This week I had the pleasure of talking on The Hardcore Humanism Podcast with none other than the legendary Jello Biafra. Many people know Biafra – born Eric Reed Boucher -- as the front man of the seminal hardcore punk group Dead Kennedys. Dead Kennedys are generally considered one of the greatest punk rock bands of all time, and both Rolling Stone and Revolver have called their album Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables one of the greatest punk rock records of all time. And Biafra is considered by many to be one of the greatest punk rock vocalists of all time, with Far Out Magazine succinctly concluding, “…Jello Biafra was truly one of a kind.” More recently Biafra has been working with his band, Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine, on their new album Tea Party Revenge Porn. 

For many people, Biafra was not only a great vocalist, songwriter and performer, but also the living embodiment of the confrontation of authority. Confronting authority artistically and politically often revealed one of Biafra’s gifts -- to be able to take complex issues such as racism and censorship and point us in a direction that seemed ultimately straightforward: racism is wrong, free speech is important. 

And yet, not all confrontations of authority can be so neatly divided into right and wrong, or good and evil. So, I was very grateful to discuss with Biafra what is for many of us the most complicated confrontation – our understanding and connection with our parents. For many of us, our parents are our first authority figures and how we resolve the confrontation with our parents’ authority can have an impact on how we see ourselves, the world, and how we approach future conflict. 

 Biafra and I spent a great deal of our conversation talking about his relationship with his father, the late Stanley Boucher. Stanley Boucher was a psychiatric social worker who among other things was truly committed to working towards improving community access to mental health care. And one of the interesting things that emerged from that conversation was that even for someone as bold and strident as Biafra, how we understand our parents can be confusing and complicated. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Jello Biafra and find some insights that can be helpful in your life and in your relationships with your parents!

 If you enjoy the podcast, I’d be so grateful if you’d leave a rating and review! 

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices