Civil(ish‪)‬ Johnny R. Byrd

Social Justice is the issue of the day and Tish Beauford is on the forefront of that battle...a battle she has been waging for years now.  Join Tish and I as we discuss the state of race relations along with the BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ communities.  We've got a lot of acronyms to cover here.  Enjoy the discussion.

Tish Beauford is a 40-year resident of Denver and Aurora. She is community activist, organizer, and radio show host. She has been involved in community service and activism for over 26 years. She became involved in serving the community as member of the International Junior Chamber of Commerce serving as Englewood Local President in 1993 and then was elected to the State Board Of Directors as Membership Development Vice President for the Colorado Junior Chamber of Commerce and served from 1994 to 1996. She was the first African American to serve as a local president and state vice president in Colorado history.

She has served on the Colorado Women's March Board of Directors and as one of the original organizers that mobilized a movement of 3,000 Colorado citizens to the nation's capital to participate in the national Women's March on Washington D.C. in 2017. In 2018, she also went on to serve on the Board of Directors for the Women’s March Denver and served as the Logistics Director for that organization, March for Our Lives and March for Black Women Denver which she still serves on the Board of Directors. In the same year she was nominated and appointed to a two-year term serving as a member on the Colorado Democratic Party Rules Committee for the State of Colorado.

In March 2020, she was also nominated and appointed to a four-year term to the Citizens Advisory Budget Committee for the City of Aurora. Recently, in August 2020, she served as on

The Women for Biden Colorado Advisory Committee for the Biden-Harris Campaign.

In addition to Tish’s community endeavors, she is an outspoken social justice advocate for marginalized people of color, indigenous, LQTBQTIA+, immigrant and homeless communities. She is also an active supporter of children literacy programs and voter rights initiatives.

She is the currently the host of the popular morning radio show “A Public Affair” which airs on KGNU 88.5 FM Radio from 8:30 - 9 a.m. the fourth Thursday of every month.

I was born and raised in the faith of my (fore)fathers, just the way a number of us were.  But, we've seen a tremendous amount of kids leaving the faith of their fathers while transitioning into adulthood.  Why?  What can be done?  Should anything be done? Join Morgan Mitchell, the High School & College Director at Journey Community Church, and I as we discuss this and more.

Morgan is from Rochester NY originally. Being born and raised within a faith-based background, he has found his calling to teach people what it means to look, live, and love like Jesus within a ministry context. Morgan is on his last semester of his Master of Divinity degree from Azusa Pacific Seminary. At the age of 19, he started a Spoken Word Ministry where he uses poetry creatively to minister to thousands of people. In his free time, he enjoys walking his puppy, date nights with his wife Emma, reading, and good food.

This ain't your grandmother's world.  Not in the least.  Things that were not are being reframed, retrained, and rebuilt before our very eyes. 

You've heard talk of the good old days...but not everyone remembers them quite so fondly.  Sarah Bacerra is at the forefront of today's cultural conversations on remaking society.  You've heard the words social justice...intersectionality...same sex marriage.  We've got all that and more in this episode.  It is an eye-opener.  And, most definitely worth your time.1

Sarah Bacerra is an Inclusion Strategist, Learning Experience Designer, and Certified High Performance Coach, leveraging cutting-edge learning practices to help build organizational cultures of curiosity, belonging, and intention. Sarah has had the privilege of working with some of the world’s leading organizations with experience spanning the technology, government, media, hospitality, and non-profit sectors. Going beyond traditional, superficial means, Sarah is laser focused on the intentional architecture of cultures and systems that move us towards achievements in pay equity, gender parity, and racial justice.

Sarah serves on the Advisory Council for Center for Respectful Leadership and is an Executive Board Member for Women’s March San Diego.

Milia Islam-Majeed stopped by to regale us with stories of faith, acceptance, belonging, and the Bible Belt!  Growing up as a religious minority in the Bible Belt, she learned first hand the hard lessons of prejudice and overcoming.  Hers is a story of hard work, overcoming, and pressing on as she tirelessly carries forth the torch of religious tolerance and diversity.  Listen in...then share the episode.

Milia Islam-Majeed is the daughter of immigrant parents who migrated here in 1986 from Bangladesh. She has since then lived in the United States spending most of her childhood and adolescence in the small Midwestern town of Fulton, Missouri. She obtained her undergraduate degree in World Religions and Psychology from Westminster College in Missouri and thereafter moved to Boston for her graduate work. She is a 2004 graduate of Harvard University where she earned her Masters in Theological Studies of the World Religions and Anthropology.

She has spoken worldwide about her interfaith work and some of her recognitions include being one of eight national recipients of the USA Network 2010 Character Unite Awards, awarded the NAACP “2011 Woman of the Year” in Long Beach, selected in 2015 as one of the Future-50 Emerging Leaders under the age of 35 who are shaping the landscape of faith in Los Angeles by the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture & Interreligious Council of Los Angeles. Most recently in 2017, Milia was chosen as one of 11 individuals throughout the world to be a research fellow at the Dali Lama Center for Ethics and Transformative Values at MIT where her research focuses on the intersection of Islam and Ethics. Most recently in 2020, she was awarded the Harvard Divinity School 2020 Peter J. Gomes, STB ’68 Distinguished Alumni Honoree.  This award honors distinguished HDS alumni whose excellence in life, work, and service pays homage to the mission and values of Harvard Divinity School and Peter J. Gomes, STB ’68.

In 2008 Milia joined as the Executive Director of the South Coast Interfaith Council (SCIC) – the largest and oldest interfaith council in California, serving 35 cities in Southern California.

Dancing through life enjoying every minute...until...something comes along to change it.  For Nurjahan Boulden, that time came in 2006.  While in Canada to attend a family wedding, she went out with family to go dancing.  Sitting at this rooftop club, she suddenly felt pain in her leg and dropped to the ground.  She had been shot!

Nurjahan's story is story of hurting, persevering, and finally thriving.  This is a powerful story.

Nurjahan Boulden grew up with dreams of becoming a dancer. When she was shot in the leg with an assault rifle in a random attack at age 21, she thought those dreams were destroyed. She suffered in silence physically and emotionally for almost a decade before she met another survivor who inspired her to share her story. She’s now a dancer, survivor, and storyteller, inspiring audiences around the world to face their greatest fears and rise in the face of adversity.

You may find out more about her at www.nurjahanboulden.com or follow her on Facebook at /nurjahanboulden/

Live and learn.  That's what we all do.  Rabbis are no different.  

In this episode, Rabbi Zachary Zysman shares some amazing family stories and how those stories have shaped his life.  Family history can enrich our lives and provide connections to the past.  What happens when you find out that your intensely personal family stories are very similar to other people's family stories - people that are so very dissimilar to you as to make this unthinkable?  

Join us for a conversation on family history, getting along with others and seeing the humanity in everyone.



Since 2002, Rabbi Zachary Zysman has dedicated his life to Jewish education. He holds an undergraduate degree in child and adolescent development from San Francisco State University and a master’s degree in human development from Pacific Oaks College.

Zysman also has two additional master’s degrees in Hebrew letters and Jewish Education from Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles, the same location where he received his rabbinic ordination in May 2016.

Zach hopes to weave together his many years of experience working with children and families and the twelve years in Jewish education as an early childhood educator, combined with the rabbinical education to make a significant and measurable difference in people’s Jewish and spiritual lives.

Rabbi Zysman is currently the Campus Rabbi and Director of Jewish Life at Loyola Marymount University.