The Activest Podcast

This Juneteenth marks 160 years since US troops arrived to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation in the last remaining holdouts of Texas. This Juneteenth also comes 160 years after the beginning of the Reconstruction Era in the United States. That is the period of political and economic rebuilding that followed the defeat of the Confederacy, the end of slavery and the establishment of citizenship and political rights for Black Americans. The American political institutions’ container for Reconstruction infamously dissolved into Jim Crow and a generations-long pendulum-swinging of policy and political economy. But Black Re:Construction has never ceased forging toward progress. In this finale to Activest’s season 1, coinciding with our celebration of Juneteenth 2025, we’re joined by co-founder Napoleon Wallace to unpack his new remix of Gil Scott-Heron’s seminal 1971 recording of The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. Rights and ownership of the original audio recording belongs to the artist and their publishers. Players you'll hear from the original record are: Ron Carter (bass), Hubert Laws (flute) and Bernard Perdie (drums). Napoleon’s remix was engineered by Yuri Vaysgant who also developed Napoleon’s AI voice reader, heard in the recording. In our live conversation you hear Napoleon speaking through the reader on his (eye) pad.Some of the Greatness We Reference in This Episode...Equity & Ownership: Napoleon Wallace & The Reconstruction of Black Wealth (free viewing here when you share your email address)Impact Alpha: Playbook for Shared Prosperity Black Farmer Fund ​​https://blackfarmerfund.org/The Seed Commons https://seedcommons.org/The Boston Ujima Project https://www.ujimaboston.com/Chicago TREND https://www.chicagotrend.com/The East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative https://ebprec.org/

Episode 10 - Ending Structural PrecarityJoin Micah, Ellen, Homero and John this week for a conversation about some of the ways precarity - a state of fundamental economic insecurity with no guarantees or protection - is threaded through our American lives. How can control and power change with regard to housing, education, and work in this era of abundance, disconnection and inequality? One of the big questions: what can local governments do to enable the rebuilding of the commons? (35:12)Some references from this episode:Will AI Replace Human Teachers? It’s Unlikely For Now (Fast Company, August 2024)The Theft of the Commons (Eula Biss for the New Yorker, June 2022)The Supportive Housing Association of New Jersey Mayors for a Guaranteed IncomeBrick by Brick

Critiques of credit ratings and the agencies creating them are in our DNA here at Activest. Join Homero, Ellen and John for a semi deep-dive on credit ratings, prompted by the recent Moody’s downgrades of Washington, D.C., Maryland and the United States. Are these downgrades as dramatic as they seem? Are they late to the game and even irrelevant? Moody’s matters because cost of capital is a real concern for governments - but will we see a direct connection between these downgrades and a change in cost of capital? We turn to our core analysis of how true social and community risk is absent from ratings to respond to these questions, and suggest centering the analysis of risk on people harmed by inequality and climate disruption.Recorded May 21, 2025 (37:36)Stories Referenced in our Conversation…Bonds Are Losing Their ‘Shock Absorber’ Status (Investment News, May 20, 2025)Investors Bet On Municipal Bonds Despite Accelerating Climate Concerns (Bond Buyer, Updated May 22, 2025)Moody’s Downgrades the United States (Moody's, May 16, 2025)Joint Statement From Maryland Leadership Responding to Moody’s Downgrade (Maryland Governor's Office, May 14, 2025)Moody’s Downgrades the District of Columbia (Moody's, April 23, 2025)Congressional Republicans Might Set Off the Debt Bomb (Jessica Reidl for the Atlantic, April 24, 2025)

Episode 8 - The Coming Epic EpochJoin Micah, Ellen, Homero, and John as they dig into the bond market year so far: with higher ed showing up in the muni market and uncertainty stemming from potential changes to nonprofit taxes regs. Also in this episode: the hard work Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and local governments are doing with the high quality investments they issue; and the view from the ground where public investments and policies are going hard in both directions, helping and harming. Plus, Micah offers a thumbnail sketch of the next 20 years.Recorded May 14, 2025.Learn more about what we covered in this episode…Rich Get Richer, Harvard Hit: Winners and Losers in GOP Tax Plan. Emily Birnbaum and Steven T. Dennis on the winners (Multimillionaires, Small Business Owners, Private Equity, Domestic Car Dealers, Manufacturers, Elderly and Tipped Workers, Parents, Corporations, Defense Contractors) and losers (Low-Income Americans, Residents of High-Tax States, Renewable Energy, Electric Vehicle Makers, Elite Universities, Private Foundations, Immigrants) of the GOP tax plan (you’ll need a Bloomberg subscription for this one).Ben Gose, of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, on the current proposed Congressional tax legislation (May 13, 2025). (Free article when you create a login.)  

With the rest of the team traveling and getting some well-deserved time out, Ellen and John tune in for this week’s conversation. What’s our personal Activest origin story, how did we get here? Listen in to how it all got started for these two and how Activest fits in their view of the world. An ice-breaker topic highlights two amazing community efforts you should learn more about: the Groundbreak Coalition and the Sandhills Cooperation Association. (23:32)Recorded April 30, 2025.Further learning from this episode…Visit the Activest website to find the early social justice bonds white paper John references in this episode.And check out the Impact Alpha podcast network!

Activest was created in response to police killings and the extractive nature of fines and fees in places like Ferguson, Missouri. And our theory of change springs from the critique that this sort of public financing burdens both residents and bond holders with risk and social unrest. But how often have you wondered what would happen if the powers that be used huge investments like these to make people’s lives better and easier? In this 3rd episode of the Activest Podcast, we take some time with Micah, Homero and Ellen for the origin story of Next World Assets - our neighborhood registered investment advisor. (25:21)Recorded February 19, 2025.Report: Action Center on Race and the Economy (ACRE) Police Brutality Bonds 

Another water cooler episode, recorded on April 2, 2025. The team reflects on strategies for making it through troubled times, what’s inspiring us, and the regular rundown of what’s got our attention in public finance and the bond market right now. (34:37)References from this episode…When the Revolution Doesn’t Come (Guardian documentary featuring the children of the Black Panthers).California’s No Place Like Home Program

In this episode, Micah and the team catch up on the 3 phases of work we've done in New Jersey, with the support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. This episode kicks off with a story from Asbury Park and tries hard to be nice about payments in lieu of taxes, aka PILOTS. (25:26)Recorded February 5, 2025.Take a deeper dive with the full report on fiscal justice in New Jersey...A Statewide Fiscal Justice View of New Jersey