Freedom Practice in an Unfree World

Freedom Practice in an Unfree World

Author: How to Survive the End of the World November 21, 2025 Duration: 1:11:11

Today we're thrilled to feature an interview featuring Autumn from Next Economy Now with Ryan Honeyman.

In this episode, she shares her journey of moving from cooperative leadership at AORTA into a new phase of life focused on music, writing, and martial arts, as well as her forthcoming book on fugitivity. At the heart of her work is the question: how do we practice freedom in an unfree world?

Together, Autumn and Ryan dive into what has shifted since 2020—exploring the backlash to racial justice movements, the difference between symbolic versus relational change, and why so much of today’s organizing can feel performative when not grounded in real relationship. Autumn emphasizes the need to move beyond fear, resentment, or judgment and instead organize from love, courage, and grief—energies that replenish rather than deplete. The conversation touches on coalition building across difference, how to choose when to hold firm and when to meet people where they are, and what it means to reach for governing power while staying rooted in liberatory practice.

Toward the end, the two reflect on martial arts as a surprising but powerful practice for those committed to nonviolence. Autumn shares how Aikido has reshaped her relationship to conflict and power, while Ryan reflects on his own entry into boxing as a healthy channel for rage and resilience. Though a smaller part of the discussion, it underscores a central theme: the practices that help us stay grounded, embodied, and awake are essential to sustaining movements and our lives within them.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Autumn Brown: https://www.iambrown.org/ 

Autumn Brown on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/autumn-brown-0bab514/ 

Autumn Brown on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/autumnmeghanbrown/ 

How to Survive the End of the World: https://endoftheworldshow.org/ 


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Sisters Autumn Brown and adrienne maree brown host How to Survive the End of the World, a podcast rooted in their shared lives as writers, activists, and facilitators shaped by multiracial diasporic lineages. This isn't a theoretical discussion about distant catastrophes; it's a direct, grounded conversation about the endings we are all already living through-the collapse of systems, the death of old ways, and the personal transformations that feel like worlds dissolving. Each episode delves into the tangible, often messy practices a community needs to navigate these ruptures. You'll hear them explore how we grieve, how we organize, how we imagine futures, and how we find wholeness even as things fall apart. The dialogue is intimate and urgent, moving from the kitchen table to the front lines of social change, always asking what it means to survive with integrity and connection. This podcast operates from the belief that learning to face endings together is the first, most necessary step toward building something new. For more from Autumn and adrienne, find them at endoftheworldshow.org.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

How to Survive the End of the World
Podcast Episodes
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Denée Benton (Eliza Hamilton in Hamilton! Cinderella in Into the Woods! Peggy Scott on The Gilded Age!) joins the sisters Brown to explore how creative work can serve social movements, the importance of community rituals…
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adrienne and Autumn are joined by Kate McCabe (Founder and Executive Director of Bog & Thunder), Max Sussman (Culinary Director of Bog & Thunder) and Dwight Dunston (facilitator, hip-hop artist, educator, and activist) t…
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Duration: 1:07:44
The sisters are THRILLED to build with their dear friend, Morgan Bassichis. Morgan is a comedian, musician, Anti-Zionist activist and writer who has been called “a tall child or, well, a big bird” by The Nation and “fier…
Who We Are Becoming Matters with Norma Wong [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:07:54
The sisters are THRILLED to welcome poet, Zen master and Indigenous Hawaiian leader Roshi Norma Wong back to the show! Her new book is part story-poem-instruction manual. It's called Who We Are Becoming Matters and is no…
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Duration: 59:48
adrienne and Autumn convened in Minneapolis at the end of January for a live taping of the show at The Great Northern Winter Festival. Every year The Great Northern puts on a winter festival that celebrates our coldest s…
Autumn Brown Becomes the Vision [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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Autumn was recently in conversation with Dr. Chera Reid and Dr. Trinel Torian on their wonderful podcast, Becoming the Vision where they invite visionaries from the field of philanthropy and beyond who believe and practi…