PODCAST · society
Top Rank Podcast
by Top Rank Podcast
Top Rank is a process-oriented research platform, founded in 2015, that highlights people whose work is challenging and shaping our perceptions of contemporary culture. Co-hosted by Isabel Attyah Flower and Marcel Rosa-Salas
Episodes
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EPISODE 53: ERIC DARNELL PRITCHARD
One of our favorite things about making this podcast is that it gives us an excuse to connect with people we admire, and to stay in touch with them. Sometimes these relationships blossom into other collaborations, as is the case with our guest for this episode, who first joined the show ten years...
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EPISODE 52: MADELINE LANE-MCKINLEY, AUTHOR, EDUCATOR, AND PARENT
If you’ve tuned into Top Rank over the last year, you may have noticed that we’ve been spending some time with the topics of mothering and parenting more broadly. This is not a new interest—we actually did a five-part episode series about birth work back in 2019—but now that we are both parents…
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EPISODE 51: WAFA GHNAIM, HISTORIAN, AUTHOR, & EDUCATOR
We’re wrapping the year with someone we’ve been looking forward to speaking with since the very beginning of it. We’re so honored to have shared a conversation with the inimitable and visionary Wafa Ghnaim—an art and dress historian, fashion researcher, embroiderer, curator, archivist, educator,...
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EPISODE 50: ALICE GRANDOIT- ŠUTKA, CREATIVE RESEARCHER & PUBLISHER
Episode 50 ‼️ We’re celebrating this milestone with someone very special, and fitting for the occasion—Alice Grandoit-Šutka. Anyone who has been following this podcast for a while now is likely familiar with the magazine—also called Top Rank—from which it came. Alice was the co-founder and…
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EPISODE 49: LISA MARCHIANO, JUNGIAN ANALYST, PODCASTER, & AUTHOR
On our 49th episode, we enjoyed the rare opportunity to share an hour with a writer whose work has been hugely important to both of us. Jungian analyst and podcaster Lisa Marchiano is the author of several books, including one that we hold especially close: “Motherhood: Facing and Finding...
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EPISODE 48: EMILY MANWARING, VISUAL ARTIST
For our 48th episode, we shared time with the brilliant Emily Manwaring—an artist from and living in New York City whose tender, evocative, & multidimensional works on canvas have been shown at galleries and institutions such as Canada, New Image Art, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Venice Biennale....
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EPISODE 47: MELISSA SÁENZ GORDON & MOLLY SALAS OF SOFT POWER VOTE
Our 47th episode welcomes dynamic duo Melissa Sáenz Gordon & Molly Salas of Soft Power Vote: a civic engagement resource that leverages digital, print, and live formats to encourage New Yorkers—and especially millennials and Gen Z—to vote! While just a few days away from the Democratic mayoral...
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EPISODE 46: DR. FRANCESCA SOBANDE, SCHOLAR AND AUTHOR
For episode 46, we spoke to scholar and author Francesca Sobande, whose research focuses on the impact of digital media in shaping how we perceive, understand, and experience the world and each other. Our conversation explores Francesca’s numerous books (which address topics such as the online...
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EPISODE 45: DR. JILLIAN HERNANDEZ, SCHOLAR, EDUCATOR, CURATOR, & ARTIST
On episode 45, we welcomed scholar, community arts educator, curator, and artist Dr. Jillian Hernandez (@pastelitocookie), whose work challenges the ways racialized and working-class bodies, sexualities, and cultural practices are policed through gendered tropes of deviancy and respectability. We...
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EPISODE 44: DAISY RUIZ, ILLUSTRATOR, AUTHOR, & COMEDIAN
For episode 44, we invited illustrator, author, and comedian Daisy Ruiz (@draizys) to bring us into her journey as an award-winning cartoonist and, more recently, aspiring comedian. We talked with Daisy about her highly-acclaimed, super inspiring, and hilarious first comic book—”Gordita: Built…
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EPISODE 43: JUNE CANEDO DE SOUZA, ARTIST
For our 43rd episode, and our first after a multi-year (and multi-child) parental leave, we sat down face to face with artist June Canedo de Souza (@junecanedodesouza) on the occasion of Deli Radio—a platform she created with Daniel Santos while in residence at Recess Art in Brooklyn—which Top…
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Episode 42: Mims on wrongful incarceration and the campaign "Uncle Ronnie's Room"
On episode 42 we are joined by Mims — an artist, abolitionist, and facilitator based in Los Angeles, CA. Mims is the mind behind “Uncle Ronnie’s Room,” an art-driven campaign to mobilize the general public and media around the story of Ronald (Ronnie) Coleman Jr. and Carl Coleman’s wrongful...
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Episode 41: Destiny Mata on photography as community care
This episode features our conversation with Destiny Mata, an NYC/San Antonio photographer and filmmaker whose work focuses on topics pertaining to subculture and community. Her photography book "The Way We Were" documents the alternative punks of color scene in NYC. Destiny is formerly the…
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Episode 40: The Confidence Cult
Over the last decade, manifestation-based rhetorics to “love yourself,” “believe in yourself” and “feel good in your own skin” have become guiding social directives for people, and especially for women. We see these mantras in social media captions, advertising campaigns, and song lyrics that…
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Episode 39: Professor Vanessa Diaz on the celebrity news machine
Celebrity culture thrives on granting us vicarious access to our favorite stars. But rarely on display are the paparazzi and reporters whose hidden labor makes the story happen. In "Manufacturing Celebrity: Latino Paparazzi and Women Reporters in Hollywood", anthropologist Dr. Vanessa Díaz brings...
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Episode 38: Professor Jessie Daniels on gender, mythology, and whiteness
We’re honored to have had the chance to interview a scholar whose work we’ve appreciated for a long time—lauded sociologist Jessie Daniels, who is a professor at Hunter College and CUNY Graduate Center and a faculty affiliate at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. She is an...
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Episode 37: Interdisciplinary artist, writer and organizer Eilen Itzel Mena
For our last episode of 2021, we shared a special conversation with artist, writer, and organizer Eilen Itzel Mena (@eilen.itzel.mena), whose interdisciplinary visual art practice synthesizes elements of Abstract Expressionism and Surrealism with spiritual frameworks of the African Diaspora.…
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Episode 36: Influencers & the future of labor
The social media influencer is one of today’s most talked about and divisive figures. They represent the convergence of technology and the surveillance state with a consumer culture that encourages us to conceptualize our identities through market logic—each of us entrepreneurs within our own...
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Episode 35: Identity politics & cosmetic surgery: A conversation with Professor Alka Menon
Cosmetic surgery is one of the fastest growing medical procedures in the United States. According to 2019 figures from the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, the US has the highest number of cosmetic procedures conducted annually, as well as the largest number of practicing...
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Episode 34: A Conversation with April Walker on streetwear and the future of fashion
For our final episode of 2020, we welcomed a personal hero of both of ours—the trailblazing designer, entrepreneur, and thinker April Walker (@iamaprilwalker), who in the past three decades has been instrumental in shaping the industry and aesthetic category we now call “streetwear.” In 1987,...
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Episode 33: Dating and creating on her own terms: A conversation with @LifewithJRDN
As mega media companies merge, and social media platforms siphon us into echo chambers, independent content creation remains one of the most empowering aspects of our current moment. Those with access to a computer and wifi connection can develop and distribute their own media - and point of view…
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Episode 32: Latinx Art: Artists, Markets & Politics with Professor Arlene Dávila
It is impossible to separate the workings of the art world – and what these institutions deem valuable — with the compounding racist, sexist, and classist ideas that run through American society. For artists who identify with the pan-ethnic category of Latinx, institutional marginalization in the...
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Episode 31: Reinventing tech education with The Knowledge House
Tech is one of the biggest, fastest changing, and most in-demand industries in terms both of services and of jobs. It is also a fraught and largely yet-to-be traversed territory, that comes with many critical and even existential questions, from AI and automation to privacy and surveillance. The...
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Episode 30: Warriors in the Garden on the Power of Protest
Over the past few weeks, starting in Minneapolis and spreading across the US and the globe, people have taken to the streets to express their fury, grief and immense collective frustration at a broken system built upon genocide, exploitation, racial capitalism and police brutality—a system that…
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Episode 29: On Surveillance with Professor Sareeta Amrute
We are all being watched. From our phones to our Facebook activity, our data is being collected—and, in many cases, sold—to target us with ads, predict our identities and interests, determine our credit worthiness, and even evaluate our propensity for commiting crimes. In the midst of a crucial...
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Episode 28: Diversity Inc. A Conversation with Pamela Newkirk
“Diversity”—in particular, the lack of it—has become a buzzword in the past two decades, especially within the realms of education, entertainment, and corporate America. Companies and institutions alike are spending millions of dollars on programs to make their ranks more inclusive and reflective...
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Episode 27: Redefining Sustainability in Unsustainable Times
If the ongoing COVID-19 crisis has unveiled anything, it is the sheer unsustainability of our contemporary conditions. Just a few weeks ago, life as we knew it was “normal,” but that sense of normal was a world already in crisis, in which the sustainability of life on Earth was being sacrificed...
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Episode 26: Jessica Lynne of ARTS.BLACK on reimagining art criticism
After a brief hiatus as we transitioned into this new year and decade, we are back in the booth with Jessica Lynne, a writer and cultural critic from coastal Virginia and co-founder of ARTS.BLACK, an online journal that publishes art criticism from Black perspectives. We spoke with Jess about the...
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Episode 25: On making history with Professor Maria Cotera
Who has the power to write history and how has the digital age transformed this process? On this episode, we speak with Professor Maria Cotera about her approach to grassroots community history-making with the Chicana por mi Raza Digital Memory Collective, an ongoing Chicana feminist history...
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Episode 24: Salome Asega on Speculative Design
Salome Asega is a NYC based artist, educator and researcher whose work engages with the intersection of technology, design and social justice. Currently, she is the Technology Fellow at the Ford Foundation's Creativity and Free Expression program area, and a director of Powrplnt, a digital art...
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Episode 23: New York's Loudest
On this episode, we spoke with our friends Mia & Danielle from the new podcast "New York's Loudest" about their passion and expertise in the cannabis industry. From chatting about our first experiences with weed, to diving into the debates surrounding its legalization, our discussion highlights…
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Episode 22: Kimberly M. Jenkins on fashion, race and accountability
Kimberly M. Jenkins is a leading expert on the intersections of race and the fashion industry. In the midst of Gucci's recent controversies, Kimberly has recently become the brand’s first in-house scholar, for which she will consult on responsible design practices that do not invoke racial...
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Episode 21: Jonathan González on the Politics of Performance
On this episode of the Top Rank Podcast, we had the pleasure of speaking with Jonathan González — multidisciplinary performance artist, professor, farmer and dear friend of ours. We chatted about his NYC upbringing, his ever-evolving performance practice, and the politics of identity in the murky...
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Episode 20: What About Us?
For our 20th episode, we did something we never have done before - we interviewed each other! After three years of making this show, we realized we never properly introduced ourselves. For this episode, we chat about the story of our friendship and the ways consumerism shaped our childhoods &...
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Sophia Cleary, Performance Artist & Doula - Los Angeles, CA
There is no biological experience more fundamental than birth. However, the ongoing conversation in the US between medical doctors, natural-birth practitioners, researchers, and mothers about what could and should be a safe and positive birth experience has remained extraordinarily controversial....
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Janel Coleman, Youth Health Educator & Doula - New York, NY
There is no biological experience more fundamental than birth. However, the ongoing conversation in the US between medical doctors, natural-birth practitioners, researchers, and mothers about what could and should be a safe and positive birth experience has remained extraordinarily controversial....
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Professor Dana Ain-Davis, Anthropologist & Doula - New York, NY
There is no biological experience more fundamental than birth. However, the ongoing conversation in the US between medical doctors, natural-birth practitioners, researchers, and mothers about what could and should be a safe and positive birth experience has remained extraordinarily controversial....
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Adina Marx-Arpadi, Birthmark Doula Collective - New Orleans, LA
There is no biological experience more fundamental than birth. However, the ongoing conversation in the US between medical doctors, natural-birth practitioners, researchers, and birthing people about what could and should be a safe and positive birth experience has remained extraordinarily...
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Introduction
There is no biological experience more fundamental than birth. However, the ongoing conversation in the US between medical doctors, natural-birth practitioners, researchers, and mothers about what could and should be a safe and positive birth experience has remained extraordinarily controversial....
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Episode 18: Commodity Feminism: A Conversation with Professor Sarah Banet-Weiser
Feminism has reached new levels of mass popularity. Such a shift in public discourse and top line awareness about the daily realities of gender inequality must be acknowledged and celebrated. Yet, it begs many questions: What are the feminist ideas that are becoming popularized, circulated, and,...
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Episode 17: Live Podcast with Desmond is Amazing
Recorded live from Abrons Arts Center in New York City, this episode of the Top Rank Podcast features Desmond Napoles, aka "Desmond is Amazing," who at just 11 years old, has made an international name for himself as a drag performer, LGBT advocate, and social media influencer with over 100K...
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Episode 16: Business As Usual with Zenat Begum
On this episode, Marcel & Isabel chat with Zenat Begum, the owner of Playground Coffee Shop - a multidisciplinary cafe, bookstore, event space and community non profit in the Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. In addition to learning about Zenat's life as young, New York native and...
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Episode 15: Resource Generation
On episode 15 of the Top Rank Podcast, “Resource Generation” co-hosts Isabel Flower and Marcel Rosa-Salas spoke with Holly Fetter and Dominique Tan, representatives from the nonprofit organization Resource Generation. For two decades, Resource Generation has been advising and enabling young…
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Episode 14: The New Racial Science, a conversation with Professor Dorothy Roberts
On episode 14 of the Top Rank Podcast, “The New Racial Science” co-hosts Isabel Flower and Marcel Rosa-Salas spoke with Professor Dorothy Roberts about the politics of genetic ancestry tests. In 2017, over 12 million Americans had their DNA analyzed by genetic ancestry testing companies. This...
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Episode 13: Thick/er Black Lines
On episode 13 of the Top Rank Podcast, “Thick/er Black Lines,” co-hosts Isabel Flower and Marcel Rosa-Salas spoke with Rianna Jade Parker, Hudda Khaireh, and Aurella Yussuf founding members of the London based curatorial collective Thick/er Black Lines. Thick/er Black Lines is an…
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Episode 12: NI UNA MENOS - Cecilia Palmeiro and Verónica Gago
On episode 12 of the Top Rank Podcast, co-hosts Isabel Flower and Marcel Rosa-Salas speak with Cecilia Palmeiro and Verónica Gago, founding members of Argentinian feminist movement and collective Ni Una Menos. Ni Una Menos (which translates to Not One Less) combats femicide—the intentional…
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Episode 11: High Performance Hijabs with Arshiya Kherani, founder and CEO Sukoon Active
On episode 11 of the Top Rank Podcast, “High Performance Hijabs,” co-hosts Isabel Flower and Marcel Rosa-Salas speak with Arshiya Kherani, founder and CEO Sukoon Active. Sukoon is a New York-based apparel company that designs inclusive activewear for women. Kherani, an active runner, launched...
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Episode 10: NSFW: Female Gaze
This summer, an exhibition opened at the Museum of Sex in New York City titled NSFW: Female Gaze. Organized in collaboration with Vice’s Creators platform, and on view through April 2018, this show includes the work of 25 young and/or emerging female artists. The show’s two part title invokes…
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Episode 09: Art is Labor with curator Ali Rosa-Salas
Few would dispute the immense social, cultural, and political significance of creative production in realizing our potential as human beings and in fostering both inventive and nurturing communities. Creative labor is a critical part of our social ecosystem. Yet, artists—especially in the US—are...
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Episode 08: The War on Drugs That Wasn't - a conversation with Professor Helena Hansen
Over the past decade, abuse of prescription opioids such as Oxycontin and Percocet has come to affect over two million Americans, precipitating a quadrupling in overdose fatalities. The spike in opioid related deaths within White communities in particular has visibly shocked and alarmed the…
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Top Rank Podcast have?
Top Rank Podcast currently has 55 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Top Rank Podcast about?
Top Rank is a process-oriented research platform, founded in 2015, that highlights people whose work is challenging and shaping our perceptions of contemporary culture. Co-hosted by Isabel Attyah Flower and Marcel Rosa-Salas
How often does Top Rank Podcast release new episodes?
Top Rank Podcast has 55 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Top Rank Podcast?
You can listen to Top Rank Podcast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Top Rank Podcast?
Top Rank Podcast is created and hosted by Top Rank Podcast.
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