Category Archives: Graphic Policy Radio

Superman: Supermensch. Winning the Disney boycott & more

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The need for solidarity with Palestinians and Jewish Americans reconning with the historical myths we’ve been fed–– James Gunn’s new Superman movie really went there and did it superbly. Who better to process it with than Rafael Shimoff and Shoshana Brown, the hosts of Beyond the  Pale, radio’s home for NY’s Jewish left!

But first an update from Project Fulcrum, Get Free’s Star Wars fan organizing campaign striking a blow against censorship. 

Murderbot: A Premium Quality Queer Anti-Capitalist Violent Work-Space Comedy

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Murderbot is a queer space opera with a sense of humor and a bone to pick with corporate power. You can stream it on Apple TV Join myself and Sarah Daniel Rasher, who co-hosts our Deep Space Nine podcast, for a look at the new TV series based on a series of novelas by Martha Wells.

The first 13 minutes of our show are fully spoiler-free.

Audiobook of All Systems Red on Everand: https://www.everand.com/audiobook/633755086/All-Systems-Red

Realizing Sanctuary Moon is a soap opera

Follow Elana on Bluesky – https://bsky.app/profile/levin.bsky.social 
Sarah Daniel Rasher on Bluesky – https://bsky.app/profile/rasher.bsky.social 

Ready, Nerd, Go! 010: “Mistakes, are also important to me. I don’t cross them out of my life, or memory. And I never blame others for them.”

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Welcome to Ready, Nerd, Go! Graphic Policy’s newest podcast focused on tabletop roleplaying games (RPGs), hosted by Alex and Enko. With the rising popularity of D&D and other tabletop RPGs, we wanted to help folks who are interested in learning about the hobby take their first steps.

On the docket for this episode:

  • Our intrepid hosts talk about media recommendations that are somewhat related to tabletop RPGs. Buckle in, folks, this one has no real structure.

Music by Alex Grohl from Pixabay.
Email: ReadyNerdGo@gmail.com

Daredevil Born Again: Cuomo is Kingpin (& we can defeat him)

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Daredevil returns to tangle with Mayor Fisk, a villain with shocking parallels to Andrew Cuomo: the real life disgraced former Governor of NY who is now running to be Mayor of NYC! Our real election ends June 24 and New Yorkers need a better outcome than the election in the Disney+ TV Series. 

I’m joined by Janos Martin, a former candidate for Manhattan District Attorney and an expert on criminal justice reform. We discuss how the show depicts the criminal justice system, the political culture of NYC and what lessons we can learn from Kingpin’s appeal to voters that can help us dissuade voters from supporting Cuomo. 

I even explain Ranked Choice Voting. Rank ANYONE but Cuomo! 

Find my ballot guide jfrej.org/ballot 

Find your polling place and election details: https://vote.nyc/ 

Subscribe to Janos’ newsletter https://janosmarton.substack.com/ 

Andor Finale: Political lessons from Star Wars and history

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“No one can do this alone” Cassian Andor Season 2

That’s why we’ve got Project Fulcrum, where Star Wars fans are uniting with movement organizers to connect the stories on screen with the real history and theory of antifascist movements. 

In this episode we cover the second half of Andor season 2, with returning guests Anthony Vidal Torres from Project Fulcrum at Get Free, and Charles Lencher of Organizing 2.0. 

Join Project Fulcrum: a Star Wars fan activism campaign fighting for freedom and equality in a country not so far away: https://www.getfreetogether.org/project-fulcrum
Listen to Andor Season 2 part 1 https://bit.ly/andoractivismpod 
Follow Elana  https://bsky.app/profile/levin.bsky.social 
Follow Get Free https://www.instagram.com/getfree_mvmt

FULL SPOILERS to follow. 

Andor season 2 & Anti-Fascist Movements in Star Wars & Our World (so far)

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Project Fulcrum

“The Empire cannot win. You’ll never feel right unless you are doing what you can to stop them.” Andor season 2.

Bridging the gap between Star Wars’ Andor and the real life history and theory of antifascist movements, organizer Anthony Vidal Torres from the Get Free movement and critic Klaudia Amenábar join me to cover the first two arcs of Andor season 2. 

Join Project Fulcrum: a Star Wars fan activism campaign fighting for freedom and equality in a country not so far away: https://www.getfreetogether.org/project-fulcrum

Read issue 2 of Nemik’s Weekly Manifesto https://bit.ly/NemiksManifestoApril24

Take Action:

Keep up with us:

Listen to Andor Season 1 Podcasts

James Gunn’s Creature Commandos with journalist Nicholas Slayton

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“Do you think this Eric Frankenstein is into crypto?”
“This Frankenstein probably invented crypto”
“Frank-coin?”

National security journalist Nicholas Slayton joins me to talk about James Gunn‘s DC animated series for HBO, Creature Commandoes. We’ve got gothic horror, geopolitics and an impressive soundtrack. This episode opens with a spoiler-free conversation on whether the show is worth your time before diving in for a conversation about those who the law does not protect, disability metaphors and more.

Nicholas Slayton is a Los Angeles-based journalist covering the “panic beat” — inequality, war, climate change and protests. He’s currently a Contributing Editor at Task & Purpose and has bylines in the New Republic, American Prospect and Motherboard.

Follow Nicholas on Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/nslayton.bsky.social

Subscribe to his newsletter; Let’s Do The Panic Again

Follow ME on bluesky – https://bsky.app/profile/levin.bsky.social

X-Men X-Over with Referential’s Dr. Khaliden Nas

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A Team-Up with Referential Podcast‘s Dr. Khaliden Nas to talk through our feelings about the state of X-Men comics. The first half, taped in September covers the Fall of X and the end of the X-Men’s ‘First Krakoan Age‘. In December we met again to talk about the state of the X-Office and relaunched slate of X-Men comics under the ‘From The Ashes‘ banner. 

Follow me on Bluesky – @Levin

In This Episode:

  • Fall of X (also hear my earlier coverage of here)
    * From the Ashes (Spoilers starts at 47:46)
    * Kieron Gillen & Lucas Werneck Immortal X-Men, X-Men: Forever & Rise of the Powers of X
    * Gerry Duggan and Russel Daughterman’s Fall of the House of X, Hellfire Gala 3
  • Invincible Iron Man & Uncanny Avengers
    * Al Ewing & Luciano Vecchio Resurrection of Magneto & X-Men: Red
    * Si Spurrier’s X-Men Blue: Origins
    * Jonathan Hickman
    * Gail Simone & David Marquez Uncanny X-Men
    * Jed McKay & Ryan Stegman X-Men
    * Jackson Lanzing / Collin Kelly & Francesco Mortarino NYX
    * Eve L. Ewing and Carmen Carnero Exceptional X-Men
    * Solos!
    * No, we will NOT call Ide “Temper”
    * Democracy in the 2nd Krakoan Age
    * The End of Hope [Summers]
    * Kate Pryde and the gates as bi metaphor revisited
  • Reading Warden Ellis
    * Remembering Dr. Moira MacTaggart
    * Assimilation Or Unity
  • Marvel not understanding why Hydra!Cap failed but Gerry Duggan makes the best of it
    * #XSpoilers and fandom meta

    One more time, Krakoans. For the children!

Spencer Ackerman on Writing Iron Man

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Is Tony Stark a comrade? Spencer Ackerman, award winning national security journalist and author of the book “Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump”, brings his knowledge of geopolitics, corporate power, and deep Iron Man lore to writing the new Iron Man series. 

This podcast is for folks new to the character as well as long time fans. We open with an overview of why I loved this series and a discussion of Spencer’s inspirations before delving into spoilers of the first three outstanding issues.

We’ve got: 

  • Busting anti-union thugs
  • Boardroom Warfare
  • Feats of engineering
  • Survivor guilt 

And some amazing pulls for bad guys that will please Iron fans and X-Men fans alike. 

Follow Spencer on Bluesky – https://bsky.app/profile/attackerman.bsky.social
Spencer’s Newsletter: https://www.forever-wars.com/ 
Elana Levin https://bsky.app/profile/levin.bsky.social 

Graphic Policy Radio: X-Men and the MLK Legacy Roundtable

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One of our most listened to episodes of Graphic Policy Radio discussed the X-Men and their use as an allegory of the civil rights, it covered the series throughout its many incarnations and writers. The discussion also veered into the depiction of minorities in “comic” entertainment and Marvel’s continuity. In honor of MLK Day, we present that podcast discussion.

Guests joining in on the conversation were:

  • Steve Attewell – A political & union activist, Steve holds a PhD in History from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the founder and writer of Race for the Iron Throne as well as The Realignment Project
  • David Brothers – David works for a comics publisher, blogs about stuff at 4thletter.net, & tweets about everything at @hermanos. Find his life story at iamdavidbrothers.com.
  • Gene Demby – Gene Demby is an American writer and journalist & the lead blogger for NPR’s Code Switch team.
  • Emma Houxbois – Emma is a queer blogger for hire out of Vancouver, BC most recently attached to Girls Read Comics. Follow her @emmahouxbois
  • Kendra James – a blogger who writes on race, comics, television & more for Racialicious, follow her @wriglied

You can listen to the archive above or go here and download it for on the go.

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