May was a slow month in terms of loving what I read, but podcasts came through!

Misc.

Comic: Katie the Cat Sitter by Colleen AF Venable and Stephanie Yue

Katie takes a summer job caring for her neighbor’s 217 (!) cats, but both her neighbor and the cats have some secrets up their sleeves…

Omg the cats are so good in this. If you’re a cat lover, do not miss this.

Short Fiction: Blood in the Thread by Cheri Kamei

Sapphic retelling of the Crane Wife set in Hollywood.

TV: Nadiya Bakes

Nadiya Hussain of Great British Bake Off fame’s baking show on Netflix.

She is a cinnamon roll too good for this world.

Movie: Straight Up dir. James Sweeney

The director’s website says it best: “STRAIGHT UP is a romantic comedy-drama about intellectual soul mates. He might be gay. She might not care.”

Oof, I feel seen in ways I did not expect.

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Podcast

Kalila Stormfire’s Economical Magick Services

Fiction podcast. A witch for hire’s case files on her clients, but you know what they say: the brighter the light, the larger the shadow…

I binged the whole thing in three weeks. I came for the cute episodic witchiness, but stayed because I felt seen in the way we work really fucking hard to love all parts of ourselves. Also, the first time I’ve run into organizing in a fiction podcast! Patreon here.

Life With Leo(h)

Fiction, romcom podcast. A robotics ethics lawayer finds herself with a highly illegal robot who’s in love with her.

A ton of fun, and I appreciate that even in the future Rihanna and Beyonce are still supreme. XD I’m rooting for an OT3 ending! Donate here.

How To End the Dominion of Men episode from United States of Anxiety

The conversation with Kiese Laymon is excellent. “…my question is, how much of that work should be public? I’m not sure because I do believe that the most important work has to be private and personal.

I also think because the stakes are so, so high, and the bar is so, so low for us, so much of this has to be public too, but I do wonder about this idea of outrage. When I hear that stuff about the governor is doing in New York, yes, I want to, and say, I’m outraged, I’m very outraged. Of course, it’s expected, given who he is and how he performs in front of a camera. I think we have to go beyond performative outrage. What I want to do, and this is hard, is ask myself how much of what they’re saying about that man is inside me.”

Transcript available. Donation link.

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Articles

Patagonia shows corporate activism is simpler than it looks by Andrea Chang

“The Ventura-based outdoor apparel retailer could have tried to placate the protesters. Instead, the company directed customer service representatives to respond: “Thank you so much for sharing your views. We want you to know that for every call like this we receive, we’re donating an additional $5 to Planned Parenthood.”

“The calls stopped pretty soon,” recalled Vincent Stanley, Patagonia’s director of philosophy.”

Skin Hunger, a conversation between Jamie Diamond and Melissa Harris

On non-sexual physical intimacy, cuddle parties, etc.

Banning My Book Won’t Protect Your Child by Carmen Maria Machado

“Why do we not see these acts of censorship for what they are: shortsighted, violent and unforgivable?”

Aging in Place Comfortably and Stylishly by Christina Poletto

What Is Hospitality? The Current Answer Doesn’t Work. by Tejal Rao

“Last month, after Gov. Greg Abbott lifted some statewide mandates, including mask-wearing, many restaurants continued to enforce the rule, recognizing that most of the population still wasn’t vaccinated. Among them was Picos, a family-run Mexican restaurant in Houston. Customers reacted by sending threatening messages to the family through social media: If they weren’t allowed in the dining room without masks, they’d call the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to deport workers.

Sergio Almaguer prepared to enter Picos, in Houston, in March. The restaurant received threats from people who refused to wear masks.

This incident points to the profound dysfunction at the heart of the American hospitality industry, which routinely devalues the labor that runs it, and often diminishes the people who make restaurants worth going to in the first place.”

Q&A with jaye simpson by Naomi Racz

“I call myself a blade, a blade will always be a blade unless it is made otherwise. (…) The point in “boy” is that gender was a blade that others used to cut out pieces of me that they didn’t like. Being told to be palatable, that’s racism and violence.”

Cold Justice by Catherin Renz and illustrated by Isabel Seliger

If you’re a true crime fan, read this. Donate here.

“Starting in the 1970s, a Baltimore doctor quietly preserved DNA evidence from rape victims, believing science would eventually catch up. Much of it would sit for decades, ignored and unused, until a trailblazing detective and her cold-case team uncovered its secrets.”

There Will Be No Herd Immunity without Vaccine Equity roundtable with s.e. smith, Lateef McLeod, Sabrina Epstien, Brandie Sendziak

Focused on disability. Donate.

Let’s use bold, beautiful hearing aids to celebrate deafness by Jaipreet Virdi

The inadequacy of the term “Asian American” by Li Zhou

Good overview of the term.

“The label only works, Suong says, “if Asian Americans can look inward and say, ‘Look, let’s join together and support those who are most marginalized.’ If Asian America really took care of who’s vulnerable in Asian America, we’d have really strong solidarity.””