PODCAST

The Leftscape

Robin Renee and Wendy Sheridan

the shape of progressive conversation

news politics

All Episodes

57:13

Reliable Sources (Episode 177)

The Leftscape ·

2025/07/09

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

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57:42

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

The Leftscape ·

2025/05/29

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

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1:06:31

Toward a Saner World (Episode 170)

The Leftscape ·

2025/04/03

Featured guest Ray Katz started and currently leads The Saners, a group dedicated to preventing climate collapse and building a better civilization worldwide. He holds a BA in Economics from Stonybrook University as well as an MBA from Fordham University and he co-founded one of the first web development agencies in Philadelphia in 1994. Katz first appeared on The Leftscape in Episode 160, "Saving the Planet With Joy." He returns to spread the word on the bold ideals and expanded objectives adopted

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1:24:39

Project 2025 on Labor and Employment (Episode 166)

The Leftscape ·

2024/10/16

Ivo Becica is an attorney who represents businesses and Human Resources professionals in employment disputes, including providing advice and training on staying in compliance with the law, as well as defending against employee claims when necessary. He writes about labor and employment law at his firm’s blog, HR Legalist. Becica joined co-host Robin Renée for an even-tempered conversation on what Project 2025 has to say about labor and employment issues in comparison to what the Harris/Walz platform

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1:15:09

Start Local, Get Vocal, GOTV! (Episode 165)

The Leftscape ·

2024/10/02

Lisa Vandever is an organizer and activist with over 30 years of experience in media, communications, arts and events. A lifelong Democrat, she is a co-leader of the progressive group, Indivisible Rahway, and an active member of Fair Ballot Alliance NJ and OneNJ7. An enthusiastic Garden Stater by way of Oregon, Chicago and Brooklyn, she has been happily settled in Rahway, NJ for two decades with husband, Alan, and two ginger tabbies, Clive and Radley. Everyone who is interested in the 2024 U.S

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1:09:38

Doing the Work of Democracy (Episode 163)

The Leftscape ·

2024/09/04

Wendy Sheridan and Robin Renée are back after summer break for the 2024 Season 2 of The Leftscape! Featured guest Jonah Minkoff-Zern (he/him) is the co-director of Public Citizen’s Democracy Campaign. He has organized nationwide mobilizations to challenge ongoing threats to democracy from former President Donald Trump and his allies, coordinated grassroots activities to pass federal voting rights and democracy reforms, and mobilized national action for a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens

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1:07:03

Enough (Episode 159)

The Leftscape ·

2024/05/23

When Abby Driscoll, a senior at Fort Defiance High School in Verona, VA had a piece placed in a school art show, she likely didn't expect the drama that ensued. Listener Tony Rogers of Fairfax, VA sent the story to The Leftscape via X/Twitter to spark conversation between co-hosts Robin Renée and Wendy Sheridan. This featured discussion ranges from thoughts on the artwork, "But Not Enough to Save You," to serious concerns about censorship, art and book banning, and right-wing influence on school

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1:18:50

Playing The Race Cards (Episode 158)

The Leftscape ·

2024/05/08

David Michael Jamison is the Assistant Professor of History at Edward Waters University in Jacksonville, Florida and the former Visiting Assistant Professor of Black World Studies at Miami University–Middletown in Middletown, Ohio. He previously worked as a special-education teacher, first with the New York Board of Education and then with the Los Angeles Unified School District. He is the Education and Programs Chair of the Jacksonville Historical Society; the director of the oral-history project,

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1:02:08

Out Of His Shell (Episode 157)

The Leftscape ·

2024/04/25

Meet Protest Singer Michael NaphysMichael 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

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1:19:30

Money is a Metaphor (Episode 155)

The Leftscape ·

2024/03/28

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

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1:32:42

Factory and Garden (Episode 154)

The Leftscape ·

2024/03/14

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

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1:12:03

Big Sister Plaster Caster (Episode 143)

The Leftscape ·

2023/06/21

Vince Osborn resides in Chicago, is an avid cyclist, and is a devoted music enthusiast. He is a Founder of the Museum of Post-Punk and Industrial Music in Chicago, which was established by drummer Martin Atkins in 2021. He met co-host Robin Renée in the Devo fandom around the same time he first connected with Cynthia Dorothy Albritton, better known as Cynthia Plaster Caster. In this interview he recalls his longtime friendship with Cynthia, her art, and her stories of a rock 'n' roll life as "just a

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1:16:37

Designs on Body Inclusivity (Episode 142)

The Leftscape ·

2023/06/07

Founded in 2014, Jenn Iannaconi's company, Valkyrie Apparel, is a passion project born of spite and rage -- rage towards an exclusionary fashion industry that neither understands nor wants to understand the needs of plus-sized customers. Jenn was born in New Jersey but now lives in Western Massachusetts with her husband, their dog, and several creepy old dolls that certainly DO NOT watch you as you move around the room. In this conversation with co-host Wendy Sheridan, she shares thoughts on

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1:09:12

Korean War and Peace, Part 2 (Episode 141)

The Leftscape ·

2023/05/17

Our interview with Kurt Esslinger in the last show was too good to leave any on the cutting room floor. As a refresher, Kurt Esslinger works on behalf of the Presbyterian Church USA with an ecumenical council of churches in Korea to help bring peace to the Korean Peninsula. A Texas native, he has been living and working in Korea for ten years. This conversation is a look at then President Donald Trump's part in the beginning of peace talks between North and South Korea, the vastly different

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1:40:16

Korean War and Peace, Part 1 (Episode 140)

The Leftscape ·

2023/05/04

Kurt Esslinger is assigned by the Presbyterian Church USA to work with an ecumenical council of churches in Korea to help with their campaign for peace on the Korean Peninsula. Having grown up in Texas, he has been living in Korea for the last 10 years. Since middle school he has been wrestling with what it means to identify as a Christian while also identifying as left-wing ("jwa-pa" in Korean). In this interview, he explains the basics of the conflicts between North and South Korea, what led to

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1:15:24

Forging a Path, Keeping a Tradition (Episode 139)

The Leftscape ·

2023/04/19

Suzan Nickelson is the CEO and Director if Operations of Holistic Solutions, a cannabis dispensary in Waterford Township, New Jersey. It is the 33rd medical cannabis dispensary to open in New Jersey and the first black and woman-owned dispensary in the state, which was very recently approved for adult recreational sales. She also runs Ital Daughters, LLC, a cannabis and hemp consulting company that specializes in assisting minorities, women, veterans, municipalities, and stakeholders in

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1:15:24

Hard-Wired for Touch (Episode 138)

The Leftscape ·

2023/04/04

Edie Weinstein is a colorfully creative journalist, licensed social worker, psychotherapist, and the author of The Bliss Mistress Guide To Transforming The Ordinary Into The Extraordinary. She is also a public speaker and the founder of Hugmobsters Armed With Love, which offers free hugs worldwide. She recently experienced a longtime dream come true by offering her first TEDx talk -- Overcoming the Taboo of Touch. Edie was first featured on the show way back on Episode 36 in 2019. In this new

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1:16:13

Invited In: Hearing Our Queer Kids (Episode 137)

The Leftscape ·

2023/03/22

Dr. Lulu, aka the Momatrician, is a Nigerian-born pediatrician, parent coach, author, and the CEO of Dr. Lulu’s Life Coaching Lounge. She is the mother of a transgender young adult and works with parents struggling with accepting and supporting their LGBTQ+ children. A former Lt Col and Commander in the US Air Force, Dr. Lulu is also an award winning LGBTQ+ and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) advocate. She has been featured on local, national, and international media, including Oprah

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1:24:33

Catching Up With AI (Episode 136)

The Leftscape ·

2023/03/08

Writer and game developer Arinn Dembo has been involved with game development for over 25 years. She has helped build a number of popular franchises in science fiction gaming including Homeworld and Sword of the Stars. She has also worked on two different Artificial Intelligence projects and has been interviewed for the AI Ethics course taught by Athabasca University. Dembo recently spoke with Wendy Sheridan about the expert systems that are in use for making artwork today -- how they work, their

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1:26:46

Science, Revelations, and Insights (Episode 135)

The Leftscape ·

2023/02/22

A graduate of Cornell University, JD Stillwater is a science ambassador and an author who writes and speaks about profound insights from natural reality that drive paradigm shifts and cultural awakening. He spoke with us back in April 2020 for Episode 79, The End of Certainty, about his presentation, Seven Candles. In this conversation, he shares his current thoughts on science as a point of common understanding, the origins of humans' propensity for world harm, and the potential course-correcting

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