Punk, activism, tofu.

Monkeywrench

Monkeywrench was a radio program aired on KUCI 88.9 FM in Irvine, UC Irvine's independent, underground radio station. The program featured music from across the punk spectrum and interviews with activists, artists, musicians, and organizers working to create a better world in Orange County and beyond. The program broadcasted from midnight to 2 AM every Tuesday morning (Monday night) after originally broadcasting every Saturday from 8 PM – 10 PM, starting April 8, 2017 and ending on March 27, 2018 (with a hiatus in between). Subscribe to the RSS feed to be notified about new interviews (if the program is resurrected elsewhere or in another form)!

Full-length, unbleeped interviews are archived below along with the setlist from each show.

Questions, comments, feedback? Email gro.ruobrabelyk@hcnerwyeknom and I'd love to hear from you.

Monkeywrench is brought to you by Rusty's Rug Lube: when the going gets rough, the rough get Rusty's.

Table of contents

Season 2 (2018)

Rose Regina — technology, security, and privacy

Rose Regina is a media and digital security activist who has worked on a wide range of campaigns, from Indymedia collectives to Occupy groups and related work abroad. Currently, she works with the Tactical Technology Collective in Berlin. Tactical Tech has created a wide range of projects aimed at helping activists function efficiently, safely, and privately, as well as understand the footprints they leave that may jeopardize their work. Some of their most significant projects include Security in-a-box, a step-by-step guide to using encryption, Me and My Shadow, through which people can see the digital traces they and their devices leave behind, and Exposing the Invisible, a series of films, interviews, and resources introducing novel forms of investigation.

Broadcast March 27, 2018.

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I am graduating from medical school and moving to Rochester, New York to begin emergency medicine residency, as crazy and wonderful as that is. Sadly, however, that makes this the last show — at least, the last to be aired on KUCI.

As such, I wanted to share some podcasts and blogs that help me stay sane (for other recommendations, see these below). These aren't all anarchist, or even political, but they all are phenomenal in some variety of antiauthoritarian, radical fashion and help me get through our sometimes unsettling world. I hope they help you do the same.

I hope these help you stay safe, happy, and radical.

Book, other writing, and film club picks of the week:

Discussed in this interview:

Setlist:

Ben Passmore — anarchism and comics

Ben Passmore is a prolific anarchist comics artist from New Orleans. His work alternately takes place in vividly colored science-fiction punch-em-up universes, such as his comic DAYGLOAYHOLE, and the real world, where his writing stands against racism and other forms of oppression. Recently, his comic Your Black Friend won the prestigious Ignatz Award for Outstanding Comic of 2017. His recent work covers the removal and anti-racist defacement of confederate statues, personal resistance against the KKK and other fascist organizations, philosophy, and many other topics. You can hear about upcoming comics, read more in depth analyses, and support his work via his Patreon page. He currently resides in Philadelphia.

Broadcast March 20, 2018.

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Book club picks of the week:

Some other excellent Ben Passmore comics:

Discussed in this interview:

Setlist:

Lisa Fithian — horizontal organizing

Lisa Fithian is an experienced activist who has worked on campaigns for organized labor, war opposition, economic justice, and many others over the last four decades. She contributed significantly to the Occupy movement, the World Trade Organization and anti-corporate-globalization movements, and multiple struggles against United States imperialism overseas, such as against Nicaragua and Israel. She remains dedicated to horizontal organizing and practical solidarity against oppression. She remains involved with Organizing for Power, Undoing White Supremacy Austin, and the People's Institute for Survival and Beyond.

Broadcast March 13, 2018.

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Book club picks of the week:

Related books, articles, and lectures:

Setlist:

Anna Steiner and Ryan Dal Porto — punk and public health

Anna Steiner and Ryan Dal Porto are organizers of Punks with Lunch, a West Oakland harm reduction and homelessness outreach collective. Both Steiner and Dal Porto grew up in the Bay Area punk scene, and their organization stays true to the punk DIY and antiauthoritarian ethics. Additionally, both have worked extensively in public health with marginalized populations, Dal Porto with the San Francisco Department of Public Health and San Francisco AIDS Foundation, and Steiner formerly with the California Department of Public Health and now with the Transitions Clinic Network, where she works with people recently released from incarceration. Dal Porto continues to play punk music, currently with He-Gassen.

Broadcast March 6, 2018.

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Book club picks of the week:

Setlist:

Cindy Milstein — anarchism and gentrification

Cindy Milstein is a prolific anarchist activist and street scholar who has worked from San Francisco to Montreal and beyond on antiauthoritarian and anticapitalist projects. They played key roles in the formation of the Institute for Anarchist Studies and the Renewing the Anarchist Tradition conference, and have been integral to many other collectively-run DIY spaces, notably Station 40 in San Francisco, the Interference Archive in Brooklyn, and the Institute for Social Ecology in Vermont. Cindy's scholarship draws on her participation in Occupy Philly, the 2012 Quebec student/social strike, Eviction Free San Francisco, and Coffee Not Cops, among other social movements. This activism has culminated in the books Anarchism and Its Aspirations, Taking Sides: Revolutionary Solidarity and the Poverty of Liberalism, Rebellious Mourning: The Collective Work of Grief, and the popular Lexicon pamphlet series. Her most recent projects are the Institute for Advanced Troublemaking anarchist summer camp in Massachusetts and Solidarity & Defense, Huron Valley, in their home base of southeast Michigan.

Broadcast February 27, 2018.

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Book club picks of the week:

A Paradise Built in Hell, by Rebecca Solnit, from Penguin

Two Cheers for Anarchism, by James Scott, from Princeton

Setlist:

Faye and Fred Kamiab — leftist activism in Iran

Faye and Fred Kamiab are leftists from Iran who participated actively in resistance to both the Shah and the Islamic Republic. In 1953, a CIA-backed coup d'état overthrew the democratically-elected government of Mohammad Mosaddegh after he nationalized the oil industry, threatening Western business interests. That regime, led by Mohammad Reza Shah, was later deposed by fundamentalist clerics in 1979 who created an even more repressive and brutal regime known as the Islamic Republic, which continues through today. Under both governments, leftist organizing of any kind was heavily repressed; the Islamic government continues to severely represses cultural norms and expression which they deem inconsistent with their rigid interpretation of Imamiyya Shi'ah Islam.

Broadcast February 20, 2018.

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Book club picks of the week:

Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi, from Pantheon

All the Shah's Men, by Stephen Kinzer, from John Wiley & Sons

Setlist:

Ian McDonald — veganism

Ian McDonald is a biochemist, BBC producer, vegan, and creator of the Vegan Option podcast. Since 2011, he has merged meticulously researched and well-produced journalism and veganism, exploring contentious issues such as vegan pets, palm oil and veganism, and many others. Most notably, he created Vegetarianism: The Story So Far, a 15-episode history of vegetarianism and veganism from the earliest records in 600 BCE through to the present day.

Broadcast February 13, 2018.

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Book/film club picks of the week:

Animal Liberation, by Peter Singer, from Harper

Earthlings, directed by Shaun Monson, from Nation Earth

Related article:

Setlist:

Kristian Williams — police brutality and abolitionism

Kristian Williams is an anarchist activist, scholar, and author living in Portland, Oregon. His work has largely focused on the worst facets of American society: the institutional racism, violence, and corruption of the police, and the widespread use of torture by domestic and international United States forces both. He was an active member of Rose City Copwatch for many years and remains involved in community activism and union organizing. His most recent books include an extensively-updated reprint of his seminal work, Our Enemies in Blue, and his collection of essays on the police, Fire the Cops!

Broadcast February 6, 2018.

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Book club picks of the week:

Setlist:

Mic Crenshaw — anti-racist and anti-fascist activism

Mic Crenshaw is a hip hop artist and activist now living in Portland, Oregon. Originally from Chicago and Minneapolis, Crenshaw grew up in the hardcore punk scene as white supremacist groups began co-opting the punk and skinhead subcultures. His organizing and active resistance against neo-Nazis in the Midwest culminated in the founding of Anti-Racist Action alongside other prominent anti-fascist anarchist groups such as Love and Rage and the Revolutionary Anarchist Bowling League. Among his current activist projects are several which focus on local economic justice and international solidarity with musicians in Africa through his organization Globalfam. His latest album is Earthbound.

Broadcast January 30, 2018.

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Book club picks of the week:

Related articles:

Setlist:

Margaret Killjoy and Sadie the Goat — anarchism and pop culture

Margaret Killjoy and Sadie the Goat (not pictured) are authors, editors, and collaborators of The Anarcho-Geek Review, an online journal of pop culture analysis from an anarchist and (largely) tongue-in-cheek perspective. The journal's articles excoriate and celebrate film, video games, television, and literature, deconstructing the capitalist, patriarchical, racist, and transphobic contents of our society's media, while still loving as much as there is to enjoy. Outside of the Anarcho-Geek Review, Killjoy is a prolific author of fiction, nonfiction, and comics. Her most recent publication is The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion, which centers on an anarchist community in Iowa and its struggles against surrounding supernatural forces.

Broadcast January 23, 2018.

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Book club picks of the week:

Discussed in this interview:

Setlist:

Susholtz, Lynn — art and community organizing

Lynn Susholtz is an artist and community organizer from San Diego, California. Since 1979, she has been working to improve public spaces, regain community control of neighborhoods, and make art accessible and participatory. Her work includes the award-winning Stone Paper Scissors art studio, several books (including Voices: Mapping the Hood and Object Lessions: Teaching Math Through Visual Art), many educational and developmental programs, and the Art Produce community cultural center, among her numerous art pieces.

Broadcast January 16, 2018.

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Book club picks of the week:

Blue Pills: A Positive Love Story, by Frederik Peeters, from Jonathan Cape

The Family of Man, by Edward Steichen, from the Museum of Modern Art

Setlist:

Arizmendi, David — union organizing

David Arizmendi is an experienced community and labor organizer whose significant works include founding Proyecto Azteca, a housing assistance program on the Texas–Mexico border, and extensive advocacy with migrant laborers and their communities in both California and Texas. He has organized with the American Federation of Teachers and the United Farm Workers (alongside Cesar Chavez), directed the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board, and founded the Education and Legal Defense Fund within the National Farm Worker Service Center, among his other efforts. He has received numerous awards for his work and currently is an Associate Professor of Sociology at South Texas College.

Broadcast January 9, 2018.

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Book club pick of the week:

No Wall They Can Build, by CrimethInc., freely downloadable and also from CrimethInc. ex-Workers' Collective

Setlist:

Season 1 (2017)

Gina Shepard — prison literature and solidarity

Gina Shepard is one of the founders and primary organizers of the Prisoners Literature Project, a prisoner support organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The organization is all-volunteer and sends books to prisoners throughout the United States. Founded at Bound Together Books, the San Francisco anarchist bookstore, the Prisoner Literature Project has been operating for over 30 years. The work of Gina and her colleagues have promoted education, culture, community, love, and support for thousands of inmates.

Broadcast June 17, 2017.

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For the last show of the season, instead of book club picks, I thought I'd share some podcasts that I follow to hopefully help you stay informed, engaged, and radicalized:

Setlist:

Gabe Rosales — music, gangs, and prisons

Gabe Rosales is a musician from San Juan Capistrano, whose creative works range from death metal to funk and hip hop and who has played with musicians ranging from George Lynch to Jennifer Lopez. Throughout his musical career, he has involved himself in protest movements and used his skills to raise conciousness and support causes he believed in. He has been heavily influenced by his personal experiences of incarceration, and he is currently pursuing scholarly work in law and criminology. His latest album is Vital Nonsense.

Broadcast June 10, 2017.

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Book club picks of the week:

The Debt Resisters' Operations Manual, by Strike Debt!, freely downloadable and also from PM Press

True Porn Clerk Stories, by Ali Davis, freely downloadable and also from CreateSpace

Setlist:

A. M. Stapp — anarchist practice and radicalization

April Stapp is an anarchist and sociologist whose work centers on understanding the motivations and process by which people join radical movements, develop deeper views on structural violence and oppression, and most importantly, act to change those structures to something much better. She has participated in many forms of activism herself in addition to her scholarship, including in the Occupy movement and in community gardens. Finally, her work, both as a scholar and a mother, explores feminism, parenting, and how those influence and are influenced by radical politics.

Broadcast June 3, 2017.

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Book club picks of the week:

The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. Le Guin, from Harper & Row

Borstal Boy, by Brendan Behan, from Nonpareil (originally Hutchinson)

Setlist:

Paul Buhle — history of the radical left

Paul Buhle is a noted historian of the radical left in the United States, lishing dozens of books on the International Workers of the World, the New Left, radicalism in the arts, blacklisting, and many other topics. He was also a first-hand player in many of the areas he documents, working with the Students for a Democratic Society in the 1960s and 1970s and active in opposition to the Vietnam War. He helped found the journal Radical America, the paper of SDS, and has written extensively in many of the United States' leading newspapers and radical publications. He has taught at Goddard College, the Rhode Island School of Design, and for many years at Brown University.

Broadcast May 27, 2017.

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Book club pick of the week:

Yiddishkeit: Jewish Vernacular and the New Land, by Paul Buhle and Harvey Pekar, from Abrams (and for some context, see this article from CrimethInc)

We were extremely fortunate this week to have a live band for the first time on Monkeywrench: Cantell! They played an amazing live set and I'm incredibly excited to hear their album come out, and you can find their current demo on their website.

Live setlist from Cantell:

Cantell — Take Your Ass Home Cantell — Deception Cantell — Metanoia Cantell — Welcome to the Slaughter Cantell — Embrace the Madness Cantell — Waiting for the Sun Cantell — Lights Out Cantell — Join Forces

Break tracks:

Alex Grishaver — community organized emergency services

Alex Grishaver is a Field Member of the Bay Area Mountain Rescue Unit, known by its acronym BAMRU, a search and rescue team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. BAMRU is an all-volunteer nonprofit unit that is self-organized and operated by community members who believe in its mission. With the unit, he has responded to missing person emergencies in the full range of environments present in California: high altitudes, snow and ice conditions, wildernesses, technical rescue, and urban environments. He formerly was the unit's Operations Officer, overseeing the unit's rescue capabilities, and presently serves on the unit's Board of Directors. You may also recognize him from the Rusty's Rug Lube commercials that precede each interview.

Broadcast May 20, 2017.

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Book club picks of the week:

Setlist:

scott crow — anarchism and anti-fascism

scott crow is a longstanding anarchist and animal rights activist based in Austin. He is well-known internationally for his work founding the Common Ground Collective, a highly effective disaster relief organization which responded to neighborhoods in New Orleans devastated by Hurricane Katrina, and his book, Black Flags and Windmills, which detailed the formation and operations of that organization. He has continued to be an outspoken voice for anarchist action, anti-fascism, solidarity, and animal rights.

Broadcast on May 13, 2017.

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Book club picks of the week:

Black Flags and Windmills, by scott crow, from PM Press

Setlist:

Maria Yang — prisons, homelessness, and mental illness

Maria Yang is a psychiatrist and writer based in Seattle. Her blog, formerly known as In White Ink, takes a compassionate, insightful, and unflinching look at her work with the Seattle homeless and in the Seattle jails, as well as personal narratives that illuminate the richness of human thoughts and emotions. Her topics often focus on the experiences of her patients, the structural and actual violence they all too often face, the inequalities in our medical system, and insights for better clinical practice. Her writing does not shy away from the complexity of poverty and mental illness, but rather finds the humanity of her subjects by walking alongside them in their suffering.

Broadcast May 6, 2017.

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Book club picks of the week:

Psychiatric Tales, by Darryl Cunningham, from Blank Slate

Black Sabbath's Master of Reality, by John Darnielle, from Bloomsbury

Setlist:

Enrique Morones — immigration; Massimo Marini — homelessness

Enrique Morones is the founder and director of Border Angels, a nonprofit in San Diego dedicated to supporting undocumented migrants to the United States, most particularly from Mexico, and to advocacy on their behalf. The organization began in 1986 with water drops along the Mexican border to prevent death from exposure and dehydration as migrants pass through the desert. He and his colleagues have successfully blocked the actions of far-right, racist vigilante groups which attempt to stop migrants, such as the Minuteman Project. He has been awarded Mexico's Human Rights Award and Ohtli Award, which honors Latino leaders who have contributed significantly to the Mexican and Latin American diaspora.

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Massimo Marini is a longstanding Orange County activist and anarchist whose primary work has been organizing amongst homeless residents of the Santa Ana Civic Center. He has worked as a union organizer, with Occupy Santa Ana, the Orange County Catholic Worker, the Orange County Needle Exchange Program, Copwatch, and the Orange County Anarchist Bookfair. In each case, his efforts are organized on non-hierarchical lines, emphasizing solidarity and resistance against oppression.

Tune in for our conversations about immigration, Trump, police and ICE, organizing against racism, homelessness in Orange County, community organizing on anarchist lines, Catholic Workers, and other insights on the red and black.

Both broadcast April 22, 2017.

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Book club pick of the week:

Palestine, by Joe Sacco, from Fantagraphics

Setlist:

Kim Stanley Robinson — fiction and activism

Kim Stanley Robinson is a science fiction author originally from Orange County, famous for numerous works, including the Mars Trilogy, 2312, and the Three Californias Trilogy, which imagines three possible futures of Orange County and the rest of Southern California. He has won numerous awards, including science fiction's highest honors, the Hugo and Nebula awards (both multiple times) as well as the Locus Award, Ignotus Award, Robert A. Heinlein Award, and many others. His writing focuses heavily on nature, political and social possibilities, and futures after the environmental or military catastrophes which threaten our present world. His latest book, New York 2140, came out in spring 2017, and is set on a flooded New York City after global climate change led to significant ocean rise.

Broadcast April 15, 2017.

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Book club pick of the week:

Advertising Shits in Your Head, from Dog Section Press

Setlist:

Michael Marquesen — needle exchange

Michael Marquesen is the Director of Prevention Programs for the Los Angeles Community Health Project, formerly known as Clean Needles Now!, one of the largest needle exchange programs in Los Angeles. He has been working for the agency for 17 years; LACHP itself has been in operation since 1992, making it one of the oldest needle exchanges in the United States and the first needle exchange in California. He is a former injection drug user himself and member of the punk community, playing in many punk and power pop bands in the 1980s and 1990s.

Broadcast April 8, 2017.

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Setlist:

Guest sets

One of the joys of working at a radio station is getting to play on your friends' and colleagues' shows, either when they can't make it or switching songs. Here's some of the sets I've played on other shows.

June 10, 2017: Home and Away

May 25, 2017: KUCI punk music night

Every so often, KUCI hosts music nights to introduce DJs to genres they're not as familiar with and to get everyone together — radio is surprisingly solitary, especially if you have a late night show. The nights are hosted by the genre assistants (that is, the folks who curate collections of music and decide what to add to the station's library). As the punk genre coordinator (a responsibility I share with the excellent Tommy DeSilva), here's the set I played:

Tommy's set was also awesome:

April 8, 2017: Hard and Heavy on the PM

Notes