Freedom Practice in an Unfree World

How to Survive the End of the World

Society & Culture

4.8 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 21 November 2025

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today we're thrilled to feature an interview featuring Autumn from Next Economy Now with Ryan Honeyman.

In this episode, she shares her journey of moving from cooperative leadership at AORTA into a new phase of life focused on music, writing, and martial arts, as well as her forthcoming book on fugitivity. At the heart of her work is the question: how do we practice freedom in an unfree world?

Together, Autumn and Ryan dive into what has shifted since 2020—exploring the backlash to racial justice movements, the difference between symbolic versus relational change, and why so much of today’s organizing can feel performative when not grounded in real relationship. Autumn emphasizes the need to move beyond fear, resentment, or judgment and instead organize from love, courage, and grief—energies that replenish rather than deplete. The conversation touches on coalition building across difference, how to choose when to hold firm and when to meet people where they are, and what it means to reach for governing power while staying rooted in liberatory practice.

Toward the end, the two reflect on martial arts as a surprising but powerful practice for those committed to nonviolence. Autumn shares how Aikido has reshaped her relationship to conflict and power, while Ryan reflects on his own entry into boxing as a healthy channel for rage and resilience. Though a smaller part of the discussion, it underscores a central theme: the practices that help us stay grounded, embodied, and awake are essential to sustaining movements and our lives within them.

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Autumn Brown: https://www.iambrown.org/

Autumn Brown on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/autumn-brown-0bab514/

Autumn Brown on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/autumnmeghanbrown/

How to Survive the End of the World: https://endoftheworldshow.org/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Next Economy Now.
0:10.2	The goal of this podcast series is to highlight the leaders who are taking a regenerative,
0:16.6	bioregional, equitable, democratic, racially just, and whole systems approach to creating the new
0:25.2	economy. I'm Ryan Honeyman, a partner at Lyft Economy. My guest today is Autumn Brown for the third
0:33.7	time to have you back. Welcome back, Autumn. Thank you. O.G. Guest. O.G.
0:38.9	guest. Autumn is a mother, movement leader and musician whose organizing work is rooted in
0:45.6	black feminist and fugitive freedom movements. She has spent over 20 years organizing for
0:50.7	healing justice, facilitating movement strategy, and training organizers in
0:55.2	consensus process, facilitation, and racial justice.
0:59.2	Autumn is a 2020 Auburn Seminary Lives of Commitment Honoree and recipient of the 2025
1:05.2	Margaret Brent Award.
1:07.6	She co-hosts a podcast, How to Survive the End of the World, and lives on Dakota
1:11.9	Land in Minneapolis, where she is working on a book about fugitive practice. Interesting.
1:18.1	A book about fugitive practice. Welcome back, Autumn. Thank you. Thanks for having me back.
1:23.9	Yeah. Maybe we'll get into the book in a minute, but I want to start off with a question of what is bringing you joy right now.
1:32.3	Well, I alluded to this before we started recording, but today is my oldest child's birthday, and he is 17 years old today. And what an enormous privilege it is to live long enough to watch
1:47.6	our kids get older. It is like the greatest joy slash most important work of my life to be a parent.
1:56.8	And so just the celebration of him is bringing me a lot of joy, both on the big scale,
2:05.5	but also the small scale of, you know, it's stressful because I'm putting together a party
2:09.6	and I'm having to run all these errands.
2:11.4	But there's some like gleeful, joyful energy that I'm feeling inside of the stress because it's all in service of
2:19.3	celebrating my child. So that is bringing me a lot of joy just right now today. Wow. 17,
	...

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