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This week, Chenjerai reports from ground zero outside Delaney Hall, the detention facility in Newark, NJ where hundreds of ICE detainees have been on hunger strike due to the horrible, egregious conditions. You’ll hear an interview that Chenjerai recorded with Sally Pillay, an immigration activist with the Eyes on Ice Coalition who volunteers outside the detention center, helping to support the families visiting the facility.

🙏 We make Unruly Subjects 100% independently! Support the show on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/UnrulySubjects

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Follow Chenjerai on Instagram @chenjerai and Bluesky @chenjerai.bsky.social and follow Unruly Subjects @unrulysubjectspod. Get in touch unrulysubjects@gmail.com.

Unruly Subjects is also now on YouTube! Subscribe here: https://www.youtube.com/@UnrulySubjects

Additional Music in this episode is from Blue Dot Sessions

Unruly Subjects is created in partnership with Rowhome Productions

Further reading & sources from this episode

Support our families Linktree

Letters from Detainees

https://www.lahuelga.com/freedom

About Eyes on ICE NJ Coalition

https://www.facebook.com/PaxNJ/posts/eyes-on-ice-is-a-broad-based-coalition-of-dozens-of-orgs-with-a-broad-network-of/948292381077652/

Mami Chelo Foundation

https://mamichelo.org/what-we-do/

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🙏 We make Unruly Subjects 100% independently! Support the show on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/UnrulySubjects

This week, Unruly Subjects is diving back into one of our most popular and urgent topics: the explosive growth of corporate data centers and the community-led movements rising up to stop them. We are joined by Astra Taylor (writer, filmmaker, and co-founder of the Debt Collective) and Saul Levin (environmental policy advocate and host of the new podcast The Hum).

Drawing from their co-authored article in The Guardian, they break down why the battle over AI infrastructure isn’t just an environmental issue—it’s a fundamental battle for democracy, human labor, and the future of our communities.

But first, host Chenjerai tells the story of what he saw on the frontlines while visiting Delaney Hall, an ICE detention center in Newark, NJ, where detainees have launched a hunger strike. Hear Chenjerai read a letter written by one of the men detained at Delaney Hall.

Plus, stick around until the end to hear a performance from 11-year-old hip hop phenom RoqueStarz, son of RodrigoStarz of Rebel Diaz.

📝 Got a minute to tell us a little bit about yourself? Take the Unruly Subjects Audience Survey.

Follow Chenjerai on Instagram @chenjerai and Bluesky @chenjerai.bsky.social and follow Unruly Subjects @unrulysubjectspod. Get in touch unrulysubjects@gmail.com.

Unruly Subjects is also now on YouTube! Subscribe here: https://www.youtube.com/@UnrulySubjects

Additional Music in this episode is from Blue Dot Sessions

Unruly Subjects is created in partnership with Rowhome Productions

Further reading & sources from this episode

Saul Levin’s Podcast: The Hum

Erin Brockovich Launches Data Center Map

Take Back The Land (People’s Remix) by Rebel Diaz

Astra Taylor and Saul Levin’s Article from The Guardian

Hear Chenjerai Read "Our Cry: A Letter From Inside Delaney Hall"

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This week’s show is about informed consent, pregnancy, drug testing, hospitals, and the family policing system. Specifically, we break down a form of surveillance called “test-and-report” that's being used to punish parents and newborns in medical settings. And we hear from a coalition that's been organizing against it.

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Chenjerai interviews Dr. Erinma Ukoha and Desseray Wright about their work with the Informed Consent Coalition and their fight against the family policing policy of "test-and-report".

Desseray Wright is a Parent and Policy advocate at the Bronx Defenders, where she works to challenge and transform the family regulation system. Dr. Ukoha is a board-certified obstetrician, gynecologist, and maternal fetal medicine specialist at the Mount Sinai Hospital. This interview was recorded just before Mother’s Day.

We also give you a sneak preview of the new season of Scene on Radio, which premieres on May 27th.

Follow Chenjerai on Instagram @chenjerai and Bluesky @chenjerai.bsky.social and follow Unruly Subjects @unrulysubjectspod. Get in touch unrulysubjects@gmail.com.

Unruly Subjects is also now on YouTube! Subscribe here: https://www.youtube.com/@UnrulySubjects

Additional Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Grizzly Beatz

Unruly Subjects is created in partnership with Rowhome Productions

Further reading & sources from this episode

Informed Consent New York

https://www.informedconsentny.com/

Bronx Defenders

https://www.instagram.com/bronxdefenders/

Movement for Family Power

https://www.movementforfamilypower.org/

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This week, we hear the story of how the "punishment bureaucracy" uses narrative and media to maintain state violence. We’re looking at the devastating impact of jailing someone simply because they cannot afford to pay bail. We dive into how punishment systems defend themselves and the stories that police, prosecutors, politicians, and media institutions tell in order to make cages sound like safety.

🙏 We make Unruly Subjects 100% independently! Support the show on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/UnrulySubjects.

First, Chenjerai talks with Alec Karakatsanis, founder of Civil Rights Corps and author of the book Copaganda: How Police and Media Manipulate Our News. Alec tells the story of the fight against wealth-based detention—from the devastating reality of the cash bail system to the ways "copaganda" is used to attack reform victories and justify the jailing of people because they are poor.

Later, Chenjerai is out for a ride in New York City when his bike breaks down, leading to an encounter that sticks with him. He meets a bike mechanic who is clearly living without much of a safety net, but who carries an incredible archive of skill, a set of tools and a deep willingness to help others. It’s a reflection on the genius that lives all around us, and the uncomfortable reality of the city’s inequality.

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Take the Unruly Subjects Audience Survey.

Follow Chenjerai on Instagram @chenjerai and Bluesky @chenjerai.bsky.social and follow Unruly Subjects @unrulysubjectspod. Get in touch at unrulysubjects@gmail.com.

Unruly Subjects is also now on YouTube! Subscribe here: https://www.youtube.com/@UnrulySubjects

Additional Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Grizzly Beatz

Unruly Subjects is created in partnership with Rowhome Productions

Further reading & sources from this episode

• Alec Karakatsanis’s book: Copaganda: How Police and Media Manipulate Our News
• Civil Rights Corps: Learn more about their litigation and advocacy work
• The Puerto Rico Report: The Transformation of the Puerto Rico Police Bureau
• The Body Camera: The Language of our Dreams by Alec Karakatsanis
• The California Supreme Court Ruling: The Marshall Project
• Debt Collective: Carceral Debt

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Before he was a scholar, journalist, and podcast host, Chenjerai was a rapper. And this week’s show is all about how hip-hop is connected to our larger political struggles.

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🙏 We make Unruly Subjects 100% independently! Support the show on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/UnrulySubjects

First, Chenjerai interviews his friend, the scholar, rapper, and UVA professor A.D. Carson. He's the author of Being Dope: Hip Hop and Theory through Mixtape Memoir. In their conversation, they talk about what it means to take rap seriously on its own terms and why it's worthy of scholarly analysis, and how A.D’s work applies to the Afroman case.

Second, Chenjerai talks with RodStarz, ½ of the political rap duo Rebel Diaz. They discuss the group's history, their political education, the Rebel Diaz Arts Collective, and how they understood hip hop not just as music, but as actual infrastructure.

Also, P-Dawg calls in, News Fiend, & more…

Follow Chenjerai on Instagram @chenjerai and Bluesky @chenjerai.bsky.social and follow Unruly Subjects @unrulysubjectspod. Get in touch unrulysubjects@gmail.com.

Unruly Subjects is also now on YouTube! Subscribe here: https://www.youtube.com/@UnrulySubjects

Additional Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Grizzly Beatz

Unruly Subjects is created in partnership with Rowhome Productions

Further reading & sources from this episode

Buy A.D’s book: Being Dope: Hip Hop and Theory through Mixtape Memoir https://academic.oup.com/book/61518?login=false

A.D. Carson’s hot off the presses article on the use of James Broadnax lyris to sentence him to death. https://theconversation.com/after-the-execution-of-james-g-broadnax-in-texas-questions-persist-over-use-of-rap-lyrics-as-evidence-280901

Some of A.D. Carson’s other writing

https://aydeethegreat.com/printed-words/

Rebel Diaz “Chicago Teacher”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yN7cRZP58k

Rebel Diaz on a legacy of activism through music

http://bronxink.org/2011/10/12/17578-rebel-diaz-passing-on-a-legacy-of-activism-through-music/

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Take the Unruly Subjects Audience Survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd2yAl6HSeeImYB94zgMHftklj_hVArDjRY4Q3fJQ57UgA_hA/viewform

Here at Unruly Subjects you know we’re celebrating May Day ✊🏻✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿

So this week, we’re featuring two interviews that help us think through this critical question: What does it take to build the kind of power that can actually meet this political moment?

🙏 We make Unruly Subjects 100% independently! Support the show on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/UnrulySubjects

In This Episode:
First, Chenjerai interviews three major labor leaders: Todd Wolfson, president of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) and a national vice president of American Federation of Teachers (AFT); Jessica Tang, president of AFT Massachusetts and former president of the Boston Teachers Union; and Carl Rosen, who recently retired as general president of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE). Todd, Jessica, and Carl talk about May Day as more than symbolism. They talk about it as part of building the infrastructure we may need later: labor, civil society, public institutions, community organizations, immigrant rights groups, education workers, and ordinary people finding ways to move together before a crisis hits.

Second, Our Unruly homie - the scholar and poet Demetrius Noble - talks with Carla Harris, a public school teacher and organizer in Guilford County, North Carolina. They discuss the everyday realities of working in public education and also about organizing in practical terms: how you talk to a coworker who is tired, scared, skeptical, or has never been asked to act before.

Follow Chenjerai on Instagram @chenjerai and follow Unruly Subjects @unrulysubjectspod.

Unruly Subjects is also now on YouTube! Subscribe here: https://www.youtube.com/@UnrulySubjects

Additional Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Grizzly Beatz

Unruly Subjects is created in partnership with Rowhome Productions

Further reading & sources from this episode:

AAUP/AFT Platform: A Blueprint for Strengthening and Transforming Higher Education
https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/2026/Higher_Ed_Vision_and_Policy_Platform_326.pdf

May Day Strong
https://maydaystrong.org/

Kids Over Corporations
https://kidsovercorporations.org/index.html

https://www.ednc.org/4-23-2026-state-house-dems-call-for-budget-with-raises-for-educators-and-other-updates-from-the-start-of-short-session/#:~:text=Ben%20Humphries/EdNC-,Senator%20to%20file%20a%20

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Cancelling Classes
https://www.instagram.com/p/DXhiOqzEWQ9/?igsh=ZDJ4MWR5YWo5OGx2

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This week, we look back at the martial law crisis that happened in South Korea in 2024, the Union-led opposition that organized swiftly, and the nationwide general strike that helped played a key role in defeating martial law and spurring mass mobilization.

🙏 We make Unruly Subjects 100% independently! Support the show on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/UnrulySubjects

Chenjerai interviews Mikyung Ryu, the International Director of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) about what happened on December 3rd, 2024, how labor reacted, what broader forces made the response possible, and what lessons people in the United States might learn from South Korea's fight to stop an authoritarian turn.

Follow Chenjerai on Instagram @chenjerai and Bluesky @chenjerai.bsky.social and follow Unruly Subjects @unrulysubjectspod. Get in touch unrulysubjects@gmail.com.

Additional Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Grizzly Beatz

Unruly Subjects is created in partnership with Rowhome Productions

Further reading & sources from this episode

Wikipedia Primer on the 2024 South Korean martial law crisis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_South_Korean_martial_law_crisis

Korean Confederation of Trade Unions

https://nodong.org/english/

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It’s Black Maternal Health Week! So on this week’s show we’re taking a deep look at the conditions Black mothers face before and after giving birth.

🙏 We make Unruly Subjects 100% independently! Support the show on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/UnrulySubjects

We feature an esteemed guest to discuss the mental health dimensions of maternal health: Saadiqa Kumanyika, a psychotherapist who specializes in perinatal and postpartum maternal mental health. (Saadiqa is also the First Lady of Unruly Subjects).

We also share an interview with Malajah Rigsby, a new mother, and her doula Shantice Edwards. They give us an intimate view into what support and care looked like for them through their birthing journey.

Follow Chenjerai on Instagram @chenjerai and Bluesky @chenjerai.bsky.social and follow Unruly Subjects @unrulysubjectspod. Get in touch unrulysubjects@gmail.com.

Additional Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Grizzly Beatz

Unruly Subjects is created in partnership with Rowhome Productions

Further reading & sources from this episode

Saadiqa Kumanyika Therapy

https://www.saadiqakumanyikatherapy.com/

Should I Have a Baby? 10 Questions to Ask Before You Get Pregnant

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/should-i-have-a-baby-10-questions-to-answer-before-you-get-pregnant-jennifer-jessica/1113650744

Black Women Birthing Justice

https://www.blackwomenbirthingjustice.com/

Black Mama’s Justice Alliance

https://blackmamasmatter.org/

Support SisterWeb - the community of Birth Workers and Educators that Shantice works with!

https://www.sisterweb.org/

Resources from Black Women’s Health Imperative

https://maternalhealth.bwhi.org/

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