Mothers & Others

“If I had a second mouth on the back of my head, would it also have to keep kosher?” Seth explains important Jewish texts by comparison to internet fandom and exploring such genuine medieval rabbinical shitposts.

This week we welcome poet and shark-lover Wren to discuss critters, creatures, and creepy-crawly moms of all kinds. You can find Wren on Twitter @suitofscales and be sure to check out his work at wrenhanks.com. Sabrina also joins again to discuss the wonders and horrors of the natural world and its multitude of mothers.

Topics Touched:

sharks, the intensity of mantis shrimp mothers, the philandering of mantis shrimp fathers, New Orleans, the fact that baby sharks are adorably called pups, warm feelings for sharks, the heart-warming fact that baby lemon sharks form childhood friendships, the social mores of great white sharks and their love of big ladies, beautiful and mysterious goblin sharks, majestic emoji-faced whale sharks, alligator gar and their poisonous eggs, snails colonizing Wren’s toilet, living in trash swamps, wild hogs, mama gators, alligator sex and nest temperature, rats, hawk drama (the male hawk in question is not Pale Male), Pale Male, living side by side with critters

Works Cited:

• BBC One – Shark

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$5.00

Cora is with us again to talk about black cultural studies, motherhood, and gender. You can check out Cora’s multi-media work at https://polychora.org/.

Topics Touched:

Hortense Spillers, foundational work in black studies, cultural archetypes of black womanhood, the Moynihan Report, gender and race in the American imagination, construction of black motherhood, erasure of black fatherhood, intersectionality and what happens when terms from cultural theory hit the discourse without context (it’s fine), Harold Bloom and the anxiety of influence (he is wack though), productive misreading (but performativity still doesn’t mean what you think it does)

Works Cited:

• Hortense J. Spillers – Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe: An American Grammar Book
• Patricia Hill Collins – Controlling Images and Black Women’s Oppression
• Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw – Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color
• Judith Butler – Gender Trouble

Tip Jar

If you like the show, we really appreciate financial support, which goes directly to our recording costs. Thank you!

$5.00

Artist and pinko, punko, proto-rabbi Seth joins us to discuss uncovering ancient Jewish goddesses and deities through linguistic deep dives into the Talmud. In particular, we trace the convoluted yet compelling poly triad of our hostile and indifferent lesbian moms: the ocean, the moon, and their demon girlfriend Lilith. Also, turns out the Leviathan was a lady and God has maybe turned her into (kosher) jerky for us to eat at the end of the world. Who is she and... how does she taste?

Topics Touched:

Ugaritic poetry, ancient Hebrew, divine inspiration, Schooner A.J. Meerwald, near death experiences at sea, Tehom, Tiamat, Joseph’s technicolor dreamcoat was a lady’s dress, Titanomachy, Marduk and Apsu, creation myths, the Leviathan, Kosher apocalypse, The Eschaton, the archaic mother, Rashi, Rabbinical logic, returning light to the moon, Lilith

Works Cited:

• The Jewish Study Bible
• Rabbi Steven Greenberg – Wrestling with God and Men: Homosexuality in the Jewish Tradition
• Raphael Patai – The Hebrew Goddess
• Julia Kristeva

Tip Jar

If you like the show, we really appreciate financial support, which goes directly to our recording costs. Thank you!

$5.00

Trans writer, gamer, and resident eldritch abomination Sabrina Boynton joins us this week to discuss a sensitive topic very near and dear to everyone’s heart: giant fucking spider moms.

Topics Touched:

abject horror, Sonic Dreams, Charlotte’s Web, maternal industriousness, James and the Giant Peach, arachnophobia, The Red Spot, the devouring mother, the castrating mother, love bombing, J. R. R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings, the void, Ungoliant, unlight, Shelob, deadlights, Dungeons and Dragons, Lolth, matriarchy, The Drow, racism, anti-blackness, the politics of genre fiction, C. S. Lewis, H. P. Lovecraft, The Black Goat of the Woods With A Thousand Young, post-coital cannibalism, sometimes a man is a snack, ovipositors, doubling and doubles, Ceto and Echidna, vore

Works Cited:

• Louise Bourgeois – Maman
• Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook 5th Edition
• Michael Moorcock – Starship Stormtroopers
• Barbara Creed

Tip Jar

If you like the show, we really appreciate financial support, which goes directly to our recording costs. Thank you!

$5.00