Podcasts about contemporary america

All of this week's episodes of It Could Happen Here put together in one large file. The Decline and Fall of the American Post Office Nut Country Revisited feat. Steven Monacelli & Dr. Michael Phillips They're Trying to Put Women Into Men's Prisons How Unions Can Protect Trans Rights Executive Disorder: White House Weekly #1 You can now listen to all Cool Zone Media shows, 100% ad-free through the Cooler Zone Media subscription, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. So, open your Apple Podcasts app, search for “Cooler Zone Media” and subscribe today! http://apple.co/coolerzone Sources: The Decline and Fall of the American Post Office https://www.nalc.org https://www.fightingnalc.com https://concernedlettercarriers.com https://www.nalc.org/member-benefits/nalc-disaster-relief-foundation Nut Country Revisited Michael Barkun, A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America https://www.ucpress.edu/books/a-culture-of-conspiracy/paper Mark Fenster, Conspiracy Theories: Secrecy and Power in American Culture https://www.upress.umn.edu/9780816654949/conspiracy-theories/ Edward H. Miller, Nut Country: Right-Wing Dallas and the Birth of the Southern Strategy https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/N/bo19197692.html How Unions Can Protect Trans Rights Solidarity Pledge: https://crm.broadstripes.com/ctf/SJID0H https://sbworkersunited.org/ https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-sign-orders-ending-diversity-programs-proclaiming-there-are-only-two-sexes-2025-01-20/ https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-orders-end-federal-support-gender-affirming-care-minors-2025-01-28/ https://www.wjhl.com/news/regional/tennessee/bill-would-block-insurance-companies-that-cover-gender-affirming-care-from-contracting-with-tenncare/ https://www.npr.org/2024/12/24/nx-s1-5238169/starbucks-strike-christmas https://www.them.us/story/starbucks-threatens-to-take-away-trans-rights-at-stores-that-unionize See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So was November 5 a moral catastrophe signaling the death knell of American liberalism or just another election in the turbulent history of American democracy. According to the Brookings scholar Jonathan Rauch, the Trump-Harris election was both. On the one hand, Rauch argues, wearing his unashamedly liberal cap, November 5 was a moral catastrophe for the future of American democracy. But, on the other, slapping on his Brookings analyst's cap, Rauch celebrates November 5 as an ordinary election. I suspect the double capped Rauch is onto a singular thing here. There is a feeling of catastrophic ordinariness about America right now. It's that moment before a crash when everything slows down and you know something dramatic is about to happen. Enjoy the (horror) show, Rauch seems to be saying. America is about to become very unordinary. Jonathan Rauch is a senior fellow in the governance studies program at the Brookings Institution and a contributing writer for The Atlantic. He is the recipient of a National Magazine Award. His books include The Constitution of Knowledge, The Happiness Curve, and Gay Marriage. He lives in northern Virginia.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

Jade Sato, the founder and owner of Minoru Farm in Brighton, Colorado, talks with documentarian Katelyn Reuther about being part of a growing movement of Asian American farmers, many of them women, who are experimenting with raising and marketing Asian heritage crops, like sisho, ginger and gobo root, for a rapidly diversifying American palate. Their talk is part of Reuther's Occupation Folklife Project “Finding Roots: Asian American Farmers in Contemporary America.”

Jade Sato, the founder and owner of Minoru Farm in Brighton, Colorado, talks with documentarian Katelyn Reuther about being part of a growing movement of Asian American farmers, many of them women, who are experimenting with raising and marketing Asian heritage crops, like sisho, ginger and gobo root, for a rapidly diversifying American palate. Their talk is part of Reuther's Occupation Folklife Project “Finding Roots: Asian American Farmers in Contemporary America.”

Binu 'Ben' Varghese is a PhD student in religion and society at Princeton Theological Seminary. His research focuses on intersections of race, politics, and religion among Indian diasporas in transnational contexts. He draws his theoretical formulations from the colonial history of Dutch slavery in India and alternative readings of Indian American history and memories. In addition to his research project, Binu is also interested in religion and capitalism, and religious nationalisms in India and America. He is currently serving as the editorial assistant of the Journal of World Christianity. His upcoming research essay is titled “Liminality as Decoloniality: Decolonizing Indian American Christianity,” which will be published in The Routledge Handbook of Politics and Religion in Contemporary America. We also discuss “Indian Flag at the Capitol Insurrection and ANti blackness among Indian Christians” from the Berkeley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. Visit Sacred Writes: https://www.sacred-writes.org/luce-cohort-summer-2024

Racism is often described as an individual failing, but Dr. Tricia Rose explains that racism is better understood as the result of a system built over generations and even centuries—and perpetuated by the stories we tell about it today. Rose is the Chancellor's Professor of Africana Studies and Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives, Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America. She studies African American life, culture, and the impact of inequality, in the post-civil rights era. She specializes in the ways contemporary forms of systemic racism are blurred and hidden in our everyday storytelling about racism and the important role African-American expressive culture plays in creating spaces of recognition, resilience, and resistance. She is the author of four books and one edited collection on subjects ranging from her most recent work on systemic racism to her earlier award-winning work on hip hop, black women's sexuality, and black popular culture.  They include, “Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America,” “Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk About Sexuality and Intimacy” and “The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters.”  Her latest, published this year, is “Metaracism: How Systemic Racism Devastates Black Lives―and How We Break Free.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This series is sponsored by Joel and Lynn Mael in memory of Estelle and Nysen Mael.In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we talk to Jack Wertheimer, a professor of American Jewish History at JTS, about the radical transformations of American Jewish practice over the last century.We can't understand the Jewish People without a sobered look at what happens in our synagogues, homes, and communities. We can talk about a movement's ideological ideals, but amid those discussions we cannot ignore the on-the-ground realities of a community's practice. In this episode we discuss:How does a Jewish movement's "lived religion" differ from its stated ideals?What is the cost of radical inclusivity?What misconceptions do Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews have about each other?Tune in to hear a conversation about what Judaism means for us in our current time. Interview begins at 28:28.Dr.  Jack Wertheimer is a leading thinker and professor of American Jewish History at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He is the former provost of JTS, and was the founding director of the Joseph and Miriam Ratner Center for the Study of Conservative Judaism. Jack has written and edited numerous books and articles on the subjects of modern Jewish history, education, and life. He won the National Jewish Book Award in the category of Contemporary Jewish Life in 1994 for A People Divided: Judaism in Contemporary America. References:“Sometimes Mashiach Is Not the Solution” by Aaron Lopiansky“Politics and the Yeshivish Language” by Cole S. AronsonThe New American Judaism by Jack WertheimerA People Divided: Judaism in Contemporary America by Jack WertheimerSliding to the Right: The Contest for the Future of American Jewish Orthodoxy by Samuel C. HeilmanContemporary American Judaism: Transformation and Renewal by Dana Kaplan“What Jewish Denominations Mean to Me” by David BashevkinMichtav Me'Eliyahu by Rabbi Eliyahu DesslerThe 18Forty Podcast: “Rabbi Dr. Haym Soloveitchik: The Rupture and Reconstruction of Halacha”“Shomer Yisroel” by Omek Hadavar

In recent years, condemnations of racism in America have echoed from the streets to corporate boardrooms. At the same time, politicians and commentators fiercely debate racism's very existence. And so, our conversations about racial inequalities remain muddled. In Metaracism, Brown University Professor of Africana Studies Tricia Rose cuts through the noise with a bracing and invaluable new account of what systemic racism actually is, how it works, and how we can fight back. She reveals how—from housing to education to criminal justice—an array of policies and practices connect and interact to produce an even more devastating “metaracism” far worse than the sum of its parts. While these systemic connections can be difficult to see—and are often portrayed as “color-blind”—again and again they function to disproportionately contain, exploit, and punish Black people. By helping us to comprehend systemic racism's inner workings and destructive impact, Rose shows how to create a more just America for us all. Tricia Rose is Chancellor's Professor of Africana Studies and the director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She has received fellowships from the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, and her research has been funded by the Mellon and Robert Wood Johnson Foundations. She co-hosts with Cornel West the podcast The Tight Rope. She is the author of Longing to Tell: Black Women's Stories of Sexuality and Intimacy, The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When we Talk About Hip Hop—and Why it Matters, Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America, and her new book Metaracism: How Systemic Racism Devastates Black Lives—and How We Break Free. Shermer and Rose discuss: the policies, practices, laws, and beliefs that are racist in 2024 America and what can be done about them • racism, structural racism, systemic racism, metaracism • Rose's working-class background growing up in 1960s Harlem • deep-root cause-ism •being “caught up in the system” • Trayvon Martin, Kelley Williams-Bolar, and Michael Brown • Rose's response to Black conservative authors like Shelby Steele and Thomas Sowell • why she believes Coleman Hughes is wrong about color-blindness • Obama, George Floyd and race relations today • reparations.

White Americans are confronting their whiteness more than ever before, with political and social shifts ushering in a newfound racial awareness. And with white people increasingly seeing themselves as distinctly racialized (not simply as American or human), white writers are exposing a self-awareness of white racialized behavior-from staunch antiracism to virulent forms of xenophobic nationalism. Ugly White People: Writing Whiteness in Contemporary America (U Minnesota Press, 2023) explores representations of whiteness from twenty-first-century white American authors, revealing white recognition of the ugly forms whiteness can take. Stephanie Li argues that much of the twenty-first century has been defined by this rising consciousness of whiteness because of the imminent shift to a "majority minority" population and the growing diversification of America's political, social, and cultural institutions. The result is literature that more directly grapples with whiteness as its own construct rather than a wrongly assumed norm. Li contextualizes a series of literary novels as collectively influenced by changes in racial and political attitudes. Turning to works by Dave Eggers, Sarah Smarsh, J. D. Vance, Claire Messud, Ben Lerner, and others, she traces the responses to white consciousness that breed shared manifestations of ugliness. The tension between acknowledging whiteness as an identity built on domination and the failure to remedy inequalities that have proliferated from this founding injustice is often the source of the ugly whiteness portrayed through these narratives. The questions posed in Ugly White People about the nature and future of whiteness are vital to understanding contemporary race relations in America. From the election of Trump and the rise of white nationalism to Karen memes and the war against critical race theory to the pervasive pattern of behavior among largely liberal-leaning whites, Li elucidates truths about whiteness that challenge any hope of national unity and, most devastatingly, the basic humanity of others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

White Americans are confronting their whiteness more than ever before, with political and social shifts ushering in a newfound racial awareness. And with white people increasingly seeing themselves as distinctly racialized (not simply as American or human), white writers are exposing a self-awareness of white racialized behavior-from staunch antiracism to virulent forms of xenophobic nationalism. Ugly White People: Writing Whiteness in Contemporary America (U Minnesota Press, 2023) explores representations of whiteness from twenty-first-century white American authors, revealing white recognition of the ugly forms whiteness can take. Stephanie Li argues that much of the twenty-first century has been defined by this rising consciousness of whiteness because of the imminent shift to a "majority minority" population and the growing diversification of America's political, social, and cultural institutions. The result is literature that more directly grapples with whiteness as its own construct rather than a wrongly assumed norm. Li contextualizes a series of literary novels as collectively influenced by changes in racial and political attitudes. Turning to works by Dave Eggers, Sarah Smarsh, J. D. Vance, Claire Messud, Ben Lerner, and others, she traces the responses to white consciousness that breed shared manifestations of ugliness. The tension between acknowledging whiteness as an identity built on domination and the failure to remedy inequalities that have proliferated from this founding injustice is often the source of the ugly whiteness portrayed through these narratives. The questions posed in Ugly White People about the nature and future of whiteness are vital to understanding contemporary race relations in America. From the election of Trump and the rise of white nationalism to Karen memes and the war against critical race theory to the pervasive pattern of behavior among largely liberal-leaning whites, Li elucidates truths about whiteness that challenge any hope of national unity and, most devastatingly, the basic humanity of others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

White Americans are confronting their whiteness more than ever before, with political and social shifts ushering in a newfound racial awareness. And with white people increasingly seeing themselves as distinctly racialized (not simply as American or human), white writers are exposing a self-awareness of white racialized behavior-from staunch antiracism to virulent forms of xenophobic nationalism. Ugly White People: Writing Whiteness in Contemporary America (U Minnesota Press, 2023) explores representations of whiteness from twenty-first-century white American authors, revealing white recognition of the ugly forms whiteness can take. Stephanie Li argues that much of the twenty-first century has been defined by this rising consciousness of whiteness because of the imminent shift to a "majority minority" population and the growing diversification of America's political, social, and cultural institutions. The result is literature that more directly grapples with whiteness as its own construct rather than a wrongly assumed norm. Li contextualizes a series of literary novels as collectively influenced by changes in racial and political attitudes. Turning to works by Dave Eggers, Sarah Smarsh, J. D. Vance, Claire Messud, Ben Lerner, and others, she traces the responses to white consciousness that breed shared manifestations of ugliness. The tension between acknowledging whiteness as an identity built on domination and the failure to remedy inequalities that have proliferated from this founding injustice is often the source of the ugly whiteness portrayed through these narratives. The questions posed in Ugly White People about the nature and future of whiteness are vital to understanding contemporary race relations in America. From the election of Trump and the rise of white nationalism to Karen memes and the war against critical race theory to the pervasive pattern of behavior among largely liberal-leaning whites, Li elucidates truths about whiteness that challenge any hope of national unity and, most devastatingly, the basic humanity of others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history

White Americans are confronting their whiteness more than ever before, with political and social shifts ushering in a newfound racial awareness. And with white people increasingly seeing themselves as distinctly racialized (not simply as American or human), white writers are exposing a self-awareness of white racialized behavior-from staunch antiracism to virulent forms of xenophobic nationalism. Ugly White People: Writing Whiteness in Contemporary America (U Minnesota Press, 2023) explores representations of whiteness from twenty-first-century white American authors, revealing white recognition of the ugly forms whiteness can take. Stephanie Li argues that much of the twenty-first century has been defined by this rising consciousness of whiteness because of the imminent shift to a "majority minority" population and the growing diversification of America's political, social, and cultural institutions. The result is literature that more directly grapples with whiteness as its own construct rather than a wrongly assumed norm. Li contextualizes a series of literary novels as collectively influenced by changes in racial and political attitudes. Turning to works by Dave Eggers, Sarah Smarsh, J. D. Vance, Claire Messud, Ben Lerner, and others, she traces the responses to white consciousness that breed shared manifestations of ugliness. The tension between acknowledging whiteness as an identity built on domination and the failure to remedy inequalities that have proliferated from this founding injustice is often the source of the ugly whiteness portrayed through these narratives. The questions posed in Ugly White People about the nature and future of whiteness are vital to understanding contemporary race relations in America. From the election of Trump and the rise of white nationalism to Karen memes and the war against critical race theory to the pervasive pattern of behavior among largely liberal-leaning whites, Li elucidates truths about whiteness that challenge any hope of national unity and, most devastatingly, the basic humanity of others. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

Sunday Gathering February 25, 2024Brian Ross (Ecclesiastes 9:2-3 & 11-12)To be human, to be alive, is to suffer. Contemporary America, in an effort to sell us things andrally us around causes, tells us that a better life is right around the corner, one without much pain. But whether we are a good and decent person, or a messy and selfish person, suffering comes for us all.Handouts:"Everybody Hurts"

The first condoms were made of cloth and intended to be used after sex. Later they were replaced by hand stitched animal gut ones – designed to be washed and reused. We chart the bizzare, fraught and sexist history of attempts to deal with the prevention of sexually transmitted disease - where medical practice came into conflict with the morals of society.Histories of Sexual Health in Britain 1918-1980 is a research project being led by Anne Hanley. She joins Bill Yarber from the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University and Kate Lister from the Leeds Centre for Victorian Studies who has looked at the experiences and depictions of sex work from the nineteenth century to today. Matthew Sweet hosts the discussionProducer: Julian SiddleDr Kate Lister is a Senior Lecturer at Leeds Trinity University. She curates the online project www.thewhoresofyore.com and is the author the book A Curious History of Sex. You can hear more from her in a Free Thinking episode called How we talk about sex and women's bodies Dr Anne Hanley is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham whose research project is engaged in collecting oral histories with people who accessed and/or staffed sexual-health clinics between 1948 and 1980 in Britain. Professor Bill Yarber literally wrote the book or rather books for sex education in America, from some of the first guides to STDs, HIVAIDS and condom use to 'Human Sexuality: Diversity in Contemporary America' - the bestselling textbook on the subject.

Last fall, administrators at Gettysburg College announced the shuttering of the prestigious Gettysburg Review. This just seemed like the latest in a long string of magazines and journals that have closed the past few years.Curious about what's going on, I called Travis Kurowski, a leading expert on literary magazines, to help me understand what was happening. Today's podcast features the interview we recorded in the immediate aftermath of the news last October.But, Kurowski, who has also appeared on CNN.com and elsewhere, was able to shed light on broader themes and trends. We discuss why an entire ecosphere of literary journals—supported for nearly 100 years by institutions of higher ed—may also be in deep trouble.And we explore the ways in which recent tech has changed reading habits, and why that will continue to doom some journals, even as others are adapting themselves to stay relevant to 21st century literary culture.This conversation is well worth listening to for anyone who wants to publish in—or is concerned about the well-being and future of—literary magazines and journals.Some of my biggest takeaways from this interview* Outside prestige isn't enough to save storied journals like The Gettysburg Review.While many writers took to social media to point out that most of the world wouldn't know about Gettysburg College if it wasn't for the Review, that argument didn't seem to matter much to administrators.The problem was, rather, one of economics…and the readiness with which both college administrators and corporate interests are willing to cut arts funding.As with pretty much every business in the world, the pandemic gutted operating revenues at Gettysburg; it has been running significant deficits recently—a $6.7 million deficit in 2021 alone.When the college was looking for expense lines to cut, they focused on those (like the Review) which, they claimed, didn'tdirectly enhance student life.That last argument is a highly dubious one, by the way. Plenty of students learned a ton about literary publishing thanks to helping to produce the Review over the years. But this is the story that the administrators told themselves and the rest of us.* The sustainability of literary journals—especially those connected with colleges and universities—feels more fragile than ever.Literary journals have been associated with higher ed for almost a century. Often these journals were seen as prestige projects, aimed at enhancing the institutions beyond its walls—even as these journals were often subject to the vagaries of institutional budgets, priorities, and department allegiances."Literary journals have been on higher education campuses for...almost 100 years now...and sometimes they get cut from the budgets," Kurowski says.The difference today? Higher ed is facing greater economic pressures than ever before. Bloated administrations and a major decrease in enrollments—what Kurowski calls “the cliff of 18-year-olds”—are shrinking budgets.And with college and university budgets facing bleak prospects for the foreseeable future, the days of university-funded literary journals and similar prestige projects may be behind us.* Many literary journals haven't adapted to the digital “literary economy”…and they're getting left behind.It won't be news that the way we consume media has radically changed even in the span of a decade or two.With the advent of the internet and mobile technology, readers have migrated, en masse, to the digital landscape.And that has major implications for old-school print literary journals:“You walk down any hallway, anywhere in your house, right? And we're just staring at their phones. We're reading differently, we're writing differently, we're talking differently online. But our literary journals kind of look the same as they did 50 or 70 years ago,” Kurowski says.By way of example, Kurowski points out that when he went to look at the Gettsyburg Review website to prep for our interview, he wasn't able to click on any of the poems or short stories.So it's really necessary for journals to reassess how readers today (and beyond) are accessing their content.* Readers are no longer reading cover-to-cover…and journals need to embrace that change.The problem goes beyond clickable websites. The very way we consume print magazines has profoundly shifted—something that publishing expertJane Friedmanhas explored extensively.In her book The Business of Being a Writer, Friedman argues that the digital revolution has brought about the “disaggregation” of media. She means that journals are no longer consumed whole, cover-to-cover, but experienced in pieces, sometimes on platforms or in environments disaggregated, or pulled out, from their original format.Today, you can engage with the New Yorker through its website, podcast, app, or even live, as with its New Yorker festivals. In other words, the magazine has unbound—or disaggregated—itself.Similarly, lit journals may have to learn to move beyond their print editions if they want to connect with new readers today. “You don't want to focus too much on the container but rather the content,” Kurowski says.* Additionally, journals need to do a better job of “community building” …and those that are doing so are succeeding.Kurowski underscores the importance of creating community beyond the physical pages of the journals. The value of literary journals today goes well beyond the content they feature…and has a lot to do with the cultural experience they can offer.“If a journal is not doing that, if they're not creating a brand, creating a community, creating an experience…it's going to be hard for them to fit into the 21st century, where content is essentially expected to be free,” he says.He cites publications like The Georgia Review and even the newly-revived The Believer magazine as examples of journals that have successfully reconceptualized what it means to be connect with readers today.About My GuestTravis Kurowski is an associate professor of creative writing at York College. He's the editor of Paper Dreams: Writers and Editors on the American Literary Magazine, winner of an Independent Publisher Book Award, and co-editor of Literary Publishing in the Twenty-First Century (Milkweed).Further reading/discussed on this episode* Paper Dreams: Writers and Editors on the American Literary Magazine, edited by Travis Kurowski (Atticus Books)* Literary Publishing in the Twenty-First Century, coedited by Travis Kurowski, Wayne Miller, and Kevin Prufer.* The Little Magazine in Contemporary America, coedited by Ian Morris and Joanne Diaz.* “Are Literary Journals in Trouble?” by , July 18, 2023.* Get the latest updates about literary magazines and journals from the wonderful by* Check out my own essay, “What is the future for literary journals?”CreditsThis episode was edited and produced by Chérie Newman at Magpie Audio Productions. Theme music is "The Stone Mansion" by BlueDot Productions.  Get full access to The Book I Want to Write at bookiwanttowrite.substack.com/subscribe

Shakespeare is ubiquitous in literature classes and theater, but the avenues of relating to his work are not always clear to young people and modern audiences. Some, such as Shakespeare scholar and professor Ayanna Thompson, argue that his plays make sense as living, breathing, adaptable instruments that can be shaped to fit the times. Playwright, director and professor James Ijames created a prime example of interpretation with his play “Fat Ham,” an adaptation of Hamlet that won the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The two come together on stage at the festival to talk about what makes a good Shakespeare adaptation work, and why people have been inspired to run with his work and messages for centuries. Oskar Eustis, NYU Tisch School of the Arts professor and the artistic director of The Public Theater in New York, where “Fat Ham” premiered, moderates the conversation.

EPISODE 1781: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Cameron McWhirter and Zusha Elinson, co-authors of AMERICAN GUN, about the history of the AR-15, an assault weapon that captures America's contemporary love affair with technology, freedom and gunsCameron McWhirter is a national reporter for The Wall Street Journal, based in Atlanta. He has covered mass shootings, violent protests and natural disasters across the South. He is also the author of Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America. Previously, he reported for other publications in the U.S., as well as Bosnia, Iraq, and Ethiopia.Zusha Elinson is a national reporter for The Wall Street Journal, based in California, who writes about guns and violence. He grew up on a dirt road in upstate New York, graduated from St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and worked as a chimney sweep. Elinson has also written for the Center for Investigative Reporting and The New York Times Bay Area section. He received a MacDowell Fellowship to complete this book. (Photo by Joanna Eldredge Morrissey)Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.

EPISODE 1767: In this KEEN ON show, Andrew talks to Vincent Schiraldi, author of MASS SUPERVISION, about the illusion of safety and freedom in today's American criminal justice systemVincent Schiraldi has extensive experience in public life, founding the policy think tank, the Justice Policy Institute, then moving to government as director of the juvenile corrections in Washington DC, and then as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Probation. Most recently Schiraldi served as Senior Advisor to the New York City Mayor's Office of Criminal Justice. Schiraldi gained a national reputation as a fearless reformer who emphasized the humane and decent treatment of the men, women, and children under his correctional supervision. He pioneered efforts at community-based alternatives to incarceration in NYC and Washington DC. Schiraldi received a MSW from New York University, and a Bachelor of Arts from Binghamton University.Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.

#pagan #paganism #polytheism What are the different polytheistic views of the deities in Paganism? How do Pagans worship the God and the Goddess? Heathenry, Druidry, Wicca, Polytheistic Reconstructionism and eclectic Pagan witchcraft and how they work with the divine, CONNECT & SUPPORT

This episode is a re-run of a previous podcast. This summer I am teaching a research reading seminar class at George Mason. It's an online master's class for practicing health and physical educators as a part of our 100% online masters program. This summer, I am launching episodes that I assign in that class.  So part of the class is reading articles, and then part of the class we listen to the expert talk about their research on this podcast. These are all episodes that have launched previously, so maybe you've heard them…but, I know there's a lot of content on this podcast and these are all great podcasts! I hope you enjoy them! And I will be back in mid August with an awesome podcast about the state of PETE in the USA with Dr. Phil Ward! Kyle Kusz and Matthew Hodler join Risto to discuss the article “Saturdays Are For The Boys”: Barstool Sports and the Cultural Politics of White Fratriarchy in Contemporary America. We talk about Barstool's Sports racial politics by examining its cultural-historical factors and discuss the authors' critical reading of the ‘Barstool Documentary Series'. Full Cite: Kusz K, Hodler MR. “Saturdays Are For The Boys”: Barstool Sports and the Cultural Politics of White Fratriarchy in Contemporary America. Sociology of Sport Journal. 2022 Oct 21;1(aop):1-2. https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.2022-0075 Twitter: Matthew Hodler @MHodler --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pwrhpe/support

#pagan #paganism #polytheism What are the different polytheistic views of the deities in Paganism? How do Pagans worship the God and the Goddess? Heathenry, Druidry, Wicca, Polytheistic Reconstructionism and eclectic Pagan witchcraft and how they work with the divine, CONNECT & SUPPORT

Ich habe mich schon in früheren Episode mit der Frage auseinandergesetzt, wie man in schwierigen, potentiell kritischen Situationen entscheiden und handeln soll. Kürzlich bin ich auf einen Artikel des australischen Philosophen Michael Barkun, Thinking About The End in Contemporary America aus dem Jahr 1983 aufmerksam geworden. Ich lese ältere Artikel der 50er bis 80er Jahre mit immer größerem Interesse, weil ich auch hier feststelle, dass viele der Beobachtungen und Erkenntnisse dieser Zeit, obwohl sie 40-70 Jahre zurückliegen, immer noch zutreffen und diese Artikel häufig viel besser geschrieben sind als heutige. Die fundamentalen Dinge ändern sich offenbar doch nicht ganz so schnell, wie von vielen behauptet...? Diese Episode wird eine kurze Reflexion über Katastrophismus und apokalyptische Prognosen und Aktivisten sein. Wie immer bei solchen Reflexionen, freue ich mich auf kritische Zuschriften. In dieser kurzen Reflexion stelle ich die Frage, woher Katastrophismus und Untergangsglaube kommt, dass er nahezu eine Konstante der menschlichen Geschichte ist, aber auch, dass wir deutliche Unterschiede im 20. und 21. Jahrhundert wahrnehmen, nämlich eine Verschiebung von religiösen zu säkularen Ideen. »Speculations about the end of history form an almost unbroken chain over two and a half millenia«, Michael Barkun Auch in früheren Gesprächen, etwa mit Prof. Achim Landwehr haben ich sehr ähnliche Aspekte bereits thematisiert. Ein Nachhören dieser älteren Episoden zahlt sich aus: »Wenn Apokalypse nie ausstirbt, dann heißt das aber auch: Die Welt geht nie unter. Das ist dann vielleicht die positive Konsequenz, die man daraus ableiten könnte.«  Ich zitiere später in der Folge den britischen Philosophen John Gray, der sich in seinem hervorragenden Buch Black Mass sehr kritisch mit milleniaristischen und utopistischen Strömungen auseinandersetzt: »The world in which we find ourselves at the start of the new millennium is littered with the debris of utopian projects. […] The alteration envisioned by utopian thinkers has not come about, and for the most part their projects have produced results opposite to those they intended.« Die Tatsache, dass wir die Trümmer vergangener Utopien links und rechts um uns herum sehen, hindert aber neue Utopisten nicht daran wieder ihre reine Lehre allen anderen aufzwingen zu wollen: »The use of inhumane methods to achieve impossible ends is the essence of revolutionary utopianism.« Wir erleben gerade eine Vielzahl an katastrophistischen, fast religionsartigen Bewegungen wie etwa Just Stop Oil, Extinction Rebellion oder die Letzte Generation. An dieser Stelle Screenshots von zwei Webseiten, die im Podcast erwähnt werden: Extinction Rebellion Letzte Generation Das Pamphlet endet mit den bescheidenen Worten: »Und wir stehen auf der richtigen Seite der Geschichte.« Am Ende stelle ich die Frage, wie wir als Gesellschaft nun mit solchen apokalyptischen Vorhersagen und kultartigen Strömungen umgehen sollen, besonders in Bezug auf Klimawandel, um den sich die meisten heute drehen. Diese Verengung ist für sich genommen bemerkenswert, denn denkt man über existentielle Bedrohungen der Menschheit nach, fallen mir ohne lange Überlegungen fast ein Dutzend Bedrohungen ein, der Klimawandel ist da nur eine unter vielen. Dies merkt auch der britischen Historiker Niall Ferguson an; aus seinem ebenfalls sehr lesenswerten Buch Doom zitiert: “For every potential calamity, there is at least one plausible Cassandra. Not all prophecies can be heeded. In recent years we may have allowed one risk — namely climate change — to draw our attention away from the others.” Dazu kommt noch die wesentliche Frage, ob diese Probleme, die hier angesprochen werden, überhaupt eine Lösung in einem traditionellen Sinn hat, wie diese Aktivisten behaupten. Dazu empfehle ich die Episode Probleme und Lösungen nachzuholen. “There are no solutions, only tradeoffs.”, Thomas Sowell Am Ende noch ein Zitat aus dem herausragenden Buch von Jacob Bronowski aus dem Jahr 1956, das im Grunde meine Episode über den Irrtum der »Follow the Science« vorwegnimmt (allerdings bin ich erst nach meiner Episode auf dieses Buch gestossen): »There is no more threatening and no more degrading doctrine than the fancy that somehow we may shelve the responsibility for making the decisions of our society by passing it to a few scientists armoured with a special magic.« Referenzen Andere Episoden Episode 62: Wirtschaft und Umwelt, ein Gespräch mit Prof. Hans-Werner Sinn Episode 60: Wissenschaft und Umwelt — Teil 2 Episode 59: Wissenschaft und Umwelt — Teil 1 Episode 51: Vorbereiten auf die Disruption? Ein Gespräch mit Herbert Saurugg und John Haas Episode 50: Die Geburt der Gegenwart und die Entdeckung der Zukunft — ein Gespräch mit Prof. Achim Landwehr Episode 47: Große Worte Episode 46: Activism, a Conversation with Zion Lights Episode 45: Mit »Reboot« oder Rebellion aus der Krise? Episode 39: Follow the Science? Episode 37: Probleme und Lösungen Fachliche Referenzen Apocalypse Always, Blog Artikel (2023) Existential Threats, Blog Article (2023) Michael Barkun, Syracuse University Michael Barkun, Thinking about the end in contemporary America, Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal Vol. 66, No. 3 (Fall 1983), pp. 257-280 Andrea Wulf, Alexander von Humboldt und die Erfindung der Natur, Bertelsmann (2016) John Gray, Black Mass, Penguin (2008) Just Stop Oil Extinction Rebellion, Citizens Assembly, Climate Change (2021) Letzte Generation, Berlin zum Stillstand bringen (April 2023) Niall Ferguson, Doom, Deutsche Verlagsanstalt (2021) Jacob Bronowski, Science and Human Values, Faber and Faber (1956) Michael Crichton, Why Speculate? (2002)

In 2018, Dr. J. L. Adolph completed his Ph.D. in English/African Diaspora Studies at the University of Missouri-Columbia; his dissertation centered on Fatherhood Narratives in Hip-hop Lyricism.  He received an MA from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2009 and a BA in English with a minor in Africana Studies from Central Missouri State University, May 2005.   Dr. JL Adolph has a professional background in utilizing hip-hop culture as a tool to teach at-promise youth and families with histories of trauma successfully. The English professor employs innovative communication methods furnishing an educational space to discuss urban male parenting in Contemporary America. His keynote speeches and interactive online series Dad Cypher: A Hip-hop Guide to Fatherhood challenges critics' skepticism of hip-hop culture and the mythology of African American fatherhood. As a media literacy specialist and researcher, Adolph utilizes his expertise to empower inner-city marginalized dads. Hence, his works seek to alter or “remix” the mainstream narrative of African-American fatherhood. 

This episode is part 2 of a conversation in which we talk with Tara Beard who shares who story of being a part of a church with a heavy emphasis on 'encounters' with God that ultimately led to place of elevating those 'encounters' above the Bible. She shares her involvement and ultimately how God opened her eyes to see the sufficiency of Scripture and the Gospel which ultimately led to her freedom. Books referenced by Tara in this video: Counterfeit Kingdom by Holly Pivec & R. Douglas Geivett A Different Gospel: A Biblical look at the Word of Faith movement by D.R. McConnell The Second Coming of the New Age: The Hidden Dangers of Alternative Spirituality in Contemporary America & it's Churches by Steven Bancarz & Josh Peck Strange Fire by John MacArthur

Kyle Kusz and Matthew Hodler join Risto to discuss the article “Saturdays Are For The Boys”: Barstool Sports and the Cultural Politics of White Fratriarchy in Contemporary America. We talk about Barstool's Sports racial politics by examining its cultural-historical factors and discuss the authors' critical reading of the ‘Barstool Documentary Series'. Full Cite: Kusz K, Hodler MR. “Saturdays Are For The Boys”: Barstool Sports and the Cultural Politics of White Fratriarchy in Contemporary America. Sociology of Sport Journal. 2022 Oct 21;1(aop):1-2. https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.2022-0075 Twitter: Matthew Hodler @MHodler --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/pwrhpe/support

Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world's leading thinkers and writers about the economic, political, and technological issues being discussed in the news, right now. In this episode, Andrew is joined by Rae Meadows, author of Winterland. Rae Meadows is the author of four previous novels, including I Will Send Rain. She is the recipient of the Goldenberg Prize for Fiction, the Hackney Literary Award for the novel, and the Utah Book Award, and her work has been published widely. She grew up admiring the Soviet gymnasts of the 1970s, and in her forties decided to go back to the thing she loved as a child. She now trains regularly in gymnastics. She lives with her family in Brooklyn. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Franzen is known for being, well, a little bit of everything: cantankerous and compelling, celebrated and controversial. Known for his vivid character development, his six novels have provoked commentary of all sorts from each end of the spectrum and everywhere in-between. Unsurprisingly, when Franzen — dubbed by TIME as “The Great American Novelist”— releases a new book, people pay attention; his latest novel, Crossroads, is no exception. In Crossroads, it's December 23, 1971, and heavy weather is forecast for Chicago. Russ Hildebrandt, the associate pastor of a liberal suburban church, is on the brink of breaking free from a joyless marriage — unless his wife, Marion, who has her own secret life, beats him to it. Their eldest child, Clem, is coming home from college on fire with moral absolutism, having taken an action that will shatter his father. Clem's sister, Becky, long the social queen of her high-school class, has sharply veered into the counterculture, while their brilliant younger brother Perry, who's been selling drugs to seventh graders, has resolved to be a better person. Each of the Hildebrandts seeks a freedom that each of the others threatens to complicate. The story of a Midwestern family at a pivotal moment of moral crisis, Crossroads explores the history of two generations with humor and complexity that resonates with our contemporary times. Jonathan Franzen is the author of six novels, most recently Crossroads and Purity, and five works of nonfiction, including The Discomfort Zone, Farther Away, and The End of the End of the Earth. Among his honors are the National Book Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Award, the Heartland Prize, Die Welt Literature Prize, the Budapest Grand Prize, and the first Carlos Fuentes Medal awarded at the Guadalajara International Book Fair. Franzen is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the German Akademie der Künste, and the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. An ardent bird-watcher, he has served on the board of the American Bird Conservancy since 2008, and has received the EuroNatur Award for his work in bird conservation. Tom Nissley is the owner of Phinney Books and Madison Books in Seattle, and the author of A Reader's Book of Days. He has a Ph.D. in English from the University of Washington and in 2010 won eight games on Jeopardy!. Crossroads: A Novel (Paperback) Third Place Books

Welcome back to Fright School! We're discussing the Beyoncé songwriting drama because we're nothing if not timely with breaking Twitter drama… Joshua is starting grad school. Joe suggested we look back on our summer. We wrap up our series on giant monsters with CLOVERFIELD! We discuss 9/11 narratives, the world before the smart phone, and our lans in an apocalyptic situation. Recommended Reading/Viewing: Official trailer CLOVERFIELD (2008) Hollywood's Cloverfield: An Allegorical Representation of 9/11 and a Dystopian Vision of Contemporary America by Karl Imdahl Check out the OUT HERE HALLOWEEN MEGA TAPE Join our Patreon for access to exclusive content! Sign up for The Fright School Reader our NEW monthly newsletter! Check out our TEEPUBLIC offerings for all of your Fright School Supplies!! FOLLOW US! Facebook Twitter Instagram LinkTree EXTRA CREDIT: WE KNOW PODCASTING! There would be no Fright School without the incomparable assistance of one Matt Kelly. Now you can benefit from his and co-founder of WE KNOW PODCASTING Chris Fafalios' 25+ years of combined experience to take your show to the next level. They want to share their experience with you, giving you a leg up on the competition. In a world of run-of-the-mill podcasts, you can stand out from the crowd with a professional and engaging show! Fright School Recommended Texts: Creepy Bitches: Essays On Horror From Women In Horror by Alyse Wax, Rebekah McKendry, PhD. and more! Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror by Robin R Means Coleman The Horror Genre: From Beelzebub to Blair Witch by Paul Wells Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film by Carol J. Clover Monsters in the Closet: Homosexuality and the Horror Film by Harry Benshoff The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror by David J. Skal Projected Fears by Kendall R. Phillips Support FRIGHT SCHOOL by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/fright-school Find out more at https://fright-school.pinecast.co This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Spiritualism, Episode #3 of 4. In the late 20th century, white Americans flocked to New Age spirituality, collecting crystals, hugging trees, and finding their places in the great Medicine Wheel. Many didn't realize - or didn't care - that much of this spirituality was based on the spiritual faiths and practices of Native American tribes. Frustrated with what they called “spiritual hucksterism,” members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) began protesting - and have never stopped. Who were these ‘plastic shamans,' and how did the spiritual services they sold become so popular? Listen to find out! Get the transcript and other resources at digpodcast.org Bibliography Irwin, Lee. “Freedom Law, and Prophecy: A Brief History of Native American Religious Resistance,” American Indian Quarterly 21 (Winter 1997): 35-55. McNally, Michael D. Defend the Sacred: Native American Religious Freedom Beyond the First Amendment. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2020. Owen, Suzanne. The Appropriation of Native American Spirituality. New York: Bloomsbury, 2011. Urban, Hugh. New Age, Neopagan, and New Religious Movements: Alternative Spirituality in Contemporary America. Berkley: University of California Press, 2015. Bowman, Marion. “Ancient Avalon, New Jerusalem, Heart Chakra of Planet Earth: The Local and the Global in Glastonbury,” Numen 52 (2005): 157-190. Amy Wallace, Sorcerer's Apprentice: My Life with Carlos Castaneda. Berkley: North Atlantic Books, 2013.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bernie Sanders takes his gloves off on ABC's This Week to teach Democrats how to stand up to frauds like Joe Manchin; Biden sinking and stinking; Uvalde shooting; Greenwood Mall shooting; New evidence that good guys with guns don't stop bad guys with guns; Europe burns Guests With Time Stamps (00:01:47) David Does The News (00:08:45) Neoliberalism Doomed (00:12:15) Biden admits defeat on Climate Change (00:18:11) Why Manchin doesn't fear Biden (00:22:23) Biden's cognitive decline (00:31:15) Climate change causes inflation (00:36:35) Dr. Ronny Jackson prescribes assault weapons (00:45:27) Texas house committee gets to the bottom of Uvalde shooting (00:55:26) "Good Samaritan" kills shooter (01:03:04) "I'm On My Way" written and performed by Professor Mike Steinel (01:06:02) David takes your calls (01:09:37) Grace Jackson talks about Sino-Japanese relations in light of Shinzo Abe's assassination, and gives a historical perspective. Plus a quick update on the horror-farce of British politics. (01:33:17) Jason Myles and Pascal Robert co-hosts of "This is Revolution" podcast talk about Latin America's rise of the Left (02:09:11) "Pig For Love" written and performed by Professor Mike Steinel (02:13:55) David Takes Your Calls (02:27:37) "I'm Traveling Light" written and performed by Professor Mike Steinel (02:32:23) The January 6th Hearing. Professor Gregg Barak is the co-founder and North American Editor of the “Journal of White Collar and Corporate Crime” and Emeritus Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice at Eastern Michigan University. He is the author and editor of 20 books on crime, justice, media, violence, criminal law, homelessness, and human rights. These include “Violence and Nonviolence: Pathways to Understanding,”  “Gimme Shelter: A Social History of Homelessness in Contemporary America”, and “Theft of a Nation: Wall Street Looting and Federal Regulatory Colluding”.  His newest book is “Criminology on Trump.” (03:05:17) "USA of Distraction" written and performed by Professor Mike Steinel (03:12:20) Breaking News: US Attorney Drops Charges Against Triumph The Insult Comic Dog (03:13:32) Dr. Harriet Fraad discusses why mass murder is on the rise in America (03:46:19) Stump The Humps! Professor Jonathan Bick versus David on Golf (04:04:12) "I'm On My Way" written and performed by Professor Mike Steinel (04:06:51) Peter B. Collins on John Bolton admitted to Jake Tapper that he's organized coups around the world. (04:42:37) Professor Mary Anne Cummings, particle physicist, on the Webb telescope (05:17:17) Professor Mike Steinel author of "Saving Charlie Parker: A Novel." To purchase go to www.SavingCharlieParker.com (05:40:38) "You Like Him" written and performed by Professor Mike Steinel We livestream here on YouTube every Monday and Thursday starting at 5:00 PM Eastern and go until 11:00 PM. Please join us!  Take us wherever you go by subscribing to this show as a podcast! Here's how: https://davidfeldmanshow.com/how-to-listen/ And Subscribe to this channel. SUPPORT INDEPENDENT MEDIA: https://www.paypal.com/biz/fund?id=PDTFTUJCCV3EW More David @ http://www.DavidFeldmanShow.com Get Social With David: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidfeldmancomedy?ref=hl Twitter: https://twitter.com/David_Feldman_ iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/david-feldman-show/id321997239

The guest on today's episode of Finding Freedom is Salvatore DeGennaro. This is Salvatore's 2nd time on the podcast. He was on Episode 114, way back in 2018. Salvatore is a firearms instructor, International Defensive Pistol Association shooter, and a life-long practitioner of the concealed carry lifestyle. He is a contributing author for USA Carry, Concealed Nation, Self-Defense Rx, The Truth About Guns, and his own blog Reflex Handgun. Salvatore is the author of: 21st Century Minute Man: A Guide to Personal Protection and Self-Reliance in Contemporary America, Subscribe to John's Finding Freedom Show solo feed. Listen and Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Get 20% off your selection of the AMAZING CBD products over at PalomaVerdeCBD.com and use discount code "ROAR" at checkout! Get access to all of our bonus audio content, livestreams, behind-the-scenes segments and more for as little as $5 per month by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride on Patreon OR support us on Locals! Lions also get 20% off all merchandise at the Lions of Liberty Store, including our hot-off-the-press Hands Up Don't Nuke! T-Shirt!

The guest on today's episode of Finding Freedom is Salvatore DeGennaro. This is Salvatore's 2nd time on the podcast. He was on Episode 114, way back in 2018. Salvatore is a firearms instructor, International Defensive Pistol Association shooter, and a life-long practitioner of the concealed carry lifestyle. He is a contributing author for USA Carry, Concealed Nation, Self-Defense Rx, The Truth About Guns, and his own blog Reflex Handgun. Salvatore is the author of: 21st Century Minute Man: A Guide to Personal Protection and Self-Reliance in Contemporary America, Subscribe to John's Finding Freedom Show solo feed. Listen and Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Get 20% off your selection of the AMAZING CBD products over at PalomaVerdeCBD.com and use discount code "ROAR" at checkout! Get access to all of our bonus audio content, livestreams, behind-the-scenes segments and more for as little as $5 per month by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride on Patreon OR support us on Locals! Lions also get 20% off all merchandise at the Lions of Liberty Store, including our hot-off-the-press Hands Up Don't Nuke! T-Shirt!

The guest on today's episode of Finding Freedom is Salvatore DeGennaro. This is Salvatore's 2nd time on the podcast. He was on Episode 114, way back in 2018. Salvatore is a firearms instructor, International Defensive Pistol Association shooter, and a life-long practitioner of the concealed carry lifestyle. He is a contributing author for USA Carry, Concealed Nation, Self-Defense Rx, The Truth About Guns, and his own blog Reflex Handgun. Salvatore is the author of: 21st Century Minute Man: A Guide to Personal Protection and Self-Reliance in Contemporary America, Subscribe to John's Finding Freedom Show solo feed. Listen and Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Get 20% off your selection of the AMAZING CBD products over at PalomaVerdeCBD.com and use discount code "ROAR" at checkout! Get access to all of our bonus audio content, livestreams, behind-the-scenes segments and more for as little as $5 per month by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride on Patreon OR support us on Locals! Lions also get 20% off all merchandise at the Lions of Liberty Store, including our hot-off-the-press Hands Up Don't Nuke! T-Shirt! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why don't American police demand gun control? Tuesday's massacre in Uvalde, Texas exposed just how terrified American police are of getting killed by assault weapons. So why the silence from police chiefs when it comes to banning AR-15s? How have gun manufacturers and the NRA purchased silence from American police? (0:52) David Does the News: NRA Meets today to plan more killings: A look at the NRA's history of draft dodging and spousal abuse; Wayne LaPiere's personal life; Texas Governor Greg Abbott is evil; Republican Senator Tom Cotton says assaults weapons don't exist (56:37) "USA of Distraction" written and performed by Professor Mike Steinel (1:01:51) Gregg Barak (author, "Violence and Nonviolence: Pathways to Understanding" and "Criminology on Trump") Americans have yet to come to grips with just how violent we are. Gregg Barak is the co-founder and North American Editor of the “Journal of White Collar and Corporate Crime” and Emeritus Professor of Criminology & Criminal Justice at Eastern Michigan University. He is the author and editor of 20 books on crime, justice, media, violence, criminal law, homelessness, and human rights. These include “Violence and Nonviolence: Pathways to Understanding,” “Gimme Shelter: A Social History of Homelessness in Contemporary America”, and “Theft of a Nation: Wall Street Looting and Federal Regulatory Colluding”. His newest book is “Criminology on Trump.” (1:36:40) Joe Thompson (organizer w/ Starbucks Workers United, candidate for California State Assembly District 28) Joe Thompson is a 19-year-old non-binary, UC Santa Cruz Student, a Starbucks Union Organizer, and a progressive candidate for California State Assembly District 28 in the nonpartisan primary election on Tuesday June 7th. Joe uses they/them pronouns and, if elected, they would be the first nonbinary official elected to statewide office in California. (2:03:40) The Herschenfelds: Dr. Philip Herschenfeld (Freudian psychoanalyst), and Ethan Herschenfeld (his new comedy special "Thug, Thug Jew" is streaming on YouTube) We talks guns (2:34:09) "Travelin' Light" written and performed by Professor Mike Steinel (2:30:25) Stump The Hump with Quizmaster Dan F. Today's topic: Disney (3:10:17) "Swine Bomb Boogie" written and performed by Professor Mike Steinel (3:13:06) The Rev. Barry W. Lynn (Americans United for Separation of Church and State) Religious Nut of the Week Rep Brian Babin (R-TX): "The United States of America has always had guns. It's our history. We were built on the Judeo-Christian foundation and with guns" (4:07:21) The Professors And Mary Anne: Professors Mary Anne Cummings, Jonathan Bick, Ann Li, Adnan Husain We talks guns PLUS: ASMR for your eyeballs - Kitchen ASMR with Joe in Norway Joe makes: Homemade glass jelly noodles w/a spicy Sichuanese sauce. (5:10:10) Professor Harvey J. Kaye ("FDR on Democracy") and Alan Minsky (executive director of Progressive Democrats of America) Guns (5:45:04) Emil Guillermo (host of the PETA Podcast, and columnist for The Asian American Legal Defense And Education Fund) Guns (6:10:57) Liam McEneany (Comedian and Producer) Liam plugs his big new tour called L.L.L.L. (Left-Leaning Liberals of Laughter) Presents: Progressive Comedy for America

We take a sober look at Saturday's massacre of African Americans in Buffalo. The shooting was partly because of white supremacy. But the REAL reason for the shooting is it's too easy for every lunatic in America to get their hands on an assault weapon. Our nation's gun laws are an act of collective suicide. We choose weapons over peace. We prefer profits for arms manufacturers over our own security. From guns to for profit healthcare Americans are killing themselves in the name of Mammon. CORRECTION: David identified Congresswoman Liz Cheney as representing Idaho. She represents Wyoming. We are sorry for both the mistake and the fact that there is a Wyoming or an Idaho. Guests With Time Codes:  (01:07) David Does the News: Kimberly Guilfoyle wants to ban foreign cows; We need to have a serious conversation about serious conservations; Chuck Schumer's daughter is a lobbyist for Amazon; The Buffalo massacre; Why do cops shoot to kill?; Goods guys with guns NEVER stop bad guys with guns; 70 percent of Americans in jail never get a trial; Amazon is a surprisingly unprofitable business; It's time to call Jeff Bezos what he is, "An Illegal." ; Christian Smalls takes on Lindsey Graham; Corporations, like Amazon, that break the law are not supposed to get government contracts; Virginia's Democratic Senator Tim Kaine is Pro Amazon and Anti Union (1:12:12) "Ain't No Chairs" written and performed by Professor Mike Steinel (1:16:32) Gregg Barak (author, "Criminology on Trump") Gregg Barak is author of, “Gimme Shelter: A Social History of Homelessness in Contemporary America”, “Theft of a Nation: Wall Street Looting and Federal Regulatory Colluding”, and “Unchecked Corporate Power: Why the Crimes of Multinational Corporations are Routinized Away and What We Can Do About It.” His newest book is “Criminology on Trump.”   (1:35:32) Pascal Robert (co-host of "This is Revolution" podcast) Why gentrification in Black neighborhoods is less a part of White Supremacy and more a function of capitalism. Also, how Haiti was forced to pay reparations to French slaveholders up until 1947. Yes, you read that correctly. Haiti had to pay reparations to the SLAVEHOLDERS. (2:03:54) Howie Klein (founder and treasurer of The Blue America PAC and author of Down With Tyranny) Howie does a complete rundown of Tuesday's primaries in Pennsylvania, Oregon, North Carolina, and Idaho. Idaho's GOP Governor Brad Little is up against a primary challenge from Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin; Trump endorses North Carolina's Rep. Madison Cawthorn; In North Carolina we love Erica Smith; Oregon's Right Wing Democratic Congressman Kurt Schrader is challenged on the Left by Jamie McLeod-Skinner; In Pennsylvania Dr. Oz has Trump's blessing for senate; Can Conservative Congressman Conor Lamb beat Pennsylvania's Left Leaning Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman? ; Summer Lee is Bernie's pick for a congressional seat that covers Pittsburgh, but will AIPAC destroy her like they did Nina Turner?; (2:37:36) David Cobb (environmental activist and Green Party Presidential candidate) (2:58:33) "USA of Distraction" written and performed by Professor Mike Steinel (3:05:16) Dr. Harriet Fraad (host of "Capitalism Hits Home") How the so called "Pro Life" movement is nothing other than a full scale war on women. (3:36:00) Professor Adnan Husain ("Guerrilla History" and "The Majlis" podcasts) Diem25's new Manifesto for Europe. What is a possible left agenda for geopolitics in this era? (4:04:16) Peter B. Collins (Bay Area Radio Hall of Fame) w/ Joe Lauria (Editor-in-Chief of Consortium News) PayPal said it mistakenly informed Consortium News its account could be restored, but now says it's shut down permanently while offering no explanation. Is PayPal silencing Left Wing news organizations? Joe Lauria is Editor-in-Chief of “Consortium News,” and has covered foreign policy at the United Nations for numerous newspapers, including the “Boston Globe”, the “Montreal Gazette”, and the “Johannesburg Star.”  Professor Mary Anne Cummings (physicist and parks commissioner Aurora, Illinois) (5:18:02) Stump the Hump! w/ Quizmaster Dan F challenges David, Professors Mary Anne Cummings and Adnan Husain on their Top Gun knowledge 5:40:46 Professor Mike Steinel (Jazz historian and Dylanologist) We livestream here on YouTube every Monday and Thursday starting at 5:00 PM Eastern and go until 11:00 PM. Please join us! Take us wherever you go by subscribing to this show as a podcast! Here's how: https://davidfeldmanshow.com/how-to-l... And Subscribe to this channel. SUPPORT INDEPENDENT MEDIA: https://www.paypal.com/biz/fund?id=PD... More David @ http://www.DavidFeldmanShow.com Get Social With David: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/davidfeldmanc... Twitter: https://twitter.com/David_Feldman_ iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/d...

O mal da Teoria da Conspiração e do Ceticismo Radical *Apoia-se: https://apoia.se/canaldosocran *Canal Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/socrannn/featured Depois da conspiração da pólvora, um plano macabro para explodir o Parlamento do Reino Unido no ano de 1605, as pessoas passaram a olhar com mais seriedade a ideia de que planos secretos possam redundar em processos políticos de luta pelo poder. Porém, a parte da consideração óbvia de que conspirações existem desde que o mundo é mundo, fica a questão - qual é a linha tênue entre a loucura de teorias de conspiração pautadas na imaginação de pessoas criativas e a realidade das relações interpessoais ou mesmo o ceticismo exagerado perante avaliações honestas? Eis aqui um tentativa reflexiva sobre o tema, que abordo, à luz de minha formação universitária em Filosofia. Referências: * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy#cite_note-7 * Sobre o Dilúvio: https://portalconservador.com/apologetica/ha-relatos-do-diluvio-em-quase-todas-as-civilizacoes-do-globo/ * Águas no manto da terra: https://ssec.si.edu/stemvisions-blog/there-ocean-below-your-feet * https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theory * Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition em CD-ROM (v. 4.0), Oxford University Press, 2009, sv 4 * Autor Citado - Barkun, Michael (2003). A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America . Berkeley: University of California Press. pp. 3 –4. * Livro da Filosofia - Coleção Grandes ideias de todos os tempos - Karl Popper - pg 262 - 265 - Ed Globo * The Use and Abuse of Sir Karl Popper - DAVID L. HULL Department of Philosophy Northwestern University * Teoria da Reflexividade - https://www.institutoliberal.org.br/blog/politica/uma-aula-com-george-soros-o-que-pensa-o-homem-que-mexe-com-o-mundo/ *Instituto Rothbard - https://rothbardbrasil.com/cui-bono-a-teoria-da-conspiracao-da-historia-reavaliada/

Ep 45: Whiteness and hip hop – Prof Tricia Rose is often referred to as the world's foremost academic on Hip hop. Her ground-breaking book on the emergence of hip hop culture, Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America went on to define what is now an entire field of study. She joins me to discuss how whiteness reduces hip hop to entertainment, whether some music just isn't for ‘white' ears and that line, between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation.

Murray Jines from 4CA chats with Kevin West about the new production of Myth, Propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and Contemporary America

Nicholas Eadie’s resume boasts an impressive list of high-profile television production that we affectionately embrace as key moments in Australian television consumption. He gained success and fame in Australian television series’ such as Cop Shop, The Henderson Kids, A Country Practice and Medivac.He won The Australian Film Institute's Best Actor in a Mini-Series award in 1987 for Vietnam, in which he co-starred with Nicole Kidman. He played a dashing horseman in The Man From Snowy River 2 and was nominated again for his portrayal of World War II Academy Award-winning cameraman Damien Parer in John Duigan’s Fragments of War, and in 2002 for Halifax f.p.He is the son of ABC radio announcer Mervyn Eadie, and is a graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Art.Nicholas Eadie has worked with all the major Australian theatre companies with over 45 credits to his name. He has appeared in leading roles in plays as diverse as Tennessee Williams: The Glass Menagerie as The Gentleman Caller and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as Brick. He has played John Proctor in three separate productions of The Crucible. And partied hard as Don in David Williamson's Don's Party.In Sydney's Botanical Gardens, he performed for three seasons as Oberon/Theseus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He played Sam in the original cast of Mamma Mia! in Australia for two years. He has been in the world premiere productions of Michael Gow's Furious, Hannie Raison's Two Brothers, Tommy Murphy's Holding The Man and the highly acclaimed Myth, Propaganda and Disaster in Nazi Germany and Contemporary America by Stephen Sewell.It is a career of many triumphs but it has not been without its challenges. Nick talks candidly about the work he has navigated and reflects on a career that has often rewarded and sometimes disappointed. Here's my chat with the charming Nicholas Eadie.

PhD candidate Michael Rotolo joins Ben and Matt to unpack the research around Christian Nationalism as it relates to congregations and young adult engagement. Michael's recent work based on the Christian Smith cohort study highlights reasons why some young adults are drawn to Christian Nationalism. Moral Religiosities Michael's Twitter Michael's Website Resources Taking America Back For God The Color Of Compromise How to Preach a Dangerous Sermon White Too Long Straight White American Jesus Podcast Religious Parenting: Transmitting Faith and Values in Contemporary America

Fitness activities on the surface have a lot to do with health and looks, they are also very much embedded in marketplace logics and consumer culture. In this episode, Alev and Anuja and guests reveal how fitness culture is a significant part of a modern individual's everyday activities. They look into extreme forms of sports such as CrossFit and the Danish runner's race "Extreme Man's Smell" as well as fitness activities during Covid-19, and discuss the joys as well as tensions of working out.Guest appearances in this episode: Karsten Prinds, Producer at this show.Csongor Füleki, a student in the Bachelor's program of Market and Management Anthropology at SDU. Anil Isisag, an Assistant Professor of Marketing at EMLyon Business School.Notes and reading suggestions:Foundational Texts that help contextualize “the body” within capitalism / late modernity:Blackman, L. (2020). The body: The key concepts. Routledge.Featherstone, M. (1982). The body in consumer culture. Theory, culture & society, 1(2), 18-33.Featherstone, M., & Turner, B. S. (1995). Body & society: An introduction. Body & Society, 1(1), 1-12.Giddens, A. (1991). Modernity and self-identity: Self and society in the late modern age. Stanford university press.Lasch, C. (2018). The culture of narcissism: American life in an age of diminishing expectations. WW Norton & Company.Slater, D. (1997) Consumer Culture and Modenity. Cambridge: Polity PressTurner, B. S. (1996). Body and Society: Explorations in Social Theory. London: SageFitness Cultures & Body Work - more general:Andreasson, J., & Johansson, T. (2014). The Fitness Revolution: Historical Transformations in the Global Gym and Fitness Culture. Sport science review, 23(3-4), 91-112.Hakim, J. (2015). 'Fit is the new rich': male embodiment in the age of austerity. Soundings, 61(61), 84-94.Kristensen, D. B., & Ruckenstein, M. (2018). Co-evolving with self-tracking technologies. New Media & Society, 20(10), 3624-3640.Kristensen, D. B., & Prigge, C. (2018). Human/technology associations in self-tracking practices. In Self-tracking (pp. 43-59). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.Maguire, J. S. (2007). Fit for consumption: Sociology and the business of fitness. Routledge.Martschukat, J. (2019). The age of fitness: the power of ability in recent American history. Rethinking History, 23(2), 157-174.McKenzie, S. (2013). Getting physical: The rise of fitness culture in America. Lawrence: university press of kansas.Pedersen, P. V., & Tjørnhøj-Thomsen, T. (2017). Bodywork and bodily capital among youth using fitness gyms. Journal of Youth Studies, 20(4), 430-445.Sassatelli, R. (1999). Fitness gyms and the local organization of experience. Sociological research online, 4(3), 96-112.Sassatelli, R. (1999). Interaction order and beyond: A field analysis of body culture within fitness gyms. Body & Society, 5(2-3), 227-248.Sassatelli, R., 2003. Beyond health and beauty: A critical perspective on fitness culture. In Women's Minds, Women's Bodies (pp. 77-88). Palgrave Macmillan, London.Sassatelli, R. (2010). Fitness culture: gyms and the commercialisation of discipline and fun. Palgrave Macmillan“Extreme” Fitness Activities:Andreasson, J., & Johansson, T. (2019). Triathlon Bodies in Motion: Reconceptualizing Feelings of Pain, Nausea and Disgust in the Ironman Triathlon. Body & Society, 25(2), 119-145.Gillett, J., & White, P. G. (1992). Male bodybuilding and the reassertion of hegemonic masculinity: A critical feminist perspective. Play & Culture.Klein, A. M. (1986). Pumping irony: Crisis and contradiction in bodybuilding. Sociology of Sport journal, 3(2), 112-133.Scott, R., Cayla, J., & Cova, B. (2017). Selling pain to the saturated self. Journal of Consumer Research, 44(1), 22-43.Weedon, G. (2015). Camaraderie reincorporated: Tough Mudder and the extended distribution of the social. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 39(6), 431-454.CrossFit:Couture, J. (2019). “Protecting the Gift”: Risk, Parental (Ir) responsibility, and CrossFit Kids Magazine. Sociology of Sport Journal, 36(1), 77-86.Dawson, M. C. (2017). CrossFit: Fitness cult or reinventive institution?. International review for the sociology of sport, 52(3), 361-379.Edmonds, S. E. (2020). Geographies of (cross) fitness: an ethnographic case study of a CrossFit Box. Qualitative research in sport, exercise and health, 12(2), 192-206.Hejtmanek, K. R. (2020). Fitness Fanatics: Exercise as Answer to Pending Zombie Apocalypse in Contemporary America. American Anthropologist, 122(4), 864-875.McCarthy, B. (2021). Reinvention Through CrossFit: Branded Transformation Documentaries. Communication & Sport, 9(1), 150-165.Other Branded and (G)local Fitness Cultures:Andreasson, J., & Johansson, T. (2016). ‘Doing for group exercise what McDonald's did for hamburgers': Les Mills, and the fitness professional as global traveller. Sport, Education and Society, 21(2), 148-165.Askegaard, S., & Eckhardt, G. M. (2012). Glocal yoga: Re-appropriation in the Indian consumptionscape. Marketing Theory, 12(1), 45-60.Ertimur, B., & Coskuner-Balli, G. (2015). Navigating the institutional logics of markets: Implications for strategic brand management. Journal of Marketing, 79(2), 40-61.Powers, D. and Greenwell, D.M., 2017. Branded fitness: Exercise and promotional culture. Journal of Consumer Culture, 17(3), pp.523-541.Journalism on contemporary body & fitness cultures:Abad-Santos (2020) “How Soulcycle Lost Its Soul”https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22195549/soulcycle-decline-reopening-bullying-bike-explainedEhrenreich, B. (2018). Body Work: The curiously self-punishing rites of fitness culture. The Baffler, (38), 6-10.Katz, D. (1995) Jack Lalanne is Still an Animal: https://www.outsideonline.com/1830081/jack-lalanne-still-animalMowbray, N. (2018) “It's intoxicating – I became obsessed': has fitness gone too far?”https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/sep/30/has-extreme-fitness-gone-too-far-instagram-gym-classesA sampling of some marketplace products & advice on home exercise:Goldfarb, A. (2020) “You Can Take Care of Yourself in Coronavirus Quarantine or Isolation, Starting Right Now”, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/20/style/self-care/isolation-exercise-meditation-coronavirus.html

Following a week like no other, Skye & Amanda decide to take it easy and sit to just shoot the shit. Listen in as the two discuss their elation over the election results and detail how they have taken care of themselves during these past days of uncertainty. They each share what they are looking forward to in the coming week, as they try to get back to a sense of normalcy and creativity. Hear all about the ladies' first Long Story Short Podcast road trip to Philly, a city near and dear to both their hearts; the birthplace of their sisterhood. While there, they visit Black owned bookstores and other businesses and come home with nothing but goodies. Links to businesses and items mentioned: Harriett's BookshopTar Baby by Toni Morrison Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome by Dr. Joy Degruy Homegirls & Handgrenades by Sonia Sanchez Uncle Bobbie's Coffee & Books Harlem: Between Heaven and Hell by Monique M. Taylor Party Music: The Inside Story of the Black Panthers' Band and How Black Power Transformed Soul Music by Rickey VincentThe Spook Who Sat by the Door by Sam GreenleeBehold a Pale Horse by William CooperBlack Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America by Tricia RoseMarsh & ManeYOWIE It Wasn't in My Text Book PodcastThis week's ‘Bout That Action! highlight is: Stacey AbramsLearn more about her voter rights organizations: Fair Fight & New Georgia Program Book EP: Be sure to stream the songs mentioned in this week's Book EP playlist on Long Story Short's Spotify page: https://open.spotify.com/user/rz5hp2nppkhd82xmhhoo2euqc?si=olIngYNWSTmbhGqnyK6zggFollow us online:Instagram: @LongStoryShortPodTwitter: @LSSpodcastFacebook: @LongStoryShortPodEmail: info.longstoryshortpod@gmail.com

What are the primary sources of American notions of toleration: the Enlightenment or early Christianity? And why do so many see cultural parallels between America today and late imperial Rome? In our latest podcast, we chat with Professor Jed Atkins, a professor of classics at Duke University about these and other questions related to the […] The post Legal Spirits Episode 027: Contemporary America and Late Imperial Rome appeared first on LAW AND RELIGION FORUM.

KWR 011 – Silent Cry: The Dark Truth of Human Trafficking Kingdom War Room   Introduction   Welcome to the Kingdom War Room. Each month, we will conduct a Kingdom War Room discussion with key leaders in the Body of Christ that will deal with strategic issues regarding end-time prophecy and challenges that the Remnant are facing worldwide. In this discussion, we have:   Host - Dr. Michael Lake, representing the Kingdom Intelligence Briefing and Biblical Life TV. www.kingdomintelligencebriefing.com   Co-Host -Dr. Michael Spaulding, who is the teaching pastor of Calvary Chapel of Lima, OH, the author of Upside-Down in America and ten other outstanding books, and the host of Soaring Eagle Radio and Dr. Mike Live.  Mike’s website is www.drmikespaulding.com   Guest – Josh Peck, who is the host of Into the Multiverse, the author of right books, to include The Second Coming of the New Age: The Hidden Dangers of Alternative Spirituality in Contemporary America and Its Churches. And now, Josh is the producer of the new documentary: Silent Cry:  The Dark Side of Human Trafficking.  https://www.dailyrenegade.com   Summary:   It is estimated that 1.2 million children worldwide are taken each year into human trafficking. Yet, the church is unaware of this dark truth. All of society must become aware of the horrors inflicted on the most innocent and work together to stop the sexual trafficking of children!

On this episode of The Tight Rope, Oscar-award winning actor Mahershala Ali opens up powerfully to our hosts Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose about his life, his religion, his supporting role in Green Book, and his upcoming leading role in Blade. You won’t want to miss this fascinating, honest, and spiritual conversation with Mahershala. In Office Hours, Dr. West and Tricia remember Breonna Taylor and discuss the specific and collective loss felt about the decision to not charge the cops involved with her death on this episode of The Tight Rope. Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   Mahershala AliMahershala Ali is an awarding-winning actor, producer, and former rapper, known for his roles in House of Cards (2016), Moonlight (2016), Luke Cage (2016), True Detective (2019), and Ramy (2020). With a diverse range and incredible skill set, Ali has won numerous accolades, including the 2019 and 2017 Oscar for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role for Green Book and Moonlight, respectively. In 2019, Time magazine named Ali one of the 100 Most Influential People in the world.  Insight from this episode:Behind-the-scenes look at Mahershala’s journey and conversion to Islam along with his experiences with his name in Hollywood and accepting his creator’s advice. Reasons why Mahershala is so serious.Honest reflections on why Mahershala said yes to his role in Green Book, how he prepared for that role, and his reflections and regrets after the fact. Discussion on Mahershala’s upcoming role in Blade and his connection to Wesley Snipes.Reflections on the power of the arts to empower people and to create imaginative spaces and new realities.  Quotes from the show:“I was constantly in these environments where I was the “other.” In doing so, you become hyper-aware of your Blackness… I don’t think I ever allowed myself off the hook to necessarily relax and go, “Alright, I can kind of play around a little bit.” I always felt a certain pressure to keep certain things together.”  –Mahershala Ali The Tight Rope Episode #19“I’ve been very blessed in my life to have the right people at the right time filling in these spaces or at least giving me the information to fill my own voids, to be a co-creator in my own healing and my own growth.” –Mahershala Ali The Tight Rope Episode #19On Viola Davis and Aunjanue Ellis: “[They] got really good from turning water into wine. Those are the actors that make something out of nothing and get really good at it. So you actually give them some material, a little bit, you give them an inch, they're going to take a mile.” –Mahershala Ali The Tight Rope Episode #19“[Through actors, we can] expand our empathy as an audience and understand that every person is the star of their own story, and if you really get into the nooks and crannies of a life, there’s something dynamic there. I don’t care where they’re from. I don’t care what color or culture someone is from. Those actors consistently make the ordinary extraordinary.” –Mahershala Ali The Tight Rope Episode #19On changing his name: “I don’t want two more syllables to impact the type of career I have. I know who I am. I’d been fighting through this space for so long, feeling like I’m coming off the bench to come and put up shots, but I get pulled off no matter how well I play. For me, I felt like I had permission... Things popped into alignment, when I was clear about what it is I was doing, how I saw myself, what I was okay with, and also giving an audience an opportunity to learn your name.” –Mahershala Ali The Tight Rope Episode #19“I’ve never not had-- up until [Green Book]-- not had to negotiate the things that I’m okay with or the things I gotta try to limit that aspect of it because that is your experience as a Black person in this industry, or probably any industry.” –Mahershala Ali The Tight Rope Episode #19“I’m two decades into a career and haven’t been a lead yet. So you’re constantly looking at what can I do with this part? Because I have more to say, and I want to see, as a Black man, I always want to be a three-dimensional character. I actually want to not always be supporting someone else’s story and be leading the way. But you’re also looking at the crumbtrail you’ve had to follow to get to that point.” –Mahershala Ali The Tight Rope Episode #19On Breonna Taylor: “It’s not just that her black life matters. Her black life is profoundly precious and priceless.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #19“It’s like a ritual that’s being played out over and over again, where extensive discretion is being given to the police to enact what is state-sponsored violence and disregard of Black human beings over and over and over again. And then the use of a very narrow interpretation of the law, and the use of extra discretionary contexts for analysis, and the normalization of the idea of Black people as criminals work all together to continue to reproduce this kind of outcome. So it’s both about Breonna and her family and that specific location, and it’s about a collective experience.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #19On outrage to shooting of cops: “We want consistency on that tight rope.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #19 Stay Connected:Cornel WestWebsite: www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel WestInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: www.triciarose.comLinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  Marhershala AliInstagram: @MahershalaAli The Tight RopeWebsite: www.thetightropepodcast.com Instagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry

Americans took to the streets after the murder of George Floyd, rejecting racism in all its forms. Tricia Rose explains that structural racism has a long history in the United States—and so do the efforts to combat it. Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale and Brown University, Rose authored “Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America,” “Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy,” and “The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters.” She sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc.. Focusing on issues related to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings. She co-hosts the weekly “The Tight Rope” podcast with Dr. Cornel West, covering a range of topics from pop culture and art and music, to the contours of systemic racism, philosophy, the power of Socratic self-examination. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode SummaryOn this episode of The Tight Rope, Professor Tricia Rose’s favorite MC of all time, Rakim, joins her and Dr. Cornel West for a conscious-raising conversation about the past, present, and future of hip hop and the “turning point” that this moment could be. Rakim lets us into his creative process and shows us that no one knows better than him the power of words, especially the words truth and humility. Dr. West and Tricia hold Office Hours to discuss the politics surrounding the whistleblower allegations of forced hysterectomies on ICE detainees on this episode of The Tight Rope.   Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   RakimRakim is an American rapper and record producer. One half of golden age hip hop duo Eric B. & Rakim, Rakim is widely regarded as one of the most influential and most skilled MCs of all time. Their album Paid in Full was named the greatest hip hop album of all time by MTV in 2006. Eric B. & Rakim created four albums together, and Rakim produced three solo albums. In 2019, Rakim, hailed for his brilliant artistic style, adding layers, complexity, depth, musicality, and soul to rap, released his memoir Sweat the Technique: Revelations on Creativity from the Lyrical Genius.  Insight from this episode:Reflections on the role that music and hip hop have played in Black traditions of survival and spiritual fortitude. Strategies for thinking and using words in an aspirational way to maintain hope and positivity.Details into Rakim’s musical influences, such as Coltrane, James Brown, and Frank Sinatra, and the direct impact they had on his hip hop. Rakim’s thoughts on the return on consciousness in music, “Hip hop 2021,” and how the hip hop scene can and should look like moving forward. Behind the scenes of the making of Paid in Full and writing the title track for Juice. Quotes from the show: “As Black folk, we should never be surprised by evil or paralyzed by despair. We have known every possible catastrophe, every possible calamity. We look unflinchingly at it, be honest and candid about it, try to preserve the integrity of our souls, and keep on moving.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #18“When hip hop came out, I felt like it was there for me. It was the young music for the young generation, and I just felt like everything that I learned prepared me for that.” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18On Islam: “It taught me how to communicate, it taught me how to express myself, it taught me how to not only translate my feelings, but what I felt the world was feeling. And that’s what I thought was more important, to see vicariously through the world’s eyes and speak.” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18“Knowing how deep he was, how creative he was, how mental he was, I said to myself, “What would Coltrane do?” If you’re trying to be innovative and take things to the next level, how could you do that? Well, Coltrane played two notes at the same time, so what could you do?” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18“Listening to jazz when I was coming up, I didn’t know I was learning an important lesson for what I was doing, for what I would be doing. Jazz taught me how to manipulate space and time.” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18“I always used to call myself an instrument. When I hear music, I would say how can I join in? It’s like a jazz band, if they let me get a solo, what would I do? How would I play it?” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18“We patterned hip hop off of James Brown, his music, his drums, even the screams and the grunts. Without saying words, he let you know how you felt about the music and it made the listener feel the same way.” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18“This is the best time to be conscious again with music. This is the best time to tell your story from the world’s point of view. We’re all impacted from what’s going on right now. I’m hoping it’s a good time for hip hop. Artists that may have never thought of saying anything conscious or positive are thinking that now. Even if they’re just explaining to us if they see what’s going on, it’s a change for hip hop. I’m hoping that things just going on wake hip hop up a little bit and it gets a little more conscious.” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18On the golden age of hip hip: “It wasn’t about trying to tell people political messages. People like to say it was about political consciousness. No, it was about how to live and survive white supremacy with your spirit intact, with your family, and your people at the front of your mind, and your heart not completely closed to treating each other with dignity.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #18On COVID-19 pandemic: “I don’t think nobody wants to hear about no strip clubs or how much money or how many cars you got. I think the climate is going to change real fast with hip hop because this is a rude awakening.” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18“When I was young, music was a teacher. We could listen to music and know exactly what’s going on in the world.” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18“I started to pattern my style, and I realized that if I could show me through my work, it would be easy. I figured that would be my advantage. Can’t no nobody be me, can’t no one think like I’m thinking. No one’s going to say exactly what I say if it comes from my heart.” –Rakim The Tight Rope Episode #18“There’s a long tradition of eugenics in the United States, 31 states that had laws that allowed for reproductive violation and injustice, that allowed for sterilization. We know one of the greatest freedom fighters of the 21st century, Fanny Lou Hamer, underwent the same kind of operation without her consent. Same kind of violation without her consent.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #18“If anybody has a question about why people of color don’t trust doctors or don’t trust medical professionals in general, here’s a very clear, recent case of that.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #18“We have to be vigilant about it because we’re just being attacked and assaulted on every conceivable front.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #18“Sexual violence and physical violence against women’s reproduction is a hard topic for people to rally around in the same way as other things are because it feels like such an intimate thing, and we’ve not been trained to see the deeply public, political nature of this kind of action.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #18 Stay Connected:Cornel WestWebsite: www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel WestInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: www.triciarose.comLinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  RakimWebsite: TheGodRakim.comTwitter: @RakimGodMCFacebook: RakimInstagram: @TheGodRakimYoutube: @RakimVEVOSpotify: Rakim The Tight RopeWebsite: www.thetightropepodcast.com Instagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry.

Episode SummaryOn this episode of The Tight Rope, Professor Noam Chomsky shares with our hosts, Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose, the wisdom that only comes with 91 years of experience. Linguist, social critic, and political activist, Professor Chomsky confronts issues of survival as he speaks on the impacts of the COVID pandemic and the decisions of the Trump administration locally and globally as well as the feasibility and necessity of a New Green Deal and the heroics of everyday, unknown people that truly make the difference. Join us for a reframing of what really matters during this time on this episode of The Tight Rope.   Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   Noam ChomskyConsidered the founder of modern linguistics, Professor Noam Chomsky is one of the most influential and critically engaged public intellectuals in the world. He has written more than 100 books, including Syntactic Structures, Language and Mind, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, and most recently Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal. He is Laureate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Arizona and Institute Professor Emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Professor Chomsky’s immense contributions go beyond linguistics into analytic philosophy and cognitive science. Insight from this episode:Strategies for sustaining our commitment to intellectual thought during this multilayer catastrophe. The two biggest questions that human beings are currently facing and why no one is talking about them. Critiques of the internal battles of the DNC and what we need to do if Biden is elected. Insights into how capitalistic logic worsened the pandemic.Connections between religion and justice along with Professor Chomsky’s thoughts on the “self-hating Jew,” “flatterers of the court,” and liberation theology.  Quotes from the show:“If you look at history, we’ve been through very hard times, but a lot has been accomplished. In many ways, it’s a much better country, much better world, than it was 60 years ago, a 100 years ago-- not in all respects, but in many respects. And many battles that were fought hard, and won, we can just take for granted and move on.” –Noam Chomsky The Tight Rope Episode #17“We don’t have any choice. You can either say everything’s hopeless, I give up-- help ensure the worst will happen. Or you can grasp the opportunities that exist, and they do exist, and maybe you can make it a better world. It’s not much of a choice.” –Noam Chomsky The Tight Rope Episode #17On Trump: “If this malignancy is not removed, we may not survive another four years of this. We may get to irreversible tipping points.” –Noam Chomsky The Tight Rope Episode #17“This decision [to eliminate regulations on polluting industries] is saying, “I want to kill you.” That’s what it says. “I don’t care about you. I’ll increase the pollution that’s killing you.” And doing it in the midst of a respiratory pandemic, which pollution radically increases the already sharply disparate race, class effect of the pandemic. Right in the middle of this, I’ll make it worse for you. Nobody comments on it.” –Noam Chomsky The Tight Rope Episode #17“[Trump’s] carrying out a desperate effort to try to cover up the vicious crimes he’s committed against the American people.” –Noam Chomsky The Tight Rope Episode #17“You can’t read the prophets and not be inspired by the eloquent calls for justice, for mercy, and the sharp critiques of the crimes of the powerful, the geopolitical critiques, moral critiques.” –Noam Chomsky The Tight Rope Episode #17“The ones who bring the message of honesty, integrity, support for people who need it, preferential option for the poor, working for the suffering and the needy, changing our societies so that they are directed to people’s just rights and needs instead of for maximizing wealth and profit for a tiny sector, those are the people who are bitterly attacked.” –Noam Chomsky The Tight Rope Episode #17“You get caught up trying to decide which one of those [political ideologies] is right, and you find out that every group has done both [right and wrong].” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #17“You wonder if all of this effort to keep us at each other’s throats is just to distract us from the fact that everything is being looted while the whole world ends.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #17“Greed wouldn’t be able to run amuck if they weren’t able to manipulate the racist sensibilities of folk to turn away from what really matters and to be preoccupied with these matters that allow the powerful to be the gangsters that too often they are.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #17“They’re promising to make America great again, while there’s not going to be any America left-- not that if was ever great in the first place.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #17 Stay Connected:Cornel WestWebsite: www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel WestInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: www.triciarose.comLinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  Noam ChomskyWebsite: https://chomsky.info Facebook: Noam Chomsky The Tight RopeWebsite: www.thetightropepodcast.com Instagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry

Episode SummaryBootsy Collins transforms The Tight Rope on this Special Funk Edition. Bootsy, Dr. Cornel West, and Professor Tricia Rose talk all things funk in the context of the perils of following trends, the process of self-acceptance and self-discovery, confronting fear, and the “manipulation of the funk.” Bootsy shares details about his upcoming album The Power of the One. Hear what funk means to Bootsy Collins and how we must be funky in our own lives on this episode of The Tight Rope.   Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   Boosty CollinsBootsy Collins, a great “Funkmaster,” has been making music since 1968. He played bass with the Pacesetters, James Brown, Bootsy’s Rubber Band, and the Parliament-Funkadelic collective. He also wrote songs and arranged rhythm. Black music “artistic nobility” from Cincinnati, Bootsy was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by Bass Play magazine, and he is a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. No one says it better than Dr. West when he describes Bootsy as an “exemplar of the greatest modern tradition in the world which is Black music wrestling with suffering and transfiguring and transforming it into such a way that the sonic effects on souls, soul to soul, [are] mediated with genius, mediated with talent, mediated with discipline, mediated with vision.” Check out Bootsy’s new album The Power of the One, which includes a collaboration with Dr. West. All proceeds from the streams and downloads of his new song, “Stars,” will go to the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund.  Insight from this episode:Secrets behind the key to the funk and how to make something out of nothing. Insights into the past, present, and future of funk music. The story behind the bassline of “Flash Light” and Bootsy’s artistic self-discovery.  Bootsy Collins’s take on Black Lives Matter and the current moment.Behind-the-scenes details on past and present collaborations between Boosty Collins and Dr. West.  Quotes from the show:“I don’t never want to lose that kid inside me because when I lose him, I lose a part of myself.” –Bootsy Collins The Tight Rope Episode #14“One of the things about funk, and one of the great gifts that we Black people have brought to the world in terms of the depths of funk… is to acknowledge that in the world in which we find ourselves, which is white supremist America, they want to deodorize everything, they want to sanitize and sterilize everything, keep it on the surface. We say, no, we want to do some deep sea diving, and by going all the way deep into the funk, we’re going to get all the tears, blood, the sorrow, the sadness, and the pleasure, and the joy is there and then give it.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #14“The whole thing is, do you accept being funky? Are you alright with being called funky? Are you alright with being called Black? Are you alright with it? I’m cool with it! I’m always going to be cool with being funky. But a lot of people just can’t embrace the fact of being funky.” –Bootsy Collins The Tight Rope Episode #14“The funk predates the book learning.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #14“The funk is making something out of nothing.” –Bootsy Collins The Tight Rope Episode #14“We all become less afraid. We all become more willing to engage with the world. We all become less apologetic about whatever truths are inside us cause everyone got their distinctive voices and their distinctive truths. You can’t be funky by imitating someone else. You’re going to start faking the funk.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #14“That funk, funk vibe that you got, you got to trust it. It’s just like God. It’s God.” –Bootsy Collins The Tight Rope Episode #14“African peoples have musically and sonically transformed all of the deodorized lies into certain truths of self-confidence and self-respect. We might not have no land or territory, might not have no rights or any kind of liberty, but we were still free enough in our language, in our music, to pass it on to the younger generation where they can get some kind of self-confidence, self-respect where the love can be found.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #14“Who really stands for the funk now? This is the time you have to stand for something. And we got something real. We’re talking about the funk.” –Bootsy Collins The Tight Rope Episode #14“The funk is not about success but about process.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #14“We don’t want no brand. We want a cause. We want a cause we can die for. We don’t want a brand to superficially shine. We want the shining in the life that we live, in the funk we embody, in the smiles we produce, in the love that we generate.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #14 Resources MentionedMusiCares Donation Website Stay Connected:Cornel WestWebsite: www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel WestInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: www.triciarose.comLinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  Bootsy CollinsWebsite: www.thebootcave.com/Bootsy Collins Foundation: www.bootsycollinsfoundation.org Twitter: @Bootsy_CollinsFacebook: @BootsyCollins The Tight RopeWebsite: www.thetightropepodcast.com Instagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry

Can the act of reading bring about societal change?  Can novels about race still surprise us?  This week, we grapple with the complicated, messy questions that arose from reading Colson Whitehead, Tommy Orange and Brit Bennett, three of the most important writers working today.This is the conclusion of our series on Race in Contemporary America where we reviewed and discussed Sag Harbor, There There, and The Vanishing Half.  Look for our previous episodes for a more extended conversation about these books.  Next week we will start our series on Campus Novels with Donna Tartt's The Secret History.We host a book club at https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where we continue our discussion off air and post show notes, credits and discussion questions for every episode.  Join us and read along!You can also support us by buying a book from one of our curated lists:  https://bookshop.org/shop/CanonicalPod. We earn a commission on every purchase and your local indie bookstore gets a cut too!We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

Episode SummaryFormer police officer and F.B.I. agent Dr. Erroll Southers, director of Homegrown Violent Extremism Studies at the University of Southern California, reveals how to transform racist police departments from within, his motivations to join law enforcement, and the “ticking clock” which domestic white terrorists use to countdown to the year 2045, when America's population is expected to become majority P.O.C. Plus, in Office Hours, hosts Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose explore the structural limits and spiritual thresholds of America and ponder the existential question: Is America even capable of treating the masses of Black people with decency and dignity?   Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   Errol SouthersDr. Erroll Southers is an internationally recognized expert on counterterrorism, public safety, infrastructure protection, and homeland security. He serves as Director of the Safe Communities Institute and of Homegrown Violent Extremism Studies at the University of Southern California and Professor of the Practice in National & Homeland Security.  Insight from this episode:Explorations of the possibilities of the 2020 election in the context of the apparent helplessness of the current moment. Surprising statistics about America and its homegrown violent extremism. Strategies for activists looking to change law enforcement policy and create systems of accountability. Information on the power of police unions and other barriers to true accountability in law enforcement. Insights into the hope and patriotism that music and its boundarylessness produces. Quotes from the show:“Spirit [and] solidarity pushes back despair and despondency, so we have some sense of possibility.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #13 Quoting his father on why he joined law enforcement: “You can’t change the castle from outside the moat.” –Erroll Southers The Tight Rope Episode #13“When you train people and dress people for war, they go into a neighborhood to do battle… They’re in a warrior culture, when they need to be in a guardian culture.” –Erroll Southers The Tight Rope Episode #13“Police unions and police officers are afforded more protections than the people they arrest. And I can tell you, having been an assistant chief, it almost takes an act of Congress to fire a police officer. And when you do, about a third of them come back with retroactive backpay.” –Erroll Southers The Tight Rope Episode #13On community review boards: “Why is that such a horrible thing to say to a police department? Why can’t it be that the very people that you’re policing have some say in their reception of your services?” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #13“In the last ten years, we’ve had more domestic attacks here in this country by white supremacists and white nationalists than any other group. White nationalist groups, last year, increased for the second straight year 55% since 2017. The FBI finally had to label that threat a national threat priority. They were in denial.” –Erroll Southers The Tight Rope Episode #13“COVID has been the perfect environment for these extremist organizations to recruit and radicalize and share their message. They’re doing it under the guise of pushing back against the government overreach to make you wear a mask, make you stay at home.” –Erroll Southers The Tight Rope Episode #13“Start talking to the mayor. Start talking to the council. What’s the money being spent on? Are there any metrics that are being looked at with regards to how successful they are?” –Erroll Southers The Tight Rope Episode #13“What do you do when everywhere you look up you run into a different pharaoh? Well, at that point, you just say to yourself, I refuse to be a spectator. I’m going to be a participant. Therefore, I’m going to learn how to love, fight, laugh more adequately, effectively to pass on a tradition to a younger generation.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #13  “There’s potential for transforming what it means to treat Black people with dignity and decency if we can cultivate and somehow separate whiteness from the national consciousness.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #13“The problem is in order to reach that kind of policy we got to have multiracial coalitions, and if those racial coalitions are weak because of white supremacy and they associate dealing with poverty with dealing with Black people, then the racism makes it difficult to ever deal with their own poverty too. And that’s the catch-22 that we see over and over again in our society. And that’s the definition of insanity as well as a certain spiritual sickness.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #13“I don’t mind being profoundly patriotic about Aretha Franklin.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #13 Resources MentionedProsecuteKillerCops.org  Stay Connected:Cornel WestWebsite: www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel WestInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: www.triciarose.comLinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  Erroll SouthersWebsite: errollsouthers.comTwitter: @esouthersHVELinkedIn: Erroll Southers  The Tight RopeWebsite: thetightropepodcast.com Instagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry

Christian Smith talks about Religious Parenting in Contemporary America.

Episode SummaryJoin Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose on this episode of The Tight Rope in their compelling conversation with NFL superstar and author of Things That Make White People Uncomfortable Michael Bennett. From the strong women in his life and the path to embracing his intellect, to the exploitation of celebrity and “ownership” in the NFL, Bennett engages on all levels with our hosts. Office Hours focuses on “COVID in the Classroom,” both its impact on the learning environment and its economic realities. Hear about Bennet’s thoughts on discernment, retirement, and Colin Kaepernick on The Tight Rope.   Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   Michael BennettMichael Bennett is a recently retired 11-year NFL veteran with three Pro Bowl victories and a Super Bowl title. He was a pivotal defensive end for multiple teams including the Seattle Seahawks and the Dallas Cowboys. Bennett, an outspoken proponent for social justice and vocal anti-racist in the NFL, has a podcast called “Mouthpeace” with his wife Pele Bennett and a book titled Things That Make White People Uncomfortable, which he is developing into a scripted TV series. Bennett also works with Athletes for Impact, an organization focusing on athlete activism, and he and his wife established The Bennett Foundation with their three daughters.   Insight from this episode:Details on Bennett’s recent retirement from the NFL and his new path forward.  Secrets to having a spine and making it shine. Personal reflections from Bennett and his wife Pele on going “back to Africa” and his work with iamtheCODE in Senegal. Strategies on cultivating leadership not driven by ego. Words of encouragement from our hosts on fulfilling your purpose while also being sensitive to what is happening in the world.  Quotes from the show:“You don’t pity people who you are fundamentally tethered to.”  –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #12“I worry that while we’re trying to survive COVID, somebody’s engineering a world after COVID that is not the world that we want.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #12“You can’t segregate me from my Blackness, you can’t segregate me from my culture, you can’t segregate me from my community because I am that.” –Michael Bennett The Tight Rope Episode #12“It’s important to be vulnerable because our children need to see us love. Our children need to see us cry. Our children need to see us say I love you. They need to see us love our women. They need to see all of it as being a full human being.” –Michael Bennett The Tight Rope Episode #12“I’m an extension of someone who never gave up.” –Michael Bennett The Tight Rope Episode #12On visiting Gorée Island, Senegal and his grandmother: “It was bigger than the Super Bowl to me. It was bigger than a lot of the things that I had accomplished because I had made it back to Africa. There’s a lot of people that accomplished a lot of things, but they never made it back to the motherland to rest their ancestors’ soul. And I felt at that moment a big release. I felt like she was back. She had made it back.” –Michael Bennett The Tight Rope Episode #12On his role in the NFL: “We’re really playing the game of liberation.” –Michael Bennett The Tight Rope Episode #12On Pema Chödrön: “There’s power within healing yourself and being able to be ready for the world. And also, when I read her books, it just makes my consciousness have a sense of peace and a sense of being happy in the moment.” –Michael Bennett The Tight Rope Episode #12“What you do has got to be as essential to you as oxygen. It’s the skin on your body. It’s the love of your parents.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #12“The need is everywhere. We settled that. There ain’t no place where we don’t have a need. So you go where you need to go.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #12On COVID in the classroom: “The main thing I’m worried about is the loss of the kind of human connection when ideas click in that way that it’s so interpersonal even in a big lecture hall. You can feel people thinking.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #12 Stay Connected:Cornel WestWebsite: www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel WestInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: www.triciarose.comLinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  Michael BennetTwitter: @MosesBread72Instagram: @MosesBread72Podcast: Mouthpeace with Michael Bennett & Pele BennettThe Bennett Foundation Twitter: @TMBFoundation The Tight RopeWebsite: www.thetightropepodcast.com Instagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry 

James, Sam and Eyad discuss Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half, its theme of passing, and how relevant this book is to contemporary conversations about race.This is the last book in our series Race in Contemporary America where we read books written by contemporary minority writers.  Don't want to hear spoilers?  Listen to our previous episode where we reviewed the book.Want to talk about The Vanishing Half? Join our discussion at https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and discussion questions for every episode.You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here:Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | YoutubeYou can also support us by buying The Vanishing Half or another book from one of our curated lists:  https://bookshop.org/shop/CanonicalPod. We earn a commission on every purchase and your local indie bookstore gets a cut too!We are also on social media @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

Episode SummaryIn this episode, Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose nail down issues of white allyship, undoing invisible racist ideologies, and the hallmarks of possessive investment in whiteness with their beloved guest Professor George Lipsitz. They provide commentary on the leadership of the Black freedom movement of the past and present as well as the “slow violence” of racism rooted in power, interest, and property. Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose hold office hours to offer their takes on the removal of racist monuments and its role in the larger work of dismantling systemic racism. This is an episode of The Tight Rope you will want to return to again and again.   Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   George LipsitzProfessor George Lipsitz is an American Studies scholar and Professor Emeritus of Black Studies and Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He received his Ph.D in History at the University of Wisconsin, and his current studies focus on social movements, urban culture, African American music, inequality, the politics of popular culture, and Whiteness Studies. Lipsitz has authored numerous books including The Possessive Investment in Whiteness, How Racism Takes Place, Midnight at the Barrelhouse, Footsteps in the Dark, A Life in the Struggle, and Time Passages. Lipsitz also co-authored The Fierce Urgency of Now: Improvisation, Rights and the Ethics of Co-Creation. He serves as a Chairman of the Board of Directors of the African American Policy Forum and is a member of the Board of Directors of the National Fair Housing Alliance. Lipsitz is an intellectual pioneer and respected figure of the Black freedom movement.  Insight from this episode:Questions we must ask ourselves about self definition as the Black freedom struggle and crisis of the current movement passes to another stage. A reframing of “white allyship” and “white fragility” in the context of George Lipsitz’s scholarship on the possessive investment in whiteness. Details on the coordinated crimes of the Pentagon, Wall Street, and the police, specifically the connection between violence abroad and violence “at home.”A call to move beyond symbolic victories when structural changes are needed. Reflections from George Lipsitz on teaching in the prisons and the deeply cynical but astute critics he met there. A behind-the-scenes look at the origins of both Dr. West’s Race Matters and Professor Rose’s Black Noise.  Quotes from the show:“There’s a lot of spinelessness that goes with the polarization and gangsterization of our society. We need people to stand up. Not because they can do it alone, but rather because by doing it, they can inspire others to do it. And so we get enough folk [...] to create countervailing structures, countervailing institutions, along with the countervailing voices and the countervailing examples of the kind of decay and decadence we’re dealing with in the U.S. environment.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #11“It’s important for us to make sure we develop the courage and the clarity and the conviction to move the struggle along. This is a hard time for lovers of freedom. This is a hard time for lovers of social justice. This is a hard time for lovers of decency and dignity of humans. But the table is shaking, and the boat is rocking. We have meaningful work to do.” –George Lipsitz The Tight Rope Episode #11“It’s too easy to think about saving white souls or soothing white psyches and neglecting saving Black lives.” –George Lipsitz The Tight Rope Episode #11“You can’t have decent relations when the structure in which you’re operating is already a rigged game, is already meant that one party to this relationship has the power of denying, condescension, pity, and sympathy and the other person is scrambling for rights, recognition, and resources. So first of all it has to be about power and not just about prejudice.” –George Lipsitz The Tight Rope Episode #11On the leadership of the current Black freedom movement: “What we have today are people who are proud to be themselves. These queer, transgender, non-normative young people on the streets of Ferguson and elsewhere are resisting ruinous form of classification and insisting on an expansive and democratic notion of affection, sexuality, romance but also social membership. We have to applaud that. On the other hand, good intentions and spontaneity is not going to be enough in the face of a relentlessly oppressive and powerful, well financed, military, economic, and political system.” –George Lipsitz The Tight Rope Episode #11 “Many will be seduced and bribed into thinking that if they’re visual their politics are viable.” –George Lipsitz The Tight Rope Episode #11On institution building and making bridges for people: “This happens because people choose to take their time and put that kind of energy into each other.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #11“If we get too preoccupied with these symbolic gestures, they do become distractions. And the status quo says, you know what, you all change the monuments you want, but the class hierarchy, the gender-based hierarchy, the imperial hierarchy is just going to stay right in place.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #11“It’s hard to think of any human being who really deserves a monument.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #11“The monuments become monuments to ideas, and monuments to power relationships, to celebration of domination.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #11 Stay Connected:Cornel WestWebsite: www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel West - HomeInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: www.triciarose.comLinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  George LipsitzUCSB Webpage: George LipsitzBooks on Amazon: George Lipsitz The Tight RopeWebsite: www.thetightropepodcast.comInstagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry. 

An introspective inter-generational novel with people haunted by their past and past actions.  A story that maps the scars that historic racism has left on the secret lives of today.  This week we review Brit Bennett's fantastic second novel The Vanishing Half, the book that's already made our shortlist for best book of the year.This is the last novel in our series Race in Contemporary America where we read books written by contemporary minority writers.  We previously reviewed and discussed Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead and There There by Tommy Orange.Want to talk about The Vanishing Half? Join our discussion at https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and discussion questions for every episode.You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here:Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | YoutubeYou can also support us by buying The Vanishing Half or another book from one of our curated lists:  https://bookshop.org/shop/CanonicalPod. We earn a commission on every purchase and your local indie bookstore gets a cut too!We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

Episode SummaryIn this episode of The Tight Rope, our hosts are joined by Dr. Cornel West’s very own student at Harvard, award-winning actress, producer, and change agent Yara Shahidi of Grown-ish fame. Learn about Yara’s passion for storytelling, her new production company 7th Sun that she launched with her mother, as well as her Black Iranian heritage. Yara reads and discusses her favorite passage from James Baldwin. The episode ends with a fascinating Office Hours discussion on John Lewis, his life, legacy, and politics. Join the rich dialogue that brings together joy and justice with Yara Shahidi, Dr. Cornel West, and Professor Tricia Rose on The Tight Rope.   Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   Yara ShahidiYara Shahidi is a 20-year-old actress and producer, most known for her role as Zoey Johnson in Black-ish and Grown-ish. Among numerous nominations and awards, she was a 2020 NAACP Image Award nominee for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series (Grown-ish) and 2019 Teen Choice Award nominee for Choice Summer Movie Actress (The Sun Is Also a Star). Yara is a vocal activist and champion for social justice. Her newly launched production company, 7th Sun, recently signed with ABC to “develop and produce scripted and alternative television projects for cable.” The aim of 7th Sun is to focus on stories from underrepresented communities and their histories, heritages, cultures, and joys. Yara is the youngest producer to work on network television, and she is also involved with Girls for Gender Equity and the Third Wave Fund.  Insight from this episode:Strategies on creating spaces of joy and sanity in the present moment of crises and pandemics. Behind-the-scenes look at Yara’s life as a student at Harvard and growing up in Hollywood in the context of Black Lives Matter and the #MeToo movement. Reflections on Yara’s connections to both Prince and the Obamas and their role in shaping her and her family. Selections and analysis of James Baldwin’s “The Artist’s Struggle for Integrity.”An honest look at Black freedom fighter and neoliberal politician John Lewis, and productive myth-making, Black violence, and the seduction of politics.  Quotes from the show:“We have to come to terms with catastrophe, such that we are not surprised by evil nor paralyzed by despair.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #10“In what ways, given the time that we were growing up, was the myth of utopia not even granted to us? We were born into a world in which we’ve seen corruption at heightened levels… In many ways, purpose has been two-pronged in that it has helped me, with an exceeding amount of clarity, move forward and say, okay, what are the moves I want to make in my world to try and make an impact?” –Yara Shahidi The Tight Rope Episode #10On being entrenched in corporate America: “How do I balance the impact of what I’m doing on a personal level to the positive impact I make to this corporate world that I’m still trying to figure out how I want to deal with?” –Yara Shahidi The Tight Rope Episode #10“I wouldn’t be where I am if people hadn’t handed the mic to me.” –Yara Shahidi The Tight Rope Episode #10 “How do I pay enough attention to the world around me to service it to the best of my ability?” –Yara Shahidi The Tight Rope Episode #10 On Prince: “I really do feel that he created the foundation for how we move through this industry.” –Yara Shahidi The Tight Rope Episode #10 “My last name, Shahidi, means witness or to bear witness. I hope that through art or whatever these other avenues are-- I’m considering law school, we’ll see-- that I’m able to do that [bear witness] to the best of my ability and to continue to open doors in every space.” –Yara Shahidi The Tight Rope Episode #10 “Many people that are frontlines in this movement are also creatives in the truest sense. It’s something I struggle with is seeing the level of vitriol sent their way in a movement that is so steeped in love. In hearing [James Baldwin’s] words of that cognitive dissonance that occurs when you see someone aware enough that it calls attention to your own state of sleep, that that is what [the vitriol] stems from really contextualizes this moment.” –Yara Shahidi The Tight Rope Episode #10 “My dear brother John Lewis was part of a rich tradition of Black people that put a primacy on morality and a centrality on spirituality. He was such a kind human being. He was so gentle. He was a sweet person. He had a soulfulness to him.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #10 “Is it a fair standard to hold him [John Lewis] to? Can a person be in Congress 33 years, 15 years, 5 years and not fundamentally have to wrestle with the contradictions that will in a sense require a less pure response? I just don’t see how you do it.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #10 “Don’t come talking to me about what my violence might look like when you’re constantly crushing my neck to death.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #10 “The arc of the force of their [Black freedom fighters] efforts is what we want to recall while we still the truth about all our human frailties.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #10  Stay Connected:Cornel WestWebsite: www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel WestInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: www.triciarose.comLinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  Yara ShahidiWebsite: Yara ShahidiTwitter: @YaraShahidiFacebook: @yarashahidiInstagram: @yarashahidi The Tight RopeWebsite: www.thetightropepodcast.comInstagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry

James, Sam and Eyad discuss Tommy Orange's There There, one of the most important Native American novels to be published in recent years.  We debate whether there are too many points of view in the novel, the tension between traditional and contemporary culture, and whether socially important novels are shielded from criticismThis is the second book in our series Race in Contemporary America where we read books written by contemporary minority writers.  Don't want to hear spoilers?  Listen to our previous episode where we reviewed the book.Want to talk about There There? Join our discussion at https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and discussion questions for every episode.You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here:Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | YoutubeYou can also support us by buying There There or another book from one of our curated lists:  https://bookshop.org/shop/CanonicalPod. We earn a commission on every purchase and your local indie bookstore gets a cut too!We are also on social media @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

Episode SummaryIn this episode, Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose dance with their respected guest Jane Elliott on The Tight Rope. Known for her Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Exercise and continued advocacy for anti-racist education and activism, Elliott debates with our hosts about the nature of racism and the language we use to discuss it. They wrestle with the inspiration of the present moment and the necessity to recognize the economic realities of the “lies” about race, along with the ever-importance of education. Join in the spirited conversation with “moral titan” Jane Elliott who emphasizes the possibility of change in our society on this episode of The Tight Rope. Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   Jane ElliottJane Elliott is an internationally known teacher, lecturer, diversity trainer, and recipient of the National Mental Health Association Award for Excellence in Education. Many will know of Elliott from the now famous “Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Exercise” she devised for her third-grade class of all-white students in Riceville, Iowa in 1968. Implemented the day after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, the exercise was created to help her young students understand structural racism on a personal level. Elliott has spent more than 50 years as an anti-racism activist, educating people about discrimination and unconscious biases.    Insight from this episode:Strategies on white allyship and what to ask instead of “What can we do? How can we get involved?”Details on Jane Elliott’s 52 years on the tight rope of fighting racial bias.Reflections on the repetition of history and the dangers of an educational system that is meant to indoctrinate racial bias and systemic racism. Details on the racism of our language and alternative vocabulary for conversations on race. Strategies on how to effect change after education has taken place and keep fighting in the face of entrenched interests and white privilege.  Quotes from the show:“If you’re committed to spiritual integrity, if you’re committed to moral courage, you’re going to fight every evil. And white supremacy is an evil.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #9“I jumped off the boat a number of years ago when I said to my students, would you like to know how it feels to be something other than white in this country? That was the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed. They all agreed that sounds fun because they had no idea what was going to happen.” –Jane Elliott The Tight Rope Episode #9 “If you want to learn about what’s going on today, in the last three and a half years, don’t go to a history book in a high school or a college. Go some place and find out the truth about what happened in those days [her childhood]. You’ll find out that it looks exactly like what is happening right now.” –Jane Elliott The Tight Rope Episode #9“The answer to this whole problem is education. In schools in this country, we do not furnish education; we furnish indoctrination: here are the ways you must act to be a good American citizen.” –Jane Elliott The Tight Rope Episode #9“With that cultural infrastructure, with that resistive tradition, we [Black Americans] were able to make tremendous strides that really weren’t logical to make.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #9“We need to stop using the phrase “white supremacist” because white people are not supreme. They are pale faces who have learned to play the game that will keep them on top and other people on the bottom. And we do that at our own peril.” –Jane Elliott The Tight Rope Episode #9“You are not born a racist. You are not born a bigot. You have to be carefully taught… It hasn’t been like this forever, and it doesn’t have to be like this forever.” –Jane Elliott The Tight Rope Episode #9“The evil… is not rooted only in ignorance. It’s rooted in interest. It’s rooted in power. It’s rooted in structures of domination.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #9“America isn’t in crisis. The United States of America is having now to come up with the penalty for what we have done to people for the last 300 years in this country.” –Jane Elliott The Tight Rope Episode #9“We believe what we have learned. We have learned the wrong thing. We need to re-educate policemen, instead of re-training them.” –Jane Elliott The Tight Rope Episode #9On the outcomes of Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Exercises: “I don’t know if I believe people who say that. How blind can you actually be? ...They say out loud, “I just never knew. It’s terrible.” What they mean is, “I don’t like when this is happening to me.” So they’re languaging it as empathy because that’s what you’re asking them to do. But I don’t necessarily trust it.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #9“The structure reinforces the ideology and the ideology reinforces the structure. You can’t break it on only one level.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #9 Stay Connected:Cornel WestWebsite: www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel West - HomeInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: www.triciarose.comLinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  Jane ElliottWebsite: www.janeelliott.com/Twitter: @BlibriJaneFacebook: Jane Elliott The Tight RopeWebsite: www.thetightropepodcast.comInstagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry.

Beautiful sadness.This episode we review There There, Tommy Orange's bombshell award-winning debut.  This episode will not contain any plot spoilers.  Join us next week for an in-depth discussion on the ideas in the book.This is the second book in our series Race in Contemporary America where we read books written by contemporary minority writers.  Want to talk about There There? Join our discussion at https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and discussion questions for every episode.You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here:Apple| Stitcher| Spotify| Google| YoutubeYou can also support us by buying There There or another book from one of our curated lists:  https://bookshop.org/shop/CanonicalPod. We earn a commission on every purchase and your local indie bookstore gets a cut too!We are also on Twitter and Facebook @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

Episode SummaryIn this episode of The Tight Rope, award-winning hip hop artist Lecrae joins Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose for dialogue about posturing in the world of rap, the meaning of being a revolutionary Christian in today’s world, and the importance of having moral courage no matter what your ideology. They critique the policing of genres and stereotypes of Trap music. Lecrae also speaks vulnerably about his healing journey from depression after the “American dream” failed him and all of America. Be sure not to miss this powerful episode of The Tight Rope.  Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   LecraeLecrae is a celebrated, award-winning, multiple platinum artist. As a rapper, author, activist, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and Christian, Lecrae has forged his own path combining his faith and hip hop talents. Houston-born Lecrae has earned two Grammys and a No. 1 album on the Billboard Gospel chart, a first for a hip-hop album. Lecrae’s seventh album Anomaly debuted at No. 1 on both the Billboard 200 and Gospel charts simultaneously in 2014, another first for any album. His 2016 memoir Unashamed inspired millions as a New York Times Bestseller, and this October, he will share more of his vulnerable honesty in his upcoming book I Am Restored: How I Lost My Religion but Found My Faith. Truly a revolutionary force in hip hop music and the Christian community, Lecrae remains true to himself standing for love, justice, and humanity. Lecrae’s newest album Restoration will be released in August 2020. Listen to his latest song “Deep End” now. Insight from this episode:Details on the sense of hope and connection to inner emotional worlds that people are looking for and are becoming more open to in hip hop music.Secrets to transforming personal suffering into creativity.Reflections from Lecrae and Dr. West on being artists, thinkers, and Christians, who speak truth, love people, and seek justice.  Details on Lecrae’s journey to form his musical and activist identities, along with his inspiration for his upcoming album Restoration.Secrets to handling backlash, standing true to yourself, and finding your path to spiritual, mental, and emotional healing. How to walk alongside people with differing views from you.  Quotes from the show:“[Hip hip] begins with this extraordinary intervention in the process of music making. It just dramatically changes what it means to make music. It brings the voices of marginal black and brown people right into the fore. It takes them from being completely spoken for in the 70s, for sure in the mainstream, to having a voice of their own. Just incredible storytelling that hip hop elevates… it’s individual, what my story is, but it’s also collective. It tells an experiential collective story.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #8“People are much more open in hip hop to a kind of interrogation of interiority.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #8  “There’s no such thing as a Christian hip hop artist. The hip hop artist just got to tell the truth, and the truth just also happens to connect to Jesus.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #8  “What we’re seeing is young folk’s hunger for something real: spiritual, moral, political, economic, institutional, personal… inside all the wounds and bruises owing to the trauma they’ve been through but also connecting to the critiques of structures and institutions.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #8  “Art is not democratic. Everybody can’t be Toni Morrison. Everybody can’t be Prince. Everybody can’t be James Brown. Everybody can’t be Aretha. We can all love her, but we can’t all be her… We got certain folk who are called out, who have tremendous responsibility and a burden but also great joy because it’s a joy to serve the people. It’s a joy to be a truth teller. It’s a joy to move people at the deepest level.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #8  “Hip hop chose me. We’re talking about an art form that was created by disenfranchised black and brown kids in the Bronx. Black and brown kids all over the world who saw that felt like, man, we have a voice.” –Lecrae The Tight Rope Episode #8“I needed hip hop. I needed to talk about the things going on inside and what was going on in my community.” –Lecrae The Tight Rope Episode #8“Many times people frown upon the South from the Northeast, and they said, “Oh they’re slow and they haven’t progressed and adjusted.” It wasn’t that there was a slowness, it was that there was a difference in how things were being seen and being approached. It’s like the blues and jazz. It’s not that one is better than the other. It’s that there are two different approaches in how they’re expressing themselves through music.” –Lecrae The Tight Rope Episode #8“Hip hop initially started as a form of expression for a lot of young people. And then it was galvanized by suburban white folks, who kind of wanted to peer into this world that folks were talking about, but didn’t actually want to experience it. It’s like watching a Scarface movie-- you want to see all the gangsterism, but you don’t want to have to live through it.” –Lecrae The Tight Rope Episode #8“Because there was money involved, now that muddied up the mixture because now you didn’t know how authentic you should be. Should I embellish these tales of trauma and terror because it sells more? I came up at the height of people embellishing these tales. So I wrestled internally.” –Lecrae The Tight Rope Episode #8On his earlier music and his spiritual transformation: “I would kind of dumb it down because it wasn’t something that was exalted or highlighted in my community, being educated and knowing about what’s going on in the world. So I dumbed it down and talked about the usual, typical stuff-- the money, the cars. But I think after my spiritual transformation, I came to the resolve that if I have worth, if I have purpose, if I have dreams, then I was purposed for something and there must be a greater being that gave me purpose and I need to investigate not only who this being is but what I’ve been purposed to do. And then there became a conflict in my life, which made me say, okay, I’ve got to start using my voice for more than the normal party, get drunk, get high.” –Lecrae The Tight Rope Episode #8“When that kind of spirituality connects to your genius, brother [Lecrae], you can start soaring like an eagle. We ain’t talking about no peacock. A lot of these hip hop artists are just peacocks, look at me, look at me, look at my foliage. We ain’t interested in your foliage; we interested in your fruit. You shall know them by the fruit that you bear, not the foliage that you display.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #8On white consumption of hip hop: “They want to define what it means to be Black by asking Black performers to perform a very narrow set of stereotypical ideas about what it means to be Black. It becomes another reinforcing mechanism, “Well, we’ll recognize you as Black, but not you as Black, because you’re telling me what I already know about what it means to be authentic.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #8On merging hip hop and his spirituality: “It takes a instant to remove a person from slavery, but a lifetime to get the slavery out of a person. So for me it was a process.” –Lacrae The Tight Rope Episode #8“Peacocks strut because they cannot fly. You got to be an eagle… We’re glad that you’re successful and you got money and you got wonderful artistry, now what you going to use it for? …Martin was broke as the 10 Commandments financially, but everyone remembers him. They don’t remember the most successful Negro in Atlanta in 1968. Malcolm only had $151 in his pocket when he was shot. We shall forever remember Malcolm. He didn’t have no cash. He didn’t have any success. He was in the world and not of it. –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #8“[Vulnerability] always drew them closer. It made them more endearing to me, and in some ways it was helpful… I want to show off my scars, so they know their wounds can heal.” –Lecrae The Tight Rope Episode #8“The trap house is an articulation of systemic racism… Wall Street is part of the gutting of Black communities and banking fraud and destroying people’s opportunities to create even a poor stable neighborhood. So the trap house become a terrible articulation of what’s left. But trap lyrics that people normally attach to that is sort of a hedonistic acceptance of the very circumstances that trap has grown out of based on the conditions. [Lecrae] says this is a trap sound, this is a trap reality, and here’s an alternative reality to that trap circumstance.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #8“We are very nuanced. But people hate nuance… They don’t want to wrestle with our nuances to see the beauty of who we are as a people and to see the trap for more than just where the drugs get sold and where the boarded up houses are.” –Lecrae The Tight Rope Episode #8“As a Christian, from my own community, I’ve got to navigate people to understand I’m not shucking and jiving because I’m a follower of Jesus. I’m not embracing white supremacy or a slave master’s philosophy or belief. I’m talking about something that predates slavery. It’s an Eastern religion if there ever was one… I’m following a brown Palestianian Jew.” –Lecrae The Tight Rope Episode #8“I continued to stand up and say something, and, man, I’ve never been met with so much visceral hate in my life. It was just constant and consistent. It drove me to one of the darkest places I’ve ever been.” –Lecrae The Tight Rope Episode #8“Curtis Mayfiled not looking to the Grammys for his point of reference. He wants to know whether in fact those who came before-- what do you think about it, Jerry Butler? What do you think about it? The tradition becomes the lens through which he views himself. So it ain’t about these prizes. It ain’t about the establishment. We want to put a smile on grandmama's face. Grandmama never questioned your worth, ever. She love you to death. So if you put a smile on her face, it don’t make no difference what these white supremacists and neoliberals who act like they lovin’ white folk who got their own little programs and agendas, that’s not the point of reference. That’s how Black sanity and dignity is persevered.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #8“Pessimism is the belief that based on the evidence, nothing’s going to change. Optimism is the belief is based on the evidence, things will change. But hope is the belief that with or without the evidence, God is faithful, I’m going to be consistent, I’m going to keep pushing.” –LecraeThe Tight Rope Episode #8“There’s a layer of restoration that is simply your mental and emotional health. You don’t have to embrace any of the spiritual health. If you do, awesome. But some people need it-- you’re just hungry. I’m just trying to make sure you’re getting fed today.” –Lecrae The Tight Rope Episode #8On community: “That’s going to be the skin on your faith--  seeing actual people who love you, who walk with you, and who care for you.” –Lecrae The Tight Rope Episode #8“You can’t police Black genius and Black talent.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #8On people with different views from him: “Disagree does not mean dislike... A rainbow is beautiful because of the multitude of colors within it, and not because it’s one color, one shade. It’s learning how to appreciate those nuances. We’re so quick to dismiss people because of these broad strokes that people get painted with.” –Lecrae The Tight Rope Episode #8“Each human being is made in the image and likeness of God. Therefore, they have a dignity that is never reducible to their politics. They have a preciousness that is not reducible to their ideology. And they also have the capacity to choose and go another way.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #8 Stay Connected:Cornel WestWebsite: www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel West - HomeInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: www.triciarose.comLinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  LecraeWebsite: www.lecrae.comTwitter: @lecraeFacebook: LecraeInstagram: @lecraeYoutube: LecraeApple Music: Lecrae The Tight RopeWebsite: www.thetightropepodcast.comInstagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry.

We have a in-depth discussion on Sag Harbor, Colson Whitehead's meditation on summer and the in-betweenness of being a black teenager attending an elite New York prep school.  We discuss respectability politics, post-blackness, and whether Sag Harbor is a novel of manners and not a bildungsroman.This is the first book in our series Race in Contemporary America where we read books written by contemporary minority writers.  Don't want to hear spoilers?  Listen to our previous episode where we review the book.Want to talk about Sag Harbor? Join our discussion at https://www.reddit.com/r/CanonicalPod where you can also find show notes, credits and discussion questions for every episode.You can support us by rating/liking/sharing our podcast! Subscribe to us here:Apple | Stitcher | Spotify | Google | YoutubeYou can also support us by buying Sag Harbor or another book from one of our curated lists:  https://bookshop.org/shop/CanonicalPod. We earn a commission on every purchase and your local indie bookstore gets a cut too!We are also on social media @CanonicalPod. Follow us to get updates on upcoming episodes!

Episode SummaryDr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose unravel the Black pain of the present in the context of the tremendous legacy of African American creativity and music, in this special extended version of Office Hours. They connect Black musical tradition to the current political moment and pay special homage to Prince and his iconic “Purple Rain.” Discover how you can transform this current moment in this important episode of The Tight Rope.  Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget, featuring Prince. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   Insight from this episode:Recollections of Dr. Cornel West’s first impressions of and ensuing friendship with Prince. Reasons why Black music is important and the role it plays in social activism. Strategies on generating a new sound for the current moment, extending and elaborating on the Black American musical tradition.How to leverage the current “tipping point” as a catalyst for lasting social movement. Details on the need for creative, interactive spaces for BIPOC.Strategies on utilizing technology to create impact and effective change. Quotes from the show:On the Black musical tradition and its relationship to historical trauma and suffering: “To look unflinchingly at all the hurt and the pain and yet still dish out the compassion and creativity, the style and smile-- that’s the great gift to America.” –Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #2“Any time you lyrically express a catastrophe, the catastrophe does not have the last word.” –Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #2“Music touches the hopeless, and it can heal, sustain, equip, fortify… Once you get oppressed folk fortified, woo, Lord, that’s like Sly Stone’s “Stand!”” –Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #2“Part of the contemporary spiritual war against young folk, especially young Black folk, is to get them to consent to a capitalist economy that’s shot through with wealth inequality. You get them to consent to a militarized nation state that will contain them or incarcerate them if they step out of line. But also you get them to consent to a commodified culture so that they’re distracted into things that are superficial: status and spectacle.” –Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #2“[C]apitalism and neoliberalism have destroyed local urban cultural spaces for people of color to create.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #2“Every month should be African American music month. That should be in our curriculum.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #2On Prince’s inspiration behind “Purple Rain”: “Purple rain is the blood in the sky. The red and the blue produce purple. And so that purple rain is rooted in the blood, sweat, tears, but you’re looking up. It’s visionary. It’s in some sense grounded in the most painful situation, but it’s visionary because it’s looking up… rooted in the most visceral responses to the most vicious kinds of treatment which is bloodstained, and yet it’s still looking up, like being in a dehumanized gutter, but one has one’s eyes always looking towards the sky.” –Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #2On Prince: “He knew it, as Ralph Waldo Emerson reminds us that “Every genius is a highly indebted person.” [Prince] knew his debts to James Brown, his debts to Little Richard, his debts to a whole host of folks who came before him. He was grounded in precisely this great Black musical tradition.” –Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #2On the boundarylessness of Black geniuses: “There’s no reason that we should be segregating genres along the lines of the spatial segregation that the country has constantly been invested in producing.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #2On Prince’s gender fluidity and non-binary performance: “It was a neither/nor, a both/and. He was just able to elevate above the binaries, and the boundaries, and the questions of who belongs where on the ground.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #2“The ways in which our bodies are fashioned and presented are integral to the way in which our sounds are both produced and received.” –Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #2“Conformity can get you a lot of company. You don’t want your goal to just have good company.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #2On despair and despondency: “Use it in such a way that in the end it becomes a source of giving to other people.” –Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #2  Resources Mentioned:Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America by Professor Tricia Rose (1994) Stay Connected:Cornel WestWebsite: http://www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel West - HomeInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: http://www.triciarose.com/LinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  The Tight RopeWebsite: www.thetightropepodcast.comInstagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry.

Episode SummaryIn this inaugural episode of The Tight Rope, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez aka #AOC shares her whirlwind journey from New York City to the halls of Congress, pulls the curtain on power, and explores what it will take to heal our nation. Plus, hosts Cornel West and Tricia Rose reflect on the movement to #DefundThePolice in their Office Hours segment. Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   Alexandria Ocasio-CortezServing the 14th district of New York in the Bronx and Queens, U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez touts a 100% People-Funded Democratic Socialism platform. She is an educator, organizer, service worker with a deep understanding of income inequality. As a third-generation Bronxite, AOC believes in combating systemic problems by fighting for systemic solutions, like Medicare for all, federal jobs guarantee, the end to mass incarceration, and the Green New Deal. She attended Boston University and previously worked as Educational Director with National Hispanic Institute where she helped Americans, DREAMers, and undocumented youth in community leadership and college readiness. AOC serves working-class people over corporate interests and advocates for social, racial, economic, and environmental justice.Insight from this episode:Strategies on not being “locked in” while on lockdown. How to respond and intervene in systems that are impoverished of empathy and compassion. Behind-the-scenes look at Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s meteoric rise in politics, including the impact of her education, time abroad in West Africa, and close relationship with her father. How to remain true to your morals, values, politics, and spirituality when faced with pressures to conform or be reduced down to a niche. Benefits of the discipline of non-attachment to work, money, social acceptance, and ego. Details on what “defunding the police” really means to Dr. West and Professor Rose. Quotes from the show:“I am one point that is a result of waves of generational inertia.” –Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez The Tight Rope Episode #7“You can’t let your identity be subsumed with this superficial political identity of red or blue or this tribe. [It’s] not what do you want to be but how do you want to be? ...People always try to analyze my actions in a strictly political context… I was already here. I didn’t know this was a political way of being. I just thought it was a moral way of being.” –Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez The Tight Rope Episode #7On her time in Niger: “That level of enjoyment just does not exist in American life. [Enjoying tea with friends] is something people do on a Friday night, maybe once a week, if they aren’t exhausted by work. But this is a way of life in Niger… that interaction was the sun around which life revolved. It’s our fellowship and connection to one another.” –Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez The Tight Rope Episode #7On switching majors from Pre-Med to Economics: “What you are treating and what you are healing is a result of systematic outcomes. And I knew that people would continue to be sick if our systems continued to be sick.” –Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez The Tight Rope Episode #7“The interesting thing about economics is that there may be an equation, but the real quest is discovering the story that has led to a number.” –Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez The Tight Rope Episode #7“In the tradition of my parents, I never was like, “I’m a Democrat with a capital D. If it’s got a blue sticker, I’m going to be for that.” I always grew up with this idea that you need to have an independent analysis of each and every individual and look at things in context.” –Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez The Tight Rope Episode #7“Politics ultimately is about the scaffolding of our relationships to each other. And the reason our politics are so broken right now is because our relationships to one another as a society are really deeply broken.” –Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez The Tight Rope Episode #7“I cannot be attached to keeping my seat as a member of Congress if I’m going to do my job because [my mission] is not to be the Congresswoman of New York’s 14th district. My mission is to advance principles of a better world and to advance a better world.” –Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez The Tight Rope Episode #7“How has AOC gotten inside of [the system]? People are so hungry and thirsty for something deeper than the legalized bribery and normalized corruption.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #7On being intentionally vulnerable on social media: “I needed to break the mythology of perfection in people who hold power.” –Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez The Tight Rope Episode #7“The police have already been thoroughly been defunded in terms of the police that are supposed to regulate Wall Street… they are as weak as pre-sweetened Kool-Aid.” –Dr. Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #7“That hyper funding of police ended money for social workers and mental health facilities and drug treatment centers… a complete gutting of the safety nets that allowed people to have problems. And we’re interested in helping solve them. We’re not interested in making every response a punitive punishment, profitable response for others… to defund is to invest in communities.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #7  Stay Connected:Cornel WestWebsite: www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel West - HomeInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: www.triciarose.comLinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  Alexandria Ocasio-CortezWebsite: www.ocasiocortez.comGovernment Website: ocasio-cortez.house.gov/contactTwitter: @AOCFacebook: Alexandria Ocasio-CortezInstagram: @AOC and @RepAOC The Tight RopeWebsite: www.thetightropepodcast.comInstagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry.

Episode SummaryIn this episode of The Tight Rope, Dr. Cornel West and Professor Tricia Rose engage in an honest and invigorating conversation with emcee Rapsody. Calling in from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Rapsody speaks about current and future projects and her role in today’s young generation and music industry. Together, they wrestle with how to protect one’s creative spirit in a fad-driven, consumerist market. Tune in to this vulnerable and unforgettable episode of The Tight Rope.  Cornel WestDr. Cornel West is Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. A prominent democratic intellectual, social critic, and political activist, West also serves as Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard in three years and obtained his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at Princeton. West has authored 20 books and edited 13. Most known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, and his memoir, Brother West: Living and Loving Out Loud, West appears frequently on the Bill Maher Show, CNN, C-Span, and Democracy Now. West has appeared in over 25 documentaries and films, including Examined Life, and is the creator of three spoken word albums including Never Forget. West brings his focus on the role of race, gender, and class in American society to The Tight Rope podcast.  Tricia RoseProfessor Tricia Rose is Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown University. She also holds the Chancellor’s Professorship of Africana Studies and serves as the Associate Dean of the Faculty for Special Initiatives. A graduate of Yale (B.A.) and Brown University (Ph.D), Rose authored Black Noise: Rap Music and Black Culture in Contemporary America (1994), Longing to Tell: Black Women Talk about Sexuality and Intimacy (2003), and The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop and Why It Matters (2008). She also sits on the Boards of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Color of Change, and Black Girls Rock, Inc. Focusing on issues relating to race in America, mass media, structural inequality, popular culture, gender and sexuality and art and social justice, Rose engages widely in scholarly and popular audience settings, and now also on The Tight Rope podcast.   RapsodyRapsody is Grammy nominated emcee, lyricist, rapper, and recording artist. This multi talented North Carolina native is celebrated for Laila’s Wisdom (2017), her breakthrough album that earned her two Grammy nominations including best rap album in league with Lamar, Jay-Z, Migo, and Tyler the Creator. One of the greatest female rappers of all time, Rapsody continues to share her awakened, bold voice and creative rhyme schemes in her 2019 album Eve, dubbed a “masterpiece of hip-hop feminism,” released by 9th Wonder’s Jamla and Jay-Z’s Roc Nation. Each track of Eve is named for an influential Black woman, including “Michelle,” “Oprah,” and “Sojourner.” Rapsody works with the biggest artists in the industry, including Chance The Rapper, Erykah Badu, Raekwon, Anderson .Paak, Estelle, Kendrick Lamar, Busta Rhymes and Mac Miller, among others.   Insight from this episode:Strategies on supporting youth activists, empowering their voices, and harnessing improvisational creation.Benefits of intergenerational connections and opportunities in preserving musical traditions, sounds, and legacies. Details on Rapsody’s fight against the pressures of the commodification of the music industry.Behind-the-scenes reflections from Rhapsody on her inspiration for Laila’s Wisdom and Eve, including songs that did not make it onto the album. Details on Rapsody’s future projects.Secrets to defining your own path— true to your identity and goals— and forming habits to improve your life.   Quotes from the show:“Almost every emcee and producer I interviewed back in the 80s and early 90s talked about their parents’ record collection as an amazing archive of sound and experience that they were both being bequeathed and also being held away from. They said, “My daddy said don’t get in my record collection!” ...It was about really having a cultural archive that the generations wanted to relate to and connect to. That is probably [hip hop’s] most important intergenerational legacy.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #3“There’s so many connections to the Panthers, to the Civil Rights Movement, in hip hop... Through hip hop, [Rapsody’s] connecting Tupac to his mom but also to the legacy of the politics of respecting Black women and really just respecting ourselves and each other.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #3“You cannot box up black genius, black creativity, confined to any genre.” –Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #3“What hip hop really did was try to make music in a context in which [its] tradition was being completely undermined…. the schools are not teaching the Black music tradition, and then they’re not getting access about it. So hip hop had to work with the shards of that legacy.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #3On young leaders: “We appreciate you. We see you. We hear you. You should be celebrated for being fearless, for using your voice, for being young leaders. [And we want to] give them a space to learn how to be activists.” –Rapsody The Tight Rope Episode #3“There’s never been and there never will be a Black freedom struggle without Black music being at the center of it to keep us fortified, keep our souls determined, and also just keep a sense of humor and laughter along with the tears.” –Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #3“Music is the soundtrack of the times” –Rapsody The Tight Rope Episode #3On the commodification of the music industry: “Artists like [Rapsody] who become the real conduits and caretakers of the best of our tradition, which is the best tradition in the modern world— the Black musical tradition— you have a heavier burden.” –Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #3“The pressure that an artist who wants to be free, like [Deniece Williams’ “Free”] really expressed at its core is about how to be yourself, how to take the art form seriously, not cave into faddish sounds, not cave into basically white supremist thinking about black subjectivity. That is very hard to do.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #3“Improvisational creation is a way of putting to music and putting to words the experience and condition they’re facing. It’s in that act of creation that I think a lot of that market pressure can be pushed off… it’s in that place that you imagine new things. It’s when you’re not doing exactly what is being expected that you have your own political surprises, emotional surprises.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #3“A lot of times, the industry likes to narrow the scope of what we’re supposed to create, how we’re supposed to look creating it, and the voice that we have. Back in the days, we had so much ownership. We had mom and pop stores, we had our own radio stations, we had the Chitlin’ Circuit.” –Rapsody The Tight Rope Episode #3On maintaining her creative spirit: “The greatest thing I had was 9th Wonder and Young Guru, who were my mentors. And the first thing they did before I put out any music was they sat me down and they said, you have to define your line right now. You have to define what you won’t do, what you will do, what you won’t compromise. Know what you want out of this business first, so you know how to maneuver and make the best decisions.” –Rapsody The Tight Rope Episode #3“We first knew it was going to be a marathon. Anything you want to last 20 years, you have to build a strong foundation of.” –Rapsody The Tight Rope Episode #3“I didn’t want to be a cookie cutter version of anyone… how I am is enough, I don’t have to change that. I don’t want to become this sexual rapper. That’s not my lane, that’s not honest to who I am.” –Rapsody The Tight Rope Episode #3“You have to be willing to fall on your face, and then see what your bounce back is like because creativity goes hand in hand with a certain vulnerability and invincibility.” –Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #3On inspiration for Laila’s Wisdom: “One quote [my grandmother Laila] would always say… “Oh you came to give me my flowers.” It made me think what flowers do I want to give to the world? What generation do I want to inspire? What seeds do I want to leave behind? …I took that and used that as part of the album. I want to give you these flowers. I want to give you the best of me that I can give you and hope that it inspires you to be the best in you.” –Rapsody The Tight Rope Episode #3“I know what Lauryn Hill meant to me, and what Queen Latifah meant to me, MC Lyte, without them I wouldn’t be the woman I am today. Without Phylicia Rashad, without Cicely Tyson, without Nikki Giovanni. So I had to show up as myself and be that person that they were for me but for the next generation. That’s why I can’t compromise my art, I can’t afford to for the culture.” –Rapsody The Tight Rope Episode #3On compromise: “I have to go against the grain… even if I fall flat on my face and fail, I’m willing to take that risk because I have nieces, I have young girls that I know, that need to see what a woman in hip hop looks like, to see the rainbow and spectrum of what we can be. I know people want it. I just have to stick with it and knock down the door.” –Rapsody The Tight Rope Episode #3“Who cares what the Grammy’s think? The Grammy’s could have done left you [Rapsody] behind, and we’d still be behind you. That’s the point, to have our own standards.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #3On reaching a younger audience: “[Parents can make sure their children] have a good palate and good beginning of what good music sounds like. When they grow up, of course, you’re able to like what you like in your generation, but you also know and are connected to the sound you grew up in… that’s one thing that you can always do, is expose them to a wide range of music, just to lay the foundation.” –Rapsody The Tight Rope Episode #3“The best habit for improving my life was figuring out how to keep the rage that white supremacy produces at bay, figuring out how to keep it at enough distance that it doesn’t circulate in my body literally. It’s a disposition that allows my habits to thrive.” –Tricia Rose The Tight Rope Episode #3“Cultivate at the highest level the capacity to listen, the capacity to serve, and the capacity to find joy in fighting for freedom.” –Cornel West The Tight Rope Episode #3“We haven’t done the best job of protecting our culture that is hip hop. We give it away too easy. And they use that against us. I’ve heard of plans to take control of our culture. And they’ve done it by taking control of the radio and the mediums, and allowing us to give our art away, and our ownership away, and our voice away, and our creativity away. And we have to find a way to get that back because it is sonic warfare at the end of the day.” –Rapsody The Tight Rope Episode #3  Music from Rapsody:The Idea of Beautiful (2012)Laila’s Wisdom (2017)Eve (2019) Stay Connected:Cornel WestWebsite: http://www.cornelwest.comTwitter: @CornelWestFacebook: Dr. Cornel West - HomeInstagram: @BrotherCornelWest Linktree: Cornel West  Tricia RoseWebsite: http://www.triciarose.com/LinkedIn: Tricia RoseTwitter: @ProfTriciaRoseFacebook: Tricia RoseInstagram: @ProfTriciaRoseYoutube: Professor Tricia Rose  RapsodyWebsite: https://genesis320.com/Twitter: @rapsody Facebook: @rapsodymusic Instagram: @rapsody Youtube: Rapsody Apple Music: Rapsody  The Tight RopeWebsite: www.thetightropepodcast.comInstagram: @thetightropepodTwitter: @thetightropepodFacebook: The Tight Rope Pod This episode was produced and managed by Spkerbox Media in collaboration with Podcast Laundry.