Writing Remix Ep.115 & 116: Note From Dan & Reflection Questions
[VIDEO] Inspired Belonging: Diving into the Work of bell hooks
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The second episode of “Inspired Belonging” on Writing Remix, hosts Dan Dissinger and Stephanie Renée Payne reflect on their personal and pedagogical relationships with the work of the late scholar, poet, speaker, & teacher bell hooks. This is a deeply vulnerable conversation on hooks’ impactful work on e…
Listen to 115. Inspired Belonging: Diving into the Work of bell hooks
116. Walking with Dan: Podcasting, Creativity, & AI
In this solo episode of Writing Remix, Dan brings the audience along for a reflective stream-of-consciousness evening walk. This is a raw and unedited episode to capture the essence of the environment, his thoughts, and humanity of conversation. Dan reflects on the changing landscape of podcasting and how it’s gone from being an accessible …
Listen to 116. Walking with Dan: Podcasting, Creativity, & AI
A Note From Dan
“One student just said to me, ‘I never thought that the way I thought was important enough to put in a paper.’”
– Stephanie Renée Payne
As the new semester is on the horizon there are so many questions about how to create a meaningful classroom experience for students in the face of so much polarization, fear, and unpredictability.
These two episodes of Writing Remix attempt to find and hold onto the sacred spaces in the classroom, home, and deep inside oneself. With the guidance of bell hooks’ work we might be able to light up the darkness surrounding our sacred spaces, suffocating our communities, and dehumanizing individuals. Even with the increasing use of AI, we can, as instructors, gently guide our students back to the page, a physical page, where they can see their ideas flourish and materialize from inside their bodies, though their veins, and outward onto paper. We can provide them with the visceral creative experience that Stephanie Renée Payne’s student had in the above quote.
I’ve been struggling with trying to find my way back to a slower more intentional way of living, creating, and even podcasting. To be a creative has come to mean releasing as much content as possible and if that can’t be done then the creator can outsource their creative work to AI. It’s like a content creation arms race where quantity outperforms quality.
“If we consume mediocrity, we will put out mediocrity. If the bar is so low for creativity, for literature, for writing, for music, for art, then the bar is low for how we communicate with one another [and] how we love each other.”
-Daniel Dissinger
My classroom purpose changed last semester. It went from being a space to cultivate writing voices to an intersectional space of co-creating a loving community. With bell hooks’ book All About Love and Eli Clare’s book Exile & Pride as the classroom’s compasses we developed a trusting community together practicing radical vulnerability with one another and ourselves.
As I go into this Fall 2025 semester, I’m going to challenge myself to lead even more with love, to focus on guiding students towards courageous meaningful work, and to provide space to breathe and get in touch with mind, body, spirit interdependence. Education is lifelong. That’s the truth. Diplomas and degrees are capitalistic notions of “education.” I want to show students that learning starts and stops with them.
“[Teaching to Transgress] validated who I wanted to be in the classroom, and it really gave me agency to define love and put love in [the] syllabus and to give it the heft that bell hooks gives it.”
-Stephanie Renée Payne
I hope you enjoy these episodes. Email your thoughts and questions to writingremixpodcast@gmail.com and I will answer them on a future episode and share these episodes with everyone you feel would enjoy the conversations.
Episode 115 Reflective Questions
These Reflective Questions ask us to consider how we can begin to practice radical vulnerability.
Write for 5–7 minutes exploring everything that comes to mind when you hear the phrase “radical vulnerability.”
Write down anything and everything you feel keeps you from practicing radical vulnerability in your… (Here you can explore as many spaces of your life whether professional, personal, familial, creative, in a personal reflective way, etc., Just let your intuition guide you and don’t govern yourself. No one is going to see this.)
After you purge as much as possible from the above prompt, think of one way you can begin to practice radical vulnerability. Maybe it starts with you and doing something personal first and then expanding from there. Just remember, there’s no judgement, this isn’t a competition, and you’e not trying to proves anything to anyone. It’s your practice.
Episode 116 Reflective Questions
These Reflective Questions ask us to consider the role of imperfection and movement can play a role in the creative and scholastic process.
Think about how you can (re)introduce your body/some movement back into your creative or scholastic process. Then, make some time to put this interconnectedness into practice.
After you’ve had your practice, take some time to journal about what came up for you, the challenges, the joy, the ideas and surprises. Allow yourself to sit for some time to dig deeply into the reflective process.
For the next month, set a goal of how many times you’ll be engaging in this mind, body, spirit practice, keep a record, a journal, and at the end of the month share your creation with one or more people, or just reflect on the total process.
Share your writing with us at writingremixpodcast@gmail.com, or post your thoughts on Instagram and tag the podcast @WritingRemixPod #InspiredBelonging and we’d love to read them on the next Inspired Belonging episode!