This is Black Mountain Institute Conversations, a series of interviews produced by Nevada Public Radio’s Desert Companion in collaboration with the Black Mountain Institute. Here, Desert Companion Editor Heidi Kyser talks with BMI’s Shearing Fellows about their passions, inspirations, community initiatives, and … of course … their writing.
This episode features Tajja Isen. She’s a 2024 Shearing Fellow, and author of the 2022 book Some of My Best Friends: Essays on Lip Service, from Atria/One Signal Publishers. Each of the nine essays focuses on an aspect of contemporary culture, analyzing it through Tajja’s own lived experience and extensive research. Together, they paint a picture of the enraging, heartbreaking, and even funny ways people pay lip service to social justice, without making meaningful changes to oppressive systems and structures.
