Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education with JESSE HAGOPIAN

Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education with JESSE HAGOPIAN

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JESSE HAGOPIAN on The Radical Healing of Organized Remembering

In this episode on Speaking Out of Place podcast Professor David Palumbo-Liu talks with activist and educator Jesse Hagopian about his new book, Teach Truth: The Struggle for Antiracist Education. They talk about the assault on public education that takes the form of criminalizing the truth itself. They note both the powerful corporate forces behind this movement and what they are afraid of, and also discuss the many instances of people fighting back to name, amplify, and mobilize the truth together.

The Hidden Humans Behind Artificial Intelligence & the Sociopathology of Elon Musk

The Hidden Humans Behind Artificial Intelligence & the Sociopathology of Elon Musk

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& the Sociopathology of ELON MUSK with SARAH T. ROBERTS

AI is reliant on executives and business managers to direct machine learning to promote their brand and low-level, out-sourced, and poorly paid content managers to slog through masses of images, words, and data before they get fed into the machine. They talk about the cultural, sociological, financial, and political aspects of AI. They end by taking on Elon Musk and the DOGE project, as an emblem of how Silicon Valley executives have embraced a brand of tech rapture that disdains and destroys democracy and attacks the idea that people can take care of each other, independent of sociopathic libertarianism.

On the Significance of the Recent Elections in Germany: ADRIAN DAUB on Rushing to the Right

On the Significance of the Recent Elections in Germany: ADRIAN DAUB on Rushing to the Right

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ADRIAN DAUB on Rushing to the Right

In this episode on Speaking Out of Place podcast Professor David Palumbo-Liu talks with Professor Adrian Daub about the recent elections in Germany, where we saw a surge in votes for the Far Right AfD party, which is now the second most powerful party in the country.  They discuss the significance of this rise in popularity and the ways the elections reveal a number of shifts in German politics as the various parties stake out positions that align with not just a center-right orientation but, more dangerously, a far-right one. They speak of the parallels to the recent election of Donald Trump to the US presidency, and what it says about the entrenchment of both neoliberalism and a faux populism based on xenophobia and not serving the actual material interests of everyday people.

TAO LEIGH GOFFE on Poetics, Poesis & Un-making the Climate Crisis

TAO LEIGH GOFFE on Poetics, Poesis & Un-making the Climate Crisis

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with TAO LEIGH GOFFE · Author of Dark Laboratory: On Columbus, the Caribbean, and the Origins of the Climate Crisis

We manage to create a poetics out of that which wishes to destroy us and the planet. How else will we be able to live in ‘the after’? We must reassess what a problem is.  Living is not a problem, as Audrey Lorde reminds us. I would add that dying is not a problem either. Decomposing is essential to the natural order and cycle of life. Living at the expense of others is a problem.

We Grow the World Together: Parenting Toward Abolition with MAYA SCHENWAR & KIM WILSON

We Grow the World Together: Parenting Toward Abolition with MAYA SCHENWAR & KIM WILSON

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Parenting Toward Abolition
A Conversation with MAYA SCHENWAR & KIM WILSON about what inspired them to commission a wide range of amazing activists, artists, scholars, and organizers to write whatever came to their minds about the topic of parenting and abolition. The result is a rich mosaic of unique insights expressed in diverse forms, but each one touching deeply on the interdependency of living beings and the importance of caregiving in all its forms. It is this commitment that leads us always to imagine an abolitionist future for ourselves, and all children.

We Grow the World Together: Parenting Toward Abolition with MAYA SCHENWAR & KIM WILSON

We Grow the World Together: Parenting Toward Abolition with MAYA SCHENWAR & KIM WILSON

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Parenting Toward Abolition
A Conversation with MAYA SCHENWAR & KIM WILSON about what inspired them to commission a wide range of amazing activists, artists, scholars, and organizers to write whatever came to their minds about the topic of parenting and abolition. The result is a rich mosaic of unique insights expressed in diverse forms, but each one touching deeply on the interdependency of living beings and the importance of caregiving in all its forms. It is this commitment that leads us always to imagine an abolitionist future for ourselves, and all children.

From Spy Thrillers to Police Dramas w/ Writer, Creator, Showrunner ALEXI HAWLEY

From Spy Thrillers to Police Dramas w/ Writer, Creator, Showrunner ALEXI HAWLEY

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Showrunner · Writer · Creator
The Rookie · The Recruit

There used to be a time when leading men were okay with falling down as a character. Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones is a prime example of that. Even going back to the fifties, they understood that failure and falling down, but getting back up, is an endearing quality. It's a universal human quality. We have gotten to a point in the last 10 or 15 years, or maybe longer, where leading men often want to win every fight. It’s in their contract: "I have to win every fight" or "I can't fail" or "I can't fall down." It's just such a mistake because the audience roots for you more if they see you fail and then get back up again. Noah is totally comfortable playing that character who's just trying to figure it out on the fly. Sometimes, he gets it wrong, but he's never going to give up. You can really feel that coming off the screen.

Behind the Scenes of The Rookie & The Recruit w/ Showrunner ALEXI HAWLEY

Behind the Scenes of The Rookie & The Recruit w/ Showrunner ALEXI HAWLEY

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Showrunner · Writer · Creator
The Rookie · The Recruit

There used to be a time when leading men were okay with falling down as a character. Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones is a prime example of that. Even going back to the fifties, they understood that failure and falling down, but getting back up, is an endearing quality. It's a universal human quality. We have gotten to a point in the last 10 or 15 years, or maybe longer, where leading men often want to win every fight. It’s in their contract: "I have to win every fight" or "I can't fail" or "I can't fall down." It's just such a mistake because the audience roots for you more if they see you fail and then get back up again. Noah is totally comfortable playing that character who's just trying to figure it out on the fly. Sometimes, he gets it wrong, but he's never going to give up. You can really feel that coming off the screen.

Building Worlds Beyond Modernity’s Double Fracture: A Discussion with Azucena Castro & Malcom Ferdinand

Building Worlds Beyond Modernity’s Double Fracture: A Discussion with Azucena Castro & Malcom Ferdinand

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A Discussion with Azucena Castro & Malcom Ferdinand

Ferdinand discusses the “double fracture”—the environmental division of humans from their connection to the biosphere, and the colonial division instantiated by white supremacism and patriarchy. He insists that we not see these two phenomena as separate, rather as intimately connected. This double fracture makes any attempts to solve either environmental violence or colonial violence ineffective. In her foreword to Ferdinand’s Decolonial Ecologies, Angela Y. Davis writes that as she read the book, she “recognized how perfectly his conceptualizations illuminate the frameworks we need for both philosophical and popular understandings of our planetary conditions today.” The conversation covers how art, film, and poetry can manifest some of those frameworks, and Azucena takes us into a deep discussion of this and reads two poems in Spanish and then in English translation and has Malcom gloss them for us.

Palestinian Poetry Reveals the Truth Institutions Silence w/ HUDA FAKHREDDINE & ANTHONY ALESSANDRINI

Palestinian Poetry Reveals the Truth Institutions Silence w/ HUDA FAKHREDDINE & ANTHONY ALESSANDRINI

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A Conversation with HUDA FAKHREDDINE & ANTHONY ALESSANDRINI about the unique manners in which literature can disclose the human significance of the historical and ongoing genocide in Palestine. Such revelation has to fight at least two things—the sheer brutality and inhumanity of this violence, and the active silencing of Palestinian voices by institutions that, ironically, profess to champion the humanities. Here, once again, we find a pernicious instantiation of the Palestine Exception. Despite these efforts to censor and silence, Huda and Tony delve deeply into the power of Palestinian poetry through translations and readings of some of the most remarkable literature in the world.

Democracy & Economic Inequality w/ Philosopher ARASH ABIZADEH - Highlights

Democracy & Economic Inequality w/ Philosopher ARASH ABIZADEH - Highlights

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Professor of Political Science · McGill University
Author of Hobbes and the Two Faces of Ethics · Assoc. Editor · Free & Equal

There is a tremendous tension between healthy democracy and deep economic inequalities. I don't think that, in the long run, democracies can survive in a healthy way unless we address the problem of economic inequalities. If we have individuals who are living day to day, on the one hand, and we have other individuals who are billionaires in our societies, on the other hand, it will be very difficult for us to have a genuine democracy.

Democracy at a Crossroads: Exploring Modern Political Challenges w/ Philosopher ARASH ABIZADEH

Democracy at a Crossroads: Exploring Modern Political Challenges w/ Philosopher ARASH ABIZADEH

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Professor of Political Science · McGill University
Author of Hobbes and the Two Faces of Ethics · Assoc. Editor · Free & Equal

There is a tremendous tension between healthy democracy and deep economic inequalities. I don't think that, in the long run, democracies can survive in a healthy way unless we address the problem of economic inequalities. If we have individuals who are living day to day, on the one hand, and we have other individuals who are billionaires in our societies, on the other hand, it will be very difficult for us to have a genuine democracy.

Was Stanford Firing 23 Lecturers in Creative Writing Really Necessary?

Was Stanford Firing 23 Lecturers in Creative Writing Really Necessary?

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A Conversation with Lecturers & Students

Recently, twenty-three lecturers in the highly successful Creative Writing program at Stanford were summoned to a Zoom meeting where they were first praised, and then summarily fired. One of the most surprising aspects of this purge is the fact that it was carried out not by top-tier university administrators, but by tenure-track faculty in the program. It was they who decided to brutally terminate their colleagues. On this episode of the Speaking Out of Place podcast Professor David Palumbo-Liu speaks with two of the lecturers who have been told they will leave Stanford in nine months, and one of their students, a published novelist. They explain the devastating nature of this act and share statistics and histories that show this was not at all necessary.  Expediency for senior faculty trumped the survival of a carefully developed and nurtured community of creative writers.

Resisting Fascism & Ecological Collapse with Writer-Organizer-Activist CHRIS CARLSSON

Resisting Fascism & Ecological Collapse with Writer-Organizer-Activist CHRIS CARLSSON

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Writer · Organizer · Activist
When Shells Crumble · Shaping San Francisco · Critical Mass

The novel When Shells Crumble begins in December 2024, when the US Supreme Court nullifies the popular vote in the Presidential election and awards the presidency to an authoritarian Republican, who proceeds to demolish democracy and install a fascistic state that hastens ecological havoc. The novel is much more than your usual dystopian tale—it focuses on how to resist political cynicism and defeatism, and rebuild on planetary wreckage. It is a world-building project filled with wisdom, sadness, and joy. We specifically put this fictional text in conservation with his brilliant non-fiction work, Nowtopia, which offers a radical redefinition of “work” that restores dignity and value to their proper places.

What Do the June 2024 Elections in India Mean? with Angana Chatterji & Siddhartha Deb

What Do the June 2024 Elections in India Mean? with Angana Chatterji & Siddhartha Deb

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What Do the June 2024 Elections in India Mean?

I think that the 2024 national elections in India signaled a slowdown in its slide into authoritarianism, but did not halt it. The BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) and the ways in which it secured votes merit analysis. In his June 4th victory speech, Narendra Modi's rallying cry was "Bharat Mata Ki Jai" (Hail to Mother India), a slogan promoted by Hindu nationalists. It objectifies and feminizes the state, linking control over women and control in general to nationalist assertion. "Bharat Mata" is also associated with "Akhand Bharat," or undivided India, the once and future homeland of Hindus. Modi did not show humility in his speech. Instead, he emphasized the exceptionalism of a third consecutive win, stating, "I believe that the country will write a new chapter of big decisions. This is the Modi guarantee." Nevertheless, he also talked about his government's efforts to weed out forms of corruption, which is ironic given the BJP's recent collusion in the electoral bond scandal.

Highlights - DAVID FENTON - Author of The Activist’s Media Handbook: Lessons From 50 Years as a Progressive Agitator

Highlights - DAVID FENTON - Author of The Activist’s Media Handbook: Lessons From 50 Years as a Progressive Agitator

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Author of The Activist’s Media Handbook: Lessons From 50 Years as a Progressive Agitator
Founder of Fenton Communications: The Social Change Agency
JStreet · Climate Nexus · The Death Penalty Information Center

It sounds like a cliche, but it really is true that history moves in pendulums and waves. And whatever is happening today is not going to last. It will change. So you have periods of concentrations of wealth and power, and then you have periods of rebellion. And I'm quite sure we're headed for another period of rebellion. You can see it a little bit now in the labor strife in the United States and the strikes. You can certainly see it in the massive demonstrations in France and Israel. Excessive concentrations of power breeds rebellion, and that's just inevitable. And the climate crisis is going to cause a lot of rebellion as people figure this out. And I think it's coming very soon, actually, because as you've noticed, the weather is getting very bad. It's become a non-linear accelerating phenomenon. And people will wake up to that. I just hope they wake up in time.

DAVID FENTON - Founder of Fenton Communications, Author of The Activist’s Media Handbook: Lessons From 50 Years as a Progressive Agitator

DAVID FENTON - Founder of Fenton Communications, Author of The Activist’s Media Handbook: Lessons From 50 Years as a Progressive Agitator

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Author of The Activist’s Media Handbook: Lessons From 50 Years as a Progressive Agitator
Founder of Fenton Communications: The Social Change Agency
JStreet · Climate Nexus · The Death Penalty Information Center

It sounds like a cliche, but it really is true that history moves in pendulums and waves. And whatever is happening today is not going to last. It will change. So you have periods of concentrations of wealth and power, and then you have periods of rebellion. And I'm quite sure we're headed for another period of rebellion. You can see it a little bit now in the labor strife in the United States and the strikes. You can certainly see it in the massive demonstrations in France and Israel. Excessive concentrations of power breeds rebellion, and that's just inevitable. And the climate crisis is going to cause a lot of rebellion as people figure this out. And I think it's coming very soon, actually, because as you've noticed, the weather is getting very bad. It's become a non-linear accelerating phenomenon. And people will wake up to that. I just hope they wake up in time.

ANTHONY JOSEPH - T.S. Eliot Award-winning Poet, Novelist & Musician, Lead vocalist of The Spasm Band

ANTHONY JOSEPH - T.S. Eliot Award-winning Poet, Novelist & Musician, Lead vocalist of The Spasm Band

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T.S. Eliot Award-winning Poet, Novelist & Musician, Lead vocalist of The Spasm Band
Author of Sonnets for Albert

The life of Caribbean people is not really documented. So this idea of Caribbean life being fragmented is something that I've had in my mind for a long time. So when I came to write this collection for my father, I realized that it was the same process and what I had were fragments, especially with him, because he wasn't around in a physical sense all the time. So all I had were little photographs, scattered memories, and remembrances. They're little parts of his life and parts of my experience with him... I never disliked my father. I always loved him and always was fascinated and captivated by him.

Highlights - MICHAEL BEGLER - Showrunner of PERRY MASON starring Matthew Rhys, Juliet Rylance - THE KNICK starring Clive Owen, dir. Steven Soderbergh

Highlights - MICHAEL BEGLER - Showrunner of PERRY MASON starring Matthew Rhys, Juliet Rylance - THE KNICK starring Clive Owen, dir. Steven Soderbergh

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Showrunner · Writer & Executive Producer
Perry Mason starring Matthew Rhys, Juliet Rylance, Shea Whigham, Hope Davis
The Knick starring Clive Owen · directed by Steven Soderbergh

Storytelling is our oldest art form. We can't silence the arts and those voices because if we do, we lose something that is so crucial to who we are just as human beings. We want to tell stories. We want to express things. For example, I cannot draw. And one day the teacher wanted us to do negative space drawings. And I said, "What is that?" And they explained that it's looking at what's around the object and not the object. And it clicked, and it made me look at things from a whole different perspective. And you know, what? That became where I was most successful. And so for me, there's are an infinite number of ways to tell a story that you never run out of ideas, that you can always find another road, another way to look at something. That's probably one of the key elements to my career.

MICHAEL BEGLER - Showrunner of PERRY MASON starring Matthew Rhys, Juliet Rylance, Shea Whigham, Hope Davis

MICHAEL BEGLER - Showrunner of PERRY MASON starring Matthew Rhys, Juliet Rylance, Shea Whigham, Hope Davis

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Showrunner · Writer & Executive Producer
Perry Mason starring Matthew Rhys, Juliet Rylance, Shea Whigham, Hope Davis
The Knick starring Clive Owen · directed by Steven Soderbergh

Storytelling is our oldest art form. We can't silence the arts and those voices because if we do, we lose something that is so crucial to who we are just as human beings. We want to tell stories. We want to express things. For example, I cannot draw. And one day the teacher wanted us to do negative space drawings. And I said, "What is that?" And they explained that it's looking at what's around the object and not the object. And it clicked, and it made me look at things from a whole different perspective. And you know, what? That became where I was most successful. And so for me, there's are an infinite number of ways to tell a story that you never run out of ideas, that you can always find another road, another way to look at something. That's probably one of the key elements to my career.