EPISODE 5: Mutual Aid — How To Survive When The State Fails Us

 Overview:
This episode breaks down mutual aid not as a buzzword, but as a living practice of solidarity, survival, and political resistance. I unpack what mutual aid is (and isn’t), how it's rooted in histories of Black, Indigenous, and anarchist organizing, and why it’s different from charity. We talk about how mutual aid shows up in moments of crisis—like pandemics, uprisings, and climate disasters—but also how it can be built into our daily lives and organizing cultures.

I share examples from my own experience doing food distribution, jail support, and housing solidarity work, and reflect on the emotional and logistical challenges of sustaining mutual aid. This episode invites viewers to see mutual aid as both a tactic and a worldview: one that insists that we take care of us, especially when the state refuses to.

Key Themes:

  • What mutual aid is—and what it isn’t

  • The difference between charity and solidarity

  • Crisis response and long-haul organizing

  • Building infrastructure and relationships

  • Burnout, sustainability, and boundaries

  • Political education through practice

Discussion Questions:

  • When have you given or received mutual aid in your life?

  • How do you distinguish between charity and solidarity?

  • What does your community need to survive—and who’s already doing that work?

  • What are the risks of co-optation or burnout in mutual aid?

  • How do we keep mutual aid radical, reciprocal, and grounded?

Activities:

  • Start a mutual aid mapping project: list what needs exist in your community (food, housing, transport, care), who’s meeting them, and what gaps you notice.

  • In a group, brainstorm a “pop-up” mutual aid project that could happen in 1–2 weeks—plan the logistics and who does what.

  • Write a reflection on a time you showed up for someone—or someone showed up for you—outside of institutions.

  • Read a mutual aid group’s principles or mission (e.g. Mutual Aid Disaster Relief) and discuss how they guide the work.

  • Create a shared resource doc or care pod with a few people in your life.

Further Learning & Resources:

  • "Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next)" by Dean Spade

  • Zine: Solidarity Not Charity by Jake Johnson (Big Door Brigade)

  • Zine: No Masters, No Meals: Mutual Aid in the Pandemic by Woodbine Collective

  • Interview: Mutual Aid in Black Radical Tradition (with Mariame Kaba)

  • Mutual Aid Toolkits: