Ep 394 - Rossana Rodriguez, 33rd Ward Alderwoman and Beacon of Socialist Political Power, Returns

If you live in the 33rd Ward on the Northwest Side of Chicago, you already know the political magic that's been built by this Alderwoman Rossana Rodriguez and her comrades. For everyone else, it's pivotal to see how a group of grassroots socialist-leaning organizers have built power from the streets to the House of Representatives, while still doing the job of meeting people's everyday needs. Rossana returns to AirGo to talk about how this power base has been constructed brick-by-brick, the billionaire meddlers in Chicago's politics, and how she and so many others built new capacity for liberation in the face of ICE's so-called "Midway Blitz" last year.SHOW NOTESListen to Rossana on AirGo in 2020 - https://airgoradio.com/airgo/2020/4/15/episode-233-on-the-line-with-ald-rossana-rodriguezAnd again in 2023 - https://airgoradio.com/airgo/2023/3/3/ep-318-rossana-rodriguez-returnsConnect with her office - https://33rdward.org/Link with the 33rd Ward Working Families IPO - https://www.workingfamilies33.org/Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradiobsky.app/profile/respairmedia.bsky.socialFind 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 SantosVideo Post-Production Producer - Troi VallesLead Editor - Troi VallesDigital Media Producer - Troi VallesEngagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

On this episode the guys check in about living in a time of decay, dissonance, and maybe World War 3? They also dig deep into the new Louis Theroux docuseries Inside the Manosphere, and get into it about whether masculinity is savalgeable or whether we should scrap the whole concept to help humanity. Plus, some real topical takes about how good the movie Casablanca is.Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradiobsky.app/profile/respairmedia.bsky.socialFind 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 SantosVideo Post-Production Producer - Troi VallesLead Editor - Troi VallesDigital Media Producer - Troi VallesEngagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

We have the privilege of welcoming four youthful hope-givers and fellow Chicago podcasters to the AirGo stu–JJ, Allen, Abee, and Matt of hit show the JAAM Podcast. In a little over a year, the guys have built a vibrant and very successful show sharing a razor-sharp voice and perspective on what's happening in our city, the news cycle, and beyond. Their show has welcomed guests like Hasan Piker, Chance the Rapper, Mayor Brandon Johnson, Deante Kyle, and many more. Yet they'd never told the origin story of their show and work together–until now!We break down how being a digital native can shape your worldview, what it means to wrestle with masculinity as you come of age, and much more. Get into it!SHOW NOTESTune in to the JAAM - https://www.youtube.com/@TheJAAMPod Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradiobsky.app/profile/respairmedia.bsky.socialFind 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 SantosVideo Post-Production Producer - Troi VallesLead Editor - Troi VallesDigital Media Producer - Troi VallesEngagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Our good friends and collaborators over at Soapbox Productions & Organizing host a podcast that we think y'all should get in tune with! Bourbon 'n BrownTown is a conversation-based podcast that fosters radically imaginative dialogues on media, culture, politics, and our various social movements through a liberatory lens. With a Chicago focus, filmmakers and movement workers Caullen Hudson and David A. Moran unpack complex social issues and topics while building relationships with artists, activists, community organizers, educators, social entrepreneurs, and others working towards a better world. Together, BrownTown holds space to listen, learn, and liberate, all while sippin’ on sumpin’ good. Salud! Visit SoapBoxPO.com/Podcast; follow @BourbonnBrownTown on Facebook/Instagram, @BourbonnBrwnTwn on Twitter; and @SoapBoxPO on all social media.Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradiobsky.app/profile/respairmedia.bsky.socialFind 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 SantosVideo Post-Production Producer - Troi VallesLead Editor - Troi VallesDigital Media Producer - Troi VallesEngagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

What do we do with the stories we're given? Do we accept them, or dig for the truth? Molly Crabapple is a visual artist, writer, and aesthetic fixture of radical social movements for the last decade-plus. Molly got her start as the house artist for New York’s most notorious nightclub. She became a journalist sketching the frontlines of Occupy Wall Street, before covering, with words and art, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Lebanese snipers, Guantanamo Bay, the US-Mexican border, Pennsylvania prisoners, New York cabbies, Greek refugee camps, and the ravages of hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. We dig in with her about her new best-selling book Here Where We Live is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund. Once the most influential Jewish political force in eastern Europe, the Bund was secular, socialist, and uncompromisingly anti-Zionist. The Bundists fought for dignity and equality, not in an imagined homeland in Palestine but “here where we live.” Molly shares how this story lives in her lineage, the unsexy but beautiful work of a decade in the archives, and what this story teaches us about the fraught but necessary work of building coalition as we fight for a better world. SHOW NOTESBuy Here Where We Live is Our Country - https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/646320/here-where-we-live-is-our-country-by-molly-crabapple/Watch The Years of Repair - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m8YACFJlMgCatch Molly live in Chicago 4/23 - https://www.instagram.com/p/DXFh5pkGabl/?img_index=1Follow Molly - https://www.instagram.com/mollycrabapple/Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradiobsky.app/profile/respairmedia.bsky.socialFind 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 SantosVideo Post-Production Producer - Troi VallesLead Editor - Troi VallesDigital Media Producer - Troi VallesEngagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

The guys have the privilege of hopping on the line with brilliant poet, artist, and cultural organizer aja monet. A longtime guiding light of the poetry and spoken word community, aja's debut album, when the poems do what they do, was nominated for a Grammy Best Spoken Word Poetry Album in 2024. She joins the show to talk about leading the way toward Black cultural solidarity with Palestine, the mentors that have poured into her, and her brief stay at the center of Chicago's hip hop renaissance in the early 2010s.SHOW NOTESPre-order aja's new album The Color of Rain, out 5/22/26! - https://drinksumwtr.lnk.to/aja-monet-the-color-of-rainFollow aja - https://www.instagram.com/ajamonetFollow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradiobsky.app/profile/respairmedia.bsky.socialFind 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 SantosVideo Post-Production Producer - Troi VallesLead Editor - Troi VallesDigital Media Producer - Troi VallesEngagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

From time to time, a Chicago artist drops a new project that the AirGo crew is vibing with–when that happens, we get them in the mix for a special listening party episode! Using a few of the project's tracks as jumping off points for the conversation, we dive deep into process, creativity, and growth. We're excited to hop into Trench Baby Turned Farmer, the new project from artist, farmer, and Englewood native Heavy Crownz. On this thoughtful and vibrant album, Heavy finds pathways into his world that are accessible and resonant whether you grew up on his block or not. He talks with the guys about how he defines "the trenches," the social codes and beauty of the ball courts, and the healing power of getting your hands in the soil. Join the party with us!SHOW NOTESListen to Trench Baby Turned Farmer – https://heavycrownz.fanlink.tv/trenchbabyturnedfarmer?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bioFollow Heavy Crownz - https://www.instagram.com/heavycrownz/Subscribe to the episode on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@respairmediaFollow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradiobsky.app/profile/respairmedia.bsky.socialFind 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 SantosVideo Post-Production Producer - Troi VallesLead Editor - Troi VallesDigital Media Producer - Troi VallesEngagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

Over the years, we've seen time and time again that healthy relationship are the glue that keeps our movements together. But it can be so hard, surprisingly hard, to build and maintain healthy relationships while struggling for a better world. Dean Spade is a longtime organizer and advocate for queer and trans liberation based in racial and economic justice. You may remember the name from his book Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During this Crisis (and the Next), which became a bible and handbook for so many during the 2020 uprising. His newest book and podcast, Love in a Fucked-Up World: How to Build Relationships, Hook Up, and Raise Hell, Together, is a vibrant "call to action and a practical manifesto for how to combat cultural scripts and take our relationships into our own hands, preparing us for the work of changing the world." He comes through to talk about the mythologies we carry with us, the value of conflict, and the beautiful sexiness of messy connection.SHOW NOTESBuy Love in a Fucked-Up World - https://redemmas.org/titles/45565-love-in-a-fucked-up-world-how-to-build-relationships-hook-up-and-raise-hell-together/Check out the podcast - https://www.deanspade.net/podcast/Follow Dean - https://www.instagram.com/spade.deanFollow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradiobsky.app/profile/respairmedia.bsky.socialFind 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 SantosVideo Post-Production Producer - Troi VallesLead Editor - Troi VallesDigital Media Producer - Troi VallesEngagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

When we listen to the remarkable hip hop that emerged from Chicago over the last fifteen years, it may not always be clear just how many hands had central roles in shaping the vibrant sound and community that pushed the limits of artistry and industry and crafted some of the best music of the 21st century. Renzell has been at the keys, on the boards, and on the ground as a collaborator and visionary force for a lot of this music, and has now stepped into his role as a spacemaker and mentor at his wonderful recording spot StudioShapes. He breaks down the importance of an artistic home; his favorite collabs with artists like Mick Jenkins, Noname, Via Rosa, and theMIND; and the sacrifices artists and creators have to make to build strong bonds with each other.SHOW NOTESGet in tune with StudioShapes - https://www.studioshapeschicago.com/Follow Renzell on IG - https://www.instagram.com/renzell.wav/?hl=enFollow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradiobsky.app/profile/respairmedia.bsky.socialFind 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 SantosVideo Post-Production Producer - Troi VallesLead Editor - Troi VallesDigital Media Producer - Troi VallesEngagement Producer - Rivka Yeker

The guys are in a new studio with an old friend and mentor, the legendary Bill Ayers! A lifelong force for collective liberation, Bill was a cofounder of militant leftist group the Weather Underground, which was formed in opposition to U.S. imperialism in Vietnam and racial injustice. After living underground for years to avoid FBI arrest, he has been an engaged scholar and a peace and social justice activist who has written extensively about social justice and freedom, democracy and education, the cultural contexts of schooling, and teaching as an essentially intellectual, ethical, and political enterprise. He's also the host of podcast Under the Tree: a Seminar on Freedom, which Dame and Kiss helped him build, and a loving mentor to Chicago's movement community. He comes through to talk about the heightened contradictions of this political moment, the ways the Weather Underground lives on in popular culture, the pride he feels for his children's achievements, and much more.SHOW NOTESSubscribe to Under the Tree - https://underthetreepod.com/Catch Bill in convo with Vijay Prashad on 2/15 at 3pm - https://pilsencommunitybooks.com/events/49500Listen to Mother Country Radicals - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mother-country-radicals/id1625882016Follow AirGo - instagram.com/airgoradiobsky.app/profile/respairmedia.bsky.socialFind 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 SantosVideo Post-Production Producer - Troi VallesLead Editor - Troi VallesDigital Media Producer - Troi VallesEngagement Producer - Rivka Yeker