Oh, we are so back, folks. Well, not really. But you are, maybe, listening to this, and it's a new year. And it's not a new episode, but it will be eventually.

Eventually, obviously, we're going to have new episodes. But not today. Today, it's a new year, as I said, and maybe I'll say it again. Who knows how many times I'm going to say it's a new year. There's one.

But in this fresh revolution around the sun,

we thought we would rerun this older episode,

MLK days coming up,

and we figured it would be relevant.

Sadly, sadly relevant. So before we play it, I'm going to read something that our director and writer of this episode, Will Gord wrote after re-watching this old

episode. So here that is, and then here is that episode. And then whatever you're gonna do after that.

So re-watching this video actually made me really sad.

I know this sounds like a cliche, but what Martin Luther King had to say is more important today than ever and all that.

But it's actually true.

When we made this episode, there was some hope that finally people might be receptive to his actual message.

But the sad truth is that in just a couple of short years, the forces of reaction have prevailed.

What struck me so much about researching and writing this episode is how much more sophisticated his analysis of race and class and justice

and morality was than the conversation we were having at the time. But we were at least finally

starting to have that conversation again. On the heels of BLM, we were starting to have a real

discussion about the legacy of systemic racism and how the hierarchies of white supremacy hurt

everyone in the working

class and those living in poverty.

But the backlash came swift, and to our credit, we recognized it and called it out, and

even though we at the Shodi all saw the looming threat, I think I underestimated it.

Perhaps I let my hope blind me, but then I watched it all happen in front of me,

...