Contacts
Info
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/airgo/id1016530091 Since 2015, a podcast reshaping culture for the more liberatory and creative. Listen to longform humanizing conversations with artists, organizers, performers, comedians, scholars, and more...
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Subscribe on Apple Podcasts! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/airgo/id1016530091
Since 2015, a podcast reshaping culture for the more liberatory and creative. Listen to longform humanizing conversations with artists, organizers, performers, comedians, scholars, and more who are reimagining Chicago and beyond toward liberation. Hosted by Damon A. Williams and Daniel Kisslinger.
show less
Since 2015, a podcast reshaping culture for the more liberatory and creative. Listen to longform humanizing conversations with artists, organizers, performers, comedians, scholars, and more who are reimagining Chicago and beyond toward liberation. Hosted by Damon A. Williams and Daniel Kisslinger.
Episodes & Posts
Episodes
Posts
10 SEP 2026 · Tonika Lewis Johnson is about real repair. The photographer, social practice artist, and Macarthur genius grant recipient has spent the last decade building innovative, rooted projects that connect Chicagoans across racial divides, make legible the histories of structural violence, and create new versions of what healing can look like.
She joins the guys to talk about how her art has moved from documentation to actual repair, the unlikely connections that emerge when Chicagoans gather, and the beautiful reality that is Unblocked Englewood, a groundbreaking partnership with the Chicago Bungalow Association that addresses the personal and systemic consequences of Chicago’s segregation.
Through strategic home repairs, block beautification, and community-building, UnBlocked Englewood offers a powerful blueprint for restoring dignity and wealth to historically disinvested neighborhoods, and is one of the most tangible examples of community care and reparative culture-making we've ever seen. Plus, we get into some spicy AI debate at the end!
SHOW NOTES
Learn about UnBlocked Englewood - https://www.chicagobungalow.org/unblocked
Follow Tonika on IG - https://www.instagram.com/tonikaj/?hl=en Follow AirGo - https://instagram.com/airgoradio
https://bsky.app/profile/respairmedia.bsky.social
Find us live! - https://www.respairmedia.com/events
Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.comÂ
CREDITS
Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel KisslingerÂ
Associate Producers - Cin Pimentel & RocÃo Santos
Video Post-Production Producer - Troi Valles
Lead Editor - Troi Valles
Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles
Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker
27 AUG 2026 · How do most people learn about the world these days? And how do we, as a movement, make sure we're in their ears, gaze, and algorithm? Conscious Lee is an educator, facilitator, and content creator who has built a platform around direct, rooted critique of our culture. His work is rooted in transforming through consciousness-raising, using dialogue to uncover what needs to change.
We talk about Black masculinity and feminism, how he's making sense of our moment of decay, and which debate archetypes JD Vance and Ben Shapiro are.
SHOW NOTES
Follow Conscious Lee - https://www.instagram.com/theconsciouslee
Plug in on Substack - https://substack.com/@theconsciouslee?r=5gijv&utm_medium=ios Follow AirGo - https://instagram.com/airgoradio
https://bsky.app/profile/respairmedia.bsky.social
Find us live! - https://www.respairmedia.com/events
Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.comÂ
CREDITS
Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel KisslingerÂ
Associate Producers - Cin Pimentel & RocÃo Santos
Video Post-Production Producer - Troi Valles
Lead Editor - Troi Valles
Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles
Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker
Explicit
13 AUG 2026 · The histories of our city shape our lives as Chicagoans, whether we know it or not. City stalwart and self-taught historian Dilla has made a life and livelihood peeling back the layers of Chicago and showing us how dope and impactful the city has been around the world. He sheds light on the roots of his curiosity, what he discovered through doing his genetic ancestry testing, and some of the best hidden histories he's found about the Chicago phenomens we love and hate.
SHOW NOTES
Link with Dilla - https://www.instagram.com/6figga_dilla/
Sign up for one of his tours - https://www.chicagomahogany.com/
Photo by Ash Lane via the Triibe Follow AirGo - https://instagram.com/airgoradio
https://bsky.app/profile/respairmedia.bsky.social
Find us live! - https://www.respairmedia.com/events
Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.comÂ
CREDITS
Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel KisslingerÂ
Associate Producers - Cin Pimentel & RocÃo Santos
Video Post-Production Producer - Troi Valles
Lead Editor - Troi Valles
Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles
Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker
3 AUG 2026 · AirGo fam, check out this brand-new podcast from our friends over at the Court Theatre. Court Theatre’s Spotlight Reading series celebrates its 10th anniversary from August 7–22, 2026, with A Century of Black Progress, a festival exploring the past, present, and future of Black storytelling through the lens of Chicago's cultural ecosystem. Get an up-close look at the inspiration, process, and creators behind one of Court's most popular programs in the Spotlight Reading Series companion podcast, Spotlight Turns Ten. On this first episode, take a deep dive into how the Spotlight Reading Series began, featuring Aaron Mays (playwright, director, and Spotlight co-founder) and Kamilah Rashied (Director of Engagement, Court Theatre). Listen to episode 1 here and subscribe to Spotlight Turns 10 wherever you get your podcasts.
Credits:
- Spotlight Turns 10 is a production of Court Theatre
- Hosts: Aaron Mays and Kamilah Rashied
- Producer: Tribble, Ask Tribble Inc.Â
- Creative Consultants: Damon A. Williams and Daniel Kisslinger, Respair Media
- Line Producer: Kelcie BeeneÂ
- Sound Engineer: Jimmy Bonks Buonforte
- Music: Roy Kinsey - BLACK ft. Ifeanyi Elswith, from the album Dandelions: Gods Don't Cry
- Special Thanks: Josh McCammon (Technical Director of Audio and Video, Court Theatre), Camille Oswald (Associate Director of Marketing for Content Creation, Court Theatre) Follow AirGo - https://instagram.com/airgoradio
https://bsky.app/profile/respairmedia.bsky.social
Find us live! - https://www.respairmedia.com/events
Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.comÂ
CREDITS
Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel KisslingerÂ
Associate Producers - Cin Pimentel & RocÃo Santos
Video Post-Production Producer - Troi Valles
Lead Editor - Troi Valles
Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles
Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker
30 JUL 2026 · Do you ever feel daunted by the impending doom of climate collapse and social discombobulation? Relatable? Us too. That's why we were so glad to have Mikaela Loach on the show. Mikaela is a British climate justice activist, author and media personality. She has authored two books: "It's Not That Radical: Climate Action to Transform Our World" and "Climate is Just the Start," a companion for kids who want to face and address the climate crisis. She's also the cofounder of the AWETHU School of Organising, a transformative grassroots educational initiative based in the UK. She joins the guys to talk about what it feels like to organize for the diaspora from the metropole, the debts owed the global south, and what youth can and can't bring to the movement for climate action.
SHOW NOTES
Follow Mikaela - https://www.instagram.com/mikaelaloach/?hl=en
Buy "It's Not That Radical" - https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2583-it-s-not-that-radical Follow AirGo - https://instagram.com/airgoradio
https://bsky.app/profile/respairmedia.bsky.social
Find us live! - https://www.respairmedia.com/events
Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.comÂ
CREDITS
Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel KisslingerÂ
Associate Producers - Cin Pimentel & RocÃo Santos
Video Post-Production Producer - Troi Valles
Lead Editor - Troi Valles
Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles
Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker
16 JUL 2026 · Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is in the stu! A three-time AirGo guest (rarefied air) and longtime progressive presence in our city, Mayor Johnson reflects with the guys about how centering his values in the midst of the migrant crisis has made so much other good work possible, the lessons he's learned from the seat of power, and the ways his day-to-day policies are rooted in a politic of repair. We also get an EXCLUSIVE exposè on the origins of his frohawk...
SHOW NOTES
Check out our other convos with Brandon:
From the campaign trail in 2023 - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-317-brandon-johnson-mayor-of-chicago-returns/id1016530091?i=1000598893440
From 2018 - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-132-brandon-johnson/id1016530091?i=1000408769419 Follow AirGo - https://instagram.com/airgoradio
https://bsky.app/profile/respairmedia.bsky.social
Find us live! - https://www.respairmedia.com/events
Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.comÂ
CREDITS
Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel KisslingerÂ
Associate Producers - Cin Pimentel & RocÃo Santos
Video Post-Production Producer - Troi Valles
Lead Editor - Troi Valles
Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles
Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker
2 JUL 2026 · Zayd Ayers Dohrn is the child of AirGo alums and lifelong radicals Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn (yes, we've interviewed his parents too lol). You may remember him as the creator of the podcast Mother Country Radicals.
Born underground, Zayd lived in fugitivity with his parents. All his life, they said his birth marked a clean break with violent revolutionary struggle, but in his new memoir, he discovers that story wasn’t entirely true.Â
We talk about the messiness and murkiness he uncovered as he dug deeper into his story, the contradictions he grew up in, and what it means to openly and honestly interrogate where and who you come from.
SHOW NOTES
Buy Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young: A Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground - https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324089315
Listen to Mother Country Radicals - https://crooked.com/podcast-series/mother-country-radicals/
Check out our convo with Bill Ayers - https://airgoradio.com/airgo/2026/2/12/ep-386-bill-ayers-legendary-leftist-and-teacher-for-liberation-returns
Listen to our episode with Bernardine Dohrn - https://airgoradio.com/airgo/2023/6/8/ep-322-bernardine-dohrn Follow AirGo - https://instagram.com/airgoradio
https://bsky.app/profile/respairmedia.bsky.social
Find us live! - https://www.respairmedia.com/events
Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.comÂ
CREDITS
Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel KisslingerÂ
Associate Producers - Cin Pimentel & RocÃo Santos
Video Post-Production Producer - Troi Valles
Lead Editor - Troi Valles
Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles
Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker
18 JUN 2026 · Hey AirGo fam! We've got a new project we're hyped to share with you about a really big story happening right here in Chicago. Quantum Entanglements is a new multimedia investigative feature from Respair about South Side Chicago communities fighting for self-determination in response to potentially being poisoned, pushed out, and policed by an impending 9-billion dollar quantum computer on the shores of Lake Michigan. You can also check out the video version here: https://www.youtube.com/@respairmediaand share the podcast with your people here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/respair-presents-quantum-entanglements/id1721426761
Over the four decades since the US Steel South Works steel mill shut its doors, the land it sat on has remained undeveloped as the surrounding communities heal from the physical, environmental, economic, and social wounds left behind by this industrial behemoth.Â
Now, a coalition of public and private power players from all levels of government and different sectors of industry is preparing to break ground on a "Quantum Campus"–a multi-billion dollar sprawling facility of next-generation technology and surveillance that could both release poisonous contamination and dismantle digital privacy around the globe.Â
As the next industrial revolution descends on a community still reeling from the destruction of deindustrialization, we talk with organizers and neighbors living alongside the site about how they're building power, demanding answers, making sense of the area’s history, and fighting for the ability to determine the future of their neighborhoods, livelihoods, and relationships to the land on which they live.
Check out the video version here:Â https://www.youtube.com/@respairmedia
Share the podcast with your people here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/respair-presents-quantum-entanglements/id1721426761
Get the Quantum Entanglements Listening Guide here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19sgxkK8Uf45YpsgjuGECzzuij4sBBoC8/view?usp=sharing
Quantum Entanglements was recorded at Chicago Beyond and Kit Studios here in Chicago.Â
Find all of our work at http://respairmedia.com.Â
CREDITS
Cohosts & Executive Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger.Â
Video Post-Production Supervisor - Troi Valles
Lead Video Editor - Troi Valles
Multimedia Producer - Troi VallesÂ
Associate Audio Editors - Cin Pimentel & Rocio Santos Â
Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker
Additional Reporting - Kamari Patrick
Artwork - Areanna Eggleston & Danbee Kim
MUSIC
Dubstep Next Left (feat. Tom Wilkinson) - Asthmatic Astronaut
Funk Heaven - Ketsa
China Town - Audiobinger
Contemplate Jat - Katrah Quey
Agua - Katrah Quey
Sleeper Agent - Tab Anitek
Outer Orbit - Revolution Void
Dragon Drop - Darkstorm Diabolik
Glass Harp - dustmotes
Ascension (Leaving Earth Pt. 1) - Mr. Smith Follow AirGo - https://instagram.com/airgoradio
https://bsky.app/profile/respairmedia.bsky.social
Find us live! - https://www.respairmedia.com/events
Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.comÂ
CREDITS
Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel KisslingerÂ
Associate Producers - Cin Pimentel & RocÃo Santos
Video Post-Production Producer - Troi Valles
Lead Editor - Troi Valles
Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles
Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker
Introducing: Quantum Entanglements, a new investigative feature dropping Thursday 6/18/26! (TRAILER)
15 JUN 2026 · Hey AirGo fam! Here's the trailer for a new project, dropping this Thursday 6/18/26, that we're hyped to share with you!
Quantum Entanglements is a new multimedia investigative feature from Respair about South Side Chicago communities fighting for self-determination in response to potentially being poisoned, pushed out, and policed by an impending 9-billion dollar quantum computer on the shores of Lake Michigan. You can also check out the video version here: https://www.youtube.com/@respairmediaand share the podcast with your people here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/respair-presents-quantum-entanglements/id1721426761
Over the four decades since the US Steel South Works steel mill shut its doors, the land it sat on has remained undeveloped as the surrounding communities heal from the physical, environmental, economic, and social wounds left behind by this industrial behemoth.Â
Now, a coalition of public and private power players from all levels of government and different sectors of industry is preparing to break ground on a "Quantum Campus"–a multi-billion dollar sprawling facility of next-generation technology and surveillance that could both release poisonous contamination and dismantle digital privacy around the globe.Â
As the next industrial revolution descends on a community still reeling from the destruction of deindustrialization, we talk with organizers and neighbors living alongside the site about how they're building power, demanding answers, making sense of the area’s history, and fighting for the ability to determine the future of their neighborhoods, livelihoods, and relationships to the land on which they live.
Check out the video version here:Â https://www.youtube.com/@respairmedia
Share the podcast with your people here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/respair-presents-quantum-entanglements/id1721426761
Get the Quantum Entanglements Listening Guide here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/19sgxkK8Uf45YpsgjuGECzzuij4sBBoC8/view?usp=sharing
Quantum Entanglements was recorded at Chicago Beyond and Kit Studios here in Chicago.Â
Find all of our work at http://respairmedia.com.Â
CREDITS
Cohosts & Executive Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel Kisslinger.Â
Video Post-Production Supervisor - Troi Valles
Lead Video Editor - Troi Valles
Multimedia Producer - Troi VallesÂ
Associate Audio Editors - Cin Pimentel & Rocio Santos Â
Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker
Additional Reporting - Kamari Patrick
Artwork - Areanna Eggleston & Danbee Kim
MUSIC
Dubstep Next Left (feat. Tom Wilkinson) - Asthmatic Astronaut Follow AirGo - https://instagram.com/airgoradio
https://bsky.app/profile/respairmedia.bsky.social
Find us live! - https://www.respairmedia.com/events
Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.comÂ
CREDITS
Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel KisslingerÂ
Associate Producers - Cin Pimentel & RocÃo Santos
Video Post-Production Producer - Troi Valles
Lead Editor - Troi Valles
Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles
Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker
4 JUN 2026 · If you live in the 33rd Ward on the Northwest Side of Chicago, you already know the political magic that's been built by this Alderwoman Rossana Rodriguez and her comrades. For everyone else, it's pivotal to see how a group of grassroots socialist-leaning organizers have built power from the streets to the House of Representatives, while still doing the job of meeting people's everyday needs. Rossana returns to AirGo to talk about how this power base has been constructed brick-by-brick, the billionaire meddlers in Chicago's politics, and how she and so many others built new capacity for liberation in the face of ICE's so-called "Midway Blitz" last year.
SHOW NOTES
Listen to Rossana on AirGo in 2020 - https://airgoradio.com/airgo/2020/4/15/episode-233-on-the-line-with-ald-rossana-rodriguez
And again in 2023 - https://airgoradio.com/airgo/2023/3/3/ep-318-rossana-rodriguez-returns
Connect with her office - https://33rdward.org/
Link with the 33rd Ward Working Families IPO - https://www.workingfamilies33.org/ Follow AirGo - https://instagram.com/airgoradio
https://bsky.app/profile/respairmedia.bsky.social
Find us live! - https://www.respairmedia.com/events
Bring us to your community by hitting us up - contact@respairmedia.comÂ
CREDITS
Hosts & Exec. Producers - Damon Williams and Daniel KisslingerÂ
Associate Producers - Cin Pimentel & RocÃo Santos
Video Post-Production Producer - Troi Valles
Lead Editor - Troi Valles
Digital Media Producer - Troi Valles
Engagement Producer - Rivka Yeker
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/airgo/id1016530091 Since 2015, a podcast reshaping culture for the more liberatory and creative. Listen to longform humanizing conversations with artists, organizers, performers, comedians, scholars, and more...
show more
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/airgo/id1016530091
Since 2015, a podcast reshaping culture for the more liberatory and creative. Listen to longform humanizing conversations with artists, organizers, performers, comedians, scholars, and more who are reimagining Chicago and beyond toward liberation. Hosted by Damon A. Williams and Daniel Kisslinger.
show less
Since 2015, a podcast reshaping culture for the more liberatory and creative. Listen to longform humanizing conversations with artists, organizers, performers, comedians, scholars, and more who are reimagining Chicago and beyond toward liberation. Hosted by Damon A. Williams and Daniel Kisslinger.
Information
| Author | Respair Production & Media |
| Organization | Respair Production & Media |
| Categories | Society & Culture |
| Website | airgoradio.com |
| - |
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