It’s been another rough week, folks! But rather than getting bogged down in despair at the seeming indestructibility of the goddamn patriarchy, I’m think about something that brings me a little bit of hope: the generosity of critique, and the possibility of doing a little bit better every day. That’s something we can all manage, and it’s something that makes me feel a little less impotent. You know what else is hopeful? Kaarina’s beautiful meditation on the pleasures of fall. Here are some links!

• If you want to know more about the law suit I mentioned, here’s a good summary; if you have the means, donate to the GoFundMe here.
• Here’s the excellent article I mentioned about ableist language.
• If you’d like to read all of Chelsea’s thread on ableism for yourself, here it is.
• Go buy yourself a copy of Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice, and learn more about Leah’s work!
• And finally, on a more seasonal note, never forget that it’s decorative gourd season.

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.

Content warning for discussions of mental health, depression, and infertility.

This episode opens with me explaining the entire premise of Secret Feminist Agenda to my long-term collaborator and dear friend Marcelle Kosman, because Marcelle does not listen to Secret Feminist Agenda, and the fact that my love for her is unimpeded by this negligence is a good sign of just how much I care for this human being. If you aren’t already a fan from Witch, Please, our formerly-fortnightly podcast about the Harry Potter world, then you certainly will be after you listen to her frank, vulnerable, and hilarious discussion of parenting, mental health, and the places where the two intersect. Here, have some links:

• I was googling around and found this glorious manifestation of Marcelle and my friendship, which is clearly based on both of us being adorable rather than knowing one another particularly well.
• My googles also led me to this great essay that Marcelle wrote, prior to the birth of Eliot, about baby showers and the disciplining of the female body. Oh, and it also explains my Foucault reference, so definitely read it!
• And here’s a beautiful piece by feminist icon Anne Thériault about mothering with mental illness.
• And, okay, here’s one more link, about raising your kids not to be fatphobic, which is only kind of related to this episode, but it’s still about raising kids to be compassionate and it’s such a great series so just go read it.

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.  Marcelle’s theme song is “Postdoc Blues” by John K. Samson, and you definitely need to go watch the beautiful video for it.

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.

Not quite a content warning but definitely a heads up, that I’m talking a little bit this week about death and grief and apocalyptic despair. But only a little! Mostly I’m talking about the books that have been not just blowing my mind this year, but helping me to think differently about death, loss, climate change, and other hard topics. I’m talking Afrofuturism and Indigenous Futurism, queer horror, magical realism, and the way the work of queer, trans, and BIPOC writers opens up possibilities outside of the ideologically oppressive structures of Western narrative!!! Links!

• Want to read some speculative fiction by BIPOC writers in Canada? Here’s a great list to start you off.
• Here’s a list off where to start with Afrofuturism, and here’s an article about Afrofuturism and the beauty looks in Black Panther. 
• Definitely also read this beautiful piece on Indigenous Futurisms by the very brilliant writer and curator Lindsay Nixon.
• You can read more about Eden Robinson’s new book, Trickster Drift, in this excellent interview.
• I do a kind of mediocre job of defining reproductive futurism in this episode, so read up on it here.
• Oh yeah, and if you want to know more about the cultural specificity of magical realism, this is a good starting point.
• And finally, here are all the books I talked about!
  • N.K. Jemisin: The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, and The Stone Sky
  • Cherie Dimaline: The Marrow Thieves
  • Eden Robinson: Son of a Trickster
  • Amber Dawn: Sodom Road Exit
  • Carmen Maria Machado: Her Body and Other Parties
  • Jesmyn Ward: Sing, Unburied, Sing 

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.

I am extremely stoked that you get to meet one of my favourite Vancouver-based humans, the extremely brilliant author and podcaster Andrea Warner. We talk about her new book, Buffy Sainte-Marie: The Authorized Biography, as well as the overwhelming whiteness of music journalism, different tactics for fucking shit up, and what it might look like for white people to shut up and listen for a while. You’re going to want to know everything about Andrea by the time you finish listening to this episode, so here are some links:

• Start off by reading this excerpt from the Buffy bio: “When Buffy Sainte-Marie Met Big Bird”
• Then go read her first book, We Oughta Know: How Four Women Ruled the’90s and Changed Canadian Music
  
• You can read some of her other music writing like this oral history of the Indigenous music Juno Award category or this profile of Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq
• And finally, you can listen to her talk about feminism and pop culture on her very own podcast, Pop This! Don’t know where to start? Obviously start with me talking about The Craft. 
• Wait one more thing! Andrea and I are both part of the programming team for the Vancouver Podcast Festival, so go buy tickets right now!

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 “The War Racket (Unplugged)” by Buffy Sainte-Marie.

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.

Welcome back! I missed you! I think you’re great! I think this podcast is great! And in keeping with the sheer exhilaration I am experiencing at the beginning of season 3, I’m going to tell you about a movie that holds a very special place in my heart. In fact, it was deeply formative in my thinking about feminism. That’s right, it’s obviously Jurassic Park. Want to read more hot takes on this 25-year-old movie? HERE YOU GO:

• Feminists everywhere love Jurassic Park so you should go read Lindy West’s brilliant recap, which contains many excellent gifs.
• Do you remember The Toast‘s “if x were your girl/boyfriend” series? Well their archives are back up, which means you can read “If the Velociraptor from Jurassic Park Were Your Girlfriend,” which is exactly as good as it sounds.
• I don’t talk at all about the technology behind Jurassic Park in this episode, but the dinosaurs are VERY COOL and here’s an article about the histories of dinosaurs in film.

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.

We’re switching things up for this, the final episode of season two. Instead of playing host, this week I’m playing guest, and being interviewed by my brilliant pal Lucia Lorenzi. Also, since this is the end of another season, I’m once more asking you to give me some feedback on the podcast. Questions below. But first? Links!

• The article I mention about supporting women academics who are being harassed is “I get by with a little help from my friends: The ecological model and support for women scholars experiencing online harassment.” 
• If you want to check out the first season’s peer review, you can read it here.
• Lucia talks about Adrienne Maree Brown‘s brilliant writing, including her work on pleasure.
• Oh, I mention Jordan Peterson, and so should definitely link to this brilliant new article about his citational practice as an indicator of his attitude toward scholarly knowledge production.
• Lucia’s references of “white civility” are allusions to the book White Civility: The Literary Project of English Canada, which is a must-read for anyone interested in the particular shape that white supremacy takes in Canada. (So is Robyn Maynard’s Policing Black Lives: State Violence in Canada from Slavery to the Present. Have you read it yet?)
• The reference to “rupture events” is actually a reference to Jacques Rancière’s “Ten Theses on Politics.” 
• One last reference! Lucia talks about Sherronda Brown‘s work, specifically this article on the decolonization of Black intellectualism.

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Season Two Feedback Questions:

• What do you think of the new format (longer interview episodes and shorter minisodes)? Are there any changes to the format that you would prefer?
• What is your favourite episode in season 2? What’s your least favourite? Why?
• What guests (specific or general) or topics do you want the podcast to tackle next season?
• Do you think of the podcast as scholarly? Why or why not?
• If you could make one change to the podcast, what would it be? If you could guarantee one thing would stay the same, what would it be?

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 “Truth Hurts” by Lizzo. 

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.

Get ready, because this is one of those extra-fun minisodes where I’m kind of figuring something out, out loud, as I record, so it’s a bit more like a word collage than a well-wrought urn, but it’s definitely ~20 minutes of me talking so you can’t say it doesn’t count as a minisode. Links!

• The Buffy episode I talk about is Pangs, which is also the topic of episode 1 of Métis in Space, and is soon to be covered by Buffering the Vampire Slayer and I bet they’ll also have some *issues*.
• Here’s an article explaining what’s going on with the whole Judith Butler situation and, for the academics out there, here’s a petition calling for her to resign as president-elect of the MLA.
• The book I read from is On Rereading by Patricia Meyer Spacks; and here’s a New Yorker piece on it because who has the time to read a whole book?

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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. 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.

Content warning for some discussion of rape culture and sexual harassment.

This week I got to chat with writer, activist, and organizer KaeLyn Rich, who (alongside a dozen other super impressive things) is the author of the new book Girls Resist! A Guide to Activism, Leadership, and Starting a Revolution. We talked about intergenerational feminist coalitions, how danged smart the youths are, and why girls, femmes, trans and non-binary folks need to be at the centre of the revolution. Also here are some links!

• If you’d like to read some of KaeLyn’s other work, you can check out her column on Autrostraddle (and if you aren’t already reading Autostraddle, seriously, get on it).
• KaeLyn mentions the recent surge of books that tell the stories of young activists, including How I Resist, #NeverAgain: A New Generation Draws the Line, and I Am Malala. 
• I mention Sarah Schulman’s Conflict Is Not Abuse, which has some interesting things to say about the history of activist methods.

• If you are near Buffalo, NY and want to check out the launch party on Saturday, August 11, here are the details!

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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.  KaeLyn’s theme song is “Run the World (Girls)” by Beyoncé.

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.

This week I’m talking about slowing down within capitalism’s poisonous culture of speed, and how we can make our own slowness sustainable for ourselves and our communities. It’s complicated! It’s probably worth figuring out! Here are some links!

• First, I cite a bunch of articles about the slow movement in its various permutations, so let’s tackle those. This interview with the authors of The Slow Professor sets out the basic premises of the book, while this follow-up letter is a good example of the critique. Here’s Rob Nixon’s article about slow violence, and here’s the feminist geography collective’s article about slow scholarship and feminist ethics of care.
• I also mention Amazon’s warehouse working conditions, so here’s an article about that.
• Also I mention environmental racism, which you can read about here.
• And finally, a link to Cynara’s tweet about not having a million projects!

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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. 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.

It’s hot as heck in Vancouver (and, apparently, most of the world) right now, but in this episode I’m harkening back to cooler days (i.e. May) when the ever-delightful Emily Hoven visited me to talk (and make) sourdough. We chat about the ethics of care, sourdough science, the new domesticity, and why everyone just wants to move to a commune in the woods. I also took some short videos of Emily explaining (and modelling) aspects of sourdough-making, which you can check out below. The quality is… not great. But you know what are super high quality? These links!

• You can check out Heidi Rose Robbins’ podcast, The Radiance Project, here.
• Here’s a nice little intro to the ethics of care. If you want to read up on the various schools of ethics, start with Wikipedia. It’s pretty good!
• Learn more about the Canadian Literature Centre at the University of Alberta, including their books and lectures and conferences.
• The Christina Sharpe book I talked about is In the Wake. Her discussion of the slaving ship “Care” comes, I believe from this lecture.
• Listen to the Gastropod episode on sourdough here. And while you’re at it, read up on Robert Dunn, biologist.
• If you’re curious about “the new domesticity,” this interview with Emily Matchar (author of the book Homeward Bound) is a good starting point.

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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. Emily’s theme song is “The Poison I Keep” by Hannah Moroz.

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.