'GoBack | Ep 245 - On the Line with Zohran Kwame Mamdani

Congratulations to friend of the pod Zohran Mamdani for winning the NYC mayoral election! In honor of this historic win, we're re-running our 2020 episode with him. You can also check out episode 92 for another Mamdani interview. Original caption:This episode heads to the East Coast to chop it up with Zohran Kwame Mamdani. Zohran is currently running for a NY State Assembly seat representing Astoria, Queens. He's been endorsed by DSA, and a wide swath of other progressive and to the root coalitions. He's also one of Kiss' oldest friends. Zohran talks about how he's shifted his campaign into a mutual aid project, the lessons he learned as a foreclosure prevention counselor, the shortcomings of representative politics, and his high school vice presidential campaign.Recorded 5/21/20 in ChicagoMusic from this week's episode:Park - Isaiah RashadFollow 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

Sometimes you see some art that makes you stop, feel, and change your sense of reality. When that art is in connection to movements for liberation, the possibilities for transformation are endless.Richie Reseda is a brilliant cultural organizer, social entrepreneur, creative director, and music, film, and content producer who was freed from prison in 2018. He is a central driving force behind Songs From the Hole, a remarkable film that is now available on Netflix about the art and struggle of his friend and collaborator JJ'88. A documentary built around a visual album of music created inside, the film is a remarkable testimonial to how people fight to assert their humanity and creative spirit under the conditions of the carceral system.Richie is also the central figure in the 2018 documentary The Feminist on Cellblock Y, which focuses on the feminist political education and community-building work he led while inside. He talks to Dame and Kiss about the battle for ACTUALLY good art that creates liberation, living in the balance of the streets and the movement, and how we must hold our integrity above all else in the art we make and the world we build.SHOW NOTESWatch Songs from the Hole - https://www.netflix.com/title/81992626Stream the album - https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/jj88Check out Question Culture, Richie's worker-owned media production, creative direction, and artist management company - https://www.questionculture.com/Cop some clothes from the For Everyone Collective - https://foreveryonecollective.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 Kisslinger Associate Producers - Cin Pimentel & Rocío SantosEngagement Producer - Rivka YekerDigital Media Producer - Troi Valles

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