Top Rank Podcast

Feminism has reached new levels of mass popularity. Such a shift in public discourse and top line awareness about the daily realities of gender inequality must be acknowledged and celebrated. Yet, it begs many questions: What are the feminist ideas that are becoming popularized, circulated, and, sold today? Who does pop culture feminism benefit? Who might it foreclose and even erase? How do we harness the potential of this shift to bring about lasting social change?

To talk through this and more, we are thrilled to have Dr. Sarah Banet Weiser on the show, professor of media and communications at the London School of Economics, and author of the new book Empowered: Popular Feminism and Popular Misogyny.

Recorded live from Abrons Arts Center in New York City, this episode of the Top Rank Podcast features Desmond Napoles, aka "Desmond is Amazing," who at just 11 years old, has made an international name for himself as a drag performer, LGBT advocate, and social media influencer with over 100K followers on Instagram. Marcel & Isabel had a lively chat with Desmond on what it is like to have such a large platform in just the 6th grade, how he balances school & career, and how he thinks children can change the world.

follow Desmond on Instagram @desmondisamazing

Recorded live from Abrons Arts Center in New York City, this episode of the Top Rank Podcast features Desmond Napoles, aka "Desmond is Amazing," who at just 11 years old, has made an international name for himself as a drag performer, LGBT advocate, and social media influencer with over 100K followers on Instagram. Marcel & Isabel had a lively chat with Desmond on what it is like to have such a large platform in just the 6th grade, how he balances school & career, and how he thinks children can change the world.

follow Desmond on Instagram @desmondisamazing

On this episode, Marcel & Isabel chat with Zenat Begum, the owner of Playground Coffee Shop - a multidisciplinary cafe, bookstore, event space and community non profit in the Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. In addition to learning about Zenat's life as young, New York native and business owner in a rapidly gentrifying Brooklyn, she also offers insight on the challenges and triumphs of being an entrepreneur as a woman of color, and shares advice for young people seeking to start their own business.

Visit Playground Coffee Shop at 1114 Bedford Ave in Brooklyn, NY

Learn more about Playground Coffee Shop

https://www.instagram.com/playgroundcoffeeshop/

http://playgroundcoffeeshop.com/

On this episode, Marcel & Isabel chat with Zenat Begum, the owner of Playground Coffee Shop - a multidisciplinary cafe, bookstore, event space and community non profit in the Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. In addition to learning about Zenat's life as young, New York native and business owner in a rapidly gentrifying Brooklyn, she also offers insight on the challenges and triumphs of being an entrepreneur as a woman of color, and shares advice for young people seeking to start their own business.

Visit Playground Coffee Shop at 1114 Bedford Ave in Brooklyn, NY

Learn more about Playground Coffee Shop

https://www.instagram.com/playgroundcoffeeshop/

http://playgroundcoffeeshop.com/

On episode 15 of the Top Rank Podcast, “Resource Generation” co-hosts Isabel Flower and Marcel Rosa-Salas spoke with Holly Fetter and Dominique Tan, representatives from the nonprofit organization Resource Generation.

For two decades, Resource Generation has been advising and enabling young people with wealth and class privilege in the United States to work towards the equitable distribution of wealth, land, and power. In the U.S. today, the top one percent of households own more wealth than the bottom ninety percent combined. On this episode, we spoke with Holly and Dominique about scrutinizing the idea of meritocracy, constructing comprehensible and productive definitions of wealth and class (and how these categories intersect and overlap with varying identity categories), as well as RG’s strategies for action.

On episode 15 of the Top Rank Podcast, “Resource Generation” co-hosts Isabel Flower and Marcel Rosa-Salas spoke with Holly Fetter and Dominique Tan, representatives from the nonprofit organization Resource Generation.

For two decades, Resource Generation has been advising and enabling young people with wealth and class privilege in the United States to work towards the equitable distribution of wealth, land, and power. In the U.S. today, the top one percent of households own more wealth than the bottom ninety percent combined. On this episode, we spoke with Holly and Dominique about scrutinizing the idea of meritocracy, constructing comprehensible and productive definitions of wealth and class (and how these categories intersect and overlap with varying identity categories), as well as RG’s strategies for action.

On episode 14 of the Top Rank Podcast, “The New Racial Science” co-hosts Isabel Flower and Marcel Rosa-Salas spoke with Professor Dorothy Roberts about the politics of genetic ancestry tests.

In 2017, over 12 million Americans had their DNA analyzed by genetic ancestry testing companies. This recent boom in popularity has turned “knowing your roots” into one of the biggest consumer products of the past decade. However, it is critical to the question how genetic ancestry tests are shaping societal understandings of race and ethnicity.

Professor Dorothy Roberts is an acclaimed scholar of race, gender and the law, and a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, with joint appointments in the Departments of Africana Studies, Sociology and the Law School. She is also founding director of the Penn Program on Race, Science & Society in the Center for Africana Studies. Her major books include Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-first Century ; Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare, and Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty.

On episode 14 of the Top Rank Podcast, “The New Racial Science” co-hosts Isabel Flower and Marcel Rosa-Salas spoke with Professor Dorothy Roberts about the politics of genetic ancestry tests.

In 2017, over 12 million Americans had their DNA analyzed by genetic ancestry testing companies. This recent boom in popularity has turned “knowing your roots” into one of the biggest consumer products of the past decade. However, it is critical to the question how genetic ancestry tests are shaping societal understandings of race and ethnicity.

Professor Dorothy Roberts is an acclaimed scholar of race, gender and the law, and a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, with joint appointments in the Departments of Africana Studies, Sociology and the Law School. She is also founding director of the Penn Program on Race, Science & Society in the Center for Africana Studies. Her major books include Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, and Big Business Re-create Race in the Twenty-first Century ; Shattered Bonds: The Color of Child Welfare, and Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty.

On episode 13 of the Top Rank Podcast, “Thick/er Black Lines,” co-hosts Isabel Flower and Marcel Rosa-Salas spoke with Rianna Jade Parker, Hudda Khaireh, and Aurella Yussuf founding members of the London based curatorial collective Thick/er Black Lines.

Thick/er Black Lines is an interdisciplinary collective that brings together art criticism and, cultural studies, as well as archival, and activist practices to shed light on the creative production of the Black European diaspora. Their ongoing efforts to canonize Black British women and femme artistsun cluding their most recent residency at the Tate Modern— -- emerge from an urgency to highlight the multiplicities and convergences of Black identities across the globe.