Podcast

The Social Justice Initiative is partnering with AirGo Radio to present the podcast, Radical Care, Real Alternatives. The podcast is a six-part series of conversations created in connection to the Social Justice Portal Project. Each episode features scholars, organizers, and thought leaders discussing vital racial and social justice issues around the theme of Racial care and real alternatives.

Episode Listings:

• Episode One: The Social Justice Portal Project featuring Stacey Sutton and Barbara Ransby. On the first episode, we're sharing a talk between Prof. Stacey Sutton and Prof. Barbara Ransby about the Social Justice Portal Project, a collaborative think tank that crosses disciplinary boundaries to address the urgent questions of social justice faced by our communities.
• Episode Two: Survival Economies featuring Nik Theodore and Richard Wallace. On this second episode, we hear from Nik Theodore, a professor at UIC and Director of the UIC Center for Urban Economic Development, and Rich Wallace, who is the Director of EAT (Equity and Transformation) Chicago. In conversation with Prof. Stacey Sutton, they break down the concept and implications of the informal economy, and dive deep into the stories they cultivated as part of their new report entitled Survival
• Episode Three: A conversation about structural care, hosted by UIC Professor Jennifer Brier and featuring longtime HIV/AIDS movement workers Charles Ryan Long, Valencia Robinson, and Kenyon Farrow. The squad talks about how they've learned to redefine care, what their work can teach us about how to respond to pandemics, and much more.
• Episode Four: We dig deep into the contemporary undocumented rights movement with UIC Professor Amalia Pallares and Mijente Political Director Tania Unzueta. The former mentor-mentee duo go through the timeline of Tania's involvement in the struggle, from her canceled appearance in front of Congress on September 11th, to the fight for DACA to be passed in the early 2010s, to her step into electoral politics over the last few years. Throughout the story, the love and appreciation between the old friends shines through, and the stories Tania shares illustrate what the future of this fight can look like.
• Episode Five: Hosted by UIC professors Rachel Weber and Philip Ashton, this episode explores how the public goods and services on which we rely have been commodified, packaged, and sold to the highest bidder. From the Chicago Skyway to the Green Line subway to the parking spots across the city, the municipal government has auctioned off the public infrastructure in an attempt to plug short-term budget holes, with often disastrous consequences. Dive deep into the weeds and emerge with a new lens to challenge the privatization of our lived environment in Chicago and beyond.
• Episode Six: We dive deep into the dynamics, structures, and transformative possibilities of the fight for Environmental and Climate Justice. The conversation is hosted by Teresa Córdova, who is the Director of the Great Cities Institute and a Professor of Urban Planning and Policy at UIC. She is joined by José Bravo, the Executive Director of Just Transition Alliance, and José Acosta-Cordova, the Environmental Planning and Research Organizer at LVEJO. The trio breaks down how the work has shifted over the last thirty years, some of the false solutions to climate change that are being proposed, and the value of multigenerational organizing in the Environmental Justice movement. It's a great convo to wrap up the suite–enjoy!