Lemonada Media

October 3, 2024

Building a Better Childcare System in L.A.

Families across L.A. are struggling with the rising cost of childcare and how to access support programs. Meanwhile, childcare providers are grappling with their own challenges, including low wages and staff shortages. In this bonus episode, host Gloria Riviera talks about how leaders in L.A. can invest in a more unified, affordable, and culturally affirming system of childcare. She is joined by Debra Colman, the Director of the L.A. County Office for the Advancement of Early Care and Education, and Vickie Ramos Harris, the Vice President of Policy and Programs at Catalyst California.

September 26, 2024

Putting Early Childhood Educators First

A couple years ago, early education and childcare expert Rhian Allvin made a drastic change. After decades working in policy and advocacy, Rhian decided to start Brynmor Early Education and Preschool, which now has sites in Virginia and Washington, D.C. In this bonus episode, host Gloria Riviera talks to Rhian about what it means to truly value early childhood educators, and how that leads to quality care, a diverse student body, and a more sustainable model for childcare.

September 19, 2024

Why Universal Pre-K Can’t Solve Everything

Does universal Pre-K guarantee school readiness? To answer that question the podcast is headed to Wisconsin! Land of freezing winters, dairy cows, and universal Pre-K. Back in the 1980s, Wisconsin made publicly funded preschool almost ubiquitous throughout the state. But they’re still suffering from a massive underinvestment in childcare and early education, as well as one of the worst racial achievement gaps in the country. Gloria talks to Angela Harris, elementary school teacher and chairwoman of the Milwaukee Black Educators’ Caucus, about the importance of early education in preparing kids for kindergarten. Then Gloria talks to Brooke Legler, a childcare center owner and activist, about the post-pandemic childcare funding crisis in Wisconsin and how we can make sure every kid in Wisconsin has a chance at success.

September 12, 2024

Climate Change Is A Childcare Issue

Climate change is not just an issue for our children’s children. We are already feeling its effects today. Gloria talks to two experts who lived through historic California wildfires and droughts in recent years. Dr. Lisa Patel, a pediatrician and clinical associate professor at Stanford Medicine, tells Gloria about how scorching heat waves and wildfire pollutants can trigger asthma in children. She also advises how parents and schools can be better prepared for increasingly hot days. Then, we hear from Susan Gilmore, the director of an early education center in Northern California. As public schools closed down, Susan and her team quickly reopened so families could safely send their kids to class.

September 5, 2024

Fighting Family Homelessness

Did you know that families with young children are one of the most likely groups to experience homelessness? Being a new parent is hard enough – it’s nearly impossible when you don’t have stable housing. This week Gloria’s talking to Kate Barrand, who runs Horizons for Homeless Children, an organization in Boston providing quality childcare and early education to unhoused families. They’re doing incredible work, and Kate has some powerful insights into what it takes to help families find stability. Then Gloria talks to Caitlin Liversidge, a new mother in San Francisco who found herself unhoused and pregnant last summer, about what it took for her to make it through pregnancy and find stability.

August 29, 2024

Mental Health, From Day 1

There’s a mental health crisis in America. If we want to turn that around, we need to start from the very beginning of a person’s life. Gloria speaks to Terri Chebot, an infant mental health consultant, about the huge role that childcare providers play in children’s emotional and social growth. With so much on the line from the ages of 0-5, how caregivers handle a child’s emotions is everything. Then, we hear from Grace Blanco, the director of an early learning center in Newark, N.J.. Grace saw firsthand how the pandemic delayed children’s development. But through patience and a lot of individual attention, she also saw them bounce back.

August 22, 2024

How Childcare Can Fight Poverty

On the first episode of Season 4, Gloria’s taking a look at how quality childcare and early education can help families break out of poverty, and what that means for our country’s future. First, Gloria hears from Professor Jorge Luís Garcia, an economist at Texas A&M University whose research shows that investing in young children pays dividends for decades. Then she connects with Emily Centeio, who grew up in a low-income immigrant household and now helps to run an early learning center, Epiphany, dedicated to helping families like hers break out of poverty.

December 14, 2023

Fostering a Better Future (with Sandra Gasca-Gonzalez and Lisa Guillette)

When young adults leave the foster care system they’re left trying to find housing or employment on their own. Oftentimes, the thing they yearn for the most is family. In this special episode, Gloria chats with the president of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Center for Systems Innovation, Sandra Gasca-Gonzalez, and CEO at Foster Forward, Lisa Guillette. Our guests discuss how they’re helping youth aging out of foster care age into an ecosystem of belonging. Whether it’s legally creating ‘soul’ families or providing affordable homes, they tell us the ways they’re working with former foster kids to break the cycle and achieve stability.

November 16, 2023

How Care Can Bring Our Country Together (Live from CareFest LA)

Gloria is live at CareFest in Los Angeles, presented by Caring Across Generations, to bring you a conversation among leading care advocates about the potential of the care agenda to unite a divided nation. She is joined by Lisa Hamilton Daly, the Executive Vice President of Programming for Hallmark Media; Mónica Ramirez, an attorney, author, and founder of Justice for Migrant Women; and Jenn Stowe, the Executive Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance. They talk about changing the narrative around care from being an individual problem to a collective responsibility, how we can get people across the political divide engaged on this issue, and how it all might play out in the next presidential election. Plus, Monica shares a historic update about the Farm Bill, and what it might mean for caregivers in rural America.

November 5, 2023

Uniting Parents to Improve Schools (with Keri Rodrigues)

Keri Rodrigues’s son was suspended 36 times while he was in kindergarten. She felt abandoned by school officials and like the teachers hated her child. So she went into mama bear mode, organized local parents, and changed the local school system. Now, as President of the National Parents Union, she’s organizing parents across the country to help improve their local schools and make schools more equitable for all.