What if the family, as we know it today, was no longer the foundation of society?

In this episode of The Parallel Effect Podcast, we travel to a parallel world where the nuclear family has been transformed, replaced by expansive networks of communal care, shared resources and an entirely different economic structure.

Returning from this alternative reality, our Many Worlds Traveller, writer and organiser M.E. O’Brien, shares insights into a society where care is collectively organised, relationships and kinship take many forms, and the needs of children, older generations and entire communities are met through shared responsibility.

Exploring the concept of family abolition, we look at how the nuclear family became intertwined with capitalism, colonialism and racial inequality, and how this alternative world reveals so much about our own assumptions, as well as the possibilities of living differently.

Episode Credits:
Producer/Presenter/Editor: Daz Chandler
Many Worlds Traveller: M.E. O'Brien
Original Music/Soundmix: Edwin Montgomery
Graphic Design: Ahmed Salama

The artist, Nicole Barakat has responded to this parallel world. To watch a documentary about her thinking and creative practice visit our project hub:
https://theparalleleffect.substack.com/p/a-world-without-the-nuclear-family

This episode takes us into a parallel world where prison abolition has been meaningfully achieved through the leadership, resistance, and vision of First Nations survivors and families.

Conversely, here in our world, the reality for Indigenous people in the colony called ‘Australia’, is one of profound and ongoing injustice. First Nations peoples are disproportionately impacted by the colonial criminal justice system and the ongoing crisis of Aboriginal Deaths in Custody — in which preventable deaths persist due to institutional failure – highlights not just the systemic racism and neglect at play, but the deep lack of culturally appropriate approaches.

There is a long and painful history of mistrust between Indigenous communities and law enforcement, and an immense history of emotional, intellectual, and political labour carried by First Nations families who have long fought to expose the structures of state violence, the legal fictions underpinning our colonial system’s understanding of harm, and institutional betrayal.

In this parallel world, things are different. Justice is no longer defined by the colonial frameworks we know today.

Our Many Worlds Traveller is Dr Latoya Aroha Rule whose work responds to issues of state violence, First Nations justice, and family-led legislative reform.

Episode Credits:

Producer/Presenter/Editor: Daz Chandler
Many Worlds Traveller: Dr Latoya Aroha Rule
Original Music/Soundmix: Edwin Montgomery
Graphic Design: Ahmed Salama

The artist, Miream Salameh has created a process based work in response to this parallel world. To engage with this and to watch a documentary about her thinking and creative practice visit:
https://theparalleleffect.substack.com/p/a-world-beyond-prisons

In this episode of The Parallel Effect Podcast, embodiment social designer, Camille Sapara Barton, takes us to a world where the demands of productivity, economic growth and capital accumulation no longer organise society. Instead, life is structured around a different set of priorities, with daily rituals and practices supporting us to sense into ourselves, each other, other beings, the land, ecosystems we inhabit and the cosmos.

Drawing on somatic practices rooted in Indigenous traditions and methodologies, this parallel world understands the body not simply as something to manage aesthetically or optimise for health, but as a site of knowledge, connection and relational awareness.

Episode Credits:

Producer/Presenter/Editor: Daz Chandler
Many Worlds Traveller: Camille Sapara Barton
Original Music/Soundmix: Edwin Montgomery
Graphic Design: Ahmed Salama

The artist, Lux Eterna has created a video-work in response to this parallel world. To engage with this and to watch a documentary about her thinking and creative practice visit: https://theparalleleffect.substack.com/p/post-capitalist-world-of-relational-depth