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Flux Podcasts (Formerly Theory of Change)

Flux Podcasts (Formerly Theory of Change)

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Flux is a progressive podcast platform, with daily content from shows like Theory of Change, Doomscroll, and The Electorette.Flux Community Media and its partners Ciencia Política Economía Gestión Gestión y Liderazgo Política y Gobierno
Episodios
  • Tupac Shakur and the political soul of hip-hop

    Tupac Shakur and the political soul of hip-hop
    Jul 11 2025
    Episode Summary  Politics is a battle over elections and policies, but underneath it’s really a battle over stories, the cultural myths that shape our sense of identity, power, and possibility. And few stories loom larger in the American imagination than the saga of Tupac Shakur, the rapper and actor whose influence continues to resonate across the globe nearly 30 years after his death.It’s easy to see why. The problems of poverty, racism, capitalism, and inequality are as present today as they were when Tupac and other early hip-hop musicians began telling stories that no one else would.Talking about all of this with me today is Dean Van Nguyen. He’s the author of a new biography of Tupac Shakur called “Words for My Comrades: A Political History of Tupac Shakur” that highlights the political legacy that was lost when the emcee was gunned down in the streets of Las Vegas in 1996. While today’s rap industry has largely been absorbed by the capitalism its pioneers once resisted, the radical spirit Tupac embodied still echoes—sometimes in unexpected places.One of those places is Donald Trump’s political movement. In a bizarre turn, Trump has increasingly styled himself as a hip-hop folk hero—and, surprisingly, more than a few rappers have gone along with it. This is a conversation about symbolism, masculinity, memory, and resistance.The video of this episode is available, the transcript is below. Because of its length, some podcast apps and email programs may truncate it. Access the episode page to get the full text.Theory of Change and Flux are listener supported. We need your help to keep going. Please subscribe to stay in touch!Related Content—A flashback look at how Donald Trump reached out to hip-hop stars to push his 2024 message —Nicki Minaj, Snoop Dogg, and toxic gravitation: How reactionaries bond over mutual narcissism 🔒—Why the decline of the black church is helping Republicans reach new voters—Doja Cat and the lies we tell ourselves about sex and race—Many Black Americans don’t like Democrats, but they loathe Republicans even more, which disdain will prove stronger?Audio Chapters00:00 — Introduction05:53 — Tupac’s continued global resonance09:14 — The origins of hip-hop and its commercialization11:35 — Tupac’s legacy of contradictions18:41 — The Black Panthers’ influence on Tupac’s mother23:50 — Masculinity and gender within hip-hop29:06 — Gender and sexuality in the Black Panther Party35:56 — Obama and Trump in rap39:12 — Former Panthers still have hope for the future despite Trump41:31 — Trump’s 2024 campaign reached out heavily to hip-hop artists46:22 — ‘Coolness’ as a non-political voter persuasion method50:22 — How Van Nguyen brought oral history into his book58:19 — Eazy-E, another political West Coast emcee 01:01:55 — The meanings of ‘thug life’Audio TranscriptThe following is a machine-generated transcript of the audio that has not been proofed. It is provided for convenience purposes only.MATTHEW SHEFFIELD: And joining me now is Dean Van Nguyen. Hey, Dean. Welcome to Theory of Change.DEAN VAN NGUYEN: Thank you. Thanks for having me.SHEFFIELD: Yeah. So this book is, it's a really important book, actually, I think especially because it's connecting a lot of ideas that got started during the life of Tupac Shakur, obviously by him, but also by other people.And he's a guy that continues to remain relevant despite having been killed decades ago. And you write in the introduction of the book that you see him as America's last revolutionary figure. Tell us about that.VAN NGUYEN: I think America actually isn't a nation that tends to create these. Figures. It's been a, a stable political, system for quite a while now. So I think when you see where Tupac's icon has resonated mostly across the world, and it tends to be in countries that have histories of colonialism and colonial oppression and anti-colonial uprising such as my own country, which is Ireland and nations that have suffered brutal dictatorships and have had uprisings against that and things of that nature.So he, I think his icon has grown to, to be almost this, almost like avara figure where he. He represents [00:04:00] ideals, like to see his image ignites certain feelings within people or certain ideas within people of, revolution and resistance. And I don't think there's actually too many Americans as you could actually say that about.Yeah, I think if you got, like there was, of the, figures in the book as well who's icon, who's I comparing to a little bit is like Bob Marley. Che Guevara. So, yeah, I think I, I can't really think of anyone who's come since him that really matches that, that that symbol that he's become, side of the us.SHEFFIELD: If we expand outside of the us other non-American figures can you think of people after Tupac generally that are, that widely known and recognized as revolutionary icons?​I think he's certainly, I think, the...
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    1 h y 10 m
  • Encore: Pentecostalism is taking over the world of Christianity

    Encore: Pentecostalism is taking over the world of Christianity
    Jul 4 2025
    Episode SummaryWe’ve talked a lot on Theory of Change about the political manifestations of fundamentalist Christian viewpoints in American politics, but the religious origins of these ideas are also important to understand. And right now there is no bigger force within American Christian fundamentalism than Pentecostalism, a movement of unaffiliated churches that together represent the fastest growing Christian sect in the world.But Pentecostalism is a broad movement with no centralized authorities handing down doctrines and many church organizations with history of labeling themselves as Pentecostalism now are refusing to do so. To the extent that many people know anything about Pentecostalism, it’s through ministers who are famous for scandals or for their feel-good music.Joining the program to talk in much greater depth about Pentecostalism, its origins, and its rapid growth is Elle Hardy. She’s a freelance journalist whose book Beyond Belief: How Pentecostal Christianity is Taking Over the World was published recently.A transcript of the edited audio follows. It’s computer-generated so may have some errors.(This episode previously aired on June 7, 2022.)TranscriptMATTHEW SHEFFIELD: Thanks for being here today.ELLE HARDY: Thanks for having me.SHEFFIELD: All right. So, as I said in the intro, I think a lot of people are aware that Pentecostalism exists, but in terms of what it believes or more particulars about it, I think people generally, unless you’re adjacent to it don’t know a lot about it. When did Pentecostalism get started? It got started in the United States and it’s been growing all over the world, but just tell us a little bit about the early history and what you found with that.HARDY: The person who is essentially considered the founder of Pentecostalism, William J. Seymour, the son of freed slaves from Louisiana. He had a revival called the Azusa Street Revival in 1906 in Los Angeles, and that’s considered the founding moment of Pentecostalism.But I actually think that his mentor, who was a white man in Kansas actually probably has a better claim. Pentecostalism was really coming out of the very American nature of religion in the late 19th century, where Mormonism and other things came from. It was people moving across the country, that frontier culture bringing in new ideas. But it really came out of Methodism, and it was really about harnessing a, for want of a better word, the power of the Holy Spirit.And it was new and radical and it was speaking to people’s needs at the time. And it’s speaking to people’s needs now. And that’s really what is behind this explosive growth. It speaks to people’s needs here now. And largely from, 1901-1906 through to now, it’s the idea of health and wealth. It’s the idea that you can have a good life in this life too.So it really is the faith of the global working poor, and when it started with William J Seymour, these were pretty radical ideas, it was speaking in tongues, it was having the Holy Spirit descend upon you. So you’re born again, accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior and have a full immersion baptism usually, but then they filled again with the Holy Spirit and that comes comes through things such as you got the nine gifts of the holy spirit. Prophecy, miracles, healing, and most notably speaking in tongues.And that’s what the Pentecostals were really keen on. And that’s what they’re most famous for today, even though definitely not as many people speak in tongues anymore.SHEFFIELD: But just for those who don’t know what that concept is, what is the idea of speaking in tongues?HARDY: So it means that you’re filled with the Holy Spirit and that spirit is speaking through you in a language that you don’t understand, or that you might only understand in that moment.The original Pentecostals thought that they were being given the tongues to go and preach and convert people in foreign lands. That’s what happened in the Bible. That’s where the Day of Pentecost comes from, when the Holy Ghost 50 days after Jesus rose from the dead, the Holy Ghost came down to the disciples and gave them his gift of tongues to go out and convert people in foreign lands.And so the original Pentecostals thought that’s what they were getting. They thought they were speaking in Chinese. And a lot of them set sail for places like China and died horrible deaths of dysentery and other things because they were so ill-prepared. They really thought that they’d been given this gift and the end of days were coming and they had to come out and help all these poor people who hadn’t heard the good news.These days, it’s much more of a personal commune with God or, God speaking through you or a personal conversation that you’re having. And it definitely doesn’t have that power over people anymore. But often because it is a part of that conversion process– and the conversion being born again is really significant for ...
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    55 m
  • Why it matters that pluralism was the biggest innovation of the Renaissance

    Why it matters that pluralism was the biggest innovation of the Renaissance
    Jul 1 2025
    Episode Summary  We live in an uncertain age, one in which wealthy and powerful forces are working tirelessly to overthrow democracy, turn back the clock on human progress and destroy the middle class. The sheer magnitude of the West’s crisis of democracy can be overwhelming, however, and that’s why in this episode, I wanted to take more than a few steps back to explore the Renaissance, a period of world history that is much discussed in popular media, but often in a way that overshadows the real people and their actual intentions. Where did the Renaissance come from and what exactly were the people who made it hoping to achieve with their efforts? And are there any lessons that we can take from that time period for today?These are very big topics, needless to say, and I could think of no better person to discuss them with than Ada Palmer. She’s a historian who teaches at the University of Chicago, and she’s written a fantastic review of the entire time-period called “Inventing the Renaissance,” which also discusses the historiography of one of humanity’s most written-about eras.Besides this and other history books, Ada writes science fiction as well, which we get into at the very end of our conversation in the context of what lessons modern people can take from the Renaissance.The video of our conversation is available, the transcript is below. Because of its length, some podcast apps and email programs may truncate it. Access the episode page to get the full page.Theory of Change and Flux are listener supported. We need your help to keep going. Please subscribe to stay in touch!Related ContentAncient Greek Skepticism is surprisingly relevant in the social media ageInside the demon-haunted world of Christian fundamentalismAuthoritarian epistemology is as old as humanity itself 🔒The forgotten story of how the “religious left” birthed American superpowerIn the digital age, reactionary Catholicism is making a comebackAudio Chapters00:00 — Introduction05:53 — Tupac’s continued global resonance09:14 — The origins of hip-hop and its commercialization11:35 — Tupac’s legacy of contradictions18:41 — The Black Panthers’ influence on Tupac’s mother23:50 — Masculinity and gender within hip-hop29:06 — Gender and sexuality in the Black Panther Party35:56 — Obama and Trump in rap39:12 — Former Panthers still have hope for the future despite Trump41:31 — Trump’s 2024 campaign reached out heavily to hip-hop artists46:22 — ‘Coolness’ as a non-political voter persuasion method50:22 — How Van Nguyen brought oral history into his book58:19 — Eazy-E, another political West Coast emcee 01:01:55 — The meanings of ‘thug life’Audio TranscriptThe following is a machine-generated transcript of the audio that has not been proofed. It is provided for convenience purposes only.MATTHEW SHEFFIELD: So your book is called Inventing the Renaissance; before we get into the stories that you tell in the book, let’s just get into the larger question of the myth of the golden age. Because I think a lot of people may not be aware that a lot of this was kind of concocted by Protestant fundamentalists, which was then ironically picked up by atheists. There's a bit of an irony there.ADA PALMER: Yeah, I mean it's a myth that begins and has its earliest roots in the Renaissance itself and the invention in 14, 12, 14, 15, basically of history into three parts with ancient, middle, and then modern, which begins in the Renaissance itself, gets reinvented very heavily in the 18th century and the 19th century, and then many times [00:03:00] in the 20th century.Because once you have the idea that there is a golden age, you want to be able to claim that what you're doing is like that golden age, with the Renaissance, what we really mean by the Renaissance is the theory that there's some transitional phase at which the way things were pre-modern world suddenly gets changed by the arrival of something that changes it and makes the world start moving toward modern.And world begins to become more modern somewhere in the 14 hundreds or 13 hundreds or 15 hundreds, depending on when you center the Renaissance. And eventually it's to us. so the myth of the Renaissance is really about claiming what defines modern and then claiming that it comes in at a certain point and that this modern process is somehow good.Right. And that the Middle Ages are somehow bad, or the pre-modern world is somehow not as good or not as correct or not on the right path and trajectory of progress that [00:04:00] modernity is on leads to the utility of being able to claim it. And if you can say, X caused the Renaissance and we are continuing X, then that makes we good.And in the 18th century and in the 19th century, there kept being moments when people could claim X caused the Renaissance and then for some reason X stopped dominating in Italy and Spain and where the Renaissance sort of started.But we, whoever we ...
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    1 h y 10 m
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