Living While Feminist
Jen Thorpe
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Living While Feminist is a podcast in celebration of living a feminist life.
Each week it features a feminist from South Africa and the world so that we can listen to and draw from their experiences to embolden our own.
Hosted by feminist author, writer, and researcher, Jen Thorpe.
Available episodes
Newest first
Oldest first
Nov 16, 2021
S4: E10 - See you in 2022!
Take care of yourselves!
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Nov 9, 2021
S4: E9: Nyx Mclean - Finding home and communities, and celebrating identity
Today on the podcast I’m talking with Nyx McLean.
Nyx McLean is a trans non-binary queer South African, they use the pronouns they/them. Nyx is an academic who specialises in LGBTIAQ+ identities and communities, and their use of digital technology to form publics and counter-publics to resist the status quo. Nyx McLean is a Research Associate affiliated with the School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University, and is also currently the engagement editor of Makhanda’s Grocott’s Mail.
Their piece in Living While Feminist is called ‘The Agender Borderlands’ and in that piece they say:
I view being non-binary (and specifically agender) as a gift I walk this strange space of existence, it is often lonely but it can also be bright and glorious over here.
So today I’m going to be talking with Nyx about gender politics, finding home, and writing resistance.
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Oct 24, 2021
S4: E8: Tiff Mugo: On sexual touch, heartbreak, pole dancing, and feminism
Today on the podcast I have the absolute pleasure of talking again to Tiffany Kagure Mugo. Tiff was the very first guest on Living While Feminist, talking about her book Quirky Quick Guide to having great sex, cancel culture, and everything in between. Since then Tiff has given us a new collection, with her co compiler Kim Windvogel, called Touch: Sex Sexulaity and Sensuality. It came out this year from Kwela. As a piece in the collection by Zanta Nkumane says “The architecture of pleasure is expansive” and this collection certainly illustrates that well.
Tiff is still the co-founder and curator of HOLAA!! – a pan Africanist hub that advocates for and tackles issues surrounding African sexuality. She does ted talks and writing and just general amazingness all the time. She can often be found with a glass of wine, and, in my experience, can always be found with a joke. Earlier this year she was part of the Queering Belonging mini-series hosted by the Program of African Studies at Northwestern University, and you can watch her episode online.
But the topics Tiff tackles (try that tongue twister after a glass of wine) are as serious as they are light – sex and sexuality remain taboo points of conversation for many of us. In a piece in March this year in the Mail and Guardian, Tiffany said:
Writing about sex, for me, has been a journey of learning and unlearning, turning things around in my mind to try to figure out how to do it. As someone who is a nerd at heart, I thought being able to understand the mechanics of the thing would help me do the thing. I was also under the impression one could crash course learning about sex.
However, the journey has been the equivalent of thinking you are digging in a sand pit and finding out you are actually in the middle of the Sahara desert. When I began, I thought that simply because I knew a little more than the average person about getting down and nasty I could enter this realm and document sex in all its glory. And for a while, as one of the few voices who had the gumption to write publicly about sex, the con worked.
Eventually, I realised that this was a marathon and not a sprint. I was always one article/sex story/radio interview away from talking absolute nonsense if I did not keep digging and furthering my understanding. When it comes to sex, sexuality and desire there is always something to learn, someone to learn from and something that has been a core part of your thinking that you need to put down and lay to rest.
So today I’ll be talking with Tiff about touch, sexual pleasure, and whatever else we feel like.
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Oct 17, 2021
S4: E7: Ziyanda Stuurman: Policing, policy making and feminism
Today on the podcast I’m talking with Ziyanda Stuurman.
Ziyanda is a social policy, political science, and international relations graduate who currently works as a social science researcher based in Cape Town.
She’s a recipient of both the Chevening and Fulbright scholarships and hold advanced degrees in Conflict, Security and Development Studies from Sussex University, and in International Development from Brandeis University. Her undergraduate degrees in international relations and political science are both from the University of Stellenbosch.
Ziyanda has worked in various roles related to political and social science research over the past decade, and each of these professional experiences have informed her research and writing on policing and police militarisation in South Africa.
Today I’m speaking to Ziyanda about her new book – Can We Be Safe: The Future of Policing in South Africa. In the book Ziyanda explores the distant and recent history of policing in South Africa as well as some of the contemporary realities. It touches on colonial history, police brutality, inequality, the problem with public perceptions about crime and the misuse of this for political rhetoric, gangsterism and social order, the criminal justice system, and the ordinary lives of those who are affected by our crisis of policing.
The book suggests that things have not been working and will not work to make us feel safe and live safely, unless we imagine a new system entirely.
In the book Ziyanda says:
Inequality in South Africa is evident not only in who is policed and how, but also in the allocation of police resources. As it has always been in the past, the allocation of police resources does not always follow need … If we want to create a society that cares equally about the protection and safety of all communities, and a police system that responds with equal urgency and empathy for people regardless of their social status, then the horribly unequal state of affairs that we have right now in terms of resource allocation must be completely altered.
So today I’ll be talking to Ziyanda about her vision for policing in South Africa, her studies abroad, and her feminism. Welcome Ziyanda.
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Oct 11, 2021
S4: E6 Nechama Brodie: Femicide, fake news, fact checking, fiction and feminist growth
Today on the podcast I’m talking with Dr Nechama Brodie.
Nechama has worked as a multi-media journalist, editor, producer and publisher for nearly twenty-five years. During this time she has dodged the secret police in Burma, explored tunnels underneath Johannesburg, gotten dusty at rock festivals, and reported on the myth of ‘white genocide’ in South Africa. Nechama’s journalistic work has appeared in leading South African newspapers like the Sunday Times, the Mail & Guardian, and City Press, and in the Hindustan Times (India) and the Guardian (UK). Nechama also previously headed up the training and research division TRI Facts for independent fact-checking agency Africa Check.
Nechama has a PhD in journalism and is a part-time lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand’s School of Journalism and Media Studies. Her research work focuses on interpersonal violence and media representations of violence. Nechama is also a musician and singer and (unrelated) a martial artist, holding a second dan in karate.
In addition to her journalism Nechama is the author of several books - The Joburg Book (Pan Macmillan), a contemporary history of the city that was long-listed for the Alan Paton Award and has sold over 10 000 copies; and Inside Joburg (Pan Macmillan), a guide to the city’s most interesting spaces. Nechama’s best-selling history of the city of Cape Town, The Cape Town Book (Struik Travel and Heritage), was released in 2015.
Nechama is also the co-author of memoirs I Ran For My Life (Pan Macmillan), with best-selling musician Kabelo Mabalane, and Rule of Law (Pan Macmillan), with MP and former state prosecutor Glynnis Breytenbach.
Nechama’s first novel – a supernatural thriller called Knucklebone (Pan Macmillan) – was published in 2018 and was long-listed for the Barry Ronge Prize for South African fiction and short-listed for the Nommo Award for African speculative fiction.
In 2020, Nechama published two further books - The sequel to Knucklebone, Three Bodies (Macmillan) in March, and her non-fiction work Femicide in South Africa (Kwela) in July 2020. In the Introduction to Femicide she says
“Femicide – like the murders of children, and perhaps the elderly – carries such distinct features that, if we were to try and understand or profile these killings only in the context of male homicides, we would miss the point entirely. The violence meted out against women has long been distinct from the violence meted out between men” and goes on to say later in the book “most violent injuries between men arise from ‘everyday life, most often involving strangers and including poorly defined arguments and quarrels over money, women and drunkenness’ whereas most women are attacked and harmed by someone they know. Where men often participate in or even initiate violence against each other, even when they are with strangers, women are subjected to violence, and mostly by the people close to them.”
So, today I’ll be talking to Nechama about femicide, how to tell fact from fiction, and her writing life.
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Oct 3, 2021
S4: E5 Terry-Ann Adams: Writing women, Inspiration and Activism
Today on the podcast I’m talking with Terry-Ann Adams. Terry-Ann is a writer and commentator from Johannesburg. They have an honours in history from the University of Pretoria where she focused on the disability rights movement in South Africa and Disability Representation in American Film. They has spoken and written on ableism and feminism.
In 2020 Terry-Ann published their debut novel, Those Who Live in Cages, with Jacana Media. Those Who Live in Cages is a story of five women, connected to one another through blood and circumstance – Bertha, Janice, Laverne, Kaylynn and Kela (Raquel) – all living in Eldorado Park. As the review in New Frame puts it, “they are women full of hope for their families and futures, bumping up against the obstacles of class limitation and a patriarchal, religious and judgement-driven environment.”
It is a story where place comes alive as character. Eldorado Park is a location that shapes the lives of each of these characters, whether they are yearning to leave or destined to stay. In her interview with New Frame writer, Binwe Adebayo, Adams says:
“I think that the world is a dystopia, that systemic oppression kills any form of hope for real change or progress. As individuals, we can move forward slightly … but the greater good is not realised and many are left behind … Only when systems that oppress us are dismantled will we see real change.”
So today I’ll be talking with Terry-Ann about writing as one tool to address social issues, their work as a disability activist, and what comes next for them.
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Sep 26, 2021
S4: E4: Candice Chirwa - Period power and positivity
Today on the podcast I’m talking with South Africa’s self-appointed Minister of Menstruation, Candice Chirwa.
Candice is a thought leader with an avid interest in gender and youth issues in South Africa. She specialises in menstrual education for young people and brings #eduliftment with her award-winning NGO, QRATE.
Candice is the Editor of the Book – The Perils of Patriarchy, which sheds light on and unpacks women’s lived experiences of the patriarchy in South Africa. Her TEDx Talk called Bad Blood, focused on the stigmas surrounding periods.
Today I’m speaking to Candice about her second co-authored book, Flow: The Book about menstruation, out this May from Kwela. Flow covers everything you need to know about menstruating from the physical to the psychological to the political. It’s a guide that every household and school should have on their shelves so we can all be more period positive.
In Flow, Candice says:
“Having a period positive world simply means that we have individuals who do not feel afraid to talk about something that is a part of them.”
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Sep 19, 2021
S4: E3: Belinda Mountain - Motherhood and feminism, disney princesses and entrepreneurship
Today on the podcast I’m speaking to Belinda Mountain.
Belinda studied a business Science degree but found that her love of words led her straight into working in the world of book publishing as a graduate, and then she spent around eight years working in publishing in both the UK and South Africa.
In 2010, Belinda had a daughter, in the same year that her mother died from a brain tumour - and soon after those life changing events, she quit her job and started her own content agency with her business partner Catherine Black, called Black Mountain (which they still run today).
The story she submitted to 'Living While Feminist' was her first piece of writing published in a book but she has been published extensively in print and online in publications such as Sunday Times Neighbourhood, Fast Company and Entrepreneur magazine. In 2020 her short story was shortlisted in the Arts24/Corona Fiction competition, which has renewed her interest in writing short stories. The lockdown has reinspired her poetry too.
Belinda’s piece in Living While Feminist is called The Most Beautiful Boy the World Has Ever Seen. In it Belinda says
“My short hair becomes a message to the world. I feel people’s judgment, men and women’s in small barbs thrown my way. They are smooth things with a jagged edge, said out of their own discomfort.”
Her piece focuses on a short haircut, misgendering, and motherhood and these are just some of the things we touch on in the interview.
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Sep 12, 2021
S4: E2: Gugu Mhlungu - Celebrating the glass ceiling breakers who came before
Today on the podcast I’m talking with Gugulethu Mhlungu. As a writer, broadcaster and editor, Gugu is a respected voice in South Africa’s media space. In her role as contributing editor for Global Citizen she’s helping to advance the organisation’s vision of ending extreme poverty by 2030 and as editor-in-chief of Careers magazine she’s driving the narrative around young people’s welfare.
Gugu is a media maverick, working in print, radio and on television. In April 2015 she was identified by Marie Claire as one of the women to watch – in recognition of her use of various media platforms to nudge south African discourse towards substantive and thorough journalism – something that in this world of fake news we really need. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Media Studies and Anthropology from Rhodes University and a post-graduate diploma in media management.
Gugu is also a writer. Her personal accolades include a National Arts Festival / Business Art SA silver award for feature writing and a Media24 Legends columnist of the year. She was a contributor to Ferial Haffajee’s collection What if there were no whites in South Africa and I was very excited and lucky to publish her essay, Feminism Changed My Life in the Feminism Is collection. In that essay she says:
I love the idea of the shattering of the glass ceiling being the sum of all the women who have tried, and not just the women who finally break through it. It’s a beautiful image of what it takes for things to change, and makes us think of other women’s access as an inheritance that’s passed down from one group to another. It’s the perfect image for my own life.
Luckily Gugu’s interest in ceiling shatterers now benefits us all with the publication of her book You Have Struck A Rock: Women Fighting for their Power in South Africa, which came out this year from Kwela. The book chronicles the very many areas of progress that women in South Africa have led and helped to achieved, and also reminds us of the many more steps we need to reach full equality.
So today I talk to Gugu about women’s power, the importance of acknowledging those on whose shoulders we stand, and what she sees as important ceilings that still need to be shattered.
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Sep 5, 2021
S4: E1 Barbara Boswell - Feminist re-envisioning and the power of black South African women's feminism
Welcome back to Season 4 of Living While Feminist! Thank you for tuning in. Don't forget to rate, review, subscribe and share!
Today on the podcast I’m talking with feminist literary scholar and award-winning author, Dr Barbara Boswell. Barbara is the Head of the English Department at the University of Cape Town. She has taught gender studies and African women’s literature at the University of Virginia and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in the USA, as well as the University of Cape Town and the University of the Western Cape.
She earned a PhD from the Department of Women’s Studies at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she studied as a Fulbright Scholar. Her MPhil was completed at the Women’s and Gender Studies Programme at the University of the Western Cape.
Barbara is the author of the award-winning Grace, a novel that was published by Modjadji Books in 2017 and won the University of Johannesburg Debut Creative Writing Prize in 2018. It was published in the United States in 2019 as Unmaking Grace. Grace has been deservedly praised by many, including the Kirkus Review, which called it “a smart, compassionate portrayal of one woman’s quest to end the cycle of violence.”
Barbara’s writing and academic activism espouses her belief in writing as a feminist and spiritual practice, and as a practice that can heal trauma and build connections. Her research interests include postcolonial African literature, feminism, and post coloniality, queer theory, black feminist thought, and intersectional feminist theory, and she has published multiple academic works and papers on these topics.
In 2020, Barbara published And Wrote My Story Anyway: Black South African Women’s Novel’s as Feminism (published by Wits University Press). The collection archives the work of several women writers, exploring their writing as a source and site of feminist theory. This year she also published an essay in Surfacing, a collection edited by fellow feminist literary scholars Desiree Lewis and Gabeba Baderoon.
In an interview with Catalyst Press about her novel, Grace, Barbara says:
“I see myself as a literary activist, an arts activist using my work to create change and a more socially just world for women and other marginalized communities.”
So today I’m going to be talking to Barbara about feminism, the responsibilities and rights of feminist writers, and the power of telling stories to change our future, and our understanding of the past.
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Sep 3, 2021
Season 4 update and SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT!
What you can expect in Season 4 and some exciting news!
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Jun 27, 2021
S3: E9 Your winter reading list: all the books recommended by podcast guests so far
Every episode I've asked feminists to recommend books that have inspired their feminism. Now you can listen to all of those recommendations in one go, and make your winter reading order from your local book store.
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Jun 20, 2021
S3, E8: Ananda Morris Paver - Hairy situations and the best time to have a feminist debate
Today on the podcast I’m talking with Ananda Morris Paver.
Ananda is an editor in the edutech industry, where her role focuses on pedagogical quality and development.
She holds an MA in English and American Literature from the University of Kent with research interests spanning representations of gender and the body in popular culture, specifically in horror and fantasy narratives of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
She was the lead editor on the 4th volume of the Litterae Mentis journal and continues to write autobiographical and critical essays on a freelance basis.
Ananda’s piece in Living While Feminist is called Feminism Is the Pits, and details her experience of having her hairy underarms become a site of political discussion. In her piece she says of this experience:
"It was one of a million little manipulative moments which make up the negotiations between men and women. Each one forcing us to write and rewrite this ancient oath that everything we do is for them…
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Jun 13, 2021
S3: E7 Michelle Edwards - Encounters with the patriarchy, feminist parenting, and finding the courage to write
Today on the podcast I’m speaking with Michelle Edwards.
Michelle is a writer and the editor-in-chief of the PR and Content Marketing team at Showmax.
She graduated with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2005. After that she began her journeys around the world, living in Taiwan, the UK, South Africa and Zambia.
Writing has always been a part of Michelle’s life and career. She has worked at an indie bookseller, authored a textbook on Human and Social development, worked in the media industry as a sub-editor, and gone freelance.
She has taken short story writing courses through the London school of Journalism, and two masterclasses in creative writing with Claire Strombeck and Mike Nicol.
These courses have certainly borne fruit. In 2021, Michelle published her first novel Go Away Birds, which was long-listed for the Dinaane Debut Fiction award in 2018. When she's not working in marketing or writing her second novel (very, very slowly), Michelle spends her time boating with her childr…
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Jun 6, 2021
S3, E6: Gabriella Pinto: #MeToo and women in film
Gabriella is a writer and filmmaker from Cape Town. Traversing art and journalism, she is interested in telling stories about the human condition. Her website includes several examples of these – a documentary about a prosthetic leg maker, a short documentary on the artist Amy Ayanda, and a PSA about child trafficking.
Gabriella has worked as an arts writer for the online publication Between 10 and 5, where she has written about everything from sneaker exchanges to the #MeToo movement. She also hosted an art and culture show on Cape Town TV. She is also an actress appearing in the films Eye in the Sky, American Monster, and Jamillah and Aladdin and as a writer on Stag Knights.
Currently, she is very busy working on two feature films, developing a play as part of the University of Johannesburg's 2020 playwriting laboratory, and is a contributor to Politically Aweh, a South African infotainment satire show.
Gabriella’s piece in Living While Feminist is titled ‘You Look Like a Le…
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May 30, 2021
S3, E5: Arja Salafranca: Finding oneself in love and in writing
Today on the podcast I’m talking with writer Arja Salafranca.
Arja Salafranca has published three collections of poetry, A Life Stripped of Illusions (1995), which received the Sanlam Award for poetry, The Fire in which we Burn (2000); and Beyond Touch(2015) which was a co-winner of the SALA Awards.
Her fiction has been published online, in anthologies and journals, and is collected in her debut collection, The Thin Line (2010), longlisted for the Wole Soyinka Award in 2012. She has participated in a number of writers’ conferences, edited two anthologies and has received awards for her poetry and fiction.
Her next book is a collection of creative non-fiction essays, travel writing, personal essays and journal entries, to be published by Modjaji in 2021. She lives in Johannesburg.
Arja’s piece in Living While Feminist is called Rafiya and it takes the form of a series of diary entries at the point where Arja embarks on her first lesbian relationship at fourty years old. In tha…
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May 23, 2021
S3, E4: Jarred Thompson: Penetration, the balancing benefits of yoga, and writing
Jarred Thompson is a queer researcher and academic whose poetry, fiction and non-fiction has been published in various journals, notably the Johannesburg Review of Books, The Gerald Kraak Award Anthology Volume 3 and ImageOutWrite Anthology. He recently won the inaugural 2020 Afritondo Short Story Award.
Jarred’s piece in Living While Feminist is called ‘The social dynamics of penetration’ and in that piece he says:
The social dynamics of masculinity, femininity and gay sexual positions made me think about how the act of penetration or being penetrated, comes with assumptions about masculinity and how one portrays oneself as a gay man.
Jarred and I talk about gender norms, masculine and feminine energy, yoga, and writing.
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May 16, 2021
S3, E3: Anelile Dlamini-Gibixego - Why Jesus is a feminist and ecofeminism is vital
Anelile Dlamini – Gibixego is a Pietermaritzburg-born author, mother and scientist. Anelile completed a Bachelor of Science in microbiology and cellular biology in 2011 from the University of Kwa Zulu Natal and an Honours degree in environmental science at North-West University in 2017. In her day time, she is a researcher and environmental activist.
Since moving to Johannesburg in 2015, she has published her debut novel iGoli Dreams. She became a network builder, has published opinion pieces, spoken conferences and earns the title “motivational speaker”.
She has contributed for publications like Living While Feminist, Ayana Magazine, Daily Maverick, Imbawula, Live Literature Market and My Black Matters. Alongside these, she has presented at research conferences like the Water Show South Africa, Indlulamithi Scenarios and 25 Years of Democracy conference.
Her passionate activism is against gender-based violence and discrimination. She identifies herself as an eco-feminist whic…
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May 9, 2021
S3, E2: Alice Draper - Vulnerability, body hair, and interrogating our body choices
Today on the podcast I speak to to Alice Draper.
Alice is a freelance writer and editor currently based in Nottingham Road, KwaZulu-Natal.
She finished studying a Bachelor of Journalism at Rhodes University in 2019 and has had the fun job of trying to cultivate a career during a global pandemic. Right now, most of her time is spent on copywriting work with a few editing projects. She's also trying to invest more of her energy into writing for publication.
Alice has always been a feminist. Her early primary school creative writing pieces reimagine fairy tales where the princess chooses to save herself without having an arguably toxic prince in the picture. Alice's writing can also be found in a few places like HelloGiggles, The Tempest, GroundUp, The Daily Maverick and elsewhere.
Today we’ll be talking about the piece she wrote for Living While Feminist – called, Shaving. It’s about body hair and deciding what to with it. In it she says:
“Reflecting has made me wonder how m…
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May 2, 2021
SEASON 3, EPISODE 1: Nobantu Shabangu: Haircuts, hard truths, and the pitfalls and potentials of therapy
Nobantu Shabangu is a gender non-conforming South African writer of plays, poems, short stories and essays. They started writing when they were nine years old, and at eighteen they won a national essay competition on the cruelty of farm animals. This was the first of many prizes including Leopard’s Leap 2018 Message on a Bottle writing competition, and the January (2019) Igby Essay Prize on Kahalari Review.
Between 2012 and 2014 they were part of the British Council Playwright’s Residency in conjunction with the Royal Court Theatre in London where their play Candyland was developed. In 2015 a reading of their play Candyland was held at the Market Theatre. Nobantu is a contributor to BrightRock’s Change Exchange webpage where they write about life changing moments. In 2016 they were facilitator for The Zwakala Festival, a Market Theatre initiative to develop community theatre. An ardent feminist they have published essays in My First Time and Living While Feminist.
Nobantu has a…
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Mar 7, 2021
S2, E10: Naledi Maponopono - Economic liberation and feminism in the classroom
The season finale is SHORT, but SO amazing!
Today on the podcast I’m talking with Naledi Maponopono.
Naledi is a grade 4 to 12 isiXhosa teacher at Reddam House Atlantic Seaboard. She is also a lecturer at the South African College of Applied Psychology.
She’s the Deputy Provincial Secretary of the Young Communist League of South Africa in the Western Cape, and the director of her own company -- Inkwenkwezi Language Services.
Naledi was the first person to send me a submission for Living While Feminist. Her piece is called ‘My body as a site of violence’ and in that piece she says: "I find liberation in understanding my oppression because understanding my oppression helps me to define the tools I can use to constantly liberate myself and other women."
So today I’m going to talk to Naledi about liberation, about teaching, and about a more equal world.
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Feb 28, 2021
S2, E9: Helené Prinsloo - Fitness, fat phobia and feminist freedom
Today on the podcast I talk with with Helené Prinsloo about fitness, fat phobia, and feminist freedom.
Helené works in publishing, promoting fiction and nonfiction for NB Publishers. She is a ‘professional bookworm’ and she has been active in the book industry for eight years helping writers tell and promote their stories.
She is originally from Queenstown in the Eastern Cape but now lives in Sea Point. When not busying herself with books she plays five-a-side football with the Badgers Football Club – something she talks about in her piece in Living While Feminist – Being Fit While Being Fat. It was her first piece of writing to be published in a book, but – exciting news – she’s is working on finally finishing her debut novel.
Before Corona struck Helené was learning Xhosa, making pesto, playing nerdy boardgames and finding new playlists on Spotify. Full disclaimer – Helené is the fantastic publicist for both Living While Feminist and Feminism Is – and we are…
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Feb 21, 2021
S2, E8: Neoka Naidoo - Climate change and feminism
Today on the podcast I’m talking with Neoka Naidoo.
Neoka always wanted someone to do something about the issues that plague our society, then she realised she was somebody, and got straight to work.
In 2014 she was selected as the Leadership Development Fellow in South Africa for the Climate Action Network International working on international climate change policy and civil society coordination. At the end of 2016 she started to working with this group on Climate Transparency relating to the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
In 2016 Neoka was selected for the Mail and Guardians 200 Young South African list due to her experience in the environmental movement. In 2017 she was selected by the Ecologist as one of 10 global activists to defeat President Trump’s climate change agenda. She was also listed by TreeShake as one of 76 South African voices speaking up for the environment.
Neoka attained her BSc in Environmental Science in her hometown of Durban at the University of…
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Feb 14, 2021
S2, E7: M.A. Warden - Living the Queer Question
M.A. Warden is a philosophy lecturer, aspiring writer and artist.
Marc has their own YouTube Channel, called Indecent, where they discuss issues around philosophy, politics, gender and queer studies, and whatever else tickles their fancy. They spend most of their time engaged in some or the other creative endeavour, some of which we’ll get to talk about today.
Marc’s piece in Living While Feminist is called Living The Queer Question and explores the themes of gender identity and performance, the difficulty in coming out to their parents, toxic masculinity and institutionalised trauma, and the importance of asking questions.
In their piece, Marc says:
“The solution, though not itself an answer, comes from Rilke. Live the questions. I must inhabit the life-world of my gender identity until I disclose my authentic self to myself, free from intellectual constraints and revolutionary compulsions. I must discover, or perhaps even define, what it means for me to be queer. And whethe…
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Feb 7, 2021
S2, E6: Dr Anja "Nanna" Venter - Feminism at parties, making art, and democratising digital design
Today's episode touches on so many topics - dating while feminist, male tears, making feminist art, democratising digital design, and the importance of honest conversation.
Dr Anja "Nanna" Venter is an ‘artstronaut’ working at the intersections of art, culture, and technology. Find her on Instagram, here https://www.instagram.com/nannaventer/
She has a degree in visual communication, a Masters Degree in Media Studies, and a PhD in Information Communications Technologies for Development. Her PhD looked at how digital creative tools, particularly those on mobile devices, can assist in democratizing visual design capabilities. She currently works as a postdoctoral fellow at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology in the department of applied design.
In 2016, Anja was listed by VISI in their ‘Artists We Love’ section for the work she was doing on her Instagram at that time. Anja has worked a s a lecturer in digital illustration, user-centred design, media theory and resear…
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Jan 31, 2021
S2, E5: Dela Gwala - Managing your feminist boundaries and how meditation can help
Today I’m excited to be talking to Dela Gwala.
Dela Gwala is a full-time feminist, activist writer, reluctant spiritualist, and hard truths enthusiast.
She holds a Master’s degree in Gender studies from the SOAS University of London and a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town. She has written for the IOL news website, Cape Argus newspaper, New Frame and Mahala magazine.
Her essays have been published in Feminism Is and the Life Righting Collective This Is How It Is. She is currently the Mobiliser-in-Chief at an organisation called the Restitution Foundation.
Her piece in Feminism Is is called When the Anger Runs Out. She says:
“For two years, I wore rage like a cape. I lashed out at anyone I felt was wrong, and I ranted – non-stop. I ranted online, in face-to-face conversations with friends, and during pillow talk with my partner. I ranted over the phone, via email, via Skype…I angered from the bottom of my belly at march after march, protest after…
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Jan 24, 2021
S2, E4: Dawn Garisch - The importance of creative practice for feminism and healing
Today on the podcast I’m talking with Dawn Garisch – a true contemporary maverick.
Dawn is a medical doctor and a published writer. She has had seven novels, a collection of poetry, short stories, a non-fiction work and a memoir published. She has had five plays and short film produced, and has written for television. Three of her novels have been published in the UK.
This publishing journey has not gone unnoticed. Her poem Blood Delta won the DALRO prize in 2007; her novel Trespass was short-listed for the Commonwealth prize in Africa in 2010; Miracle won the EU Sol Plaatjie Poetry Award in 2011; and What To Do About Ricky won the Short.Sharp.Story competition in 2013. Her novel Accident was long-listed for the Barry Ronge Sunday Times fiction award in 2018.
Her seventh novel, Breaking Milk came out in 2019, and her next collection of poetry Disturbance (taking note) was out in November 2020.
She is part of the medical humanities movement and a founding member of the Life Righ…
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Jan 17, 2021
S2, E3: Zangose Tembo - The power of reimagining feminist futures so we can be more human
Today on the podcast I’m talking with Zangose Tembo.
Zangose works in the field of social justice. For the past seven years she’s worked and volunteered for notable social justice/impact organizations including One Young World, Population Council and the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy (CFFP).
In 2016, she founded The Best of Africa an online media platform that promotes freedom of speech through written and visual content on Africa. The platform has published content 400+ stories from over 150 individuals from 20 countries in Africa and the diaspora. For her work at The Best of Africa, she received recognition through the Young African Leaders Initiative in 2017 and the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme in 2018.
Zangose is a regular contributor on The Best of Africa, and now work independently as a development consultant. She’s exploring new platforms and opportunities to grow as a founder, storyteller and development expert.
Zangose’s piece in Living While Femini…
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Jan 10, 2021
S2, E2: Juanita De Villiers - Neurodiversity, food justice, the power of queerness, and gothic fiction
Today on the podcast I talk to Juanita De Villiers. Juanita is a collector of hobbies and special interests, and a Masters candidate at the University of Cape Town where her thesis focuses on contemporary gothic literature. Juanita is a massive horror enthusiast, in the process of starting a horror podcast and has a horror Instagram account already. She is currently working on a chapter about autism, folklore and horror cinema.
Juanita describes herself as a ‘queer cat mom cliché’ and as passionate about animal rights and food justice.
She is also a vegan and passionate about animal rights and food justice.
Juanita’s piece in Living While Feminist is called ‘Finding the Average: Neurodivergence, Queerness and ‘Fitting In’. In that piece she says:
“I am a confluence of things that would not fit in. It’s why I hold the label ‘queer’ so dear. I am queer, I am odd. I am out of place no matter where I go. My body will not shrink to fit, and it will not grow to the s…
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Jan 4, 2021
SEASON 2 - EPISODE 1 - Relebone Rirhandzu eAfrika - The importance of sisterhood and writing our stories
Today on the podcast I’m talking to Relebone Rirhandzu eAfrika. Relebone is a who is a Tzaneen-born, Makhanda-bred, Joburg-buttered writer. She describes herself as the awkward girl who brings a book to a party but dreams of opening the dance circle.
Relebone won the Blackbird Books / Casa Lorde residency in 2019. She was the social media manager for the Abantu Book festival in 2018, and works as a copywriter and proof-reader.
Her piece in Living While Feminist is called ‘A Salute to Sisterhood: On the Substance of Black Women’s Silent Revolution’ and explores the language, solidarity, the influence of our mothers, and the importance of building a community that understands you. In her piece she says:
“The centre of women’s organising, the whole point of it, is to lift a sister up. To create and escape. To further society … In the workplace and in less professional spaces, sisterhood carries us all through.”
So today I’ll talking with Relebone about all of these t…
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Dec 14, 2020
S1 BONUS! - Manage Your Money Like a Fucking Feminist with Sam Beckbessinger
Today on the podcast I’m talking with Sam Beckbessinger.
Sam is the bestselling author of Manage Your Money Like a Fucking Grownup – a guide to help you take control of your money so you can take control of your life.
As her website says “You’re going to earn plenty of money over your lifetime. Are you going to waste it on stupid crap that doesn’t make you happy, or let it buy your freedom and your most audacious dreams?”
In 2020, Sam produced a second version of the book – Manage your Money Like a Grownup – a guide for teens.
But writing about money is not the only writing that Sam does.
She was one of the writers on Serial Box’s and Marvel’s Jessica Jones: Playing With Fire serialized novel. She's also written several episodes for animated kids’ TV show, Team Jay, commissioned by the Juventus Soccer Club and produced and animated by Sunrise Productions, and the family-friendly comedy series Jungle Beat, which has been broadcast in over 180 countries on…
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Nov 12, 2020
S1, E10: Helen Moffett - Investigating feminist silences around infertility.
Today on the podcast I talk to Helen Moffett about reproductive justice, medical misogyny, and reimagining stories.
Helen Moffett is an author, editor, academic and activist. Her publications include university textbooks, a treasury of landscape writings (Lovely Beyond Any Singing), a cricket book (with Tim Noakes and the late Bob Woolmer), an animal charity anthology (Stray, with Diane Awerbuck) and the Girl Walks In erotica series (with Sarah Lotz and Paige Nick). She has also published two poetry collections – Strange Fruit (Modjaji Books) and Prunings (uHlanga Press), with the latter winning the 2017 SALA prize for poetry. She has edited the last three Short Story Day Africa anthologies, Migrations, ID and Hotel Africa. She has written a memoir of Rape Crisis, and two green handbooks: 101 Water-wise Ways and Wise About Waste: 150+ ways to help the planet. Her first novel, Charlotte (a Pride & Prejudice sequel), was published by Bonnier in the UK in 2020.
Helen’s piece in Livi…
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Nov 5, 2020
S1, E9: Owethu Makhathini - Anger, Intimate Justice, and Womanisms
Today on the podcast I’m talking with Owethu Makhathini. Owethu is an entrepreneur, writer and womanist.
As a social media specialist, strategist and trend forecaster in the advertising industry her work has helped to build digital literacy in that field. Part of this was achieved by founding her creative consultancy - Makhathini Media. Owethu is also a freelance writer and public speaker – in other words, an all-round creative entrepreneur.
Owethu’s writing has featured in both Feminism Is and Living While Feminist. In her piece in Living While Feminist called Ikhaye Elihle – For when I get home – she says
“If one’s practice of feminism is motivated by cheap sloganisms and is used to further the agendas of those already swimming in privilege then we have another problem.”
And in her piece in Feminism Is, called ‘A lot to be mad about: Advocating for the legitimacy of Black women’s anger’ Owethu says,
“My politics and existence are a resistance of respectab…
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Oct 29, 2020
S1, E8: Professor Srila Roy - Feminist movements and reimagining power.
Srila Roy is associate professor of sociology and heads development studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.
She is the author of the book, Remembering Revolution: Gender, Violence and Subjectivity in India’s Naxalbari Movement (Oxford, 2012), editor of New South Asian Feminisms (Zed, 2012) and co-editor of New Subaltern Politics: Reconceptualising Hegemony and Resistance in Contemporary India (Oxford 2015).
She is currently writing a book on feminist and queer politics in India, and co-editing a volume of essays on #MeToo in India and South Africa. Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, she leads a five year collaborative project between India and Southern Africa called Governing Intimacies.
Srila is also the editor of a number of academic journals and a regular contributor to a variety of media outlets on issues of gender and sexuality in the global south, with her work featuring on Al Jazeera, OpenDemocracy, the Wire and Dissent.
Srila’s piece in Liv…
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Oct 22, 2020
S1, E7: Aaisha Dadi Patel - Muslim feminism and redefining self worth
Today on the podcast I’m talking to Aaisha Dadi Patel.
Aaisha holds an MA in media studies from Wits, where she also lectures part-time. She began her career as a journalist at just twenty years old with the Daily Vox, and has made a mark on the South African media landscape covering everything from politics to polar bears. She is currently on the Wall Street Journal’s Africa desk, covering current affairs and economics updates from the continent.
Her piece in Living While Feminist is called – Feminism Is Muslim Women Talking Back –In that piece she says:
“In any intersectional context, the main thing to remember is that your struggles certainly do not have to be validated. Your anger is justified. You have the right to speak up for yourself against your own oppression, and voice your opinion on your own struggle, just as you are allowed to be an ally in another struggled. You are the one responsible for controlling your own narrative."
The piece explores how western femi…
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Oct 16, 2020
S1, E6: Karin Schimke - Changing bodies, changing rules
Today's episode features award-winning poet, an award-winning translator, an editor and a narrative non-fiction writer-at-large for Daily Maverick – Karin Schimke.
Karin has worked trained as a journalist and worked as a political writer. She has been a freelancer for the past two decades. Her features and news features have appeared in more than two dozen print publications and she currently writes features for the Daily Maverick and for Spotlight on issues from ventilators to food waste, hunger to domestic violence.
In 2013 she was the winner of the Sylt Foundation’s Writer Retreat, and a finalist in the South African Literary Awards for poetry. Karin was awarded the Ingrid Jonker Award for poetry for her debut poetry collection, Bare and Breaking, in 2014 and her second collection, Navigate was published in 2017. Karin has translated five books, edited seven more, authored another six, and contributed to six collections and anthologies. She won the South African Literary Award…
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Oct 8, 2020
S1, E5: Desiree-Anne Martin - Busting myths about motherhood and speaking your truth
Today I’m speaking to Desiree-Anne Martin. Desiree-Anne is a published author, poet and general word junkie – her writing can be found in anthologies, online, and in the Living While Feminist collection – the piece we’ll be talking about today.
In 2018, she published a poetry collection called Believe More Deeply, and a short story called ‘Orange, White and Blue’ in the Life Righting Collective anthology, This Is How It Is, published by Jacana. That same year she published her memoir – We Don’t Talk About it. Ever – which was described as ‘searing, brutal, and breathtaking’. In July 2020 Desire won the national arts24/ Kwela Books Corona Fiction Competition, with her story of a young girl from the Cape Flats dealing with her father’s alcoholism during Lockdown called ‘Delirium’, beating out over 1200 entrants. She is hard at work on a short story anthology and her a second book.
Besides being a prolific and successful writer, she is many more things too…
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Oct 1, 2020
S1, E4: Shari Maluleke - Understanding yourself as a gateway to freedom
Today on the podcast I talk with Shari Maluleke. Shari is a feminist writer who is committed to dismantling the patriarchy and fighting for the rights of black womxn and queer people.
Activism and writing are two things she is most passionate about, and she considers herself lucky to do both at the same time. Shari is 20 years old and is currently studying towards a Bachelor of Arts at Wits university. Taking things step by step, Shari hopes to not only leave a mark but change a few lives, even if it is just her own.
Shari’s piece in Living While Feminist is called ‘Understanding Myself’. In that piece she says:
Binaries felt more restrictive than eye-opening, for a long time in my life. Binaries made me feel like I must ask myself ‘who should I be’ rather than ‘who am I?’ Gender was always a matter of energies to me – masculine energy today and feminine energy tomorrow. I choose who I want to be today and I choose who I want to be tomorrow.
Today I’m going to be…
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Sep 24, 2020
S1, E3: Kerry Hammerton - A writing feminist's journey
This week I'm talking to Kerry Hammerton about making your own way, and the power of poetry and feminist choices.
Kerry Hammerton is a Cape Town based writer who has published prose and poetry in various South African and international literary journals and anthologies. Kerry has an MA in creative writing and is a lecturer and supervisor for the Masters in Creative Writing at Rhodes University. She is also a PhD candidate at the University of the Western Cape.
Kerry has read her work at many literary festivals, and her prose work has recently appeared in The Looking Glass Anthology: Through the Single Gal’s Lens and Living While Feminist, which we’ll talk more about today. She has published three poetry collections - the Secret Keeper (2018), the Weather Report (2014), and These are the Lies I told You (2010). During the COVID-19 lockdown Imphepho press featured her as one of 21 poets for 21 days, and you can see a few of her poems in a creative mixed media format on her YouTube…
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Sep 17, 2020
S1, E2: Carla Watson - Representation, Anger, Love and Excellence
Feminist, Activator and Strategic Rockstar. Carla Watson thrives in collaborative spaces to strategically shape the future for the marginalised and often overlooked.
She was recognised as one of the Top 200 South Africans for her contribution in Education (2019) and at just 31 years old she has just been recognised as one of 50 Most Powerful Women in the country by Mail and Guardian.
She is the Head of the Jakes Gerwel Graduate Teaching Fellowship which is focused on supporting and nurturing young people into high-impact high school teachers. Education and inclusivity are the pillars of her life’s work and vision and she strategically connects with individuals and organisations which resonate.
She is the founder of foryouandyours, an organisation focused on increasing visibility of LGBTIQ+ community and people of colour through greeting cards.
When she is not rocking a boat of social change, she is convincing her cat Thunder to become a lapcat.
Her piece in Living While Femi…
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Sep 11, 2020
SEASON 1, EPISODE 1: Tiffany Kagure Mugo - The Quirky Quick Guide to Cancel Culture and Having Great Sex
Welcome to the Living While Feminist podcast! How exciting!
Today I speak to Tiffany Kagure Mugo about many things, but mostly about Call Out Culture, Good Sex, and Feminist Kindness.
Tiffany is so many wonderful things it feels difficult to describe her but I’ll do my best. She is the (self-described) ‘intoxicatingly scary’ gatekeeper and co-founder of HOLAAfrica, a Pan African queer womanist digital community dealing with sex and sexuality. She is a TED and TEDX speaker with Siphumeze Khundayi, podcast, host, and Board Member of the FRIDA Fund.
Tiffany is a prolific writer of opinion pieces and useful blogs. She is the author of the book Quirky Quick Guide To Having Great Sex, launched in 2020, which sold out in many bookstores in the weekend it was published.
She's a media consultant and freelance journalist who tackles sex, politics and a huge range of other topics for the Mail and Guardian, the Huffington Post, the Citizen, This is Africa and others. In 2014 she attended…
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Sep 4, 2020
Intro - Welcome to Living While Feminist!
Living While Feminist is a weekly podcast where I speak to feminists about the ups and downs, ins and outs, and the emotional rollercoaster ride of living a feminist life.
I'm your host, feminist writer, researcher and author Jen Thorpe. Find out more about me here https://jen-thorpe.com/
Launching, mid-September 2020.
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