Outside Issues

This month we talk about Israel and the language surrounding Zionism, holding fast to our belief in equal dignity and rights for all people. Audrey visits a Seattle town hall featuring Pramila Jayapal about January 6th and the creeping threat of white nationalism. Hasan Piker’s bid to elect Socialists and progressives to Senate and Congressional seats, challenging the Democratic establishment, kicks the big donor hornet’s nest. In Audrey’s clinical work, clients lose medicaid, housing, food and transportation, which sometimes leads to suicides.  DSA’s recent electoral advances kindle our hope that democracy might one day deliver the material support and challenge to imperial violence people around the world are desperately seeking.

Opening quote by Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (MI)

Main show theme is “Strangers” by Midnight Prisms

Music and lyrics by Alicia Beck

Music and production by Max Foreman

Mastering by Little Castle Sound

Please follow and listen to Midnight Prisms on Spotify!

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3o5jiLSZMoSXNWL98UBxYI?si=sK-K7IoUSp-QfFKgUwVY7A

Main logo art by Patrick Mitchell and Angelina Harvey (@graffitifucks on Instagram)

This month we sit down with mother, wife, addiction counselor, and former dockworker Lorie E. Garcia, who decades in recovery still speaks at meetings, sponsors women and fosters animals to square herself with a God of her understanding. We talk about the Steps, immigrant advocacy, and healing from racism and misogynous traumas through not only the rooms of AA but therapy and “outside help.”

Opening quote by U.S. Senate nominee Angie Nixon

Main show theme is “Strangers” by Midnight Prisms

Music and lyrics by Alicia Beck

Music and production by Max Foreman

Mastering by Little Castle Sound

Please follow and listen to Midnight Prisms on Spotify!

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3o5jiLSZMoSXNWL98UBxYI?si=sK-K7IoUSp-QfFKgUwVY7A

Main logo art by Patrick Mitchell and Angelina Harvey (@graffitifucks on Instagram)

Audrey welcomes friend and colleague Katherine “Wren” Hamilton, a Dialectal Behavioral Therapy (DBT)-focused social worker. Wren began her journey towards helping others first from her own struggles with anxiety and suicidal ideations. Recovery from a host of addictions and traumas can often be traced to some form of “radical acceptance.” What Wren shares with clients and accesses herself through DBT can also help Audrey to manage her mental health struggles and Patrick to manage his breakup. If we press our emotions down, they’re bound to re-emerge at inopportune times. Feel to heal, and don’t judge your judging!

Opening quote by Maria Bamford

Rest in peace Kavinsky and Glen Hansard.

Rest in piss Lindsay Graham.

Mitch McConnell, thoughts and prayers.

Main show theme is “Strangers” by Midnight Prisms

Music and lyrics by Alicia Beck

Music and production by Max Foreman

Mastering by Little Castle Sound

Please follow and listen to Midnight Prisms on Spotify!

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3o5jiLSZMoSXNWL98UBxYI?si=sK-K7IoUSp-QfFKgUwVY7A

Main logo art by Patrick Mitchell and Angelina Harvey (@graffitifucks on Instagram)

After touching on Pride Month and trans dignity, Audrey talks about her joy, pressures, and long term goals in helping others heal, while Patrick discusses taking a chip for 8 years of continuous sobriety. Expressions of hope and joy are vital countermessaging in the era of Trump.

Opening quote by Zohran Mamdani

Main show theme is “Strangers” by Midnight Prisms

Music and lyrics by Alicia Beck

Music and production by Max Foreman

Mastering by Little Castle Sound

Please follow and listen to Midnight Prisms on Spotify!

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3o5jiLSZMoSXNWL98UBxYI?si=sK-K7IoUSp-QfFKgUwVY7A

Main logo art by Patrick Mitchell and Angelina Harvey (@graffitifucks on Instagram)

Patrick Newman, Audrey Comber, 12 Steps, Recovery, Addiction, LGBT, Pride Month

Audrey and Patrick welcome Melanie C. to talk about second chances, disillusionment with electoral politics, and Michael Clayton. Covid lockdown, parental support and medication-assisted treatment helped Melanie find recovery from a fifteen year opiate addiction. Reading Edward Said in college began her education on Palestine and her advocacy for humanity and liberation.

We shouldn’t demand that revolution and resistance come in the ideological manner we prefer. We aren’t okay with our comfort coming at the expense of human lives. As a practice, Melanie suggests that when it comes to social and political critique, we also put mirror on ourselves: how are we contributing to our communities, to our civics, beyond posting?

Follow Melanie on Twitter: @benzostraydogs

Her Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/benzostraydogs/

Opening quote by filmmaker Paul Verhoeven, about Starship Troopers

Anna Scanlon’s Substack: https://substack.com/@rockfoils

Main show theme is “Strangers” by Midnight Prisms

Music and lyrics by Alicia Beck

Music and production by Max Foreman

Mastering by Little Castle Sound

Please follow and listen to Midnight Prisms on Spotify!

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3o5jiLSZMoSXNWL98UBxYI?si=sK-K7IoUSp-QfFKgUwVY7A

Main logo art by Patrick Mitchell and Angelina Harvey (@graffitifucks on Instagram)

Nick Casaccio joins us to talk about Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine and its twin dynamics of alcoholism and codependency, relating Mark Kerr’s struggles to our own recoveries. Addiction has a habit of migrating, and we discuss how gambling, shopping, and relationships have taken our stories down new rabbit holes. Nick finished school while he was in treatment more than thirteen years ago, and through Covid, bodybuilding, relationship struggles and physical ailments has continually offered himself in fellowship.

The ultimate purpose of celebrating recovery milestones is to inspire newcomers and share our experience strength and hope to those who still suffer.

Opening clip by Mark Kerr, from a 2009 interview

Episode cover art by Perry Kneisel

Main show theme is “Strangers” by Midnight Prisms

Music and lyrics by Alicia Beck

Music and production by Max Foreman

Mastering by Little Castle Sound

Please follow and listen to Midnight Prisms on Spotify!

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3o5jiLSZMoSXNWL98UBxYI?si=sK-K7IoUSp-QfFKgUwVY7A

Main logo art by Patrick Mitchell and Angelina Harvey (@graffitifucks on Instagram)

Audrey welcomes another wounded healer to Outside Issues: spiritual advisor Matthew Blankinship, who helps professionals and peers get stronger in their 11th Step. To become an expert in any field, Matthew believes ten years and ten thousand hours are required, to graduate from “digging the ditches to building the high rise.”

After a traumatic brain injury, paralyzed muscles and Vegas nerve severance (among other injuries), Matthew dedicated his life to healing at age 33, beginning his life anew. Divine wisdom - which aided Matthew in his own recovery as it helps Audrey recover from trauma and grief - is something with only light in it. It works for everyone.

Our highest and best goods project outward to people and the planet. Politics at their best, can be an extension of this. Mental health care and a spiritual practice give us the tools to keep ourselves in check so we can then help others.

Follow Matthew on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattblankinship

Opening clip by Brad Dourif and David Milch

Main show theme is “Strangers” by Midnight Prisms

Music and lyrics by Alicia Beck

Music and production by Max Foreman

Mastering by Little Castle Sound

Please follow and listen to Midnight Prisms on Spotify!

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3o5jiLSZMoSXNWL98UBxYI?si=sK-K7IoUSp-QfFKgUwVY7A

Main logo art by Patrick Mitchell and Angelina Harvey (@graffitifucks on Instagram)

Filmmaker and humanist Anna K. Scanlon joins the pod to talk about her recovery from hopelessness, which has led to a great period of creative synthesis culminating in “Toss Up,” her recently-completed film inspired by a career working on political campaigns.

Anna's recovery came from a lot of places, notably a nudist resort in Mexico where she found herself after Bernie’s 2020 campaign hit the rocks. With her inspiration she pairs a capacity for forming strategies and executing plans. Moreover, her recovery’s focus on “romanticism rather than reason”, on love instead of anger, has given her a new lease on life. 

Anna’s Substack: https://substack.com/@rockfoils

“25 Propositions about the New Romanticism” by Ted Gioia: https://substack.com/home/post/p-184683172

Opening clip by Wagner Moura via ACLU

“You read something which you thought only happened to you, and you discover that it happened 100 years ago to Dostoyevsky. This is a very great liberation for the suffering, struggling person, who always thinks that he is alone. This is why art is important.”

― James Baldwin, Conversations with James Baldwin

Main show theme is “Strangers” by Midnight Prisms

Music and lyrics by Alicia Beck

Music and production by Max Foreman

Mastering by Little Castle Sound

Please follow and listen to Midnight Prisms on Spotify!

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3o5jiLSZMoSXNWL98UBxYI?si=sK-K7IoUSp-QfFKgUwVY7A

Main logo art by Patrick Mitchell and Angelina Harvey (@graffitifucks on Instagram)

Audrey and Patrick welcome Minneapolis native and clinician Brian Dyke to talk about community responses to state violence. The joy in working with recovering people in these tough times can be found through helping them discover their inherent sense of individuality. Looking towards the future and continued ICE occupation in Minneapolis and other American cities, we must remember: these things will only continue to happen as long as they’re allowed to happen.

Opening clip and quote by Ilhan Omar, U.S. Representative for Minnesota’s 5th Congressional District

U.S. Citizens Testify About DHS/ICE’s Use of Violent Force: https://www.youtube.com/live/UagENT1CAP0?si=D2_DhzlAA7Mgvn5Y

The Paramilitary ICE and CBP Units at the Center of Minnesota's Killings: https://www.wired.com/story/ice-cbp-srt-bortac-units-immigration-operations/?utm_brand=wired&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=aud-dev&fbclid=IwY2xjawP048NleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeR8OQvx5qLqSWcxMLq9EARy9T9RjzUAlf3hE3z65GFLQVJuMvmX6ySK-Nrn8_aem_jFvtTipjPFexdNQl4BdOJA

The Execution of Alex Pretti Broke Me: https://youtu.be/nDEAWxG7Bq8?si=uKTHrze3yEn-vRMP

Main show theme is “Strangers” by Midnight Prisms

Music and lyrics by Alicia Beck

Music and production by Max Foreman

Mastering by Little Castle Sound

Please follow and listen to Midnight Prisms on Spotify!

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3o5jiLSZMoSXNWL98UBxYI?si=sK-K7IoUSp-QfFKgUwVY7A

Main logo art by Patrick Mitchell and Angelina Harvey (@graffitifucks on Instagram)

Every member of the Trump administration is an abuser. Audrey and Patrick discuss Trump’s execution of Stephen Miller’s vision in American cities but most recently in Minneapolis with the murder of Renee Good. Today we mull our new reality of a President not just waging war abroad but on his domestic population, with misogyny and white supremacy at the tip of the spear.

Opening clip and quote by Chase Iron Eyes of Ogala Sioux

https://www.fox9.com/news/oglala-sioux-leaders-seek-missing-members-detained-ice-minneapolis?utm_source=chatgpt.com

This Isn’t 2020: https://www.ettingermentum.news/p/this-isnt-2020

The Anti-'Abolish ICE' Crowd is Living in the Past: https://open.substack.com/pub/discourseblog/p/the-anti-abolish-ice-crowd-is-living?r=ffyqp&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Main show theme is “Strangers” by Midnight Prisms

Music and lyrics by Alicia Beck

Music and production by Max Foreman

Mastering by Little Castle Sound

Please follow and listen to Midnight Prisms on Spotify!

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3o5jiLSZMoSXNWL98UBxYI?si=sK-K7IoUSp-QfFKgUwVY7A

Main logo art by Patrick Mitchell and Angelina Harvey (@graffitifucks on Instagram)

Closing quote by Hasan Piker