
Episode 26 - Agony Letter: The Thing That Cracks Us Open
From The Breakup Theory by The Breakup Theory
October 4, 2025 · 1h 25m · Season 1 · Episode 26
About this episode
The episode features a discussion with Dean Spade about a listener's struggles with accountability and transformative justice.
CW: brief mention of suicidal ideation Oh my god, we are so back! As with everyone, this has been a year of hell, or lead paint, or whatever, and I have only been able to release a few episodes. But let me tell you, I am sitting on a few waiting to be edited and have plans for more, getting back into a regular production. For this episode, I invited the beautiful Dean Spade to respond to a listener letter with me. He has started up a podcast in the wake of his book, with the same name Love in a Fucked Up World , where has been discussing relationships and giving advice about how we can fight and love together better. This letter came from someone who had a terrible experience with an accountability process and over the years this has caused them to become disenchanted with the ideas of transformative justice, prefigurative politics, community and life . . . It has gotten really bad for them. As Dean has many years of experience with TJ and accountability process, working with different groups in figuring out how to address conflicts, dealing with conflicts in his own groups, I thought that he would be a perfect person to think this through with. We aren't able to solve the letter…
People in this episode
Host: The Breakup Theory
Guest: Dean Spade
Topics covered
- transformative justice
- accountability
- relationships
- conflict resolution
- emotional well-being
Keywords
- accountability
- transformative justice
- relationships
- conflict
- emotional spaces
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Love in a Fucked Up World
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