Bubble and Squeak

In this episode of Bubble & Squeak, Peterson sits down with world-renowned Kenyan entomologist and evolutionary biologist Dr. Dino Martins. From field research across East Africa to immersive reflections on biodiversity, Dino shares how studying the smallest lives—insects, pollinators, and decomposers—unravels human exceptionalism, heals ecological grief, and invites us into a deeper, reciprocal kinship with the living Earth.

Featuring field soundscapes and contemplative reflections on science, connection, and what it truly means to pay attention.

Learn more & connect:

• Learn more about Dr. Dino Martins' work and publications, including Insects of East Africa. Just do a simple Google Search for "Dino Martins."

• Hosted and produced by Peterson Toscano.

What do the anthracite coal towns of Central Pennsylvania have in common with the historic slate quarry towns of North Wales? Both are places where the earth was cut open, wealth traveled elsewhere, and the people who stayed were left to explain why their home still matters.

In this long-form episode of Bubble and Squeak, host Peterson Toscano travels across the Atlantic to Gwynedd, North Wales, to explore GwyrddNi—a uniquely local, community-led climate action movement. This isn't a typical environmental project focused purely on carbon footprints. It is an initiative grounded in the rugged landscape, grassroots community assemblies, and the fierce preservation of the Welsh language.

Together with four local organizers, we unpack the complicated intersections of migration, economic hollowing out, and the uncomfortable question: when a place changes, who gets to decide what the future sounds like?

In this episode, we explore:

The Legacy of Extraction: How communities scarred by the coal and slate industries are redefining their worth.

Language and Belonging: The systemic friction between the native Welsh language and English migration, and why cultural preservation is deeply tied to community resilience.

Community Assemblies: How 100 hours of grassroots listening sessions across five "left-behind" communities sparked tangible, local change.

Hyper-Local Solutions: From school uniform swaps to a community pickling shed (cwtsh piclo), discover how good, honest, and kind community work naturally leads to effective climate adaptation.

Featured Guests:

Nina Bentley: A GwyrddNi facilitator based in Blaenau Ffestiniog who explains the beauty of the slate landscape and the power of everyday community sharing.

Phil McGrath: A Caernarfon resident who highlights the deep connection between the Welsh people, their language, and their role as protectors of the land.

Trey McCain: A Mississippi native living in Dyffryn Nantlle, working on food resilience, community gardening, and preserving local food traditions.

Gwyneth Jones: GwyrddNi’s second Communications Manager, who grounds the conversation in the slow, patient, and trust-based reality of community organizing.

Learn more about GwyrddNi by visiting https://www.gwyrddni.cymru/en/

This episode of Bubble & Squeak comes in three parts: a joke Peterson almost told at an open mic in Sunbury, PA, a true story from Santiago, Chile, and a sound slice from the past.

Peterson begins with one of his father’s best jokes—or at least the story of why he nearly told it in public and then thought better of it. His mother, Anita Toscano, had a crisp, dry wit. His father, Pete Toscano, told jokes that were risky, bawdy, and barroom-ready. That family comic inheritance sets the stage for the main story.

In “Shell Game,” Peterson remembers a 1994 trip to Santiago, Chile. At the time, he was closeted, married to a woman, working for a Christian mission, and trying very hard to become a straight man. From his hotel window, he watches three black Mercedes limousines move through the city, one of them likely carrying former dictator Augusto Pinochet. What follows is a story about power, performance, masculinity, repression, and the strange masks people wear in order to survive.

The episode closes with a brief sound slice from Peterson’s past, connecting memory, family, and voice.

Featured story:

Bubble & Squeak is written and produced by Peterson Toscano. It features uncanny sounds, funny interludes, and stories—most weird, many true.

Find Peterson online:

You can also find him on TikTok, Instagram, and Bluesky.

Recorded live at the Accidental Theatre for the Imagine Belfast Festival, this special episode of Bubble & Squeak. Peterson Toscano guides the audience through a four-part journey that is playful but deeply serious beneath the surface, exploring faith, politics, identity, and the power of storytelling.

Part One: A Performance to Relax Peterson opens the show with a scene from his one-person play, Queer 101—Now I Know my Gay, B, C’s. Meet Chad, an over-enthusiastic graduate student and sub-lecturer who imagines a date with the Spanish poet, Federico Garcia Lorca.

Part Two: Resilience and Rights with The Rainbow Project Peterson is joined by Alexa Moore and Simon Carmichael from The Rainbow Project, Northern Ireland’s largest LGBTQIA+ organization. They discuss:

The evolution of the project from a 1994 HIV volunteer effort to a full-spectrum support and advocacy center.

Current battles for dignity, including campaigning against "conversion therapy" and advocating for trans healthcare rights.

The importance of co-cultural counseling and creating safe, affirmative spaces for the community.

Part Three: The Poetry of Memory with Damian Gorman Acclaimed poet and playwright Damian Gorman (Head of Peacebuilding at Children in Crossfire) shares his work and reflects on the intersection of art and memory. He discusses his recent projects, WITNESS and B O Y, which tackle difficult histories with grace and profound honesty.

Part Four: The "Mighty Men of God." The show takes a satirical turn with a solo sketch featuring a "Christian Men’s Support and Accountability Group." Peterson inhabits multiple characters to promote vulnerability among men. What starts as a simple exercise to share habits takes a quick turn when a surprise visitor arrives.

The Rainbow Project: https://www.rainbow-project.org

Damian Gorman (Children in Crossfire): https://www.childrenincrossfire.org

Imagine Belfast Festival of Ideas & Politics: https://imaginebelfast.com

Alexa Moore (she/her): Policy, Campaigns and Communications Manager at The Rainbow Project and co-founder of TransgenderNI. She is also a queer set dancing instructor at The MAC.

Simon Carmichael (they/them): Co-Cultural Counseling Manager at The Rainbow Project with a background in psychology and workplace mental health.

Damian Gorman: A renowned poet and playwright whose work has long been woven into the cultural and political life of Northern Ireland.

Host & Producer: Peterson Toscano.

Sound & Lighting: Martin Price

Music from Epidemic Sound: Walk Tall by Johannes Bornlöf, Late Night Madrid (Adua Blaize Remix) by Alysha Sheldon, Dirty Feet by Andreas Dahlback, In America by Badskum, Last Laugh by White Bones, and Horseback by QTE

Venue: Accidental Theatre, Shaftesbury Square, Belfast.

Part One: Queer author Ryan La Sala and the queer horror story, The Dead of Summer

Part Two: A message from the evil spirit that lives inside Donald Trump

Part Three: A Sound Slice from a political rally in Richmond, Virginia. 

You can see a video version of this podcast over at https://www.youtube.com/@p2son

Ryan LaSala is a bestselling and award-winning queer author. He writes about surreal things happening to queer people. He is the author of BEHOLDER, REVERIE, and BE DAZZLED. Their debut horror novel, THE HONEYS, is in development to become a major motion picture. He joined me in the studio to talk about his most recent book, THE DEAD OF SUMMER. 

Cnidarians are a diverse phylum of over 11,000 aquatic, mostly marine, invertebrates—including jellyfish, corals, and sea anemones—characterized by radial symmetry, a simple gastrovascular cavity, and specialized stinging cells called nematocysts (cnidocytes). They possess a decentralized nerve net, lack true organs, and exist in two main body forms: sessile polyps and free-swimming medusae.

Music on today's show comes from EpidemicSound.com. Bubble and Squeak is produced by me, Peterson. I mostly make this show for myself, oh, and for Harlan, who listens, smiling while he walks. 

In this episode, the threads of community, justice, climate imagination, and art weave through three distinct yet deeply connected stories.

Today’s show comes in three parts:

What begins with a surprise email from my sister’s childhood classmate becomes a chain reaction of connection—stretching from a tiny town along the Delaware River to Zambia, Kenya, Hartford CT, and back to my cousin Mona over breakfast.

I speak with four remarkable women whose lives, work, and generosity intersect through period poverty, community organizing, youth empowerment, and a simple but world-changing tool: the menstrual cup.

⭐ Christine Garde Denning

⭐ Mary Maker (Mary Nyeriak)

⭐ Fran Stoffer (she/her)

⭐ Mona Norfleet

Climate dread meets unsettling beauty in Catherine Pierce’s celebrated poem Anthropocene Pastoral.

The poem first appeared in Poetry Magazine and later in her collection Danger Days.

Former Poet Laureate of Mississippi (2021–2025), author of Danger Days, with two new books coming in 2026:

Foxes for Everybody (memoir, Northwestern University Press)

Dear Beast (poetry, Saturnalia Books)

Find her work:

I travel to Abner Clay Park in Richmond’s historic Jackson Ward neighborhood for the “Axial Precession Procession,” part of Jump!Star, the ritual welcoming of Earth’s next North Star: Gamma Cephei (“Ceph”), due to rise in about 1,000 years.

The park is transformed with illuminated sculptures, movement choruses, and hundreds of volunteers known as “Dark Matter.”

This segment features a SoundSlice recorded live as time folds—past, present, and future converging for one luminous ritual.

Artist, director, collaborator, and visionary behind Jump!Star.

Mirah (NYC)

CouldYou? → https://couldyou.org

Website → www.yournccf.org/womenandgirls

Poems, books, events → https://catherinepiercepoet.com

Jump!Star info → https://www.georgeferrandi.com

Bubble & Squeak is written and produced by me, Peterson Toscano.

Find more episodes, images, and strange audio bits at: