Feminist Killjoys, PhD

Join our Facebook group to discuss and connect with fellow FKJ listeners! Search Feminist Killjoys Community! On today's ep, you get to join Raechel and her partner in their living room as they watch the final presidential debate. (Don't worry, it's been edited down so you don't have to hear the whole 90 minute debacle). Hear their reactions in real-time (and also some side convos they have their pets). This mini-ep will be supplemented with another mini-ep from Melody coming later this week! *** Listen on iTunes and leave a review! Join our FB group for discussion and connection! Follow our Feminist Killjoys, PhD mixtape on Spotify for a collection of the songs featured on our shows. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram! Donate through our website or on Patreon. We love you! <3

In our 30th episode (!!!) we are discuss views on trigger warnings and personal stories/strategies for teaching controversial and difficult topics in the classroom. This convo is also useful for how to engage with anyone about topics like racism and police violence, sexual assault, and more. Speaking of sexual assault (ugh), Donald Trump is again ruining the dinner party but so is Hillary for not taking a golden opportunity to denounce rape culture. All of this and more ranting on this week’s ep. P.S. check out our website for links to all the things we discuss this week!

We are having some technical difficulties, but will be back next week! xo ❤ Subscribe on iTunes & leave a review! Follow us on Instagram! And Facebook! And Twitter! Check out our Feminist Killjoys, PhD Mixtape on Spotify! Have some extra dollars and want to support feminist media-makers? Consider donating to our Patreon or as a one-time thing at our website. OR! email us at fkj.phd@gmail.com❤ **Please email us or use the “Send Email” function on our Facebook page for substantial comments, episode ideas, or to request being a guest on our show!**

Today Melody and Raechel discuss the challenges of growing up as feminist, punk, queer rebel grrrls. How do we navigate embracing things we once cringed at (like buying a house or thinking seriously about children)? Can we do normal adult milestone things without being normative? Does it matter? We also take a minute to check-in about the trainwreck that was the first presidential debates, and give our RWLs of the week! *** ❤ Subscribe on iTunes & leave a review! Follow us on Instagram! And Facebook! And Twitter! Check out our Feminist Killjoys, PhD Mixtape on Spotify! Have some extra dollars and want to support feminist media-makers? Consider donating to our Patreon or as a one-time thing at our website. OR! email us at fkj.phd@gmail.com❤

Today Raechel and Melody sit down with 15-year-old NYC Girl Scout Lizzie Karpen to discuss her social campaign project designed to put an end to slut-shaming. Lizzie talks about the devastating impact of slut-shaming on women and girls of all ages, and her two-fold campaign to stop it, including a blog (slutwhoreandnothingmore.tumblr.com) and a pledge (https://www.change.org/p/society-end-the-shame-end-the-blame-a-pledge-to-end-slut-shaming). PLUS, our RWLs of the week. And: Melody and Raechel have some real talk about teaching during another week of police violence. *** ❤ Subscribe on iTunes & leave a review! Follow us on Instagram! And Facebook! And Twitter! Check out our Feminist Killjoys, PhD Mixtape on Spotify! Have some extra dollars and want to support feminist media-makers? Consider donating to our Patreon or as a one-time thing at our website. OR! email us at fkj.phd@gmail.com❤

Today, Raechel interviews Melody about her dissertation-turned-book, Bike Lanes are White Lanes: Bicycle Advocacy and Urban Planning. The book is a collection of three city-based case studies (Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Portland) that explore how bicycle events and infrastructure reflect neighborhood history, specifically focusing on race and class tensions. *** <3 Subscribe on iTunes & leave a review! Follow us on Instagram! And Facebook! And Twitter! Check out our Feminist Killjoys, PhD Mixtape on Spotify! Have some extra dollars and want to support feminist media-makers? Consider donating to our Patreon or as a one-time thing at our website. OR! email us at fkj.phd@gmail.com <3 **Please email us or use the “Send Email” function on our Facebook page for substantial comments, epsiode ideas, or to request being a guest on our show!**

Today, Melody and Raechel have the pleasure of talking to Dr. Alex Hanna, an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information and Technology and the Faculty of Information at the University of Toronto. Alex is also a transgender woman and recently published an article on Inside Higher Ed about her experience as a trans person on the job market. Alex generously discusses the challenges she's experienced as a transgender woman in academia and offers suggestions for trans and cis people to create more inclusive, anti-oppressive environments for trans people in colleges and universities. We touch on clothing, pronouns, managing CVs, and much, much more. We also get to hear about Alex's amazing research on how new and social media has changed social movement mobilization and political participation. PLUS!: our RWLs of the week (Alex's too!). *** <3 Subscribe on iTunes & leave a review! Follow us on Instagram! And Facebook! And Twitter! Check out our Feminist Killjoys, PhD Mixtape on Spotify! Have some extra dollars and want to support feminist media-makers? Consider donating to our Patreon or as a one-time thing at our website. OR! email us at fkj.phd@gmail.com <3

Subscribe on iTunes & leave a review! Follow us on Instagram! And Facebook! And Twitter! Check out our Feminist Killjoys, PhD Mixtape on Spotify! Have some extra dollars and want to support feminist media-makers? Consider donating to our Patreon or as a one-time thing at our website. And of course, feel free to email Melody back in 2004 at fkj.phd@gmail.com. *** TW: this episode contains discussions about rape and sexual assault; listeners who do not want to engage with those topics may want to start at about 25 min in. In episode 25 (!), Melody and Raechel talk about what's been happening in the headlines. Through a discussion of recent headlines regarding Brock Turner and Nate Parker, we talk about rape culture, race, and the prison system. Through a discussion of Colin Kaepernick, we talk about patriotic propaganda and what it means to dissent in America. And through a discussion of Drake, we discuss cheesecake and misogynist music video history. Plus, the radical (often-untold) history of Labor Day (and May Day), our RWLs of the week, and more!

In Episode 24, Melody and Raechel bring you a brief history and discussion of THE SEX WARS! What are the roots of the debate amongst feminists about pornography and sex work? How have these debates influenced in our contemporary feminist landscape? Who has access to safety in sex work? If all labor is exploitative under capitalism, can sex work ever be empowering? We discuss all this and lots more! PLUS: who's ruining the dinner party (hint: it's not Muslim women in burkinis), and our RWLs of the week! <3 Subscribe on iTunes & leave a review! Follow us on Instagram! And Facebook! And Twitter! Check out our Feminist Killjoys, PhD Mixtape on Spotify! Have some extra dollars and want to support feminist media-makers? Consider donating to our Patreon or as a one-time thing at our website. And of course, feel free to email Melody back in 2004 at fkj.phd@gmail.com <3

Melody sits down with her partner, Robert, to discuss their experience volunteering at Eaux Claires music festival and what they learned about disability access in festival spaces. You will also get to hear Melody cover Chance the Rapper and Bon Iver, so I promise it's worth it. AND, Mel and Robert end with their RWLs of the week! * Mel and Raechel will be back together soon! Forgive our momentary hiatus as we get through travel, moving, and the start of the new school year. * ❤❤❤ Subscribe on iTunes & leave a review! Follow us on Instagram! And Facebook! And Twitter! Check out our Feminist Killjoys, PhD Mixtape on Spotify! Have some extra dollars and want to support feminist media-makers? Consider donating to our Patreon or as a one-time thing at our website. And of course, feel free to email Melody back in 2004 at fkj.phd@gmail.com ❤❤❤

Melody and Raechel are finally back 2gether again, ready to discuss some quick thoughts on recent headlines: the Olympics, the GOP, the DNC, Syria, and Jessica Williams's birthday. PLUS, Mel brings us an interview with seven-year-old Jacob, who has some strong opinions about the video game rating system. And of course, they end with their RWLs of the week (including, a discussion about the highly underrated "Pump Up the Jam" music video)! *** Subscribe on iTunes & leave a review! Follow us on Instagram! And Facebook! And Twitter! Check out our Feminist Killjoys, PhD Mixtape on Spotify! Have some extra dollars and want to support feminist media-makers? Consider donating to our Patreon or as a one-time thing at our website. And of course, feel free to email Melody back in 2004 at fkj.phd@gmail.com

Friend and colleague of the podcast, Timothy Oleksiak, joins Raechel to discuss his research on listening as a rhetorical act. How can we listen differently during Facebook "fights" in a way that allows for social and/or political transformation? Who is accountable for listening when the content being heard is oppressive or violent? How might we "queer" listening and how do "queers listen"? How are 'reading' and 'shade' practices of listening? We discuss all this and much more! Plus, Timothy joins me for RWLs of the week! *** Leave us a review on iTunes and we will love you forever! <3 <3 <3

***Mel & Raechel will be back next week with a new episode, but for now enjoy a replay of episode 2! *** In this episode of Feminist Killjoys, PhD, Raechel and Melody discuss being women with many large, visible tattoos. How does having tattoos impact our careers? What do our decisions to get heavily tattooed mean in relationship to our identities (as women? as feminists? as punks? as working-class?) ? How do we respond to “tat-calling”? * * * ❤❤❤ Subscribe on iTunes & leave a review! Follow us on Instagram! And Facebook! And Twitter! Check out our Feminist Killjoys, PhD Mixtape on Spotify! Have some extra dollars and want to support feminist media-makers? Consider donating to our Patreon or as a one-time thing at our website. And of course, feel free to email Melody back in 2004 at fkj.phd@gmail.com ❤❤❤

In episode 20 (!), Melody and Raechel had the pleasure of sitting down with John Gebretatose, a charming man of many titles: he's a comedian with Blackout Improv, the Director of Diversity and Inclusion at Huge Improv Theater, and the Founder of the Twin Cities Black and Funny Improv Festival. We asked John about the goals of his all-Black comedy troupe, how to make jokes about race and racism, what comedians inspire him, and much much more. And we got him to join us for our RWLing of the week! ❤❤❤ Subscribe on iTunes & leave a review! Follow us on Instagram! And Facebook! And Twitter! Check out our Feminist Killjoys, PhD Mixtape on Spotify! Have some extra dollars and want to support feminist media-makers? Consider donating to our Patreon or as a one-time thing at our website. And of course, feel free to email Melody back in 2004 at fkj.phd@gmail.com ❤❤❤

Today, Melody and Raechel talk about what it means to be an ally (or, the more preferred term, "accomplice"). What does it mean to be accountable when you're called out? How can we break through "white fragility"? How do we communicate with fellow activists in the struggle, and how do we communicate with non-activists? How can we center the voices of people of color without asking them to do the labor of teaching all the time? How can we actually put our bodies on the line to be in real solidarity with the movement for Black lives and Black liberation? ❤❤❤ Subscribe on iTunes & leave a review! Follow us on Instagram! And Facebook! And Twitter! Check out our Feminist Killjoys, PhD Mixtape on Spotify! Have some extra dollars and want to support feminist media-makers? Consider donating to our Patreon or as a one-time thing at our website. And of course, feel free to email Melody back in 2004 at fkj.phd@gmail.com ❤❤❤