Quakers and Wealth

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.