The Leftscape

As it was in the beginning, so it is now. We’re going through ch-ch-ch-changes. Please take a listen our heart-to-heart about what we’ve been doing these last few months and where we’re headed.

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Holidays. Thank you for taking this journey with us.

Things to do:

Keep up with Wendy Sheridan on Etsy, BlueSky, Instagram, and on her website.

Listen to Saved By Zero on Radio PVS, Mixcloud, or Yacht Rock Discord (Ask for an invite!).

Keep up with Robin Renée on Faceboo...

Co-hosts Robin Renée and Wendy Sheridan get ready for The Leftscape‘s summer hiatus and share some of their plans for the season. Wendy makes a big announcement about being chosen to create an outdoor fiber arts display for the Rahway Train Station. Robin’s season will be a bit more relaxed; they’ll perform a couple of shows and go to quite a few more, attend a retreat and plan another for the fall, and catch some time in the sun.

Wendy initiates this episode’s featured conversation with her July 4th tarot reading. It may or...

Isabella Braveheart is an evolutionary performance artist and activist, speaker, playwright, director and producer who transmutes the pains of humanity into the voice of truth through bold multimedia transmissions and heart-centered, experiential events in service of bringing our global family back to wholeness and love. She has been called a Deep Water Heart Surgeon and an Urban Priestess and she calls herself a heart-trepreneur. Don’t miss her spoken word performance of “Patriot” and her thoughts on how we might reclaim this fraught term while prioritizing personal, then societal healing.

To s...

Co-hosts Robin Renée and Wendy Sheridan head back to the Blanket Fort this time to regroup, check in, and hide out. But there’s not much actual hiding to be had from the firehose of news and unrest. They catch up on the intentional ways they each are staying sane through the mayhem — painting, gardening, exercising, immersing in fiction, and curating the news for personal consumption among them. ICE raids, the National Guard, and the chaos stoked in Los Angeles can’t be ignored, nor can thinking about ways to protest in the streets and elsewhere, wishing for the lea...

Naila Francis is a certified grief coach and death midwife. As the founder of This Hallowed Wilderness, she helps people transform their relationship to grief and loss through one-on-one coaching, workshops, rituals and ceremonies. Naila is also a founding member of Salt Trails, a Philadelphia collective normalizing grief through community rituals. In this featured conversation, she shares about offering compassion, the necessity of healing from both personal losses and greater world tragedies, and the “fierce aliveness” that often emerges from moving through our deepest emotional work.

Co-hosts Wendy Sheridan and Robin Renée open the show with some...

Rev. Dr. Beverly Dale, also known as “Rev. Bev,” is a sociologist-turned-pastor who has made a career of teaching a pleasure-centered, justice-focused, and sex-positive Christianity as an ecumenical campus minister at the University of Pennsylvania, as faculty at Lancaster Theological Seminary, and as a local pastor. Her latest book is Who Told You That You Were Naked? Meditations on the Sexual Body from PIlgrim Press. It is a book to help people heal from the problematic teachings about sexuality from the Church by offering tools to help people feel comfortable about their body and pleasure.

Befo...

 Anji Marth has been a professional tattoo artist and painter since 1999. Her published books include Tar and Gravel, Knuckle Sandwich, the Resonant Eye series, The Horrors Coloring Book for Adults, and the Paintings From Quarantine series, painted during the pandemic. She also works in taxidermy as assemblage art as well as illustration. A longtime activist, Anji grew up in coal country, Pennsylvania and has lived in the Pacific Inland Northwest for almost 30 years. In this featured conversation, she discusses her recent experiences in activism in Spokane, WA and what inspired her to create and distribute a new zine aimed a...

 Brittany Smith is a key volunteer with the 21st Century Packhorse Librarians, a group that delivers free books throughout the Appalachian Mountains, especially to those affected by Hurricane Helene. The organization is a revival and revisioning of the librarians who made book delivieries in the same region during the Great Depression. Smith resides in Jonesborough, Tennessee, works in Projects Control for an engineering firm, and lives on nine acres with her family plus a large number of chickens and ducks. In this featured interview, she shares about the grassroots efforts to bring hope to those who have lo...

Featured guest Ray Katz started and currently leads The Saners, a group dedicated to preventing climate collapse and building a better civilization worldwide. He holds a BA in Economics from Stonybrook University as well as an MBA from Fordham University and he co-founded one of the first web development agencies in Philadelphia in 1994. Katz first appeared on The Leftscape in Episode 160, “Saving the Planet With Joy.” He returns to spread the word on the bold ideals and expanded objectives adopted by The Saners, their partnership with General Strike U.S., and to put forth actions and atitudes we can all...

The Leftscape is back after an extended holiday hiatus. Co-hosts Robin Renée and Wendy Sheridan have a casual chat and reveal a new direction for the show. Moving forward, expect less news that imitates doom-scrolling and more reporting on ways we as progressives can come together to make an impact and to nurture communities. Expect thoughtful conversations and a couple of new segments to go with old favorites.

Wendy introduces and reads the chapter titles of On Tyrrany by Timothy Snyder, which will be explored more deeply in upcoming episodes. As this minisode is p...

Painting by Wendy Sheridan

Robin Renée and Wendy Sheridan speak for the first time after the U.S. presidential election. Together they process the loss by Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to Donald Trump and JD Vance. Between surmising why a majority of Americans voted for the Republican ticket and worrying what changes the next four years may bring, they begin to work through the deep sadness and disappointment, anger, frustration, and fear of encroacing fascism. With many more questions than answers, Wendy and Robin take the first small steps toward sorting out how to cope, how to p...

Lemalé Torres has a calling in educating union members on how they can be empower themselves to take charge. She is passionate about understanding the political landscape as an advocate of social justice. Another role in her life deeply affects how much she cares about the issues — motherhood. She met co-host Wendy Sheridan at an event sponsored by Indivisible. They sat down to talk about Torres’ knowledge of Project 2025 and its plans for labor laws from a union perspective as well as what it has to say about education, families, and more. Lemalé Torres says, “The work starts w...

Ivo Becica is an attorney who represents businesses and Human Resources professionals in employment disputes, including providing advice and training on staying in compliance with the law, as well as defending against employee claims when necessary. He writes about labor and employment law at his firm’s blog, HR Legalist. Becica joined co-host Robin Renée for an even-tempered conversation on what Project 2025 has to say about labor and employment issues in comparison to what the Harris/Walz platform proposes.

In This Fortnight I Learned, co-host Wendy Sheridan shares a fact about the slowing of the...

Lisa Vandever is an organizer and activist with over 30 years of experience in media, communications, arts and events. A lifelong Democrat, she is a co-leader of the progressive group, Indivisible Rahway, and an active member of Fair Ballot Alliance NJ and OneNJ7. An enthusiastic Garden Stater by way of Oregon, Chicago and Brooklyn, she has been happily settled in Rahway, NJ for two decades with husband, Alan, and two ginger tabbies, Clive and Radley. Everyone who is interested in the 2024 U.S. election, getting involved in local politics, and activism will learn a lot from this discussion...

Tom Limoncelli is an LGBTQ organizer, trainer, and speaker from New Jersey. His speaking and training repertoire includes time management for activists and support group facilitation skills. He is the recipient of several activism awards including the Brenda Howard Award for bisexual activism. Tom spoke about Time Management for Busy Activists on Leftscape Episode 86 almost exactly four years ago in 2020. In this episode he shares about the easy-to-do activism he’s been taking part in to get out the vote as we approach yet another incredibly important presidential election.

In a new/modified segment, Why Is This No...

Wendy Sheridan and Robin Renée are back after summer break for the 2024 Season 2 of The Leftscape! Featured guest Jonah Minkoff-Zern (he/him) is the co-director of Public Citizen’s Democracy Campaign. He has organized nationwide mobilizations to challenge ongoing threats to democracy from former President Donald Trump and his allies, coordinated grassroots activities to pass federal voting rights and democracy reforms, and mobilized national action for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. He has led and supported state-based efforts to win voting rights, public financing to protect election officials and prevent artificial intelligence deepfakes in elections, and coo...

Hal Robins is known for his radio broadcasts and public performances, as well as for his participation in the Church of the SubGenius (as Dr. Howland Owll, Master of Church Secrets). He has worked in film and television and is a poet and playwright. Robins is also a fine artist and cartoonist. In this featured conversation with Rev. Andrew Genus, he shares his wit and insight into the world of the SubGenius, the current political state we find ourselves in, and his upcoming appearance at PubeFest in Bethlehem, PA featuring the Ask Dr. Hal Show and other SubGenius shenanigans.<...

Co-hosts Robin Renée and Wendy Sheridan discuss the enormous and detailed Project 2025, a collection of policy proposals created by The Heritage Foundation to reshape the United States government in the image of current-day far right conservativism. It seeks to mandate conservative Christian values, dismantle many social programs and government departments, and to provide ready-made policy positions and personnel for the next Republican president. This description barely begins to do justice to the sweeping, detrimental changes this tome proposes. Wendy and Robin begin to look at its elements broadly and anticipate future conversations about Project 2025 along with discovering and t...

Ray Katz is a web developer—one of Philadelphia’s first. He has many hobbies including collecting artifacts related to the history of space flight and animation. His passion and most pressing endeavor, however, is to find effective ways of dealing with climate change. To that end, he has created a new and unique movement, The Saners. He is also the host of the 5 Minutes to Save the Earth podcast. Don’t miss his inspired thoughts on how a grassroots environmental movement can learn from past and present brilliance, use a decent dose of humor, and stand up to the st...

When Abby Driscoll, a senior at Fort Defiance High School in Verona, VA had a piece placed in a school art show, she likely didn’t expect the drama that ensued. Listener Tony Rogers of Fairfax, VA sent the story to The Leftscape via X/Twitter to spark conversation between co-hosts Robin Renée and Wendy Sheridan. This featured discussion ranges from thoughts on the artwork, “But Not Enough to Save You,” to serious concerns about censorship, art and book banning, and right-wing influence on school boards, the importance of down-ballot electoral races, and the power of art as a...

David Michael Jamison is the Assistant Professor of History at Edward Waters University in Jacksonville, Florida and the former Visiting Assistant Professor of Black World Studies at Miami University–Middletown in Middletown, Ohio. He previously worked as a special-education teacher, first with the New York Board of Education and then with the Los Angeles Unified School District. He is the Education and Programs Chair of the Jacksonville Historical Society; the director of the oral-history project, the co-chair of the Steering Committee for the Jacksonville Community Remembrance Project, and the Local Historian for the James Weldon Johnson Branch of the As...

Meet Protest Singer Michael Naphys

Michael Naphys is a singer/songwriter from South Jersey. Music has always been a big part of his life, and he has some musical releases including his first original album, Coming Out of my Shell, that we’ll learn about in this conversation. Michael performs live acoustic sets in Southern New Jersey including at Whims Brewing in Atco where co-host Robin Renée was lucky enough to catch his set not long ago. He finds using music to express his views on political issues to be very rewarding and empowering, and joins us...

Kyle Schickner has been a bisexual activist for the past 30 years. His company, FenceSitter Films makes films that tell the stories of women, people of color, and the LGBTQ communities. Kyle was our guest back in November 2021 on Leftscape Episode 113 when we talked about his film, A White Man Walks Into a Barbershop, a documentary of his cross country road trip focused on having down-to-earth conversations about race and racism. Now he is the director of the upcoming FenceSitter Film Festival which is coming right up, April 18th through the 21st at Bernardsville Cinema in Bernardsville, NJ.

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David “Daxe” Axelrod is a holistic economist, currently teaching at Montclair State University. He developed and teaches the course “Economics of Time, Mind, and Spirit.” He has also produced over a dozen albums of original music. Creativity, resources, aspirations, limitations, the problems with capitalism and what a society without it might look like all weave into his conversation with co-host Wendy Sheridan. The answers to all the world’s inequality problems may not have been uncovered in this interview, but listen in for some surprising starting points and intriguing questions well worth contemplating.

Before the featured interview, Wendy and...

Lieve Monnens was born in Belgium in the 1960s. She had a musical awakening when she was eleven years old through listening to her dad’s records by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Beach Boys. She became interested in going to live shows, then later took internships with radio and record companies which led to several jobs in the music industry. In 1990, Lieve moved to England and began working at Factory Records in Manchester, only 2 and a half years before the label dissolved. Over thirty years later, she has been featured in the book, I Thought I He...

The Leftscape 2024 Season 1 begins with special guest, Robert Brooks Cohen! Cohen is a writer, content creator, and life coach living in Los Angeles. He spent seven seasons writing and producing for Law & Order: SVU, and in 2019, he created Two Bi Guys, a podcast about sexual fluidity, masculinity, and the gender spectrum. His first book, Bisexual Married Men: Stories of Relationships, Acceptance, and Authenticity, was published by Routledge in 2023. In this featured conversation, he shares about his personal journey, the making of the book, questions of identity in the current political climate, and future creative possibilities.

Co-hosts Wendy...

When Jan Steckel was a guest on The Leftscape back in April of 2019, she read from her book of poetry, Like Flesh Covers Bone (Zeitgeist Press, 2018), which went on to win two Rainbow Awards. Her earlier poetry book, The Horizontal Poet (Zeitgeist Press, 2011), won a 2012 Lambda Literary Award. Jan Steckel’s creative prose and poetry have appeared in Scholastic Magazine, Yale Medicine, Bellevue Literary Review, Canary, Assaracus, and elsewhere. This time in our featured interview, the Oakland, California based writer is back to share from her new debut fiction collection, Ghosts and Oceans (Zeitgeist Press, 2023).

In The Ar...

John Oliver Mason is a freelance writer and has written for newspapers in the Philadelphia area for thirty years, covering such community-based events as town watches, school boards, community associations, Labor issues, and demonstrations. He has written for magazines and blogs as well and he is an advocate who specializes in writing about people in the community who are empowering themselves to make their communities better. He is a poet who has broken into fiction with his novel, Soldier of the Cross. He is a media consultant and a longtime community and labor activist. In this interview, he reveals hi...

Over the last five decades Scott Pearson has been a recording artist, a music producer, a TV soundtrack composer, an educator, an entrepreneur, a fine artist and painter, a social media and marketing consultant, and a tour guide for his adopted hometown of Utrecht near Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Leftscape co-host Robin Renée had the opportunity to work with Scott on some musical projects back in the mid 2000s, and was happy to have a chat with him about what the United States looks like from somewhere else. Listen in for thoughts on politics to healthcare to housing, t...

Michael A. Ventrella is an author and editor who has written novels, short stories, and nonfiction books including Big Stick, Terin Ostler and the Axes of Evil, and The Beatles on the Charts. Ventrella is also an attorney and has taught Constitutional Law at a number of institutions of higher learning. Just in time for elections and the upcoming holiday season, he speaks with Wendy about his helpful and humorous book, How to Argue the Constitution With a Conservative.

Before the interview in The Earthscape segment, Wendy Sheridan and Robin Renée reflect on the meaning of a...

Missy Singer DuMars has had careers in Theatrical & Entertainment Lighting, Therapeutic Massage, and Business Coaching. She is now a farmer and the owner of Crown Hill Farm in Eden, NY. She is also the hostess of the Women in Food Podcast. With this eclectic life and experience, she has lots to talk about! Hear what she had to say about her journey into farming, empowering women in the food industry, and the habits and conventions we can all use help breaking through to realize better choices around the food we enjoy and are nourished by every day.

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Teanna Byerts wants you to know that adventure is out there — You just need some imagination! Byerts is an artist, writer, photographer, kayaker, horseman, and mermaid. She nerds out about science, science fiction, fantasy, superheroes, animation, and weird, early lifeforms. She has paddled in the wake of dolphins, trained actual wild mustangs, and lived with a small pride of mini panthers. She believes that storytellers and artists should inspire and educate and very much lives up to that objective. In this friendly, artist-to-artist conversation with co-host Wendy Sheridan, Teanna Byerts shares about some of her great experiences with painting an...

Janet Coburn writes about mental health on her award-winning blog, Bipolar Me. She draws her insights from direct experience, as she has lived with bipolar disorder for decades. Her book of valuable mental health information and personal stories, Bipolar Me, was published in 2018. Her collection of short essays, Bipolar Us, which appeared in 2020, includes chapters on work, family life, self-care and caregivers, society and stigma, treatments and medications, and treating bipolar disorder sucessfully with help and caring. In this discussion, hear her speak candidly about experiencing bipolar II disorder, psychiatric treatment options, mental health care in the United States...

Alice Leibowitz is a longtime activist and facilitator who provides support for progressives and changemakers to find hope and keep their sanity in the face of rising fascism and other global crises. Her coaching and facilitation firm, Conversations Against Fascism, provides love, power, creativity, and focus in response to the question, “How are we going to do what it takes to meet this moment in history?” Hear about her activism journey, the role personal growth can play in social/political movements, and thoughts on finding your own niche in it all.

In the new This Fortnight I Lear...

Lisa Vandever is the co-founder and director of CineKink Film Festival, which is just entering its 20th anniversary season. A writer, producer and consultant in film and communications, Lisa was formerly the director of programming for a regional network of public television stations, worked as a development executive for two New York-based independent production companies, and she currently freelances with a wide range of organizations and companies. Active in local political organizing, she lives in Rahway, New Jersey with her husband and their two ginger tabbies, Clive and Radley. Leftscape co-hosts Wendy Sheridan and Robin Renée chat with L...

Vince Osborn resides in Chicago, is an avid cyclist, and is a devoted music enthusiast. He is a Founder of the Museum of Post-Punk and Industrial Music in Chicago, which was established by drummer Martin Atkins in 2021. He met co-host Robin Renée in the Devo fandom around the same time he first connected with Cynthia Dorothy Albritton, better known as Cynthia Plaster Caster. In this interview he recalls his longtime friendship with Cynthia, her art, and her stories of a rock ‘n’ roll life as “just a fan.”

In The Earthscape segment, Robin and co-host W...

Founded in 2014, Jenn Iannaconi’s company, Valkyrie Apparel, is a passion project born of spite and rage — rage towards an exclusionary fashion industry that neither understands nor wants to understand the needs of plus-sized customers. Jenn was born in New Jersey but now lives in Western Massachusetts with her husband, their dog, and several creepy old dolls that certainly DO NOT watch you as you move around the room. In this conversation with co-host Wendy Sheridan, she shares thoughts on attitudes toward body size, the process of creating and maintaining her business, and another fun and educational project with a fo...

Our interview with Kurt Esslinger in the last show was too good to leave any on the cutting room floor. As a refresher, Kurt Esslinger works on behalf of the Presbyterian Church USA with an ecumenical council of churches in Korea to help bring peace to the Korean Peninsula. A Texas native, he has been living and working in Korea for ten years. This conversation is a look at then President Donald Trump’s part in the beginning of peace talks between North and South Korea, the vastly different perceptions of him and his role in those tal...

Kurt Esslinger is assigned by the Presbyterian Church USA to work with an ecumenical council of churches in Korea to help with their campaign for peace on the Korean Peninsula. Having grown up in Texas, he has been living in Korea for the last 10 years. Since middle school he has been wrestling with what it means to identify as a Christian while also identifying as left-wing (“jwa-pa” in Korean). In this interview, he explains the basics of the conflicts between North and South Korea, what led to them, and his understanding of the current situation. Be ready for some pers...

Suzan Nickelson is the CEO and Director if Operations of Holistic Solutions, a cannabis dispensary in Waterford Township, New Jersey. It is the 33rd medical cannabis dispensary to open in New Jersey and the first black and woman-owned dispensary in the state, which was very recently approved for adult recreational sales. She also runs Ital Daughters, LLC, a cannabis and hemp consulting company that specializes in assisting minorities, women, veterans, municipalities, and stakeholders in understanding the regulatory aspects of the cannabis industry. Nickelson comes from a long line of herbalist women who have curated cannabis on the...