The City Club of Cleveland Podcast

What if the conventional narrative of the 1960s civil rights era, by its very nature, limits the success, legal achievements, and persistence of Black Americans for generations? In Before the Movement: The Hidden History of Black Civil Rights, author Dylan C. Penningroth maintains that the fight for civil rights didn\'t begin with famous marches and courtroom cases of the 1960s. Instead, his research stretches from the last decades of slavery to the 1970s, and challenges nearly every aspect of our traditional understanding of civil rights history as we know it.\r\n\r\nDrawing on long-forgotten sources found in the basements of county courthouses across the nation, Penningroth centers the everyday lives of Black Americans and sheds light on their centuries-long tradition of legal knowledge to assert their rights, protect their families, and shape their communities.\r\n\r\nDylan C. Penningroth is a professor of law and Morrison Professor of history at the University of California, Berkeley. He specializes in African American history and legal history and is a MacArthur Fellow. Before the Movement won eleven book prizes and was shortlisted for four more. He is also the author of the award-winning book, The Claims of Kinfolk: African American Property and Community in the Nineteenth-Century South.

It is a rare opportunity to hear about a mission to space firsthand from any NASA astronaut, and Euclid, Ohio, native Sunita \"Suni\" Williams certainly has an extraordinary experience to share. On June 5, 2024, she was launched on the new Boeing Starliner spacecraft for what was intended to be an eight-day mission on the International Space Station (ISS). It ended up being a nine-month stay after technical issues forced the spacecraft to return to Earth uncrewed. While her timeline aboard the ISS faced uncertainty, Williams\' work and commitment to science and innovation never wavered. Together with the crew, she completed more than 900 hours of research between more than 150 unique scientific experiments during her stay.\r\n\r\nThroughout her three-decade career, Williams has logged 608 days in space over her three flights. She has also completed 62 hours and 6 minutes of total spacewalk time. That\'s the most of any female astronaut, and fourth on NASA's all-time list.\r\n\r\nModerating the conversation is astronaut Douglas H. Wheelock. Like his colleague Sunita, he was also selected by NASA in 1998. On October 23, 2007, Wheelock launched on his first spaceflight aboard Space Shuttle Discovery. The retired Colonel has accumulated more than 178 days in space.\r\n\r\nTo mark Ohio Space Week, and in partnership with Great Lakes Science Center, join us for an inspiring conversation between two NASA astronauts - Sunita L. Williams and Doug H. Wheelock - on what it takes to live and work in zero gravity, and the importance of space exploration today.

Art is powerful. It can foster social cohesion and influence the mood of a moment. Murals aren\'t just decorative elements in a neighborhood; they are a tool for revitalization, connection, and storytelling that amplifies voices and strengthens both place and people.\r\n\r\nIn partnership with the Saint Luke\'s Foundation, Assembly for the Arts\' Jeremy Johnson will be joined by Kevin \"mr.soul\" Harp, Stina Aleah, and Robin Robinson. Each of these talented artists have created stunning murals within the Saint Luke\'s footprint in the Buckeye-Shaker, Woodhill, and Mt. Pleasant neighborhoods.\r\n\r\nJoin us for a special FREE City Club Forum and Cookout in the Community as we hear from three inspiring muralists who have transformed their communities on Cleveland\'s East Side, and what more can be done to support art for the public good.

One of the underreported casualties of any war is culinary culture. It\'s not just family recipes that might get lost; when you recognize the importance of food to our essential humanity, you can quickly see how the loss of culinary traditions can lead to an erasure of cultural and identity. This is the terrain author and human rights investigator Michael Shaikh explores in his new book The Last Sweet Bite: Stories and Recipes of Culinary Heritage Lost and Found.\r\n\r\nRaised in Cleveland and Karachi, Shaikh has worked for nearly two decades in the field of human rights, spending extensive time in conflict zones mostly in Asia and the Middle East. Shaikh\'s book explores the impact of conflict on the most essential of human traditions--what we cook and how we nourish ourselves and our souls. From a refugee camp in Bangladesh to the legacy of Nazism and Soviet rule on Eastern European traditions, Shaikh unpacks what might have been lost if not for the resilience of diasporic communities and the amazing activists, home cooks, and chefs who have kept traditions alive.\r\n\r\nJoin us for a conversation moderated by chef and Marine Corps veteran Ben Bebenroth of the nonprofit Spice Field Kitchen.

Martin Luther King Jr. famously stated, \"The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.\" And there are numerous notable figures in our country\'s fight toward this justice, and then there is Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II.\r\n\r\nFor decades, Rev. Barber has served as a powerful voice in movements that combined faith, morality, and activism. As the Co-Chair of the Poor People's Campaign: A National Call For Moral Revival, Rev. Barber has launched a new movement that aims to address the same issues that Martin Luther King Jr. spoke against in the original 1960s campaign.\r\n\r\nRev. Barber is also President and Senior Lecturer of Repairers of the Breach, and a Professor in the Practice of Public Theology and Public Policy and Founding Director of the Center for Public Theology and Public Policy at Yale Divinity School. The author of five books, including We Are Called To Be A Movement, his most recent book White Poverty: How Exposing Myths About Race and Class Can Reconstruct American Democracy explores how we can join together to take on poverty and economic injustice.\r\n\r\nIn a moment when the strength of democracy is tested, and our country\'s bend toward justice is questioned, join us as we hear from Rev. Dr. William J. Barber, II on how we can build social justice movements that uplift our deepest moral and constitutional values.

In November 2024, Bernie Moreno was elected as a U.S. Senator for Ohio. He is largely known for building one of the largest dealership groups in America, eventually employing over 1,000 Ohioans. Born in Bogota, Colombia, Moreno moved to the United States with his family at age five, becoming a U.S. citizen at 18. Following his business career, he turned his focus to public service.\r\n\r\nSenator Moreno has already sponsored signature legislation, including the USA CAR Act, which aims to give tax breaks for buying American-assembled vehicles, and the Transportation Freedom Act, aimed at boosting domestic auto manufacturing and easing certain emission rules.

In Cuyahoga County 1 in 10 children will be sexually abused before their 18th birthday; and victims of trafficking can be women or men, girls or boys. Right now, organizations in Northeast Ohio are doubling down to address sexual violence and human trafficking. What are the current advocacy efforts and challenges to access to care right here in Cleveland? And what tools are available to help protect our communities in a time when uncertainty on policy, progress, and funding only adds to these challenges?\r\n\r\nJoin us at the City Club as we hear from leadership from the Cleveland Rape Crisis Center and Canopy Child Advocacy Center on the state of sexual violence and human trafficking in Cuyahoga County; and what each of us can do to ensure a safe and healing environment for all survivors.

The Great Lakes influence our surrounding regions\' culture, economy, and environment. Yet, record-breaking temperatures and unprecedented weather events across these regions, and those who rely on the lakes for their way of life, are asking questions about what's to come.\r\n\r\nChris Winslow has the answers.\r\n\r\nChris is the Director of the Ohio Sea Grant's College Program, where he coordinates their research with Ohio State University's Stone Lab-Ohio Sea Grant's education and outreach facility on Lake Erie and part of The Ohio State University's College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences.\r\n\r\nFor more than 100 years, professional researchers from across the nation have worked at Ohio Sea Grant and Stone Labs to help solve the most pressing issues facing the Great Lakes, such as invasive species and toxic algal blooms. Researchers provide critical science that informs policy, guides environmental management, and shapes public understanding of Lake Erie and the broader Great Lakes region. From ecosystem health to economic impact, this research plays a key role in ensuring a more resilient future for the communities that depend on the lakes.

There is no simple solution or singular approach to gender equality in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. But Anita Zaidi, President of the Gender Equality Division at the Gates Foundation knows that when women and girls can prioritize their own health and well-being, and be leaders in their societies, everyone benefits. In a piece for Harvard Public Health, Dr. Zaidi called for women\'s health to be a priority, \"Systemic negligence-including the lack of effective treatments, poor care delivery, and the overall dearth of scientific research that centers women's health-has driven gender disparities in health outcomes.\"\r\n\r\nThrough her work at the Gender Equality Division, the Gates Foundation has invested in efforts that advance women\'s economic empowerment, improve and protect women's health and bodily autonomy, increase child survival and resilience, and more. Previously, Dr. Zaidi spent 30 years as a pediatrician and was Chair of Pediatrics and Child Health at the Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan, where she worked to reduce child mortality through the prevention and treatment of newborn illnesses and vaccine-preventable diseases.

Since its 2014 founding, The Marshall Project has changed how the media covers criminal justice, shifting from traditional crimes and court coverage to covering the system itself, along with abuses and malfeasances inside the publicly funded structures. The Marshall Project garnered major recognition, including two Pulitzers and a Peabody, and in 2022, opened its first local newsroom here in Cleveland, Ohio.\r\n\r\nThe Marshall Project--Cleveland has been responsible for a number of notable successes, including drawing attention to a sitting judge who was improperly steering divorce cases to a friend and spotlighting deaths inside the Cuyahoga County jail. Now, The Marshall Project is using the Cleveland newsroom as a model for other communities, expanding its local coverage to Jackson, Mississippi, and St. Louis, Missouri.\r\n\r\nAs our community hosts the annual convention of the National Association of Black Journalists, we bring some of the journalists leading The Marshall Project nationally and locally to our stage to talk about their work, their impact, and their plans for the future.