Unexamined Me

The Shadow in the Room pt. 1

Welcome back to Unexamined Me. Today we’re diving into a conversation that many of our communities have avoided for generations — the reality and harm of anti-Blackness within communities of color. This is a conversation about white supremacy and how anti-Blackness functions inside our own communities, in our families, our organizing spaces, our schools, and our relationships.

The Learning Trap — When White Supremacy Teaches You How to Stay Still

Welcome back to Unexamined Me. In this episode we talked about the trap that white supremacy sets — and that many of us, especially those who think we’re doing ‘the work,’ still fall into.
I call it The Learning Trap. It’s not ignorance that sustains white supremacy anymore. It’s the endless appetite for learning — reading, reflecting, attending workshops — that never ripens into collective disruption.
Learning has become a ritual of belonging for those who want to feel good about knowing, not those ready to risk something for freedom.

Unpacking Midwest Nice

In this episode, we are talking about unpacking the mind behind Midwest Nice.  If you grew up in the Midwest, you know “nice” is its own language… and its own survival strategy. But under that “politeness”, there’s a racialized structure of comfort and avoidance we need to unearth. We were joined by Amanda Garcia Florence Goodenough where she breaks this down into four types of Midwest Nice. 

Legacy, Unconditional Love, and the Afterlife

Welcome back to Season 2 of Unexamined Me. In this episode, we discussed three questions that every culture, lineage, and ancestor has wrested with: What stays behind when we die? How do we leave a legacy of unconditional love? And what’s the difference between legacy and the afterlife?

When death comes into our lives

Dr. Erica Srinivasan is an associate professor of Psychology and Director for the Center for Grief and Death Education at the University Wisconsin–La Crosse. She is also the lead instructor of the Grief Support Specialist Certificate and the Dementia Support Specialist Badge, offered through continuing education divisions in the UW System. Dr. Srinivasan specializes in grief and loss in her research. She has a passion for normalizing conversations about death and grief, which serves as a foundation for all of her professional work.
We thank Dr. Srinivasan for her expertise in this episode as she walks us through how grief can show up, or not, when death comes into our lives.

The Dying Aren't Dead

Today’s episode is about the condition that mortality places on unconditional love. But not death as an event — death as a presence. Not someone else’s dying — our own.
Because whether we face it or not, we live every day in relationship with our own ending. And that relationship says everything about how we love.
The question guiding us today is simple, but it’s everything: What will we do with the time we have left?
Trigger Warning: This episode discusses depression, suicide ideation, and suicide

To Grieve a Chosen Death

Welcome back to the podcast. In tooday's episode, we explore death as a human condition in which our relationship with, behaviors around, and disconnection from death keep us from Unconditional Love. 
Death to, a foundational process to personal growth and a necessary but painful act of letting go. We're focusing on the profound difference between suffering a loss that is forced upon you, and choosing a loss that sets you free.

The Land as Ancestor

In this episode, we wrap up the Condition of Settler Colonialism with a reflection on our relationship with the land we occupy. When we deeply listen to what the land needs, we realize that the land is our ancestor; one to be listened to, honored, and revered. 

One Story - Many Bans

 Welcome back to Unexamined Me. Today, we’re taking you on a journey through time — from the 1400s to today — to trace how power structures have delegitimized non-dominant spiritualities.
In this episode, we’re going to organize this timeline through four big themes:
Demonizing Other Religions
Creating Policy to Uphold Dominant Beliefs
Sustaining Erasure as a Social Norm
Recognizing Red Flags Today
Each phase builds on the last — turning fear into law, law into culture, and culture into everyday control.

Settler Colonialism in Education: What are we still enforcing?

Welcome back to Unexamined Me, a space for remembering — remembering who we are beneath the systems that shaped us. In this episode, we’re diving deep into how settler colonialism built — and still sustains — the very foundations of academia. Our through line today is simple but powerful: settler colonialism must erase, gatekeep, and control education in order to survive. That’s why we need anti-colonial tools — ones that return us to relationship, reciprocity, and truth.