The Critical Social Worker: A Revolutionary Storytelling Podcast

Welcome to a journey of revolutionary storytelling with Christian Ace Stettler. Dive into unique stories and diverse perspectives to foster critical dialogue, empathy, and understanding. Through storytelling grounded in social work values, we aim to challenge the status quo, ignite transformation, and build a community of change-makers. Join us in exploring social work, justice, and what it means to be truly revolutionary.

The Critical Social Worker: A Revolutionary Storytelling Podcast is a society podcast hosted by Christian Ace Stettler, with 91 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Christian Ace Stettler hosts The Critical Social Worker: A Revolutionary Storytelling Podcast, a society show with 91 episodes published.

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  Episode #95

  The Whale Spirit Is Watching | Sobriety, Whaling & Iñupiaq Story with Bernice Aviuk Oyagak

  Jul 20, 202654 min

  "It's not about hunting a whale. It's about knowing the whale spirit is watching you." Iñupiaq artist, whaler, and PhD student Bernice Aviuk Oyagak joins Professor Ace for a conversation about getting sober, building a family, and doing research that answers to community before academia.Bernice and Ace go back to softball tournaments in Utqiaġvik (Barrow). In Episode 95 they cover her first year of sobriety and why abstinence isn't the same as healing; her PhD in Indigenous Studies and research supporting her community's push from International Whaling Commission oversight toward domestic whaling management; losing her mentors — her whaling captain uncle among them — in the 2018 boating accident she survived; the courthouse wedding where the whole village showed up; raising twin boys, one on the autism spectrum, with her wife Kelly; her mixed-media artwork at Sacred Layers by Aviuk; and whaling as a spiritual reset — the intimate, vulnerable prep work that comes before any reward.The Critical Social Worker is a Revolutionary Social Work production.Revolutionary Social Work: https://revolutionarysocialwork.comSubscribe: https://youtube.com/@thecriticalsocialworker?sub_confirmation=1Contact Professor Ace: Castettler@alaska.eduBernice's art — Sacred Layers by Aviuk: https://www.sacredlayersbyaviuk.comAbout Bernice: https://www.sacredlayersbyaviuk.com/about-2Bernice on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernice-aviuk-oyagak0:00 Intro1:32 Catching up & a Barrow softball reunion4:21 Getting sober: "Never going back"6:27 The PhD grind: comps in Indigenous Studies8:13 Whaling research, by and for Utqiaġvik11:33 Losing her mentors: the 2018 boating accident13:39 Alone in academia, accountable to community14:54 Missing home during spring whaling15:59 Parenting with intention18:41 The wedding the whole village showed up for24:11 IVF, twins & raising Roxy and Stanley27:41 Turning 10: BB guns & Iñupiaq milestones29:53 Turning 40 & taking health seriously32:56 Sacred Layers: painting memory36:42 Many hats, one intention40:24 Self-care: sleep, health & relearning food48:19 The whale spirit is watching53:01 Closing: hope for new leaders© Revolutionary Social Work

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  Episode #94

  Building a Behavioral Health Program Inside a Jail | Deb Goldfarb

  Jul 3, 202658 min

  Can you do genuinely ethical social work inside a jail — or does the setting corrupt the work no matter what? Deb Goldfarb has spent her career living inside that question. A self-described abolitionist, she built a behavioral health program from nothing inside a Boston jail, and she joins Professor Ace to talk honestly about the tension, the compromises, and the moments that make it worth it. In this episode of The Critical Social Worker: A Revolutionary Storytelling Podcast, Deb Goldfarb — clinical social worker, Director of Behavioral Health for Population Health at Boston Medical Center, and part-time faculty at Boston University School of Social Work — traces her path from a pre-med student to homeless outreach, to Harvard Law's Criminal Justice Institute, to years as a therapist inside the state prisons, to building Project Evolve: a voluntary, trauma-focused behavioral health program for pretrial men. We talk about how you earn trust with people who "can smell bullshit from 10 miles away," why she hires staff with lived experience of incarceration and recovery, and what cultural responsiveness looks like in practice. Deb makes the case for joy as resistance, explains the therapy dog that changed her whole unit, and lays out the contradiction at the heart of drug policy — that we call addiction a disease and then punish it with jail. She shares the legislative work to stop judges from jailing people over a single relapse, her vision for marrying the healthcare and criminal legal systems, and why change is slow but possible. A hard, hopeful conversation about doing the work at the margins. — — — 🎙️ The Critical Social Worker is hosted by Professor Ace (Christian Stettler), former Professor of Social Work at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. ▶️ Subscribe on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@thecriticalsocialworker?sub_confirmation=1 🌐 Revolutionary Social Work: https://revolutionarysocialwork.com 📧 Contact Professor Ace: Castettler@alaska.edu Find Deb Goldfarb: 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/debgoldfarb/ 🏥 Boston Medical Center bio: https://www.bmc.org/about-us/directory/doctor/deborah-r-goldfarb-msw-licsw 🎓 Boston University School of Social Work: https://www.bu.edu/ssw/profile/deborah-goldfarb/ 🔗 Project Evolve (BMC + Suffolk County Sheriff's Department): https://www.bmc.org/departments/psychiatry/project-evolve 00:00 Intro 00:50 Theme Song 01:28 Meet Deb Goldfarb: From Pre-Med to Social Work 09:03 Working the Criminal Legal System, From Defense to Prisons 14:33 Building Project Evolve Inside the Jail 17:50 The Therapy Dog & Joy as Resistance 23:38 Earning Trust: "They Can Smell Bullshit From 10 Miles Away" 28:03 Political Friction & Being the "Trojan Horse" 32:06 What Abolition Actually Asks of Us 33:32 Addiction, Relapse & the Limits of Abstinence 38:38 Empathy and Accountability as Community Practice 41:51 Jailing People for a Relapse: The Legislative Fight 46:21 Bridging Healthcare and the Criminal Legal System 48:55 Lived Experience on the Team, Without Exploiting It 52:06 What Fills the Cup: Finding Joy in the Work #socialwork #criticalsocialwork #revolutionarysocialwork #projectevolve #prisonabolition #harmreduction #criminaljustice #socialworkpodcast #behavioralhealth © UAF Social Work

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  Episode #93

  The Myth That's Keeping Social Workers Quiet | Dr. Joe Hanley (UK)

  Jun 18, 202659 min

  What if everything social workers have been told about how the public sees them is wrong? Dr. Joe Hanley joins Professor Ace from the United Kingdom to challenge the myth, name the politics, and trace the quiet privatization of public service. In this episode of The Critical Social Worker: A Revolutionary Storytelling Podcast, Dr. Joe Hanley — lecturer in social work at the Open University and author of The Social Work Public Perception Myth — shares his path from law, to street-level housing and homelessness work, to academic research that turns the spotlight onto policymakers instead of the people social workers serve. We talk about the state of social work education in the UK, the disparity between paid and unpaid placements, the cost-of-living crisis pushing social work students into food banks, and why so many social workers stay silent on the political conditions shaping their practice. Joe shares his concept of the "public perception myth" — the widely repeated but unevidenced claim that the public dislikes social workers — and traces the cross-Atlantic story of how Teach for America became Teach First in the UK, then expanded into social work, policing, and prisons. We also get into the influence of sports, celebrity, and reality TV on political discourse, and why dissent is not optional for a profession with a history reaching back to Clement Attlee. Dr. Hanley is currently writing a book on the co-opting of public service for private interests. Watch for it. — — — 🎙️ The Critical Social Worker is hosted by Professor Ace (Christian Stettler), Assistant Professor of Social Work at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. ▶️ Subscribe on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@thecriticalsocialworker?sub_confirmation=1 🌐 Revolutionary Social Work: https://revolutionarysocialwork.com 📧 Contact Professor Ace: Castettler@alaska.edu Find Dr. Joe Hanley: 🎓 Open University profile: https://profiles.open.ac.uk/joe-hanley 🦋 Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/joehanley.bsky.social 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-hanley-7747a154 📄 The Social Work Public Perception Myth (BASW): https://basw.co.uk/policy-and-practice/resources/social-work-public-perception-myth 📰 Genealogy of Discourse (GAPS): https://gaps.org.uk/the-social-work-public-perception-myth-a-genealogy-of-discourse/ 00:00 Intro 00:35 Theme Song 01:32 Meet Dr. Joe Hanley: From Law to Social Work 06:03 Social Work Education in the UK & the Shift Online 10:25 The Paid vs. Unpaid Placement Crisis 15:07 Politics, Trump, and Social Work's Silence 19:47 The Public Perception Myth 24:13 "Every Social Worker Is an Agitator" — Dissent & Leadership 32:32 Teach for America, Teach First & the Privatization of Public Service 38:56 The Linda McMahon / WWE / Teach for America Connection 45:43 Sports, Celebrity & Political Spectacle 51:01 Public Sentiment, MAGA, and the UK's Own Reckoning 56:29 Closing & Thanks #socialwork #criticalsocialwork #revolutionarysocialwork #socialworkeducation #teachforamerica #teachfirst #socialworkpodcast #criticalpedagogy

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  Episode #95

  What Horses Teach Us About Healing and Connection

  Apr 27, 202653 minS0

  <p>Four practitioners sit down with Professor Ace to talk about horses — what they teach us, how they heal us, and why being in their presence asks something different of us than the rest of modern life does.</p><p><br /></p><p>Dr. Penny Lloyd is an equine veterinarian of 35 years and the founder of Connection Medicine. She talks about therapeutic partnership — the idea that healing between people and animals can move in both directions — and about coherence, presence, and the simple practice of pausing before approaching an animal. She shares the research that sits underneath this work, including studie...

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  Episode #91

  A Social Worker in Tech | Niteesa Brooks, MSSW

  Apr 24, 20261h 7mS0

  <p>Niteesa Brooks is a Master of Science in Social Work (MSSW) — a degree most social workers don't even know exists — and she's built a career most social work programs won't prepare you for: regulated tech. She's run pharma research programs for Eli Lilly, scaled inside a 400-person FinTech company, and she's launching her own execution advisory and consulting firm (announced publicly for the first time on this episode).</p><p>In this conversation with host Christian "Ace" Stettler and BSW senior Christie Robinson, Niteesa breaks down:</p><p>• Why she chose MSSW over MSW and what the Social Enterprise Admini...

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