Welcome to the Lean to the Left podcast, where we explore progressive politics and the important social issues of our time.
We’re living in a time today when we might say that ethical behavior, particularly in politics, seems to be sorely lacking. We’re looking at that as well as cultural processes of inequality that too often go undiscussed.
Our guest is Dr. Amanda Udis-Kessler, a sociologist, antiracism trainer, writer, lay preacher, songwriter, and progressive sacred music composer. Her book Abundant Lives: A Progressive Christian Ethic of Flourishing will be published by Pilgrim Press in May 2024, and her book Cultural Processes of Inequality: A Sociological Perspective, will be published by Anthem Press in 2025.
Her writing website is https://amandaudiskessler.com and her free-use sacred music website is https://queersacredmusic.com.
Whether writing books, music, progressive liturgical materials, or antiracism training exercises, Amanda’s goal is the same: to contribute to making a world in which there is a lot more joy and a lot less pain. She is Director of Assessment and Program Review and chair of the Institutional Review Board at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Here are questions we discussed with Amanda:
- Tell me about your approach to ethics and how it is connected to a left-leaning political perspective.
- How did you come to develop this approach to ethics and why do you think it’s helpful?
- Tell me about how you see cultural processes of inequality working in the US.
- What are some of the important cultural processes of inequality? How are they similar or different across different forms of inequality?
- How does your way of thinking about inequality help progressives and left-leaning people work against inequality?
- Talk a little about the antiracism training you do. Why did you start doing it and what do you hope to accomplish with it?
- You wrote in a blog, “We all struggle to do what is good, especially when doing so is difficult and even more so when we live in a society that rewards hatred, cruelty, greed and power-mongering over love, kindness, generosity and service.” Has that society worsened in recent years when it comes to hatred, cruelty, greed and power-mongering?
- Do you believe that the ethics of politics has changed in recent years, and if so, why?
- You identify as a queer feminist. How do those identities inform your creative and intellectual projects?
- You consider yourself a composer of left-leaning worship music. What do you mean by that?
- How do your different identities and projects hang together? What’s the relationship between developing a progressive ethic of flourishing, writing social justice worship music, offering antiracism trainings, and writing on the sociology of inequality?
- How can we make good choices regularly?
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-lean-to-the-left-podcast–4719048/support.