WONDERLAND

Latest Episodes:

Welcome back to WONDERLAND: Trailer Feb 22, 2020

WONDERLAND is a “master class” in culture change. Podcast co-hosts Bridgit Antoinette Evans and Tracy Van Slyke apply their experience and perspective from careers spent at the intersection of social justice and entertainment to uncover the truth about the stories we’re telling as a country, on TV, in movies and throughout pop culture mediums.

Season 2: WONDERLAND @ FRANK

Have you ever wondered:

How has the culture change field changed over the last few years?
How can we bring our full selves — personally and professionally — to this multifaceted, emotional, and strategic work that we call culture change?
How are pop culture fandoms an unexpected force in the 2020 election season?
How are artists re-imagining and building new pipelines that center the innovation of historically excluded artists in the entertainment industry?

Well we did! In this special micro-season of WONDERLAND, each of the four episodes features a talk by a culture change leader given at frank, an annual storytelling and communications gathering. Bridgit and Tracy then invite a cultural strategist, artist, movement leader or philanthropist to respond and discuss how those ideas impact our work, and our world, in 2020.

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WONDERLAND @ FRANK TEAM

Hosts and Executive Producers, Bridgit Antoinette Evans and Tracy Van Slyke

Producers, Nancy Vitale and Destry Sibley

Sound Designer, Samantha Gattsek

Sound Engineers, Matt Noble, Mike Gilmore, Eric Elterman, and Colin Ashmaed-Bobbit

Website Designer, Deanna Zandt

Project Coordinator, Daria Segalini

Recorded at The Awareness Group Studios in New York City, the Loft Recording Studios in Bronxville, NY, and WBEZ in Chicago

Special thanks to our friends at frank, Jade Dozier, Lauren Rawlings, and Joey Ehrenkaufer

For show notes and more, visit us at thisiswonderland.us

Making the Invisible Visible Feb 22, 2020

frank talk, Ai-jen Poo, leader of the National Domestic Workers Alliance

Special Guest, Crystal Echo Hawk, Executive Director of IllumiNative

In this episode, we rewind the clock to 2015, where on the frank stage, Ai-jen Poo of the National Domestic Workers Alliance shared her insights and emerging strategy on culture change. Bridgit and Tracy then call IllumiNative’s Crystal Echo Hawk to discuss what resonated with her from Ai-jen’s talk and how the pop culture for social change field has evolved in the last five years. Both movement leaders share insights on how to build a pop culture narrative strategy to make invisibilized communities, visible and powerful.

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WONDERLAND @ FRANK TEAM

Hosts and Executive Producers, Bridgit Antoinette Evans and Tracy Van Slyke

Producers, Nancy Vitale and Destry Sibley

Sound Designer, Samantha Gattsek

Sound Engineers, Matt Noble, Mike Gilmore, Eric Elterman, and Colin Ashmaed-Bobbit

Website Designer, Deanna Zandt

Project Coordinator, Daria Segalini

Recorded at The Awareness Group Studios in New York City, the Loft Recording Studios in Bronxville, NY, and WBEZ in Chicago

Special thanks to our friends at frank, Jade Dozier, Lauren Rawlings, and Joey Ehrenkaufer

For show notes and more, visit thisiswonderland.us

Transforming Ourselves to Do the Work Feb 22, 2020

frank talk, Bridgit Antoinette Evans, Co-host of Wonderland and Executive Directors of Pop Culture Collaborative

Special Guest, Taryn Higashi, Executive Director of Unbound Philanthropy

In this episode, we first hear Bridgit Antoinette Evans’ 2017 achingly beautiful frank talk, where she takes listeners inside her “year of breaking open,” the personal and professional journey she took in order to do the hard and important work of culture change. We then talk with Unbound Philanthropy Executive Director Taryn Higashi who shares her thoughtful response and connects Bridgit’s learnings to her own evolving understanding of culture change and its relevance to the immigration movement and the 2020 narrative environment.

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WONDERLAND @ FRANK TEAM

Hosts and Executive Producers, Bridgit Antoinette Evans and Tracy Van Slyke

Producers, Nancy Vitale and Destry Sibley

Sound Designer, Samantha Gattsek

Sound Engineers, Matt Noble, Mike Gilmore, Eric Elterman, and Colin Ashmaed-Bobbit

Website Designer, Deanna Zandt

Project Coordinator, Daria Segalini

Recorded at The Awareness Group Studios in New York City, the Loft Recording Studios in Bronxville, NY, and WBEZ in Chicago

Special thanks to our friends at frank, Jade Dozier, Lauren Rawlings, and Joey Ehrenkaufer

For show notes and more, visit thisiswonderland.us

2020: America’s Unexpected Cultural Force Feb 22, 2020

frank talks, Shawn Taylor and Tracy Van Slyke

Special Guest, Jeff Yang

Continuing their exciting conversation from WONDERLAND season 1 on the power of pop culture fandoms and social change, in this episode we listen to excerpts of Pop Culture Collaborative Senior Fellow Shawn Taylor and WONDERLAND co-host’s Tracy Van Slyke’s separate, but deeply intertwined frank talks. They both share personal stories of how and why pop culture fandoms are the focus of their work, and present burning questions and big ideas that provide a framework for how self-organized groups people along with their pop culture passions, are the next big thing for creating culture change. Bridgit and Tracy then call up Jeff Yang, cultural critic turned culture trend forecaster, to discuss his reactions to the frank talks, and dig into how fandoms are an unexpected, but powerful force in the 2020 election season.

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WONDERLAND @ FRANK TEAM

Hosts and Executive Producers, Bridgit Antoinette Evans and Tracy Van Slyke

Producers, Nancy Vitale and Destry Sibley

Sound Designer, Samantha Gattsek

Sound Engineers, Matt Noble, Mike Gilmore, Eric Elterman, and Colin Ashmaed-Bobbit

Website Designer, Deanna Zandt

Project Coordinator, Daria Segalini

Recorded at The Awareness Group Studios in New York City, the Loft Recording Studios in Bronxville, NY, and WBEZ in Chicago

Special thanks to our friends at frank, Jade Dozier, Lauren Rawlings, and Joey Ehrenkaufer

For show notes and more, visit thisiswonderland.us

Funny is Funny? Feb 22, 2020

frank talk, Zahra Noorbakhsh, Comedian and Pop Culture Collaborative Senior Fellow

Special Guest, Joey Clift, comedy writer

In this episode, we’re talking pipelines and comedy featuring the 2019 frank talk of comedian and Pop Culture Collaborative Senior Fellow Zahra Noorbakhsh, where she shares her personal story and professional analysis about who has the power to decide what’s funny and the broken career pipeline for diverse stand up comics. Her frank talk accompanies her 2019 report, “FUNNY IS FUNNY: Development Models for Diverse Voices in Stand-Up Comedy.” Bridgit and Tracy then call comedy writer and member of the Cowlitz tribe of the Pacific Northwest, Joey Clift, who responds to Zahra’s analysis and shares experiences of Indigenous comedy artists in Hollywood. Bridgit and Tracy discuss how new emerging artist-led pipelines are re-centering power inside the entertainment industry.

----------------------------------

WONDERLAND @ FRANK TEAM

Hosts and Executive Producers, Bridgit Antoinette Evans and Tracy Van Slyke

Producers, Nancy Vitale and Destry Sibley

Sound Designer, Samantha Gattsek

Sound Engineers, Matt Noble, Mike Gilmore, Eric Elterman, and Colin Ashmaed-Bobbit

Website Designer, Deanna Zandt

Project Coordinator, Daria Segalini

Recorded at The Awareness Group Studios in New York City, the Loft Recording Studios in Bronxville, NY, and WBEZ in Chicago

Special thanks to our friends at frank, Jade Dozier, Lauren Rawlings, and Joey Ehrenkaufer

For show notes and more, visit us at thisiswonderland.us

Welcome to WONDERLAND: Trailer Nov 16, 2017

WONDERLAND is a "master class" in culture change. Podcast hosts Bridgit Antoinette Evans and Tracy Van Slyke apply their experience and perspective from careers spent at the intersection of social justice and entertainment to uncover the truth about the stories we’re telling as a country, on TV, in movies and throughout pop culture mediums. Each episode of WONDERLAND brings together a nationally-recognized social change leader and an acclaimed pop culture innovator for a rare meeting of the minds. Together, they leap 'down the rabbit hole' of curiosity and ideas for intimate conversations that reveal game-changing insights and generate fresh new thinking with the power to create real change in the world.

WONDERLAND is made possible with support from the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Unbound Philanthropy and Pop Culture Collaborative.

Hosts & Executive Producers, Bridgit Antoinette Evans and Tracy Van Slyke

Producer, Nancy Vitale

Editorial Producer, Destry Sibley

Sound Engineers, Duff Harris and Alex Thompson

Audio Technicians, Corrinne Smith, Kyle Maurisak, and Doug Lins

Recorded at The Awareness Group Studios and Harvestworks in New York City

Website: Thisiswonderland.us

Episode 101 “How Culture Works” Nov 16, 2017

In our inaugural episode WONDERLAND co-hosts, Bridgit Antoinette Evans and Tracy Van Slyke, introduce WONDERLAND and break down the role and meaning of culture change on our society. And in a foundational conversation with Washington Post culture critic Alyssa Rosenberg, they explore the historical and current connection between pop culture and storytelling on race and politics, and question if the entertainment industry is capable of making better choices and better stories.

Guest: Alyssa Rosenberg, Cultural Critic/Opinion Columnist for The Washington Post

Episode 102 "The Humanity of Storytelling" Nov 16, 2017

Get ready to call on your high school biology class! Because the genesis of any culture change starts with understanding more about the impact of the little known, but critical part of our brain, the limbic system. Cognitive scientist and artist Heidi Boisvert joins labor leader and storyteller Saket Soni for a deep dive into how stories affect the human body and brain. Together, they question if we empathy should be the goal of stories, and examine how the power and use of virtual and augmented reality need to be reimagined by the people who need them most.

Guests: Heidi Boisvert, CEO and Creative Director of the futurePerfect lab, co-founder of XTH, Fellow at the MIT DocLab and Saket Soni, Executive Director of the National Guestworker Alliance and the New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice

Episode 103 "The American Songbook" Nov 16, 2017

“Should we keep telling stories?” asks Immigrant Rights Organizer and 2017 MacArthur Genius Cristina Jiménez. Together with narrative consultant Ryan Senser, we explore how important stories are in shaping American culture until they become as familiar as the lyrics of an old song. Together, they take us through the process of developing narrative strategies that impact the perceptions and beliefs of mass audiences. And as the immigrant rights movement now confronts xenophobic values embraced by the highest levels of our government, Senser and Jiménez discuss how what a new narrative strategy must do to truly create transformational culture change.

Guests: Cristina Jiménez, Executive Director of United We Dream, 2017 MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Fellow; Ryan Senser, Independent Organizational Change and Narrative Consultant

Episode 104 “The In Between Space” Nov 16, 2017

Cultural futurist Schuyler Brown teams with visionary leader and author Ai-jen Poo to examine how popular brands use motivational research and audience listening to sense, understand and build engagement strategies that tap into the irrational desires and fears of mass audiences. Through this conversation, Brown and Poo model what it’s like to sit in “the in between space” nestled between identifying a problem and creating the solution. Building on Poo’s work of forefronting the stories of caregivers and other invisible communities in our society, this intimate conversation reveals the critical need for listening as part of crafting an effective culture change strategy.

Guests: Ai-jen Poo, Executive Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance; Co-Director of Caring Across Generations; 2014 MacArthur Foundation Fellow and Schuyler Brown, Strategy Director and Founding Partner of Sightful

Episode 105 “Artists Fuel Change” Nov 16, 2017

Midway through our season, WONDERLAND co-host Bridgit Antoinette Evans sits down with writer, showrunner, and producer, Mahyad Tousi, to discuss the conflicts and connection points between culture change strategy and the creative process. Evans and Tousi share their personal artistic journeys, explore the nature of matching culture change strategy to an artistic practice, and offer insights from their experiences of being values-based artists navigating the entertainment industry.

Guests: Mahyad Tousi, Co-Founder and CEO of BoomGen Studios; Television Producer; Writer and Bridgit Antoinette Evans, Co-Host of WONDERLAND, Executive Director of Pop Culture Collaborative; Founder of Fuel Change; Artist

Episode 106 “Anatomy of a Story” Nov 16, 2017

We begin the second half of the season exploring both the inner workings of the entertainment industry and the external forces needed to create long-term shifts through pop culture storytelling. In this episode, television writer and producer Diana Son joins anti-child trafficking advocate and bestselling author Rachel Lloyd to reveal the process of creating a social justice-infused pop story world. From sharing how pop culture has influenced each of their personal storytelling approaches, to taking us inside the writers room for the making of a television series, to discussing the personal and societal stakes we all have in television characters, Son and Lloyd show us what is possible when social justice advocates and pop storytellers can more deeply work and imagine together.

Guests: Diana Son, Television Showrunner of Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why and American Crime; Rachel Lloyd, Founder and President of Girls Educational & Mentoring Services; Author

Episode 107 "Tropes and Traps in Culture" Nov 16, 2017

From laugh-tracked sitcoms to The Walking Dead, audiences see cliched, and often harmful, characters and storylines. Racial justice sci fi expert Nayantara Sen and TV critic Sean T. Collins explore these narrative tropes and traps -- from redemptive justice to the heroic protagonist -- that prevent our favorite TV shows and films from being truly transformational. Through their conversation, they guide us to imagine what new stories, characters, and themes could reflect more authentic experiences.

Guests: Nayantara Sen, Culture and Content Project Manager at Race Forward; Sean T. Collins, Cultural Critic for Rolling Stone

Episode 108 “Power to the People” Nov 16, 2017

This special two-part episode of WONDERLAND begins with co-host Tracy Van Slyke talking with fan community leader Shawn Taylor about the future of people-powered storytelling, diving deep into the ways pop culture fandoms are generating new content, pushing the pop storytelling industries into the next generation, and they imagine what it would take to intentionally bring fan communities and social movements together as part of a culture change movement.

In Part Two, Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza joins Hollywood fan community designer Kenyatta Cheese to discuss how technology, digital strategy and offline immersions can shape the way entertainment audiences and social movements experience community, and they offer insights on what binds powerful, networked communities together.

Guests:

Shawn Taylor, Co-Founder of The Nerds of Color, Writer, Teacher;

Tracy Van Slyke, Strategy Director for Pop Culture Collaborative, Writer;

Alicia Garza, Special Projects Director for The National Domestic Workers Alliance, Co-Founder of the Black Lives Matter Network;

Kenyatta Cheese, CEO and Co-Founder of Everybody at Once, Co-creator of Know Your Meme

Episode 109 “From Cultural Presence to Cultural Power” Nov 16, 2017

Racial justice leader Rashad Robinson wraps up the season with hosts Bridgit Antoinette Evans and Tracy Van Slyke, exploring the question first asked by Alyssa Rosenberg, can the entertainment industry change? Together, they unpack the power structures that shape entertainment, identify the industry rules we need to break, and connect the dots between the LGBT marriage equality culture change strategy of the last decade to the racial justice culture change movements of now and tomorrow.

Evans and Van Slyke wrap up the first season, highlighting the insights gathered from each episode in the crafting of culture change, and hint at what’s next for WONDERLAND.

Guest: Rashad Robinson, Executive Director of Color of Change

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