We Want the Whole Menu with Dreisen Heath

We Want the Whole Menu with Dreisen Heath

From Teach the Babies w/ Dr. David J. Johns by Dr. David J. Johns & Thomas Cunningham IV

June 30, 2026 · 28 min · Season 4 · Episode 21

About this episode

Dreisen Heath discusses the urgent need for comprehensive reparations and social justice legislation in a conversation with Dr. David J. Johns.

Dreisen Heath doesn't do sequencing. She doesn't want the appetizer. She doesn't want to wait for the main course. She wants the whole menu—reparations legislation, economic justice, striking the punishment clause from the 13th Amendment, restored benefits for Black veterans, and protected Black history and cultural institutions. All of it. All at once. In this episode, Dr. David Johns sits down with Dreisen Heath—reparations researcher, movement strategist, and founder and executive director of the Why We Can't Wait Reparations Network—in the wake of Equity Week in Washington, D.C. Together, they unpack what it meant to convene the Congressional Black Caucus, stand on the House Triangle alongside Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Rep. Summer Lee, Rep. Al Green, and dozens of partner organizations, and then walk through the reparative justice display at the Library of Congress—all ahead of Juneteenth and America's 250th anniversary. Dr. Heath breaks down what the infrastructure of repair actually means in practice—and exactly how the current administration is gutting it. She connects the dismantling of DEI offices and the DOJ Civil Rights Division to the accumulation of unpaid debt to Black…

People in this episode

Host: Dr. David J. Johns

Guest: Dreisen Heath

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Why We Can't Wait Reparations Network, Congressional Black Caucus, Library of Congress

Books & works: H.R.40

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