The American Dream is about individualism and independence.

And it's also a kind of performance, right?

It is a performance of invincibility and like having your shit together.

And if we're performing that, right, in our sense of self, our sense of, like, being a successful person is dependent on

other people believing, right, that we have all our shit together, then we can't be known to

each other.

I'm Jocelyn K. Gly, and this is Hurry Slowly, a podcast about pacing yourself, where I explore the question, how do we begin again?

If we truly take the lessons of this global pandemic to heart, it's clear that it's high time to restructure our lives, our communities,

and our relationship to the earth in new ways. But how do we go about doing so? That is the

inquiry of this season. An investigation that continues today with an electric interview with writer and activist Mia Birdsong,

which was originally recorded on August 18, 2021, in front of a live Zoom audience.

Before we dive into today's episode, a quick reminder that this podcast is now ad-free and 100% listener-supported.

If you get something out of this conversation, I would welcome your donation at hurry

slowly.co slash donations. All right, let's get started.

Mia Birdsong is a writer, an activist, and a storyteller whose work sits at the intersection

of race, gender, and class, with a particular focus on family.

She's currently a senior fellow at the Economic Security Project, where she's worked with

low-income people to reimagine the

American social contract. Mia was previously the co-director of family story, an organization

that works to dismantle family privilege in America, and the vice president of the family

independence initiative, a movement and a platform that highlights invest invests in, and accelerates the initiative

low-income families take to improve their lives. And just last year, Mia published

...