Co-hosts Robin Renée and Wendy Sheridan get ready for The Leftscape‘s summer hiatus and share some of their plans for the season. Wendy makes a big announcement about being chosen to create an outdoor fiber arts display for the Rahway Train Station. Robin’s season will be a bit more relaxed; they’ll perform a couple of shows and go to quite a few more, attend a retreat and plan another for the fall, and catch some time in the sun.

Wendy initiates this episode’s featured conversation with her July 4th tarot reading. It may or may not be a “reliable source” of information, but it sparks insight and ideas about our current situation, what the future may hold for the United States over the course of the next year, and how we might take action. In an extended Pièce de Résistance, Wendy and Robin offer some activist work we can continue over the season including seeing what’s next in the No Kings movement, working with mutual aid groups, and attending a Good Trouble Lives On event on July 17th. The Timeline Cleanse entries touch on challenging topics but are ultimately uplifting; Robin reflects on the the final Ozzy Osbourne/Black Sabbath show and Wendy reports on Australian scientists who have reversed Parkinson’s in mice.

Have a great summer (or winter, if you’re Down Under)!

Things to do:

Follow The Leftscape on social media @leftscape and give us a shout!

Get ICEBlock in the App Store or wherever you get your apps.

Learn about what is in the Big (Horrible) Bill.

Check out Wendy’s stuff on Etsy.

Listen to the Saved By Zero show by Robin (DJ Andrew Genus) on Radio PVS and Mixcloud.

Listen to Robin Renée on Spotify.

Watch two adorable otters on a cat wheel in a pool!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OLGHaMtHYA&t=253s

Isabella Braveheart is an evolutionary performance artist and activist, speaker, playwright, director and producer who transmutes the pains of humanity into the voice of truth through bold multimedia transmissions and heart-centered, experiential events in service of bringing our global family back to wholeness and love. She has been called a Deep Water Heart Surgeon and an Urban Priestess and she calls herself a heart-trepreneur. Don’t miss her spoken word performance of “Patriot” and her thoughts on how we might reclaim this fraught term while prioritizing personal, then societal healing.

To start off the show, co-hosts Wendy Sheridan and Robin Renée chat in Timeline Cleanse about an unusual item on display at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the recent Sky Farm Arts & Music Festival in Basking Ridge, NJ. Robin and Wendy recount their No Kings Day experiences in Pièce de Résistance and discuss some activists’ tendency toward protest gatekeeping. Wendy shares another brief and important principle from On Tyrrany.

Things to do:

Learn more about Ithe work of Isabella Braveheart on her website and keep up with her on Instagram and Facebook.

Find out more about SPREAD, an evocative evening for the distinguished palate.

Read On Tyrrany: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century by Timothy D. Snyder.

After No Kings Day, stay politically active!

Check out Sky Farm.

Listen to Robin Renée on Spotify.

Listen to the Saved By Zero show by Robin (DJ Andrew Genus) on Radio PVS and Mixcloud.

Check out Wendy’s stuff on Etsy.

Go see a 200-year-old condom in Amsterdam! (or at least read the article)

Watch “ReDefining Patriotism by Isabella Brāveheart.”

https://youtu.be/4q_ot6yatyg?si=C1bIKfymcSwKwrQE

Co-hosts Robin Renée and Wendy Sheridan head back to the Blanket Fort this time to regroup, check in, and hide out. But there’s not much actual hiding to be had from the firehose of news and unrest. They catch up on the intentional ways they each are staying sane through the mayhem — painting, gardening, exercising, immersing in fiction, and curating the news for personal consumption among them. ICE raids, the National Guard, and the chaos stoked in Los Angeles can’t be ignored, nor can thinking about ways to protest in the streets and elsewhere, wishing for the least violence and the greatest impact. They think about the role of their creative works and consider writing some “political earworms.” Wendy might revive and complete one of her old songs, “Men of Stone.”

For the Timelime Cleanse that starts the show, Wendy is happy with her newly painted art storage box and Robin describes a jello mold drag relay race that was pure joy. The biggest Pièce de Résistance this time around is the upcoming No Kings Day on June 14th, while the Pope seems to have scheduled some counterprogramming of his own. Wendy reads from On Tyrrany followed by a discussion and Robin reads a new brief reflection/response piece, “Why So Much Pride?”

Things to do:

Join a June 14th No Kings Day protest: Indivisible, FiftyFifty.one/events.

Stay safe and know your rights.

Listen to Episode 172 for Anji Marth’s ideas for being prepared and helpful at protests.

Read On Tyrrany: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century by Timothy D. Snyder.

Watch “LA protests LIVE: View from Los Angeles”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMcCbwLCAYc

Listen to the Saved By Zero show by Robin (DJ Andrew Genus) on Radio PVS and Mixcloud.

Check out Wendy’s stuff on Etsy.

Jam out to this internet classic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuWVgVkMiHE

Naila Francis is a certified grief coach and death midwife. As the founder of This Hallowed Wilderness, she helps people transform their relationship to grief and loss through one-on-one coaching, workshops, rituals and ceremonies. Naila is also a founding member of Salt Trails, a Philadelphia collective normalizing grief through community rituals. In this featured conversation, she shares about offering compassion, the necessity of healing from both personal losses and greater world tragedies, and the “fierce aliveness” that often emerges from moving through our deepest emotional work.

Co-hosts Wendy Sheridan and Robin Renée open the show with some levity in the Timeline Cleanse segment – this time on the pleasures of sipping Negronis and petting jellyfish. They are ready for the rainbow celebrations of June and contemplate an “All Lives Matter” moment at a Pride march. Visibly celebrating LGBTQ+ Pride is one of the recommended actions in Pièce de Résistance, along with picking up some feminist reading and attending a No Kings Day protest. Wendy reads another brief exerpt from On Tyrrany.

Things to do:

Learn more about Naila Fracis and her work on the This Hallowed Wilderness website, on Instagram, and on Facebook.

Attend the Philadelphia Death and Arts Festival, May 29 – June 1, 2025.

Join a June 14th No Kings Day protest: Indivisible, FiftyFifty.one/events.

Read The Flytrap – worker-owned, reader-supported intersectional feminist journalism to unfuck your algorithm.

Read On Tyrrany: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century by Timothy D. Snyder.

Visit the National Aquarium.

Celebrate Pride!

Have a Negroni!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgy6vEX_hQg

Rev. Dr. Beverly Dale, also known as “Rev. Bev,” is a sociologist-turned-pastor who has made a career of teaching a pleasure-centered, justice-focused, and sex-positive Christianity as an ecumenical campus minister at the University of Pennsylvania, as faculty at Lancaster Theological Seminary, and as a local pastor. Her latest book is Who Told You That You Were Naked? Meditations on the Sexual Body from PIlgrim Press. It is a book to help people heal from the problematic teachings about sexuality from the Church by offering tools to help people feel comfortable about their body and pleasure.

Before the featured conversation, co-hosts Robin Renée and Wendy Sheridan share Timeline Cleanse info on an uplifting environmental book and a cat with (at least) two names. The arrest of Ras Baraka and the upcoming June 14th protests are the focus of the Pièce de Résistance segment. Robin reads their new essay, “Fool Me Twice” and Wendy puts forth another principle outlined in On Tyrrany.

Things to do:

Read Who Told You That You Were Naked? by Beverly Dale.

Keep up with Rev. Bev at BeverlyDale.org and on BlueSky, Facebook, YouTube, and Substack.

Join a June 14th No Kings protest: Indivisible, FiftyFifty.one/events.

Read On Tyrrany: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century by Timothy D. Snyder.

Read What if We Get It Right? by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson.

 Anji Marth has been a professional tattoo artist and painter since 1999. Her published books include Tar and Gravel, Knuckle Sandwich, the Resonant Eye series, The Horrors Coloring Book for Adults, and the Paintings From Quarantine series, painted during the pandemic. She also works in taxidermy as assemblage art as well as illustration. A longtime activist, Anji grew up in coal country, Pennsylvania and has lived in the Pacific Inland Northwest for almost 30 years. In this featured conversation, she discusses her recent experiences in activism in Spokane, WA and what inspired her to create and distribute a new zine aimed at getting people DOING THINGS.

Earlier in the show, co-hosts Robin Renée and Wendy Sheridan share Timeline Cleanse news about the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame and the Nature Conservancy, Wendy gives info to get people ready for nationwide May 1st protests in Pièce de Résistance, and Robin shares about hearing the inspiring Darryl McDaniels (DMC) speak at the FenceSitter Film Festival last weekend in Bernardsville, NJ.

Things to do:

Learn more, get zines, get art, and/or get tattooed by Anji Marth at ResonantEye.net.

Join a May Day protest: FiftyFifty.one/events

Check out Leftscape.com for previous shows by Anji Marth and Kyle Schickner.

Listen to some Run-D.M.C.!

https://open.spotify.com/artist/3CQIn7N5CuRDP8wEI7FiDA?si=JzuTqONfSlWR7vQftnWZzA

 Brittany Smith is a key volunteer with the 21st Century Packhorse Librarians, a group that delivers free books throughout the Appalachian Mountains, especially to those affected by Hurricane Helene. The organization is a revival and revisioning of the librarians who made book delivieries in the same region during the Great Depression. Smith resides in Jonesborough, Tennessee, works in Projects Control for an engineering firm, and lives on nine acres with her family plus a large number of chickens and ducks. In this featured interview, she shares about the grassroots efforts to bring hope to those who have lost everything and asks us all not to forget those in her area who are still dealing with Helene’s devastation.

In Timeline Cleanse, co-hosts Wendy Sheridan and Robin Renée take inspiration from the announcement that Kermit the Frog will speak at the University of Maryland‘s upcoming graduation and Cory Booker’s recent record-breaking 25 hour, 5 minute protest speech in Congress. Robin reads an original poem, an unconventional reflection at Pesach, called “Change Party.” Wendy reads more from On Tyranny by Timothy D. Snyder and leads a discussion on Chapter 2.

Things to do:

Learn more about, donate, and/or volunteer for the 21st Century Packhorse Librarians.

Follow the 21st Century Packhorse Librarians on Facebook and Instagram.

Read “Thirty lonely but beautiful actions…” and do the ones that move you.

Read On Tyrrany: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century by Timothy D. Snyder.

Call the Supreme Court at 202-479-3000 or email [email protected] to ask them what they plan to do about Donald Trump ignoring court orders.

Listen to Radio PVS Sundays at 9pm EDT for the Saved By Zero show. Check the schedule for repeat times.

Featured guest Ray Katz started and currently leads The Saners, a group dedicated to preventing climate collapse and building a better civilization worldwide. He holds a BA in Economics from Stonybrook University as well as an MBA from Fordham University and he co-founded one of the first web development agencies in Philadelphia in 1994. Katz first appeared on The Leftscape in Episode 160, “Saving the Planet With Joy.” He returns to spread the word on the bold ideals and expanded objectives adopted by The Saners, their partnership with General Strike U.S., and to put forth actions and atitudes we can all take on to survive and thrive in these particularly challenging times.

Co-hosts Wendy Sheridan and Robin Renée introduce several new show segments. In Timeline Cleanse, Robin reflects on a friend’s statement about self-care and Wendy speaks of the power of getting one’s hands dirty. Wendy shares a few simple and immediate political and financial actions we can all take in Pièce de Résistance, Robin reads a personal essay, “Concentric Circles,” and Wendy reads the first lesson from Timothy D. Snyder’s On Tyrrany. 

Things to do:

Join the General Strike.

Learn more about The Saners on their website. Follow on Facebook, BlueSky, YouTube, and Medium.

Attend a Hands Off! protest near you on Saturday, April 5th.

Find your representatives in Congress and let them know your concerns.

Try the 5 Calls app to make your voice heard.

Read Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber.

Read On Tyrrany: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century by Timothy D. Snyder.

Watch “A Shockingly Better World – Saners YouTube Video.”

https://youtu.be/m3zz_7rYaS8?si=ALp64g1aswluIfI5

The Leftscape is back after an extended holiday hiatus. Co-hosts Robin Renée and Wendy Sheridan have a casual chat and reveal a new direction for the show. Moving forward, expect less news that imitates doom-scrolling and more reporting on ways we as progressives can come together to make an impact and to nurture communities. Expect thoughtful conversations and a couple of new segments to go with old favorites.

Wendy introduces and reads the chapter titles of On Tyrrany by Timothy Snyder, which will be explored more deeply in upcoming episodes. As this minisode is posting on the eve of the 2nd inaugauration of Donald Trump, the co-hosts suggest listening, thumbing through On Tyrrany, celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and/or watching nature program re-runs rather than giving attention to the events in Washington, D.C. on January 20th.

Featured image: Pen and ink drawing by Wendy Sheridan, January 17, 2025.

Things to do:

Read the new short bio:

We all need progress and community. These are what The Leftscape podcast is all about. Presented by co-hosts Wendy Sheridan and Robin Renée, The Leftscape features commentary, culture, politics, personal dialogue, geekery, and humor. Most importantly, it centers on the conversations progressive people navigate in pursuit of social justice and finding common ground – with just enough news you can use to take action. The show welcomes guests making positive moves in the worlds of activism, feminism, music, media, racial equity, STEM, LGBTQIA+, spirituality, and more.

Follow The Leftscape on Bluesky.

Keep in touch on other social media @leftscape.

Robin Renée and Wendy Sheridan speak for the first time after the U.S. presidential election. Together they process the loss by Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to Donald Trump and JD Vance. Between surmising why a majority of Americans voted for the Republican ticket and worrying what changes the next four years may bring, they begin to work through the deep sadness and disappointment, anger, frustration, and fear of encroacing fascism. With many more questions than answers, Wendy and Robin take the first small steps toward sorting out how to cope, how to prepare, and what to do to develop and maintain friend groups and communities that are now more important than ever.

The Leftscape will be on hiatus through the end of the year. In the meantime expect repeat episodes best suited to help us all be ready for the political shift. Take care of yourselves, be well, and we hope you will make the best of the coming holiday season.

Things to do:

Let us know how you’re doing. How can the show best serve you and your communities as we move ahead?

Keep in touch with us on social media @leftscape.

We are now sincerely on Bluesky! Follow us: voxwoman.bsky.social, robinrenee.bsky.social, leftscape.bsky.social