- 35 minutes 29 secondsEducators as Architects of Change
In schools across Texas, educators are being asked to support learning while also responding to rising levels of anxiety, trauma, and emotional distress among students. But what if schools weren’t just responding to these challenges, but designing new systems to meet them? In conversation with Beth Hines, principal of Arp Elementary School in East Texas, we explore how educators can become architects of change — building environments where social-emotional well-being is part of the foundation of learning.
Related Links
25 June 2026, 2:51 pm - 31 minutes 20 secondsWhat Comes Afer the Crisis? Avoiding Whiplash in Reform Efforts
This episode closes out the Policy arc of our season, an arc focused on how systems change happens, and how mental health policy is shaped not just by moments of urgency, but by sustained leadership. Today’s conversation looks at what it takes to avoid ‘reform whiplash’ — the cycle where systems lurch forward during crisis, only to stall or regress once public attention shifts.
Austin City Council Member Vanessa Fuentes, who represents District 2, has been deeply involved in shaping policies related to housing stability, public safety, and community well-being — areas where mental health intersects with nearly every decision. She gives her perspective on what it means to govern after a crisis — and how to turn short-term responses into long-term, people-centered systems.
Related Links
20 May 2026, 10:00 am - 16 minutes 6 secondsBONUS CONTENT: Lived Experience Storytelling: Primer for Advocacy
In a special bonus segment, Hogg Foundation policy fellow Maddie Garza, along with returning guest Ayaan Moledina of Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT), discuss the Lived Experience Storytelling Primer, a toolkit designed to encourage people with lived experience to engage in advocacy while using a trauma-informed lens to take care of themselves and their stories.
Related Links
19 May 2026, 7:10 pm - 49 minutes 30 secondsPolicy: Telling Your Story
This episode is the second of the Policy arc of our season, an arc focused on how systems change happens, and how mental health policy is shaped not just by moments of urgency, but by sustained leadership. Today’s conversation looks at how lived experience becomes a catalyst for advocacy. We’ll explore how young people — and really, anyone — can use their personal story to shape systems, influence policy, and make their communities stronger.
Our guests are Aurora Harris and Kasey Corpus of Young Invincibles, a national organization that amplifies young voices to influence policy on health, higher education, and economic opportunity. Through their deep understanding of the power of storytelling, they help young people turn experience into impact.
In a special bonus segment, Hogg Foundation policy fellow Maddie Garza, along with returning guest Ayaan Moledina of Students Engaged in Advancing Texas (SEAT), discuss the Lived Experience Storytelling Primer, a toolkit designed to encourage people with lived experience to engage in advocacy while using a trauma-informed lens to take care of themselves and their stories.
Related Links
22 April 2026, 9:31 pm - 47 minutes 35 secondsPolicy: What's in It for Me?
When most people hear the word "policy", they think of lawmakers, bills, or political debates — not necessarily something that affects their day-to-day life. But policy is everywhere. It shapes the jobs we can get, the healthcare we can afford, and the communities we call home. And for young people, understanding and influencing policy isn’t just about civic engagement — it’s about shaping the future they’ll inherit.
Our guests for today are Cameron Samuels, co-founder and executive director of Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, (SEAT), an organization dedicated to increasing youth visibility in policymaking, and Ayaan Moledina, SEAT's federal policy director. These two leaders share their insights on how to help young Texans turn awareness into action, and frustration into advocacy.
Related Links
8 April 2026, 10:00 am - 56 minutes 1 secondPartnership Across Distance: The Texas Panhandle
In rural communities, distance shapes everything - e.g. distance to the nearest hospital; distance to a licensed counselor; or distance to broadband access. When it comes to mental health care, those distances can become barriers.But what if distance didn’t mean disconnection? What if partnerships could stretch across counties and communities — aligning resources so that rural Texans don’t have to navigate care alone?”
Recently, the Hogg Foundation launched its Strengthening Mental Health in Rural and Rural Border Texas Communities initiative designed to strengthen access to care in rural Texas communities. Two of the grantee sites were co-funded in partnership with the Amarillo Area Foundation and the Bivens Foundation — organizations deeply rooted in the Texas Panhandle. Joining us for a conversation about this initiative and what it means for the rural Panhandle are Lara Escobar of the Amarillo Area Foundation and Kathryn Wiegand of the Bivens Foundation, along with Hogg Foundation senior program officers Rick Ybarra and Tammy Heinz.
Related Links
- Hogg Funding Opportunities:
- Hogg Foundation Well-being in Rural Communities initiative
18 March 2026, 6:39 pm - 40 minutes 28 secondsBeyond the Bed: Care as Partnership
When someone leaves a state hospital and returns to their community, recovery doesn’t pause — it becomes more complicated. Housing, connection, medication, transportation, stigma, isolation — the real work of healing often begins outside the hospital walls. In this episode, we explore the question: What if discharge isn’t an endpoint — but a handoff? What if care doesn’t end at the hospital door, but expands into a community network designed to sustain recovery? Colleen Gallion of NAMI Central Texas and Stacy Mendelson of Friends of Austin State Hospital discuss how their organizations' partnership is building a bridge between inpatient care and community life.
Related Links
20 February 2026, 4:24 pm - 23 minutes 43 secondsFaith as a Mental Health Partner
For generations, churches have been more than places of worship. They’ve been gathering spaces, support systems, sources of strength in moments of uncertainty and crisis. In African American communities especially, faith institutions have long been trusted partners in health and healing, often filling gaps where systems fall short.
Today's episode explores what becomes possible when that trust is paired with intentional partnership across faith, community, and mental health systems. Our guest is Pastor Rev. Dr. Daryl Horton of Mount Zion Baptist Church in East Austin, Texas.
Related Links:
15 January 2026, 9:13 pm - 29 minutes 22 secondsMutual Aid, Mutual Respect
On a summer morning in July 2025, floodwaters swept through Burnet and Llano counties in Central Texas, turning quiet roads into rivers. Homes were lost. Families displaced. Older adults had to be rescued from a HUD apartment complex. An RV park was destroyed. Over the chaotic weeks that followed, Community Resource Centers of Texas, working with the Texas Housing Foundation, mobilized to help people find more stable housing, rebuild connections, and restore a sense of hope.
Our guest for this episode is Dawn Capra of Community Resource Centers of Texas, an organization that provides essential services and disaster relief in rural Central Texas communities. Though Dawn may not use the phrase mutual aid to describe her work, the organization’s story perfectly captures the spirit of community solidarity that mutual aid represents.
Related Links:
17 December 2025, 9:00 am - 32 minutes 42 secondsLet Community Drive the Work
All across Texas, people are showing that you don’t have to wait for change from the top down — you can build it from the ground up. And when local efforts succeed, they don’t just transform a workplace, a neighborhood, a classroom — they offer a template for reimagining the system itself.
In this episode Larissa Minner, an expert on disability research and universal design, joins us for an exploration of how small-scale changes to everyday practice can catalyze deeper change not only to lives, but to systems.
Related Links:
10 December 2025, 8:56 pm - 35 minutes 16 secondsRebuilding Trust in Systems of Care
Every system of care — whether it’s education, health, or justice — is built on trust. Trust that when we reach out for help, we’ll be treated with respect and fairness. But for too many Texans, that hasn’t always been the case.
People with disabilities and those living in poverty have too often been left out or let down by systems that were meant to support them. Just as obviously, there are people working to change that — to repair relationships, rebuild credibility, and make care systems worthy of the people they serve. Andrew Hairston, Education Justice Director at Texas Appleseed, and Yulissa Chavez, Public Policy Specialist Fellow with the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities, join us to take a hard look at what it means to confront inadequacies and repair harm within the very systems designed to help us.
Related Links:
14 November 2025, 7:15 pm - More Episodes? Get the App