George McCalman is an artist, a writer, an illustrator, and a designer. This man does it ALL. He spent many years as a magazine creative director, shaping the look and feel of publications such as Mother Jones, Readymade, Afar. Then he opened up his own studio, McCalman Co, where he collaborates on branding, design, and editorial projects. This year his work was nominated for a National Design Award for communication design. He’s a writer. He shows his fine art in galleries. He created the Observed column for the San Francisco Chronicle, in which he illustrated his observations of the city’s cultural life. Recently, he worked on chef Bryant Terry’s new book, Black Food, which is a gorgeous tribute to the foodways of the African diaspora and is out next week. George is also deep in the work of creating Illustrated Black History: Honoring the Iconic and the Unseen, which will be out next year.

LINKS

McCalman.co

Return to Sender / Tell Me Three Things I Can Do

Illustrated Black History

Black Food

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How fixed are we in our ways of being and doing things? We're always confronting change, but how much can we choose it? These are some of the big ideas through small moments Jade Chang tackles in her Audible Original, You've Already Changed Your Life: A Recipe for a Revelation. Jade is a friend of the podcast, deep thinker, and author of the excellent novel, The Wangs vs. The World.

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In a special episode brought to you by Rewire News Group, we go deep on the conservative push to regulate and ban abortion in Texas and Mississippi with Imani Gandy and Jessica Mason Pieklo of the Boom Lawyered podcast. 

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Emily Ladau and Kelly Dawson return to dispel dull narratives around disability and go beyond the 101. How coping with fragility creates resilience. How friendships deepen with the knowing and trust that disabled people share. What allyship looks like to them as physically disabled women. The hypocrisies of non-disabled people's reactions to COVID, and, in its wake, how we can all look more closely at what it means to live a full life.

LINKS:

Kelly Dawson

Emily Ladau

Emily’s new book, Demystifying Disability 

Demystifying Disability, Emily and Kelly’s 2019 conversation for CYG

On becoming friends with a non-disabled person - Cup of Jo

What is disabled motherhood like? - Cup of Jo

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Dr. Anita Hill made history in 1991 when she testified to the Senate Judiciary committee about the sexual harassment perpetrated against her by Clarence Thomas. After the all-white, all-male committee led by then-Senator Joe Biden heard Dr. Hill's testimony, Clarence Thomas was confirmed to the US Supreme Court. 

In the 30 years since, Anita Hill has spent her career as a law professor hearing from survivors of gender-based violence, ranging from harassment (which she expected) to assault. In her new book, Believing, she connects the dots between the systems that empower abuse and minimize vulnerable people, and the culture that keeps us as bystanders. From that history, she tackles the policy solutions we'll need to reform the system from the inside and the social courage we'll need to muster to transform it. 

As Dr. Hill's book focuses on gender-based violence and discrimination, there is factual discussion in this episode about the existence of sexual harassment, assault and abuse. Survivors, please take good care when listening. 

Links:

Believing

Anita Hill’s opening statement in her 1991 testimony

Biden expresses regret to Anita Hill

From the CYG archive: Joe Biden Problems

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A simple question with loaded answers. 

On today's episode, we unravel a few of those knots with Courtney Martin and Dr. Dena Simmons, whose interracial friendship has weathered distance, accountability, academic rigor, heartbreak, and mutual support. They met over a decade ago when Courtney profiled Dena for her book about young activists, Do It Anyway. At the time, Dena was a classroom teacher. Since then she has earned her PhD and is writing her own book about breaking up with whiteness, the forthcoming White Rules for Black People.

Dena also gave Courtney notes on a subsequent book, Learning in Public, about Courtney's decision to send her white child to her neighborhood school in Oakland, rather than seeking a private school or other public school that centered whiteness. Dena's notes and questions to Courtney are included in footnotes and strikeouts in the main text. 

This is a conversation about building better schools, deeper community, and how friendship can be at the heart of our activism. 

Learning in Public by Courtney Martin

Dena's website

Courtney's website

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Don't today's conspiracy theories make UFOs and JFK conspiracy theories seem quaint, almost sweet? Dr. Stacy Wood breaks down how independent communities of belief have accelerated online. It's not only the fault of social media, but as we reorganize how we search and find information, Facebook, YouTube, Google, and others are all part of how we have become so entrenched in our beliefs. 

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Comedy and art criticism don't exactly sound like parallel career paths. But after bouncing from a freelance hustle to a fancy art world job to improv classes, Christina Catherine Martinez realized she wanted to do both. We talk about how she navigates making a life and a career as an intellectual and a comedian, how alike those performances are on social media, and how power and money infect everything. One place she is sharing her voice is in her book, Aesthetical Relations. 

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As OnlyFans flips and flops on the sex workers that built its platform, we revisit our interview with Lorelei Lee on the history of sex work legislation. Lorelei is a writer and performer who discusses how sex work is neither purely exploitative nor purely empowering. Instead, like all work, it's complicated.

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Miranda Bennett has long been one of our favorite designers. We discuss how she got started making and selling clothes, how she balances running a sustainable business with keeping the lights on, and tips for shopping sustainably (even though we know there is no ethical consumption under capitalism).

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