In early 2020, “Red, Blue, and Brady” decided that it needed to be discussing the intersection of racial justice and gun violence prevention. These are tough issues that the country has struggled with enormously and at great length, and to address them with the gravity, attention to detail, and transparency they deserve, “RBB” formed a specific and intentional strategy to discuss these matters in a systematic, equitable, and exhaustive way. First, “RBB” formed a racial justice panel featuring diverse members of the Brady staff, pulling in over 23 specific topic areas where gun violence prevention and racial justice initiatives overlapped. “RBB” then assisted in Brady putting together an internal plan, and cohesive language, in how to best talk about these intersections. Then in the planning stage, great attention was given to bringing in an even mixture of advocates, activists, academics, politicians, and survivors for each of those 23 specific topic areas. Special attention was made to uplift the voices of smaller actors, and to lend them the support and attention of “RBB” listeners. Finally, in the recording stage, “RBB” engaged in a unique amount of transparency and partnership with all interviewees. All interviewees were given questions in advance and asked to submit feedback if they felt the questions were not expansive or equitable enough. Furthermore, though all interviewees sign a release prior to recording, “RBB” permits all survivors and those in affected communities to listen and approve or veto their final podcast before it goes live, in order to best support their agency in the podcast’s creation.
“RBB” is the first podcast devoted solely to gun violence prevention, and we have now made it the first podcast devoted to gun violence prevention and racial justice. “RBB’s” success as a consistent placer in the top 200 education lists further demonstrates that the public is in need of well researched, passionate, bipartisan conversations on this complicated reality.
In just three months, “Red, Blue, and Brady” (RBB) was able to produce seventeen podcasts devoted to the intersection of gun violence, racial inequality, and racial justice. An additional six podcasts are planned and in the process of being produced. These podcasts brought in diverse viewership from across the US, as well as a notable number of listeners from Brazil, India, South Africa, and France. Though a small, niche podcast, “RBB” has gathered the attention of over 27k listeners, and in doing so uplifted the voices of numerous smaller organizations. For example, the podcast has raised the national profile of DC’s violence interrupters (episodes 45 and 59); of a social club of mothers who have lost children to gun violence (episode 60); and of youth activists (episodes 43 and 74). Due to the success of the podcast, we have also been able to expand our racial justice work to now include other vital intersections (like the murders of Black trans women in episode 73, and of police violence in episode 77).
