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Speaker 1: Cool Zone Media.

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Speaker 2: Hello, and welcome to Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff.

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Speaker 2: You're the weekly reminder that there's a show that you

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Speaker 2: listened to called Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff. I'm

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Speaker 2: your host, Margaret Kiljoy, but I'm only one of your

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Speaker 2: hosts in a way today because today it's our once

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Speaker 2: a year question and answer week where we asked you

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Speaker 2: questions and then we answer them. And my co host

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Speaker 2: for this process is Sophie. Hi.

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Speaker 1: Sophie, I don't think that made any sense, Margaret.

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Speaker 2: It didn't make any sense what I do wrong?

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Speaker 1: He said, we asked you questions.

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Speaker 2: Ah, I see, it's been a long week.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna take over here. I'm your host, Sophie Elick,

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Speaker 1: all right, and we asked you to submit questions that

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Speaker 1: we will now answer.

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Speaker 2: I like the idea of asking people questions and answering

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Speaker 2: for them, though, I.

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Speaker 3: Was like, we're almost there. I was like, okay, babe,

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Speaker 3: we're there.

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Speaker 2: We're there.

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Speaker 1: Nope, nope, not quite. Not quite.

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Speaker 2: Long week, long week.

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Speaker 1: But anyways, we post on both Instagram and Blue Sky,

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Speaker 1: and several of you submitted some questions, and let's just

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Speaker 1: get started, all right. I'm going to start with the

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Speaker 1: Instagram questions. Okay, just so folks, that's somebody done on Instagram.

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Speaker 1: Know this is for you. First question says, any plans

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Speaker 1: to write nonfiction? And can I request we who Will

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Speaker 1: Destroy the Future for book club? It's my fave.

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Speaker 2: Ooh oh, there's like secret stuff about we who Will

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Speaker 2: Destroy the Future, but I'm not going to say it

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Speaker 2: on air. Wow, but we Will Destroy the Future is

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Speaker 2: one of my favorite stories, and I will consider it

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Speaker 2: for book club. I try not to do my own

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Speaker 2: stories all the time for book Club, but try and

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Speaker 2: do it every now and then. There's a lot of

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Speaker 2: nonfiction that I want to write. I write short stuff

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Speaker 2: on substack all the time, and I've been thinking about

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Speaker 2: like book length things off and on, but they're all

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Speaker 2: grandiose and strange because I struggle with like being like

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Speaker 2: I'm going to write the guide to the following or

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Speaker 2: you know, a theory book or something like that, And

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Speaker 2: so I'm much more likely to do something that sort

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Speaker 2: of much like my shorter nonfiction kind of integrates memoir

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Speaker 2: and like political or philosophical points. And I am skeptical

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Speaker 2: of that kind of writing, even though I enjoy reading it,

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Speaker 2: and so I have to think about it a lot.

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Speaker 1: I would read the shit out of a Margaret Killjoy autobiography.

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Speaker 2: This is good to know. I've actually I took a

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Speaker 2: memoir class last fall and it's been on my mind.

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Speaker 2: I've i started writing it. We'll see, we'll see where

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Speaker 2: it goes.

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Speaker 1: Will this include one of my favorite stories, which is

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Speaker 1: how the fuck you ended up in the movie Rent?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you're gonna have to read that memoir in order

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Speaker 2: to find out how I was in the movie Rent.

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Speaker 1: It's one of my favorite things that you've told me,

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Speaker 1: where I was like you know what?

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Speaker 2: Fuck? Yeah, yeah, Yeah, let's go. That's a great if

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Speaker 2: anyone in the audience wants to see me with a

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Speaker 2: big old beard when I'm like twenty two and look

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Speaker 2: older than I am. Now, you can watch the movie Rent,

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Speaker 2: and when you see an on house person in a

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Speaker 2: park plane Melodica, that's me.

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Speaker 1: That's our girl. Okay. I would beat the shit out

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Speaker 1: of that memoir. The next question, we got a version

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Speaker 1: of this question quite a bit across school zone. I'm

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Speaker 1: curious to hear your answer, Margaret. They say, I move

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Speaker 1: somewhere near a year ago. How do I build a

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Speaker 1: community with my neighbors when I'm an introvert. Also, I

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Speaker 1: live in England, so the only time I talk to

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Speaker 1: people on my street is when I'm walking my dog.

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Speaker 1: You kind of answered your own question, my friend.

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Speaker 2: By talking to people when you're walking your dog.

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Speaker 1: Like, for me, having dog is such an intro you're

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Speaker 1: like cheating, You're cheating the conversation because I, although I

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Speaker 1: do a very extroverted job, I am inherently an introverted person.

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Speaker 1: And by having like a thing or something that I

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Speaker 1: really like and it being dog, that you immediately have

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Speaker 1: like built in community, You're like, you're both dog people.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, do you know that this is a terrible thing

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Speaker 2: to admit? Do you know that I wasn't a dog

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Speaker 2: person before retro. I wasn't anti dog. I liked dogs,

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Speaker 2: but I treated dogs like I treated people, where I

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Speaker 2: wanted all of them to be well and warm and happy,

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Speaker 2: and only about some small number of them anywhere near me.

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Speaker 2: And now dogs are wonderful. All of them are great,

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Speaker 2: even the worst dogs I came around.

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Speaker 1: Anyway, your soul was always a dog person.

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Speaker 2: That's kind of true. So I like this question because

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Speaker 2: I'm also an introvert. You all can't see me, but

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Speaker 2: I'm currently crouched in a very small closet, which seems

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Speaker 2: very fitting in some weird ways.

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Speaker 1: And I'm sorry for putting you back in the closet.

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Speaker 2: Oh, it's fine. I just I need to work on

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Speaker 2: some soundproofing as all or not proof, but you know,

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Speaker 2: stopping reflections whatever. And actually, a nonfiction thing that I've

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Speaker 2: been thinking about writing for a while is basically like

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Speaker 2: a misanthropic introverts guide to socialism, you know, like I

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Speaker 2: actually want more egalitarian society where we all take care

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Speaker 2: of each other, partly because I want to have nothing

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Speaker 2: to do with most people and like I just kind

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Speaker 2: of want them to be well over there, right, But

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Speaker 2: it's also important to have community and it we all

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Speaker 2: rely on it, right, We're all we all have both

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Speaker 2: introvert and extrovert batteries. And it's just that my extrovert

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Speaker 2: battery depletes really quickly and takes longer to recharge. It's

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Speaker 2: just less efficient. But I still need it. I still

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Speaker 2: need to go do that sometimes. And what I do

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Speaker 2: with neighbors. The thing I try to remember is that

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Speaker 2: like everyone is kind of waiting for the other person

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Speaker 2: to say the first thing, especially in a culture like England,

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Speaker 2: I think where it's a very cold culture, a very

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Speaker 2: white culture, and so it's a lot more like people

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Speaker 2: not really talking to each other, except of course glad

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Speaker 2: wave to say things that you don't quite mean. But

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Speaker 2: you can just do that, right, you can, well, you

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Speaker 2: can say things you don't quite mean, and you can

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Speaker 2: just just introduce yourself to people if they're your neighbors,

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Speaker 2: if there's a reason for yourself to be doing that,

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Speaker 2: just be like hey, like I'm so and so, you know,

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Speaker 2: and you kind of find out who you want to

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Speaker 2: talk to from there. And then also in terms of

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Speaker 2: making community beyond like your immediate geographical neighbors, kind of

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Speaker 2: like Sophia was saying, like having a thing you do

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Speaker 2: or care about is a really good way to do it.

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Speaker 2: Getting involved in activism, the kinds of projects that want

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Speaker 2: to be above ground. The thing I always tell everyone

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Speaker 2: is like, if if there's like nothing else, go find

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Speaker 2: your local food not bombs chapter and just start feeding

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Speaker 2: people with people and you'll at least meet people. I

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Speaker 2: don't know whether you'll like them or not. You know,

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Speaker 2: I like having a purpose when I interact with people.

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Speaker 2: I struggle to for example, go to a dance party, right,

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Speaker 2: if I don't know everyone there, sure, But if I

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Speaker 2: have a job to do at the dance party, oh

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Speaker 2: it's fine. If i'm tabling, like honestly, Like, there's probably

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Speaker 2: local harmored organizations or local like save for sex advocacy

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Speaker 2: organizations that like go and hand out what people need

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Speaker 2: at shows or whatever. Right, and then you have a

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Speaker 2: reason to be at the show, You're like, ah, it's cool.

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Speaker 2: I belong here. I never doubt that I belong places.

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Speaker 2: You can tell because I'm behind this table. I belong.

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Speaker 2: That's my answer.

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Speaker 1: Okay, I want to read a short thing that my

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Speaker 1: wonderful friend Nicole Ortez wrote and then gifted and had made.

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Speaker 1: It's like a little thing I was pretty It's a

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Speaker 1: little zene that I think really resonates with this question.

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Speaker 1: It's called How to Make Friends in your thirties by

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Speaker 1: Nicole Orties, based on a true story. Do what you love,

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Speaker 1: embrace your inner child, talk about your obsessions, and finally

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Speaker 1: be awkward at parties. That way other weirdos can find you.

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Speaker 2: That's so good.

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Speaker 1: It's so good to end. The illustrations are really great too. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: sorry listeners who can't see it, but Margaret can.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and so the answer is you just like you

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Speaker 2: actually have to go out and do things, and it's hard.

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Speaker 2: I don't like going out and doing things, but that's

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Speaker 2: how you meet people.

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Speaker 1: Let's take a quick break and we'll come back and

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Speaker 1: we'll answer some more questions.

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Speaker 2: Yay, and we're back.

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Speaker 1: Hi, Mike Pie. Hello, here's another question from Instagram. Will

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Speaker 1: we ever get another six part episode?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Almost certainly.

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Speaker 1: I think it's the person we were talking about earlier

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Speaker 1: in our meeting.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so. I think there's a couple of

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Speaker 2: six parteris coming up. And the main thing about it

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Speaker 2: is that it's better to do longer episodes when you

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Speaker 2: kind of have a good sense of how it's going

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Speaker 2: to end while you're recording the beginning, because there's so

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Speaker 2: many eleventh hour surprises about different people that I research,

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Speaker 2: and so I need to like kind of have enough

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Speaker 2: time to do all of it at once, and so

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Speaker 2: I've been working on building more of a backlog so

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Speaker 2: that I can do that.

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Speaker 1: Sweet, which cool person you've covered do you think would

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Speaker 1: best emulate in this current moment?

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Speaker 2: Okay, So this is so hard to answer because everyone

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Speaker 2: in history is acting within their own context, right, and

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Speaker 2: everyone's doing things that made sense to them at the time.

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Speaker 2: And what also gets to the complicated thing about like

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Speaker 2: trying to emulate people in general, right, Like you're like, oh,

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Speaker 2: I want to be like this person. And one of

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Speaker 2: the things I've learned through doing this show is that

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Speaker 2: there's nobody who's perfect. Everyone we should emulate parts of

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Speaker 2: them and not other parts of them, you know. But

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Speaker 2: if I have to kind of pick, it's so hard

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Speaker 2: because it's like there's people that we need, Like, for example,

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Speaker 2: the nineteenth century needed John Brown, but don't emulate John Brown.

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Speaker 2: That man was a zealot and not always good to people,

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Speaker 2: and like, you know, conditions have changed. But the people

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Speaker 2: who don't get written about are the people to take

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Speaker 2: the same struggle. The people that I would say emulate

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Speaker 2: are the you know, the people who in the South,

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Speaker 2: the enslaved folks in the South, who led the largest

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Speaker 2: labor action in US history and possibly the largest in

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Speaker 2: world history. Honestly, when they had a general strike that

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Speaker 2: shut down the entire Confederacy's economy, and like all of

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Speaker 2: the unnamed people who freed themselves are helped free others,

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Speaker 2: all of the people I mean, honestly, when I look

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Speaker 2: and I'm like, who should we emulate? It's people who

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Speaker 2: are alive right now. There's people who are like working

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Speaker 2: to keep people safe from ice, and those are the

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Speaker 2: people to emulate. I don't know. That's my no heroes answer,

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Speaker 2: even though it's a show about heroes.

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Speaker 1: I don't like to emulate people. I always aim to

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Speaker 1: be as good as a dog. So we did episodes

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Speaker 1: back in twenty twenty three that were called riot Dogs.

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Speaker 1: They're very good dogs. I'd like to emulate them.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a good answer, mac pie.

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Speaker 1: What is your personal favorite kind of context to add

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Speaker 1: during the making of an episode?

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Speaker 2: Great question, ooh okay, So I like adding the context

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Speaker 2: that makes me understand the thing because I come into

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Speaker 2: any given topic knowing the cliff Notes version usually like

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Speaker 2: I've usually read like the Wikipedia level of something, or

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Speaker 2: the you know, pop culture article about isn't this person

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Speaker 2: neat this thing happened in history. I will know that much,

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Speaker 2: but it won't make any sense to me until it's

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Speaker 2: situated in a broader net, like what is making that happen?

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Speaker 3: And so.

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Speaker 2: It's the most fun when I get to like do

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Speaker 2: a ridiculous like start at the beginning where I'm like,

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Speaker 2: and here's a thing that happened in like sixteen hundreds

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Speaker 2: in Ireland, so let me tell you about one hundred

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Speaker 2: ad Like, I kind of love the furthest I can

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Speaker 2: stretch my red string across my board. And I also

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Speaker 2: really like when I'm able to point out inter connections,

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Speaker 2: because that's where I feel like I'm offering something rather

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Speaker 2: than just regurgitating facts that I read in various books.

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Speaker 2: Is that every person is uniquely situated to understand different

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Speaker 2: context of different things. But I'm proud of the way

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Speaker 2: that I am able to understand history through my own

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Speaker 2: history as an activist. And then also just from doing

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Speaker 2: this show for so many years, you know, I really

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Speaker 2: like getting to feel like I'm making a connection that

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Speaker 2: other people haven't made yet. So that's that's really enjoyable.

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Speaker 2: I really enjoyed, for example, recently on the episodes about

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Speaker 2: Spartacus and the Commune and the I can't remember how

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Speaker 2: to pronounce it, it's not in front of me, thui

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Speaker 2: and getting to realize that it might have been the

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Speaker 2: first people to self consciously call their social project anarchia

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Speaker 2: made me really happy, right, And I'm like, oh, I

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Speaker 2: get to kind of learn a new thing by connecting

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Speaker 2: various So that's my favorite context.

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Speaker 1: How does one organize a general strike?

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Speaker 2: See, this is actually a contentious issue, probably even within

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Speaker 2: cool zone, because there's a lot of theories about how

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Speaker 2: to do this right. And the theory that some labor

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Speaker 2: unions are working towards right now in the US is

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Speaker 2: they try to get all of the various unions to

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Speaker 2: have their contracts up for renewal at the same time,

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Speaker 2: and therefore you're able to have all of these different

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Speaker 2: groups out on strike at the same time through existing

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Speaker 2: kind of legal strike methods. That is one way of

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Speaker 2: doing it. I have not read about that being the

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Speaker 2: way it's done much in history. Most of the time,

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Speaker 2: when I hear about general strikes, it's so hard because

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Speaker 2: they are a combination of organized and spontaneous, and very

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Speaker 2: rarely are people organizing the general strike. What they are

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Speaker 2: doing is organizing the working class. And when I say

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Speaker 2: working class, I mean people who do things for a

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Speaker 2: living and not people who just own a bunch of

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Speaker 2: stuff and that's how they make money. I think we

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Speaker 2: have too limited an idea of what counts as the

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Speaker 2: working class. Like literally, if you're not like whatever. If

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Speaker 2: you work a job and people can argue with me

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Speaker 2: about this, but that's fine. And so I find that

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Speaker 2: general strikes tend to pop off most successfully when most

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Speaker 2: people are used to being organized that are within unions.

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Speaker 2: They have infrastructure in place to allow for uprisings, but

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Speaker 2: the actual moment, the actual spark is not, Hey, we

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Speaker 2: are going to call for general strike next Tuesday, how

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Speaker 2: do you all feel about that? Instead it's like, Oh,

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Speaker 2: I shot somebody and we're all mad. So this is

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Speaker 2: one of those things that people paint is this dichotomy

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Speaker 2: between insurrection and organized resistance, and it's just like almost

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Speaker 2: every dichotomy, it's a false one. Like we need people

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Speaker 2: willing to let the passions of the moment take them places,

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Speaker 2: and obviously in certain places and not other places. Some

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Speaker 2: of the worst things in the world happen when people

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Speaker 2: do that. But we also need to be organized, and

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Speaker 2: labor unions are one way to be organized, but they're

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Speaker 2: not the only way. If you and your friends have

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Speaker 2: kind of plans in place for what to do if

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Speaker 2: there's unrest, that is a very useful step. Yeah, and

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Speaker 2: then general strikes like do and don't accomplish a lot

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Speaker 2: of stuff. They do absolutely express the power of the

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Speaker 2: working class and like shake the halls of power and

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Speaker 2: actually fairly often over through governments. I take it away,

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Speaker 2: I take it back. They're actually incredibly effective.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, quote quick break, when we were back, I we're back, Margaret.

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Speaker 1: Hi.

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Speaker 2: Hello.

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Speaker 1: This question says, how do you know when you've finished

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Speaker 1: writing a novel?

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Speaker 2: Oh? Okay? For me, I know, because I know. I'm like, hell, yeah,

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Speaker 2: I did it. I'm done. I'm not someone to like

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Speaker 2: linger Okay. So I guess ways of answering this is

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Speaker 2: there's the when are you done with the story? And

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Speaker 2: you're like, okay, I'm done, And then there's the other

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Speaker 2: like when are you done editing? Right, I know, fairly

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Speaker 2: immediately and logically, when the story is done, you have

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Speaker 2: your big climax and everyone sort of learned their lesson

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Speaker 2: and you have the thing that they all talk about afterwards,

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Speaker 2: and then a little vignette or two to kind of

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Speaker 2: pull everything together, right, and then but then the when

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Speaker 2: you're done editing and stuff like that, I actually think

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Speaker 2: is in some ways a more important question, and that

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Speaker 2: one's more complicated. It really depends on where you're at

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Speaker 2: in your career or rather your craft as a writer.

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Speaker 2: I have a fairly logical sense of when I'm done editing,

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Speaker 2: because the main thing is to not be someone who

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Speaker 2: like sits around and is like, oh, I finished that

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Speaker 2: book and I'm just editing it, and then like three

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Speaker 2: years later, you're still just editing it. Like give it

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Speaker 2: another pass or two, and then you're done. If there's

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Speaker 2: something you want to fix, you fix it in the

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Speaker 2: next book. If the first book doesn't sell, so it goes,

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Speaker 2: you know, and you just you keep moving forward and

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Speaker 2: iterate rather than revise. That's my primary advice for anyone

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Speaker 2: who wants to accomplish anything in life. You kinda can't

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Speaker 2: fuck around in the weeds all the time. It's actually

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Speaker 2: one of the reasons that like, running a weekly show

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Speaker 2: is really hard, Sophie, I bet you've never realized this before.

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Speaker 2: You don't run like ten of them. It's it's really demanding, right, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: But the thing that it saves you from there's no

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Speaker 2: perfection in podcasting. We're done, and then it goes off

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Speaker 2: to the editor, and then the editor fixes it, and

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Speaker 2: then it's done, and then it gets published and then

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Speaker 2: someone's like you said the wrong thing. You're like, oh,

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Speaker 2: crap and then you maybe maybe gets revised later, but

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Speaker 2: not really.

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Speaker 1: The next question is for me, so sorry, it's okay.

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Speaker 1: Somebody said, how are Sophie's frogs?

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Speaker 2: They're great? How did I not know you frogs?

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Speaker 1: I have two African dwarf frogs.

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Speaker 2: Oh that's right.

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Speaker 1: They're creatures of the Rainbow Lagoon. They live in this

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Speaker 1: little tank with the rainbow rocks. And Wednesday is Kareem

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Speaker 1: and the other is Stanley and they're both boys and

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Speaker 1: they're definitely gay. My frogs very gay.

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Speaker 2: Alex Jones would have a heart attack.

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Speaker 1: I know that because when I first got them, I

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Speaker 1: was like, hey, what's that noise? And it turns out

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Speaker 1: they're mating. But there's never been any more frogs, so yeah,

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Speaker 1: and then I looked it up and they have like

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Speaker 1: markings where you can tell, you know. And so the

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Speaker 1: frogs are gay and they're great.

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Speaker 2: No, No, animals aren't gay. Only bad humans are gay.

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Speaker 2: Didn't you know that? No? Oh huh, yeah, I know,

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Speaker 2: But I got some gay frogs.

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Speaker 1: My gay frogs are great. I moved them into a

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Speaker 1: different place where they get more light and they really

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Speaker 1: like that. I also have a little lamp that haes

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Speaker 1: on a t that gives them more light, so they

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Speaker 1: have a lot more light during the day and they

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Speaker 1: really like that and they just swim around and their

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Speaker 1: little rainbow tank. I love them.

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Speaker 2: That's nice.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, those were all the questions from Instagram. It

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Speaker 1: would be kind of nice if we split it up

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Speaker 1: between here's the Instagram questions and here's the Blue Sky questions.

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Speaker 2: So why don't we call it all right? And then

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Speaker 2: we will see you all on Wednesday when we answer

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Speaker 2: questions from.

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Speaker 1: Blue Sky Do you have anything you want to plug?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Take care of each other, and strong movements are

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Speaker 2: built when people have solidarity between tactics, when people who

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Speaker 2: are being rowdy take into consideration the people who don't

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Speaker 2: want to be rowdy, and when the people who aren't

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Speaker 2: being rowdy don't turn in or try and defang the

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Speaker 2: movement by trying to stop people who are acting up

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Speaker 2: a little bit more. We're all very mad, and it's

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Speaker 2: very easy to look at each other and express that

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Speaker 2: anger towards each other because we're so convinced that this

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Speaker 2: problem is so big that we need to fix it,

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Speaker 2: and we think we know how to fix it, and

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Speaker 2: therefore everyone needs to do we think they should do,

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Speaker 2: and that is unfortunately not a good solution and not

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Speaker 2: how you build strong movements. We build strong movements by

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Speaker 2: taking care of each other and remembering who our enemies

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Speaker 2: are and the spoiler alert, they're the ones shooting us,

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Speaker 2: So take care of each other.

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Speaker 1: Pre order James Stout's book Against the State, available for

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Speaker 1: pre order from ak Press.

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Speaker 2: Oh that's right, yep, Bye.

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Speaker 1: Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff is a production of

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Speaker 1: cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool Zone Media,

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Speaker 1: visit our website Goolezonemedia dot com, or check us out

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Speaker 1: on iHeart.

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Speaker 3: Media app, i'm a Podcasts, or wherever you

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Speaker 1: Get your podcasts,