The Power of Being Present: Sean Goode Challenges the ‘Performance’ of Modern Activism and Self-Help

In a world dominated by social media validation and curated public personas, the act of simply being yourself has somehow become a radical performance. This was the central theme of an introspective conversation on a recent episode of The Pop-Up!, where host The Big O sat down with community leader, TED speaker, and founder of Movement Makers, Sean Goode.

Broadcast live from the Black Media Matter Studios in downtown Seattle, the episode blended sharp political critique with profound philosophical insights into what it truly means to heal, lead, and survive as a Black community in America today.

Rejecting the "Cover of the Box" Politics

The conversation opened with a recap of local headlines, notably Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson’s recent endorsement of progressive challengers over veteran Democrats. When asked about the shifting political tides, Goode offered an analogy about growing up relying on food banks, illustrating how the city’s political scene often prioritizes aesthetics over substance.

"When I grew up, we went to the food bank on Thursdays and most of the time we got generic cereal," Goode said. "So it had less to do with what was on the box and more to do with what was inside of it. But when you grow up with enough resources, you begin to pick cereal based upon what’s on the cover of the box. And Seattle often picks based upon what the cover looks like and not necessarily based on the contents."

Goode warned that highly progressive spaces often drift away from the lived realities of marginalized people. 

"When we get really progressive, we begin to get left of Blackness and left of those who have historically been on the margins," he said, pointing out that local political dialogue frequently talks about Black people rather than centering them.

Rethinking Violence Prevention and the Non-Profit Ecosystem

Goode shifted to a South Seattle Emerald report regarding staff cuts at the non-profit Community Passageways following the expiration of a city contract for violence intervention in Rainier Beach. Drawing from his extensive background in youth advocacy, Goode challenged the traditional dependencies of the non-profit industrial complex.

"We can’t rely on relationships with political institutions as Black-bodied people to sustain work that’s happening in our community when there’s folks in our community that can help sustain it as well," Goode said.

More provocatively, he warned against creating a "monopoly on violence prevention," explaining that if a business model relies entirely on crisis, it inherently requires the crisis to persist. Instead, Goode pushed for an ultimate goal.  

"I would love to have more teachers in classrooms that are from community than outreach workers on street corners that are from community,” he said. “If what we’re looking for is to buck the status quo while simultaneously upholding the status quo, then we’re hustling backwards on behalf of those that need us the most."

The Trap of Performance and Self-Help

Reflecting on his time serving as a juvenile detention chaplain, Goode noted that youth gun violence is often a symptom of profound internal disconnection. 

"There’s so many young people... who were engaged in acts of harm to others that was the equivalent of causing harm on themselves," he said, describing it as "suicide by virtue of homicide."

According to Goode, this youth disconnection mimics an adult society obsessed with performance and the multibillion-dollar self-help industry. He argued that modern self-help capitalizes on making people feel incomplete so they keep spending.

"It’s this performative layer that’s attributed to this self-help stuff that keeps us further away from who we are and turns it into a performative effort to express what is already true within us," Goode said. 

He broke down how individuals learn to perform various identities, whether it is masculinity, intelligence, or smallness, just to stay secure. "Performance outside of myself is because I don’t feel safe within myself," he said.

Returning Home to the Present

To visualize a path out of this cycle, Goode shared an evocative illustration of an hourglass. He mapped the top to the future, the bottom to the past, and the narrow center to the present. In the past and future, he noted, lives constant critique and negative self-talk. But the present offers something entirely different: curiosity and healing.

"Here in the present, all I have is curiosity," Goode said. "And when I’m curious, I’m not saying something’s right or wrong or good and bad. I’m exploring it as it is... And here I can heal. And that’s what we need more access to."

Closing the show with a direct message straight to the camera, Goode urged the audience to drop the exhausting weight of societal expectations. 

"I love you. You are enough. You are complete and you are held," Goode said. "Being enough and being complete does not mean that you’re finished. What it does mean is everything that was ever necessary for you to become is and always has been inside of you.”

Learn more about Movement Makers at movementmakers.us 

Tune in to The Pop-Up! weekdays live at 9 p.m. on all Converge streaming platforms.

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