Podcast
Let's Give A Damn
Hosted by Nick Laparra · EN
Let's Give A Damn is your one-stop shop for inspiring, raw, no-bullshit conversations with damn-giving artists, activists, and troublemakers from all over the world. We believe that no one is free until everyone is free. With these conversations, we're trying to help you get free.
Are you in? Welcome to Let's Give A Damn.
25episodes
Episodes
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Pattie Gonia: Touch Grass, Stay Focused, & Genocide Is Ecocide
3w ago01:06:35Tap to summarize❤️ If you love the show and want to support us, please consider joining our Patreon. 🎉 It’s Pattie Gonia week on the podcast! 👉🏽 Pattie is a critically acclaimed drag queen, environmentalist, and advocate for inclusivity and diversity in the outdoors. She is the co-founder of the Outdoorist Oath (a non-profit that gets BIPOC, LGBTQIA+ and femmes into the outdoors through community and education) and the Founder of the Queer Outdoor and Environmental Job Board (a free tool queer individuals can use to get hired and therefore diversify the fields). Pattie has raised almost $5 million for LGBTQIA+, BIPOC and environmental non-profits. And if that isn’t enough, she has made films and has made music with other incredible artists like Yo-Yo Ma and Imogen Heap. 🌍 Also, Pattie is on tour right now. Go see them in a city near you! ✅ Follow Pattie on Instagram.✊🏽 Join the Let’s Give A Damn community on Patreon!👕 Buy some of our merch!🔥 Follow Let’s Give A Damn on Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube.✉️ Sign up for our weekly Substack.📱 Reach out anytime: hello@letsgiveadamn.com.❤️ Have an amazing week, friends! Keep giving a damn. Love y’all!
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Julian Brave Noisecat: Surviving the Night, Becoming a Father, and Faith
Apr 2001:20:59Tap to summarize❤️ If you love the show and want to support us, please consider joining our Patreon. 🎉 It’s Julian Brave Noisecat week on the podcast! 👉🏽 NoiseCat is a writer, filmmaker, champion powwow dancer, and student of Salish art and history. He is the first Indigenous North American filmmaker ever nominated for an Academy Award and the first Indigenous North American author to ever write about healing from intergenerational trauma by getting stoned with his dad for The New York Times Magazine.During this conversation we talk at length about his first book, We Survived the Night, a portrait of Indigenous life beginning with the familial and expanding outwards from there through a contemporary retelling of the Coyote epic. When it released in 2025, it was an instant national bestseller in Canada and an indie bestseller in the United States. In addition to being a bestselling author, Julian's first documentary, Sugarcane, directed alongside Emily Kassie, follows an investigation into abuse and missing children at the Indian residential school NoiseCat’s family was sent to near Williams Lake, British Columbia. Sugarcane premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival where NoiseCat and Kassie won the Directing Award in the U.S. Documentary Competition. ✅ Follow Julian on Instagram.✅ Buy a copy (or two!) of We Survived The Night.✊🏽 Join the Let’s Give A Damn community on Patreon!👕 Buy some of our merch!🔥 Follow Let’s Give A Damn on Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube.✉️ Sign up for our weekly Substack.📱 Reach out anytime: hello@letsgiveadamn.com.❤️ Have an amazing week, friends! Keep giving a damn. Love y’all!
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Ibram X. Kendi: The Great Replacement Theory, Anti-Racism, and the Chain of Humanity
Apr 300:52:27Tap to summarize❤️ If you love the show and want to support us, please consider joining our Patreon. 🎉 It’s Dr. Ibram X. Kendi week on the podcast! 👉🏽 Dr. Kendi is one of the world’s foremost historians of racism and a leading antiracist scholar. He is the Carter G. Woodson Endowed Chair in History at Howard University, and the inaugural director of Howard’s Institute for Advanced Study. Kendi has published eighteen books for adults and children, including twelve New York Times Best Sellers. Today's conversation is all about his latest, Chain Of Ideas: The Origins Of Our Authoritarian Age. A fantastic and helpful book.✅ Follow Dr. Kendi on Instagram.✅ Buy a copy (or two!) of Chain of Ideas today.✊🏽 Support Let’s Give A Damn on Patreon!👕 Buy some of our merch!🔥 Follow Let’s Give A Damn on Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube.✉️ Sign up for our weekly Substack.📱 Reach out anytime: hello@letsgiveadamn.com.❤️ Have an amazing week, friends! Keep giving a damn. Love y’all!
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Charithra Chandran : One Piece and Bridgerton and Palestine, Oh My!
Mar 2700:43:34Tap to summarize❤️ If you love the show and want to support us, please consider joining our Patreon. 🎉 It’s Charithra Chandran week on the podcast! 👉🏽 Charithra Chandran has quickly established herself as an internationallyrenowned actor, showcasing her range of disciplines both on-screen and theatrically. Charithra is currently starring in Season 2 of Netflix’s One Piece — a live-action adaptation of the best-selling manga series of the same name by Eiichiro Oda.Charithra has starred in several other films and shows — including Season 2 of Bridgerton, opposite Jonathan Bailey and Simone Ashley. — as the 'Diamond of the Season.' During this conversation, we talk about gratitude, her immense love for India, her incredible career, why she advocates for Palestinian liberation, how she has no patience for transphobic people, and so much more.✅ Follow Charithra on Instagram.✅ Watch Season 2 of One Piece on Netflix now! ✊🏽 Support Let’s Give A Damn on Patreon!👕 Buy some of our merch!🔥 Follow Let’s Give A Damn on Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube.✉️ Sign up for our weekly Substack.📱 Reach out anytime: hello@letsgiveadamn.com.❤️ Have an amazing week, friends! Keep giving a damn. Love y’all!
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Kat Abughazaleh: Running for Congress, Fighting Against Fascism, & Mutual Aid
Mar 1301:04:33Summary readyIt’s Kat Abughazaleh Day on the podcast! Kat is a 26-year-old, Palestinian American, grassroots congressional candidate running to represent Illinois’ Ninth District. She’s a renter, a formerly uninsured worker, and a union representative running to bring a new generation of leadership to Congress, defend democracy, fight for economic justice, and advance a humane foreign policy.Kat is a badass. Don’t believe me? Go on YouTube, type her name into the search bar, and see for yourself.Lastly, Kat is up against millions of dollars of attack ads by AIPAC and her opponents. Please donate, phone bank, or door knock if you can! ✅ Check out Kat’s website.✅ Follow Kat on Instagram and YouTube.✊🏽 Support Let’s Give A Damn on Patreon!👕 Buy some of our merch!🔥 Follow Let’s Give A Damn on Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube.✉️ Sign up for our weekly Substack.📱 Reach out anytime: hello@letsgiveadamn.com.❤️ Have an amazing week, friends! Keep giving a damn. Love y’all!
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Shabnam Mogharabi: We Need A Spiritual Revolution!
Feb 601:13:05Summary ready🎉 It’s Shabnam Mogharabi week on the podcast!❤️ Before I share more about our guest, consider supporting us on Patreon! We need your help to make this podcast happen. Thanks, friends.👉🏽 Shabnam Mogharabi is an entertainment executive, producer, and New York Times bestselling author with 20 years of experience in mission-driven media. She currently runs The Joy Brigade, a boutique film and media production company. Prior to that, Shabnam was an EVP at film company Participant and also co-founded the uplifting content studio SoulPancake with actor Rainn Wilson, which she ran as CEO for nearly a decade, amassing 1B video views and dozens of awards. She and Rainn are still collaborating today on Rainn's Soul Boom platform, which seeks to unlock a modern spiritual revolution through playful, practical, and profound media. Shabnam is a Henry Crown Fellow, a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network, and serves on a number of private and non-profit boards. She also got a certification in positive psychology in her spare time and is a frequent keynote speaker on the power of joy and storytelling. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and young children.✅ We spend quite a bit of time talking about the book she co-wrote with Rainn Wilson, the Soul Boom Workbook. Get a copy today! ✅ Follow Shabnam on Instagram and LinkedIn. ✅ Follow Soul Boom on Instagram and YouTube.-------------✊🏽 Support Let’s Give A Damn on Patreon! 👕 Buy some of our merch!🔥 Follow Let’s Give A Damn on Instagram, UpScrolled, and Youtube.✉️ Sign up for our weekly Substack newsletter.📱 Reach out anytime: hello@letsgiveadamn.com.❤️ Have an amazing week, friends! Keep giving a damn. Love y’all!
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Saja Kilani: The Voice of Hind Rajab, Keep Telling Stories, and Hope Is Everything
Jan 2801:04:38Summary ready🎉 It’s Saja Kilani week on the podcast!❤️ Before I share more about our guest, consider supporting us on Patreon! We need your help to make this podcast happen. Thanks, friends.👉🏽 Saja Kilani is a Jordanian/Palestinian/Canadian actress and spoken word poet. Her first film performance, Simsim, earned her the Best First Time Lead Actress Award at the Amman International Film Festival. She starred in her debut international Oscar and Golden Globe-nominated film, The Voice of Hind Rajab, where she received the Best Actress Award at the 36th edition of the Carthage Film Festival. When she’s not acting, Saja shares her original spoken word poetry in live performances as part of her storytelling practice.🎥 The Voice of Hind Rajab is a must see January 29, 2024. Red Crescent volunteers receive an emergency call. A 5-year-old girl is trapped in a car under fire in Gaza, pleading for rescue. While trying to keep her on the line, they do everything they can to get an ambulance to her. Her name was Hind Rajab. Find this film in a theatre close to you and go see it as soon as you possibly can.-------------✊🏽 Support Let’s Give A Damn on Patreon! 👕 Buy some of our merch!🔥 Follow Let’s Give A Damn on Instagram, UpScrolled, and Youtube.✉️ Sign up for our weekly Substack newsletter.📱 Reach out anytime: hello@letsgiveadamn.com.❤️ Have an amazing week, friends! Keep giving a damn. Love y’all!-------------📷 photo used in artwork by Misan Harriman
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Noam Shuster-Eliassi & Amber Fares: Coexistence, My Ass!
Jan 1901:07:00Summary ready🎉 It’s Noam Shuster-Eliassi & Amber Fares week on the podcast!❤️ Before I share more about my guest, consider supporting us on Patreon! We need your help to make this podcast happen. Thanks, friends.👉🏽 Noam is an Israeli activist and comedian who writes and performs in Arabic, English, and Hebrew, frequently touching upon her experience growing up in “Oasis of Peace” (Neve Shalom / Wahat al-Salam), a mixed community where Palestinians and Jews live together by choice. 👉🏽 Amber is an award-winning documentary filmmaker best known for her directorial debut Speed Sisters, which aired internationally on Netflix, Al Jazeera and RAI. Her directing credits include We Are Agenda (Amazon, 2023), Gutsy Ep5 (Apple TV, 2022), Reckoning With Laughter (Al Jazeera’s “Witness" 2021), Convergence: Courage Under Crisis (Netflix, 2021). Amber also served as cinematographer and co-producer of the Peabody Award-winning The Judge (PBS, 2017), was the cinematographer on Life After (Sundance, 2025) and both produced and shot the short film The Devil Is Busy (HBO, 2025).Coexistence, My Ass! follows Noam as she creates a comedy show by the same name. Shot over five tumultuous years, the film traces Noam’s personal, professional, and political journey in tandem with the region’s steady deterioration. This is a film that began as something completely different. Because of Covid and escalated settler violence in the West Bank and ultimately because of the genocide which began several years into making this film. It’s stunning and I can’t wait for you to hear more about it in this conversation. ✊🏽 Support Let’s Give A Damn on Patreon!👕 Buy some of our merch!🔥 Follow Let’s Give A Damn on Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube.✉️ Sign up for our weekly Substack.📱 Reach out anytime: hello@letsgiveadamn.com.❤️ Have an amazing week, friends! Keep giving a damn. Love y’all!
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Brian Recker: Hell Isn't Real, God Is Love, and Radical Inclusivity
Dec 3001:30:38Summary ready🎉 It’s Brian Recker Week on the podcast! ❤️ Before I share more about my guest, consider supporting us on Patreon! We need your help to make this podcast happen. Thanks, friends.👉🏽 Brian Recker is a public theologian, speaker, and writer on Christian spirituality without exclusionary dogma. In October, Brian released his first book, Hell Bent. In this taboo-shattering book, Brian takes an honest look at the Bible and reveals what has been true all along: Hell isn’t a real place, and God’s universal love is radically inclusive, in this life and the next. By removing punishment from Christianity’s center, Recker boldly reimagines the core questions of faith, such as why Jesus lived and died, and what it means to be “saved.” In the conversation, we talk about who God is, radical inclusivity, why we’re still Christians, why getting people to not believe in hell is so important for them and for society as a whole, and so much more. _____________________✅ Follow Brian Recker on Instagram.✅ Subscribe to Brian’s Substack.✅ Order Hell Bent now!✊🏽 Support Let’s Give A Damn on Patreon!👕 Buy some of our merch!🔥 Follow Let’s Give A Damn on Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube.✉️ Sign up for our weekly Substack.📱 Reach out anytime: hello@letsgiveadamn.com.❤️ Have an amazing week, friends! Keep giving a damn. Love y’all!
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Mohsen Mahdawi: Nonviolent Resistance, Buddhism, and the Battle Between Fear and Love
Dec 1101:52:25Summary readyIt’s Mohsen Mahdawi Day on the podcast! Mohsen Mahdawi is a Palestinian organizer, human rights activist, co-founder of the Columbia Palestinian Student Union, and a damn good human.Mahdawi was a leading voice during the 2024 protests and the encampments at Columbia University. His leadership during those months and his support for a Free Palestine and an end to the Israeli occupation led to him being arrested in April of 2025 by ICE during a citizen interview in Vermont. Keep in mind that Mohsen is a lawful permanent U.S. resident and was arrested because he participated in peaceful protests. Thankfully, he was released two weeks later and gave a very clear statement as he walked out of jail: “I am saying it clear and loud to President Trump and his cabinet, I am not afraid of you.”Mahdawi’s fight for justice is not over. He could face arrest again in the future. Please follow him and support him in any way that you can. I know for a fact that Mohsen won’t stop—and we cannot stop—until Palestine is free.___________________✅ Follow Mohsen Mahdawi on Instagram.✊🏽 Support Let’s Give A Damn on Patreon!👕 Buy some of our merch!🔥 Follow Let’s Give A Damn on Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube.✉️ Sign up for our weekly Substack.📱 Reach out anytime: hello@letsgiveadamn.com.Have an amazing week, friends! Keep giving a damn. Love y’all!
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