In this conversation, Bayo Akomolafe and Alnoor Ladha explore the entanglements of identity, activism, whiteness, and emergence in a time of planetary crisis. Bayo challenges the notion of human centrality, advocating for humility as ‘dis-ability’ — an epistemological opening to new ways of knowing, being, sensing and relating in the world. They discuss whiteness not as a racial category but as a terraforming project, shaping the world’s dominant systems. From the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge to the syncopation of cultural rupture, they examine how disruption invites transformation. Ultimately, they invite us to step beyond certainty, into the dance of becoming otherwise — together.

Episode 7 - Alnoor Ladha with Vanessa Andreotti

Welcome to the Deschooling Dialogues.

Today my guest is Vanessa de Oliveira Andreotti, who's a scholar, activist, organizer, and one of the founders of the Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures Arts/Research Collective, as well as Dean of Education at the University of Victoria.

Vanessa is author of Hospicing Modernity: Facing humanity’s wrongs and the implications for social activism, and one of the designers of the course Facing Human Wrongs: Climate Complexity and Relational Accountability, available at UVic through Continuing Studies.

Episode 6 - Alnoor Ladha with Orland Bishop

Today I have the honor of being with a dear friend, elder and mentor Orland Bishop.

Orland Bishop is the founder and director of ShadeTree Multicultural Foundation in Los Angeles, where he has pioneered approaches to urban truces and mentoring at-risk youth that combine new ideas with traditional ways of knowledge. ShadeTree serves as an intentional community of mentors, elders, teachers, artists, healers, and advocates for the healthy development of children and youth. Orland’s work in healing and human development is framed by an extensive study of medicine, naturopathy, psychology, and Indigenous cosmologies, primarily those of South and West Africa.