Intersectionality Matters!

Host Kimberlé Crenshaw continues Intersectionality Matters' 2026 election coverage with anti-racist educator and AAPF Sr. Fellow Tim Wise, and journalist Kirsten West Savali. Together, they go behind the headlines from the last week to connect the dots, and discuss polling data relevant to African American voters.

New episodes drop weekly on Fridays through November 3rd.

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When a Cornell student known as Jane Doe came forward alleging she was assaulted by seven fellow students, the "Cornell Seven", it ignited a national firestorm. It also resurfaced an old pattern of institutional betrayal that universities, police, and the legal system have repeated for decades when women report sexual abuse.

In this episode, host Kimberlé Crenshaw is joined by philosopher Kate Manne and journalist Kirsten West Savali to examine the Cornell case alongside that of Kendall Francis, a Black student at LSU whose story received a fraction of the attention. Together, they trace the through line from Anita Hill to Tarana Burke, interrogate the "bro code" and himpathy that shield perpetrators, and ask why the public still struggles to side with the most vulnerable.

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Music by Blue Dot Sessions

Host Kimberlé Crenshaw

Sr. Producer Nicole Edwards

Associate Producer Aniah Francis

Cover Art Ashley Julien

Research from The African American Policy Forum

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Host Kimberlé Crenshaw launches Intersectionality Matters' 2026 election series with philosopher Jason Stanley (How Fascism Works) and journalist Kirsten West Savali. Together they connect three headlines: the raid on Rep. Ilhan Omar's home, the plan to live-stream a public execution, and AOC's remark that "woke 1.0 was crazy", into a unified portrait of a democracy under fascist threat.

New episodes drop weekly on Fridays through November 3rd.

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Music by Blue Dot Sessions

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Honouring the life and legacy of Gloria Steinem, host Kimberlé Crenshaw is joined by scholars Beverly Guy-Sheftall and Salamishah Tillet for an intimate conversation about the ways Steinem touched their lives, and affected history.

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Host Kimberlé Crenshaw and author Jamilah Lemieux reflect on how it feels to release their first memoirs.

On the heeels of the release of Backtalker: An American Memoir, author Kimberlé Crenshaw embarks on a series of conversations with fellow Backtalkers — those who speak truth to power and habitually challenge injustices that others deem unfixable. This is episode two. For the inaugural episode of the series, go back to episode 79 with Cheryl Harris.

In this episode, you'll hear abou the reclamation of “baby mama,” how popular culture and respectability politics shaped perceptions of Black families, and Lemieux’s shifting understanding of how we define family. The conversation traces the Moynihan Report’s lasting influence across Black political thought, and connects it to debates about Black solidarity across genders, accountability for harm to Black women, and policy priorities in inititiatives like My Brother’s Keeper. Lemieux also discusses what motivates her to keep Backtalking, despite backlash.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

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America turns 250—the momentous milestone comes to us cloaked in surreality. Anniversaries usually ask us to remember. This one asks whether we are willing to remember everything.

This episode explores why, after two and a half centuries, our national narrative still clings to the anti-Blackness embedded in the nation’s founding, all while insisting that this bleak history no longer deserves our attention.

How do we commemorate a republic built by people whose lives, labor, knowledge, and testimony are continually erased from the stories we tell about America? 

Host Kimberlé Crenshaw is joined by Sarah Lewis, Clint Smith, Mark Rosenbaum, and Ibram X Kendi.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions

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Host Kimberlé Crenshaw and celebrated legal professor Cheryl Harris discuss the creative process and anticipated release of Crenshaw's latest book, Backtalker: An American Memoir.

Crenshaw’s memoir traces the way her lived experience made her see things others didn’t. It chronicles the earliest moments she starts to talk back, and the journeys that backtalking has taken Crenshaw on throughout her life. 

Music courtesy of Blue Dot Sessions.

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Host Kimberlé Crenshaw is joined by award-winning radio host Dr. Kaye Wise Whitehead and playwright and feminist activist V (formerly Eve Ensler), author of The Apology. Together they discuss the 2026 NCAA Women's Final Four game, where coach Geno Auriemma aggressively confronted Coach Don Staley after she led her team to victory against his.

They discuss the mysogynoir of this moment, the insufficient apologies that followed, and what genuine accountability requires.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

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On Cesar Chavez Day and the close of Women's History Month, host Kimberlé Crenshaw and award-winning radio host Kaye Wise Whitehead unpack a painful reckoning: recent New York Times revelations of sexual abuse by labor icon Cesar Chavez, including allegations from movement co-founder Dolores Huerta, who broke her silence at age 95. Together they explore why survivors delay disclosure, how hero worship in liberation movements hurts women and girls, and the tension between honoring a movement's legacy while confronting its darkest truths.

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This episode is an act of recovery, uplifting the artistic careers that McCarthyism upended through an immersive blend of conversation and artivism performances. This is part two. Click here for part one.

Host Kimberlé Crenshaw is joined by award-winning filmmaker Ava DuVernay; Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen; and former President of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and film scholar Jacqueline Stewart.

Hear powerful artivism performances by two-time Tony Award winning actor Kara Young (Purlie Victorious, Purpose) and Tony-nominated actor Jon Michael Hill (Purpose, Elementary, Detroit 1-8-7, A Man in Full), directed by Professor of Theatre and Africana Studies at Oberlin College Justin Emeka.

Music by Blue Dot Sessions.

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