S3 E4: All Skinfolk Ain’t Kinfolk

“I’m not Black, I’m OJ!” Today, Brendane and Alyssa are talking kinship, belonging, diaspora wars, and what we need to do to get free. What’s the Word? Kinship. Kinship studies are foundational to the discipline of anthropology, but in this section we talk about how people are taking up the concept to tell their own stories…

S3 E3: Looting the Womb: Black Birthing People and Reproductive Unfreedom

We’re getting down with Marxy Marx and the Foucky Bunch! In this episode, Alyssa and Brendane discuss reproductive justice, dispossession, and the stakes for Black birthing people in a post-Roe v. Wade world with Dr. Mali Collins (IG | Twitter). What’s the Word? Dispossession. We draw a thread through Karl Marx’s primitive accumulation, Rosa Luxemburg’s The Accumulation of Capital,…

S3 E2: The Death of Sovereignty

Ding dong! In this week’s episode, Alyssa and Brendane are talking about sovereignty, non-sovereignty, and the death of the sovereign Queen Elizabeth II to ask whether it’s possible (and desirable!) to leave the past behind while creating our collective future. (CW: rape, sexual assault 1:05:00- 1:16:00) What’s the Word? Sovereignty. Defined as autonomy, freedom from external control,…

S3 E1: Dangerously in Love with Celebrity

Your favorite terrestrial commoners are back! For our first episode of the new THIRD season, we’re talking about popular culture, the cult of celebrity and influence, and how they undermine radical movements for change. What’s the Word? Postfeminism. Originally used to describe the backlash to the second wave feminist movement, postfeminism is an ideology that…

S2 E16: Practicing Zora

In this final episode of the season, you will hear our incredible conversation with Professors Riché J. Daniel Barnes, Kevin Quashie, and Autumn Womack, and vocalist and composer Candice Hoyes from Wednesday, May 4th. Traditionally, Zora Neale Hurston has been more widely celebrated for her contributions to American literature than as an anthropologist and folklorist.…

S2 E14: Defund the Non-Profit Industrial Complex

The industrial complex is an industrial complex! Today we’ll be talking about the spread of industrial complexes, non-profits, so-called activist influencers, the controversy around BLM Global Network spending, and the whispers around Nikole Hannah-Jones and Kimberlé Crenshaw being problématique. What’s the Word? Industrial Complex. Popularized by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the industrial complex refers to…

S2 E12: Villain Origin Story

Is rejection and trauma the Black Manosphere and Toxic Femininity villain origin story?! In today’s episode we’re joined by soon-to-be PhD Candidate Anuli Akanegbu to discuss patriarchy, the know-your-place aggression towards Black women online, and what draws people to these spaces on the internet. What’s The Word? Patriarchy. This term is used to describe a society that…