Slime Mold + Social Justice with Ashley Jane Lewis

Explicit content warning

03/29/22 • 107 min

Ashley Jane Lewis (she/her) is a new media artist with a focus on Afrofuturism, bio-art, social justice, and speculative design.

Her artistic practice explores black cultures of the past, present, and future through computational and analog mediums, including coding and machine learning, data weaving, microorganisms, and live performance. Listed in the Top 100 Black Women to Watch in Canada, her award-winning work on empowered futures for marginalized groups has exhibited in both Canada and the U.S., most notably featured on the White House website during the Obama presidency. Her practice is tied to science and actively incorporates living organisms like slime mold and food cultures (kombucha and sourdough starters) to explore ways of decentralizing humans and imagining collective, multi-species survival. Ashley is currently an Artist in Residence at CultureHub NYC as well as part of the Culture Futures Track in the NEW INC year 7 cohort, an art, design, and technology incubator run within the New Museum.

In this episode, Ashley and Brandi talk about the intersections of Slime Mold + Social Justice, including:

Afro-futurism, bio-art, social justice, and speculative design.
The tensions between art and science, especially as a Black woman.
How Ashley got into sourdough, sci-fi, and slime mold.
What slime mold has to do with Black popular culture.
What it teaches us about gender, mutual aid, and immigration.
De-centering humans in imagining the future.
Using AI as a science fiction tool to predict a future imagined by BIPOC folks.
Plus, a ton of other things related to food, fermentation, our ancestors, passing information generationally through time, writing as a prophetic tool, and geeky things that Ashley and I both love.

Listeners can find Ashley online at ashleyjanelewis.com, as well as Instagram and Twitter.

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Music: The in-house musicians at Slip.stream
Audio Engineering: Joshua LaBure

Ashley Jane Lewis (she/her) is a new media artist with a focus on Afrofuturism, bio-art, social justice, and speculative design.

In this episode, Ashley and Brandi talk about the intersections of Slime Mold + Social Justice, including:

Afro-futurism, bio-art, social justice, and speculative design.
The tensions between art and science, especially as a Black woman.
How Ashley got into sourdough, sci-fi, and slime mold.
What slime mold has to do with Black popular culture.
What it teaches us about gender, mutual aid, and immigration.
De-centering humans in imagining the future.
Using AI as a science fiction tool to predict a future imagined by BIPOC folks.
Plus, a ton of other things related to food, fermentation, our ancestors, passing information generationally through time, writing as a prophetic tool, and geeky things that Ashley and I both love.

Listeners can find Ashley online at ashleyjanelewis.com, as well as Instagram and Twitter.

Music: The in-house musicians at Slip.stream
Audio Engineering: Joshua LaBure

Previous Episode

Economics + Design with Deacon Rodda

Deacon Rodda is a permaculture theorist and designer who has been working with social change organizations in Denver for more than two decades. Deacon has spearheaded localization initiatives, permaculture research, education non-profits, and social benefit business ventures. Currently, Deacon is focused on establishing a truly egalitarian heirloom currency and contributing to publications on social and ecological well-being.

In this conversation, we talk about the intersections of Economics + Design, including—

Imagining economic options beyond capitalism and socialism.
Whether advancements that make society safer have actually made them better.
How we create money in society and whether money is “neutral.”
What Deacon feels isn’t working in our economy right now.
How economics and climate are as intertwined as tree roots and mycelia, and whether we’ll change the economy fast enough to survive climate collapse.
Designing an economy that’s good for humans and the environment.
The immorality of compounding interest.
The role of design questions in creating new economic systems.
And, what two values Deacon believes are foundational to building the economy he wants to see.

Listeners can find Deacon online, at sqglz.com, and on Instagram at @deaconrodda. You can also support Deacon’s work on Patreon, and check out and join the Favor Solutions Network, a non-capitalist, non-socialist, free-market system designed by Deacon.

Music: The in-house musicians at Slip.stream
Audio Engineering: The team at Upfire Digital

Next Episode

Freestyle (Rap) + Philosophy with Brenton Zola

Brenton Zola (he/him) uses the power of words to cultivate humanity. He is a writer, thinker, and multi-disciplinary artist. Informed by an upbringing from Congolese immigrants and travel to over 60 nations, his writing and creative work blend narrative, philosophy, and history to examine how we build ethical societies. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, LA Times, Inc., American Theater, Boulevard Magazine, Prism, and on NPR member-station WBUR Boston and PBS, among others. His professional journey started with living at a meditation and martial arts school in Asia, which led to work through social impact and the arts. Brenton has been an artist-in-residence at theaters and collectives worldwide and serves as a curator for the Tilt West Journal. He is a Moth story slam champion, a proud member of Playback Theatre West & Storytellers Acapella, and a TEDx speaker and organizer at one of the world’s largest events. He believes truth can be found at the intersection of disciplines and stories.

In this episode, Brenton and Brandi talk about the intersections of Freestyle (Rap) + Philosophy, including:

The tension between “intelligence” and “creativity.”
His mom’s love of Tupac, where his love of rap began.
How he defines “philosophy.”
What philosophy brings to the table that science doesn’t.
Rap as resistance and a demand for equality.
What Brenton calls “smashing atoms” and why he loves it.
A story about his time in speech and debate, a kind of freestyle performance, and his first early foray into mixing disciplines together.
How the Greek “stoa” was the ancient version of the modern rap cipher.
Freestyle and philosophy as a practice of spotting patterns and making interesting connections.
The value of a public forum for debating ideas, and how rap still practices this tradition.
Brenton’s current favorite “atom smashers,” rappers, and all-time favorite philosophers.
And, a closing freestyle rap!