This is my “fun” face. It’s a little rusty.

Three guesses what the theme for this week’s minisode is.

Seriously, though, we need to talk about fun, and why it can feel so goddamn hard some time, and how it isn’t quite the same thing as self care, and whether there are sustainable ways to build more of it into our lives. Fun! It’s not just for kids anymore! Fun! It’s surprisingly hard to articulate on a podcast!

• First, priorities: go look at some of my pictures from Orlando 
• I seriously just googled “how to have fun” and came up with this list which tbh if you tried to follow it you’d just end up like that scene in Groundhog Day where where Bill Murray ruthlessly attempts to recreate the perfect day.
• Fuck it, just watch this:

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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. Kaarina’s theme song is “I Will” by Mitski. Follow me @hkpmcgregor, follow Kaarina @kaarinasaurus, and tweet about the podcast using #SecretFeministAgenda.

Content warning for references to sexual violence.

We’re back with another interview episode, and this week I’m chatting with the smart and cool and smartly cool Baharak Yousefi. We tackle what it means to bring your (whole) self to work, why emotional labour can transform a workplace (and why it might be threatening to white supremacist heteropatriarchal capitalism), and why some of us are drawn raccoon-like towards dumpster fires. And oh my gosh we reference so many things in this episode so this is basically just a works cited list:

• First and most importantly, here’s Baharak’s book, The Feminists Among Us, which is an incredible title and you should all go buy it.
• Second, we reference the work of the brilliant and amazing Sara Ahmed, specifically her book On Being Included. If you don’t know her work, her blog feministkilljoys.com is a great starting place.
• I haven’t had a chance to read this article yet, but the title is pretty much the best? “For Slow Scholarship: A Feminist Politics of Resistance through Collective Action in the Neoliberal University”
• And here’s the article by Fred Moten (and Stefano Harvey, it turns out!) on the university’s incredible ability to absorb critique. (If any of this stuff is paywalled and you want to read it, let me know.)
• Finally, I really want to link to Jess Zimmerman’s incredible piece on emotional labour that she wrote for The Toast, except The Toast archives have been taken down and it’s just the saddest thing in the world. RIP The Toast. I miss you every day.

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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. Baharak’s theme song is “Borders” by MIA. Watch it!

If you don’t follow me on Instagram, you’re missing A LOT of side-eye

GOSH this was a hard episode to record. For serious, I put it off until 9:30 at night and then had to edit these huge long silences out of the recording. This one made me feel really vulnerable, folks, but I wanted to talk to you about some incredible pieces of writing that have made me feel seen. And guess what, you can read this amazing work too, right here:

• “On Spinsters” by Briallen Hopper
• “On Being Queer and Happily Single — Except When I’m Not” by Brandon Taylor
• “Decrying Desirability, Demanding Care” by Samantha Marie Nock

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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. Kaarina’s theme song is “I Will” by Mitski. Follow me @hkpmcgregor, follow Kaarina @kaarinasaurus, and tweet about the podcast using #SecretFeministAgenda.

Sylvie on the left, Kendra on the right.

Recording this episodes was so much fun because Kendra and Sylvie are smart and inspiring and interesting and funny. FEMINISTS ARE THE BEST END OF STORY. Anyway, come hang out and talk about why law school is saturated in oppressive structures and what some rad feminists are doing to try to make it a little more liveable for people it has historically excluded. If you’d like to read some more on these awesome humans or related topics, here are some links!

• I talked about this in episode 1.13, but Kendra has an incredible essay on on the idea of rest and you should go read it. And check out the rest of her blog while you’re there.
• You should also read Sylvie’s essay on violence against Indigenous women and the complexities of family history.
• Here’s a piece that will give you some context on Laverne Cox’s comments about bathrooms and public space.
• If you’d like to learn more about decolonizing gender, I found a zine on that very topic (whenever possible, learn things from zines.) And here’s a great discussion of the role of the two-spirit voices decolonization.
• You know what? Here’s one more, by incredible Indigenous trans poet Gwen Benaway: “It is common to see Indigenous trans women as a modern creation, but we are a sacred expression of our nation’s worldviews and sovereignty.”

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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. Kendra and Sylvie’s theme song is “Fool” by Perfume Genius. This is the video. Watch it now, I insist.

Content warning for discussions of sexual violence and depression.

It’s time to bring back cat-and-lipstick selfies, isn’t it?

HELLO IT’S HERE IT’S SEASON 2!

As you’ll hear, we’re undergoing some format shifts in this, our second season, including a new division between minisodes (like this one) and interview episodes (starting next week). In this, the first of our new minisodes, I talk to you about the importance of learning to take criticism well, especially if you’re a white woman with a public platform. Kaarina joins us for the first Self-Care Corner of the season, complete with new introductory music, to talk about being sad. If you want to follow up on the stories I talk about, here are some links:

• First, I promised to link to this episode of Witch, Please so that you can hear Marcelle’s beautiful apology.
• I don’t want to link you to all the garbage written by garbage people, so instead I’m going to recommend you read three brilliant pieces by three brilliant women of colour about Atwood’s white feminism (and how it may have been evident in her work all along).
• Also, for an impeccable primer on UBC Accountable and related issues, read Zoe Whittall’s “CanLit Has a Sexual-Harassment Problem”
• Have you been following Lindy West’s columns for the New York Times? They’re all great, but her piece about Aziz Ansari this week is a striking model of historicizing feminist activism.
• Atwood’s appropriation of Roxane Gay’s “bad feminist” is a good reminder to go read Bad Feminist. We all need a little more bad feminism in our lives.
• And why don’t you finish up by watching this scene from The Simpsons?

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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. is Kaarina’s theme song is “I Will” by Mitski. Follow me @hkpmcgregor, follow Kaarina @kaarinasaurus, and tweet about the podcast using #SecretFeministAgenda.

Happy Solstice! We’re right in the thick of the holiday season (with the whoop-de-do and hickory dock) and all of the rich complexities of emotional experience that accompany this time of year. So in honour of all of that, Kaarina and I are bringing you a festive minisode about taking care of yourself at the holidays. And to get yourself into the festive mood, why don’t you check out this very special playlist I made for just this occasion?

Warning: it has made me cry every time I’ve listened to it.

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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. My theme song is “White Wine in the Sun” by Tim Minchin. Listen to it all here.

DID YOU MISS ME duh of course you did. I’m back temporarily to share with you a talk that I gave in October for SFU’s Open Access Week. This talk delves a little deeper into what I’ve learned about public scholarship from podcasting, and why I think community accountability ought to matter more than institutional gatekeeping. If you want to follow along, here are a few useful links:

• A lot of my thinking on this topic is inspired by Moya Bailey‘s work, particularly her paper #transform(ing)DH Writing and Research: An Autoethnography of Digital Humanities and Feminist Ethics
• This talk also draws in part on another essay I wrote on podcasting and Witch, Please
• For a quick summary of the Third World Quarterly debacle, read this
• If you haven’t listened to the Witch, Please episode I reference, it’s here (and it’s actually a great episode to listen to if you aren’t normally a Witch, Please listener)

You’ll here from me again in a couple of weeks! (Want to know what for? listen to the episode!)

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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.

Welcome to the end of the beginning! By which I mean, it’s time for a wee little break in this here podcast while we sort a few things out, most especially how we’re going to go about peer reviewing it (surprise! this podcast is going to be peer reviewed! maybe! somehow!). If you’d like to be part of the amazing process of helping me to develop new forms of public, feminist, community accountable peer review, here’s your chance. Just comment on this post. Here are some questions you might consider:

• What do you think of the format? Do you like the length? Do you wish the interviews were longer or shorter? What about the intros?
• What are your thoughts on the guests/topics thus far? Are there specific people you’d like me to invite or topics you’d like me to tackle?
• What’s one thing that’s really working for you? What’s one thing you’d change, if you were the boss of me?
• If you’re a scholar, or have opinions on scholarship: what makes Secret Feminist Agenda scholarly, or not scholarly, in your opinion?

Don’t feel limited by these questions if you have totally different things you’d like to write about. Oh, and don’t worry: there’s still a self-care corner on this mini episode.

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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.

Content warning for sexual violence.

Hahaha remember when I wasn’t sick for a second there? I do. Those were the days/lungs. Anyway, I’m here, and I’m a little late but I’m super pumped to bring you my conversation with Eugenia and Toya, the brilliant women behind the podcast Woke Doctor Who. We talk about finding space for critique within your fandoms and why more women of colour need to start podcasts. Before we get to that, I spend a little time thinking out loud about #metoo and what it tells us about the unspoken realities of sexual violence in women’s lives. And, of course, there’s another unbelievably soothing instalment of Kaarina’s Cozy Self-Care Corner to look forward to!

• Former guest and friend-of-the-podcast Lucia Lorenzi was interviewed about #metoo and the burden it places on survivors in the goddamn Washington Post
• If you want to share some resources on ending rape culture with the men in your lives, here’s an intro to Rape Culture 101, a quick list of things men can do, and a beautiful piece on teaching men not to rape 
• I reference this fabulous piece on curative versus transformation fandom in my conversation with Eugenia and Toya, and you should read it, too!
• And finally, because it’s been a hard week, here’s a series of GIFs of women fucking shit up

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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. Eugenia and Toya’s theme song is “Dr. Feelgood” by Aretha Franklin. Listen to it all here.

I’m back, babes, and better than ever, or rather, not actively sick any more. And after spending some time talking about sickness and rest (with some reading recommendations below), I’m thrilled to be bringing you my conversation with PhD student and feminist shit-talker Aadita Chaudhury. After Aadita tells me exactly what STS is (you have to listen to find out), we smack talk Radiolab and sing the praises of Hidden Figures. You’re gonna love it. You know what else you’re gonna love? These links:

• First off, go follow Aadita on Twitter. You won’t regret it.
• I reference two articles this episode: Johanna Hedva’s Sick Woman Theory and Kendra Marks’ The Idea of Rest. Go read them now. Content warnings for discussions of sexual and racial violence.
• Aadita name checks some other awesome feminist science folks, including christine liu and Judy Wacjman (you know, if you want more smart science and technology feminists in your life). (Which you probably do.)
• Obviously go watch Hidden Figures if you have’t already, but either way here’s some supplementary reading on the role of Black women in the Space Race.

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(Don’t forget to listen all the way to the end to catch Kaarina’s Cozy Self-Care Corner!)

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. Aadita’s theme song is “Train Song” by Vashti Bunyan. Listen to it in its soothing entirety.