Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff

Margaret talks with Raechel Anne Jolie about labor organizing among sex workers in the United States Sources: https://www.scirp.org/pdf/WJA20120300010_83173531.pdfhttps://www.nswp.org/sites/default/files/guide_to_legal_models_english_prf04.pdfhttps://www.nswp.org/sites/default/files/Swedish%20Model%20Advocacy%20Toolkit%20Community%20Guide%2C%20NSWP%20-%20November%202015.pdfhttps://decriminalizesex.work/Nevada-prostitution-laws/https://torontosun.com/news/world/nevada-brothel-sex-workers-unionize-fighthttps://thenevadaindependent.com/article/sex-workers-at-pahrump-brothel-are-unionizing-alleging-unfair-contracts-and-conditionshttps://visualfoodie.com/exploring-the-complete-history-of-sheris-ranch/https://archive.org/details/lightsshadesinsa00lloy/page/n3/mode/2uphttps://californiacrossings.com/barbary-coast-trail/https://historycooperative.org/who-invented-porn/https://www.cracked.com/article_43541_the-5-oldest-porn-films-on-planet-earth.htmlhttps://web.archive.org/web/20090916051409/http://www.lustyladysf.com/history.htmlhttps://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=152594https://web.archive.org/web/20061005154719/http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/02/BAGOPLGGTB1.DTLhttps://archive.iww.org/node/2897/https://www.foundsf.org/Lusty_Lady_and_Sex_Worker_Powerhttps://avn.com/news/video/unionized-dancer-owned-peep-show-shutters-on-labor-day-133704https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2409590/The-Lusty-Lady-San-Francisco-closes-End-road-Americas-unionized-worker-run-strip-club.htmlhttps://www.sfexaminer.com/news/the-lusty-lady-led-the-charge-will-todays-sex-workers-follow/article_c6b28854-50a1-11ed-a50b-6729f88abb39.htmlhttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/may/17/star-garden-us-only-unionized-strippershttps://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12599325/Americas-unionized-strip-club-two-decades-Star-Garden-North-Hollywood-REOPENS-nine-months-firing-dozen-dancers-refused-work-without-better-pay-filing-bankruptcy-shutting-down.htmlhttps://www.thefreelibrary.com/America%27s+Forgotten+Slaves%3a+The+Chinese+Tragedy.-a0842208018See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

 Margaret reads you a medieval comedic tale of trickery and lust.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Christopher B. Zeichmann, ancient historian and author of Radical Antiquity, explores wild political experiments in the ancient world. He discusses how nonconformist communities, uprisings, and practices beyond state control challenge orthodox narratives. Conversations cover forgotten resistance, alternative social technologies, and reclaiming radical precedents from co-optation.

Christopher B. Zeichmann, ancient historian and author of Radical Antiquity, explores radical movements in the ancient Mediterranean. They unpack Spartacus and the Servile Wars, compare earlier revolts, and consider temporary liberated zones like Thurii. Conversations cover Roman responses, legal reforms, anarchia as radical democracy, and how modern scholarship recovers forgotten social worlds.

A dramatic 1920 science fiction read about a lone messenger discovering a deserted, corpse-filled New York after a comet's deadly pass. Two survivors navigate empty streets, grapple with class and race, and attempt daring signals to summon help. A rooftop intimacy and a cosmic vision shift their bond before the return of the living forces a tense moral reckoning.

Courtney Kocak, historian and researcher of Black cooperative movements, traces the Colored Farmers Alliance and early Black cooperativism in the postwar South. She explores secret organizing, cooperative stores and schools, strikes and violent clashes, and how these efforts fed later cooperative networks. The conversation highlights institutional innovation, resistance, and long echoes in modern cooperative work.

Courtney Kosek, writer and podcaster who researches Black cooperative history, explores the Colored Farmers Alliance and Black cooperative farming. She traces sharecropping, debt peonage, and land reform context. Conversations cover Fannie Lou Hamer’s Freedom Farm model, the mechanics of crop liens, and how mutual aid and secret-society structures supported Black farmers.

A lush post-apocalyptic slice-of-life reading set in a communal compound. Medical worries and environmental contamination shape tense conversations. Theft, theft's consequences, and the ruins of a prison bring grief and ritualized mourning. Quiet acts of care, fear of helicopters, and secret nighttime visits reveal fragile loyalties. A haunting image of wild clover endures amid loss.

An essay-driven tour of a punk-inspired aesthetic life, from DIY rituals to intentional meals and potlucks. Stories about off-grid living and romanticizing hardship set the tone. Practical habits include making art, growing food, repairing clothes, and limiting screens. Community, mutual aid, and treating music and physical media as ritual are highlighted throughout.

A Valentine's Day reading of a queer dark sci-fi love story about parasitic fungal minds and body takeover. The narrative follows consciousness-swapping, intimate codependence, and catastrophic physical collapse. Tension rises as a shipboard contagion spreads and a captain fights to stop possession. The hosts then discuss the story as an allegory for codependent relationships.