Under the Tree Podcast

Episode 64: Reimagining the Classroom with Theodore Richards

We’re joined in conversation with the philosopher, youth organizer, and innovative educator Theodore Richards at the legendary destination bookstore 57th Street Books in Hyde Park, Chicago. He and I have shared the mic at half a dozen book talks over the years, and today our focus is on his latest book, Reimagining the Classroom: Creating New…

January 11, 2023

Episodes

activists, classroom, education, freedom, learning spaces, theodore richards
Episode 63: Dare to Struggle! Dare to Win! with Helen Shiller

This is our last Episode for 2022—we look forward to being back in mid-January. For this Special Episode, we’re joined in conversation with the legendary activist and organizer Helen Shiller at the 57th Street Bookstore in Hyde Park, Chicago. In her new autobiography, Daring to Struggle, Daring to Win, Shiller captures a sense of what it…

December 14, 2022

Episodes

activists, Black Panthers, chicago politics, Fred Hampton, freedom, Harold Washington, helen shiller, political education, radicals, Uptown Chicago
Episode 62: “Freedom Has Always Been the Horizon” with the Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project

Authentic learning requires free thought—curiosity, inquiry, imagination, initiative, problem-posing, question-asking. Learning is undermined when students are inspected, spied upon, regulated, appraised, censured, measured, registered, counted, admonished, checked off, prevented, and sermonized. In this episode we visit a unique college commencement ceremony—filled with joy and pain—and explore with the Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project and University…

November 30, 2022

Episodes

abolition, activists, carceraleducation, college commencement, education, educators, freedom, p-nap, prison, prison + neighborhood arts/education project, prison abolition, radical education, teaching for freedom, university without walls
Episode 61: Education for Liberation with Brian Jones

An authentic education rests on the twin pillars of enlightenment and liberation—it’s about opening doors, opening minds, and opening possibilities; the principal message to students is straight forward: you can explore, interrogate, and understand your world, and, working together, you can change it. Schooling is too often about judging and sorting students into a hierarchy…

November 16, 2022

Episodes

activists, black powers, civilrights, education, educators, radicals, student uprising, tuskegee
BONUS Episode: Injustice Watch

Talking Judges and Elections with Injustice Watch We’re a few days away from election day across the country. But many of us here in Chicago are looking at our ballots and overwhelmed with the incredible number of offices, ballot measures, and judges about whom we are expected to make informed decisions. So who are all…

November 4, 2022

Episodes

activists, ballots, charles preston, chicago, cook county, elections, injustice watch, judges, maya dukmasova, radicals
Episode 60: Medea Benjamin

Peace Now! with Meadea Benjamin and Code Pink Americans want to think of ourselves as peace-loving people, but the facts contradict the myth: US military bases stretch around the globe; nuclear weapons poised to strike from flying fortresses circle the earth; the US is the top global arms dealer as well as Number One in…

November 2, 2022

Episodes

activists, codepink, freedom, medea benjamin, military industrial complex, peace, radicals, russia, ukraine, war, war economy, War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict
Episode 59: Anastasia Higginbotham

Teach the Children Well: Ordinary Terrible Things We want our children to face the world fearlessly, but we also want them to be careful. We want them to embrace all the joy and ecstasy life has to offer them, and also to be aware of the unnecessary suffering human beings endure. We want our children…

October 19, 2022

Episodes

anastasiahigginbotham, artists, authors, book bans, childrensbooks, collage artist, dottirpress, freedom, lyndabarry, radicalism
Episode 58: Dave Zirin

Playing Through Fire with Dave Zirin We’re joined in conversation today with Dave Zirin, the sports editor for The Nation magazine and the creator of the blog, the Edge of Sports. Dave is a ground-breaking sportswriter who brings radical politics, deep critical analysis, and side-splitting humor to a field sorely lacking all three qualities. The author or co-author…

October 5, 2022

Episodes

activists, davezirin, fairplay, freedom, liberation, peopleshistory, radicalism, radicals, socialism2022, sports, zirin
Episode 57: Robin D.G. Kelley

Freedom Dreams Love and imagination, potentially the most powerful weapons in the arsenal of the oppressed, the marginalized, and the exploited, are frequently unappreciated, too often underutilized—and yet still within reach and entirely available. Robin D.G. Kelley foregrounds love, imagination, and generosity in all of his work, including the groundbreaking Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination, an…

September 21, 2022

Episodes

activists, black, emancipation, feminism, freedom, freedomdreams, liberation, marxism, radicalism, radicals, socialism2022, surrealism
Episode 56: Robert Shetterly

Portraits of Freedom What history do you stand on? What future do you stand for? Robert Shetterly’s dazzling series of portraits—“Americans Who Tell the Truth”—cuts through the cotton wool that entangles us, shakes us awake from the deep American sleep of denial, and invites us to move beyond the United States of Amnesia. Here are…

September 7, 2022

Episodes

activists, AmericansWhoTellTheTruth, artist, citizenship, civilrights, portraits, radicals, rebels

Episode Guide: View our list of guests, enjoy an episode, and review past freewrites.