less about our rights
and more about our responsibilities
This is the newsletter version of Sara by the Season, where I explore a little bit of everything that’s on my mind as I try to lean into nature’s wisdom and rhythms. I usually record a podcast version too, but in the interest of practicing what I preach, I’m skipping that for the winter season. If you know someone who would like this sort of thing, I’d be so grateful if you would share it!
I finally finished God is Red: A Native View of Religion last weekend, and whew, it blew my mind in the best sort of way: helping me to see things I thought I knew in entirely new and different ways. There were many layers to it that I’m sure I’ll be coming back to, but I want to focus on the particular theme of responsibility that came up again and again as Deloria wrote about how differently the Native American tribes1 conceptualize spirituality and God - and how that difference changes everything else in terms of how they interact with each other, with outsiders, and with the land.
Responsibility has been on my mind lately, so maybe that is why I kept noticing how much it pervades Deloria’s descriptions of Native religions. Back in December, I wrote on the blog:
In most indigenous cultures, there is an emphasis on responsibility – to oneself, to creation and creator(s), to community. I’ve been thinking about how so many of our cultural issues today boil down to the fact that we don’t take our responsibilities seriously. It’s as if there is a seesaw with responsibility on one end and rights/individual freedom on the other end, and it seems like most of the population has so firmly flown to the side of their rights and individual freedoms that they have no room to think about their responsibility to the collective.
I don’t really want to talk about Joe Rogan in my little writing den on the interwebs, but I think the controversy around him right now is a sort of microcosm of this conversation that I started above. On the one hand, the people that support Rogan or at least Spotify’s decision, are yelling about freedom of speech and censorship2. The people boycotting Spotify because of their exclusivity contract with Rogan are concerned at the amount of misinformation (especially around Covid, it seems, but once you start digging, Rogan has plenty of other problematic content) that Rogan platforms.
I think the reason people are getting so riled up about this specific situation depends on what you find most concerning in our current climate - whether that is cancel culture, misinformation, who gets to decide what qualifies as misinformation, individual versus communal rights, free speech, our collective handling of Covid, our seeming inability to agree on cultural values anymore. There is something for everyone in the Rogan/Spotify debate.
But really, what I think we should be talking about instead is responsibility, and this leads me to Brené Brown because she is one of my oldest teachers. First off: I’ve been a student of Queen B’s (as she is known at our house) for nearly fifteen years - before her TED Talk, before any of her books. Grant’s and my therapist had us do some of her early work together, and we still have the old DVDs to show for it. I only say this because I’ve been a student and cheerleader of hers for a long time (especially in internet time).
She announced a few weeks ago that she was hitting pause on her podcasts. People presumed that it was because she also (like Rogan) has an exclusivity deal with Spotify. A Brené-ism that you’ll hear often if you listen to her is: “clear is kind.” Some commenters - I think correctly - pointed out that her original statement was quite vague and didn’t live up to her own standard.
Then a few days later, she posted this statement, which explained some of the background of her and her team’s thought processes regarding the reasoning behind the pause (which turned out to be due to how Spotify was handling the Rogan stuff, as many had presumed).
In the week following that statement, India Arie announced that she was removing her music from Spotify, not because of the vaccine stuff, but because of Rogan’s long history (that predates the Spotify exclusivity deal) of saying the n-word and other racist content (watch her announcement here - it’s helpful to this conversation). She said she didn’t want her music paying for Rogan’s contract. In that same timeframe, Spotify or Rogan’s team removed over 100 old episodes of Rogan’s show because they didn’t meet Spotify’s guidelines or were otherwise problematic (more stuff surfaced like this and this. As Trevor Noah said, “if there is something that you shouldn’t have said in public basically, Rogan has said it on his podcast.”).
So back to Brené, she posts this statement earlier this week where she explains that she is in an exclusive contract with Spotify and her original reasoning behind that decision, she says that she finds many of Rogan’s comments that have surfaced disgusting, makes a really helpful high school cafeteria analogy about the podcasting world, and then almost concludes with this:
I find many of Rogan’s comments to be belittling and humiliating. He has the right to say them, but it makes inviting my community to this table something I’m not willing to do.
Frankly, I was impressed, she had me on the edge of my seat about what she was going to do about it. But then, she actually concludes with this:
As I mentioned at the start, I remain under an exclusive contract with Spotify. I’m going to make the best podcasts I can by talking about the issues that I think matter. My commitment to our community doesn’t change. In fact, we’re starting with a conversation with ACLU attorney Ben Wizner about free speech, misinformation, and Big Tech oligarchs.
I’m proud of our podcasts. I’m proud of the conversations, the voices we’ve amplified, the topics that we’ve addressed, and how seriously we take the responsibility.
I missed the podcast and connecting with y’all—I wish there were an easier way. Thank you for the learning and the support.
Awkward, brave, and kind wouldn’t be important if it were easy.
I felt a little whiplashy - like the statement sounded like it was going in one direction and then ended up with an abrupt about-face. As I tend to do, I first ran my feelings by Grant. His response was that it sounded like she was between a rock and a hard place - that she either couldn’t get out of her contract or she would lose a lot of money to try to do so. He said that she runs a business and has people depending on her.
And while I agree with Grant that Brene’s choices are complicated, this whole situation had me thinking again about responsibility: Brené and her team’s, Rogan’s, Spotify’s, and our responsibilities as consumers.
Because here is the thing: unless we modify the Constitution, there is not a government solution here - and, to be clear, I don’t think there should be. I am a big fan of the First Amendment. (Although Amy Westervelt and others make a good point about a possible role for the FCC). But because we’ve lost (did we ever have it? is a good question for another time) any communal understanding of our responsibility to one another and our places, we wind up yelling about rights and speech instead of discussing the, admittedly much more complicated and nuanced, role of responsibility in all of this.
What responsibility does a platform like Spotify have to its listeners? What responsibility to leaders like Rogan and Brown have to their followers and to the collective at large? What responsibility do I have to live out my values in what and whom I listen to and what companies I support?
I think Spotify has a greater responsibility when they offer exclusivity deals to podcasters - by the time they offered the deal to Rogan, he had plenty of controversy already around him, so they knew (or should have known) what they were getting into. Because they took down over 100 of Rogan’s episodes over the last week, they either didn’t have a clear policy on what was acceptable or not prior to this whole debacle or they weren’t enforcing it.
Joe Rogan, because he has one of the biggest podcasts in the world, has a greater responsibility to vet (and edit!) his guests and their content than any other Joe Schmo with a podcast no one has ever heard of would have (as I was researching this, Rogan himself says that in this episode).
And I think Brené has a responsibility, because of her platform and especially because of the area of focus of her teaching and research, to be more clear and honest about her choices. If she tried to get out of the contract and couldn’t, I think she should explicitly say that. If it comes down to her paying her bills, I think she should say that. But her statement reads to me like she wants her cake and to eat it too - she doesn’t want to be at the same table as Rogan, but oh well, she’s stuck.
Grant and I are paid subscribers of Spotify. He has wanted to switch to Tidal for several years because they pay the artists better and because it is far better quality (music snob that he is), but I was too lazy to look into it much before now and because, honestly, I do listen to several of Spotify’s exclusive podcasters even if I don’t like the idea3. We are trying to switch all of our playlists and stuff over to Tidal to feel better about the business model our money is supporting. I’m reminding myself of my own responsibility to be discerning, especially when it comes to teachers I respect and admire (certainly Brené falls into this category for me).
I’m not even sure where I land about what Spotify’s responsibility is at this point because I think that, if they did rescind their exclusivity contract, it would just inflame even more people to listen to Rogan’s show and probably entice Rogan himself to be even more controversial. I do know that I would feel better if Spotify was honest that it ultimately comes down to money, and I would feel better if Brené admitted that money is the biggest motivator behind her decision too. Clear is kind, as she frequently reminds us.
But what I mostly want is more collective conversations around responsibility - about what we - individuals, companies, organizations, the government, religions, leaders - owe the collective. If you’ve read this far, this newsletter was my attempt at starting a conversation about responsibility, and I’d love your thoughts. A conversation isn’t a conversation, after all, if it’s just me.
Responsibility isn’t clear-cut; it requires thoughtfulness, relationship, discernment, and proximity. None of those things are easy, but they feel more necessary than ever.
Rants and raves
👍 Chris introduced me to this poem, which was just the medicine I needed this week and led me down the rabbit hole of Tara’s poems. They were such a lovely way to spend a morning that I ordered her book for myself for Valentine’s Day.
👍 These Alan Watts talks. I’ve been off my normal podcast listening routine for weeks now, but I keep these running while I’m doing something else. They are SO good, and I need to go back to take notes.
Stuff worth sharing this week
I loved this reframing of imposter syndrome to imposter phenomenon - the science is recognizing that it’s a systems issue (or environment, as they used in the research) more than us individuals.
If you didn’t get enough of Rogan in the above, I found the following stuff the most helpful on all sides of the issue: Parts 1 and 2 from Tangle, an education on free speech from The White Pages, this discussion from Pantsuit Politics, this background from Amy Westervelt, and I think Trevor Noah might have had the best take of all.
Cheers to conversations about responsibility in the week ahead!
Sara
One of my critiques (of several to be honest - I think the best books are ones that really get you thinking about your actual beliefs around a topic instead of just agreeing with everything the author says) of God Is Red was that he lumped in all Native American tribes together when he talked about their religious beliefs. I would love to read more about specific tribes’ different ways of practicing and thinking about their spirituality. Send me your recs if you have them!
What is happening with Joe Rogan/Spotify is not a freedom of speech or censorship issue. Freedom of speech is protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution where it “guarantees freedom of expression by prohibiting Congress from restricting the press or the rights of individuals to speak freely.” Censorship is defined as “the suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etc. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security.” No one (legitimate anyway) is saying that Rogan shouldn’t have a podcast; they’re saying that Spotify should demand higher standards from those to whom they offer exclusivity contracts. I actually think Neil Young, in his statement about why he was removing his music from Spotify, said it most succinctly:
I support free speech. I have never been in favor of censorship. Private companies have the right to choose what they profit from, just as I can choose not to have my music support a platform that disseminates harmful information.
I think the whole podcast exclusivity thing is bad for the medium, but that is neither here nor there.