S3E6 - Season 3 Gab: Taking Stock, Making Resolutions

One year is over, another just begun! In this mid-season gab we talk about how to look back over the past year and share strategies for making New Year's resolutions that stick. Discover the official Noorain Khan method for taking stock at the end of a year, hear our goals for 2017, and get some concrete advice on how to make  a good resolution courtesy of kids.usa.gov. We also reveal our greatest resolution successes (Maria's involves Mordor, kind of) and swear that THIS is the year we're going to stay active - really!! Ready to take on the new year? Tune in for a chilled-out chat about taking the next steps! 

Links to Stuff we Talk About

On Noorain's love of self-improvement, quantified and otherwise:

S1E8: Our Quantified / Cyborg Selves http://www.intheory.us/episodes/2015/9/16/episode-8-our-quantifiedcyborg-selves

S3E1 - Self Help http://www.intheory.us/episodes/2016/10/18/s3e1-self-help

Stephanie Pappas, “Why We Make New Year's Resolutions,” LiveScience. December 31, 2013. http://www.livescience.com/42255-history-of-new-years-resolutions.html

Tips from kigs.usa.gov to help you reach your New Year's resolutions: https://kids.usa.gov/exercise-and-eating-healthy/new-years-resolution/index.shtml

Music by Bing Crosby, New Buffalo, and (of course!) Prince.

S2E3 - Patriotic Party in the U.S.A.!

America? F YEAH-- in this episode we take patriotism back from the haters and talk about our own progressive brown lady versions of loving up on our country. We share personal stories, like the creepy Scandinavian encounter that got Maria defending the red white and blue, and how the Shiite genocide relates to Noorain's patriotism. And OF COURSE we've got to talk about country music's uncanny ability to articulate certain kinds of America love! We also give you the theoretical low-down on why we even have nations, how nationalism gets cultivated, and Benedict Anderson's work on "imagined communities". There's some real talk on how to love our country in the face of islamophobia, racist police brutality, and inequality everywhere, too. Welcome to our own Party in the U.S.A.! 

 

Links to Stuff We Talk About

Theory
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (London: Verso, 1983) http://www.amazon.com/Imagined-Communities-Reflections-Nationalism-Revised/dp/1844670864

Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1983) http://www.amazon.com/Nations-Nationalism-Second-Edition-Perspectives/dp/0801475007

Context
More on Benedict Anderson:  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/15/world/asia/benedict-anderson-scholar-who-saw-nations-as-imagined-dies-at-79.html?_r=0    

Articles
Murtaza Hussain, "Pakistan's Shia genocide." Al Jazeera America. November 26, 2012. 
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/11/201211269131968565.html

"Pakistan: Rampant Killings of Shia by Extremists." Human Rights Watch. June 29, 2014. 
https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/06/29/pakistan-rampant-killings-shia-extremists

Calvert Jones. "The surprising effects of study abroad." The Washington Post. August 20, 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2015/08/20/the-surprising-effects-of-study-abroad/

Adrienne Varkiani. "The Disturbing Rise Of Islamophobia In America." Think Progress. February 10, 2016. http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/02/10/3748058/chapel-hill-anniversary/

Bonus
Pure shade hijab:  http://theslot.jezebel.com/this-hijab-is-the-purest-shade-youll-ever-see-on-fox-ne-1743239769

Our original interview that got us started in talking about patriotism with the ICONIC Olive Carrolhach:  http://www.intheory.us/episodes/2016/2/24/interview-with-noorain-maria-part-2

Music this week (both sampled and just referenced) from Miley Cyrus "Party in the U.S.A." + Simon and Garfunkel “America” + Jay-Z and Kanye feat. Frank Ocean “Made in America” + Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings “This Land is Your Land” + Craig Morgan, “That’s What I Love About Sunday” + Jason Aldean "Flyover States" + Beyonce's 2009 rendition of “America the Beautiful” at President Obama's first inauguration + Trisha Yearwood "American Girl" + Louis Armstrong, "I'm Putting All My Eggs in One Basket" - that's you, America!

S2E1 - Periods: Surfing the Crimson Wave

Hey you! In Theory's back for Season 2 and we're taking on menstruation! Ever wondered why we have periods? (No really - WHYYYYY??? <cramping pain>) We've got answers for you! Turns out that menstruation is full of theory to be unpacked. This week we discuss menstrual taboos across cultures, how creative tactics can help people survive oppressive systems, Maria's dream mechanical womb, and gab about the First Moon Party you never had. This isn't just for ladies--come one, come all and surf the crimson wave with us! 

Links to Stuff We Talk About

Theory

Thomas Buckley & Alma Gottlieb. Blood Magic:  The Anthropology of Menstruation (1988). http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520063501

Michel de Certeau. The Practice of Everyday Life (1984).  http://www.ucpress.edu/book.php?isbn=9780520271456

Context

Natalie Angier. "Radical New View of Role of Menstruation." The New York Times. September 21, 1993. http://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/21/science/radical-new-view-of-role-of-menstruation.html?pagewanted=all

Articles

Lauren McGuire. "The Pill and the invention of the monthly cycle." Sociological Images. December 4, 2015. http://thesocietypages.org/socimages/2015/12/04/the-pill-and-the-invention-of-the-monthly-cycle/

Shreya Dasgupta. "Why do women have periods when most animals don't?" BBC News. April 20, 2015. http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150420-why-do-women-have-periods  

Bonus

last year's amazing #happytobleed campaign in India :: the First Moon Party you never had ::  new products that are leveraging a body positive view of periods in their marketing:  Helloflo / Thinx / DearKate / Lola

Classic period tunes this week courtesy of Ani DiFranco and the great Dolly Parton.

Interview with Noorain & Maria: Part 2

Here it is, the exciting second half of our interview! Just one week away from the official start of S2...

Missed us? We’re (almost) back! In the weeks leading up to Season 2 we’re releasing this two-part interview with your co-hosts…and introducing our fab new team member Olive! Listen in for the inside scoop on how Maria and Noorain met, how the podcast came about, and reflections on growing up different in “flyover states.” (Olive’s family raised POT BELLIED PIGS!) We’re putting theory aside for the moment and just hanging out – come join! You know we won’t be able to resist nerding out, high fiving, and getting sentimental about our big-picture hopes for the future. 

Interludes in Part 2 from the Gorillaz and the Roots.

Interview with Noorain & Maria: Part 1

Missed us? We’re (almost) back! In the weeks leading up to Season 2 we’re releasing this two-part interview with your co-hosts…and introducing our fab new team member Olive! Listen in for the inside scoop on how Maria and Noorain met, how the podcast came about, and reflections on growing up different in “flyover states.” (Olive’s family raised POT BELLIED PIGS!) We’re putting theory aside for the moment and just hanging out – come join! You know we won’t be able to resist nerding out, high fiving, and getting sentimental about our big-picture hopes for the future. 

Interludes in Part 1 from Sylvan Esso and Little Dragon.

Episode 7: A Crash Course in Apocalyptic Prophecy

From the folks on the street distributing pamphlets about Armageddon to the rise of survivalists and doomsday preppers, the apocalypse seems to be everywhere. In this episode we get a crash course in the end of the world as we know it from Dr. Anbara Khalidi of Wadham College, Oxford. We find out what the Christian apocalypse is supposed to look like, why people get so passionate about it, and how Foucault's theories of discourses can help us make sense of it all. Dexter, exorcisms, and rains of frogs all make their appearances...so get prepped ya'll, In Theory's doing the Apocalypse--now! 

Links to Stuff We Talk About

Theory

On discourses:
Michel Foucault, The Archeology of Knowledge & the Discourse on Language. Vintage, 1982. Helpful overview here.

On global-scale paranoia:
Emily Apter, “On Oneworldedness: Or Paranoia as a World System,” American Literary History 18.2 (2006) 365-389.
https://muse.jhu.edu/journals/american_literary_history/v018/18.2apter.html.  

On Muslim apocalyptic literature:
David Cook, Contemporary Muslim Apocalyptic Literature. Syracuse University Press, 2008. 

Context

The website Rapture Ready has an index of the signs and portents of the coming apocalypse.

The apocalypse is described in the final book of the New Testament, the Book of Revelation. 

Left Behind is one apocalyptic book and film series that Anbara works on--it's not small beans, over 65 million copies of the books have been sold to date!

Articles

Tara Brady. “Fill the pool with fish and stockpile the guns: Up to THREE MILLION 'Preppers' in the U.S. are prepared for for the end of the world.” The Daily Mail Online. February 11, 2012.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2099714/Meet-preppers-Up-3-MILLION-people-preparing-end-world-know-it.html#ixzz3jpr8OM9O.  

Anbara Khalidi. “Exorcism, Male Power, and the Murder of E'Dena Hines.” Jezebel.com. August 18, 2015. 
http://jezebel.com/exorcism-male-power-and-the-murder-of-edena-hines-1724638877.  

Chris Michaud. “One in seven thinks end of world is coming: poll.”  Reuters Online. May 1, 2012.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/01/us-mayancalendar-poll-idUSBRE8400XH20120501.

Stephanie Pappas. “The Draw of Doomsday: Why People Look Forward to the End.” Live Science. May 16, 2011. http://www.livescience.com/14179-doomsday-psychology-21-judgment-day-apocalypse.html.

Matt Ridley. “Apocalypse Not: Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Worry About End Times.” Wired Magazine Online. August 17, 2012. http://www.wired.com/2012/08/ff_apocalypsenot/. 

Bonus

This week we're listening to R.E.M., Britney, and Whitney (RIP girl). And one of the best episodes of High Maintenance happened to be about a survivalist, so Noorain watched Season 2's Geiger.