Welcome. My name is Yeshi Milner, and this is Tunnels a new podcast, an audio journal of the ideas, stories, and people that have inspired me personally.
You may know me as a Founder and Executive Director of Data for Black Lives, a movement of scientists and activists working to make data, a tool for social change instead of a weapon of political oppression.
People often ask me, Yeshi, what gave you the courage to start a movement at -- one of the most important, but also difficult times in history?
This is the space I will be sharing my journey, and it is an invitation for you to journey beside me. It is my pray that this podcast can provide encouragement, inspiration, hope and joy to press forward in a time where we must recognize that we are the ones we've been waiting for.
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In the first episode I discuss my journey into underground spaces, and what being underground means to me. After a brief history of the Juneteenth holiday, I get into the most well known and effective underground movement in history: the Underground Railroad.
I have been studying the Underground Railroad and its operation as a decentralized network in an effort to understand how today we can use the knowledge our ancestors gained to usher forth a new era in US history, one where the legacies of slavery are not longer seen and felt through technological systems. I end the episode with the recent Apple Union victory and what it means for us all.
Follow me on twitter: @yeshidid
Learn more about Data for Black Lives: d4bl.org
Support the Apple Union: @acoreunion
Full episode transcript coming soon!
Sources:
Bell, Richard. Stolen: Five Free Boys Kidnapped into Slavery and Their Astonishing Odyssey Home. Simon and Schuster, 2019.
Blight, David W. A Slave No More: Two Men Who Escaped to Freedom, Including Their Own Narratives of Emancipation. First edition. Orlando: Amistad, 2009.
Douglas, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Written by Himself. 3rd edition. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2016.
Bordewich, Fergus. Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railro. Harper Collins, 2009.
Foner, Eric. Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad. W. W. Norton & Company, 2015.
Gudmestad, Robert. “Faith Made Harriet Tubman Fearless as She Rescued Slaves.” The Conversation. Accessed May 22, 2022. http://theconversation.com/faith-made-harriet-tubman-fearless-as-she-rescued-slaves-127592.
Helmore, Edward, and Edward Helmore with agencies. “Apple Workers in Maryland Vote to Join Union, a First for the Tech Giant in US.” The Guardian, June 19, 2022, sec. US news. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/19/apple-workers-vote-to-join-union-a-first-for-the-tech-giant-in-us.
Press, The Associated. “Maryland Apple Store Workers Face Hurdles after Their Vote to Unionize.” NPR, June 20, 2022, sec. Business. https://www.npr.org/2022/06/20/1106264834/maryland-apple-store-union.
Sehgal, Parul. “When a Kidnapping Ring Targeted New York’s Black Children.” The New York Times, October 27, 2020, sec. Books. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/27/books/review-kidnapping-club-jonathan-daniel-wells.html.
Still, William. Still’s Underground Rail Road Records: With a Life of the Author... William Still, 1886.
Franklin Humanities Institute. “The Black Outdoors: Humanities Futures After Property and Possession.” Text. Franklin Humanities Institute, November 17, 2017. World. https://humanitiesfutures.org/papers/the-black-outdoors-humanities-futures-after-property-and-possession/.
Credits
Executive Producer: Yeshimabeit Milner
Writer: Yeshimabeit Milner
Sound Editor: Brogan Molly
Music: Against All Logic
Underground