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Roots Up!

Roots Up!

Written by: Roots Up
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About this listen

The Roots Up! podcast will cover a variety of topics relevant to psychiatric survivors, allies, accomplices and others interested in anti-force, anti-oppression, abolition, alternative crisis approaches and changing the world!

Copyright 2025 All rights reserved. Hygiene & Healthy Living Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Science Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Psychiatric Force 2025: The Year In Review

    Psychiatric Force 2025: The Year In Review
    Jan 1 2026

    In this episode, host, Sera Davidow, talks with author and journalist, Rob Wipond, about the last year in psychiatric force. Together, they touch on the prevalance of fraud in the mental health system, the driving forces behind that fraud, latest data in forced commitments, the Governmental Accountability Office's (GAO) report on so-called "Assisted Outpatient Treatment" and more.

    As discussed in this podcast:

    PsychForce Report: psychforce.report

    Rob Wipond's website & book (Your Consent is Not Required): robwipond.com

    The GAO's report on "Assisted Outpatient Treatment" (aka Involuntary Outpatient Commitment): Serious Mental Illness: HHS Assessments of Assisted Outpatient Treatment Have Yielded Inconclusive Results | U.S. GAO

    Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) Report on "Assisted Outpatient Treatment" (aka Involuntary Outpatient Commitment): Evaluation of the Assisted Outpatient Treatment Grant Program for Individuals with Serious Mental Illness | ASPE

    Rob Wipond:

    Rob is a freelance journalist and creative nonfiction writer who writes frequently about the interfaces between psychiatry, civil rights, policing, surveillance and privacy, and social change. His articles have been nominated for seventeen magazine and journalism awards in science, law, business, and community issues, and he’s the author of the book Your Consent is Not Required: The Rise in Psychiatric Detentions, Forced Treatment, and Abusive Guardianships

    Credits:

    Production & editing: Sera Davidow

    Intro music: Blue, Blood Harmony

    Stinger (Transition): Morgontimma, Christian Nanzell

    Outro music: Oh Dandelion, Gamma Skies
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    1 hr and 18 mins
  • Abolition & Psychiatric Systems

    Abolition & Psychiatric Systems
    Dec 25 2025
    This is the very first episode of Roots up with host Sera Davidow. Sera will be joined by Nze Okoronta, Stefanie Lyn Kaufman-Mthimkhulu and Leah Harris in a conversation about abolition and what that word means in the context of madness, the psychiatric system and our communities. Together, Nze, Stefanie and Leah explore what abolition is and looks like, how it compares to anti-carceral approaches and how co-optation and the phenomenon of 'buzz words' factors into it all. As discussed in the podcast: Mad Futures: Mad Futures is a new abolitionist publication run by and for mad, neurodiverse, and disabled artists, writers, and organizers. Things will be up and running here shortly, but you can subscribe in the meantime if you'd like to stay up to date and receive emails when they begin to publish. Monthly Abolition Organizing Space: Psych Abolition Space — Project LETS Guests: Nze Okoronta: Nze is a harm reductionist, facilitator, and consultant. They are known for work surrounding crisis services, public health impact and social policy. They provide consultation around crisis alternatives, peer run respites, peer run warmlines, peer support supervision, and harm reduction. Nze has past experience in housing, diversity, equity, and inclusion, clinical substance use counseling, and population-specific SUD program development for Black and Brown communities. Nze is currently the Peer Services Program Director at SOAR Case Management Services Inc., overseeing Solstice House Peer Run Respite in Madison, WI. They also work as a Technical Assistance Consultant for PRCoE (Peer Recovery Center of Excellence) and Harm Reduction Equity Consultant for PeerPride. Nze centers the historical and ongoing truths of psychiatric survivors in their work, believing our stories hold power, community is our home, and pride is a path to liberation. Stefanie Lyn Kaufman-Mthimkhulu: Stefanie Lyn Kaufman Mthimkhulu (they/she) is the Founder and Director of Project LETS. As a multiply Disabled, Mad, psychiatric survivor, they are deeply committed to interrupting patterns of historical and present-day ableism that impact Disabled people and those perceived as/labeled with mental illness in medical and psychiatric systems. They have over a decade of experience as an anti-carceral crisis responder, care worker, certified perinatal doula, death worker, and peer supporter in the so-called United States and eSwatini; and have supported multiply marginalized folks in a wide range of psychiatric and medical crises in community-based settings. They are rooted in historical and political lineages of Disability Justice and Mad Liberation; and are committed to creating options for folks to access self-determined care without police or cages of any form. Stefanie also supports care workers in building access-centered, trauma responsive practices that facilitate whole bodymindspirit healing. Stefanie is also the editor of Abolition Must Include Psychiatry and the author of We Don’t Need Cops to Become Social Workers. Leah Harris: Leah I. Harris is a psychiatric survivor + writer whose focuses on American mental health policy and deinstitutionalization, mad liberation, and psychiatric abolition. Their journalism and essays appear in publications including The Progressive Magazine, Passengers Journal, Disability Visibility Project, and Truthout; and in the anthologies We've Been Too Patient: Voices from Radical Mental Health, Fat and Queer: An Anthology of Queer and Trans Bodies and Lives, and the Mad Studies Reader. They have been a guest on podcasts including The Death Panel, Committable, and Depth Work. Their first book, NONCOMPLIANT: A FAMILY HISTORY OF THE ASYLUM (forthcoming, Haymarket Books) is an account of the violent history—and grim resurgence—of the asylum in American life, told through a multi-generational story of involuntary psychiatric intervention. leahiharris.com/contact mad-futures.ghost.io Credits: Production & editing: Sera Davidow Intro music: Blue, Blood Harmony Stinger (Transition): Morgontimma, Christian Nanzell Outro music: Oh Dandelion, Gamma Skies
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    1 hr and 14 mins
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