Call Your Girlfriend
359 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 years ago - ★★★★★ - 3.9K ratingsA podcast for long distance besties everywhere. Co-hosted by BFFs Ann Friedman and Aminatou Sow. Produced by Gina Delvac. Brand new every Friday.
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Episodes
Farewell
February 11, 2022 09:30 - 51 minutes - 47 MBWe say goodbye, in the final episode of Call Your Girlfriend. In typical fashion, we're going out talking about how friends have been helping us get through the pandemic, the never-ending furor over Joe Rogan, and what podcasts we're loving. If you're looking to subscribe to something new, check out Do You Know Mordechai, Sweet Bobby, and Like a Virgin. Plus, what we're going to do next, and some of your voicemails. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
I'm the Bad Guy Sometimes
December 17, 2021 09:56 - 57 minutes - 52.2 MBWe're not dead yet! Aminatou talks with legendary podcast, poet and essayist Nichole Perkins about navigating relationships as a Black woman, desire, boundaries, longing, and much more as we chat about her new book, Sometimes I Trip on How Happy We Could Be. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
See You on the Nostalgia Tour
December 10, 2021 09:30 - 46 minutes - 42.6 MBIs there anything you miss from before the internet? Reading, focus, getting lost, filing cabinets, are just a few of the things New York Times Book Review editor Pamela Paul discusses with us. Her new book is 100 Things We've Lost to the Internet. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Big Announcement
December 03, 2021 09:30 - 37 minutes - 34.7 MBA different kind of newsy episode with Aminatou, Ann and Gina. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Money, Grief, Kids
November 26, 2021 09:30 - 53 minutes - 48.6 MBWe talk with one of our favorite writers, The New Yorker's Ariel Levy, about dynastic wealth, how we experience grief, and big surprises in life, including the joys of getting older and having children. Her podcast that chronicles maternity wear icon Liz Lange, of the New York Steinbergs is The Just Enough Family. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
So You Want to Change the World
November 19, 2021 09:30 - 48 minutes - 44.8 MBCan’t be that hard, right? We pass the mic to Nereya Otieno, one of Ann’s 2021 writing fellows, who sits down with two women who have started initiatives to improve the lives of a select few in hopes that it can spark a radical shift. Tia Korpe is the founder of Future Female Sounds, a nonprofit organization based in Copenhagen that aims to make DJing accessible to women and gender-minorities everywhere. Cybille St. Aude-Tate is a chef and children’s book author and the co-founder of Honeys...
Tastemakers
November 12, 2021 09:30 - 39 minutes - 36.5 MBWe talk with Mayukh Sen about seven immigrant women who remade American cuisine and his new book, Taste Makers. Plus, racism in the worlds of food writing and publishing and who gets to break out. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Making Older Friends
November 05, 2021 08:30 - 39 minutes - 36.1 MBWomen over 50 are too often erased, including on this very podcast. Grace Bonney has been collecting inspiration and advice from women of more advanced experience in her new book, Collective Wisdom. She's gathered interviews and intergenerational conversations with over 100 trailblazing women, who describe the ups, downs, and lessons learned while forging their unique paths. Grace Bonney founded Design*Sponge, a daily website dedicated to the creative community, and Good Company, a print ma...
Grief Companionship
October 29, 2021 08:30 - 40 minutes - 36.9 MBGrief can come in so many forms and impact us in unexpected ways. Illustrator and designer Ngaio Parr knows all too well, having lost four family members in four years. Retreating from family and friends? Strange physical symptoms? Suddenly seeing things everywhere that echo a lost loved one? All these normal forms of grieving can be confusing in a world that's all too ready to have you move on. To help, Ngaio has designed and illustrated The Grief Companion, a deck of cards with beautiful a...
Bandsplain
October 22, 2021 05:27 - 49 minutes - 44.9 MBYasi Salek's podcast Bandsplain has us listening to music like teens again, with obsessive curiosity about whole albums and the quirks and life stories that draw us into the artists we come to love, or learn more about canonical artists we never understood. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The Silent but Deadly Fart of Racism
October 15, 2021 08:12 - 1 hour - 55.3 MBGeorge McCalman is an artist, a writer, an illustrator, and a designer. This man does it ALL. He spent many years as a magazine creative director, shaping the look and feel of publications such as Mother Jones, Readymade, Afar. Then he opened up his own studio, McCalman Co, where he collaborates on branding, design, and editorial projects. This year his work was nominated for a National Design Award for communication design. He’s a writer. He shows his fine art in galleries. He created the O...
Change is Always Coming
October 08, 2021 08:40 - 54 minutes - 50 MBHow fixed are we in our ways of being and doing things? We're always confronting change, but how much can we choose it? These are some of the big ideas through small moments Jade Chang tackles in her Audible Original, You've Already Changed Your Life: A Recipe for a Revelation. Jade is a friend of the podcast, deep thinker, and author of the excellent novel, The Wangs vs. The World. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
SCOTUS vs. Abortion (sponsored by Rewire News Group)
October 05, 2021 08:30 - 41 minutes - 38 MBIn a special episode brought to you by Rewire News Group, we go deep on the conservative push to regulate and ban abortion in Texas and Mississippi with Imani Gandy and Jessica Mason Pieklo of the Boom Lawyered podcast. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Disability, Fragility, Vulnerability
October 01, 2021 10:23 - 1 hour - 60.4 MBEmily Ladau and Kelly Dawson return to dispel dull narratives around disability and go beyond the 101. How coping with fragility creates resilience. How friendships deepen with the knowing and trust that disabled people share. What allyship looks like to them as physically disabled women. The hypocrisies of non-disabled people's reactions to COVID, and, in its wake, how we can all look more closely at what it means to live a full life. LINKS: Kelly Dawson Emily Ladau Emily’s new book, De...
Believing Anita Hill
September 24, 2021 08:28 - 37 minutes - 34.5 MBDr. Anita Hill made history in 1991 when she testified to the Senate Judiciary committee about the sexual harassment perpetrated against her by Clarence Thomas. After the all-white, all-male committee led by then-Senator Joe Biden heard Dr. Hill's testimony, Clarence Thomas was confirmed to the US Supreme Court. In the 30 years since, Anita Hill has spent her career as a law professor hearing from survivors of gender-based violence, ranging from harassment (which she expected) to assault. ...
Where Should I Send My Kid to School?
September 17, 2021 08:30 - 52 minutes - 47.9 MBA simple question with loaded answers. On today's episode, we unravel a few of those knots with Courtney Martin and Dr. Dena Simmons, whose interracial friendship has weathered distance, accountability, academic rigor, heartbreak, and mutual support. They met over a decade ago when Courtney profiled Dena for her book about young activists, Do It Anyway. At the time, Dena was a classroom teacher. Since then she has earned her PhD and is writing her own book about breaking up with whiteness,...
Conspiracy Theories and Misinformation
September 10, 2021 08:30 - 41 minutes - 38.4 MBDon't today's conspiracy theories make UFOs and JFK conspiracy theories seem quaint, almost sweet? Dr. Stacy Wood breaks down how independent communities of belief have accelerated online. It's not only the fault of social media, but as we reorganize how we search and find information, Facebook, YouTube, Google, and others are all part of how we have become so entrenched in our beliefs. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Finding Your Voice
September 03, 2021 08:37 - 38 minutes - 35.7 MBComedy and art criticism don't exactly sound like parallel career paths. But after bouncing from a freelance hustle to a fancy art world job to improv classes, Christina Catherine Martinez realized she wanted to do both. We talk about how she navigates making a life and a career as an intellectual and a comedian, how alike those performances are on social media, and how power and money infect everything. One place she is sharing her voice is in her book, Aesthetical Relations. See omnystud...
Sex Work is Work
August 27, 2021 08:30 - 51 minutes - 47 MBAs OnlyFans flips and flops on the sex workers that built its platform, we revisit our interview with Lorelei Lee on the history of sex work legislation. Lorelei is a writer and performer who discusses how sex work is neither purely exploitative nor purely empowering. Instead, like all work, it's complicated. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Sustainable Style
August 20, 2021 09:29 - 51 minutes - 46.8 MBMiranda Bennett has long been one of our favorite designers. We discuss how she got started making and selling clothes, how she balances running a sustainable business with keeping the lights on, and tips for shopping sustainably (even though we know there is no ethical consumption under capitalism). See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Summer of Friendship: Forever35
August 13, 2021 08:30 - 36 minutes - 33.2 MBOur summer of friendship continues with Kate Spencer and Doree Shafrir, hosts of the podcast Forever35. While we love their conversations about serums and budget-friendly makeup tips, we come and stay for their deep friendship, which started on the internet and was partly cemented at a CYG live show. Doree and Kate are both writers. Doree's memoir is Thanks for Waiting: The Joy (& Weirdness) of Being a Late Bloomer. Kate's book is The Dead Moms Club: A Memoir about Death, Grief, and Survivin...
Bad Behavior
August 06, 2021 08:30 - 50 minutes - 45.9 MBFrom Matt Damon to Andrew Cuomo to gender testing at the Olympics, we do a quick survey of men in the news behaving badly. Links Matt Damon and the "f-slur" / original headline Amanda Knox on Damon’s Stillwater Cuomo is the worst Rebecca Traister told us! Weightlifter Laura Mariel on trans Olympians Gender testing track and field athletes Anti-trans sports bills at the state level See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Boundaries
July 29, 2021 08:30 - 41 minutes - 38.3 MBWe talk about finding and maintaining boundaries, why the world makes it easier for some people than others, how boundaries help us be in community with others, and how grateful we are for boundary possibility models like Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Summer of Friendship: Foxy Browns
July 23, 2021 08:30 - 30 minutes - 27.7 MBMore from our Summer of Friendship series, where a few of our favorite podcasters tell us how they met, times their friendship has been stretched, and how they grow together. This week, dear pals Camilla Blackett and Priyanka Mattoo of the Foxy Browns podcast. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Summer of Friendship: Two Old Bitches
July 16, 2021 08:30 - 23 minutes - 21.6 MBAs we continue our Summer of Friendship series, a few of our favorite podcasters tell us how they met, times their friendship has been stretched, and how they grow together. This week, Idelisse Malavé and Joanne Sandler aka Two Old Bitches! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Summer of Friendship: Claire and Erica
July 09, 2021 15:35 - 41 minutes - 37.6 MBAs part of our Summer of Friendship series, a few of our favorite podcasters tell us how they met, times their friendship has been stretched, and how their off-air and on-air friendship is different. This week, iconic bestie entrepreneurs Claire Mazur and Erica Cerulo of A Thing or Two. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hot Vax Summer of Friendship
July 02, 2021 07:28 - 49 minutes - 45.2 MBAminatou and Ann's book Big Friendship is available in paperback July 6, so to celebrate we're doing our second Summer of Friendship series. We catch up and kick off chatting through our recent forays back into the world, which friends we're seeing, how we work through the emotional distance with close friends and acquaintances, and how we're approaching boundaries and travel while it seems possible. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Bi Bi Bi 2.0
June 25, 2021 09:43 - 34 minutes - 31.9 MBJordan and Gina round out Pride with a followup to our Bi Bi Bi episode from 2018. We hear from Divinity (@officiallydivinity) who identifies as bisexual, gray ace, and aromantic and how those labels coalesce for her. Divinity has amazing things to share about friendship. love, sex, connection, and becoming your brightest, fullest self. For those who are struggling to come out or are feeling like their bi identity is invisible in their relationships, we see and love you. See omnystudio.com/...
Lockdown Lesbian Love Story
June 18, 2021 08:30 - 29 minutes - 27.1 MBQueer women aren't exclusively looking for longterm monogamous love - but some are! As part of our Pride series, a lockdown lesbian love story featuring musician Abby Diamond and actor and director Rachel Cora Wood. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Detransition, Baby
June 11, 2021 08:30 - 46 minutes - 42.7 MBWe talk with Torrey Peters about her breakout novel, Detransition, Baby, full of queer characters finding and defining family, and why she dedicated it to divorced cis women. Plus, a bunch of great reading recommendations for books by trans authors. Reading List: Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters An Unkindness of Ghosts by River Solomon Lote by Shola Von Reinhold Time is the Thing a Body Moves Through by T Fleischmann Poetry by Joss Barton See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy...
Queer and Questioning
June 04, 2021 08:30 - 46 minutes - 42.2 MBOn this month's agenda: exploring queer identities with CYG producers Gina Delvac and Jordan Bailey. First up, we hear from queer sex therapist Casey Tanner about questioning your sexuality or gender identity, coming out, and dating when you're first exploring a queer identity. This is a great episode to share with anyone who is excited about a new attraction or label, but scared about being new or taking up too much space. Welcome; there's room for you in our queer family. See omnystudio....
What Does an Art Curator Do
May 28, 2021 08:09 - 44 minutes - 40.7 MBAs more of us can step back into the world and look at art in person, we discuss the role (and responsibility) of an art curator with Helen Molesworth, formerly of MOCA in Los Angeles, and host of the podcast Recording Artists. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Healing Ourselves with Friends (and Books)
May 21, 2021 08:30 - 46 minutes - 42.9 MBYou know that friend you can get real with about therapy, shedding the hard parts of your childhood, and how to take the next steps in your life? Ashley C. Ford is that and more to so many, in how shares of herself online, in her podcasts, and now her new memoir, Somebody's Daughter. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
The Other Epidemic
May 14, 2021 08:30 - 45 minutes - 41.3 MBAs we emerge back into the world, how long will we live with COVID? Will it be like HIV/AIDS? We talk to people who have been closely involved in AIDS activism and responding to the coronavirus: Mathew Rodriguez and Leisha McKinley-Beach. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Hard Conversations
May 07, 2021 08:30 - 46 minutes - 42.6 MBDeath, sex, money, family and identity. How do we start and receive the hardest conversations that emerge in our lives? The one-and-only Anna Sale of Death, Sex and Money is here to talk us though it and her new book, Let's Talk About Hard Things. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Creative Evolutions
April 30, 2021 09:41 - 41 minutes - 38.2 MBWe have all had to find different ways to cope, and for those with creative practices, they are often evolving. For friend of the podcast and artist Kenesha Sneed, that has meant moving among media and the many different roles her art has played in her life - from joyful personal expression to income-generating job to outlet for grief. You may know her design work, her paintings, or her work in clay. Now Kenesha has written and illustrated a children's book, Many Shapes of Clay: A Story of H...
Cooking and Eating with Friends
April 23, 2021 08:30 - 46 minutes - 42.4 MBHome cook and author Julia Turshen joins us to discuss pandemic cooking fatigue, why the stories behind recipes matter, and how she learned to love cooking and eating. Her latest cookbook is Simply Julia: 110 Easy Recipes for Healthy Comfort Food. LINKS Simply Julia: 110 Easy Recipes for Healthy Comfort Food / Get a signed copy from Oblong Books Julia’s go-to cookbook: Snacking Cakes Keep Calm and Cook On podcast JuliaTurshen.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Love in Color
April 16, 2021 08:30 - 35 minutes - 32.6 MBWe're easing our way back from our break with Bolu Babalola, author of the delightful collection of romantic stories that center Black women, Love in Color. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Get Your 2020 Taxes Right
April 09, 2021 08:30 - 40 minutes - 37.4 MBTaxes are scary but getting free money from the government is great. CYG's accountant and the force behind Taxes for Artists, Claudia Yi León returns to tell us all about how to deal with the wild year of unemployment and (non)income that was 2020. From PPP loans (freelancers, you can still get one) to extended filing deadlines (May 17) to claiming your stimulus payment if you didn't file 2019 taxes, this episode is packed with info. Cross-reference our notes at callyourgirlfriend.com and fo...
More Shine Theory
April 02, 2021 08:30 - 1 hour - 57.2 MBWhat better time to be lifting up the people we love and growing together? Brooke Baldwin of CNN joins us to discuss the groups of women - or huddles - that make collective change happen at work, in activism, sports, and our personal lives. And we revisit our own notion of Shine Theory. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
More Pelvic Power
March 26, 2021 08:12 - 1 hour - 59.1 MBYou should never pee when you laugh. You can see a midwife for non-pregnancy health exams like pap smears. And you can even insert your own speculum at the gynecologist if that makes you more comfortable. We revisit all the things we learned about pelvic health from our Pelvic Power episode. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
More Samantha Power
March 19, 2021 08:30 - 45 minutes - 41.3 MBSamantha Power served as the US ambassador to the United Nations in the Obama administration and has been nominated by President Biden to serve as administrator to USAID. We revisit our 2019 interview full of hard and candid truths about what she was and wasn't able to accomplish, especially in Syria. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
More Pleasure Activism
March 12, 2021 09:30 - 50 minutes - 46.4 MBIt doesn't feel like a great time for pleasure, but that's exactly why we need it, right now. We revisit our interview with adrienne maree brown, author of Pleasure Activism, Emergent Strategy, and most recently, We Will Not Cancel Us. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Burnout
March 05, 2021 09:30 - 44 minutes - 40.5 MBGetting real about recognizing burnout, how it's different from similar feelings like depression, and how ambition means more than working constantly. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Fighting for Indigenous Rights
February 26, 2021 10:03 - 43 minutes - 39.4 MBA planned tar sands pipeline through Northern Minnesota crosses tribal land and would disrupt waterways and wild rice cultivation. Tara Houska is Ojibwe, an attorney, an environmental and indigenous rights advocate, and has a long history on the land Line 3 would travel through. Links: Stop Line 3 Tara Houska on Twitter Giniw Collective on Twitter Tara Houska TED Talk See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Feeling Our Way Through
February 19, 2021 09:19 - 52 minutes - 48.2 MBPoet, artist and activist Cleo Wade feels deeply and writes movingly about growing up, finding ourselves, and having good boundaries with the people in our lives and our social feeds. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Glittery Curiosity
February 12, 2021 09:30 - 46 minutes - 43 MBThe NYT's Caity Weaver joins us to discuss her love of Santa Fe, television, pronouncing words correctly, and how her insatiable curiosity compels her to find out how glitter is made. Plus, in her many celebrity profiles: who tried to pick up the check, who was beautiful in person, and who smells amazing. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Cozy Content
February 05, 2021 09:30 - 48 minutes - 44.4 MBThis episode is all about comfort in challenging times and staying true to yourself. We talk with a paragon of creating cozy feelings, Jenny Han, the author behind the book and Netflix series To All the Boys I've Loved Before. How to decide what to say yes to? How do you take time for yourself? How do you deal with gatekeepers (usually white) who want to see characters of color grappling more directly with their racial identity? What can we expect from the final To All the Boys movie? W...
Jangling Keys of Friendship
January 29, 2021 09:30 - 46 minutes - 42.9 MBIs it childish to call people Best Friends? Who holds the various keys to our hearts and identities? And what dreams of the past and future are getting us through the pandemic? Aminatou discusses travel, religion, finding ourselves and how we use coded language to find our people with Jedidiah Jenkins. His new book Like Streams to the Ocean is out Feb 2. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transition of Power
January 22, 2021 09:30 - 42 minutes - 38.8 MBWe discuss the inauguration celebrity parade, the fallacy of calls for "unity," Melania's caftan, Bernie's mittens, and "We will be back in some form." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.