Getting Better with Jonathan Van Ness

We love going off script for Getting Curious, but we’re staying on it with this week’s guest: the Golden Globe and Emmy-nominated writer, director, actress, and author Emerald Fennell. She and Jonathan discuss her latest project and directorial feature film debut PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN, her role as Camilla Parker Bowles on THE CROWN, and so much more.

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN, nominated for three Golden Globe awards, is a comedy thriller that centers on a woman, played by Carey Mulligan, who is traumatized by an event in her past and sets out for revenge. There are a few spoilers in the first segment of this episode, but we’ll give you a heads up before each one. And the film, released by Focus Features, is available on demand, so if you want to see it before listening to the episode, we’ll see you back here in 1 hour and 54 minutes. Finally, because this film addresses sexual assault, we want to be clear that we’ll be discussing this topic and, more generally, representations of trauma in popular culture, during this part of the episode.

You can follow Emerald on Twitter @EmeraldFennell.

Find out what today’s guest and former guests are up to by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN.

Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com.

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Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook.

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Put on your finest loungewear and raise your favorite coffee mug because this week’s episode of Getting Curious is an EVENT! After six years of incredible work, NASA’s Perseverance rover is now exploring Mars, and Jonathan spoke with Christina Hernandez, an engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, all about the mission just before landing day. Listen in to learn more about the Red Planet, the Perseverance mission, and Christina’s advice for the next generation of NASA innovators.

Keep up with rover coverage on Twitter @NASAPersevere and Instagram @NASA, and with Christina’s amazing career on Twitter @estrellasycafe. For Spanish-language coverage, make sure to check out @NASA_es on Twitter and Instagram.

Find out what today’s guest and former guests are up to by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN.

Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com.

Check out Getting Curious merch at PodSwag.com.

Listen to more music from Quiñ by heading over to TheQuinCat.com.

Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook.

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This week on Getting Curious, we’re celebrating 200 episodes and five years of the show with a look back at some of our favorite segments on empowerment, advocacy, and exploration. We’re so grateful to all of our listeners and guests for taking this journey with us, and we’ll be back next week with an all new episode that’s truly out of this world!

Find out what today’s guest and former guests are up to by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN.

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Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook.

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This week on Getting Curious, we’re learning about three women who shaped the movement for civil rights in the United States—Alberta King, Louise Little, and Berdis Baldwin—but whose stories have too often been footnotes in books about their famous sons.

The writer and scholar Anna Malaika Tubbs joins Jonathan to discuss her new group biography The Three Mothers, her work studying Black motherhood as a Gates scholar and Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at Cambridge University, and her approach to public projects like Stockton, California’s Status of Women Report.

Follow Anna on Twitter @annas_tea_ and on Instagram @annastea_honesty. Make sure to check out The Three Mothers, published by Flatiron Books, on sale now.

Find out what today’s guest and former guests are up to by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN.

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Listen to more music from Quiñ by heading over to TheQuinCat.com.

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In December 2020, the UK High Court determined that trans, non-binary, and gender diverse young people in the UK must have legal approval before they can start puberty blockers—even if these young people, their families, and their doctors advocate for treatment. This week on Getting Curious, Lui Asquith joins Jonathan to break down what hormone blockers are, why this case is so significant, and how it fits into a broader discussion about trans rights in the UK and beyond.

Lui Asquith (pronouns they/them) is Director of Legal, Policy and Operations at Mermaids. Lui is a qualified lawyer, with a background in LGBTI activism. They moved to Mermaids over two years ago to focus on improving the lives of trans, non-binary and gender diverse young people on the front line. Founded in 1995, Mermaids is a UK-wide charity working to support thousands of transgender, non-binary and gender diverse children, young people, and their families.

Lui is on Twitter @luiasquith. Mermaids is on Instagram @mermaidsgender, Twitter @Mermaids_Gender, and Facebook @MermaidsGender.

Find out what today’s guest and former guests are up to by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN.

Check out all new Getting Curious merch at PodSwag.com.

Listen to more music from Quiñ by heading over to TheQuinCat.com.

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This week on Getting Curious, the writer, activist, and educator Dean Spade joins Jonathan to discuss how we can meet our neighbors’ survival needs through mutual aid, and better understand the systems we live under in the process. Listen in to learn about what mutual aid is, how it differs from charity, and why local wisdom is essential for sweeping change.

Dean Spade has been working to build queer and trans liberation based in racial and economic justice for the past two decades. He’s the author of Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law, the director of the documentary “Pinkwashing Exposed: Seattle Fights Back!,” and the creator of the mutual aid toolkit at BigDoorBrigade.com. His latest book, Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next), was published by Verso Press in October 2020.

You can follow Dean on Twitter @deanspade and Instagram @spade.dean.

Find out what today’s guest and former guests are up to by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN.

Check out all new Getting Curious merch at PodSwag.com.

Listen to more music from Quiñ by heading over to TheQuinCat.com.

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This week on Getting Curious, we’re following the money to better understand banking in America and the history of the country’s racial wealth gap. Professor Mehrsa Baradaran joins Jonathan to discuss banking deserts, overdraft fees, home loans, and more. (Like, what are capital gains, even?!)

Mehrsa Baradaran is a professor of law and associate dean at UC Irvine School of Law specializing in banking law and financial inequality. She is the author of How the Other Half Banks and The Color of Money.

Follow Professor Baradaran on Twitter and Instagram @mehrsabaradaran.

Find out what today’s guest and former guests are up to by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN.

Check out all new Getting Curious merch at PodSwag.com.

Listen to more music from Quiñ by heading over to TheQuinCat.com.

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New year, old curiosity: this week on Getting Curious, we’re traveling back in time to ancient Egypt with Dr. Kathryn Howley. She and Jonathan discuss what life might have looked like for ancient Egyptian hairstylists, royalty, and scribes; how ancient Egyptians interacted with neighboring cultures; and what it’s like for Egyptologists to analyze archaeological remains.

Professor Howley is the Lila Acheson Wallace Assistant Professor of Ancient Egyptian Art and Archaeology at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. She is interested in how ancient peoples negotiated their interactions with other cultures through art and material culture, particularly Egypt and its southern neighbor Nubia in the first millennium BCE. As part of this interest she directs the Sanam Temple Project, which undertakes fieldwork at the 7th century BCE Egyptian-style temple of the Nubian King Taharqo at Sanam, Sudan.

You can follow the Sanam Temple Project team’s latest fieldwork discoveries on Facebook @sanamtempleproject.

Find out what today’s guest and former guests are up to by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN.

Check out all new Getting Curious merch at PodSwag.com.

Listen to more music from Quiñ by heading over to TheQuinCat.com.

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We’re gliding into the new year with the re-release of an episode from February 2019 with figure skating’s finest: Michelle Kwan and Eliot Halverson. Michelle and Eliot join Jonathan to talk all things skating: judging scandals, big coats, tracing figures, and Jonathan’s journey on the ice.

Michelle Kwan is an American figure skater, two-time Olympic medalist, five-time world champion, and nine-time US champion. Eliot Halverson is an American figure skater, choreographer, and three-time USFS national champion.

Follow Eliot Halverson on Instagram @eliothalverson and Michelle Kwan on Twitter and Instagram @MichelleWKwan.

Find out what today’s guest and former guests are up to by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN.

Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com.

Check out all new Getting Curious merch at PodSwag.com.

Listen to more music from Quiñ by heading over to TheQuinCat.com.

Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook.

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This holiday break, we’re re-releasing two of our favorite episodes, with three of our favorite experts, about one of our favorite topics: figure skating.

First up is an episode from April 2018 with Olympic figure skater Mirai Nagasu, who was the first American female figure skater to land a triple Axel at the Olympics, earning her a bronze medal in PyeongChang in 2018. Jonathan and Mirai jump right into the technical, artistic, and political aspects of figure skating—and discuss what it was like for Mirai to take her prowess off ice to compete in Dancing with the Stars: Athletes.

Find Mirai on Instagram @mirainagasu, on Twitter @mirai_nagasu, and at www.mirainagasu.com.

Find out what today’s guest and former guests are up to by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN.

Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com.

Check out all new Getting Curious merch at PodSwag.com.

Listen to more music from Quiñ by heading over to TheQuinCat.com.

Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook.

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