Psychic Militancy

Psychic Militancy Podcast

A podcast that dissects the psycho-politico-affective dimensions of violent systems of power and militantly refocuses us on how we can remain aligned in our revolutionary anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, and anti-colonial commitments to the world. Hosted by clinical psychologist Lara Sheehi.

  1. 3 Sept

    IN SESSION #20: Therapy in times of imperial implosion with Melissa Lopez, Naa Adaku & Dana Lopez

    I am SO excited for this episode to come out on audiostream--if you haven't seen the video yet, definitely check it out. I was joined by some kickass clinician comrades who are all actively thinking through how we defy the carceral logics of the psy-fields, how to resist imperial cooptation, how to push against the seams of normative fuckery, and all the struggles and contradictions inherent to doing the work of therapy. We had a LOT to talk about and I am happy you all get front a row to this conversation I have been wanting to have for a longgggggg time. Melissa Lopez, aka Mel is a Fat, Queer, Chicanx Femme- She's been an antagonistic and unruly mental health therapist for 21 years. Her practice includes working with people of various interlocking oppressions through an anti imperialist, anti white supremacy lens (she doesn't give one f**k about "evidence based modalities)." Hobbies include pissing off white people, hating on something or another, obsessing over cats, raccoons, & Halloween/horror. The Coven, are the cats and dogs that make up her family. Naa Adaku is a social worker who likes to giggle alot and calls herself an anti imperialist horse mom. She is known as her neighborhoods friendly rebel in Ghana usually walking barefoot with a pack of dogs surrounding her or riding long distance motocross bikes. Her interests are china-africa relations, anti-blackness, African sovereignty and the eradication of femicide in Africa. Dana is a social worker, psychotherapist, parent and comrade committed to a better world for all our children and all life on earth.  She lives in US-occupied Puerto Rico which is her partner's ancestral home with their child, 2 cats and 7 chickens.  Interests are anti-imperialism, disalienating psychotherapy, confronting liberals, feeding people, and quality time with her child and comrades.  Don't forget to subscribe to our channel on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PsychicMilitancy and for pre-releases and bonus content, consider becoming a paid patreon at: www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy Find us on IG: @psychicmilitancypod

  2. 26 Aug

    Charisse Burden-Stelly: These ideas belong to us: Knowledge production by other means

    I sat down with the brilliant Charisse Burden-Stelley, aka, Dr. CBS . We packed so much into this interview, including us shooting the shit toward the end a bit, BUT, the more important things that I am so excited for you all to hear are what we have come to know and appreciate Dr. CBS for, and why she is someone I see and feel practices psychic militancy. We discussed her thoughts about anti-communism in the settler colony of the USA, ongoing anti-Blackness, who she has learned from through her career, and the political demands on us, especially as leftists, in this particular moment. Dr. Charisse Burden-Stelly is an Associate Professor of African American Studies at Wayne State University and a 2026-2027 Scholar-in-Residence at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. She is the author of Black Scare/Red Scare: Theorizing Capitalist Racism in the United States, the co-author of W.E.B. Du Bois: A Life in American History, and the co-editor of Organize, Fight, Win: Black Communist Women's Political Writing and of Reproducing Domination: On the Caribbean Postcolonial State. She is a member of Black Alliance for Peace, the Anti-Imperialist Scholars Collective, and Community Movement Builders. You can find Dr. CBS and her This is America Project on IG: @dr.cbs_ Don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel, like this video, share and send to a comrade! If you wanted to listen to this a week before everyone else, consider becoming a paying patron at: www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy to get early access and more! And, follow us on IG: @psychicmilitancypod

  3. 18 Aug

    IN SESSION #19: Imperial and Zionist capture of Blackness with Jamal Williams

    I was so excited to be joined by a new comrade and brother, Jamal Williams. Jamal and I met when he reached out to connect about our shared political values in the decrepit and violent psy-disciplines. From our first discussion, I knew we had a LOT to talk about and more importantly, how it felt vital to share Jamal's work and commitments with the larger community. In this discussion we will get into Jamal's view on how imperialism and Zionism have worked hard to "capture" Blackness in a blackmailed relationally of "solidarity", the important community and political organizing Jamal does, the pressures to be anti-Zionist and anti-imperialist on campuses and in the medical world, and our own ongoing struggle for liberation. I am so excited for you to meet him! Jamal Williams is a neuroscientist, professor, and child development activist whose work focuses on ADHD, autism, and broader neurodevelopmental processes in children. Williams critically examines the political economy of health and education systems. His scholarship and advocacy interrogate how universities, healthcare institutions, and nonprofit infrastructures extract value from poor and working-class communities while failing to address the structural conditions that produce inequity. He is particularly concerned with the co-optation of marginalized suffering through what he conceptualizes as the "Health Equity Industrial Complex". Williams also explores how health disparities across Black, immigrant, and rural communities are rooted in shared upstream conditions, like housing insecurity, environmental injustice, labor exploitation, and unequal access to resources — rather than isolated group-level deficits. Williams' broader aim is to reframe conversations about health, development, and justice away from individual outcomes and toward collective conditions, advocating for approaches that prioritize material redistribution, community control, and systemic transformation. Don't forget to follow and subscribe to our channel: https://www.youtube.com/@PsychicMilitancy and follow us on socials!  You can find us on IG: @psychicmilitancypod & UpScrolled: @psychicmilitancy. For early releases and allllll the announcements, consider becoming a patron member at: www.patreon.com/psychicmilitancy

  4. 22 Jun

    Nick Estes: "Our History is the Future" & Revolutionary Certainty

    In this episode, I sit down with Nick Estes, our comrade from The Red Nation! We had a lot to talk about, as expected, but I was especially excited to talk to Nick about formative moments in his life that have shaped how he maintains militant alignment with anti-imperialist politics despite the extensive pressures to disidentify from this struggle. We also into his incredible book, "Our History is the Future"; the pitfalls to be aware of as revolutionary energies are siphoned off by systems of power; and, importantly, the commitment to our future as clearly as our present. The conversation felt like a balm, and I hope it wil feel the same to you! Nick Estes is an enrolled member of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe and is an Associate Professor in American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota. He studies colonialism and global Indigenous histories, focusing on decolonization, oral history, U.S. imperialism, environmental justice, anti-capitalism, and the Oceti Sakowin. Estes is the author of the award-winning book Our History Is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance (2019), which places the Indigenous-led movement to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline into historical context. He co-edited with Jaskiran Dhillon Standing with Standing Rock: Voices from the #NoDAPL Movement (2019), which draws together more than thirty contributors, including leaders, scholars, and activists of the Standing Rock movement, for a reflection of Indigenous history and politics and on the movement's significance. Estes was the American Democracy Fellow at the Charles Warren Center for Studies in History at Harvard University (2017-2018), the Lannan Literary Fellow for non-fiction (2019), and a Marguerite Casey Foundation Freedom Fellow (2020-2021). He is a National Archives Distinguished Scholar at Boston University (2022-2023). Estes co-hosts the Red Nation podcast and is the lead editor of Red Media, an Indigenous-run non-profit media organization that publishes books, videos, and podcasts. Don't forget to subscribe to our comrades' channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TheRedNation and our channel: https://www.youtube.com/@PsychicMilitancy For exclusive pre-releases and other content, consider joining as a paid member at: www.patreion.com/psychic militancy. You can find us on IG: @psychicmilitancypod

About

A podcast that dissects the psycho-politico-affective dimensions of violent systems of power and militantly refocuses us on how we can remain aligned in our revolutionary anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, and anti-colonial commitments to the world. Hosted by clinical psychologist Lara Sheehi.

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