BreakLines: Recent Episodes
Ioannis Gatsiounis
International journalist Ioannis Gatsiounis, whose work has taken him to Asia, Africa and beyond, resists wokeness for awakeness to offer Americans an empowering path forward on race other "sensitive" issues.
From Target and Chick-fil-A to Miller Lite and Netflix, companies that go woke are seeing their reputations and in some cases bottom lines take a hit, as more Americans, including liberals and Democrats, protest what they see as overreach of an illiberal, tribal ideology.
Also in this episode: Are Millennials and Gen Zers as progressive as they think? And footage relating to Target's PRIDE controversy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsxXzRLitjc
Historical evidence shows no group can claim "ownership" of dreadlocks, so why shouldn't - or should - white people wear them?
https://youtu.be/9Qv2ctpSbDs
Are Americans growing bolder, or has cancel culture silenced us into irrevocable submission?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpWmLfYEf2c
Also in this episode:
Offending a POC
Immigrants vs. Wokeism
Does the Woke Set Mean Well?
Gays and Cultural Appropriation
In our inaugural episode, I sit down with the always thoughtful Kirk Leman whose upbringing in a tight-knit religious community has informed his insights on the parallels between wokeism and religious fanaticism. Here we discuss how woke identity politics and discriminatory concepts like equity are impacting Hollywood, the arts, and academia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lakFI0Atlw
Are Americans growing bolder, or has cancel culture silenced us into irrevocable submission?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpWmLfYEf2c
Also in this episode:
Offending a POC
Immigrants vs. Wokeism
Does the Woke Set Mean Well?
Gays and Cultural Appropriation
BreakLines the Podcast is expanding into video! In our inaugural episode , I sit down with the always thoughtful Kirk Leman whose upbringing in a tight-knit religious community has informed his insights on the parallels between wokeism and religious fanaticism. Here we discuss how woke identity politics and discriminatory concepts like equity are impacting Hollywood, the arts, and academia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lakFI0Atlw
Trumpism and Wokeism have undermined institutional integrity and democratic norms. How can America heal and prosper?
As unease over wokeness grows among liberals, it's time for Democratic candidates to take a position.
Misconstruing the Second Amendment
(0:42) Music sample – Ibibio Sound Machine (8:15)
Great Replacement Theory (9:20)
Music sample – Idles (18:37)
Omitting a suspect’s race at the NYT (19:50)
Self-accountability vs. the race card (23:00)
From social reserve and unblessed geography to a lack of destination neighborhoods and a swelling tech presence, Austin has its share of drawbacks.
Humorlessness in the transgender community (0:39)
If this is a life threatening emergency (5:13)
Music sample – Thee Oh Sees (7:19)
Is Austin overrated? (8:09)
Sleep-woking - going through the motions and tacitly complying with woke illiberalism and neo-racism.
No era in human history has been so sensitive to the hurt feelings of others. But at what cost?
This week's Oscars are the latest ugly setback for woke politics.
Oscars, race, and wokeness (0:21)
Music sample – William Onyeabor (6:02)
Russia boosting American power? (7:48)
Music sample - Ryan Bingham (10:55)
Pedestrian privilege (11:57)
Running red lights (15:32)
Last fall I was diagnosed with testicular cancer. Seeing the lighter has helped in the healing process. Thank you to all who were a calm, loving presence through it all.
Finding home away from home.
Hiring police based on race (0:40)
Music sample – Arcade Fire (6:39)
Regulated “party” (7:31)
Music sample – Tricky (10:07)
Home (11:02)
Experiences that have shaped my skepticism of tribalism.
Brick and mortar vs. online (0:30)
Yesterday's newspapers (2:30)
Music sample - Screaming Trees (8:27)
Cancelling Putin supporters (9:52)
Music sample - Mark Lanegan (11:56)
Tribalism (12:45)
Amid a world of don'ts, smoking now symbolizes a breath of fresh air. Architecture and the white male (0:22)
Super Bowl and wokeness (3:05)
Music sample – Sun June (8:56)
Hiring based on race (10:00)
Music sample – Radio Citizen (18:18)
Smoking (19:09)
Friendliness' connection to a fuller life. Masks (0:14)
Music sample - Steve Earle (6:10)
GPS vs. old school maps (7:13)
Music sample - Nadine Shah (9:03)
Friendliness (10:00)
How does curiosity (or lack thereof) fundamentally shape our lives?
Hollywood (0:31)
Music sample - Meller (8:55)
Wide-eyed tourists (9:45)
Music sample - Xylouris White (11:58)
Curiosity (12:42)
What in our modern (and inner) world is preventing us from being freer in mind and spirit?
Ugly sweater parties (1:36)
Merry Christmas? (3:26)
Music sample - Porridge Radio (9:42)
Youtube's dislike button (10:41)
Music sample - Anderson .Paak (12:51)
Freedom (13:43)
Many assume a world envisioned by wokeness will soon be upon us if it isn't already. But resulting social change rarely matches the intended outcome. What gets in the way?
Spirituality is often misused to elaborately avoid real inner work.
Fast food nation (0:18)
Music sample - Francis Bebey (4:23)
Price-less restaurant menus (5:27)
Music sample - JD McPherson (11:25)
Spirituality (13:16)
Sunsets (00:07)
Family drama (1:49)
Old men in sunglasses (3:38)
Music sample - Tinariwen (4:58)
Soul (6:03)
Weekends - an essential part of a life well lived.
Myths about CRT (6:36)
Ioannis' sex tapes (10:50)
Minimalism as a tool of self-empowerment (19:12)
Ailing from information overload and mass consumerism, Americans are growing less discerning. What are the societal implications?
Halloween social experiment (1:19)
Dead & Co. concert (3:30)
Travails in gender studies (5:54)
Discernment (11:40)
Woke illiberals have taken the fun out of Halloween in an attempt to be more "sensitive." In kicking off Season 2, BreakLines flouts their politics of intolerance.
Republicans' relationship to "freedom" has grown shallow and hypocritical, devaluing the cause at a time when it urgently needs defending.
Left-leaning commentators claim the right is as guilty of canceling as the left. Are they misleading us?
Concern with woke culture is spreading around the globe. Here, Ugandan radio host James "Fat Boy" Onen interviews me on the neo-racism stunting once liberal American institutions.
Ideological extremism is cutting us off from one another. What in woke's DNA is making things worse?
In putting tribe before country, the hammer thrower has cast further doubt on the role and impact of activist athletes.
Liberal democracy depends on citizens standing up when it's under threat. So what's getting in the way of being our better selves?
Republicans bristle any time Obama broaches the topic of race. But amid heightened identity politics, his nuanced take is urgently needed.
We’re said to finally be getting race right. Will we look back to find the opposite was true?
The Republican Party has become an extremist mess, built on lies and conspiracy theories. So why am I and other liberals increasingly uneasy about voting Democrat?
With 100 million Americans fully vaccinated and anyone older than 16 now eligible, it is misplaced to expect the vaccinated to behave anything less than free.
Committed as ever to swaying public opinion, the Gray Lady does not have the luxury of writing its own history. Its editorial standards will.
A professor's demonization of "whites" is a timely example of how wokeism is morally and intellectually compromising academia.
Nearly a year after George Floyd's death, wokeness is wearing out its welcome. But unpopularity alone will not end its assault on liberalism.
Last week two senators threatened to hold up voting on Biden Administration nominees until they saw greater "AAPI" representation. This manufactured grouping is not in the interests of the people it claims to serve, nor the nation's.
No evidence so far suggests the mass killer in Atlanta was motivated by race. But far and wide we were fed the lie in what is part of a deepening rejection of Enlightenment values.
Americans on both sides of the political divide are troubled by the anti-liberalism and neo-racism of wokeness, but no one dares speak. It's time to stand up for our common values, and liberals must take the lead.
Defensive and distrustful, deeply ideological and hostile to free expression, the woke-cancel set possesses many of the same characteristics it associates with conservatives.
When the woke police came after the host of the Bachelor and a star New York Times writer, both played into the hands of extremists by apologizing. Sometimes the most responsible thing to do is flex your middle finger.
With astonishing speed and complicity from key institutions, the woke obsession with identity has become the new status quo, signaling no less than an information revolution. BreakLines looks at what defines this revolution and what, till now, distinguishes it from a true cultural revolution.
A former Major League Baseball player says he has what it takes to be an MLB manager, but won't do so because he feels life is too unsafe for black Americans in 2021.
President Biden's Inauguration Day speech called for American unity. But does he have a clear sense of what will bring the "other half" to the table?
A black musician's son was confronted by a girl who lost her phone, and he and his wife were quick to publicize the incident. But were they fair to claim it was a "racial attack?"
A day after the Capitol riot, BreakLines looks at the road to redemption for Trump supporters, how their insurrection could further radicalize the left, and how our media habits are radicalizing us all.
From greater unity among Democratic and Republican leaders to inspiring more violence from Trump supporters, BreakLines looks at how today's storming of the Capitol could shape America's future.
Black privilege is a real and emergent trend, and while it does not match the scale and depth of the white strain, Americans will have to confront both forms to truly promote equality and unity.
We’ve taken to talking about 2020 in the past tense – as if all the bad it contained will soon be behind us. But 2021 could be worse yet. One key way is politically; our divisions show no signs of subsiding. Here’s what Democrats and Republicans can do to lessen the likelihood of another bad year.
Conservatives’ repudiation of facts has reached crisis proportions, as seen in their rejection of Joe Biden’s legitimate election victory. It has also obscured the left’s discomfort with reality. Aversion to facts is a growing American problem, and an obstacle to national progress.
A month after election day, Republicans are still trying to sow doubt about Joe Biden's victory. Here are some key questions their conspiracy theory fails to account for.
Leading media on both left and right were vital in debunking claims of voter fraud, leading Republicans to retreat further from the mainstream in their quest for more partisan news sources.
Linked to intolerance and identity politics, woke culture is a liability for the Democratic Party.
Trump supporters already suffered disrepute. In sticking with a president who tried to call the election early and in peddling unsubstantiated claims of widespread voter fraud – all in an attempt to subvert American democracy – any remaining shred of credibility has been squandered.
Let's not kid ourselves. President Elect Joe Biden's commendable agenda of national unity is a long shot. But it won't be helped by identity politicking, which was on full display during Kamala Harris' tone deaf victory speech over the weekend. For the sake of the nation it's a temptation she needs to resist.
Joe Biden's defeat of Donald Trump is the first step toward restoring our democracy. And yet 70 million people still voted for the authoritarian figure. The Jews wisely said after the Holocaust, "Never Forget," and it is vital that we take a closer look at the makeup of this anti-democratic force.
A civilization can not grow and prosper without a healthy dose of political maturity among its populace, as developing countries know all too well. America is growing less distinguishable from those nations, as festering political immaturity has been normalized.
Trump signs are often accompanied by the American flag, suggesting that support for Trump is synonymous with patriotism. But given all Trump has done to divide and weaken America, is their any truth to the claim?
On her new podcast, the former First Lady said when she's slighted or overlooked by whites, it's attributable to race. Is this accurate? Is our current "conversation" on race equipped to nurture healthier interaction?
As news spreads that Trump has coronavirus, some people are rejoicing (quietly or otherwise). Are they depraved, as Trump supporters would have you believe, or is there something justifiable in their reaction?
Activists now dismiss “respectability politics” as a way of forcing minorities to conform to white norms. But a lack of respectability in how Americans go about their politics, on the left and the right, is threatening to derail the social justice movement.
As opposition to the activist group mounts, we need a way to distinguish support for black lives matter the sentiment from the movement.
Everyone knew the NFL would focus on race this season but no one expected the campaign to start the way it did in Kansas City Thursday night. What was the crowd saying?
Best Picture nominations will no longer be judged by the substance of their content but adherence to superficial identity markers along rigid tribal lines. That is you must adhere to identity politics to have your work deemed worthy of Oscar consideration. Breaklines looks into the implications for creatives and society more broadly.
There are real instances of police abuse that unfairly impact people of color, but we as a nation have taken it to a point where we shamelessly feed altercations into this narrative. Here BreakLines looks at key reasons for this and the cost to society.
Weeks after George Floyd’s death, a black man in Atlanta, unprovoked, punched a police officer, stole his Taser, ran and tried to tase another officer, challenging the notion that the killing was racially motivated. But we’ll filter it through a narrative of race, thank you very much. This growing aversion to critical thinking nurtures extremism and is not in our collective interest.
From Trump supporters to the "woke" left, tribalism is rife in America. BreakLines looks at how it's compromising our response to the Jacob Blake shooting.
With the shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin on Sunday, the time has come to scrutinize the cost of victims failing to cooperate in police standoffs and the media's refusal to provide full context of their interactions - without which more black lives will be lost.
Rest assured, Democrats are more reflective of who we are as a nation than Republicans; they are not just a party of white people. But their growing obsession with diversity is neither just nor sustainable.
I'm pleased to bring you my very first guest on BreakLines, David Lyon, who's in real estate but whose main qualification is that we were at the same gathering in a dark corner of a Scottsdale bar a few weeks ago (six feet apart of course, hello!) and he said he thought it would be fun to come on my podcast. 0:04 Not a fan of the modern world 1:57 Cancel culture isn't fun 3:01 Catching a predator with "Chris Hansen" 4:13 Asian "chick" 6:56 Another Asian "chick" 10:03 The hipster - a necessary evil?
Cancel Culture takes aim at Trader Joe's and REI. BreakLines investigates.
"There is a fragility at play, a complex that has developed around cancel culture's relationship with race and identity. And we would learn to treat race in a more functional way if we learned to be more relaxed about it. Indeed a healthy nation does not operate by rigid standards of discourse on topics of national interest."
Part II of this episode looks at how Americans can unite to beat back the new illiberalism.
Two months after George Floyd's death an unexpected twist has occurred. Support for social justice is giving way to increased scrutiny of cancel culture. In this episode, I describe that shift and steps one can take to help grow the resistance - with a word on Black Canyon Highway to kick things off.
Among the woke set, it's common to claim that racism can only be committed by white people toward people of color because white people possess institutional power. How just is this belief and is it in the national interest? BreakLines investigates.
News entities are following one another to capitalize the word black. How strong is the justification?
In the wake of the George Floyd protests, it's become fashionable to urge anyone who's not black to "just listen," the belief being that this will promote racial healing. In fact, at a time when freedom of thought and expression are under assault and the marketplace of ideas is suffering, we urgently need to hear more perspectives to fight ignorance and division, and skin color should never be a disqualifier.
The just aim of ending systemic racism in the wake of George Floyd's death is at risk of being hijacked by illiberal "wokeness," as seen in recent developments at universities, corporations and even Starbucks. "It's not good enough to fight against racial injustice while allowing this mindset to flourish. We must align with groups that make that distinction, that don't use anti-democratic, fascist means to justify the ends."
Media in the internet age have been instrumental in highlighting cases of police brutality, but they’re also responsible for an incredible amount of reactionary propagandizing and misunderstanding, leaving us ill-prepared to properly heal and grow as a nation.
My podcast, BreakLines, launches today, earlier than expected, and so it feels like opening a restaurant before the silverware's been delivered. But with all that's going on, it seemed the "grand opening" could no longer wait.
In Episode 1, attached, I build on my experiences reporting on race in the US, Asia, and Africa, to try to make greater sense of the current moment:
"Yes we need to acknowledge the sins of our institutions and support reform that promotes true equality under the law. But we also need to hear from [a greater diversity of perspectives]. Without you and your honest opinions, there is no conversation" and meaningful progress between the races will be limited.
Rise up, stay safe, and thanks for listening.