What does it mean to walk the road to liberation when the structures we live within have been shaped by extraction, extermination, and extinction? In this episode, I chat with Dr. Resmaa Menakem and we have a powerful conversation about racialized trauma, truth and reconciliation, kinship care, and the work of tending to our wounds. We explore trauma zombies, proximity to whiteness, and bodies of culture, considering how trauma lives in our bodies and how colonial structures perpetuate patterns of harm. Resmaa shares insights into extraction, extermination, and extinction as a framework for understanding how colonial structures operate. We reflect on the wounds we carry, the wounds passed down through generations, and the importance of tending to those wounds as part of the work of liberation. Our conversation also turns toward truth and reconciliation, asking what it means to face the realities of historical and ongoing harm, and how kinship care and collective responsibility can support healing. What does liberation require of us? What does it mean to care for one another while confronting the structures that perpetuate harm? And how do we begin to create a future rooted in something other than extraction, domination, and extinction? The road to liberation is not simply a destination. It is an embodied, relational, and collective practice that asks us to face the truth, tend to our wounds, nurture kinship, and remain committed to creating a healing future. This is a conversation about truth, healing, accountability, colonial structures, and the ongoing work of liberation.
Resmaa Menakem, MSW, LICSW, SEP, is a healer, therapist, author, and racialized trauma specialist whose work focuses on trauma, body-centered psychotherapy, communal healing, and cultural transformation.
He is the author of the New York Times bestseller My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies and The Quaking of America: An Embodied Guide to Navigating Our Nation's Upheaval and Racial Reckoning.
Resmaa is the founder of Justice Leadership Solutions and the Cultural Somatics Institute, and the originator and leading advocate of Somatic Abolitionism—an embodied approach to antiracist practice and culture building.
His work invites us to examine how racialized trauma lives in the body and how healing requires individual and communal practice.Resmaa's professional biography and the description of his work are supported by his official website and publisher biography.
Explore Resmaa's work: www.resmaa.com
Books by Resmaa Menakem
Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies
Resmaa's New York Times bestselling book explores racialized trauma, the body, and pathways toward healing.
https://resmaa-com.myshopify.com/products/my-grandmothers-hands-signed-hardcover
An Embodied Guide to Navigating Our Nation's Upheaval and Racial Reckoning
A book about racial reckoning, upheaval, and embodied approaches to collective transformation.
https://resmaa-com.myshopify.com/products/quaking-of-america-book-plus-practicebook-combo-bundle-of-2
Why Your Partner Sometimes Drives You Crazy—and What You Can Do About It
A guide to navigating conflict and relationships with compassion and personal responsibility.
https://resmaa-com.myshopify.com/products/monsters-in-love-why-your-partner-sometimes-drives-you-crazy-and-what-you-can-do-about-it
A picture book connected to Resmaa's work on racialized trauma and intergenerational experience.
Resmaa's official website and Central Recovery Press provide information about his books and learning resources.
https://resmaa-com.myshopify.com/products/the-stories-from-my-grandmother-s-hands
Key themes from the conversation