UNDISTRACTED with Brittany Packnett Cunningham

With International Women’s Day coming up, host Brittany Packnett Cunningham talks to Padma Lakshmi, the “Top Chef” host and advocate for immigrants’ and women’s rights. And they go deep on the politics of food, from why home cooking is so often overlooked to what Lakshmi would cook for dinner with new V.P. Kamala Harris. (There’s “nothing more political than the food we eat and the bread we break together,” says Lakshmi.) Plus, Brittany brings you the latest Untrending news. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

To round out Black History Month, we turn to a woman making history of her own: U.S. Representative Ayanna Pressley, who’s holding Congress’s feet to the fire on issues from student-loan forgiveness to vaccine equity. (She says policy is her love language.) The Congresswoman sits down with host Brittany Packnett Cunningham to talk about her political and her personal journey—in a talk that ranges from racial justice to her own evolving sense of beauty, as a Black woman leader living with alopecia. Plus, Brittany pays homage to the 500,000+ people lost to Covid–19, and brings you the latest Untrending news. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Calls for criminal-justice reform have built over the last year—and this week, with jail uprisings in St. Louis, the focus is on prison abolition. That’s personal for both host Brittany Packnett Cunningham and her guest, organizer Kayla Reed, who break down what’s happening in their mutual hometown, and take on common myths about abolition. It’s a revealing discussion—and required listening for anyone trying to understand prison issues now. Plus, Brittany brings you the latest Untrending news. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Black Lives Matter was just nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize—so this week, host Brittany Packnett Cunningham sits down with co-founder of the Black Lives Matter organization Opal Tometi. How did the movement go from being seen as radical to more widely accepted? And what’s next in the fight for racial justice? They cover it all—plus, Brittany brings you the latest Untrending news. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

President Biden signed new protections for LGBTQ people on Day One of his presidency—but new anti-trans legislation is cropping up everywhere, and violence against gender-nonconforming folks, especially Black trans women, remains high. How can we fix this? Host Brittany Packnett Cunningham sits down with activist and writer Raquel Willis to talk about everything from the new administration to the trans ancestors you never heard about. Plus, Brittany brings you the latest Untrending news. Here are the legendary trans ancestors Raquel mentions in the episode: Mary Jones: A Black trans sex worker living in New York in the 1830s. Frances Thompson: A formerly enslaved Black trans woman who fought in the Memphis Riots and later testified before Congress. Marsha P. Johnson: A Black trans woman who was among the first to resist police raiding Stonewall, sparking the LGBTQ Rights Movement. Sylvia Rivera: A trans Latina activist and veteran of the 1969 Stonewall uprising Crystal LaBeija: The legendary founder of The House of LaBeija. And some of her trans “siblings” leading the fight today: Ceyenne Doroshow: Founder and Executive Director of GLITS Inc Ianne Fields Stewart: Founder of The Okra Project C. Riley Snorton: Professor of English Language and Literature, archiving Black trans history Tourmaline: Activist, photographer, filmmaker To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Capitol attacks were shocking...but, to many Black women, who had been sounding the alarm on online hate and disinformation for years, not wholly surprising. Host Brittany Packnett Cunningham tells her own story of being targeted on Facebook—and sits down with media justice expert Brandi Collins-Dexter of Color of Change for a conversation about everything from foreign agents impersonating Black women to how we can all hold social media companies accountable. Plus, Brittany brings you the latest Untrending News. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’ve got a new president. A new, historic vice president. And so much work to be done! But in order to truly change the world, says Tricia Hersey, founder of the Nap Ministry, we’re going to have to stop running ourselves ragged. Rest isn’t just a wellness fad, she tells host Brittany Packnett Cunningham—it’s a deep racial justice issue and the only path to freedom. Plus, Brittany talks inauguration highlights, remembers Maya Angelou, and brings you the latest Untrending News. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With Inauguration Day only a week away—and impeachment proceedings raging around us—host Brittany Packnett Cunningham talks to a woman who’s seen it all: Valerie Jarrett, the longtime Obama advisor now consulting for the Biden-Harris transition team. They talk insurrection, justice, what needs to happen in the first 100 days—and what Jarrett herself has learned about being a woman at work. Plus, Brittany brings you the latest Untrending News. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This was a rollercoaster of a week—but before there was a white nationalist coup, there was a major, momentous Senate victory in Georgia. How did it happen? And how can we do it again, and again? Host Brittany Packnett Cunningham unpacks those questions with writer, producer and activist America Ferrera, who helped rally the Latinx vote with her new organization She Se Puede. They get into everything from “the Black-Brown alliance” to how the former Ugly Betty star is helping to bring through other creative Latinx voices. And of course, Brittany brings us the latest Untrending news. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Reflections on a day of white supremacy run rampant. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Who do you call for perspective on the craziest year in recent memory? Two expert dreamers—New York Times critic Jenna Wortham and curator Kimberly Drew, co-editors of the ambitious new book Black Futures. They talk to host Brittany Packnett Cunningham about why it’s important to write our stories (and not just on social media), and what they expect 2021 to hold. Plus, we hear about the lessons of the year from members of The Meteor collective—like Raquel Willis, Liz Plank, Treasure Brooks, and Rebecca Carroll—and, most importantly, from you, our listeners. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Vaccines are here. We can almost, kind of, sort of see the light at the end of the tunnel. But what world will we be coming out into? That’s what we’re exploring this week—from an intersectional feminist point of view. Host Brittany Packnett Cunningham hears from Dr. Esther Choo, a professor of emergency medicine at Oregon Health & Science University, about our medical futures; Fatima Goss Graves, President and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center, about building a better working world for women; and Imani Barbarin, a disability activist who writes at CrutchesAndSpice.com, about the future of accessibility. Plus, Brittany brings you the latest Untrending News. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fresh off her fourth WNBA championship and newly engaged to soccer star Megan Rapinoe, basketball phenom Sue Bird sits down with host Brittany Packnett Cunningham to talk about her own leadership on social justice—and the path it took her to get there. They discuss Breonna Taylor, Black Lives Matter, the Georgia Senate races...plus Brittany brings you the latest Untrending News.Check out the links below to get involved with organizations mobilizing Georgia voters for the upcoming Senate runoffs.Black Voters Matterhttps://blackvotersmatterfund.orgFair Fight https://fairfight.comNew Georgia Projecthttps://newgeorgiaproject.org To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How do the roles we see influence our own choices in life? That’s a subject Tracee Ellis Ross has thought a LOT about. As the 7th season of “Black-ish” returns to TV—and early-2000s fan favorite “Girlfriends” hits Netflix—host Brittany Packnett Cunningham talks to the actress, producer and activist about her political (and quite personal) evolution, and why she’s on a mission to expand the humanity of Black women—on and off-screen. Plus, Brittany brings you the latest Untrending News. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Living legend alert: On this Thanksgiving—or "Friends and Family Day,” as we call it around here—host Brittany Packnett Cunningham talks to much-celebrated poet Nikki Giovanni. And Giovanni brings all her warmth, wit and, yes, poetry, to a discussion about everything from VP-elect Kamala Harris to the global Black Lives Matter movement. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Yes, we just had an election that promises to make life better for many women. But our guest this week—New York Magazine writer-at-large Rebecca Traister—is “wary of the feel-good narrative.” She tells host Brittany Packnett Cunningham why we all should be, and gets into what the framing of Kamala Harris's win says about our continued fear of full-grown women. Plus, they discuss whether the activism of 2020 will stick for the long haul—and Brittany brings you the latest Untrending News. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With the election of a lifetime just days behind us, host Brittany Packnett Cunningham talks to one of the organizers who made the Biden-Harris victory happen—Black Voters Matter co-founder LaTosha Brown. They get real about everything from the past and present power of Black women to the runoff races coming up in Georgia. Plus, LaTosha sings—and Brittany brings you the latest Untrending News.Check out the links below to get involved with organizations mobilizing Georgia voters for the upcoming Senate runoffs.Black Voters Matterhttps://blackvotersmatterfund.orgFair Fight https://fairfight.comNew Georgia Projecthttps://newgeorgiaproject.org To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In our election special—recorded the day after election day—host Brittany Packnett Cunningham talks to award-winning journalist Soledad O’Brien about the big question this week: How did this election get so close? They go deep into the underpinnings of media racism, O’Brien tells a few tales from her own career—and we share an all-election edition of Untrending news.You can learn more about the organizations Brittany shouts out below: NAACP legal defense fund https://www.naacpldf.org/ The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Lawhttps://lawyerscommittee.org/ Fair Fighthttps://fairfight.com/Black Voters Matterhttps://blackvotersmatterfund.org/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We are UNDISTRACTED! In our debut episode, host Brittany Packnett Cunningham gets real with Supermajority co-founder Cecile Richards, who’s been working for over a year to mobilize a historic number of women voters. They get into that, the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett, what Jared Kushner has to do with abortion, and lots more—plus Brittany brings you up-to-date on the latest Untrending News. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brittany Packnett Cunningham is an activist, educator, and popular TV commentator—and a trusted voice for millions of people interested in social justice. Now, with UNDISTRACTED—an original podcast from The Meteor and Pineapple Street Studios—she aims her focus on the most pressing issues of our time through the lens of intersectional feminism. From the latest headlines to deep-dives with today’s most fascinating changemakers, UNDISTRACTED is your weekly guide to the revolution. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices