On today's episode, Tim sits in conversation with two of the nation’s most inspiring criminal justice and prison reform activists, Taina Vargas-Edmond and Dorsey Nunn, during the first-ever recording of the show in front of a live audience. Vargas-Edmond is the Executive Director and co-Founder of Initiate Justice and Dorsey Nunn is the Executive Director of Legal Services for Prisoners With Children/All of Us or None. In this public dialogue — a fundraiser for their respective groups sponsored ...
Apr 17, 2018•1 hr 2 min
On today’s episode of Speak Out With Tim Wise, Tim speaks with the folks behind the We Counter Hate project: an ingenious and creative new effort to counter hate speech on Twitter. As you’ll hear on the program, the project involves the use of computer technology to identify hate speech, alert those who spread it that it has been deemed hate speech, and then let them know that for every re-tweet of the material, a donation will be made to an organization fighting the very hatred they seek to spr...
Apr 10, 2018•52 min
On today’s episode of Speak Out With Tim Wise, Tim speaks with Jasmine Tyler, of Human Rights Watch, about criminal justice policy in the age of Trump and under the watch of Attorney General Jeff Sessions. They’ll explore the administration’s threats to states that have legalized recreational marijuana and their call for the death penalty for drug dealers, and what it could mean to re-invigorate the failed and racially-disparate war on drugs. Tyler and Wise will also examine the ongoing racial d...
Apr 03, 2018•1 hr 1 min
Today’s guest on Speak Out With Tim Wise is Dr. Marc Lamont Hill, one of America’s leading public intellectuals. Hill is a Temple University professor, host of BET News, a regular political contributor for CNN, and the author of the NYT bestseller, Nobody: Casualties of America’s War on the Vulnerable from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond. On this week’s program, Wise and Hill discuss Trumpism, and the inspiring state of youth resistance, both in the U.S. and abroad. Additionally, they explore the r...
Mar 27, 2018•1 hr 1 min
On today’s episode, Tim speaks with Bradley Onishi, an Assistant Professor of Religion at Skidmore College and author of the forthcoming book, The Sacrality of the Secular, from Columbia University Press. Onishi’s recent writings, in which he discusses his past as an evangelical Christian, frame the conversation as he and Wise explore the way that white evangelism in particular filters virtually all issues of political morality through the lens of abortion. They’ll discuss why this is, how it ex...
Mar 20, 2018•57 min
On this episode of Speak Out With Tim Wise, Tim speaks with antiracism educators and authors, Robin DiAngelo and Debby Irving. They’ll discuss the ways in which white obliviousness to the reality of racism, and "white fragility" as DiAngelo calls it—which causes such backlash when matters of race and privilege are raised—both complicate efforts to produce racial equity in American institutions. They’ll explore how white fragility manifests, why it’s so toxic for both people of color and (ironica...
Mar 13, 2018•1 hr
Today on Speak Out With Tim Wise, Tim speaks with Rashad Robinson Executive Director of Color of Change, the nation’s largest online racial justice organization. Driven by over one million members, Color Of Change builds power for Black communities, moving decision makers in corporations and government to create a more human and less hostile world for Black people and all people. In addition to their work around criminal justice reform, Color of Change is currently spearheading the Hollywood Cul...
Mar 06, 2018•56 min
On this episode Tim speaks with activist and educator Hugh Vasquez of the National Equity Project about the role of subconscious bias in perpetuating racial inequities, and how individuals and institutions can begin to undo the impact of these biases and create policies and practices that minimize the damage they can do. In their discussion Hugh and Tim explore the research from the field of brain science and how that research can (and must) inform our strategies for addressing racism in our com...
Feb 28, 2018•56 min
On today’s episode Tim offers an extended personal commentary on the gun crisis in America, following last week’s horrific mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida. With so much attention focused on what the shooting means—about guns and violence in America, about mental health, and about the politics of gun control—it’s important to understand the issues in play, to cut through the arguments against common sense gun regulations made by gun fanatics, and to explo...
Feb 20, 2018•55 min
On this week’s episode, Tim speaks with Loretta Ross, one of the nation’s leading scholars and activists in the movement for reproductive justice. She was the co-founder and National Coordinator of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective from 2005-2012, a network founded in 1997 by women of color specifically to organize women of color in the reproductive justice movement. Ms. Ross was the Founder and Executive Director of the National Center for Human Rights Education (NCH...
Feb 13, 2018•56 min
On this week’s episode, Tim speaks with activist, author, and leading progressive movement strategist, Rinku Sen. They discuss why it's important for progressives to bridge the work being done by anti-Trump activists (who focus mostly on challenging the Administration’s corruption and authoritarian tendencies) with broader issue-oriented social justice efforts, and why both community organizers and electoral campaigners have lots to learn from one another. Additionally, she and Tim discuss the s...
Feb 06, 2018•1 hr 1 min
This week on Speak Out with Tim Wise, Tim speaks with Dr. Christopher Emdin, author of the award-winning and best-selling books, "Urban Science Education for the Hip-Hop Generation," and "For White Folks Who Teach in the Hood…and the Rest of Y’all Too: Reality Pedagogy and Urban Education." Emdin, who is a professor of Math, Science and Technology at Teacher’s College (Columbia University), is a leading expert on ways to engage and inspire young students of color in school by connecting their da...
Jan 30, 2018•54 min
This week on Speak Out With Tim Wise, Tim speaks with filmmaker Ramsey Denison, whose award-winning documentary, "What Happened In Vegas" exposes the corrupt and brutal workings of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. While most Americans only came to think about law enforcement in Vegas in the wake of last October’s mass shooting, Denison explains that the LVMPD has a pattern of deeply rooted abuse and misconduct, little of which has ever resulted in officers being held accountable. Fo...
Jan 23, 2018•54 min
With many progressives focused on fighting Donald Trump — exposing collusion with Russia, possible money-laundering, and other misdeeds — and others continuing (as before the election) to focus on fighting broader issues of xenophobia, racial inequity in policing and systemic misogyny, there is an important question to ask: what is the proper balance for the left? How much should we focus on Trump or Trumpism, and how much should we emphasize the larger struggles that we were engaging before he ...
Jan 16, 2018•53 min
What does it mean to grow up a black Republican, and conservative in America? And especially as the right has increasingly relied upon race-baiting and white racial resentment for votes? On this week’s episode of Speak Out with Tim Wise, Tim speaks to someone who has been there, done that, and has emerged with a newfound political independence and determination to force both major parties to take seriously the concerns of people of color and the poor. Political consultant and writer Charles Badg...
Jan 09, 2018•1 hr 1 min
Words are just letters on a page, or sounds traveling through the air when spoken, except when they’re more than that. For Birmingham-based writer and poet Michael Harriot — whose essays are featured at The Root and whose spoken word performances have lit up audiences across the United States — words are much more. They are tools at the very least, and weapons at the most, for crafting truth in a society built on lies. On this episode, Tim speaks with Michael about some of his recent essays abou...
Jan 02, 2018•1 hr
Conscience or Commerce? Sometimes the choice is a difficult one, especially as a songwriter, and particularly in a mostly country genre, where political music (especially with an unapologetically progressive message) risks turning off some fans, and certainly record labels. Luckily for Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Will Hoge, being an independent artist has allowed him to make a good living doing what he loves and to speak his mind about the issues of the day when the occasion calls for it....
Dec 26, 2017•34 min
Amid competing concerns about “fake news” and media bias — whether coming from conservatives who think the media is slanted left, or progressives who feel the press carries too much water for Trump, Wall Street and the right — one thing is certain: the media continues to present disproportionately negative images of black families, contributing to racial bias and reactionary public policy. On this week’s episode Tim speaks with Dr. Travis Dixon (University of Illinois), a media effects scholar w...
Dec 19, 2017•59 min
Tired of living in a “post-truth” political world where lies become “alternative facts” and social media facilitates the spreading of nonsense faster than ever before? Worried about the way we often find ourselves, and others, in walled-off political and cultural silos, only hearing things that reinforce our pre-existing assumptions? Concerned about the way our brains seem almost wired for irrationality? You’re not alone. And luckily, things are not hopeless! On today's episode, I'll speak with ...
Dec 12, 2017•59 min
When we think of theology or philosophy or ethics, we often think of mere theory, either received from authorities on high or taught in stale classrooms, without real world, daily applicability to pressing social concerns. But Dr. Robyn Henderson-Espinoza — this week’s guest on Speak Out with Tim Wise — knows that real liberation requires the blending of theory and practice. As a Transqueer Latinx activist (they/their/them pronouns), and public theologian committed to expanding our moral horizon...
Dec 05, 2017•51 min
Although Matt McGorry is best known for his role as Asher Millstone on ABC's How to Get Away With Murder, he is also increasingly known for speaking out on issues of sexism, racism and white male allyship in the struggles against both. With reports of widespread male sexual predation emerging from Hollywood (and the world of politics), Matt's take on these subjects, both in and outside the entertainment industry, is especially timely. On this episode we discuss misogyny and structural white supr...
Nov 28, 2017•1 hr 4 min
Fighting for a better world in a society beset by multiple injustices can be incredibly exciting and rewarding — and it’s obviously necessary. But can it also sometimes bring out the worst in people? Like a toxic quest for ideological purity? Or an overly judgmental tendency to call people out in divisive and dogmatic ways over even relatively small errors in judgment? In recent essays, “Excommunicate Me from the Church of Social Justice,” and “Why I’m Starting to Fear My Fellow Social Justice A...
Nov 21, 2017•57 min
This September, singer/songwriter Meghan Linsey, the 2015 runner-up on "The Voice" took a knee as she sang the final note of the national anthem before the Tennessee Titans and Seattle Seahawks game in Nashville. Meghan and her boyfriend and guitar player, Tyler Cain, joined players across the NFL that day in this form of protest, in response to Donald Trump criticizing football players for speaking out against police brutality and racial injustice. On this episode, I'll speak with Meghan about ...
Nov 14, 2017•1 hr 2 min
Perhaps you’ve heard it said before: “I got spanked as a kid and I turned out alright!,” or “If I don’t whoop you, the police will do far worse” as rationales for corporal punishment, in general, and especially within the black community (and white working class communities). But while the people who say these things may mean well, what damage does spanking children actually do? My guest this week is professor, author, and scholar Dr. Stacey Patton of Morgan State University. Her work (and her p...
Nov 07, 2017•1 hr 2 min
Imagine a high school program whose students are 5 times more likely than their counterparts to go to college, and only 1/20th as likely to drop out. Now imagine lawmakers banning that program and attacking its leaders as “un-American.” As Dr. Curtis Acosta explains on this week’s Speak Out With Tim Wise, that’s what happened when Arizona eliminated Tucson’s Mexican American Studies Program. But now a federal court has ruled the ban unconstitutional, giving new hope to progressive and transforma...
Oct 31, 2017•57 min
In this episode, I talk with Erika Whitfield, a 7th grade teacher in St Louis, whose recent Washington Post article about her students’ reaction to police misconduct (and the acquittal of yet another white officer in the killing of yet another black man), speaks to the way even 12 year old black kids have come to expect disappointment from the justice system. We discuss what this means, and how she as a teacher helps inspire their learning and optimism despite a system that they already understa...
Oct 24, 2017•58 min
What does one do when their church no longer wants them as a pastor? When speaking out against white supremacy, on behalf of black lives, and in solidarity with LGBTQ liberation, ultimately costs them their jobs? Does one abandon the church altogether or try and fight for a progressive Christianity instead? My guests this week have answered the questions clearly, and in favor of the latter option. Rob W. Lee -- a descendant of Robert E. Lee -- faced pushback from parishioners in his church after...
Oct 17, 2017•58 min
In this episode, I'll be speaking to Cephus ("Uncle Bobby") Johnson -- the uncle of Oscar Grant, who was shot and killed by a transit officer in Oakland in 2009 -- as well as Nissa Tzun of Families United 4 Justice. We'll discuss the ways in which families are affected by police violence, but so often do without the support and services of the community when their loved ones are killed. The sympathy that so often attaches to the victims of criminal violence is rarely as forthcoming for those vic...
Oct 10, 2017•1 hr 1 min
There’s an old saying: “You gotta dance with the one that brought ya.” But as my guest Tia Oso explains in this week’s episode, too often Democrats and white liberals fail to acknowledge the centrality of folks of color – and especially black women – to any truly progressive political coalition. Only by amplifying and listening to the voices, agendas and ideas of the most marginalized, can progressives hope to build lasting and effective movements for social change.
Sep 30, 2017•58 min
For those who wonder why people join hate groups, much like those who gathered recently for the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, my guest on this episode knows the answers all too well. Christian Picciolini was in one of America’s first Nazi skinhead crews and was a committed white supremacist for years. Now he helps racists leave hate behind and works to inoculate a new generation of young people from the poison of prejudice, and he’s got some ideas about how to respond to surging wh...
Sep 30, 2017•53 min
