From Relief to Resilience with Will Heegaard

On this episode of The Response, we get to the heart of reproductive justice with Rafa Kidvai, the director of the Repro Legal Defense Fund at If/When/How. The RLDF champions the rights and freedoms of people criminalized for their pregnancy outcomes, offers bail support, and stands as a bastion for strong defenses in the face of criminalization, spanning from miscarriages to self-managed abortions.  Rafa shares insights into the organization's holistic approach, emphasizing the critical support they provide through litigation, a helpline for those fearing criminalization, and ensuring clients receive the best possible defense.  Join us as we explore interconnected struggles, the challenges of surveillance, and the power of community in the fight for reproductive justice. Resources: If/When/How Repro Legal Defense Fund No Body Criminalized Podcast How to Become a Lawyer without Going to Law School Episode credits: Co-hosted and executive produced by Tom Llewellyn Co-hosted, produced, and edited by Paige Kelly Theme Music by Cultivate Beats Follow The Response on Twitter and Instagram for updates, memes, and more. Our entire catalog of documentaries and interviews can be found at theresponsepodcast.org — or wherever you get your podcasts. The Response is an award-winning podcast series produced by Shareable exploring how communities respond to disaster — from hurricanes to wildfires to reactionary politics and more.

For our first episode of 2024, we interviewed noted disasterologist and previous guest, Dr. Samantha Montano. We discuss the impact of climate change on disasters and the need for better disaster management and planning. We also explore the difference between emergencies, disasters, and catastrophes. And highlight the importance of community involvement in all stages of disaster management. We’ll wrap things up with a review of recent changes to FEMA's individual assistance program and touch the role of journalism in bridging the gap between public expectations and government actions in disaster response. Resources: “Disasterology: Dispatches From The Frontlines of The Climate Crisis“ Samantha’s monthly newsletter Samanth's twitter Episode credits: Hosted and produced by Tom Llewellyn Edited by Paige Kelly Theme Music by Cultivate Beats Follow The Response on Twitter and Instagram for updates, memes, and more. Our entire catalog of documentaries and interviews can be found at theresponsepodcast.org — or wherever you get your podcasts. The Response is an award-winning podcast series produced by Shareable exploring how communities respond to disaster — from hurricanes to wildfires to reactionary politics and more.

For our final episode of The Response this year, we interviewed three mutual aid organizers from Orlando, FL, Hartford, CT, and Bvlbancha (aka New Orleans, LA). Gabbie Barnes is the founder of FREE HART Closet, a worker-owner at the People's Saturday School, a mutual aid organizer, and a Library of Things Fellow. Rachel Kinbar is an organizer with Central Florida Mutual Aid, Orlando DSA, the operations director for Beautiful Trouble, and is a participant in both the Emergency Battery Network Co-Lab and a Library of Things Fellow. Ida Aronson is an active member of the United Houma Nation and organizes with Bvlbancha Collective, Imagine Water Works, and Bvlbancha Radio among other mutual aid projects, and was a participant in the Emergency Battery Network Co-Lab. While they each are working on several unique projects, they are connected by their dedication to their communities and their participation in our SolidarityWorks program. Together, we discuss the current threats to their communities, both political and environmental, the ways they are collaborating with others to develop community-led solutions, and how they find joy in their life and work despite the many challenges they face. We’re in the middle of our end-of-year fundraiser and could really use your support. If you appreciate this show and are in a position to donate, please contribute today: www.shareable.net/donate. Check out the resources below to learn more about all of their projects: SolidarityWorks Emergency Battery Network Toolkit Mutual Aid Hartford (MAH) FREE HART Closet The People's Saturday School Central Florida Mutual Aid Beautiful Trouble Bvlbancha Collective Bvlbancha Radio Imagine Water Works How To Set Up An Open Mesh Network in Your Neighborhood Meet Freifunk, the German group that aims to provide free internet to all "The Food Conspiracy Cookbook" Urban Recipe (Food Distribution Co-op) Episode credits: Hosted and produced by Tom Llewellyn Edited by Robert Raymond Theme Music by Cultivate Beats Follow The Response on Twitter and Instagram for updates, memes, and more. Our entire catalog of documentaries and interviews can be found at theresponsepodcast.org — or wherever you get your podcasts. The Response is an award-winning podcast series produced by Shareable exploring how communities respond to disaster — from hurricanes to wildfires to reactionary politics and more.

On this week’s show, we’ll be turning our focus towards the Solidarity Economy and what is meant by 'Resist & Build'.   Joining us for this conversation is Emily Kawano, Co-Director of the Wellspring Cooperative Corporation and Coordinator of the United States Solidarity Economy Network, Matthew Slaats, co-director of the Solidarity Research Center and the founder of the Virginia Solidarity Economy Network, and Edget Betru, an attorney who is on the boards of Community Movement Builders and the Organization for Human Rights and Democracy in Atlanta.   Together, we unpack what 'Resist & Build' looks like in practice, discuss the necessity of cross-movement dialogue and collaboration, and explore pathways for scaling up (and arguably, more importantly, scaling out) the solidarity economy.   Resources: Resist & Build US Solidarity Economy Network Virginia Solidarity Economy Network Community Movement Builders Organization for Human Rights and Democracy People’s Network for Land and Liberation Wellspring Cooperative Corporation Solidarity Research Center Stop Cop City Solidarity The Response: Stop Cop City with Jesse Pratt López & Nolan Huber-Rhoades Episode credits: Produced and hosted by Tom Llewellyn Edited by Robert Raymond. Theme Music by Cultivate Beats Follow The Response on Twitter and Instagram for updates, memes, and more. Our entire catalog of documentaries and interviews can be found at theresponsepodcast.org — or wherever you get your podcasts. Want to help spread the word? Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify — it makes a huge difference in reaching new people who may otherwise not hear about this show. The Response is published by Shareable.

On today’s show we brought on Mohamed Shehk, Campaigns Director for Critical Resistance and member of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center here in the Bay Area.  In this conversation we talk about some of the recent actions taking place to support the struggle for Palestinian liberation, including recent actions aimed at stopping military cargo intended for Israel from leaving docks in Oakland and Tacama. We talk about the role of direct action in our movements, the horrific situation in Palestine, and some of the ways you can get involved. This is Robert's last interview with The Response! You can follow him and his work at Upstream. Resources: Critical Resistance Arab Resource and Organizing Center The Palestinian Youth Movement US Campaign for Palestinian Human Rights Palestine Legal Our episode with Pedro Mancilla of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) and Anchor Brewery: Labor Battles and the Beer Industry For more on police abolition check out our episode: Mutual aid and police accountability with Tha Hood Squad Upstream's episode: Palestine Pt. 1 with Sumaya Awad Episode credits: Produced, hosted, and edited by Robert Raymond. Co-produced by Tom Llewellyn Theme Music by Cultivate Beats Follow The Response on Twitter and Instagram for updates, memes, and more. Our entire catalog of documentaries and interviews can be found at theresponsepodcast.org — or wherever you get your podcasts. Want to help spread the word? Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify — it makes a huge difference in reaching new people who may otherwise not hear about this show. The Response is published by Shareable.  

Today, we’re cross posting "A Roundtable on Palestine-Israel" from our friends at The Fire These Times podcast as a bonus episode for listeners of The Response.   The Fire These Times Co-hosts, Joey Ayoub and Daniel Voskoboynik are joined by Dana El Kurd, Orly Noy, and Yair Wallach to think through this moment, process their grief together, and articulate alternative visions for both peoples.   After listening to several inflammatory takes for the past month, this was exactly the conversation that we needed to be a fly on the wall for. We hope you learn or feel something new while listening as well.   Resources: Medical Aid for Palestinians | Adalah | Al-Shabaka | Gisha | Hamleh | Hamoked | The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel | Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Centre (JLAC) | MIFTAH: The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy | Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) | Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P) | Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) | Women's Centre for Legal Aid and Counseling (WCLAC)   Episode credits: Presented, hosted, and co-produced by Tom Llewellyn Edited by Robert Raymond Theme Music by Cultivate Beats Follow The Response on Twitter and Instagram for updates, memes, and more. Our entire catalog of documentaries and interviews can be found at theresponsepodcast.org — or wherever you get your podcasts. Want to help spread the word? Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify — it makes a huge difference in reaching new people who may otherwise not hear about this show. The Response is published by Shareable.

After a statement about the war in Palestine, we’re in conversation with Stephanie Rearick, a founder, and Director of the Madison Mutual Aid Network Cooperative and Humans United in Mutual Aid Networks, or HUMANS for short, which is a new type of networked cooperative ‘creating means for everyone to discover and succeed in work they want to do, with the support of their community’.   Stephanie talks about how mutual aid has changed since the pandemic began, how to create networks of Care that can actually support members of our communities long term, the new tech stack that they’re creating to support mutual aid work to scale, and what it means to live a POSHtarity Lifestyle. Resources: Mutual Aid Network Humans at Home Call for a Ceasefire in Gaza Jewish Voice for Peace Call for Ceasefire in Gaza Mutual Aid and the Movement to Stop Cop City Episode credits: Presented, hosted, and co-produced by Tom Llewellyn Edited by Robert Raymond Theme Music by Cultivate Beats Follow The Response on Twitter and Instagram for updates, memes, and more. Our entire catalog of documentaries and interviews can be found at theresponsepodcast.org — or wherever you get your podcasts. Want to help spread the word? Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify — it makes a huge difference in reaching new people who may otherwise not hear about this show. The Response is published by Shareable.    

Summer might be over for us in the Northern Hemisphere — but things are still heating up in the US labor movement. A ground-swell of labor action continues to heave and crack the crust which had been slowly hardening on the surface of the radical fires dormant under neoliberalism. The latest news in the ongoing strike wave comes out of the United Auto Workers Union, where workers at a number of plants have walked out and are engaging in a historic “stand-up” strike — fighting for better wages and better working conditions. To talk about the strike, the labor movement more broadly, and the current state of the class war between workers and capital, we’ve brought on Teddy Ostrow, a labor and economics journalist and host of the podcast Upsurge. In this conversation Teddy talks about what it’s been like out on the UAW picket lines, the revitalization and re-radicalization of the labor movement, where the labor movement in the United States is headed, and much more. Resources: The Upsurge Podcast When Auto Workers Stand Up, Here's How to Stand with Them, Labor Notes Episode credits: Hosted, edited, and produced by Robert Raymond Presented, edited, and co-produced by Tom Llewellyn Theme Music by Cultivate Beats Follow The Response on Twitter and Instagram for updates, memes, and more. Our entire catalog of documentaries and interviews can be found at theresponsepodcast.org — or wherever you get your podcasts. Want to help spread the word? Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify — it makes a huge difference in reaching new people who may otherwise not hear about this show. The Response is published by Shareable.  

Anyone who's been in a disaster and experienced the initial government or major nonprofit response may have noticed that there's a lot of waste involved. From the thousands of single-use water bottles and throw-away medical supplies to the constant churning of diesel and gas-powered generators, there’s just really no other option. But what if there was? Would it be adopted? How could these large disaster response institutions even know that things could be done differently? That’s where Footprint Project comes in. Since 2017 they've been proving that it's possible to respond cleaner and build back greener by deploying 200+ kW of mobile solar and 600+ kWh of mobile battery storage on more than 20 disaster response and recovery missions, to provide emergency clean power access to over 28,000 people in some of the hardest hit communities following disasters. Today on the show, we’ve brought on Footprint Project’s Operations Director, Will Heegaard, who shares the genesis stories for how he got involved in disaster response work and the impetus behind launching the organization. He also unpacks the importance of building resilient communities and the role he feels that state agencies should play in disaster relief. And for those listeners who just completed our Emergency Battery Network Co-Lab (or are planning to check out the course recordings and Toolkit that are soon to be on our website), stick around for the full conversation to hear Will’s advice on how to build power in your community. Resources: Footprint Project Episode credits: Hosted and co-produced by Tom Llewellyn Presented, edited, and co-produced by Robert Raymond Theme Music by Cultivate Beats Follow The Response on Twitter and Instagram for updates, memes, and more. Our entire catalog of documentaries and interviews can be found at theresponsepodcast.org — or wherever you get your podcasts. Want to help spread the word? Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify — it makes a huge difference in reaching new people who may otherwise not hear about this show. The Response is published by Shareable.

On today’s show we’re continuing our ongoing Disaster Dispatch series with a deep dive into the Maui wildfires. Earlier this month a series of wind-driven wildfires in Hawaii, predominantly in Maui, led to widespread devastation and destruction, killing at least 115 people and leaving 850 others missing in the town of Lāhainā. These numbers are estimated to actually be much higher as the search to find and identify victims remains painstakingly slow.  To tell us more about what happened and what the community response has been, we’ve brought on Nicole Huguenin. Nicole is based in Maui and is the co-lead of Maui Rapid Response, an ahupua’a-based citizen disaster response team that’s part of a much broader community response ecosystem working all across the island to provide relief and mutual aid to residents of Maui.  Resources: Maui Rapid Response Maui Rapd Response on Instagram Help Maui Rise Donation Google Doc ʻĀina Momona Kāko'o Haleakalā Tamara Paltin Mauna Medic Healers Hui Kanaeokana Episode credits: Hosted, produced, and edited by Robert Raymond Presented by Tom Llewellyn Theme Music by Cultivate Beats Follow The Response on Twitter and Instagram for updates, memes, and more. Our entire catalog of documentaries and interviews can be found at theresponsepodcast.org — or wherever you get your podcasts. Want to help spread the word? Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify — it makes a huge difference in reaching new people who may otherwise not hear about this show. The Response is published by Shareable.