The Leftscape Robin Renee and Wendy Sheridan

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 on The Leftscape to talk about his experiences with writing and performing protest music and the journey of growing into his political focus.



In The Artscape, Robin talks with co-host Wendy Sheridan about her recent work and upcoming art shows. In This Fortnight I Learned, Wendy discovers the songs by Shel Silverstein and Robin discovers the joy of Asking for What You Want. News covered includes trouble for the Great Barrier Reef, a new union for Volkswagen workers, a search engine for conservatives, a new nondiscrimination law in Oakland, CA for polyamorous and other alternative family structures, states where abortion will be on the ballot, President Biden announces environmental grants and jobs on the 55th Earth Day, recreational cannabis use linked with lower risk of dementia-related diseases, and remembering David Newman aka Durga Das. Wendy nominates Earth Day creator Gaylord Nelson as the Lefty of the Week.



Things to do:



Keep up with Michael Naphys on Instagram, Facebook, and X/Twitter.



Listen to Michael Naphys on Soundcloud or Spotify.







Say hi to Wendy Sheridan and buy her art at the Spring Craft & Vendor Show, Saturday, April 27th, 10am - 4pm, Allaire State Park 4263 Atlantic Avenue Farmingdale, NJ 07727. Booth #40. Raindate Sunday, April 28th.



See Wendy's work in the Union County Senior Art Exhibit, Union College of Union County, 1776 Raritan Road, Scotch Plains, NJ, Monday – Friday, 9 am – 5 pm. Tuesdays until 8 pm, Closes May 30th at noon.



Check out wendycardz on Etsy and Wendycards on Facebook for more art by Wendy Sheridan.



Listen to healing sounds by David Newman.

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.



In the Why Is This Awesome? segment, co-hosts Robin Renée and Wendy Sheridan share their excitement about the amazing solar eclipse that crossed North America on April 8, 2024. In a related note, Robin complains about "travel hazing" in This Fortnight I Learned, while Wendy points our the value of writing things down. In the News, there are the SCOTUS and Trump trial roundups, 4/8 conspiracy theories, the next total solar eclipe, the future of Mifepristone, a push for a 32-hour work week, a newly-discovered blue and yellow gecko, and more. Robin nominates Keith Olbermann for Lefty of the Week.



Things to do:



Get your tickets for the 2024 FenceSitter Film Festival, April 18 - 21 in Bernardsville, NJ.



Follow Kyle Schickner on Facebook and the FenceSitter Film Festival on Instagram.



Explore more on the FenceSitter Films website.



Get ready for upcoming eclipses!



Listen to Countdown With Keith Olbermann.



Watch a FenceSitter Film Festival trailer.



https://youtu.be/sGaC5yc105A?si=o60aN3tViZdEN406

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 Robin head to The Blanket Fort for a personal chat about commitments and ceremonies. In This Fortnight I Learned, Wendy had a family revelation and Robin found out about the Ides of March Coin. In the News: Tammy Murphy leaves the Senate primary, a couple of Trump trial headlines, a right-wing family's challenges in Russia, Jasmin Paris finishes the Barkley Ultramarathon, SCOTUS oral arguments regarding healthcare for the Arizona Apache tribe and access to mifepristone, and a man changes his name to "Literally Anybody Else" to run for president. At the end of the show, Wendy nominates Heather Cox Richardson as this episode's Lefty of the Week.



(Please pardon our sound quality... There were some mysterious tech issues this time around.)



Things to do:



Listen to Daxe on Economics, Time, Mind, and Spirit on YouTube.



Subscribe to Heather Cox Richardson's Letters From An American newsletter.



Listen to Music For the Goddess.

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 Heard You Speak: Women at Factory Records by Audrey Golden, which has just been released in the U.S. She offers her thoughts on the experience of being a woman at Factory at the time, what it's like looking back, and the importance of recording our lesser-known histories.



After introducing the show, co-hosts Wendy Sheridan and Robin Renée share their This Fortnight I Learned facts; Wendy learned something cool where Babylon 5 meets International Women's Day, while Robin copped out and read the day's Google Doodle fact about fancy coffee drinks. Just the Tip news includes the State of the Union address and the Katie Britt response, Greta Thunberg climate protest, the passing of Akira Toriyama, and The Oscars. A call by Rosemarie Mallet, Bishop of Croydon for the Church of England to pay hefty reparations for chattel slavery, decreasing power of anti-trans talking points, SCOTUS taking up the presidential immunity question, and more are discussed In Deep. In The Earthscape segment, Wendy leads a discussion on early spring gardening. Robin nominates Clementine Morrigan as Lefty of the Week.



Things to do:



Get the book! I Thought I Heard You Speak: Women At Factory Records by Audrey Golden.



Listen to Saved By Zero - Factory Records Favorites w/ Lieve Monnens.







Check out the book event for I Thought I Heard You Speak on March 30th at Record Grouch, 986 Manhattan Avenue Brooklyn, NY 11222. Reading by author Audrey Golden. Former Factory colleagues Lieve Monnens and Seema Saini will be in attendance. Time TBD - Keep an eye on the Record Grouch events page.



Learn about Lefty of the Week, Clementine Morrigan.



Read American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America by Colin Woodard.



Donate to Vote Save America to help the most important campaigns in the upcoming U.S. elections.



Keep track of the Trump trials.

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 Sheridan and Robin Renée catch up at the beginning of the show after the long winter break. News highlights include Sweden's successful bid to join NATO, the Alabama Supreme Court's ruling that embryos are children, SCOTUS hearing arguments on whether social media companies have the right to censor, the tragic death of nonbinary student Nex Benedict, scientists isolated in Antarctica develop their own, unique accent, the various Trump trials, and more. Wendy introduces a new mini-segment of the show with her nomination of John Oliver for a Lefty Award. In Why Is This Awesome?, Robin is excited about having checked out a recent concert by Young Gun Silver Fox.



Things to do:



Keep up with Robert Brooks Cohen and get your copy of Bisexual Married Men: Stories of Relationships, Acceptance, and Authenticity.



Listen to the Two Bi Guys podcast.



Attend B+ WELL: A Wellness Conference for the Bisexual, Pansexual & Fluid Community, Saturday, March 2nd, 9am - 2:30pm, Los Angeles City College, 855 North Vermont Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90029



Check out community-based support and discussion group, BiRequest.



Watch I May Destroy You.



Remember the lives and the tireless bi advocacy of Sheela Lambert and ABilly Jones Hennin.



Listen to Leftscape Episode 33 featuring John Cecil Price. Rest in Peace, Johnnycakes.



Follow the GoFundMe in memory of Nex Benedict and give if you are so moved.



Listen to the Saved By Zero show by DJ Andrew Genus (aka Robin Renée).



Jam out to Young Gun Silver Fox.







Watch "Supreme Court Ethics: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)."



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GE-VJrdHMug



 

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 Artscape, Wendy Sheridan asks Robin Renée about current gigs, DJing post-punk, stage fright, and other happenings on the creative front. In This Fortnight I Learned, they cover Kit Kat flavors, an ending and beginning for KISS, and Wendy's music streaming in Japan. All the News We Can Handle includes contention over the Zulu kingship, a Texas abortion case, activists working to stop severe anti-LGBTQ+ laws in Uganda, George Santos on Cameo, the Pantone color of the coming year, and a fosssil called Turtwig.



This is the last show of the season! Stay tuned for reposts of some of our favorites, check us out on Patreon, and catch us on social media @leftscape.



Have a beautiful holiday season and a great start to 2024. We'll see you soon!



Leftscape Love,



Robin and Wendy



 



Things to do:



Read Ghosts and Oceans by Jan Steckel.



https://www.zeitgeist-press.com/index.php/product/ghosts-and-oceans/



Ghosts and Oceans on Amazon



See Robin Renée's live performance on Friday, December 15th, 7-9pm with Sharief & Friends at Mr. Pi's, 247 Raritan Ave, Highland Park, NJ.



Stream music by Wendy Sheridan's band, Music for the Goddess:







Listen to DJ Andrew Genus / Robin Renée on Mixcloud.



See Turtwig!