Larger, Freer, More Loving

Today, Dwight and Matt are talking about the Trump administration's war on what's now known as Portland, Oregon (traditional, rightful, occupied lands of many different Indigenous peoples of the Lower Columbia River). Dwight asks Matt about his experience as someone who lives in and whose activism is based in Portland. After Matt identifies some particular ways we need to reframe how we think and...

It's good to be back with you all. It's been a minute since we've had an episode. In this episode, Matt LaVine and Dwight K. Lewis Jr discuss the impact of the first three weeks of the second Trump administration on marginalized communities. They emphasize the importance of community, resilience, and activism as a response to the administration's actions. Dwight shares his personal experiences of...

It's good to be back with you all. It's been a minute since we've had an episode. But no matter what you listen to us for, we've got a feeling that this episode is for you! Because today, we've got with us multi-hyphenate, Hanif Fazal—an activist, a writer, a race equity facilitator and consultant, a business owner, awesome father, brother, and son. We're talking about his new book, "An Other Worl...

Today, we were lucky enough to have a conversation with a scholar, public intellectual, and activist who happens to be one of our favorite human beings on the planet – Dr. Claudia Ford . We began by asking Claudia to explain the relation between Planetary Consciousness and Blackness. From there, she talked about the intersection of Black ecology and Afro-pessimism. This led to a discussion of her...

Welcome back for our second episode of season 2 which, as we said last time, is going to forefront things like the role of emotion in racial justice and social justice work more broadly, concepts of transformation and revolution, and uplifting ways of being and knowing that are marginalized in our white supremacist, patriarchal, capitalist world. We were lucky enough to have a scholar, public inte...

Alright, welcome folks. We are back at it again with SEASON 2. We are extremely excited about this season and what we have in store for you all. In this episode, we talk about transitions we’ve both been going through since Season 1, what’s been happening in the worlds around us, and how those things came together in our thinking about themes for Season 2. We talk about protest, loss, grief, emoti...

In this episode, we began thinking through Trump's Executive Order Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping. It is a little raw.... which we took to be a good thing. We hope that this raises awareness!

Today, we had three scholars that do fantastic research on counter narratives and counter histories in philosophy, John Harfouch, Meena Krishnamurthy, and Peter K.J. Park. We begin by defining counter narratives or histories in philosophy; then engage the ways that western and white power limits counter narratives and the emotions that motivate them. Following that, we discuss a number of ways we...

Today, we’re following up with our second quickcast—this time with artists and activists of the Talking Wings Collective, Blake Lavia and Tzimu Aguilar-Izzo, who are hosting the North Country Art, Land, and Environment Summit throughout the month of September and into October. We talked about the ways that art, land, and environment intersect, especially the role that art plays in activism for the...

Today, we did something new for the show—a quickcast—an in-depth account of some one individual issue that grabs our attention off of the planned episodes. This brings us to our guest, Professor Emerita of Philosophy at Calvin College, Christina Van Dyke. Christina stepped down from your full professor position to protect a vulnerable junior faculty member. We wanted to highlight what it means to...

Today, we’re talking with Tommy Curry and John Youngblood about Black masculinities. We begin by talking about the Black male experience, particularly in academia, as a means of defining Tommy’s man-not and the multiplicitousness of Black masculinities. Following that, we apply this knowledge as a critique of intersectionality with the hopes of propelling intersectionality towards new growth and u...

We’re continuing a line of thought we’ve been working on for the past few episodes. Last time, we mentioned that we’d been talking about current racial dynamics and crises of structural, environmental racism like COVID-19 within too narrow of a Black/White binary. In this episode, we’ve got intersectional indigenous activists, Desiree Kane and Tewentenhawihtha Aldrich. We begin by asking, Can you...

Today, we’re talking with Stephanie Rivera Berruz and Taina Figueroa about race and racism in the university and their particularly cities (i.e. Milwaukee and Atlanta). We focus on LatinX identities and their relation to the Black/White Binary, especially in the wake of the murders of George Floyd and Breanna Taylor. By asking, What are some ways y’all think current discussions concerning COVID-19...

Today, we’re talking with Charles Mills, Linda Alcoff, and Shelley Tremain about a more specific issue than we have in our previous episodes. That said, it’s an issue that we believe connects up with racism and ableism not only in the discipline of philosophy, but also racism and ableism as it is experienced globally. In particular, we want to talk about the news that came out several weeks ago ab...

In this episode, we talk about how James Baldwin influenced our podcast, and his connection to Juneteenth and Pride. Following that, we talk about whiteness, Trump, and the importance and history of Juneteenth and Pride, especially the way that the Trans community fought during the 1960s.

In this episode, we focused our conversation on what it takes to live-out being a committed anti-racist ally, particularly one needs to critically engage democracy, education, and one's community. Towards the end of this episode, we dialogue about the police protest over the last month, looting, policing, defunding the police, and other current topics. The ethos of this episode can be felt in this...