Unruly Subjects

Rowhome Productions
  • 5.0 (15)
  • NEWS COMMENTARY
  • UPDATED SEMIWEEKLY

Unruly Subjects is a weekly show about politics and culture hosted by Chenjerai Kumanyika, media professor and Peabody Award-winning audio journalist. Each week, Chenjerai makes sense of the week’s struggles with some of his favorite people - thinkers, journalists, friends, and folks who can help us laugh through the pain. The show is created in partnership with Rowhome Productions. Support Unruly Subjects at Patreon.com/UnrulySubjects 

  1. MAR 5

    Chopping it up with Ronald Young Jr. About Building Dialogue When The Stakes Aren’t Equal

    This week, the show features a long conversation between Chenjerai and his good friend Ronald Young Jr. Ronald is the creator and host of Weight For It, an award-winning narrative podcast that explores the ways we think about our bodies. They talk about the latest season of the show, which gets deep into questions of identity, safety, and what health even means. And they also have a long discussion about how people argue - the consequences of debate as sport, how to build better arguments, and maybe how to come out the other side of these situations feeling okay.  Also, Chenjerai gives an update on the Contract Faculty negotiations at NYU, attends a special screening of an episode of Ms. Rachel’s show (and meets the legend herself!), and NPR’s Gene Demby enthusiastically shares an ice cream recipe.   ☎️ Call our UNRULY HOTLINE: Have something you want to ask Chenjerai? Something you want us to cover on Unruly Subjects? Have a good joke? Leave us a message here:  215-436-9212 We make Unruly Subjects 100% independently - support the show on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/UnrulySubjects Follow Chenjerai on Instagram @chenjerai and Bluesky @chenjerai.bsky.social and follow Unruly Subjects @unrulysubjectspod. Get in touch unrulysubjects@gmail.com. Buy Engineered Conflict at Haymarketbooks.com. Listen to Proxy created & hosted by our friend Yowei Shaw. Additional Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Grizzly Beatz Unruly Subjects is created in partnership with Rowhome Productions Further reading & sources from this episode Listen to Weight For It https://www.radiotopia.fm/podcasts/weight-for-it Follow Ms. Rachel https://www.instagram.com/msrachelforlittles/ Learn from Ms. Rachel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dDpryw3z5w NYU Professors Vote ‘Yes’, authorizing strike action https://www.amny.com/education/nyu-professors-vote-strike-02232026/ Contract Faculty Set Strike Deadline for March 23rd https://nyunews.com/2026/02/28/contract-faculty-set-strike-deadline-for-march-23/ Iran After Khamenei  https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/iran-after-khamenei/ Support the show

    1h 16m

  2. FEB 26

    Why the Fight for Federal Workers Is a Fight About All of Us

    This week, we have an episode all about the Trump administration's attack on federal workers and how people are mobilizing to fight back. We feature an interview with two prominent organizers with the Federal Unionist Network: Paul Osadebe and Chris Dols.  Paul Osadebe is a former Civil Rights attorney from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. He’s a union steward with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) and an organizer with the Federal Unionist Network. Chris Dols is a former cost engineer and district value officer at the US Army Corps of Engineers. He was also the president of IFPTE Local 98 from 2021 until this year. He’s currently the executive director of the Federal Unionist Network.  Also, we also hear an excerpt of Chenjerai’s live interview with US Representative Summer Lee from Western Pennsylvania. As she seeks reelection, she discusses why history matters in this moment of rising fascism. Listen to the full conversation on the Unruly Patreon page.    ☎️ Call our UNRULY HOTLINE: Have something you want to ask Chenjerai? Something you want us to cover on Unruly Subjects? Have a good joke? Leave us a message here:  215-436-9212 We make Unruly Subjects 100% independently - support the show on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/UnrulySubjects Follow Chenjerai on Instagram @chenjerai and Bluesky @chenjerai.bsky.social and follow Unruly Subjects @unrulysubjectspod. Get in touch unrulysubjects@gmail.com. Buy How We Get Free at Haymarketbooks.com. Listen to Proxy created & hosted by our friend Yowei Shaw. Additional Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Grizzly Beatz Unruly Subjects is created in partnership with Rowhome Productions Further reading & sources from this episode Learn more about the Federal Unionist Network  https://www.federalunionists.net/ HUD Fires Two Whistleblowers Over Trump Admin’s Efforts to Dismantle Civil Rights Enforcement https://www.democracynow.org/2025/9/30/headlines/hud_fires_two_whistleblowers_over_trump_admins_efforts_to_dismantle_civil_rights_enforcement Virginia State Terminates 6 Professors Without Due Process  https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/tenure/2026/02/25/vsu-terminates-6-professors-without-due-process Sign the Petition to Reinstate the Fire Six at VSU https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/save-the-vsu-six/ Support the show

    1h 18m

  3. FEB 19

    Mobilizing Black Brazil: Culture, Power, and the Fight Over Democracy

    This week, we have an episode all about what’s happening right now in Brazil - and how we got here.   We feature an interview with Gilberto Porcidonio, a journalist, screenwriter, and writer from Brazil. He is a reporter and fact-checker for Piauí magazine and narrator of Chumbo & Soul, an Audible podcast series produced by Rádio Novelo about the Brazilian dictatorship from the perspective of the Black population. Chenjerai and Gilberto have a wide-ranging discussion about what’s happening in Brazil right now -  from the history of Black politics and policing in Brazil, to the current situation on the ground and the corrupt paramilitary groups who control much of the country.  Also, we also hear an excerpt of Chenjerai’s interview with Pedro Borges, a journalist and the co-founder of Alma Preta, an agency specializing in the coverage of racial issues in Brazil. Listen to the full conversation on the Unruly Patreon page.   ☎️ Call our UNRULY HOTLINE: Have something you want to ask Chenjerai? Something you want us to cover on Unruly Subjects? Have a good joke? Leave us a message here:  215-436-9212 We make Unruly Subjects 100% independently - support the show on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/UnrulySubjects Follow Chenjerai on Instagram @chenjerai and Bluesky @chenjerai.bsky.social and follow Unruly Subjects @unrulysubjectspod. Get in touch unrulysubjects@gmail.com. Buy Cold War on Five Continents at Haymarketbooks.com  Additional Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Grizzly Beatz Unruly Subjects is created in partnership with Rowhome Productions Further reading & sources from this episode Follow Gilberto Porcidonio on Instagram  https://www.instagram.com/puppet_gram/ Listen to Gilberto’s podcast Chumbo & Soul https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/chumbo-e-soul/id1853091993 Check out Alma Preta https://almapreta.com.br/ Here’s How We Pressured An Airline To End Its Contract with ICE https://truthout.org/articles/heres-how-we-pressured-an-airline-to-end-its-contract-with-ice/ Jesse Jackson Knew Better Than To Forget  https://www.theringer.com/2026/02/18/national-affairs/jesse-jackson-obit-civil-rights-legacy-martin-luther-king-jr Support the show

    58 min

  4. FEB 12

    Shackled at 30,000 Feet: What You Don’t Know About ICE Flights—and Who’s Paying for Them

    This week, we feature an interview with journalist Gillian Brockell who recently wrote a story published in Mother Jones that breaks down what’s happening onboard ICE deportation flights, the private-equity airline that’s profiting off the cruelty, and more.  Also, Chenjerai has an update on  labor struggles happening across the country and across sectors including the health care workers in NYC, the public school teachers on strike in San Francisco, and we share an excerpt of Chenjerai’s interview with Elisabeth Fay, a Clinical Associate Professor at NYU and an elected member of Contract Faculty United-UAW's bargaining committee. They discuss the stalled contract negotiations with the university, the CFU-UAW's call for a strike authorization vote this week, and why this is an issue everyone should care about (listen to the full interview on Patreon). Chenjerai talks with singer and musician Collette “Coco” Watson about her new album “Sanctuary”. Support her work here: https://gofund.me/bdc70e100 ☎️ Call our UNRULY HOTLINE: Have something you want to ask Chenjerai? Something you want us to cover on Unruly Subjects? Have a good joke? Leave us a message here:  215-436-9212 We make Unruly Subjects 100% independently - support the show on Patreon! Free and paid members get access to bonus content, discounts on merch (coming soon), & more:  https://www.patreon.com/UnrulySubjects Follow Chenjerai on Instagram @chenjerai and Bluesky @chenjerai.bsky.social and follow Unruly Subjects @unrulysubjectspod. Get in touch unrulysubjects@gmail.com. Buy No Neutrals There at Haymarketbooks.com  Additional Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Grizzly Beatz Unruly Subjects is created in partnership with Rowhome Productions Further reading & sources from this episode ICE Deportation Flights Are Getting Crueler and Longer https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/01/omni-ice-deportations-charter-flight-stonepeak-private-equity/ Gillian Brockell’s Website https://gillianbrockell.ghost.io/ Why We’re Calling a Strike Authorization Vote https://nyucontractfacultyunion.org/2026/02/04/why-were-calling-a-strike-authorization-vote/ AAUP Statement on Oklahoma’s attack on tenure at regional universities and community colleges https://www.aaup.org/news/elimination-tenure-oklahoma-regional-universities-and-community-colleges Support the show

    1h 3m

  5. FEB 5

    Who Polices the Police? with Mac Muir

    This week, Chenjerai is back on one of his favorite beats: policing in America 👮 He has a long conversation with Mac Muir, the author of Cop Cop: Breaking the Fixed System of American Policing. Muir recently served as the Executive Director of Oakland, California’s Community Police Review Agency and before then was a Supervising Investigator at NYC’s CCRB. He shares stories from inside his work as a police investigator and discusses the changes needed to hold bad cops accountable.  We also hear an excerpt from an interview with a nurse and negotiator on the front line of the ongoing massive Kaiser Permanente strike. You can listen to the full interview on Patreon.  We make Unruly Subjects 100% independently. Please support the show on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/UnrulySubjects Follow Chenjerai on Instagram @chenjerai and Bluesky @chenjerai.bsky.social and follow Unruly Subjects @unrulysubjectspod  Get in touch unrulysubjects@gmail.com. Additional Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Grizzly Beatz. And be sure to check out A.D. Carson’s music: https://aydeethegreat.bandcamp.com/ Unruly Subjects is created in partnership with Rowhome Productions Further reading & sources from this episode Patients over Profits: Kaiser Permanente’s Shift in Institutional Priorities and the Dire Consequences to Health Care https://unacuhcp.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/ProfitsOverPatients_2026.pdf Cop Cop: Breaking The Fixed System of American Policing by Mac Muir and Greg Finch https://bookshop.org/p/books/cop-cop-breaking-the-fixed-system-of-american-policing-greg-finch/80787c7f569e3db3?ean=9781638930082&next=t And for a VERY different take on what to do about police read Copaganda: How Police and the Media Manipulate Our News By Alec Karakatsanis https://bookshop.org/p/books/copaganda-how-police-and-the-media-manipulate-our-news-alec-karakatsanis/64c2d92e5fd56320?ean=9781620978535&next=t Being Dope: AD Carson -  https://global.oup.com/academic/product/being-dope-9780197772669 The NYPD Strategic Response Unit  https://www.thenation.com/article/society/nypd-settlement-agreement-police-violence/ The Mollen Commission Report -  https://digitalcommons.nyls.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2017&context=nyls_law_review Support the show

    1h 37m

  6. JAN 29

    What It Takes to Shut It Down: General Strikes, Movement Strategy, Solidarity

    This week, we feature a conversation with veteran labor organizer and strategist Bill Fletcher Jr. all about general strikes.  What do people mean when they say general strike? What makes strike power different from other kinds of protest power? And what kind of conditions actually have to exist for this kind of action to succeed, especially in a moment when the repression is this real? In this episode, we also hear from two workers on the ground in Minneapolis: Dr. Robert Mills III is a pediatrician and Nakia Dunbar is a school administrator. They talked about what it's been like to do their jobs while ICE is terrorizing the city, when families are scared, and when employees are scared to come in.  And Chenjerai takes us to a Salon 50 event in NYC where he interviewed author Sequoia Patterson about her new book, talked to Dana Rachlin about the event series and learned more about the connections between childcare and public safety.  ☎️ Call our UNRULY HOTLINE question: Have you ever had a job that you would describe as a scam? Maybe it’s a role that was clearly bad for society. Or maybe work that was just alienating. Call us here if you had (or have) a job you want to tell us about:  215-436-9212 Writer and scholar Leigh Claire La Berge will join Chenjerai on an upcoming episode to discuss the hotline responses. She’s the author of Fake Work (Haymarket Books), a memoir that looks back at her stint as a management consultant in the late 90s.  We make Unruly Subjects 100% independently - support the show on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/UnrulySubjects Follow Chenjerai on Instagram @chenjerai and Bluesky @chenjerai.bsky.social and follow Unruly Subjects @unrulysubjectspod  Get in touch unrulysubjects@gmail.com. Buy books at Haymarketbooks.com  Additional Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Grizzly Beatz Unruly Subjects is created in partnership with Rowhome Productions Further reading & sources from this episode The Citywide General Strike has a Rich History in Americahttps://jacobin.com/2026/01/ice-minneapolis-general-strike-history Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path toward Social Justicehttps://bookshop.org/p/books/solidarity-divided-the-crisis-in-organized-labor-and-a-new-path-toward-social-justice-bill-fletcher-jr/d53c76836f07a2a5?ean=9780520934740&next=t Claim No Easy Victories: The Legacy of Amílcar Cabralhttps://bookshop.org/p/books/claim-no-easy-victories-the-legacy-of-am-lcar-cabral-bill-fletcher-jr/e7c97ba41b2363da?ean=9781942173847&next=t Support the show

    1h 9m

  7. JAN 22

    How Trump 2.0 Built a Vote Purging Machine with Abby Vesoulis

    This week, we feature an interview with Mother Jones reporter Abby Vesoulis, who recently co-authored with Ari Berman the report “Your Private Data Is Building Trump’s Voter Purge Machine”. Vesoulis breaks down the Trump administration’s plans for election interference via voter suppression, the Department of Justice’s role in purging voters, and how we can try to fight back ahead of the upcoming midterm elections.  Also, Chenjerai previews a longer interview with veteran labor organizer and strategist Bill Fletcher Jr. about the purpose and power of general strikes. They discuss this in the context of the ongoing nurses strike in New York City and the statewide walkout planned in Minnesota this Friday, January 23rd in reaction to the violent ICE escalations that are ongoing in Minneapolis.  ☎️ There’s still time to respond to our UNRULY HOTLINE question: Have you ever had a job that you would describe as a scam? Maybe it’s a role that was clearly bad for society. Or maybe work that was just alienating. Call us here if you had (or have) a job you want to tell us about:  215-436-9212 Writer and scholar Leigh Claire La Berge will join Chenjerai on an upcoming episode  to discuss the hotline responses. She’s the author of Fake Work (Haymarket Books), a memoir that looks back at her stint as a management consultant in the late 90s.  We make Unruly Subjects 100% independently - support the show on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/UnrulySubjects Follow Chenjerai on Instagram @chenjerai and Bluesky @chenjerai.bsky.social and follow Unruly Subjects @unrulysubjectspod  Get in touch unrulysubjects@gmail.com. Buy No Neutrals There at Haymarketbooks.com  Additional Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Grizzly Beatz Unruly Subjects is created in partnership with Rowhome Productions Further reading & sources from this episode NYC Nurses Strike https://www.thecity.nyc/2026/01/20/nysna-nurses-strike-mamdani-sanders/ AARP calls for accountability over DOGE sharing Social Security data  https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5699159-aarp-demands-doge-accountability/ ICE out of Minnesota  https://labornotes.org/2026/01/will-ice-ignite-mass-strike-minnesota https://www.left-horizons.com/2026/01/17/minneapolis-trade-unions-call-general-strike-over-ice/ Register for Labor Notes Annual Conference!  https://labornotes.org/2026 Support the show

    1h 2m

  8. JAN 15

    Debate, Journalism, and Power in the Feed with George “Conscious” Lee

    This week, we feature an interview with George “Conscious” Lee. He’s an orator, educator, and social media influencer who uses his platform to break news and promote dynamic understandings of justice. He’s built a massive, engaged audience on Instagram and TikTok  by highlighting social and political issues that demand widespread awareness. In his interview with Chenjerai, Conscious talks about why analyzing power is the center of his work, how joining his college debate team gave him lessons that organizers, journalists and all of us need right now, how he approaches interpreting the news, and the limitations and risks of social media.  ☎️ We also introduce a new UNRULY HOTLINE question: Have you ever had a job that you would describe as a scam? Maybe it’s a role that was clearly bad for society. Or maybe work that was just alienating. Call us here if you had (or have) a job you want to tell us about:  215-436-9212 Writer and scholar Leigh Claire La Berge joins Chenjerai to set-up the hotline question. She’s the author of Fake Work (Haymarket Books), a memoir that looks back at her stint as a management consultant in the late 90s.  Support the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/UnrulySubjects Follow Chenjerai on Instagram @chenjerai and Bluesky @chenjerai.bsky.social and follow Unruly Subjects @unrulysubjectspod  Get in touch unrulysubjects@gmail.com. Buy Solidarity with Children at Haymarketbooks.com  Additional Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Grizzly Beatz Unruly Subjects is created in partnership with Rowhome Productions Further reading & sources from this episode Critical Debater’s Handbook - http://www.soonerdebate.com/SoonerDebate/Critical_Debaters_Handbook%21.html Support the show

    1h 10m
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About

Unruly Subjects is a weekly show about politics and culture hosted by Chenjerai Kumanyika, media professor and Peabody Award-winning audio journalist. Each week, Chenjerai makes sense of the week’s struggles with some of his favorite people - thinkers, journalists, friends, and folks who can help us laugh through the pain. The show is created in partnership with Rowhome Productions. Support Unruly Subjects at Patreon.com/UnrulySubjects 

Information

  • Creator
    Rowhome Productions
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    15
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Unruly Subjects
  • Show Website
    Unruly Subjects

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