This episode is a conversation with Ryan Watson, recorded on September 5, 2020.

Ryan is an activist and a member of Socialist Alternative. This is a far-ranging conversation about the work of the Socialist Alternative, the relationship between the economic justice and racial and social justice, the two-party system, America's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, apathy vs. activism, disaster capitalism,  questions of strategy concerning the use of "the s-word" in American politics, and much more.

I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did.

Some links to check out:

2020: A Historic Indictment of Capitalism: https://www.socialistalternative.org/2020/08/12/2020-a-historic-indictment-of-capitalism/

The Role of the Working Class in Fighting Racism: https://www.socialistalternative.org/2020/06/26/the-role-of-the-working-class-in-fighting-racism/

Ryan's speech at a Justice for George Floyd rally in June: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CD-J6KSJQ1y/?igshid=pt6dovrgjtub

Website of the International Socialist Alternative: https://internationalsocialist.net/

Music for this episode: Good Night by Siobhan Dakay (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/SiobhanD/60107 Ft: MyVanillaworld

Episode art: Yours truly.

This episode is a conversation with my long-time friend Chris Dart, recorded on August 29, 2020.

Chris lives and works in Oregon, and we begin our conversation by talking about how different the response to COVID-19 has been in sparsely populated Oregon from the response in cities like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. From there, the conversation jumps around to the simple life, music in general and movie music in particular, authenticity, materialism, purposeful living, and the truism that quantity does not equal quality.

This is a fun conversation, and perhaps a bit more light-hearted than previous episodes.

Enjoy.

Music for this episode: Good Night by Siobhan Dakay (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/SiobhanD/60107 Ft: MyVanillaworld

Episode art: Photograph by yours truly.

This episode is a conversation with Jacob Torbeck.

Jacob is a PhD candidate at Loyola University in Chicago's Integrated Studies in Ethics and Theology program. Jacob and I have crossed paths many times over the past 20 or so years, but have never gotten to know each other well. In this conversation, we talk a bit about his background, then turn to a host of other topics: Jesuits and liberation theology, the unity and diversity within Catholicism, Jake's faith and his reasons for pursuing theology as an academic discipline, teaching theology and ethics to college students, faith, and the relationships between faith and science, faith and institutions, and faith and today's party politics.

Enjoy.

Things to Check Out (shared by Jacob):

The Left Side of the Church (article published in Jacobin, available here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2018/12/church-liberation-theology-latin-america-left)

The Violence of Love: Quotations from Archbishop Romero (free book, available here: http://www.romerotrust.org.uk/homilies-and-writings/violence-love)

Silence by Shusaku Endo (book, available here: https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?cm_sp=SearchF-_-topnav-_-Results&kn=Endo%20Silence&sts=t)

Book debunking the "skills gap" myth:

About halfway through our conversation, I got sidetracked talking about STEM and the myth of the "skills gap." If you're interested in that topic, check out the book Why Good People Can't Get Jobs: The Skills Gap and What Companies Can Do About It by Peter Cappelli (available here: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/why-good-people-cant-get-jobs-peter-cappelli/1110912284)

Music for this episode: Good Night by Siobhan Dakay (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/SiobhanD/60107 Ft: MyVanillaworld

Episode art: Photograph by yours truly.

This episode is a conversation with Sherry Nelson, recorded on August 16, 2020.

Sherry is a long-time activist and a teacher for Chicago Public Schools. She teaches 8th grade in Little Village, a Chicago neighborhood in which the vast majority of the residents are of Mexican descent. 

The conversation begins with Sherry's background as an educator and then quickly turns to U.S. foreign policy in Central and South America. Sherry has been an activist most of her life, and saw first-hand the effects of U.S. foreign policy in Nicaragua (which she visited briefly in the late 1980s) and in El Salvador (where she lived for 1 and 1/2 years in the mid-1990s). While in college, she also studied abroad in Ecuador and Mexico.

During the last half hour of the show, we turn to current events—specifically COVID, the "virtual" re-opening of Chicago Public Schools in the fall, and what it means for parents, teachers, and students. 

Enjoy. 

Music for this episode: Good Night by Siobhan Dakay (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/SiobhanD/60107 Ft: MyVanillaworld

Episode art: Photograph by yours truly.

This episode is a conversation with Cortney Ritsema. (Twitter: @CRitsem)

Cortney is my neighbor—and more importantly an activist, a mother, a clinical psychologist, and more. In this episode, we talk about political activism, Cortney's work over a decade ago as a counselor at a detention facility for "unaccompanied minors," and finally the reopening of Chicago Public Schools in the fall.

If you want to jump around, here is a brief overview of our conversation with approximate begin times. 

6:40 – Our conversation begins. We discuss how we met and Cortney's activism, including her work with the Bernie Sanders presidential campaigns. 

17:00 – We begin discussing Cortney's previous work as a therapist at a detention facility for "unaccompanied minors"—immigrant children who are in the United States unlawfully. 

57:40 – The conversation turns to how Chicago Public Schools is dealing with the COVID pandemic and CPS's plans for virtual instruction this fall. 

1:22:00 – Mostly a rant about the economy  and politics (for people who are into that sort of thing). You get to hear me butcher the GINI index (I spell it "ginny" in the episode) and basically confuse it with the happiness index.  (See Wikipedia article on the Gini coefficient/index here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient; and info on the World and Happiness Report 2020: https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2020/)

Raise your Hand Illinois (https://www.ilraiseyourhand.org/) is a coalition of parents, educator's, and community members that engages, informs and empowers parents to protect and strengthen public education for all children in Chicago and Illinois, eliminate inequities in public schools, and work at the grassroots for the public good that is public education.

Here is the video that Cortney references in the episode. In the video, she talks about her experience working as a therapist at a detention facility for "unaccompanied minors": https://www.facebook.com/LaVillitaSolidaridad/videos/2600880970169863/?extid=vSFifFqJ7RJKmbDS&d=null&vh=e

Becoming Better Beckys (https://www.facebook.com/groups/273580743477751/?ref=share) is a Facebook group that Cortney started 2 years ago. It's an online forum for white women who are ready to acknowledge their own aspects of "Beckyness" and begin to do the very difficult, but  necessary work of addressing issues of white privilege, racism, and  white supremacy. 

Episode art: Photograph by yours truly.

This episode is a conversation with Katie Gore—a speech language pathologist, an entrepreneur, a communications educator, and a friend. The conversation begins with Katie's origin story as an American growing up in Canada. We then discuss various topics, including the intersection of class and stuttering (and other disabilities), as well as the challenges of discussing politics in a culture in which the words most often used in our political discourse lack shared or agreed-upon meanings.

Katie is the founder of speech IRL, a  Chicago-based company that provides speech therapy for persons who  stutter, as well as a variety of other speech- and  communications-related therapies, classes, and consultations.

Good Night by Siobhan Dakay (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/SiobhanD/60107 Ft: MyVanillaworld

Photograph by yours truly.

This episode is a conversation with Lara Scott, a visual artist living in upstate New York. We begin by talking about Lara's background, with the conversation centering around her thoughts on growing up in a mixed family: the families of both her mother and father have been multi-ethnic/multi-racial going back many generations. The conversation then turns to current events. Among other things, we discuss whether the notion of whiteness needs to be retired (and what that means) and the Black Lives Matter movement. Our conversation was recorded on July 25,  2020.

If you would like to provide feedback or let me know that you'd like to come on the podcast for a conversation, you can contact me at [email protected].

The image for this episode is a photo of the painting Orchid Study by Lara Scott.

You can find out more about Lara and her art—and how to purchase her work—by visiting https://themetamerquarterly.blogspot.com/.

Here is a list of people, readings, websites, and quotes that Lara selected as being relevant to our conversation:

People: Jessica B. Davenport, Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, Opal Tometi

Readings: Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class, by Lawrence Otis Graham; Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination, by Toni Morrison

Websites: http://occupywallst.org/ — https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/ — https://blacklivesmatter.com/

Quotes:

“The world found nothing sacred in the abstract nakedness of being human.”

“Identity would seem to be the garment with which one covers the  nakedness of the self: in which case, it is best that the garment be  loose, a little like the robes of the desert, through which one's  nakedness can always be felt, and, sometimes, discerned. This trust in  one's nakedness is all that gives one the power to change one's robes.”

"Oh, yes, they do. We have a fantastic time as we  try to figure out, 'And now, what are the new songs, and what are the  new words?' For instance, let me just mention one word that we’ve been  working with lately. I’ve been on a campaign encouraging people as we  think about the beloved community to stop using this word 'minority,'  that there is something negative about that terminology because it  always suggests that somebody else is the majority. The fact is, we are  all now creating a new majority. We are all part of this beloved  community. In community, the concept of minority simply doesn’t work.  You don’t have a minority in a family. So we have got to get new words,  new songs, new possibilities for ourselves."

Music for this episode:

Good Night by Siobhan Dakay (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/SiobhanD/60107 Ft: MyVanillaworld

In this introductory episode, I talk about the what and why of this podcast.

In short, the format of the podcast (initially) will be interesting conversations with interesting people who are interestingly not famous. People you've probably never heard of but who have something of substance to say. 

Also, if you'd like to come on the podcast and talk to me, I'd love to talk to you. So get in touch. You can reach me at [email protected].

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Info about the exit music for this episode:

Good Night by Siobhan Dakay (c) copyright 2019 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/SiobhanD/60107 Ft: MyVanillaworld