Sociologists Talking Real Sh*t

Raul Perez drops by to talk about this new book, The Souls of White Jokes: How Racist Humor Fuels White Supremacy.  Raúl Pérez is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of La Verne, and was previously an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Denver. His scholarship has been awarded and supported by the American Sociological Association, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the University of California Center for New Racial Studies, the Working Class Studies Association, and the American Humor Studies Association. His research has been published in journals such as American Behavioral Scientist, Discourse and Society, Ethnicities, and Sociological Perspectives. His first book, The Souls of White Joke: How Racist Humor Fuels White Supremacy has been recently published by Stanford University Press. His work has also been featured in various media, including The Washington Post, TIME, NBC, AXIOS, The Grio, Remezcla, Latino Rebels, and Zócalo Public Square.

Join Dr. Leland Saito and I as we discuss his new book "Building Los Angeles; The Politics of Race and Place in Urban America.  It is a tale of displacement, gentrification, race, place, and resistance.  Dr. Leland Saito grew up in Boyle Heights, and then Montebello. Montebello is right next to Monterey Park, and the changes in that city in the 1980s as it went from White to Latino and Asian American, sparked his interest and became his dissertation and first book. He went to East Los Angeles Community College and UC Berkeley for his BA, in sociologyHe then went to Cal State LA for a high school teaching credential, and an MA in sociology, before completing his PhD in Sociology at UCLA.  Currently he is an associate professor in sociology at the university of southern California and is here to discuss his recently published book “Building Downtown Los Angeles: the Politics of race and place in Urban America. His next project is looking at gentrification in the multiracial communities of Leimert Park and USC in South Los Angeles.

Join Dr. Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo and me as we discuss race and space in historic South Central Los Angeles. Don't believe the hype; this is a story of not just pain and desperation but one of love, hope, and cooperation.  Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo is the Florence Everline Professor of Sociology at USC Dornsife, where she has worked for thirty years. As a qualitative sociologist who relies on interviews and ethnography, Los Angeles and Southern California have provided a rich social setting for developing a research trajectory spanning four areas:  Gender and migration; informal sector work in the immigrant city; religion and immigrant integration; and Latina/o sociology. She has published ten books and over fifty journal articles and book chapters on these topics.   Her most recent book, co-authored with Manuel Pastor, is South Central Dreams: Finding Home and Building Community in South L.A. (2021). In 2015, she received the Distinguished Career Award from the American Sociological Association, International Migration Section, and in 2018 she received the Julian Samora Distinguished Career Award from the American Sociological Association, Latina/o Sociology Section.

It's Black History Month; Myron Strong joins me in discussing race in Reality TV, Sci-Fi, comics, and Afrofuturism.  Myron T. Strong is an award-winning sociologist, who is currently an Associate Professor of Sociology at the Community College of Baltimore County in Baltimore, Maryland. He graduated with his Ph.D. in sociology from the University of North Texas in 2014. His research explores Afrofuturism, race, gender and other social factors in modern comics and popular culture. In 2019, he won the Eastern Sociological Society Barbara R. Walters Community College Faculty Award for his article "The Emperor Has New Clothes:​ ​How Outsider Sociology Can Shift the Discipline" published in Sociological Forum. He recently published book chapters; The first examines the construction in modern reality television shows in Race in American Television: Voices and Visions that Shaped a Nation. The second explores the way the Dora Milaje represent a continuation of these traditions and shows how Pan Africanism and collective memory are important to not only understanding Black identity in Afrofuturism and Black Panther: Gender Identity and Re-Making of Blackness.

Join Dr. David Embrick and me as we discuss the Rittenhouse and Ahmaud Abery cases, vigilantes, masculinity, and guns.  In other words, it's an All-American podcast! Dr. David G. Embrick holds a joint position as Associate Professor in the Sociology Department and African Studies Institute at the University of Connecticut. Prior to UConn, he spent a decade at Loyola University Chicago as faculty in the Sociology Department. He received his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University in 2006.  He is a former American Sociological Association Minority Fellow; Past-President of the Southwestern Sociological Association; current Vice President of the Society for the Study of Social Problems; and current President of the Association for Humanist Sociology.  In addition, Dr. Embrick serves as the Founding Co-Editor of Sociology of Race and Ethnicity; Founding Book Series Editor of Sociology of Diversity, with Bristol University Press; and Founding Book Series Co-Editor of Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, with Georgia University Press.Dr. Embrick's research has centered largely on the impact of contemporary forms of racism on people of color.  While most of his research is one what he has labeled “diversity ideology” and inequalities in the business world, he has published on race and education, racial microaggressions, the impact of schools-welfare-and prisons on people of color, and issues of sex discrimination. Dr. Embrick has published in a number of journals including American Behavioral Scientist, Critical Sociology, Race and Society, Sex Roles, Social Problems, Sociological Forum, and Symbolic Interaction, among others. He has been invited to give talks and workshops on diversity; racism in the workplace; racism and space; racial microaggressions; and various issues of academic professionalism in over 125 venues, both academic and public.

Dana Williams and I discuss "trust." In particular, we discuss the trust of government, science, the vaccine, and each other.  For good measure, we threw in a conversation on anarchy.  Join us! Dana Williams is an associate professor of sociology at California State University, Chico. He is the author of Black Flags and Social Movements: A Sociological Analysis of Movement Anarchism and co-author of Anarchy & Society: Reflections on Anarchist-Sociology, as well as the author or co-author of over 30 research articles and book chapters on topics ranging from aging and longevity in radical movements, attitudes towards police violence, Critical Mass bike rides, municipal-level climate change policy, racial reconciliation coalition-building, Black anarchism, American attitudes about the use of military force, Amazon and technology, Native American mascots and nicknames, and anarchist studies. He has recently completed a new book manuscript entitled In Us We Trust: The Benefits of Solidarity and Anti-authoritarianism.

Join Karen Sabbah and me as we discuss her personal experiences with IVF.  We discussed the meanings of motherhood, costs, and tribulations of In Vitro Fertilization.  Karen Sabbah holds an MA in sociology from Califonia State University Northridge (2015) and has worked as an adjunct in the Los Angeles Community College District and College of the Canyons since 2016. She teaches courses in crime, human sexuality, gender, and race & ethnicity. Her focus in graduate school was on human sexuality and gender. Her thesis was titled "Dare to Derby: A Story of the Discovery of Empowerment through Roller Derby and Community." She is the production editor for the Journal of Positive Sexuality, a peer reviewed academic journal and a huge advocate for racial and gender inequalities. In 2020, while on the scholarship committee at Pierce, she noticed there wasn't a scholarship for single parents, so she established one called "A Single Parent's Journey" and has issued two scholarships per year for the last two years. 

Returning guests Celene Fuller, Tiffany Lanoix, and Rebecca Romo join me to discuss the new anti-abortion law in Texas.    Celene Fuller is a doctoral candidate at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and specializes in the sociological subfields of gender and sexuality and social psychology, emphasizing stigmatized sexual and gender identities. Celene's dissertation research centers on the experiences of sexual and reproductive health stigma surrounding access to abortion and reproductive healthcare in Nevada. She is currently working with several nonprofit organizations to conduct sociological research that may be used to support and influence policies aimed at increasing access to reproductive healthcare at the state level.Tiffany Lanoix holds an MA in sociology from UC Irvine (2005) and has worked as a tenured sociology professor in the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) for over 13 years. Currently, she serves as Associate Professor of Sociology at West Los Angeles College where she teaches courses in racial and ethnic relations, social problems, intersectionality, and related topics. Community activism and social awareness are core to her activities as a scholar and professor. She has facilitated a number of workshops throughout LACCD on the topics of culturally inclusive teaching, decolonizing spaces, and microaggressions.Dr. Rebecca Romo is an Associate Professor at Santa Monica College in Santa Monica, California. She earned her doctorate in sociology at the University of Santa Barbara. She is a former Ronald E. McNair Scholar, and fellow in the American Sociological Association Minority Fellowship Program. Her research focuses on the social construction of multiracial identities, and she has published work on Blaxican or Black-Mexican multiraciality and experience.

Jake Alimahomed-Wilson and Julio Tsuha discuss the hesitancy for workers to get back to their jobs, quality of life issues, and a crack in capitalism.    Jake Alimahomed-Wilson is a Professor of Sociology at California State University, Long Beach. His research focuses on race, gender, labor, logistics, and global workers' struggles. He is the co-editor of The Cost of Free Shipping: Amazon in the Global Economy (Pluto Press, 2020 and co-editor of Choke Points: Logistics Workers Disrupting the Global Supply Chain (Pluto Press, 2018). He is the author of Solidarity Forever? Race, Gender, and Unionism in the Ports of Southern California (Lexington Books, 2016) and co-author of Getting the Goods: Ports, Labor, and the Logistics Revolution (Cornell University Press, 2008). Julio Tsuha is a Professor of Sociology at Los Angeles Pierce College of the LA Community College District. Prior to this, he served as Executive Director of the Dolores Huerta Labor Institute. He decided to get his Ph.D. at UC Riverside after an internship with the AFL-CIO, where his love for labor organizing and social justice activism was forged. He has been a union member and activist for the past 20 years.

Join Celene Fuller and me as we discuss alternatives to monogamy.  Professor Fuller breaks down open relationships and polyamory.  Celene Fuller is a doctoral candidate at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and specializes in the sociological subfields of gender and sexuality and social psychology, emphasizing stigmatized sexual and gender identities. Celene's dissertation research centers on the experiences of sexual and reproductive health stigma surrounding access to abortion and reproductive healthcare in Nevada. She is currently working with several nonprofit organizations to conduct sociological research that may be used to support and influence policies aimed at increasing access to reproductive healthcare at the state level.

Dr. Paul E Calarco Jr. joins me to discuss COVID vaccinations, being a White ally, and so much more.  Paul is a Ph.D. sociologist with a specialization in gender, he has dedicated the majority of his academic career to addressing inequality and through his true passion lecturing undergraduates, attempting to elicit social change through expanding their minds, unblocking their creativity and imagination, and making them sharper, more mindful citizens.

Nadia Kim joins me to discuss her new book "Refusing Death: Immigrant Women and the Fight for Environmental Justice in LA."   We talk about the central role that courageous Asian and Latinx immigrant women play in the environmental justice movement in Los Angeles.  Nadia Y. Kim is Professor of Sociology and of Asian & Asian American Studies at Loyola Marymount University. Her research focuses on nativist racism with respect to Korean/Asian Americans, South Koreans, Latinx groups (esp. women), Los Angeles, and environmental racism and classism. Throughout her work, Kim's approach centers (neo)imperialism, transnationality, and intersectionality. Kim is the author of the multi-award-winning Imperial Citizens: Koreans and Race from Seoul to LA (Stanford, 2008) and of Refusing Death: Immigrant Women and the Fight for Environmental Justice in LA. She has (co)authored articles in anthologies and volumes of Social Forces, Social Problems, International Migration Review, and The Du Bois Review. She and/or her work have also appeared on National and SoCal Public Radio, Radio Korea and in The Washington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Boston Globe, The Korea Times, and NYLON Magazine. She's a music and animal lover, singer and avid karaoke-er, and ocean-worshipper; and has lived in Seoul, Newfoundland Canada, Florence Italy, and comes from a family of South Koreans and Korean Brasilians.  

Dr. Michael Messner joins me to discuss his new book "Unconventional Combat: Intersectional Action in the Veterans' Peace Movement."  We discuss the way in which veterans who are women, racial, and sexual minorities have affected the military and the Veterans for Peace movement.  We also discuss how these transformations serve as a cautionary tale to all social justice movements.  Michael Messner is a professor of sociology and gender studies at the University of Southern California. He has been honored with the Pursuit of Justice Award from the California Women's Law Center for his research and advocacy for girls and women in sport; the Feminist Mentoring Award from the Sociologists for Women in Society; and the Jessie Bernard Award from the American Sociological Association in recognition of contributions to the understanding of women's lives.  Messner is the author or editor of nineteen books, and has in recent years focused his research on U.S. military veterans who become lifelong advocates for peace and social justice. The first book based on this research, Guys Like Me: Five Wars, Five Veterans for Peace, was published by Rutgers University Press in 2019. The new book, Unconventional Combat: Intersectional Action in the Veterans' Peace Movement is hot off the press from Oxford University Press. The website is https://unconventionalcombat.com

Professor Renato Jimenez and I talk about our relationships with our fathers and sociology and how it shapes us as men and fathers.  Renato Jimenez is an associate professor of sociology at East Los Angeles College. He identifies as a 1.5 generation immigrant from Guatemala. Renato was raised in Santa Ana, California, attended Santa Ana College, UC Irvine (B.A. Sociology), and CSU Fullerton (M.A. Sociology). His research interests include sociology of families, sociology of sports, gender, sex and sexuality, and racially/ethnic identities. He teaches the only class offered in the LACCD on masculinities entitled Issues of Manhood in the U.S. He is currently working on developing biweekly equity-minded podcasts for ELAC through the office of professional development. He is an avid lover of music and vinyl record collector. He is the proud father of two young boys, ages 5 and 6. 

Dr. Nicole Wilms and I discuss women in sports, transgender women's participation in sports, and the attack on critical race theory. Nicole Willms received her B.A. in Sociology/Anthropology and Spanish from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Virginia. She later completed her studies at the University of Southern California, where she received her Master's and Ph.D. in Sociology, with a certificate in Gender Studies. Willms' research focuses on the intersection of gender and race in American Sports. Her 2017 book, When Women Rule the Court: Gender, Race, and Japanese American Basketball, explores a community context that produced stellar female athletes and new understandings about gender and sport. Born in Seattle, Washington, and resident of Spokane, Washington since 2011, Willms considers herself a Northwesterner at heart. Her favorite activities are jogging, kayaking, reading fiction, spending time with friends and family, and dabbling in her favorite sport, basketball, as a player, fan, or coach.

Join me in a reflexive conversation with Dr. Cara Gillis on the cannons of philosophy and sociology, teaching our disciplines to working-class students of color and women kicking men's ass in sports! Dr. Cara Gillis is a philosopher who specializes in ethics, particularly in the areas of animal ethics, environmental ethics, and the problem of harm.  She’s currently examining the relationship between moral psychology and motivation as it applies to biocentric and ecocentric conceptions of environmental ethics. She received a BA in philosophy from the University of Western Ontario, MAs in philosophy from Cal State Long Beach and UC Irvine, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from UC Irvine.  She’s taught in the Community College, Cal State, and University of California systems and is currently a professor of philosophy at Pierce College, where she’s also the Chair of Philosophy and Sociology Department.  Although born and raised in the Canadian Maritimes, she moved to southern California in the early aughts to evade the cold and pursue a “career” in road cycling.  Her life motto is “How hard can it be?” It turns out some things, particularly the self-reflection and introspection necessary to be an effective educator, are very hard indeed.

Join Dr. Rashawn Ray and me as we discuss how we actually get police reform.  Will the conviction of Derek Chauvin bring reform?  How do we not just hold police officers responsible but the policing system itself accountable?  If we cant pull the rotten tree of policing up at the roots, how do we begin to trim its rotten branches? 

Robert Wonser and I reopen our conversation about the Republican Party's war on “cancel culture."  We ask why now and how we can reach across the ideological rift.  Robert Wonser has been teaching sociology since 2006. He earned his BS in Business Administration with an option in Marketing and his MA in Sociology from California State University, Northridge. He is an Associate Professor of Sociology at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, CA. He teaches numerous sociology classes and is one of the coordinators for COC's Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning. His research interests include culture, mass media, subcultures, popular culture, youth culture, consumerism, social stratification, gender, criminology, education, and social psychology. He has co-authored with Dr. David Boyns a book chapter in Cinematic Sociology 2nd Edition ‘The Caped Crusader: What Batman Films Tell Us about Crime and Deviance” and an article in The Sociological Quarterly called “Between the Living and Undead: How Zombie Cinema Reflects the Social Construction of Risk, the Anxious Self, and Disease Pandemic.”

Former Los Angels and Seattle City Planner Dick Platkin and I discuss how cities ignore the reports of their own city planners to the benefit of real estate developers, dealing with the homeless crisis, and the lack of low income affordable housing. Dick Platkin is a retired Los Angeles city planner with graduate degrees in city planning (University of Washington) and sociology (University of California Los Angeles).  Since retiring from the City of Los Angeles, he taught undergraduate classes at University of Southern California and California State University Northridge.  He also worked for community groups in Los Angeles as a city planning consultant and writes a weekly on-line Planning Watch column for CityWatchLA.  In his column, he draws on his training in sociology and his experience is working in and teaching about urban planning.  As a sociologist his interests were political sociology (fascism), racism and nationalism, and urban sociology.

Dr. Sabrina Alimahomed-Wilson joins me to discuss the Matrix of Gendered Islamophobia, why we shouldn't call those who stormed the capitol on January 6th terrorists, and the relationship of gender, war, and imperialism to the shootings of the Asian women in Georgia. Dr. Sabrina Alimahomed-Wilson is an Associate Professor of Sociology at California State University, Long Beach. She has published her research in various journals including Gender and Society, Critical Sociology, Race and Class, and Women, Gender, and Families of Color on the topics of gendered Islamophobia and state violence, racialized surveillance and counterterrorism, capitalism and the privatization of the domestic War on Terror.She is Affiliate Faculty at the Center for Security, Race, and Rights at Rutgers Law School. She previously served as an Honorary Research Fellow at University College London’s Centre for the Study of Education in Muslim Contexts and as a Research Fellow in the Civil Rights Division at the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA). She has received funding from the American Association for the University Women, Association for the Sociology of Religion, American Sociological Association, Society for the Study of Social Problems, and Sociologists for the Study of Women. She is currently serving on the National Minority Fellowship Program Advisory Board for the American Sociological Association and is the campus Chair for the California Faculty Association’s Racial and Social Justice Council.

I discuss the rise in hate crimes towards Asians and the Georgia killings with activist Seo Yun Son and Professor of Sociology Julio Tsuha.  We examine racist stereotyping of Asians, the model minority myth, racial triangulation, and the umbrella of White supremacy that binds all people of color.Seo Yun Son (she/they) is an artist and community/labor organizer living in Los Angeles, California. She received her BFA in Fine Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles and is an organizer at amwa, Ktown For Black Lives, and AFT 1521. Julio Tsuha is Professor of Sociology at Los Angeles Pierce College of the LA Community College District.  Prior to this, he served as Executive Director of the Dolores Huerta Labor Institute.  He decided to get his Ph.D. at UC Riverside after doing an internship with the AFL-CIO where his love for labor organizing and social justice activism were forged.  He has been a union member and activist for the past 20 years. 

Join Professor Sheryl Nomelli and I as we give the sisters their due. We talk about a few of her favorite female historical figures, sociologist/activist the historical Jane Addams, Anita Hill, Hill's connection to Joe Bidden, and the #metoo movement. Professor Sheryl Nomelli returned to college as a re-entry student at the age of 30, earning her undergrad degree in History, with a minor in Women’s Studies, from California Lutheran University. She completed her MA in History with a focus on Southern and Women’s history at California State University, Northridge. Her graduate research focused on the unique community of Adams County, Natchez, Mississippi which held a large number of white planter elites, their enslaved labor, and the free black “Blue Vein” society during the Antebellum and post-Antebellum period of the 19th Century. Professor Nomelli has been teaching history since 2003 specializing in U.S., Women's, and Southern history. Her teaching experience includes both undergrad and graduate courses at California State University, Northridge (CSUN), California Lutheran University, College of the Canyons, Moorpark College, and currently as tenured faculty at Los Angeles Pierce College. Returning to school while both working and raising a family has given her a unique perspective as an instructor at a community college. Many of her students struggle with the same challenges and her goal is to encourage them to hang in there and achieve their academic dreams.

Dr. Yousef Baker joins me to discuss the effects of the Iraq War on the Iraqi people, the Iraqi Narratives Project and anti-Muslim racism and its connection to larger national and global issues, including racial projects right here in the United States. Dr. Yousef K. Baker is an assistant professor in the International Studies Program currently at California State University, Long Beach. He is also the co-director of the Global Middle East Studies Program. Dr. Baker’s career both as a student and an educator have been in California’s public education system, graduating from LAUSD, finishing his BA in Political Science from UCLA, his Master’s and Doctorate in Sociology from UCSB, and working at CSULB since 2014. Dr. Baker looks at global political economy with an interest in how race, nationalism, post-colonial development, and social movements shape our contemporary world. His work focuses on the Middle East and North Africa, where he has been looking at the political economy of the 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq. Dr. Baker has been recently working on issues of anti-Muslim racism and their connection to larger national and global issues, where he shows how this racializing process shape politics in the US and broader global geo-politics as well. In addition to this research, Dr. Baker is one of the co-founders of the Iraqi Narratives Project, where alongside other collaborators he has collected oral histories of people who migrated from Iraq to the US and Canada. As an educator, and as a resident of Long Beach since 2010, and greater Los Angeles since 1993, Dr. Baker is always asking how does our life locally shape and is shaped by the lives of others living around the globe?

Tomorrow (February 22) on https://www.sociologiststalkingrealshit.com/podcast: Join Tanya Golash-Boza and I as we talk about the role of the drug war in the gentrification of Washington DC, being a public intellectual, "Get a Life PhD Blog" (yes, it is possible for an academic to have a life), and the intersection of scholarship and activism. Tanya Golash-Boza is the founder of the Racism, Capitalism, and the Law Lab and a Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Merced. She is a prolific scholar, with several published books and dozens of academic articles and book chapters. She has received several awards, including the Distinguished Contribution to Research Book Award from the Latino/a Studies Section of the American Sociological Association for her book, Deported: Immigrant Policing, Disposable Labor and Global Capitalism – published by New York University Press in 2015. Her textbook, Race and Racisms: A Critical Approach, published by Oxford University Press, is now in its third edition and is the leading textbook in this field. Dr. Golash-Boza is currently working on a project funded by the National Science Foundation that explores how gentrification affects formerly incarcerated Black men in Washington, DC. That work is featured on her website: MappingGentrification.com. Professor Golash-Boza is also the creator of the blog, Get a Life, PhD, which focuses on faculty success and wellbeing and has over 4 million pageviews. For this and other mentoring work, she received the UC Merced Senate Award for Excellence in Faculty Mentorship in 2019.

I sit down with activist intellectual Dr. Jose Zapata Calderon. We discuss the roots of migration and Biden’s proposed Immigration policies, community engaged scholarship, multiracial coalitions, and in the end some sound solutions for inequality.

Join Historian, Professor Christopher Strickland and I as we discuss the Wilmington insurrection of 1898, Du Bois feud with Marcus Garvey, Black Power, Black Sisters leading the way, and so much more.

Dr. Jane Ward and I talk about her interesting and provocative book The Tragedy of Heterosexuality. Dr. Ward discusses heterosexuality's central role in misogyny, patriarchy, and and why heterosexuals are the ones you should feel sorry for. In the end Dr. Ward does not want to end the practice of heterosexuality but rather suggests what she refers to as "deep heterosexuality" in its place. Her book is a letter of love to her heterosexual sisters and plea for heterosexual men to "be better" and love women truly and deeply.

What do you get when a tenured Community College professor sits down with one of sociology’s most influential and unapologetic academics…honest talk about real sh*t. Join Dr. Eduardo Bonilla-Silva (author of Racism without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America) and I for a very candid and important conversation. We talk about the real danger to racial equality in the United States (hint: they don't wear hoods), if we can get leftist politics out of the Biden Administration, racist academia and much more.

I sit down with Dr. Christina Jackson, coauthor (with Enobong Hannah Branch) of "Black in America." Among the topics we discuss are Black Women's leadership in social movements, gentrification, the Black middle class, and revitalizing the ghetto.

Dr. Jake Alimahomed-Wilson, Dr. Sabrina Alimahomed-Wilson, and Dr. Rebecca Romo join me to discuss the January 6th insurrection. We discuss the events, whiteness, masculinity, and the agitator in chief Donald Trump. Great conversation and fresh insights, join us.

Dr. Stephanie Nawyn and I discuss some White women's unwavering support of Trump and the Republican party, why do White when choose their race interests over their gendered interest, Karens, getting White women to the cookout, and the future of White women's politics.

A lighthearted but serious look at "Beer Snobbery." Join sociologists and "beer geeks" Mike Chavez, Yanira Fuentes, and I as we talk about craft beer, Hipsters, gentrification, navigating White spaces, and are we now the benevolent gentrifiers? Happy New Year everyone!

My guests, Dr. Chuck O'Connell and Dr. Raul Perez join me to discuss, socialism, communism, democratic socialism and their differences. We also ask the question was Jesus a communist? Join us and happy holidays.

Dr. Mike Chavez joins me to talk about what does the progressive left do now that we elected Biden, union organizing, education, nazis, and republicans class consciousness. Yeah I was surprised by that last one myself.

Dr. Rogelio Saenz and I talk Latina/o/x and their high rates of COVID infection. We also discuss why Latina/o/x may have voted for Trump and the future of Latina/o/x politics.

I celebrate this historic moment with Professor Samantha Jones, Dr. Glenda Flores, and Dr. Lata Murti. We talk about what this meant to women of color, multiracial identity, the squad, white women at the cookout, and how the future is feminine.

Join Kimberly Huyser and I as we honor those whose land we live on, the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Kimberly talks about being Navajo, COVID's effect on Indigenous communities, Uranium Minds on Indigenous land, and cultural appropriation!

This week, Professor Robert Wonser drops by to talk about what is "cancel culture" and how it gets used by the political right and the left. We throw in a conversation about lessons from the vigilante Batman and what zombie stories tell us about pandemics. We finish by discussing the importance of media literacy.

Returning guest, Tiffany Lanoix and I discuss what is intersectionality and how useful it is to understanding oppression, privilege, and social movements. Since this episode was recorded when Trump caught COVID we do discuss "the lefts" crocodile tears around his illness.

I kick it with my partner Dr. Rebecca Romo and two of my colleagues from our History Department, Citlali Sosa-Riddell and Brian Walsh. We joke, laugh, and get deadly serious about the upcoming election. A little levity to try to lighten up these stressful times.

This week I sit down with three of my Armenian colleagues Garineh Avakian, Yeprem Davoodian, and Eddie Tchertchian, to discuss the history of the Armenia, the Armenian genocide, resistance, resilience, and the current conflict in Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Dr. Cid Martinez drops by to discuss his book "The Neighborhood Has Its Own Rules: Latinos and African Americans in South Los Angeles." Join us as we talk about "alternative governance," violence's role in shaping identity, and Black/Brown relations. Forget your preconceived notions on the topic, its a pretty positive episode.

Sociologists Talking Real Shit goes international as we take a trip across the Atlantic to chop it up with Dr. Steve Garner. We discuss Brexit, COVID19, race, and how England and the US were both trippin, ending up with Boris and Trump.

This is as real as shit gets. My sister, Marilynn McKeever, and I share our experiences growing up in a highly dysfunctional family. Issues of race, gender, gang banging, abuse, violence, alcoholism, drugs and more are all on the table. Believe it or not this is the PG 13 version, but it may be difficult to listen to for some. These type of family secrets are far too common and this story needed to be told.

Jake Alimahomed-Wilson and I discuss Ellen Reese and his new book "The Cost of Free Shipping: Amazon in the Global Economy." We talk about Amazon Capitalism, surveillance capitalism, workers rights, the environment, and the possibilities for change. This is a book literally by the people and for the people, with contributions from academics, workers, and activists letting us all know the real "cost of free shipping."

Juan Battle and I discuss the intersections of race and sexuality, LGBTQIA+ and BLM, intersectional approaches to battle oppression and Juan's must read list.

Dr Glenda Flores and I talk about her growing up a working class Latina from Santa Ana, the added difficulties for graduate students of color, and her research on Latina teachers.

Special Labor Day Edition! Dr. Shigueru Julio Tsuha and I talk about the portion of the economy that really matters...your paycheck. While we are about to have our first trillionaire, others are getting evicted from their homes. Does it have to be this way? We discuss how can the worker get paid what they deserve, universal basic income, a thirty hour work week and how we can pay for it. Hint: tax the hell out of the rich.

Heather Dalmage and I talk about Whiteness and more Whiteness. Will most Whites continue to support the Black Lives Movement? What is "bounded empathy" and "strategic ignorance" and how do Whites use them to maintain their privilege. We also talk about the "politics of respectability," Jacob Blake, White Identity and displays of Black death, and the real cost of the juvenile injustice system. Yeah we had a lot to say...hope you get a chance to listen.

No intros, no guests, just Black rage and sorrow. I could not let this moment pass, I wish I could but this shit has to stop and that's for real.

Tiffany Lanoix, Glenda Flores, Sheryl Nomelli, and I talk about our less than enthusiastic support of Joe Biden, the historic moment of having a woman of color on the ticket, waiting on communist Jesus, and the urgency of this election.