Today's episode features three AMAZING people doing incredible work in the world - Dallas Rising, Stacy Lopresti-Goodman, and Paul Gorski, who co-authored a research paper titled, "Nobody’s paying me to cry”: the causes of activist burnout in United States animal rights activists." This expands on a substantial body of work around burnout in social justice activists and highlights some unique elements to animal rights activist burnout. WATCH to learn what they discovered in their research. READ the paper: http://edchange.org/publications/activist-burnout-animal-rights-liberation.pdf
ACT: Challenge racism, sexism, and other activist-on-activist aggressions in your movement. Stop celebrating martyrdom and start practicing community care. Lead by example - be kind to yourself and each other! RELATED - how white anti-racists activists contribute to burnout for activists of color: http://edchange.org/publications/White-Activists-Causing-Burnout-Racial-Justice-Activists-Gorski-Erakat.pdf
More about my illustrious guests: Paul Gorski is the founder of the Equity Literacy Institute and EdChange. He is a lifelong activist spanning many social justice issues and conducts research on social justice education and activist burnout. Stacy Lopresti-Goodman has been involved in the animal rights movement since the mid-1990s. She is an Associate Professor of Psychology and the Director of the Honors Program at Marymount University. She teaches a variety of courses, including Food, Ethics, and Society and Abnormal Primate Psychology. Her research focuses on understanding the enduring impact that confinement, social isolation, and physical abuse have on the psychological well-being of nonhuman animals rescued from laboratories. She also studies alternatives to the use of animals in psychology education Dallas Rising is a long-time ally of other species with experience in anti-speciesism education, direct intervention, policy, and strategy relating to animal liberation. After experiencing burnout herself, she stepped away from direct activism and is currently teaching yoga and mindfulness with an emphasis on equity and inclusion.