Episodes 38 - 27 |  Episodes 26 - 14  |  Episodes 13 - 1   ​ 
Release Date: June 5, 2017
Length: 39:28
Transcript coming soon
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Soundcloud 
Episode 13: The Underground Railroad
with Dr. Eve L. Ewing 

A magnificent story of a young Black women's journey through the Underground Railroad. Her story confronts the nature of slavery, with each stop along her way revealing a different aspect of bondage and resistance. Haunting and deeply human, the story conveys both the horrors of bondage and the humanity of those who lived it.  

For this episode, Monica and Page sat down with writer, scholar, and cultural organizer, Dr. Eve L. Ewing, to discuss the importance of Colson Whitehead's novel, The Underground Railroad. 

Listener's Note: Spoiler around the 11:20 minute mark, so if you haven't read the book yet, skip to 12:20!

Key Questions: What is speculative fiction? Why should organizers read and study fiction? How does this story change our understanding of what slavery was, and what it meant to get "free?" How do we teach young people about the horrors of slavery?
Release Date: May 29, 2017
Length: 55:58
Transcript coming soon
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Soundcloud
Episode 12: At the Dark End of the Street 
with Mariame Kaba 

At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance–a New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power by Danielle L. McGuire traces the roots of the Civil Rights Movement directly back to campaigns waged in defense of Black womanhood against sexual violence.

​For this episode, Monica and Page sat with their friend, mentor, and inspiration, Mariame Kaba, to talk through the details and significance of this repressed narrative.  Mariame Kaba is an abolitionist organizer, educator, and curator. She is the co-founder of Project NIA, and her work focuses on ending violence, dismantling the prison industrial complex, transformative justice, and supporting youth leadership development.

Listener's Note: This conversation includes description of rape and sexual violence, so please listen with care. 
 
Key Questions: What are the foundations of the modern day Black freedom struggle? Who was Recy Taylor and how did her story impact the Civil Rights movement? Why was Rosa Park's image changed publicly post-bus action? Why is Reconstruction history important? 
 
Release Date: May 22, 2017
Length: 32:28
Transcript coming soon
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Soundcloud 
Episode 11: Orientalism
with Hoda Katebi 

Written in 1978 by Palestinian intellectual Edward Said, Orientalism is a seminal text critiquing the cultural representations that are the bases of Orientalism - how the Western world perceives the Orient.

Monica and Page talked with Muslim-Iranian writer, community organizer, and creative educator Hoda Katebi to understand how this book is relevant in our current political moment, and to help us breakdown core concepts and key vocab that Said delves into throughout the book. 
 
Release Date: May 15, 2017
Length: 51:24
Transcript coming soon
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Soundcloud 
Episode 10: Direct Action
with L.A. Kauffman 

What happened to the American left after the sixties? L.A. Kauffman explores this in their first book Direct Action: Protest and the Reinvention of American Radicalism. Kauffman brings a long view of movement history, having spent more than thirty years immersed in radical movements, as a participant, strategist, journalist, and observer.

Page sat down with this wonderful book’s author to learn more about “what works” from the past 40 years of struggle.

Key Questions: What is direct action? What is the relationship of “identity politics” to the left? What lessons can we learn the history of protest since the 1960s? What works? Do large groups and mass mobilization matter?
Part 1 
​Release Date: April 24, 2017
Length: 40:43
Transcript coming soon
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Soundcloud 
Part 2 
Release Date: May 8, 2017 
Length: 25:26
Transcript coming soon
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Soundcloud
Episodes 8 and 9: Political Process and Black Insurgency 
​with Jasson Perez

Political Process and the Development of the Black Insurgency, 1930-1970 by Doug McAdam presents a political-process model that explains the rise and decline of the Black protest movement in the United States during the time period of 1930 to 1970.

Jasson Perez is a Chicago-raised Black scholar and organizer with 16+ years of experience, from labor to the movement for Black Lives. In this episode, Page chats with Jasson in a two-part series discussing McAdam's book. 

Key Questions: What is disruptive power? What is insurgency? How does insurgency and disruption change under a Trump administration? How do people who are already struggling to survive participate in insurgency? What are examples of disruption from the Civil Rights movement and today?
 
Release Date: April 17, 2017
Length: 49:35
Transcript coming soon
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Soundcloud
Episode 7: Parable of the Sower 
with Dominique Barron, Page May, and Bettina Johnson 

​Born and raised in Chicago, Dominique Barron has spent the past several years living and organizing in London. She's back in Chicago now and currently a member of Assata's Daughters and the People's Response Team. Joined by special guest host, Bettina Johnson, Dominique talks about Parable of the Sower, a 1993 science fiction novel by the late Octavia Butler, a book that provides chillingly relevant commentary on climate change, corporate greed, and inequality. 

Key Questions: How can we prepare for crisis? How do we affect change? What does it mean to survive? What can science fiction teach us about organizing, community, and preparing for change?
 
Release Date: April 10, 2017 
Length: 31:29
Transcript coming soon
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Soundcloud 
Episode 6: Rules for Revolutionaries 
with B. Loewe

Originally from the Maryland suburbs of D.C., B. Loewe was recruited into social justice work by his older sister, and was a key organizer of the 2010 Detroit-based U.S. Social Forum, and currently Mijente's Communications Director. Page chats with B about Rules for Revolutionaries: How Big Organizing Can Change Everything by Becky Bond and Zach Exley, recently published in November of 2016. 

Key Questions: What does big organizing mean? What is the organizing intervention of this book? How does a book about an electoral campaign relate to smaller, grassroots campaigns​​?
 
Release Date: April 3, 2017
Length: 41:37
Transcript coming soon
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Soundcloud
Episode 5: Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex
with Pidgeon 

In this episode, Page and Monica chat with Chicago-based intersex activist Pidgeon about the book Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex by Alice Dreger. Pidgeon is a leader in the global intersex movement’s fight for bodily autonomy and justice.

Listener's Note: This conversation includes descriptions of genital mutilation, so please listen with care. 

Key Questions: What is intersex? What is the difference between sex and gender? How does intersex disrupt the gender binary? ​What are the ways intersex people are affected by policing of gender & sex? 

​
 
Release Date: March 27, 2017
Length: 51:41
Transcript coming soon
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Soundcloud 
Episode 4: Transgender History
with Benji Hart 

Page May and Monica Trinidad unite for an episode! They sit down with Benji Hart, a Chicago-based author, artist, and educator whose work centers Black radicalism, queer liberation, and prison abolition. Their words have appeared in numerous anthologies, and been published at Teen Vogue, Time, The Advocate, and elsewhere.

Page and Monica talk with Benji about the book Transgender History by Susan Stryker, which covers American transgender history from the mid-twentieth century to today.

Key Questions: What are key terms and concepts related to transgender histories? What are some of the ways and historic moments trans communities have resisted? What can we learn from this history, especially in the current organizing against police violence? How do we better grow our movement for gender liberation?
 
Release Date: March 20, 2017
Length: 37:02
Transcript coming soon
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Soundcloud ​
Episode 3: Burning Country 
​with Ramah Kudaimi 

Monica Trinidad and guest host Bettina Johnson speak with Ramah Kudaimi, a Syrian-American activist and organizer currently living in D.C. Monica and Bettina chatted with Ramah via a video call about the book Burning Country: Syrians in Revolution and War by Leila Al-Shami and Robin Yassin-Kassab.

Ramah serves on the board of the Washington Peace Center, is a member of the Syrian Solidarity Collective, and the Muslim Women's Policy Forum. She also serves with the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, working as a BDS organizer, and BDS stands for Boycott, Divest and Sanctions.

Key questions: How did the Syrian revolution begin? What role did art & social media play in the revolution? What did U.S.-based solidarity look like? What could've been different?
 

​Release Date: March 13, 2017
Length: 51:09
Transcript coming soon
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Soundcloud ​
Episode 2: Black Reconstruction in America
with Nathan Ryan, Debbie Southorn, and Page May

Assigned as essential reading to many local, Chicago organizers by prison abolitionist Mariame Kaba, Black Reconstruction in America: 1860-1880 by W.E.B. DuBois details the role that Black people played in reconstruction after the Civil War, when Black people were freed from slavery and began reconstructing American society. 

Page May chats with Nathan Ryan of Grassroots Collaborative, and Debbie Southorn of American Friends Service Committee to discuss this critical text. 

Key Questions: What was reconstruction? What are some of the gains made by Black people in this time? What is the potential of reconstruction? ​
 
Release Date: March 6, 2017
Length: 52:50 
Transcript coming soon
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Soundcloud ​
Episode 1: I've Got the Light of Freedom
with Quinn Rallins, Tess Raser, Dominique Barron and Monica Trinidad
​
I've Got the Light of Freedom by Charles M. Payne offers an in-depth history of the early civil rights movement in the South, uplifting the work of Ella Baker, Septima Clark, and community members leading on-the-ground work in places like Greenwood, Mississippi. 

In this first episode, Monica and Dominique speak with Tess Raser, an organizer with Assata's Daughters and Quinn Rallins, social activist and organizer.

Key questions: What is organizing? How do you build sustainability? What is slow & respectful work? Are mass meetings effective?  
<< Episodes 38 - 27 |  Episodes 26 - 14  |  Episodes 13 - 1 ​