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This week we have the pleasure to host a conversation with Professor Max Felker-Kanter, author of Policing Los Angeles and professor at Ball State University where he teaches courses in twentieth century American and African American history with a focus on race, politics, and social movements. He is particularly interested in the policies and institutions of urban law enforcement and criminal justice systems since World War II.

In the wake of the recent protests, there's been a lot more discussion around what it means to 'defund the police' or in lay terms "BURN IT DOWN!!!" and we saw this as a wonderful opportunity to elevate the importance of restructuring and even destroying systems in order to rebuild more equitable, sustainable ones. In this conversation we explore the history of police brutality in the United States as well as what 'defund' or 'divest' the police really means and what it might look like to do so.

Max is a long time practitioner and all around a joy to learn from. We hope you'll enjoy this conversation!

Resources shared in this episode:

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

Angela Davis (check out Are Prisons Obsolete?) and the prison abolition movement

How to be An Anti-racist by Ibram X. Kendi

Blessed Unrest by Paul Hawken