Imara Jones | On the Power of Representation
Good Life Project
Jonathan Fields / Acast
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 20 January 2022
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | and living an intentional life is hard because it means reflecting on what you want, honoring your truth, |
| 0:07.7 | and then bringing that truth in the world, even when the world around you may not support it, |
| 0:13.7 | or you don't completely understand. And you don't only have to do that one time, |
| 0:17.6 | you have to do that your whole life, you have to do that all the time. And that's a very demanding existence. |
| 0:24.2 | So imagine walking through life, knowing who you are, but not feeling like you can live as that person. |
| 0:35.2 | Well that was how it might guess today, Amara Jones, experienced pretty much the first half of her |
| 0:39.8 | life before making a series of choices that would allow her to feel safe and supported, stepping |
| 0:45.2 | back into her own life on her terms. Amara is the Emmy and Pee Buddy award-winning founder of Translash |
| 0:52.1 | Media, a cross-platform journalism, personal storytelling, and narrative project, which |
| 0:57.3 | produces content to shift the current culture of hostility towards transgender people in the US. |
| 1:03.2 | As part of her work at Translash, she hosts the web-enominated Translash podcast with Amara Jones, |
| 1:08.8 | as well as the investigative limited series The Anti-Transhate Machine. And in 2019, she chaired |
| 1:14.4 | the first ever UN high-level meeting on gender diversity and was featured on the cover of Time |
| 1:20.0 | Magazine in 2020 as a part of its new revolution special edition. She's held economic policy posts |
| 1:26.3 | in the White House, communications positions at Viacom, and Amara's work has a host on air |
| 1:32.1 | news analysts contributor and writer. It's been featured everywhere from the Guardian, the nation, |
| 1:36.3 | MSNBC, CNBC, NPR, to the Mike and Kull Alliance, and really focuses on the full range of social |
| 1:43.7 | justice and equity issues. And we explore Amara's experiences growing up in a family and a culture |
| 1:50.1 | where revealing and living her truth felt not just uncomfortable but unsafe. And also how that |
| 1:55.8 | experience is so universal to so many and how she made choices that effectively empowered her to |
| 2:02.0 | reclaim a sense of agency and identity and purpose. And we explore the power also of representation |
| 2:08.4 | in media and stories and everyday life as a vehicle to open minds, conversation, and cultivate |
... |
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