
Movement Memos
An ongoing call to action for movement work and mutual aid efforts around the country. Kelly Hayes connects with activists, journalists and others on the front lines to break down what’s happening in various struggles and what listeners can do to help.
Latest episodes

Sep 14, 2023 • 1h 10min
We Can Survive Together By Becoming Kin
Indigenous practices for sustainable futures and meaningful connections. Redefining kinship and exploring alternative perspectives. Recognizing shared humanity and breaking cycles of harm. Bundles as a representation of native people's connection to land. Understanding decolonization and indigenous displacement. Becoming kin, reflecting on roots and routes. The importance of reflection, sacredness, and support.

Aug 31, 2023 • 1h 8min
Our Movements Need Infrastructure for Care, Recovery and Belonging
“What are the ways we could organize people into new social forms in which new human, more humane, more liberatory capacities would emerge that we could use for our own liberation?” asks Aaron Goggans of the WildSeed Society. In this episode of “Movement Memos,” Goggans and host Kelly Hayes talk about how activists can resist the trends of late capitalism, including the alienation imposed by the tech world, by cultivating modes of communication and communal care that defy the norms of our individualist society. Goggans argues that social movements are “responsible for figuring out a liberatory and empowering way of filling … the human desire for mutual recognition, belonging and connection.”Music: Son Monarcas, Brendon Moeller, Christoffer Moe Ditlevsen, Lama House, David Celeste & Yonder DaleYou can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: bit.ly/movementmemosIf you would like to support the show, you can donate here: bit.ly/TODonateIf you would like to receive Truthout's newsletter, please sign up: bit.ly/TOnewsletter

Aug 17, 2023 • 1h
Rocket-Launching Billionaires Promise a New Pie in the Sky
“What we're getting from both Musk and Bezos is this classically new age-y religious drama of disaster and salvation. They preach, they tell us that the end is near, the disaster is coming, that the world is going to end, but there is another world that everybody can build together, a new world and a place that they've never seen and a place that seems totally impossible,” says professor Mary-Jane Rubenstein, author of Astrotopia: The Dangerous Religion of the Corporate Space Race. In this episode, Kelly and MJ discuss the religiosity of “NewSpace,” and how activists can challenge the new “pie in the sky” ideology that billionaires like Musk and Bezos are crafting.Music: Son Monarcas & David CelesteYou can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: bit.ly/movementmemosIf you would like to support the show, you can donate here: bit.ly/TODonateIf you would like to receive Truthout's newsletter, please sign up: bit.ly/TOnewsletter

Aug 3, 2023 • 1h 2min
AI Won’t Overthrow Us, But It Will Optimize the Capitalist Death Machine
“How are these tools going to be used to increase the power of employers and of management once again, and to be used against workers,” asks Paris Marx. In this episode, Paris and Kelly break down the hype and potential of artificial intelligence, and what we should really be worried about.You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: bit.ly/movementmemosIf you would like to support the show, you can donate here: bit.ly/TODonateIf you would like to receive Truthout's newsletter, please sign up: bit.ly/TOnewsletterMusic: Son Monarcas, David Celeste, HATAMITSUNAMI, Guustavv & Ryan James Carr

9 snips
Jul 20, 2023 • 1h 19min
Bizarre and Dangerous Utopian Ideology Has Quietly Taken Hold of Tech World
“It's really important for people to understand what this bundle of ideologies is, because it's become so hugely influential, and is shaping our world right now, and will continue to shape it for the foreseeable future,” says philosopher and historian Émile P. Torres. In this episode, Kelly and Émile discuss what activists should know about longtermism and TESCREAL.You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: bit.ly/movementmemosIf you would like to support the show, you can donate here: bit.ly/TODonateIf you would like to receive Truthout's newsletter, please sign up: bit.ly/TOnewsletterMusic: Son Monarcas & David Celeste

Jun 1, 2023 • 1h 6min
Cop City is Only the Beginning, Unless We Fight
“This is a global struggle against fascism, it's a global struggle against the militarization of the police and state violence against folks whose dissent is being oppressed,” says Jasmine, an organizer in Atlanta. In this episode, Kelly talks with authors Alex Vitale and Stuart Schrader about the frightening trajectory of policing in the United States. Kelly also talks with Chicago activist Benji Hart, and Jasmine, an organizer in Atlanta who is engaged in the struggle to Stop Cop City.You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: bit.ly/MMCopCityIf you would like to support the show, you can donate here: bit.ly/TODonateIf you would like to receive Truthout's newsletter, please sign up: bit.ly/TOnewsletterMusic: Son Monarcas and David Celeste

May 18, 2023 • 58min
Palestinian Organizers: We Honor Our Grief by Practicing Hope
“Whenever there is grief, there is unity, and in unity, there is strength, and we feel it.,” says Jalal Abukhater. In this episode of Movement Memos, host Kelly Hayes talks with Abukhater, a Palestinian writer living in Jerusalem, and Palestinian activists Jeanine Hourani and Lea Kayali, about the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, resistance in the face of Israeli aggression, and how hope sustains their work.You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: bit.ly/movementmemosIf you would like to support the show, you can donate here: bit.ly/TODonateIf you would like to receive Truthout's newsletter, please sign up: bit.ly/TOnewsletterMusic: Son Monarcas, Peter Sandberg, Raymond Grouse, and David Celeste

May 5, 2023 • 1h 12min
To Transform Conflict in Movements, We Must Learn How to Stay in It Together
“It's never too late to pause and reevaluate the purpose, the structure, or the norms that you're operating with as a group of people trying to make a change in the world or get something done together,” says Aarati Kasturirangan. In this episode, Kelly talks with facilitators Aarati Kasturirangan and Rebecca Subar about how organizers can transform conflict in movement spaces.You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: bit.ly/movementmemosIf you would like to support the show, you can donate here: bit.ly/TODonateIf you would like to receive Truthout's newsletter, please sign up: bit.ly/TOnewsletterMusic: Son Monarcas & David Celeste

Apr 20, 2023 • 1h 3min
Let This Conversation With Mariame Kaba Radicalize You
“Hope for me is in the doing of things,” says Mariame Kaba. In this episode of Movement Memos, host Kelly Hayes talks with Mariame Kaba about their upcoming book, Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care.You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: bit.ly/movementmemosIf you would like to support the show, you can donate here: bit.ly/TODonateIf you would like to receive Truthout's newsletter, please sign up: bit.ly/TOnewsletterMusic: Son Monarcas & David Celeste

Apr 7, 2023 • 1h
Latin American Feminism Has Much to Teach US Left on How to Fight for Abortion
In this episode of Movement Memos, Kelly talks with Camila Valle, translator of Set Fear on Fire: The Feminist Call That Set the Americas Ablaze by LASTESIS. Kelly and Camila discuss the struggle for abortion rights and access in Chile and Argentina, the need for democratic structures in movement wor, and how LASTESIS has used art and performance to bring feminist theory to the streets.You can find a transcript and show notes (including links to resources) here: bit.ly/movementmemosIf you would like to support the show, you can donate here: bit.ly/TODonateIf you would like to receive Truthout's newsletter, please sign up: bit.ly/TOnewsletterMusic: Son Monarcas & Silver Maple