Imara Jones | On the Power of Representation

Imagine walking through life, knowing who you are, but not feeling like you can live as that person? That was how my guest today, Imara Jones, experienced the first half of her life, before making a series of choices that would allow her to feel safe and supported stepping back into her own life, on her terms. Imara is the Emmy and Peabody Award-winning founder of TransLash Media, a cross-platform journalism, personal storytelling and narrative project, which produces content to shift the current culture of hostility towards transgender people in the US. As part of her work at TransLash, she hosts the WEBBY-nominated, TransLash Podcast with Imara Jones as well as the investigative, limited series, The Anti-Trans Hate Machine.  In 2019, she chaired the first-ever UN High-Level Meeting on Gender Diversity and was featured on the cover of Time Magazine in 2020 as part of its New American Revolution special edition. She’s held economic policy posts in the White House and communications positions at Viacom. Imara’s work as a host, on-air news analyst, contributor, and writer has been featured everywhere from The Guardian, The Nation, MSNBC, CNBC, and NPR to Mic, and Colorlines, and focuses on the full range of social justice and equity issues. We explore Imara’s experiences growing up in a family and culture where revealing and living her truth felt not just uncomfortable, but unsafe, how that experience is universal to so many, and how she made choices that effectively empowered her to reclaim a sense of agency, identity, and purpose. And, we explore the power of representation in media, stories, and everyday life as a vehicle to open minds, conversation, and cultivate understanding, connection and the sense of shared humanity we all long for, especially now. You can find Imara at: Website | Instagram | TransLash Podcast If you LOVED this episode:You’ll also love the conversations we had with Thomas Page McBee. My new book Sparked. Check out our offerings & partners: Squarespace: Squarespace is the all-in-one solution for anyone looking to create a beautiful website. Check Out Squarespace.com for a free trial, and when you are ready to launch go to squarespace.com/GLP and use offer code: GLP to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.Outschool: Inspire kids to love learning with Outschool classes. It's 100% fun, live & teacher-led. Explore over 100,000 topics and learn in small groups via Zoom. Perfect for ages 3-18. Join for free. To learn more about all Outschool has to offer and to save $15 off your child’s first class go to Outschool.com/GOODLIFEScribd: The world's largest digital library. Enjoy millions of eBooks, audiobooks, magazines, podcasts, sheet music, and documents. Right now, Scribd is offering our listeners 2 months of Scribd for only $0.99. Go to try dot scribd.com/GOODLIFE to get your first two months for less than $1. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.