S9E3: Astra Taylor

Astra Taylor is an artist, activist, and founder of the Rolling Jubilee and the Debt Collective. Her latest book is Remake the World: Essays, Reflections, Rebellions.

Taylor talked about why she makes “ethical spectacles,” which connect her creativity and her activism:

the spectacle is something that captivates, something that illuminates and that generates this imagination. Right. Imagining a different world that then can go into movement building. And for me, that’s what ties all of this together. Right. All of these different things I do, whether it’s my interest in philosophy, my interest in politics, my interest in social change, my interest in film as a medium, it’s all about shifting perception.

Check out Jessica’s new book, Self-Reliance.

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If you enjoyed our conversation with Astra Taylor, you might want to listen to our earlier conversation with urbanist-turned-State-Senator Nikil Saval

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This season’s theme music is from Solar Echoes, by Nigel Stanford.

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By Jessica Helfand & Ellen McGirt

Jessica Helfand, a founding editor of Design Observer, is an award-winning graphic designer and writer and a former contributing editor and columnist for Print, Communications Arts and Eye magazines. A member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale and a recent laureate of the Art Director’s Hall of Fame, Helfand received her B.A. and her M.F.A. from Yale University where she has taught since 1994.

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Ellen McGirt is an author, podcaster, speaker, community builder, and award-winning business journalist. She is the editor-in-chief of Design Observer, a media company that has maintained the same clear vision for more than two decades: to expand the definition of design in service of a better world. Ellen established the inclusive leadership beat at Fortune in 2016 with raceAhead, an award-winning newsletter on race, culture, and business. The Fortune, Time, Money, and Fast Company alumna has published over twenty magazine cover stories throughout her twenty-year career, exploring the people and ideas changing business for good. Ask her about fly fishing if you get the chance.