Rebecca McInroy

Hope: Frances Moore Lappé

[Hope] is a key source of energy to enable us to seek solutions together.” -Frances Moore Lappé

Hope is different from faith in that we need to act in hope as opposed to just having faith that everything will be okay. But in acting, when it comes to food, we are doing so and operating in a system where we know too much about food and the pesticides in our food system, the inequity, and injustice. So how can we have hope and what is hope?

For the ancient Greeks, “Hope” was a type of self-deception; one of the evils of Pandora’s box. To the Christians, it was one of the 3 virtues. Kant asked, ‘what may I hope?’ whilst Nietzsche thought of “Hope” as the worst of all evils prolonging the torment of man. Yet even for those critical of hope like Camus, who said “hope is tantamount to resignation and to live is to not be resigned,” there was agreement that life was impossible without it. 

In the reissue of Diet For A Small Planet, 50 years on our guest today Frances Moore Lappé turns to “Hope” as an antidote to many of the ills and devastating problems we face.

In this edition of The Secret Ingredient, Raj Patel of the Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs, Tom Phillpot of Mother Jones Magazine, and Rebecca McInroy of KUT Radio will ask her, why?

 

In 1971, “Diet for a Small Planet” broke new ground, revealing how our everyday acts are a form of power to create health for ourselves and our planet. This extraordinary book first exposed the needless waste built into a meat-centered diet. Now, in a special edition for its 50th anniversary, world-renowned food expert Frances Moore Lappé goes even deeper, showing us how plant-centered eating can help restore our damaged ecology, address the climate crisis, and move us toward real democracy. Sharing her personal journey and how this revolutionary book shaped her own life, Lappé offers a fascinating philosophy on changing yourself—and the world—that can start with changing the way we eat.

Frances Moore Lappé is the author or co-author of twenty books about world hunger, living democracy, and the environment, that all started with Diet for a Small Planet that has now sold over three million copies. The revised and updated version is out now from Penguin Random House and features eighty-five updated plant-centered recipes, including more than a dozen new delights from celebrity chefs including Mark Bittman, Padma Lakshmi, Alice Waters, José Andrés, Bryant Terry, Mollie Katzen, and Sean Sherman.

 

Each Others: Rita Valencia and Charlotte Sáenz

“How do we build these understandings from a decolonial, antiracist and antipatriarchal basis? How do we build real solidarity bridges that do not replicate patronising structures of power? How can we learn and build with those who have resisted and re(x)isted, in order to open new imaginaries to heal mother earth, the other, and ourselves?” Rita Valencia and Charlotte Sáenz

These are just some of the questions we explore with Rita Valencia and Charlotte Sáenz on this edition of The Secret Ingredient with Raj Patel, Tom Philpott, and Rebecca McInroy.

Rita Valencia has been working for several years with the Proceso de Liberación de la Madre Tierra movement in the Cauca region of the Nasa people in Colombia, and she along with Charlotte Sáenz talk with us about joy, the difference between translation and interpretation, reimagining liberation, time and social movements, and the paradigm shift that must take place today.

In our correspondence prior to this recording, Charlotte and Rita wrote: “It feels important for us to hear and learn from such pueblos en movimiento, that are doing things beyond the nation-state and reframing ways of doing, not only politics but also social and even ontological existence. This is particularly important because complex concepts such as Mandar Obedeciendo or Buen Vivir are being imported into English and other dominant languages and mindscapes as mere translations (bad ones for that matter), and not as grounded practices. This becomes even more urgent and necessary because extractivism, repression, and all climate change drivers are increasing and will continue to do so during the current global pandemic and economic recession.”

Read more about Rita and the Food March, the movement organized to feed the most dispossessed in the cities, in a piece published in La Jornada newspaper’s Ojarasca.

 

 

Re-imagining Museums for Healing

Join KUT’s Rebecca McInroy along with Annette Juba from AGE of Central Texas, Dr. Valerie Rosen, and Ray Williams and Monique O’Neil from The Blanton Museum to talk about how the Blanton is partnering with schools, hospitals, and other organizations to create groundbreaking programs that help patients, families, and caregivers navigate social, reparative experiences.

Monique Piñon O’Neil
Museum Educator, Family, and Community Programs O’Neil is an artist and educator with a master’s degree in clinical art therapy. At the Blanton, Monique’s work focuses on encouraging intergenerational dialogue and shared studio projects. She develops collaborations with a diverse array of community-based organizations, ensuring access to museum resources across the social-economic spectrum. These collaborations include focused, ongoing work with groups including homeless artists, at-risk youth, veterans, aging adults, and Hispanic families.

Annette Gracy Juba, LCSW
Juba is a native Austinite and clinical social worker received a Master of Science degree in Social Work from the University of Texas. She has worked with older adults since 1986, when she took a part-time job in a nursing home, only, she thought, until she “found something better.” In 30+ years of searching, she has facilitated caregiver support groups; worked with dementia respite programs; co-directed a cognitive intervention program for people with early memory loss; and presented about aging, social work, and memory loss at the local, state, and national level. She is a past co-chair of the Aging Services Council. She currently serves on the advisory panel for the Center for Excellence in Aging Services and Long Term Care at the UT School of Nursing and as Vice-Chair of the OneStar National Service Commission. Since 2010, Annette has worked as the Deputy Director for AGE of Central Texas, where she oversees the agency’s six programs of direct service.

Dr. Valerie Rosen
Dr. Rosen received her undergraduate degrees in Business Administration and Psychology from U.T. Austin. She received her medical degree from The University of Texas Medical School at Houston and completed a Psychiatry Residency at Yale School of Medicine. Dr. Rosen held a Clinical Assistant Professorship at Yale and worked as an attending psychiatrist at Yale University Health Services for ten years. She came back home to Texas and joined Seton in 2013. Her predominant area of expertise is PTSD and trauma; she is a Regional Trainer for Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), an evidence-based treatment for PTSD. For the past 15 years, she has trained and supervised staff and residents in CPT. She also specializes in psychotherapy and medication management for college, graduate, and professional school students and is actively engaged in ways to improve treatment and access to psychiatric care for veterans and active military and in educating providers in military culture. In her role as Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UT Dell-Seton, she enjoys teaching and supervising residents and medical students, sees patients for psychotherapy and medication management, is involved in clinical research, and is the developer and Medical Director for the Restore and Veteran Restore Programs, intensive outpatient programs for trauma that utilize CPT as their core modality.

Ray Williams, MA, EdM
Williams has been the Director of Education and Academic Affairs at the Blanton Museum of Art, the University of Texas at Austin since 2012. For more than a decade, much of his teaching in museums has been designed to meet the needs of health care professionals. For UT’s new Dell Medical School, Ray provides three workshops for first-year medical students designed to build skills in observation, empathic communication, and resilience. He also works with residents, attendings and nurses in Family Medicine, Women’s Health, Psychiatry, and Palliative Care. During his four years at the Harvard Art Museums, Ray worked with interprofessional teams from Brigham and Women’s Hospital on a regular basis, as well as young adults with cancer through a program at Dana Farber Cancer Center. He has a particular interest in palliative care and mindfulness practices, developed through work with hospice professionals and chaplains. For the past two years, in partnership with psychiatrist Dr. Valerie Rosen who leads an intensive out-patient program for trauma survivors, Ray has designed museum experiences that support skills being learned in cognitive process/behavioral therapy.

Joe Lovano

What does it mean to create a legacy? How do we hold at once the future and the present as we move through the world?

In this installment of Liner Notes with Rabbi and jazz historian Neil Blumofe, we learn about the life and career of jazz great Joe Lovano, who continues to collaborate and create while bringing the history of jazz into the 21st century.

 

 

Jazz & The Art of Movement

Where do we consider being at home? When do we feel that we belong in a place and how quickly can we become dispossessed? In its essence, jazz traces various migrations – some arbitrary, some forced, and some chosen – and beyond appropriation and broad-stroke caricature, reveal difficult truths of identity, well-being, and honest relationship.

Through the artistry of Miles, Monk, and Mingus, both critique and imagination of the American melting pot will be explored – lessons crucial to our current navigation of the difficulties of migration, refugees, and asylum-seeking in our land. What is native land – and beyond the symbols demanding our loyalty, what consistently makes America, great?

Listen back to Views and Brew: Jazz and The Art of Movement recorded live at the historic Cactus Cafe in Austin, Texas, with Rabbi and Jazz Historian Neil Blumofe in conversation with Rebecca McInroy. Featuring: Michael Malone, saxophone; Andre Hayward, trombone; Red Young, piano; Scott Laningham, drums.

Jazz and The Art of Movement

Where do we consider being at home? When do we feel that we belong in a place and how quickly can we become dispossessed?

In this edition of Liner Notes, Rabbi and jazz historian Neil Blumofe talks about how jazz traces various migrations – some arbitrary, some forced, and some chosen – and beyond appropriation and broad-stroke caricature, reveals difficult truths of identity, well-being, and honest relationship.

Jazz and The Art of Mental Health (Part 1)

Listen back as we discuss the making of jazz, around a frank conversation about mental illness, addiction, and the advantages of thinking beyond our present circumstances. Through the artistry of Buddy Bolden, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, and others, we explore the intersection of mental balance, suffering, wellness, and virtuosity.

How does our outlook on life either enhance or hamper our ways of being? How does creativity help us cope with our struggles? How can the power of music help us keep our torment at bay?

Rabbi and Jazz Historian Neil Blumofe in conversation with Rebecca McInroy. Featuring: Michael Malone, saxophone; Adrian Ruiz, trumpet; Andre Hayward, trombone; Red Young, piano; John Fremgen, bass; Brannen Temple, drums.

Jimmy Smith & Shirley Scott – Jazz and The Art of Soul

Jimmy Smith and Shirley Scott were both musical innovators, popularizing the use of the B-3 organ in jazz. The sound of the organ invites a prayerful sensibility into the performance, merging entertainment and worship in a masterful combination. Where do we exist in the relationship between the sacred and the profane? Does everything have to be so proscribed? What healing happens beyond Either/Or? How can we locate our soul as a force for good out in the world?

Listen back to a Views and Brews recorded live at the historic Cactus Cafe in Austin, Texas as we present a spirited evening of music and conversation. Sponsored by KUT radio, Rabbi and Jazz Historian Neil Blumofe in conversation with Rebecca McInroy. Featuring Red Young, organ; Bruce Saunders, guitar; Michael Malone, saxophone; David Young, trumpet; Brannen Temple, drums.