Tiny Spark

At the end of a year dominated by COVID-19, race, and social justice, three African feminists with ties to development tell us why they are exhausted and what needs to change.

Black women are up to four times more likely to die during pregnancy in the US than white women. We dig into the racist structures behind this and speak to a pair of powerful women working to fix it.

Working in a field where one in four women experience sexual harassment, nonprofit fundraisers Liz LeClair and Heather Hill describe the personal and professional costs of sexual abuse and explain why frontline fundraisers need more protection from donors.

Tania Culver-Humphrey's father, co-founder of Mercy Corps, abused her when she was a child. A year after going public, she charts the journey from “institutional betrayal” to being embraced by employees as a brave whistleblower. Content warning: This podcast contains descriptions of child sexual abuse. 

Award-winning Zambian writer Namwali Serpell digs into publishing’s problems with race and colonialism, as well as the enduring legacy of white saviorism in literature.

Three generations of Black women in Baltimore share their perspectives on the significance of today’s protests, reflecting on what has - and has not - changed in the past fifty years.

Education expert Diane Ravitch documents the corrupting influence of major philanthropists in “school reform” efforts and celebrates the educators who resist.

With nursing homes leading as COVID-19 hotspots, frontline nurses speak to us about unsafe working conditions and reject the notion that they are “heroes.”

Having led the CDC during the deadly H1N1 influenza pandemic, Dr. Richard Besser, president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, shares the lessons he learned as we deal with COVID-19.

Nonprofit leaders share their hopes and fears about the challenges facing their organizations during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.

Writer and blogger Vu Le describes how the COVID-19 crisis is overwhelming nonprofit leaders and why it should cause philanthropy to rethink its funding practices.

Nonprofit workers do it for the cause, but they also want to pay their bills. Artist Samantha Fein explains why she feels that the nonprofit art world is broken, and says that if it doesn’t change the art world could implode.

How are Black women redefining what it means to be philanthropists? We sit down with four leaders in philanthropy and impact investing to discuss how their race and gender affect and inspire their work. 

We meet the people involved in grassroots movements to culturally and economically empower the Oglala Lakota Nation living on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, one of the most impoverished and neglected regions in the country.

Criminal defense lawyer Abbe Smith is often asked how she defends people accused of committing terrible crimes. Hear her moving reply, and learn why she believes the guilty deserve a spirited defense.

Innocence Project attorneys and law students in Texas take on an enormous pile of cases every year, tackling legal and moral challenges as they work to free the wrongfully convicted from prison.

Pastor and activist, Rev. Mariama White-Hammond describes how her experience of racial and economic injustice led her to fight for the planet as a whole and explains why it is time to “live differently.”

Two climate change advocates discuss the need to understand the destruction of the environment through a racial lens, and the promising and powerful future of inclusive climate action.

We speak with multimillionaire Nick Hanauer, who calls on the nation’s wealthiest to pay more tax and for all of us to pay more attention to righting the economy’s systemic wrongs.

Appalling conditions in the ‘Jungle’ migrant camp in France drew people from across Europe to help. A volunteer shares her experience and explains how rising anti-immigrant policies are turning ordinary citizens into humanitarians.