The Chauncey DeVega Show

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Ep. 51: On Collecting Sneakers and How to Do More Good Better Aug 11, 2015

Show notes

This week's episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show features two firsts. David Friendly is the director and producer of the new documentary on sneaker culture known as "Sneakerheadz". David is the first Best Motion Picture of the Year Oscar-nominated guest--for his work on the great movie Little Miss Sunshine--to sit down at the virtual bar and salon known as The Chauncey DeVega Show. David Friendly is also the first person to spend some time chatting with Chauncey DeVega who has won a BAFTA for Best Film. Steve Scheier is the author of the new book Do More Good. Better. He is the first organizational consultant with expert and practical advice on "diversity", "leadership", and "the workplace" to be a conversation partner on The Chauncey DeVega Show. This is a good and informative episode. Chauncey and David talk about being a "closer" in the film business, the art and politics of sneaker culture, how making a documentary is different from working in other genres, and how sneaker culture is a type of social history. In the next segment, Chauncey and Steve talk about a wide range of topics. How does a person navigate the corporate and not for profit worlds? How do questions of leadership, identity, and decision-making interact and complicate one another? Steve and Chauncey also explore such topics as privilege, consulting, communication styles, and remaining positive and productive in the face of the challenging realities of the contemporary workplace where one may be afraid of truth-telling? What about finding a mentor? Surviving a toxic work environment? During this episode of The Chauncey Devega Show, Chauncey also works through his mental confusion as caused by the Chicago heat, reflects on being slurred by a drunk woman at the local tap, is upset about ign't "Serial", talks about Donald Trump and pro wrestling, and shares the biological science that drives his addiction to high fructose corn syrup.

Ep. 50: Sean McFate on How Private Armies are Changing the World Aug 06, 2015

Show notes

Sean McFate is the guest on this week's episode of the podcast known as The Chauncey DeVega Show. Sean is an expert on international and military affairs. He is also the author of the book The Modern Mercenary: Private Armies and What They Mean for World Order. Sean McFate is also a very fun, smart, and insightful conversation partner as he and Chauncey DeVega dialogue about the present/future of warfare, the old/new rise of mercenaries, popular culture, foreign affairs, and the changing same that is war across the centuries. This episode was great fun. How often does one get to ask an expert on military affairs about the movie Predator, and which military branch (or not) did Arnold Schwarzenegger's group of commandos belong to? In this week's installment of The Chauncey DeVega Show, Chauncey also talks about his apparently quite upsetting and controversial recent essay on toxic white masculinity, gets too excited by his Shasta root beer soda, talks about the White Right's human freak show obsession with "cuckservatives", and gives some advice to a sad soul on Reddit who is apparently in distress about his cuckolding predilections and obsessions. This very full of goodness episode also includes an update about the ign't cluster in Chauncey DeVega's neighborhood, and the Sherlock Holmes-like mystery that has developed during these last few weeks.

Ep. 49: Psychiatrist David Reiss on Professional Wrestling and America's Broken Mental Health Care System Jul 30, 2015

Show notes

Psychiatrist David Reiss is the guest on this week's episode ofThe Chauncey DeVega Show. David and Chauncey first connected in a previous podcast discussion of the passing of the late great professional wrestler "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes.

This is a continuation of that great discussion and David does some great sharing and teaching. David is a mental health practitioner who in addition to his private practice and consulting has worked very closely with athletes from a range of backgrounds including professional wrestling. David and Chauncey have a fun and wide ranging conversation that is not just good fun for those folks interested in the theater and drama of professional wrestling, but includes insight about America's broken mental healthcare system, police brutality, concussions and sports, over diagnosis of PTSD, and the over medication of the American public. David also shares some great stories about the great personalities and interesting people he encountered while working at horse racing tracks while in medical school back in the not too distant past. As a bonus for this episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show, David and Chauncey reconnected to discuss the recent Hulk Hogan racism imbroglio. In this episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show, Chauncey also briefly shares his thoughts on the de facto murders of Sandra Bland and Samuel Dubose, is very angry about the killing of Mr. Cecil the Lion, and pitches some ideas for reality TV shows while watching the horrific Dating Naked. Chauncey also gives an update to the Sherlock Holmes-like mystery that he has been investigating in his neighborhood A hint: Chauncey has actually seen one of the people involved in the mysterious tale of "letters thrown out of windows in the middle of the night by a person who may or may not be a prisoner".

Ep. 48: Bill Fletcher Jr. on TransAfrica, Organizing, Resistance and Labor Unions Jul 23, 2015

Show notes

There are two guests on this week's installment of The Chauncey DeVega Show. It is full of goodness, teaching, learning, and great conversations.

The first talk features Jonny Campbell. He has directed HBO's recent miniseries Casual Vacancy based on the work of Harry Potter's J.K. Rowling. Campbell also directed the zombie TV series In the Flesh on the BBC, in addition to the classic Dr. Who episode Vincent and the Doctor. This conversation was great fun. Chauncey and Jonny have a great dialogue and to and fro about the choices that a director makes in helping to create a final product, the choices one makes in terms of adapting a book to film, life lessons learned in the business, advice for intrepid screenplay and script writers, the zombie genre, and other related matters. The second part of the podcast is a sit down at the virtual bar with brother Mr. Bill Fletcher Jr. Mr. Fletcher is the former director of the activism and advocacy group known as TransAfrica. He has also been on the editorial staff of the print and online magazine known as Black Commentator. Bill is a wonderful guest. He also shares some great mentoring, wisdom, advice, and guidance about social advocacy work, aging gracefully, the importance of labor unions to American progress, labor, the color line, and how social change workers can maintain positive energy in the face of adversity. Great stuff. In this episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show, Chauncey also updates folks about his local neighborhood Sherlock Holmes mystery, his cooking mistake and (then) salvation from last week's podcast, and gets angry about all of the noise that seems to occur whenever he wants to do his promos and outros for The Chauncey DeVega Show.

Ep. 47: Gregory Downs on Reconstruction, Black Freedom and Resistance Jul 16, 2015

Show notes

Historian Gregory Downs is the guest on this week's edition ofThe Chauncey DeVega Show. Dr. Downs is the author of the new book After Appomattox, which offers an analysis of the post Civil War era South, Reconstruction, American freedom, and the struggle for African-Americans to defend their newly one gains in the face of white racial terrorism. Professor Downs' new book is an excellent history of American politics and a corrective to misunderstandings about the Civil War and its aftermath. Dr. Downs also writes for The New York Times in its on-going series on the American Civil War.

Gregory does some great teaching and sharing in this episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show. He disabuses Chauncey--in a very nice way--of some of his misconceptions about the United States Constitution and its relationship to chattel slavery, shares his thoughts on writing for a popular audience in The New York Times, and explains the particular historical relationship that Black America has with the United States government and why the Black Freedom Struggle can be described as being "emancipated into the arms of the State". Chauncey and Greg also do some sharing about graphic novels and other "popular" depictions of American history. In this episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show, Chauncey also talks about the Bill Cosby sex scandal and the misunderstood racial politics of The Cosby Show, shares some thoughts about Ta-Nehisi Coates' new book, and tells a tale of intrigue and crime while applying his Sherlock Holmes-like powers of detection and investigation to solve a local mystery.

Ep. 46: Shan Nicholson on the Origins of Hip-Hop, Gang Culture, and Social Activism Jul 09, 2015

Show notes

Documentary filmmaker Shan Nicholson is the guest on this week's edition of the podcast known as The Chauncey DeVega Show. His new film Rubble Kings, explores the gang culture of New York during the 1970s and how it gave birth to hip-hop music and culture. Rubble Kings is also an excellent documentary about young people's political activism, a great and exciting examination of social change and youth culture, and a fun exploration of what I like to call "hidden history". Friend of the podcast Bill the Lizard also stops by as well. Chauncey and Bill the Lizard talk about the new Terminator: Genisys movie, banter about their Star Wars: Episode 7 anxieties, and recap their online Skype role-playing game session with the traditional dice, pen, and paper game Pendragon. In this episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show, Chauncey tells us about going to the Socialism 2015 conference in Chicago, taking on some emotional baggage from listening to folks who have lost loved ones to police thuggery and murder, and how he was told that he is also too sexy and well-dressed to take the Socialist women for a ride on Space Mountain. Chauncey also shares a story about braving bacterial meningitis to escort a random stranger to the hospital, and gives some tips to young black folks who hang out with colorblind white public mouth bloviating racists. The friends and kinds folks who donated to the June fundraising drive that is used to support The Chauncey DeVega Show and ChaunceyDeVega.com are also given proper thanks in this new installment of the podcast. This episode was a nice and fun opportunity to do some catching up after a brief 2 week hiatus, to recharge the emotional batteries, and to have a few laughs with a good friend.

Ep. 45: Jonathan Lethem on "Old" New York, "They Live", and the Culture of Disreputability Jun 25, 2015

Show notes

Jonathan Lethem is the featured guest on this week's installment of the podcast known as The Chauncey DeVega Show. He is the author of many award winning books including Dissident Gardens, The Fortress of Solitude, and Motherless Brooklyn. Jonathan conducted a master class and did some wonderful sharing about the culture of disreputability, the movie They Live, race and class, generational politics, and shared some stories about growing up in a pre-Disneyfied New York City. This episode also features a conversation with psychologist Dr. David Reiss about the loss of the great and amazing professional wrestler known as "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes, and why his death has hit fans of the sport so hard, and the reasons that so many people felt a personal connection to him. In addition, portions of this episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show were recorded in the very moments when The Charleston Massacre was a "breaking news event" on the cable news networks. Instead of editing out those segments, they have remained in the show as a type of archive and online testimony to the power of that moment. At the end of this episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show, Chauncey reflects on the week's happenings since The Charleston Massacre, the news cycle, the Right-wing hate media, and the GOP's efforts to derail any conversation about white domestic terrorism, guns, and toxic white masculinity.

Ep. 44: Ali Abunimah on Electronic Intifada, the Global Color Line, and the Israeli Lobby Jun 11, 2015

Show notes

Ali Abunimah is the guest on this week's edition of the podcast known as The Chauncey DeVega Show. He is an internationally known human rights activist and author whose work focuses on the struggle for the Palestinian peoples' full rights and freedom. Ali Abunimah is also the co-founder of the essential website Electronic Intifada. In this great conversation, Ali and Chauncey talk about many issues. They include the global colorline and human rights, the United States' militarized police, the relationship between Israel and America's police and military, the Israel lobby and American politics, the limited space in the corporate media for truth-telling, and how to maintain hope and positivity while doing social change work. Chauncey also talks about his recent essay on racial battle fatigue, colorblind white liberal racism, and McKinney, Texas's police thuggery against young black and brown children at a local pool.

Ep. 43: Henry Giroux on Neoliberalism and the Culture of Cruelty Jun 04, 2015

Show notes

Dr. Henry Giroux is the guest on this week's edition of the podcast known as The Chauncey DeVega Show. He is the author of numerous books such as the recent The Culture of Organized Forgetting. He is also an essential voice in this time of trouble, neoliberalism, austerity, and cruelty. Dr. Giroux has been a great guide for my work here on WARN and ChaunceyDeVega.com. I am Padawan. He is Master Yoda. Our conversation is instructive, open, and honest because of that fact. In this episode, I also share my thoughts on religious fundamentalism, Christian fundies, sexual guilt, and the Duggar molestation scandal. Do I hold back? Never. No mercy. They do not deserve it.

In this episode of the podcast known as The Chauncey DeVega Show, Henry and I discuss neoliberalism, race, justice, capitalism, police thuggery, and the culture of disposability and cruelty. Dr. Giroux and I also vibe around public pedagogy, teaching, life, and share some war stories about the political space that is the classroom.

Ep. 42: Leonce Gaiter on Black Manhood, the Old West, Honor and Revenge May 28, 2015

Show notes

Leonce Gaiter is the guest on this installment of the podcast known as The Chauncey DeVega Show. Leonce is the author of I Dreamt I Was in Heaven: The Rampage of the Rufus Buck Gang. He is a straight shooter and a real talker. This is a great and honest conversation where Chauncey and Leonce have a real salon. There is no agenda or prepared set of questions in the conversation between Leonce and Chauncey: this is spontaneous, honest, and direct truth-telling without a filter. We call this "grown folks talk". The Chauncey DeVega Show has had some generous guests, and amazing moments of learning. This episode is one for the books. In this episode, Leonce and Chauncey discuss notions of black male honor, revenge, and self-respect. What does it mean to be black, male, and brave? Why is American society afraid of black folks who claim their honor and self-respect? How do movies that are revenge fantasies like Tarantino's Django, and commercial hip-hop, fit into America's collective imagination, anxiety, and fear about black manhood, respectability, and honor? How do people of color navigate elite white spaces such as Harvard University, and what does that teach us about the color line? Why does black male self-respect and honor scare so many white folks? Leonce also shares some great insights about writing, race, and the Old West. Chauncey does some sharing in this episode about Memorial Day, Confederate white trash, thug cops, the Waco outlaw motorcycle riot and shooting, Barack Obama, and his recipe for frying pork chops.

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