How We Show Up with Mia Birdsong

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10/24/23 • 66 min

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As we continue to work towards outer transformation, building the structures and models that will shape the transition to a post-capitalist society, it’s also important to think about the inner transitions within ourselves — particularly, how we relate to one another personally and socially.

How we show up together for a liberated future is the core theme of the book How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community, written by our guest in this episode, Mia Birdsong. Mia is the Executive Director of the Next River Institute and the host of the More than Enough podcast miniseries. In How We Show Up, Mia shares how we have separated from one another despite our deep desire for belonging. She explores how we can instead turn towards one another, remembering our inherent interconnectedness, and how we can find connection and support in vulnerability and generosity.

In this conversation we explore how capitalism has undermined our ability to create and sustain healthy communities, what it really means to show up for someone, how to set boundaries and hold each other accountable without bosses or policing, what a healthy interconnected community feels like, and how to cultivate a sense of collective vitality that embodies the liberated future we want right now

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Further Resources:

If your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming documentaries, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship

For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky.

You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

Previous Episode

Palestine Pt. 1: A Socialist Introduction with Sumaya Awad

Before 1948, the land of Palestine was dotted with olive groves along rolling hills between mountains and the Mediterranean sea. Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, Jews, and Christians all lived alongside one another in relative harmony, practicing agriculture and embroidery, or working in factories or along the coast in thriving port villages. Not to romanticize it too much, but in comparison to what was to come, this region was thriving.

If you’ve been paying any attention to the news lately, you’ll know that an image of harmony is no longer the case in this region. In 1948, the state of Israel was founded, and the campaign leading up to, during, and following the founding of this ethno-state threw this region into a turmoil that has produced one of the most subjugated and immiserated populations in the world — a population that has been subjected to ongoing ethnic cleansing and a campaign of genocide aimed at replacing Palestinians and their towns, villages, and cities, with Israeli settlements.

In this episode, we’ve brought on Sumaya Awad, a Palestinian writer, analyst, and socialist organizer, to talk about this history, drawing a line from the Nakba of 1948 all the way to the present carpet bombing campaign on Gaza. Sumaya is a contributor to and co-editor, along with brian bean, of Palestine: A Socialist Perspective, published by Haymarket Books.In this conversation we explore the history of the political ideology of Zionism, how imperialism and colonialism shaped the state of Israel, the ethnic cleansing campaign known to Palestinians as the Nakba, the global propaganda campaign, led by Israel, aimed at covering up this history, the West’s complicity in war crimes and genocide, what a principeled socialist perspective on Palestine looks like, and much more. In fact, there’s so much from Palestine: A Socialist Perspective that we didn’t get to, that we’re going to have Sumaya back on for a part two soon.

Further Resources:

If your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming documentaries, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship

For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky.

You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.

Next Episode

A Marxist Perspective on Elections with August Nimtz

“This is the most important election of our lifetimes.” “Voting for a third-party candidate? Might as well throw away your vote!” “You may not like him, but you’ve just got to hold your nose and vote for him — otherwise, Trump might win.”

We're sure you’ve heard each of these lines many times — we know that we have. But, at some point you have to ask: how can every election be the most important one? Am I really throwing away my vote by voting for a candidate whose policies I agree with? Can we ever actually affect change if we’re always voting for the "lesser evil" candidate or party? Isn’t that just a race to the bottom — or, as we're seeing currently, a race towards genocide?

Well, in this conversation, we’re going to tackle all of those questions — and much more — with our guest, August Nimtz, Professor of political science and African American and African studies in the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Minnesota. Professor Nimtz is the author of The Ballot, The Streets, Or Both? published by Haymarket Books.

In this conversation, Professor Nimtz explores the question of electoralism as it relates to revolutionary left politics through a deep dive into the history of the Russian Revolution — examining how Marx, Engels, and Lenin approached electoralism and then applying their analyses and viewpoints to today’s situation.

What is the role of elections for the revolutionary left? How can we engage with electoralism without falling into what Professor Nimtz refers to as “electoral fetishism”? What about the "lesser evil" or "spoiler" phenomenon? How can we build a party for the working and oppressed classes without falling prey to opportunism or bourgeois distraction? What can we learn from the European Revolutions of 1848, the Paris Commune, the Russian Revolution, and other historic attempts at revolution — both successful and unsuccessful? These are just some of the questions and themes we explore in this episode with Professor Nimtz.

Thank you to Bethan Mure for this episode’s cover art and to Noname for the intermission music. Upstream theme music was composed by Robert Raymond/Lanterns.

Further Resources:

If your organization wants to sponsor one of our upcoming documentaries, we have a number of sponsorship packages available. Find out more at upstreampodcast.org/sponsorship

For more from Upstream, visit www.upstreampodcast.org and follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Bluesky. You can also subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.