It probably won’t surprise you that the death penalty in America is a racist practice that does not actually work to make anyone safer. On this episode we talk to Bryan Stevenson, founder of Equal Justice Initiative (EJI.org), about his work with incarcerated people and the new film Just Mercy, which chronicles his fight to save Walter Dee McMillian from execution.

Black folks need to be able to dream a better world is actually possible. And how can we do that collectively as a people if we’re not sleeping or resting?

In this special episode we sit down with the iconic Elaine Brown to find out what she thinks are some of the biggest issues we’re currently facing as Black folks and what we can do about them.

Art can challenge, and it can change. Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Charmaine Minniefield, and Kimberly Drew are artists and activists who use their work to challenge street harassment, Black erasure, white supremacy, and so much more.

We take a look at the history of Black users online and who profits off of content from Black users/creators. Featuring April Reign & Evelyn From The Internets.

We're going back to the beginning of AFROPUNK with featured interviews including Matthew Morgan and Jocelyn Cooper.

Bridget and Yves are back to give us a special Black History Month 2019 recap full of the misadventures of the shortest month of the year. Featuring celebrations and motivations for better Black futures. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://news.iheart.com/podcast-advertisers

Georgia’s Stacey Abrams is on the verge of becoming the first Black woman to be elected governor in the U.S. AFROPUNK Solution Sessions interviewed Abrams in February 2018, just as her campaign was gaining momentum. Proud to say, “we knew you when…”

Paul Butler, a law professor at Georgetown University and author of the book "Chokehold: Policing Black Men," is all about tearing the criminal justice system down. After all, it isn't really about justice. In this interview, Yves talks to him about his time as a prosecutor, mass incarceration, and prison abolition. 

Matthew Kincaid, the founder of Overcoming Racism, is passionate about combating systemic racism -- and he puts in the work. In this conversation with Yves and Bridget, Matthew drops facts on U.S. education, breaking down false narratives, and the importance of having conversations about race early.

Bridget and Yves sit down with mother-daughter duo Michaela Angela Davis and Elenni Davis-Knight to talk legacy, Black genius, making space in art, music, and beauty, and Black girl fairy dust.

In our "Identity" episode, art director and artist Momo Pixel kept it real about being herself, wholly and unapologetically. In this full conversation, Yves and Momo talk being Black in white spaces, style & aesthetic, and how much it means to find your freedom.

You might remember activist and writer Raquel Willis from our "Identity" episode. Now we're back with Bridget & Yves' full interview with Raquel, a deep dive into speaking your truth and celebrating identity.

In episode seven, "In a Box," Sean Saifa Wall shared his family's experience with incarceration. But he had a lot more to say beyond that. In this full interview, Saifa and Yves get into activism, the importance of community, and healing from trauma.

Here at AFROPUNK, we say f**k respectability! Expressing ourselves as we are, for who we are, is what we do. Raquel Willis, Michaela Angela Davis, Lonnie Holley and a bunch of other special guests pull no punches in this special season finale.

To be Black in America is to be constantly reminded of your oppression and Otherness. But that hasn't stopped us from healing and making our own damn lanes. Bridget and Yves talk to poet Sonya Renee Taylor and Dr. Ayanna Abrams about making space for ourselves in a country that gives us no room. 

From the denial of education for Black people to school segregation, the American education system is rooted in systemic racism. Yet America still places blame on the very children affected by this racism. Bridget and Yves talk about creating purposefully anti-racist schools and curriculum with Matthew Kincaid, the founder of Overcoming Racism.

The prison system is a well-oiled, oppressive machine that affects Black people disproportionately, continuing America's legacy of slavery and government-backed racism. As Bridget and Yves discuss in this episode, prison reform isn't an option — it's a necessity. Common Justice offers an alternative to locking people in cages. 

If conversations about reproductive health don't address the needs of Black people, then they're not real conversations. In this episode, Monica Simpson and Michaela Angela Davis drop facts on reproductive justice, and Bridget and Yves get real about perceptions of Black pain.

For most kids, having "the talk" means talking about kids' changing bodies as they enter adolescence. But for kids of color, "the talk" is also about how to survive America. Bridget and Yves talk to Andrea Ritchie about gender, race and violence.

Bridget and Yves explore what it means to be an activist and organizer with one of the Black Lives Matter founders, Patrisse Khan-Cullors. 

For some, U.S. politics might as well be sewage -- they don’t want to touch it and don’t want to play in it. Bridget and Yves look at the limits of a two-party system, the limits of government and the ways we can disrupt, dismantle and remake it. 

Today, Bridget and Yves pull up a seat at the table. At this table sit a 19-year-old who ran for city council and Stacey Abrams, who may just become the country's first black female governor.

Racism is a virus. It permeates society at the individual and structural level. And just when you think we have a handle on it, it mutates, seeping deeper into the fabric of society. In this episode, Bridget and Yves tear at the fabric.NY Times Article on racism and wealth: nyti.ms/2u13VVI