Shared Humanity Podcast

In this episode of Shared Humanity: The humans behind the headlines, host Nelba Márquez-Greene, is joined by Megan L. Ranney, Dean of the Yale School of Public Health. The two discuss firearm injury as a public health issue, partnerships between academia, survivors, and communities, and how they continue to find hope. The episode was recorded the week before the twelfth anniversary of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook School, where Márquez-Greene’s daughter, Ana Grace, 6, was one of 20 students and six administrators and teachers who were killed.

Learn more about Yale School of Public Health’s firearm injury prevention work.

In this episode of Shared Humanity: The humans behind the headlines, host Nelba Márquez-Greene, Yale School of Public Health Activist in Residence, is joined by gun violence survivor and gun violence prevention advocate Tara Donnelly.

Donnelly lost both her mother and father on February 2, 2005 when they were killed in a shooting at their family jewelry store in Fairfield, Connecticut. The person who committed the crime stole the gun from an unlocked nightstand in a home in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Donnelly discusses grief 20 years later, becoming a parent without parents, expanding Ethan’s Law in Connecticut to require gun owners to secure firearms in all homes, not just homes with minors, and her GV Angels holiday drive.

This episode also features snippets of the song “Somewhere in America” by Tara’s brother Eric Donnelly and his band the Alternate Routes.

To support GV Angels, email GVAngelsCT@gmail.com.

In this episode of Shared Humanity: The humans behind the headlines, host Nelba Márquez-Greene, Yale School of Public Health Activist in Residence, is joined by Reverend Sharon Washington Risher. Reverend Risher was catapulted into the limelight after the Charleston, South Carolina shooting at the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on June 17, 2015. Her beloved mother, Mrs. Ethel Lee Lance, was killed along with eight others – including two cousins and a childhood friend.

Today she is a sought-after inspirational speaker, traveling across the country telling her personal experience of losing loved ones to gun violence, racism, and hate in America, as well as the path to forgiveness and an offering of hope for tomorrow. Her book, For Such A Time as This: Hope and Forgiveness After the Charleston Massacre, was released in 2019.

Risher is a volunteer spokesperson for MOMS Demand Gun Sense and the Everytown Survivor Network, two of the largest grassroots advocacy groups for common-sense gun laws and reform in America. She is also a volunteer and Chairwoman of the Board of the Death Penalty Action Organization. Winner of the Bronze Film Festival Short Doc category- Best Short Film, “Quiet No More”, produced by Blue Chalk Media, tells Risher's story.

Risher has published articles with the Washington Post, New York Times, and Oprah Daily, and has appeared on national news.

CONTENT WARNING: This episode discusses suicide and may contain distressing content. If you or someone you know is considering suicide, help is available. Call, text, or chat 9-8-8 anywhere within the United States to reach the National Suicide Prevention Hotline.

In this episode of Shared Humanity: The humans behind the headlines, host Nelba Márquez-Greene, Yale School of Public Health Activist in Residence, is joined by Kay Warren – author, speaker, and Bible teacher. Warren discusses grieving suicide in the public eye and how she keeps hope with the help of a hope box.

Links from this episode:

• www.kaywarren.com
• Kay Warren's X profile
• Kay Warren's Instagram

You may have seen Abbey Clements share her story in one minute during the Freedom from Gun Violence segment at the DNC last week. Activist in Residence Nelba Márquez-Greene recently sat down with Clements for 45 minutes to discuss teaching after tragedy.

Clements and Márquez-Greene share an inextricable link. Clements was a teacher at Sandy Hook School on December 14, 2012, where Márquez-Greene lost her daughter, Ana Grace.

Since that fateful day, Clements, who has been an elementary teacher for 32 years, has been a gun violence prevention activist. Clements is the Executive Director and co-founder of Teachers Unify to End Gun Violence. She is also a strategic consultant on gun violence issues for the American Federation of Teachers and a member of the Brady Pac National Advisory Council.

During this episode, Clements talks about her activism, survivor’s guilt, and what it’s like to discuss all of this in front of a mom who lost a child.

Links from this episode:

• teachersunify.org

Celeste Robinson Fulcher is a mother, wife, and retired federal employee specializing in veteran services. She and her family lived in West Haven in 2013 when her daughter Erika Robinson was killed in a mass shooting in New Haven. Since that time, Celeste has committed to honoring her daughter’s life, her own, and sharing support for other moms and families who are impacted by gun violence. Her influence can also be felt as one of the four founding mothers who helped build the New Haven Botanical Garden Dedicated to Victims of Gun Violence – a place of hope and healing we all should visit.

Links from this episode:

• New Haven Botanical Garden of Healing Dedicated to Victims of Gun Violence

Kristin Song became a gun safety activist after her 15-year-old son Ethan was killed with an unsecured gun in his best friend's house. In the second episode of our Shared Humanity: The humans behind the headlines podcast and video series, our activist in residence Nelba Márquez-Greene talks to Song about safe storage and how the unjust loss of a child changes life forever.

Song’s unifying approach in Connecticut resulted in the passing of Ethan's Law with overwhelming bipartisan support. The law requires all guns to be secured if a child or unauthorized person can gain access. Now Maine, Michigan, New Mexico, and Maryland have passed child access prevention laws and Song is currently working with six other states to pass Ethan’s Law.

Link from this episode:

• SongStrong.org

In this first episode of Shared Humanity: the humans behind the headlines, host Nelba Márquez-Greene, Yale School of Public Health Activist in Residence, is joined by author, activist, and mother of Trayvon Martin, Sybrina Fulton. As Mother’s Day nears, the two speak about what loss is like more than ten years later, how their community supports them, and Circle of Mothers, an organization founded by Fulton through the Trayvon Martin Foundation.

Links from this episode:

• Circle of Mothers
• Trayvon Martin Foundation