Where we Know From:
Spotify. "Spotify’s Song Psychic Is Ready to Answer Your Burning Questions." Spotify Newsroom, February 29, 2024. https://newsroom.spotify.com/2024-02-29/spotifys-song-psychic-is-ready-to-answer-your-burning-questions/.
LaShawn Harris, Sex Workers, Psychics, and Numbers Runners: Black Women in New York City’s Underground Economy (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2016).
Yvonne P. Chireau, Black Magic: Religion and the African American Conjuring Tradition (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003).
Psychic Knowledge: We’ve All Got It!
Season 2, Episode 5
Hey, friends! In this episode, we’re diving into the world of psychic knowledge. What exactly does “psychic” mean? What makes some knowledge psychic and other knowledge… well, not so psychic? And was anyone else forced to experience Spotify’s “song psychic” feature, in the same way that Apple forced us to download that random U2 album?
Before we give you the tl;dr of Yvonne Chireau’s Black Magic: Religion in the African American Conjuring Tradition and LaShawn Harris’ Sex Workers, Psychics, and Numbers Runners: Black Women in New York City's Underground Economy, Iman has Kohar ask a question to Spotify’s Magic8Ball-coded “song psychic” feature. Why? Because we’re curious about how a corporation, recently tapping into the spiritual trend with astrology-based playlists and features, defines the term “psychic.”
But Iman, deep in her religion/spirituality-nerd bag, isn’t convinced by this corporatized definition. Instead, we turn to the readings for a definition of psychic knowledge that has, for centuries, been a part of Black women’s religious history. The term is also personal for us, and Kohar shares how a psychic dream inspired her family’s immigration to the States.
As always, we close out with our half-baked thoughts—the segment where we share ideas that we haven't fully fleshed out but stand fully behind. You’ll just have to listen to the episode to hear those.
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