode: emersoncollective.com/almost-there-podcast For more on Emerson Collective: https://www.emersoncollective.com/ Learn more about our host, Reginald Dwayne Betts: https://www.dwaynebetts.com/ Almost There is produced by Eric Nuzum and Jesse Baker of Magnificent Noise for Emerson Collective. Our production staff includes Eleanor Kagan, Julia Natt, Patrick D’Arcy, Amy Low, Alex Simon, and our sound designers Paul Schneider and Kristin Mueller. Email us at [email protected].

Work isn’t just the place where we work. It’s also the place where we meet new people who are different from us, which is why Elise Smith thinks the office is the perfect place to start building a more empathetic world. She is the co-founder and CEO of Praxis Labs, an immersive learning startup that is reimagining diversity, equity, and inclusion training for corporate America. Using virtual reality, workers take on new perspectives, experiencing incidents of bias or discrimination from multiple points of view, and get to actually practice responding. The goal: to build empathy and spark behavior change.  In this episode, Elise talks to Dwayne about what it is like to raise venture funding as a young, Black founder; the early virtual reality experiences that changed her life; and the surprising similarities between poetry and virtual reality.  For more on out guest, Elise Smith: https://www.emersoncollective.com/persons/elise-smith   To learn more about Almost There and to read the transcript of this episode: https://www.emersoncollective.com/almost-there-podcast  For more on Emerson Collective: https://www.emersoncollective.com/ Learn more about our host, Dwayne Betts: https://www.dwaynebetts.com/ Almost There is produced by Eric Nuzum and Jesse Baker of Magnificent Noise for Emerson Collective. Our production staff includes Eleanor Kagan, Julia Natt, Patrick D’Arcy, Amy Low, Alex Simon, and our sound designers Paul Schneider and Kristin Mueller.  Email us at [email protected].  Subscribe to the Emerson Collective Fellows newsletter: http://www.emersoncollective.com/fellows-newsletter 

A member of the Crow/Apsáalooke tribe, Wendy Red Star was raised on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana, which encompasses two million acres. And while she was immersed in Crow culture growing up, she didn’t really learn the broader history of Indigenous people in the U.S. until college. Today as a visual artist, Wendy centers this history, along with Native life and culture, in work that spans imaginative self-portraiture, vivid collage, and site-specific installation. An avid researcher, Wendy re-examines cultural artifacts and historical imagery, using them as inspiration for work that is inquisitive, witty, and thought-provoking. You can find her vibrant work in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, the British Museum, and others.  In this episode, Wendy shares with Dwayne the meaning of her very first art project, in which she set up a tipi in the middle of the football field at Montana State University; what it feels like to find artifacts that belonged to your ancestors in a museum archive; and why she is so drawn to humor in her work.  For more on out guest, Wendy Red Star: https://www.emersoncollective.com/persons/wendy-red-star-2  To learn more about Almost There and to read the transcript of this episode: https://www.emersoncollective.com/almost-there-podcast  For more on Emerson Collective: https://www.emersoncollective.com/ Learn more about our host, Dwayne Betts: https://www.dwaynebetts.com/ Almost There is produced by Eric Nuzum and Jesse Baker of Magnificent Noise for Emerson Collective. Our production staff includes Eleanor Kagan, Julia Natt, Patrick D’Arcy, Amy Low, Alex Simon, and our sound designers Paul Schneider and Kristin Mueller.  Email us at [email protected].  Subscribe to the Emerson Collective Fellows newsletter: http://www.emersoncollective.com/fellows-newsletter