Ear to the Pavement

By Allison Lirish Dean

What's Ear to the Pavement about?

Ear to the Pavement is a podcast about radical urban social movements. We feature interviews with people who are thinking, writing, working, and organizing on the front lines of transformative urban planning and policy.

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Ear to the Pavement episodes:

01.19.2023
Deconstructing Feminism: Yasmin Nair on The Right to Sex
In episode 25, the third installment in our Deconstructing Feminism series, Allison and author and activist Yasmin Nair discuss "The Right to Sex" by Amia Srinivasan, situating it in relation to Kyla Schuller's "The Trouble With White Women" and Rafia...
09.01.2022
Deconstructing Feminism: Yasmin Nair on White Feminism, Part II
Episode 24 is part two of Allison's conversation with writer and activist Yasmin Nair, about White Feminism, and about two books on the topic: "The Trouble With White Women" by Kyla Schuller, and "Against White Feminism" by Rafia Zakaria. This...
08.10.2022
Deconstructing Feminism: Yasmin Nair on White Feminism, Part I
Episode 23 is the first in a new series with writer and activist Yasmin Nair, about contemporary feminist books. We begin the series with an examination of two recent titles: "The Trouble With White Women" by Kyla Schuller, and "Against...
04.07.2022
Adolph Reed, Jr. on "The South: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives"
In episode 22 of "Ear to the Pavement" - the first in a new series about the American South - Allison talks with Professor Adolph Reed, Jr. about his new book, "The South: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives," published in...
02.10.2022
The Death of the Composer as Social Critic: Marianna Ritchey on "Composing Capital"
The expectation of radical self-sufficiency is a hallmark of the neoliberal U.S. economy in the early 21st century, and the arts are no exception. The rise of the discourse and practice of "musical entrepreneurship" within the classical music field is...
10.22.2021
Mindy Thompson Fullilove on Main Street as a 21st-Century Machine for Living
In episode 20, Allison speaks with author and social psychiatrist Mindy Thompson Fullilove, about her book "Main Street: How a City's Heart Connects Us All." In it, Fullilove argues for a vision of Main Street - from large cities ...
06.07.2021
Deconstructing #MeToo: Jennifer Hirsch, Shamus Khan, and Lacy Crawford on "Sexual Citizens"
In episode 19, the fifth in a series about books related to #MeToo, Allison speaks with authors Jennifer Hirsch and Shamus Khan about "Sexual Citizens" (2020). It's a book that everyone seems to be talking about, and for good reason:...
12.31.2020
Deconstructing #MeToo: Yasmin Nair on "Know My Name"
In episode 18, the fourth in a series about books related to #MeToo, Allison talks again with author and activist Yasmin Nair, this time about Chanel Miller's 2019 memoir, "Know My Name." The book is a blistering and tender account, from...
09.16.2020
The Antiracist Movement and the Class Question, with Bill Fletcher, Jr.
The tension between race and class that continues to bedevil the American left flared up recently when a talk that prominent scholar Adolph Reed was slated to give to the New York City chapter of DSA was cancelled. The skirmish...
08.22.2020
Deconstructing #MeToo: JoAnn Wypijewski on Sex, Power, and the Politics of Fear
In Episode 16, the third in a series about books related to #MeToo, Allison talks with NYC-based journalist JoAnn Wypijewski about her recent book, "What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About #MeToo: Essays on Sex, Authority, & the...
05.12.2020
Deconstructing #MeToo: Yasmin Nair on "Catch and Kill"
In Episode 15, the second in a series about books related to #MeToo, Allison talks again with Chicago-based writer, academic, and activist Yasmin Nair about "Catch and Kill," Ronan Farrow's 2019 book reconstructing his efforts to report the Harvey Weinstein...
04.03.2020
Repurposing the Webs of Infection as Webs of Connection, with Mindy Thompson Fullilove
In Episode 14 of Ear to the Pavement, Allison talks with professor and author Mindy Thompson Fullilove about how her past work on public health crises such as 9/11 and the AIDS epidemic is informing her current thinking about the...
03.16.2020
Snake Emojis, South Carolina, and the State of the Sanders Campaign, with Bill Fletcher, Jr.
In Episode 13 of Ear to the Pavement, Allison talks with author and labor activist Bill Fletcher, Jr. about the Bernie Sanders campaign's victories and mistakes, why Sanders failed to win over black voters in the South, the Sanders-Warren rift,...
02.16.2020
Deconstructing #MeToo: Yasmin Nair on "She Said"
In this episode, the first in a series about books related to #MeToo, we talk with Chicago-based writer, academic, and activist Yasmin Nair about "She Said," the 2019 book by New York Times reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. Nair...
08.14.2019
How today's politically ineffectual billionaire CEOs make the corporate elites of the 1950s look like moderate pragmatists.
In his 1956 book The Power Elite, sociologist C. Wright Mills painted a disturbing picture of U.S. society in which a small group of people at the heads of corporations, government, and the military exercised increasing control over important decisions...
12.21.2018
It's not just HQ2. Amazon has been stealing public money from the start.
The billions in tax breaks Amazon is slated to receive for its new headquarters in New York and Virginia has been big news lately, but for tax policy watchdog and Good Jobs First founder Greg LeRoy, Amazon's HQ2 is just...
09.18.2018
Corporate America is embracing racial equity. Should we cheer them on?
Social justice non-profit PolicyLink has documented how a focus on racial equity has led to more business success for companies like PayPal, Prudential, and Gap, and they're using these examples to convince more corporations to embrace racial equity. But where...
04.22.2018
Living on 90 Percent Less Energy: Can We Do It for Climate Justice?
Of all of the things there are to worry about in the Trump era, climate change is at the top of the list. But the failure to act effectively on climate long predates Trump. Anne Peterman, executive director of Global...
11.28.2017
Everyday Radicals: What #TheResistance Can Learn From the League of Revolutionary Black Workers
In too much American political discourse, economic issues and identity issues are treated separately, even though they're deeply connected. This has been divisive and disastrous for the Left. But what does a politics that truly integrates race and class look...
09.17.2017
Take Back the Land beat Bank of America. Here's how they did it.
In Episode Five of Ear to the Pavement, housing organizer Rob Robinson recounts his journey from homelessness to the housing movement, and explains how Take Back the Land, an organization he co-founded, used radical organizing to successfully fight the corporate...
05.02.2017
Do We Need a Breitbart of the Left?
Since Trump was elected, leftist independent media outlets have been on the rise. Current Affairs Magazine is at the forefront of this movement. In this episode, Current Affairs founder and editor, Nathan J. Robinson, talks about the experiences that led...
04.04.2017
The Urgency of Community Media in an Era of Noise
In Episode Four of Ear to the Pavement, documentary filmmaker and teacher Louis Massiah talks about the importance of using media to focus attention on the concerns and experiences of ordinary people. One of the country's most important and celebrated...
02.22.2017
Revisiting Root Shock in an Age of Mass Displacement
As more and more people are displaced by gentrification, war, deportation, economic instability, and other forces, the concept of "Root Shock" is as relevant as ever. In Episode Three of Ear to the Pavement, psychiatrist, author, and scholar Mindy Thompson...
01.23.2017
Inauguration Special: Unpacking Trump
In Episode Two of Ear to the Pavement, we present an extended interview with planning scholar, author, and activist Tom Angotti about his personal reaction to the rise of Donald Trump, how we got here, his biggest concerns, and how...
11.13.2016
The Brooklyn Wars
In Episode One of Ear to the Pavement, Allison Lirish Dean speaks with New York City-based journalist and author Neil DeMause about gentrification and development in Brooklyn, and his new book, The Brooklyn Wars: The Stories Behind the Making of...

What's Ear to the Pavement about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Ear to the Pavement episodes:

Deconstructing Feminism: Yasmin Nair on The Right to Sex

Deconstructing Feminism: Yasmin Nair on White Feminism, Part II

Deconstructing Feminism: Yasmin Nair on White Feminism, Part I

Adolph Reed, Jr. on "The South: Jim Crow and Its Afterlives"

The Death of the Composer as Social Critic: Marianna Ritchey on "Composing Capital"

Mindy Thompson Fullilove on Main Street as a 21st-Century Machine for Living

Deconstructing #MeToo: Jennifer Hirsch, Shamus Khan, and Lacy Crawford on "Sexual Citizens"

Deconstructing #MeToo: Yasmin Nair on "Know My Name"

The Antiracist Movement and the Class Question, with Bill Fletcher, Jr.

Deconstructing #MeToo: JoAnn Wypijewski on Sex, Power, and the Politics of Fear

Deconstructing #MeToo: Yasmin Nair on "Catch and Kill"

Repurposing the Webs of Infection as Webs of Connection, with Mindy Thompson Fullilove

Snake Emojis, South Carolina, and the State of the Sanders Campaign, with Bill Fletcher, Jr.

Deconstructing #MeToo: Yasmin Nair on "She Said"

How today's politically ineffectual billionaire CEOs make the corporate elites of the 1950s look like moderate pragmatists.

It's not just HQ2. Amazon has been stealing public money from the start.

Corporate America is embracing racial equity. Should we cheer them on?

Living on 90 Percent Less Energy: Can We Do It for Climate Justice?

Everyday Radicals: What #TheResistance Can Learn From the League of Revolutionary Black Workers

Take Back the Land beat Bank of America. Here's how they did it.

Do We Need a Breitbart of the Left?

The Urgency of Community Media in an Era of Noise

Revisiting Root Shock in an Age of Mass Displacement

Inauguration Special: Unpacking Trump

The Brooklyn Wars