Ep 363 - Divest From Despair: EOY Check-in with the Respair Crew

Dame and Kiss welcome some other members of the AirGo/Respair squad–Engagement Coordinator Rivka Yeker and Multimedia Producer Troi Valles–into the studio to close out 2025 together. The crew talks about where their work has taken them this year, a lil Luigi Mangione hot gossip, the ways we're each processing the Trumpian storm clouds to come, and much more.

SHOW NOTES

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 362 - Movement Journalism And The Fall Of Legacy Media, live @ Socialism Conference 2024

We're excited to bring you this convo from this year's Socialism Conference, held in September 2024 here in Chicago! The last few years of political turmoil have unearthed the longstanding lack of public trust in the news media. As journalists who work in, outside and against legacy media, we had the opportunity to be in convo with some brilliant peers about the long and deep legacy of movement journalism that expands transformative, abolitionist, and antiracist movement building through truthful reporting. The session was captained by friend of the pod Lewis Wallace, whose book The View from Somewhere is a must-read about how the myth of journalistic objectivity harms journalists and community. We also were in convo with Clarissa Brooks, who is Editor-in-Chief of The Forge; and Ryan Sorrell, Founder & Publisher of the Kansas City Defender. Get in tune!

SHOW NOTES

Learn about Lewis Raven Wallace - https://www.lewispants.com/about

Dig into The Forge - https://forgeorganizing.org/

Peep the KC Defender - https://kansascitydefender.com/

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 361 - Standing Rock from 2016 (Dig in the Crates)

This week we're digging in the AirGo crates and revisiting one of the most impactful moments in modern social movement history–the encampment at Standing Rock in 2016. Kiss and a cohort of other Chicago folks brought supplies from Freedom Square in November, and had the privilege to spend a few days there. Upon their return, Kiss sat down with Kristiana Colon, who had been with him on the trip, to talk about the experience. The episode also features selections from the podcast Voices of Standing Rock, reproduced with the creator's permission.

SHOW NOTES:

Listen to all of Voices of Standing Rock: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/voices-of-standing-rock/id1173368814

Get connected to Oceti Sakowin, a group that formed during the encampment and has led the fight for indigenous sovereignty and environmental justice: www.facebook.com/OcetiSakowinCamp

Ep 360 - Historian Of The Hundred Years' War On Palestine

On this episode, the guys turn to legendary historian Rashid Khalidi to help parse and understand how we got here–a moment fourteen months into the escalation of genocidal violence perpetrated on the people and land of Palestine. The author of many books, including most recently The Hundred Years' War On Palestine, Prof. Khalidi talks about how he moves between the mind and body while witnessing and fighting against the destruction of his people, what he's learned from those who have engaged with his work, and how we must understand this escalation in the context of colonial violence and anticolonial struggle.

SHOW NOTES

Read The Hundred Years' War On Palestine - https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781627798556/thehundredyearswaronpalestine

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 359 - Maurice Mitchell, Electoral Alternative & Director Of Working Families Party

In the fraught last week before the 2024 election, the guys search for some nuance with Maurice Mitchell, the National Director of the Working Families Party. A nationally-recognized social movement strategist, visionary leader in the Movement for Black Lives, and community organizer, Maurice breaks down the vision and approach of WFP’s strategy to electoral organizing and helps us parse the value and limitations of elections as a component of transformative change. We also learn that he is the cousin of the legendary MF DOOM–just a lil fun fact for y’all!

SHOW NOTES

Learn more about the WFP - https://workingfamilies.org/

Find your polling place in Chicago - https://chicagoelections.gov/voting/your-voter-information

Check out the Injustice Watch Judicial Guide - https://interactives.injusticewatch.org/judicial-election-guide/2024-general/en/

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 358 - Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, Reparations Reconsiderer And Liberation Philosopher

The guys welcome Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, a brilliant philosopher and movement thought leader, to the pod. Táíwò is the author of Reconsidering Reparations and Elite Capture, two staples of the emergent abolitionist canon that have helped shape emergent movement ideology over the last decade. He talks with Dame and Kiss about who we mean when we say "elite," how the debate around identity politics obscures the ways power is being consolidated against us, and how we all are constantly philosophizing in our work as changemakers and living, breathing humans.

SHOW NOTES

Get his books - http://www.olufemiotaiwo.com/

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 357 - Talking Chicago Housing And The Tenant Trap w/ Alejandra & Maya Of Injustice Watch

The guys talk with Maya Dukmasova and Alejandra Cancino from Injustice Watch about their new multipart investigation The Tenant Trap. The series, which is available now and linked below, found that tenants are regularly facing eviction and informal displacement at buildings with histories of serious safety violations, while the court system puts property rights above the rights of the people who live there. We talk with the dynamic investigative duo about their learnings, the two-tiered system of eviction and foreclosure court proceedings, and some pathways to address this chronic disposal and disregard of renters across Chicago.

SHOW NOTES

Dig into the Tenant Trap - https://www.injusticewatch.org/projects/tenant-trap/

Check out Injustice Watch's Judicial Election Guide - https://interactives.injusticewatch.org/judicial-election-guide/2024-general/en/

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 356 - Yohance Lacour, Award-Winning Podcast Host & Reflective Chicago Voice

The guys keep it within the medium, chopping it up with award-winning journalist and storyteller Yohance Lacour. Yohance is the host of You Didn’t See Nothin’, a Peabody and Pulitzer-winning podcast about a 1997 hate crime on the South Side of Chicago that introduced him to the world of investigative journalism, examining how its ripple effects have shaped Lacour’s own life over the past quarter-century. We talk about his relationship to the wonderful and challenging medium of audio, what he’s learned from bringing this project into the world, and a slew of Chicago gems that help us all see our city a little deeper.

SHOW NOTES

Subscribe to You Didn’t See Nothin’ - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/you-didnt-see-nothin/id1662015767

Follow Yohance and discover his leatherwork - https://www.instagram.com/yohancelacour/

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 355 - Lester Spence, Hustle-Knocker And Scholar Of Black Neoliberalism

The guys lock in with Prof. Lester Spence, whose decades of scholarship about Black politic-building, hip-hop, and the sociopolitical turn toward neoliberalism help all of us make sense of the contradictions our culture, political system, and economy pretend don't exist. He's the author of Stare In the Darkness: The Limits of Hip-hop and Black Politics (2011), and Knocking the Hustle: Against the Neoliberal Turn in Black Politics (2015). A longtime professor at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Lester breaks down how the turn toward neoliberalism affects all of us, the ways hip hop is still a battlefield for transformation of our culture, and much more.

SHOW NOTES

Get in tune with Lester - https://www.lesterspence.com/

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 354 - John Perkins, Economic Hitman And Forging Force For A Life Economy

On this episode, the guys welcome writer John Perkins. Best known for his politically and socially significant text Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, in which he describes playing a role in a process of economic colonization of Third World countries on behalf of what he portrays as a cabal of corporations, banks, and the United States government, John discusses how we can forge new systems of being and creating that prioritize long-term benefits for all life on the planet. He also breaks down the five questions that can help each of us as we figure out how to take action to transform our world.

SHOW NOTES

Get Confessions of an Economic Hitman - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/726382/confessions-of-an-economic-hit-man-3rd-edition-by-john-perkins/

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 353 - Eric Williams, Silver Room Owner And Community Jewel

Sometimes a simple title doesn't even come close to encapsulating who someone is or why they are important to the fabric of our city. This episode's guest Eric Williams is definitely one of those people. He is the owner of The Silver Room, a Chicago institution and brand whose mission is to create a global community through art and culture, as well as the owner of delicious South Side restaurant Bronzeville Winery. He talks with the guys about creating the iconic Silver Room Block Party (one of the most remarkable cultural gatherings in Chicago history), his long path from sidewalk salesman to space-builder and curator, and the tenuous relationship between building for his people and participating in capitalism.

SHOW NOTES

Swing by the Silver Room - https://thesilverroom.com/pages/about-us

Feast at the Bronzeville Winery - https://www.bronzevillewinery.com/

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 352 - Rev. Tanya Lozano Washington, Holder Of Health For The Hood

This episode's guest is Rev. Tanya Lozano Washington, the co-founder of community health and care organization Healthy Hood Chicago. Tanya talks about how she came to understand the links between personal and communal health, the lineages she stewards as a member of one of Chicago's most impactful movement families, and the complicated relationships that generations of sacrifice to liberation create.

SHOW NOTES

Get in tune with Healthy Hood - https://www.healthyhoodchi.com/

Come to a Sunday Session - https://www.healthyhoodchi.com/sunday-sessionz

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 351 - Sheila Bedi, Lawyer For Liberation

As Chicago gears up for the 2024 Democratic National Convention, we get in tune with movement lawyer and professor Sheila Bedi, who breaks down some of the changes in CPD policy that Chicagoans engaging in direct action should know about. We also talk about the beautiful, challenging, and important ways Sheila has provided care and protection for both organizers facing state repression and the family members of those who have been murdered by the police. Plus, some laughs through it all!

SHOW NOTES

NLG HOTLINE for DNC protest legal support - (872) 465 4244

Thread of support materials from NLG - https://x.com/NLGChicago/status/1823723532783886702

Get in tune with Sheila -https://www.law.northwestern.edu/faculty/profiles/sheilabedi/

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 350 - State Senator Robert Peters, Champion of Transformative Incrementalism

In this episode of AirGo, we sit down with State Senator Robert Peters for a deep dive into the current political landscape and the transformative initiatives he's championing. Senator Peters explores how he contributed to the abolition of cash bond in IL, his commitment to getting tangible policy passed in contribution to movement, and the approach of transformative incrementalism that can make participating in legislative process fruitful and worthwhile for those fighting for liberation.

SHOW NOTES

Get in tune with Robert - https://www.instagram.com/robertjamespeters

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 349 - Manasseh, Singer Of Circles And Smiles

Singer, songwriter, and dreamweaver Manasseh joins Dame and Kiss for this freewheeling kickback of an interview. A heartfelt vocalist with pipes that pierce through, Manasseh shares some vulnerable experiences that deromanticize the artist's life and show the day-to-day challenges of pursuing a life built around your craft.

SHOW NOTES

Get in tune with Manasseh - https://linktr.ee/yomanasseh

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up -contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 348 - Live with Akenya and Page May from 2019 (Dig in the Crates)

This episode we dig in the AirGo crates back to fall of 2019, when we had the joy of hosting a live episode of AirGo with the brilliant organizer Page May and multihyphenate musical superstar Akenya, who will be performing this weekend at the always chill and fun Pitchfork Festival right here in Chicago. Enjoy this goofy and wonderful live episode (featuring a cameo from a newborn kitten) and come through both Pitchfork and Akenya's official aftershow 7/18 at Constellation.

SHOW NOTES

Akenya's Pitchfork After-Show - https://www.instagram.com/p/C8uIwakg-No/?img_index=1

Lock in with Akenya - https://www.instagram.com/akenyamusic

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 347 - Ashley O'Shay, Unapologetic Director

Grounded visionary and dope filmmaker Ashley O'Shay joins Dame and Kiss on this episode of AirGo. Ashley is the director of Unapologetic, an impactful and loving feature documentary capturing two fierce abolitionists whose upbringing and experiences shape their activism and views on Black liberation. The film premiered at the BlackStar Film Festival, broadcast on PBS POV, and was shortlisted for the International Documentary Association Awards. She's currently working on Southmont Drive, a film reflecting on the legacy of her family from Tuskegee, Alabama that's centered on her late grandfather and the 17 children he raised. She talks about the process of building trust with the folks she films, the learning curve of making a film in the midst of movement, and the fight to save her family home in Tuskegee.

SHOW NOTES

Watch Unapologetic - https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B09P5R5JQD/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r

Support Southmont Drive - https://www.instagram.com/southmontdrivefilm/

Get in tune w/ Ashley - https://www.instagram.com/ashley.oshay/

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Ari Mejia

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 346 - Senite, The.BlkRoom Co-Founder and Emergent Star

The guys head over to The.BlkRoom, a Chicago-based organization and co-creation studio facilitating opportunities for BIPOC artists and creatives across the city, to chat with the effervescent and protagonistic Senite! The vocalist, songwriter, and co-founder of this transformative community space talks about the grief rituals she's been moving through, the ways that exploitation in the music scene pushed her to step away for a while, and how she's finding her way back to the joy of creating.

SHOW NOTES

Tap in with The.BlkRoom - https://www.theblkroom.org/

Follow Senite - https://instagram.com/_senite

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 345 - Live @ Stokely: The Unfinished Revolution

The guys hop on stage at the Court Theatre in Hyde Park for a live conversation with writer Nambi E. Kelley and director Tasia A. Jones about their new play Stokely: The Unfinished Revolution. The production covers the life of visionary movement thinker and organizer Stokely Carmichael/Kwame Ture, whose work spans from the early work of SNCC across the southern US to decades of Pan-Africanist socialist organizing on the African continent. The creators behind the play talk about the frames they built for the story, the ways that Stokely's drive has impacted their lives, and the healing potential of the archive.

SHOW NOTES

Learn more about the play - https://tickets.courttheatre.org/Online/default.asp

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - http://www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Ep 344 - Morgan Elise Johnson, Movement Journalism Leader & Co-Founder of The Triibe

We're joined by bonafide genius and bonafide friend Morgan Elise Johnson! Morgan's the publisher and cofounder of The Triibe, a digital media platform that is reshaping the narrative of Black Chicago and giving ownership back to the people. Their original works in journalism and documentary, alongside creative writing and video, capture the multifaceted essence of the Black experience in pursuit of truth and liberation. Morgan talks about the lessons she's learned pursuing acts of journalism in a media landscape that doesn't center integrity, the ways she's pushed herself and her colleagues to stay grounded in their values, and how she became one of the most influential figures in our city's political scene without striving for inclusion.

SHOW NOTES

Link with the Triibe - https://thetriibe.com/about/

Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio

Find One Million Experiments on tour! - www.respairmedia.com/events

Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.com

CREDITS

Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger

Associate Producer - Rocío Santos

Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles