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Culture Stew: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Maria Morukian
Culture Stew is a show dedicated to exploring diversity, inclusion, and cultural identity in its many dimensions. We explore how our identities and values influence our personal and professional lives. Through interviews with scholars, journalists, scientists, and leadership development practitioners, we'll delve into different concepts around cultural identity, explore how to lead diverse teams and organizations, and seek ways to build bridges across cultural chasms.
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- Aug 12, 202652 min
Rethinking Civic Connection: Building Trust & Collaboration Across Difference
Can activism build bridges instead of walls? At a time when half the country sees the other half as immoral, undemocratic, and dangerous — and vice versa -- is real civil discourse even possible? Michelle Sobel and Morgan Lasher say yes — and they're proving it. As leaders at Unify America, they're on a mission to reduce political polarization and rebuild civic trust nationwide. In this episode, we dig into two of their boldest tools for change: Civic Gym programs that train students to engage in deep and meaningful dialogue across differences and find common ground on tough topics, and Democracy Leagues that build lasting local institutions for a less polarized, more functional democracy. The takeaway? Dialogue isn't just possible — it's a skill we can practice. And activism isn't only found on the front lines of protest. It lives in the everyday choices we make to use our own influence, connect across difference, and hold our shared humanity dear. 🔗 Learn more: unifyamerica.org
- Jul 23, 202644 min
Recentering Community: Creating Wellness Spaces Accesible for All
Gabriela Estrada is a Chicago-based entrepreneur, graphic designer and author. After working as a teacher for 5 years, Gabriela authored 2 autobiographical books and shortly after receiving her 200hr RYT certification, opened The Groove Chicago, a community yoga and art studio that centers all women of color in Avondale. Born and raised in Humboldt Park, Gabriela knows the power of community and giving back and is thrilled to help her community reach their highest potential through curated programming that fits their collective needs.
- Jul 2, 20261h 5m
Reframing Activism: Living a Values-Based Life to Create Social Change
Chris Haigh is the Founder and Lead Consultant of True Change Associates, where they partner with organizations to build more equitable, inclusive, and socially just workplaces. With more than two decades of experience across higher education, nonprofit, and corporate sectors, Chris specializes in leadership development, organizational change, and team building. They have served in leadership and faculty roles at institutions including Brown University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Merrimack College, and the Federal Executive Institute, and have presented nationally at SXSW, the Racial Justice Institute at Creating Change, and the White Privilege Conference. Chris holds a master's degree in Social Justice Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and currently lives in Portugal with their wife, Vanessa. In this episode of Culture Stew, Chris shares their personal journey of activism throughout their life-- from coming out in a small town to their journey of redefining the notion of family. Listen to this powerful conversation and leave feeling inspired to make a difference within your own sphere of influence.
- Jun 17, 202652 min
AMPLIFY! Storytelling to Activate Social Change
In this episode of Culture Stew, we bring you the remarkable Emmy Award-winning journalist and author, Dion Lim. Dion has been known for nearly two decades as a TV news anchor and reporter, most recently with ABC News in San Francisco and the Bay Area. Dion made history as the first Asian American woman to anchor weekday evening newscasts at television stations in multiple major markets, including Kansas City, Charlotte, and Tampa Bay. Her reporting on racism and violence targeting Asian Americans has been featured on Good Morning America, 20/20, Nightline, and ABC News Live. Her work and advocacy have also been highlighted by PBS, NPR, New York Magazine, USA Today, and numerous other outlets. Dion is also the author of the brilliant book, "AMPLIFY! My Fight For Asian America" (Third State Books). Through deeply personal anecdotes about her own life as a Chinese American, and her groundbreaking work as a journalist bringing forth the experiences of Asians during a time of heightened fear and hate, she provides the very first book to tackle one of the biggest political and social controversies of this century from the perspective of the AAPI community. In our interview, Dion shared her experience reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially on anti-Asian violence and how it transformed her work into something more personal and impactful. She shares some of the stories that most defined the #StopAsianHate movement, including the killing of Vicha Ratanapakdee, and how these stories forced the country to confront a much bigger and harder truth about who was being targeted and why. Dion also shares her views on the difference between activism and what she calls "activation," explaining why calling attention to undeniable racism isn't advocacy but journalism with urgency and moral clarity. Through her insights, you'll discover how storytelling, and amplifying the voices of those whose stories are often marginalized, can be a tool of empowerment, resilience, and community mobilization. Connect with Dion at DionLim.com Follow @DionLimTV on social media: Facebook | Instagram | TikTok
- Jun 3, 202643 min
Recentering and Empowering Diverse Voices in Publishing
Lilly Ghahremani is a recovering attorney who now "uses her powers for good!" as the co-founder and literary agent for adult and children's books at Full Circle Literary. She represents a wide range of authors and illustrators, thinking strategically about building lasting careers that are both productive and satisfying in a rapidly-changing publishing landscape. As literary agent, she's spent over two decades advocating for marginalized voices and transforming the publishing landscape. In this episode of the Culture Stew, Lilly reveals how the industry's biases and censorship, both overt and subtle, silence diverse stories and what we can all do to reclaim them. From supporting diverse authors to engaging in meaningful conversations Lilly and Maria explore how activism can be woven into daily life, making it accessible and impactful for everyone.
- May 20, 202656 min
Re-envisioning Social-Emotional Learning- A Conversation with Ashley Brown, Executive Director of Peace of Mind
Ashley Brown is the Executive Director of Peace of Mind, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. that is on a mission to equip kids with the mindfulness tools they need to manage big emotions, build healthy relationships, and become — in their words — peacemakers. For over a decade, Ashley has championed educational equity and student success across diverse school communities. Whether she's designing curriculum, leading professional development for educators, or facilitating workshops directly with students, her focus has always been the same: creating learning environments where every child can thrive. What Ashley and her team at Peace of Mind do is more than teaching breathing exercises and yoga poses. It's mindfulness woven together with brain science, conflict resolution, and social justice — giving kids not only the tools to regulate themselves, but the courage and agency to stand up for what's right in their communities. Today we're talking about what it really looks like to teach peace, why this work is more urgent than ever, and how one small D.C. nonprofit is quietly building a global movement — one classroom at a time.
- May 6, 202648 min
Reframing Civic Engagement For Children & Caregivers
Allison Matulli, Ed.D., J.D., M.Ed. is an author, law professor, childhood educator, and Free Speech advocate and Fellow for the First Amendment at the Freedom Forum. Dr. Matulli has dedicated her career to helping communities and their children understand the law, with specific attention to the First Amendment. Combining her legal training and education background, she is also the founder of The Little Lawyers, which empowers communities and children to learn the law. Dr. Matulli recently completed her Ed.D. with a doctorate thesis on Free Speech and Digital Citizenship. She is also a Global Fulbright Scholar focusing on how children experience freedom of speech in various countries worldwide, both online and offline. She is a lecturer at Howard University and serves as a criminal justice adjunct professor at Florida International University and affiliate faculty at the Maurice A. Ferré Institute for Civic Leadership. Her book, Your Freedom, Your Power: A Kid's Guide to the First Amendment (Hachette/Running Press Kids) has garnered broad interest from educators and free speech advocates and was named a Junior Library Guild Selection and included in the Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best Books of 2023. She is the author of three forthcoming picture books. We Are Free (RISE x PRH) invites the youngest readers to understand how the First Amendment affects their lives and the world around them. Matulli was named one of Miami's Most Prominent Black Women in Business and Industry by Legacy magazine, among other accolades.
- Apr 23, 202655 min
Reimagining Sustainable Economies
Veryl Pow is a movement lawyer at the Sustainable Economies Law Center who practices at the intersection between solidarity economics, housing decommodification, and land liberation. An activist first, Veryl's politics developed from his grassroots organizing experiences in resistance movements that spanned Third World solidarity to abolitionist campaigns; and has since expanded to prefigurative worldmaking movements that attempt to transform social and economic relations from profit accumulation, extraction, and atomization to care, cooperation, and mutual aid in the here and now. The Sustainable Economies Law Center is a worker self-directed nonprofit that is one such experiment in worldmaking because of its non-hierarchical structure and democratization of decision-making and labor. You can learn more about the work of the Law Center through their 2026 Project Gallery. In the month of May 2026, the Law Center is running their annual, community-gathering Grassroots Fundraising Campaign. The theme this year is #AllHandsOnDeck, as we need as many hands to build strong ties in local communities to meet this moment of curated chaos in our federal government.
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About Culture Stew
Culture Stew is a show dedicated to exploring diversity, inclusion, and cultural identity in its many dimensions. We explore how our identities and values influence our personal and professional lives. Through interviews with scholars, journalists, scientists, and leadership development practitioners, we'll delve into different concepts around cultural identity, explore how to lead diverse teams and organizations, and seek ways to build bridges across cultural chasms.
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