The Interdisciplinary Life Podcast Roberto Santiago

Brent Almond is the writer behind Designer Daddy and the artist behind Super Lunch Notes. Brent's blog covers pop culture, parenting and politics, often centered around his experience as a gay dad, but infused with humor, drink recipes and an occasional listicle. A while back, Brent posted on social media that while straight dads get lauded for playing dress up, no one gives him cookies for playing catch with his kid. Identifying this double standard led to a great conversation on performative allyship and advice for the straight parents of America. We also somehow ended up doing a lot of comparisons between rugby and choir. Believe me, it works. 

In 2020, candidate Kamala Harris brought Berkeley, California's 1968 busing program back into the national consciousness. With that, came some small controversy about the history of the program. Dr. Lisa Kingstone was a kindergartner in 1968, the first year of busing in Berkeley. She is writing a book on the topic, looking back on the country's first attempt at voluntarily integrating public schools. In this episode, we talk about her work, the legacy of the busing program, and past, present & future of race in America.

Carin Powell and Vivienne Crews are members of the non-profit studio, Signing Animation. The organization's goals are to produce animated films featuring Deaf characters using American Sign Language, and to find jobs for Deaf animators in an industry that is craving diversity. So how did a non-signing classical musician with single sided deafness become the founder of an ASL based animation studio? What is like being a Deaf artist joining this new venture? Take a listen and find out. Then go back SA's kickstarted for their first short: Liftoff

NOTE: This episode was recorded using Zoom with ASL interpreters. The episode will be released as a video with ASL and closed captions. Because of the mechanics of interpreting, there are some portions of the episode that have silent pauses. Thank you for your patience.

Dakh Jones was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma shortly before graduating from high school. In the early days of medical marijuana in California, Dakh found relief from his symptoms and an interest that became a career. Dakh has worked in nearly every segment of the cannabis industry and has witnessed its evolution as a consumer, farmer and the founder of Cloud Sesh; a series of pop events that keeps cannabis communal. Cloud Sesh works on the principle that legalization shouldn't push out the people who built the movement or the consumers who can most benefit, but are being priced out.

Dakh is also a parent who reflects on his own upbringing as a Black man raised by a single white mother in Berkeley, Ca. How does that inform his own parenting of a mixed race kid? How did kids like us, who grew up largely without our fathers and with mothers who didn't look like us, turn our experiences into a fierce commitment to fatherhood?

We talk all that and more. 

The Real World was a 90s cultural phenomenon. In 2000/2001 the show went back to New York, the location of the first season. A member of that cast was a 23-year-old from Berkeley, Ca. named, Malik Cooper. In this episode we talk about the social issues tackled on the show that are still relevant today. We get some behind the scenes accounts of being on reality TV. We talk about WWE super star The Miz, aka Mike from The Real World. Most importantly, we touch on fatherhood and organizing LEGO.

In this episode, I talk with Carolyn Miyakawa Adams who taught in Berkeley schools for over 30 years. Mrs. Adams, a Japanese-American, was sent to internment camp as a child during WWII. She later moved with her family to Boulder, Co before returning to California to attend the University of California. This episode is also part of my campaign to rename the schools where she made her mark, Carolyn Miyakawa Adams Elementary.