What’s that? Another bonus episode??? Kind of! On September 22 (I say October in the episode and I’m too lazy to go back and fix it, but it was September) I launched my new book, A Sentimental Education, at Iron Dog Books. The launch took the form of a conversation between me, Minelle Mahtani (Associate Professor at the Institute for Social Justice at UBC), and Lucia Lorenzi (artist and recovered academic). I loved it and am delighted to be able to share it with you, along with an exclusive sneak peak of the audiobook version of A Sentimental Education (which isn’t quite available yet but will be soon and when it is you’ll be able to find it at that link). Enjoy!

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, Minelle at @mminelle, and Lucia at @empathywarrior.

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

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 and tweet about the podcast using #SecretFeministAgenda. The additional music in this episode came from blue dot sessions; you heard the tracks Drone Pine, Thoughtless, Vik Fence Lardha, and Uncertain Ground.

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.

In this, the final episode of Secret Feminist Agenda, I sat down with Eugenia Zuroski to talk about hope, planifestos, collectivity, mentorship, and where we know from. As far as final conversations go, this one felt absolutely perfect. Here are some links!

• Learn more about Gena’s work on her website, by following her on Twitter, and by checking out her Mixcloud!
• The Grace Lavery comments I referenced were shared on Twitter and her book is called Quaint, Exquisite: Victorian Aesthetics and the Idea of Japan.
• For more on hope and its appropriation by liberal discourses, you might want to revisit the episode on Hopepunk
• We talked about reclaiming your time which prompts me to re-share this piece by Tressie McMillan Cottom on race and the politics of (wasting) time.
• My reference to turning routines into rituals came from Kook Teflon (via Zena Sharman), from episode 62 of the Bespoken Bones Podcast.
• For more on the exhausting embodied labour of diversity work, especially within universities, check out Sara Ahmed’s On Being Included.
• On the topic of collective models of organizing, Gena mentioned The Bigger 6 Collective and the V21 Collective. I was also reminded of the vital work of the Combahee River Collective.
• This piece is a few years old but still pertinent: “The digital native is a myth”
• The Netflix documentary I alluded to is The Social Dilemma.
• The scholars Gena cited in relation to her exercise, ‘Where Do You Know From?’, include Eve Tuck, Minelle Mahtani, and Katherine McKittrick.
• The John Locke theory Gena mentioned is tabula rasa; the application of the “blanket slate” idea into colonialism and theft of land is terra nullius.

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. Gena’s theme song was “Head Over Heels” by the The Go-Go’s.

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 here! The final minisode of season four (and frankly, probably, all?) of Secret Feminist Agenda! Ending this podcast series, in its current form at least, is a way of saying no to one thing so that other things will be possible. So join me for one last exploration of the feminist power of refusal. Also: links!

• You can find all three season of peer review, including Cheryl Ball’s point about projects needing to end, here.
• If you haven’t already, check out the Amplify Podcast Network.
• While this podcast might be wrapping up, I’m still making Witch, Please and hosting The SpokenWeb Podcast.
• Here’s Tressie McMillan Cottom on race and the politics of (wasting) time.
• This article “found that faculty of color, queer faculty, and faculty from working class backgrounds together spent a disproportionate amount of their time on the ‘invisible’ work of academia, leaving them less time for the work that matters for tenure and promotion.” Oh, and I wrote about why just saying no to that emotional labour isn’t always possible.
• We can never have too many links to Sara Ahmed’s defining work on feminist killjoys.

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 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.

Brace yourself for the lively energy of an interviewer who has been pandemic-isolated for too long and an interviewee who really just wants to talk about reality television. I sat down with author and person-I-want-to-trick-into-being-my-IRL-friend andrea bennett to talk about their new book, Like a Boy but Not a Boy, out now with Arsenal Pulp Press. We also talked about mental health in a pandemic, Great British Bake Off, patterns of abuse and harm in CanLit, boomer men’s bad opinions about parenting and libraries, and why we’re pretty comfortable with TikTok youths roasting the heck out of millennials. Here are some links!

• You can, and should, buy andrea’s book here. If you’d like to read excerpts in The Walrus, Xtra, and Chatelaine, and you can hear me read an excerpt from my favourite essay on this podcast.
• To prove that I do like puppies, here’s a video of some puppies.
• andrea recommended Sarah Liss’s article, “Pandemic parenting in a two-mom family means twice the maternal guilt”
• Here’s a little context on the Great British Bake Off babka drama
• If you are unfamiliar with the larger context of Joseph Boyden’s identity, here’s a long read on the topic.
• Learn a little more about Duncan Campbell Scott and “The Onondaga Madonna”
• I’ve talked about this before, but here’s a little more context on the Galloway suit.
• It looks like the blog post andrea referenced has been removed, but you can still read Ken Whyte’s bad takes on non-fiction and libraries. (They might be pay-walled, but honestly you’re not missing much.)
• Watch some examples of Gen Z roasting the heck out of Millennials.
• Finally, the documentary andrea mentioned about trans representation in media is called Disclosure.

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 was “La Demeure” by Stereolab.

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 we’re revisiting one of my all-time favourite conversations: asking for help! I’m asking some of the Big Questions(TM) that have been keeping me awake lately, such as: why do I find it so much harder to ask a colleague for help than a friend? What is the relationship between asking for help and being a mentor? How does our willingness to rely on one another make us stronger, rather than weaker?

I don’t have any links this week, just a verse from one of my favourite poems, “Questions to Ask Yourself Before Giving Up“:

Know that your friends want to send help.

They want to send daffodils and their extra hands

to braid your hair. They all want to be deciduous trees

and long semi-coloned sentences for you.

They want to.

-Kaitlyn Boulding

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 and tweet about the podcast using #SecretFeministAgenda. Want to email me about your killjoy survival kit? Send it to secretfeministagenda(at)gmail(dot)com.

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.

In this episode I sat down (virtually, of course) with Lily Cho to talk about feminist mentorship, the importance of boundaries, and trying to make change from within institutions. What if mentorship wasn’t based on intimacy but on clear boundaries and structures? What if the best way to transform the university is to really understand how it works? What if you clicked on these links?

• You can read Lily’s Hook&Eye posts here. I particularly recommend “Inside a State of Emergency, the University Edition.”
• Lily recommended Intimacies by Leo Bersani and Adam Phillips.
• I recommended Xine Yao on “Rethinking Masks.”
• If you didn’t get my Tom Stoppard reference, you can read up on the state of open letters, good and bad, here.

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. Lily’s theme song was “Just One of the Guys” by Jenny Lewis.

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.

Are you ready to talk about mentorship? Because that’s what we’re doing for (checks watch) about 18 minutes. While we’re at it, here are a few articles on feminist mentoring:

• “Feminist Co-Mentoring: A Model for Academic Professional Development” by Gail M. McGuire and Jo Reger
• “‘Will you be my mentor?’ Feminist mentoring at mid-career for institutional change” by Winifred Curran and Trina Hamilton
• “Feminist Mentors” by Awino Okech
• “Collectors, Nightlights, and Allies, Oh My! White Mentors in the Academy” by Marisela Martinez-Cola

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 and tweet about the podcast using #SecretFeministAgenda. Want to email me about your killjoy survival kit? Send it to secretfeministagenda(at)gmail(dot)com.

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’m back from a much-needed hiatus and ready to jump into the final half-dozen episodes of season four, starting with a doozy. I talked to Vivek Shraya and Cicely Belle Blain about Vivek’s imprint VS Books, Cicely’s new book Burning Sugar, and the importance of mentorship. Also, dinosaurs. Also, links:

• You can read Audre Lorde’s “Poetry Is Not a Luxury” here;
• Jessica Johns’ chapbook is called How Not to Spill;
• Here’s a quick read on Langston Hughes reporting on the Spanish Civil War;
• And here’s Vivek’s article on the selling of marginalized people’s trauma.

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. Cicely’s theme song was “Spirit” 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 announcing a wee hiatus as I regather my resources to finish up season four. I’m also talking about what it might look like for us to collectively reject civility and instead become a hoard of demon bitches for justice. Also here are some links:

• For the millionth time I’m recommending the Sandy and Nora Talk Politics podcast, but also recommending that you keep on eye out for Alicia’s Elliott‘s new podcast Why Tho?
• The title of this episode comes from a line in Lindy West’s book The Witches Are Coming
• Here’s some context on Jagmeet Singh being kicked out of the House of Commons for calling another MP racist
• And just a few more links, to what I’m reading right now:
  • “Radical Care: Survival Strategies for Uncertain Times” by Hi‘ilei Julia Kawehipuaakahaopulani Hobart and Tamara Kneese
  • “Racism is Everyday, Every Day” by Jarrett Hill
  • “Racism Is Terrible. Blackness Is Not.” by Imani Perry

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 and tweet about the podcast using #SecretFeministAgenda. Want to email me about your killjoy survival kit? Send it to secretfeministagenda(at)gmail(dot)com.

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 sat down virtually with Sean Lee, Director of Programming at Tangled Art + Disability, to talk about radically accessible curation, the transformative possibilities of disability as disruption, and the exciting work of Tangled and Bodies in Translation. So many links!

• To learn more about Tangled Art + Disability, check out recent exhibits like “Body Farm” and “HIDDEN”
  • You can read the Canadian Art review of “HIDDEN” here and watch this video to learn more about Gloria Swain’s work
• Check out the work of Bodies in Translation: Activist Art, Technology & Access, including their Cripping the Arts symposium and their Vital Practices in the Arts resource guide!
• Here are some other references Sean made:
  • Yinka Shonibare on disability as the last avant-garde
  • Eliza Chandler on “Cripping Community” (with bonus references to Kelly Fritsch’s understanding of cripping as “open[ing] up desire for what disability disrupts”)
  • José Esteban Muñoz on “Queerness as Horizon”
  • Amanda Cachia on “the politics of creative access”
  • The Smithsonian’s guidelines for accessible exhibition design
  • An FAQ on relaxed performances from Tourettes Hero aka Jessica Thom
  • Sean Lee talking about resisting the art therapy model
  • Tobin Siebers on disability aesthetics
  • Mia Mingus defining disability justice
  • Ableism as defined by Talila A. Lewis and Dustin Gibson
  • The new and improved Creative Users website
• And a few things I talked about
  • The Festival of Literary Diversity’s Amanda Leduc on virtual events as as an opportunity for accessibility
  • Some reading on the intersections of COVID-19 and anti-Black racism
  • What the fuck is up with J.K. Rowling
• Finally, if you’d like to donate, may I recommend the Black in BC Community Support Fund for COVID-19

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. Sean’s theme song was “It’s Gonna Be Okay, Baby” by MUNA.

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.

Are you ready to learn all about the Amplify Podcast Network?

Great.

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 and tweet about the podcast using #SecretFeministAgenda. Want to email me about your killjoy survival kit? Send it to secretfeministagenda(at)gmail(dot)com.

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.

In this very special cross-over episode, I’m talking to Stacey Copeland, audio producer extraordinaire and the project manager of the SpokenWeb Podcast, which I also host! We talk about our feminist scholarly awakenings, the gendered policing of women’s voices, what queer media sounds like, and why we should be listening to archival audio more. Here are some links:

• To learn more about Stacey’s work you can check out her website and follow her on Twitter
• I talked a bit about how important Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble was to my undergraduate feminist awakening
• Stacey discussed her fascination with Love is Blind and recommended this article about our fascination with “sexy baby voice”
• On the topic of women’s voices, I’ll never stop linking to Anne Friedman’s iconic “Can We Just, Like, Get Over the Way Women Talk?” and this This American Life story on hate mail over women’s vocal fry
• You can check out the Archives of Lesbian Oral Testimony to learn more about The Lesbian Show. Stacey also wished to issue the correction that The Lesbian Show discussed not baseball but track and field.
• Check out Mermaid Palace to learn more about podcasts like The Heart and Asking For It
• Also, for your consideration: Queer Public
• And while you’re in a listening mood, check out the Constellations audio project
• One last recommendation: for some beautiful queer counter-history, watch A Secret Love (get ready to cry, tho)

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. Stacey’s theme song was “Time Travel” by Blouse.

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 minisode is dedicated to the newest episode of the SpokenWeb podcast, which it’s preemptively responding to (that episode will be out on Monday, and I’m going to have to insist that you listen to it). That episode is thinking about how we are listening differently right now, and it prompted me to think for myself: how am I listening differently? Why am I compelled to always have my noise cancelling headphones nearby while also becoming fascinated with identifying the birds outside my window by their song? Why am I burning out on Zoom calls? Why does Fetch the Bolt Cutters feel like the unofficial album of the pandemic? And what is it about Within the Wires that is making it feel like the absolute perfect podcast for me 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. Follow me @hkpmcgregor and tweet about the podcast using #SecretFeministAgenda. Want to email me about your killjoy survival kit? Send it to secretfeministagenda(at)gmail(dot)com.

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.

A note about transcriptions: my goal was to get transcriptions more aligned with the release date of podcast episodes this year, a goal that has been significantly delayed by COVID-19 and the challenges facing my students. I want to highlight my commitment to continuing to improve on this front, including collaborating with colleagues on new podcasting workflows that can further automate transcription. More on that in the future!

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 and tweet about the podcast using #SecretFeministAgenda. Want to email me about your killjoy survival kit? Send it to secretfeministagenda(at)gmail(dot)com.

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 to evaluation consultant and podcaster Carolyn Camman about radicalizing the apocalypse, queering objectivity, learning to listen to our bodies, and what the heck evaluation actually is. I learned a ton from this conversation, and I think you will, too! Here are some links!

• To learn more about Carolyn, read this recent blog post about re-framing evaluation as an accountability mechanism); listen to the Eval Café podcast; and check out the Evaluation colouring book!
• To contextualize our conversation about apocalypse, we talked about the podcast “How to Survive the End of the World” as well as Kai Cheng Thom’s book I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl’s Notes from the End of the World
• Carolyn also recommended “Changing the Culture of Research: An Introduction to the Triangulation of Meaning” by Manulani Aluli-Meyer and “Positional Objectivity” by Amartya Sen
• I recommended that you watch Netflix’s The Dragon Prince
• Here’s more on that story about settlers fleeing to remote Indigenous communities to avoid COVID-19
• You can watch the webinar on “Safe and Equitable Engagement Spaces in the Age of COVID-19” on YouTube!
• Read up on Decolonizing Wealth!
• Here’s a quick explanation of CERB and an article on safe supply in BC, for the non-Canadians out there.
• Learn more about the SFU certificate in Evaluation for Social Change and Transformational Learning and particularly the first course of that certificate, Transformative Evaluation Landscape, taught by Kim van der Woerd of Reciprocal Consulting, an Indigenous women-led evaluation consulting firm
• Read up on The Equitable Evaluation Initiative, which is run by Jara Dean-Coffey of The Luminare Group, and while you’re at it learn more about the LEVEL youth grants from the Vancouver Foundation, which are being evaluated using the EE framework
• And finally, an introduction to prison abolition.

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. Carolyn’s theme song was “Adieu” by AIZA.

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.

To cap off our Scholarly Podcast Review project with Season 3 of Secret Feminist Agenda, we tried something different. We asked two of our previous reviewers, Cheryl Ball and Carla Rice to create their own podcast episode that reviewed the entire third season. Their conversation was moderated by Michael Faris, Assistant Chair of the Department of English at Texas Tech University and Managing Editor of Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy.

Season 3 Review Commentary

Siobhan McMenemy and I also had an opportunity to respond to the peer review and to our sense of how this pilot project went in general. Feel free to listen in!

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.

To cap off our Scholarly Podcast Review project with Season 3 of Secret Feminist Agenda, we tried something different. We asked two of our previous reviewers, Cheryl Ball and Carla Rice to create their own podcast episode that reviewed the entire third season. Their conversation was moderated by Michael Faris, Assistant Chair of the Department of English at Texas Tech University and Managing Editor of Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy.

Season 3 Review Commentary

Look out for another bonus episode featuring my commentary on this peer review with my collaborator Siobhan McMenemy at WLUP!

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 time for Feelings 101, aka wow what a completely wild and difficult time to be a person who feels things, let’s talk about that. I’m exploring being okay with not being okay, taking a strange comfort in recognizing my own grief, and building feminist survival kits for a moment when survival is our main priority. Here are some links:

• The interview with David Kessler is called “That Discomfort You’re Feeling is Grief.”
• If you’re doing some SFA relistening, I recommend slowing down, getting into sourdough, and embracing laziness/eating the rich.
• You can find my tweet about academic workaholism and the many wonderful responses to it here.
• I don’t know if I have a whole podcast about the joys of Animal Crossing in me, but I recommend listening to this wonderful podcast discussion of how crucial this game will be to so many people.

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 and tweet about the podcast using #SecretFeministAgenda. Want to email me about your killjoy survival kit? Send it to secretfeministagenda(at)gmail(dot)com.

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 to the first of a whole series of bonus episodes coming your way over the next few weeks! This one is a fireside chat with Dr. Alex Ketchum, recorded as part of the Feminist and Accessible Publishing and Communications Technologies Speakers and Workshop Series. If you’d prefer to watch this as a video, you can find all the videos here. No links for this one, pals! Enjoy!

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 and tweet about the podcast using #SecretFeministAgenda. Want to email me about your killjoy survival kit? Send it to secretfeministagenda(at)gmail(dot)com.

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.

The original plan was for Kai Cheng Thom and I to talk while she was in town to deliver the keynote at the Growing Room literary festival, but plans change, don’t they? So we talked on Skype instead, about creative ways to sustain communities in midst of crisis, the importance of choosing love, and the hard choices that witches make. This was a really healing episode for me to record, and I hope it brings some of that same energy to you. Also, here are some links:

• You should be following Kai Cheng Thom on Twitter, for a start. You can find out about all of her books here, including the wonderful I Hope We Choose Love, and you’ll probably also want to read her beautiful new piece about how queer and marginalized communities can take care of one another during COVID-19
• We mention the vital work of Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, especially her book Care Work.
• Read about why teachers should do a bad job of putting their courses online.
• Learn more about the history of scrapbooking as counter-publishing.
• The podcast episode I mentioned featuring Jen Sookfong Lee is the April episode of the SpokenWeb Podcast.
• Kai Cheng and I both heartily recommend Larissa Lai’s The Tiger Flu.
• Read more about Indigenous futures and the dystopian now.
• Kai Cheng also recommended reading up on what bell hooks has to say about love.

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. Kai Chengs’s theme song was “Piece of Me” by Britney Spears.

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.

In this week’s minisode we’re celebrating #WorldObesityDay by talking about how everything you thought you knew about obesity is wrong and also why fat people are brilliant and gorgeous and worthy of celebration. Links!

• Here’s the original post by Sofie Hagen on reclaiming #WorldObesityDay
• Here’s why “Everything You Know About Obesity Is Wrong”
• And here’s what went into this week’s killjoy survival kit:
  • The Open Letter from students opposing the suspension of the Graduate Option in Gender and Women’s Studies at McGill
  • The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson
  • Girl Zines: Making Media, Doing Feminism by Alison Piepmeier
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender
  • The Wet’suwet’en Support Toolkit

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 and tweet about the podcast using #SecretFeministAgenda. Want to email me about your killjoy survival kit? Send it to secretfeministagenda(at)gmail(dot)com.

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.

Last week I went to Iron Dog Books after hours to hang out with co-owner Hilary Atleo and talk about settler-colonial mind-fucks, problematic favs, the pleasures of queer feminist sci-fi, why cities thrive on independent arts businesses, and whether or not grapefruits have gotten sweeter. Here are some links!

• If you want to learn more about Iron Dog Books you can find them on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
• For more on Wet’suwet’en, read this fabulous list of resources put together by genius and poet Samantha Marie Nock.
• Here are some links about authors that may or may not be problematic or, as I say way too many times in this episode (I was clearly in a literal #mood), “trash”:
  • Robert A. Heinlein
  • J.K. Rowling
  • Mahatma Gandhi
  • Roald Dahl
• Here’s a little bit more context on property tax relief for small businesses
• And here’s the Allusionist episode on Apples!
• And finally, the links to Hilary’s book recommendations:
  • Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
  • The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
  • Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline
  • Fur, Feather, Fin–All of Us Are Kin by Diane Lang
  • The many works of Shaun Tan
  • Bitter by Jennifer McLagan

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. Hilary’s theme song was “North Side Gal” by J.D. McPherson.

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’s minisode is a little more leisurely than last time, as I think my way through empathy fatigue aka burnout in the face of crisis, and whether hopepunk is a possible way through feelings of numbness and overwhelm. And to accompany this slightly longer episode, here are some unusually concise links!

• Anne Helen Petersen’s “How Millennials Became The Burnout Generation”
• Alyssa Hull’s “Hopepunk and Solarpunk: On Climate Narratives That Go Beyond the Apocalypse”
• Donna Haraway’s Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene
• Some more context/background on hopepunk
• Sara Ahmed’s Willful Subjects
• Lauren Berlant’s Cruel Optimism
• The Sandy & Nora podcast!
• The online Queer Zine Archive
• Carmen Maria Machado’s In the Dream House

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 and tweet about the podcast using #SecretFeministAgenda. Want to email me about your killjoy survival kit? Send it to secretfeministagenda(at)gmail(dot)com.

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.

To make up for the very mini minisode, here’s an extra-long interview with extra-awesome human being Dina Del Bucchia! We talk about poetry, publishing, cats, farts, and basically everything in between. Here are a million links!

• First! Check out the rest of Dina’s stuff here on her website, and then subscribe to her awesome podcast Can’t Lit, and then buy all her books! Also go see her (and me, and everyone) at the Growing Room festival this March. ALSO also, check out the archives of Poetry is Dead. ALSO ALSO also, go to the Real Vancouver Writers’ Series.
• Want to read more about Cheer on Netflix? I really like this Atlantic piece on how harmful cheerleading is to the athletes and this New Yorker piece on the deceptions of cheerleading.
• If you want to know what’s up with the UBC MFA, here’s an article.
• Dina mentioned the Millennial Line comedy and poetry series.
• The Roland Barthes book I was referencing is Image~Music~Text.
• Laura McGrath’s article is “Comping White”.
• Adèle Barclay’s new poetry book is Renaissance Normcore. You can listen to her episode of Secret Feminist Agenda here. (I said it was the third episode but it was the eighth, whoops!)
• Read up on McClelland & Stewart’s Spring 2020 poetry collections.
• Here’s a pertinent article about Margaret Atwood being co-awarded the Booker and how that win may have betrayed the biases in how awards evaluate literary merit.
• You can read the More Canada report online, if you want.
• Oh, and here’s the Cherie Dimaline profile from Quill&Quire.
• Read more about Caroline Calloway!
• We chatted about small presses, including Arsenal Pulp Press and Europa Editions, which is responsible for publishing Elena Ferrante in English as well as Muriel Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog.
• Remember the viral short story “Cat Person”? Well the author, Kristen Roupenian, got a $1.2 million advance for her short story collection, You Know You Want This, which has also been optioned by HBO.
• Speaking of publishing being completely wild, here’s an explainer on what’s going on with American Dirt. Instead of reading this apparently very bad book, you should read Valeria Luiselli’s stunning Lost Children Archive.
• We talked about Rupi Kaur’s impact on poetry sales in Canada, and The New Republic declaring her “the writer of the decade” .
• A few more pertinent links:
  • Cats can have little a salami, as a treat.
  • “The Revenge of Monoculture: The Internet gave us more choices, but the mainstream won anyway”
  • Alicia Elliott’s A Mind Spread Out on the Ground
• And, finally, Dina’s comedy recommendations!
  • New Eden
  • A Black Lady Sketch Show
  • Fleabag
  • Back to Life

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. Dina’s theme song was “Disappear” by Mazzy Star.

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’ve set a new record in this, the first minisode of 2020, for just how mini a minisode can be. Turns out? pretty mini! But that’s okay, it’s a new year and we’re being gentle with ourselves.

• This week’s topic was inspired by this tweet.
• And here’s the thread of great responses about how people are being gentle with themselves this January.
• Finally, Jia Tolentino’s Trick Mirror, specifically the essay “Always Be Optimizing,” has been challenging me to rethink how we try to optimize our own lives. You can listen to an abridged version here!

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 and tweet about the podcast using #SecretFeministAgenda. Want to email me about your killjoy survival kit? Send it to secretfeministagenda(at)gmail(dot)com.

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 with Dr. Tina Sikka about her work in feminist science studies, from feminist analysis of geoengineering to the intersections of race and the diet industry. This is one of those episodes where I probably learned as much as you’re going to. I love these episodes! Come learn with me. Also, links:

• You can find Tina’s work at her website; she specifically references this new Wired article about gender and geoengineering as well as her Jacobin article, “Against Twenty-First Century Race Science”
• We give a brief definition of standpoint theory, but to read more check out the work of Sandra Harding, Donna Haraway, and Helen Longino
• The idea of strategic essentialism comes from Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak (sorry for all the Wikipedia in these show notes!)
• We talk briefly about Jia Tolentino’s new book, Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion
• Here’s an article that contextualizes the high maternal mortality rates in African American women as a public health crisis
• I reference my interview with Dawn Serra a few times, so here it is in case you missed it!
• Tina recommends this article on the intersections of fatphobia and anti-Black racism in responses to Lizzo
• Here’s something on shifting definitions of whiteness in U.S. history
• This interview that Kat Chow of NPR’s Code Switch did with Chickasaw citizen and Native American Studies scholar Elizabeth Rule helps to explain the idea of “blood quantum” and how it encompasses both the “one-drop rule” and the state policing of Indigeneity
• And here’s an article that rightly compares the over-representation of Indigenous children in Canada’s child welfare system to the residential school system
• I mentioned the episode of Another Round called “I got Indian in My Family,” which features Kim Tallbear on Black and Indigenous kinship
• This article provides some more detail on the story of Russ George dropping iron dust into the ocean (and the general dangers of rogue geoengineering)
• Last Wikipedia link, I swear: environmental racism
• And here’s an article on why the Madrid Climate Conference didn’t go as well as it needed to
• And, because these links were a little depressing, let me leave you with some hopepunk: “The narratives we construct, the stories we tell ourselves must acknowledge that, while there’s a scientific consensus that the atmosphere is warming due to our fossil fuel emissions, many aspects and extents of climate change remain uncertain. Writing non-apocalyptic climate change narratives can make room, intellectually and emotionally, for our failures to act sooner.”

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. Tina’s theme song was “Cloudbusting” by Kate Bush.

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 minisode is about taking stock and resisting the urge to turn our own lives into listicles or “best of the decade” featurettes, but instead residing in the messy and complex abundance of it all. You know, just some low-stakes early December thoughts. Also, here are some low-stakes early December links:

• Much of my thinking about abundance, canonicity, publishing, and artificial scarcity comes from Richard Nash’s “What Is the Business of Literature?”
• On the topic of media coverage, best-of lists, and what gets left out (and why!) you should read this excellent twitter thread by the brilliant Jen Sookfong Lee.
• That’s it! Two links! That’s all you get! I’m going to a party 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. Follow me @hkpmcgregor and tweet about the podcast using #SecretFeministAgenda. Want to email me about your killjoy survival kit? Send it to secretfeministagenda(at)gmail(dot)com.

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.

In this minisode I’m thinking through recent protests agains “gender identity debates,” which institutions need to have values, and how we sustain ourselves when doing organizing or activist work that can feel so completely exhausting sometimes. This feels like a sad episode to me, but also maybe a hopeful one. Also, here are some links:

• This is officially my final plug for the Vancouver Podcast Festival and Secret Feminist Agenda meet-up. I hope to see some of you there!
• For some context around the event at SFU, here’s the open letter I co-authored. Here’s some context around the TPL event and accompanying protests, and here’s an article about the SFU event being moved. And while we’re at it, here’s a little more context on Murphy herself.
• If you’re a Canadian library worker and believe that libraries shouldn’t platform hate, consider signing this open letter. While you’re at it, read “Neutrality in the Library? Don’t Give Me That Bullshit.”
• I don’t even know where to begin regarding academic freedom and its complexities, so I guess maybe we can start with the Wikipedia entry?
• If you don’t know what I’m talking about re: former Canadian Prime Minister and the muzzling of scientists, here’s a little context.
• Here’s Lucia’s absolutely beautiful Twitter thread in its entirety.
• And finally, here’s an absolutely perfect Baroness von Sketch Show bit about the comforts of baking-based television.

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 and tweet about the podcast using #SecretFeministAgenda. Want to email me about your killjoy survival kit? Send it to secretfeministagenda(at)gmail(dot)com.

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 sat down to talk with Emma Cooper, creator of the comedy show Rape is Real & Everywhere, which highlights the comedy and storytelling of rape and sexual assault survivors. I had a chance to see the show during the Vancouver Fringe Festival this year, and then got to sit down with Emma to talk about the cathartic power of comedy, burnout in activist work, the challenges and rewards of producing a show that touches viewers so deeply, getting past our desire to be good, and a whole lot more. Speaking of more, here are some links!

• First off, here’s the link to Emma’s show on November 23 in Vancouver!
• And here’s the Facebook event for the Secret Feminist Agenda meet-up on November 8. You can find the rest of the events and buy tickets and passes at vanpodfest.ca.
• Emma mentions a bunch of comedians, including Alex Sparling, Amber Harper-Young, Heather Jordan Ross, Randee Neumeyer, and Ryan Lachance. You should go follow them all!
• They also recommend Good One: A Podcast About Jokes
• Some of the books I mentioned were I Hope We Choose Love by Kai Cheng Thom and The Witches Are Coming by Lindy West.
• I also talked about the use of photography by the Khmer Rouge and my sad dissertation.

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. Emma’s theme song was “Praying” by Kesha.

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 is a slightly unusual episode, inspired by an email I got from Plan International Canada about International Day of the Girl which is, in fact, today! October 11! They shared with me some data they’ve gathered about how girls picture themselves (or don’t picture themselves) in leadership positions, and guess what, I’ve got some thoughts about it. You know what else I’ve got? SOME LINKS:

• The Vancouver Podcast Festival runs from November 7-10; the Secret Feminist Agenda meet-up will be part of the Podfair on November 8.
• My conversation with Lindy West is scheduled for December 3! Don’t forget to pre-order her new book, The Witches Are Coming.
• On the topic of imposter syndrome and “confidence,” read “Impostor syndrome is a response to a world that doesn’t believe in women“
• And check out Clare’s blog post, “A Killjoy Survival Kit for the Secret Feminist Agenda” and don’t forget to send in your own survival kits!

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 and tweet about the podcast using #SecretFeministAgenda. Want to email a submission for the new segment? Send it to secretfeministagenda(at)gmail(dot)com.

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 episode was actually recorded in early May, and here it is over four months later, FINALLY seeing the light of day, and I’m so delighted because Okka–poet, writer, and artist–is a goddamn delight. But don’t just take my word for it. Listen for yourself, and then check out some of these exciting and also very extensive links:

• First off, you should definitely check out all of Okka’s work, including Rope, Indigenous Species, Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf and Disabled Poets Write Back, and her performance Annah: Nomenclature.
• You can also find her work in issue 24 of Uncanny Magazine, “Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction”!
• And here’s Katie Lewis Hood’s splendid review of Indigenous Species!
• The conference that had Okka in town was HASTAC 2019, “Decolonizing Technologies, Reprogramming Education”
• Okka mentioned the 2016 conference Archives Matter: Queer, Feminist and Decolonial Encounters
• I talk quite a lot in this episode about Lily Cho‘s remarkable research project Mass Capture (and gosh I hope I don’t misrepresent it!)
• Oh gosh, and we talk a lot about French painter Paul Gauguin, particularly his painted Annah the Javanese. Okka references the books Paul Gaugain: An Erotic Life and The Way to Paradise as well as the biopics The Wolf at the Door and Paradise Found, starring Donald and Kiefer Sutherland, respectively.
• You can learn more about the Dutch East India Company here!
• We discuss the incredible work of Lydia X. Z. Brown (apologies for getting their middle initial wrong!), the episode of Witch, Please we recorded with them, as well as Rowling’s article on “Illness and Disability” in the wizarding world.
• We also talk about environmental racism, the over-harvesting of white sage, and how white witches appropriate Indigenous practices.
• And finally, here are all of the books that I caught references to:
  • Tina M. Campt, Listening to Images
  • Saidiya Hartman, Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval
  • Ann Laura Stoler, Race and the Education of Desire: Foucault’s History of Sexuality and the Colonial Order of Things and Along the Archival Grain: Epistemic Anxieties and Colonial Common Sense
  • Slamet Thohari, Disability In Java: Contesting Conceptions of Disability In Javanese Society after the Suharto Regime
  • Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice
  • Jasbir K. Puar, The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability
  • Mel Y. Chen, Animacies: Biopolitics, Racial Mattering, and Queer Affect
  • Simone Brown, Dark Matters: On the Surveillance of Blackness
  • Sara Ahmed, Living a Feminist Life
  • Safiya U. Noble, Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism
  • Robert McRuer, Crip Theory: Cultural Signs of Queerness and Disability
  • Tobin Siebers, Disability Theory

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. Okka’s theme song was “Sparkly” by Young Magic.

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.

Here are some things to look forward to in this minisode: the sound of my voice with a pretty bad head cold; a characteristic quantity of grappling; and the announcement of the new minisode segment [fanfare sound effect]. And while we’re at it, here are some links:

• My favourite piece on the culture of academic cool is Lisa Ruddick’s “When Nothing Is Cool,” which was the launching point for my article on podcasting and fandom as examples of “tiny acts of courage in which people say the uncool things.”
• Want to read more about gender-based bias in student evaluations of teaching? Here’s a recent study that concludes “that the relationship between gender and teaching evaluations may indicate that the use of evaluations in employment decisions is discriminatory against women”!
• My favourite piece on America’s toxic cult of positivity is Barbara Ehrenreich’s iconic “Welcome to Cancerland”
• No spoilers, but the new segment has a lot to do with this previous episode.

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 and tweet about the podcast using #SecretFeministAgenda. Want to email a submission for the new segment? Send it to secretfeministagenda(at)gmail(dot)com.

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.

With apologies for its tardiness, I present to you the first interview of season four, and this one’s a doozy. I’m talking to rad queer fat genius, sex & relationship coach, and pleasure advocate Dawn Serra about shame, vulnerability, pleasure, boundaries, joy, imagining radical futures, and so much more. This conversation broke open my brain, and I hope it does the same thing for you! Here are some links!

• You definitely want to know more about Dawn, so you should check out her website, her instagram, and her podcast Sex Gets Real. And if you’re feeling inspired to continue these conversations about pleasure, desire, and joy, check out Dawn’s upcoming course, enrolling for October.
• Dawn talked about Tricia Hersey’s Nap Ministry, which you can read more about here!
• Here’s a great summary of Kate Kenfield’s concept of being a “beacon of permission.”
• We learned about a lot of Browns in this episode, specifically Brené Brown, Stuart Brown, and adrienne maree brown.
• Dawn also recommended Mia Mingus’s story “Hollow” from the anthology Octavia’s Brood. Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha is in that anthology, too, and you already know I’m a massive fan of their work!
• Finally, and only slightly off-topic, you can learn more about The Adventure Zone and its graphic novel adaptations here.

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. Dawn’s theme song was “Exposure Kills” by Miss Eaves.

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.

HOLY SHIT IT’S SEASON FOUR! Can you believe it’s season four already? This season there are going to be a few changes. Kaarina won’t be joining us for Self-Care Corner, meaning I’m on the lookout for new segment ideas, plus I’m moving to a fortnightly release schedule. It’s all about sustainability, baby! Plus this season we have a theme, and that theme is, cool feminists in and around Vancouver. If you’ve got guest suggestions, let me know! And in exchange, I will let you know about these links:

• A lot of my thinking about relation to place in this episode was inspired by Amy Fung’s book Before I Was a Critic I Was a Human Being, which is working through a lot of these same questions.
• I also have in mind writer and photographer Hiromi Goto’s excellent Twitter feed, which features regular photographs of local flora and fauna with the caption “A little beauty, every day.”
• Would you like to know more about whose territory you’re living on? This site is a great place to start!

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 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 here! The final episode of season three! This episode responds explicitly to Carla Rice’s peer review of season two, specifically this sentence:

“Follow-up episodes featuring panels of feminist scholars, educators and activists could have opened space to reflect on ethical processes of speaking out and listening to criticism—on how critique might engender difficult emotions such as anger and shame in panelists, on how they’ve worked through these emotions, and on how attending to difficult emotions can lead to new learning.”

This is that follow-up episode, this is that panel of feminist scholars, educators, and activists, and this is our reflection on speaking out and listening to criticism. And these are some links!

• First up, a little more on our guests’ work. You can find all of Brenna‘s projects, including her excellent podcast, on her website. She is also an author over at BookRiot! Lucia‘s work, including her blog, is also available on her website. And Erin‘s work is in many exciting places, including Hook&Eye; you can also read more about Notes from a Feminist Killjoy here.
• Erin recommended Kerry Clare‘s blog, Pickle Me This.
• Our reference to guts being feminist friends was alluding to Sara Ahmed’s blog post “The Time of Complaint.” But talking about guts and feminism always makes me think of the fabulous Guts Magazine, a vital Canadian feminist platform.

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.  Our collective theme song was “Remember My Name” by Mitski.

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 the last minisode of season three, and I’m doing some very specific responding to Anna Poletti’s peer review of season two. Specifically, I’m taking up the genre of the anecdote, and the kind of work it does in Secret Feminist Agenda. I’m thinking about anecdotes as teaching tools and as central to feminist knowledge production, and I’m shouting out some of the writers who model the radical potential of the anecdote. Plus Kaarina is talking to us about self care during conference season. Here are some links!

• First off, I cite one particular scholarly article about anecdotes quite extensively in this episode: Melissa Greg’s “A Mundane Voice”. If you’d like to read it and don’t have institutional access, let me know.
• My thinking about first-person or confessional writing as a mode of feminist knowledge work was inspired by a few Twitter threads as well as this old-but-still-pertinent Guardian piece on confessional writing.
• And finally, here’s the (totally incomplete) list of great first-person-essay writers that I mentioned, including links to some of my favourite pieces they’ve written: Gwen Benaway, Tressie McMillan-Cottom, Samantha Irby, Erin Wunker, Alicia Elliott, Sara Ahmed, Briallen Hopper, Roxane Gay, and Jia Tolentino.

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.

This episode is an absolute dream come true: I spent a full hour talking to Sara Ahmed about feminism. Can you believe it??? Our conversation focused on Sara’s most recent book, Living a Feminist Life (pictured in this photo!). We talked about public scholarship, practical versus theoretical approaches to feminism, finding your people, sustaining your killjoy spirit, and so much more. The conversation gave me some definite feelings, and I hope it does the same for you. Also, links:

• First off, some links to Sara’s work. You can find all of her books as well as forthcoming events (she’s got lots, in the UK and, come next fall, in Canada!) on her website. You can also find a link to her extremely excellent blog, feminist killjoys, which is frequently updated and always necessary.
• Here’s a beautiful blog post Sara sent me, about Audre Lorde: The Berlin Years and reading Lorde as a feminist killjoy. It expands further on the scene with the beets, linking it to intergenerational feminist storytelling. While you’re at it, learn more about the film here.
• If you aren’t caught up on your Audre Lorde reading (it’s never too late!), here’s a link to A Burst of Light and to The Cancer Journals. I bet your local library has them, too.
• Sara also mentioned this new volume about race in the academy (in which she has an essay), Dismantling Race in Higher Education: Racism, Whiteness and Decolonising the Academy.
• I also mentioned Moten & Harney’s idea of the undercommons, which was alluding to their work in The UnderCommons: Fugitive Planning & Black Study. 
• Finally, if you didn’t catch the references to sexual-harassment problems in CanLit, Zoe Whittal’s excellent piece on the topic lays out what’s at stake in believing women.

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.  Sara’s theme song is “Thick Skin” by Leona Lewis.

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.

• • You can read Sara Ahmed’s blog here, and order her book, Living a Feminist Life. These will be included in the links next week, too! Fun!
  • Kaarina talks in this episode about the work of Charmaine Nelson–and I don’t know about you, but I want to read more about her!

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.

• You can find the rest of Ames’s work at her online portfolio, and you can preorder her new book, These Are Love(d) Letters. 
• My references to the potential ethical problems with some contemporary podcasts–including “Missing Richard Simmons”–came from this excellent article on how podcasts are a seductive, and sometimes slippery, mode of storytelling.
• If you’d like to know more about the SpokenWeb project I mentioned, you can do that here!
• And here’s the article I wrote about podcasting as maker pedagogy!
• Ames and I talk a little bit about the feminist labour of editing, my thoughts on which are always inspired by the excellent article “Labours of Love and Cutting Remarks: The Affective Economies of Editing” by Kate Eichhorn and Heather Milne.
• There’s a ton of stuff on altmetrics and open access online, but this blog post is a nice primer. It has graphs!
• On the topic of feminist podcasting and women’s voices, here’s a lovely piece on “taking up sonic space” by the folks behind the podcast Feminist Killjoys, PhD
• Ames and I talk about (and praise) the excellent work of Kathleen Fitzpatrick, whose books Planned Obsolescence and Generous Thinking (I’ve linked here to the openly available version, but you can read them as books, too!) have been hugely important for my understanding of how we might transform scholarly communication.
• Here’s the twitter convo I mentioned about the complexity of measuring impact in public scholarship.
• And finally, the podcasts Ames is listening to right now: How to Survive the End of the World, Strangers, Where Should We Begin, Invisibilia, and How To Be a Girl.

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.  Ames’s theme song is “We Used to Wait” by Arcade Fire.

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.

less “lean in” and more “lie down”

Collectively, Kaarina and I are bringing you some ~extremely chill vibes~ today. I’m talking about why we need to embrace the radical potential of podcasting as a medium that has yet to be fully absorbed into the mainstream, but I’m lying on my couch while I do it. And Kaarina’s self-care corner features a very special guest star with some important insights on gentleness. It might be my favourite self-care corner yet. And now? Links!

• • Did I mention that you should save the date for the next Vancouver Podcast Festival? Because you should save the date for the next Vancouver Podcast Festival. (It’s November 7-10, that’s the date you should save.)
  • “Born out of the same open publishing technology as blogs, podcasting was once a quirky backwater pond of digital curiosity…” Read up on what Spotify’s $230 million Gimlet deal means for podcasting.
  • “For all its lofty rhetoric, Google is an advertising broker, selling our attention to companies that will pay for it. The longer people stay on YouTube, the more money Google makes.” This is a good piece on how YouTube radicalizes users.

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 refer to a conversation that I was pretty sure I heard on Call Your Girlfriend, and I was right! Specifically this episode, specifically the conversation with Esmé Weijun Wang.
• That part where Jimanekia is talking about Jessamyn and I get really excited? That’s Jessamyn Stanley, iconic body positive yoga activist and educator. You can hear her episode of Trauma Queen here.
• In case you missed it, the conversation I reference about consent-based interviewing styles is from Episode 3.2 Buffy Sainte-Marie and Music Journalism with Andrea Warner
• Finally, the podcasts Jimanekia recommends are The Read, The Dollop, The Quietest Revolution, American Sex, Small Doses with Amanda Seales, and of course Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations. 

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.  Jimanekia’s theme song is “Pursuit of Happyness” by Kid Cudi.

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.

taking deep breaths through the pain

Content warning for discussions of chronic pain and illness, drug addiction, and cancer.

I jokingly tweeted a screenshot of the audio file for this episode with the caption “The telltale shape of a hard-to-record minisode.” I was referring to the long, conspicuous gaps that betray how hard I find it to talk about some topics. Episode 2.3 “On Being Seen” had a similar shape, pre-edit. The hard episodes, for me, are usually the personal ones. And this is a personal one. I’m talking about pain and how it links to trauma; and I’m talking about the incredible work of disability studies scholars and disability justice activists. And because I’m talking about a bunch of really great writing, here are a bunch of links:

• • I recommend everything by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, especially their newest book of poetry, Tonguebreaker
  • I didn’t mention this in the episode, but I also recommend The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison, which thinks in really interesting ways about the difference (or lack of difference) between “real” and “imagined” pain
  • Here are the pieces I read as recommended on Twitter. As usual, if there’s something you want to read but it’s paywalled, just let me know!
    • “Pain Scale” by Eula Bliss
    • An excerpt of Opium Eater: The New Confessions by Carlyn Zwarenstein
    • “Recovering a Cripistemology of Pain: Leaky Bodies, Connective Tissue, and Feeling Discourse” by Alyson Patsavas 
    • “The Bodymind Problem and the Possibilities of Pain”  by Margaret Price
  • And here are the things recommended on Twitter than I haven’t had a chance to read yet:
    • Ask Me About My Uterus: A Quest to Make Doctors Believe in Women’s Pain by Abby Norman
    • The Rejected Body: Feminist Philosophical Reflections on Disability by Susan Wendell
    • Sick: A Memoir by Porochista Khakpour (but here’s a great review)
    • “Face of Rhythm” by Kim Hyesoon

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.

• If you haven’t already, you need to read Chelsea’s book, Indigenous Writes, and check out her very excellent podcast, Métis in Space.
• A lot of the points Chelsea makes could be paired with blog posts she’s written, like “Reconciliation in the time of pipelines” and “A little peek at what I’ve been writing” (an example of Métis futurisms) and “A storm of lawsuits.” Oh, and if you want to do something about that lawsuit she’s writing about, here’s the GoFundMe where you can do that.
• If you’d like to learn more about Indigenous futurisms, Lindsay Nixon has a wonderful piece on “Visual Cultures of Indigenous Futurisms”
• For a great summary of how settlers’ expectations of Indigenous literature put authors in an impossible bind, read Alicia Elliott’s “Not Your Noble Savage: On Literary Colonialism and Native Writers”
• For more on what it was like watching the “appropriation prize”  unfold in real time, read Scaachi Koul’s “On Glibness And Diversity In Canadian Media”
• And finally, here’s an article about a former poet laureate of Quebec being accused of plagiarizing Maya Angelou, Dylan Thomas, and Tupac Shakur!

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.  Chelsea’s theme song is “Back in Black” by ACDC.

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.

• The foundational text on citational politics, for me, is Sara Ahmed’s “Making Feminist Points”; she also has a lot to say about citation in Living a Feminist Life.
• I also mention an article by Carrie Mott and Daniel Cockayne, “Citation matters: mobilizing the politics of citation toward a practice of ‘conscientious engagement’”
• I mention in passing how much metrics matter to academic careers, which this opinion piece on racial exclusions in scholarly citations goes into.
• And I sing the praises of Jessica Marie Johnson, whose work you should definitely check out.
• Finally, go learn more about the Cite Black Women collective, listen to their podcast, and maybe even buy a t-shirt!

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.

By Sarah Race, http://www.sarahrace.com

For this episode I sat down with the brilliant and luminous Zena Sharman to talk about her work as an LGBTQ+ health advocate (seriously click on that link and look at that website, it is a testimony to femme web design and I am in love). We talk about thinking strategically, changing systems, editing anthologies, and casting spells, plus what it means to be one small person working on great big problems. Talking to Zena always makes me feel better, and I hope some of that comes through in this episode. Here are some links!

• First, go buy Zena’s books, The Remedy: Queer and Trans Voices on Health and Health Care and Persistence: All Ways Butch and Femme. Buy two copies and give them away as gifts!
• Zena mentions so many great resources in this episode, and here they are:
  • Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown
  • Histories of the Transgender Child by Julian Gill-Peterson
  • Kelli Dunham‘s ‘zine, You Don’t Have to Love Your Body to Take Care of It
  • Care Work by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
  • The Healing Justice Podcast
  • Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with Cure by Eli Clare
  • Using Story to Change Systems by Ella Saltmarshe
• Also I mentioned some things! One of them was the wonderful blog post “Everything Is Awful and I’m Not Okay: questions to ask before giving up” (which inspired this poem, which I love so so much)
• This is a good piece on Walter Benjamin’s essay “The Storyteller” 
• And I enthusiastically recommend Christina Sharpe’s In the Wake: On Blackness and Being 

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.  Zena’s theme song is “We Are Circling” 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.

• For the academics in the crowd, Laura Moss, long-timed editor of the journal Canadian Literature, has written a fantastically useful editorial on how to increase your chances of getting published in an academic journal. It includes advice for processing peer review that is different and yet kind of the same as mine. Check it out!
• All of the articles I could find on dealing with criticism are gross self-help-type things so instead I’m going to recommend that you go watch Kitbull, the new Pixar animated short about a kitten and a pitbull becoming friends. YOU ARE WELCOME.
• Finally, Kaarina would like to enjoy this excellent meme on the theme of her 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. 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.

This week I’m talking to journalist and totally-not-a-bot Taylor Crumpton. We talk about how Taylor went from grad student to freelance journalist, how Twitter is a platform for both highlighting marginalized voices and exploiting Black women’s labour, and why it might not be a good idea to burn the flag (hint: the reason might surprise you). In fact, we touch on so many topics that I’m anticipating an extra-long list of links. And here it is!

• First off, go read everything Taylor has written and then share it online. If you want a link straight to that piece about a girl fighting off an alligator, here it is.
• Taylor talks about getting her start as a writer through The OpEd Project, which is dedicated to “increas[ing] the range of voices and quality of ideas we hear in the world.”
• Taylor also talks about being told in grade school that she couldn’t write, which reminded me of lawyer, writer, and podcaster Hadiya Rodrigue’s incredible essay “Black on Bay Street,” which recounts similar experiences of being gaslit and discouraged as a student.
• I tried to find you a good piece about Beyonce’s pregnancy photoshoot and the symbolism of the images and the misplaced critique of her fetishizing pregnancy, but everything I found was so absolutely terrible that I’m going to link to Taylor’s piece on Medium instead!
• You probably already know Zoé Samudzi‘s work but just in case, here’s her latest piece on why facial recognition technology doesn’t work on Black people and how that might actually be a good thing.
• I actually didn’t know about Wear Your Voice magazine, which (it turns out) is an incredible platform for intersectional feminist work and I immediately read like five articles so you should go check it out.
• Just in case you aren’t familiar with Black Twitter, here’s a good intro to its importance and influence.
• This article is probably my favourite piece on paying women (i.e. #GiveWomenYourMoney). I couldn’t find the original invoice for emotional labour that I mentioned to Taylor, but while I was looking for it I found this website that will help you calculate how much the patriarchy owes you, and it is very satisfying. It accounts for menstrual products and wage gap!
• Last link! (Told you this list would be long.) This article explains how racism impacts people’s ability to call cabs, and how services like Uber and Lyft improve access to vehicles for people of colour.

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.  Taylor’s theme song is “Learned from Texas” by Big K.R.I.T. 

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.

Me + Vegan Pizza =

Content warning for a brief discussion of disordered and restrictive eating.

In this week’s minisode I’m tackling a topic that I’ve been putting off for approximately two and a half seasons of this podcast: veganism. I talk about why I chose to be a vegan fourteen-and-a-half years ago, why it still brings me joy, and why I also think it’s an incredibly fraught identity. Along the way I touch on the different histories of the vegan and so-called “clean eating” movements, the problem with white animal rights activists, and the links between veganism and restrictive eating. But I also talk about joy! And donuts! Plus Kaarina is here to talk to us about setting attainable goals as a way to be kinder to ourselves. Here are some links!

• One of the foundational books of my own veganism was Carol J. Adams’ The Sexual Politics of Meat. I haven’t read it in over a decade, though, so this is just a fact and not a recommendation. A book I do recommend most wholeheartedly is Timothy Findlay’s Not Wanted On the Voyage. Just to warn you, I’ve read it five times and cried every time. Oh, one more book recommendation, if you like the intersections of philosophy and conversations about the human and the animal and stuff: J.M. Coetzee’s The Lives of Animals. Beautiful, complex, challenging stuff. Wildly meta.
• This article by Victorianist Susan Hamilton is a great introduction to Victorian anti-vivisection protests and the way they demonstrated the links between the policing of the animal/human divide and the policing of the gender binary. My favourite book on the links between white women, sentimentality, and imperialism is Christina Klein’s Cold War Orientalism. 
• I don’t usually link to Everyday Feminism because I’m not a huge fan of a listicle, but this piece on how mainstream animal rights movements enact colonialism and other forms of harm is spot on. And speaking of places I usually don’t link to, here’s a Vice article on why so many white supremacists are vegan.
• OH MY GOD THE POST PUNK KITCHEN IS STILL UP YOU CAN WATCH IT HERE!!!!! THOSE ARM WARMERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you want a taste of Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s brilliance, start with some of the classics, like her chewy chocolate chip cookies, seitan portobello stroganoff, chickpea cutlets, or her famous mac & shews. This is not fancy vegan fair, folks, this is what you learn to make when you are a dirtbag 22-year-old shopping at Bulk Barn. Enjoy!

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.

• First up, you should check out Julie’s instagram and also subscribe to her new podcast, Midnight Moonlight
• Here’s a piece about (F)empower and how it’s providing a space for Miami’s queer, femme community, and here’s a bit more about 777 Mall as an art space, and if you’re in or visiting Miami you should definitely check out her newest project, Cafecito Break!
• On the topic of tattoos and healing from trauma, here’s a piece about trauma survivors getting tattooed, and here’s a gorgeous story about a Vancouver tattoo artist who transforms scars into art.
• Want to read more about women and tattooing? There’s a whole freakin’ book about it! 
• Oh yeah, and let’s talk about unpaid internships! They are bad and exploitative. They are barriers to success for students of colour, favour the wealthy, and industries that rely on or require them tend to have real diversity problems.

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.  Julie’s theme song is Kickin’ Back by Mila J.

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 read from Dr. Anna Poletti’s peer review of season two; if you’d like to read the rest of that review, you can do that here.
• Here’s a short piece I wrote a couple of years ago about the gendered labour of defending teaching — and students.
• Much of my thinking around the politics of the classroom has been informed by Kevin Gannon‘s work, including this excellent piece on trigger warnings and safe spaces.
• You should definitely read this article by Tressie McMillan Cottom on how endemic racism is on campuses (and why the liberalism of the university has been overstated).
• And a couple of good pieces about how taking on a disproportionate amount of service harms women academics’ careers.
• Finally: Kaarina recommends reading YA, and in turn I’m going to recommend listening to the new podcast by friend and former guest Brenna Clarke Gray, Hazel & Katniss & Harry & Starr, in which she and cohost Joe take a deep dive into YA novels and their adaptations. It’s awesome! You should listen to it!

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.

• Vivek’s newest book is I‘m Afraid of Men, which Vanity Fair described as “cultural rocket fuel” and Bustle called “The Book Title That Best Describes 2018″. We also talk a whole lot about her debut poetry collection, even this page is white, and you can find out more about all of her books here.
• Vivek is also an incredible musician (the theme song for this episode is from one of her bands, Too Attached), and a visual artist. Read her reflections on Trisha, a photography project in which she reproduced vintage photographs of her mother with herself as the subject.
• Vivek mentions a keynote by Neil Gaiman, in which he describes making art as “sometimes like putting messages in bottles, on a desert island, and hoping that someone will find one of your bottles and open it and read it, and put something in a bottle that will wash its way back to you: appreciation, or a commission, or money, or love.” Read that whole talk here.
• And here’s a link to the excellent thread friend-of-the-show Cynara Geissler wrote about the do’s and don’ts of giving a public reading.
• I assume you’re already listening to Can’t Lit, but just in case you missed it, here’s Vivek’s most recent episode.
• Finally, on the topic of student-shaming (and why it’s bullshit), here’s Aimée Morrison on those who are praised for saying “things that confirm people’s authoritarian biases and distaste for youth” and an iconic piece by Jesse Stommel on how widespread bullying is in universities.

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.  Vivek’s theme song is “I’m Afraid of Men” by Too Attached feat. Peaches. Go buy it here!

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 racial violence.

Happy 2019, you gorgeous humans. I hope everyone got a chance to take some time off and refresh before the calendar reset. I don’t really believe in resolutions, but I do like the way significant dates give us a chance to pause and refocus on what counts. And we’re starting off strong in 2019 with an episode about what is and isn’t white supremacy, the recent resurgence of race science, and the responsibility white folks have to keep educating ourselves and working actively against white supremacy as a system. Here are some links!

• First up, if you’d like to read the peer review for Season 2 you can find it right here.
• My pal Dave Gaertner has crowdsourced a whole document of resources and information about the Gidimt’en raid, which you can access here. If you’d like to donate money, here’s the campaign I donated to.
• The excellent interview with Kyla Schuller I mentioned is “The Trouble With White Women” and the excerpt from Tressie McMillan Cottom’s new book Thick: And Other Essays is “Pregnant Black Women Are Treated as if They’re Incompetent.”
• And finally, three pieces taking a deeper dive into white supremacy and race science: an article on how white supremacy has always been mainstream, an exploration of the unwelcome revival of ‘race science,’ and a close examination of why Jordan Peterson resonates with white supremacists.

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.

CW for discussions of transphobia and violence.

In this, the final episode of 2018, I got to talk to weightlifting pal and femme genius Tara Robertson about her work on diversity and inclusion at Mozilla — and like a million other things, including why we want an open Internet, whether libraries are neutral (hint: they’re not), the conservative politics of tone policing, the danger of corporations replacing the public sphere, and more! That’s a lot of topics, so here are a bunch of links!

• First up, if you want to hear more from Tara (which you obviously do), why not check out the keynote she delivered last month in New Zealand?
• Want to read more about Mozilla’s work on diversity and inclusion? Do that here.
• Here’s the article Tara mentioned from Dr. Katherine Phillips on why diversity makes us smarter aka the business case for diversity
• I also found a recent-ish piece on Facebook’s “free internet” and how it violates net neutrality and functions like “digital colonialism”
• Ready to get freaked out? Here’s a piece on what Facebook is doing with your data. 
• Oh, and in case you have no idea what net neutrality is and why it matters, this is a great primer.
• On the topic of neutrality in libraries, here’s a really interesting summary of a variety of perspectives based on a panel organized by the American Library Association.
• An iconic piece: Anil Dash on the web we lost 
• If you’d like some context around our conversation about the Vancouver Public Library and transphobia, read this public statement by jaye simpson 
• And while you’re reading awesome things, you should definitely read the Femme Shark Manifesto 
• To back up our discussion about heightened violence against the trans community, here’s some information from the Human Rights Campaign 
• And if you’d like some context around my discussion of Grace Lavery’s experience of transphobia in the context of queer studies, here’s her Twitter thread explaining the situation 
• On the topic of keeping your data safe, here’s a great piece Tara shared with me on quitting the “Big Five” tech companies 
• Didn’t know that Turnitin is a corporation mining your data? Read up on the case against it. 
• And here’s a little more reading on Starbucks, public spaces, and anti-Blackness
• Finally, because I promised it: here’s the list Kaarina shared of helpful self-care tips for the holiday 

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.  Tara’s theme song is “Good As Hell” 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.

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.

Look at this straight up celebrity who totally agreed to talk to me! Amber Nash, the voice of Pam Poovey on Archer and a renowned improviser, joined me to talk about improv and gender, learning how to be body positive from fictional characters, and exactly what time of the day you should take your baths. Other topics include how improv is like psychology, what it means to improvise like a man, and the degree to which playing a character known for saying incredibly filthy things might upset your mother. Amber is delightful! Here are some links!

• First, on gender and improv, here’s a three-part series from The Mary Sue on “how funny women navigate gender on stage.” Read them all: part one, part two, and part three.
• I finally found the Lupita Nyong’o interview where she talks about motion capture! It’s pretty brief, but it’s in this video.
• If you’d like to learn more about the history of Adult Swim and the role shows like Sealab 2021 played in building an audience for adult cartoons, check out this neat oral history.
• I tried to find something good to link here about Pam Poovey as a fat icon but literally everything I found was written by a dude; feel free to send me any relevant links and I’ll add them in here!
• Finally, I promised to link through to my Sad Christmas Jams playlist, so here it is.

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.  Amber’s theme song is “Voodoo Lady” by Ween.

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.

FUN FACT November is my least favourite month of the year for all kinds of reasons, and by the end of this month I’m usually pretty worn down and exhausted (this year being no exception, as the quality of my vocal production in this episode demonstrates).  But in this episode, instead of telling you how tired I am, I’m going to tell you about something that I use to nourish my weary self and make sure I’m spending time NOT working. And while we’re at it, Kaarina is bringing you extra cozy vibes and reminding you to stay warm! Links!

• First off, here’s the great article I referenced about how women are driving the Dungeons & Dragons renaissance 
• And while we’re at it, here’s a lovely piece an old friend of mine wrote about D&D and female empowerment 
• There’s a ton of stuff out there about how great The Adventure Zone is, but I particularly like this article about how the podcast became great by listening to its fans 
• And I need to give a shout-out to Critical Role as well, which is great and women-centric and I’ve just noticed that almost all of my links are to articles on The Mary Sue which isn’t that surprising but anyway here’s an interview with the women who make the show! 
• Oh, and if you’re interested in women in the world tabletop RPGs, you definitely need to listen to Behold Her
• Read this profile of N.K. Jemisin, that begins with the line “I’m writing about dragons as a black woman, and it’s fucking political” and keeps getting better from there!

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.

This week’s episode is the first ever live Secret Feminist Agenda, recorded at the VPL as part of the Vancouver Podcast Festival. Don’t worry though, we all sound great and the sound of laughter/applause really adds something special. I’m considering having an audience at all future recordings. Anyway, I sat down in front of sixty of my closest friends to talk to criminal defence lawyers Gloria Ng and Colleen Elden about charter rights, feminist friendship, and whether the law is a tool that can be bent towards justice or is inherently aligned with the oppressive function of the state! Fun! Links!

• I’m just going to give you a bunch of potential reading about racism and sexism in the justice system, so here’s an op-ed about “the legal system’s response to murdered and missing Indigenous women”
• Here’s a super interesting piece about the racist history of marijuana laws, and something else about racism and marijuana decriminalization
• I just came across this super interesting piece about breast pumping in the courthouse, which is part of a six-part series about women in the law in Muskoka!
• And finally, here’s a piece about how the decriminalization of sex work failed to protect sex workers because it instead “places the criminal burden on the demand side and on third parties” 

Download Episode / Read Transcription

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.  Gloria and Colleen’s theme song is “Criminal” by Fiona Apple.

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.

Okay I obviously don’t normally use this podcast to promote my side hustles but I want very badly to tell you about this project I’ve been working on for the past year and a half, and which launched just yesterday! Refuse: CanLit in Ruins is a collection of essays and poems and dialogues and stories that tackle the contemporary state of Canadian literature, that interrogate the link between CanLit and systemic forms of power and violence, and that imagine our way forward into something else, something better. I’m so proud of this book, and so moved by the generosity and brilliance of the contributors. If you’re interested in literature in general or Canadian literature in particular, you should read it! And because I love the contributors very much, here’s a (selected) list of other work available by them:

• Keith Maillard’s new book, Twin Studies, is “an engrossing, timely, and contemporary novel about the bonds between twins, about sexuality and gender fluidity, and about the messy complexities of modern family life”
• Tanis MacDonald’s Out of Line: Daring to be an Artist Outside the Big City “looks at our societal preconceptions about the artist lifestyle and examines how real artists fit into the everyday world”
• Gwen Benaway’s poetry collection Holy Wild “explores the complexities of being an Indigenous trans woman in expansive lyric poems”
• You can preorder Alicia Elliott’s new book, A Mind Spread Out on the Ground, “an urgent and visceral work that asks essential questions about the treatment of Native people in North America while drawing on intimate details of her own life and experience with intergenerational trauma”
• Sonnet L’Abbé’s most recent chapbook, Anima Canadensis, is available through Junction Books (but it’s limited edition, so go get it now!)
• Kai Cheng Thom’s poetry collection, a place called No Homeland, and her children’s book, From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea, are both available from Arsenal Pulp Press
• Chelsea Vowel has an incredible book, Indigenous Writes: A Guide to First Nations, Métis & Inuit Issues in Canada, which “explores the Indigenous experience from the time of contact to the present, through five categories – Terminology of Relationships; Culture and Identity; Myth-Busting; State Violence; and Land, Learning, Law, and Treaties”
• Phoebe Wang’s poetry book, Admission Requirements, was deservedly nominated for like a bajillion prizes last year; “the speaker in these poems is engaged in a kind of fieldwork, surveying gardens, communities, and the haphazard cityscape, where the reader is presented with the paradoxes of subsumed histories”
• Joshua Whitehead’s Jonny Appleseed was long listed for the Giller Prize and was a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction (for those outside of Canada, these are big deals!); it’s “a tour-de-force debut novel about a Two-Spirit Indigiqueer young man and proud NDN glitter princess who must reckon with his past when he returns home to his reserve”
• I could keep making this list forever but this is already the longest show notes ever but seriously the contributors to this book are so brilliant and talented and you should look them all up!

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 sexual assault and transphobia.

Like so many good things, this episode started one way and ended up another. I invited Clayre to chat about singing, and we ended up talking about community and harm and silence and what we do (or don’t do) to feel like we belong. Oh, and we talk about performative allyship, which is so complex a topic I could probably make an entire season about it, but in the meantime here are some LINKS:

• There are about a million things to read about the complexities of allyship and performative allyship, including work on the shortcomings of symbolic gestures like safety pins, rejections of the idea of allyship altogether, and this excellent episode of Code Switch on “Safety-Pin Solidarity” which includes the priceless phrase “those getting the allyship done to them”
• And since we’re also talking about singing in a group and how great it is, here’s a piece about singing in a group and how great it is
• We don’t talk about this much, but I allude to Sara Ahmed’s work on complaint, specifically that “When you expose a problem you pose a problem. “
• I wasn’t sure what to post on the topic of the asking of invasive questions, and how for some people sharing your story becomes the cost of admission, and then I remembered this excerpt from Layli Long Soldier’s incredible poem “WHEREAS”:
  • WHEREAS we ride to the airport in a van they swivel their necks and shoulders around to speak to me sugar and lilt in their voices something like nurses their nursely kindness through my hair then engage me as comrades in a fight together. Well what we want to know one lady asks is why they don’t have schools there? Her outrage empathy her furrowed brow. There are schools there I reply. Grade schools high schools colleges. But why aren’t there any stores there? There are stores there. Grocery stores convenience stores trading posts whatever what-have-you I explain but it’s here I recognize the break. It’s here we roll along the pavement into hills of conversation we share a ride we share a country but live in alternate nations and here I must tell them what they don’t know or, should I?

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.  Clayre’s theme song is “Duetto Buffo di Due Gatti.” It’s this version specifically,  but you should probably always go watch this video of small boys singing 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.

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.

• 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.

• 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.

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.

• 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.

• 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.

• First, in praise of tender masculinity
• Second, a video about how great Karamo Brown is 
• Third, that final scene in Moonlight where Kevin strokes Chiron’s head
• Fourth, the episode of Judge John Hodgman I mention 
• Fifth, Vivek Shraya’s new book I’m Afraid of Men
• Sixth, and last, an interview with Terry Crews who should absolutely have been in this episode about the cult of toxic masculinity

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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 on the traditional and unceded territories of the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.

• We mention a couple of other prominent academic coaches in this episode, namely Jennifer Polk aka From PhD to Life and Karen Kelsky aka The Professor Is In.
• Our conversation turns to the tension between the perception of universities as liberal enclaves and their actual deeply conservatism, about which the very brilliant Tressie McMillan Cottom has written.
• On the topic of systemic racism in Canadian universities, scholar Malinda S. Smith has compiled a huge reading list on Twitter that you should definitely bookmark.
• Not sure what we’re talking about when we discuss the neoliberal university? Here’s a good starting point, including a handy definition of neoliberalism: “the university as a market-driven system, which employs modes of governance based on a corporate model.”
• You can read a bit more about the complex relationship between race and tenure in this excellent interview.
• If you don’t already know about Zoe Todd’s work, you can check it out here.
• Finally, a non-paywalled piece on David Graber’s new book Bullshit Jobs.

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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. Jennifer’s theme song is “Das Rehlein” by Hiss.

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

This week I’m tackling a timely Twitter topic (ALLITERATION!): the #ImmodestWomen campaign that has been sweeping academic social media as women with PhDs all change their handles to Dr. in solidarity with Dr. Fern Riddell. I’m thinking about what it means for women to claim authority, why the equation of expertise with university credentials makes me a bit squeamish, and why I suspect there’s something particularly white about this form of activism. And now, some links!

• Start by reading Dr. Riddell’s own reflection on these events and then read some other media coverage if you like.
• Here’s the study about men being less likely to acknowledge women’s credentials.
• I mentioned my friend Alyssa being interviewed for a great piece on open access publishing, and here it is!
• Finally, here’s a link to the entirety of Dr. Angela Davis’s “Black Women and the Academy” which, as I mentioned in the episode, offers an important counterpoint to doubling down on expertise and credentials as a feminist intervention into the politics of the university. Read 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. Follow me @hkpmcgregor, follow Kaarina @kaarinasaurus, and tweet about the podcast using #SecretFeministAgenda.

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

This week I sit down with filmmaker Alba Sotorra to talk about her newest documentary, Commander Arian (shout out to Hot Docs for setting up the interview!). We tackle being a woman documentarian and what it means to be a feminist filmmaker, as well as the work of the YPJ (the Women’s Protection Unit). Here are some links if you’d like to find out more:

• Read more about the YPJ here and here.
• Alba also wants all of you to learn more about Jineology, so here’s an introduction and here’s a more deep-dive article (paywalled).
• Aw heck here’s another article on Jineology.
• If you want to watch some more feminist documentaries, this list is a good starting point.
• And here’s a little more on feminist war journalism.
• Heck, while I’m at it, I wrote an article once on feminism and documentaries.

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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. Jes’s theme song is “Risk It All” by Helly Luv. This song and video have a super interesting story behind them that is worth reading about.

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

• This is where you can see my friend Rosa’s beautiful photos featuring her dog, Emilia!
• Here’s the article I quote from on cats and mental health.
• Oh and if you don’t already follow me on Instagram YOU SHOULD because it’s a lot of pictures of my good good kitties.

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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 on the traditional and unceded territories of the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.

Satin Denny, Richelle Dubois, Gaylene Henry, and Robyn Pitawanakwat at Camp: Justice for our Stolen Children

This week I had the tremendous pleasure of sitting down in Regina, Saskatchewan with four of the women at Camp: Justice for Our Stolen Children.  Robyn Pitawanakwat, Richelle Dubois, Satin Denny, and Gaylene Henry, along with their communities, are working  to bring attention to the injustices facing Indigenous families in Canada, who are losing their children to violence, an unjust legal system, and child protective services. In this episode, they talk about the work the camp is doing, and why, in the wake of Raymond Cormier’s and Gerald Stanley’s acquittals, they’re demanding justice.

• Contribute to the Haven Dubois Memorial Fund by sending money via PayPal to havenmemorialfund@gmail.com. Contribute to the Camp’s work by sending money to colonialismnomore@gmail.com.
• Learn more about Richelle’s Dubois’s fight for an inquest into her son’s death. 
• Many of the organizers for Camp: Justice for Our Stolen Children were involved in previous solidarity camps that you can read about here!
• For more context on Residential Schools and the mission to “kill the Indian in the child,” read about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada.
• Read up about the acquittals of Raymond Cormier and Gerald Stanley and how Canada is failing Indigenous youth.
• I mention Ijeoma Oluo’s book So You Want to Talk About Race, which you should definitely read if you haven’t already.
• Finally, just this week two colleagues of mine at SFU uncovered archival evidence of a key passage that had been elided from Maria Campbell’s iconic 1973 memoir Halfbreed, a passage that is very significant to this episode’s discussions of police violence against Indigenous people. This article is a must-read. Content warning for sexual violence.

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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. Robyn, Richelle, Satin, and Gaylene’s theme song is “That’s Alright” by Laura Mvula and please promise me you will go watch the video RIGHT NOW.

Secret Feminist Agenda is recorded on the traditional and unceded territories of the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. This episode was also recorded on Treaty 4 Territory, the traditional territory of the Cree, Saulteaux, Nakota, Lakota and Dakota peoples, and is the homeland of the Métis people.

HI IT’S MY BIRTHDAY! Listen, I know a lot of adults don’t like to make, like, a THING out of their birthdays, but I am not one of those adults. Let’s just blame it on my Leo Rising, which likes attention. Don’t worry though, this episode isn’t just about me and why everyone should pay attention to me, it’s mostly about this complex business of growing up / getting old(er), and how it intersects with all kinds of other messy things like the normative timelines of adulthood and our shifting relationships to our bodies and the ongoing legacy of family loss. PLUS Kaarina follows up with some strategies for anti-capitalist self-care. Really, this episode is an all-around winner.

• Read this Hyperbole and  Half post about adulting if you haven’t already (or you know what, even if you’ve already read it, read it again).
• Here’s the article on being a queer, ace grad student and “facing the future without a map”.
• Stacy London talks about “grow[ing] up without becoming a conventional grown-up” and how that impacts her style.
• Also I don’t talk about it on the episode but I feel like that “By the age of 35” meme is PRETTY relevant to this discussion so go read about it.

And here’s 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. Follow me @hkpmcgregor, follow Kaarina @kaarinasaurus, and tweet about the podcast using #SecretFeministAgenda.

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

This episode is a real Momentous Occassion for me because I have been a fan of Jes Baker‘s work for YEARS. She was probably the first body positive activist who crossed my radar, and her “Attractive & Fat” campaign felt revolutionary to me. So it was a goddamn joy to talk to her about the release of her new book, Landwhale, the ongoing journey of activism, what it means to be an ally, and more. ALSO FEATURED is an invitation to the first ever #SecretFeministAgenda meet-up, in Regina on May 27. Be there!

• In addition to Jes’s new book Landwhale and old book Things No One Will Tell Fat Girls, we also talk about Lindy West’s Shrill and Roxane Gay’s Hunger. These are all good books and you should read all of them! 
• Jes shouts out the influence of Rachele Cateyes aka @radfatvegan who I also love!
• For those of you interested in diversifying your Instagram feeds, here are 135 accounts Jes recommends.
• I talk about threshold concepts with a middling degree of accuracy but you can get a solid definition of the term here and read more about them here.
• You should also read more about SURJ aka Showing Up for Racial Justice and maybe find your local chapter!
• If, like me, you are fascinated by the phrase “infinifats” and want to hear more, here’s an episode of The Fat Lip podcast where you can start learning. 
• Looking for a more scholarly take on fatness and disability and how they intersect, in terms of both medicalization and embodiment? Here is a thing to read! (Paywalled, but hmu if you wanna read it.) 
• Jes and I talk briefly about the violence of discourses of health, and I want to link this incredible piece, “The Unproven Body” by Katie Lew, which tackles just this topic in stunning fashion. 
• As per Jes’s instructions I googled “how to be a fat ally” and one of the first results was this Instagram post from Jes herself! You should also read this Twitter thread about what it looks like when a thin ally uses their privilege to advocate for a fat person’s comfort (and go ahead and read the responses if you want a reminder of what it is like being a fat person). 

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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. Jes’s theme song is “Secrets” by Mary Lambert which honestly should probably be the whole podcast’s theme song.

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

Look at that I dyed my hair

This episode is late because I am so so tired and couldn’t think of anything to talk about and then Fox cancelled Brooklyn Nine-Nine and my task was clear.

• Here’s a short article about why people love the show and whether it might be picked up elsewhere.
• This is the Twitter thread I mentioned about Jake Peralta and toxic masculinity!
• Probably the most important tweet yesterday?

RENEW BROOKLYN NINE NINE
I ONLY WATCH LIKE 4 THINGS
THIS IS ONE OF THE THINGS#RenewB99

— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) May 10, 2018

•  Did you know Brooklyn Nine-Nine has a Youtube channel and it’s great if you want to waste hours of your life watching clips? DO THAT HERE. Probably start with just ten solid minutes of cold opens:

And here’s 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. Follow me @hkpmcgregor, follow Kaarina @kaarinasaurus, and tweet about the podcast using #SecretFeministAgenda.

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

• Most importantly, if you want to buy Beni’s book, Bad Egg, you can do that here. And then go buy everything Rahila’s Ghost has published because poetry chapbook presses are great.
• If you’re Vancouver-based you should definitely know about the Real Vancouver Writers’ Series and Poetry Is Bad For You. If you’re not in Vancouver, tweet at me about your favourite local poetry reading series or venue!
• In addition to small presses and live readings, magazines are a great way to get your poetry fix! Beni mentions being rejected by Poetry is Dead, for example. (Btw anyone else really want this tote to hold their poems and feelings?) But also if you follow the links below you will find so many other excellent sites for poetry-reading!
• Here are some of the poets Beni and Tin recommended. Please note each of these links is to ONE OR MORE POEMS. Read some poems! Samantha Marie Nock, Dina Del Bucchia, Amber Dawn, Billeh Nickerson, Aja Moore, Kayla Czaga, Adèle Barclay, Liz Bachinsky, and Kimmy Walters. Poems!
• And finally, an article on Rupi Kaur because you can’t talk about poetry in Canada with talking about Rupi Kaur.

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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. Beni and Tin’s theme song is “Run Away With Me” by Carly Rae Jepsen.

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

I don’t know about you but I’m having a crummy week and I really didn’t feel like recording a minisode and Kaarina suggested that we could just chat about our crummy weeks instead so we did that. We talk about complaining, and cats, and roller derby, and barbershop, and teaching, and mentorship, and Glow, and just a whole bunch of things, and here are some links:

• We talk a little bit about the pleasures of complaint, but did you know that brilliant feminist scholar Sara Ahmed has written extensively about the feminist complaint? I’ll probably do a whole minisode on this at some point, but in the meantime, you can start reading here.

• Read this if you want to know more about the Toronto attack and the ideology behind it. Content warning for violence and misogyny.

• If you would like to see my enormous chorus in action, here are our semi-finals and finals packages from Internationals in Vegas last year.

• Kaarina mentions Notes from a Feminist Killjoy, which you should definitely read if you haven’t yet!

• Great job. Now let’s all watch this trailer for Unfinished Song and cry.

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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 on the traditional and unceded territories of the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.

• Carly writes an incredible tarot column for GUTS magazine that literally makes me cry whenever I read it, and you should read it too.
• While you’re at it, go check out Carly’s Instagram, which is full of tarot wisdom, knitting, and good dogs.
• We talk about what the Aziz Ansari article taught us about consent culture (aka how little vocabulary patriarchal society has for consent) and here’s a great article that unpacks some of that.
• Don’t know what homonationalism is? Here’s a primer.
• And here’s some more about whiteness in kink and poly communities and how it intersects with class and wealth.
• The speaker who talked about sex in queer studies was Robyn Wiegman, and she’s published an article on the topic called “Sex and Negativity; or, What Queer Theory Has for You” (which I’m pretty sure is paywalled–if you can’t access it let me know and we’ll figure something out).
• Finally, here’s that article I mentioned about trans drag queens talking back to RuPaul, including the iconic line: “The primary tenet of drag is turning gender into a fart joke.”

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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. Carly’s theme song is Loretta Lynn’s “Fist City.”

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

• Read Viet Vu’s discussion of politicizing mass shootings and his data-driven analysis of when we can talk about tragedy.
• I quote from this article about the Humboldt Broncos GoFundMe and its unprecedented success.
• Here’s an article about the simultaneous GoFundMe campaigns for Coulten Boushie and Gerald Stanley.
• You can read more about Aymen Derbali, and his remarkable bravery during the Quebec Mosque shooting, here.
• The Judith Butler book I discuss is Frames of War: When is Life Grievable?, which is excerpted here.
• Kaarina asked me to link to this article, which asks whether self care is really available to everyone.
• And finally, I’d like to draw your attention to this piece about the parents of Jacob Leitch, one of the men who died in the bus accident last week. Specifically, this quote from his mother:

“I want to be part of something bigger,” Celeste said. “There is so much hurt in this province in so many ways, particularly with the First Nations community. There is so much tragedy and affliction in this world and they don’t get the attention they deserve sometimes. I have no idea what this is going to look like, but I want to start a movement of some sort. People are hurting in this province with the whole Colten Boushie trial and it’s time that people reach out. From hurt can come good.”

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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.

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

Here’s some stuff to read:

• First off, here’s Gillian writing about roller derby as part of a whole, excellent series of posts about Women, Academia, and Sport on the feminist academic blog Hook and Eye (if you look carefully you may find a post by me in there!)
• Here’s another post about roller derby and its complex relation to self-care: “Sometimes we hurt ourselves in order to protect ourselves. I believe this to be true—that hurting ourselves can be protection—but I don’t know how to talk about it, how to reconcile self-destruction with self-care.” CW in this one for eating disorders, mental illness, and self-harm. 
• If you didn’t know what we were talking about vis-à-vis ice-dancing couples and heteronormativity, you can read up on Virtue and Moir here.
• If you’d like to read a little more about trans women in derby, here’s a lovely starting point.
• And finally, go find your derby name.

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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. Gillian’s theme song is “Cheated Hearts” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

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

• The webcomic I referenced is called “HOW TO: CARE FOR LITTLE SAD PERSON” by John Saddington (I suspect that’s a pseudonym)
• Here’s a lovely little article about how to practice consent in your friendships
• Want to create your own Emotional Earthquake Kit? I found this handy form that might be 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. Kaarina’s theme song is “I Will” by Mitski. Follow me @hkpmcgregor, follow Kaarina @kaarinasaurus, and tweet about the podcast using #SecretFeministAgenda.

• Let’s start off with some facts about video game playing. This article is a few years old, but it lays out some important statistics, including just how many women are long-term gamers.
• Speaking of misogyny in gaming, here’s an article about that time a game randomly assigned players’ avatars a gender, and men were not impressed.
•  We talk about games as a helpful treatment for anxiety, and this article agrees: “For anyone who’s ever experienced anxiety, where every day tasks seem insurmountable and the only reward at the end of the path is another day living with your mental health issue, a fantasy world where plotlines are resolved is a pretty easy sell.”
• Are you sold? Ready for some recommendations? We talk about Stardew Valley, Night in the Woods, You Must Build a Boat, Broken Age, and Kingdom Rush: Frontiers. This is a great time to get into Stardew Valley, with the new multiplayer game on its way. Oh, and for any of you who arrived at this podcast by way of Witch, Please, you should know that the makers of Stardew Valley have a NEW MAGIC SCHOOL RPG coming soon!
• Finally, if you would like to dive into the deep weirdness that is Monster Factory, we recommend beginning with the Final Pam.

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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. Clare’s theme song is the Hyrule Field Theme from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

• First off, shout out Vancouver’s Growing Room festival for working to build important space for feminist conversations.
• I cite the brilliance of Ijeoma Oluo, so I’m also going to tell you go to buy her book about race, which I’m halfway through and which is required reading for any white ladies out there who’d like to be less shit at talking about race, or to women of colour who want resources for talking to your white friends who are shit at talking about race.
• Third, my thinking about limits specifically came from Gwen Benaway’s contributions to a panel at this festival. You can start with Gwen’s answers to the Proust Questionnaire and then once you’re in love you can order her poetry here or here.
• Oh, and I also read from this thread by Nicole Cliffe about her friendship with Daniel Ortberg. So while you’re at it why don’t you read this stunning interview he gave about coming out as trans? Oh, and his new book. So many great books! We are truly blessed!

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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.

• Last week I linked you to Emily’s piece about Colten Boushie. This week you should read her article “Forms of Freedom,” on Alutiiq artist-choreographer Tanya Lukin Linklater’s engagement with the work of Osage prima ballerina Maria Tallchief.
• I make some passing remarks about reparations, but you should read some more serious thinkers on the topic. Start with Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “The Case for Reparations,” then read about how the Canadian government is fucking up its settlement promises to Residential School survivors, then read this random post I found about how calling casinos reparations is a flawed argument, which reminded me of the need to think in more nuanced ways about the non-identity of anti-Black and anti-Indigenous state violence.
• I’m not a big fan of Vice (duh) but this profile of professional women poker players is worth a read.
• Finally, a link-filled article on why women are afraid to fail (hint: it’s the patriarchy) (warning: it’s going to make you mad).

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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 “There’s Your Trouble” by the Dixie Chicks. 

• The fabulous feminist academic blog Hook&Eye has a number of posts on failure, but my favourite is probably Aimée Morrison’s “Failing, failure, failed,” which differentiates between failing and not-winning (not the same!)
• I also really value this essay on “The Importance of Failure” by librarian John Unsworth, who thinks in very specific ways about what it means for a project to fail, and why the space to fail is so fundamental to developing new knowledge. Fun!

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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.

This week I’m joined by brilliant Tuscarora writer Alicia Elliott, who generously sat down with me during her time at the University of British Columbia here in Vancouver. We talked about Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s fascination with Haudenosaunee women, the food pyramid as a mechanism of colonial violence, and why PETA needs to shut the fuck up about the seal hunt. Oh, and like a million other things. Here are some links if you want to follow along:

• First off, go read some of Alicia’s amazing work. Start with “A memo to Canada,” go on to “CanLit is a Raging Dumpster Fire,” and finish up with “Naming Ourselves,” written with Melanie Lefebvre.
• Now read up on how much more striking the wage gap is for women of colour
• If you’d like to grapple with Foucault’s ideas about power and life, the essay you want is “Society Must Be Defended, 17 March 1976”
• The book Alicia was trying to remember is The Clay We Are Made Of by Susan M. Hill
• If you’re interested in food and colonialism, check out Ian Mosby’s work
• Read more about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, especially the Calls to Action
• Finally, read this brilliant article by future-guest Emily Riddle and Lindsay Nixon on the killing of Coulten Boushie

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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. Alicia’s theme song is “Rockers to Swallow” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

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.

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.

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.

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.

• 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.

• 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.

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.

• 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.

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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

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.

• 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.

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.

• 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.

• A few thoughts on Why We Need a Female Doctor in Doctor Who 
• Some articles from teen-led feminist magazine Affinity about Why Moana Is Important and What It Missed
• A fantastic article/podcast about Self Care As Political Warfare — especially for Black women

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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.

Lucia’s theme song is “Cranes in the Sky” by Solange. Watch the incredible music video here and then go buy the entire album.

• Check out Virgie Tovar’s Take the Cake column on Ravishly
•  Learn more about What We Mean When We Say Femme over on Autostraddle
• Read Why Do Queers Love Astrology by Chani Nicholas
• Listen to Xine’s podcast PhDivas!

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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.

Xine’s theme song is “History Maker” by Dean Fujioka, aka the opening credit song to Yuri!!! On Ice. Watch/listen here.

So tell me: what’s your secret feminist agenda?

*(ish)

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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.