Check out the latest episode of What's Next, Los Angeles? podcast, featuring Mike Bonin's interview with Liberty Hill's CEO Shane Goldsmith. Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, below, or almost anywhere you get your podcasts.
Fifty years ago, Los Angeles was run by an old-school establishment centered downtown, with an LAPD that wielded outsized power and communities of color largely shut out of institutional influence. It was in that city, just three years after Tom Bradley's historic election as LA's first Black mayor, that Liberty Hill Foundation was founded in 1976.
In this episode, Mike uses Liberty Hill's 50-year history as a lens on the evolution of Los Angeles itself — who held power, who challenged it, and how organizing reshaped the city. From tenants' rights and labor to immigrant rights, environmental justice, youth justice, and police reform, Liberty Hill has funded and helped build the movements that pushed these issues from the margins into the political mainstream, often decades before they became conventional wisdom.
Our guest is Shane Murphy Goldsmith, President and CEO of Liberty Hill Foundation. Shane joined the organization in 2010, became executive director, and has led it as President and CEO since 2013. Under her leadership, Liberty Hill has deepened its investment in grassroots organizing and backed major campaigns in youth justice, environmental justice, and housing.
