So What?

E8 Safe Spaces: Sean Johnson Andrews

In this episode, drawing on his current book project, podcast co-host Sean Johnson Andrews talks about concepts like safe space, cancel culture, and trigger warnings. Sean argues that these are not “merely cultural” concerns but are part of a larger, longer struggle over which subjects get to feel safe in our society.  Show Notes We don’t quite get around to talking about this essay by Roxanne Gay, but it is a useful one for thinking about the concept of the trigger warning as well as safe spaces.  https://therumpus.net/2012/08/28/the-illusion-of-safetythe-safety-of-illusion/ [https://therumpus.net/2012/08/28/the-illusion-of-safetythe-safety-of-illusion/]  Near the end of the episode, we talk a bit about the way trans people were vilified following recent mass shooting events, a topic covered on Sean’s Substack. https://breakingculture.substack.com/p/trans-terrorism-still-no [https://breakingculture.substack.com/p/trans-terrorism-still-no] He also has several recent posts on the way recent ICE/BP operations in Chicago are presented on keeping (white?) people safe despite the fact that they do nothing of the sort.  https://breakingculture.substack.com/p/the-racist-schema-of-safety [https://breakingculture.substack.com/p/the-racist-schema-of-safety]  Here is the podcast conversation Sean mentions with Palestinian activist Eman Abdelhadi and other organizers of the resistance in the city.  https://truthout.org/audio/holding-the-line-through-tear-gas-and-censorship/ [https://truthout.org/audio/holding-the-line-through-tear-gas-and-censorship/]  Credits The image is a mashup of several of the movements and concepts that intersect in this conversation. The background is taken from a set of “safe space” rules that were generated by an anarchist book fair in New York City c. 2012.  https://libcom.org/article/safer-spaces-false-allegations-and-nyc-anarchist-bookfair [https://libcom.org/article/safer-spaces-false-allegations-and-nyc-anarchist-bookfair]  The pink triangle in a green circle was used by the LGBTQ movement in the late 1980s to designate safe spaces free from homophobia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe_space [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe_space]   The protest images are from a 2017 demonstration of the #MeToo movement (attended by Tarana Burke) and a 2015 Black Lives Matter demonstration in Minneapolis, Minnesota protesting the police killing of Jamar Clark.  https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/take-back-workplace-me-marches-take-hollywood-1057374/ [https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/take-back-workplace-me-marches-take-hollywood-1057374/] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Jamar_Clark [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Jamar_Clark] Hosts:  Madhurima Chakraborty  - https://madhurimachakraborty.net/ [https://madhurimachakraborty.net/]  Sean Johnson Andrews - http://breakingculture.substack.com [http://breakingculture.substack.com]  Show music: composed by Kris Stokes - https://www.krisstokes.com [https://www.krisstokes.com]

E7 Stop the Apartheid Rugby Tour, Chicago Coalition, 1981: Lisa Brock

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Lisa Brock, a historian, radical intellectual and activist who became known as a leader of the Chicago Anti-apartheid movement while in graduate school. She shared her account of one of the first campaigns she organized once she got here: helping coordinate the Chicago movement to boycott the South African Rugby team, which was supposed to play a game here in the fall of 1981. Show Notes: In the episode, we discuss the publicity techniques used by the Chicago coalition of the Stop the Apartheid Rugby Tour to get their word out, including press releases, press conferences, and protests. Examples of these documents can be found in the Lisa Brock Collection of the Chicago Anti-Apartheid Movement Collection: https://digitalcommons.colum.edu/brock/ [https://digitalcommons.colum.edu/brock/]  You can also peruse documents from a similar campaign by the New York Coalition of SART earlier in 1981.  https://africanactivist.msu.edu/organization/210-813-183/ [https://africanactivist.msu.edu/organization/210-813-183/]  We didn’t include Lisa’s account of the many protests that took place in the New Zealand leg of the “Apartheid Rugby Tour,” but it was an important backdrop to the U.S. protests and future developments in New Zealand history.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_South_Africa_rugby_union_tour_of_New_Zealand_and_the_United_States [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1981_South_Africa_rugby_union_tour_of_New_Zealand_and_the_United_States]  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/15/rugby-racism-and-the-battle-for-the-soul-of-aotearoa-new-zealand [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/aug/15/rugby-racism-and-the-battle-for-the-soul-of-aotearoa-new-zealand]  Lisa also shared a copy of the letter to the Chicago Sun-Times threatening her - and partially setting off the series of events on Sept. 6, 1981 she chronicles in the episode.  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zLN2ZVk4s7zDAIGfQKwt0DRgRiiYrdjI/view?usp=sharing [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zLN2ZVk4s7zDAIGfQKwt0DRgRiiYrdjI/view?usp=sharing]  To learn more about the Anti-Apartheid Struggle - and the work of her mentor Dennis Brutus - Lisa recommends the documentary, Have You Heard From Johannasberg, which also provides a powerful illustration of the importance of boycotts and divestment as tools for social change, then and now.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Brutus [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Brutus]  https://vimeo.com/ondemand/haveyouheard [https://vimeo.com/ondemand/haveyouheard]  Credits: Image: : Columbia College Chicago, ""Apartheid Rugby is Not Sport"" (1981). Lisa Brock Anti-Apartheid Collection. 13. https://digitalcommons.colum.edu/brock/13 [https://digitalcommons.colum.edu/brock/13] Hosts: Madhurima Chakraborty  - https://madhurimachakraborty.net/ [https://madhurimachakraborty.net/]  Sean Johnson Andrews - http://breakingculture.substack.com [http://breakingculture.substack.com]  Show music: composed by Kris Stokes - https://www.krisstokes.com [https://www.krisstokes.com]

E6 Baseball, Pokemon, GlowHouse, Planets, and Soccer Formations: KIDS!

This is a very special episode. Instead of only one boring adult expert, we have five separate interviews with kids. For a few minutes each, they talk to us about a thing that they know more than a little something about. EJ, B, Iris, Atlas, and KCS talk to us about baseball and TikTok, about Pokemon, planets, and soccer formations. It is a fun episode, but these experts take their topics very seriously. Hope you enjoy listening to them as much as we did.  Other sources Your local library or the internet you are connected to on this device can give you further information about some of what these kids talked about. But it can't replicate their enthusiasm or insights. So here we would just recommend you ask a kid near you more about their interests Credits Image We were initially stumped for an image that might sum up the diverse topics these kids covered. But ultimately opted to ask Gemini (kids don't try this at home!) to generate an image that showed Pokemon playing baseball and soccer on TikTok in space. It took a few tries but seems like a solid result.  But we know this AI engine was trained on the work of thousands if not millions of unnamed artists throughout history. So thanks to them. Credits: Hosts:Madhurima Chakraborty  - https://madhurimachakraborty.net/ [https://madhurimachakraborty.net/]  Sean Johnson Andrews - http://breakingculture.substack.com [http://breakingculture.substack.com]  Show music: composed by Kris Stokes - https://www.krisstokes.com [https://www.krisstokes.com]

E5 Fragrances: Debra Riley Parr

In this episode, we speak with Debra Riley Parr about her research in scent studies and especially the cultural significance of fragrance and odors as both indexes of hierarchy and means of resistance against them. Debra is Associate Professor Emerita of Art and Design History and Theory at Columbia College Chicago.  https://www.debrarileyparr.com/ [https://www.debrarileyparr.com/]  Sources / Show Notes In the episode, Debra refers to many scholars and artists working in olfactory studies. Perfumer and cultural historian Nuri McBride offered the workshop that Debra mentions at the top of the show.  https://nurimcbride.com/ [https://nurimcbride.com/]  She also mentions The feminist art and activist collective Hilma’s Ghost, which has conducted several exhibi [https://thealdrich.org/page/hilmas-ghost-enchantments-bottled-devotionals-of-divine-feminine-spirits]tions [https://thealdrich.org/page/hilmas-ghost-enchantments-bottled-devotionals-of-divine-feminine-spirits] and workshops on spell jars, including those that are meant to ward off the evil spirits now haunting the streets of many cities under the banner of protecting the homeland. https://www.hilmasghost.com/hilmas-ghost [https://www.hilmasghost.com/hilmas-ghost] https://thealdrich.org/page/hilmas-ghost-enchantments-bottled-devotionals-of-divine-feminine-spirits [https://thealdrich.org/page/hilmas-ghost-enchantments-bottled-devotionals-of-divine-feminine-spirits] https://www.counterpublic.org/circus-of-life-workshops/hilmas-ghost [https://www.counterpublic.org/circus-of-life-workshops/hilmas-ghost]   If you are interested in checking out more academic analyses of this intersection of smells, spells, and resistance, check out Olfactory Art and the Political in an Age of Resistance, which she co-edited with Gwenn-Aël Lynn. It is currently on sale.  https://www.routledge.com/Olfactory-Art-and-the-Political-in-an-Age-of-Resistance/Lynn-RileyParr/p/book/9780367552749 [https://www.routledge.com/Olfactory-Art-and-the-Political-in-an-Age-of-Resistance/Lynn-RileyParr/p/book/9780367552749] Credits Cover art: The image for this episode comes from an illustrated version of Malleus Maleficarum, which is also known as The Hammer of Witches, a fifteenth century treatise about witchcraft to which Debra refers in our conversation.  https://garystockbridge617.getarchive.net/amp/media/burning-witches-malleus-maleficarum-montague-summers-eb3af7 [https://garystockbridge617.getarchive.net/amp/media/burning-witches-malleus-maleficarum-montague-summers-eb3af7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malleus_Maleficarum [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malleus_Maleficarum]  Hosts: Madhurima Chakraborty  - https://madhurimachakraborty.net/ [https://madhurimachakraborty.net/]  Sean Johnson Andrews - http://breakingculture.substack.com [http://breakingculture.substack.com]  Show music: composed by Kris Stokes - https://www.krisstokes.com [https://www.krisstokes.com]

E4 Job Numbers: Wailin Wong

In this episode, we speak with Wailin Wong about the importance of accurate data - and the threat of its politicization in the current era. In particular, she talks about what is commonly referred to as the “jobs report,” produced by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.  https://www.bls.gov/ [https://www.bls.gov/] Wailin is the host of The Indicator podcast from Planet Money on National Public Radio.  https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510325/the-indicator-from-planet-money [https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510325/the-indicator-from-planet-money]  Show Notes: In the episode, we talk quite a bit about this episode of The Indicator, where Wailin and her Co-Host discuss the very laborious process behind the collection of these jobs numbers.  https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1102884171 [https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1102884171] A more recent episode covers what it means when we get revisions to these numbers.  https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1256812323 [https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1256812323]  And if you are interested in exploring the Project Pan Subreddit, check it out here [https://www.reddit.com/r/ProjectPan/].  https://www.reddit.com/r/ProjectPan/ [https://www.reddit.com/r/ProjectPan/] Credits The graphic for this episode is a screenshot taken from the December “jobs report” which illustrates the gap we discuss in this program.   https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf [https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf] Hosts: Hosts: Sean Johnson Andrews - http://breakingculture.substack.com [http://breakingculture.substack.com]  Madhurima Chakraborty  - https://madhurimachakraborty.net/ [https://madhurimachakraborty.net/]  Show music: composed by Kris Stokes - https://www.krisstokes.com [https://www.krisstokes.com]