Arlo Washington:

If we want to talk about being inclusive and democracy, then we definitely need to have and understand the impacts of generational poverty and the wealth gap. Money affect more than your bank account. And if you think about housing, you think about healthcare, it affects every area of our lives. If you want to fix things, then we have to fix the money. We got to fix the money. Everyone should have an access to the financial system.

Alex Lovit:

How can the United States be a democracy of equal citizens, when some communities have so many financial resources and others have so few? You are listening to The Context. It’s a show from the Charles F. Kettering Foundation about how to get democracy to work for everyone and why that’s so hard to do. I’m your host, Alex Lovit.

My guest today is Arlo Washington. Arlo is a serial entrepreneur based in Little Rock, Arkansas. He started his career as a barber. And these days he’s the founder and president of People Trust Community Federal Credit Union. Arlo’s life and Work are profiled in a 2023 documentary called The Barber of Little Rock. The film was nominated for best Documentary short at last year’s Academy Awards.

People Trust, the financial institution that Arlo founded, is a special type of financial institution that we’ll be talking about a lot in this episode. It’s called a Community Development Institution or CDFI. Arlo will get into the ins and outs of CDFIs, but for now, just know that CDFIs bring financial resources to communities that traditional banks don’t serve, things like rental assistance and small business loans for people that might not have credit history or who have criminal records. As you’ll hear, the services that CDFIs like People Trust provide can be life-changing. I was excited to sit down with Arlo to find out more about how he got into economic justice work and the impact he’s had on his community. Arlo Washington, welcome to The Context.

Arlo Washington:

Thanks for having me. It’s an honor to be with you.

Alex Lovit:

You’ve had a few different careers in your life and we’ll talk about that today, but your most recent career is as a movie star, as the subject of an Oscar nominated documentary short. And like all movie stars, you walked the red carpet at the Oscars. What was that like?

Arlo Washington:

You know what? That was a surreal feeling. It was amazing to have an opportunity to be able to share the story on a global stage. I mean, it was amazing.

Alex Lovit:

Tell me a little bit about how this movie came to be. How’d you get hooked up with the filmmakers, Christine Turner and John Hoffman?

Arlo Washington:

Actually what happened is they were in search of a Community Development Institution story that would help explain what Community Development Institutions are, who they serve, what we do, how we do it. And I got a call one day from John Hoffman and Christine Turner, and they wanted to know if they could come and live with us for a year to be able to follow the money and be able to see exactly what happens on a day-to-day basis at the ground level, at Community Development Institutions like People Trust.

Alex Lovit:

Yeah, it’s a powerful film.

Arlo Washington:

Thank you.

Alex Lovit:

Were you able to forget the camera was there, or what was it like to try to do your job with a camera in the room?

Arlo Washington:

You know what? They were so professional and the integrity level stayed high and they disappeared. That was one of the things that we really were clear on at the beginning, was to make sure that the community members that come in needing our services that they weren’t feeling exploited or anything like that. So they did a wonderful job not creating any type of challenges when we were doing our work.

Alex Lovit:

The film is framed around your life story and also telling the story of why it’s so important to provide financial justice and access to financial resources. So I want to go through both of those.

Arlo Washington:

Sure.

Alex Lovit:

You grew up in Little Rock and what sounds like was a family with a lot of love, but with not a lot of resources.

Arlo Washington:

Absolutely.

Alex Lovit:

Tell me about Little Rock. Tell me about the neighborhood you grew up in.

Arlo Washington:

Yeah, so I always like to say I’m from all over Little Rock, because we moved quite a bit when I was younger. Arkansas itself is a retirement state, so it’s really laid back. We did receive some recognition nationwide for a movie called, a documentary called Banging in Little Rock where there was a lot of gang violence and things of that nature. So I know that people always associate Little Rock with that particular documentary, which wasn’t the best light.

But Little Rock is a nice place. It’s a wonderful place to live, but it’s very divided in terms of the wealth gap. There’s a wealth gap, and you can tell based on the way things look in certain areas where investment has happened and where investment is not happening. So there’s a freeway that in the film you see us cross. We cross I-630, and we call it the Great Divide. And there, you’ll see you can go from night to day in terms of access to financial institutions or access to certain businesses, shopping, different things like that. I used to use that to be able to show what prompted our work at People Trust was to be able to bridge that gap and create and build equity.

Alex Lovit:

Let’s talk a little bit about your first career. So your first career was as a barber, and barbershops are of course a business. They provide a service. They can also be a community space, a civic space, a place where people can talk and meet and build social connections. Was that part of your experience? Was that part of what drew you to that profession at all?

Arlo Washington:

Well, absolutely. I grew up in the barbershop. Barbershops, I can remember as a kid how I used to love sitting in that barbershop atmosphere, getting the camaraderie. We had a really strong relationship with my childhood barber. I would go to the barbershop, and I couldn’t afford to get haircuts every week, but I would go there and I would work and sweep hair and then I would earn a free haircut. It was just a place that felt like a home away from home for me.

Alex Lovit:

And so your second career was as a teacher.

Arlo Washington:

Yeah.

Alex Lovit:

So you founded the Washington Barber College in 2008. How did you make that transition? Why did you feel like a barber college was necessary?

Arlo Washington:

Well, you know what? Barbering had provided so many opportunities for me and I felt like I wanted to do that for other people in my community. I knew that there were a lot of people coming after me that were looking for careers, maybe unsure about what they wanted to do with their lives, and barbering is a necessary service. Barbers are always in demand. During the recession, it proved to be a recession-proof career.

Having a barbershop early on, I used to teach the barber, the new barbers that would come and work at the barbershop, we would teach them how to treat their customers, even down how to dress, just different professional etiquettes that a new barber would need for a seasoned barber to be able to show them. So we were beginning to have quite a few barbers to work in our barbershops. And so I was like, “Well, you know what? I should just do a barber college.” Because in business, if you don’t grow, you die. And so that was the next level for me. I had to open up several barbershops prior to that and just wanted to be able to create more impact.

Alex Lovit:

And so the mission of the Washington Barber College, I’ll just quote your website here is, “Training students to be professional, responsible, and morally conscious barbers and stylists.” So obviously the skills, the practical skills of cutting hair is part of that, but it’s not all of that. And the film shows you teaching practical skills, but also teaching broader lessons. So what are you trying to impart to your students beyond the skills of cutting hair?

Arlo Washington:

To me, it’s a ministry because I deal with people from all walks of life, from the gutter most to the uttermost. And I’m able to meet them where they are and establish those relationships early. We like to say is barbering is 20% skill and 80% customer service. So customer service is one of those things where barbers that would work in a barbershop and they may not be the best barber, but they had the best personality. They were the most personable person that you could be around. And people were attracted and would come and sit and wait for hours just for a decent haircut but a wonderful customer service experience. I was always told, if you treat people right, you’ll always have business.

Alex Lovit:

So let me ask about your third career as a banker. So that’s what the documentary is really about, that’s what we’ll talk about today. And it sounds like that started organically and informally with you just giving some small loans to customers, to people you knew. Can you talk about those early years? What motivated you to do that?

Arlo Washington:

Well, you know what? Experiencing generational poverty myself and seeing the need, and I always like to say keeping my ear to the streets, being in the barbershop, you hear what the community goes through. People come in and they talk about different things in the barbershop. They always say stay away from politics and religion. But listening to what my customers were going through, what fellow colleagues of mine were dealing with, with their business and expanding their business and access to capital and credit and all these different things, people come and they come to our barbershop every week supporting the barbershop, supporting the students, and I just felt obligated.

Like one of the students was 35 years old and he was a reentry student, recently incarcerated, and he went to prison when he was 18. He got out 35 years old and he had never ever had a checking account. So we provide federal student aid. And he received a credit balance check. My financial aid department gave him a check, and he took the check and he actually said, “What am I supposed to do with this?” You’re 35 years old, never had a checking account, don’t even know what a check is. We had to go with him to a financial institution, introduce him to the teller and walk him through the whole process because he was too scared to go by himself. And that right there said, I don’t want to just provide our students with a profession, I want to give them the tools to be sustainable, profitable, and scalable. And the only way we’ll be able to do that is by providing financial literacy.

Alex Lovit:

Yeah, so you see financial literacy as a part of it in addition to just providing financial capital?

Arlo Washington:

Absolutely. You have to have it. I would say barbers and bad credit don’t mix.

Alex Lovit:

Well. So you were a barber giving good credit, giving small loans to people, and it sounds like people were paying those loans back.

Arlo Washington:

Yeah.

Alex Lovit:

It’s still a pretty big leap to say, I’m going to found a bank.

Arlo Washington:

I know it. I know it. Tell me about it. I can scratch my head about it and wonder, “What have I gotten into?” But it’s so worthwhile. One thing leads to another, and like I said, in business, if you don’t grow, you die. Barbershop led to the college. The college led to creating jobs, and then that led to those entrepreneurs needing access to capital to be able to start their businesses. And we wanted to be able to simulate that real world experience while they’re in barber school. So by the time they got out, then they would have their profession and they would also have an understanding of how to work with a financial institution, how to understand their credit and just have real strong foundation with how to manage their money. Because barbers historically have been cash-based businesses. So your pocket is your bank. Those are things that we wanted to be able to change, that trajectory. Because we know that you have to have the tools to be sustainable. Financial literacy is key.

Alex Lovit:

The bank, you started, the People Trust Credit Union where you’re the president, receives funding from the federal government through the Community Development Institution fund.

Arlo Washington:

Yes.

Alex Lovit:

So how’d you find out about that? What was the process like of becoming a CDFI institution?

Arlo Washington:

So this gets deep. So I had a relative that worked at a Community Development Institution in Chicago. He came down to Arkansas to get a haircut, and he saw what was happening at the Barber College. And he tells me, while I was cutting his hair, he says, “Hey, have you ever heard of Community Development Institutions?” He said CDFIs. And I was like, “Well, no, I’ve never heard of that.” And he said, “Well, you should look into it because you’re doing exactly what they do, and I think that you should look into that.” So I went and did a little bit of research and saw where, hey, this supports the work that we do. They can go places that traditional banks can’t go because of a regulatory requirement or prohibition.

A person has to fall in a credit bucket and can’t go below a 700, then at CDFI, they can be more flexible with repayment. They can allow loan modifications or deferments or hardships or different things that a regulator wouldn’t come in and say, “Hey, you can ding for that because you weren’t supposed to goes outside of what this CFR says that you’re supposed to do.” And then they can be very reliable partners when it comes down to providing access and making sure everybody’s included.

But then I also looked at, do I want to create a whole another business outside of what I already have going? And the need and demand was just there, especially as we got closer to leading up towards the pandemic. And I think about the communities that we serve, it’s always felt like a pandemic or a crisis just because of the lack of. And we started a non-depository institution first, which was People Trust Loan Fund. And then we noticed that there were still barriers and challenges when trying to serve the underserved when it came to providing credit, because maybe if they didn’t have… Most of them are unbanked or underbanked. So that’s when we got on a track to pursue becoming a federally insured depository to be able to close the loop on providing the critical products and services that we provide.

Alex Lovit:

So how do you understand why people in that community were unbanked? Is it a lack of access?

Arlo Washington:

No, I think it’s a lack of knowledge. You don’t know what you don’t know you don’t know. You don’t know what questions to ask. So if I don’t know about interest rates, I don’t know about terms, I don’t know about products or services that are out there that can help me in my situation. And people are afraid. Fear and insecurity, I think, has held individuals and communities back.

Alex Lovit:

Well, let’s talk a little bit about race, which we haven’t explicitly talked about, but-

Arlo Washington:

Yeah, let’s do it.

Alex Lovit:

… we said there’s a highway running through the town and we talked about poverty on one side and wealth on the other. But how does race play into that story of Little Rock?

Arlo Washington:

I mean, you think about Little Rock Central High School and the Little Rock Nine and integration. I mean, there were a lot of historical things that happened here in Little Rock, in Arkansas, with race. So a lot of these communities say, “Well, why does it look like this on this side and this on that side?” Well, there was a thing called White flight, and that’s what happened. Everybody moved. When you think about residential segregation and racial steering, there’s maps that redline communities where banks wouldn’t serve or wouldn’t provide any type of lending. And those areas is where you have that concentrated poverty. And when you think about laws that were around since 1937 that are still alive today, those laws have had significant impacts, and that has created even more of a wealth gap and economic disparity for the communities that we serve.

Alex Lovit:

Yeah, so you’re mentioning the wealth gap there. So there’s poor White people, there’s rich Black people, but the average White family has six or seven times the amount of wealth as the average Black family. So that’s a pretty stark divide.

Arlo Washington:

Absolutely.

Alex Lovit:

You were talking about redlining there. So that’s a historical practice, which was part of federal policy. I think it’s important to say that it wasn’t just banks doing it was the US government.

Arlo Washington:

Right, exactly.

Alex Lovit:

Which would say you can make loans in White neighborhoods and make it a lot harder to make loans in Black neighborhoods, which meant that White families were able to buy houses and pass that wealth down.

Arlo Washington:

Yeah, it had more access to the financial institutions. So when you think about, I guess, Black banks, one of the things that we’ve heard from our members and customers is that it’s refreshing and feels good to see someone that looks like them. When you think about the psychological aspect of it and the cultural differences, it’s almost like, if you think about barbering, and you have to explain this to students, you can’t just cut Black hair, if you want to be really successful. You can’t just cut White hair. You have to be able to cut all textures of hair, straight hair is curly hair is coarse hair is fine hair, is different textures.

So I think that for so long, the community, individuals and communities that we serve have only experienced walking into and seeing only people that don’t look like them, only White faces. So now it’s like, well, do they understand the historical challenges that I’ve experienced because of generational poverty? Can they meet me where I am in my level of what I understand about the language? I don’t want to sound stupid. I don’t want to sound unlearned, so maybe I just won’t ask the question or even walk in. So I think that the impact of seeing someone that looks like you, then that helps to make you feel as if they understand or they may be able to make it understandable. About 90% of our membership is African American. So I think that does make a huge difference.

Alex Lovit:

Before People Trust, there wasn’t a bank in that community on that side of town. One stat that stood out to us from the film was that 95% of borrowers pay their loans back on time. And that makes it sound like the borrowers are credit worthy, there’s money to be made. If a traditional bank had wanted to, they could have been making money in this community the whole time. So People Trust is a nonprofit, so making money isn’t exactly the point. But why weren’t banks serving this community already?

Arlo Washington:

Well, because I think that you think about the deal is not big enough. What it takes to do a $500 loan it takes to do a $500,000 loan. And I think that when you think about redlining and the way the community has declined and the value, property values, not being as much, and also the income levels of the people that live in these geographical locations and being able to afford the different products that the large financial institution may offer, I think it’s more of a, gets down to a profitable, like you talked about profit. If it don’t make dollars, it don’t make sense, type mentality. But the financial services should be offered to every community. Everyone should have an access to the financial system.

Alex Lovit:

Can you tell a story about the impact that People Trust is having? I mean, is there someone you can point to and say, “This person would not have been able to get credit. Now they were able to and they were able to really change their lives”?

Arlo Washington:

Oh, absolutely. There’s a restaurant called McIntosh Burgers, Fries and Pies. And the owner of that restaurant is recently incarcerated, and his grandfather was a cook in the community and used to provide toys for kids during holidays that were less fortunate and done a lot of good community work. And when he got out of prison, he wanted to start a food truck. He had very low credit and he also had a felony on his record, so he wouldn’t have qualified, and he was unbanked. So he came to us and we were able to provide him with some financial literacy, some technical assistance, and we provided him with a loan to be able to get that first food truck. That one food truck led him into another food truck. Today he’s working on his second brick and mortar for his restaurant, and he’s went from rags to riches.

Alex Lovit:

There’s a funny thing about the English language is that the word equity has these two different meanings. So it can mean financial equity in terms of ownership, and it can also mean moral equity in terms of justice or fairness. And so it seems to me a lot of your work is you’re trying to build financial equity in order to build towards moral equity. Why do we need to think about financial equity as a part of building a just society?

Arlo Washington:

It’s almost like providing someone with financial literacy, but then not giving them the money to be able to put that newly gained knowledge to work. If someone steps outside their house and they see depression, then that weighs on the mentality and opportunity, what schools you go to and the opportunity at a quality education, healthy food is located in your community. And I think that you have to fix… If you get the money right, at the end of the film, we talk about, “Have you ever heard that phrase, get your money right?” And I say, “I got to get the money right, and the community has to get the money right, and this opportunity to get the money right.” And when we think about most things that communities deal with, when you think about health, poor health, your health is directly tied to your financial wellbeing. So money affect more than your bank account.

Alex Lovit:

You grew up in a family without a lot of resources, and you’ve been very successful. You’ve founded successful businesses, a college, now a bank. And you could’ve walked away from that experience and said, “I’m a self-made man. If I made it, anybody can make it.” And you’ve really gone the other direction. And instead, you’ve really dedicated yourself to providing financial resources. Why did your life experience lead you to wanting to build ladders for other people for financial success rather than pulling up the ladder behind you?

Arlo Washington:

I always saw my mom. That was one of the things that she always proud of herself in and that’s helping her neighbor. And I used to watch that growing up. And I used to say, “This is purposeful work.” My mom was a social worker. And some nights, maybe there was a child in distress, she would get up in the middle of the night and go and rescue a child. And even if they had to come to our house for that night until they were able to be placed, she would make those sacrifices. And I watched that growing up and I watched the sacrifices that she made for not just her household, but for others. And I wanted my life to mean something.

I looked at the other business owners. A lot of them moved out of the state. A lot of them felt like there were no opportunities here in Arkansas, and they left. And I can remember the last one he told me, he said, “Hey, you’re the last one here.” And I was like, “Yeah, I’m here in it.” But I was planted there. I’m from here. I’m planted here. Who can best tell what the community needs outside of someone that comes from the community?

Alex Lovit:

So this is a podcast about democracy. We haven’t really directly talked about democracy yet. So democracy in a narrow sense can mean just elections, representative, government. A broader sense can mean essential rights, social justice, inclusive society. How do you see financial justice as a component of that? How do you relate democracy to your work?

Arlo Washington:

Yeah, I think that finance is the centerpiece to that because it all starts there. Again, if you think about housing, you think about healthcare, you think about… It affects every area of our lives. But I don’t think that it gets enough attention. It’s not talked about enough, especially in communities where there are no brick and mortar financial institutions or a lot of financial products and services offered. If you want to fix things, then we have to fix the money. We got to fix the money. The money has to be, and it has to be able to circulate and move in those hard to reach places.

Alex Lovit:

Well, you have, it sounds like, a lot of experience of when you get the money moving, it helps people build wealth and build success.

Arlo Washington:

Yeah, it creates opportunity.

Alex Lovit:

And so the CDFI program is a federal program. It was created in 1994. And that’s not People’s Trust only form of funding, but it’s a significant source of funding.

Arlo Washington:

Absolutely.

Alex Lovit:

That’s an example of lawmakers seeing a problem and trying to solve it, right? Saying, “Lack of financial resources is a problem. We’re going to try to invest in that,” and that matters. So can you talk about the CDFI program more broadly and the kind of impact it’s having?

Arlo Washington:

Yeah. When you think about a breach, you think about connecting the dots. There has to be a middle man. When you think about the economically disabled populations, I would say people that have experienced generational poverty or haven’t had access to financial products and services, they have to have specialized financial institutions to be able to onboard them into the financial system. So I think that the role of the CDFI Fund is critical and will be even more critical as time goes on. We have some very challenging times right now. A lot of the federal programs have been done away with and a lot of things that we were used to in terms of public assistance and all these different things, now people are worried about, what’s going to happen to my social security? What happens to my healthcare? I mean, free lunch for a single mother with five, six kids, I mean, think about all these different things.

CDFIs are located in all 50 states. But I think CDFIs, there has to be more visibility and access. I had a relative that worked at a CDFI, but I had never heard of a CDFI, never heard the term, never heard anything about this. So I think that more marketing and more advertisement and more accessibility. The first CDFI that I walked into, I had to go into a building, up a elevator, around a corner to get to the office. And there was no sign outside or anything. So I just think that the work is critical, but the lack of knowledge around the different products and services that these institutions offer needs to be shared even more.

When you think about the products that CDFI Fund offers, those are building blocks for people that need to climb the ladder and gain financial well-being. When you can think about alternative credit, someone that doesn’t have a credit score, they may be a credit invisible, a Community Development Institution has specialized lending criteria that may look at utility bills or a cell phone payment or things of that nature to underwrite the loan, whereas at traditional financial institution, there’s going to be a lot of regulatory restrictions that prohibit that transaction.

Alex Lovit:

So CDFIs is an example of a successful federal program that is having an impact, but most people don’t know about it.

Arlo Washington:

Absolutely. Absolutely. That program needs support from every legislator. Because again, poverty doesn’t just affect the Black community. It affects every population, race, every geographical, it affects everybody. So I think that if we want to talk about being inclusive in democracy, then we definitely need to have and understand the impacts of generational poverty and the wealth gap.

Alex Lovit:

President Trump signed an executive order back in March, and he listed several government agencies that he wanted “Eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with the applicable law.” And the CDFI Fund was on that list. So that doesn’t mean that it was eliminated because it was a congressionally created agency, and the president doesn’t unilaterally have the right to do away that.

Arlo Washington:

Really? Really?

Alex Lovit:

Well, I mean, so he hasn’t targeted CDFIs in the same way that he has targeted some other federal agencies, like USAID. And also CDFIs, the one big beautiful bill that recently passed-

Arlo Washington:

And supports.

Alex Lovit:

… maintained CDFI funding. What’s your understanding of the current politics around this?

Arlo Washington:

Modernization. When you think about the change happening in the financial system, even as a credit union, we’re experiencing the need to modernize, get away from antiquated legacy systems. I think that the Treasury Secretary has expressed support for the Community Development Institution Fund. But when you think about government funding and federal funding and being uncertain if programs will be around, if you focus on mission and you think about the purpose of the mission, then there are ways… I started People Trust Loan Fund with $1,000. The loan fund was started with $1,000. I used what I had. I would make four loans a month, $250 each. And we offer repayment program, that’s when you talk about the 5% of repayment. We offer specialized flexible repayment program, so keep people from falling into a real default situation. But the more support that CDFIs can receive from both sides, and it’s a bipartisan deal, then I think that that will have a huge impact as we continue to transition into new systems and newer ways of doing things.

Alex Lovit:

When we’re talking about financial injustice and justice across the whole country, that’s a pretty big topic. And CDFIs are one response to that and have had an impact, but obviously are insufficient to solve the problem as a whole. Are there other policies, programs? What else would you like to see the federal government or state governments do to address this problem of financial injustice and inequality?

Arlo Washington:

Well, I think that when you think about institutions like minority depository institutions, like People Trust Community Federal Credit Union, there are a lot of regulatory burdens that prohibit or create barriers to serving individuals with unique financial needs. But I’ve been hearing and seeing a lot of the current administration’s move to reduce those barriers by lightening some of those regulatory obligations that institutions that’s under $5 million doesn’t have to meet the same regulatory requirements as a $500 million institution. So I’m excited to see what’s going to happen when it all shakes out, because I know that as long as CDFIs are advocating and in the room, then any new system will be built with equity will be built with those that are underserved in mine.

Alex Lovit:

I’d like to try to give some practical advice for listeners. So people that are listening to this and are convinced that, “Yeah, there’s a real problem here, I’d like to be part the solution,” not all of us are going to run out and found banks. Do you have any advice for folks that… What can people do to help remedy some of these financial injustices in our society?

Arlo Washington:

So I’m going to tell you a story. So we had these two churches. These two churches came together and they started this Home Sweet Home Housing Fund. They live on the other side of I-630, but they crossed the bridge from time to time. And they reached out and they was like, “Hey, we just hate to see boarded up houses and houses with tarps on the roofs and things like that. So we want to start this fund and we want People Trust to manage this fund.”

So they start this fund with like $50,000, $51,000 to be exact. That’s just one example of the people in the community doing something about it, showing up and stepping up to support communities when federal resources fall off. And this was a group of about 12 individuals, two churches that came together and 12 individuals, that had some concern and wanted to be able to put their money where the mouth was.

I think that corporations, businesses, wealthy individuals, put your money where your mouth is. If you want to support the community and you don’t have the infrastructure, then look for CDFIs that are serving these communities. And being most CDFIs are nonprofit, the donations are tax-deductible. And I think that in order to get out of a breakdown situation and you have to do something and take action, and that’s the only way that you create opportunity.

Alex Lovit:

Now that you’ve become a little bit more of a public figure with this documentary, has that affected your work? Does that make it easier or harder?

Arlo Washington:

Well, I mean, it put us in demand. You know what? We get like 200 calls a day. And so my staff is oftentimes like, “Well, how do we respond to all these people?” So we had to utilize different tools that are out there. They have AI and things like that to help with maybe onboarding or scheduling appointments and things that making sure you serve everybody. It’s a tedious process, and I have to get shouts out to my team, because they go all in for the community and support the work. I couldn’t do it all by myself. The work don’t stop. But it’s good work. It’s good work.

Alex Lovit:

Well, it sounds like you work hard. I don’t know if you sleep, but you get a lot done.

Arlo Washington:

I know. You know what? I hear that often. I get sleep. You know what I mean? I get sleep. It’s just I’m passionate about it. So they say, if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.

Alex Lovit:

Well, Arlo Washington, thank you for everything you do, and thank you for joining me on The Context.

Arlo Washington:

Thank you.

Alex Lovit:

The Context is a production of the Charles F. Kettering Foundation. Our producers are George Drake Jr. and Emily Vaughn. Melinda Gilmore is our director of communications. The rest of our team includes Jamaal Bell, Tayo Clyburn, Jasmine O’Larey, and Darla Minnick. We’ll be back in two weeks with another conversation about democracy.

In the meantime, visit our website, kettering.org, to learn more about the foundation or to sign up for our newsletter. If you have comments for the show, you can reach us at thecontext@kettering.org. If you like the show, leave us a rating or a review wherever you get your podcasts, or just tell a friend about us. I’m Alex Lovit. I’m a senior program officer and historian here at Kettering. Thanks for listening.

The views expressed during this program are critical to us having a productive dialogue, but they do not reflect the views or opinions of the Kettering Foundation. The foundation’s broadcast and related promotional activities should not be construed as an endorsement of its content. The foundation hereby disclaims liability to any party for direct, indirect, implied, punitive, special, incidental, or other consequential damages that may arise in connection with this broadcast, which is provided as is and without warranties.

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This podcast is part of the Democracy Group.

Transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a Kettering Foundation contractor and may contain small errors. The authoritative record is the audio recording.