Feminist Book Club: The Podcast

Join Sam, Mariquita, and Ashley for a roundtable discussion on one of our favorite books of the year, Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe. They discuss the themes of motherhood, sex work, addiction and recovery, as well as the narrative perspective of Margo herself. Don’t let the heavy topics fool you – this book is hilarious, warm, and full of heart. 

Support this episode’s hosts

Follow Sam: Twitter // Instagram 

Follow Mariquita: Instagram 

Follow Ashley: Instagram // Twitter // Website

Get our weekly round-up of blog and podcast content delivered directly to your inbox every Friday here.

Check out our online community here! 

This episode was edited and produced by Renee Powers on the ancestral land of the Dakota people.

Original music by @iam.onyxrose

Learn more about Feminist Book Club on our website, sign up for our emails, shop our Bookshop.org recommendations, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest.

While we love a good fluffy book, there’s just something about diving deep into a specific subject. At FBC, we know we can do that through both fiction and non-fiction. In this episode, Nox shares a non-fiction book about reproductive health that opened her eyes to how much learning she has to do. Then Renee talks to Monique Roffey about femicide in the Caribbean in her new book Passiontide. 

It’s Not Hysteria: A Review (0:21)

Nox discusses It’s Not Hysteria by Karen Tang, an important (and gender-inclusive!) book about the reproductive system. Tune in to hear why this book was so meaningful to her and how it empowered her to learn more.

Femicide in the Caribbean (10:50)

Renee chats with Monique Roffey, author of the new book Passiontide, about femicide in the Caribbean. Passiontide is a fictional novel inspired by women’s protests in Trinidad after a Japanese steel pan player was murdered in 2016. Monique shares startling statistics about the murder of women globally but particularly in Trinidad and why it was so important to her to write about this issue.

Mentioned in this episode:

It’s Not Hysteria by Karen Tang, MD, MPH

Passiontide by Monique Roffey

The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Roffey

The Web of Meaning by Jeremy Lent

The Living Goddesses by Marija Gimbutas

Support this episode’s hosts and guests:

Follow Nox: Instagram // Twitter // TikTok

Follow Renee: Instagram // The StoryGraph

Follow Monique Roffey: Instagram

Today’s episode is sponsored by Gretchen Sisson, author of Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood. Your support helps keep feminist media independent!

Get our weekly round-up of blog and podcast content delivered directly to your inbox every Friday here.

Check out our online community here! 

This episode was edited and produced by Renee Powers on the ancestral land of the Dakota people.

Original music by @iam.onyxrose

Learn more about Feminist Book Club on our website, sign up for our emails, shop our Bookshop.org recommendations, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest.

It’s the week after Labor Day when it still feels like summer but we’re starting to get the itch for fall. So today’s episode celebrates this liminal space. First, Ashley shares her thoughts on summer blockbuster films led by women. Then Renee shares her five must-read BIPOC thriller authors and her favorite books by each one. 

Twisters: A Female Led Summer Blockbuster (0:21)

Ashley shares her thoughts on the film Twisters, which amplifies women in STEM and a female-centered story, plus the impact of woman-led films during this summer blockbuster season.

Five BIPOC Thriller Authors for Fall (9:04)

Gillian Flynn gave us the unreliable narrator and female rage, Jordan Peele gave us white supremacy as the real horror, and these five BIPOC authors weave all of these elements together to create books you’ll never want to put down. Grab your favorite sweater and your chai latte, and tune into Renee’s review of these must-read thrillers.

Mentioned in this episode:

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole

One of Us Knows by Alyssa Cole

My Sweet Girl by Amanda Jayatissa

You’re Invited by Amanda Jayatissa

Island Witch by Amanda Jayatissa

Like a Sister by Kellye Garrett

Missing White Woman by Kellye Garrett

White Horse by Erika T. Wurth

The Hacienda by Isabel Cañas

Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas

Support this episode’s hosts and guests:

Follow Ashley: Instagram // Twitter // Website

Follow Renee: Instagram // The StoryGraph

Today’s episode is sponsored by Gretchen Sisson, author of Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood. Your support helps keep feminist media independent!

Get our weekly round-up of blog and podcast content delivered directly to your inbox every Friday here.

Check out our online community here! 

This episode was edited and produced by Renee Powers on the ancestral land of the Dakota people.

Original music by @iam.onyxrose

Learn more about Feminist Book Club on our website, sign up for our emails, shop our Bookshop.org recommendations, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest.

We’re not sure what this episode says about us as a team, but we like gross shit and we look up to rebels. In the first segment, listen in as Rah and Mariquita tell one another about some books they love that just gave them the ick. Then stick around for Sam’s review of Rebel Girl by Kathleen Hanna. Somehow Kathy Acker is name dropped twice in this episode and that just feels right.

We Like to Feel Grimy: Books That Gross Us Out (0:22)

Join Rah and Mariquita as they dive into the books that leave us feeling, well... gross. These are the reads that make you say, “What the f***?” or leave a lingering, unsettling feeling long after you’ve turned the last page. Please note that many of these books do come with content warnings, so please take care of yourself and check the warnings before diving into the book. 

Rebel Girls: Kathleen Hanna’s New Memoir and the People She’s Inspired (21:26)

Sam talks about Kathleen Hanna’s new memoir, Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk, and how it is darker, deeper, and more insightful than its cover might lead you to believe. This bookand the review mention sexual assault.

Mentioned in this episode:

Kittentits by Holly Wilson (tune into our discussion on the podcast here)

Earthlings by Sayaka Murata

The Guest by Emma Cline

Raw Dog by Jamie Loftus

Tender by Beth Hetland

Chlorine by Jade Song

Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung

Blood and Guts in High School by Kathy Acker

We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Sam Irby (or really anything by Sam Irby)

Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder

Rebel Girl by Kathleen Hanna

Riot Grrrl History

Support this episode’s hosts and guests:

Follow Rah: Instagram // TikTok // The StoryGraph

Follow Mariquita: Instagram 

Follow Sam: Twitter // Instagram 

Today’s episode is sponsored by Gretchen Sisson, author of Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood. Your support helps keep feminist media independent!

Get our weekly round-up of blog and podcast content delivered directly to your inbox every Friday here.

Check out our online community here! 

This episode was edited and produced by Renee Powers on the ancestral land of the Dakota people.

Original music by @iam.onyxrose

Learn more about Feminist Book Club on our website, sign up for our emails, shop our Bookshop.org recommendations, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest.

Sometimes our contributors just want to tell you about the delightful books they’ve read recently, so tune in for four book reviews on some recent releases.

What’s in this episode:

The Backtrack by Erin LaRosa, reviewed by Mariquita (0:21)

Loud: Accept Nothing Less Than the Life You Deserve by Drew Afualo, reviewed by Renee (3:25)

Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner, reviewed by Sam  (11:45)

The Coven by Harper L. Woods, reviewed by Mhairie (15:30)

(Trigger warnings: dubious consent, forced feeding, graphic violence, rough and explicit sexualcontent, forced proximity, betrayal, references to past abuse inc child abuse and reactions to triggering stimuli, knife violence, blood, physical harm to the FMC, bullying, murder, death of a parent, death, confinement.)

Support this episode’s hosts and guests:

Follow Mariquita: Instagram 

Follow Renee: Instagram // The StoryGraph

Follow Sam: Twitter // Instagram 

Follow Mhairie: Instagram

Today’s episode is sponsored by Gretchen Sisson, author of Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood. Your support helps keep feminist media independent!

Get our weekly round-up of blog and podcast content delivered directly to your inbox every Friday here.

Check out our online community here! 

This episode was edited and produced by Renee Powers on the ancestral land of the Dakota people.

Original music by @iam.onyxrose

Learn more about Feminist Book Club on our website, sign up for our emails, shop our Bookshop.org recommendations, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest.

Renee shares some of her favorite mental health memoirs and Mariquita interviews author Anamely Salgado Reyes, all in a search for the answer to an age-old question: Are we mad or is it just trauma?

Renee’s Reading Corner: Mental Health Memoirs (0:21)

Instead of a longer review of one book, Renee shares six mental health memoirs that made a last impression on her. From C-PTSD to depression, from sociopathy to anxiety, this segment covers a lot of ground.

You Will Make Mistakes: Finding Home and Family in My Mother Cursed My Name (12:19)

Mariquita interviews author Anamely Salgado Reyes about her debut novel, My Mother Cursed My Name. They discuss the legacy of trauma passed along by family who did their best, what it means to feel othered, how to define home, and just how, exactly, you can break a curse.

Books and Resources Mentioned:

Brain on Fire by Susannah Cahalan

What My Bones Know by Stephanie Foo

A Flat Place by Noreen Masud

The Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction Short List - podcast episode with Sally and Renee

The Valedictorian of Being Dead by Heather B. Armstrong

Sociopath by Patric Gagne

Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh

My Mother Cursed My Name by Anamely Salgado Reyes

Support this episode’s hosts and guests:

Follow Renee: Instagram // The StoryGraph

Follow Mariquita: Instagram 

Follow Anamely: Instagram

Today’s episode is sponsored by Gretchen Sisson, author of Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood. Your support helps keep feminist media independent!

Get our weekly round-up of blog and podcast content delivered directly to your inbox every Friday here.

Check out our online community here! 

This episode was edited and produced by Renee Powers on the ancestral land of the Dakota people.

Original music by @iam.onyxrose

Learn more about Feminist Book Club on our website, sign up for our emails, shop our Bookshop.org recommendations, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest.

The phrase “own voices” gets tossed around the bookish internet a lot, but have you ever paused to think about why it truly matters? Today’s podcast sheds light on the importance of reading stories told by the people within those communities. From the political crisis in the Philippines from an intrepid Filipino journalist to the first traditionally-published romance novel by a Native author featuring Native characters, we spotlight why #OwnVoices is more than just a hashtag.

Renee’s Reading Corner: Some People Need Killing (0:21)

Renee shares one of her favorite non-fiction books of the year so far, Some People Need Killing by Patricia Evangelista. Even if you think the deadly politics of the Philippines has no impact on your day-to-day life, tune in to hear why you should absolutely read this book. If nothing else, it’s a feat of longform journalism that you won’t want to miss.

The Bridget Jones of Indian Country (8:40)

We’ve waited until 2024 to have our first traditionally-published romance by a Native author featuring Native characters, but it was worth the wait! Sally chats with Danica Nava, author of The Truth According to Ember, about Native stereotypes and discrimination, her favorite romcoms, characters, and tropes, and her book, which we’ll gladly deem “the Bridget Jones of Indian Country.”

Books and Resources Mentioned:

Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country by Patricia Evangelista

The Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction Short List - podcast episode with Sally and Renee

The Truth According to Ember by Danica Nava

Bridget Jones’ Diary by Helen Fielding

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Reservation Dogs

Legally Blonde

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne

I’ve Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella

Can You Keep a Secret? by Sophie Kinsella

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Support this episode’s hosts and guests:

Follow Renee: Instagram // The StoryGraph

Follow Sally: Instagram // The StoryGraph

Follow Danica: Instagram // Threads

Today’s episode is sponsored by Gretchen Sisson, author of Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood. Your support helps keep feminist media independent!

Get our weekly round-up of blog and podcast content delivered directly to your inbox every Friday here.

Check out our online community here! 

This episode was edited and produced by Renee Powers on the ancestral land of the Dakota people.

Original music by @iam.onyxrose

Learn more about Feminist Book Club on our website, sign up for our emails, shop our Bookshop.org recommendations, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest.

Get your TBRs ready because we’re discussing three books you won’t want to miss! Jordy reviews Made For You by Jenna Satterthwaite, Renee reviews All This and More by Peng Shepherd, and Mariquita sits down with Rachelle Bergstein to chat about her book The Genius of Judy: How Judy Blume Rewrote Childhood for All of Us. This episode will have you thinking about the kinds of entertainment media that makes us all who we are.

Made For You – AI Women and The Bachelor (0:21)

Jordy sits down to discuss Made for You by Jenna Satterthwaite. This book is The Bachelor meets artificial intelligence meets murder mystery. This story will have you ponder the ethics and morality of creating humanlike robots all while feeling empowered by reclaiming individual autonomy.  

Renee’s Reading Corner: All This and More (5:40)

If you’re feeling a little nostalgic for the Choose Your Own Adventure books we had growing up, you’ll want to check out Peng Shepherd’s latest novel All This and More. Renee reviews the book and shares why you might love it too.

What a Friend We Have in Judy (9:11)

Mariquita interviews author Rachelle Bergstein about her book The Genius of Judy: How Judy Blume Rewrote Childhood for All of Us. Over the course of the discussion they cover the importance of Blume’s ability to destigmatize menstruation and masturbation, the evergreen relevance of censorship and book bans, and where accountability ends and censorship begins. 

Books and Resources Mentioned:

Made for You by Jenna Satterthwaite 

If the Shoe Fits by Julie Murphy 

The Villain Edit by Laurie Devore 

All This and More by Peng Shepherd

The Genius of Judy: How Judy Blume Rewrote Childhood for All of Us by Rachelle Bergstein 

Women from the Ankle Down by Rachelle Bergstein 

Brilliance and Fire by Rachelle Bergstein 

Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret by Judy Blume 

Deenie by Judy Blume 

Forever by Judy Blume 

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe  

All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson 

Superfudge by Judy Blume 

Then Again Maybe I Won’t by Judy Blume 

Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer 

Support this episode’s hosts and guests:

Follow Jordy: Instagram // TikTok 

Follow Renee: Instagram // The StoryGraph

Follow Rachelle: Instagram // website // twitter 

Follow Mariquita: Instagram // Threads 

Get our weekly round-up of blog and podcast content delivered directly to your inbox every Friday here.

Check out our online community here! 

This episode was edited and produced by Renee Powers on the ancestral land of the Dakota people.

Original music by @iam.onyxrose

Learn more about Feminist Book Club on our website, sign up for our emails, shop our Bookshop.org recommendations, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest.

After trying – and failing – to lean in and girlboss our way to success, what comes next? Ashley and Sally chat with Samhita Mukhopadhyay (former executive editor for Teen Vogue) about what we can take away from those movements, how community is key to a workplace revolution, and insights from her book The Myth of Making It.

Books and Resources Mentioned:

The Myth of Making It: A Workplace Reckoning by Samhita Mukhopadhyay

Having It All by Helen Gurley Brown

Phillip Cardi’s interview with Samhita on Unholier Than Thou

Support this episode’s hosts and guests:

Follow Samhita: Instagram // Substack

Follow Ashley: Instagram // Twitter // Website

Follow Sally: Instagram // The StoryGraph

Get our weekly round-up of blog and podcast content delivered directly to your inbox every Friday here.

Check out our online community here! 

This episode was edited and produced by Renee Powers on the ancestral land of the Dakota people.

Original music by @iam.onyxrose

Learn more about Feminist Book Club on our website, sign up for our emails, shop our Bookshop.org recommendations, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest.

Move over non-fiction, we’ve got three novels that tackle big social issues in today’s episode! From violence against women in Murder After the Night Before, racist property laws in What You Leave Behind, and climate change in Troubled Waters, today’s episode proves that fiction can teach us and inspire us just as well, if not better, than non-fiction. 

The One with the (Un)Likable Female Character with Katy Brent (0:21)

Do we need to like our main characters or can we just accept that we’re all a bit like Rachel’s trifle from Friends? In this segment, kindly sponsored by HarperCollins, Sally talks with Katy Brent, author of The Murder After the Night Before. They chat about unlikeable female characters, what we gain from true crime, and Katy’s favorite thrillers.

Heirs Property in What We Leave Behind by Wanda M. Morris (16:55) 

Renee gushes about the new legal thriller What We Leave Behind by one of her favorite thriller authors Wanda M. Morris. To provide context for the premise of the book, she dives into what heirs property is, what makes it so complicated, and how it can impact the inheritance and legacy of Black families.

Lineage, Food, and Climate Change with Mary Annaïse Heglar (25:41) Ashley speaks with the author of Troubled Waters, Mary Annaïse Heglar, about how food can be a connector among characters, how place is pivotal for storytelling, the history of climate change that we try to forget, and cli-fi as a literary genre.

Books/Resources Mentioned:

The Murder After the Night Before by Katy Brent

How to Kill Men and Get Away With It by Katy Brent

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Hidden Homicides podcast

You by Caroline Kepnes (and the tv show)

The Boys

Killing Eve

Troubled Waters by Mary Annaïse Heglar

What You Leave Behind by Wanda M. Morris

Anywhere You Run by Wanda M. Morris

All Her Little Secrets by Wanda M. Morris

Renee’s podcast interview with Wanda M. Morris (from 2022)

Support this episode’s hosts and guests: 

Follow Sally: Instagram // The StoryGraph

Follow Katy Brent: Instagram

Follow Renee: Instagram // The StoryGraph

Follow Ashley: Instagram // Twitter // Website

Follow Mary Annaïse Heglar: Instagram

Get our weekly round-up of blog and podcast content delivered directly to your inbox every Friday here.

Check out our online community here! 

This episode was edited and produced by Renee Powers on the ancestral land of the Dakota people.

Original music by @iam.onyxrose

Learn more about Feminist Book Club on our website, sign up for our emails, shop our Bookshop.org recommendations, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Pinterest.