Psychic Militancy

In this episode, I sit down with the incredible Françoise Vergès. We had a beautiful conversation about how the politics of Réunion has animated her life's work, how she was brought up in the struggle alongside the revolutionaries in her family, about her time in Algeria and Paris, decolonial feminisms (of course!), and the centrality of psychic life to our ongoing fight against fascism and oppressive systems. We honestly talked about so so much more, so I am excited for you to hear it! It was such an honor to sit down with a sister-comrade who has shaped so much of my thinking and political orientation to scholarship. Françoise Vergès is a political theorist, curator and writer. She writes on the racist fabrication of premature death, decolonial feminism, the impossible decolonization of the western museum, climate disaster and antiracist, anticapitalist politics of vital needs. She works with artists and curates, since 2015, public performances with artists and activists. She is currently working on a film about anti colonial struggles in Reunion Island through her parents' personal archives and her own. For more information and on and links to Françoise's powerful work, see her website: https://francoiseverges.com/ This is the passage I read from Françoise's landmark A Decolonial Feminism (Pluto, 2019): "I used a familiar fruit, the banana, to shed light on a number of analogies and elective affinities: the banana's dispersion from New Guinea to the rest of the world, the banana and slavery, the banana and US imperialism (banana republics), the banana and agribusiness (pescticides, insecticides--the chlordecone scandal in the Antilles), the banana and working conditions (the plantation regimes, sexual violence, repression), the banana and the environment (monocultures, pilluted water and land), the banana and sexuality (Josephine Baker), the banana and branding (Banana Republic), the banana and racism (when did the association of bananas and Negrophobia begin?), the banana and science (researching the 'perfect' banana), the banana and consumption (bringing bananas into the home, suggesting recipes), the banana and rituals for ancestors, and the banana and contemporary art. The method is simple: starting from one element to uncover a political, economic, cultural, and social ecosystem in order to avoid segmentation that the Western social-sciece method has imposed." p. 21-22 Make sure to like this episode and subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@PsychicMilitancy You can also find us on IG: @psychicmilitancypod and UpScrolled: @psychicmilitancy For exclusive pre-releases and all the announcements, consider becoming a member at: www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy

In this session I was joined by my comrades Arama Rata, Sina Brown-Davis and Bianca Ranson to talk about the longstanding and ongoing struggle for Māori sovereignty under settler colonial conditions, the struggle against Zionism in Aotearoa, and how they remain focused in the face of settler violence--and so much more. Arama Rata (Taranaki, Ngāruahine, Ngāti Maniapoto) is a Māori researcher, writer, and organiser whose work centres on Indigenous resistance, solidarities, and betrayals. She is a steering group member of foreign policy group Te Kuaka, and a co-founder of community self-defence group Kaiāwhina Aotearoa. Sina Brown-Davis is of Te Roroa, Te Uri-o-Hau, Fale Ula and Vava'u descent. Sina is a long-time activist and commentator on Indigenous rights at local, regional and international forums. She has a lifelong commitment to fighting for the rights of Indigenous peoples , anti Imperialism and building South South solidarity. Sina is currently a gym freak working at the grassroots with community and building bridges and unity between working class and "underclass" communities. Bianca Ranson (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu ki Whangaroa) is an activist and campaigner based on Waiheke Island who has been active in fighting for climate justice and indigenous rights. She is a founder of Kaiāwhina and organiser with AW; A (Anti-War Aotearoa). Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@PsychicMilitancy And follow us on social media!! You can find us on IG at: @psychicmilitancypod & UpScrolled: @psychicmilitancy. For pre-releases and to keep up with all the announcements for livestreams, consider becoming a member at: www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy

In this episode I was joined by psychoanalytic colleagues, Avgi Saktepoulou and Iris Hefets to discuss boycott & divestment from the state now known as Israel and Zionism more broadly--a call that answers the Palestine Global Mental Health Networks call for all psychoanalysts of conscience to resign from the International Psychoanalytic Asociation. This feels like an even more timely conversation considering the currently underway US-Zionist aggression on Iran, the ongoing genocide in Palestine, and the no-existent ceasefire in Lebanon. In addition to BDS in psychoanalysis, we will discuss the institutional demands that we must make as well as interrogate the limits of this approach and all the ways we need to remain engaged in praxis "outside the clinic" so to speak. Originally from Cyprus and from Greece, Dr. Avgi Saketopoulou is a practicing psychoanalyst in NYC on faculty at NYU's Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. She is the author of Sexuality Beyond Consent: Risk, Race, Traumatophilia and co-author, with Ann Pellegrini, of Gender Without Identity. Avgi is the founder of the Cypriot and of the Greek chapters of the Palestine Mental Health Network and a vocally persistent critic of psychoanalysis' silence on the Palestinian genocide. Iris Hefets, works as a Psychoanalyst in Berlin, mainly with PoC-patients that suffer from (transgenerational) traumata in English, German and Hebrew. She was born in Israel and left during the 2nd Intifada for political reasons. She is a member of JVP-Germany. She resigned from the German Psychoanalytic Society/IPA in late 2023, together with another Jewish-Israeli, Palestinian and Turkish colleague due to the racist approach of the German Society they all experienced over the years and especially since the beginning of the Israeli Genocide in Palestine. Don't forget to subscribe to our channel and follow us on IG: @psychicmilitancypod or UpScrolled: @psychicmilitancy. For pre-releases and to keep up to date with all announcements for livestreams and new episodes, consider becoming a patron at: www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy

I was so excited to be joined by two kickass and unbending comrades and colleagues, both of whom have been fighting the struggle against the violence of Zionism in the academy and beyond. We discuss each of our "cases" with specific focus on the mechanics of these zionist smear campaigns and their intention to silence us, disappear us, and derail us from our political commitments. But more importantly, we talk about how we have NOT disappeared and we continue to confront power—maybe even commit to kicking it in the shins ;-) Maura Finkelstein is a writer and anthropologist. Her first book, The Archive of Loss: Lively Ruination in Mill Land Mumbai, was published by Duke University Press in 2019. Her anti-Zionist writing has been published by Allegra Lab, The Scottish Left review, The New Arab, The Markaz Review, Mondoweiss, Middle East Eye, and Al Jazeera. She is currently working on a book about Hillel International and a history of Zionist repression on US college and university campuses. Check out some of Maura's writing and speaking here: https://themarkaz.org/equating-critique-of-israel-with-antisemitism-us-academics-are-being-silenced/ https://www.americananthropologist.org/online-content/what-is-our-anthropology-for-knowledge-production-and-platform-in-a-time-of-genocide https://azadessa.substack.com/p/on-academic-freedom-in-a-time-of?publication_id=274849&post_id=160531034&isFreemail=true&r=58m3sz&triedRedirect=true Michel DeGraff is a linguist, educator and human-rights advocate. After being faculty at MIT Linguistics for 28 years, he now has a brand-new title of "Faculty at Large" at MIT School of the Humanities, Arts & Social Sciences — in retaliation for his protesting the rejection of his "Special Topics" course proposal on "Language and linguistics for decolonization and liberation in Haiti, Palestine and Israel." For nearly three decades now, his work has centered on justice for marginalized communities through liberatory linguistics, mother-tongue-based education and related initiatives toward universal access to quality education and equal opportunity. His most recent articles, for a Free Palestine and on academic freedom and free speech, have been published in Curriculum Inquiry, CounterPunch, Middle East Eye, Academe Blog, Mondoweiss, Newsweek, Inside Higher Ed, Le Monde Diplomatique, etc. (all available at http://mit.edu/degraff). His forthcoming book, to be published by MIT Press in both Kreyòl and English, is titled: Our own language: Harnessing the Power of Kreyòl and Other Mother Tongues for Education and Liberation / Lang a nou : Kreyòl ak lòt lang manman se zouti pou edikasyon ak liberasyon Find Michel here: http://mit.edu/degraff And check out some of his writing: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03626784.2025.2607673 https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/02/17/what-a-federal-court-taught-us-and-what-universities-must-learn-about-anti-zionism-vs-antisemitism/ https://www.middleeasteye.net/big-story/teach-linguistics-mit-zionist-lawsuit-shows-language-silence-israel-critics https://academeblog.org/2026/01/30/the-new-mccarthyism-at-the-mit-chapter-of-aaup/ Make sure to follow us on IG: @psychicmilitancypod; TikTok: @psychic.militancy; UpScrolled: @psychicmilitancy And for pre-releases and all the updates, consider becoming a patron at: www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy

In this episode, I am joined by Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi, a stalwart organizer and professor who has been a fierce mainstay in the movement for the liberation of Palestine for decades. In this episode we get into her history beginning in Nablus, Palestine, and discuss the communal processes, people, and mentors that reared her. To me, Rabab has long been someone who exemplifies what it means to take unbending stances, despite the consequences--and she has absolutely faced very severe consequences. More than anything, I am excited for listeners to meet her as someone with such deep roots in the broader struggle for liberation and not just as someone merely fighting back against Zionist aggression and violence against her as an individual. We discuss her personal history, organizing history, fun anecdotes from growing up, and more. Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi is the founding Director and Senior scholar of Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies (AMED) Program at San Francisco State University, the first of its kind in the world, and Principal Investigator of Teaching Palestine: Pedagogical Praxis and the Indivisibility of Justice. She is an internationally-known scholar and distinguished professor who is committed to community development and student engagement alongside her extensive academic work and publication and teaching schedule. She received her BA summa cum Laude in Special Honors Curriculum; Sociology; and Women's Studies at Hunter College-CUNY, and her MA, MPhil and PhD from Yale University where she was awarded the prestigious Sterling Fellowship, a full scholarship, a dissertation fellowship, and the Teaching Excellence award, received for the first time by a Palestinian, Arab or Muslim. Check out all the wonderful work AMED Studies have been doing here: https://www.youtube.com/ ⁨@amedsfsu2018⁩ Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@PsychicMilitancy and make sure to follow us on IG: @pyschicmilitancypod & UpScrolled @psychicmilitancy. For pre-releases and so you don't miss out on all the livestream announcements, consider becoming a Patron at: www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy

In this livestream, I was joined by Rania Khalek to continue Psychic Militancy's ongoing public facing conversations about empire and its violent malcontent. She and I both are WTF-ing empire, as one does, and we wanted to come together to talk about what she has witnessed in the so-called Middle East region, on-the-ground analysis, especially about Lebanon, normalization bs, the suffocation of Cuba, the abduction of Maduro and so much more. We importantly center our analysis in how the impunity of Zionist aggression in Gaza, especially, and as facilitated by US Empire has created a new world of possibilities for the atrocities we are seeing. Rania Khalek is a journalist for Breakthrough News, where she hosts the show Dispatches. She also co-hosts the weekly Freedom Side livestream with Eugene Puryear. Don't forget to subscribe to our channel and consider becoming a Patreon for all the latest announcements and exclusive content before it is released. You can find us here: www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy And follow us on IG: @psychicmilitancypod & TikTok: @psychic.militancy

The comrades from Tankie Group Therapy came together for the first ever LIVE to officially launch Psychic Militancy and to process, well, every f-ing thing that has been happening so that we don't have to do it alone. I hosted this comrade power line-up including your favorites, Justin Podur, Nora Barrows-Friedman, Alex Aviña, Sina Rahman, Jared Ware, Asa Winstanley, Adnan Hussein, Joe Emersberger, Arama Rata and Mikey Inouye. Make sure to Subscribe to our YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/@PsychicMilitancy and follow us on IG: @psychicmilitancypod & TikTok: @psychic.militancy And sign up to be a Patron to keep up with announcements of new episodes, livestreams and for exclusive releases! www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy

My comrade Jared Ware from fan favorite podcast Millennials Are Killing Capitalism will be joining me for our first live together on Psychic Militancy! We will be continuing the ongoing conversations we have been having on MAKC Live! and unpack and analyze how to remain focused in the face of Empire's violent reach, including the spectacle(s) of ICE violence, carceral discipline we are subjected to, the ongoing aggression on Venezuela, psyops related to Iran, Palestine and Lebanon...and much more. Jared Ware is one of the hosts of Millennials Are Killing Capitalism. He has published pieces in 68to05, Abolition Journal, Mint Press News, The New Inquiry, Prism, San Francisco Bay View, Southern Cultures, Shadow Proof, Truthout, and other outlets. Catch Jared and our comrades at: https://www.youtube.com/@MAKCapitalism and on IG: @makcapitalism Follow us on IG at: @psychicmilitancypod & TikTok at: @psychic.militancy To stay up to date on announcements and get first access to full episodes, consider becoming a Patreon at: www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy Here are the links mentioned in this livestream: Venezuela Responds to the Kidnapping of their President Nicolás Maduro with Andreína Chávez Alava: https://www.youtube.com/watchv=uVHdMKDXXBU Resist the US Colonization of Venezuela! Trump Kidnaps President Maduro with Alexander Aviña: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oECFKV--BKY https://progressive.international/blueprint/e57562a0-4dbd-479f-b77d-ed23bee16394-irans-indigenous-labor-movement-and-working-class-sovereignty/en/ The Malcolm Effest: Iran, women's rights and external disruptions to sovereignty - Dr. Helyeh Doutaghi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf9A8aih1UA&list=PLwYUBYeb4u9g8k77_zVYzqmETp_nRe6cT&index=27&t=2s

In this episode, I sit down with Amy Greer, who is best known to us as Mahmoud Khalil's lawyer—the one he called on the day of his abduction by ICE agents. We discuss the ethical imperative for what she calls "embodied lawyering" and how one resist seduction of a carceral discipline intent on innocence under the guise of saviorism. Amy E. Greer is an associate attorney at Dratel & Lewis. She is a member of Mahmoud Khalil's legal team, and one of the lead attorneys in a jawbone First Amendment suit against Columbia University, the House Committee on Education and Workforce, and the federal agencies. She has also recently served as a discipline defense advisor for students facing discrimination and disciplinary charges at Columbia University and Barnard College. Additionally, Amy assists in handling state and federal trial and appellate cases involving extradition, RICO, terrorism, drug trafficking, and sexual assault. She previously worked as an assistant public defender and as a research attorney for death-sentenced clients. Greer earned her J.D. from Roger Williams University School of Law in 2020, receiving the Public Interest Award. Admitted in NY, NJ, DC, and multiple federal courts, she has experience in capital defense and holistic representation. She holds a B.A. from Wheaton College, master's degrees in Theater and Library Science, and a Ph.D. focused on race and policy in the U.S. Watch this episode on our YouTube channel Follow us on IG: @psychicmilitancypod & TikTok: @psychic.militancy Consider becoming a Patron to support the show! www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy

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