Welcome to SoCal Voices Podcast!

Community & Social Justice Episodes

June 19, 2025

Faith, Identity & Resistance

Dr. Lauren Guerra is a dedicated lecturer in Chicana/Chicano & Central American Studies at UCLA and the heart behind Gold Hoops & God, a podcast that uplifts and empowers Millennial Latinas to embrace their purpose with confi...

Listen to the Episode
June 7, 2025

Pitching Unity: Moreno Valley Mayor Ulises Cabrera & the Negro League…

The rich legacy of Negro League Baseball was front and center at Moreno Valley's Woodland Park on May 31 during the Community Softball Game organized by James Harris, founder of the African American History presentation serie...

Listen to the Episode
June 5, 2025

Breaking the stigma of homelessness: Operation Helping Hands SoCal

As a teenager, Kim Valentine found herself without a home. Today, she’s the founder and president of Operation Helping Hands SoCal, a nonprofit dedicated to helping the unhoused rebuild their lives. In this episode of SoCal V...

Listen to the Episode
May 22, 2025

LA Fires Aftermath-Part 2-Ashes to Films

For many Southern Californians, the January wildfires in Pacific Palisades and Altadena are like distant memories, but for those directly impacted, the devastation remains a daily reality. Recovery can be difficult and painfu...

Listen to the Episode
April 10, 2025

Honoring Negro League Baseball: Moreno Valley Community Softball Game

A community softball game commemorating the iconic legacy of Negro League Baseball is happening Saturday, May 31, 1pm - 4pm, at Woodland Park in Moreno Valley. The game is being organized by returning SoCal Voices Podcast gue...

Listen to the Episode
March 13, 2025

LA Fires Aftermath

In January, the Palisades and Eaton fires killed at least 29 people and destroyed or damaged 18,000 structures valued at nearly $300 billion dollars. In the weeks since the fires, people who lost homes have been navigating di...

Listen to the Episode
Nov. 14, 2024

Feeding the Hungry in Inland SoCal

Southern California’s vibrance and abundance bely the fact that a number of our neighbors don’t have enough food to eat. Led by CEO Carolyn Fajardo, Feeding America Riverside | San Bernardino, the region’s largest food bank, ...

Listen to the Episode
Oct. 31, 2024

Black Maternal Health in SoCal

Alarming statistics reveal that Black women are three to four times more likely to die from pregnancy-related complications than white women. In this episode of SoCal Voices, Dana Sherrod, co-founder and executive director of...

Listen to the Episode
Aug. 8, 2024

Community Development in SoCal

Community development is essential to how all the elements of where we live fit together and impact how we experience our communities. Eric Nelson is a 20-year community development expert who has impacted the lives of thousa...

Listen to the Episode
April 18, 2024

Organ Donation in Southern California: The mission of OneLegacy

Do you have the pink “donor dot” on your driver’s license? Do you know why you should? April is Donate Life Month and there’s an organization in southern California that’s dedicated to saving lives through organ, eye and tiss...

Listen to the Episode
March 7, 2024

Can police reform work? Reimagining Safety

The killing of George Floyd at the hands of police focused the world’s attention on the problem of police abuse and misconduct in ways that few other cases have. In the US, the murder of Floyd renewed calls for police reform ...

Listen to the Episode
Jan. 11, 2024

Is DEI Dead?

In a marked change from the racial reckoning that occurred in 2020, some have declared that DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) is dead. Is it? Where exactly are we with DEI initiatives? In this episode of SoCal Voices, Jo...

Listen to the Episode
Nov. 2, 2023

RENEGADE MD

Susan Partovi’s colleagues call her “The Skid Row Doctor.” She’s a leading expert on street medicine who has treated hundreds of the most underserved patients in Los Angeles — substance users, and people experiencing homeless...

Listen to the Episode
Aug. 24, 2023

The Struggle for the People's King

In her book, The Struggle for the People’s King: How Politics Transforms the Memory of the Civil Rights Movement, Hajar Yazdiha, an assistant professor of sociology at USC, outlines how decades-long efforts to sanitize the c...

Listen to the Episode
July 27, 2023

Living Your Best Life Through Service

Twillea Evans-Carthen has a servant’s heart. She is University Ombuds Officer at Cal State San Bernardino, an active member of a number of community organizations, and serves on the board for the Inland Ivy Foundation and Lea...

Listen to the Episode
May 11, 2023

Educational Therapy, Learning Disabilities & Social Justice

Bibi Pirayesh is an educational therapist based in Los Angeles. For 15 years her work has focused on helping children, families, and schools better understand the unique needs of kids with learning disabilities. More recent...

Listen to the Episode
April 6, 2023

Water Wise

As part of Earth Month activities this April, cities across the nation can show how water-wise they are by participating in the Wyland Foundation’s National Mayor’s Challenge for Water Conservation. In this edition of SoCal V...

Listen to the Episode
Jan. 26, 2023

American Forces Network

From its broadcast center on March Air Reserve Base in Riverside, the American Forces Network (AFN) ensures that “a touch of home” reaches US military personnel stationed overseas. The service provides radio and television ne...

Listen to the Episode
Nov. 10, 2022

Anatomy of a Hustle

In this edition of SoCal Voices, host Angela Ross chats with Clinton Galloway, author of Anatomy of a Hustle: Cable Comes to South Central LA and What Did you Think was Going to Happen? — books that detail his experiences try...

Listen to the Episode
Oct. 7, 2022

Connections, Inc.

Jocelyn Harris is Founder and CEO of Connections, Inc. Her organization helps bring joy to struggling low-income families in San Bernardino County. In this edition of SoCal Voices, Jocelyn shares how Connections makes a meani...

Listen to the Episode
Sept. 22, 2022

Justice for Bruce’s Beach

LA County elected leaders and government officials have received well-deserved praise this year for returning Bruce’s Beach, prime coastal land in the city of Manhattan Beach, to the descendants of Charles and Willa Bruce. Th...

Listen to the Episode
May 12, 2022

Center for Powerful Public Schools

Alicia Montgomery is CEO of the Center for Powerful Public Schools, a Los Angeles-based organization that helps educators create and sustain powerful public schools that prepare every student for college, career, and life. In...

Listen to the Episode
April 14, 2022

Inland Empire Black Worker Center

The Inland Empire Black Worker Center (IEBWC) serves as a resource to help address Black unemployment and under employment. In this edition of SoCal Voices, Community Organizer Dominique Dean shares the principles that guide ...

Listen to the Episode
April 7, 2022

An Excellent First

Riverside’s Gail B. Smith started working for Pacific Telephone/Pacific Bell (known today as AT&T) in the 1970s. When she was hired, she was Riverside’s first African American woman splicer and installer for the phone company...

Listen to the Episode