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. 2 hr ago

    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

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. 9 Jun

    IN SESSION #13: Empire's problem with sovereignty with Helyeh Doutaghi, Bikrum Gill & Alex Aviña

    Between the so-called Middle-East and Latin America, oh my, we had a lot to talk about how this empire implodes, psychically and otherwise, in the face of sovereign nations refusing to bend to its violence. Who better to help us unpack this than three of the most fierce anti-imperialist comrades I know--all of whom have a lot to say about sovereignty, empire, and, importantly, resistance. Helyeh Doutaghi is scholar of international law and geopolitical economy. Her research explores the intersections of the Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), encompassing postcolonial critiques of law, sanctions, and international political economy. Dr. Doutaghi's research draws on the mechanisms, harms, and beneficiaries of the sanctions regime imposed on Iran, centering questions of value transfer and wealth drain. Additionally, she is interested in International Humanitarian Law (IHL), having written about its history, practice, and the production of knowledge (and ignorance), particularly in the context of the US military. She was expelled from Yale Law School and the LPE project for speaking up for Palestinian liberation last year. She is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Tehran, where she will focus on completing her manuscript on the Iranian sanctions regime and neoliberalism. Bikrum Gill is a scholar of international political economy, and author of "The Political Ecology of Colonial Capitalism: Race, Nature, and Accumulation", published by Manchester University Press. Alex Aviña is an Associate Professor of History at Arizona State University. He is a historian of Mexico and Latin America.

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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