What does a second chance actually look like?

For Desmond Meade, the question is personal.

Before becoming one of Florida’s most recognizable voting-rights advocates, Desmond experienced incarceration, homelessness and addiction. At one of the lowest moments of his life, he found himself standing beside railroad tracks questioning whether his life still had value.

His story did not end there.

Recovery led to education. Education led to service. And service eventually helped fuel a grassroots movement that changed Florida’s Constitution through Amendment 4 and opened a pathway for more than 1.4 million returning citizens to regain their voting rights.

But restoring a vote is only one part of restoration.

In this conversation, James and Desmond examine what happens after someone comes home: finding employment, securing housing, getting an education, rebuilding relationships and being able to participate in society without carrying a permanent label from the past.

They also discuss the power of language, why Desmond uses the term “returning citizen,” the sacrifices behind the right to vote, the role of grassroots organizing and why he believes public service should be rooted in improving people’s lives rather than simply holding office.

The conversation ultimately moves beyond criminal justice.

It becomes a discussion about dignity, purpose, economic opportunity, civic power and what kind of society we create when we decide that someone’s worst moment does not have to determine the rest of their life.

QNA: Questions Need Answers explores community, culture and politics through honest conversations designed to help us think critically about the issues shaping our communities.

The question for this episode:

Do we really believe in second chances?

What do you learn about government once you're on the inside?

In this episode of QNA: Questions Need Answers, Munch sits down with Miami Gardens Councilwoman Katrina Baskin for an honest conversation about what happens when a community advocate becomes the person responsible for helping government deliver.

Born and raised in Miami Gardens, Katrina's journey into politics wasn't part of some lifelong plan. She was an educator and community servant whose experiences with students, families and gun violence eventually pushed her to organize—and ultimately run for office.

But becoming a councilwoman also changed how she understood government.

Katrina talks openly about discovering that some of the things she once thought the city should handle actually belonged to the county, state, school board or another agency. She discusses learning patience, navigating budgets and processes, listening to residents, and figuring out how to turn problems into solutions within the realities of local government.

We also talk about City Cares, arts and cultural infrastructure, the need to support Black artists, civic education, homeownership, business development, preserving Miami Gardens, and why informed residents are better positioned to hold government accountable and get things done.

This conversation isn't about defending government or attacking it.

It's about understanding it.

Because the better we understand who is responsible for what, how decisions get made and where power actually sits, the better equipped we are to ask the right questions.

And on QNA, Questions Need Answers.

What does it mean to educate beyond the classroom?

In this episode of QNA: Questions Need Answers, Munch sits down with longtime educator, coach, mentor, and community advocate Ashley Toussaint for a conversation about education, identity, youth development, community building, and the responsibility to pour back into the places that helped shape us.

Ashley reflects on more than two decades in education and the experiences that shaped his philosophy of seeing the whole child, building relationships with students, and recognizing that education is about much more than content and test scores.

We talk about teaching in Miami and New York, coaching, mentoring younger educators, Haitian-American identity, running as a tool for community building, and Ashley's eventual return home to Miami.

The conversation also explores his involvement with the Little Haiti Revitalization Trust, neighborhood development, scholarships, preserving Little Haiti and Black Miami, and why residents need to better understand the local institutions and decisions affecting their everyday lives.

Throughout Ashley's journey, education keeps showing up in different forms.

Sometimes it's a classroom.

Sometimes it's a track.

Sometimes it's a conversation.

Sometimes it's helping someone understand what's happening in their own community.

So we ask:

What does it mean to educate beyond the classroom?

What does it take to deliver results when government is increasingly divided?

In this episode of QNA: Questions Need Answers, Munch sits down with Florida State Senator Shevrin Jones for a conversation about legislative experience, political division, bipartisanship, accountability, affordability, and what it takes to turn relationships into results.

Drawing from 14 years of legislative experience, Shevrin reflects on how Tallahassee has changed and how navigating an increasingly polarized political environment has shaped his approach to governing.

We discuss his work on Florida's police body-camera legislation, protecting incarcerated pregnant women, building relationships across party lines, and why he believes effective governing sometimes requires leaders to “lead with people and not lead with policy.”

The conversation also turns toward accountability. Shevrin discusses allowing constituents to evaluate his performance, remaining accessible outside traditional political spaces, and why elected officials need to listen even when the feedback isn't what they want to hear.

Now, as he seeks to take his legislative experience to Congress, we ask:

What does it take to deliver results in a divided government?

QNA doesn't tell you who to vote for. We ask the questions so you can hear directly from the people seeking to serve our communities and make an informed decision for yourself.

In this episode of QNA: Questions Need Answers, Munch sits down with Broadway Harewood for a conversation about community service, homeownership, economic stability, financial knowledge, and moving from helping people with immediate needs to addressing the systems behind those needs.

Broadway shares his own experience of working, saving, buying property, learning how to maintain it, and using ownership as a tool for building greater stability.

But his story doesn't end with his own success.

After learning how to navigate homeownership, Broadway says he helped more than 14 other people become homeowners because he believes people have a moral obligation to share information that can help someone else move forward.

We discuss housing, income, credit, ownership, economic stability, community advocacy, nonprofit work, and why simply helping someone acquire a home isn't enough if they aren't economically positioned to sustain it.

Broadway also explains how years of community service and policy advocacy eventually pushed him toward seeking elected office. After repeatedly working to get lawmakers to address community concerns, he decided he wanted to move from asking others to act to being in a position to help make those decisions himself.

At the center of the conversation is a simple question:

How do you put people in a position to win?

QNA doesn't tell you who to vote for. We ask the questions so you can hear directly from the people seeking to serve our communities and make an informed decision for yourself.

What happens when schools start listening again?

In this episode of QNA: Questions Need Answers, Munch sits down with Thera Johnson, write-in candidate for Miami-Dade County School Board District 1, for a conversation about making public education more responsive to the students, parents, teachers, and communities it serves.

Thera discusses the importance of giving students a larger voice in education, creating stronger communication with parents, supporting teachers, and understanding why some families are choosing alternatives to traditional public schools.

We also talk about literacy, early intervention, career readiness, trades, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, technology, arts education, and whether we're preparing students for the world they're actually entering.

The conversation expands beyond the classroom into the economic impact of the school system. Thera argues that local and minority-owned businesses need better information and clearer pathways to compete for contracts and participate in the opportunities created by public-school spending.

At the center of her approach is a simple idea: before deciding what students, parents, and teachers need, listen to them.

So we ask:

What happens when schools start listening again?

QNA doesn't tell you who to vote for. We ask the questions so you can hear directly from the people seeking to serve our communities and make an informed decision for yourself.

How do you fight poverty through policy?

In this episode of QNA: Questions Need Answers, Munch sits down with Christine Sanon Jules, candidate for Florida State Senate District 34, for a conversation about poverty, economic stability, housing, jobs, healthcare, and what government can do to help families move beyond simply surviving.

Christine shares how community activism and voter engagement shaped her approach to public service and explains why she believes leadership should begin long before someone receives an elected title.

We discuss her proposed Florida Stability Act, which she describes as a revolving emergency fund designed to help qualifying residents cover approximately three months of expenses during unexpected financial hardships.

The conversation also explores housing affordability, increasing homeownership and business ownership, creating jobs, bringing film and television production back to Florida, mental-health resources, telehealth, and making government assistance more accessible to the people who need it.

But Christine also challenges the idea that communities have to wait on Tallahassee to solve every problem. When asked about her first legislative session, she talks instead about bringing community leaders together immediately, listening to residents, and identifying what people can begin doing collectively right now.

At the center of the conversation is a bigger question:

How do you fight poverty through policy?

QNA doesn’t tell you who to vote for. We ask the questions so you can hear directly from the people seeking to serve our communities and make an informed decision for yourself.

In this episode of QNA: Questions Need Answers, Munch sits down with Marshall L. Davis, longtime arts administrator, community leader, and congressional candidate, for a conversation about what it takes to intentionally invest in people and communities.

Marshall reflects on his decades of work with the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center and the philosophy behind helping transform it into an institution focused on serious arts education, cultural development, discipline, exposure, and opportunity.

We discuss why successful programs need strategy, structure, systems, expectations, and measurable outcomes—and why the real measure of a program isn't simply that it exists, but what happens to the people who experience it.

The conversation expands into education, vocational training, marketable skills, housing, economic opportunity, and Marshall's belief that young people should leave our educational systems better prepared to build independent and productive lives.

For Munch, this conversation is also personal because of his own connection to the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center and firsthand experience with the institution Marshall helped build.

At the center of it all is a simple question:

How do you build people, not just programs?

QNA doesn't tell you who to vote for. We ask the questions so you can hear directly from the people seeking to serve our communities and make an informed decision for yourself.