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Speaker 1: Welcome back to She Pivots. I'm Alexis mcgil johnson.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to she Pivots, the podcast where we talk with

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Speaker 2: women who dared to pivot out of one career and

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Speaker 2: into something new and explore how their personal lives impacted

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Speaker 2: these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman. Two years ago,

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Speaker 2: the Supreme Court eliminated the federal constitutional right to abortion.

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Speaker 2: I remember when the decision finally came down and the

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Speaker 2: collective dread. Every woman I knew felt everyone was appalled,

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Speaker 2: but no one was surprised, least of all Alexis McGill johnson,

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Speaker 2: who served as President of Planned Parenthood since twenty nineteen.

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Speaker 2: I'm thrilled to have my friend Alexis on the show

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Speaker 2: this week. We met way back when I worked at

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Speaker 2: that Center for American Progress, and at that time she

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Speaker 2: had no plans to lead Plant Parenthood. Funny story is

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Speaker 2: that I had actually been the finalist for the job

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Speaker 2: of personal political director to the President of Planned Parenthood,

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Speaker 2: and I didn't get the job. Had I gotten it,

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Speaker 2: we would have ended up working together. So now we're

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Speaker 2: on this podcast together and Alexis is at the forefront

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Speaker 2: of the fight to protect and preserve women's reproductive healthcare.

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Speaker 2: She's a champion for social and racial justice, making key

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Speaker 2: changes within the organization to address the historical disparities women

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Speaker 2: of color experience in the women's healthcare space. But Alexis's

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Speaker 2: career didn't start in women's healthcare or even the women's

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Speaker 2: space at all. She started her career in academia and

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Speaker 2: research and made her first pivot when she developed a

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Speaker 2: voter engagement program that leveraged the power of the hip

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Speaker 2: hop industry. She mobilized youth voters voters of color, leading

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Speaker 2: them to the most significant increase in youth voter engagement

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Speaker 2: in more than a decade. From there, she went on

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Speaker 2: to co found and co direct the Perception Institute, a

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Speaker 2: consortium of researchers, advocates, and strategists who use mind research

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Speaker 2: on race, gender, ethnic and other identities to help reduce

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Speaker 2: bias and discrimination and improve equity. Despite her impressive resume,

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Speaker 2: even Alexis didn't think she'd end up as the leader

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Speaker 2: of Planned Parenthood after dedicating her career to racial equity,

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Speaker 2: but she rose up to meet the moment, and now,

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Speaker 2: as President of Planned Parenthood, she's brought an inclusive lens

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Speaker 2: to her work to ensure the women of color have

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Speaker 2: full access to sexual and reproductive health. Alexis's journey from

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Speaker 2: academia to political activist, to researcher to now president of

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Speaker 2: Planned Parenthood was less than planned, but like I always say,

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Speaker 2: her experiences and skills built on one another to allow

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Speaker 2: her to step in when the movement needed her most.

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Speaker 2: As someone who used to fill every waking hour with

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Speaker 2: politics and still feels a sense of burnout from it all,

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Speaker 2: Alexis inspires me to get involved and see a path

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Speaker 2: forward that feels doable, and I hope you feel that too.

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Speaker 3: Enjoy So we're gonna we're going to go back. We're

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Speaker 3: going to go back all the way to the beginning

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Speaker 3: roll the tape. I mean, if we go all the

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Speaker 3: way back, we can go all the way back to

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Speaker 3: your grandmother. Oh yes, feels like her story of marriage

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Speaker 3: and kind of liberation like really set the stage for you.

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Speaker 1: Absolutely. My grandmother, Carrie May Covington was an incredible woman.

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Speaker 1: She was born in North Carolina. She was raised on

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Speaker 1: a farm, sharecropping farm and fell in love and her

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Speaker 1: father was like, yeah, no, you need to stay here

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Speaker 1: and help the family. She was like one of thirteen.

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Speaker 1: It's like, you need to stay here because this is

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Speaker 1: a family's job, right to tend to these crops. And

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Speaker 1: you know, obviously you know the period of time that

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Speaker 1: she was born into. And she said, no, I really

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Speaker 1: want to stay with this man. And he moved up

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Speaker 1: north and sent for her back back then that would

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Speaker 1: mean sending her money for a train ticket, and she

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Speaker 1: got on the train and she made her way up

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Speaker 1: to New Jersey where she met him and eloped. And

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Speaker 1: my grandmother these two long braids and she cut them

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Speaker 1: off when she got married, and she mailed them back

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Speaker 1: to her father with a copy of her birth certificate.

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Speaker 1: And that is like not just family lore, that is

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Speaker 1: just like such a family I would say, opening salvo

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Speaker 1: for the kind of energy and the womanism that really

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Speaker 1: dominates I think my family line. And so, you know,

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Speaker 1: while she had more flexibility and more freedom, you know,

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Speaker 1: she was a domestic She was you know, the maid

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Speaker 1: in hotels and taking care of people's houses, and so

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Speaker 1: she didn't, you know, move into this world of freedom.

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Speaker 1: Right she got married. She had two three daughters, one

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Speaker 1: of them passed away very early. My mother and my aunt,

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Speaker 1: you know, and essentially ended up raising them. Her husband

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Speaker 1: was you know, abusive as well. And you know, I think,

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Speaker 1: you know, if you think about the times that they

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Speaker 1: were coming up in and the kinds of things that

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Speaker 1: you know, then my mother and aunt would we were

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Speaker 1: exposed to as well. I think the things that I

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Speaker 1: mostly heard about growing up was how how much she

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Speaker 1: was there for community. So, you know, somebody would always

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Speaker 1: my mom always tells a story of what it would

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Speaker 1: mean to like get on foot. You know, so and

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Speaker 1: so is coming up. They need to get on foot right,

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Speaker 1: and the first stop would be my grandmother's house, and

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Speaker 1: that meant they had a place to stay, they had

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Speaker 1: a meal, they had kind of a line into maybe

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Speaker 1: some kind of employment, they had probably a little pocket chains,

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Speaker 1: they had a church to go to, and my grandmother

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Speaker 1: was really a kind of center of building that community.

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Speaker 1: But you know, again, you know, it wasn't one that

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Speaker 1: came out of a lot of resources. So they were

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Speaker 1: building kind of community programs out of their church. You know.

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Speaker 1: I remember my mom was a worked at Bell Laboratories

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Speaker 1: at and T. Bell Laboratories back then, and she once

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Speaker 1: came to h to Calvary Baptist Church, which was her

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Speaker 1: church with like a whole bunch of computers and like

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Speaker 1: built a computer science lab at the you know, at

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Speaker 1: the church. She's like, no, this is what all the

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Speaker 1: kids are going to Eventually, there's going to be a

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Speaker 1: computer in every single person's household, you know. And we're like, what,

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Speaker 1: that's crazy, She's crazy, Yeah, exactly. So they were always

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Speaker 1: thinking about how to prepare community. So I think the

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Speaker 1: it's the same impulse, right, It's the same kind of

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Speaker 1: lessons I learned, but just translated in different ways.

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Speaker 2: Those lessons didn't stop at her grandmother. Her mother also

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Speaker 2: became an inspiration to Alexis after working her way up

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Speaker 2: from a secretary to an executive at AT and T.

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Speaker 1: My mom, you know, is incredibly bright student. She graduates

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Speaker 1: and she is you know, goes to a guidance counselor,

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Speaker 1: and guidance counselor is like, yeah, I'm not sure if

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Speaker 1: college is for you, right as a you know, as

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Speaker 1: a woman, as a black woman, and kind of slides

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Speaker 1: her into a secretary pool at Fellabs. And you know,

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Speaker 1: my my mother actually much the same way, and actually

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Speaker 1: just making this connection myself did very much the same thing, right,

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Speaker 1: So people would come to my mom because she was

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Speaker 1: incredibly fast typis, she's very you know, congenial, and everybody

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Speaker 1: liked kay. And so she rises through the ranks and

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Speaker 1: then becomes someone in power right who is able to

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Speaker 1: put people on right, to help them get on foot

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Speaker 1: through the company, so they would come go see Miss

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Speaker 1: K about a job. Right. So my mom became the

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Speaker 1: person that would then bring people into the you know,

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Speaker 1: into the bell bell Laboratory's family and then see them

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Speaker 1: rise up. And so I think so much of her journey,

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Speaker 1: you know, she started off as as secretary kind of

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Speaker 1: finished as a vice president of labor negotiations of all things,

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Speaker 1: and you know, and really I think through that time

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Speaker 1: enjoyed so much the kind of seeing people through the

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Speaker 1: journeys all the way through.

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Speaker 2: What did you think you were going to be when

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Speaker 2: you grow up? Like, how did you envision your life

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Speaker 2: as an adult? When I was young, I wanted to

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Speaker 2: be an astronaut. I was very you know into science.

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Speaker 2: I think this is also part of my mom's kind

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Speaker 2: of influences and working with you know, some of the

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Speaker 2: most amate she exposed us to so many amazing thinkers

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Speaker 2: and scientists, and she was actually part of the group

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Speaker 2: that started the first ERG at a company employee resource group,

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Speaker 2: a group of black employees who got together to advocate

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Speaker 2: for things inside of the company. And so it was

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Speaker 2: like through those meetings that I would meet you know,

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Speaker 2: I met the man who was a physicist who created

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Speaker 2: coaxial cable, like literally our ability to lay wires underwater, right,

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Speaker 2: Oh my god, kind of amazing.

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Speaker 1: So I was just exposed to a lot of like

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Speaker 1: kind of rich scientists and thinkers very early on, and

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Speaker 1: just always wanted to be in science and math.

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Speaker 2: But you did go to a great college. You went

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Speaker 2: to Princeton still in New Jersey. Was the idea to

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Speaker 2: kind of stay local or you just fell in love

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Speaker 2: with the school.

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Speaker 1: It's the only school I applied to. Wow, I know

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Speaker 1: it was. I did fall in love with it. You know,

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Speaker 1: we had you know, our state tournaments and things like that.

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Speaker 1: So it was very familiar with the school as its reputation.

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Speaker 1: And I just remember going on the tour and loving

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Speaker 1: it and you know, meeting such interesting people. And I

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Speaker 1: applied early. I was. I started off actually as a

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Speaker 1: math major because I was very committed until I got

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Speaker 1: into Bullian algebra and said, okay, this is probably not

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Speaker 1: going to be my life and decided to become a

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Speaker 1: political scientist.

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Speaker 2: You were still in New Jersey, but Princeton attracts people

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Speaker 2: from not only all over the country, all over the world.

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Speaker 2: Did it feel like a bit of a culture shock.

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Speaker 2: I wouldn't say a culture shock. I felt I felt

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Speaker 2: very comfortable there. I definitely spent a lot of time

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Speaker 2: kind of bridging a lot of worlds when I was

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Speaker 2: when I was at Princeton, so you know.

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Speaker 1: It really is. It was also the school that was

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Speaker 1: used to be the school that was most acceptable for

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Speaker 1: the Southern Conservatives to send their students, so it had

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Speaker 1: a more It had a very interesting bent, I would say,

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Speaker 1: in terms of what I would have expected. So I

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Speaker 1: was actually exposed to I think, you know, gowing up

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Speaker 1: in New Jersey, a very liberal community in town, exposed

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Speaker 1: to a lot of different thinking and ideology. When I

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Speaker 1: was there, I was part of the first cohort of

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Speaker 1: women to be able to join through litigation, one of

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Speaker 1: the eating clubs that was all men, So I was

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Speaker 1: the first black woman in the Ivy Club. And at

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Speaker 1: the same time I lived in a kind of residential

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Speaker 1: house called the Third World Center that was one that

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Speaker 1: was advocated by you know, students in the seventies who

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Speaker 1: were looking for kind of a sense of belonging on campus.

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Speaker 1: And so I kind of feel like I was bridging

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Speaker 1: all of these different worlds while I was there, and

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Speaker 1: like a definitely a Princeton poster child, it was. It

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Speaker 1: was a great experience for me. And then I go

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Speaker 1: back to reunions. As you know, Princident is known for

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Speaker 1: their reunion culture, and I hear stories from like thirty

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Speaker 1: years ago from the first class of you know women,

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Speaker 1: you know, first classes of women, and they have such

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Speaker 1: a radically different experience of what it felt like to

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Speaker 1: break those barriers at the time, and how many of

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Speaker 1: them had not come back to the school. Have you

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Speaker 1: not supported it? Have not supported the students, and not

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Speaker 1: out of you know, lack of desire wanting to be

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Speaker 1: a resource to people, but just you know, really had

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Speaker 1: significant trauma through there. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Well, I mean I was going to ask you, like

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Speaker 2: what I think there's a lot of conversation now around

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Speaker 2: lawsuits for exclusion inclusion, Like I think that's coming back,

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Speaker 2: I think, particularly with the Supreme Court, So in a

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Speaker 2: first person perspective, like what did that feel like to

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Speaker 2: be the first black woman in the eating club as

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Speaker 2: a result of litigation.

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Speaker 1: So I remember when I got into got into school, Right,

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Speaker 1: I think this is the story of virtually every black

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Speaker 1: person who's or you know, personal color, who's gone through

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Speaker 1: kind of an elite system or college over the last

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Speaker 1: few years, or even gotten a job. Right, Oh, you're

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Speaker 1: here because of affirmative action. Oh, you're here because because

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Speaker 1: of that experience, somehow you don't deserve to be here.

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Speaker 1: And are you implicitly in that are you actually qualified

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Speaker 1: to be there? And I you know, you hear it,

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Speaker 1: You obviously heard it in Justice Thomas's opinion, Right, he

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Speaker 1: clearly has felled onto because that is and not to

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Speaker 1: discount it is actually a prevalent phenomenon. But how people

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Speaker 1: interpret that, I think is another matter. And I think

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Speaker 1: the way I interpreted it was people have been excluded.

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Speaker 1: Black people have been excluded from these institutions since their inception, right,

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Speaker 1: I mean, we're still building kind of access to power,

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Speaker 1: to networks, to resources, and so you know, it inherently felt, I,

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Speaker 1: you know, deserved the ability to kind of walk on

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Speaker 1: the shoulders of the folks who had been litigating and

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Speaker 1: fighting for fairness and to earn what that meant. And

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Speaker 1: you know, so I don't think I ever carried it

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Speaker 1: in a particular way other.

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Speaker 2: Than yes, and so political science. What did political science?

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Speaker 2: I mean you ended up coming back to it again,

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Speaker 2: like we've got a full circle moment here. But did

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Speaker 2: you think you were going to be a political scientist,

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Speaker 2: political strategist or you just were really drawn to organizing?

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Speaker 1: So I went to political science. Kind of it was

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Speaker 1: like making a decision between recognizing I wasn't going to

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Speaker 1: be a math major, right, definitely not going into medicine,

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Speaker 1: and you know, and really ticking off things that had

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Speaker 1: been traditional pathways. Right, you're going to school, you were

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Speaker 1: going to go out and work, you know, Wall Street

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Speaker 1: you're going to leave, or a consulting firm. You're going

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Speaker 1: to go to law school, you're going to go to

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Speaker 1: medical school.

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Speaker 4: Right.

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Speaker 1: I didn't really have any other things on my BINGO card.

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Speaker 1: That's the only paths that I was exposed to that

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Speaker 1: I knew people in that could tell me something. And

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Speaker 1: I was in with my one of my mom's friends

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Speaker 1: from from Belabs was at our house one day and

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Speaker 1: it was some time during the fall of the Soviet

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Speaker 1: Union and condoleez or Ice had been on TV all

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Speaker 1: the time right as the expert speaking about you know,

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Speaker 1: it's like the Sovietologist, and it was the most amazing

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Speaker 1: thing to see her that represented. And honestly, I think

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Speaker 1: you'll you will hear throughout this right representation has been

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Speaker 1: so important for me. The ability to see myself because

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Speaker 1: I'm seeing others who are standing and doing something different

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Speaker 1: was just like, you know, wow, And so I'd always

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Speaker 1: been drawn to seeing her, and my dear family friend

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Speaker 1: mister Coleman said, you know, she kind of reminds me

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Speaker 1: of you, and it was like an aha, Right sometime

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Speaker 1: I was maybe sitting around a diner room table and

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Speaker 1: I thought, huh. So I came back to back into school.

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Speaker 1: I started studying political science and the idea of becoing

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Speaker 1: a Latin Americanist, So studying doing a lot of research

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Speaker 1: in and around Latin America and the ability to start

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Speaker 1: to connect the dots around the diaspora of what was

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Speaker 1: happening around race and Bracil and in Colombia, and to

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Speaker 1: start to think differently about kind of what I could do.

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Speaker 1: And you know, one of my professors said, you could

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Speaker 1: be a professor be a professor professor and I was like,

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Speaker 1: oh my god, what is that? And so, you know,

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Speaker 1: I definitely always loved research. I've always loved writing. That's

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Speaker 1: like one of my one of my passions that I

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Speaker 1: never get a chance to do. And I think I

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Speaker 1: really really, if I draw the through line from my

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Speaker 1: math and science experience, I really love like the problem

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Speaker 1: solving that could be embedded in the kind of work.

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Speaker 1: And even now, like my staff will say, you know,

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Speaker 1: she wants to know what the theory of change is, right,

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Speaker 1: she wants to know what we're solving for, what is

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Speaker 1: X right? And like what is the reality that we

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Speaker 1: need to declare that we need to see in any

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Speaker 1: particular moment, what are we working towards? And that I

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Speaker 1: think is important. But that theory of change of how

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Speaker 1: do you use a set of resources?

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Speaker 2: Right?

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Speaker 1: Some of its money, some of its talent, some of

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Speaker 1: it is you know, circumstance and opportunity and like incentives

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Speaker 1: for people, right, because some of so much of politics,

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Speaker 1: as you know, is kind of kind of playing people's

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Speaker 1: motives off of each other, right, incentives off of each other,

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Speaker 1: And how do you how does that come together in

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Speaker 1: a way where you can you can test and see

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Speaker 1: how that shifts behavior? Right? How does that shift shift

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Speaker 1: the opportunity for policy change? And I think in the

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Speaker 1: same way that you're seeing and then the move to

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Speaker 1: tactics on the on the school board level, I think

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Speaker 1: on the movement level, I think the rush to take

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Speaker 1: advantage to an opportunity without thinking through what is the

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Speaker 1: rigor required here? What are we testing for and how

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Speaker 1: are we building in kind of a process to learn

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Speaker 1: what the insights and takeaways are before we move to

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Speaker 1: do the next thing. And I think we lack that methodology.

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Speaker 1: I think that's why we're a little bit behind, particularly

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Speaker 1: in the repro space right now. But it's really, I

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Speaker 1: think a really important foundational quality.

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Speaker 2: When we come back, Alexis talks about her first and

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Speaker 2: unexpected first pivot. So, in your teaching time, you had

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Speaker 2: a Sasha Fierce moment, you had a rebrand. Can you

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Speaker 2: tell us about that? It may be my first pivot.

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Speaker 1: Yes. So my first name is Laurie Elo Laurie Alexis

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Speaker 1: mcgil and I've did Laurie all the way through college

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Speaker 1: and then I got to graduate school and my second

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Speaker 1: year of my first year, I was asked to teach

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Speaker 1: to be a TA for a a big survey course

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Speaker 1: of black politics. And you know, I was like the

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Speaker 1: same age as the students, right, you know, I skipped kindergarten.

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Speaker 1: I was a you know, born late in the summer,

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Speaker 1: so basically I really was the same age as a

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Speaker 1: as a student. And I'm sitting there in this room.

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Speaker 1: I'm incredibly nervous, and you know, it's a little small

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Speaker 1: presep room. And this young student next to me says,

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Speaker 1: or not young, same student next to me, same age, says, well,

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Speaker 1: you know, it takes me a while to get people's names.

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Speaker 1: I'd really like for us to go around the table

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Speaker 1: and just like start to like know who people are,

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Speaker 1: because you know, it's like second semester, first year. So

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Speaker 1: people start going around the room and they introduce themselves,

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Speaker 1: where they're from, whatever. And I happened to be the

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Speaker 1: last person and I said I'm Alexis McGill. And it

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Speaker 1: was like I said it to like force myself to

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Speaker 1: commit to it. And I think when I said it,

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Speaker 1: I felt like I am the professor in the room.

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Speaker 1: I was really TA, but I said, I am in power.

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Speaker 1: I am going to grade your exams, and I need

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Speaker 1: to feel that I actually have the ability to do that.

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Speaker 1: And so Alexis I became and there was still like

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Speaker 1: some people from first semester were like a little confused

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Speaker 1: because they knew me his Lri she looks just like Laurie,

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Speaker 1: just like Laurie exactly, sounds like her, I mean everything

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Speaker 1: about her, and I just I just kept going and

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Speaker 1: then I, you know, I would go home and I

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Speaker 1: started to train my family and my mom to you know,

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Speaker 1: and once I got my mom locked in, you know,

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Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, I think we can do this. Okay.

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Speaker 2: So after you went, you continued to teach for a

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Speaker 2: couple of years at Yale and at Wesleyan. You made

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Speaker 2: I think probably your first big professional pivot into organizing.

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Speaker 2: How did that jump happen?

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Speaker 1: So this is I think one of the things that

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Speaker 1: we were talking about about, like staying in theory land.

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Speaker 1: And it's so easy it is, especially when you're an

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Speaker 1: academic to like kind of be able to you're immersed

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Speaker 1: in kind of studying movements and history. And my kind

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Speaker 1: of well was bair to rest in thinking about in

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Speaker 1: that moment and what was Ellen Baker thinking? And you know,

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Speaker 1: how about Harvey Milkon, like you're always trying to get

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Speaker 1: into the minds that people were putting together the systems

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Speaker 1: and the structures of organizing. There's something just so compelling

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Speaker 1: about that. And you're also very much immersed in understanding

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Speaker 1: the systems, right, because I think that's the other thing

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Speaker 1: that I think I brought from that kind of early

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Speaker 1: math experience is just like thinking about systems thinking right,

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Speaker 1: and what does it mean to understand not just motivating

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Speaker 1: individuals to do something or understanding group identity, but to

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Speaker 1: really understand, like how do all of these structures and

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Speaker 1: systems come together in service freedom. And it was kind

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Speaker 1: of in that moment of starting to teach that I

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Speaker 1: was teaching, of course on just broad politics, American politics,

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Speaker 1: and I started to think about hip hop, right. I

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Speaker 1: started to think about how kind of my generation came

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Speaker 1: up under kind of very charismatic identity politics leadership, Charismatic

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Speaker 1: Black leadership in the form of Jesse Jackson had been

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Speaker 1: running for president, Reverend Sharpton had been running for president,

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Speaker 1: We had Julian Bonond, We had all of these really

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Speaker 1: charismatic leaders and at the same time understand that so

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Speaker 1: much movement was happening through systems and structures, and hip

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Speaker 1: hop was this huge force, right that it really kind

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Speaker 1: of hit its stride by that time. So it's like

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Speaker 1: the early nineties, and there are actually early two thousands,

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Speaker 1: but early nineties is kind of when I came into

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Speaker 1: hip hop, and I had this idea that like, what

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Speaker 1: if the hip hop generation could become the next NRA.

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Speaker 1: So if you think about the NRA five million members,

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Speaker 1: I think consistently, I don't think it's really gone up

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Speaker 1: or gone down really for the last however long. But

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Speaker 1: hip hop at the time represented then eighty million households,

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Speaker 1: eighty million households. It cut across racial demographics, it cut

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Speaker 1: you know, bridge suburban and urban areas, you know, all

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Speaker 1: across rural areas, really all across the country. People were

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Speaker 1: finding their different, different voices inside of hip hop. And

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Speaker 1: hip hop also had a built in infrastructure, right, it

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Speaker 1: had a marketing machine in the day, like in the

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Speaker 1: early you know, whenever we were buying records, records would

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Speaker 1: drop on a Tuesday, and they would drop and you

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Speaker 1: would wait in line right to get the to be

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Speaker 1: like one of the first, right, so I would go

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Speaker 1: to like Sam Goodies, Virgin Records, a tower, you know,

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Speaker 1: and there would be lines around the block to get

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Speaker 1: like the first to the first cut. And I just

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Speaker 1: remember thinking like, this is amazing. If you have all

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Speaker 1: of these mechanisms that are designed to turn people out

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Speaker 1: on a Tuesday, and they do that because billboard ratings

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Speaker 1: drop on Wednesday, so it gives you a full week

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Speaker 1: to kind of enter the charts at thirty five and

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Speaker 1: make your way all the way up to the top,

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Speaker 1: or you know, four hundred and thirty five and make

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Speaker 1: your way all the way up to the top. And

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Speaker 1: there's a whole set of systems and mechanisms that help

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Speaker 1: you do that. I thought, well, gosh, I mean, if

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Speaker 1: it's every Tuesday, why can't we do it on election Day?

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Speaker 2: I mean, what happens else on Tuesday? Hello?

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Speaker 1: Yes, yes, exactly. And so I started. So I wrote

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Speaker 1: an article about, you know, turning the up generation to

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Speaker 1: the next NRA. And it was a theory, right, It

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Speaker 1: was just like, here's this idea, and that that theory

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Speaker 1: kind of led me into I researched myself into a job.

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Speaker 2: So what were those steps to actually get into this job?

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Speaker 2: And yes, did you find it overwhelming to say, well,

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Speaker 2: this has just been a theory in a classroom, a metric.

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Speaker 1: Yeah exactly. Oh my god. So I was I was

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Speaker 1: out out here actually with some friends over the summer,

434
00:22:34,480 --> 00:22:36,960
Speaker 1: and I was sitting at a table with the late

435
00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:40,919
Speaker 1: Andre Herrel, who is a music industry icon, founder of

436
00:22:41,080 --> 00:22:44,639
Speaker 1: Town Records. He was president of Motown Records. And you know,

437
00:22:44,680 --> 00:22:48,040
Speaker 1: we had some friends at the table who were struggling

438
00:22:48,040 --> 00:22:50,400
Speaker 1: with like wanting to be engaged and also not really

439
00:22:50,440 --> 00:22:53,600
Speaker 1: fully understanding all of the political implications of like how

440
00:22:53,640 --> 00:22:56,560
Speaker 1: to engage you know, people who leverage brands, people who

441
00:22:56,600 --> 00:22:59,040
Speaker 1: know how to move kind of records and choose, but

442
00:22:59,119 --> 00:23:02,119
Speaker 1: not really understand kind of how to move and know

443
00:23:02,200 --> 00:23:04,480
Speaker 1: that they knew people, but how to move inside of

444
00:23:04,720 --> 00:23:07,639
Speaker 1: politics and political parties. And so I was kind of

445
00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:11,719
Speaker 1: sitting in this conversation with Andre and some other friends,

446
00:23:12,200 --> 00:23:14,080
Speaker 1: and they were trying to come up with some people,

447
00:23:14,200 --> 00:23:16,080
Speaker 1: like come up with the list of names who you know,

448
00:23:16,080 --> 00:23:18,480
Speaker 1: who could be like who could help us do this? Right?

449
00:23:18,600 --> 00:23:20,240
Speaker 1: They say, what do you think of this guy? I'm like, Oh,

450
00:23:20,240 --> 00:23:22,399
Speaker 1: he's cool, he's really good. You know, here's the strengths,

451
00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:24,240
Speaker 1: here's the weakness. What about this guy? Oh yeah, he's

452
00:23:24,320 --> 00:23:25,840
Speaker 1: very nice. I like him. I'm not sure if he

453
00:23:25,920 --> 00:23:28,119
Speaker 1: understands what he must have gone like through four or

454
00:23:28,119 --> 00:23:31,359
Speaker 1: five names. They were all men, and I said, do

455
00:23:31,400 --> 00:23:36,719
Speaker 1: you know any women? And he was like, huh, I

456
00:23:36,800 --> 00:23:41,119
Speaker 1: don't know. And I'm like literally sitting in his face,

457
00:23:41,400 --> 00:23:43,760
Speaker 1: like do you know any women? And I was like,

458
00:23:44,880 --> 00:23:46,720
Speaker 1: I said, you want to tell me that you don't

459
00:23:46,760 --> 00:23:52,240
Speaker 1: know any flass badass you know political science degree, holden,

460
00:23:52,800 --> 00:23:54,520
Speaker 1: you know, professors been teaching it.

461
00:23:54,640 --> 00:23:54,840
Speaker 2: Yeah.

462
00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:57,600
Speaker 1: I'm was like, you don't know any of us? And

463
00:23:57,640 --> 00:23:59,720
Speaker 1: he knows. To me, He's like, I see what you

464
00:23:59,720 --> 00:24:05,800
Speaker 1: did there. So I became a political director at the

465
00:24:05,880 --> 00:24:09,920
Speaker 1: Hip Hop Summit Action Network, and so that was working

466
00:24:09,920 --> 00:24:13,639
Speaker 1: for Ben Chevas and Russell Simmons, and so I helped

467
00:24:13,720 --> 00:24:17,160
Speaker 1: organize these hip hop summits, which were opportunities for us

468
00:24:17,200 --> 00:24:20,840
Speaker 1: to bring I would say town halls to communities where

469
00:24:20,840 --> 00:24:24,000
Speaker 1: we'd bring artists in. We'd have Ell Cool J. You know,

470
00:24:24,080 --> 00:24:27,280
Speaker 1: you'd have FC Light, you'd have Mary J. Blige and Diddy,

471
00:24:27,960 --> 00:24:31,200
Speaker 1: and we would kind of open up a big community

472
00:24:31,240 --> 00:24:35,800
Speaker 1: center and all of these major artists, major record executives

473
00:24:35,880 --> 00:24:38,080
Speaker 1: would be kind of on a stage and they'd be

474
00:24:38,119 --> 00:24:40,360
Speaker 1: talking about the importance of politics and how to get

475
00:24:40,400 --> 00:24:42,320
Speaker 1: engaged and why it was so important and critical for

476
00:24:42,359 --> 00:24:45,160
Speaker 1: our communities. And then we'd bring local leaders would come

477
00:24:45,200 --> 00:24:47,240
Speaker 1: in right to kind of talk about the work that

478
00:24:47,320 --> 00:24:50,639
Speaker 1: was happening on the ground. And the only way to

479
00:24:50,680 --> 00:24:52,399
Speaker 1: get in was to register to vote. And if you

480
00:24:52,440 --> 00:24:55,320
Speaker 1: couldn't register to vote, you had to kind of identify

481
00:24:55,320 --> 00:24:58,240
Speaker 1: someone else in your family who could vote. And we

482
00:24:58,240 --> 00:25:02,800
Speaker 1: were able to register like thousand registrations a week in

483
00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:08,879
Speaker 1: certain cities, insane numbers, thirty thousand a week in Chicago.

484
00:25:09,040 --> 00:25:13,119
Speaker 1: We were we were, you know, driving an increase in

485
00:25:13,480 --> 00:25:18,040
Speaker 1: engagement all throughout that that time period. So it's just

486
00:25:18,280 --> 00:25:20,119
Speaker 1: now two thousand and three going to the two thousand

487
00:25:20,119 --> 00:25:23,280
Speaker 1: and four election, critical election. They're all critical elections, but

488
00:25:23,359 --> 00:25:26,639
Speaker 1: again one a lot was going on a critical election,

489
00:25:27,240 --> 00:25:31,120
Speaker 1: and so it was really powerful because we could go

490
00:25:31,160 --> 00:25:33,080
Speaker 1: in with the group of artists. We could take over

491
00:25:33,560 --> 00:25:36,159
Speaker 1: radio right all the morning drive time. We would have

492
00:25:36,240 --> 00:25:38,919
Speaker 1: our artists not just talking about kind of they're promoting

493
00:25:38,960 --> 00:25:41,600
Speaker 1: whatever they're promoting for themselves, but also talking about the

494
00:25:41,600 --> 00:25:44,040
Speaker 1: importance of engaging where to go to registered vote, connecting

495
00:25:44,040 --> 00:25:47,000
Speaker 1: them to their local ANDAAC partners and you know, all

496
00:25:47,040 --> 00:25:49,679
Speaker 1: those things and then you know, and then there'd be

497
00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:51,560
Speaker 1: a party at night, and you know, and then we

498
00:25:51,680 --> 00:25:56,040
Speaker 1: do other work like organizing the local influencers in communities, right,

499
00:25:56,119 --> 00:25:58,680
Speaker 1: some of whom had only ever been together kind of

500
00:25:59,080 --> 00:26:01,200
Speaker 1: you know, at the club, we're at the party or whatever,

501
00:26:01,240 --> 00:26:04,440
Speaker 1: but bringing them together, the hottest barbers, the hottest DJs,

502
00:26:04,480 --> 00:26:07,600
Speaker 1: the hottest kind of club promoters, and kind of bringing

503
00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:10,840
Speaker 1: them to break bread around like you are actually influencing

504
00:26:10,880 --> 00:26:14,480
Speaker 1: people in your conversation every single day, right, Nike's paying

505
00:26:14,520 --> 00:26:17,800
Speaker 1: you to promote this. You know, you're getting this from

506
00:26:17,920 --> 00:26:20,240
Speaker 1: you know, this artist, and this is what it looks like.

507
00:26:20,520 --> 00:26:23,240
Speaker 1: You know, if you want to talk politics. And many

508
00:26:23,240 --> 00:26:25,359
Speaker 1: of them would say, yeah, we'd love to do a

509
00:26:25,359 --> 00:26:27,320
Speaker 1: little bit more of that. But you know, we don't

510
00:26:27,320 --> 00:26:29,440
Speaker 1: really feel confident at all the information that we have.

511
00:26:29,560 --> 00:26:32,040
Speaker 1: We don't really know how to parse what's being said

512
00:26:32,080 --> 00:26:36,120
Speaker 1: and what isn't. And so we created models to educate folks, right,

513
00:26:36,200 --> 00:26:39,959
Speaker 1: to get them into connected to trusted messengers, right, all

514
00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:41,960
Speaker 1: the things that you know you would do in a

515
00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:44,679
Speaker 1: campaign anyway, but we built kind of certain communities around

516
00:26:44,680 --> 00:26:46,560
Speaker 1: them so that we were able to kind of drive

517
00:26:46,600 --> 00:26:50,040
Speaker 1: that work city by city and from the hip Hop Summit,

518
00:26:50,200 --> 00:26:54,199
Speaker 1: I went to work for Sean Colbe's Diddy Love I

519
00:26:54,240 --> 00:26:57,199
Speaker 1: Think Now and I ran his voter Die campaign. So

520
00:26:57,280 --> 00:27:00,160
Speaker 1: whereas kind of Russell's campaign was much more ground campaign.

521
00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:02,560
Speaker 1: He traveled city by city with you know, you know,

522
00:27:02,560 --> 00:27:04,359
Speaker 1: he would go to a foot locker and sell shoes,

523
00:27:04,400 --> 00:27:06,440
Speaker 1: he would go down radio, he would do a town hall,

524
00:27:06,640 --> 00:27:08,320
Speaker 1: you know, and he would kind of move all of

525
00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:11,280
Speaker 1: those pieces around. Puffer really just only wanted to be

526
00:27:11,320 --> 00:27:15,040
Speaker 1: on the air and Sarah. He cut you know, relationships

527
00:27:15,080 --> 00:27:19,399
Speaker 1: with MTV, be et radio, one Clear Channel, you know,

528
00:27:19,480 --> 00:27:22,640
Speaker 1: and through those media relationships we were able to kind

529
00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:25,879
Speaker 1: of kind of create an arc around the conversation that

530
00:27:25,920 --> 00:27:27,960
Speaker 1: we wanted to have at the national level. And so

531
00:27:28,040 --> 00:27:30,159
Speaker 1: it was it was really I think the beauty of

532
00:27:30,200 --> 00:27:33,359
Speaker 1: that that gear, that work of testing kind of what

533
00:27:33,400 --> 00:27:35,800
Speaker 1: does it look like to have kind of a national

534
00:27:35,800 --> 00:27:39,639
Speaker 1: conversation happening, How do you really draw make it drawed

535
00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:42,280
Speaker 1: down on the ground so that it is penetrating into

536
00:27:42,359 --> 00:27:46,720
Speaker 1: community through all of these local influencers into election day.

537
00:27:47,400 --> 00:27:51,040
Speaker 2: So just a foreshadow a bit here during that era

538
00:27:51,200 --> 00:27:54,920
Speaker 2: for you, how much did you talk about abortion, talk

539
00:27:54,960 --> 00:27:58,040
Speaker 2: about reproductive health or was it just not on the

540
00:27:58,080 --> 00:27:59,840
Speaker 2: agenda of things, the issues you talked about.

541
00:28:00,880 --> 00:28:03,320
Speaker 1: Never. Never, I don't think we ever had a conversation

542
00:28:03,359 --> 00:28:05,240
Speaker 1: about abortion back then.

543
00:28:06,119 --> 00:28:10,040
Speaker 2: Alexis had no idea her work in political organizing would

544
00:28:10,080 --> 00:28:13,000
Speaker 2: lead her to the helm of planned parenthood. After five

545
00:28:13,080 --> 00:28:16,000
Speaker 2: more years working at the intersection of political organizing and

546
00:28:16,119 --> 00:28:19,879
Speaker 2: hip hop, Alexis branched out on our own, co founding

547
00:28:19,960 --> 00:28:23,200
Speaker 2: the Perception Institute, an anti bias research group.

548
00:28:24,080 --> 00:28:27,040
Speaker 1: It started this institute called the Perception Institute. It was

549
00:28:27,119 --> 00:28:30,480
Speaker 1: really bring a group of social psychologists and neuroscientists together

550
00:28:30,560 --> 00:28:33,800
Speaker 1: to understand kind of how really how our brains and

551
00:28:33,800 --> 00:28:37,760
Speaker 1: bodies responded to race, and kind of doing a lot

552
00:28:37,800 --> 00:28:40,600
Speaker 1: of that work. But it was largely blackmail centric, right.

553
00:28:40,760 --> 00:28:42,560
Speaker 1: It was, you know, responding to a lot of the

554
00:28:42,600 --> 00:28:44,400
Speaker 1: police involved shootings and things like that.

555
00:28:45,280 --> 00:28:49,400
Speaker 2: To no and surprise, Alexis built the Perception Institute into

556
00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:50,719
Speaker 2: a huge success.

557
00:28:51,280 --> 00:28:54,800
Speaker 1: And I was doing incredible exciting work. I was working

558
00:28:54,840 --> 00:28:58,800
Speaker 1: with police departments and healthcare companies and school districts. I

559
00:28:58,800 --> 00:29:03,160
Speaker 1: had designed curriculum for Starbucks and Goldman and Prada. You know,

560
00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:05,280
Speaker 1: I was like, I was like living my best life

561
00:29:05,720 --> 00:29:09,000
Speaker 1: in all of those ways. And so I was super

562
00:29:09,040 --> 00:29:10,560
Speaker 1: excited about the work that I was doing.

563
00:29:11,640 --> 00:29:14,600
Speaker 2: When we come back, Alexis tells us how a billboard

564
00:29:14,640 --> 00:29:17,640
Speaker 2: and a dinner got her involved in Planned Parenthood and

565
00:29:17,760 --> 00:29:25,880
Speaker 2: changed the trajectory of her life. Tell us about the

566
00:29:25,880 --> 00:29:28,120
Speaker 2: first time you met Cecil Richards, the previous head of

567
00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:28,800
Speaker 2: Planned Parenthood.

568
00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:33,120
Speaker 1: My goodness, I can't remember exactly when I met her.

569
00:29:33,720 --> 00:29:36,000
Speaker 1: I knew of her for a very long time, and

570
00:29:36,040 --> 00:29:38,840
Speaker 1: then I was invited to a dinner with my husband

571
00:29:39,080 --> 00:29:42,840
Speaker 1: and we were at dinner together and I had been

572
00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:46,280
Speaker 1: walking in the city, I think maybe not too long before.

573
00:29:46,480 --> 00:29:48,320
Speaker 1: She'd only been a plant Parenthood for a few years,

574
00:29:49,080 --> 00:29:53,080
Speaker 1: and I remembered seeing this billboard in Soho with this

575
00:29:53,080 --> 00:29:56,120
Speaker 1: little black girl's face on it, and I it was

576
00:29:56,200 --> 00:29:58,840
Speaker 1: like she was cute, and I like tried to get

577
00:29:58,840 --> 00:30:01,320
Speaker 1: close to it to see what it said, and I like,

578
00:30:01,440 --> 00:30:03,520
Speaker 1: was it a Benetton ad or a gap ad or something?

579
00:30:03,800 --> 00:30:05,840
Speaker 1: And I got there and the words underneath it said

580
00:30:05,880 --> 00:30:08,440
Speaker 1: the most dangerous place for an African American or in

581
00:30:08,440 --> 00:30:13,320
Speaker 1: the womb, And it was like it just it was painful,

582
00:30:13,880 --> 00:30:16,800
Speaker 1: and I couldn't stop thinking about that billboard, like the

583
00:30:16,840 --> 00:30:20,160
Speaker 1: fact that our reproductive choices are demonized no matter what

584
00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:24,800
Speaker 1: we do, right, And it was just kind of lurking

585
00:30:24,800 --> 00:30:26,160
Speaker 1: in the back of my mind. And then I was

586
00:30:26,160 --> 00:30:28,440
Speaker 1: at this dinner party with her, at a small dinner

587
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:31,240
Speaker 1: and I was like, you have to do something about

588
00:30:31,240 --> 00:30:33,560
Speaker 1: this thing, Like have you seen what's going on in Soho?

589
00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:37,920
Speaker 1: In Soo? They're coming for us in Soho and she

590
00:30:38,120 --> 00:30:40,720
Speaker 1: was like yeah, She's like no, it's not just so Ho.

591
00:30:43,680 --> 00:30:46,280
Speaker 1: Sounded crazy. I was like, you have to do something,

592
00:30:46,560 --> 00:30:49,320
Speaker 1: and you know, she was like, no, I think you

593
00:30:49,320 --> 00:30:50,720
Speaker 1: should do something. She was like, you know, you could,

594
00:30:50,960 --> 00:30:53,239
Speaker 1: happy to have you involved or whatever. And you know,

595
00:30:53,280 --> 00:30:55,360
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks later, maybe it's a month later,

596
00:30:55,480 --> 00:30:57,880
Speaker 1: I get a call from someone that i'd also known

597
00:30:58,080 --> 00:31:00,320
Speaker 1: kind of who's on the board in the space, really

598
00:31:00,880 --> 00:31:03,440
Speaker 1: new friend actually, and she's like, oh, I just wanted

599
00:31:03,480 --> 00:31:07,080
Speaker 1: to invite you to lunch with Seal Richards. I was like, okay, yeah,

600
00:31:07,080 --> 00:31:08,840
Speaker 1: it's like I just met her, Like this is weird.

601
00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:11,640
Speaker 1: And then I started to get involved in the process

602
00:31:11,680 --> 00:31:14,240
Speaker 1: of being recruited to the board, you know, and I

603
00:31:14,280 --> 00:31:16,920
Speaker 1: think it was a lot around the kind of energy

604
00:31:16,960 --> 00:31:19,400
Speaker 1: and passion I was bringing, and then also the work

605
00:31:19,400 --> 00:31:21,640
Speaker 1: that I knew the organization needed to do to kind

606
00:31:21,680 --> 00:31:24,280
Speaker 1: of get deeper and touch to, you know, communities like me,

607
00:31:24,600 --> 00:31:26,760
Speaker 1: like I had no idea all of the amazing work

608
00:31:26,800 --> 00:31:30,080
Speaker 1: that Planned parent had been doing communities I've obviously knew

609
00:31:30,080 --> 00:31:32,480
Speaker 1: of Planned Parenthood had been to Bland Parenthood. And so

610
00:31:32,520 --> 00:31:35,360
Speaker 1: she recruited me to the board and I eventually became

611
00:31:35,360 --> 00:31:38,280
Speaker 1: her board chair. Over the years and that just started.

612
00:31:38,520 --> 00:31:41,040
Speaker 1: It was an incredible opportunity to ride sides at all

613
00:31:41,080 --> 00:31:43,080
Speaker 1: with her how many years, like how long?

614
00:31:43,080 --> 00:31:44,760
Speaker 2: Because she did you hadn't really when you had been

615
00:31:44,760 --> 00:31:46,920
Speaker 2: working on different issues, you hadn't worked on abortion before.

616
00:31:46,960 --> 00:31:49,760
Speaker 2: So was this really your first foray into repro It was,

617
00:31:49,800 --> 00:31:51,560
Speaker 2: And I think that was one of my calculations, right,

618
00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:52,040
Speaker 2: it was.

619
00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:53,600
Speaker 1: It was one of the things that made me say,

620
00:31:54,040 --> 00:31:55,800
Speaker 1: I had looked at all of the work I had

621
00:31:55,840 --> 00:31:58,840
Speaker 1: been doing, so I'd worked on you know, political organizing.

622
00:31:58,920 --> 00:32:01,520
Speaker 1: There's nothing that I'm waking up every single day about

623
00:32:01,520 --> 00:32:05,080
Speaker 1: thinking about gender. And that's when you know, it just

624
00:32:05,160 --> 00:32:07,400
Speaker 1: all coincidence, like a kind of perfect storm. I was

625
00:32:07,400 --> 00:32:10,480
Speaker 1: thinking about that I met Cecil, I was invited to lunch,

626
00:32:10,560 --> 00:32:12,480
Speaker 1: and then I joined the board, and then that became

627
00:32:12,640 --> 00:32:16,000
Speaker 1: kind of my like, Okay, this is the intersection.

628
00:32:15,640 --> 00:32:18,960
Speaker 2: Of all the work. Alexis joined the board in twenty

629
00:32:19,040 --> 00:32:22,200
Speaker 2: eleven and served as board chair from twenty thirteen to

630
00:32:22,200 --> 00:32:26,080
Speaker 2: twenty fifteen. Then in twenty eighteen, in the middle of

631
00:32:26,120 --> 00:32:29,760
Speaker 2: the Trump presidency and a fired up political climate, Cecil

632
00:32:29,880 --> 00:32:33,880
Speaker 2: Richards decided to step down. Okay, so how did you

633
00:32:34,080 --> 00:32:38,240
Speaker 2: see your role at that time? When Cecil stepped down.

634
00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:40,200
Speaker 1: I was on the board, and I was on the

635
00:32:40,200 --> 00:32:42,920
Speaker 1: action fun boards and not the board that actually employs her,

636
00:32:43,080 --> 00:32:45,120
Speaker 1: right And I was on the I was I remember

637
00:32:45,160 --> 00:32:47,680
Speaker 1: I was at a conference with my husband and the

638
00:32:47,680 --> 00:32:51,400
Speaker 1: phone start ringing because the decision, like the kind of

639
00:32:51,600 --> 00:32:55,360
Speaker 1: the first leak came down that she was stepping down.

640
00:32:56,080 --> 00:33:00,120
Speaker 1: And yeah, I just saw my role as supporting the

641
00:33:00,280 --> 00:33:03,600
Speaker 1: organization to identify the next new amazing leader.

642
00:33:04,480 --> 00:33:07,120
Speaker 2: It was clear that Alexis wanted no part in leading

643
00:33:07,120 --> 00:33:10,320
Speaker 2: the organization through an already complex political environment.

644
00:33:11,560 --> 00:33:13,280
Speaker 1: I've seen it up really close. I don't know if

645
00:33:13,280 --> 00:33:15,560
Speaker 1: I weddy parts. I know, I mean I navigated, you know,

646
00:33:15,760 --> 00:33:19,880
Speaker 1: a lot with under her leadership and supporting her. You know,

647
00:33:19,960 --> 00:33:23,800
Speaker 1: we'd gone through kind of a decade of trap laws

648
00:33:23,920 --> 00:33:29,400
Speaker 1: and litigation and the smear campaigns and the targeting and

649
00:33:29,480 --> 00:33:32,200
Speaker 1: the shootings of clinics, and you know, I just like

650
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:36,400
Speaker 1: it was, you know, it's been an intense ten years already,

651
00:33:36,440 --> 00:33:38,200
Speaker 1: and I said, you know, I just I don't I

652
00:33:38,240 --> 00:33:40,840
Speaker 1: don't think that I'm on one. The other thing I

653
00:33:40,880 --> 00:33:43,520
Speaker 1: said was that here's the thing we're always going to

654
00:33:43,520 --> 00:33:47,120
Speaker 1: fall and I don't know that as a black woman,

655
00:33:47,160 --> 00:33:49,479
Speaker 1: I want to preside over the end of rope. And

656
00:33:49,520 --> 00:33:53,760
Speaker 1: it was a kind of very conscious conversation that I

657
00:33:53,840 --> 00:33:57,680
Speaker 1: had with various members of the committee, you know, friends,

658
00:33:57,760 --> 00:33:59,880
Speaker 1: you know, not like in any formal process, but I

659
00:34:00,080 --> 00:34:02,840
Speaker 1: just said, like, that's the thing that weighs on me, right,

660
00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:07,000
Speaker 1: that you know, we have kind of tried to stave

661
00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:11,120
Speaker 1: off this loss for so long and then to step

662
00:34:11,120 --> 00:34:14,200
Speaker 1: into leadership at a moment when it's eminent, and that

663
00:34:14,280 --> 00:34:16,600
Speaker 1: felt really heavy, and I didn't want it to be

664
00:34:16,640 --> 00:34:20,839
Speaker 1: associated in some way like Barack Obama becomes president, right,

665
00:34:21,360 --> 00:34:25,600
Speaker 1: the economy is just in a free for all fall, Right,

666
00:34:25,960 --> 00:34:26,759
Speaker 1: It's like here you go.

667
00:34:27,280 --> 00:34:33,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, fixes Planned Parenthood eventually hired cecial successor, and instead

668
00:34:33,640 --> 00:34:36,520
Speaker 2: of ushering in a new era, things turned to chaos

669
00:34:36,560 --> 00:34:39,960
Speaker 2: as the organization became divided over whether their mission was

670
00:34:39,960 --> 00:34:43,680
Speaker 2: one of public health or of policy and politics, and

671
00:34:43,760 --> 00:34:47,439
Speaker 2: his anti abortion groups became stronger, and Trump pushed through

672
00:34:47,440 --> 00:34:50,400
Speaker 2: both of his Supreme Court nominees. It was clear that

673
00:34:50,480 --> 00:34:52,280
Speaker 2: Planned Parenthood needed a new leader.

674
00:34:53,040 --> 00:34:57,120
Speaker 1: The organization was in a moment, a leadership vacuum, right,

675
00:34:57,239 --> 00:34:59,719
Speaker 1: leadership crisis, where we had to make a decision to

676
00:34:59,719 --> 00:35:02,799
Speaker 1: stuff great from a leader. And the board chair came

677
00:35:02,840 --> 00:35:05,520
Speaker 1: to me and said, and I guess I actually remember

678
00:35:06,200 --> 00:35:08,279
Speaker 1: where I was, what I was doing, and what I

679
00:35:08,320 --> 00:35:11,160
Speaker 1: was wearing. I had I had just signed Prada as

680
00:35:11,160 --> 00:35:14,120
Speaker 1: a client, and I was going in to meet the

681
00:35:14,320 --> 00:35:17,120
Speaker 1: you know, the team for the first time. So I

682
00:35:17,160 --> 00:35:19,759
Speaker 1: had to, of course, like find the perfect outfit that

683
00:35:19,800 --> 00:35:22,799
Speaker 1: would feel appropriate to walk in, you know, to not

684
00:35:22,880 --> 00:35:25,440
Speaker 1: be too over the top, too on the news, but

685
00:35:25,760 --> 00:35:27,360
Speaker 1: you know, to fit with it. And I was standing

686
00:35:27,400 --> 00:35:30,800
Speaker 1: on the corner in a very nondescript, you know, area

687
00:35:30,880 --> 00:35:33,319
Speaker 1: of the city, about to go into like you know,

688
00:35:33,400 --> 00:35:36,640
Speaker 1: kind of their you know, their headquarters, and the phone

689
00:35:36,719 --> 00:35:40,239
Speaker 1: rang and it was the It was the current board

690
00:35:40,320 --> 00:35:44,319
Speaker 1: chair and I she said, Oh, I just want to

691
00:35:44,320 --> 00:35:46,400
Speaker 1: catch you up on kind of where we are with

692
00:35:46,400 --> 00:35:49,920
Speaker 1: the leadership. And I said, okay, and I said, I

693
00:35:49,920 --> 00:35:51,480
Speaker 1: think I'm all caught up, because you know, I was

694
00:35:51,480 --> 00:35:54,480
Speaker 1: on executive committees and other places, so I think I'm

695
00:35:54,480 --> 00:35:56,960
Speaker 1: all caught up. And she said, no, no, I am. There's

696
00:35:56,960 --> 00:36:00,520
Speaker 1: another conversation I want to have with you. And she said,

697
00:36:00,600 --> 00:36:03,120
Speaker 1: if we have to move in this direction, would you

698
00:36:03,200 --> 00:36:08,760
Speaker 1: step in? And I stood there stunned on the corner

699
00:36:08,760 --> 00:36:12,160
Speaker 1: because I had that was not on my being con card.

700
00:36:13,040 --> 00:36:15,080
Speaker 1: And at the same time, I knew as a former

701
00:36:15,120 --> 00:36:19,000
Speaker 1: board chair, which she was asking of me, she needed

702
00:36:19,000 --> 00:36:22,120
Speaker 1: to have a conversation and she needed to know that

703
00:36:22,680 --> 00:36:24,520
Speaker 1: I would be there if she needed me. So it

704
00:36:24,560 --> 00:36:26,640
Speaker 1: wasn't quite a quite a step in. It was like

705
00:36:26,680 --> 00:36:29,719
Speaker 1: the beginning of it. And so I said, I need

706
00:36:29,760 --> 00:36:33,960
Speaker 1: to call my business partner my husband in that order,

707
00:36:37,080 --> 00:36:38,920
Speaker 1: because we were just in the middle of, you know,

708
00:36:39,040 --> 00:36:41,840
Speaker 1: this amazing work that we had started and it was

709
00:36:41,920 --> 00:36:46,080
Speaker 1: just gaining traction and building proof of concept. And she

710
00:36:46,200 --> 00:36:47,440
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, you got to do this. She's like,

711
00:36:47,480 --> 00:36:49,359
Speaker 1: of course, it's like they need of course. We were

712
00:36:49,360 --> 00:36:51,799
Speaker 1: going into the most critical year of our lives, like

713
00:36:51,960 --> 00:36:54,799
Speaker 1: you have got to do this. I said, okay. Then

714
00:36:54,840 --> 00:36:56,640
Speaker 1: I called Rob and he was like, yes, of course,

715
00:36:56,840 --> 00:36:59,240
Speaker 1: like you have to do this, like you know your daughters,

716
00:36:59,360 --> 00:37:01,400
Speaker 1: you know, like they need to you know, you are

717
00:37:01,400 --> 00:37:03,000
Speaker 1: fighting for them and you know. And it was like

718
00:37:03,640 --> 00:37:07,480
Speaker 1: and I their responses were quicker than mine, which was

719
00:37:07,760 --> 00:37:10,960
Speaker 1: a little bit you know, kind of unsettling because I

720
00:37:11,000 --> 00:37:14,520
Speaker 1: was like, oh wow, like now there's this is really

721
00:37:14,560 --> 00:37:17,760
Speaker 1: all me, Right, I have to answer this question because

722
00:37:17,920 --> 00:37:20,960
Speaker 1: there's no one else I can say. Said, oh, you know,

723
00:37:21,200 --> 00:37:23,239
Speaker 1: I just couldn't leave my partner. I just couldn't, you know,

724
00:37:23,360 --> 00:37:26,520
Speaker 1: kidden leave Rob to tend to everything. And I called

725
00:37:26,520 --> 00:37:28,560
Speaker 1: her back and said, I'll be here for what you need.

726
00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:32,719
Speaker 1: Congratulations on the new job. Thank you so much.

727
00:37:33,400 --> 00:37:37,600
Speaker 2: Me to Alexis McGill Johnson, the New Jersey native is

728
00:37:37,680 --> 00:37:41,799
Speaker 2: the new national Acting President and CEO of Planned Parenthood.

729
00:37:42,400 --> 00:37:45,680
Speaker 1: And so I came in during a leadership transition. I

730
00:37:45,719 --> 00:37:48,799
Speaker 1: came in July twenty nineteen, and I came in as

731
00:37:48,840 --> 00:37:53,080
Speaker 1: acting president and my job really was to stabilize the

732
00:37:53,120 --> 00:37:55,920
Speaker 1: team and the staff, right, I mean, CECIL built a

733
00:37:56,000 --> 00:38:00,000
Speaker 1: world class, you know, political organizing machine on top of

734
00:38:00,280 --> 00:38:03,560
Speaker 1: our kind of the incredible healthcare that our affiliates were

735
00:38:03,560 --> 00:38:07,200
Speaker 1: providing and also being strained under because of kind of

736
00:38:07,239 --> 00:38:10,600
Speaker 1: the Trump years that we were living in. And so

737
00:38:11,040 --> 00:38:14,919
Speaker 1: I started to stabilize. I turned the corner. I said,

738
00:38:15,480 --> 00:38:17,960
Speaker 1: my only condition was I want to stay long enough

739
00:38:17,960 --> 00:38:20,520
Speaker 1: to get us through twenty twenty. Right. I wanted to, like,

740
00:38:20,600 --> 00:38:22,240
Speaker 1: if I was going to build a team, I wanted

741
00:38:22,239 --> 00:38:26,080
Speaker 1: to run that election and make sure that, like I

742
00:38:26,120 --> 00:38:28,520
Speaker 1: got it back to running on all cylinders, so that

743
00:38:28,520 --> 00:38:31,359
Speaker 1: the next person wouldn't have to, you know, come in

744
00:38:31,400 --> 00:38:35,520
Speaker 1: and do that from scratch. And twenty twenty was twenty twenty.

745
00:38:35,840 --> 00:38:38,319
Speaker 1: And so I found myself in a situation where I

746
00:38:38,480 --> 00:38:43,640
Speaker 1: was rebuilding a team. I was now leading an organization

747
00:38:43,840 --> 00:38:49,319
Speaker 1: going through a pandemic as a healthcare provider. Right, so

748
00:38:50,200 --> 00:38:53,680
Speaker 1: our affiliates who run our health centers were navigating challenges

749
00:38:53,719 --> 00:38:57,919
Speaker 1: around getting access to PPE and you know, concerns about

750
00:38:57,960 --> 00:39:01,360
Speaker 1: their providers and executive orders prevent them from providing abortion

751
00:39:01,560 --> 00:39:05,200
Speaker 1: even way obviously, four years before Bobs, every woman was

752
00:39:05,239 --> 00:39:09,560
Speaker 1: grappling through that situation. And then there were the racial reckonings,

753
00:39:10,239 --> 00:39:12,440
Speaker 1: and then there was the election, and then there was

754
00:39:12,480 --> 00:39:18,680
Speaker 1: the insurrection, and then it was SBA in Texas, and

755
00:39:18,719 --> 00:39:23,520
Speaker 1: then it was the oral arguments those jobs and so

756
00:39:24,320 --> 00:39:27,919
Speaker 1: like in some ways. I don't you know. Somewhere along

757
00:39:27,920 --> 00:39:29,439
Speaker 1: the way I think it was when in the first

758
00:39:29,560 --> 00:39:33,360
Speaker 1: year in twenty twenty is when I became the permanent president.

759
00:39:33,840 --> 00:39:35,680
Speaker 1: But somewhere along the way, I don't know that I

760
00:39:35,680 --> 00:39:39,960
Speaker 1: ever stopped to stop. From that one conversation I had

761
00:39:39,960 --> 00:39:42,160
Speaker 1: on the sidewalk outside, I'm proud of it, said if

762
00:39:42,160 --> 00:39:45,640
Speaker 1: you need me, I will step in to say, I'm

763
00:39:45,640 --> 00:39:48,279
Speaker 1: putting my hat in the ring. It was there is

764
00:39:48,480 --> 00:39:50,480
Speaker 1: work we need to continue to do in order to

765
00:39:50,480 --> 00:39:51,640
Speaker 1: get us out of this moment.

766
00:39:54,560 --> 00:39:59,719
Speaker 3: By fury right outside the Supreme Court, hy those American women,

767
00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:03,160
Speaker 3: oh the constitutional protection to get an abortion?

768
00:40:03,960 --> 00:40:07,360
Speaker 5: The Supreme Court has reached a decision on the landmark

769
00:40:07,520 --> 00:40:07,840
Speaker 5: Roe v.

770
00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:11,440
Speaker 1: Wade case. The Supreme Court overturned Roe v.

771
00:40:11,600 --> 00:40:15,040
Speaker 2: Wade, holding that there is no longer a federal constitutional

772
00:40:15,080 --> 00:40:15,960
Speaker 2: right to an abortion.

773
00:40:16,160 --> 00:40:19,239
Speaker 5: You know me, I had an abortion when I was

774
00:40:19,280 --> 00:40:23,879
Speaker 5: fifteen years old. And I'm telling you this because I'm

775
00:40:23,960 --> 00:40:29,560
Speaker 5: genuinely really scared for women and girls all over this country.

776
00:40:29,640 --> 00:40:32,560
Speaker 4: Canada, and we really need you all. This is not right.

777
00:40:32,719 --> 00:40:35,600
Speaker 4: It's not the country we know. It's not the country

778
00:40:35,640 --> 00:40:38,360
Speaker 4: I went to sleep in last night. I'm really afraid

779
00:40:38,440 --> 00:40:41,320
Speaker 4: for women's rights. And I'm really sad in my country.

780
00:40:41,320 --> 00:40:44,040
Speaker 4: I love my country so much, and I'm just so embarrassed.

781
00:40:46,400 --> 00:40:49,239
Speaker 2: It's been just two years since Roe was overturned, and

782
00:40:49,280 --> 00:40:52,600
Speaker 2: sometimes it doesn't feel real. It's been so much so

783
00:40:52,800 --> 00:40:55,600
Speaker 2: quickly that we've barely had time to pause and process.

784
00:40:56,400 --> 00:40:59,560
Speaker 2: But through all of the chaos and the lows, Alexis

785
00:40:59,560 --> 00:41:02,880
Speaker 2: has thought fully carved out a strategic path for the organization,

786
00:41:03,760 --> 00:41:05,960
Speaker 2: one that might not have had the room to grow

787
00:41:06,320 --> 00:41:09,080
Speaker 2: had that faithful day on June twenty fourth, twenty twenty

788
00:41:09,080 --> 00:41:10,080
Speaker 2: two never happened.

789
00:41:11,400 --> 00:41:13,720
Speaker 1: And I think what the you know, with the period

790
00:41:13,719 --> 00:41:16,919
Speaker 1: post oops has taught us is that it's actually helped

791
00:41:17,000 --> 00:41:19,680
Speaker 1: us put abortion back into the reproductive healthcare landscape right

792
00:41:20,040 --> 00:41:23,439
Speaker 1: because there are people with, you know, pregnancies that were

793
00:41:23,560 --> 00:41:27,200
Speaker 1: intended that no longer can get miscarriage care right or

794
00:41:27,239 --> 00:41:29,640
Speaker 1: who are you know the early stories that we heard

795
00:41:29,719 --> 00:41:33,120
Speaker 1: during SBA, when patients were being sent home to wait

796
00:41:33,160 --> 00:41:35,759
Speaker 1: for sepsis to set in because the doctors were too

797
00:41:35,800 --> 00:41:39,040
Speaker 1: afraid to treat them and the trauma you know that

798
00:41:39,080 --> 00:41:43,000
Speaker 1: they're experiencing, being forced to carry pregnancies that are no

799
00:41:43,080 --> 00:41:46,759
Speaker 1: longer viable and so I think there is a you know,

800
00:41:47,080 --> 00:41:49,640
Speaker 1: what is happening. I think in this period is kind

801
00:41:49,640 --> 00:41:53,480
Speaker 1: of an understanding that these criminalizing abortion and actually makes

802
00:41:53,480 --> 00:41:56,359
Speaker 1: pregnancy less safe. That providers no longer want to live

803
00:41:56,760 --> 00:42:00,000
Speaker 1: in states that have banned the procedure right because they

804
00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:01,880
Speaker 1: don't want to be criminalized themselves. So that's going to

805
00:42:01,880 --> 00:42:05,040
Speaker 1: have it impact not just on you know, again pregnancy care,

806
00:42:05,080 --> 00:42:07,080
Speaker 1: but it's also going to ripple into the workforce. People

807
00:42:07,120 --> 00:42:08,960
Speaker 1: don't want to be sart live in states where they

808
00:42:09,000 --> 00:42:10,920
Speaker 1: can't decide that that's the place where they want to

809
00:42:10,920 --> 00:42:11,920
Speaker 1: start to raise a family.

810
00:42:12,600 --> 00:42:16,080
Speaker 2: So with all that, your mindset must have flipped at

811
00:42:16,080 --> 00:42:19,240
Speaker 2: some point that I'm not just stabilizing, I'm building.

812
00:42:19,880 --> 00:42:20,080
Speaker 4: Yeah.

813
00:42:20,120 --> 00:42:22,240
Speaker 1: So I talked to a lot of people when I

814
00:42:22,360 --> 00:42:25,880
Speaker 1: joined as an interim around kind of what are some

815
00:42:26,000 --> 00:42:28,359
Speaker 1: best practices as an interpret Like, I knew there were

816
00:42:28,360 --> 00:42:31,040
Speaker 1: things that obviously I had been around for a decade.

817
00:42:31,080 --> 00:42:33,880
Speaker 1: I knew kind of things that needed to be fixed,

818
00:42:33,880 --> 00:42:38,120
Speaker 1: things that we needed to kind of address relationships I

819
00:42:38,120 --> 00:42:42,720
Speaker 1: wanted to restore again, getting the organization to be like healthy,

820
00:42:43,160 --> 00:42:45,239
Speaker 1: you know, and then to hand it off and wait

821
00:42:45,280 --> 00:42:48,240
Speaker 1: in a way and you know, and wanting to feel

822
00:42:48,239 --> 00:42:51,799
Speaker 1: good about what that work was. And somewhere in the

823
00:42:51,840 --> 00:42:54,880
Speaker 1: first year, first few months, maybe even one of my

824
00:42:54,960 --> 00:42:58,800
Speaker 1: colleagues in the Federation said, you know, like you feel

825
00:42:58,840 --> 00:43:02,120
Speaker 1: really tentative to me, like you know, your title is

826
00:43:02,160 --> 00:43:07,040
Speaker 1: acting president, but you are the president. And I had

827
00:43:07,120 --> 00:43:08,880
Speaker 1: like this thought of, like, you know, when you go

828
00:43:08,920 --> 00:43:11,160
Speaker 1: and you stay in somebody's house and it's like really

829
00:43:11,200 --> 00:43:14,560
Speaker 1: lovely and so well appointed, and you want when you're leaving,

830
00:43:14,719 --> 00:43:17,040
Speaker 1: you want everything to be exactly as you found it, right,

831
00:43:17,239 --> 00:43:19,920
Speaker 1: Like the pillow is fluffed up, exactly as you found it,

832
00:43:20,040 --> 00:43:22,200
Speaker 1: Like you're fixing up the bathroom and making sure like

833
00:43:22,600 --> 00:43:24,160
Speaker 1: you know, even though you know someone's going to come

834
00:43:24,200 --> 00:43:26,400
Speaker 1: behind you and do that, and like you are doing

835
00:43:26,440 --> 00:43:27,879
Speaker 1: all of it because you want to make it as

836
00:43:27,880 --> 00:43:30,400
Speaker 1: perfect as possible. And I felt like I was fluffing

837
00:43:30,440 --> 00:43:32,719
Speaker 1: up the pillows inside of the organization and really not

838
00:43:32,840 --> 00:43:36,319
Speaker 1: allowing myself the opportunity to do the fixing. And so

839
00:43:36,360 --> 00:43:38,480
Speaker 1: I reflected on it in that moment and later she

840
00:43:38,520 --> 00:43:42,080
Speaker 1: said to me, here's my advice, drive it like you

841
00:43:42,120 --> 00:43:46,400
Speaker 1: stole it. And I was like it was something really

842
00:43:46,560 --> 00:43:51,600
Speaker 1: freeing about saying, yeah, you know what, I am the president.

843
00:43:52,760 --> 00:43:56,680
Speaker 1: It was my Sasha fears. You know, Alexis came back right,

844
00:43:56,719 --> 00:44:00,280
Speaker 1: and I'm like, yeah, I am the president, and I

845
00:44:00,280 --> 00:44:03,040
Speaker 1: I am going to lead this organization through this crisis.

846
00:44:03,120 --> 00:44:05,400
Speaker 1: I'm going to lead this organization through this crazy election.

847
00:44:06,160 --> 00:44:10,440
Speaker 1: And I think that maybe energy is what drove me

848
00:44:10,480 --> 00:44:15,920
Speaker 1: into kind of a new conversation and allowed me to be.

849
00:44:14,719 --> 00:44:16,719
Speaker 2: Become own it. So what did that look like for

850
00:44:16,800 --> 00:44:19,520
Speaker 2: you once you were owning it? Oh my goodness.

851
00:44:19,760 --> 00:44:23,759
Speaker 1: It really was about setting the course for for where

852
00:44:23,800 --> 00:44:26,680
Speaker 1: we are now, right, it was it was writing the

853
00:44:26,680 --> 00:44:29,160
Speaker 1: op ed Margaret Sanger in the New York Times.

854
00:44:29,600 --> 00:44:32,120
Speaker 2: The op ed Alexis is referring to is her fiery

855
00:44:32,200 --> 00:44:35,279
Speaker 2: article she penned in twenty twenty one titled I'm the

856
00:44:35,320 --> 00:44:39,280
Speaker 2: Head of Planned Parenthood. We're done making excuses for our founder.

857
00:44:39,760 --> 00:44:44,480
Speaker 1: Really owning our kind of racial history and kind of

858
00:44:44,800 --> 00:44:48,080
Speaker 1: reckoning not so much with her right, since I put

859
00:44:48,120 --> 00:44:49,640
Speaker 1: in the piece like I don't know what was in

860
00:44:49,680 --> 00:44:54,239
Speaker 1: her heart right, but reckoning with as a movement that

861
00:44:54,280 --> 00:44:57,440
Speaker 1: has been predominantly white, lead the work that we needed

862
00:44:57,440 --> 00:45:01,040
Speaker 1: to do to interrogate our own systems and structures in

863
00:45:01,160 --> 00:45:04,439
Speaker 1: order to make ourselves a place of belonging for people

864
00:45:04,440 --> 00:45:07,040
Speaker 1: who look like me, and what that work would mean.

865
00:45:07,680 --> 00:45:14,920
Speaker 1: It meant, you know, doing a kind of similar inquiry

866
00:45:15,080 --> 00:45:19,000
Speaker 1: around what we knew would happen when Row fell, right,

867
00:45:19,680 --> 00:45:22,359
Speaker 1: questions that I started to ask the board very early on,

868
00:45:22,719 --> 00:45:26,640
Speaker 1: literally a year almost to the date that of the

869
00:45:26,680 --> 00:45:28,799
Speaker 1: DABS decision. I was in a board meeting and I

870
00:45:28,840 --> 00:45:30,640
Speaker 1: asked them, who are we going to be when we

871
00:45:30,680 --> 00:45:33,520
Speaker 1: are no longer defending Row? Do we have an answer

872
00:45:33,600 --> 00:45:35,799
Speaker 1: to that question? Because this is an organization that's really

873
00:45:35,840 --> 00:45:40,080
Speaker 1: built to defend, and we need to build a different

874
00:45:40,160 --> 00:45:43,239
Speaker 1: muscle around imagination, right, We need to understand the new

875
00:45:43,280 --> 00:45:45,960
Speaker 1: reality that people are going to be in, not just

876
00:45:46,000 --> 00:45:48,080
Speaker 1: for the short term, right, because like flying people around

877
00:45:48,120 --> 00:45:51,279
Speaker 1: the country, people driving five hundred miles just to get

878
00:45:51,360 --> 00:45:54,120
Speaker 1: access to medication, that is not a long term strategy.

879
00:45:54,880 --> 00:45:58,160
Speaker 1: So what is our new vision? So like starting to

880
00:45:58,239 --> 00:46:01,000
Speaker 1: see those questions, and I think in many ways there

881
00:46:01,080 --> 00:46:03,880
Speaker 1: is like I operate a little bit like professor in chief.

882
00:46:05,400 --> 00:46:08,200
Speaker 1: You can probably see that, but like asking, you know,

883
00:46:08,680 --> 00:46:10,560
Speaker 1: I do believe in the power of the question, right,

884
00:46:10,600 --> 00:46:14,480
Speaker 1: and like asking the really hard, high level questions so

885
00:46:14,560 --> 00:46:17,319
Speaker 1: that we're not just engaging in the tactics to move

886
00:46:17,400 --> 00:46:19,400
Speaker 1: us forward, but really starting to think about what do

887
00:46:19,440 --> 00:46:22,640
Speaker 1: we need to dismantle and rebuild in a moment.

888
00:46:23,200 --> 00:46:24,640
Speaker 2: And I think a lot of people want to know

889
00:46:24,680 --> 00:46:26,480
Speaker 2: what is the answer to that, Like who are we

890
00:46:26,640 --> 00:46:29,560
Speaker 2: if we're not defending row? How do we think about

891
00:46:29,600 --> 00:46:33,000
Speaker 2: our relationship to abortion, access to all of reproductive care

892
00:46:33,200 --> 00:46:33,960
Speaker 2: moving forward?

893
00:46:34,480 --> 00:46:36,839
Speaker 1: Look, I mean I think we have a plan, right,

894
00:46:37,000 --> 00:46:39,080
Speaker 1: It's a and I think it's one that we haven't

895
00:46:39,120 --> 00:46:43,279
Speaker 1: really talked through as much, that kind of a movement perspective, right,

896
00:46:43,280 --> 00:46:45,560
Speaker 1: But you know, I've been toughly of late talking about

897
00:46:45,760 --> 00:46:48,080
Speaker 1: we need to understand the road from twenty twenty four

898
00:46:48,120 --> 00:46:50,759
Speaker 1: to twenty forty. That there's no magic bullet that is

899
00:46:50,800 --> 00:46:55,600
Speaker 1: going to automatically be like, okay, we're back into the constitution.

900
00:46:56,160 --> 00:46:58,960
Speaker 1: This has been a fifty year strategy, right. The opposition

901
00:46:59,000 --> 00:47:01,840
Speaker 1: has had a long view, Right, So they've played a

902
00:47:01,840 --> 00:47:05,960
Speaker 1: long game, and they have spent decades taking over through

903
00:47:06,000 --> 00:47:10,520
Speaker 1: jerrymandering and you know, weaponizing rules in courts, taking over

904
00:47:10,600 --> 00:47:14,160
Speaker 1: state houses, taking over the judiciary. And that is why

905
00:47:14,200 --> 00:47:16,920
Speaker 1: we are here. So they have created that kind of

906
00:47:16,960 --> 00:47:20,480
Speaker 1: political advantage. So our job is to really understand where

907
00:47:20,480 --> 00:47:24,799
Speaker 1: our leavers and levers are it starts with twenty twenty four, right,

908
00:47:25,600 --> 00:47:27,319
Speaker 1: you know, again, this year is going to be an

909
00:47:27,360 --> 00:47:33,440
Speaker 1: incredibly important year where we have to ensure that the

910
00:47:33,440 --> 00:47:38,520
Speaker 1: Biden Harris administration stays in power, that we win back

911
00:47:38,600 --> 00:47:41,680
Speaker 1: the House, you know, with its small margins, and you know,

912
00:47:41,960 --> 00:47:45,840
Speaker 1: and that we we are able to hold and expand

913
00:47:45,880 --> 00:47:49,240
Speaker 1: the Senate with the belief that this is a Senate

914
00:47:49,320 --> 00:47:52,520
Speaker 1: the Senate that we get is one that will engage

915
00:47:52,520 --> 00:47:55,680
Speaker 1: in filibusta reform. That is, that is the immediate path.

916
00:47:55,719 --> 00:47:59,080
Speaker 1: That's what allows us to have federal legislation codified. Now

917
00:47:59,120 --> 00:48:02,680
Speaker 1: that is obviously, you know, kind of what we are

918
00:48:02,719 --> 00:48:07,240
Speaker 1: focusing on this year, and we believe it's inherently doable

919
00:48:07,560 --> 00:48:10,400
Speaker 1: and given the circumstances we are, we still hold it

920
00:48:10,440 --> 00:48:13,000
Speaker 1: as a you know, it's also aspirational right in this book,

921
00:48:13,000 --> 00:48:14,400
Speaker 1: but it's a lot of pieces that have to come

922
00:48:14,440 --> 00:48:16,239
Speaker 1: into play for us to get that, and that's what

923
00:48:16,280 --> 00:48:19,319
Speaker 1: we are working feverishly towards. We also know we're going

924
00:48:19,360 --> 00:48:21,920
Speaker 1: to have to continueified state by state, ballid initiative by

925
00:48:21,920 --> 00:48:25,120
Speaker 1: ballid initiative. And I know that what we have seen,

926
00:48:25,600 --> 00:48:28,280
Speaker 1: you know, over the year has been that when reproductive

927
00:48:28,280 --> 00:48:30,279
Speaker 1: freedom's on the ballot, when abortions on the ballot, we win.

928
00:48:30,840 --> 00:48:34,160
Speaker 1: So we know the energy is there across state, across

929
00:48:34,320 --> 00:48:38,320
Speaker 1: you know, demographics, across party. And then there are litigating

930
00:48:38,400 --> 00:48:43,759
Speaker 1: strategies around identify with the next Supreme Court is going

931
00:48:43,800 --> 00:48:46,480
Speaker 1: to need to hear what are the questions the framework

932
00:48:46,520 --> 00:48:49,000
Speaker 1: that we need to be laying the ground for to

933
00:48:49,040 --> 00:48:51,400
Speaker 1: get back into the constitution. And I think the New

934
00:48:51,520 --> 00:48:54,680
Speaker 1: York BALLID initiative, the twenty twenty four New York BAID

935
00:48:54,680 --> 00:48:58,200
Speaker 1: initiative is I think one of the best rights based

936
00:48:58,360 --> 00:49:01,960
Speaker 1: frameworks that we can looking towards in order to kind

937
00:49:01,960 --> 00:49:05,000
Speaker 1: of establish quality. Sorry, just to go back to me,

938
00:49:05,040 --> 00:49:07,279
Speaker 1: you said, like, you know, who are we going to be?

939
00:49:08,080 --> 00:49:10,520
Speaker 1: I think the flaw in my question really is as

940
00:49:10,520 --> 00:49:14,680
Speaker 1: if Roe was enough right. Row had long been undermined

941
00:49:15,760 --> 00:49:18,719
Speaker 1: by these laws that allowed for the right but not

942
00:49:18,840 --> 00:49:23,080
Speaker 1: for access, and so we have actually this new opportunity

943
00:49:23,320 --> 00:49:26,480
Speaker 1: to build back in a different way than saying to

944
00:49:26,480 --> 00:49:28,799
Speaker 1: the Biden administration we should just build Row back better.

945
00:49:29,600 --> 00:49:32,200
Speaker 2: Something I think about a lot as a reformed politico

946
00:49:32,760 --> 00:49:37,000
Speaker 2: is the difference between policy change and culture change, and

947
00:49:37,040 --> 00:49:40,200
Speaker 2: that culture change is something political leaders like Alexis often

948
00:49:40,239 --> 00:49:43,800
Speaker 2: have a hard time taking into account, but after years

949
00:49:43,800 --> 00:49:47,680
Speaker 2: writing the playbook of how politics can permeate culture, Alexis

950
00:49:47,719 --> 00:49:48,759
Speaker 2: has some ideas.

951
00:49:49,400 --> 00:49:51,840
Speaker 1: When I think that the cultural strategies, the way in

952
00:49:51,880 --> 00:49:55,440
Speaker 1: which we need to change behavior through culture, or shift

953
00:49:55,719 --> 00:49:58,520
Speaker 1: the way we think about equality through culture, the way

954
00:49:58,520 --> 00:50:01,919
Speaker 1: we respond to moments like the summer of twenty twenty three,

955
00:50:02,120 --> 00:50:05,400
Speaker 1: when you know, you had Beyonce and Barbie and Taylor

956
00:50:06,080 --> 00:50:09,160
Speaker 1: pumping billions of dollars into the economy, and you've got

957
00:50:09,200 --> 00:50:12,319
Speaker 1: young people now who are like, with someone of my

958
00:50:12,320 --> 00:50:15,360
Speaker 1: staff not too long ago was like, yeah, you know menopause,

959
00:50:15,680 --> 00:50:21,040
Speaker 1: I'm not doing that. I was like, she's going to

960
00:50:21,080 --> 00:50:24,879
Speaker 1: create something totally brand new and she probably won't ever

961
00:50:25,040 --> 00:50:27,440
Speaker 1: go through. You know, most of us were raised to

962
00:50:27,480 --> 00:50:30,080
Speaker 1: be like a rite of ass it, like no, I'm

963
00:50:30,120 --> 00:50:32,719
Speaker 1: not doing that. So like, that's the energy that I

964
00:50:32,760 --> 00:50:35,680
Speaker 1: think is part of what we are seeing in this

965
00:50:35,880 --> 00:50:40,920
Speaker 1: post Rome moment, right, this like this recognition that rights

966
00:50:40,920 --> 00:50:43,720
Speaker 1: actually can be taken away, the freedoms can be taken away,

967
00:50:44,719 --> 00:50:49,600
Speaker 1: and I think the f're and the fire of people

968
00:50:49,640 --> 00:50:52,840
Speaker 1: who are like, yeah, we're not doing that. So I

969
00:50:52,880 --> 00:50:56,080
Speaker 1: actually think that you know, one of the one of

970
00:50:56,080 --> 00:51:00,600
Speaker 1: the things that that we will see culturally, right is

971
00:51:01,040 --> 00:51:05,080
Speaker 1: people will learn more about how to access care, they

972
00:51:05,160 --> 00:51:09,480
Speaker 1: will support each other in doing that, and that is

973
00:51:09,520 --> 00:51:12,680
Speaker 1: going to be, you know, I think something that challenges

974
00:51:12,760 --> 00:51:16,160
Speaker 1: the ability for them to enforce the policies, and so

975
00:51:16,440 --> 00:51:20,200
Speaker 1: I think we can fight and this is what we

976
00:51:20,239 --> 00:51:22,680
Speaker 1: are trained to do right at Plan, parent Plan Parent

977
00:51:22,719 --> 00:51:25,680
Speaker 1: at Action Fund. You know, our job is to you know,

978
00:51:25,960 --> 00:51:30,239
Speaker 1: vigorously build the laws that defend the patients and the

979
00:51:30,239 --> 00:51:32,640
Speaker 1: providers and allow them to get access and to make

980
00:51:32,680 --> 00:51:35,200
Speaker 1: sure that you know, anybody wants an abortion can get

981
00:51:35,200 --> 00:51:38,000
Speaker 1: an abortion, that we get the resources to them, whether

982
00:51:38,000 --> 00:51:40,560
Speaker 1: they need to get out of state, that we protect.

983
00:51:40,680 --> 00:51:42,520
Speaker 1: You know, we fight for the things like shield laws

984
00:51:42,560 --> 00:51:45,279
Speaker 1: to protect the providers who are sending you know, who

985
00:51:45,320 --> 00:51:47,880
Speaker 1: are able to send pills through telehealth. We are fighting,

986
00:51:48,080 --> 00:51:51,080
Speaker 1: you know, the policies around telehealth and all of those

987
00:51:51,120 --> 00:51:53,880
Speaker 1: sorts of things to ensure access. We're obviously fighting for

988
00:51:53,920 --> 00:51:58,120
Speaker 1: the right to distribute mifipristone. All of those things I think,

989
00:51:58,440 --> 00:52:01,120
Speaker 1: you know, are part of a stress that allows people

990
00:52:01,200 --> 00:52:03,880
Speaker 1: to think about the risks that they will take in

991
00:52:04,280 --> 00:52:07,480
Speaker 1: terms of accessing care from where they are, and I

992
00:52:07,480 --> 00:52:11,479
Speaker 1: think that that is the culture shift, the behavior shift

993
00:52:11,480 --> 00:52:15,239
Speaker 1: that we will associate of people being able to get

994
00:52:15,280 --> 00:52:18,520
Speaker 1: access to care is also going to be something that

995
00:52:18,600 --> 00:52:22,520
Speaker 1: shifts the way we understand how useful policies are. And

996
00:52:22,600 --> 00:52:26,120
Speaker 1: I think that people will find ways to get access

997
00:52:26,120 --> 00:52:29,120
Speaker 1: to abortion because that is what they've always done, and

998
00:52:29,160 --> 00:52:31,920
Speaker 1: our job is to make sure that we are helping

999
00:52:31,960 --> 00:52:36,399
Speaker 1: them get access where they can legally and being able

1000
00:52:36,440 --> 00:52:38,799
Speaker 1: to recognize and understand the field in which they are

1001
00:52:39,040 --> 00:52:41,480
Speaker 1: engaging in calculated risks. The end of the day, what

1002
00:52:41,560 --> 00:52:44,520
Speaker 1: I want is for everybody to know what an abortion is,

1003
00:52:44,760 --> 00:52:47,920
Speaker 1: an actual abortion is. I want people to know where

1004
00:52:47,960 --> 00:52:50,640
Speaker 1: to get one, who to call right. I want them

1005
00:52:50,680 --> 00:52:53,080
Speaker 1: to know that Planned Parenthood will be there to support

1006
00:52:53,160 --> 00:52:56,040
Speaker 1: them and that we will be there to defend them

1007
00:52:56,280 --> 00:52:58,399
Speaker 1: because we are going to fight on the policy level.

1008
00:52:58,400 --> 00:53:00,880
Speaker 1: We're going to ensure that we have the elected people

1009
00:53:00,920 --> 00:53:03,439
Speaker 1: there to support them, and we're going to ensure that

1010
00:53:03,520 --> 00:53:05,359
Speaker 1: we're working with all of the folks will be there

1011
00:53:05,400 --> 00:53:07,920
Speaker 1: to support them on there, you know, on their defense

1012
00:53:07,960 --> 00:53:10,640
Speaker 1: should they be criminalized. I mean, I think that is

1013
00:53:10,719 --> 00:53:13,279
Speaker 1: the humane thing to do. Well.

1014
00:53:13,280 --> 00:53:15,920
Speaker 2: I want to go back to you Alexis personally and

1015
00:53:15,960 --> 00:53:18,920
Speaker 2: how you got here. Do you think there's a moment that,

1016
00:53:19,360 --> 00:53:21,520
Speaker 2: now that you look back, was there a moment for

1017
00:53:21,600 --> 00:53:24,839
Speaker 2: you that at the time you thought it was like, Ugh,

1018
00:53:24,880 --> 00:53:26,600
Speaker 2: I can't get myself out of this, I can't believe

1019
00:53:26,600 --> 00:53:29,520
Speaker 2: I'm in this position. And now that you look back

1020
00:53:29,560 --> 00:53:31,279
Speaker 2: in it, you see it as I've been really having

1021
00:53:31,320 --> 00:53:33,760
Speaker 2: built the groundwork for the success that you have now.

1022
00:53:34,239 --> 00:53:36,680
Speaker 1: I don't know that I can pinpoint the moment in time.

1023
00:53:37,360 --> 00:53:40,239
Speaker 1: What I can tell you is that the day of

1024
00:53:40,360 --> 00:53:45,759
Speaker 1: jobs as heavy and as hard and emotional, even though

1025
00:53:45,760 --> 00:53:47,479
Speaker 1: we knew it was coming, like we even got the leak,

1026
00:53:47,600 --> 00:53:50,160
Speaker 1: we knew it was coming. Even as hard as that

1027
00:53:50,760 --> 00:53:54,520
Speaker 1: moment was, there was something inside of me that felt

1028
00:53:54,560 --> 00:53:58,400
Speaker 1: like I had been preparing for this race all along.

1029
00:53:59,200 --> 00:54:02,680
Speaker 1: I felt like I understood the power of organizing in

1030
00:54:02,719 --> 00:54:06,360
Speaker 1: that moment, I understood the power of talking across communities

1031
00:54:06,400 --> 00:54:08,600
Speaker 1: and work I had done at perception and understanding the

1032
00:54:08,640 --> 00:54:11,080
Speaker 1: brain science and where people get blocked in their anxiety

1033
00:54:11,080 --> 00:54:14,440
Speaker 1: about talking about things like abortion, things that are stigmatized.

1034
00:54:14,600 --> 00:54:18,560
Speaker 1: I kind of could understand the kind of movement equations

1035
00:54:18,560 --> 00:54:21,400
Speaker 1: that I had been kind of drawing, drawing through the

1036
00:54:21,440 --> 00:54:23,680
Speaker 1: space the kind of theories that I had been starting

1037
00:54:23,719 --> 00:54:26,800
Speaker 1: to put in play around why even in the moment

1038
00:54:26,960 --> 00:54:30,760
Speaker 1: of abortion loss, we still had to invest proactively into

1039
00:54:31,080 --> 00:54:34,319
Speaker 1: black health equity, in particular in areas where they would

1040
00:54:34,360 --> 00:54:37,080
Speaker 1: no longer be able to get access in state. And

1041
00:54:37,440 --> 00:54:40,920
Speaker 1: I felt like, I felt like like like that moment,

1042
00:54:41,040 --> 00:54:43,840
Speaker 1: like I am here for a reason, right, I have

1043
00:54:43,960 --> 00:54:46,840
Speaker 1: been called into this space for a reason, and you know,

1044
00:54:46,920 --> 00:54:51,200
Speaker 1: maybe for such a time as this, and that the

1045
00:54:51,320 --> 00:54:54,560
Speaker 1: darkness of the day, I think helped me find the strength.

1046
00:54:55,760 --> 00:54:57,719
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Alexis for joining us.

1047
00:54:58,120 --> 00:54:59,160
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me.

1048
00:55:01,120 --> 00:55:04,600
Speaker 2: Alexis continues to serve as President and CEO of Planned

1049
00:55:04,640 --> 00:55:08,640
Speaker 2: Parenthood Action Fund and the Planned Parenthood Federation of America,

1050
00:55:08,719 --> 00:55:12,000
Speaker 2: and it's continuing to navigate the complex landscape in a

1051
00:55:12,080 --> 00:55:16,600
Speaker 2: post row world with grace and fortitude. We're an electioneer

1052
00:55:16,680 --> 00:55:20,640
Speaker 2: and this issue matters. I hope this conversation reignited the

1053
00:55:20,680 --> 00:55:23,760
Speaker 2: same spark that is dimmed over the years and inspired

1054
00:55:23,840 --> 00:55:26,279
Speaker 2: you to get involved to protect women's rights over their

1055
00:55:26,320 --> 00:55:29,520
Speaker 2: own bodies and health. So talk to your friends and

1056
00:55:29,560 --> 00:55:33,360
Speaker 2: your community and vote please. You can find links and

1057
00:55:33,400 --> 00:55:35,960
Speaker 2: resources to Planned Parenthood and the Action fund and more

1058
00:55:36,000 --> 00:55:39,279
Speaker 2: on our website. You can follow Alexis on Instagram at

1059
00:55:39,400 --> 00:55:43,600
Speaker 2: Alexis MJPP and be sure to also follow Planned Parenthood

1060
00:55:43,640 --> 00:55:49,279
Speaker 2: at Planned Parenthood. Thanks for listening. Thanks for listening to

1061
00:55:49,320 --> 00:55:52,520
Speaker 2: this episode of she Pivots. If you made it this far,

1062
00:55:52,840 --> 00:55:55,200
Speaker 2: you're a true pivoter, so thanks for being part of

1063
00:55:55,239 --> 00:55:58,440
Speaker 2: this community. I hope you enjoyed this episode, and if

1064
00:55:58,480 --> 00:56:01,200
Speaker 2: you did leave us a rating, please be nice tell

1065
00:56:01,239 --> 00:56:04,040
Speaker 2: your friends about us. To learn more about our guests,

1066
00:56:04,160 --> 00:56:07,520
Speaker 2: follow us on Instagram at she Pivots the Podcast, or

1067
00:56:07,560 --> 00:56:09,880
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1068
00:56:09,920 --> 00:56:12,800
Speaker 2: behind the scenes content, or on our website she Pivots

1069
00:56:12,800 --> 00:56:19,040
Speaker 2: the Podcast talk to You Next Week special thanks to

1070
00:56:19,080 --> 00:56:23,640
Speaker 2: the she Pivots team, Executive producer Emily eda Velosik, Associate

1071
00:56:23,680 --> 00:56:28,719
Speaker 2: producer and social media connoisseur Hannah Cousins, Research director Christine Dickinson,

1072
00:56:29,080 --> 00:56:33,120
Speaker 2: Events and logistics coordinator Madeline Snovak, and audio editor and

1073
00:56:33,200 --> 00:56:34,440
Speaker 2: mixer Nina Pollock.

1074
00:56:35,360 --> 00:56:37,560
Speaker 1: I endorse she Pivots.