podcast friday

[sabotabby]

 I have such a sad backlog of posts that I mean to make, but y'all are stuck with me posting about media twice a week because I have a backlog of everything.

Anyway.

Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff. Josephine Baker. I knew a little about her because of the Harlem Renaissance connection, though arguably she may have fucked off to Paris before having much of an influence, and I actually did know that she was a spy, but "Josephine Baker: The Actor and Spy Who Mighta Saved the World" is an amazing deep-dive into her life and many heroic deeds. She was a Black, bisexual, multitalented performer who used sheer audacity to fight the Nazis, save a bunch of people's lives, and look amazing doing it. Also she had a cheetah named Chiquita.

Laurie Penny is the guest on it, so—that's awesome, obviously—with Robert taking over Sophie's usual role as snarky interjector/producer. Spoiler for events that happened a long time ago, but this story has a relatively happy ending and the episode is overall fun and entertaining. Also I had no idea what Penny's accent sounded like and it was not how I expected.

Part I | Part 2

Comments

[greylock]

Laurie Penny is the guest on it,

Now there's a name I don't think I have heard in an age.

[sabotabby]

They continue to do cool things. I should get their book, but my TBR pile is already massive. I'm on their mailing list, though, so I get a 10,000 word essay from them every now and again.

I want to be interested in their film and TV work but none of it really sounds like my thing, unfortunately. I like their journalism.

[greylock]

If it is who I am thinking they were living 'here' 15-20 years ago for a bit, and my friend caught up with them after chatting on Twitter for a while.

My friend did not realise it was a date. But, I could be mis-remembering people's names.

[sabotabby]

They're a friend of a friend and so I know maybe a little bit too much of their dating adventures for someone I haven't met personally. But I won't gossip. They seem legit lovely.

[greylock]

I know nothing about them (I had blocked them on Twitter, but that means nothing, I used to regularly block people who were retweeted). but the brainspiders started acting up when i read the name.

World's a small place.

[greylock]

I used my amazing investigative skills to determine: different person.

[lilysea]

I read a graphic novel about Josephine Baker a while back,

and I was like "this woman is so awesome! Smuggling secrets past the Nazis ***disguised as sheet music*** !"

[sabotabby]

And other things! I'm deliberately not giving details about what she did because a lot of it is extremely funny.

[oracne]

A...cheetah. I did not know that, but it definitely seems on brand.

[sabotabby]

And she wouldn't evacuate without her.

[radiantfracture]

Ahhh this sounds like exactly my kind of thing.

[sabotabby]

It's multiple layers of awesome.

[minoanmiss]

Josephine Baker! *cheers*

[sabotabby]

Retroactively I am glad I named my not!fetus after her.

[broken_record]

Oh shit, she's awesome!

[sabotabby]

She was SO COOL.