Friends,

I hope this finds you well. I'm writing with big news, a warm invitation and a humble request.

The news is that Dan Froot & Company's new podcast, Arms Around America (AAA), has dropped on Apple Podcasts! Five years in the making, AAA explores how we enact fear, anger, loss, and love through our relationship with guns. Each episode features a short audio drama adapted from oral histories we conducted around the country with people whose lives have been shaped in some way by guns.

The invitation is to listen to Episode 1: Rich & Dave, while you are walking the dog, cleaning the dishes, or driving to work.

The time-sensitive request is to like, rate and review the podcast during this very important preview period, June 24-29. The big public announcement of the AAA podcast happens on Sunday, June 30. The podcast has a much better chance of breaking through the cluttered podcast space if it already has a bunch of 5-star reviews on Apple Podcasts (the industry standard).

It's fast and easy!

1) LISTEN

Click on the icon above for an engrossing 30-minute listen of Episode 1: Rich & Dave.

2) RATE

Click on the star icons above to go to the show page. Then just click on the right-most star! Takes 1 second!

3) REVIEW

Click on the icon above and then click on the same icon on the AAA show page. It can take less than a minute to write a sterling review!

About the Show

Arms Around America is for everyone who wants to end gun violence, even if we disagree on how to get there. Each episode of “Arms Around America” features a short immersive audio drama based on stories of real families from around the country whose lives have been shaped by guns. Community leaders, scholars, activists, and the families themselves join Dan Froot & Company to unpack the questions and conundrums in each story.

Episode Summary

Dan Froot and special guests, Hope & Heal Fund's Refujio "Cuco" Rodriguez and UCLA Professor Bryonn Bain, explore how guns shaped the lives of two brother living in Miami's Liberty City neighborhood. The jumping-off point for the converstion is Dan Froot & Company's short audio drama Rich & Dave, based on the brothers' oral history.

Rich and Dave struggle with the emotional toll of gun violence in their community, managing family responsibilities while charting a path away from troubled pasts. The drama highlights their familial bond, the pressures of their environment, and the pervasive presence of guns, even when not visible.

Following the audio play, Dan discusses the broader entanglements of gun violence, race, and the prison-industrial complex with guests Justin Alston, Refujio Rodriguez, and Bryonn Bain. They emphasize the importance of empathy, understanding systemic racism, the need for community resources to address the root causes of violence, and the case for prison abolition.

Through personal stories and informed insights, the episode suggests that acknowledging each other's humanity could transform the gun debate. It is an appeal for dialogue and support over judgment and punishment.

LISTEN HERE