You know that person you know - the one who exaggerates everything? It’s kind of like that story of the blameless “boy who cried wolf” who lives in fantasy land and never takes responsibility for anything - and this person seemingly has not only the best life anyone could ever imagine, with loads of money, tons of friends, amazing vacations, but also, nothing ever seems to go wrong? (Instagram is a drug, friends). Now imagine that friend is running (again) for President of the United...

This week marks the FIVE-YEAR anniversary of the Dear White Women podcast! That means we’ve outlasted almost all the other podcasts out there… like ya knew we would. From those first few episodes released altogether on April 15, 2019, to now… it’s been quite the ride.  This year, in order to kick off year SIX (!!!) of the podcast, we thought we’d devote an entire shorter episode to talking about not only the past five years but what we have in store for the future and that shot of hope for...

If you know us, you may know that we LOVE a good conversation - even if it’s uncomfortable or difficult. But this year, as we head into what seems to be ONLY conversations that are uncomfortable or difficult, how do we best do that? If the idea of even talking to someone now gives you pause, then this is the episode for you.  The connection quality of part of our conversation is a little iffy in places, but it’s worth listening to every moment of this episode.  Our guest today (a repeat...

“Oh, that’s so political.”  “We don’t talk about politics here.”  “Stop being so political.”    Have you heard that before, when someone brings up a topic that may have been mentioned in the news (or on social media)? Maybe you’ve even been the one that said it. But - have you ever heard it explained what exactly “political” means in this context? Or why shouldn't we talk about it?   We’d argue that there is no such thing as “political”. Or, conversely, perhaps EVERYTHING is...

If you’re listening to this episode around the time when it’s being released, then you’ll be listening to this right on the last day of Black History Month in the United States. It should go without saying that Black History is American History, but we’re going to say it anyway, and we’ll add that it shouldn’t be confined just to the shortest month of the year but instead should be taught to our kids every day of the year, and should be talked about by us as grownups by an equal amount.  ...

In honor of Presidents’ Day coming up next week, we thought we’d focus on president…ial immunity. See what we did there?  With this episode, we’re kicking off a new “why should we care about…” series on DWW where we focus on the WHY behind important issues, so that we go into November making the most informed decisions we can about the candidates AND their platforms. We’re keeping these relevant, funny, and light - but also impactful in how to understand why we need to care about these...

You know when you have a conversation that provides you with a framework of a problem – one you may not have even known existed – and it opens your eyes in a whole new way? Yeah, today is one of those conversations.   Because it helps look at questions like this: Do we really know what freedom is? How about liberty? And if we don’t know what those concepts mean, how do we know if we’ve lost them? And what role does the carceral system have in all of this?   This might seem like a...

It can be as simple - and meaningful - as picking up a fiction novel, reading it, and discussing it with your book club. Because once you see, hear, and learn, we don’t think you’ll ever be able to “go back to how it used to be.” You’ll change. You’ll do things differently. You’ll make ripple effects happen. Change is not a one-size-fits-all phenomenon, nor is change-making. More often than not, it starts small, local, and with just one intentional action. Today we bring you just that book...

Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu! Happy New Year!   We like to split this episode, one we have done every year at this time of year for the last four years, into two parts – reflections and projections. You’ll want to listen so you don’t miss how to stay involved in what’s next for us, the podcast, and 2024 as a whole.   What to listen for: Our history, identities, and what we’ve learned in 2023, including huge successes through the year How to submit ideas for episode topics...

One of the things that we find most rewarding about our own journeys in anti-racism, racial justice, and social justice is when we come across practitioners who come from a similar framework that we do (heart-centered, humanity first, believe people when they tell you their stories, and all of those things) but also challenge us to think more broadly, or more deeply, about these topics in powerful ways. Our guest today does all of that and more.   Naomi Raquel Enright is a DEI...

When you think about the holidays, what image comes to mind? Sitting around a holiday table with friends and family? Spending time with loved ones? Watching some holiday movies, sipping hot cocoa, and all the warm holiday fuzzies?   Or is your reality more like that of a lot of Americans, especially this 2023 holiday season: uncomfortable or downright hostile conversations with members of your family who feel VERY differently about you on polarizing topics, which could include politics,...

If you heard our last episode on the myths surrounding Black-on-Asian crime, you heard that narratives pitting one historically marginalized community against another is a tactic sometimes used to distract us from the real enemy that we all should be focused on (hint: it’s white supremacy). It helps when we deconstruct the facts and look at real studies to dispel those myths – and helps, even more, when we get the opportunity to listen to stories of people who live the Black and Asian...

  You know the viral videos - the ones showing Black people, usually men, attacking unsuspecting Asian folks, usually elderly Asians. These are atrocious, awful incidents of course.  We don’t want anybody to be harmed.  AND, since we can hold two thoughts in our heads at the same time, we also need to state that these viral videos are giving us an inaccurate impression of anti-Asian hate. For example, it turns out, according to a University of Maryland, College Park study, that most...

When we’re asked to do anti-bias talks at corporations, we’re sometimes asked by the different ERGs if we’re comfortable talking about LGTBQIA+ issues - and we answer with our truth, which is that we are both cisgender, heterosexual women who use she/her pronouns.  Nobody in our families is LGBTQIA+.  So while the skill sets to tackle bias are related, we prefer to give the floor to folks who can speak from firsthand experience and knowledge. Enter our incredible conversation partner today...

You heard us talking with Alex Chester-Iwata the other week on the show, who is third-generationJapanese American, and was the first family member in decades to visit Japan.  So, maybe like some of you listening, she has no direct experience with immigration – your family feels like it’s “always been here” in America.   That experience that Alex has of being mixed Asian is really different than what Misasha and Sara grew up with, as daughters of Japanese immigrant parents - we grew up...

When you turn on the TV or open a book, or look for memes on the Internet… how easy is it to find someone who looks like you? Your family? Because it’s never been that easy for us. So when today’s guest, who started her own media company called Mixed Asian Media out of her OWN frustration over not being represented out there, came across our radar, we immediately wanted to know all about her, her company, and her vision of what being mixed Asian is in today’s society, media, and our own...

DEAR WHITE WOMEN -  Multiracial Asians - it’s time to get personal  Why is talking about the multiracial identity and deconstructing the misperception of the Asian monolith important and relevant to you listening, if you’re not multiracial? Several things. Census information - over 10% of the population identifies as multi-racial, but will changing demographics be enough to combat racism?  We don’t think so. Belonging matters - and if we’re to create a thriving society, how do we...

We do this work for our kids, and for ourselves.  And when we talk about this work, there are a lot of spheres we need to change to make this world better for said kids - including schools, kitchen tables, policing and the false idea of law & order, public services, government, and the workplace. And, to focus on workplaces for a second, we always talk about how when we discuss racism, we’re talking about the SYSTEMS that run our society – but we also make it really clear that systems are...

They say never meet your heroes, but we’re so glad we got to meet two of ours, as they gave us the shot of hope at the end of our conversation that we all need, considering everything that’s happening around us currently.  To be honest, we had been looking forward to this conversation ever since David Louie (Episode 212, if you want to go back and listen) made this introduction, and it was everything we had hoped it would be. Not only because Doug Jones and Bill Baxley are legal...

If you know us, you know that we love to focus on our shared humanity - in other words, the threads that bind us together, those common traits regardless of anything else, the things that make us human, after all. And so when we discovered our next guest, we felt like we found a kindred spirit - after all, his whole platform is called The Humanity Archive.   If you, as we do, believe in the power of humanity, in telling everyone’s stories, and being sure that those stories that we may...

If someone talks to me (Sara) about summer reading, honestly, my brain first goes to fiction novels.  I love them, and I have been noticing that if they’re particularly well-written, I end up learning a whole lot about humanity.  And the book we’re highlighting for you today is just one of those phenomenal book experiences.     We’re excited to bring to you a book set in the era just after World War II and the incarceration of Japanese Americans on American soil.  So many books talk...

Our notes for this conversation with Christine, before we had it, were this: expect this to be a casual vibe, hilarious interaction, lighthearted fun conversation! We would say that was EXACTLY what this was, in a nutshell. We went into this thinking we’d probably discuss some stuff like her upcoming book(s), plans, and more. But it really was more of a conversation that was about so many other facets of life than we had planned out, and it also seemed like the perfect conversation to air...

We’re so excited to kick off our summer book club with this amazing book: The First, The Few, The Only. When we interviewed Deepa for this episode, we remember being so excited to talk to her about this book because, while we’ve talked about a lot of books written for White people to learn more about race and racism, it’s not often that we come across business books that are written specifically for women of color. In fact, women of color still seem largely invisible in many ways in the...

Did you miss us last week? We missed you! Listen in to this week’s episode in order to hear some exciting updates, a small podcast look-back, and what we have planned for this summer . . .   What to listen for: After four years of weekly shows and 220+ episodes later, we’re moving to a new release schedule – releasing every other week! Why?  This lets us focus more on some of the things that we’ve been doing behind the scenes with our Dear White Women platform, namely: ...