From prison, Bernardine Dohrn made a calendar for her five-year-old son Zayd. When Zayd looks at it again while making this podcast, he notices that Christmas isn’t on it. His birthday is also missing, but on April 13, he reads: “Colfax massacre, 1873† Zayd’s parents had been on the run for years as terrorists from the left-wing Weathermen. In Mother Country Radicals Zayd reconstructs left-wing American activism from around 1970 on the basis of conversations with participants from the time, including his parents. When Zayd tries to psychologize his mother’s activism, she blocks it completely. Because of this field of tension, the podcast is a wonderful investigation into the origin of activism and radicalization.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of June 25, 2022