For over 40 years, Mary Kay Henry has fought for the rights of workers with the Service Employees International Union, or SEIU. With the rise of COVID-19 and an increased reliance on essential workers, these rights have too often been disregarded, leaving many without adequate personal protective equipment or access to fair wages and benefits. This week, Mary Kay joins us to talk about unions as a vehicle of justice for a racially diverse workforce that’s representative of our country.

Los Angeles County is home to the largest foster care system in the country, and it’s run in partnership with the police and local Sheriff’s department. So what happens when a system that’s meant to protect our children intersects with law enforcement and ends up criminalizing them instead? How do we get to the root of the system’s domino effect in Black, Brown and Indigenous communities? This week, we’re joined by two women, La Mikia Castillo and Yahniie Bridges, who share their personal experience with the foster care system and how ending police partnerships can help to reimagine child safety.

Storied news anchor and journalist Dan Rather has reported on some of the world’s most important events – from Georgia’s church pews at the height of the civil rights movement, to deadly student protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, to the collapse of the Twin Towers on 9/11. Dan’s been at the epicenter of American media since the ‘60s, and now, at age 89, he’s found himself a dedicated following on social media as well. He joins us to talk free speech, disinformation, and what a 70-year career in journalism has taught him.

Dan Harris knows all about how to cope with everyday stressors and anxiety. In 2004, he was filling in for a news anchor on Good Morning America when he experienced a panic attack on air. He joins us this week to talk about how his televised panic attack led him to embrace meditation, and how this mental health routine developed into the Ten Percent Happier books and podcast. With a year like 2020 behind us, we could all use some tips on how to take a breath and practice mindfulness!

With the launch of the hit Netflix show, “Queer Eye,” Jonathan Van Ness became a personal grooming guru for unkempt Americans across the country. But JVN has engaged audiences in so much more than better hygiene practices – a year after the show launched, JVN wrote a memoir that helped to demystify living with HIV and what “undetectable equals untransmittable” (or U=U) actually means.

With the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris less than a week away, Rep. Pressley and Mayor London Breed of San Francisco join us to talk about the long process of healing and reconstruction necessary for our country. The two influential leaders discuss how to reimagine our criminal legal system and housing affordability, and the importance of building a representative, inclusive economy after a year of reckoning with racial injustice.