The Leftscape

Robin Renee and Wendy Sheridan

the shape of progressive conversation

  1. 07/09/2025

    Reliable Sources (Episode 177)

    Co-hosts Robin Renée and Wendy Sheridan get ready for The Leftscape‘s summer hiatus and share some of their plans for the season. Wendy makes a big announcement about being chosen to create an outdoor fiber arts display for the Rahway Train Station. Robin’s season will be a bit more relaxed; they’ll perform a couple of shows and go to quite a few more, attend a retreat and plan another for the fall, and catch some time in the sun. Wendy initiates this episode’s featured conversation with her July 4th tarot reading. It may or may not be a “reliable source” of information, but it sparks insight and ideas about our current situation, what the future may hold for the United States over the course of the next year, and how we might take action. In an extended Pièce de Résistance, Wendy and Robin offer some activist work we can continue over the season including seeing what’s next in the No Kings movement, working with mutual aid groups, and attending a Good Trouble Lives On event on July 17th. The Timeline Cleanse entries touch on challenging topics but are ultimately uplifting; Robin reflects on the the final Ozzy Osbourne/Black Sabbath show and Wendy reports on Australian scientists who have reversed Parkinson’s in mice. Have a great summer (or winter, if you’re Down Under)! Things to do: Follow The Leftscape on social media @leftscape and give us a shout! Get ICEBlock in the App Store or wherever you get your apps. Learn about what is in the Big (Horrible) Bill. Check out Wendy’s stuff on Etsy. Listen to the Saved By Zero show by Robin (DJ Andrew Genus) on Radio PVS and Mixcloud. Listen to Robin Renée on Spotify. Watch two adorable otters on a cat wheel in a pool! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OLGHaMtHYA&t=253s

    57 min
  2. 06/26/2025

    Redefining “Patriot” (Episode 176)

    Isabella Braveheart photo by Dauss Miller Isabella Braveheart is an evolutionary performance artist and activist, speaker, playwright, director and producer who transmutes the pains of humanity into the voice of truth through bold multimedia transmissions and heart-centered, experiential events in service of bringing our global family back to wholeness and love. She has been called a Deep Water Heart Surgeon and an Urban Priestess and she calls herself a heart-trepreneur. Don’t miss her spoken word performance of “Patriot” and her thoughts on how we might reclaim this fraught term while prioritizing personal, then societal healing. To start off the show, co-hosts Wendy Sheridan and Robin Renée chat in Timeline Cleanse about an unusual item on display at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the recent Sky Farm Arts & Music Festival in Basking Ridge, NJ. Robin and Wendy recount their No Kings Day experiences in Pièce de Résistance and discuss some activists’ tendency toward protest gatekeeping. Wendy shares another brief and important principle from On Tyrrany. Things to do: Learn more about Ithe work of Isabella Braveheart on her website and keep up with her on Instagram and Facebook. Find out more about SPREAD, an evocative evening for the distinguished palate. Read On Tyrrany: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century by Timothy D. Snyder. After No Kings Day, stay politically active! Check out Sky Farm. Listen to Robin Renée on Spotify. Listen to the Saved By Zero show by Robin (DJ Andrew Genus) on Radio PVS and Mixcloud. Check out Wendy’s stuff on Etsy. Go see a 200-year-old condom in Amsterdam! (or at least read the article) Watch “ReDefining Patriotism by Isabella Brāveheart.” https://youtu.be/4q_ot6yatyg?si=C1bIKfymcSwKwrQE

    48 min
  3. 06/12/2025

    Men of Stone (Episode 175)

    Co-hosts Robin Renée and Wendy Sheridan head back to the Blanket Fort this time to regroup, check in, and hide out. But there’s not much actual hiding to be had from the firehose of news and unrest. They catch up on the intentional ways they each are staying sane through the mayhem — painting, gardening, exercising, immersing in fiction, and curating the news for personal consumption among them. ICE raids, the National Guard, and the chaos stoked in Los Angeles can’t be ignored, nor can thinking about ways to protest in the streets and elsewhere, wishing for the least violence and the greatest impact. They think about the role of their creative works and consider writing some “political earworms.” Wendy might revive and complete one of her old songs, “Men of Stone.”         For the Timelime Cleanse that starts the show, Wendy is happy with her newly painted art storage box and Robin describes a jello mold drag relay race that was pure joy. The biggest Pièce de Résistance this time around is the upcoming No Kings Day on June 14th, while the Pope seems to have scheduled some counterprogramming of his own. Wendy reads from On Tyrrany followed by a discussion and Robin reads a new brief reflection/response piece, “Why So Much Pride?” Things to do: Join a June 14th No Kings Day protest: Indivisible, FiftyFifty.one/events. Stay safe and know your rights. Listen to Episode 172 for Anji Marth’s ideas for being prepared and helpful at protests. Read On Tyrrany: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century by Timothy D. Snyder. Watch “LA protests LIVE: View from Los Angeles” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMcCbwLCAYc Listen to the Saved By Zero show by Robin (DJ Andrew Genus) on Radio PVS and Mixcloud. Check out Wendy’s stuff on Etsy. Jam out to this internet classic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuWVgVkMiHE

    59 min
  4. 05/29/2025

    Grief, Healing, and the Fiercely Alive (Episode 174)

    Naila Francis is a certified grief coach and death midwife. As the founder of This Hallowed Wilderness, she helps people transform their relationship to grief and loss through one-on-one coaching, workshops, rituals and ceremonies. Naila is also a founding member of Salt Trails, a Philadelphia collective normalizing grief through community rituals. In this featured conversation, she shares about offering compassion, the necessity of healing from both personal losses and greater world tragedies, and the “fierce aliveness” that often emerges from moving through our deepest emotional work. Co-hosts Wendy Sheridan and Robin Renée open the show with some levity in the Timeline Cleanse segment – this time on the pleasures of sipping Negronis and petting jellyfish. They are ready for the rainbow celebrations of June and contemplate an “All Lives Matter” moment at a Pride march. Visibly celebrating LGBTQ+ Pride is one of the recommended actions in Pièce de Résistance, along with picking up some feminist reading and attending a No Kings Day protest. Wendy reads another brief exerpt from On Tyrrany. Things to do: Learn more about Naila Fracis and her work on the This Hallowed Wilderness website, on Instagram, and on Facebook. Attend the Philadelphia Death and Arts Festival, May 29 – June 1, 2025. Join a June 14th No Kings Day protest: Indivisible, FiftyFifty.one/events. Read The Flytrap – worker-owned, reader-supported intersectional feminist journalism to u****k your algorithm. Read On Tyrrany: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century by Timothy D. Snyder. Visit the National Aquarium.         Celebrate Pride! Have a Negroni! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgy6vEX_hQg

    58 min
  5. 04/17/2025

    Have Books, Will Travel (Episode 171)

    Brittany Smith is a key volunteer with the 21st Century Packhorse Librarians, a group that delivers free books throughout the Appalachian Mountains, especially to those affected by Hurricane Helene. The organization is a revival and revisioning of the librarians who made book delivieries in the same region during the Great Depression. Smith resides in Jonesborough, Tennessee, works in Projects Control for an engineering firm, and lives on nine acres with her family plus a large number of chickens and ducks. In this featured interview, she shares about the grassroots efforts to bring hope to those who have lost everything and asks us all not to forget those in her area who are still dealing with Helene’s devastation. In Timeline Cleanse, co-hosts Wendy Sheridan and Robin Renée take inspiration from the announcement that Kermit the Frog will speak at the University of Maryland‘s upcoming graduation and Cory Booker’s recent record-breaking 25 hour, 5 minute protest speech in Congress. Robin reads an original poem, an unconventional reflection at Pesach, called “Change Party.” Wendy reads more from On Tyranny by Timothy D. Snyder and leads a discussion on Chapter 2. Things to do: Learn more about, donate, and/or volunteer for the 21st Century Packhorse Librarians. Follow the 21st Century Packhorse Librarians on Facebook and Instagram. Read “Thirty lonely but beautiful actions…” and do the ones that move you. Read On Tyrrany: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century by Timothy D. Snyder. Call the Supreme Court at 202-479-3000 or email pio@supremecourt.gov to ask them what they plan to do about Donald Trump ignoring court orders. Listen to Radio PVS Sundays at 9pm EDT for the Saved By Zero show. Check the schedule for repeat times.

    54 min
5
out of 5
10 Ratings

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the shape of progressive conversation

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