It's a podcast!

Introducing co-regulation, a new podcast for whatever tf this part is

Hello!

For the past few months, I’ve been working on a side project—a podcast called co-regulation, that is me having conversations with folks about how they are living/moving/responding to these times, and tackling thorny/complicated topics that are too impossible to navigate on my own.

Here’s the intro episode (I don’t like it, you can skip it? but it will probably help, so I guess listen to it?)

And here’s the first episode with Chris La Tray (which I’ll talk more about on Sunday in the regular newsletter) on learning how to stand up to the US government from those who have been doing it for over 500 years.

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A quick about

I had a much longer email ready, but I think we’re all a little too fucked up right now to read longer explanations so the short gist is:

1. For now, this is a short-run series of 10 to 20 episodes, releasing every Thursday. I’ll be releasing a few on Tuesdays in the next few weeks to get my backlog out.

2. I’ll reassess in a few months about whether to make it an ongoing podcast. It will depend on (1) whether I like doing it, (2) whether people like listening, and (3) if it makes sense financially—podcasts are time-consuming and expen$$ive to make.

3. I had help from my friends. Adam Day, my sound engineer and editor on HOME and Quitted (previous podcasts), is on sound, edits, and producing; Gracie Coates of Gracie and Rachel made the original music (intro, outro); Misha Handschumacher created the cover art and logo.

4. The first publicly available episode is up now: EP.01: Chris LaTray, writer of the

   An Irritable Métis
   Substack, Poet Laureate of Montana (2023-5), and author of Becoming Little Shell: A Landless Indian’s Journey Home, talks with me about how his ancestors, The Little Shell Tribe, resisted the US government and at what cost (land), and illustrates in depth the kinds of sacrifices that were made in order to secure a future and freedoms they’d never enjoy themselves. It is such a generous conversation, and as relevant to this moment as you can get.

5. I’m releasing episodes early on Patreon—there are already two other episodes there, you can access them right now by pledging as little as $3 a month on Patreon (and get early releases on all episodes):

   1. J Wortham
      on prepperism as community care + and how to remain present during collapse (public release date June 17th)

   2. Emily McDowell
      on How To Stop Caring About What Everyone Else Thinks (public release date June 19)

5. Upcoming episodes include:

   Laura McKowen
   about our on-again/off-again friendship and how we finally found our way (it’s a banger); a deep dive into the feminist Christian Movement with
   Meggan Watterson
   ;
   Amanda Montei
   on being Feminist Writer in while larping the Handmaids Tale;
   Carl Erik Fisher
   about whether we’re in “peak” or “endemic” narcissism, and what it means to be addicted to the self;
   Elise Loehnen
   ;
   Erica Chidi
   ; my local assemblywoman!; many more.

6. Sign up on Patreon (free or paid) to receive emails for new releases.

7. Or subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts.

8. I’ve done all the admin on this myself, so there could be issues! Broken links, etc. Please let us know if anything is wonky and give us a minute to respond. Also, if you have experience producing podcasts and are savvy at social media…HMU? contact@hollywhitaker.com

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On a final note:

This Sunday will be the regular newsletter + links—I’ve been in the weeds with my book and this podcast. I’ll have more to say about the state of things then, and I have resources to share. (And in fact, this podcast is something I set up so I could respond faster to things that are happening through conversation with others—I’m excited to try that out once it gets momentum and cadence.)

In the meantime, please take care of yourself and each other.

This is real; there’s no doubt that we are in unprecedented times and I know it can be mind-melting that life seems to be going on, that people are all like “summer!” and “vacation!” and we’re hyper-normalizing while there are US Marines deployed on the streets of LA and a fucking Kim Jong Un-style military parade in Washington D.C. is happening this weekend and Israel intercepted the Gaza Freedom Floatilla and there are ICE agents going door-to-door like the Gestapo. I’m launching this podcast; I’m in the middle of trying to sell a different project; I took a breath class last night; I saw a woman getting shot point blank with a rubber bullet near where I used to live on Instagram; I really need to get my roots fixed; my sister is driving around at night with a bullhorn alerting her neighbors that ICE is outside their homes; I’m worried I am fucking up this launch and I’m mad that I care about launching a content product correctly.

There is a huge day of protest this Saturday all over this country—please, if you can, find one and join. Here is a link to find one near you. I’ll be at the rally in Kingston, NY.