Race Matters

Sehej Kaur and Wen Pei Low share a tender and vulnerable episode about their friendship and celebrate queer and crip kinship together. They share stories of navigating sterile, western medical systems and how they found and held each other through it all. They dream of crip futures that move beyond simply surviving and toward thriving. Sehej reads a poem by Dom Kelly that is titled “an elegy...

"We have been doing this because we love our people” Joannie Lee and Sara El Youghun welcome Moh, a community builder and organiser from Myanmar to talk about her peoples’ fight for freedom, self-determination and justice from brutal military imperialism. Together they talk about taking pride in our solidarity and what it takes to keep our collective movement for liberation alive and i...

"I want it to feel like you're in my living room including the chaos" On today's show, Alicia Zhao and Bruce Koussaba (of  Liberation Cinema ) are in conversation with the brilliant and staunch organiser of  Miya Miya Film Club,  Karim Nasser. Miya Miya is a grassroots, community film screening space, carved out as a gathering place for discovery, dialogue and connection - centred a...

To be able to truly envision better world—not just in vague outlines, but vividly in all its colour and brilliance, so much so that you begin to taste on it on your tongue—is the first step to making revolution. A special collaboration with R.T. Samuel takes us on a journey through their deep and abiding love of speculative fiction, and the possibilities in holds for liberatory world-m...

How do we sustain ourselves for the revolution?  Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah is a multi award-winning novelist, human rights advocate, lawyer and sociologist researching Arab & Muslim social justice movements, Islamophobia and the war on terror. Yvonne Hong and Sara El Youghun are joined by Randa in conversation about the release of her new book  Discipline , unpacking the daily reality of...

How do we rely on each other and take ownership of our collective liberation? Sehej and Janey take us through sites of DIY culture and alternative economies. From ad-hoc sound systems in Bengal, a sound tower in Palestine, to enclaves and car parks of Wentworthville; exploring ecologies of repair and world building in refusal of extractive colonial power. Together they remind us that the way we me...

A love letter to the hearts and labour of community radio, beaming from a shipping container in Brixton, London aka  Reprezent Radio. Binta Yade is a London-based poet, community builder, storyteller and legacy community radio broadcaster. This is her ode to the radio station that she calls home, and the many people that keep it going through tireless amount of time, love, music selecting, te...

How do you ground your work in the sacredness of life while needing to speak back to the very powers destroying them? Shareeka Helaluddin and Tommy Boutros speak to journalist and novelist Omar El Akkad, following the release of his aching and relentless title " One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This. " The work pieces together words and narratives displaced by the violence of empire...

"I believe in the sweat of love and in the fire of truth..." These poetic words by Black revolutionary Assata Shakur reverberate through the work of Munanjahli and South Sea Islander scholar, writer and truth-teller Dr. Chelsea Watego, in conversation with Samantha Haran and Ethan Lyons. Chelsea is known for her fierce commitment to justice and unapologetic advocacy for First Nations sovereignty a...

Non-linear sounds, improvising as spiritual catharsis, computer coding as companion. Sehej Kaur & Alicia Zhao immerse into the sound worlds of naarm-based artist Nū. Utilising live coding, Ethiopian samples, gospel trills and reclaiming non-linear time. We unearth the world-building of TECHNOFRO and relinquish into the divine unknown of hope and possibility. This episode includes clips from Nū...

What does it mean that desire, even queer desire, is built on dead bodies? What happens when we realise that our desires, even our most intimate, erotic ones, may be rooted in specific, traceable violence and death? Wiradjuri baddie and alleged tender queer Ethan Lyons on all things TWINK. The desire, the violence, the whiteness of it all. Joined by his dear friend David Soriano, on discerning the...

“Breath. Something we all have in common, yet most take for granted”  An invitation to listen in, attune to, hold breath and be in solidarity with those in our community living with Long Covid. In collaboration with Dr Poppy de Souza, we bring you stories gathered from her  Holding Breath  exchange and from the Race Matters community, reflecting on their experiences and...

"We are in a decolonial moment, we need the energy to keep going" A conversation between Shareeka Helaluddin and astrologer, spirit worker for the liberation,  Ra Life . Hear them on what it is to use their gifts in the toolkit for revolution, guiding people to tap into their capacity and ancestral wisdom as tactic for political organising. Less woo woo, more depth and fury. Produced, hosted...

"... and in truth it is a story that is not mine nor hers; I am searching for the shape of what is ours." Hear  Sara and Joannie are in conversation with Palestinian writer and academic Micaela Sahhar. Together, they discuss Micaela’s gorgeous new memoir,  'Find Me At The Jaffa Gate,’ which aims to assemble and reclaim the story of her family through fractured memories, objec...

How do we understand hope as something within ourselves, and not as a far off horizon? A conversation with anti-oppressive therapist and educator  Leah Manaema Avene  on their expansive practice rooted in abolition, love, repair and the strategies to transform harmful power dynamics in bodies, relationships and systems. A sprawling dialogue spanning themes of rupture, hope, and the will...

"You have to speak the truth, even if your voice shakes" What does it mean to commemorate Nakba, not as a singular historical act, but as a way to honour the resistance that has continued long before October 7th?  A conversation with Dana Kafina from 3ain Radio and Toobs Anwar. This episode was hosted and produced by Toobs Anwar, with final audio editing by Shareeka Helaluddin. Live broadcast...

Without truth, what ground is there to stand on? We started this piece into  Creative Australia's appalling decision to rescind Lebanese artist Khaled Sabsabi's position  from the Venice Bienele, however over many weeks this piece evolved beyond one act of silencing. We are watching the normalisation of this genocide, enabled by imperial mechanisms of censorship, and as creatives how do...

We’re not just data, we are storytellers. Sometimes, the most radical thing we can do is speak, loudly and deliberately, into futures we get to shape ourselves. Ethan and Janey are joined by Nyungar technologist and futurist  Kathryn Gledhill-Tucker  to traverse the world of machine tech and human autonomy, learning how their work reimagines the embodied and expansive possibilities...

“We only have wood and stone to fight with to preserve our life” The words of young activists from Kanaky (so-called New Caledonia) who are engaged in fights to  reclaim their land from French occupation , fighting for life and independence. Ethan and Shareeka speak to Roscoe, a special rapporteur for  Radio RATA , a decolonial media, culture and mutual aid network, operating...

"We're holding hope for other people and each other, and that's what the peer model is." Content Note: this episode contains mentions of suicidality.  Q ueer Muslim baddie takeover ~ in dedication to Imam Muhsin Hendricks - Allah Yerahmo.  The intersections of queerness, religion, and ethnic identity are so heavily intertwined and (sometimes) difficult to reconcile. Join Host Sara El You...

Can writing be a political practice? How do you write in a way that serves liberation, the making of better worlds?  Today Samantha and Bipasha are in conversation with Fabliha Yeaqub, a queer Bangladeshi writer, artist and community organiser based in so-called New York. We are talking about her journey with writing as catharsis and as rebellion, how it relates to her political work, and wha...

It takes a femme queen.  Movement as liberation, and the spirituality of performance. Join Ethan Lyons and Tim Worton in deep kiki with the Ruby of Western Sydney, vogue diva from the House of Silky, Jubahlee talking the love and kinship within the ballroom scene. This episode was produced and hosted by Ethan Lyons and Tim Worton, with Supervising Production and podcast edit by Shareeka Helal...

“I’m a child of the revolution”  Theatre as protest, storytelling as weapon. Fifty two years since the inception of Black Theatre - the subversive art form that spoke back to the colony and incited the beginning of community controlled services; resonates to this day. We’re so honoured to be speaking with  Angeline Penrith , the creative director and curator of Re...

A collision of sounds and a system built through found materials transforming every space it enters. Guest hosts (and fbi family) Madi Martin-Bygrave and Virginia Barahona chat to DJ, community-builder and artist  Lulu Quintanilla . Her hand built sound systems are a conduit for questioning culture in a particular moment. An emblem of her candour and DIY ethos where transmuting possibility is...

Not only is this Dunya temporary, it is also worth saving. Until we are all free. Open your ears and hearts with Sara El Youghun and Attu Ngor as they have a vulnerable chat with artist, poet, and kin  Mustafa . Together they explore his new album Dunya, dedicated to those still living in this world, fighting, praying, grieving and holding on to hope. Mustafa tells us about the importance of...