All Ears with Abigail Disney Abigail Disney

It’s our final episode of the season, and who better to finish it off with than feminist icon and Abby’s longtime friend, Gloria Steinem. Steinem has been a pioneer and leader in the feminist movement for more than half a century. Her political and cultural impact is truly immeasurable, but it’s undeniable that she, alongside women like Dorothy Pittman Hughes and Florynce Kennedy helped lay the foundation for the modern feminist movement. She’s spent much of her extraordinary life traveling the world: marching in solidarity, giving talks, introducing ideas, facilitating conversations, and most of all, listening. Now, in her 87th year, she says she’s enjoying being home for what may be the first time in her long life. In this week’s conversation with Abby, we learn about the time they ended up in Botswana on the back of an elephant named Cathy together, how families built on equality can temper political trends of authoritarianism, and what it is that gives her hope about the future of feminism. Tune in to our last episode of the season for a fun and thoughtful conversation between old friends, and we’ll be back soon.

Follow Gloria on Twitter: @GloriaSteinem

EPISODE LINKS

Elephants Without Borders
Abu Camp Elephant Conservation
Gloria Steinem's Website
Theosophical Society of America
New York Mag, After Black Power, Women’s Liberation, 1969
NPR's Fresh Air, Feminist Activist Gloria Steinem, 2020
National Geographic, How Gloria Steinem became 'the world's most famous feminist', 2019
 Ms. Magazine, The Story of Iconic Feminist Dorothy Pitman Hughes: “With Her Fist Raised”, 2021
New York Times, With Plan to Walk Across DMZ, Women Aim for Peace in Korea, 2015
New York Times, What I See: Gloria Steinem, Shoulder to Shoulder With Women of Color, 2018
New York Times, Gloria Steinem Is Nowhere Near Done With Being An Activist, 2020

With the United Nations’ 26th annual climate change conference–aka COP26–happening in Glasgow, Scotland this week, we thought it was the perfect time to re-air Abby’s conversation with environmental activist Varshini Prakash. Varshini is the executive director and co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, a youth-centered climate activist group that’s helped bring the climate crisis to the forefront of national politics in the United States. The organization has made a name for itself by coordinating confrontational climate protests, and working to popularize the Green New Deal. Back when Abby interviewed Varshini, nobody would have predicted that two Democrats (Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona) would bring down President Biden's plan to implement sweeping progressive policies nationwide. Still, Sunrise is not letting the President off the hook: on October 20, five Sunrise activists began staging a hunger strike outside the White House, demanding that he take executive action, in spite of legislative obstacles. After 14 days without food they ended the strike, when President Biden promised a 50% decrease in emissions by 2030. 
Tune in for an inspiring conversation about the determination of younger generations to lead,  and the power of grassroots movements to address the climate crisis.
Follow Varshini and The Sunrise Movement on Twitter: @varshprakash and @sunrisemvmt

EPISODE LINKS:

The Sunrise Movement Website
United Nations Climate Change, Glasgow Climate Change Conference
New York Times, Key to Biden's Climate Agenda Likely to Be Cut Because of Manchin Opposition, 2021
New York Times, Your Country Is Getting a Bad Deal, and You Can Do Better, 2021
The Guardian, Climate advocates who backed Sinema exasperated by blocking of Biden bill, 2021
Al Jazeera, Climate activists go on hunger strike near WH urging Biden to act, 2021
Huffington Post, 5 Young Activists On Hunger Strike Demand Democrats Not Cut Back On Climate in Bill, 2021 

This week on All Ears, Abby is joined by Imara Jones. Imara is an activist, journalist and the creator of TransLash Media, a cross-platform journalism, storytelling and narrative project. She’s also the host of the TransLash podcast, a show that centers trans narratives and experience. Imara’s and Abby’s conversation was so rich and varied, we decided to split it up into two episodes. In this week’s conversation, she discusses the love and acceptance she found in her family after transitioning, the immense and intractable power of storytelling, and what went wrong in Dave Chappelle’s most recent Netflix special, ‘The Closer.’ Tune in for a compelling and insightful conversation about why we should all be invested in the fight to protect black trans women.

TransLash Media
Translash, Episode 3: Family Matters
Time, Imara Jones: Why Black Trans Women Are Essential To Our Future
The Guardian, Trans black and loved: what happened when I returned to the deep south after transitioning
NPR, Amid Wave Of Anti-Trans Bills, Trans Reporters Say 'Telling Our Own Stories' Is Vital
New York Times, Dave Chappelle's Brittle Ego
IndieWire, Dave Chappelle’s Last Netflix Special Is a Season Finale With Nothing New to Say
New York Times, Netflix employee who criticized Dave Chappelle’s comedy special is among three suspended
New York Times, Netflix workers plan a walkout as fallout over Dave Chappelle continues

This week on All Ears, Abby is joined by Ellen Pao. Pao made headlines in 2012 when she sued venture capital firm Kleiner-Perkins for gender discrimination. In 2015 she lost the lawsuit, but it sent shockwaves throughout Silicon Valley and got people talking about the rampant bro-culture, sexism and bad behaviors that had gone unchallenged there for so long. She went on to become the interim CEO of Reddit, where she banned revenge porn and shut down some of the worst subreddits. Now she runs Project Include, a non-profit that is focused on increasing diversity and inclusion in the tech industry. In this week’s conversation with Abby, she talks about the impact of her lawsuit, her brief but influential time at Reddit, Silicon Valley’s obsession with 26 year-old white, cis men in hoodies, and her hope for the future of the tech industry. Tune in for a thoughtful discussion on what can go right and what does go wrong in Silicon Valley.

EPISODE LINKS
Ellen Pao's Website
Project Include Website
Reset: My Fight For Inclusion and Lasting Change by Ellen Pao
The Pao v. Kleiner Perkins Gender Discrimination Lawsuit
The Guardian, 'They don't think it's important': Ellen Pao on why Facebook can't beat hate, 2020
New York Times, Ellen Pao Disrupts How Silicon Valley Does Business, 2015
New York Times, Ellen Pao Loses Silicon Valley Bias Case Against Kleiner Perkins, 2015
New York Times, Lawsuit Shakes Foundation of a Man’s World of Tech, 2012
VOX, A Who’s-Who of the Kleiner Perkins-Ellen Pao Trial, 2015
The Verge, Ellen Pao shifted hiring practices at Reddit to improve diversity, 2015
The Guardian, Reddit chief Ellen Pao resigns after receiving ‘sickening’ abuse from users, 2015
The Verge, Timnit Gebru was fired from Google–then the harassers arrived, 2021

Season 3 of All Ears kicks off with a rich and varied conversation with Me Too Movement founder Tarana Burke. Thought you knew the Me Too story? Think again! Burke’s inspiring new memoir Unbound: My Story Of Liberation And The Birth Of The Me Too Movement is out this week. Burke has been in the trenches of movement work for the better part of two decades, transforming her own experience as a survivor into a vision for helping those in crisis to get help and those dealing with past trauma to heal. Working for so long at a grassroots level, primarily in communities of color, Burke tells Abby that her focus is for the benefit of all: “[My work] never, ever leaves anybody out. There’s not a single white woman who will not benefit from my work being grounded in or centering black women and girls.” Tune in for an inspiring conversation!

Find Tarana on Twitter: @TaranaBurke and @MeTooMVMT

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of rape and sexual assault.

EPISODE LINKS
Unbound: My Story Of Liberation And The Birth Of The Me Too Movement (Tarana Burke)
Me Too Movement website
21st Century Leadership Movement
Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America (Lerone Bennett)
Maya Angelou book covers (Google)
You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience (Tarana Burke & Brené Brown, editors)

This week, as Sundance Film Festival launches a virtual festival for first time, Abby talks to the festival's director, Tabitha Jackson. After spending 25 years in non-fiction filmmaking, Tabitha moved from head of the Sundance Documentary Program into the festival chair, beating out 700 applicants and becoming the first woman, and first person of color, to hold the job. What came next was a year of tumult and challenge, in which she unexpectedly faced the task of transforming America’s premiere film festival, normally held in scenic Park City, Utah, into an almost entirely online event. Tabitha says it forced her and her team to "reconsider the value of everything we were doing and how we were doing it because it was all threatened." What emerged was a re-commitment to the original mission of Sundance: use the power of the Festival to direct attention to independent voices and work that may otherwise get lost in the noise. Also, Tabitha tells Abby about her traumatizing experience going to the cinema for the first time, how being British in an American institution can be to her advantage, and why she's skeptical of flattery. Plus, the laborious process of whittling down 13,000 submissions into a program of 71 features and 50 shorts.

Check out the Sundance Film Festival line-up & purchase tickets for virtual or in-person screenings in your area.

Tabitha Jackson on Twitter: @Tabula4
Sundance Film Festival on Twitter: @SundanceFilmFestival


FILMS MENTIONED
Varda, the Peregrine Falcon (Imdb)
Watership Down (Criterion Collection)
Grey Gardens (Criterion Collection)
Blackfish
The Truffle Hunters
Hale County This Morning, This Evening


OTHER LINKS
Sundance Film Festival Names Tabitha Jackson as Director (Variety)
Sundance Festival Opens Doors for Minority Filmmakers (CodeSwitch)
The Experimental High Notes of "Hale County This Morning, This Evening (The New Yorker)
Movie Theaters Survived A Century of Change. We Must Save Them From Covid 19. (The Washington Post)