Podcasts

We publish a new feminist podcast episode every week. Our hour-long show Popaganda digs deep on movies, books, TV, and media while Backtalk is a snappy conversation between two Bitch editors about the week’s pop culture. Subscribe to the podcasts on iTunes!
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Bitch Radio: Presenting Shortstacks with Audio Smut! (Plus: Sex Robots!)

by Kjerstin Johnson on March 16, 2012 at 2:12pm
I’m happy to introduce a new audio series…Shortstacks! Shortstacks will be a quarterly, short-form audio piece produced by the fabulous folks at Audio Smut, a radio show commandeered by a collective of sex positive activists “committed to finding creative ways of challenging notions of decency.” Major thanks to Kaitlin Prest for wanting to make sweet (and sexy!) feminist podcast music together. Here’s what Kaitlin from Audio Smut has to say about this episode: This winter, Bitch looks at Frontiers. In this audio short we discuss the frontier of sexual technology (sex robots!). The cultural imagination has long been fascinated with machines that have sex, and with advances in technology these fantasies are getting closer to becoming reality. So here we take a critical look at pop cultural representations of sex robots and get a glimpse of what might be in store. Stream below, or click through for more options!

B-Sides: Ana

by Katie Presley on March 6, 2012 at 11:47am
Does anyone else organize their iTunes by season? Singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell is the artist that got me started doing it, as no single album reminds me more of summer than her 2010 folk opera Hadestown. It’s drenched in sunlight, warm voices, young love, and, as Kristin mentioned in her Preacher’s Daughter series, a feminist perspective on Greek tragedy. Her latest album, Young Man in America, is spring; all births and unfoldings and discoveries, and an occasional dip back into winter dark. Point being, Mitchell is a songwriter for all seasons, one of young American folk music’s best, and she’s getting better and better.

Bitch Popaganda: Featuring Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore

by Kjerstin Johnson on March 5, 2012 at 1:42pm
In the latest issue of Bitch, Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore asks, “What if the real problem isn’t flamboyance or cocksucking or limp wrists, but a straight world that rejects gay people and a gay world that seeks legitimacy only for those willing to conform to a straight society?” (“Homo Work,” interview by Jessica Hoffmann). Writer, editor, activist, artist, filmmaker, critic, and troublemaker, Mattilda stopped by the Bitch Media offices this weekend to do a Popaganda session with me, Kelsey, and Andi. In this podcast episode, we’ll talk about her new anthology Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?, language and reclamation, the recent movie Weekend, and more! If you’re a Portland resident, she’s speaking at the Hawthorne Powell’s tonight at 7:30 along with Why Are Faggots contributors River Willow Fagan and Ezra RedEagle Whitman. For more info on her book tour, visit her events page, and look for Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots? in an independent bookstore near you!

Bitch Radio: Disability at the Digital Frontier

by Kjerstin Johnson on February 24, 2012 at 4:15pm
In this episode of Bitch Radio, you’ll hear from s.e. smith and Anna Hamilton, who you may know from various sites around the internet, including Tiger Beatdown, FWD: Feminists With Disabilities for a Way Forward, The Transcontinental Disability Choir at Bitch, as well as their personal sites, Annaham.net and sesmith.info. They also co-authored a piece (with illustrations by Annaham!) in the new issue of Bitch titled “Access & Praxis: Disability at the Digital Frontier.” This week, you’ll hear more about disability organizing online and how feminist spaces online can do a better job of being more inclusive. Transcript and more after the jump!

B-Sides: Two Feminist Music Projects to Get Behind!

by Kjerstin Johnson on February 22, 2012 at 1:02pm
Do you like the idea of free, feminist concerts? This radical world music and trans and queer SXSW showcase are two crowd-funded projects you’ll want to check out!

Bitch Radio: Unravelling the Pink Ribbon

by Kjerstin Johnson on February 17, 2012 at 4:30pm
For this week’s podcast, we screened the new documentary Pink Ribbons, Inc., directed by Léa Pool and produced by Ravida Din. Based on Samantha King’s book Pink Ribbons, Inc: Breast Cancer and the Politics of Philanthropy, the film takes you from Walks for the Cure to an stage IV breast cancer support group, and features input from Nancy G. Brinker (CEO and founder of the Susan G. Komen Foundation), Barbara Ehrenreich (author of Blindsided), and Barbara Brenner (Breast Cancer Action) as well as tackling pink ribbon campaigns and questioning why we still haven’t found a cure for breast cancer. Julie, Ashley, Rachel and I talked about what we thought of the movie, who should see it, and what could have been improved. Trailer and more after the jump!

Bitch Radio: Preview the Frontier Issue!

by Kjerstin Johnson on February 10, 2012 at 4:07pm
For this week’s podcast, you’ll hear three short previews from the upcoming issue of Bitch magazine—the Frontier issue! From the Love It/Shove It section, you’ll get one “Love It”—”Jailbreak the Patriarchy: Flipping the (Java)Script” by Katie Haegele, on the web plug-in Jailbreak the Patriarchy, and one “Shove It” —”Jesus Take the Heels: One Woman’s Crusade to Save Streetwalker’s Souls” by Meredith Holland Fortner critiquing the Vegas-based Hookers for Jesus, and a review of The Guy’s Guide to Feminism by Ashley McAllister (But read by me! With a stuffy nose!) Plus, music from the new Nite Jewel album! More after the jump!

B-Sides: Bj

by Mac Pogue on February 7, 2012 at 2:02pm
Björk trades exclusively in weird, constantly redefining herself in ways that challenge conceptions of women in music. I love Björk for shaking off any definitions people have applied to her, so let’s cruise through a short “greatest hits” list of classic Björk moments that have helped shape her nebulous character.

Bitch Radio: This Land is Girl Land

by Kelsey Wallace on February 3, 2012 at 3:36pm
girllandtranscript.doc (69 KB)Remember earlier this week when we told you not to read Caitlin Flanagan’s Girl Land? Well, we read it so you wouldn’t have to (lucky you).

B-Sides: Ana Tijoux's Bulletproof New Album

by Kjerstin Johnson on January 31, 2012 at 12:36pm
Chilean-French emcee Ana Tijoux (whose mixtape Elefant I included in my best of 2011 podcast) is back with a thoughtful, third release today—La Bala—from Nacional records.

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