Mother Country Radicals

Crooked Media

A Family History of the Weather Underground

  • 39 minutes 18 seconds
    Bonus: Radical Family Histories (A Crossover with I Was Never There)

    Zayd sits down with his mom, Bernardine Dohrn, along with Jamie and Karen Zelermyer of Wonder Media Network’s I Was Never There to look back at the process of making a show so deeply rooted in personal family history. Jamie and Zayd interview their mothers to learn how they felt reliving their radical pasts and what it was like to make a podcast with their children. And in a time that feels so similar politically to the turbulent decades Karen and Bernardine lived through - how do they find hope?

    17 November 2022, 9:00 am
  • 52 minutes 9 seconds
    Chapter 10: Inheritance

    Zayd connects to other children of the underground. Out of the shards of the radical movements of the 1970s, a new generation fights to build a better future.


    For more of the story, check out: 

    28 July 2022, 4:01 am
  • 45 minutes 15 seconds
    Chapter 9: Revolutionary Suicide

    Former members of the Weather Underground and the Black Liberation Army carry out one last action together, with deadly consequences that reverberate across generations. 


    For more of the story, check out: 

    21 July 2022, 4:01 am
  • 44 minutes 47 seconds
    Chapter 8: Hard Times

    The end of the Vietnam War means the end of the Weather Underground. Zayd’s parents and their radical comrades, still on the run from the FBI, plan a different kind of future. 


    For more of the story, check out: 

    Mona Rocha, The Weatherwomen: Militant Feminists of the Weather Underground (2020)

    14 July 2022, 4:01 am
  • 28 minutes 43 seconds
    Chapter 7: The Belly of the Beast, Part II

    The Weather Underground Organization and the Black Liberation Army go to war with the United States government.


    For more of the story, check out: 

    Sekou Odinga, Dhoruba Bin Wahad & Jamal Joseph, Look for Me in the Whirlwind: From the Panther 21 to 21st Century Revolutions (2017)

    7 July 2022, 4:01 am
  • 29 minutes 13 seconds
    Chapter 6: The Belly of the Beast, Part I

    The FBI targets the Weather Underground, and a split in the Black Panther Party gives rise to a new, more militant organization - the Black Liberation Army. 


    For more of the story, check out: 

    30 June 2022, 4:01 am
  • 40 minutes 45 seconds
    Chapter 5: New Morning

    The Weathermen go underground, and become famous - and infamous - as counter-culture outlaws.


    For more of the story, check out: 

    Timothy Leary, The Psychedelic Experience (1964)

    23 June 2022, 4:01 am
  • 38 minutes 22 seconds
    Chapter 4: Bring the War Home

    The Weathermen decide to bring the horrors of the Vietnam War back to America’s doorstep, planning an action that will change the future of the organization, and Zayd’s family, forever.


    For more of the story, check out: 

    Cathy Wilkerson, Flying Close to the Sun: My Life and Times as a Weatherman (2007)

    16 June 2022, 4:01 am
  • 43 minutes 56 seconds
    Chapter 3: I Am A Revolutionary

    Jamal Joseph is radicalized at 15, and joins the New York Black Panthers. And a deadly attack by Chicago Police puts both Panthers and Weathermen on a path towards violent revolution. 


    For more of the story, check out: 

    Stanley Nelson, The Black Panther Party: Vanguard of the Revolution (2016)

    9 June 2022, 7:01 am
  • 46 minutes 53 seconds
    Chapter 2: Days of Rage

    Zayd’s father Bill Ayers joins the Weathermen, and he and his friends teach themselves to be revolutionaries, gearing up to build bombs and brawl with police on the streets of Chicago.


    For more of the story, check out: 

    Carlos Marighella, The Mini-Manual of the Urban Guerrilla (1969)

    9 June 2022, 7:01 am
  • 52 minutes 30 seconds
    Chapter 1: The Most Dangerous Woman in America

    In 1970, a former law student named Bernardine Dohrn declared war on the United States government. Decades later, her son Zayd Ayers Dohrn tells the story of how his mother was radicalized, and became the most wanted woman in America. 


    For more of the story, check out: 

    9 June 2022, 7:01 am
  • More Episodes? Get the App