Tag Archives: Dean Spade

Duncan Trussell in conversation with Lisa Romero AND Mitch Horowitz in conversation with Dean Spade! It’s the final installment of AEWCH 200

12 Oct

LISTEN HERE VIA SOUNDCLOUD OR ON Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Breaker • Anchor

Friends
Part three of the massive, mighty AEWCH 200 is upon us… and it’s a big episode! AEWCH 200 is three episodes over three weeks, featuring six conversations, each conversation has two previous guests of AEWCH in conversation with me on a theme. Here’s Part One in case you missed it, and here’s Part Two!

These are people I’ve loved talking to (most of them have been on the show more than once) in conversation with someone they might never talk to without AEWCH bringing them together. The idea is a sort of conversational alchemy. What happens when people in different disciplines speak? What sort of new substances arise?

For instance:

What happens when a paranormal expert talks with a mortician?
What happens when an expert on transhumanism and culture talks with a psychoanalytic theologian? What happens when a horror writer talks with a journalist of every day horrors?

This time it’s Part Three: Spirit & Hope Mystic comedian podcaster Duncan Trussell talks with occult teacher Lisa Romero + new age scholar Mitch Horowitz talks with mutual aid anarchist organizer Dean Spade!

SHOW NOTES GUEST WEBSITES & SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Mitch Horowitz – Mitch’s website • Occult America: White House Seances, Ouija Circles, Masons, and the Secret Mystic History of Our Nation

Lisa Romero – Lisa’s website, The Inner Work Path • A Bridge to Spirit: Understanding Conscious Self-Development and Consciousness-Altering Substances

Dean Spade – Dean’s website • Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity in This Crisis (and the Next)

Duncan Trussell – Duncan’s podcast, The Duncan Trussell Family Hour • my latest appearance on Duncan’s show

SUPPORT AGAINST EVERYONE WITH CONNER HABIB

Being up to 200 episodes means AEWCH is in a tiny tiny percentage of podcasts that have lasted this long – something like 2%. I can ONLY keep doing this show if people support it on patreon.

I know post-pandemic times and economic roller coasters are affecting everyone in different ways. That said, the art and culture you love are great places to center support and love.

If you don’t already, please do the following to keep AEWCH going:

  • Give via patreon – Patreon.com/connerhabib
  • Tell people about the show and, if it feels okay, to support it on patreon (especially if you already know your pals are fans of the show but don’t support it).
  • Give the show a 5 star rating and positive review on Apple Podcasts.
  • Tweet and Insta quotes from and thoughts inspired by episodes!

Thank you so much for everything, and enjoy all this big talk.
Love, CH

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Spiritual organizing and solidarity with spirits on AEWCH 179 featuring Dean Spade

9 Feb

LISTEN HERE VIA SOUNDCLOUD OR ON Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Breaker • Anchor

Against Everyone With Conner Habib is funded exclusively by listeners like you. It’s not “mutual aid” exactly, but it’s not far off! SUPPORT THIS PODCAST via Patreon

Friends,
Happy New Year! Here’s the fifth and final in the series of episodes on How To Live in 2022. The first, AEWCH 175, was with occult scholar Mitch Horowitz, the second, AEWCH 176, is on why reincarnation matters for us now, the third is AEWCH 177 with philosopher Zena Hitz on how and why to be an intellectual, and the fourth is AEWCH 178 on using mysticism and the tarot in 2022 with Jessica Dore.

All those episodes, though, were geared towards being an individual navigating the world. But what about, uh, other people? Especially since according to Sartre’s much-misinterpreted line, “hell is other people”? How do we enter into much-needed organizing when groups can be so intolerable? And what about when the spiritual is excluded and groups feel cold and even like they have the wrong idea of how the world works?

I asked the amazing author and anarchist activist Dean Spade back to the show to discuss all the above. Dean was last on the show on AEWCH 131, discussing mutual aid, and his book, Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next), in the midst of the early pandemic. It remains one of my favorite conversations on the show, ever. On this episode, we talk about what happens in groups and the when politicization leads to dehumanization. We also talk about organizing with the dead and the evolution of consciousness as the origin of hierarchies. It’s good, weird, and deep.

SHOW NOTES

WHAT BOOK YOU SHOULD READ?
Since the origins of inequality keep coming up on the episode, I recommend the book of (AEWCH 169 & AEWCH 99) guests, David Wengrow and David Graeber, The Dawn of Everything. It’s a great book and now it’s a bestseller. Not saying I had anything to do with that, exactly; just happy to see the success of such a thoughtful book about the stupidity of takes like “we’re hard wired to be hierarchical” and “society is too complex to be egalitarian.” Get it. Read it.

WHAT OTHER AEWCH EPISODE YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO?
A great look at how we all draw from commonwealths – of knowledge, of tactics, strategies, struggles, creative impulses, and sexuality – is on AEWCH 120 with one of my favorite philosophers, Michael Hardt. Michael is the co-author (with Antonio Negri) of some of the most influential political and global theory books of all time, most recently, Assembly. It’s really, really good stuff; a systems thinking approach to leftist politics. Don’t miss it.

WHAT SHOULD YOU LOOK INTO FURTHER?
The evolution of consciousness and its many culturally specific iterations is one direction I point to for the origins of inequality. By evolution of consciousness, I don’t just mean the evolution in what we think, but the structures of consciousness – including perception – itself. One philosopher of the evolution of consciousness is Jean Gebser, whose book The Ever-Present Origin remains a potent and detailed mapping of the phenomenon. Here’s the Jean Gebser Society’s site to learn more.

MORE ON DEAN
Firstly, here’s Dean’s website, which has tons of his efforts lined, including his excellent video workshop series, Building Capacity for Mutual Aid Groups. Dean is the founder of the founder of Sylvia Rivera Law Project which works to help create conditions to help people thrive while self-determining their gender identity and expression. Dean is also the author of Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of the Law, which identifies the many ways in which struggles that look to permission from the state for human rights fall short. You can also watch his documentary about the ways Israel tires to cover up some of its crimes against Palestinians by exploiting LGBT rights: Pinkwashing Exposed.

Until next time, friends – live well, and together!
XO
CH

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