{"podcast":{"title":"Social Justice Origin Stories","slug":"social-justice-origin-stories-7031511","podcast_index_feed_id":7031511,"rss_url":"https://media.zencast.fm/social-justice-origin-stories/rss","website_url":"https://socialjusticeoriginstories.com","image_url":"https://podcdn.zencast.fm/download/Podcast%2Fartworks%2F14701%2Flarge%2F7e145fa3f46d8e3e32146ea7f4a31354068497426cd680548a5afbe9bceb9806%2F129a937c42418346.jpg","author":"Relando Thompkins-Jones","episode_count":61,"summary":"Social Justice Origin Stories is a storytelling project that highlights personal stories and defining moments that have inspired individuals and organizations to labor for equity and social justice. Through truth-telling: the honest sharing of their experiences, storytellers teach us about themselves, enabling us to learn about ourselves and our world through their stories. By reconnecting with pivotal moments of activation in their lives, they invite us to do the same. At Social Justice Origin Stories, we believe that there's power in storytelling and that lived experience is experience. There's room enough for all of us to do this work. There are many ways to contribute, and our contributions don't need to be the same. We can enter and remain engaged in the work using the gifts that are special to us while supporting others and using theirs. We have the capacity to grow and change for the better when exposed to new information and experiences. We believe in our inherent worth and capabilities, and we possess the power to inspire and create change in ourselves and others. We can transcend the confines of the status quo to imagine and design more equitable and humanizing systems.…","last_synced_at":"2026-07-23T00:17:42.007041+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/social-justice-origin-stories-7031511"},"episode":{"title":"Boundless Awareness With Pooja Kothari","slug":"boundless-awareness-with-pooja-kothari","published_at":"2026-04-01T10:27:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/social-justice-origin-stories-7031511/boundless-awareness-with-pooja-kothari","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/social-justice-origin-stories-7031511","url":"https://socialjusticeoriginstories.com/boundless-awareness-with-pooja-kothari/","audio_url":"https://media.zencast.fm/social-justice-origin-stories/7cb0ace3-bbbb-4d20-8993-c8cd7d6f0da3.wav?source=feed","summary":"Pooja Kothari, Esq. begins her social justice origin story with memories of her father, who helped cultivate her abilities to think critically as a child, her early awareness of sexism in gender-segregated cultural spaces, and her later experiences with racism and internalizing shame as a cis, queer, first-generation Indian-American woman of color. Recalling her experiences as a former public defender with the Legal Aid Society Criminal Defense Practice in Brooklyn, NY, Pooja reflects on how she became more courageous and a better advocate thanks to her mentors Michael Letwin and Azalia Torres, and explains how systemic racism shapes courtroom dynamics and even defenders’ assumptions in ways that can make or break client outcomes. She also talks about her relationship with resisting internalized oppression through finding community and “depersonalizing” oppressive messaging, while also resisting internalized patterns of power through developing practices of accountability and self-correction. This journey informs her work as the founder and principal facilitator of Boundless Awareness, where she develops and facilitates anti-oppression and anti-bias curriculum for workplaces and organizations. Pooja’s storytelling reminds listeners that their activism can start today by identifying and challenging their assumptions. Connect with Pooja and Boundless Awareness: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/boundlessawareness/ Website: www.BoundlessAwareness.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/BOUNDLESSAWARENESSLLC/ 🔔 If you haven't already...SUBSCRIBE to Social Justice Origin Stories on YouTube! https://www.youtube.com/@socialjusticeoriginstories?sub_confirmation=1 ❤️ SUPPORT THE PROJECT Support this work by becoming a patron: https://www.patreon.com/SocialJusticeOriginStor…","meta_description":"Pooja Kothari, Esq. begins her social justice origin story with memories of her father, who helped cultivate her abilities to think critically as a child,…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4858,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/social-justice-origin-stories-7031511/episodes/boundless-awareness-with-pooja-kothari/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/social-justice-origin-stories-7031511/boundless-awareness-with-pooja-kothari.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}