Rev. Dr. Beverly Dale, also known as “Rev. Bev,” is a sociologist-turned-pastor who has made a career of teaching a pleasure-centered, justice-focused, and sex-positive Christianity as an ecumenical campus minister at the University of Pennsylvania, as faculty at Lancaster Theological Seminary, and as a local pastor. Her latest book is Who Told You…

Anji Marth has been a professional tattoo artist and painter since 1999. Her published books include Tar and Gravel, Knuckle Sandwich, the Resonant Eye series, The Horrors Coloring Book for Adults, and the Paintings From Quarantine series, painted during the pandemic. She also works in taxidermy as assemblage art as well as illustration. A longtime…

Brittany Smith is a key volunteer with the 21st Century Packhorse Librarians, a group that delivers free books throughout the Appalachian Mountains, especially to those affected by Hurricane Helene. The organization is a revival and revisioning of the librarians who made book delivieries in the same region during the Great Depression. Smith resides…

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…

The Leftscape is back after an extended holiday hiatus. Co-hosts Robin Renée and Wendy Sheridan have a casual chat and reveal a new direction for the show. Moving forward, expect less news that imitates doom-scrolling and more reporting on ways we as progressives can come together to make an impact and to nurture communities. Expect thoughtful conv…

Painting by Wendy Sheridan Robin Renée and Wendy Sheridan speak for the first time after the U.S. presidential election. Together they process the loss by Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to Donald Trump and JD Vance. Between surmising why a majority of Americans voted for the Republican ticket and worrying what changes the next four years may bring, the…

Lemalé Torres has a calling in educating union members on how they can be empower themselves to take charge. She is passionate about understanding the political landscape as an advocate of social justice. Another role in her life deeply affects how much she cares about the issues — motherhood. She met co-host Wendy Sheridan at an event sponsored by…

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 Robi…

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 ha…

Tom Limoncelli is an LGBTQ organizer, trainer, and speaker from New Jersey. His speaking and training repertoire includes time management for activists and support group facilitation skills. He is the recipient of several activism awards including the Brenda Howard Award for bisexual activism. Tom spoke about Time Management for Busy Activists on L…

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 gr…

Hal Robins is known for his radio broadcasts and public performances, as well as for his participation in the Church of the SubGenius (as Dr. Howland Owll, Master of Church Secrets). He has worked in film and television and is a poet and playwright. Robins is also a fine artist and cartoonist. In this featured conversation with Rev. Andrew Genus, h…

Co-hosts Robin Renée and Wendy Sheridan discuss the enormous and detailed Project 2025, a collection of policy proposals created by The Heritage Foundation to reshape the United States government in the image of current-day far right conservativism. It seeks to mandate conservative Christian values, dismantle many social programs and government dep…

Ray Katz is a web developer—one of Philadelphia's first. He has many hobbies including collecting artifacts related to the history of space flight and animation. His passion and most pressing endeavor, however, is to find effective ways of dealing with climate change. To that end, he has created a new and unique movement, The Saners. He is also the…

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…

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 …

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 Whi…

Kyle Schickner has been a bisexual activist for the past 30 years. His company, FenceSitter Films makes films that tell the stories of women, people of color, and the LGBTQ communities. Kyle was our guest back in November 2021 on Leftscape Episode 113 when we talked about his film, A White Man Walks Into a Barbershop, a documentary of his cross cou…

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 …

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 indu…

The Leftscape 2024 Season 1 begins with special guest, Robert Brooks Cohen! Cohen is a writer, content creator, and life coach living in Los Angeles. He spent seven seasons writing and producing for Law & Order: SVU, and in 2019, he created Two Bi Guys, a podcast about sexual fluidity, masculinity, and the gender spectrum. His first book, Bisexual …

When Jan Steckel was a guest on The Leftscape back in April of 2019, she read from her book of poetry, Like Flesh Covers Bone (Zeitgeist Press, 2018), which went on to win two Rainbow Awards. Her earlier poetry book, The Horizontal Poet (Zeitgeist Press, 2011), won a 2012 Lambda Literary Award. Jan Steckel's creative prose and poetry have appeared …

John Oliver Mason is a freelance writer and has written for newspapers in the Philadelphia area for thirty years, covering such community-based events as town watches, school boards, community associations, Labor issues, and demonstrations. He has written for magazines and blogs as well and he is an advocate who specializes in writing about people …

Over the last five decades Scott Pearson has been a recording artist, a music producer, a TV soundtrack composer, an educator, an entrepreneur, a fine artist and painter, a social media and marketing consultant, and a tour guide for his adopted hometown of Utrecht near Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Leftscape co-host Robin Renée had the opportunity …

Michael A. Ventrella is an author and editor who has written novels, short stories, and nonfiction books including Big Stick, Terin Ostler and the Axes of Evil, and The Beatles on the Charts. Ventrella is also an attorney and has taught Constitutional Law at a number of institutions of higher learning. Just in time for elections and the upcoming ho…

Missy Singer DuMars has had careers in Theatrical & Entertainment Lighting, Therapeutic Massage, and Business Coaching. She is now a farmer and the owner of Crown Hill Farm in Eden, NY. She is also the hostess of the Women in Food Podcast. With this eclectic life and experience, she has lots to talk about! Hear what she had to say about her journey…

Teanna Byerts wants you to know that adventure is out there -- You just need some imagination! Byerts is an artist, writer, photographer, kayaker, horseman, and mermaid. She nerds out about science, science fiction, fantasy, superheroes, animation, and weird, early lifeforms. She has paddled in the wake of dolphins, trained actual wild mustangs, an…

Janet Coburn writes about mental health on her award-winning blog, Bipolar Me. She draws her insights from direct experience, as she has lived with bipolar disorder for decades. Her book of valuable mental health information and personal stories, Bipolar Me, was published in 2018. Her collection of short essays, Bipolar Us, which appeared in 2020, …

Alice Leibowitz is a longtime activist and facilitator who provides support for progressives and changemakers to find hope and keep their sanity in the face of rising fascism and other global crises. Her coaching and facilitation firm, Conversations Against Fascism, provides love, power, creativity, and focus in response to the question, “How are w…

Lisa Vandever is the co-founder and director of CineKink Film Festival, which is just entering its 20th anniversary season. A writer, producer and consultant in film and communications, Lisa was formerly the director of programming for a regional network of public television stations, worked as a development executive for two New York-based indepen…

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…

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 cree…

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…

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 al…

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 Daughter…

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 tru…

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 winni…

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 A…

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 h…

Please enjoy our last redux episode before our new season begins. This conversation is another of our favorites: John Tod shares about creating a space for honest, vulnerable conversation among men. What started with one other friend in Fort Wayne, Indiana grew into a weekly safe container where men can talk about all the things they were taught no…

We're back with another favorite interview from our last season on DEMOCRACY. Featured guest Susan Szanyi, a lifelong resident of Ohio and an international traveler, shared her insights on Ohio politics post-midterm elections as well as perspectives on the US political landscape from around the world. She discussed how most of our decisions are mad…

Happy New Year! Please enjoy this redux episode while we're on winter break.In "Traversing Democracies (Episode 131)," Wendy interviewed Kat Ardern. Kat is an artist, a part-time student (Fine Art BA), and a full-time carer for her wife who has Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME). She shared her insight and knowledge about the various versions of democr…

While we're on winter break, we chose a few of our favorite interviews to reshare. This one is with Susan Billmaier, whose professional background is in Religion, Ethics, and Philosophy and whose personal exploration encompasses healing arts, religious ritual, and study of the “big questions” like “Who am I?” and “Why am I here?” In this interview …

Happy Holidays to one and all! While we're taking our winter break, we hope you enjoy the show rewinds we've scheduled for you.We first featured a conversation with Halina Brooke back in Episode 97, “Therapy, Activism, and Reclaiming Freedom.” She is a therapist at Recourse Counseling, a mental health counselor, and a longtime advocate in Phoenix, …

David M. Higgins is a Senior Editor for the Los Angeles Review of Books, and they are the Chair of the English Department at Inver Hills College in Minnesota, where they teach classes on science fiction, graphic novels, and American literature. They are the author of Reverse Colonization: Science Fiction, Imperial Fantasy, and Alt-Victimhood, which…

Susan Szanyi is a lifelong resident of Ohio. Thanks to her job as a Program Manager for an international company, she is fortunate to travel throughout the US and Europe and she has gotten perspectives on the US political landscape from around the world. Advocating for animals was her first foray into politics. She got engaged with electoral politi…

Co-hosts Wendy Sheridan and Robin Renée take a look at a growing issue since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade this past June -- a movement to make access to birth control the next to go. Sparked by a recent article from the UC Berkeley Human Rights Center, they look at the lack of information, purposeful disinformation, religious fervor, an…

Kat Ardern is an artist, a part-time student (Fine Art BA), and a full-time carer for her wife who has Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME). She is a New Zealander who left in 1990 at age 21, in the middle of a recession, to travel to Australia for a six months which turned into four years. She has now lived in the UK for over 20 years. In this conversat…

In keeping with this season's theme of DEMOCRACY, The Leftscape revisits special guest Matt Bird from "Down the Rabbit Hole (Episode 98)." Matt talks about his creative background, current projects as a musician and DJ in Melbourne, and gives an overview of politics in Australia and his thoughts on what it takes to be a good world citizen. Original…

Dr. Elisebeth VanderWeil on Democracy, Fear, the Future, and How History Can HelpElisebeth VanderWeil, PhD, is the author of Apocalyptic Best Practices: A unique approach to fear and change. She also works as Organization Development Specialist for Pioneer Human Services and Principal Consultant at Hand in the Dark Consulting, as well as volunteer …