UNWOKE: A Memoir in Episodes

Jebra tries to stay perfectly progressive while raisingkids in a world where identity feels like everything. She dives into a restorative justice circle built on radicalempathy and rethinking crime, trying to align with its ideals fully. But the philosophy starts to crack when real-world fear shows up at her doorstep. Book club, meant to model inclusivity, turns into a minefield of judgment, langu...

Jebra's old flame, Blaze, has transitioned. They met in the90s at a club off Sunset, kissing in his Geo Tracker after too many Zimas. Now Blaze is a woman, hiking Topanga Canyon in a ruffled sundress and a blonde wig, complaining about period cramps. Jebra comes home to find Brad and Ginsburg watching Joe Rogan. Kip is in an ice bath in the backyard. There is elk jerky in the oven. "This...

"Art as Resistance," hosted by Roland Poundsand, features an interview with multimedia artist Mahalo Wu Zenobi, whose Los Angeles exhibit Intersectional Nudes for Kamala apparently went viral. The two spend the episode in enthusiastic agreement about essentially everything: that conservatism is synonymous with emotional repression and fascism, that Mahalo's nude painting of Kamala Ha...

Brad comes home from Washington D.C. with Kip, his Peloton instructor. Kip is short, immortal, gender-homoflexible, and wearing leather pants. They are moving into the poolhouse together. They are starting a podcast called Poolhouse Confessions. Brad had never wanted to do a podcast with Jebra. Jebra turns her heartbreak into a Medium essay titled Marriage and the Patriarchy: My Quasiplatonic Jour...

A deleted scene from the UNWOKE archives. Jebra meets Echo for a wild-crafted organic beet kombucha at a West Hollywood café. They order Dung Beetle Ginger Booch. They discuss colonialism, climate debt, and the average oppressor — statistically a white cisgendered heteronormative male over forty with unresolved entitlement trauma. Then Jebra's gay conservative friend Neal invites her to a mode...

Jebra attends the wedding of Splash Whistlethorn and HesterFog, two ecosexuals who are marrying the Earth in sacred climate matrimony. The dress code is natural materials only. The priest isnamed Father Porntiticus. The vows promise to make love to the Earth until death brings them closer together. The cake resembles something Jebra cannot describe. A guest named Bunny ( pronouns rock/soil) warns...

Jebra discovers that dog ownership is racist. Dosha, her Goldendoodle, snores on her feet, unaware of her privilege. She takes her to Land Acknowledgment Ridge, formerly the John Muir Loop, currently under review, where a ranger named Juniper leads the group in apologizing to a sycamore tree. Then Charcuterie gets a playdate invitation. Jebra prepares a screening checklist. The family fails immedi...

Jebra attends a fashion event introducing shoes made from recycled TukTuk tires, and learns the shoes were made in a sweatshop. She discusses how everyone should own electric cars and talks about being driven off the road after seeing a truck with a Trump flag. Themes of this podcast include: woke culture cancel culture suburban mom comedy fiction serialized fiction social commentary progressive h...

Jebra reimagines Thanksgiving. Gone is the colonizer's turkey. In its place: wild-craftedinsects, foraged mushrooms, a faux buffalo hide tablecloth, utensils made from animal bones, a PowerPoint on smallpox, slam poetry, and a Western Apache seed mix fritter cooked on the sidewalk to shun modern appliances. She calls it Ancestral Gratitude Day. She posts it on Instagram. She gets canceled with...

A deleted scene from the UNWOKE archives. *satire* Jebra is sitting in Los Angeles traffic listening to The Soft Awakening, the podcast where host Harper Solstice decenters urgency, reimagines compassion, and holds space for collective healing in a late-capitalist world. Today's guest is Halo Indigo Voss. Academy Award winner. Climate advocate. Founder of the HIVV Conscious Living Collective....

Jebra spends Saturday at the Farmer's Market, where a woman tests bread with a pendulum for vibrational energy, a vendor sells dream catchers made of umbilical cords, and Jebra runs into someone she got kicked out of the PTA. She offers no apology. Then Brad invites new friends for dinner. Their names areTyrone and Sasha. Jebra attends a Zoom symposium on decolonizing your settler concepts and...

It's January 6th, and Jebra will never forget the fear shefaced that day. She locks every door and window in case the insurrectionistsbook a connecting flight to LAX. She converts the pantry into an emergency bunker with canned chickpeas and dried jackfruit. She starts a GoFundMe for her emotional recovery. Then Ginsburg comes home from the park radicalized. He islistening to The Daily Wire. H...

Jebra's neighbor Joe offers to fill her tire. He is Black. He has a Let's Go Brandon sticker. Jebra struggles to be an ally and to convince him to accept reparations. Then George Floyd happens, and Jebra does what any committed ally would do — she takes her reluctant teenage daughter to CHAZ, the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone in Seattle, packs organic mushroom jerky, and prepares for the Su...

It's 2016, and Jebra Faushay is certain Hillary Clinton will win. She has the fireworks, the vegan charcuterie, and the champagne ready to uncork. In the first chapter of UNWOKE, Jebra takes us through the election night that broke her, the COVID years that consumed her, and the glorious arrival of Joe Biden, coming to save the country. Featuring: a four-hour champagne hunger strike, a hazmat...

Before Chapter 1, meet Jebra Faushay. Suburban Los Angeles mother, former ally, recovering activist. This is her story. UNWOKE: A Memoir in Episodes, new chapters every Monday.