Decolonize Everything – Détails, épisodes et analyse

This episode attempts to weaves together personal encounters and academic, historical accounts of human and animal relationships. I reflect on my own encounters with so-called "dangerous and dying" animals--Miko, a reactive dog we adopted; and Francie--a hedgehog dying from cancer. I turn to wisdom from Amazon, Singapore, and ocean mammals.

This was produced as a project for a course called Animals and The Unseen taught by Teren Sevea

This episode is dedicated to Michael Nunziato and Miko. Michael, you've been so dedicated to Miko's wellbeing. Miko, you're such a beautiful being, thank you for letting me love you. You two have taught me so much.

Content warning: the storytelling, particularly in the beginning of the episode, includes stories of animals who can be considered dangerous as well as experiences of animal deaths.

Here are some links from sources mentioned in the episode:

• Dog & deer from @thedodo
• Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Undrowned
• Professor Sevea's work on the miracle workers in Singapore
• Eduardo Viveiros de Castro, Cannibal Metaphysics
• The Case of the Animals versus Man before the King of the Jinn by Ikwan al-Safa'
• On tigers see: Dato' Paroï by Zainal Abidin bin Ahmad
• One example about the state of the Amazon

I also want to acknowledge Professor Teren Sevea for this opportunity to produce this episode as a class project. Additionally, an earlier draft of this story was inspired by courses and conversations with Professors Michael Puett and Janet Gyatso. Thank you to my community: Amy and Henry, Nat and Liri & Lala, Quinn, Rebeccah, Claudia, Jessy and Scout for walking through this experience with me, and to Michael, Miko, Francie, Rūmī for all your patience and love.

*** To learn more about Palestine from Native American, decolonial perspectives I recommend ⁠The Red Nation ⁠on Youtube or podcast apps. I have also signed on to ⁠this statement ⁠as a Ford Fellow, you can find further resources there.

PS: enjoy Rūmī's meowing (and the heater) in the background.

September of 1519 in Yucatan, Mexico. September of 2018 in Denver, Colorado, USA. Copal is a powerful incense across centuries, a scent and ceremonial presence familiar to Indigenous peoples, Mexicans, and Chicanx communities alike. But what happens when copal is stolen from Maya sacred sites and brought to storage in Massachussetts? For over 100 years thousands of bodies from Chichén Itzá have been held in a Harvard museum in Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA. This is  a tragic rupture of a relational network.

This is a bonus episode and based on a paper for Seeding Relations Conference March 2022. Here, I articulate some experiences, reflections, and questions that are emerging during my research and relationships with copalli. These are questions I hope to engage in my thesis and future doctoral work. Thank you for listening!

• Check out the March 2022 conference: Seeding Relations
• Read the paper, a partial transcript of this episode.
• Aztec Philosophy, James Maffie
• Find out more about Harvard  Museum Collections here
• Music from Epidemic Sounds

This podcast episode was recorded and produced on the ancestral lands of the Pawtucket and Massachussett. 

To support the show and/or Rebecca's PhD applications fall 2022 venmo @Rebecca-Nunziato

In this episode I’m in dialogue with a fellow woman of color podcaster, Natasha Pepperl.

Natasha is a foster mom to a teen girl and as a woman of color, she is passionate about finding and sharing diverse perspectives when it comes to foster care. 

On this episode we push the edges of our definitions of family, discuss how to care for one another to sustain  good work, and we confront power-dynamics and white-savior complex in foster families!

Go learn more about Natasha and Just As Special:

• Website: justasspecial.com for resources
  • Check out the blog post: First Steps to Getting Involved in Foster Care
  • Subscribe to the podcast!
• Follow Just As Special on Facebook and Instagram

New theme music produced by TheRealPakman for Eating Beatz
All other music from Blue Dot Sessions

Subscribe & follow along here:

• Facebook: @decolonizepodcast
• Instagram: @decolonizepodcast
• Twitter: @Decolonizepod
• Support the show via Venmo: @Rebecca-Nunziato 

The second part of Rebecca's conversation with Maria Sierra & Denise Vaughn. To fully engage this conversation go back and start at part one.

In this episode we discuss creating and tending an altar as a sacred space and a practice for decolonizing our healing and spirituality.

Also check out the bonus episode (right after this!) about Rebecca's altar and reflections after learning from this conversation and beginning this practice.

Some of the good stuff referenced:

• Voices of the Ancestors - book referenced by Rebecca
• Resmaa Menakem 
• Ruha Benjamin: Race After Technology
• Follow Maria here & Denise here 

Subscribe & follow along here:

• https://www.facebook.com/decolonizepodcast
• https://www.instagram.com/decolonizepodcast/
• https://twitter.com/Decolonizepod
• Venmo: @Rebecca-Nunziato 

Music in this episode:
Static City Drumline by Blue Dot Sessions
Open Flames by Blue Dot Sessions
Matamoscas by Blue Dot Sessions

This is a short audio piece from October 2020 that I created for a Harvard Divinity School spiritual practice "pop-up." As you can see from the last two episodes, I learned a lot of this from Maria and Denise and continue to humbly work towards decolonizing my own spirituality through tending to my altar.

As an end of 2020 bonus I want to thank everyone who has come on the show, subscribed, rated, reviewed, listened, and shared!

Thank you for joining me in this creative pursuit to listen well, share practical tips and radical ideas for decolonization, and hold space for a virtual sacred circle with all of you.

Subscribe & follow along here:

• https://www.facebook.com/decolonizepodcast
• https://www.instagram.com/decolonizepodcast/
• https://twitter.com/Decolonizepod
• Venmo: @Rebecca-Nunziato 

Music in this episode:

Static City Drumline by Blue Dot Sessions
Open Flames by Blue Dot Sessions

Maria Sierra & Denise Vaughn join Rebecca for a virtual sacred circle to discuss decolonizing our understanding of healing. Denise and Maria have been social work professionals for over 25 years and have started to deconstruct the space from many angles.

In this episode (part I of the series) we talk about social work, healing-centered engagement, and the ways that we have become more embodied and present to our ancestral and spiritual lineages.

Some of the good stuff referenced:

• Resmaa Menakem 
• Healing-Centered Engagement 
• Ancestral Medicine
• Recovering Your Sacredness 
• Follow Maria here & Denise here 

Subscribe & follow along here:

• https://www.facebook.com/decolonizepodcast
• https://www.instagram.com/decolonizepodcast/
• https://twitter.com/Decolonizepod
• Venmo: @Rebecca-Nunziato 

Music in this episode:
Static City Drumline by Blue Dot Sessions
Chilvat by Blue Dot Sessions
Matamoscas by Blue Dot Sessions

 Alejandra (Ale) Salemi, MPH joins Rebecca for a conversation on COVID and Colonization.

After graduating with her Masters in Public Health,  Ale spent summer 2020 deployed as a contract tracer for the state of Florida during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We start this show with some time in a virtual sacred circle to breathe and reflect before we dive in to a heavy topic.

Tune in to hear Ale share how the disease disproportionately is harming migrant workers in Florida and gives insights into the way colonialism has affected BIPOC communities and our health and well-being.

She also offers a vision for a world where doctors, researchers, and clinicians come from diverse backgrounds, a future with empowered indigenous heath-care professionals who serve their communities from within. Now as a student at Harvard Divinity School,  Ale is committed to bringing this vision to life through her own work bridging religion and public health.

Be sure to give Ale all the love & follow her work here:

• Blog: Healing Theology
• Facebook & Instagram & Twitter @alesalemi15

Podcast recommendation from Ale: https://www.jhsph.edu/podcasts/public-health-on-call/

You can support the show via venmo: @Rebecca-Nunziato
And join the conversation on social media :
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Twitter

Should we get rid of the whole idea of tenure? How is the academy a tool of capitalism?

In this episode of Decolonize Everything Dr. Derrick Hudson joins Rebecca in the studio for a conversation about higher education and the institutionalization of learning, wisdom, and knowledge.

We had a blast starting the conversation about rethinking tenure, academic journals, and the framework of "publish or perish" that drives the modern higher education system. Colonization and capitalism have truly affected the way that we show up as students, teachers, and learners and so this episode helps us pull back the curtain on these often unseen forces at play.

Learn more about Dr. Derrick Hudson here: https://hass.mines.edu/project/hudson-derrick/

Note: Since recording this episode in July 2020 I have started my graduate program at Harvard and Derrick is working on the Center for Race, Culture, and Society and Colorado School of Mines. It was such a gift to pause during this moment and capture Derrick's perspectives during the COVID-19 pandemic and the shifting social fabric of our U.S. society.

Subscribe & follow here:

• https://www.facebook.com/decolonizepodcast
• https://www.instagram.com/decolonizepodcast/
• https://twitter.com/Decolonizepod
• Venmo: @Rebecca-Nunziato to support the show!

Talking to LaQueta McCauley about #BLM in Episode 1 was just TOO GOOD, so I couldn't help but share this rest of this conversation.

In this episode we talk about Denver which LaQueta calls "a place for white people to have fun." 

While this is a Denver specific episode, this episode can be seen as a peek into a particular story that has a lot to teach us about the universal reality of urban gentrification and white supremacy in our systems.

Tune in for insights on gentrification + education + entertainment + so much more.

• Follow LaQueta here
• Recorded at House of Pod
• Donate to the show via Venmo @Rebecca-Nunziato

In the wake of the murders of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and countless other black lives lost to police and state-sponsored violence, we have seen a social uprising alongside #BlackLivesMatter. This has been and will continue to be a defining moment in our shared memory of the summer of 2020 and COVID-19. But who is telling the stories of this moment? Capturing the wisdom and insights from marginalized communities? Directly impacted communities must be amplified, so this episode was created to honor the black leaders, teachers, organizers, and everyday people who are regularly erased and silenced.

Today I call up black women in Denver, friends and new acquaintances, to pass them the mic and create a virtual circle to hold stories of strength and suffering and to behold the wisdom of these diverse speakers.

Tune in to listen, learn, laugh, and more. Let's decolonize together.

This episode features the following voices in order of appearance:

• Jasmine
• Shant'a Johnson, read more about Oya spirit
• Yvette Plummer Burkhalter, Thrive Center Denver (click here to donate!)
• LaQueta McCauley, follow on IG & Facebook***

***Coming soon: extended interview/bonus episode with LaQueta McCauley on disparities in in Denver from the perspective of a single black mom, entrepreneur, and activist in Denver.

Subscribe & follow along here:

• https://www.facebook.com/decolonizepodcast
• https://www.instagram.com/decolonizepodcast/
• https://twitter.com/Decolonizepod
• Venmo: @Rebecca-Nunziato to support the show!