Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast

Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast features movement voices, stories, and strategies for racial justice. Hear the Race Forward team give their unique takes on race and pop culture, and uplift narratives of hope, struggle, and joy, as we continue to build the momentum needed to advance racial justice in our policies, institutions, and culture. Deepen your racial justice lens and get inspired to drive action. Subscribe today!

Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast is a society podcast hosted by Race Forward, with 59 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Race Forward hosts Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast, a society show with 59 episodes published.

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  Episode #4

  Transforming Health: Power, Policy, and the Work of Institutional Change with Dr. Avenel Joseph

  Sep 30, 202643 minS6

  On this episode of Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast, Race Forward Board Member Dr. Aletha Maybank, CoFounder and Chief Executive Officer of Truthlight Studio, former Chief Health Equity Officer for the American Medical Association (AMA), sits down with Dr. Avenel Joseph, Vice President for Policy at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, for a conversation about what it takes to transform the systems and institutions that shape healthcare. Drawing from Dr. Joseph’s journey from scientific research to federal policymaking and philanthropy, they examine why evidence alone is not enough to produce change, how policy and institutional culture shape health outcomes, and why the narratives we tell about health, responsibility, and equity influence the solutions institutions are willing to pursue. Dr. Maybank and Dr. Joseph also examine the responsibilities of philanthropy and other powerful institutions, including the need to confront institutional history, learn from failure, and move beyond speaking for communities toward investing in their leadership and expertise. Their conversation explores RWJF’s own process of truth, repair, and transformation, the importance of joy and care for people doing systems-change work, and larger questions about community power, institutional accountability, and what it will take to create the conditions for everyone to thrive.

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  Episode #3

  Episode 03: The Relationships That Power Democracy: Organizing for the Long Haul with Sulma Arias

  Aug 17, 202631 minS6

  The last time Sulma Arias joined Momentum, in 2024, the argument was that rebuilding grassroots organizing was essential to confronting the conditions fueling authoritarianism. Two years later, she and Glenn Harris revisit that argument in a political landscape that has drastically shifted. On this episode of Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast , Arias, executive director of People’s Action, and Harris, president of Race Forward, talk about what organizing requires in a period of racialized authoritarianism —the use of racial division to gain and hold political power–and ongoing attacks on democracy. As longtime friends leading two national organizations, Glenn and Sulma move between the personal and the political, reflecting on what they are seeing across communities, what this moment is asking of organizers, and how relationships shape the way movements understand and respond to change. Part of Race Forward’s new DemocracyIs: campaign, the episode pushes beyond elections to explore how democracy is experienced, practiced, and strengthened in everyday life. Glenn and Sulma wrestle with the challenge of leading organizations through interconnected struggles, the limits of any one organization trying to meet the scale of this moment, and what becomes possible when movement leaders and organizations work in relationship rather than isolation. Their conversation reaches from faith and friendship to multiracial organizing, collective action, and the generations that carried this work before them, while confronting a larger question at the heart of this moment: what will it take for movements not only to resist what is happening now, but to build the democratic future they are fighting for?

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  Episode #2

  Episode 02: Faith and Organizing: The Architecture of a New America with Bishop Dwayne Royster

  Jun 30, 202632 minS6

  On this episode of Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast , Iris Crawford, Race Forward's Director of Strategic Communications, speaks with Bishop Dwayne Royster, Executive Director of Faith in Action, for a conversation about faith, democracy, and the institutions that help communities organize for change. Drawing on his experience as a pastor, organizer, radio host, and national movement leader, Bishop Royster reflects on the role faith communities have played in struggles for racial justice, civil rights, immigrant rights, and democratic participation. He challenges the notion that faith is simply a matter of personal belief, arguing instead that congregations and faith-based organizations serve as vital civic infrastructure, cultivating leadership, belonging, collective action, and hope in moments of uncertainty. Recorded ahead of Juneteenth and as the nation approaches the 250th anniversary of its founding, the conversation explores the unfinished work of democracy and the role faith communities can play in shaping the future. Bishop Royster discusses Faith in Action's organizing model, recent faith-led mobilizations in response to immigration enforcement, the dangers of White Christian Nationalism, and the importance of building relationships across difference. He also reflects on his years in radio and why audio remains a powerful democratic medium, one that allows everyday people to share their stories, engage ideas, and participate in the public square. Together, the discussion asks what it will take to build a more just, inclusive, and multiracial democracy, and why faith, imagination, and collective action remain essential to that work. Executive Producers: Hendel Leiva, Priscilla Sam

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  Episode #1

  Episode 01: AI, Data Centers, and the New Frontline of Racial Justice Organizing with Abre' Conner

  May 15, 202636 minS6

  <p>On the season six premiere of Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast, Leah Obias, Director of Policy and Strategy at Race Forward, speaks with Abre' Conner, Director of the Center for Environmental and Climate Justice at the NAACP, to examine how the rapid expansion of AI data centers is reshaping conversations around racial justice, environmental justice, governance, and democracy. Together, they unpack the growing resistance emerging in communities across the country, from local organizing efforts and town hall confrontations to broader legal and policy battles over the future of AI infrastructure.</p> <p>In their conversation, Leah and Abre’ explore ho...

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  Episode #10

  Season Finale: Exploring Self-Determination as the Work of Liberation: A Conversation with ALOK Vaid-Menon

  Apr 29, 202638 minS5

  <p>On the Season 5 finale of Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast, Nikko Viquiera, Deputy Senior Vice President of Programs, sits with internationally acclaimed poet, comedian, public speaker, and actor ALOK Vaid-Menon. This conversation was recorded this past November at Just Narratives for Multiracial Solidarity 2025, In their conversation, Nikko and ALOK explore how storytelling can be used to challenge and transform the dominant narratives that shape our understanding of identity, power, and belonging. ALOK reflects on their journey from navigating childhood shame and public violence to cultivating a practice rooted in joy, play, and self-determination, offering a powerful reframing of what...

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