Episodes
Tuesday Jul 13, 2021
#41 Let's talk all things politics - Asad Dandia
Tuesday Jul 13, 2021
Tuesday Jul 13, 2021
Got to catch up with none other than Asad as we talk all things politics as it pertains to our current moment
Asad Dandia is a Brooklyn-born writer, organizer, and teacher. He recently graduated Columbia University with an MA in Islamic Studies and holds a BS in social work from NYU. He was a co-plaintiff in the historic 'Raza vs City of NY' lawsuit which challenged NYPD surveillance on behalf of Muslim communities and organizations. He writes on modern Islamic thought, radical/labor politics, and post/de-colonial theory. He is co-host of the New Books in Middle East Studies podcast on the New Books Network and his writing has been featured in Al-Jazeera English, the LA Review of Books, the Washington Post, among other publications. His MA Thesis at Columbia was entitled, “Rethinking Islamic Studies: Muhammad Iqbal’s Philosophy as Decolonial Critique.”
I.G. @TheGambian
Twitter:
@DandiaAsad
@MomodouTaal
Tuesday Jul 06, 2021
#40 Let's talk Pan-Africanism - Dr. Layla Brown
Tuesday Jul 06, 2021
Tuesday Jul 06, 2021
Dr. Layla Brown joins me for another discussion on all things Pan-Africanism. Listen in as we discuss the pan Africanism as defined by Sékou Toure and Kwame Nkrumah, as well the problems with ADOS, Neo-colonialism and much more!
Layla Brown is a member of the All African People’s Revolutionary Party-GC and currently works as an Assistant Professor of Africana Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Layla earned a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Duke University in her home state of North Carolina where her research focused on Black racial identity formation in Latin America and the US and its impact on Black Radical Organising in the era of Black Lives Matter. She is currently working on her first book manuscript Return to the Source: The Dialectics of 21st Century Pan-African Liberation based largely on her dissertation research.
Layla spent all of 2020 as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Johannesburg Institute for Advanced Study where her research expanded to examine the crisis of racial capitalism and the COVID-19 pandemic. In the fall of 2021 she will be a Senior Research Fellow at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg / Centre for Global Cooperation Research. Her most recent scholarly work “The Pandemic of Racial Capitalism: Another World Is Possible” can be found in From the European South: A Transdisciplinary Journal of Postcolonial Humanities.
I.G. @TheGambian
Twitter:
@PanAfrikFem_Phd
@MomodouTaal
Sunday Jun 20, 2021
#39 What Are Our Sources for Struggle? - Dr. Joy James & Khadijah Diskin
Sunday Jun 20, 2021
Sunday Jun 20, 2021
In this episode I speak with Dr. Joy James and Khadijah Diskin in which we talk all things liberation. We spoke on black feminism today, sources of our struggle, how we can develop a language that speaks to the race, class and function dynamics and so much more
Joy James is the Ebenezer Fitch Professor of the Humanities at Williams College.
James is author of: Shadowboxing: Representations of Black Feminist Politics; Transcending the Talented Tenth: Black Leaders and American Intellectuals; Resisting State Violence: Radicalism, Gender and Race in U.S. Culture. Her edited books include: Warfare in the American Homeland; The New Abolitionists: (Neo) Slave Narratives and Contemporary Prison Writings; Imprisoned Intellectuals; States of Confinement; The Black Feminist Reader (co-edited with TD Sharpley-Whiting); and The Angela Y. Davis Reader. James is completing a book on the prosecution of 20th-century interracial rape cases, tentatively titled “Memory, Shame & Rage.” She has contributed articles and book chapters to journals and anthologies addressing feminist and critical race theory, democracy, and social justice.
She is the recipient of grants, fellowships or awards from: the Fletcher Foundation; the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities; the Rockefeller Foundation; the Bellagio Fellowship; the Aaron Diamond Foundation/Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; the Ford Foundation; and the Gustavus Myers Human Rights Award.
Khadijah Diskin is a PhD Researcher in Psychology. Her research explores the psychosocial dimension of Black students experiences in British higher education, using Lacanian discourse analysis to interrogate the intersubjective convergences of race, coloniality and neoliberalisation.
I.G. @TheGambian
Twitter:
@MomodouTaal
@FanonIsCanon
Friday Jun 11, 2021
#38 How Can The Left Win? -Dr. Aurelien Mondon
Friday Jun 11, 2021
Friday Jun 11, 2021
In this episode, Aurelien and I discuss what the left needs to do to win.
Aurelien Mondon is a Senior Lecturer in politics at the University of Bath. His research focuses predominantly on the impact of racism and populism on liberal democracies and the mainstreaming of far right politics through elite discourse. His first book, The Mainstreaming of the Extreme Right in France and Australia: A Populist Hegemony?, was published in 2013 and he recently co-edited After Charlie Hebdo: Terror, racism and free speech published with Zed. His new book Reactionary democracy: How racism and the populist far right became mainstream, co-written with Aaron Winter, is now out with Verso.
I.G. @TheGambian
Twitter:
@MomodouTaal
@AurelMondon
Sunday May 30, 2021
#37 Our Present Moment - Professor D. G. Kelley
Sunday May 30, 2021
Sunday May 30, 2021
A 3 way conversation with the legendary Robin Kelley. In this episode Christian and I discuss with Robin Kelley on matters related to our present moment and his works.
Born in New York City, Kelley earned his Bachelor's degree from California State University, Long Beach, in 1983. By 1987 he had earned a masters in African history and doctorate in US history from UCLA.[8]
After earning his doctorate, he began his career as an Assistant Professor at Southeastern Massachusetts University, then to Emory University, and the University of Michigan, where he was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. He later moved to the Department of History at New York University, where he was promoted to the rank of Professor and taught courses on U.S. history, African-American history, and popular culture. At the age of 32, he was the youngest full professor at NYU.[8] He is a Distinguished Fellow of the Rothermere American Institute at the University of Oxford.
Kelley has spent most of his career exploring American and African-American history, with a particular emphasis on radical social movements and the political dynamics at work within African-American culture, including jazz, hip-hop, and visual arts.[9][10][11]
Although influenced by Marxism, Kelley has eschewed a doctrinaire Marxist approach to aesthetics and culture, preferring a modified surrealist approach. He has described himself in the past as a "Marxist surrealist feminist who is not just anti something but pro-emancipation, pro-liberation."[12]
Kelley has also used the concept of racial capitalism in his work
I.G. @TheGambian
@Ctayj
Twitter:
@MomodouTaal
@CtayJ
Monday May 24, 2021
#36 Sham says read 'Pedagogy of The Oppressed' - Sham
Monday May 24, 2021
Monday May 24, 2021
What is revolutionary education? Sham and I discuss the current educational system and why reading Paulo Freire's Pedagogy can provide much needed insight into developing a radical education
Sham is a Baghdad born Masters in Law graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations and Development. Sham so the co-founder of A is for Activism, a local grassroots bookclub that focuses on works of radical Marxists
I.G. @TheGambian
@CurlyThug
Twitter:
@MomodouTaal
@BitterArab
Friday May 14, 2021
#35 Climate Justice is Racial Justice - Athian Akec
Friday May 14, 2021
Friday May 14, 2021
Are you aware how racism plays a role in climate justice activism? Athian helps me unpack how the two are connected.
Athian Akec is an 18 year old activist, writer and speaker. His main areas of focus are climate change, youth violence and racial inequality. As a part of this he's written for the Guardian, Independent, Huffpost, I-d magazine, Huck Magazine, Hunger Mag and other national newspapers. Additionally he's spoken in the House of Commons as a part of the UK Youth Parliament. Athian also sits on the board of a youth charity and a commission in Camden focusing on economic renewal following the pandemic.
I.G. @TheGambian
@Kultural.Renaissance
Twitter:
@Athianakec_
@MomodouTaal
Friday Apr 30, 2021
#34 Choppin' It Up - Christian Joseph
Friday Apr 30, 2021
Friday Apr 30, 2021
A catch up with my dear friend Christian on some of the things we’re thinking about currently.
Christian Joseph is a recent college graduate, who has a keen interest in political economy and questions that concern Black liberation
I.G. @TheGambian
@Ctayj
Twitter:
@MomodouTaal
@CtayJ
Friday Apr 23, 2021
#33 Race, Capitalism and the Myth of the Black Capitalist - Dr. CBS
Friday Apr 23, 2021
Friday Apr 23, 2021
We often here that you cannot separate race from capitalism or that we can reform capitalism and make it more ethical. Listen in as I discuss with Dr. CBS on what is the link between race and capitalism, the myth of black capitalism, black liberals and advice on how we should organise
Dr. Charisse Burden-Stelly is the 2020-2021 Visiting Scholar in the Race and Capitalism Project at the University of Chicago and an Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and Political Science at Carleton College. She is the co-lead of the Black Alliance for Peace Research & Political Education Team. A scholar of critical Black studies, political theory, political economy, and intellectual history, Burden-Stelly is the co-author, with Gerald Horne, of W.E.B. Du Bois: A Life in American History. She is currently working on a book manuscript titled Black Scare/Red Scare: Antiblackness, Anticommunism, and the Rise of Capitalism in the United States. Burden-Stelly’s published work appears in journals including Small Axe, Souls, Du Bois Review, Socialism & Democracy, International Journal of Africana Studies, and the CLR James Journal. Her public scholarship can be found in venues including Monthly Review, Boston Review, and Black Perspectives. She is the host of “The Last Dope Intellectual” podcast, which is part of the Black Power Media network and the co-editor of The Black Agenda Review.
I.G. @TheGambian
Blackleftaf
Twitter:
@MomodouTaal
@Blackleftaf
Friday Apr 16, 2021
#32 What Comes After The Race Report? - Khadijah Diskin
Friday Apr 16, 2021
Friday Apr 16, 2021
We are still reeling from the government’s terrible race report. Listen in to my conversation with Deej about what our focuses should be in terms of organising and going forward.
Khadijah Diskin is a PhD Researcher in Psychology. Her research explores the psychosocial dimension of Black students experiences in British higher education, using Lacanian discourse analysis to interrogate the intersubjective convergences of race, coloniality and neoliberalisation.
I.G. @TheGambian
Twitter:
@MomodouTaal
@FanonIsCanon