AirGo

We're excited to bring you this convo from this year's Socialism Conference, held in September 2024 here in Chicago! The last few years of political turmoil have unearthed the longstanding lack of public trust in the news media. As journalists who work in, outside and against legacy media, we had the opportunity to be in convo with some brilliant peers about the long and deep legacy of movement jo...

This week we're digging in the AirGo crates and revisiting one of the most impactful moments in modern social movement history–the encampment at Standing Rock in 2016. Kiss and a cohort of other Chicago folks brought supplies from Freedom Square in November, and had the privilege to spend a few days there. Upon their return, Kiss sat down with Kristiana Colon, who had been with him on the trip, to...

On this episode, the guys turn to legendary historian Rashid Khalidi to help parse and understand how we got here–a moment fourteen months into the escalation of genocidal violence perpetrated on the people and land of Palestine. The author of many books, including most recently The Hundred Years' War On Palestine, Prof. Khalidi talks about how he moves between the mind and body while witnessing a...

In the fraught last week before the 2024 election, the guys search for some nuance with Maurice Mitchell, the National Director of the Working Families Party. A nationally-recognized social movement strategist, visionary leader in the Movement for Black Lives, and community organizer, Maurice breaks down the vision and approach of WFP’s strategy to electoral organizing and helps us parse the value...

The guys welcome Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, a brilliant philosopher and movement thought leader, to the pod. Táíwò is the author of Reconsidering Reparations and Elite Capture, two staples of the emergent abolitionist canon that have helped shape emergent movement ideology over the last decade. He talks with Dame and Kiss about who we mean when we say "elite," how the debate around identity politi...

The guys talk with Maya Dukmasova and Alejandra Cancino from Injustice Watch about their new multipart investigation The Tenant Trap. The series, which is available now and linked below, found that tenants are regularly facing eviction and informal displacement at buildings with histories of serious safety violations, while the court system puts property rights above the rights of the people who l...

The guys keep it within the medium, chopping it up with award-winning journalist and storyteller Yohance Lacour. Yohance is the host of You Didn’t See Nothin’, a Peabody and Pulitzer-winning podcast about a 1997 hate crime on the South Side of Chicago that introduced him to the world of investigative journalism, examining how its ripple effects have shaped Lacour’s own life over the past quarter-c...

The guys lock in with Prof. Lester Spence, whose decades of scholarship about Black politic-building, hip-hop, and the sociopolitical turn toward neoliberalism help all of us make sense of the contradictions our culture, political system, and economy pretend don't exist. He's the author of Stare In the Darkness: The Limits of Hip-hop and Black Politics (2011), and Knocking the Hustle: Against the...

On this episode, the guys welcome writer John Perkins. Best known for his politically and socially significant text Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, in which he describes playing a role in a process of economic colonization of Third World countries on behalf of what he portrays as a cabal of corporations, banks, and the United States government, John discusses how we can forge new systems of be...

Sometimes a simple title doesn't even come close to encapsulating who someone is or why they are important to the fabric of our city. This episode's guest Eric Williams is definitely one of those people. He is the owner of The Silver Room, a Chicago institution and brand whose mission is to create a global community through art and culture, as well as the owner of delicious South Side restaurant B...

This episode's guest is Rev. Tanya Lozano Washington, the co-founder of community health and care organization Healthy Hood Chicago. Tanya talks about how she came to understand the links between personal and communal health, the lineages she stewards as a member of one of Chicago's most impactful movement families, and the complicated relationships that generations of sacrifice to liberation crea...

As Chicago gears up for the 2024 Democratic National Convention, we get in tune with movement lawyer and professor Sheila Bedi, who breaks down some of the changes in CPD policy that Chicagoans engaging in direct action should know about. We also talk about the beautiful, challenging, and important ways Sheila has provided care and protection for both organizers facing state repression and the fam...

In this episode of AirGo, we sit down with State Senator Robert Peters for a deep dive into the current political landscape and the transformative initiatives he's championing. Senator Peters explores how he contributed to the abolition of cash bond in IL, his commitment to getting tangible policy passed in contribution to movement, and the approach of transformative incrementalism that can make p...

Singer, songwriter, and dreamweaver Manasseh joins Dame and Kiss for this freewheeling kickback of an interview. A heartfelt vocalist with pipes that pierce through, Manasseh shares some vulnerable experiences that deromanticize the artist's life and show the day-to-day challenges of pursuing a life built around your craft. SHOW NOTES Get in tune with Manasseh - https://linktr.ee/yomanasseh Follow...

This episode we dig in the AirGo crates back to fall of 2019, when we had the joy of hosting a live episode of AirGo with the brilliant organizer Page May and multihyphenate musical superstar Akenya, who will be performing this weekend at the always chill and fun Pitchfork Festival right here in Chicago. Enjoy this goofy and wonderful live episode (featuring a cameo from a newborn kitten) and come...

Grounded visionary and dope filmmaker Ashley O'Shay joins Dame and Kiss on this episode of AirGo. Ashley is the director of Unapologetic, an impactful and loving feature documentary capturing two fierce abolitionists whose upbringing and experiences shape their activism and views on Black liberation. The film premiered at the BlackStar Film Festival, broadcast on PBS POV, and was shortlisted for t...

The guys head over to The. BlkRoom, a Chicago-based organization and co-creation studio facilitating opportunities for BIPOC artists and creatives across the city, to chat with the effervescent and protagonistic Senite! The vocalist, songwriter, and co-founder of this transformative community space talks about the grief rituals she's been moving through, the ways that exploitation in the music sce...

We've got a little podswap for ya with our friends Autumn and adrienne maree brown of the How to Survive the End of the World podcast! Make sure you go click subscribe on their wonderful show and get in tune with this show that delves into the practices we need as a community, to move through endings and to come out whole on the other side, whatever that might be. Subscribe - https://podcasts.appl...

The guys hop on stage at the Court Theatre in Hyde Park for a live conversation with writer Nambi E. Kelley and director Tasia A. Jones about their new play Stokely: The Unfinished Revolution. The production covers the life of visionary movement thinker and organizer Stokely Carmichael/Kwame Ture, whose work spans from the early work of SNCC across the southern US to decades of Pan-Africanist soci...

Come find the 1ME crew on tour over the next couple of weeks hosting screenings, performances, and conversations around our film One Million Experiments! We will be in Minneapolis on 6/19, Durham on 6/26, Detroit on 6/29, and Indianapolis on 6/30. Come say hi! Find all the info and RSVP at https://www.respairmedia.com/events Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio bsky.app/profile/respairmedia.bsk...

We're joined by bonafide genius and bonafide friend Morgan Elise Johnson! Morgan's the publisher and cofounder of The Triibe, a digital media platform that is reshaping the narrative of Black Chicago and giving ownership back to the people. Their original works in journalism and documentary, alongside creative writing and video, capture the multifaceted essence of the Black experience in pursuit o...

NOTE - this is the second part of our convo with Dylan Rodriguez. Hop back to the previous episode to catch the first half of the convo! The AirGo crew is joined by a longtime thought leader in the global movement for abolition, Dylan Rodriguez. Dylan is a teacher, scholar, organizer and collaborator who has maintained a day job as a Professor at the University of California-Riverside since 2001....

The AirGo crew is joined by a longtime thought leader in the global movement for abolition, Dylan Rodriguez. Dylan is a teacher, scholar, organizer and collaborator who has maintained a day job as a Professor at the University of California-Riverside since 2001. His lifework focuses on liberationist, anticolonial, and abolitionist confrontations with the antiblack, colonial, and white supremacist...

This episode's guest is Nicole Humphrey, a thoughtful and consistent figure in the city's creative arts scene for the past decade. Nicole is an advocate and ambassador to the Chicago arts scene, and a talented artist in her own right too. She's the founder of NAHCreate, a marketing and strategy firm that offers innovative solutions for creative marketing and measuring impact through collaboration....

The guys head to LA to talk with rapper, community presence, and Pivot Gang champion Frsh Waters. Frsh brings his whole self to the conversation, shares some remarkable Pivot stories from the early days of one of hip hop's best groups, and reflects on how incarceration shifted his relationship to community, artistry, and himself. SHOW NOTES Follow Frsh - https://www.instagram.com/frshwaters/ Liste...