Jun 28, 2022
How do you keep going when you increasingly believe the system is fundamentally broken, and it won't all "work out in the end"—or even necessarily get better? How do you not fall into nihilism or hedonism, and keep caring—and why should you try? How do you maintain your mental health and sense of joy as an activist and empath when you're privy to so much suffering? And what does abolitionism have to do with all of this?
These were just a few of the many questions I had for my dear friend Mich P. Gonzalez, who is a badass abolitionist lawyer by day and a comic storyteller by night. He's a proud transgender Latino raised by a single teen mom and her queer immigrant family who overcame poverty in housing instability in Miami, enabling him to become a first-generation university and law school graduate. Today, Mich works as associate director of advocacy with the Southern Poverty Law Center's Immigrant Justice Project, securing carceral release and immigration relief for hundreds of immigrants, caged by ice in the Southeast.
I hope this conversation brings some wisdom and humor to what has been a dark time. Though our conversation was a few weeks before Roe v. Wade was overturned, I know I found listening to (and editing) this episode personally healing and helpful after I heard the news.
How to keep up with Mich & his work:
Twitter: @MichPGonzalez
IG: @thetea_inmich