#feminist survival podcast

[5ellaal5]

Share what works for you

One of my favorite AuDHD parasocial relationships is with the Nagoski sisters Emily and Amelia.

Their Feminist Survival Project has restarted. It was in 2020 and now it’s for 2025.

In it, Emily shares a website that helps her, which asks to be shared with attribution/citation:

This has a list of things to do to stay grounded and replenished so that we have the capacity to do the shit that will be necessary. Phase in and out of rest and activity, joy and pain. (Or you can be like Amelia and wax your legs which is both joy and pain; I recommend sugar waxing rather than wax-waxing. Less burning. Still pain.)

One of the recommendations is to share what is working for you. I have been revisiting their episode about Savoring and how that act of mindful/present enjoyment helps us move from a suspicious/reactive/closed in state to an open/curious/explorative state.

One of the things I have been savoring is Hozier’s EP from 2017. First it was NFWMB which inspired me to be worthy of that sort of devotion and admiration. Then it was Nina Cried Power (which checks another item on the Finding Stable Ground list of paying attention to inspiring stories of overcoming adversity).

Now it is Moment’s Silence (Common Tongue) because I own that I am seeking the safe haven of intimacy with a trusted other person: someone I trust to treat my body and soul with care and kindness. And because I think Eros and Joy are a good counter to Chaos, Thanatos and Entropy. (Look, I have a Type and it’s Irish Boys who feel things, OK) I listen to this song and I’m Feeling Myself when I walk through the world.

Another thing Amelia shares is an audiobook of Richard Armitage reading things designed to put people to sleep and Emily notes people probably just masterbate to it because it’s Richard Armitage, and I think that fits too. This is an Audible exclusive so if you have credits you need to burn through as you cancel the subscription to fuck over Jeff Bezos, do it. I haven’t listened yet but I am *ahem* excited to try it out.

And one of the things is (as mentioned above) seeking stories where horrors were resisted and overcome, I’m making my way through We Refuse by Kellie Carter Jackson. The last section is about Joy.

( ^ Screenshot from the book’s website)

What works for you?

[blackexcellence]

The North Carolinian feminist, mother, and healer Omisade Burney-Scott, joined us to chat about menopause. As the creator and curator of Black Girls' Guide to Surviving Menopause, Omi shared insights about the change, her work, Love Craft Country, and she was sure to create a vibe.

Check out Omi's podcast Black Girls Guide to Surviving Menopause

Want to hear the WHOLE conversation? Watch the full interview HERE.

[coochiequeens]

Because large-scale organising is “almost impossible” in China, women are turning to “all kinds of alternative ways to maintain feminism in their daily lives and even develop and transfer feminism to others,” she says. These may take the form of book clubs or exercise meet-ups. Some of her friends in China organise hikes. “They say that we are feminists, we are hiking together, so when we are hiking we talk about feminism.“ - Lü Pin

To find evidence that China’s feminist movement is gaining momentum – despite strict government censorship and repression – check bookshelves, nightstands and digital libraries. There, you might find a copy of one of Chizuko Ueno’s books. The 74-year-old Japanese feminist and author of Feminism from Scratch and Patriarchy and Capitalism has sold more than a million books in China, according to Beijing Open Book, which tracks sales. Of these, 200,000 were sold in January and February alone.

Ueno, a professor of sociology at the University of Tokyo, was little known outside in China outside academia until she delivered a 2019 matriculation speech at the university in which she railed against its sexist admissions policies, sexual “abuse” by male students against their female peers, and the pressure women felt to downplay their academic achievements.

The speech went viral in Japan, then China.

“Feminist thought does not insist that women should behave like men or the weak should become the powerful,” she said. “Rather, feminism asks that the weak be treated with dignity as they are.”

In the past two years, 11 of her books have been translated into simplified Chinese and four more will be published this year. In December, two of her books were among the top 20 foreign nonfiction bestsellers in China. While activism and protests have been stifled by the government, the rapid rise in Ueno’s popularity shows that women are still looking for ways to learn more about feminist thought, albeit at a private, individual level.

Talk to young Chinese academics, writers and podcasters about what women are reading and Ueno’s name often comes up. “We like-like her,” says Shiye Fu, the host of popular feminist podcast Stochastic Volatility.

“In China we need some sort of feminist role model to lead us and enable us to see how far women can go,” she says. “She taught us that as a woman, you have to fight every day, and to fight is to survive.”

When asked by the Guardian about her popularity in China, Ueno says her message resonates with this generation of Chinese women because, while they have grown up with adequate resources and been taught to believe they will have more opportunities, “patriarchy and sexism put the burden to be feminine on them as a wife and mother”.

Ueno, who found her voice during the student power movements of the 1960s, has long argued that marriage restricts women’s autonomy, something she learned watching her own parents. She described her father as “a complete sexist”. It’s stance that resonates with women in China, who are rebelling against the expectation that they take a husband.

Ueno’s most popular book, with 65,000 reviews on Douban, is simply titled Misogyny. One review reads: “It still takes a little courage to type this. I have always been shy about discussing gender issues in a Chinese environment, because if I am not careful, I will easily attract the label of … ‘feminist cancer’.”

“Now it’s a hard time,” says Lü Pin, a prominent Chinese feminist who now lives in the US. In 2015 she happened to be in New York when Chinese authorities arrested five of her peers – who were detained for 37 days and became known as the “Feminist Five” – and came to Lü’s apartment in Beijing. She narrowly avoided arrest. “Our movement is increasingly being regarded as illegal, even criminal, in China.”

China’s feminist movement has grown enormously in the past few years, especially among young women online, says Lü, where it was stoked by the #MeToo movements around the world and given oxygen on social media. “But that’s just part of the story,” she says. Feminism is also facing much stricter censorship – the word “feminism” is among those censored online, as is China’s #MeToo hashtag, #WoYeShi.

“When we already have so many people joining our community, the government regards that as a threat to its rule,” Lü says. “So the question is: what is the future of the movement?”

Because large-scale organising is “almost impossible” in China, women are turning to “all kinds of alternative ways to maintain feminism in their daily lives and even develop and transfer feminism to others,” she says. These may take the form of book clubs or exercise meet-ups. Some of her friends in China organise hikes. “They say that we are feminists, we are hiking together, so when we are hiking we talk about feminism.

“Nobody can change the micro level.”

‘The first step’

In 2001, when Lü was a journalist starting out on her journey into feminism, she founded a book club with a group of friends. She was struggling to find books on the subject, so she and her friends pooled their resources. “We were feminists, journalists, scholars, so we decided let’s organise a group and read, talk, discuss monthly,” she says. They met in people’s homes, or the park, or their offices. It lasted eight years and the members are still among her best friends.

Before the book club, “I felt lonely when I was pursuing feminism. So I need friends, I need a community. And that was the first community I had.” “I got friendship, I deepened my understanding of feminism,” Lü says. “It’s interesting, perhaps the first step of feminist movements is always literature in many countries, especially in China.”

Lü first read Ueno’s academic work as a young scholar, when few people in China knew her name. Ueno’s books are for people who are starting out on their pursuit of feminism, Lü says, and the author is good at explaining feminist issues in ways that are easy to understand.

Like many Ting Guo discovered Ueno after the Tokyo University speech. Guo, an assistant professor in the department of cultural and religious studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, still uses it in lectures.

Ueno’s popularity is part of a larger phenomenon, Guo says. “We cannot really directly describe what we want to say, using the word that we want to use, because of the censorship, because of the larger atmosphere. So people need to try to borrow words, mirror that experience in other social situations, in other political situations, in other contexts, in order to precisely describe their own experience, their own feelings and their own thoughts.”

There are so many people who are new to the feminist movement, says Lü, “and they are all looking for resources, but due to censorship, it’s so hard for Chinese scholars, for Chinese feminists, to publish their work.”

Ueno “is a foreigner, that is one of her advantages, and she also comes from [an] east Asian context”, which means that the patriarchal system she describes is similar to China’s. Lü says the reason books by Chinese feminists aren’t on bestseller lists is because of censorship.

Na Zhong, a novelist who translated Sally Rooney’s novels into simplified Chinese, feels that Chinese feminism is, at least when it comes to literature, gaining momentum. The biggest sign of this, both despite and because of censorship, is “the sheer number of women writers that are being translated into Chinese” – among whom Ueno is the “biggest star”.

“Young women are discovering their voices, and I’m really happy for my generation,” she says. “We’re just getting started.”

By Helen R Sullivan

This is the third story in a three-part series on feminism and literature in China.

[separatist-apologist]

I just read an article in that guy who murdered two women. Absolutely horrifying. All the booktok crazies fawning over him reminds me of the women that would write letters to Ted Bundy while he was in prison.

I wasn't gonna answer this because I felt like I said what I needed to say and like, I was just preaching to preach but THEN while I was asleep, an anon came into my askbox to accuse me of not being a girls girl while intentionally missing my point. I blocked them before I thought of a good comeback (tragic) but like fellas is it anti-feminist not to stan a man who killed two women because (and this is so important to me) he hates women?

I'm gonna put the rest of this under a cut with a heavy trigger warning for domestic violence, I just want to say it and then I think I'm done talking about it because it's genuinely so disheartening.

Anyway, I think sometimes I get nervous to answer these kinds of asks because as a therapist I should know better than to speculate on people and what they're going through and whatever else, but as a person, its like...do you want to be picked that badly?

I think we all know by now that I work in DV and all the people fascinated with men like this fuck me up because like..."oooh what makes him tick, I want to talk to him, why did he do it-" and for me, I sit on the opposite end talking to survivors of violence asking the same questions with hollow eyes, with shaking hands, with safety plans meant to buy them just enough time to get out of their house so they aren't killed. I still think about some of the people I spoke with who didn't survive it.

When I was in grad school, I took a summer internship at the local DV court helping survivors with orders of protection. The system was set up better than a lot of other courts, but its still the legal system, you know? With all its flaws. My job was to flag for lethality based on what I was reading in the OPs and then reach out directly to survivors to help them navigate the process, connect them with resources, and sit with them in court. And I still remember this one particular woman who's situation was so desperately dangerous. We did a safety plan- and at that level, a safety plan isn't like, "remember to take your keys and wallet with you when you go", its "don't go into the basement or bathroom if he's in the house with you because there are too many hard surfaces, exposed pipes, and basins of water that making killing you easier. Go to a bedroom or closet because strangling a person is really hard and takes time," like THAT kind of safety plan. Anyway she thanked me, I remember this so well, she said thank you and I told her I'd call her the next week with an update and over the weekend he bludgeoned her to death.

And I guess I just don't think there is anything fascinating, interesting, or otherwise unique to men like this (obligatory yes I know women kill/abuse too). They're everywhere. I saw another post about how some podcaster is trying to get him on to talk to that guy and its like, why don't you just call up one of your friends' exes. Like. If you've got more than one female friend, you've probably got a friend who has experienced violence at the hand of a male partner, call him. Talk to him. Ask him why he did it, let him give you his made up story about trauma and sadness and oh life is hard because whatever whatever.

That's my thing. Books, movies, tv- they're not making people like this, and I'm not condemning people for what they enjoy in fantasy spaces. I am condemning it when you bring it out of those spaces and side against the women who were violently murdered because, and this is so important to me (did I say this already??), he HATES women. You are not special. You cannot fix him. He's not smart, or interesting, or fascinating and the having an attractive face is literally just chance and not something inherently moral.

And like, lastly, when you prop these men up and give them a platform, you signal to EVERY man just like him that there is something special and tragic about him. You let him play the victim, you let him rewrite the narrative, you shift the blame of his actions off of him and onto the people he hurt. Like with this particular man, you also side with a white supremacist so what are you saying to all your BIPOC/Jewish friends/mutuals, you know?

Anyway. That's my self-righteous rant, I guess.

[solarpunkpresentspodcast]

Hope and Solarpunk

Hope is an affect (aka feeling that drives action) that I’ve been thinking about for a while, ever since I was a graduate student. “Hope” is a word that gives people warm fuzzy feelings when they read it or use it, but I’m not sure that it’s very well understood or theorized in this day and age. Because most people equate the concept of hope with that of naïve positivity and intentional ignorance of “reality”.

Following hot on the heels of last week’s discussion of naïveté in solarpunk, I want to address the idea of hope head-on. I’ve before quoted this same passage from the last episode of the podcast “Secret Feminist Agenda” but I’m gonna do it again because it is super relevant to the way I’m thinking about hope as coming in different types. In the episode, host Dr Hannah MacGregor is in conversation with Dr Eugenia Zuroski, and observes that uncritical expressions of hope “[come] so often packaged in … toxic positivity” that insists that “we are all in this together” and that “we will get through this terrible situation,” yet for many people (especially people of colour and queer people) “we don’t always get through this” (11:52-12:05). In response, Dr Zuroski makes a clear distinction between wishful thinking and “radical hope” as a hope that is earned: the kind of hope that marginalized people such as BIPOC, LGBTQ2S+ and disabled people have been “earning all along … just by living under conditions that are designed to deprive you of … hope for yourself … for your own survival, your own flourishing, and your own future” (13:52-15:25).

" you can’t just hope out of nowhere. You have to do the work of understanding… where we’ve come from, where we all are right now, where you are in the middle of all that, then you can start to…build your hope"  -- Dr Eugenia Zuroski

When I talk about hope as an expression of wishful thinking, I’m thinking of the example that Dr Zuroski gives in that same episode, of someone prefacing their opinion with the phrase “I hope this isn’t racist,” and then going and saying something egregiously racist (17:21). She points out how in this example the speaker’s terminology uses “hope” to express the wish that their statement were not racist, because they cannot recognize themselves as racist. But, as anyone who’s been a captive in that particular conversation can attest, that wish is contrary to the actual reality of the situation; as Zuroski says, “you can’t hope for realities not to exist” (17:21); hope is not an applicable word in this situation. Zuroski goes on to say that in order for marginalized people and their allies to access truly radical hope, it is necessary to dedicate time to “thinking about temporality … your relationship to histories [and] to the present …. and let that inform how you build a relationship to the future, which is what hope is…. hope is the name for relating to a future of some kind” and that “you can’t just hope out of nowhere. You have to do the work of understanding… where we’ve come from, where we all are right now, where you are in the middle of all that, then you can start to…build your hope” (18:03). Dr MacGregor agrees that positive change has to be intrinsically tied to will and to action, not an ephemeral wish for a better future to abstractly happen, somehow.*

I’m using the word “abstract” here as an intentional nod to the work of José Esteban Muñoz on queer utopias, who contrasts a concrete “queer” version of utopia with an abstract utopia, one that’s made up of unrealistic dreams that have no grounding in “reality.”** I think that most people assume that solarpunk hope is the abstract, wishful thinking kind.

I am of the opinion that that is very far from the truth of it, however. What draws me to solarpunk is the way it conceives of hope stripped of its naïveté: eyes open to the devastation of the climate crisis, institutionalized racism, violent misogyny, rapaciousness of capitalism, the fact we’re witnessing a genocide and even though we are lobbying our governments, attending protests, and organizing boycotts, we’re unable to make any tangible move towards stopping what is happening. Is this a result of an eye-for-an-eye worldview, cynical capitalist greed trumping any human compassion, corporate and governmental hypocrisy, the legacy of colonialism, the systemic long-standing disinformation about the reality of the situation, run-of-the-mill racism, or all of it at once? And does it matter what the origin of violence is when the violence is still ongoing? All of this can be overwhelming. It takes a lot out of one to have their senses wide open to what is happening in the world and still try to choose to do what is best in the situation.

((A word of caution, there is a type of hope that can trap one into a despairing situation. It’s what Berlant calls “stupid optimism”. It’s the dark side of hope, not an empowering or active type of hope, but another expression of wishful thinking in direct contrast to the reality of the world - in which you have no control over the sequence/flow of events. Instead, the more that you believe the world to operate otherwise, along these abstract, wishful lines and rules that have framed this situation for you in the imagination, the more trapped one becomes, succumbing to a powerlessness within a fantasy over which you once had complete control, as you are the one who made it.))

I’ve found that if I take a pickaxe to the solarpunk aesthetic and rip it back, underneath the best examples I find throbbing, raw hope, the ability to look at our current world and deliberately choose a better path, often to the detriment of the self. It takes a lot out of one to have their senses wide open to what is happening in the world (or even on the “small scale” of violence in their community) and still leave themselves open to further wounding, sometimes by the very people or systems within which the solarpunk individual is trying to help.

What this hope looks like is the choice to be positive. The drive to choose against all odds to work grimly towards the betterment of humanity even if that solarpunk feels that humanity doesn’t deserve it.*** To me, the best examples of the solarpunk aesthetic are artistic expressions of that hope-as-a-choice despite everything.

I’m not an art critic, but to humanities scholars, the world is a text to be analyzed, yadda yadda, so I can’t help but read it thusly. I don’t see the art of solarpunk as pure escapism but as a concrete expression of the belief that there are beautiful things in this world, they are worth celebrating and, most importantly, hope that future humans will have more time to incorporate making, appreciating, or simply existing around beautiful things in their lives.

Solarpunk art as an expression of hope in humanity’s ability to create and appreciate art not just in the present but in a future where art is much more ubiquitous is not abstract, to me. It directly relates to art programs in the present for kids in underfunded communities, for humanities education for community members, for encouraging art daycamps and in schools. It relates directly to the fight to preserve art that exists and art-making in the present, with an eye to the future.

As Marwan Makhoul writes,

In order for me to write poetry that isn't political, I must listen to the birds and in order to hear the birds ​the warplanes must be silent 

To me, the solarpunk version of hope can translate into direct action for peace. To me, that is not abstract. This type of hope - what I call a solarpunk hope - is a direct motivator of positive action.

What do you think, though? Am I going in the right direction, or off the beaten path entirely? How do you think of hope and solarpunk?

—

*I definitely ripped most of this section from a previous essay of mine published with the Science Fiction Review Association; I had solarpunk in mind when I was writing that piece though the argument was more about traditional ideas of utopia than the genre of solarpunk per se. So now I get to apply it to solarpunk, which is cool.

**For more of an explanation on why “reality” is in quotes here, I’d recommend a listen to our episode with Dr Joey Ayoub on what exactly is “realistic” when it comes to thinking about the future and incorporating solarpunk ideals into it.

***I know a few people who say they hate other humans and yet are some of the kindest, most gracious and generous humans in their interactions with others; imo they don’t hate other people, they hate the way that other people are forced to act under systems that have fucked them up so badly they cannot locate that graciousness in human interactions in themselves. I have begrudgingly come to realize that people are generally good, if you take away the trauma and shittiness they may have had to deal with throughout their lives that shapes them into cruel people or even rewards them for it. My Calvinist forbears are turning in their graves.

[meatcrimes]

not to be an angry feminist on main but i have actually existed in this world as a woman so i think i have something of inherent importance to say on this topic

women did not just suddenly become afraid of walking home alone at night in 2020. women have walked to their cars with their keys in their fists since before true crime was even a concept. we have ALWAYS covered our drinks. self defense tips were passed down to us from older female relatives ever since we were old enough to need them. we have been doing this since puberty, or even younger. especially women who aren’t white, aren’t cis, and are working class. we have done this in our own neighborhoods, our own cities and communities. your mothers and grandmothers did this. our mothers and grandmothers taught this to us decades ago. this was not invented by podcast influencers trying to sell pepper spray keychains. this was done out of necessity for survival. not some made up fetishized idea of becoming a victim, but our actual real experiences of being victimized/knowing women who were victimized.

do true crime podcast influencers capitalize on this and promote fearmongering? absolutely yes. but don’t you fucking dare gaslight us by saying our fears are “crazy” or “self obsessed”. this site overuses the word gaslighting but i don’t think I’ve ever used the term more appropriately than right now.

ask yourself, who benefits from women letting their guard down and putting themselves in potentially dangerous situations in order to not seem like “one of those true crime girls”? to me, the answer is obvious but i feel like a lot of men / non-women won’t understand unless i explain in detail.

[samueldelany]

Join us for an in-depth interactive panel discussion on the cultural impact of Parable of the Sower with our esteemed panelists followed by a question and answer session.

PANELISTS

@AyanaJamieson, PhD is an educator, mythologist, and depth psychologist. She is the founder of the Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network, a global community founded in 2011, committed to highlighting Octavia Butler’s life and work while creating new works inspired by Butler’s legacy. Ayana’s essay, “Far Beyond the Stars” appears in the Black Futures anthology, 51 Feminist Thinkers, Uneven Futures: Strategies for Community Survival from Speculative Fiction, and elsewhere. She is assistant professor of ethnic studies and African American studies at California State Poly.

@AdrienneMareeBrown: adrienne maree brown grows healing ideas in public through her multi-genre writing, her music and her podcasts.

Event info/reservation info here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/celebrating-the-30th-anniversary-of-the-publication-of-parable-of-the-sower-tickets-699783420047

[drivemysoul]

look at this cool red carpet event, look how incredible everyone looks in their designer gowns that will be worn once and then never see the light of day again. don’t pay attention to the minimum wage worker crying on the bus ride home because they couldn’t afford to keep their car.

look at these candid paparazzi shots with immaculately styled outfits and twenty grand on each of her ears. ignore the single mother who has to choose between feeding her baby or herself.

watch this cool new feminist anthem music video where everyone is wearing bikinis that cost a week’s rent, what a legendary girlboss icon. don’t mind the woman staying in her abusive relationship because she needs her partner’s income to survive.

read a forbes article about a singer who earned a billion dollars just from one tour. ignore the high schoolers who had to drop their music lessons because they couldn’t afford hobbies anymore.

watch a tiktok video of influencers spending hundreds of dollars on makeup they already hate. try to stop calculating how many bills you could have paid with that amount.

walk past a store bragging about being keeping things affordable while selling a bag of cheese for ten dollars. ignore your stomach growling because you couldn’t afford more than one meal today in the cost of living crisis.

listen to full-time podcast influencers explain that their stocks aren’t earning much this year for some odd reason, then they joke about needing to sell pictures of their feet while drinking from their twelfth stanley cup. try to pretend that you don’t know two people couch surfing after being kicked out of home for doing sex work to make ends meet.

aren’t you tired? aren’t we all just tired? can people really find that much enjoyment in watching the rich get richer while people keep dying because food’s too expensive to eat and rent isn’t affordable and medical bills are mainly paid by other poor people donating what they can to stranger’s gofundme pages?

[thecurvycritic]

Firebrand Proves Katherine Parr Was a Feminist Survivor of Henry VIII

Alicia Vikander gives Katherine Parr vitality and verve as a period feminist paving the way for women's independence #firebrand #HenryVIII #podcast

Henry VIII had six wives and only one survived.  With every film or television incarnation about Henry VIII, the storyline is almost assuredly focused on the King.  The jokes and narratives are ingrained with a childhood song similar to the one about Lizzy Borden and her forty whacks in which wives are referred to as beheaded because somehow history is more obsessed with dead women than the ones…

[jlf23tumble]

@shark-myths tagged me, I love you, K-K!

Last song: The way I will reblog anything A&W related, jesus CHRIST, I can’t wait for this album! As for other songs on my playlist, I’ve been madly catching up on podcasts, so I can’t even recall, I’m in that much of a fugue about it

Last show: Drive to Survive, season 5

Currently watching: See above, I just started! I’m in the midst of Poker Face, and loving it; I’m finally watching Community, and loving it; I’m still midway through the last season of the Crown, and meh about it

Currently reading: Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language

Current obsession: I saw a post yesterday about midcentury medieval, and it took me OUT because yeah, it’s a style I recognize here in California, even more so the midcentury (mid-70s??) mission revival style in places like SLO and Santa Barbara, so given I’m still mentally stuck in the midcentury modernism week that just ended in Palm Springs, it’s all about the mid mid, bb

i shall tag @aboutmetamorphosis, @loveontour-looks, @kerasines, @scottspack, @sashinalash, @formationlaps, @cloudslou, and anyone else who wants to!

[femdialogue]

my survival strategy

is camp

been feeling lots of futility lately maybe it's nihilism

but i call it camp everything's a joke in my dreams isn't it so funny that i'm here pretending to be a person like an alien from outer space i walk into class its giving college-student-academia-core land acknowledgement in IR china in the age of reform annotating niche neomarxist readings on my ipad why not buy myself a latte with a meal ticket the barista is serving me soy milk (i asked for oat) i love that sweater, she says thanks, i thrifted it (i'm giving mysterious eco feminist and i can tell everyones obsessed w me) maybe i should start a podcast i'd talk about tinder and dating so girlboss of me to swipe right on guys who pose with cherry red sports cars elderly men looking for flings unverified accounts with shiny abs boys that are cute & make me laugh unlock tinder gold to see who likes you then i don't respond to messages theyre all the same if i didnt know better id call it shallow but dont worry

its camp ~j

[interrogationspecialist]

i'm not going to play dumb and ask "wtf podcasts are you listening to" because I understand this post is a dig at joe rogan and at least twenty of his weirdo guests but here's a list of podcasts either about left politics or examining politics/the right through a leftist lens. bc the issue is the removal of the fairness doctrine and the manosphere at large. not podcasts.

Hood Politics with Prop - "If you've survived junior high, lived in an urban city or understand gang life, you can understand geopolitics. Join rapper and author Propaganda and his friends as they use their hood-knowledge to break down the political scene."

Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff - "a podcast celebrating the rebels, resistors, and revolutionaries who fought against authoritarianism and oppression."

Weird Little Guys - "Weird Little Guys is a weekly show that gives you an uncomfortably close look at the worst people you’ve never heard of. Molly Conger takes a closer look at the far right extremists trying to unravel the fabric of our society. It turns out, they’re all just some weird guy."

Pod Save America - "Pod Save America is a no-bullshit conversation about politics hosted by former Obama aides Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer, and Tommy Vietor."

Knowledge Fight - "Each episode, Dan and Jordan take a look at some clips from that day's Alex Jones Show and struggle to make sense of what they find."

I Hate Bill Maher - "It's a podcast. A podcast about how much I, and others, hate Bill Maher."

Blowback - Examining the history and repercussions of modern American imperialism. Previously covered the Iraq war, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the war in Afghanistan. Well edited and painstakingly researched.

The Women's War - "Robert Evans went looking for hope. He found it in the unlikeliest of places: Northeast Syria, in a region known as Rojava that’s become host to a feminist, anti-authoritarian revolution. When you’ve heard about these folks in the mainstream media, they’re usually just described as the “Syrian Kurds”, and credited with beating ISIS. They did, in fact, beat ISIS. But their military successes were just part of the story."

QAA Podcast - "Conspiracy theories, melted online communities and cursed media — we pry open the cracks in consensus reality and journey into the hidden worlds below."

True Anon - "TrueAnon is a podcast about your enemies made by your friends. Join unlicensed private investigators Liz Franczak, Brace Belden, and Yung Chomsky for a show that will drive you insane."

You can call me crazy but I firmly believe that podcasts have played a significant role in the downfall of this country

So many dumbass men with microphones spewing their dangerous, misogynistic rhetoric are more easily accessible to younger dumbass men than ever and they eat that shit up and become emboldened by it

[superficialdomina]

Seeking podcast recs!!

A bunch of my standard podcasts have either recently ended (Let's Go To Court😢) or are on summer break. But here in the deep dark southern hemisphere winter, I need some bingeable podcasts to keep me going!!

What are y'all listening to? For context, my most recent go-tos are Guilty Feminist, The Unbelievable Truth, Tortoise Investigates, Casefile, Real Survival Stories, Two Dykes & a Mic.

Please help a girl out!!

[swashbucklingsweethearts]

Masterpost

About me

i'm mels

pronouns they/he

non-binary/trans*masc/genderfluid

pansexual & poly

queer feminist

neurodivergent & mentally ill bitch

fandoms are my hyperfixations

every week a new hair color

filming & editing is my job

ed teach is my babygirl and never did anything wrong in his life

izzy apologist and lover

stede is my husband

i will steal jim's gender

i survived the gentlebeard vs stucky poll

About this Blog

name is from an article describing ed & stede and it's just perfect

our flag means death obviously

multishipping

otp is gentlebeard (edward teach/stede bonnet)

steddyhands (edward teach/stede bonnet/izzy hands)

tealoranges (jim jimenez/oluwande boodhari)

very emotionally invested in those silly queer pirates

definitely no chill

cosplaying (working on S2 Jim atm)

theories

fanworks

memes

probably mostly reblogs

sometimes nsfw

Special Interests Blogs

gallifreymingi -> main blog

doctorwho-genderwho -> my fave genderfluid aliens aka doctor who

tonystarklovebot3000 -> i love it 3000 aka everything marvel

mels-is-hyperfixating -> all the fandoms I am hyperfixating on that don't have their own blog

in-another-reality -> my podcast (kinda inactive)

charactermoodboardtrash -> my moodboards (inactive)

Find me here

twitter

bluesky

archive of our own

podcast

[ear-worthy]

In Retrospect Podcast: A Look Back At Our Cultural History

Here's the deus ex machina when it comes to a retrospective look at a cultural event that happened during your life. You will most certainly think differently about it today than you did when it happened.

For example, disco music in the 1970s. I still love the music, but the platform shoes, and the patterned shirt featuring geometric shapes tucked into high-waisted pants with a wide belt.

What was I thinking?

So a retrospective look at recent cultural events is a superb idea for a podcast. There is already a terrific podcast with a similar concept called One Year. The podcast is about the people and struggles that changed America—one year at a time. In each episode, host Josh Levin explores a story you may have forgotten, or one you’ve never heard of before. What were the moments that transformed politics, culture, science, religion, and more? And how does the nation’s past shape our present? Right now, the podcast is covering the year 1955.

So I was excited when I heard that a new podcast called In Retrospect was coming out.

Each week on In Retrospect, hosts Susie Banikarim and Jessica Bennett revisit a pop culture moment from the 80s and 90s that shaped them, to try to understand what it taught them about the world and a woman’s place in it.

Here's the podcast's marketing pitch, and it's a good one, full of humor and snark instead of bloviation.

"Is there a cultural moment from your past that looks different in retrospect? Maybe it’s a scandalous tabloid story seared into your teenage brain or a political punchline that just feels wrong now. It might be a very specific red swimsuit that inspired a decade of plastic surgery (see: “Baywatch”) or the inescapable smell of an entire generation of prepubescent boys (Axe body spray, anyone?)"

The guest lineup on the podcast includes actor Pamela Anderson, Pulitzer Prize-winning cultural critic Salamishah Tillet, journalist and advice columnist E. Jean Carroll (gee, I wonder what she'll talk about), media studies professor at the University of Michigan Susan J. Douglas, and New York Times culture editor Maya Salam.

Co-host Susie Banikarim has run newsrooms at Vice, Gizmodo Media Group and The Daily Beast. She directed the 2020 documentary, “Enemies of the People: Trump and the Political Press.” She began her journalism career at ABC News, where she was a producer for Diane Sawyer and George Stephanopoulos, and went on to help launch Katie Couric’s talk show. Prior to that, she was a producer on “Wife Swap.”

Jessica Bennett is known for her work focusing on gender issues and culture. She was the first-ever gender editor of The New York Times, where she is now a contributing editor, and is the author of two bestselling books, “Feminist Fight Club: A Survival Manual for a Sexist Workplace” and “This Is 18: Girls’ Lives Through Girls’ Eyes.”

The podcast has a strong strategy for success because its first episode created a windstorm of controversy, repressed memories, moral relativism, gaslighting, and Hollywood at its sleaziest.

In a nutshell, the first episode was about the marriage of Luke and Laura on the soap opera General Hospital in 1981. The co-hosts explain that the wedding episodes actually had more viewers than the real wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana later that year.

I was there, and although I wasn't a soap opera fan, I knew about what was happening on General Hospital. You could not go to a party or family outing and not overhear discussions of Luke and Laura.

Now, here's the gut punch. Bankirum and Bennett then explain that when Luke was first brought onto the show as a minor, temporary character, he raped Laura at his nightclub.

What in the serious F***k? I didn't remember that.

I don't want to give away what happened from there, but the episode just bristles with plot twists, secretive cabals by GH producers, and a head-scratching sense that people in the 1980s were way too accepting of sexual assault. The co-hosts go on to explore the awakening of the American psyche about the issue of sexual assault, explaining that date rape was a recently uncovered issue that had been neglected.

You can listen to that episode here.

After that first episode, I was hooked. I waited for the second episode and when it came out it was…about the two co-hosts.

My first thought was: "This is like leading in the Indy 500 race and then pulling over to pick up a snack." This was a mistake. Big time.

The sad part is I had nobody to mansplain this to.

So I listened to the episode. My apologies to Bankirum and Bennett. The episode was funny, informative, and charming. First, these two women are wildly talented. For men, I'd equate them to Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes. Second, the co-hosts have a strong Womance. They get each other, and that connection translates into the frictionless feel of the podcast and the excellence of their narrative.

On the podcasting mechanics side of the ledger, the show has a nice, bouncy, 80s-vibe intro music and the show uses music clips as a smooth segue. The sound production values are solid, the archival clips they play sound crisp, and the show's logo shows cleverness.

Their next episode just coming out now is about Pamela Anderson and her iconic, one-piece red swimsuit on TV's Baywatch.

Check out In Retrospect. New episodes are released on Friday. I guarantee that if you were around when the cultural event they cover is autopsied, you'll say two things. First, "I never knew that," and second, "what was I thinking?"

[sistahscifi]

On Tuesday, October 3rd, 2023 Sistah Scifi will host a FREE virtual celebration of the 30th anniversary of the publication of Octavia E. Butler's Parable of the Sower!

In October 1993, Four Walls Eight Windows published the first edition of Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler. At the time, Butler was at the height of her literary career. The 1995 MacArthur Fellow already published the Patternist Series, Kindred - which would sell over 1M copies, and the Xenogensis Series with Doubleday & Company.

Parable of the Sower - the first first book in an unfinished series - would be followed by Parable of the Talents in 1998. Set in a dystopian California in 2024, Parable of the Sower tells the story of how 15-year-old Lauren Oya Olamina creates community and develops a philosophy centered on the belief that God Is Change.

Join us for an in-depth interactive panel discussion on the cultural impact of Parable of the Sower with our esteemed panelists followed by a question and answer session.

PANELISTS

@AyanaJamieson, PhD is an educator, mythologist, and depth psychologist. She is the founder of the Octavia E. Butler Legacy Network, a global community founded in 2011, committed to highlighting Octavia Butler’s life and work while creating new works inspired by Butler’s legacy. Ayana’s essay, “Far Beyond the Stars” appears in the Black Futures anthology, 51 Feminist Thinkers, Uneven Futures: Strategies for Community Survival from Speculative Fiction, and elsewhere. She is assistant professor of ethnic studies and African American studies at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.

@AdrienneMareeBrown: adrienne maree brown grows healing ideas in public through her multi-genre writing, her music and her podcasts. 

Daniel Simon is the editor of Parable of the Sower. 

Cohosts:

@AmericanWritersMuseum, @MoPOP, @206Langston, @SeattleUrbanBookExpo and @NAAM. 

@Sistahscifi | www.sistahscifi.com | https://sistahscifi.com/pages/events

@octaviaebutler 

#ParableOfTheSower #ParableOfTheTalents 

#SistahScifi

#AdrienneMareeBrown

#AyanaJamieson 

#OctaviaEButler

#OctaviaButler