Hello! Happy Sunday!
If you listened in last week, you would have heard some of the RR collective (Nat, Anna, Han & Shreya) setting out some of the central ideas and commitments that we bring into this new digital broadcast project. We reflected on some of our own experiences of learning out loud on the radio, and the formative role that Radio Reversal has played in our lives as organisers, activists, writers, artists, and academics.
If you’ve come across the live radio version of our show before, it will probably come as no surprise that we got so excited about these ideas that we decided that they deserved their own introductory mini-series. So this week, we’re back with the second episode of our three-part podcast intro series: Learning Out Loud.
We’re super excited about these next two episodes. In addition to giving us a bit more space to think through some of the central commitments and values of the Radio Reversal podcast, they also give us a chance to share with you recordings from our podcast launch party - co-hosted with the incredible Paradigm Shift - on Sunday 24th September 2023.
If you’re in so-called brisbane and you came along to our launch party, then you’ll already know that we trialed a cute live-radio-style mixtape event, bringing together a glorious line-up of scholars and poets and musicians and radio producers and friends and partners, all of whom have shaped the Radio Reversal project over the years. The conversations were so rich, and the soundscape of the event so unashamedly joyful, that we decided they needed a series overlay all to themselves.
So, in this second episode of Learning Out Loud, you’ll get to hear some of the live conversations we recorded during our launch party. Over the course of the episode, you’ll hear a conversation with our dear friend and host of the Paradigm Shift on 4zzz, Andy Paine, talking about why our long-standing broadcast radio programs are finally going digital. You’ll also hear a chat between Anna and one of the *unmatched stars* of Gogglebox, the current host of Let’s Talk - Social Justice, Kevin Yow Yeh about the space that community radio creates for critical, thoughtful, engaged and grounded work. Kevin also gives a shout out to a recent interview with the wonderful Gunggari person and National Director of the Change the Record Coalition, Maggie Munn, and particularly their just-for-the-joy-of-it podcast side project, Gay Football Friends.
We are also very excited to share a gorgeous poetry performance by the extraordinary poet, writer, community organiser & politics nerd Jonathan Sriranganathan (you can find more of Jonno’s poetry via Rivermouth). As Jonno says in their set, we’ve been thinking and dreaming and organising together for so long now that it is impossible to find where each of our projects begin and others end. It remains such a privilege and a joy to be learning out loud together!
And if that’s not already enough, we wrap up with a rich and playful chat about the power and possibility of community-controlled media with the unbeatable duo behind Let’s Talk - Black Politics, Professor Chelsea Watego & Dr David Singh. We talk about their experiences of Aboriginal community-controlled media, and their upcoming podcast project - Advance Black Knowing - the first season of which is due to be released in December. That season is titled Read the Play, and you’re going to want to set aside some time in your summer diaries to listen to it in full. You’ll also hear David mention a rich conversation that we had on the live version of Radio Reversal a few months ago about the idea of the present conjuncture, interpreting the crisis, and the importance of conjunctural analysis. You can dig into some more of that thinking here, and if you keep listening to the Radio Reversal Podcast, you’ll hear David’s interview in our upcoming series, Police State.
Over the course of this episode, you’ll also be hearing the joyful musical theorising of Matt Hsu, Jodie Rottle, and our very own Han Reardon-Smith, playing together as It’s Science And Feelings. This crew created a whole audio soundscape for the event, which you’ll hear in this recording, shot through with the joyful sounds of a community coming together to celebrate community controlled media and the things we can do together. It makes for the most incredible and joyful You can find some details about their other projects here, here, and here!
Phew! A huge second episode, setting the stage for much more to come! We hope there’s something here for you. And as always, we are excited to hear your reflections, thoughts, suggestions, concerns, and queries.
Let us know what you think!
In solidarity,
Anna (for the Radio Reversal Collective)
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