IIIIIII’MMMMM SIIIIIICCCKKKKK and hoo boy can you ever hear it in this episode. Sorry for the garbage voice this weeks folks, and also for the very short episode, but for all my whining and rasping, I’m actually delighted to be sharing with you the new theme for all of our winters: make baby cozy. Coined by former guest of the podcast Baby Groot, this phrase is a reminder to treat yourself with tenderness and care, and to ask for what you need. It’s also tacit permission to baby yourself, to be a baby, to let go, at least for a little while, of whatever kind of hardness adulthood has brought you. As Mary Oliver says, “You only have to let the soft animal of your body / love what it loves.”

• Obviously making baby cozy is a close relative of hygge, so here’s a cute little piece about why hygge is a low-maintenance and low-cost form of self-care. (I do not endorse Self, but this piece is nice.)
• Everything is going to be cute! This is a cute Bustle article about making your home cozy on a budget!
• Okay, I gotta put something at least a little critical in here, so this is an interesting article thinking about why Americans got so into hygge, including an important consideration of how the fetishization of sheltering and enclosing might tie into Northern European anti-immigration sentiments.
• And finally, because why not, a scholarly article interrogating whether knitting and other fibre arts are a viable form of feminist political action!

Download Episode / Transcription To Come

The podcast theme song is “Mesh Shirt” by Mom Jeans off their album “Chub Rub.” Listen to the whole album here or learn more about them here. Follow me @hkpmcgregor, follow Kaarina @kaarinasaurus, and tweet about the podcast using #SecretFeministAgenda.

Secret Feminist Agenda is recorded and produced by Hannah McGregor on the traditional and unceded territories of the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.