Hello and welcome.
I’m Doug Lasdon, host of the social justice podcast, Beyond the Box.
I am the Founder and Executive Director of the Urban Justice Center, and an Adjunct Professor at the Cornell Law School where I teach classes in Poverty Law and Social Entrepreneurship. I started the UJC in a burned-out building in East Harlem back in 1984 to represent homeless people. Since that time, the UJC has started dozens of Projects representing a wide variety of populations of poor and marginalized people.
TUNE IN TO HEAR…
prominent, knowledgeable, and interesting experts from different fields of social justice. I hope to use my experience to ask incisive, and challenging questions, with the goal of coming to a more nuanced and thoughtful understanding of complex social justice issues. I also hope that along the way we have some fun.
What’s it like working in the sex industry, and who fights for the rights of those who work in the shadows of the legal economy? Doug Lasdon talks with RJ Thompson-Rodriguez, human rights advocate, lawyer, former sex worker, and current director of the UJC Sex Workers Project.
The Sex Workers Project is a national organization that defends the human rights of sex workers by destigmatizing and decriminalizing people in the sex trades through free legal services, education, research, and policy advocacy. They aim to create a sexually liberated world where all workers have the autonomy and power to fully enjoy their human rights. Find out more at: swp.urbanjustice.org
Tune in!
Who keeps New York City running with coffee, kebabs, nuts, hats, pretzels, doughnuts, churros, Korean tacos and more – and who protects their rights when big businesses, the cops, and powerful politicians try to shut them down? Doug Lasdon talks with Mohamed Attia, former street vendor and Director of the UJC Street Vendor Project.
The Street Vendor Project is a membership-based project with more than 2,000 vendor members working together to create a vendors’ movement for permanent change, and advocating for the rights of street vendors in New York City. Find out more at: svp.urbanjustice.org
Tune in!
Who’s really in New York City prisons, and why, and what happens to them once they’re there – and once they come back out? Doug Lasdon talks with Sarita Daftary and Darren Mack, anti-mass-incarceration advocates, the leaders of the #CloseRikers campaign, and the founding directors of the UJC Freedom Agenda project.
The Freedom Agenda is a member-led project, dedicated to organizing people and communities directly impacted by incarceration to achieve decarceration and system transformation. Find out more at: fa.urbanjustice.org
Tune in!
Episode 4:
Who Watches the Watchers?
Who has their eye on the cameras, the cookies, the tracking apps, and the million other devices that are watching you, right now, and selling your data? Doug Lasdon talks with Albert Fox Cahn, founder of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (and graduate of the UJC Social Justice Accelerator).
S.T.O.P. fights to end discriminatory surveillance, challenging both individual misconduct and broader systemic failures. They craft policies that balance new technologies and age-old rights, and educate impacted communities on how they can protect their rights. Find out more at: stopspying.org
TUNE IN
MONDAY, MAY 6TH
Episode 5:
Who’s Turning Prisons Into Profits?
Who are prisons really serving? A small group of companies are turning huge profits off of every aspect of life on the inside, from food to phone calls to transportation – and we’re not just talking about for-profit prisons. Doug Lasdon talks with Bianca Tylek, founder of Worth Rises (formerly: the Corrections Accountability Project at UJC).
Worth Rises is a non-profit advocacy organization dedicated to dismantling the prison industry, ending the exploitation of those it touches, exposing the commercialization of the criminal legal system, and protecting & returning the economic resources extracted from affected communities. Find out more at: worthrises.org
TUNE IN
MONDAY, May 20Th
Do you care about homelessness, domestic violence, promoting New York City, or mental health issues? Then you’ve come to the right place.
We protect the rights of the poor and oppressed through legal advocacy, social services, protesting in the street, and in whatever way our clients need us. We mentor the leaders of tomorrow, accelerating their efforts and helping them skip over the early, difficult stages of forming a nonprofit. To support our work and learn more about what we do in NYC – tune in to Beyond the Box and sign up for our newsletter!
DURING 2023 ALONE . . .
DURING 2023 ALONE . . .