The Imprint Weekly
Episodes
272 episodes
A Fashion Forward Experience for Foster Youth with Sixto Cancel and Sharon McDaniel
On this week’s episode, we were joined by Sixto Cancel, founder and CEO of Think of Us, and Sharon McDaniel, founder and CEO of A Second Chance. We talked first about their relatively new joint venture between the two organizations called Fashi...
InnerViews – The Amazing Begins to Outweigh the Terror: Entering the ‘It Gets Better’ Era
In this episode of InnerViews, Ivory Bennett sits down with Nesta N. Johnson to explore what it means to reach an “It Gets Better” era after surviving systems and trauma. Together, they unpack the slow, nonlinear journey toward healing...
Recent Trump Administration Action with Alex Adams
Alex Adams, assistant secretary in charge of the Administration for Children and Families, joined the podcast last year to discuss his background and the child welfare goals for President Trump’s second term. This week he returned t...
The Dark Past of Sterilization and the Bright Future for Birth Justice
On this week’s episode, The Imprint’s Nancy Marie Spears sits down with reporter Suzette Brewer to discuss her recent two-part series on the tragic past and promising future of birth justice for the Native American community. The series examine...
InnerViews – Artivism, Credible Messengers, and Community Power: Reclaiming Youth Voice in Brooklyn
In this episode of InnerViews, Ivory speaks with Tishon Sudlow and Sarah Robinson about youth voice, credible messengers, and community-led change in Brooklyn. Through artivism and coalition-building, they explore how young people tran...
The Buried History of Cheltenham
On this week’s episode we are joined by Marc Schindler of Georgetown’s Center for Youth Justice, to discuss the Forgotten Children’s Initiative, which was born of research that he led about the history of the Maryland House of Reformation &...
Headlines: New Data on Foster Care Capacity, Mental Health-Driven Incarceration and More
On this week’s episode we start by discussing the new update to Who Cares, which is The Imprint’s project on foster care capacity data around the country, and how it connects to the Trump administration’s central child welfare goal for the pres...
The Future of Federal Research on Youth and Families
On this week’s episode we talk to Naomi Goldstein, who for nearly two decades led the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation at the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). We discussed the way that the federal government decides wh...
The Civil Rights of System-Involved Youth, with Marsha Levick
On this week’s episode we talk to Marsha Levick, co-founder of the Juvenile Law Center, who stepped down last year after serving for decades as the organization’s chief legal officer. We discussed the origins of the center and how it survived, ...
InnerViews – Love Shouldn’t Hurt: When Relationships Become About Survival
InnerViews is trying something new. In this special episode, we bring you the audio from Youth Voices Rising’s powerful webinar, Love Shouldn’t Hurt. Panelists with lived child welfare experience reflect on how trauma, housing instabil...
Headlines: Treating Addiction, Youth Justice Workforce Woes, and More
On this Headlines edition of The Imprint Weekly Podcast, we start with a discussion of three medication-assisted treatments for substance use that the Trump administration has cleared for federal child welfare funding.Also discussed on t...
Older Foster Youth and The Cliff of Instability, with Don Wells
On this week’s episode we talk to Don Wells, the Chief Empowerment Officer at Just In Time, which is a San Diego based organization working to support and mentor older foster youth on their path to adulthood. President Trump signed ...
InnerViews -- Restoring Safety Within: What We’re Carrying Forward & What We’re Leaving Behind
In this restorative Season 3 premiere of InnerViews, host Ivory Bennett reunites with Dr. Alison Davis for a soulful conversation on renewal, emotional safety, and intentional becoming. Together, they reflect on the lessons of the past seaso...
Stuck Kids: How Foster Youth End up In Hospitals for Months
Last week, the Baltimore Sun’s Jean Marbella reported on a lawsuit filed on behalf of youth in the state’s foster care system who had been left in hospital wards with no plan for a return to the community. While the lawsuit focuses ...
Headlines: Trump Administration News, Foster Care and Child Fatalities, and More
In our first podcast of 2026, we discuss new data on the administration’s goal of A Home for Every Child, a new leader for the U.S. Children’s Bureau, Trump’s freezing of safety net funds in five states, and more. Reading Room
The Best of The Imprint Weekly Podcast, 2025
As always, we were fortunate to have some amazing guests join us this year on The Imprint Weekly Podcast. In this episode we feature clips of 12 great interviews from 2025. If you enjoy this podcast, or the great work our reporters ...
Final Thoughts on 2025 with Marina Nitze
We will post our annual “Best of The Imprint Weekly Podcast” show next, but this is the last new episode of 2025. Frequent guest Marina Nitze, a child welfare and tech expert, joined to discuss the flurry of federal activity on child welfare si...
Trump’s Top Child Welfare Official: An Interview with Alex Adams
On this week's episode, Imprint reporter Michael Fitzgerald was in Washington last week to interview Alex Adams, who was confirmed in October to serve as the Assistant Secretary for Family Support at the Administration for Children and Families...
College Stability After Homelessness or Foster Care, with Maddy Day
On this week’s podcast Maddy Day of Maddy Day and Associates joins to talk about what it takes to provide stability on college campuses for youth who have experienced aging out of foster care, homelessness or both. She is helping to coordinate ...
Trump’s Second Term Child Welfare Agenda
President Trump’s White House event announcing an executive order on foster care got a lot of attention. But it is not the only indicator of what the administration might have in mind for policy making in child welfare during his second term. W...
InnerViews – Becoming the Woman I Am: Faith, Family & the Future
In this powerful season finale, Ivory reflects on a transformative year—motherhood through kinship adoption, buying her first home, navigating love, and preparing for preventive surgeries after testing BRCA2+. Joined by spiritual healer and aut...
From the Barber’s Chair to the BRO Experience, with Barry Cooper
Barry Cooper is founder of the BRO Experience, a Brooklyn-based organization that uses cognitive behavioral therapy at the center of its approach to mental health support for young men of color. He is among this year’s winners of the David Priz...
The History of Closing Youth Prisons, with Nell Bernstein
On today’s episode we discuss some of the recent Imprint reporting on how the federal shutdown is impacting youth and family programs like food stamps and Head Start, and one state where the shutdown has prompted gatekeeping of child welfare se...
Remembering Latonia Rolbiecki
Latonia Rolbiecki, a Minnesota mother of three, died last month at the age of 48. Several years ago, Rolbiecki was the subject of an Imprint series about her fight to adopt her grandson after he was taken into foster care at birth. ...
InnerViews – Homeownership & Healing: Building Stability After Adversity
In this episode of InnerViews, Ivory sits down with Realtor Joy Hill and Mortgage Banker David McGowan to discuss her journey to becoming a first-time homeowner—while navigating adversity, foster care advocacy, and single motherhood. T...