Content warning for depression and suicide.

HEY GUESS WHAT there was still so much good stuff leftover from last week’s conversation with the very brilliant Cynara Geissler that I just went ahead and made it a two-parter. In this episode we ask what it would mean to embrace “good enough” and to learn to be much more tender with ourselves. I also spend a whole bunch of time talking about de-stigmatizing mental health issues in professional and academic settings and, I’m not gonna lie, it gets pretty real. You know what else is real? These really good links I’m giving you:

• Did you know that half of all PhD Students experience mental health struggles during their degrees? It’s true! And the more we talk about it, the less stigmatized it’ll be!
• Speaking of talking about things, here’s Melissa Dalgleish’s wonderful piece on being our whole selves as academics; I found it incredibly moving, and I bet you will, too!
• We talk a lot about feminism (obvi) and being good enough, and that made me think about Roxane Gay’s bad feminist manifesto (read on for an incredible list of tips on being friends with women, and then go buy Bad Feminist because it’s really great)

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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. Cynara’s theme song is “You Don’t Own Me” by Lesley Gore.

For this episode, I made an extremely fancy vegan charcuterie board and invited the always-immaculate Cynara Geissler over to talk about that thing where we’ll all slowly working ourselves to death in a desperate bid to prove our worth. You know, just a light summer afternoon chat. In addition to being a brilliant thinker on the intersections between class, gender, and disability, Cynara is also the marketing manager at Arsenal Pulp Press and the writer of many wonderful things. Here are links to some of them!

• Cynara’s iconic piece on Toddler Grandma Style is a must-read, but if you want to by a Cynara completist try this Fat Acceptance primer, and then go buy yourself a copy of Lessons from the Fat-o-Sphere 
• Cynara also recommends Brené Brown’s work on vulnerability and guess what she has a Ted Talk
• This week Kaarina taught us all about the gloomy octopus and their underwater cities
• If you’re interested in learning more about the housing crisis in Vancouver, this review of the documentary No Fixed Address is a good start and this interview a more thorough follow-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.

Cynara’s theme song is “You Don’t Own Me” by Lesley Gore. Why don’t you go watch an awesome live version of it.

There’s a lot of really great stuff in this episode: a wide range of exciting sounds from Baby Groot, discussions of feminist and academic mothering, and of course some generalized rage directed toward toxic masculinity. Not to mention our illustrious guest, Brenna Clarke Gray, academic and author and public intellectual. All that, framed by my thoughts on navigating diet culture, and the first ever instalment of Kaarina’s Cozy Self-Care Corner! And of course, some readings:

• Brenna’s writing is all over the danged Internet, including BookRiot and Graphixia and her own TinyLetter
• Her piece on UBCAccountable is particularly worth reading!
• Oh, also this piece about how female friendship is a radical act! Seriously, read this one.

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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.

Brenna’s theme song is a beautiful cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem” by The Once. You can listen to the whole thing here.

Apologies if I sound a little drunk on the sheer joy of friendship in this episode. I was. Come hang out with me and Erin Wunker — academic, activist, award-winning author, and all-around treasure of a human being — as we talk about the politics of accessibility in feminist writing and also make emoji faces at each other for five minutes. If you want to learn more about her, or other topics this episode covers, here you go:

• Read about Erin’s book Notes from a Feminist Killjoy: Essays on Everyday Life, and then order yourself a copy
• You should probably be following Hook&Eye if you have any relationship to academia whatsoever, but I particularly recommend her pieces on Reading as Resistance, on Gratitude and Feminist Work, and on Surthrival
• And for a peek at the important work CWILA does, read Erin in conversation with Vivek Shraya
• Don’t forget to read a little more on Kate Millet and her legacy!

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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.

Erin’s theme song is “Leather Jacket” by Thunderbitch. Listen to the whole thing here.

We’re back, and only a little late, to talk about astrology, witchcraft, poetry, and queer love with the brilliant Adèle Barclay. You’ll probably want to:

• Read some of Adèle’s work (and buy her book!)
• Figure out your own rising sign
• Find out the details of this Joss Whedon nonsense 
• Read up on UBC Accountable
• And on the off-chance that you don’t already, go listen to Buffering the Vampire Slayer

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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.

Adèle’s theme song is “Pure Desire” by SHEER MAG. Check it out.

This week I’m joined by authors/witches extraordinaire Jaya Saxena and Jess Zimmerman to talk about their forthcoming book Basic Witches (preorder it here!). If you’re in the New York area, you can head to the launch at The Astoria Bookshop on August 29th! If you think Jaya and Jess sound dope as heck (which they are, why not check out some of the other stuff they’ve written?

• Jess references this piece about cultivating ugliness, which is part of her “Role Monsters” series (go read all of them, they’re all great)
• Want some more Jess? Of course you do. Here it is.
• This book isn’t Jaya’s first witch-rodeo (first coven meeting? first midnight gathering?) either, as this great Kitchen Witch piece demonstrates
• Actually, while you’re at it, check out all of Jaya’s work for The Toast (including her brilliant collaborations with Matt Lubchansky) and then go read her new stuff on Elle.com 

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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.

Jaya and Jess’s theme song is “Witch” by The Bird and the Bee. Go listen to it.

Content warning for racial violence and sexual assault.

This week I’m joined by my dear friend Leslie Allin. We did our PhDs together, but we actually didn’t get together to discuss white masculinity in Victorian adventure fiction. Leslie is also a Wen-Do instructor, and she joined me to talk about women learning to claim our space. Before we get into that, here are some relevant readings (as promised) on whiteness and white supremacy:

• Get started with some essential reading on fighting white supremacy by the ever-brilliant Ijeoma Oluo, then go pre-order her new book
• Learn about Carol Anderson’s concept of white rage in this original opinion piece or the full-length book on the subject
• This great interview on the history of whiteness introduces some key concepts
• Did you hear that Claudia Rankine’s new work is also about understanding whiteness and white supremacy?
• We can’t just think about white supremacy as an American issue. Read Zoe Todd’s twitter thread on what white supremacy looks like in Canada, then get a copy of Chelsea Vowel’s Indigenous Writes and Graham Reynolds’s Viola Desmond’s Canada and get informed.

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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.

Leslie’s theme song is “Fuck You” by The Bug featuring Warrior Queen. You can listen to the whole song here.

This episode is a first: that is, the first podcast episode I’ve recorded with brilliant scholar and politicker Andrea Hasenbank in which we were both stone cold sober (if you want to know what I’m talking about, give this and this a listen). It’s charming nonetheless, and so coherent, as we get into questions of which knowledges are valued and which aren’t, how to build a sustainable democratic society, and what feminists have to contribute to academia, activism, and politics. If you want to follow up on some of the topics in this episode, here are some starting points:

• First off, my recommendations: the movie and the book and while we’re at it here’s a whole thread on Black women writers
• While you’re at it, why don’t you listen to this episode of Fresh Air featuring a great interview with Jessica Williams 
• If you want to read more of Andrea’s thoughts on canons and why they suck, CanCon for Crooks is a great place to start
• One day, if I’m lucky, I’ll have brilliant Indigenous scholar Zoe S. Todd on this podcast, but until then read her thoughts on tenderness in academia

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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.

Andrea’s theme song is “Rise Up (With Fists!!)” by Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins. The video is great.

I wanted you to hear this episode so badly that I went and got new cords for my recording set-up AND THEN I upgraded to the “Pro” level of Hindenburg so I could get noise reduction. Just saying. Come hang out with me and Kaarina while we drink wine on opposite sides of this big dumb continent and talk about self care, Hufflepuff style.

LINKS!

• If you don’t have a personal Kaarina, or even if you do, here are some questions to ask yourself before giving up
• And here’s one of my favourite poems of all time, inspired by that article!
• Speaking of self care, you should be following brilliant journalist Vicky Mochama‘s series about how Canadians make space for themselves 
• Want to try traveling alone? Here are some tips!

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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. Watch the video here because it’s beautiful and you deserve to look at beautiful things.

This episode is brought to you courtesy of backyard wine and BBQ tacos! Sit in on my conversation with Rebecca Caines and Michelle Stewart, brilliant academics and artists and activists and collaborators from the University of Regina. Our conversation ranges from leg hair to police brutality with a few stops in between. As per usual, here are a few links relevant to the episode:

• Go learn about the work Rebecca and Michelle are doing
• Check out the resources I mention on what to do instead of calling the police (shout-out to Sylvie for sharing them!)
• Read some more about women’s friendships
• Go look at pictures of women’s hairy legs until it’s so normal to you that you’ll never second-guess it again in your life! THANKS!

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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.

Rebecca and Michelle’s intro song is “Retribution” by Tanya Tagaq. Watch the video here and get ready to get into her in a big way.