The Leftscape
the shape of progressive conversation
Episodes
September 20, 2023 • 66 mins
Janet Coburn writes about mental health on her award-winning blog, Bipolar Me. She draws her insights from direct experience, as she has lived with bipolar disorder for decades. Her book of valuable mental health information and personal stories, Bipolar Me, was published in 2018. Her collection of short essays, Bipolar Us, which appeared in 2020, includes chapters on work, family life, self-care and caregivers, society and stigma,...
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September 8, 2023 • 80 mins
Alice Leibowitz is a longtime activist and facilitator who provides support for progressives and changemakers to find hope and keep their sanity in the face of rising fascism and other global crises. Her coaching and facilitation firm, Conversations Against Fascism, provides love, power, creativity, and focus in response to the question, “How are we going to do what it takes to meet this moment in history?” Hear about her activism ...
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July 6, 2023 • 89 mins
Lisa Vandever is the co-founder and director of CineKink Film Festival, which is just entering its 20th anniversary season. A writer, producer and consultant in film and communications, Lisa was formerly the director of programming for a regional network of public television stations, worked as a development executive for two New York-based independent production companies, and she currently freelances with a wide range of organiza...
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June 21, 2023 • 72 mins
Vince Osborn resides in Chicago, is an avid cyclist, and is a devoted music enthusiast. He is a Founder of the Museum of Post-Punk and Industrial Music in Chicago, which was established by drummer Martin Atkins in 2021. He met co-host Robin Renée in the Devo fandom around the same time he first connected with Cynthia Dorothy Albritton, better known as Cynthia Plaster Caster. In this interview he recalls his longtime friendship with...
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June 7, 2023 • 76 mins
Founded in 2014, Jenn Iannaconi's company, Valkyrie Apparel, is a passion project born of spite and rage -- rage towards an exclusionary fashion industry that neither understands nor wants to understand the needs of plus-sized customers. Jenn was born in New Jersey but now lives in Western Massachusetts with her husband, their dog, and several creepy old dolls that certainly DO NOT watch you as you move around the room. In this con...
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May 17, 2023 • 69 mins
Our interview with Kurt Esslinger in the last show was too good to leave any on the cutting room floor. As a refresher, Kurt Esslinger works on behalf of the Presbyterian Church USA with an ecumenical council of churches in Korea to help bring peace to the Korean Peninsula. A Texas native, he has been living and working in Korea for ten years. This conversation is a look at then President Donald Trump's part in the beginning of ...
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May 4, 2023 • 100 mins
Kurt Esslinger is assigned by the Presbyterian Church USA to work with an ecumenical council of churches in Korea to help with their campaign for peace on the Korean Peninsula. Having grown up in Texas, he has been living in Korea for the last 10 years. Since middle school he has been wrestling with what it means to identify as a Christian while also identifying as left-wing ("jwa-pa" in Korean). In this interview, he explains the ...
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April 19, 2023 • 75 mins
Suzan Nickelson is the CEO and Director if Operations of Holistic Solutions, a cannabis dispensary in Waterford Township, New Jersey. It is the 33rd medical cannabis dispensary to open in New Jersey and the first black and woman-owned dispensary in the state, which was very recently approved for adult recreational sales. She also runs Ital Daughters, LLC, a cannabis and hemp consulting company that specializes in assisting minoriti...
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April 4, 2023 • 75 mins
Edie Weinstein is a colorfully creative journalist, licensed social worker, psychotherapist, and the author of The Bliss Mistress Guide To Transforming The Ordinary Into The Extraordinary. She is also a public speaker and the founder of Hugmobsters Armed With Love, which offers free hugs worldwide. She recently experienced a longtime dream come true by offering her first TEDx talk -- Overcoming the Taboo of Touch. Edie was first fe...
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March 22, 2023 • 76 mins
Dr. Lulu, aka the Momatrician, is a Nigerian-born pediatrician, parent coach, author, and the CEO of Dr. Lulu’s Life Coaching Lounge. She is the mother of a transgender young adult and works with parents struggling with accepting and supporting their LGBTQ+ children. A former Lt Col and Commander in the US Air Force, Dr. Lulu is also an award winning LGBTQ+ and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) advocate. She has been featured ...
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March 8, 2023 • 84 mins
Writer and game developer Arinn Dembo has been involved with game development for over 25 years. She has helped build a number of popular franchises in science fiction gaming including Homeworld and Sword of the Stars. She has also worked on two different Artificial Intelligence projects and has been interviewed for the AI Ethics course taught by Athabasca University. Dembo recently spoke with Wendy Sheridan about the expert system...
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February 22, 2023 • 86 mins
A graduate of Cornell University, JD Stillwater is a science ambassador and an author who writes and speaks about profound insights from natural reality that drive paradigm shifts and cultural awakening. He spoke with us back in April 2020 for Episode 79, The End of Certainty, about his presentation, Seven Candles. In this conversation, he shares his current thoughts on science as a point of common understanding, the origins of hum...
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February 8, 2023 • 31 mins
Please enjoy our last redux episode before our new season begins. This conversation is another of our favorites: John Tod shares about creating a space for honest, vulnerable conversation among men. What started with one other friend in Fort Wayne, Indiana grew into a weekly safe container where men can talk about all the things they were taught not to express. John was originally featured way back in Episode 41, "Of Memes and Men....
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January 25, 2023 • 41 mins
We're back with another favorite interview from our last season on DEMOCRACY. Featured guest Susan Szanyi, a lifelong resident of Ohio and an international traveler, shared her insights on Ohio politics post-midterm elections as well as perspectives on the US political landscape from around the world. She discussed how most of our decisions are made by quick reflexes, which is part of the challenge of creating openness to dialogue ...
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January 11, 2023 • 32 mins
Happy New Year! Please enjoy this redux episode while we're on winter break.
In "Traversing Democracies (Episode 131)," Wendy interviewed Kat Ardern. Kat is an artist, a part-time student (Fine Art BA), and a full-time carer for her wife who has Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME). She shared her insight and knowledge about the various versions of democracy she has experienced while living and working in New Zealand, Australia, and cur...
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December 28, 2022 • 40 mins
While we're on winter break, we chose a few of our favorite interviews to reshare. This one is with Susan Billmaier, whose professional background is in Religion, Ethics, and Philosophy and whose personal exploration encompasses healing arts, religious ritual, and study of the “big questions” like “Who am I?” and “Why am I here?” In this interview from our season of exploring FREEDOM, Susan speaks about living and working with deep...
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December 14, 2022 • 46 mins
Happy Holidays to one and all! While we're taking our winter break, we hope you enjoy the show rewinds we've scheduled for you.
We first featured a conversation with Halina Brooke back in Episode 97, “Therapy, Activism, and Reclaiming Freedom.” She is a therapist at Recourse Counseling, a mental health counselor, and a longtime advocate in Phoenix, Arizona. This is an encore presentation of our second interview with Brooke, which...
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November 30, 2022 • 87 mins
David M. Higgins is a Senior Editor for the Los Angeles Review of Books, and they are the Chair of the English Department at Inver Hills College in Minnesota, where they teach classes on science fiction, graphic novels, and American literature. They are the author of Reverse Colonization: Science Fiction, Imperial Fantasy, and Alt-Victimhood, which won the 2021 Science Fiction Research Association Book Award. Leftscape co-hosts ...
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November 16, 2022 • 91 mins
Susan Szanyi is a lifelong resident of Ohio. Thanks to her job as a Program Manager for an international company, she is fortunate to travel throughout the US and Europe and she has gotten perspectives on the US political landscape from around the world. Advocating for animals was her first foray into politics. She got engaged with electoral politics starting with the 2016 presidential election. She was a volunteer for the Elizabet...
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November 2, 2022 • 75 mins
Co-hosts Wendy Sheridan and Robin Renée take a look at a growing issue since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade this past June -- a movement to make access to birth control the next to go. Sparked by a recent article from the UC Berkeley Human Rights Center, they look at the lack of information, purposeful disinformation, religious fervor, and social media efforts merging to form this latest threat to choices and autonomy. We...
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