Ruth Wilson Gilmore

To say that Ruth Wilson Gilmore is a geographer, which she is, is not to convey the vast and varied ways in which she is influencing the makings of the future. She's a mentor and teacher to a new generation of social activism and creativity. She's a visionary of “abolition,” and that has become a fraught and polarizing word in our fraught and polarized public discourse. But when Ruth Wilson Gilmore speaks of “abolition,” she is working with a long, long view towards making a whole world, starting now, in which prisons and policing as we do them now become unnecessary, unthinkable. In this sense, abolition is not primarily a matter of what to get rid of, but what to build and to orient around — being present, for example, to human vulnerability and to the ingredients that make for deep human flourishing. Meeting Ruth Wilson Gilmore and drawing her out in this way is an exercise in muscular hope — and in understanding the passion of a new generation that is shaping what we will collectively become.Ruth Wilson Gilmore is a professor of Earth & Environmental Sciences, and American Studies, at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where she is also director of the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics. She grew up in New Haven, Connecticut. Her paternal grandfather was a janitor at Yale who helped organize the first blue-collar union at that university. And as a tool and die maker for the firearm manufacturer Winchester, her father played a central role in organizing the machinists at that company in the mid-1950s. She has co-founded several organizations, including the California Prison Moratorium Project, Critical Resistance, and the Central California Environmental Justice Network. She has authored and co-edited several books, including Golden Gulag, Abolition Geography, and the forthcoming Change Everything. Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org. ___________Sign up for The Pause to receive our seasonal Saturday morning newsletter and advance invitations and news on all things On Being.And: if you can, please take a minute to rate On Being in this podcast app — you'll be bending the arc of algorithms towards this adventure of conversation and living.

Featuring Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò, Robin D.G. Kelley, and Ruth Wilson Gilmore on racial capitalism, intergenerational organizing, internationalism, and a whole lot more. Dan's live Dig interview from the Socialism 2022 conference in Chicago. Support this podcast at Patreon.com/TheDig Check out our archives and weekly newsletter at thedigradio.com Check out Breaking the Impasse by Kim Moody haymarketbooks.org/books/1873-breaking-the-impasse

Prison abolitionist Ruth Wilson Gilmore discusses the connection between the criminal justice system and capitalism, the role of prisons in tackling economic inequality, and the fusion of financial and state power. She also explores the relationship between pensions and our capitalist system, the imperialistic nature of the criminal justice system, and the similarities between the prison and military industrial complexes.

Urban theorist Ruth Wilson Gilmore and writer Owen Hatherley discuss the impactful legacy of Mike Davis, exploring urban politics, abolition movements, global capitalism, and surveillance in cities. They share personal anecdotes about Davis, emphasizing the need to engage with his ideas for inspiring actions and new perspectives on class struggle and societal structures.

Prison abolitionist Ruth Wilson Gilmore and critical geographer Dalia Gebrial discuss topics such as racial capitalism, critical geography, and the role of prisons in addressing societal issues. They explore the connection between racism and capitalism, the use of race as a governing tool, and the challenges faced in narrating innocence. The podcast also covers the impact of platforms on racialized migrant workers, resistance to defunding prisons and policing, and the role of policing in the London taxi economy.