Identity politics are more contentious, today, than ever. As the cultural tug-o-war wages on, your Tertiary hosts Heaven-Leigh and Justin take a step back to examine the ways race, gender, and sex politics overlap and interact. Leaning on Kimberlé Crenshaw’s pivotal text defining “Intersectionality,” we touch on everything from white fragility and representation in media to current events like BLM and ICE protests, for your listening pleasure.

Want to be a part of the Tertiary community? Follow us on Instagram, send us an email at tertpod@gmail.com or fill out our Google Form to submit a question that we’ll answer in a future episode. We want to hear from you!

Our intro and outro music comes from “Cloud Dancer” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0.

Assigned Reading:

• “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,” (University of Chicago Legal Form) by Kimberlé Crenshaw (read it here)
• “Kimberlé Crenshaw on Intersectionality More Than Two Decades Later,” (Columbia Law School) interview (read it here)
• “‘2020 Never Ended:’ How Black Lives Matter Organizers Taught Minneapolis to Handle ICE Surge,” (The Guardian) by Alyssa Oursler (read it here)

In one of Tertiary’s rowdiest episodes yet, co-hosts Heaven-Leigh and Justin explore the politics of the American family unit—namely, the complicated culture of adoption in the United States. Beginning with Heaven-Leigh’s personal experience as an adoptee, we touch on everything from America’s hazy history of cultural anesthetization (both vis-à-vis transracial adoption and American Indian boarding schools) to Plato’s orgiastic vision for communal child rearing.

In the outtakes, Heaven-Leigh and Justin rehash the reality T.V. debate for a third and final time (I swear we’re done) and broach the subject of Hello Kitty’s perplexing biography… apparently, she’s not a cat? So says the internet? Jury’s still out.

In typical Tertiary fashion, we ask more questions than we answer, but the team is eager to hear your feedback, so send us an email at tertpod@gmail.com or fill out our Google Form and let us know what you think. We want to hear from you!

Assigned Reading:

• Choosing Ethnicity, Negotiating Race: Korean Adoptees in America (Russell Sage Foundation, 2012), by Mia Tuan and Jiannbin Lee Shiao (find it here)
• Everyday Utopia: What 2,000 Years of Bold Experiments Can Teach Us About the Good Life (Simon & Shuster, 2024), by Kristen R. Ghodsee (find it here), chapter 3 (“Kids as Public Goods”) and chapter 7 (“You and Me and Baby Makes Misery”)
• “Interesting Times with Ross Douthat” (NY Times) (listen here)

Further Reading / Watching

The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks; What do Women Want by Daniel Bergner; Hello Kitty is a Little Girl?? (watch here)

Our intro and outro music comes from “Cloud Dancer” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0.

It’s dreary out there, folks. Not just because Punxsutawney Phil cursed us with six more weeks of winter, either—the world has become a particularly dark place over the past few weeks.

With that in mind, this week Tertiary hosts Heaven-Leigh and Justin crack a window to let in a little fresh air and tackle questions like: How can art be a survival tool? What does speculative fiction have to teach us, not only about enduring difficult times but imagining better worlds? Winding their way through examples of dystopian action thrillers, post-apocalyptic survival films and bingeable zombie series, this episode considers the open question of humanity’s survival from a bird’s eye view.

Speaking of birds, Justin and Heaven-Leigh also find time to settle the Pigeon versus Crow debate, speculate whether the Last Supper was the first murder mystery, and—as appears to be a recurring topic—discuss the importance of reality TV, “white noise” television, and other forms of mindless entertainment.

Want to be a part of the Tertiary community? Follow us on Instagram, send us an email at tertpod@gmail.com or fill out our Google Form to submit a question that we’ll answer in a future episode. We want to hear from you!

Assigned Reading

• The Left Hand of Darkness, 50th Anniversary Edition (Ace, 1987), by Ursula K Le Guin, “Author’s Note” (find the edition referenced here)
• The Road (Vintage, 2007), by Cormac McCarthy (find it here)
• “Doomsday Preppers and the Architecture of Dread” (Geoforum, December 2021), by Bradley Garrett (read it here)

Further Reading / Watching

The Once and Future King by T. H. White; Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements edited by Adrienne Maree Brown and Walidah Imarisha; The Road, narrated by Tom Stechschulte, and the film; Tales from Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin; Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents by Octavia E. Butler; Solaris by Stanisław Lem.

And as promised, ”A Bird Hit My Window and Now I’m a Lesbian.”

Our intro and outro music comes from “Cloud Dancer” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0.