Resources to support people and families impacted by ICE raids. ⁠

Recorded during a wave of ICE raids in Los Angeles, this urgent episode asks what it means to truly belong in a country built on migration. Katie Smith and Beth Rudden open up about personal stakes, political theater, and the manufactured crises threatening immigrant families today.

From the roots of religious freedom to the metaphor of invasive species, they explore how narratives—about borders, safety, and identity—are shaped, distorted, and weaponized. This is a conversation about witnessing injustice, honoring complexity, and anchoring into the future we want to build.

With stories of community resilience, artistic resistance, and civic power, Beth and Katie challenge us to rethink ownership, accountability, and care.

🔑 Topics Covered:

• ICE raids in LA and the real-time impact on families and neighborhoods
• The role of the National Guard, state sovereignty, and political overreach
• Migration as a natural force, not a crisis
• *Artistic metaphors: seeds, invasive species, and stories as resistance
• Religion, freedom, and misunderstanding across political lines
• Psychological and social healing in post-colonial societies
• Local power: sheriffs, judges, and community-led safety
• Why paid organizers matter—and who actually benefits from unrest
• Redefining ownership as accountability
• Imagining belonging as the anchor for a just future

Artists mentioned:

• Maria Thereza Alves and her work ⁠Seeds of Change⁠
• Jenny Yurshansky and her work on the ⁠themes of what is to be a refugee⁠
• Patrisse Marie Khan-Cullors Brignac who leads work around ⁠Care not Cages⁠

📌 Key Takeaways:

• Migration is fundamental to life; borders are human inventions.
• Care must replace cages—at every level of society.
• Belonging is not a luxury; it's the condition for collective thriving.
• Local governance is where real power—and real accountability—lives.
• Artists, organizers, and everyday people are already building the future we need.

⏱️ Chapters (Timestamps):

• 00:00 ICE Raids and the Politics of Manufactured Crisis
• 06:00 The National Guard, Local Power, and Historical Echoes
• 12:00 Migration, Metaphor, and the Wisdom of Artists
• 18:00 Religion, Identity, and the Stories We Tell
• 25:00 Seeds, Borders, and the Absurdity of Lines
• 32:00 What Belonging Really Means
• 38:00 Digital Solidarity and the Arab Spring
• 44:00 Paid Organizers, Real Protest, and Who Benefits
• 50:00 Liberty Hill Foundation and Local Mutual Aid
• 52:00 Anchoring to a Future of Equity, Accountability, and Care

In our first guest episode, Beth and Katie are joined by Dr. Desmond Patton—renowned social worker, AI ethics leader, and founder of SAFELab—for a soul-stirring conversation on what’s ending, what’s beginning, and why joy is more than a feeling—it’s an intentional system.

From pioneering research on youth expression and gun violence to building JoyNet, a machine learning platform designed to surface joy in digital spaces, Desmond shares how community, nuance, and vulnerability can change the future of tech. Together, the trio explores why context matters in AI, how social media misreads grief as aggression, and what it means to decolonize data through trust.

This is a masterclass in human-centered design—one rooted in lived experience, radical listening, and the belief that joy and justice are not opposites.

🔑 Topics Covered:

• What’s ending: the era of joyless performance
• What’s beginning: joy as an intentional operating system
• The origin and mission of JoyNet
• Why traditional NLP tools misinterpret Black and Brown grief
• CASM: a 7-step contextual analysis system for social media
• Building tech with, not for, marginalized communities
• How AI systems get culture—and people—so wrong
• Scaling empathy without erasing depth
• Social media as a space of both trauma and healing
• Reimagining metrics, value, and thick data
• Storytelling, digital connection, and the slow power of joy

📌 Key Takeaways:

• Joy is not frivolous; it’s resilient, rooted, and revolutionary.
• AI systems must be designed with contextual nuance and cultural fluency—or they cause harm.
• Grief doesn’t look the same across cultures, and we need tech that understands that.
• Participatory research and lived experience are non-negotiable in building responsible AI.
• The movement toward healing, justice, and connection is growing—even if it’s quiet.

⏱️ Chapters (Timestamps):

00:00 What's Ending and Beginning: Joy as Operating System

03:00 JoyNet and the Science of Digital Uplift

06:00 When NLP Fails: Misreading Black Grief as Aggression

12:00 Introducing CASM: Contextual Analysis of Social Media

16:00 InterpretMe: A Tool for Training Ethical Annotation

20:00 Why Youth Voice and Lived Experience Must Lead

26:00 Collaborating with Tech Platforms for Change

30:00 The Case for Thick Data Over Scale

35:00 Polarization, Algorithms, and the Cost of Misunderstanding

40:00 The Quiet Power of Joy Posts and the Future We Can Choose

Recorded on Memorial Day, this deeply reflective episode honors the past and questions the future. Beth Rudden and Katie Smith explore what it means to serve, belong, and protect—whether on the battlefield or in everyday life. From family histories in the military to AI's rise as the next frontier of global power, they trace the parallels between war, technology, and community.

Together, they confront uncomfortable truths about who benefits from war—past and present—and ask: What kind of future are we building? What do we owe each other? And how do we come home to each other again, in neighborhoods, rituals, and stories?

🔑 Topics Covered:

• Memorial Day reflections and military family legacies
• The value of service—military, civil, and communal
• AI as the new military-industrial arms race
• Why we need diplomats, not just data scientists
• Block parties, belonging, and reclaiming public space
• Cultural resilience vs. propaganda
• Rethinking scale: small rituals and local libraries of knowledge
• Community-led AI models (like Māori language tech)
• The enduring power of storytelling and shared experience

📌 Key Takeaways:

• Service can take many forms, and every act of care matters.
• AI is rapidly replacing diplomacy in global strategy—raising urgent ethical questions.
• Community isn't optional; it's essential to human flourishing.
• Local rituals and shared space are more powerful than we remember.
• We must question who controls technology—and who it's truly for.

⏱️ Chapters (Timestamps):

• 00:00 Memorial Day and Military Family Stories
• 06:00 Service, Sacrifice, and the Politics of War
• 12:00 Block Parties, Community, and Shared Space
• 18:00 AI, Diplomacy, and Who Benefits from Tech
• 25:00 Culture as the Ultimate Export
• 31:00 Propaganda, Power, and AI’s Role in Global Control
• 38:00 Traveling, Teaching, and Building Empathy
• 45:00 Stories That Change Us—and Why They Matter