More Shine Theory

4/2/21 - What better time to be lifting up the people we love and growing together? Brooke Baldwin of CNN joins us to discuss the groups of women - or huddles - that make collective change happen at work, in activism, sports, and our personal lives. And we revisit our own notion of Shine Theory.

Transcript below.

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CREDITS

Executive Producer: Gina Delvac

Hosts: Aminatou Sow & Ann Friedman

Theme song: Call Your Girlfriend by Robyn

Composer: Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs.

Producer: Jordan Bailey

Visual Creative Director: Kenesha Sneed

Merch Director: Caroline Knowles

Editorial Assistant: Laura Bertocci

Design Assistant: Brijae Morris

Ad sales: Midroll

LINKS

Huddle: How Women Unlock Their Collective Power by Brooke Baldwin

ShineTheory.com

Hanna Rosin, early Shine Theory critic

Ilhan Omar and Ava Duvernay

Sisterhood in congress

Shalane Flanagan

Women of the Obama White House

Shine Theory IP battles

What better time to be lifting up the people we love and growing together? Brooke Baldwin of CNN joins us to discuss the groups of women - or huddles - that make collective change happen at work, in activism, sports, and our personal lives. And we revisit our own notion of Shine Theory.

You should never pee when you laugh. You can see a midwife for non-pregnancy health exams like pap smears. And you can even insert your own speculum at the gynecologist if that makes you more comfortable. We revisit all the things we learned about pelvic health from our Pelvic Power episode.

Samantha Power served as the US ambassador to the United Nations in the Obama administration and has been nominated by President Biden to serve as administrator to USAID. We revisit our 2019 interview full of hard and candid truths about what she was and wasn't able to accomplish, especially in Syria.

It doesn't feel like a great time for pleasure, but that's exactly why we need it, right now. We revisit our interview with adrienne maree brown, author of Pleasure Activism, Emergent Strategy, and most recently, We Will Not Cancel Us.

Getting real about recognizing burnout, how it's different from similar feelings like depression, and how ambition means more than working constantly.

A planned tar sands pipeline through Northern Minnesota crosses tribal land and would disrupt waterways and wild rice cultivation. Tara Houska is Ojibwe, an attorney, an environmental and indigenous rights advocate, and has a long history on the land Line 3 would travel through.

Poet, artist and activist Cleo Wade feels deeply and writes movingly about growing up, finding ourselves, and having good boundaries with the people in our lives and our social feeds.

Caity Weaver joins us to discuss her love of Santa Fe, television, pronouncing words correctly, and how her insatiable curiosity compels her to find out how glitter is made. Plus, in her many celebrity profiles: who tried to pick up the check, who was beautiful in person, and who smells amazing.

This episode is all about comfort in challenging times and staying true to yourself. We talk with a paragon of creating cozy feelings, Jenny Han, the author behind the book and Netflix series To All the Boys I've Loved Before.

Is it childish to call people Best Friends? Who holds the various keys to our hearts and identities? And what dreams of the past and future are getting us through the pandemic? Aminatou discusses travel, religion, finding ourselves and how we use coded language to find our people with Jedidiah Jenkins.

We discuss the inauguration celebrity parade, the fallacy of calls for "unity," Melania's caftan, Bernie's mittens, and "We will be back in some form."

We’re reading fiction, nonfiction, essays and anxiety-producing novels.

The new year has already been more of a lot. Amid so many challenges, here are the practices, advice, and rituals we're bringing with us into 2021.

Crawling to the finish line of 2020, we catch up and reflect on what parts of our pandemic routines we may keep as we move into 2021.

As cases spike in the U.S., we talk to one of our favorite consent experts, sex and dating coach Myisha Battle, about how to have the COVID talk with friends, family, and potential romantic prospects.

How do you get more deeply involved in a cause you care about? Especially when it's an issue as challenging as homelessness? We talk with Melissa Acedera who practices mutual aid through Polo's Pantry, a mobile food bank in Los Angeles.

We are enjoying this slow season, grateful for what we have and opening our wallets for those who experience food insecurity. In the first of two episodes about food justice, we discuss our Thanksgiving feels and talk with Ebony Derr, financial manager at the Okra Project, which nourishes Black trans people with meals and community. Plus, our favorite Thanksgiving movies, what we're eating, and flashpoint feelings around okra (the food itself).

Purging our archives, mailing care packages in lieu of clothing swaps, confronting our own consumerism, who we imagine perusing our estate sales, secret talents, and some delightful things we're watching (including cults and sexy chess of course).

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won. We break away from our stress puzzling to celebrate this win. While there's so much work to be done, seeing Kamala on stage Saturday night was very moving. We revisit our 2018 interview with then Senator, now VP-elect Harris. And we are pleased to announce this officially breaks the CYG curse of only highlighting candidates who do not ultimately win!

As we await final results, we share our election week feels and discuss some of the racist scams that undergird the American electoral system - like the Electoral College itself - with Heather McGhee, author of the forthcoming book, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together. Plus, the local gains, newly minted officials and old timers (like Nebraska's Ernie Chambers) who are giving us hope.

The Guerrilla Girls have been resisting sexism and racism through art for the last 30 years. An anonymous collective of gorilla-mask bedecked agitators, their campaigns have ranged from protests to posters, billboards, and museum interventions. With style, humor, and collective action, they call attention to issues rich and powerful institutions would rather side-step. All the members take pseudonyms after dead women artists. We talked with founding members Frida Kahlo and Käthe Kollwitz about the body of work collected in a new book: Guerrilla Girls: The Art of Behaving Badly.

Activists and artists were waking up each day in anger and despair after Trump's election. Alongside actions and demonstrations, groups started forming around the country to gather, protest, and sing. In the first episode about the art of resistance, we listen to the voices (spoken and sung) of two choirs: the Resistance Revival Chorus in New York City and Community Chorus in Los Angeles.

We contemplate a VC-backed startup for women who need to scream into pillows. A brief discussion of the Supreme Court nomination of the Judge Handmaiden. Fortunately, Rebecca Traister's work on the political power of women's anger is always timely, as we revisit our 2018 interview.

In this latest season of the pandemic, we're trying to find joy where we can: guava cocktails, vintage golf clothes, journaling, repetition, boredom, and the future.

We're managing our election anxiety and getting out the vote. Does phone banking, text banking, and making a voting plan really move the needle? We find out with Crooked Media political director Shaniqua McClendon.

Do you need something to read (and take your mind away from doom-scrolling)? We talk with Nessa Rapport about her novel Evening and Alice Wong, editor of the anthology, Disability Visibility.

How can we create change from within institutions? We talk with longtime civil rights activist, Pramila Jayapal, who was elected to Congress in 2016 about her work with the Congressional Progressive Caucus, pushing for change within the Democratic Party.

We're engulfed in crises: caregiving, police violence, employment, and an election. These may feel like unprecedented times, and yet, some of our favorite guests have been experts and activists who tackle these issues.

What does attraction mean, specifically for people who don't experience sexual attraction? Angela Chen joins us to talk about her book Ace: What Asexuality Reveals about Desire, Society and the Meaning of Sex.

Friendships that stretch into years and decades hold a special place in our lives, and require special tending. As we conclude our Summer of Friendship series, we hear about your big friendships that have gone the distance.

@2021 CALL YOUR GIRLFRIEND LLC