In this episode, I interview Dr. James Padilioni, now Visiting Assistant Professor of Religion at Swarthmore College and co-host of the Always Already Podcast—a podcast that explores a range of theoretical traditions including critical theory as well as people and projects animated by such ideas.

In this conversation, we discuss:

(1) The inspiration for his podcast series “Epistemic Unruliness”
(2) How a deep connection with the ancestors lies at the core of his scholarly work
(3) How he counters scholarly misrecognition and resistance through this ancestral consciousness

Key Quotations:

“Black radicals, generally, have always had this mystic orientation to them because the mystic and the critical person both agree in this: that this world can’t be all there is, there has to be something more. Even if we have to create that something more, there has to be something more because this ain’t workin’ right here” 

“I don’t feel a need…for people, living people, to understand me. I’m okay with being a little cryptic sometimes. I’m okay with being a little gnostic in my writing because I’m not going to engage the constant atmosphere of translation and explanation…because at some point that becomes its own kind of epistemic violence. In my heart, my spirit, my ancestors know what I’m talking about and in a way, they’re the ones I’m writing writing for”

• James’ work as a co-host of the Always Already Podcast and co-creator of the “Epistemic Unruliness” segment
• How he and his co-hosts have drawn inspiration from Walter Mignolo’s notion of “epistemic disobedience”
• Learning from guests about nontraditional methodologies for teaching about social difference (e.g. meditation)
  
• The need to rethink our political premises and conceptions of resistance by interrogating the cosmologies behind them
• The complexity of engaging in healing arts as a means of addressing social pain rather than resisting in prescribed ways 
• How Yoruba cosmology can be leveraged as a resource for advancing intergenerational transformative justice
• How enslaved Africans’ pursuit of freedom disrupts prevailing conceptions of knowledge and learning processes
• The mystical concept of “anemnesis” (a Platonic notion about remembering things from before you were born) as one that helps to illuminate the depth of black humanity and the origins of the knowledge of freedom
  
• The longstanding connection between black radicalism and mysticism
• How James works on behalf of ancestors including Martin de Porres, Jose Antonio Aponte, and Ursula de Jesus
  
• How James embraces “opacity” and shapes his academic work with his ancestors as a primary audience