Episode 00: Introduction
A podcast for feminists who feel overwhelmed and exhausted by everything we need to get done in 2020, and still worry that we're not doing enough - hosted by Emily and Amelia Nagoski, authors of BURNOUT: the secret to unlocking the stress cycle.
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TRANSCRIPT
Emily: [00:00:00] Hey everybody, this is Emily Nagoski.
Amelia: [00:00:08] And Amelia Nagoski. And this is the feminist survival project 2020
Emily: [00:00:13] Ohhh 2020. It promises to be a special kind of terrible. So this podcast is here to provide a special kind of help for surviving. Specifically, it is for feminists who are trying to be part of the solution, but feel overwhelmed and exhausted by everything they have to do and yet still worry that they're not doing enough.
Amelia: [00:00:37] It won't just be Tea and Sympathy, though there will be plenty of that. It will be concrete, specific, usually science-based ideas you can apply today right now to reduce your stress, ease your exhaustion and make life a little less overwhelming even in the midst of that special kind of terrible.
Emily: [00:00:56] The podcast very deliberately won't be like the usual media conversations about Wellness. It will not, for example, be a list of things you should be doing or review of new stuff you could be doing () insert oil pulling here.) It definitely won't be about anything you could be buying to feel that.
Amelia: [00:01:17] We're not going to set new aspirational ideals for you to feel frustrated about. It also won't be a critique of that kind of conversation
It will actively avoid being a bitch session nothing wrong with the bitch session the "wellness space" as our literary agent Lindsey might call it is full of racism and economic inequality and pseudoscience, misogyny and venting rage about how fucked up all that is is part of the feminist survival kit.
It's just not all we're going to do here. There's plenty of that elsewhere. What you'll get here instead is what you get if you sat between us at a bar and started telling us how exhausted you are how overwhelmed, how hopeless, how helpless, how angry, how afraid, and did I mention exhausted? We have a beer or a cup of coffee and order artichoke dip we talk about what wellness really is.
Emily: [00:02:10] So that's what we'll do each week on the podcast about once a week until the election on November 3rd, 2020.
We will talk compassionately, but specifically about how to feel better while still participating, in the solution. Which brings us to the question "why is it called the Feminist Survival Project?"
It's partly because the content is here to help you, the exhausted feminist who is trying to be part of the solution survive 2020.
But there's a more fundamental reason for the title. in our book we talk about how meaning and purpose are resources that each person carries within themselves that help them to thrive in good times and survive even the special kind of terrible. And how do you get meaning and purpose? Science says by engaging with something larger than yourself. This Something Larger as we call it with capital letters capital S capital L can be almost anything. There's no right or wrong. And I'm sure we'll have an episode about how to figure out what your something larger is if you don't know. But for now just know that you're something larger is an essential piece of gear in your 2020 survival kit and spending time engaged with your Something Larger helps you keep emotionally nourished the way leafy greens keep you physically nourished.
My something larger is teaching women to live with confidence and joy in their bodies, so I'm making the podcast as a way to engage with my something larger by making a podcast that helps feminists survive 2020. I'm doing something that will help me survive the special kind of terrible that will be 2020.
Amelia: [00:03:48] And the same goes for me. This is Amelia. I'm a conductor, which is my something larger engaging with my choir and with music and through the music with the composer and through performing with the audience. But as I've discovered as we've been talking about our book all around the country is that that process is the same for me whether I'm on a podium conducting a choir or talking with other women about their experiences confronting obstacles in large-scale social forces. Not just the things that people tell us we should be doing. "Oh, you should get more sleep." Well, yes. I know I should get more sleep, but how that conversation feels like making music to me. It feels like opening up a new door to a new world that shows all of us that we're not alone, and we're not broken.
Emily: [00:04:37] So when we say, "thanks for listening" at the end of each episode. We really really do because when you listen you're helping us connect with our something larger, which nourishes US which helps us survive the special kind of terrible.
Amelia: [00:04:51] Yeah. If you hear something of value, please share it with someone so that more and more feminists can feel cared for and supported to survive 2020.
Emily: [00:05:02] So that's us.
I'm Emily Nagoski.
Amelia: [00:05:04] I'm Amelia Nagoski.
Emily: [00:05:06] And this is the Feminist Survival Project. You can follow us on Instagram or Twitter at @fsp2020 and email us what is your something larger at feminist survivalproject2020@gmail.com
Amelia: [00:05:17] And hey, thanks for listening.