Office of LGBT Affairs Director Amber Hikes is getting some national exposure this week.

She’s featured in the latest episode of queer stand-up comedian and actress Cameron Esposito’s Queery podcast, on which Esposito interviews “some of the brightest luminaries in the LGBTQ+ family.” Past guests have included actress Lea DeLaria, activist Blair Imani and writer Roxane Gay.

The hour-long interview discusses Hikes’ role with the city, the importance of diverse leadership in the LGBTQ community and Philadelphia’s year-old Pride flag with black and brown stripes.

One of Esposito’s first questions is whether Hikes feels a sense of hope while doing her work. Hikes’ answer frames the urgency she felt in response to Donald Trump’s election: She got a call from Mayor Jim Kenney on inauguration day, asking her return from California, where she’d taken a job the year before after working in Philadelphia for over a decade.

“He says, ‘Are you watching this crap?’ And I said,’ You know, sir, I am,'” Hikes recalls. “We had a fairly quick interview, and he ended it with, ‘You gotta get your butt back here, and we need to do this work.’ And I had no intention of really ever being involved in politics; I’m more of an activist, front-lines person, and I hadn’t seen somebody who looks like me doing this kind of work, so I didn’t see myself doing that work. But there were no more sidelines after that election.”

In sum: The work is “more hopeful than I expected it to be.”

Fam, this is surreal. I’m blown away by the opportunity to appear on @queerycast (1 of the largest LGBTQ podcasts in the country) & talk w/ @cameronesposito about Philly’s incredible intersectional justice work, solidarity from positions of privilege & so much more 🙌🏾🌈✊🏾✊🏿 https://t.co/cktuXEoULN

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— Amber Hikes (@AmberHikes) July 23, 2018