UnfairNation Ehsan Zaffar

UnfairNation the PodcastSeason 2 | Episode 6
Making movies is hard work … that increasingly doesn’t pay enough.
The last few years have seemed like the golden age of entertainment. There’s been more shows to watch than people to watch them and more ways of watching your favorite shows than ever before.
But while this era of “Peak Entertainment” has provided tremendous opportunities, the profits from this bounty have largely accrued to a very small percentage of writers, actors and entertainment executives. 
My guest on this episode, Raamla Mohamed, is an Emmy nominated television writer and producer and currently show runner on the Hulu series Reasonable Doubt. She is a rising success, but still someone who would call herself a hustler - working hard to make it in Hollywood. She is, also … undeniably useful - which is the term Raamla gives her philosophy of reframing the smallest effort in service of excellence and success.
And finally, as a writer, she is on strike, demanding fair treatment and better compensation for her work.
In this episode, I speak with Raamla about who she is, her identity as a child of immigrants, her family and her pathway from MFA student to show runner. Though we don’t discuss her show in much detail, Raamla has some important advice to share with young people thinking of entering the entertainment industry as well.
Now one of the most popular podcasts in the world, UnfairNation is produced in partnership with The Difference Engine at Arizona State University, a venture studio where some of the brightest students, faculty and staff build products with and for communities to reduce inequality.
This episode was recorded in the gorgeous and historic Herald Examiner Building in downtown Los Angeles - the headquarters for ASU in Southern California. Our editor on this episode was Damien Somerset. Thank you also to Aubrey Hicks and Lindsay Stephens from The Difference Engine, as well as the fantastic ASU California IT team for setting us up in the studio this time around.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.unfairnation.com

Does documenting the police help make them better?

We are a violent country by almost all measures, including the number of citizens in the United States who are assaulted or die at the hands of police. 

In this episode, I’m talking to someone who is looking to end police brutality by shedding light on how the Los Angeles Police Department responds to calls. My guest William Gude has been running “Film the Police LA” for the last several years, a project that is part of a growing movement of “cop watchers” who leverage technology to document and then share how police respond to incidents, believing that doing so will change the way policing functions on a day to day, street to street level. 

Let’s listen to what William has to share about his work, why he feels its important and how others can get involved safely and responsibly in this work.





This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.unfairnation.com

This episode continues our conversation about why running for public office is important, but it is a little different - it’s a recording of a live conversation I had with Amy McGrath, who ran for both the U.S. House of Representatives and then for the Senate against Mitch McConnell. This episode also contains an introduction from former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

As you’ll learn, Amy is a trailblazer. She was the first woman to fly a combat mission for the Marine Corps and the first to pilot the F-18 fighter jet on a combat mission. In our conversation, Amy and I touch on a variety of issues - but most importantly, the role of women as political leaders and why more women need to be in positions of power. Amy also shares the challenges and advantages of serving in the armed forces and then running for high political office during the pandemic.

UnfairNation is recorded at The Difference Engine, a venture studio housed Arizona State University that builds products communities can use to reduce inequality. This conversation was part of a regular speaker series The Engine holds called Engineering Change. You can check more about our work by visiting thedifferencenegine.asu.edu.

Enjoy!


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.unfairnation.com

It’s been a while since I recorded an episode, so apologies for that, but I think you’re going to like the changes we’ve made over the last few months. First, I’m making episodes a little shorter - just the right length to listen to on a three mile run, and because this podcast is a great cure for insomnia, you can also use it to knock out at night.

Second, we’re now recording UnfairNation at Arizona State University’s beautiful and historic Herald Examiner Building in downtown Los Angeles. As some of you may know, I run The Difference Engine at Arizona State University, where we build products communities can use to reduce inequality.

I’ll be sharing more information about our work later in the year, and also introducing you to the students who will help research the content for this podcast as well as edit and produce it. In the meantime, I want to give a shoutout to Aubrey Hicks, The Engine’s Chief of Staff, who helped produce and organize this episode.

So! On to Dulce! I met Dulce when I first started at ASU. She’s got more energy than almost anyone I know and she was one of the first supporters (and currently serves as the first fellow) at the Difference Engine. Last year, she announced her candidacy for Los Angeles City Council District 9 and by all accounts ran a stellar grassroots campaign to unseat an incumbent politician. Despite her tremendous efforts and those of her team, she failed to unseat him.

In her quest for political office are important lessons for those thinking of running. The electoral system in this currently has been inherently unfair since this country’s founding, and because the system is so tilted, many people today think that running for office is one of the last ways to influence positive public policy change.

But, as you’ll hear, despite acknowledging and agreeing with the cynics, despite her own loss, Dulce remains steadfastly positive about the electoral system.

So let’s listen to Dulce and her views on why local politics are still inequitable, what we can all do to make things less unfair and why she still thinks people (especially women) should run for office.



Dulce talked about:


Learn more about Democracy Vouchers
Learn more about Emerge America


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To proponents of defunding the police Arif AliKhan says that police departments as functional units still have a unique role to play in our society. To those who defend the police at all costs he says that the police need to be reformed, perhaps significantly.

This is a balanced and pragmatic approach that may find limited traction in our current times. But it comes from a place of deep experience as the Director of the Office of Constitutional Policing at the LAPD, and prior to that roles as Assistant Secretary for Policy at the Department of Homeland Security and as Deputy Mayor of Los Angeles.

In this episode we talk about body-worn cameras and how they are amazing, but severly limited tools for encouraging good law enforcement behavior and also what Arif thinks the future of policing looks like ... he literally paints a picture of it, step by step. Its a view we don't often hear and I think his insider's perspective is a valuable listen.

Oh and yeah ... we're back. So look for additional episodes we've recorded over the last few months hitting your favorite podcast app soon. Thanks, as always, for listening.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.unfairnation.com

We're back from a bit of a break and informally starting a new season! 

The decline of worker power over the last four decades has been fundamental and transformational according to my guest Anna Stansbury, a Ph.D. candidate at Harvard University. She argues that the long-term decline in worker power may have been caused by a number of related trends, including a decline in labor unions and ruthless cost-cutting and management by corporations. 

Anna's hypothesis is laid out in a fascinating paper which she co-authored with Larry Summers entitled The Declining Worker Power Hypothesis. On this episode, Anna talks with me about her findings as well as other broader macroeconomic trends effecting workers during the pandemic, including how increasing the minimum wage may have unintended consequences for lower-income communities and why even wealthier wage earners are affected by deepening economic inequality.

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Link to Anna and Larry Summers' paper: (link: https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/stansbury/files/2020.6.30_stansbury_summers_the_declining_worker_power_hypothesis.pdf) 


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.unfairnation.com