Abolition Can Mend Democracy: Discussing Angela Davis’ essay with Amelia Hruby
Assigned Reading with Becky Mollenkamp: Conversations about Feminist Essays
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This week’s text:
✍️ “Abolition Can Mend Our Democracy” by Angela Y. Davis (Inquest)
This week’s guest:
Amelia Hruby is a feminist writer, podcaster, and producer with a PhD in philosophy. She’s the founder of Softer Sounds, a feminist podcast studio for entrepreneurs and creatives, and host of Off the Grid, a podcast about leaving social media without losing your clients. Her work explores deep community, collective care, and tech refusal.
Find Amelia:
🌐 ameliahruby.com
🎧 softersounds.studio
📱 offthegrid.fun
Discussed in this episode:
- Why prisons exist—and what they really teach us about “freedom”
- Angela Davis’s vision of abolition beyond incarceration
- Carceral logic in our schools, healthcare, diet culture, and even in how we treat ourselves
- Why spirituality, somatic healing, and forgiveness are necessary for abolition
- Amelia’s personal journey with abolition, including becoming a prison pen pal
- The myth of inherently “bad” people—and why we must believe in love after harm
- How a society built on punishment requires us to reimagine democracy
- What abolitionist practice can look like in our daily lives
Resources mentioned:
- “Are Prisons Obsolete?” by Angela Y. Davis
- “Women, Race, & Class” by Angela Y. Davis
- “Freedom Is a Constant Struggle” by Angela Y. Davis
- “My Grandmother’s Hands” by Resmaa Menakem
- “Democracy in America” by Alexis de Tocqueville
- Black and Pink (penpals program)
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