Welcome to the 88th edition of WLRN’s monthly handcrafted podcast for this first Thursday of the month in August 2023. If you wish to listen to our content on YouTube, feel free to click here, sisters.

Festival season is upon us in full force! Emily and I (Thistle) were just in the woods of Michigan for Big Mouth Girl and WPI and are now getting ready to go back for MFR (Michigan Framily Reunion). Jenna and her wife are en route to the Pines as I write this description to join hundreds of women for another Michigan music festival. O’ August! It has been a month for womyn’s music, art, culture, and community for over 45 years now since the very first MichFest that Lisa Vogel and friends conjured for us.

Having said all that, today’s show is not as edited as some of the editors on the team would have liked, but it is still perfect in its own imperfect way, as all of our collectively created shows are.

First up, hear Emily greet the listener before diving into Mary O’Neill’s world news segment in which she features, among other stories, news on sexual violence in Brazil and the abortion ban in Texas. Aurora linnea contributes a short segment during the world news to pay tribute to the late great singer/songwriter Sinead O’Connor who died on July 26th in London. Be sure to stay tuned for that passionate and moving piece from aurora.

Next up, hear Sinead’s song “The Emperor’s New Clothes” in its entirety before we move into the interview Emily and I did with Elizabeth Chesak, a desisting woman who speaks out about how transgenderism impacted her life.

Sekhmet SheOwl delivers our commentary this month at the end of the show that desists on certain radical feminist takes on desisterhood and detransitioning. It is a thoughtful and well-crafted commentary on a subject that has puzzled women since the dawn of patriarchy. How do we deal with internalized misogyny in women who have bought in to male rule at some point in their lives and in one way or another? We grapple with this question frequently at women’s festivals during workshops and in conversation. The wonderful thing about festival is that women work it out, whether it is by finding the right neighborhood to hang out in, or by attending a workshop to talk it through. Women are resilient and creative when we come together away from the influence of men.

We end the show with Sinead’s voice, as the team here at WLRN is sorely feeling the loss of our sister songbird who died too soon. Thanks for staying tuned to handcrafted, community-powered feminist radio, WLRN.