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Good Life Project

How to Open Hearts & Change Minds | Blair Imani

Good Life Project

Jonathan Fields / Acast

Education, Wellness, Self-improvement, Midlife, Health & Fitness, Intentional Living, Personal Growth, Living Well, How To

4.53.4K Ratings

🗓️ 8 February 2024

⏱️ 66 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

After following in her activist parents' footsteps, Blair Imani reached her breaking point organizing protests in college. She shares how rediscovering spirituality helped her let go of toxic expectations and heal. Blair realized education was a more sustainable way for her to impact change as a historian and creator of the popular Smarter In Seconds educational video series.


She discusses learning self-care, listening to your values when making decisions, and embracing practices like yoga and meditation. While still devoted to intersectional advocacy, Blair now approaches it with intention, only taking on projects aligning with her ethics. She offers insights on finding calm within chaos and being mindful of how your actions affect others. Blair is the author of the bestselling book Read This to Get Smarter.


You can find Blair at: Instagram | Website | Episode Transcript


If you LOVED this episode you’ll also love the conversations we had with Austin Channing Brown, about how we create the world around us and how we bring ourselves to it from a place of equity, dignity, and justice.


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Transcript

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0:00.0

you know we can treat difference and marginalize it or we can embrace difference and allow ourselves to see and experience a full breath of the human experience instead of one narrow normative aspect.

0:11.3

So my guest today, Blair Amani, she grew up in a house where sitting quiet in the face of any

0:19.0

level of injustice was just not an option, whether it was advocating for the needs of a sibling or

0:24.4

standing up to right a wrong in her community, her parents set a powerful example and

0:29.5

invited Blair to always rise to the challenge. And that's exactly what she has done. But along

0:35.8

the way Blair has also discovered there are different ways to make a difference and

0:40.4

we each need to figure out how to take up the mantle of change while also

0:45.2

honoring our unique circumstances and needs and that includes acknowledging

0:49.7

our own very personal psychological and physical well-being.

0:54.2

And building on this realization over time, Blair transitioned from organizing and activism on the

1:00.0

ground to focus on education, but in a way that only she could do.

1:05.0

Harnessing the power and the reach the interactivity and visual impact of social media

1:10.0

by creating these short and punchy and informative and entertaining bursts of wisdom and inspiration,

1:16.2

she calls her smarter in second series,

1:18.8

which at this point has even become a bit of a movement.

1:22.0

Now a writer, mental health advocate,

1:24.4

a ward-winning educator and historian

1:27.0

living at the intersections of black and queer

1:29.3

and Muslim identity.

1:30.6

Blair is the best-selling author of Read this to Get Smarter Making Our Way Home and Modern Her

1:36.7

Story. Her scholarship spans intersectionality, gender studies, race and racism,

1:41.7

sociology, and United States history, and she has presented at

...

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