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The Local Government Cafe Podcast · Local Gov Cafe

Breaking Bias to Build a More Inclusive, Innovative Organization

·25 min·1 clip
The cafe opens with a clear prompt. Susan and Ann welcome Tina Varughese after her 2024 CAMA keynote and keep the conversation close to the human side of unconscious bias. Tina starts with lived experience. She describes recognizing a bias against her own darker skin and ties that discovery to colonial messages about beauty and fairness. The point lands without a lecture. Bias is not treated as a slide deck topic here. It is old stories sitting quietly inside personal judgment. Writing becomes part of the work. Tina talks about reflection as a way to catch inherited messages, especially the assumptions people carry before they know how to name them. The hosts give the answer space. They connect it to retraining the brain and ask Tina to stay with how awareness shows up in her own noticing. Humor gets treated as more than a softener. Tina uses it to help people get comfortable with being uncomfortable, so hard conversations can happen without losing their weight. Political correctness gets a direct challenge too. Asked about her view that it has gone too far, she links the critique to DEI fatigue and the mistaken idea that diversity means division. The practical question is whether people can stay open, honest, and connected enough to build belonging. The close turns inward. Tina leaves the work with each person: notice the story, choose authenticity, and make enough safety for people to speak, reflect, and change.

As heard by us

A grounded discussion of unconscious bias, belonging, and authenticity, with humor used well.

Tina Varughese brings her own background as a child of immigrants into the discussion, and that is where the episode feels most grounded. The conversation works best when it ties unconscious bias to the daily work of belonging, authenticity, and civic life, rather than treating…

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Why you'd press play

Press play if you want a calm, candid look at bias that starts with the self.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →
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