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Quakers Today

Quakers Today

By: Friends Publishing Corporation
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Quakers Today explores Quaker thought, faith, and action for everyone seeking to deepen their spiritual life and navigate our changing world. In Season Six, we’re going "into the wallet." Host Peterson Toscano is joined by new co-host Diana Yañez, a certified financial planner and Quaker. Together, they explore money not as personal math, but as a spiritual practice. From reparations to ethical investing, we dive into "The Priesthood of All Believers, Economics" to learn how to align our resources with our deepest values.

Listen to this Friends Journal podcast or watch the extended video edition on the Friends Journal YouTube page. Quakers Today is a project of Friends Publishing Corporation. Season Six is sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee and Friends Fiduciary.

Copyright 2022 All rights reserved. Philosophy Social Sciences Spirituality
Episodes
  • Quakers, Reparations, and Reparative Economies

    Quakers, Reparations, and Reparative Economies
    Sep 15 2026

    Co-hosts Peterson Toscano and Diana Yañez explore reparations beyond simple transactions. Rooted in abolition, repair is examined as a relational commitment and spiritual discipline aimed at ensuring historical and systemic harms are never repeated.

    Guests Anthony "Ant" Smith and Lucy Duncan discuss the historical lessons of Reconstruction and share how Philadelphia's Greene Street Friends Meeting dedicated $500,000 to reparations, centering Black leadership and unlocking over $11 million in local housing wealth.

    Anthony "Ant" Smith

    Organizer and educator with Reparation Works and Abolition Schools, bringing an abolitionist framework to racial repair and systemic change.

    Lucy Duncan

    Quaker activist, writer, member of Greene Street Friends Meeting, and Reparation Works focused on transgenerational healing.

    Key Topics Covered

    1. Abolition and Non-Repetition: Why reparations require systemic transformation so racialized violence cannot be repeated.
    2. Reconstruction Precedents: How General Sherman’s Field Order No. 15 proved the tools for Black autonomy were already understood.
    3. A Meeting’s Commitment: How Greene Street Friends Meeting allocated $500,000 over 10 years, housing the work in Worship and Ministry.
    4. Centering Black Leadership: Entrusting full financial discernment directly to the meeting’s Black members.
    5. Tangible Community Impact: Investing $25,000 in a legal clinic that preserved $11 million in Black generational housing wealth.
    6. Reparations as Spiritual Practice: Approaching long-term systemic repair with curiosity, patience, and love.

    Episode Timestamps

    0:00 – Introduction: Beyond Financial Payouts

    2:45 – Anthony Smith on Abolition & Repair

    6:15 – Reconstruction & Sherman’s Field Order 15

    8:50 – Greene Street Friends & Spiritual Resources

    12:10 – Centering Black Discernment

    15:30 – Free Legal Clinics & Housing Wealth

    18:40 – Reparations as a Spiritual Discipline

    20:55 – Listener Query & Archive Highlights

    22:30 – Sponsor Messages & Disclaimers

    Resources & Links

    • Reparation Works: https://www.reparation.works/
    • Article: Reparations and Transgenerational Healing by Lucy Duncan https://www.friendsjournal.org/reparations-and-transgenerational-healing/https://friendsjournal.org
    • Archive Episode: Quakers and Reparations (January 2023) https://www.friendsjournal.org/podcast/episode-3-quakers-and-reparations/

    • Racial Wealth Gap Simulation https://bread.org

    Bonus Video Feature

    Ant & Lucy Community & Activism Feature: https://youtu.be/IwN8-z7usYI?si=qEzVIeeMzlxZQH1H

    Connect With Us

    What does repair look like in your community? Leave a voicemail at 317-QUAKERS ( 317-782-5377) or email podcast@friendsjournal.org.

    Quakers Today Website

    https://quakerstoday.org

    Friends Journal

    https://friendsjournal.org

    Quakers Today is a project of Friends Publishing Corporation, hosted by Peterson Toscano and Diana Yañez. Season 6 is supported by Friends Fiduciary and the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC).

    Financial Disclaimer

    All investments involve risk, and financial decisions should be made based on your individual circumstances, ideally in consultation with a qualified professional. The views expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of the host, Natural Investments, or its affiliates.

    Diana Gisel Yañez is an Investment Advisor Representative of Natural Investments PBLLC. Natural Investments is an independent Registered Investment Advisor. Quakers Today and Friends Journal are not registered entities and are not affiliates or subsidiaries of Natural Investments.
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    25 mins
  • Quakers and Wealth

    Quakers and Wealth
    Aug 11 2026

    In this episode of Quakers Today, Peterson Toscano and Diana Yañez speak with Quaker Fran Brokaw about inherited wealth, family stories, grief, reparations, and the spiritual practice of releasing money.

    Fran describes inherited wealth as feeling like the dragon’s hoard in The Hobbit: treasure guarded so it can get bigger and bigger. Over time, she began asking deeper questions:

    What is this money? Where did it come from? What has it meant in my life? What does faithfulness ask of me now?

    Fran shares how reparations work helped her move beyond guilt and toward responsibility. She talks about giving without control, seeing money as a community asset, and allowing wealth to move through her as energy, love, repair, and relationship.

    In this episode
    • inherited wealth and Quaker values
    • guilt, responsibility, and repair
    • giving without strings attached
    • ethical investing and its limits
    • wealth as grief, memory, safety, and power
    • reparations and Land Back
    • money as mutual blessing
    Featured guest

    Fran Brokaw, a Quaker reflecting on inherited wealth, reparations, and faithful money practice.

    Resources

    Money as a Mutual Blessing by Lola Georg Friends Journal https://www.friendsjournal.org/money-as-blessing/

    Northeast Farmers of Color Land Trust https://nefoclandtrust.org/

    Lizzie Magie and The Landlord’s Game Philadelphia Yearly Meeting https://www.pym.org/quaker-history-clive-sansom-ursula-franklin-gordon-hirabayashi-and-lizzie-magie/

    Quakers Playing Monopoly Philadelphia Yearly Meeting https://www.pym.org/quakers-playing-monopoly/

    The secret history of Monopoly The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/apr/11/secret-history-monopoly-capitalist-game-leftwing-origins

    Reflection questions

    What money stories did you inherit? Where does money create anxiety in you or in your meeting? What are you holding more tightly than you need to? What would it mean to give without control?

    Leave us a message

    What financial practices align with your values?

    Call 317-QUAKERS. That’s 317-782-5377. Outside the U.S., dial +1 317-782-5377.

    Email: podcast@friendsjournal.org

    Sponsors

    Season 6 is sponsored by Friends Fiduciary and the American Friends Service Committee.

    Friends Fiduciary: https://friendsfiduciary.org/ AFSC: https://afsc.org/

    This episode is for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute investment, legal, or tax advice.
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    31 mins
  • Quakers and Capitalism

    Quakers and Capitalism
    Jun 16 2026
    In this third episode of our season-long exploration of Quakers and Money, Peterson Toscano and Diana Yañez turn toward one of the largest and most difficult questions of the series: How do Friends live with integrity inside capitalism? Last month, we explored relational finance and asked whether taking responsibility for our money and institutional assets can lead to deeper integrity and more equitable power-sharing. This month, Peterson names the friction many Friends feel: the sense of being trapped in a massive economic system built on extraction, inequity, colonialism, and environmental harm. Through conversations with Lisa Graustein, Nathan Kleban, David Watt, and Traci Hjelt Sullivan, this episode examines the spiritual dissonance between Quaker values and capitalist structures. We hear about stolen land, inherited wealth, paternalism in charitable giving, the legacy of slavery in Quaker history, and the denial made possible by class and racial privilege. Rather than offering easy answers, Peterson and Diana ask what it means to stay on a journey with truth. If capitalism harms people and the planet, how might Friends move beyond individual purity or denial and toward mutual aid, community wealth-building, repair, and solidarity? In This Episode The Dissonance: Peterson reflects on the gap between Quaker faith and a global economy built on extraction and inequity. Capitalism and White Supremacy: Lisa Graustein names capitalism and white supremacy as forces that keep the here and now from becoming the realm of God. Stolen Land and Reparative Responsibility: Lisa shares the story of New England Yearly Meeting selling property after repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery and raises questions about what should happen to profits from land acquired through colonization. From Charity to Right Relationship: Nathan Kleban of Right Sharing of World Resources challenges paternalistic models of giving and asks who the economy is actually for. Quaker Wealth and Enslavement: David Watt, professor of Quaker studies at Haverford College, reminds us that some early Quaker wealth in Philadelphia was tied to Barbados, sugar plantations, and the labor of enslaved people. The Wealth of Not Having Debt: Traci Hjelt Sullivan expands the definition of ancestral wealth, naming the opportunities that come from beginning adult life without student debt. The Inner Capitalist: Diana reminds us that the Quaker belief in “that of God in everyone” also extends to capitalists, and to the parts of ourselves that continue to benefit from extractive systems. Our Guests Lisa Graustein Lisa Graustein is a Quaker educator, activist, and writer whose work often explores money, power, race, and reparative justice. In this episode, she reflects on inherited wealth, stewardship, and the responsibility to repair harm caused through the accumulation of resources. Nathan Kleban Nathan Kleban works with Right Sharing of World Resources, a Quaker organization that supports women-led economic projects in the Global South. Nathan brings a relational and community-centered lens to economics, asking how people get their needs met and how communities express their gifts outside extractive systems. David Watt David Watt is the Douglas and Dorothy Steere Professor of Quaker Studies at Haverford College. In this episode, he offers historical context about Quaker wealth, including the connections between early Philadelphia Friends, Barbados, sugar plantations, and slavery. Traci Hjelt Sullivan Traci Hjelt Sullivan is the executive director of Right Sharing of World Resources. She brings decades of nonprofit leadership and international experience to her work. In this episode, she reflects on truth, denial, race, class, debt, and the spiritual work of recognizing our own responsibility. Resources and Recommendations QuakerSpeak: “What If Wall Street Were Honest?” https://quakerspeak.com/video/what-if-wall-street-were-honest/ North Carolina Quaker Mark Hulbert has tracked investment advisors since the early 1980s. In this QuakerSpeak video, he talks about how his Quaker background and commitment to integrity led him to ask whether Wall Street advisors were telling the truth. Spent https://playspent.org/ Diana recommends Spent, a free browser-based survival game that places players inside the poverty trap. You begin with $1,000 and try to survive for 30 days while making impossible choices: pay rent, fix the car, buy medicine, or keep the lights on. It offers one way to better understand how expensive it can be to be poor in the current economic system. Caliban and the Witch by Silvia Federici https://pmpress.org/index.php?l=product_detail&p=1575 Diana references Federici’s work while discussing the relationship between capitalism, labor control, gendered violence, and colonialism. The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374157357/thedawnofeverything/ Diana also points to this book while ...
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    27 mins
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