The Leadership Center for Social Justice Podcast

This episode features a presentation from Rev. Dr. Ry Siggelkow and Ricardo Perez on Organizing in the Spirit of Accompaniment.  In this episode,  Ry and Ricardo share stories of accompaniment through Ella Baker, SNCC, the Zapatistas and Pueblo de Lucha y Esperanza.  Resources - The Zapatista Principles - Pueblos de Lucha y Esperanza Episode Transcription available here Host: Ry O. Siggelkow Produ...

This episode is a re-release of the Soul of Social Transformation Podcast hosted by Rev. Dr. Gary Green II and Rev. Dr. Justin Sabia-Tanis. How do the unique vocational gifts of each of us within the collaborative, collective, and necessarily ongoing nature of social justice work? How might our contributions relate to the wider community that is seeking wholeness? What is our responsibility to one...

This episode features a conversation with former pastor and co-founder of No More Deaths, Rev. John Fife. John reflects on the sanctuary movement that his church in Tucson, Arizona built in the 1980’s. He shares how the movement has changed and shifted in the decades since and how social change arose out of a deep commitment to faith and the initiative of communities to protect and care for each o...

This episode features a conversation with theologian and professor, Rev. Dr. Gary F. Green II. Dr. Green shares about his research and his dissertation, Playing the Game: Unmarking “Beast” from the Bodies of Young Black Men . He reflects on the societal creation of realities and the potential of “play space” to release us from cultural codes and routines that recreate race and racism. Resources -...

This episode features a conversation with Rachel E. Harding. Rachel is an associate professor of Indigenous Spiritual traditions in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado, Denver. Rachel also co-directs the Veterans of Hope project, a community initiative on religion, creativity, and inclusive democracy. A native of Georgia, she is a writer, historian, and poet, and a speci...

This episode is a re-release of the Soul of Social Transformation Podcast hosted by Rev. Dr. Gary Green II and Rev. Dr. Justin Sabia-Tanis. In this episode, we look at our visions for a different world and what it takes to get there. What does vocation mean? What is our life’s work meant to be and how does that relate to the changes we need to see around us? Before serving as Lead Pastor for Plymo...

This episode features a conversation with author, lawyer, and veteran activist Alice Lynd. Alice shares about the work of accompaniment to which she and her late husband Staughton Lynd committed their life. In this episode, Lynd shares her wisdom about the practice of nonviolence, Quaker liberation theology, and the meaning of accompaniment. In memory of Staughton (1929-2022) and in collaboration...

This episode is a re-release of the Soul of Social Transformation Podcast hosted by Rev. Dr. Gary Green II and Rev. Dr. Justin Sabia-Tanis. This episode will invite participants to see themselves as a part of a long path of justice work, with foundations laid by our ancestors and continuing to this day. We will consider who created the ground we stand on and how we take participatory ownership in...

This episode is a re-release of the Soul of Social Transformation Podcast hosted by Rev. Dr. Gary Green II and Rev. Dr. Justin Sabia-Tanis. What are next steps to explore your path? What else do we need to learn? Who do we need to talk to? What do we need to watch, read, listen to …? And we engage our moral imaginations: What does a just world look like? What methods of engagement do not yet exist...

This episode features a conversation with author and scholar Arun Kundnani. Kundnani shares about his most recent book, What Is Antiracism?: And Why It Mean Anticapitalism. Arun shares how race makes and remakes itself through capitalist structures. Through studying the histories of colonialism and capitalism, Kundnani tracks a line between the systems of racism in the past and connects it to the...

This episode is a re-release of the Soul of Social Transformation Podcast hosted by Rev. Dr. Gary Green II and Rev. Dr. Justin Sabia-Tanis. How do spiritual practices and tools further the work of social justice? What energizes our social justice work? We will also explore self-care as a revolutionary act, able to sustain justice workers and contribute to the thriving of our communities. Finally,...

This episode’s guest is Christian Collins Winn, Author and Pastor. In this episode, Christian shares about his recently released book Jesus, Jubilee and the Politics of God's Reign.  Christian shares about the influences that helped him write this book and the patterns of Jubilee he noticed in the Bible that led him to pursue justice through borderless love. Resources - Jesus, Jubilee and the...

This episode features a panel conversation between three scholars on black liberation theologian James Cone. Focused on Cone’s second autobiography, Said I Wasn’t Gonna Tell Nobody: The Making of a Black Theologian, the panelists explore the impact of his work. Dr. Tyler Davis shares about the way in which Said I Wasn’t Gonna Tell Nobody identifies the people, the places and the contexts that made...

This episode’s guest is Ricardo Levins Morales, Twin Cities based Artist and Organizer. In this episode, Ricardo shares stories around hope based on his many years of being immersed in organizing work. He shares many practical lessons for how the practice of hope can help build and sustain justice movements.  Resources - Ricardo Levins Morales Website - Video Recording of Ricardo’s Talk Episode Tr...

This episode’s guest is Avery Gordon, author and Professor Emerita of Sociology at University of California, Santa Barbara. In this episode, we are in conversation with Avery about her book The Hawthorn Archive: Letters from the Utopian Margins . Avery shares about this unconventional archive, which contains a selected history of "radicals, runaways, deserters, abolitionists, heretics, dreame...

This episode’s guest is Marcus Rediker, award-winning author and Distinguished Professor of Atlantic History at the University of Pittsburgh. In this episode, we are in conversation with Marcus about writing history "from below." Marcus shares about the connections between the sea, the slave ship, and modern day prisons. He also discusses the revolutionary spirit that is present in the h...

This episode’s guest is Nandita Sharma, author and Sociology Professor at University of Hawaii, Manoa. In this episode, we are in conversation with Nandita on nationalism, colonialism, and the rise of xenophobia. Nandita discusses the historical shift from the age of empires to the age of independent nation states. She connects how this shift did not fix the issues of colonization, but instead exa...

This episode’s guest is Liz Fekete, author and director of the Institute of Race Relations. In this episode, we are in conversation with Liz on the history of the Institute of Race Relations and how they have changed within the 50 years they’ve been around. Liz also discusses the interventionist work of the Institutes first director, Sivanandan and how that impacted the work of the Institute. Reso...

This episode’s guest is Peter Linebaugh, author and historian. In this episode, we are in conversation with Peter about his many books, including The Many-Headed Hydra, a widely influential book co-authored with Marcus Rediker that excavates the hidden revolutionary history of transatlantic resistance, rebellion, and solidarity against slavery and the enclosure of land.  Peter speaks to us about t...

This episode’s guest is Steed Davidson, Professor of Hebrew Bible Old Testament at McCormick Theological Seminary. In this episode, we are in conversation with Steed about the connections between the Bible,  empire, and liberation. Steed reflects on his work in postcolonial biblical studies and his argument that the Bible is strongly connected to empire and colonialism. However, he also shares tha...

This episode’s guest is Bridget Anderson, Director of Migration Mobilities Bristol and Professor of Migration, Mobilities and Citizenship at the University of Bristol. In this episode, we are in conversation with Bridget on the history of migration and the movement toward a “No Borders” Politics. Bridget discusses the normalization of the movement of goods but the movement of people being seen as...

This episode’s guest is Maria Clara Bingemer, Professor of Theology at the Pontificial Catholic University in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In this episode, we are in conversation with Maria about her book Latin American Theology: Roots and Branches (Orbis Books, 2016). Maria discusses the origins of liberation theology in Latin America, the Vatican's repression of theologians over several decades,...

This episode’s guest is Lewis Gordon who is an author, Philosophy Department Head and Professor at University of Connecticut, Storrs. In this episode, we are in conversation with Lewis about his book Fear of Black Consciousness (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2022). Lewis discusses the differences he sees between black consciousness with a lowercase “b” and Black Consciousness with an uppercase “B”. ...

This episode’s guest is A. Naomi Paik, author and Associate Professor of Criminology, Law and Justice and Global Asian Studies at University of Illinois, Chicago. In this episode, we are in conversation with Naomi about her book Bans, Walls, Raids, Sanctuary: Understanding U.S. Immigration for the 21st Century   (University of California Press, 2020). Naomi discusses the history of immigration ban...

This episode’s guest is David Theo Goldberg, author and Distinguished Professor at the University of California, Irvine. David is among the most significant scholars writing on race and racism over the last several decades. According to Paul Gilroy, few scholars have "done more to shake the field and to influence it, who've been more consistent, more prolific."   In this episode, we...