Gender Equality on the Eve of the Midterms

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Timothy Patrick McCarthy speaks with Jamie Keene—former Special Assistant to the President for Equality and Opportunity in the Biden-Harris White House—about the state of gender equality in America on the eve of the midterm elections. Topics they discuss include: federal policy on racial justice and equity, the power and limits of executive orders, authoritarian consolidation, the role of elections, congress and the courts, public resistance, white christian nationalism, anti-LGBTQ+ policy in America, the global anti-gender movement, federal vs. state power in protecting civil rights, identity politics and multiracial democracy, corporate DEI, the midterms, rebuilding public institutions, the power of community resistance and the example of Minneapolis, and hope as a discipline. Jamie Keene is a policy leader on civil rights, democracy, and racial and economic justice. She served in the Biden-Harris White House as Special Assistant to the President for Equality and Opportunity, where she was the first commissioned officer appointed to advance LGBTQI+ equality. She was also one of the architects and implementers of the administration’s historic equity agenda. Jamie has been an advisor on presidential transitions and campaigns on a range of policy issues, and has served in local government for the cities of DC and LA. Jamie is a fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and Economic Security Project, as well as the Carr-Ryan Center, where her research explores how escalating attacks on queer and trans communities in the United States are linked with rising authoritarianism at home and around the world.

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Mathias Risse speaks with Kathi Zellweger and Mike Chinoy about the recent book they co-authored, “Miss Kathi: Saving Lives in North Korea”.Kathi Zellweger is a Swiss aid worker who gained unprecedented access to North Korea over her decades of work in the country. Between 1995 and 2019, she made over seventy five trips to North Korea, including living in Pyongyang for five years as the country director for the Swiss government's development agency. Mike Chinoy is a CNN foreign correspondent who has also spent significant time in the country making over seventeen trips to North Korea in his reporting of several books, including “Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis”.In this conversation the discuss: how Kathi came to spend so much time as an aid worker in North Korea, Mike and Kathi’s collaboration on the memoir, the impact of the famine on North Korean society, Mike’s reporting trips to the country, challenges to aid delivery in a secrecy driven regime, the evolution of North Korean society, and their personal reflections on the book's purpose and message.https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Miss-Kathi/Kathi-Zellweger/9798895656716

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Maggie Gates speaks with journalist Sara Kehaulani Goo about her new book, Kuleana, a memoir about her ancestral land in Hawaii that touches on themes of indigenous rights, land loss, and the generational responsibility of honoring the land.Sara is a journalist and senior news executive who has led several national news organizations including Axios, NPR and The Washington Post. She is now serving as President of the WP Creator network at The Washington Post, a new business outside the newsroom focused on content partnerships with independent creators. She formerly served as editor-in-chief at Axios, where she launched the company’s editorial expansion into national and local newsletters, podcasts and live journalism. Before Axios, she led online audience growth as a managing editor at NPR, overseeing the newsroom's digital news operation. Goo started her career as a reporter for The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.On today’s episode they discuss: the crisis of land loss in Hawaii, the native Hawaiian concept of Kuleana or generational responsibility, honoring the place you’re from through land stewardship, clashes with western capitalism, the effect of wealth disparity on native Hawaiians, the impact of tax policy on land ownership, parallels of land loss across cultures, and the wider meanings of ancestral responsibility. https://www.saragoo.com/

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Mathias Risse speaks with Dr. Eileen Carter, a white South African human rights lawyer and provincial manager of the South African Human Rights Commission in the Eastern Cape, about race relations in her country in the 21st century.Together they discuss: Dr. Carter’s own life and work that led her to human rights law, race relations in the Eastern Cape, understanding her own privilege and responsibility as a white South African, discoveries about her own ancestry, the impact of the US refugee policy on South Africa, the economic realities of the country post-apartheid, and realistic hopes for the next decade.Dr. Eileen Carter is a South African human rights lawyer who has dedicated her career to children's rights, socioeconomic rights, and the rights of marginalized communities in her home country. Her current focus is on developing technologies and their impacts on human rights. She earned her law degree at the University of Pretoria and is currently the Provincial Manager of the South African Human Rights Commission in the Eastern Cape - an independent constitutional body charged with promoting, monitoring and protecting human rights in the country.

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Diego Garcia Blum speaks with Miryam Kabakov, co-founder and executive director of Eshel, a national organization that supports LGBTQ+ Orthodox Jews and their families while helping to build Orthodox communities that are more welcoming and inclusive.  Miryam Kabakov is a national leader who has worked for more than three decades on the inclusion of LGTBQ+ individuals in the Orthodox world. Prior to being a leader at Eshel, Miryam was the New York and National Program Director of AVODAH: The Jewish Service Corps, Director of LGBT programming at the JCC Manhattan, Social Worker at West Side Federation for Senior and Supportive Housing, and was the first social worker at Footsteps. She's also the editor of the award winning anthology “Keep Your Wives Away From Them: Orthodox Women, Unorthodox Desires”, a collection of writings about the challenges and joys of lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Orthodox women.  Together they discuss: the challenges faced by LGBTQ+ Orthodox Jewish women, diverse perspectives from within Orthodox Jewish communities, Eshel’s founding and support networks, Miryam’s own journey coming out in her orthodox community, the role that time can play in changing opinions, the impact of Eshel’s support network for the families of LGBTQ+ persons, advice for LGBTQ Individuals in faith communities. https://www.eshelonline.org/

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Mathias Risse speaks with Professor Tshepo Madlingozi, scholar, activist and commissioner of the South African Human Rights Commission—an independent constitutional body charged with promoting, monitoring and protecting human rights in the country. Together they discuss: post-apartheid South Africa, the mythification of the liberation narrative, the role of the South African Human Rights Commission, constitutional promises vs. lived realities, the multifaceted legacy of Nelson Mandela, epistemic justice, and lessons from South Africa for a global audience. Professor Madlingozi’s work focuses on decolonisation, reparative justice, human rights, and participatory democracy. His writings move across law, political philosophy, and the lived experience of communities still carrying the material weight of colonialism.Before joining the Commission, he was the Director of the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS)—a law clinic and research centre—at the University of the Witwatersrand and an Associate Professor at the university's School of Law, where he taught social justice and human rights. For over ten years, he worked for and with the Khulumani Support Group—a social movement advocating for reparations, redress, and sustainable reconciliation—serving as Advocacy Coordinator and later as Chairperson.

Today’s episode is part of a new series organized by co-host Diego Garcia Blum and Victor Madrigal-Burloz called Our Queer UN, where they explore the intersection between different UN mandates and LGBTQI+ rights. This first episode, Our Queer Planet, is focused on climate, environment and human rights.  Victor Madrigal-Burloz is a former UN Independent expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and a leading voice in advancing LGBTQI+ rights. He is currently a faculty member at the Harvard Law School and faculty affiliate with the Global LGBTQI+ human rights program.  For this first episode, Diego and Victor welcome Astrid Puentes Riaño, a United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment who has spent years working at the intersection of environmental protection and human rights around the world. In their conversation they discuss a wide range of topics including: understanding the UN mandate on environment and human rights, the intersection of LGBTQI+ rights and climate rights, the impact of environmental degradation on vulnerable communities around the world, and recent research findings on LGBTQI+ rights and climate change infrastructure.

On today’s episode of Justice Matters co-host Maggie Gates speaks with Reid Jewett Smith, Vice President of Research and Policy at Disability:IN, the world's leading nonprofit for disability inclusion in business - where her work focuses on disability and corporate sustainability, both as a measure of human impact and bottom line performance. In this conversation they talk about a variety of topics including: understanding disability in the workplace, the universal disability equality index, counteracting stigma and understanding value of disability in the workplace, designing inclusive workplaces, the impact of remote work and technology, peer pressure and corporate responsibility, current work force trends for professionals with disabilities, and what’s to come for the future of disability inclusion.  Reid oversees Disability:IN’s policy related initiatives to make corporate workplaces, governing bodies and business disclosures more inclusive. Her experience with disability stems from her own experience with cystic fibrosis, a degenerative genetic lung disease that has impacted and fueled all aspects of her working life. Reid sits on several nonprofit industry and community boards and holds advanced degrees from Boston College and Brown University. She is currently  a fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University where her research focuses on the development of the world’s first universal business benchmark for disability inclusion.

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, Mathias Risse speaks with Zoë Hitzig, former research scientist at Open AI who recently left the company due to ethical concerns about the way the company was developing its advertising strategy. She wrote about her decision to leave in a recent op-ed in the NY Times. Zoë received her PhD in economics from Harvard in 2023 and is currently a fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows. Her work centers on privacy, equity and transparency in markets and algorithms. Their conversation touches on: Zoë’s journey from studying economics to working for Open AI, Open AI’s shift in motives from a non-profit to a for-profit company, what makes the data ChatGPT collects from its users different, concerns about advertising and user data in AI models, proposals for ethical practices, how OpenAI’s trajectory compares to Facebook, possible governance structures for AI companies, the role of competition in AI ethics, moral responsibility, and Zoë’s future research. Zoë's recent op-ed in the NY Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/11/opinion/openai-ads-chatgpt.html

On today’s episode of Justice Matters, co-host Mathias Risse speaks with Heather Ann Thompson- Pulitzer Prize winning author and Professor of History at the University of Michigan - about her new book “Fear and Fury: The Reagan Eighties, the Bernie Goetz Shootings, and the Rebirth of White Rage”. In their conversation they discuss: the 1984 subway shooting of four black boys - Barry Allen, Darrell Cabey, Troy Canty, and James Ramseur -  by a white gunman, Bernie Goetz, what the media narratives and public perception of the event tell us about that time in the country,  Ruport Murdoch’s role and motivations in influencing the public narrative, how the politics of the Reagan era speak to today’s political landscape, and the legacy of the Goetz trial. Heather Ann Thompson is a historian and the author of “Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy”, which won the Pulitzer Prize and the Bancroft Prize. Thompson has written about the criminal justice system for myriad publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic, and The New Yorker. She has served on the National Academy of Sciences blue ribbon panel that studied the causes and consequences of mass incarceration in the United States, co-runs the Carceral State Project at the University of Michigan, and has been the recipient of numerous honors including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Creative Nonfiction Grant, and a Racial Justice Fellowship from the Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights at Harvard University. She is currently a Professor of History at the University of Michigan. You can find her new book here:  Fear and Fury: The Reagan Eighties, the Bernie Goetz Shootings, and the Rebirth of White Rage”.