Power Beyond Pride

Co-hosts Melody KG and Mattie Bynum dig into the deeper currents of River Coello's work, exploring what gets erased when colonial systems take hold — and what endures anyway. As a PhD candidate in anthropology at UCF, River has traced the quiet persistence of Indigenous wisdom throughout the history of the field, arguing that Indigenous voices have always shaped knowledge, even when uncredited. Dr...

What happens when the internet turns politics into a consumer activity — something you watch, share, and feel, rather than something you do? Cayden Mak, publisher of Convergence magazine and host of Block and Build, joins co-hosts Daniel W.K. Lee and Kenyon Farrow to untangle the structural forces shaping digital organizing, from Shoshana Zuboff's surveillance capitalism to Silicon Valley's role i...

The Lavender Scare — the 60-year federal policy that allowed gay people to be legally fired from government jobs — is the subject of Lisa Cordileone's historical fiction TV series Committed , and in conversation with co-hosts Kenyon Farrow and Mattie Bynum, she makes a compelling case that its echoes are very much present today. Lisa pushes back on the tendency of queer film to market itself as an...

Description: What happens when creativity meets civic engagement? Jordan Robinson explains how his experiences in education, museums, and community programming inspired him to build projects that create both beauty and impact. From transforming neglected spaces into playgrounds to organizing exhibitions that spark meaningful dialogue, he demonstrates how art can help communities connect, heal, and...

A year after launch, Power Beyond Pride takes stock of what real progress looks like when the broader political landscape is hostile. Join hosts Mattie Bynum,  Daniel WK Lee, Hunter, Melodie Garcia, and Shane Lukas surface concrete wins—sex workers organizing mutual aid and a gun club during Minneapolis ICE raids, progressive electoral gains from leaders like Mamdani in New York and Wu in Bos...

Description: Daniel W.K. Lee and Mattie Bynum sit down with filmmaker and documentarian Tony Zosherafatain to unpack the emotional impact of telling trans stories in today’s political climate. Tony reflects on how his own transition inspired his filmmaking journey and discusses the deep connections he formed with the people featured in Trans in Trumpland . The conversation explores visibility, pro...

Description: This episode explores why history matters in the fight for LGBTQ+ visibility and belonging. Sophie Edwards discusses the importance of creating trans-centered educational content that goes beyond explaining trans people to cis audiences and instead helps trans people understand their own historical legacy. The conversation examines healthcare, gender-affirming care, political challeng...

Description: JD Valadares Williams joins the hosts to explore how emotional intelligence shapes the way we connect, lead, and advocate for change. Drawing from their upbringing in Peru and experiences with migration, JD shares how empathy is built through lived experience rather than logic alone. The conversation highlights how emotional storytelling—rather than debate—can shift hearts and minds,...

Description: In this episode, Melodie KG and Kate sit down with poet, author, and activist Daniel WK Lee for a conversation that moves between humor, lived experience, and urgent global realities. Daniel reflects on how his life as a third-generation refugee and his journey through multiple cities have shaped both his worldview and his creative voice. The discussion explores the role of poetry as...

Description : Kenyon Farrow and Mattie Bynum welcome legendary organizer and writer Suzanne Pharr for a moving conversation on movement-building, queer liberation, and the urgent need for community. Suzanne reflects on her decades of activism, from anti-violence organizing to writing landmark books about homophobia, authoritarianism, and democracy. She explains why reconnecting with one another is...

Description : In this episode, Mattie Bynum and Shane Lucas sit down with Dr. Demetre Daskalakis to explore his journey from a curious kid with a doctor’s kit to a national leader in public health. He shares how witnessing the HIV/AIDS crisis firsthand shaped his life’s mission and why community care remains central to his work. The conversation dives into the politicization of public health, the...

Kate d'Adamo joins Melody KG and Danielle W.K. Lee to break down what actionable, community-centered advocacy looks like in practice. From her work with Reframe Health and Justice, Kate shares how organizing grounded in harm reduction and equity can create real impact. She emphasizes the importance of local engagement, building interdependent networks, and moving beyond performative activism. The...

Court Byer( she/they) joins Mattie and Shane bringing both heart and strategy to a conversation about queerness, humanism, and the power of community care. They reflect on growing up feeling “different,” navigating political spaces that felt transactional, and ultimately redefining their values outside traditional systems. The episode highlights the importance of mutual aid, moral courage, and cre...

In this Reply All episode, Shane, Kenyon, and Mattie move from breaking news into the personal stakes behind it—what it feels like to live inside systems that can shift overnight. They celebrate a federal court block protecting access to gender-affirming care for trans youth, while naming how fragile “wins” can feel when other rulings and policies move in the opposite direction. The conversation t...

Michael Barrett Jones - Activist, Director of a Nonprofit and Storyteller —joins Mattie Bynum and Shane Lucas as he shares a powerful journey from grassroots HIV activism to leading fundraising efforts that center equity and inclusion. Reflecting on his time at Iris House, he unpacks how women of color were historically excluded from funding and strategy conversations—and what it means to challeng...

Miss Mei  (they/them) — co-founder and executive director of Decrim305 and a 14-year sex worker — joins co-hosts Mattie Bynum and Shawn Aaron to share the origin story of Miami’s most unapologetic sex worker advocacy org. Born out of the George Floyd protests in 2020, Decrim305 launched with a Slut Walk that nobody expected to pop — and it did. Mei traces the through-line from Josephine Baker...

This episode explores Two-Spirit identity as both spiritual and gendered, and how Indigenous frameworks can expand what many people think they know about gender, community, and sacredness. In a discussion with co-hots Melodie KG and Mattie Bynum, Soul connects personal deconstruction from Christianity with a broader decolonizing shift—moving from “invisibility as safety” to visibility that demands...

Author and HIV Activist Mark S. King shares with co-hosts Mattie Bynum and Shane Lukas a clear framework for movement work: credibility comes from truth-telling, and leadership means learning to hand the microphone to someone else. He breaks down what mentorship can look like in practice—spotting talent, offering encouragement, making introductions, and helping amplify voices without strings attac...

Domenico Ruggiero shares with co-hosts Hunter and Mattie Bynum how his leadership began “at the margins” as a first-gen, biracial, queer student from an immigrant background who often felt like he didn’t fully belong anywhere. He describes becoming a bridge-builder across siloed campus spaces, a throughline that shaped his career in multicultural and LGBTQ centers before leading We Are Family in S...

In this episode, musician and artist Shirlette Ammons digs into what it means to be an interdisciplinary artist—moving between music, poetry, and page-based writing with different tools, stakes, and intentions. She reflects on influences ranging from church music and mass choirs to Janet Jackson, Meshell Ndegeocello, Tribe, De La Soul, Outkast, and Lauryn Hill, describing a “rich” musical palette...

From Kansas ID rollbacks to the State of the Union, co-hosts Mattie Bynum, Melodie KG, Daniel WK Lee, and Shane Lukas discuss how power uses narrative, bureaucracy, and selective “exceptions” to justify broader harm. The co-hosts unpack how “freedom” gets framed as individual impunity rather than collective safety—and how that framing fuels policies like the SAVE Act’s documentation requirements....

Co-hosts Daniel WK Lee and Kata d’Adamo sit down with Eliazar Posada to talk about what community protection looks like when national politics turn hostile. Eliazar breaks down practical local strategies—non-discrimination ordinances, language access plans, and building trust so people feel safe seeking help. He also reflects on the emotional weight and responsibility of being a “first,” and his c...

Mattie Bynum and Shane Lukas welcome Ryan Cassata (along with bandmates Top Surgeons, Kyle and Lauren) to talk about life on tour and the surprising ways different cities show up for queer communities. They dig into why house shows feel intimate, safer, and more sustaining—especially when traditional venues and platforms feel shaky. Ryan reflects on the long arc of trans and queer musician visibil...

Savannah Sly brings a movement-builder’s lens to the question of what actually changes things—beyond catharsis—by pairing passion with strategy, mentorship, and resources. She reflects on how she learned to communicate about s** work in ways people could hear, and how stigma shifts depending on the language people use (and the assumptions they bring). The hosts dig into how anger shows up across “...

This Reply All episode of Power Beyond Pride brings Mattie Bynum, Kenyon Farrow, and Shane Lukas together to unpack what it means to organize, stay connected, and tell the truth in a moment of escalating harm. Kenyon frames the rapid mobilization in Minneapolis as a continuation of the 2020 George Floyd uprisings, arguing that visible “mass response” is built through sustained, long-term organizin...