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This is Our Body Politics.

I'm guest host Callie Crossley, host commentator for GBIH Boston, sitting in for Farai Chodea.

On May 2nd, the Writers Guild of America, or WGA, which represents more than 11,000 writers,

officially went on strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, or AMPTP.

And on July 14, SAG AFRA, which represents nearly 160,000 media professionals and entertainers,

also went on strike against the AMPTP. It's the first time in 63 years that both the actors

and writers unions have been on strike together. The demands from writers and actors are centered around fair compensation,

particularly when it comes to streaming services, and how emerging tech like AI comes into play

in TV and film projects. On our show, we're digging into the strikes and taking a closer

look as to how they're affecting

writers of color and their future in Hollywood. But first, what's it like to break into Hollywood

as a black woman after a major career pivot? Erica Green Swafford is a television executive,

story editor, writer, and producer, and she's worked on some of the biggest shows on television,

ones you've definitely heard of and maybe binge-watched,

including How to Get Away with Murder, New Amsterdam, and The Mentalist.

But she didn't always know this was where she'd end up.

Today we're talking with her about her winding path to

...