Mutual Aid, Gift Economies and What Comes After the Pandemic

Bottom Lines Top Dollars

In our final episode of Season 1, we take a hot minute to reflect on the year that was 2020 and what it might mean for our future. Specifically, we dig into the massive wave of grassroots and hyper-local mutual aid responses to the COVID19 crisis and how these events are both tied to a deep and rich history but also potentially to a better future. We discuss how disasters and moments of crisis can create turning points of change, and how that change grows upward from community responses rather than coming from the top down. We connect this back to tensions we see escalating between pro-democratic movements and the continuing rise of fascism backed by racism and mythological calls to go backward into a past that (actually) never existed. Throughout this episode we ask ourselves and listeners to both reflect on what we all just endured together and dream about how we can collectively respond to what is coming, potentially moving away from hyper-individualistic and competitive economies towards economies that are more caring and sustainable, based on gifting and relationship building.

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The Ladies Who Crunch are Hadassah Damien and Laura Boo. More information about us and this podcast can be found at ladieswhocrunch.club.

Please follow us on Instagram (@bottomlinestopdollars) and if you want to send us questions or episode ideas, email us at [e-mail].

Special thanks to our researchers Ariel Federow and Handy Levine. ----