Love in a F*cked Up World – Details, episodes & analysis

adrienne maree brown joins Dean Spade for the first episode of Love in a F*cked Up World. adrienne and Dean talk about collectivity, working in fractals to overcome feelings of overwhelm, pleasure, and letting go of ownership and possessiveness to build abundant support systems.

Transcript available at https://deanspade.net/podcast

Books, podcasts, and more from adrienne maree brown: 

• https://adriennemareebrown.net/ 
• @adriennemareebrown 

adrienne maree brown's books:

• Loving Corrections (AK Press, 2024)
• Holding Change: The Way of Emergent Strategy Facilitation and Mediation (AK Press, 2021)
• We Will Not Cancel Us And Other Dreams of Transformative Justice (AK Press, 2020)
• Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good (AK Press, 2019)
• Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds (AK Press, 2017)
• Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements (AK Press, 2015) 
• Grievers (AK Press, 2021)
• Maroons (AK Press, 2023)
• Ancestors (AK Press, 2025)

adrienne maree brown's podcasts:

• How to Survive the End of the World (with Autumn Brown)
• Octavia's Parables (with Toshi Reagon) 

Also mentioned in this episode: 

• WALL-E (film, 2008)
• Fumbling Towards Repair: A Workbook for Community Accountability Facilitators by Mariame Kaba & Shira Hassan (AK Press, 2019)
• Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy (Knopf, 1976)
• SURJ: A home for white people working for justice
• Catalyst Project: Anti-Racism for Collective Liberation
• Movement Memos podcast by Kelly Hayes
• Daniel Hunter (educator and activist) 

For over 25 years, Dean Spade has been working in movements for queer and trans liberation and to end police, prisons, immigration enforcement, and war. His new podcast, Love In A F*cked Up World, offers concrete tools and conversations about how we can build and sustain strong relationships, because our connections to each other are the building blocks of all of our movements. 

Morgan Bassichis joins Dean Spade to talk about how to deal with hard feelings–like jealousy, possessiveness, and control–when they inevitably come up. Morgan and Dean talk about how it doesn't help to shame ourselves for having feelings that don't align with our principles, and how we can use humor and curiosity to find playful ways to engage these emotions and get the emotional satisfaction we desire.

Transcript available at https://deanspade.net/podcast

Don’t miss Morgan's new show, Can I Be Frank? at Soho Playhouse starting July 24! Tickets are available at https://www.sohoplayhouse.com/see-a-show/morgan-bassichis-can-i-be-frank

Tourmaline and Morgan Bassichis join Dean Spade on this episode of Love in a F*cked Up World. Tourmaline, Morgan, and Dean talk about how sites of capture and violence, like sexuality, romance and love, are also sites of pleasure and freedom, and how complex that tangle can be in the day to day. They also talk about what it means to support each other and the many lessons they’ve learned from each other over the course of multiple decades of friendship, collaboration, and trans abolitionist organizing.

Transcript available at https://deanspade.net/podcast

For more Morgan:

• Can I Be Frank? - Morgan’s show at Soho Playhouse starting July 24! 
• https://www.morganbassichis.com
• Questions to Ask Before Your Bat Mitzvah
• The Odd Years

For more Tourmaline:

• Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson
• @tourmaliiine

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Critical Resistance
• SONG
• CUAV
• Laraaji
• Joanna Macy, World as Lover, World as Self
• Jessica Fern, Polysecure / Polywise

When we're fixated on something, it may be helpful to ask ourselves What Else is True? Morgan Bassichis joins Dean Spade to walk us through this tool for getting perspective when we're tied up in knots.

The What Else is True? worksheet that Dean describes is available here (PDF)

You can watch this episode on YouTube.

Transcript available at https://deanspade.net/podcast

Don’t miss Morgan's new show, Can I Be Frank? at Soho Playhouse starting July 24! Tickets are available at https://www.sohoplayhouse.com/see-a-show/morgan-bassichis-can-i-be-frank

Mariame Kaba joins Dean Spade for this episode of Love in a F*cked Up World. Mariame and Dean talk about the dangers of putting leaders on pedestals in our movements, what to do when you or someone you know is getting canceled, how to relate to the concept of hope in this time, how norms about sex and romance influence resistance work, and letting go of certainty.

Transcript available at https://deanspade.net/podcast

Mariame is currently organizing a book drive to help keep Bluestockings cooperative bookstore in NYC open. Learn more and support the book drive here.

Check out resources mentioned in this episode: 

• Interrupting Criminalization
• Project NIA
• We Do this ‘Til We Free Us (Haymarket Books, 2021)
• Let This Radicalize You, by Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba (Haymarket Books, 2023)
• No More Police, by Mariame Kaba and Andrea J. Ritchie (The New Press, 2022)
• 1 Million Experiments (podcast)

Contact us in the comments on iTunes or Spotify or by email at LOVEINAF0CKEDUPWORLD@gmail.com

Is sexting sex? And is sexting cheating if someone is monogamous? How can we be clear in our communication and boundaries? Can we feel ok giving a maybe or accepting a no? 

Morgan Bassichis is back with Dean to talk through frequently asked questions about navigating long distance and electronic communication in relationships.

Do you have a question for Dean? Here are upcoming opportunities to ask:

1. Send us your question for an upcoming AMA episode featuring Dean and Jessica Lanyadoo. You can submit questions on Patreon or email us at loveinaf0ckedupworld (at) gmail.com.
2. Join us September 21 at 2pm ET for a book club event online. Get your tix on Patreon.

Transcript available at https://deanspade.net/podcast

And don’t miss Morgan's new show, Can I Be Frank? at Soho Playhouse through September 13! Tickets are available at https://www.sohoplayhouse.com/see-a-show/morgan-bassichis-can-i-be-frank

Prentis Hemphill joins Dean Spade in this episode to talk about love, organizing, and healing. They talk about projection, practice, and their approaches to writing books in the self help genre.

Check out Prentis's book, What it Takes to Heal, and podcast, Becoming the People.

This episode is available in video format on YouTube. 

Support this podcast by joining the Love in a F*cked Up World community on Patreon for conversations about the themes in the podcast, tickets to online events, and to submit questions for upcoming Ask Me Anything episodes.

How can you tell when it's time to leave a relationship with a person, project, job, or group? How can you tell if you have a tendency to walk away too fast or to stay too long in relationships? Morgan Bassichis is back to go deep into these questions with Dean, including talking about how to know when to keep trying to convince people of your perspective and when to move on. 

Dean and Morgan recorded this episode together (in the same room!) and you can watch the video on YouTube.

Have a question for Dean? Send it in for our upcoming Ask Me Anything episode with Jessica Lanyadoo. You can reach us via Patreon or email at LOVEINAF0CKEDUPWORLD (at) gmail (the U in f*cked is a zero).

Support this podcast by joining the Love in a F*cked Up World community on Patreon for conversations about the themes in the podcast, tickets to online events, and to submit questions for upcoming Ask Me Anything episodes.

Weyam Ghadbian joins Dean Spade to talk about Dean's tool 7 Steps for Deescalating a Crush, how Weyam encouraged Dean to discuss the transformative power of love, when attachment theory is useful, and when it's ok to give self help books as gifts.

Support this podcast by joining the Love in a F*cked Up World community on Patreon for conversations about the themes in the podcast, tickets to online events, and to submit questions for upcoming Ask Me Anything episodes.

Check out Turning Towards Each Other: A Conflict Workbook by Weyam Ghadbian and Jovida Ross.