Dialogue Lab Reva Patwardhan

-- DIALOGUE LAB PODCAST EPISODE 015 - Sameena Mustafa Helped Build the Blue Wave
I talked to Sameena Mustafa -- former candidate for Congress -- a few weeks before the midterm elections. Sameena is a progressive who aimed to unseat centrist Democrat Mike Quigley in the Democratic primary back in March 2018. Her bid was impressive, if ultimately unsuccessful, and shone a light on how out of step Quigley’s voting record has been with his very progressive district.
And in the context of the “Blue Wave” of Democratic victories coming to light since last Tuesday, the big message I take from my conversation with Sameena is this: There’s lots more where that came from.
The victories we are seeing now are the tip of the iceberg, And they are the result of work being done by progressives -- many women of color -- all over the country. And Sameena was one of those women, getting out in front, and insisting on a new direction.
Listen to our conversation here: https://www.dialoguelab.org/podcast-episodes/ep015-sameena-mustafa

Every. Vote. Counts. And as it turns out, that is often felt most keenly from the perspective of people who are not allowed to vote.
That what motivates Esther de Rothschild & Aicha Cherif in their work running the Love Vote, an organization that amplifies the voices of people who can’t vote -- either because of youth, citizenship, or disenfranchisement. And they are doing it to move people who can vote, to vote.
Esther -- the Love Vote’s founder -- is a high school teacher and filmmaker. Aicha is the Love Vote’s outreach director. Aicha’s also a high school senior whose citizenship status means she won’t be eligible to vote, even after she turns 18 next year.
We also talked about their experiences at the helm of a social impact startup, as well as their insights on leading, collaborating, and learning in the social impact space.
Here’s a highlight:
42:26: “I remember when I first met with a tech person about a website… and I said, ‘can you let me know what you see as the greatest potential weakness, both in this project and of what I’m bringing to it?’….
“[He said,] ‘You’re greatest strength as I see it now is your awareness of how much you have to learn. And there’s a lot of people who actually know pretty much as little as you, about this space, but come in either believing they know everything they need to know, or pretending they know everything they need to know. And that is a tremendous liability.”
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Esther and Aisha offered rich insights on how to build bridges across the generational divide -- basically how old fuddy-duddies can successfully collaborate with a bunch of young whippersnappers.
The generational divide is such a common concern within the social change space, and Esther and Aicha have a lot of wisdom to offer on that.
And on the Tuesday after this episode comes out, I’ll be sending out an email that digs more deeply into the kind of learner’s mindset that Esther described as a key to her success.
If you want to get that email, go to dialoguelab.org/antidote and subscribe.

-- DIALOGUE LAB PODCAST EPISODE 013 - Kat Calvin: Spread the Vote --
After the 2016 presidential election, Kat Calvin took a hard look at the state of voting rights in this country, and did not like what she saw. Like the fact that in 34 states, eligible voters are being turned away from polling stations because they don’t have a state-issued ID.
So Kat founded Spread the Vote, which is working to get people their IDs, so they can vote. As well as find jobs, apply for housing -- all sorts of essential things.
I talked to Kat about what motivated her to build Spread the Vote from scratch, and about her leadership and life at the head of an ambitious effort to secure people’s voting rights in advance of these critical midterm elections.
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One of the things we talked about was how successful social impact leaders don’t try to go it alone. They check their egos at the door, so they can prioritize what’ most important: their missions.
And Kat talked about how you can usually tell when someone is letting their ego drive the bus -- and driving potential allies and partners away. And if you ask me, the fact that it’s easy to spot -- that’s good news.
Because spotting it is the first step to repairing and building the kind of strong partnerships you need to pull off your ambitious vision for change.
I’ll be sending out an email the Tuesday after this episode goes live with a list of some of the key signs that tell you it might be time to take a look at who is driving your bus. If you want to get that email, go to dialoguelab.org/antidote and subscribe.

This week, I speak with Kishshana Palmer, a brilliant trainer, speaker, and thought leader when it comes to management and leadership in the nonprofit sector.
I have spent 2 decades working in the nonprofit and social impact sectors, and I’m in love with these people. You work hard, you are smart, dedicated, and incredibly resourceful. And it drives me up the wall that the people in this sector are so often underpaid, and instead of being treated like the resourceful humans they are, they often are treated like machines who are expected to churn out social impact non stop.
Kishshana and I delved into this dynamic at length, and talked about what gets in the way of us celebrating and cultivating the excellence that is right here in this sector. Kishshana is a captivating speaker. She is funny, wise, and bold in her declarations of where she thinks this sector needs to be heading.
Towards the end of my conversation with Kishshana, we talked about how in the nonprofit space, we often see our colleagues as more than colleagues, but like family. We talked about the strengths and pitfalls that come with that.
And the week after this episode comes out, I’ll share an email that unpacks that idea more, and offers resources on things you can do to build on that as a strength, while avoiding some of the considerable downsides.
If you’d like to get the takeaways from this episode, as well as all the others, go to dialoguelab.org/antidote, and subscribe.

This week, we go on a deep dive with the brilliant Melanie Dewberry, a coach, speaker, author, and indigenous ceremonialist.
This was a very different kind of conversation for this podcast. Melanie gets real, and she gets deep down to the gritty, unpolished truth here. And honestly, this ended up being one of the most valuable conversations to me personally, that I’d had in a while.
We talked about what it means to advocate for change, w/o being trapped inside the very system you are trying to change. We talked about the harm we do to ourselves when we are always reacting to what the system throws at us. And we talked about accessing a place of greater truth, stillness, and love, that’s inside of all of us, and learning to act from there.
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I’ve been distilling every interview I do on this podcast into tips that any nonprofit leader or social entrepreneur can use in their work, and I’ve been sharing it in an email to my subscribers.
For instance, the week after this episode comes out, I’ll be sharing an email based on my conversation with Melanie that will provide journaling prompts that can help you bring some of her wisdom into your daily life as a leader.  
So if you’d like to get these emails every other week, you can go to dialoguelab.org/antidote, and subscribe there. 

This week, a conversation with Rebecca Aced-Molina, an amazing coach and facilitator who is a faculty member with Leadership That Works, a school for coaches who want to be effective in social impact spaces.
Rebecca shared her journey as someone making her way in the nonprofit space, from her early disillusionment in nonprofits, to finding her unique way of making an impact as a coach.
We also talked about the double-bind -- that special way that women, people of color, and people with marginalized identities find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place -- and what to do to navigate your way out of it.
I distill the top 3 lessons for social impact leadership from every interview I do in an email I send to my Lessons from the Lab subscribers.
For instance, the week after this episode comes out, I’ll share an email that digs deep into what to do when the nonprofit double-bind strikes you. I’ll share some of the tools I’ve offered to my one-on-one clients, on how to recognize and navigate your way out, when you find yourself stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Subscribe here: https://www.dialoguelab.org/lessons
Grab a free copy of Talking Politics on Facebook: A guide to having social change conversations that are liberating, make an impact, and won't drive you crazy.
Get it here: https://www.dialoguelab.org/talking-politics/