Mother Tongue: Salvage Freedom

This episode of Mother Tongue traces how women’s voices and practices of survival emerge in the ruins of capitalism. Moving between Detroit’s techno warehouses, Johannesburg’s jazz gatherings, Kingston’s sound system culture, Algiers’ cassette underground, and Cairo’s zar healing rituals, the show listens for patterns of freedom in precarious worlds. Through the words of thinkers like Anna Tsing, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Octavia Butler, and the sounds of Sister Nancy, Cheikha Rimitti, Babalwa M, Siya Makuzeni, and others, the episode explores how women and communities improvise, adapt, and imagine futures through music.