The Activist Files Podcast
Channel Details
The Activist Files Podcast
The Activist Files is a podcast by the Center for Constitutional Rights where we feature the stories of people on the front lines fighting for social justice, including activists, lawyers, and storytellers.
Recent Episodes
60 episodes
Episode 59: Loving Corrections with adrienne maree brown: Transforming a Divided World
In this episode of the Activist Files, Communications Director Sunyata Altenor and Senior Legal Worker Leah Todd sat with New York Times bestselling a...
Episode 58: Black August & The ongoing fight to end slavery
Black August began in the 1970s to mark the assassination of incarcerated political prisoners like the revolutionary organizer and writer George Jacks...
Episode 57: Unhoused & Queer: SCOTUS to decide if cities can punish people for sleeping outside
In episode 57 of The Activist Files, we’ll hear a discussion around Grants Pass v. Johnson, a case that went before the Supreme Court on April 22, 202...
Episode 56: On 10 Years Since Floyd v. NYC: the Ongoing Campaign to End Racist Policing in NYC
In episode 56 of The Activist Files, we’ll hear a discussion sparked by the 10th anniversary of the historic ruling in our stop-and-frisk case, Floyd,...
Episode 55: In Orlando for the National March to Protect Trans Youth & Speakout for Trans Lives
In the latest episode of the Activist Files, Bertha Justice Fellow Zee Scout speaks to five plaintiffs in our case Women in Struggle, et al. v. Bain,...
Episode 54: Ashley Diamond's Life Matters - on Dismissing Her Case, Healing, and How She Fights for Her Life
On Episode 54 of the Activist Files, Bertha Justice Fellow Zee Scout speaks with Ashley Diamond, a civil rights activist, who made a pivotal choice on...
Episode 53: Back in Black: Will the UN finally unite around people of African descent?
On the occasion of the first session of the newly established UN Permanent Forum on the People of African Descent (UNPFPAD), the Center for Constituti...
Episode 52: Movement Building in the South: At 90, the Legendary Highlander Center Looks Back – and Forward
This year marks the 90th anniversary of our longtime ally and current partner, the Highlander Research and Education Center, the storied school that’s...
Episode 51: Vision Dreaming for Black Trans Liberation - On Imagination, Mutual Aid, and the Road Ahead
How do attacks on trans organizing and rights impact related movements for bodily autonomy, reproductive justice, and liberation? On episode 51 of "Th...
Episode 50: Before Tuskegee: A Journey for Recognition
On the 50th episode of “The Activist Files", legal worker Sadé Evans speaks with Helen D. Noel. Helen is an United States Air Force Chief Master Serge...
Episode 49: Land, Health, and History: A fight for Environmental Justice and Community Legacy
What happens to a predominantly Black community when its government officials prioritize profit over health and legacy? On the 49th episode of “The Ac...
Episode 48: We've Always Been Here: The Radical Spirit of Black Abolitionist Feminisms
How has Black feminism ushered in our current understanding and practice of abolition? On the 48th episode of the Activist Files, advocacy associate m...
Episode 47: Shelter, Safety, and Strength: Housing Justice and the Struggle for Black Liberation
On the Black History Month episode of the Activist Files, Center for Constitutional Rights board member Meena Jagannath speaks with Rob Robinson, a fo...
Episode 46: Guantánamo at 20 - you asked, we answered
Center for Constitutional Rights Advocacy Program Manager Aliya Hussain, Senior Managing Attorney Shayana Kadidal, and Senior Attorney Wells Dixon ans...
Episode 45: Cruel by Design: Enduring and Resisting the U.S. Immigration Detention System
Joseph Thompson, a green card holder from Jamaica, came to the United States in 1985. After an encounter with police in Dalton, Georgia, Joseph was tr...
Episode 44 - Fighting for Turtle Island: A conversation with Indigenous Water Protectors
The third Thursday in November is a National Day of Mourning, where we mourn the genocide of millions of Native people and the theft of Native land, a...
Episode 43: The Power of Art: Talking Disability Justice and Movements for Liberation
How do organizers and advocates use art to promote and demystify the struggle for disability justice and its connections to other liberation movements...
Episode 42: Reflecting on 20 years of the “War on Terror” at home: federal prosecutions
As we look back on the past 20 years since 9/11, certain issues come to the forefront – the toll of the war in Afghanistan; the torture of detainees i...
Episode 41: Jailhouse Lawyer’s Handbook - Exploring the legacy of inside-outside organizing
As its on-going celebration of the updated sixth edition of the Jailhouse Lawyer’s Handbook, Center for Constitutional Rights Co-author and Senior Leg...
Episode 40: Radical freedom through art and activism with Nadia Ben-Youssef & BK King
“The Activist Files” is excited to cross-promote our 40th episode with “The Artivists’ Room,” Donkeysaddle Projects’ podcast, which features conversat...
Episode 39: Abolition, Prisoner Support, and Trans Justice with the Free Ashley Diamond Campaign
On episode 39 of the Activist Files, Center for Constitutional Rights Bertha Justice Fellow Rafaela Uribe talks with Heena Sharma and Katrina Hamann-A...
Episode 38: Motherhood on Trial - Pregnant and incarcerated
In, “Motherhood on Trial: Pregnant and Incarcerated,” Legal Administrative Associate Afrika Owes spoke with De'Jone Watts about her experiences as an...
Episode 37: Dismantling Jim Crow Juries – A conversation with Angelo Guisado and Jamila Johnson
On April 12, 2021, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed petitions on behalf of clients who were sentenced to Death By Incarceration by non-unani...
Episode 35: The Breath Act - A love letter via policy
What happens when a response to the demands that come from the street lead to radically reimagining public safety? Protest and policy merge and “The B...
Episode 34: Criminalizing Black Protest: When we Resist
Throughout its history, law enforcement has deemed Black activism as a national security threat. Law enforcement has used its powers to chill the spee...
Episode 33: Colonialism on Trial - Bolivian Indigenous Resistance
On Episode 33 of The Activist Files, Rutgers Law School Distinguished Professor of Law Beth Stephens and University Network for Human Rights Superviso...
Episode 32: The Color of Surveillance
On Episode 32 of The Activist Files, Senior Managing Attorney Shayana Kadidal speaks with Ramzi Kassem about the case of American Muslims who were pla...
Episode 31: Toolkit for the Movement - Standing with Our Frontline Communities and Partners
On episode 31 of "The Activist Files," Staff Attorney Angelo Guisado and Senior Legal Worker Ian Head discuss two forthcoming Center for Constitutiona...
Episode 30: Organizing works - lessons from recent SCOTUS decisions
On episode 30 of “The Activist Files,” Center for Constitutional Rights Senior Staff Attorney Ghita Schwarz and Attorney Chinyere Ezie talked with Mak...
Episode 29: The Legacy of Black August: Freedom Struggles from Prison Today
On Episode 29 of The Activist Files, communications assistant Alex Webster speaks with TRANScending Barriers executive director Zahara Green and Aboli...
Episode 28: America Disrupted - Vince Warren and Angela Glover Blackwell Reimagine Civil Rights
What is necessary to reimagine civil rights in America? Center for Constitutional Rights’ Executive Director Vince Warren and PolicyLinks’ Founder in...
Episode 27: Abolition & Organizing in the time of COVID-19
In this conversation, the last of a four-part series of blogs about the movement response to COVID-19, Samah Mcgona Sisay and Center for Constitutiona...
Episode 26: Confinement with Coronavirus: Immigrant Detention Should Not Be a Death Sentence
In the 26th episode of “The Activist Files,” Senior Staff Attorney Ghita Schwarz and Bertha Justice Fellow Lupe Aguirre are in conversation about how...
Episode 25: We've been here before - How History is Repeating Itself in Government Overreach
“We are left to wonder why we cannot see with foresight what we see so clearly with hindsight.” A Philadelphia-based federal appeals court wrote this...
Episode 24: How it would feel to be free - Southern resistance to race and gender oppression
The 24th episode of “The Activist Files” was the Center for Constitutional Rights’ first live podcast. The episode was recorded Feb. 28, 2020, at Stud...
Episode 23: Liberation is Not Linear - Intersectional Organizing with Raquel Willis and Derecka Purnell
On Episode 23 of “The Activist Files,” Staff Attorney Chinyere Ezie talks with Raquel Willis, activist, writer, Executive Editor of Out Magazine, and...
Episode 22: Restitution and repair - a discussion on Black reparations with Dr. Ron Daniels and Marbre Stahly-Butts
On episode 22 of “The Activist Files,” Donita Judge, Center for Constitutional Rights’ associate executive director, talks about reparations for Black...
Episode 21: Brooklyn to Buffalo - Resisting Discriminatory Policing in New York
On Episode 21 of "The Activist Files," Center for Constitutional Rights Senior Staff Attorney Darius Charney speaks with Anthonine Pierre of the Brook...
Episode 20: Law, lawyering, and writing Palestine, with Noura Erakat
On Episode 20 of “The Activist Files,” Center for Constitutional Rights Staff Attorney Diala Shamas talks with Noura Erakat, author of the new book Ju...
Episode 19: Pushed out - The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project
On the 19th episode of “The Activist Files,” Communications Director Chandra Hayslett talks with photographer Ariana Faye Allensworth and map maker an...