Skip to main content
Liberating Libraries

Liberating Libraries

By Conspiracy of Equality

Welcome to Liberating Libraries, a podcast project presented by the Conspiracy of Equality. In this show, we talk about the fiction we’re reading and how it is informing, poking at, inspiring, or enabling our social justice work. We don’t delve deep ‘into the text’, but we use the work of our faves (like Octavia Butler, Marlon James, Zadie Smith, Ursula le Guin, Isabelle Allende…) to work through ideas and imagine the worlds that could be.
Available on
Apple Podcasts Logo
Google Podcasts Logo
Overcast Logo
Pocket Casts Logo
RadioPublic Logo
Spotify Logo
Currently playing episode

Update on Liberating Libraries July 2020

Liberating LibrariesJul 28, 2020

00:00
05:16
Update on Liberating Libraries July 2020

Update on Liberating Libraries July 2020

A quick note on where things are at with Liberating Libraries. 

You can find all our past episodes and writings at liberatinglibraries.org.

Jul 28, 202005:16
Survivors Elsewhere
Apr 13, 202053:15
A Return to Octavia Butler
Feb 10, 202057:56
2019 Year in Review

2019 Year in Review

Ever wonder what it's like to hear us talk about books we DIDN'T like? Best and worst reads off our shelf in 2019, and some discussion of plans for upcoming episodes (pleasure, work, and African and Indigenous Futurisms). 

Books we talk about:

The Old Drift (Namwali Serpell) Spring (Ali Smith) Mean Spirit (Linda Hogan) The Marrow Thieves (Cherie Dimaline) The Sympathizer (Viet Thanh Nguyen) Cities of Salt (Abdelrahman Munif) Berlin (Jason Lutes) Gold Fame Citrus (Claire Vaye Watkins) American War (Omar El Akkad)

And the ones we don't recommend:

El Murmullo de las Abejas (Sofia Segovia) and The Book of Joan (Lidia Yuknavitch)

Dec 16, 201944:50
Fighting Fascism with Fiction
Nov 18, 201949:58
Zadie Smith and Neoliberal Friendship (REPOST)

Zadie Smith and Neoliberal Friendship (REPOST)

A short repost of an episode from last year. Zadie Smith is one of our favourite authors, so we had to cut this one down A LOT! Here we're talking about her most recent novel Swing Time. You can find the full original version on our website, liberatinglibraries.org.


Oct 14, 201930:25
Land Epics and Great Transformations

Land Epics and Great Transformations

We've been excited about this one for a while! An episode looking at two epic tales of dispossession, transformation, and the development of contemporary capitalism. Putting together John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath and Abdelrahman Munif's Cities of Salt, we're talking about fiction that explores economic transformations and the upheavals of resource extraction, with a focus on relationships to land and the emergence of workers' struggles.

In other news, you can now follow us on instagram @liberatinglibraries. Leave us a comment there!

Sep 28, 201954:37
Mohsin Hamid and Writing the Moment (REPOST)

Mohsin Hamid and Writing the Moment (REPOST)

An episode we recorded in 2018, but remains as timely as ever. Looking at Mohsin Hamid's books The Reluctant Fundamentalist and Exit West to talk about breathing life into historical moments, and writing with human dignity.

Sep 04, 201933:23
Marlon James On Violence (REPOST)

Marlon James On Violence (REPOST)

A repost of one of our first episodes looking at A History of Seven Killings and The Book of Night Women by Marlon James. CONTENT WARNING: contains descriptions of graphic violence, oppression, and sexual assault.

Aug 23, 201935:38
Scarborough Takes On Can-Lit

Scarborough Takes On Can-Lit

In this episode we look at Scarborough (2017) by Catherine Hernandez and Brother (2017) by David Chariandy, two powerful novels that bring voice to a diverse and chronically underfunded community in Canada. Both set in Scarborough, Ontario, they use intimacy and bureaucracy to show the workings of Canadian forms of power, structural racism, and economic inequality in ways not often seen in the historically white and middle-class Can-Lit (Canadian Literature). Through their work, we're invited to ask who gets to determine what a community looks like, whose stories are told, and when and how does survival happen.

Aug 05, 201942:38
Can we be Estraven? (REPOST)

Can we be Estraven? (REPOST)

REPOST: An episode from 2018 about the work of Ursula K Le Guin. We talk about the books The Left Hand of Darkness (1969) and The Word for World is Forest (1972), delving into her inventive and radical ideas on how we approach 'the other' and build trust. This episode was recorded a few months after Le Guin's death, in the wake of losing a giant in science fiction and liberatory imagination. 

Jun 30, 201941:46
Reading for Decolonization (Repost)
Jun 18, 201951:53
Reading is a Singular Pleasure - Part 2 John Steinbeck

Reading is a Singular Pleasure - Part 2 John Steinbeck

Here's part 2 in the series, all about John Steinbeck!  

About: In this series, we talk about authors who mean a lot to one of us, and less to the other, and explore how our reading styles can draw us to very different kinds of writing. Most people find certain kinds of stories and storytelling more compelling than others, and that’s okay. It’s important to distinguish between the practice of pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and seeing the value of reading things you might not normally think of, and those moments when you find deep connections with the way a particular author writes. Styles are political and they’re personal. It doesn’t mean every book is good, or that styles can’t be problematic; rather, it shows how ‘this author’s style doesn’t grab me’ can be a really productive moment for delving into your own politics as a reader. 

Jun 07, 201928:09
Reading is A Singular Pleasure - Part 1 Dionne Brand
Jun 07, 201928:36
Where is Climate Change in Fiction?

Where is Climate Change in Fiction?

This episode asks how is contemporary fiction incorporating (or not) the present realities of climate change and can it provide avenues for building a response to climate crisis? To do this we look at two recent books about post-climate change dystopia - American War by Omar El Akkad and Gold Fame Citrus by Claire Vaye Watkins. We also bring in essays by Amitav Ghosh from his book The Great Derangement and reflect on his claim that "the climate crisis is also a crisis of culture, and thus of the imagination".

liberatinglibraries.org

Mar 23, 201946:59
Early Reads for Liberating Libraries

Early Reads for Liberating Libraries

 Welcome to our relaunch of Liberating Libraries by the Conspiracy of Equality. In this podcast we examine how fiction informs us as activists concerned about fostering empathy, justice, kindness, and equity.

In this episode we discuss where this project came from, who we are as people trying to become better readers, and some of the early reads that started our journeys into fiction.

For more on us, and our previous episodes visit liberatinglibraries.org

Music by Ketsa available at the Free Music Archive or at ketsamusic.com

Feb 09, 201938:59