What if freedom isn't something we have to achieve—but something we can practice? In this conversation, social justice and embodiment facilitator Shawna Wakefield invites us to rethink what freedom feels like—not just intellectually or politically, but in our bodies, relationships, communities, and everyday choices. Drawing on nearly 30 years of work across movement building, international development, philanthropy, community organizing, and education, Shawna shares what she has learned about the relationship between inner transformation and systems change. We explore why humility and courage need each other, how our smallest ways of relating can reproduce—or disrupt—the systems we're trying to change, and what becomes possible when we orient ourselves toward what we're for, rather than only what we're fighting against. We also go inside Shawna's Fall course, The Undergrowth Sanctuary: Practicing Freedom as Strategy, an eight-week embodied journey through freedom, belonging, power, grief, imagination, strategy, celebration, and collective liberation. Resources & Links 📚 Learn more about The Undergrowth Sanctuary: Practicing Freedom as Strategy https://www.radicalimagination.school/courses/the-undergrowth-sanctuary-practicing-freedom-as-strategy In This Episode 03:43 What 30 years of social justice work has taught Shawna 06:20 Practicing humility alongside courage 08:55 What safety, dignity, belonging, and freedom feel like 09:28 Inside The Undergrowth Sanctuary: Practicing Freedom as Strategy 11:38 Creating a strategic compass for collective liberation 14:31 Teaching at Columbia, Palestine, and choosing to leave an institution 17:16 Anxiety, belonging, and our conditioned responses 21:21 The eight-week journey: freedom, belonging, power, grief, and imagination 24:32 Imagining a North Star and a thriving horizon 32:15 Shawna's radical imagination for the School Key Takeaways Freedom can be a practice, not only a destination. We can resist oppressive systems while also asking where we can remember and embody the freedom that is already ours. Humility and courage belong together. Recognizing that we're all shaped by the systems we're trying to transform doesn't require us to become passive. It can allow us to act with greater courage and less righteousness. Our bodies hold knowledge our intellects can't always access. Embodied practices can surface insights, desires, grief, and boundaries that might take much longer to reach through intellectual analysis alone. Grief belongs in the work of liberation. If we don't create ways to grieve collectively, we risk suppressing what we're carrying and trying to simply move on. We don't always need to convince. There is another way of working together rooted in connection, co-inspiration, imagination, and creating the conditions for new possibilities to emerge. Connect Enrollment is now open for The Undergrowth Sanctuary: Practicing Freedom as Strategy, beginning October 15 at the School of Radical Imagination. Over eight weeks, Shawna will guide learners through embodied practices, storytelling, reflection, and strategic imagination to develop their own compass for practicing freedom in their lives, work, organizations, and communities.
