Waging Love

Send a textWhy does evidence not become accountability? This episode introduces hegemony and intersectionality to explain how exploitation becomes common sense — and why reform often stabilizes the very structure it claims to change. The workforce crisis is not a labor problem alone. It is a governance problem.Works & Scholars ReferencedToni Morrison — “A Humanist View” (1975); Playing in the Dark (1992)Ruha Benjamin — Race After Technology (2019)Kimberlé Crenshaw — “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex” (1989)Antonio Gramsci — Selections from the Prison NotebooksAudre Lorde — “The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” (1979)Christine L. Williams — “The Glass Escalator” (1992)Stuart Hall — “The Problem of Ideology” (1986)Lea J.E. Austin — CSCCE racial wage gap and workforce researchFilms & DocumentariesI Am Not Your Negro (2016)Inequality for All (2013)The Take (2004)Make A Circle (2025) — Early childhood educators organizing for structural reformYou can find the full transcript, citations, and extended reading list at waginglove.orgIf this work feels necessary to you, subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss what comes next. And if you believe care deserves structural accountability, consider sharing this episode with someone who shapes policy, works in early childhood, or depends on it.Care has always been here.The question is whether we will finally build a system that protects the people who provide it.Support the show

Send a textThis episode traces how care was distributed and governed across race and gender. Indigenous care was removed. Black care was extracted. Latina care governed through precarity. Asian American and Pacific Islander care governed through invisibility and aggregation. Immigrant care governed through legal vulnerability. White women positioned as stabilizers. Men — especially white men — closest to power and furthest from daily care. Care did not randomize. It followed governance.Works & Scholars Referencedbell hooks — Teaching to Transgress (1994)Gloria Anzaldúa — Borderlands/La Frontera (1987)Grace Lee Boggs — The Next American Revolution (2011)Peggy McIntosh — “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” (1989)Maurice Sykes — Doing the Right Thing for Children (2013)Chrishana Lloyd et al. — Mary Pauper: A Historical Exploration of Early Care and Education Compensation, Policy, and Solutions (Child Trends, 2022)Leah Austin — National Black Child Development Institute leadershipLea J.E. Austin — CSCCE workforce equity researchFilms & Documentaries13th (2016) — Criminalization and racial hierarchyAsian Americans (PBS, 2020) — Immigration and racial formationWho We Are (2021) — Structural racism in lawMake A Circle (2025) — PBS documentary following early childhood educators organizing for dignity, compensation, and systemic reformReflecting on Anti-Bias Education in Action: The Early Years (2021) — Produced by Debbie LeeKeenan & John Nimmo; anti-bias practice in early childhood classroomsWe Still Live Here – Âs Nutayuneân (2011) — Wampanoag language revitalizationLanguage Is Life (PBS, 2023) — Indigenous language revitalization across tribal communitiesMake A Circle (2025) — PBS documentary following early childhood educators organizing for dignity, compensation, and systemic reformSupport the show

Send a textEarly care and education in the United States is not a single system. It is a fragmented patchwork built across colonization, slavery, gendered labor norms, immigration policy, and market ideology. What looks like a workforce crisis is not accidental — it is structural. This episode traces how care became a market instead of a public good, how professionalization reshaped whose knowledge counted, and why sacrifice became embedded in the field’s identity.Works & Scholars ReferencedAudre Lorde — The Cancer Journals (1980); Sister Outsider (1984); A Burst of Light (1988)Robin Wall Kimmerer — Braiding Sweetgrass (2013)Gloria Ladson-Billings — “Toward a Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy” (1995)Arundhati Roy — “The Pandemic Is a Portal” (2020)Ai-jen Poo — The Age of Dignity (2015)Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers — They Were Her Property (2019)Thavolia Glymph — Out of the House of Bondage (2008)Lea J.E. Austin — Early Childhood Workforce Index (CSCCE, 2024)Films & DocumentariesDawnland (2018) — Indigenous child removal and sovereigntyStamped from the Beginning (2023) — Racism in U.S. historyThe Big Payback (2023) — Reparations and structural inequalityYou can find the full transcript, citations, and extended reading list at waginglove.orgIf this work feels necessary to you, subscribe to the podcast so you don’t miss what comes next. And if you believe care deserves structural accountability, consider sharing this episode with someone who shapes policy, works in early childhood, or depends on it.Care has always been here.The question is whether we will finally build a system that protects the people who provide it.Support the show

Send a textWaging Love is a documentary podcast examining power, care, and governance in early childhood education in the United States. This series explores how care became underfunded, feminized, racialized, and normalized as sacrifice — and why what we call a “workforce crisis” is actually a design problem.Through history, research, and lived experience, Waging Love traces how Indigenous care was removed, Black care was extracted, Latina care governed through precarity, Asian American and Pacific Islander care governed through invisibility, immigrant care governed through legal vulnerability, and white women positioned as stabilizers within a system shaped by proximity to power.This is not a story about shortage.It is a story about structure.If the system is designed, then change is governance.Foundational Thinkers & Works Referenced Across the SeriesAudre Lorde — Sister Outsider; The Cancer JournalsRobin Wall Kimmerer — Braiding Sweetgrassbell hooks — Teaching to TransgressGloria Anzaldúa — Borderlands/La FronteraGrace Lee Boggs — The Next American RevolutionToni Morrison — Playing in the DarkRuha Benjamin — Race After TechnologyKimberlé Crenshaw — “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex”Antonio Gramsci — Selections from the Prison NotebooksChrishana Lloyd et al. — Mary Pauper (Child Trends, 2022)Lea J.E. Austin — Early Childhood Workforce Index (CSCCE)Maurice Sykes — Doing the Right Thing for ChildrenFilms & Documentaries That Inform This WorkWe Still Live Here – Âs Nutayuneân (2011) — Wampanoag language revitalizationLanguage Is Life (PBS, 2023) — Indigenous language revivalReflecting on Anti-Bias Education in Action (2021) — Anti-bias practice in early childhood13th (2016)I Am Not Your Negro (2016)Make A Circle (PBS, 2025) — Early childhood educators organizing for structural reformAbout This SeriesEverything shared in this podcast is grounded in documented history, policy analysis, and lived expertise. This work centers Indigenous, Black, Latina, Asian American and Pacific Islander, immigrant, and other historically marginalized voices in early care and education — not as anecdotes, but as scholarship and leadership.Full transcripts, extended reading lists, and research references are available at waginglove.orgIf you believe care deserves structural accountability, you can support the continuation of this work there. Support the show