Speak Out with Tim Wise

On this week’s episode, Tim speaks with activist, author, and leading progressive movement strategist, Rinku Sen. They discuss why it's important for progressives to bridge the work being done by anti-Trump activists (who focus mostly on challenging the Administration’s corruption and authoritarian tendencies) with broader issue-oriented social justice efforts, and why both community organizers and electoral campaigners have lots to learn from one another. Additionally, she and Tim discuss the strategic and conceptual value of intersectionality when it comes to movement building, and how it can help clarify the importance of identity to our experiences, while yet building bridges between people that avoid the sometimes isolating elements of so-called identity politics. Finally, they discuss the importance of storytelling and narrative to the building of progressive movements, as well as the recent Golden Globes protest, and the value of celebrities taking up progressive causes, amid criticism and pushback to them doing so.

This week on Speak Out with Tim Wise, Tim speaks with Dr. Christopher Emdin, author of the award-winning and best-selling books, "Urban Science Education for the Hip-Hop Generation," and "For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood…and the Rest of Y’all Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education."

Emdin, who is a professor of Math, Science and Technology at Teacher’s College (Columbia University), is a leading expert on ways to engage and inspire young students of color in school by connecting their daily lived experiences, styles of communication and natural genius to academic learning. On this episode, Tim and Chris discuss this “reality pedagogy,” and how teachers so often resist its use, settling instead for stale and failed approaches to educating such students. They also discuss the myth that money alone will solve the issues facing urban education, the problem of white savior syndrome manifested by many white teachers in black and brown communities, and the way that oftentimes even educators of color adopt habits and mentalities that further marginalize children of color.

A must-listen-to episode on a critical topic for all educators, parents, and persons concerned about the future of schooling in America.

This week on Speak Out With Tim Wise, Tim speaks with filmmaker Ramsey Denison, whose award-winning documentary, "What Happened In Vegas" exposes the corrupt and brutal workings of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. While most Americans only came to think about law enforcement in Vegas in the wake of last October’s mass shooting, Denison explains that the LVMPD has a pattern of deeply rooted abuse and misconduct, little of which has ever resulted in officers being held accountable.

Focusing specifically on four recent cases in which Las Vegas police killed innocent and unthreatening civilians, Denison shines a light on this culture of corruption, and the way in which the casinos and press in Las Vegas do their part to keep a lid on stories of wrongdoing. With regard to the October mass shooting by Stephen Paddock on the Vegas strip, Denison notes that the casino called a "back line” to the police, rather than 911 when the shooting began — something they do when high rollers are involved — and that this likely delayed the police response to the tragedy. Tim and Ramsey discuss the film and the stories it tells, and what needs to be done to restore confidence and integrity to the Las Vegas police department.

This episode also includes Tim’s weekly commentary, discussing the recent government shutdown and the capitulation by Democratic Party leadership to the GOP’s weaponization of DACA and the Dreamers

With many progressives focused on fighting Donald Trump — exposing collusion with Russia, possible money-laundering, and other misdeeds — and others continuing (as before the election) to focus on fighting broader issues of xenophobia, racial inequity in policing and systemic misogyny, there is an important question to ask: what is the proper balance for the left? How much should we focus on Trump or Trumpism, and how much should we emphasize the larger struggles that we were engaging before he burst on the political scene?

On this episode, Tim speaks with CNN contributor, author and longtime activist Sally Kohn about these matters. How will the Democratic Party respond to Trump in 2018 and 2020? Will they make Trump the issue or put forth an agenda that people will vote for, rather than simply voting against a particular individual in the White House? How will they navigate the tensions between those who criticize “identity politics” and claim there is too much focus on issues of race, gender and sexuality, (and not enough on the “working class”), and those who insist it is people of color, women as women and LGBT folks who are the most reliable bases of the Democratic coalition, and thus it is those voters to whom Democrats must principally appeal?

Oh, and they’ll also discuss why Sally hates cruise ships and why she penned an essay claiming that Oprah Winfrey would make an exceptional president. And in his weekly commentary, Tim will explain why despite her excellent speech at the Golden Globes, and her general decency as a human being, an Oprah presidency is far from something that progressives should ultimately support.

What does it mean to grow up a black Republican, and conservative in America? And especially as the right has increasingly relied upon race-baiting and white racial resentment for votes? On this week’s episode of Speak Out with Tim Wise, Tim speaks to someone who has been there, done that, and has emerged with a newfound political independence and determination to force both major parties to take seriously the concerns of people of color and the poor. Political consultant and writer Charles Badger has worked for such GOP figures as Mitch McConnell and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and worked as an outreach coordinator on the 2016 presidential campaign of Jeb Bush. But as the Republican Party finds itself in thrall to Trumpism, Charles has struck out in a different direction, hoping to bring his insights from a life on the right to a politics of inclusion, integration and serious policy analysis aimed at uplifting those most in need.

On this episode, Tim and Charles discus the state of the nation, the de-evolution of black conservatism, the forces behind Trumpism, and what policy prescriptions might begin to narrow the gaps between white folks and folks of color in America, and between the economic haps and have nots.

This episode also features Tim's commentary on the way conservatives are still trying to rationalize stop-and-frisk policing, even as crime has continued to plummet in New York City without it, despite their insistence that ending the practice would lead to chaos and bloodshed.

Words are just letters on a page, or sounds traveling through the air when spoken, except when they’re more than that. For Birmingham-based writer and poet Michael Harriot — whose essays are featured at The Root and whose spoken word performances have lit up audiences across the United States — words are much more. They are tools at the very least, and weapons at the most, for crafting truth in a society built on lies.

On this episode, Tim speaks with Michael about some of his recent essays about race in America: about the trouble with white liberals and colorblindness; white deflection techniques to avoid hard conversations about racism; the difference between institutional racism and personal bias, and the racial meaning of the recent Alabama Senate election among other things.

The episode also features Michael’s spoken word performance of his poem “My Mama So Black,” performed at the 2017 International World Poetry Slam Finals, and Tim’s commentary about the quixotic search for those elusive Obama-to-Trump voters folks like to talk about so as to "prove" that Trump's appeal isn't due to racism.

Conscience or Commerce? Sometimes the choice is a difficult one, especially as a songwriter, and particularly in a mostly country genre, where political music (especially with an unapologetically progressive message) risks turning off some fans, and certainly record labels. Luckily for Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Will Hoge, being an independent artist has allowed him to make a good living doing what he loves and to speak his mind about the issues of the day when the occasion calls for it.

For nearly 20 years Will has been touring non-stop, churning out album after album of live and studio work, building a huge fan base and tackling topics including the plight of the poor, immigration, religious phoniness, the killing of Trayvon Martin, the confederate flag and the power of the gun lobby in the face of mass killings—all this, in between the necessary and also excellent songs about love, loss, whiskey and regret, which so often define the genre in which he operates.

On this episode, Tim speaks to Will about his more political work, what inspired him to take risks in crafting those songs, how he developed his own consciousness around these issues, and how a near-fatal accident in 2008 impacted his mentality about the career he chose, as well as his outlook on family and life in general.

Amid competing concerns about “fake news” and media bias — whether coming from conservatives who think the media is slanted left, or progressives who feel the press carries too much water for Trump, Wall Street and the right — one thing is certain: the media continues to present disproportionately negative images of black families, contributing to racial bias and reactionary public policy.

On this week’s episode Tim speaks with Dr. Travis Dixon (University of Illinois), a media effects scholar who studies racial stereotypes in mass media and the impact of stereotypical imagery on audience members. They discuss his latest study, conducted for Color Of Change and Family Story, which examined the way media frames stories about African American families.

Dixon found a clear tendency for media to over-represent black families as poor, welfare dependent, criminal and lacking in paternal involvement, relative to the what the factual data says about the state of black families in America. The policy implications of these findings are discussed, as are solutions to the problem of racial bias in media narratives.

Also on this episode, Tim’s weekly commentary concerns the resurrection of budgetary “Scroogism” among Republicans as they push tax cuts for the wealthy and threaten program cuts for the neediest among us.

Tired of living in a “post-truth” political world where lies become “alternative facts” and social media facilitates the spreading of nonsense faster than ever before? Worried about the way we often find ourselves, and others, in walled-off political and cultural silos, only hearing things that reinforce our pre-existing assumptions? Concerned about the way our brains seem almost wired for irrationality? You’re not alone. And luckily, things are not hopeless!

On today's episode, I'll speak with Dr. Gleb Tsipursky, a professor at Ohio State University who specializes in the science of irrational decision making, and is committed to fostering fact-based inquiry and rationality in our daily and political lives. As co-founder of the “Pro-Truth Pledge,” Tsipursky is pushing for a renewed commitment to accuracy, fact-checking and honesty in our daily discourse, whether on social media or in politics. And as Tsipursky explains, there are strategies we can employ to foster the search for truth, short-circuit our own tendencies to irrational thinking, and encourage the same in others.

This episode also features my commentary on the “post-truth” claims of conservatives and Republicans, to the effect that “they are the party of civil rights and anti-racism,” in which I explain the historical deception behind such a claim.

When we think of theology or philosophy or ethics, we often think of mere theory, either received from authorities on high or taught in stale classrooms, without real world, daily applicability to pressing social concerns. But Dr. Robyn Henderson-Espinoza — this week’s guest on Speak Out with Tim Wise — knows that real liberation requires the blending of theory and practice. As a Transqueer Latinx activist (they/their/them pronouns), and public theologian committed to expanding our moral horizons, Henderson-Espinoza expresses in clear and bold terms, “crucified people are my people,” and discusses what it means to engage a truly liberatory theology and ethics. Challenging state violence — which is, after all, what crucifixion represents, in both literal and metaphorical terms — is the highest responsibility of persons committed to social justice. As Robyn and Tim discuss in this episode, only by doing so in an intersectional way (and challenging the binaries that so often divide us) can true liberation for all — oppressed and oppressor — be obtained.