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My first entry today has two episodes but starring the same person - Romeo Kokriatski. Romeo is an Ukrainian American who has been the co-host of Ukraine Without Hype for a long time. When the Ukraine war started I was listening to a lot of podcasts on Ukraine, and many of them were either too nationalist for my taste, too whiny, or weirdly lefty, or were so propagandist that they could make Volodymyr Zelenskyy blush. (I'm looking at you, BBC's UkraineCast.) I ended up sticking with Hype because Romeo and his co-host Anthony Bartaway are clear eyed while being full partisans for the Ukrainian cause. I found that Romeo published in some anarchist publication in the past but he doesn't flaunt it that much on this podcast.
So the first episode this week if from Ukraine without Hype: Episode 27: Sarah Ashton on the Situation in Kharkiv and Being "Trans at the Front"
Sarah Ashton is a trans American analyst turned journalist who was writing a book in Latvia when the war started, and then decided to drop everything to go Ukraine, and then go all the way to the front to report on the war for queer publications in the U.S. Since that interview she managed to become a spokesperson for the Ukrainian military and then get suspended from that job. But anyway, Sarah speaks about being Trans in Ukraine, which has mostly been without a hitch. She also speaks neither of the local languages, and doesn't have a fixer, so between Google Translate, rudimentary English from some Ukrainians, some German from her part and a whole bunch of gestures, she gets around to do her work. One of the interesting segments is when Romeo (who is brown-skinned) and Sarah discuss how their identities are much more of an issue in every life in the U.S. than they are in Ukraine. Romeo discusses the stratification of Russian society, where Russians sit at the top, and how that's an important thing for them but Ukraine is a lot more heterogenous. (Which makes sense where you're read some Ukrainian history...) I found Sarah's account of her time so far quite fascinating. At some point the Russians discovered Ashton's existence and decided to highlight her an example of how depraved Ukrainians are, which had the effect of significantly elevating her status on the Ukrainian side. So this episode was overall a feelgood story, until you get to the end and see what kind of fucking awful crap she's been receiving from American tankies and DSA types. So huh, yeah.
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The second Romeo episode is 136/ When War Gets Normalized, Or What's At Stake in Ukraine w/ Mariam Naiem and Romeo Kokriatski on The Fire These Times, a generally anarchist podcast. The discuss how Ukrainian identity gets taken apart by Russian society to justify the war. They discuss the issue of Russians kidnapping and adopting children, with Romeo name-dropping a book about Canada's residential schools as a resource that was relevant to understanding Russia's POV. (!!!) Romeo discusses how the war will not end until Putin is gone from Russia, resigning himself to a decade of conflict, regardless of whether Russians remain in the territory of Ukraine.
Romeo talks about his plans for the end of the war (having a child). There is one status change in Ukrainian life that will be a marker for him. Host Ayoub then discusses how some Lebanese people kind of wish they were back in the Lebanese Civil War, because back then you would make plans for what you would do when the war is over, and you were hopeful. But now there is no civil and no hope at all, in a perpetual financial crisis and political gridlock.
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Bonus episode! The podcast I love to gripe about, Fucking Cancelled, had a great guest: Talking Shit with Zachary Zane: Sex is a Huge Part of My Sexuality.
Zane is a sex educator and sex advice and non-monogamy columnist with Men's Health Magazine. Here, like in his book Boyslut, he discusses his coming into his identity as a bisexual man. An interesting part of the discussion is about sexual consent in queer sex spaces, from "Yes means Yes" super-contractual sex which has become more popular recently, to "No means no" consent which is more, huh, old school. Anyway this was a great discussion about bisexuality and consent which lit up a few bulbs in my head.
So the first episode this week if from Ukraine without Hype: Episode 27: Sarah Ashton on the Situation in Kharkiv and Being "Trans at the Front"
Sarah Ashton is a trans American analyst turned journalist who was writing a book in Latvia when the war started, and then decided to drop everything to go Ukraine, and then go all the way to the front to report on the war for queer publications in the U.S. Since that interview she managed to become a spokesperson for the Ukrainian military and then get suspended from that job. But anyway, Sarah speaks about being Trans in Ukraine, which has mostly been without a hitch. She also speaks neither of the local languages, and doesn't have a fixer, so between Google Translate, rudimentary English from some Ukrainians, some German from her part and a whole bunch of gestures, she gets around to do her work. One of the interesting segments is when Romeo (who is brown-skinned) and Sarah discuss how their identities are much more of an issue in every life in the U.S. than they are in Ukraine. Romeo discusses the stratification of Russian society, where Russians sit at the top, and how that's an important thing for them but Ukraine is a lot more heterogenous. (Which makes sense where you're read some Ukrainian history...) I found Sarah's account of her time so far quite fascinating. At some point the Russians discovered Ashton's existence and decided to highlight her an example of how depraved Ukrainians are, which had the effect of significantly elevating her status on the Ukrainian side. So this episode was overall a feelgood story, until you get to the end and see what kind of fucking awful crap she's been receiving from American tankies and DSA types. So huh, yeah.
---
The second Romeo episode is 136/ When War Gets Normalized, Or What's At Stake in Ukraine w/ Mariam Naiem and Romeo Kokriatski on The Fire These Times, a generally anarchist podcast. The discuss how Ukrainian identity gets taken apart by Russian society to justify the war. They discuss the issue of Russians kidnapping and adopting children, with Romeo name-dropping a book about Canada's residential schools as a resource that was relevant to understanding Russia's POV. (!!!) Romeo discusses how the war will not end until Putin is gone from Russia, resigning himself to a decade of conflict, regardless of whether Russians remain in the territory of Ukraine.
Romeo talks about his plans for the end of the war (having a child). There is one status change in Ukrainian life that will be a marker for him. Host Ayoub then discusses how some Lebanese people kind of wish they were back in the Lebanese Civil War, because back then you would make plans for what you would do when the war is over, and you were hopeful. But now there is no civil and no hope at all, in a perpetual financial crisis and political gridlock.
---
Bonus episode! The podcast I love to gripe about, Fucking Cancelled, had a great guest: Talking Shit with Zachary Zane: Sex is a Huge Part of My Sexuality.
Zane is a sex educator and sex advice and non-monogamy columnist with Men's Health Magazine. Here, like in his book Boyslut, he discusses his coming into his identity as a bisexual man. An interesting part of the discussion is about sexual consent in queer sex spaces, from "Yes means Yes" super-contractual sex which has become more popular recently, to "No means no" consent which is more, huh, old school. Anyway this was a great discussion about bisexuality and consent which lit up a few bulbs in my head.
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