In this episode, I discuss the anti-lockdown protests and opposition to ongoing quarantining in the face of COVID-19. Rather than focusing on the extremist gun nuts, anti-vaxxers, and conspiracy loons behind some of this activity, I focus on the more reasonable fears of average, everyday folks, simply worried about the economy and their ability to support their families. But as I explain, however reasonable their fears may be, the assumption that we must choose our money/jobs or our lives/health...
May 07, 2020•58 min
In this episode, I explore the importance of gratitude and humility, in terms of how we think of our own place and the place of others in the economy (especially in this moment of quarantine), and also as political organizing tools. As we enter the home stretch for the 2020 election, activists in both the Biden camp and Sanders camp have been quick to deploy guilt and shame to motivate those in the opposite camp. For Biden supporters, it's shaming those Bernie die-hards who say they will refuse ...
Apr 16, 2020•1 hr 4 min
In this episode, I examine the right's new favorite mantra -- "facts don't care about your feelings" -- and what it says about modern conservatism's deeply stunted emotional core. Looking at the political, philosophical and psychological underpinnings of this notion, that "reason and logic" are a) conservative, and b) in opposition to feelings and emotion (which are "liberal") I note the absurdity of such arguments, and also their fundamentally dehumanizing and dangerous logic. Fact is: 1) What ...
Nov 27, 2019•55 min
On this episode, taped live at the 2019 National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education, Tim and his guests discuss the need for solidarity between Jews and Muslims in the face of growing white nationalism, fueled by deep-seated anti-Semitism as well as Islamophobia. As synagogues and mosques around the world come under attack from terrorists intent on sowing hatred, the importance of Jews and Muslims seeing themselves as allies to one another becomes ever more important. Islam and...
Nov 02, 2019•1 hr 21 min
In this episode, taped live at the 2019 National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education, Tim and his panelists discuss the way in which Asian Americans have long been viewed by some as a "model minority," and how that framing papers over ongoing racism against all persons of color, incuding Asian folks. Particular attention is given to the way in which this trope has been deployed by reactionary attorneys who brought the recent lawsuit against Harvard for its affirmative action pro...
Oct 14, 2019•1 hr 28 min
In this episode, taped live at the 2019 National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education (NCORE), Tim and his panel discuss the rise of overt racist and white nationalist organizing in America, and especially on college campuses. With groups like Identity Europa actively recruiting college students, and with young people especially susceptible to right-wing radicalization via internet-based hate forums, it will be important for colleges—as places of learning and as spaces ostensibly...
Jul 31, 2019•1 hr 24 min
In this episode, Tim speaks with Daryle Lamont Jenkins, founder of One People's Project and a leading figure in the American antifa (anti-fascist) movement. With so much misinformation about antifa in mainstream corporate media, Tim and Daryle take the opportunity to discuss what antifa is and what it isn't; to discuss various tactics of antifa, from releasing the personal information of white supremacists to confronting Nazis in the streets. Do these tactics help or hurt the cause? Are there li...
Jun 25, 2019•1 hr 9 min
On this episode, Tim speaks with Bettie Kirkland of Project Return: a Nashville-based non-profit that has been working for forty years to help formerly incarcerated persons find jobs, and most recently housing, despite the oftentimes substantial barriers they face to both. Tim and Bettie discuss Project Return’s efforts over the years, how their work can help break down persistent stereotypes about the formerly incarcerated, and why a model of redemption and restoration is so much more logical t...
May 14, 2019•51 min
In this episode, Tim speaks with Dr. Jonathan Metzl, a professor of sociology and psychiatry at Vanderbilt University, and the author of the new book, Dying of Whiteness: How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America’s Heartland. In his groundbreaking volume, Metzl sets out to explore and answer the question: why do working class and struggling white Americans so often seem to vote against their own interests? Electing politicians who vote against public health care initiatives (like ...
Apr 02, 2019•56 min
On this episode, Tim discusses CNN’s firing of contributor Marc Lamont Hill (a former guest on the show), for comments he made in favor of full equality and justice for the Palestinian people. Hill’s words, misinterpreted as a call for violence against Israeli Jews, have demonstrated not only the intellectual dishonesty of some of Israel’s most militant defenders, but also the limits of open inquiry and dialogue around the pressing issue of Middle East peace. In this reflection on Hill’s firing,...
Dec 04, 2018•53 min
Well the midterm elections are over and the Democrats have retaken the House of Representatives, though losing ground in the Senate. What do the outcomes of key races mean for the Democratic Party, the battle against Trumpism and the future of the country? In this episode, Tim breaks down the good, the bad and the ugly of the midterms, and discusses what progressive forces need to do (and not do) in the wake of the election.
Nov 07, 2018•51 min
The recent New York Times expose on the Trump family—and how Donald’s father passed along hundreds of millions of dollars to his son—has once again exposed the way great wealth is often the result not of hard work and talent, but inheritance and intergenerational handouts. Although the focus of the story was on the Trumps, its value goes well beyond piercing the veil of self-dealing and occasional graft at the heart of one family’s empire. The narrative of “rugged individualism” and the myth of ...
Oct 23, 2018•59 min
On today’s episode, I speak with Dr. David Campt, racial dialogue facilitator, educator, and creator of the new White Ally Toolkit Workbook, which aims to provide white folks with the rhetorical and practical tools they need to engage other whites around issues of racial equity. At a time of increasing political and racial division, the importance of white progressives and so-called “woke” folks knowing how to speak to (and with) those whose awareness of race issues is limited—or who steadfastly...
Oct 09, 2018•1 hr 5 min
On this episode — the last before returning to the regular interview format of the program — please enjoy Tim's presentation to the teachers, staff and administrators of the Cahokia Illinois School district on August 31 of this year. In this presentation, he discusses the ways that racial and ecnomic inequities in education, far from indicating failures in the system, actually suggest that inequality is a desired and deliberate outcome of schooling, and has been for many years. Herein, Wise expl...
Sep 19, 2018•1 hr 5 min
This week’s episode features Tim’s plenary presentation at the 2018 American Psychological Association’s National Conference in San Francisco, this August. In this speech, Wise addresses the way that inequities in the justice system — especially police violence, racial profiling and disproportionate incarceration—impact the psychological health of peoples of color in America, and what those impacts mean for professionals seeking to offer trauma-informed care. He also examines the way that racial...
Sep 04, 2018•47 min
On this episode, I explore what it means for progressive political movements that so much recent research suggests “facts don’t matter” when it comes to persuading people on various social issues. Does this mean we ought to ignore research, analysis and data in favor of more emotional and narrative forms of political appeals? Is the research even accurate when it says “facts don’t matter?” How do we know, and what do the answers suggest for organizing strategy or the way we engage others around ...
Aug 21, 2018•1 hr 10 min
As I wind down my summer hiatus from interviewing guests, enjoy this extended commentary on the issue of free speech, and what it means—and doesn’t mean—on campuses and in the nation at large. Lately, amid the decision of various social media companies to ban conspiracy theorist Alex Jones or neo-Nazis from their platforms—and amid pushback against right-wing speakers invited to college campuses—many folks (conservative and liberal) have insisted that these moves amount to violations of the free...
Aug 14, 2018•5 min
While I take a break from guest interviews for the summer, enjoy these three commentaries: one new and two previously available in my 2017 Patreon archives. In the first (and new) piece, I respond to common critiques of “identity politics,” and explain why those criticisms are wrongheaded on multiple levels. First, they are selective: only condemning a political focus on marginalized groups (people of color, women and LGBTQ folks, for instance) while ignoring the way that a focus on the “white w...
Jul 24, 2018•55 min
While I take a break from guest interviews for the summer, enjoy this compilation of two previous (but still highly relevant) commentaries from my 2017 Patreon archives. In the first, I explore the way that racism operates institutionally, even in the absence of deliberate racist and bigoted intent. When we presume that racism requires overt prejudice we often overlook the subtle but destructive ways in which racial inequity is perpetuated in labor markets, education and the justice system, simp...
Jul 17, 2018•52 min
While I take a break from guest interviews for the summer, enjoy this compilation of two previous (but still highly relevant) commentaries from my 2017 Patreon archives, in which I discuss, dissect and dismantle the logic and argumentation of white nationalists and Neo-Nazis. First, I explore the inherent moral and practical absurdity of white nationalism and white racial identity politics itself, and why organizing for “white interests” is inherently different than when people of color organize...
Jul 10, 2018•50 min
This episode features the third of three public dialogues held specifically for the show at the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education (NCORE), last month in New Orleans. In this conversation, I’ll speak with educators and advocates, David Pilgrim, Michael Benitez and Loretta Ross – whose bios will be presented in the program itself – about the challenges facing college campuses when it comes to balancing the right to free speech (even for those espousing ideas that are ra...
Jul 03, 2018•1 hr 9 min
On this special episode, I offer an extended commentary on the extraordinary events of the past two weeks with regard to the issue of immigration policy, including the Administration’s cruel and inhumane policy of family separation at the border, as well as the ban on migration from several Muslim nations, which was just upheld by the Supreme Court. What do these policies and rulings mean in terms of how we see the nation and the very concept of an “American?” What are the real motivations for t...
Jun 27, 2018•54 min
Today’s episode features a conversation on social justice movement building between Tim and three of the nation’s most engaging thinkers and activists: Tia Oso, Dayvon Love and Chris Crass. The dialogue took place in front of a live audience at the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education (NCORE) in New Orleans on May 31. Among the topics discussed by the panel: What things get in the way of effective movement building? What are the lessons we can take away from past and pre...
Jun 19, 2018•1 hr 18 min
This episode is the first of three programs taped in front of a live audience at the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity in Higher Education (NCORE), held from May 29 to June 2, 2018 in New Orleans. The guests — Joy Degruy, Jacqueline Battalora, and Rahuldeep Gill — explore the ways that people of color are psychologically affected by racialized injustice, from internalizing oppression to feeling intense pressure to assimilate, and the way whites in America are conditioned not only to acce...
Jun 05, 2018•1 hr 17 min
On this week’s episode, Tim speaks with Tyler Merritt, whose original video “Before You Call the Cops” recently went viral, provoking conversations across the nation about racism, stereotypes, and the importance of empathy in combatting racial injustice. The video, part of a larger effort he calls the Tyler Merritt Project, seeks to reach hearts and minds through original video content steeped in both humor and personal narrative. Tim and Tyler discuss the importance of personal narrative, the p...
May 30, 2018•53 min
On this episode of Speak Out with Tim Wise, I offer an extended analysis of the issue of equal opportunity and its real meaning. Often the right insists that they are the ones who believe in equal opportunity while the left is calling for “equal outcomes” or “equal results,” and that these notions are fundamentally at odds with the reality of individual differences in ability and the requirements of a free society. But this framing is fundamentally dishonest. First, the left does not claim that ...
May 22, 2018•51 min
On today’s episode, I speak with Keba Konte, founder of Red Bay Coffee in Oakland CA. On a mission to diversify the look and feel of the specialty coffee business in America, Konte’s business model for Red Bay considers issues of equity and fairness at all points along the supply chain: from where the coffee is grown and how much growers are paid, to how much his own baristas and other employees receive in pay and profit sharing, so they can continue to afford to live in rapidly gentrifying comm...
May 15, 2018•58 min
On today’s episode of Speak Out with Tim Wise, Tim speaks with Dr. Jennifer Harvey, Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Drake University, and author of the new book, Raising White Kids: Bringing Up Children in Racially Unjust America (for which he provided the foreword). They’ll discuss the reasons why so many white parents avoid discussions of race with our kids, and the harm this silence ultimately does to our children's understanding of racial dynamics in America. The conversation explore...
May 08, 2018•1 hr 3 min
On today's episode of Speak Out with Tim Wise, Tim speaks with Jody David Armour, the Roy P. Crocker Professor of Law at the University of Southern California, and a leading expert on the intersection between race and legal decision making. They’ll discuss the ongoing relevance of a book Armour wrote over 20 years ago, concerning the way that white Americans and the larger legal system have sought to rationalize racism and discriminatory treatment of African Americans, and to normalize what Armo...
May 01, 2018•1 hr 2 min
On today’s episode, Tim speaks with Monifa Bandele, Vice President and Chief Partnership & Equity Officer for Moms Rising: an organization committed to amplifying women's voices within the national public policy dialogue and media. Tim and Monifa discuss Mom’s Rising’s campaign to address the disturbing maternal health disparities between black and white women in America, including distressing rates of maternal mortality for African American women irrespective of socioeconomic status. Why ar...
Apr 24, 2018•1 hr
