Head On Fire

The last two years of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic have forced a lot of people to take stock of what is important to them. For many that has meant assessing whether they're in the right career or whether it's time to take a chance on forging a path for themselves. That's what Nikk Alcaraz - an actor, food artist, and DIY craft maker - did. He created Practical Peculiarities, a content creation brand under which Alcaraz inspires people to add a bit of magic into their dinner menus or around their home. If you haven't heard the name before you've surely seen one of his many viral videos. Hear how he took the skills he learned from his previous jobs and lifelong passions and turned them all into a magical career of his own making. 

What’s important to you? What do you value? What makes you happy? 

No matter how you answered I want to know: would your answers change if you were telling your significant other? A work acquaintance? Your boss? If I were there right now with a microphone and camera asking you on the record, would any of those answers change? 

The answer is…probably…yes. Right? Yes, of course, we don’t tell our bosses everything about our off-hours lives. We don’t tell our coworkers all the smutty shows we watch or tell our relatives about the things we enjoy that we don’t really want grandma asking us about around a holiday table. 

I’m speaking, of course, about guilty pleasures. The bits of pop culture that are considered silly, juvenile, and are often spoken of with derision. Reality television. Pop music. Fashion trends. It is rare that these bits of culture are seen as areas of legitimate interest, and rarer still when they are given serious study and consideration. 

My guest today hopes to change the discourse around so-called guilty pleasures. Her name is Dr. Eva Burke. She’s a lecturer at Trinity College Dublin, and she both studies and teaches pop culture. We open our discussion on the topic of guilty pleasures, and Dr. Burke had quite a lot to say on the matter.

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Subscribe to the Head On Fire podcast

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/head-on-fire/id337689333

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4qTYYhCLMdFc4PhQmSL1Yh?si=5387b774ed6e4524

An all too common problem for anyone in a creative field is other people's opinions. The folks who look over your shoulder and tell you that you should've painted something blue instead of red. The folks who take years of your life's work and turn it into bumper sticker commentary for easy engagement on social media. The alleged fans of a show that seem to take glee in tearing apart the thing they profess to love and ruining the lives of those who make it. 

My guest today knows this intimately, having written for some of the biggest shows to come on Netflix in recent years. Joshua Conkel is a screenwriter behind some of your favorite scenes in shows like The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and A Series of Unfortunate Events. We sat down to discuss the perils of listening to other people's opinions, deciding whose opinions matter and whose don't, how consumers of media feel a sense of entitlement and ownership of that media, and how to create through all that noise. 

If you like this show and want to support it, there are a number of ways to help. Share it with your friends on social media. You can also like, rate the show 5-stars on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, and leave a review. Reviews help recommend the show to other listeners like you.

Help keep the show free and producing on a regular basis by joining my Patreon on a monthly basis. Patrons receive additional audio and video content as well as archived episodes, a private Discord server, and a monthly book club! Sign up at Patreon.com/headonfirepod. Or if a one-time donation is more your speed, you can buy me a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/headonfirepod.

Connect with me on social media @headonfirepod everywhere.

A promotional trailer for Head On Fire. 

"Seek illumination the way a man with his head on fire seeks water." 

That's the ethos behind Head On Fire, a new podcast featuring deep dive conversations with experts in interesting, often overlooked fields. It's a search for meaning and answers to life's biggest and smallest questions.

Join me, author and host Don Martin, every other week as we discuss everything from climate change and reproductive Justice to the cultural importance of reality television or the value of believing in monsters. 

Head On Fire, every other week on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Coming February 2022.

Goodbye. 

Today is the very last episode of Inciting A Riot.

And the last time I'll be speaking to you as Fire Lyte.

Sometimes growth means putting yourself back together, and in 2022 I am going to embark on a more personal, more authentic journey. As myself. I hope you’ll come along with me. 

The antagonistic, pointed energy of Inciting A Riot is going away as it no longer serves me. In its place will be a new title and a new me. The real me. The me that my friends and loved ones know. No more mask. 

I explain everything in the podcast episode, but in short there’s no need to unsubscribe or resubscribe. The feed will stay the same. And, if you have any podcast name suggestions, I’m certainly willing to entertain them all. 

I’m also taking a month off from producing the show, the first break I’ve had in a few years. I want to give myself a space to breathe, to consider, and to feel confident and certain about my next steps. 

I’m a bit scared, if I’m being honest. Fire Lyte has presented a certain version of myself - a version that always has a witty, biting response or is willing to jump right in the middle of a fight without quite knowing whether he should - that you all like…and packing him up and living as my authentic self feels raw…shaky. I feel very much like a kid awaiting their first day at a new school scared that nobody will like them. 

But it’s time, and no time like New Year’s Eve. 

I wish you the happiest of New Year’s. Thank you so much for letting me be part of your lives. I hope we can go on a new journey together in 2022. 

And, since I won’t be saying it much more in the future, I’d like to leave you with Love and Lyte. 

Fire Lyte

Queer as Folk's Peter Paige on the legacy of his career, stepping behind the camera to craft queer-centric television shows and movies like The Fosters and The Thing About Harry, casting cishet actors in queer roles, and where Hollywood goes from here.

Connect with Peter Paige here.

If you like this show and want to support it, there are a number of ways to help. Consider liking and sharing it on social media. You can also rate the show 5-stars on Apple Podcasts and leave a review. 

Help keep the show free and producing on a regular basis by chipping in whatever you can. You can buy me a Ko-fi (a one time donation of your choosing) https://ko-fi.com/incitingariot or join my Patreon on a monthly basis. Patrons receive additional audio and video content as well as archived episodes, a private Discord server, and monthly chats with special guests! Sign up at Patreon.com/IncitingARiot. 

Order my book, The Dabbler’s Guide to Witchcraft, here: https://bit.ly/DabblersGuide

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

IncitingARiot.com

[email protected]

Social Media & Podcast Subscription links: beacons.ai/incitingariot 

The witch is a curious figure, existing in a uniquely liminal space of both fact and fiction, this world and the next. Many practitioners of magic walk a path that carefully stays in that middle ground, but a few heed the call to peek beyond the hedge, to walk amongst ancestors and spirits and gods and beings for which we don’t yet have names. 

It can be daunting, to leave that comfortable middle path, but Christine Grace’s book The Witch at the Forest’s Edge provides a gentle, encouraging hand to hold as you take your first steps past the hedge into the world beyond. The advice is practical, grounded in a practice that begins with what you have on hand and in your surroundings, includes discussion of ancestry and the many ways that family is made and found, and includes a deeply appreciated section on magical ethics. This book is practical, fresh, and will help guide a whole new generation off the well-trod path to embrace the old, wild magic found beyond the hedge. 

Get more of Christine Grace here. 

If you like this show and want to support it, there are a number of ways to help. Consider liking and sharing it on social media. You can also rate the show 5-stars on Apple Podcasts and leave a review. 

Help keep the show free and producing on a regular basis by chipping in whatever you can. You can buy me a Ko-fi (a one time donation of your choosing) https://ko-fi.com/incitingariot or join my Patreon on a monthly basis. Patrons receive additional audio and video content as well as archived episodes, a private Discord server, and monthly chats with special guests! Sign up at Patreon.com/IncitingARiot. 

Order my book, The Dabbler’s Guide to Witchcraft, here: https://bit.ly/DabblersGuide

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

IncitingARiot.com

[email protected]

Social Media & Podcast Subscription links: beacons.ai/incitingariot 

When I wrote an article for Writer's Digest about witches in stories, I said that the best stories aren't about the magic but about the power. In science fiction and fantasy writing, I've found that a superpower or access to magic or a special tool that grants an ability - whatever it is - isn't nearly as interesting as the power that it grants the user. The ability for magic to level a playing field, to allow the righting of wrongs. 

In her latest graphic novel, Squad (illustrated by Lisa Sterle), author Maggie Tokuda-Hall tells a story of werewolves, yes, but the story is far more about a young girl finding the power to fit in, to feel in control of her life for the first time ever. We talk about her new work, the importance of queer representation, receiving critique, and how we'd rewrite Mean Girls if we could. 

Buy her new book here: https://bookshop.org/a/56826/9780062943149

If you like this show and want to support it, there are a number of ways to help. Consider liking and sharing it on social media. You can also rate the show 5-stars on Apple Podcasts and leave a review. 

Help keep the show free and producing on a regular basis by chipping in whatever you can. You can buy me a Ko-fi (a one time donation of your choosing) https://ko-fi.com/incitingariot or join my Patreon on a monthly basis. Patrons receive additional audio and video content as well as archived episodes, a private Discord server, and monthly chats with special guests! Sign up at Patreon.com/IncitingARiot. 

Order my book, The Dabbler’s Guide to Witchcraft, here: https://bit.ly/DabblersGuide

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

IncitingARiot.com

[email protected]

Social Media & Podcast Subscription links: beacons.ai/incitingariot 

The Day of the Dead, El Día de los Muertos, is a celebration originating in Mexico. It's been gaining visibility and popularity in the United States and beyond thanks in part to films like Book of Life and Coco. However, a lot of misconceptions surround this cultural event, such as it being a "second Halloween". Too often elements of the celebration are taken piecemeal by those from outside the culture and used as costume or in ways that remove the context or history behind it - such as calavera face paint. 

Jaime Gironés has written a phenomenal new book, Llewellyn's Little Book of the Day of the Dead, to guide you through the history of the holiday, the myths and traditions surrounding it, and how it can be appreciated - and even adapted - in your household. 

If you like this show and want to support it, there are a number of ways to help. Consider liking and sharing it on social media. You can also rate the show 5-stars on Apple Podcasts and leave a review. 

Help keep the show free and producing on a regular basis by chipping in whatever you can. You can buy me a Ko-fi (a one time donation of your choosing) https://ko-fi.com/incitingariot or join my Patreon on a monthly basis. Patrons receive additional audio and video content as well as archived episodes, a private Discord server, and monthly chats with special guests! Sign up at Patreon.com/IncitingARiot. 

Order my book, The Dabbler’s Guide to Witchcraft, here: https://bit.ly/DabblersGuide

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

IncitingARiot.com

[email protected]

Social Media & Podcast Subscription links: beacons.ai/incitingariot 

Every year around Halloween, I gather together a collection of stories, poems, and songs from around the magical world to help bring a bit of magic to your Samhain season. This year's Hallowed Riot features the following works:

The Lockkeepers's Door - original short story by Vinna Harper

Dawn of Maw - an excerpt from Taylor Narváez Claman 

Love Letter to Hades part 2 - a poem by Lauren Theresa

travel - a poem from the book while I wait to be a god again read by Cory Hutcheson

Verity Vox & King Earl - a full-cast short story by Fire Lyte

If you like this show and want to support it, there are a number of ways to help. Consider liking and sharing it on social media. You can also rate the show 5-stars on Apple Podcasts and leave a review. 

Help keep the show free and producing on a regular basis by chipping in whatever you can. You can buy me a Ko-fi (a one time donation of your choosing) https://ko-fi.com/incitingariot or join my Patreon on a monthly basis. Patrons receive additional audio and video content as well as archived episodes, a private Discord server, and monthly chats with special guests! Sign up at Patreon.com/IncitingARiot. 

Order my book, The Dabbler’s Guide to Witchcraft, here: https://bit.ly/DabblersGuide

Love and Lyte,

Fire Lyte

IncitingARiot.com

[email protected]

Social Media & Podcast Subscription links: beacons.ai/incitingariot