Race Matters / The Pandemic is a Portal

10.08.25
Aired on 10.08.25, 10:00am

COVID is not over. It is still here. This is an invitation to understand that reality, and to let it transform you.

This week we revisit a series of packages on disability justice, the covid pandemic and eugenics aired last year. It is brought to you by a chorus of staunch disabled voices: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Darcy from Sick/Sovereign, Tori Hobbs and Julia Rose Bak from The Disability Justice Network and Li from COVID Solidarity ‘syd.’ Produced by Samantha Haran & Shareeka Helaluddin. Additional thanks to Justin Chen, Allison Chan, Poppy De Souza, Mary and Juliet Fox.

Episode artwork by Li @eternallyuncomfortable

RESOURCES

Arundhati Roy on ‘The pandemic is a portal’: https://www.ft.com/content/10d8f5e8-74eb-11ea-95fe-fcd274e920ca

Our recent episode on Long COVID in collaboration with Poppy De Souza: https://www.fbi.radio/programs/race-matters/episodes/race-matters-6th-july-2025

COVID resources:

Let Them Eat Plague! (Intro to COVID politics and basic COVID myth busting): https://clarion.unity-struggle-unity.org/let-them-eat-plague/ 

You Are Not Entitled To Our Deaths: COVID, Abled Supremacy & Interdependence (Mia Mingus) https://leavingevidence.wordpress.com/2022/01/16/you-are-not-entitled-to-our-deaths-covid-abled-supremacy-interdependence/ 

How to do COVID Conscious events resource (by COVID Solidarity ‘syd’): https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kf1AKdE0j5k2hqIOvIjeS4tYzxgsoar6SOot6JklLE4/edit 

NSW COVID safer venues database (by COVID Solidarity ‘syd’): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1tAN1QE_4_b5JSzwooQSEXwlM995UusdU9w4rswRecZ0/edit?gid=1146046115#gid=1146046115 

What to do if you have COVID (by The Peoples CDC - US based): https://peoplescdc.org/2023/01/10/what-to-do-if-you-have-covid/

Support the rich chorus of voices that made this episode possible:

Read Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha’s latest book: https://brownstargirl.org/the-future-is-disabled/ 

Read the Sick/Sovereign zine: https://www.yacvic.org.au/ydas/policy-and-events/policy/covid-19/resources/first-nations-zine/ 

Darcy’s work with Blackfulla Alt2Su: https://instagram.com/BlackfullaAlt2Su

Join the Disability Justice Network facebook group (disabled people only): https://www.facebook.com/share/g/zYoTbvvRLkQYYSJz/?mibextid=adzO7l

Donate to the Disability Justice Network mutual aid fund: https://www.gofundme.com/f/disability-justice-network-mutual-aid-fund

Follow COVID Solidarity ‘syd’: https://www.instagram.com/c0vidsolidaritysyd/

More Episodes

Tracklist

Ojerime
Pissed Off (Interlude)
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
Interview
Long-time disability justice writer and movement worker on the "great forgetting," eugenics, and how disability justice means liberation for everyone.
Tori Hobbs and Julia Rose Bak from the Disability Justice Network
Interview
A recorded excerpt from Tori Hobbs and Julia Rose Bak speaking at DJN Forum. DJN is a group led by and for multiply-marginalised disabled people across so-called Australia, working towards a world grounded in disability justice.
Darcy from Sick/Sovereign
Interview
A reading from Darcy of Sick/Sovereign - a powerful zine by disabled First Nations people, documenting their experiences of the pandemic.
Ganavya
forgive me my
COVID Solidarity Sydney
Interview
Samantha and Li from COVID Solidarity Syd share in an honest and intimate dialogue of what it is to be navigating and mobilising in this local, complex context of disability justice; and where they find portals of hope.
Beverly Glenn-Copeland
Ever New (Kelsey Lu Transportation)