Issue 46: The FutureX Podcast Starts with Representation
Hello!
We all consume media entertainment on streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon, Apple Plus, and in movie theaters. How does entertainment shape the way we think about women and people of color?
In the premiere episode of The FutureX Podcast you’ll meet Dr. Nicole Haggard, an award-winning instructor, speaker, and published researcher with 16 years of study about the intersection of race and gender in American culture. In 2018, Dr. Haggard co-founded the Center for Intersectional Media and Entertainment — CIME — an organization dedicated to advancing representation.
CIME’s primary goal is to transform our collective relationship to the stories we are all watching. In conversation with me, Dr. Haggard discusses the data behind CIME’s ideas, how it uses pop media culture to get the ideas across, and the audience it is working to reach.
The FutureX Podcast is a series of open conversations about building online communities that are diverse, welcoming, and safe.
Upcoming episodes include a talk with FutureX co-founder Ever Gonzalez about creating micro events to bridge from online to in-person events, an interview with Dr. Shaun M. Anderson about the role of activist athletes in the age of Black Lives Matter, and an interview with Laura Hartley, who teaches people how to do the personal and spiritual work of social justice.
After those episodes, I’ve got a series of platform creators, authors, and publishers in the edit queue.
Listen to The FutureX Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever the finest podcasts are flowing. I post a closed-captioned version of the podcast on YouTube. (A note about video. This is an audio podcast. When I post to YouTube, I’m using a graphic for the visual. Some guests may want to appear on camera, and in that case, I’ll use the video recorded during the interview session.)
Dystopia is Easy, Utopia is Hard
I wrote an essay for Long and Short Reviews about telling utopian stories. The first impulse of many an author is to go the dystopian route. It’s easier to write about evil villains because they’re more interesting than good people. My thesis in the essay is that there’s a trick to the best dystopian tales, a trick in the writing, that makes these stories seem dystopian on the surface, but they actually hold hope. Here’s the essay.
Thanks for reading,
Lee
