Best Of: Zayd Ayers Dohrn’s childhood on the run / Writer Jesmyn Ward
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Zayd Ayers Dorn's memoir, Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young, reveals the harrowing reality of growing up as the child of two Weather Underground revolutionaries—his mother, Bernadine Dorn, a top FBI fugitive, and father, Bill Ayers, a founding member of the militant anti-war group. Raised in hiding, Dorn recounts smuggling children's books into his mother’s prison cell, witnessing her defiance in refusing to testify, and later discovering that a family camping trip was actually a covert mission to help free Assata Shakur. The episode confronts the moral contradiction of radical parents who believed they were fighting for a better world while risking their children’s safety. Dorn grapples with the legacy of his parents’ choices, acknowledging their courage while confronting the emotional toll of being an 'unwilling casualty' of their cause. In a parallel narrative, writer Jesmyn Ward reflects on grief, memory, and resilience in her new essay collection, On Witness and Respare. She traces her journey through the deaths of her brother, partner, and grandmother, finding solace in the rare word 'respare'—meaning the recovery of hope after despair. Her essays explore the weight of being a Black woman in Mississippi, the trauma of systemic erasure, and the defiant act of storytelling as resistance. Both guests confront how personal loss and political struggle intersect, revealing that survival is not just physical, but emotional and narrative.
Zayd Ayers Dorn discovered his family's camping trip to West Virginia was a covert mission to help free Assata Shakur, revealing his parents' deception and the hidden dangers of their revolutionary life.
Dorn's mother, Bernadine Dorn, refused to testify against her comrades in prison, choosing to endure contempt charges and separation from her children to uphold her principles.
The murder of Fred Hampton by the FBI, with an informant drugging him before police executed him, was a turning point that radicalized the Weather Underground into armed resistance.
Jesmyn Ward found the word 'respare'—meaning recovery of hope after despair—during the pandemic, using it as a lifeline during the grief of losing her partner and brother.
Ward’s essay on learning she was having a son describes her immediate dread: 'My stomach turned to stone inside me and sank,' reflecting the trauma of raising a Black boy in America.
…and 3 more takeaways available in PodZeus
Introduction to Radical Childhoods
Tanya Mosley introduces the episode, highlighting the dual focus: Zayd Ayers Dorn’s memoir about growing up underground as the child of Weather Underground leaders, and Jesmyn Ward’s new essay collection on grief and resilience.
Zayd Ayers Dorn’s Fugitive Childhood
“We would go outside and stand on the sidewalk, and we would wait there for half an hour, an hour, until she was back in her cell, and she could flipped the lights on and off in her cell so that we could see that she was back in her cell and was safe.”
The Weight of Revolutionary Ideals
“When you found that out later in life, that they were not being honest with you, you were very young during that camping trip. What was your reaction? Well, yeah, when you say I found it out recently, I literally found it out while working on this book, so in my 40s.”
The Murder of Fred Hampton and Radicalization
“The next night they firebombed a bunch of police cars around Chicago, empty police cars to kind of show that the SDS and white activist groups were going to try to respond to Fred's death.”
Jesmyn Ward’s Grief and the Word 'Respare'
“I was so struck by that idea, right? That there was a word that existed that was the opposite of despair.”
“When the nurse called to deliver my test results, I was nervous. When she told me I was having a boy, My stomach turned to stone inside me and sank. Oh, God, I thought, I'm going to bear a black boy into the world.”
“I think, shocking for me to see people who were not black and, you know, who were not Southern and who, you know, were, you know, people from all kinds of people, right? Who had nothing in common with George Floyd. But people suddenly like sitting with that history, sitting with that fact, sitting with that erasure and saying, we see you.”
“When you found that out later in life, that they were not being honest with you, you were very young during that camping trip. What was your reaction? Well, yeah, when you say I found it out recently, I literally found it out while working on this book, so in my 40s.”
Host
Guests
bernadine dorn
person
jessamyn ward
person
zayd ayers dorn
person
fbi
organization
fred hampton
person
black panthers
organization
bill ayers
person
students for a democratic society
organization
assata shakur
person
tanya mosley
person
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