This podcast brings together singular minds to map the reality behind mainstream narratives and make sense of the cognitive dissonance that comes from seeing through them.

“In and through community lies the salvation of the world.”

These beautiful words are from M. Scott Peck’s 1987 book, The Different Drum: Community-Making and Peace in which he argued that genuine community heals our isolation and division. We first came across this quote in a bell hooks lecture called Why Choose Love? that we ended up sampling on our record Choose Love (links to both below).

The quote became somewhat of a core message for our work as a whole. It eloquently represents our core beliefs, presents arguably the most important solution to the root of humanity’s biggest problems and does all of that in 10 words.

Today’s episode features only the second conversation we’ve had so far and already the emerging theme from both conversations is perfectly embodied in that quote. I’m speaking to another old friend: Gabi Rowson. Rather than a long editorialised introduction, we’ll let the conversation do the work.

If our podcast resonates with you, please consider supporting us via our Patreon page or our Bandcamp page (see links below). Your support will not only help keep this podcast going, it will also help fund our music production workshops for young people facing barriers, our own music projects and even a quarterly print zine (if we reach enough memberships).

SHOW NOTES

Support us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/foldfm

Support us on Bandcamp: https://fold.bandcamp.com/subscribe

The Different Drum: Community-Making and Peace by M Scott Peck: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/4443.The_Different_Drum

bell hooks: Why Choose Love: https://archive.org/details/pra_powerofafricanamericanwomen_6

Fold — Choose Love: https://fold.bandcamp.com/track/choose-love-2

Sir Ken Robinson Ted Talk: Do Schools Kill Creativity?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY

Carl Rogers 1967 UCLA Lecture On Viewing the Facilitation of Learning As the Aim of Education: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzqZffjl4D8

Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBdfcR-8hEY

Horrified (board game): https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/282524/horrified

Middle Earth Collectible Card Game (MECCG): https://meccg.com/

Two of the key aims of this podcast — and all of our work as Fold — are amplifying perspectives that challenge entrenched power structures and giving a voice to those who rarely get to have one, but greatly deserve it. We’re more interested in people who have struggled to succeed within this system than those who probably already have a platform. We greatly admire people who are unashamedly true to themselves, even when that comes at a disadvantage.

In this episode we are excited to introduce our first ever guest on the podcast, a person to whom all of the above definitely applies: Andrew Karas, known to us affectionately as Drew.

Coming from a humble background and largely self-educated, Drew is a gifted thinker, artist activist, writer and musician. His exceptional work over many decades, including his role in the activist art project AK Rockefeller, has always been driven by a deep sense of our shared humanity. Drew’s humble, quiet and thoughtful manner is laced with an infectious, sometimes dark sense of humour that always lights up our conversations. We hope you enjoy this one.

If our podcast resonates with you, please consider supporting us via our Patreon page or our Bandcamp page (see links below). Your support will not only help keep this podcast going, it will also help fund our music production workshops for young people facing barriers, our own music projects and even a quarterly print zine (if we reach enough memberships).

Show Notes

Find us on Patreon: https://patreon.com/foldfm

Find us on Bandcamp: https://fold.bandcamp.com/subscribe

Read Dancing Turtle’s article on the activist art project AK Rockefeller: https://www.dancingturtle.com/latest-news/ak-rockefeller-art-identity-and-the-struggle-for-west-papua/

Visit the official AK Rockefeller website: https://akrockefeller.com/

Unpicking Dissonance is hosted by Fold founder Seth Mowshowitz featuring original music by Fold (the short piece Nobody Fights from their album Aphelion: a tribute to Lorraine Hansberry).

In further preparation for future episodes, Fold’s Seth Mowshowitz explores the concept of pivotal moments — events or periods of time in your life where you encounter truths that force you to step out of your comfort zone and adapt your reality. These are moments that propel you forward by resolving some of life’s ceaseless cognitive dissonance and lending greater depth to your perception.

Seth dives deep into two of his own pivotal moments: his time among a Chilean family that lived through the US-backed coup against Salvador Allende’s socialist government on September 11, 1973—the first 9/11—and his own experiences of being in New York City on the second 9/11, along with aftermath of those events and their long term impacts.

Beginning with an overview of his upbringing and early influences, Seth gives us a glimpse into how these two pivotal moments shaped his own thinking, understanding and perceptions of reality.

If this podcast resonates with you, please consider supporting us via our Patreon page. Your support will not only help keep this podcast going, it will also help fund our music production workshops for young people facing barriers and our own music projects.

Show Notes

As mentioned in the show, you may wish to check out the great Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodriguez. We recommend starting with our favourite album of his: Días y Flores. If you only listen to one song, make it Sueño Con Serpientes.

Also, please do check out our sister podcast The Persistence, hosted by our friend Angélica Cordero.

Unpicking Dissonance is hosted by Fold founder Seth Mowshowitz featuring original music by Fold (Nobody Fights).

This episode is about setting expectations and defining parameters for future episodes where we will have conversations with people about their own internal stories, their experiences of cognitive dissonance and how they navigate through it all.

I chose to frame this through the lens of my own story, sharing excerpts from a series of articles that I wrote in 2024. These were originally made for a hand-illustrated A5 zine that was released as part of our album We Do Not Forget.

You can read these articles in full on our website, on our SubStack page or by ordering the physical zine if you prefer a tactile reading experience.

Hosted by Fold founder Seth Mowshowitz. Original music by Fold.

The first episode of Unpicking Dissonance introduces Fold, outlines our intentions as an entity and the purpose of the podcast: to look beneath the facade of mainstream narratives and myths to help map the true nature of our world. This has been the major thread throughout all of our work as a music collective and as we’ve been forced to take a step back from our full range of activities due to various reasons, this podcast is a way to continue that work more directly and hopefully reconnect with our audience while reaching new people.

We do not claim authority over any subject or monopoly over any truth, we are simply drawing from our own experiences and analysis over many decades to contribute to a wider conversation. We are just as confused and overwhelmed as many of you out there and it is our hope that this podcast may help us and anyone listening to reach greater understanding and even some solace.

Credits

Produced & hosted by Seth Mowshowitz. Artwork by Seth Mowshowitz. Theme music is our short piece Nobody Fights from our third album Aphelion: a tribute to Lorraine Hansberry.

Find out more about our work at fold.fm