Imagine Otherwise by Ideas on Fire

What would happen if we threw out the boundaries between academic disciplines? How would our collective histories, conflicts, and corporealities change if we stopped assuming that art, science, and politics have ever been separate projects? Today's guest, Zakiyyah Iman Jackson, argues that the complexity of blackness and gender reveal the deep imbrications of all of these projects at the bedrock o...

How does cultural heritage provide us with the tools to shape what collective freedom looks, sounds, and feels like? This question and its political stakes has guided the life's work of our guest today, Porchia Moore. In episode 111 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach interviews museum visionary and activist-scholar Porchia Moore about the radical librarians and museum workers w...

Given everything that's going on in the world right now, writing is the last thing on many people's minds. Amidst the uncertainty, anxiety, and grief, many of our writing projects have taken a back seat to other more pressing demands. But what if we approach writing not as a solitary distraction or a productivity demand but rather as a vital source of social support? How might the bonds forged thr...

Among the many effects of the recent pandemic and social distancing practices is that most of us find ourselves spending more and more time with screens and smart devices as our daily lives move even further online. The stories we consume through these screens and the material production of our devices have complex, interwoven histories that reveal the limits of global capitalism as well as the et...

How does a reproductive justice approach to healthcare change the way we understand childbirth and pregnancy? How can we draw on our holistic, embodied selves to build community in a time of heightened anxiety and precarity? The guest for today's episode, Miriam Zoila Pérez, has a diverse body of work that shows why intersectionality is the answer to both of these questions. In episode 108 of the...

It's commonplace to hear claims that in our current historical moment science has become politicized, as climate crises, vaccines, and genetic modification get hotly debated in rapid-fire news cycles. But as today's guest Meghnaa Tallapragada reminds us, science has always been inherently political, reflecting shifting racial, gender, and national ideologies and serving diverse interests. In episo...

What role have Black cartoonists played in the history of superheroes, weekend newspaper funnies, and graphic biographies? How have they harnessed the visual power of the comic form to speak back to racist stereotypes and claim space for themselves and their communities? This episode's guest, Rebecca Wanzo, argues that Black cartoonists in both mainstream and underground comics have tackled these...

How can putting marginalized people at the very center of design and technology change the world for the better? This is the question that has motivated Sasha Costanza-Chock's work for the past two-and-a-half decades. In episode 105 of Imagine Otherwise, host Cathy Hannabach and design justice advocate Sasha Costanza-Chock discuss the world-changing effect of putting marginalized people at the cen...

What happens when a biomedical engineer and a literary studies scholar set out to produce a podcast about academia, culture, and social justice across the STEM/humanities divide? That's exactly what the guests on this episode—Elizabeth Wayne and Christine "Xine" Yao—have been doing for the past four and a half years with PhDivas. In episode 104 of Imagine Otherwise, host Cathy Hannabach interviews...

What is at stake when we choose to write in one genre over another? Why does our name shape how our work is taken up in the world? How might we harness the power of refusal as means for collective liberation? In episode 103 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach chats with speculative fiction author, podcaster, and scholar Christopher B. Patterson about why Chris prefers writing no...

Host Cathy Hannabach interviews podcaster, travel writer, and journalist Amy Lam about the power of feminist podcasting, how histories of race and colonialism shape the ways different women of color approach leisure travel, how to write travel stories that ditch the cis white guy tropes for more political and accessible forms, and why drawing inspiration from her childhood dreams of a more just fu...

Why are interdisciplinary methodologies so important for telling American Indian histories? How does Indigenous documentary filmmaking and television bring scholarly research to broad and diverse audiences? What might Native foodways teach Native and Non-Native folks about political sovereignty? In episode 101 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach interviews Lumbee historian and d...

This is the 100th episode of Imagine Otherwise! Host Cathy Hannabach reflects on the past 3 years of interviewing artists, filmmakers, chefs, dancers, authors, poets, teachers, scholars, and movement leaders about how they combine art, activism, and academia to build more just worlds. The episode highlights some of our fans' most talked about and popular episodes. If you're new to the show and thi...

How are both our bodies and our creative work haunted by history's ghosts? How does place and historical geography transform the work we do in the classroom? How might poetry and other public intellectual work transform cultural diplomacy? In episode 99 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach interviews Pushcart Prize–winning poet Kiki Petrosino about the role of the racialized and...

How can radical librarianship forge solidarity across the university's faculty, students, librarians, and greater community? How does "vocational awe" forestall important critiques about libraries as institutions? What role do frameworks such as critical race theory play in building radical librarian projects that center marginalized voices? In episode 98 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cat...

How can thinking with the sea shifting the foundations of humanities research? How does the ocean challenge terrestrial bias in standpoint epistemologies? What can we learn from the performative and creative possibilities of ocean-based work? In episode 97 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach interviews professor and scuba diver Melody Jue about how she uses scuba diving as a hum...

How are Black women artists harnessing texture, transparency, and bafflement to forge forms of belonging beyond the nation? How might the vulnerability of collaboration provide a model for teaching as well as scholarship? How does the concept of amending allow us to reconfigure citizenship and affiliation? In episode 96 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach talks with artist and s...

How can we bring socially engaged art into the classroom without losing its community focus? What are the possibilities and limitations of building art spaces beyond traditional institutions? How do the colonial histories of sonic criminalization shape the neighborhoods and lives of contemporary communities of color? In episode 95 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach interviews a...

How can writers better translate their work for varied genres and audiences? How are Black and Brown artists challenging the presumed whiteness of particular cities and spaces? What kind of world would be possible if everyone had the time and resources to pursue creative projects? In episode 94 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach interviews journalist and educator Emilly Prado a...

How might the abstraction of aesthetics help us think through the fleshy materiality of race and gender? How would valuing bodily knowledge transform our political, cultural, and economic institutions? How might co-authoring provide a model for ethics in the world? In episode 93 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach interviews feminist scholar Amber Jamilla Musser about how abstra...

How are artists, activists, and communities resetting the colonial clock? What does it mean to reinterpret political actions as insurgent performances? How might we transform the collaborative possibilities of scholarly work? In episode 92 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach interviews curator, performer, and scholar Sandra Ruiz about the radical ways that Puerto Rican artists,...

What does it mean to value storytelling as a form of knowledge production? How can we develop collaborative research projects with the communities to which we are accountable? What transformative avenues emerge when we ask what people need rather than making assumptions? In episode 91 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach talks with professor Tania Lizarazo about how digital story...

Why did so many feminist performers and artists of a certain generation transition into academic careers? How can scholars and activists mobilize beyond neoliberal forms of resilience? How might humor and solidarity provide the tools we need to build worlds beyond the here and now? In episode 90 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach interviews poet, performer, and professor Alix O...

How can children's literature help us make sense of an ever-changing world? Why is speculative fiction having such a moment in contemporary popular culture? How might theorizing and creating cultural production increase our capacity for hope? In episode 89 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach interviews education professor and young adult novelist Ebony Elizabeth Thomas about why...

How might difference be reframed as avenue toward sharing collective power instead of a source of conflict? How can the literary world better encourage and sustain writers from marginalized identities? What does it mean to make art that doesn't shy away from the politics of context? In episode 88 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach talks with author, editor, and podcast co-host...