Not long ago, the only resource for uncovering our familial pasts was to consult libraries and archives, combing old newspapers for birth announcements and obituaries. These days, many people are turning to websites like Ancestry and 23andMe, taking DNA tests to learn more about their ancestors and where they came from—often discovering long buried secrets and long lost relatives in the process. But for some, the answers to these questions exist not in archives or in their DNA, but within a suitcase.
When writer Danielle Geller’s estranged mother passed away, she left behind just eight suitcases of belongings, cataloging her wayward spirit, moving between boyfriends, states, and jobs, at times experiencing homelessness. In her debut memoir, Dog Flowers (One World, 2021), Geller, trained as an archivist, consolidates the most important artifacts from the collection—never before seen photographs, documents, letters, and diaries—piecing together a portrait of the mother she grew up without, and reconnecting with her Navajo heritage in the process.
Today on the New Books Network, join us as we sit down to chat with Danielle Geller about her striking family memoir, Dog Flowers, available now from One World (2021).
Zoë Bossiere is a doctoral candidate at Ohio University, where she studies and teaches creative writing and rhetoric & composition. She is the managing editor of Brevity: A Journal of Concise Literary Nonfiction, and the co-editor of its anthology, The Best of Brevity (Rose Metal Press, 2020).
One officer in Los Angeles used car inspections to hit on women. In the San Francisco Bay Area, another woman says an officer used police resources to harass and stalk her. The California Highway Patrol quietly fired both of them for sexual harassment, but never looked into whether their misconduct was criminal. The second episode of On Our Watch examines the system of accountability for officers who abuse their power for sex and exposes where that system falls short.
Amazon plans to buy movie studio MGM for $8.45 billion, which would give the tech company a huge library of movies, shows, and franchises including the James Bond series. Some in Congress want to block the sale. The tech company is also the target of a new antitrust suit from the D.C. Attorney General.
The largest Confederate monument in the country is in Stone Mountain, Georgia, and it’s three acres large and carved into the side of a rock face. The park said this week that the monument will be left intact, but more context will be added to represent the South in a way that doesn’t glorify the Confederacy.
And in headlines: a gunman killed eight people in San Jose, Howard University names its College of Fine Arts after Chadwick Boseman, and the latest on sea snot.
We'll tell you about a tragic workplace shooting in northern California.
Also, there's a new kind of investigation into the origin of COVID-19 and new research shows COVID-19 immunity may last years.
Plus, which major movie and TV studio Amazon is buying, how you can hide the likes on Facebook and Instagram, and where to watch the reunion 'Friends' fans have been waiting for.
Three L.A. comedians are quarantined in a podcast studio during a global pandemic. There is literally nothing to be done EXCEPT make content. These are "The Corona Diaries" and this is Episode 146. Music at the end is "Ain't it Your Birthday" by Jonny Fritz.
Paris Marx is joined by Benjamin Peters to discuss the proposals for national computer networks in the Soviet Union, the challenges they faced in getting approval, and what lessons they hold for how we think about networks.
Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.
Workers have long been excluded from financial gains when businesses become profitable, and wages are no longer a way to create stability and build wealth. Cooperatives were created to combat this very problem. This week features Jamila Medley, the former Executive Director of the Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance (PACA), a co-op OF co-ops. PACA works to support this business model across industries, from food, to banking, to electricity!
Guest: Jamila Medley - Former Executive Director of Philadelphia Area Cooperative Alliance
Twitter: @PhillyCoops
Bio: Jamila Medley is a passionate advocate and educator for the advancement and growth of the cooperative economy. In her work with existing and start-up co-ops, she provides support for leadership development, cooperative economics education, navigating group dynamics, and creating adaptive systems to support group process and learning.
SHOW NOTES + LINKS
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We are grateful to Jamila Medley for joining us! Follow PACA at @PhillyCoops on Twitter, or find more of PACAs work at philadelphia.coop.
ACTIONS
PERSONALLY REFLECT
How Do You Coop(erate)?
Just like Jamila’s experience growing up, cooperatives don’t always have to be formal organizations. What are some informal ways you have participated in collective stewardship? Perhaps a community garden? Local park clean-up? Or in church? Think about the ways you cooperate with your community, local and global!
BECOME INFORMED
Collective Courage
We’ve got some homework for you! Per Jamila’s suggestion, start with reading Collective Courage: A History of African American Cooperative Economic Thought and Practice by Jessica Gordon Nembhard. Collective Courage chronicles Black cooperative business ownership and its place in the civil rights movement. A history that’s often forgotten when discussing coops. Purchase it from our online bookstore, and support local bookshops in the process. https://bookshop.org/shop/howtocitizen
PUBLICLY PARTICIPATE
Join or Support A Coop Near You
You’d be surprised how many cooperatives are operating right around you. Look into either buying from a local farm or grocery coop, joining a local credit union which is a financial co-op, or even getting your power from an electric coop. The best way to find some is do an online search with the name of your city or state and the word cooperatives. We also encourage you to buy from cooperative businesses. Find a directory at the website USworker.coop/directory
If you take any of these actions, share that with us - action@howtocitizen.com. Mention Not Another Patchouli Soaked Co-Op in the subject line. And share about your citizening on social media using #howtocitizen.
Visit the show's homepage - www.howtocitizen.com - to sign up for news about the show, to learn about upcoming guests, live tapings, and more for your citizen journey.
How To Citizen with Baratunde is a production of iHeartRadio Podcasts and Dustlight Productions. Our Executive Producers are Baratunde Thurston, Elizabeth Stewart and Misha Euceph. Stephanie Cohnis our Senior Producer and Alie Kilts is our Producer. Kelly Prime is our Editor. Original Music by Andrew Eapen. Valentino Rivera is our Engineer. Sam Paulson is our Apprentice. This episode was produced and sound designed by Alie Kilts. Special thanks to Joelle Smith from iHeartRadio.
Nikole Hannah-Jones, Pulitzer-winning journalist and developer of the 1619 Project, was appointed to a tenured professorship at UNC Chapel Hill. This is a position that is funded by the Knight foundation. However, a board of old white lawyers who happen to be the Trustees of the University, denied Hannah-Jones tenure, against the recommendations of, well... everyone who should matter in the decision making process. Many people have made bad faith arguments and whataboutisms, but Dr. Lindsey Osterman (tenured professor) is here to give us real perspective on it.
