Ep 381 - Niki Franco, Anti-War Organizer and Podcast Host

We're honored to talk on this episode with Nachelle Pugh, a beautiful soul who we both have the deepest appreciation for. Nachelle is the Executive Director of the John Walt Foundation, an on-the-ground nonprofit founded in the wake of the death of her son Walter Long, Jr. aka John Walt. A pivotal member of Chicago's best rap crew Pivot Gang, Walt was taken from us in February 2017–in the years since, his mom Nachelle has devoted herself to building connective spaces for young artists and creators in Chicago while also providing direct mutual aid support for families across the city. She talks about her own childhood in the 'Go, the embrace that she received from Chicago's hip hop community after Walt's death, the disgust and grief of moving through the trial of his murderer, and much more.SHOW NOTESSupport the John Walt Foundation - https://www.johnwaltfoundation.org/recurring-donationGet a ticket for Dinner with John, their annual fundraiser on Oct 16 - https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/dinner-with-john--2025Buy a ticket for John Walt Day, an annual concert featuring Saba and the whole Pivot Crew, on Nov 28 - https://www.etix.com/ticket/p/49633875Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio Find us live! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - [email protected] CREDITSHosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger Associate Producers - Cin Pimentel & Rocío SantosEngagement Producer - Rivka YekerDigital Media Producer - Troi Valles

The guys are in good company with organizer and movement podcaster Niki Franco, aka Venus Roots. Niki is the co-director of Dissenters, a national youth anti-war organization, and is the host of podcast Getting to the Root of It with Venus Roots. She discusses how organizers need to look more rigorously to the global south for guidance and solidarity, the ways that social isolation have impacted power-building on the left, and the joy of building a space for conversation on-mic. SHOW NOTESFind Niki's work - https://www.venusroots.com/aboutSubscribe to her podcast - https://open.spotify.com/show/6qXh3yHWkY0GeBBwzbPwYZPlug in with Dissenters - https://wearedissenters.org/Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio Find us live! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - [email protected] CREDITSHosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger Associate Producers - Cin Pimentel & Rocío SantosEngagement Producer - Rivka YekerDigital Media Producer - Troi Valles

We're hyped to share a new project we've been helping to build with our longtime comrades and collaborators over at OTV, a Chicago-based non-profit platform for intersectional television, supporting artists and marginalized communities. Beyond the Screen: Pushing Media, Imagination, and Legacy Forward is a 10-episode limited audio series celebrating a decade of intersectional media. Hosted by Elijah McKinnon and Dr. AJ Escoffery, the series reflects on the creative risks, community lessons, and radical care that shaped OTV’s journey over the past 10 years.Each episode unpacks one of OTV’s “10 Lessons Learned,” weaving together intimate interviews, archival audio, and unscripted commentary from the people who helped build the platform from the ground up. From artists and collaborators to cultural organizers and curators, Beyond the Screen offers a behind-the-scenes look at how OTV redefined indie media—and what’s next for intersectional storytelling. Check out the trailer, and make sure you go subscribe to Beyond the Screen on the OTV App or wherever you get your podcasts. The first episode is out today!SHOW NOTESCheck out OTV - https://www.weareo.tv/Join the 10-year anniversary celebration - https://www.beyondthescreen.live/Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio Find us live! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - [email protected] CREDITSHosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger Associate Producers - Cin Pimentel & Rocío SantosEngagement Producer - Rivka YekerDigital Media Producer - Troi Valles

Check out this sneak peek of Quantum Entanglements, a new podcast coming soon from AIrGo and Respair Production & Media! Over the four decades since the US Steel South Works steel mill shut its doors on the South Side of Chicago, the land it sat on has remained undeveloped as the surrounding communities heal from the physical, environmental, economic, and social wounds left behind by this industrial behemoth. Now, a coalition of public and private power players from all levels of government and different sectors of industry is preparing to break ground on a "Quantum Campus"–a multi-billion dollar sprawling facility of next-generation technology and surveillance that could both release poisonous contamination and dismantle digital privacy around the globe. As the next industrial revolution descends on a community still reeling from the destruction of deindustrialization, we talk with organizers and neighbors living alongside the site about how they're building power, demanding answers, making sense of the area’s history, and fighting for the ability to determine the future of their neighborhoods, natural environments, and relationships as the next industrial revolution descends on their doorstep.Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio Find us live! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - [email protected] CREDITSHosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger Associate Producers - Cin Pimentel & Rocío SantosEngagement Producer - Rivka YekerDigital Media Producer - Troi Valles

In over a decade of documenting the leading voices of Chicago's movement for collective liberation, we've seen the impact of the work of Rami Nashashibi in so many corners of our city. A true Chicago leader and visionary, Rami is the Executive Director of Director of Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN), a community-led organization that fosters health, wellness and healing in the inner-city by organizing for social change, cultivating the arts, and offering opportunities for holistic health. Their work has, in many ways, served as a testing ground and blueprint for the advocacy and power-building work that has transformed our city and beyond. We talk with Rami about his path to organizing, how he's struggled for wholeness between different selves, and the power of Black-Palestinian solidarity.SHOW NOTESSupport the work of IMAN - https://www.imancentral.org/Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio Find us live! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - [email protected] CREDITSHosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger Associate Producers - Cin Pimentel & Rocío SantosEngagement Producer - Rivka YekerDigital Media Producer - Troi Valles

As we wrap up this abbreviated Season 3 of 1ME, the squad hops back in the lab one more time to break down the learnings and takeaways from our convos with REP, Cambridge HEART, and Care-Based Safety. Dame, Kiss, Eva, and Deana explore the connections in what they heard and break down how we can all show up for each other in the crises surrounding us. Skill up and get inspired, and we'll see you back in the lab soon!SHOW NOTESSupport REP - https://repformn.org/support-this-work/Support Cambridge HEART - https://cambridgeheart.networkforgood.com/Support Care-Based Safety - https://secure.givelively.org/donate/non-profit-nonprofit-enterprise-at-work-inc/care-based-safetyWatch the 1ME film - https://www.respairmedia.com/one-million-experimentsCheck out 1ME online - millionexperiments.comLearn more about Respair - respairmedia.comFollow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio Find us live! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - [email protected] CREDITSHosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger Associate Producers - Cin Pimentel & Rocío SantosEngagement Producer - Rivka YekerDigital Media Producer - Troi Valles

The AirGo team is excited to bring you back into the lab of One Million Experiments, our partner project with Interrupting Criminalization exploring how we define and create safety in a world without policing and prisons. Over the next few episodes we'll be sharing Season 3 of the podcast, which dives deep with experiments around community crisis response.One Million Experiments is back in your ear for Season 3, and we're diving deep with experiments around community crisis response! As our sociopolitical reality births crisis after crisis, the 1ME squad of Dame, Kiss, and Eva dig deep with three different experiments to learn how we can better show up in moments of communal and structural crisis. They also  are joined on every episode’s Peer Review by special guest Deana Lewis, a founding member of Just Practice Collaborative–a group that builds communities’ capacities to respond to intimate partner violence and sexual assault without relying on state-based systems. As we figure out what redefining and creating safety look like under the carceral conditions of our time, it’s just as true as ever that we don’t need one answer to how we get free–we need one million experiments.On Episode 3 of this season, the crew talks with Liz Kennedy and Sheri Wander of Care-Based Safety, an experiment working in the cities of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti in Michigan to build a community response program that brings loving, unarmed support to people directly impacted by structural violence – without police. Currently in the third iteration of their pilot program, they are a daily downtown presence in downtown Ypsilanti responding to crises as they arise in real time, including: basic first aid (wound care, wellness checks); overdose prevention, reversal, and aftercare; noise complaints and neighbor concerns; and distress related to mental health and other stressors. Liz and Sheri talk through how they've battled cooptation, their collective decision-making practice, and how they've learned to make sure their presence is both welcome and useful.SHOW NOTESSupport Care-Based Safety - https://www.instagram.com/carebasedsafetyWatch the 1ME film - https://www.respairmedia.com/one-million-experimentsCheck out 1ME online - millionexperiments.comLearn more about Respair - respairmedia.comFollow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio Find us live! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - [email protected] CREDITSHosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger Associate Producers - Cin Pimentel & Rocío SantosEngagement Producer - Rivka YekerDigital Media Producer - Troi Valles

The AirGo team is excited to bring you back into the lab of One Million Experiments, our partner project with Interrupting Criminalization exploring how we define and create safety in a world without policing and prisons. Over the next few episodes we'll be sharing Season 3 of the podcast, which dives deep with experiments around community crisis response.One Million Experiments is back in your ear for Season 3, and we're diving deep with experiments around community crisis response! As our sociopolitical reality births crisis after crisis, the 1ME squad of Dame, Kiss, and Eva dig deep with three different experiments to learn how we can better show up in moments of communal and structural crisis. They also  are joined on every episode’s Peer Review by special guest Deana Lewis, a founding member of Just Practice Collaborative–a group that builds communities’ capacities to respond to intimate partner violence and sexual assault without relying on state-based systems. As we figure out what redefining and creating safety look like under the carceral conditions of our time, it’s just as true as ever that we don’t need one answer to how we get free–we need one million experiments.On this episode we chop it up with Dara Bayer, a founding member and former co-director of Cambridge HEART. An ongoing experiment born from the 2020 uprising, Dara and her comrades have rigorously wrestled with the challenges of scaling a crisis response organization in the face of cooptation, divestment, and the challenges that emerge from centering those most impacted by carceral systems. In the early days of her step away from leadership, Dara reflects on what she's learned building this experiment with love, dedication, and commitment to her people.SHOW NOTESPainting the Ocean & the Sky by Shira Hassan - https://www.interruptingcriminalization.com/resources-all/ocean-skySupport Cambridge HEART - https://cambridgeheart.networkforgood.com/Watch the 1ME film - https://www.respairmedia.com/one-million-experimentsCheck out 1ME online - millionexperiments.comLearn more about Respair - respairmedia.comFollow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio Find us live! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - [email protected] CREDITSHosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger Associate Producers - Cin Pimentel & Rocío SantosEngagement Producer - Rivka YekerDigital Media Producer - Troi Valles

The AirGo team is excited to bring you back into the lab of One Million Experiments, our partner project with Interrupting Criminalization exploring how we define and create safety in a world without policing and prisons. Over the next few episodes we'll be sharing Season 3 of the podcast, which dives deep with experiments around community crisis response.As our sociopolitical reality births crisis after crisis, the 1ME squad of Dame, Kiss, and Eva dig deep with three different experiments to learn how we can better show up in moments of communal and structural crisis. They also  are joined on every episode’s Peer Review by special guest Deana Lewis, a founding member of Just Practice Collaborative–a group that builds communities’ capacities to respond to intimate partner violence and sexual assault without relying on state-based systems. As we figure out what redefining and creating safety look like under the carceral conditions of our time, it’s just as true as ever that we don’t need one answer to how we get free–we need one million experiments.On this episode we welcome back organizers from REP (Relationships Evolving Possibilities), a true experiment made up of dedicated community members showing up to support others in moments of crisis or urgency, with care and respect for the full dignity and autonomy of the people in crisis. REP core members Rox and Jason break down how they've learned to stay grounded in heightened moments, what committing to each other for ten years has made possible for the group, and much more.SHOW NOTESReceive support from the REP hotline - 952-737-3730Watch the episode on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu5_d2IGmSAConnect with REP - https://repformn.org/Watch the 1ME film - https://www.respairmedia.com/one-million-experimentsCheck out 1ME online - millionexperiments.comLearn more about Respair - respairmedia.comFollow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio Find us live! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - [email protected] CREDITSHosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger Associate Producers - Cin Pimentel & Rocío SantosEngagement Producer - Rivka YekerDigital Media Producer - Troi Valles

The guys are joined by Graciela Guzmán, the State Senator for Illinois' 20th District on the Northwest Side of the city. A former organizer with a focus on health equity and economic justice, Graciela won her election last year over establishment candidate Natalie Toro, who had raised over four times as much as Graciela had. She joins the show to talk about the inner workings of the state legislature, how the fight for health care needs to be a centerpiece of all movement struggles, and her journey to find strength in her voice as a representative for her people.SHOW NOTESConnect with State Sen. Guzmán - https://gracielafor20.com/Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio Find us live! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - [email protected] CREDITSHosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel KisslingerAssociate Producer - Cin Pimentel Engagement Producer - Rivka YekerDigital Media Producer - Troi Valles Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradio Find us live! - www.respairmedia.com/events Bring us to your community by hitting us up - [email protected] CREDITSHosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger Associate Producers - Cin Pimentel & Rocío SantosEngagement Producer - Rivka YekerDigital Media Producer - Troi Valles