The Podcaster's Dilemma. Nolan Higdon
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Acknowledgments
We are eternally grateful to the supportive, intelligent, and hardworking people who made this project possible. First and foremost, we want to thank our incredible families: Angela Dean-Baham, Nicholas L. Baham IV, and Kacey Van der Vorst, who are all avid podcast listeners: they inspired this work and contributed perspectives of their own on podcasts that we included in our review. Most of this project was completed as the COVID-19 pandemic relegated us to our homes, where we sheltered in place. As a result, the support and intellectual discourse from our families was integral to the completion of this project. That includes the gal pals: Vangl and Emma G.
We are forever indebted to the crew at Wiley for fostering careful scholarship through a well-executed publication process. Much love and praise are owed to Todd Green, Nicole Allen, Andrew Minton, and Manuela Tecusan.
As educators, we are also very blessed to have an incredible army of students who offer commentary, feedback, proofreading, and other support, all of which left an indelible mark on this text. Every day, the students at California State University, East Bay demonstrate that they are among the most talented, curious, and imaginative actors the world has to offer. We were lucky enough to have a significant number of them put those talents to work in the completion of this project. Thank you Sierra Abel, Marinda Avalos, Michael Bellotti, Barbara De Miranda E Silva, Arsema Habte, Shaghayegh Hatami Far, Lucas Martin, Morgan Martinez, Priscila Martinez, Vina Nguyen, Sean Serrano, Monet Troche, Karmen Yap, Kameil Rancifer, and Gina Marquez.
Similarly, we are privileged to collaborate with numerous organizations: Action Coalition for Media Education, Critical Media Literacy Conference of the Americas, Media Freedom Foundation, Project Censored with its Along the Line podcast, Mount Diablo Peace and Justice Center, Critical Media Project, Real News Network, PropWatch, and Union for Democratic Communication. This project was enhanced by our incredible network of thought-provoking individuals: Adam Armstrong, Robin Andersen, Maximillian Alvarez, Margli Auclair, Phil Auclair, Jorge Ayala, Matt Bailey, Kate Bell, Ben Boyington, Lonny Avi Brooks, Kenn Burrows, Allison Butler, Mary Cardaras, Robert Carley, Aimee Casey, Jamal Cooks, Ian Davis, Lindsay DeFranco, Brian Dolber, Janice Domingo, Andrea Gambina, Noah Golden, Mary Grueser, Doug Hecker, Aaron Heresco, Mickey Huff, Amina Humphrey, Linda Ivey, Dorothy Kidd, Grant Kien, Mickey Levitan, Dylan Lazaga, Jen Lyons, Kalemba Kitzo, Renee Childs, Steve Macek, Susan Maret, Emil Marmol, Abby Martin, Desiree McSwain, Sangha Niyogi, Peter Phillips, Albert Ponce, Susan Rahman, Kayla Rivara, Reina Robinson, Kayla Rivara, Andy Lee Roth, Danuta Sawka, Mitch Scorza, T. M. Scruggs, Jeff Share, Lauren Shields, James Stancil, Colleen Sweeney, Alison Trope, Obed Vasquez, Wanda Washington, and Rob Williams. Thank you all for your contributions, guidance, and friendship.
The germ for this project emerged during an early morning discussion after a recording of Along the Line. Had it not been for Along the Line, this book would not have come to fruition. Thank you to the Media Freedom Foundation for funding the program: we could not have done it without your support. Thank you to everyone who made Along the Line possible: Janice Domingo, our fearless co-host and sound engineer; Mickey Huff, our producer; Dylan Lazaga, our director; all the guests who graced us with their presence; and all our listeners. Thank you all for your continued support.
Lastly, we owe much praise to the decolonial podcasters surveyed in this text. Your content both inspired and entertained us. Your candid dialogue and your attention to pertinent issues and details reshaped our lives and inspired our attitudes and behavior in positive ways. Thank you for making this space possible.
Introduction
Having a radio meant seriously going to war.
Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism (1965)
Broadcasting from Oakland, California, “the center of the known universe,” Alicia Garza’s podcast Lady Don’t Take No! begins with the pronouncement: “This show is pro-Black, pro-Queer, proudly Feminist, and pro-Do-Whatcha-Like. Every week, you are going to get the best of what goes on in my head, what we’re lovin’ on, what we’re hatin’ on, what we might be and what we aint gon’ do.”1 Garza, a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement along with Patrisse Cullers and Opal Tometi, brings unfiltered community-based perspectives on everything from pop culture to politics. With broadcasts that elevate the voices of local and national Black activists, thinkers, and artists (e.g. Erika Huggins, W. Kamau Bell, Davey D., Lateefah Simon, Angela Rye, Laverne Cox), Garza’s broadcast, “recorded with whatever was lying around,”2 embodies the spirit of media freedom. Opening against the alternative hip-hop beats of the Bay Area-based duo Latyrx, every broadcast sounds like a paradigm shift. Emerging in a summer of protest that followed the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the midst of the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic