

AirGo
Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/airgo/id1016530091
A podcast and radical media hub reshaping Chicago and beyond for the more liberatory and creative. Listen to longform humanizing conversations with artists, organizers, performers, comedians, scholars, and more who are reimagining Chicago and beyond toward liberation. Hosted by Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger.
A podcast and radical media hub reshaping Chicago and beyond for the more liberatory and creative. Listen to longform humanizing conversations with artists, organizers, performers, comedians, scholars, and more who are reimagining Chicago and beyond toward liberation. Hosted by Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Aug 27, 2020 • 1h 1min
#GoBack - Fatimah Asghar in 2016
Each month this year, we're going to revisit an episode from the 200+ episodes in the AirGo Archives and bring that conversation back to the forefront. This month, we're returning to our conversation with poet, artist, and filmmaker Fatimah Asghar from March 2016. Fati has since moved deeper into the film world, cocreating hit web series Brown Girls, and published the brilliant poetry collection If They Should Come for Us.
Follow Fati on Twitter: https://twitter.com/asgharthegrouch
NOTE: Rate and review AirGo on Apple Podcasts! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/airgo/id1016530091

Aug 13, 2020 • 1h 3min
BONUS - Racism is a Public Health Crisis
NOTE: This bonus episode is audio from a virtual event on 7/29, presented by the Black Abolitionist Network, Chicago Teachers Union, National Nurses United, Physicians for a National Health Program Illinois, Haymarket Books, and SEIU 73.
COVID-19 has shone a spotlight on the intersection of racism and healthcare in this country. Chronic racist inequity has produced terrifying outcomes in terms of the disproportionate effect the virus is having on African-Americans and Latinx people.
The protest movement that erupted after the murder of George Floyd sharpened a national conversation about racism in this country. Many have demanded that institutions which hurt people be defunded, and that this money be redirected towards healing communities.
Join a conversation of labor and community activists who will be discussing work they and their organizations are doing as it relates to this topic.
STACY DAVIS GATES is the Vice President of the CTU and the Executive Vice President of the IFT. This past fall, she helped to lead a 15-day strike and to negotiate an historic contract that provides for smaller class sizes, ensures a nurse and social worker in every Chicago public school, secures sanctuary protections for immigrant families, and supports students and families experiencing homelessness.
DENISE MERCHERSON is a Medical Social Worker at John H. Stroger Hospital, and is an active member of SEIU Local 73. She has worked as a licensed, clinical social worker since 2017, and before that, worked in employment and labor law.
LINDA RAE MURRAY, MD, MPH has been a voice for social justice and health as a basic human right for over 50 years. In the Cook County Health System she previously served as Chief Medical Officer for primary care, and is speaking as a member of Physicians for a National Health Program.
DAMON WILLIAMS is a movement builder, organizer, educator and media maker. Damon is the co-founder of The #LetUsBreathe Collective and AirGo Media, and is speaking as a member of the Black Abolitionist Network.
ELAINE MISTER will be moderating the event. She is a nurse case manager at UCMC, and was a leader in organizing her fellow nurses to become members of NNU.

Aug 6, 2020 • 2h 6min
BONUS - The Hoodoisie: Power, Politics, & Pandemic
This is the audio from the 8/5/20 episode of the Hoodoisie, a radical talk show hosted by Ricardo Gamboa. Dame and Kiss were featured guests, alongside:
Laura Ramirez, El Foro Del Pueblo - https://edlibrising.com/2017/04/02/our-power-is-in-our-people-dr-laura-ramirez/
Hils Franco, Educator/Organizer - https://airgoradio.com/airgo/2018/5/9/episode-136-hilda-franco
Janie Pochel, Chi-Nations Youth Council - https://chinationsyouth.weebly.com/advisor.html
Amika "Tree" Tendaji, Black Lives Matter Chicago - https://airgoradio.com/airgo/2017/2/15/episode-78-amika-tendaji
Co-hosted by Ricardo Gamboa and Charles Alexander Preston
in collaboration with South Side Weekly
Follow the Hoodoisie: https://www.facebook.com/thehoodoisie/
NOTE: Rate and review AirGo on Apple Podcasts! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/airgo/id1016530091

Jul 30, 2020 • 1h 14min
Ep 257 - Unelectable Vol. 2: Feminism Live @AMC2020!
AirGo hosts the second volume of Unelectable, our live podcast series with Black Youth Project exploring electoral politics and radical imagination, as part of Allied Media Conference 2020! The live virtual event's focus is Feminism, and features Unelectable cohost Asha Ransby-Sporn, environmental justice organizer Siwatu-Salama Ra, and Detroit movement legend Tawana Petty.
Check out the illustration of the event by Emily Simons on our IG, and learn more about Emily's work here: https://www.pittsburghposterproject.org/emily-simons
SHOW NOTES:
http://Freesiwatu.org
https://www.honeycombthepoet.org
Check out video of many of the conference's amazing sessions and learn more about this remarkable gathering: https://amc.alliedmedia.org/
Recorded 7/26/20

Jul 28, 2020 • 1h 4min
#GoBack - Freedom Square in 2016
Each month this year, we're going to revisit an episode from the 200+ episodes in the AirGo Archives and bring that conversation back to the forefront. This month, we're celebrating the 4-year anniversary of Freedom Square, a 41-day encampment led by the #LetUsBreathe Collective across from the Homan Square CPD blacksite. Recorded during the second or third week of the encampment, Kiss talks with organizers and young people about the beauty, challenge, and radical potential that became so visible and present in August 2016. This past weekend, more than 500 people returned to the lot on Homan and Fillmore to remember this occupation, recreate some of its magic, and demand the defunding of the Chicago Police Department.
photo by Sarah-Ji Rhee: http://www.loveandstrugglephotos.com/
Learn more about this past week's action: https://blockclubchicago.org/2020/07/25/freedom-square-activists-imagine-public-safety-without-police-near-homan-square-black-site/
Join the #DefundCPD campaign: http://bit.ly/DemandDefundCPD
Recorded July 2016 at Freedom Square in Chicago

Jul 23, 2020 • 10min
Ep 256 - The Abolition Suite Vol. 5: 14 Principles of Abolition Movement Work
We bookend this set of episodes in the Abolition suite by giving some updates on upcoming opportunities to be involved, detailing some Chicago-based wins that emerged over the last couple days to help us all balance the weight of this moment, and sharing the 14 principles that Chicago-based abolition movement workers have developed to guide the work, as recorded at a #DefundCPD training on 51st St. in Chicago.
UPCOMING OPPORTUNITIES TO PLUG IN!
7/24 - Freedom Square Anniversary Rally to #DefundCPD: bit.ly/DemandDefundCPD
7/26 - Unelectable Live @ AMC2020!
https://amc2020.sched.com/event/239801344c34675d0be5749cab48fb6b
7/28 - #DefundCPD Virtual Training: bit.ly/virtualdefundcpd
Share the whole Abolition Suite with a friend!: https://soundcloud.com/airgoradio/sets/the-abolition-suite
Rate, comment, and review AirGo on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/airgo/id1016530091
Donate to AirGo: http://airgoradio.com/donate
Music from this week's show:
Song 33 - Noname
Off That - Jay Z

Jul 21, 2020 • 3min
Introducing Under the Tree, a new podcast hosted by Bill Ayers
We want to introduce y'all to “Under the Tree,” a new podcast hosted by the legendary Bill Ayers that focuses on freedom—a complex, layered, dynamic, and often contradictory idea—and takes you on a journey each week to fundamentally reimagine how we can bring freedom and liberation to life in relation to schools and schooling, equality and justice, and learning to live together in peace.
Make sure you subscribe to Under the Tree on your preferred podcast app!

Jul 19, 2020 • 1h 19min
Ep 255 - The Abolition Suite Vol. 4: Robin D.G. Kelley
The Abolition Suite is a series of AirGo episodes exploring the concepts and practices of policing and prison abolition with the thought leaders who have been pushing an abolitionist future forward for decades. The Abolitionist Suite is presented in support of the #DefundCPD campaign and the Black Abolitionist Network.
This episode's guest is scholar, author, and historian Robin D.G. Kelley. A true digger and chronicler of Black liberation history, he explores the roots and routes of abolition, defines the concept of racial capitalism, and even takes off his historian hat briefly to imagine a liberatory future.
NOTE: Don't forget to rate, comment, and review AirGo on Apple Podcasts!
Show Notes:
Angela Davis Lectures on Liberation: https://archive.org/details/AngelaDavis-LecturesOnLiberation
Slavery and Social Death by Orlando Patterson: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674986909
Black Marxism by Cedric Robinson: https://uncpress.org/book/9780807848296/black-marxism/
Black Reconstruction by Du Bois: https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/black-reconstruction-america/
Organization for Black Struggle in STL: https://www.obs-stl.org/
Jamala Rogers: http://jamalarogers.com/about/
Black Radical Congress Agenda: https://www.obs-stl.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Black-Radical-Congress-FREEDOM-AGENDA.pdf
M4BL Policy Statement: https://m4bl.org/policy-platforms/
Critical Resistance: http://criticalresistance.org/
CLR James: https://www.marxists.org/archive/james-clr/biograph.htm
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2785-how-europe-underdeveloped-africa
How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America by Manning Marable: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/736-how-capitalism-underdeveloped-black-america
Groundings with my Brothers by Walter Rodney: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2787-the-groundings-with-my-brothers
Jah Kingdom by Monique A. Bedasse: https://uncpress.org/book/9781469633596/jah-kingdom/
Gina Dent: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gina_Dent
Combahee River Collective: https://combaheerivercollective.weebly.com/the-combahee-river-collective-statement.html
Recorded 7/13/20
Music from this week's show:
Song 33 - Noname

Jul 16, 2020 • 44min
Climate Changemakers Vol. 5 - Lissette Castañeda
Climate Changemakers is a 5-part podcast series, showcasing and celebrating leaders in equity work and climate action across Illinois, presented in celebration of the 20th anniversary of nonprofit organization Elevate Energy.
On this final episode of Climate Changemakers, Damon and Daniel are joined by Lissette Castañeda. A lifelong Logan Square resident, Lissette is the Interim Executive Director of LUCHA, an organization working to advance housing as a human right by empowering communities– particularly the Latino and Spanish-speaking populations–through advocacy, affordable housing development, and community building. She talks about the ways in which her work is connected to the Puerto Rican diaspora, how COVID is impacting the fight for housing as a human right, and much more.
Learn about LUCHA's Passive House: https://lucha.org/build-passive-house-institute-us/
Learn about Elevate Energy and their 20th anniversary: www.elevateenergy.org/

Jul 9, 2020 • 1h 6min
Ep 254 - The Abolition Suite Vol. 3: Andrea Ritchie
The Abolition Suite is a series of AirGo episodes exploring the concepts and practices of policing and prison abolition with the thought leaders who have been pushing an abolitionist future forward for decades. The Abolitionist Suite is presented in support of the #DefundCPD campaign and the Black Abolitionist Network.
Volume 3 features writer, organizer, and movement worker Andrea Ritchie. Andrea is the author of Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color, and has devoted the last 25 years naming and advocating for women of color, especially LGBTQ women of color, who have been victims of police violence. Ritchie co-authored the report SayHerName: Police Violence against Black Women and Women of Color with Kimberle Crenshaw and the African American Policy Forum. She and the guys talk about the portals opening in this moment, the ways that gender-based violence is an intrinsic tactic of policing, and much more.
SHOW NOTES:
CORRECTION: In this episode, we state that Congressman Elijah Cummings is still alive and well. The congressman passed away in 2019.
Sign on to the #DefundCPD campaign: https://actionnetwork.org/forms/sign-on-to-demand-defunding-of-the-chicago-police-department
July 17 Black and Indigenous Solidarity Rally: https://www.facebook.com/events/s/black-indigenous-solidarity-ra/580611602644351/
Arrested Justice by Beth Ritchie: https://nyupress.org/9780814776223/arrested-justice/
INCITE!, a network of radical feminists of color organizing to end state violence and violence in our homes and communities. https://incite-national.org/
Blackness, Animality, and the Unsovereign by Che Gossett: https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/2228-che-gossett-blackness-animality-and-the-unsovereign
Dancing the Carceral Creep by Mimi Kim: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/804227k6
Ruthie Wilson Gilmore: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/magazine/prison-abolition-ruth-wilson-gilmore.html
Breonna Taylor and Gentrification: https://www.salon.com/2020/07/06/breonna-taylor-lawsuit-claims-no-knock-warrant-was-part-of-louisville-gentrification-plan/
Octavia Butler: https://octaviabutler.org/
Nalo Hopkinson: http://nalohopkinson.com/index.html
Interrupting Criminalization: https://www.interruptingcriminalization.com/
Vision 4 Black Lives 2020: https://m4bl.org/policy-platforms/
In Our Names Network: https://www.inournamesnetwork.com/
Invisible No More: http://invisiblenomorebook.com/
Recorded 7/6/20
Music from this week's show:
Song 33 - Noname
I'll Do My Best - The Ritchie Family