Getting Curious With Jonathan Van Ness

This holiday season, we’re inviting Getting Curious listeners to reflect on what it means to be in community. In that spirit, we’re re-releasing a conversation about mutual aid with the writer and activist Dean Spade. Mutual aid is all about meeting people’s survival needs at a local level, and building sustained, decentralized, compassionate support networks. We encourage you to take a listen to Dean and Jonathan’s conversation, then take some time to learn about—and get involved in—mutual aid initiatives in your community. 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 Oc

This week we’re learning all about the culture of cheese, and literal cheese cultures, with Carlos Yescas and Lee Hennessy. They join Jonathan to discuss how cheese is made, the politics and economics of the global cheese industry, and why we should enjoy Swiss cheese while we have it. It’s the episode equivalent of a gorgeous charcuterie board!   Carlos Yescas is a cheese scholar, advocate, distributor, and researcher. He documents cheese traditions and stories and is currently researching raw-milk use in cheesemaking around the world.   Lee Hennessy is the founder, farmer, and cheesemaker of Moxie Ridge Farm. Lee is a first-generation farmer and a transgender man with a surprising background in both wine and Hollywood. He lives and works in Argyle, NY and in his spare time he enjoys spending time with his goats, reading long fantasy series, learning to play instruments and singing.   Want to stop doomscrolling? Take Carlos’ advice and learn more about cheese! He’s on TikTok @cheeseyescas and Instag

If you take a shower and use basic cosmetics, you could be exposed to more than 100 chemicals. Add in your furnishings and food, and we’re talking several hundred chemicals, some of them bioaccumulative—and dangerous. But if we know that certain consumer goods have toxics in them, how did they end up on shelves? And why are they still for sale? This week, Dr. Norah MacKendrick joins Jonathan to break down the history and politics of daily chemical exposure, and what needs to change so that we can stay safe. Dr. Norah MacKendrick is Associate Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University. She's the author of Better Safe Than Sorry: How Consumers Navigate Exposure to Everyday Toxics. Her research falls within the fields of environmental sociology, gender, medical sociology, and consumer studies.   You can follow Dr. MacKendrick on Twitter @nmackend, on Instagram @nmackendgreen, and at norahmackendrick.com.    Curious about limiting exposure to toxic chemicals? Here are some resources she recommends:   The

This week’s episode is a gymnastics EVENT! Olympic silver medalist Jordan Chiles joins Jonathan to discuss how she’s taking the sport to new heights at both the elite and collegiate levels, why she doesn’t take any wins for granted, and who’s on her playlist heading into competition days. Whether you’re a gymnastics newbie or an elite level fan like Jonathan, this one’s a winner.   One note is that we recorded this episode just before Jordan qualified for the 2022 World Gymnastics Championships. Make sure to check out the competition before it ends on November 6!   Jordan Chiles is a globally-recognized, nationally-ranked gymnast and Olympic silver medalist. With legendary basketball star Michael Jordan as her namesake, Chiles’ trajectory has, fittingly, been driven by athletic excellence. Her breakout performance at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games catapulted the athlete to a global stage. Chiles currently resides in Los Angeles and attends UCLA.   You can follow Jordan on Instagram @jordanchiles,

In 1977 more than 100 disabled activists in San Francisco took over a federal building for 25 days. It was the longest non-violent occupation of a federal building in United States history. As they advocated for their rights, they found an ally in the Black Panther Party, which understood that disability rights were connected with their own anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist racial justice work. This week, Professor Sami Schalk joins Jonathan to discuss how Black cultural workers have approached disability as a social and political issue in the U.S. from the 1970s to the present, and what it looks like to honor Black disability politics through language, legislation, and beyond.  Sami Schalk is an associate professor of Gender & Women’s Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the author of Bodyminds Reimagined: (Dis)ability, Race & Gender in Black Women’s Speculative Fiction (Duke UP 2018) and Black Disability Politics (Duke UP 2022). Schalk identifies as a fat Black queer disabled femme and a

Let’s say you pass a group of people dressed identically. Are they a) following a trend, b) wearing uniforms, or c)  in a cult? And who’s to say the answer can’t be all of the above? This week, we’re diving fabric first into the world of American cults, communes, and alternative communities with fashion historian and archivist Sarah C. Byrd. Listen in as she and Jonathan discuss how these groups have historically expressed themselves through style—and why the definition of “cult fashion” might be more expansive than we think. Sarah C. Byrd is a fashion historian, archivist, & educator based in New York. Her independent research focuses on the history of clothing within American “cults” and alternative communities, as well as the role of museums in fashion design education. She is also passionate about creating space to engage in learning outside of institutional programs. You can connect with Sarah via her website: sarahcbyrd.com. Still curious after listening to this episode? Sarah has suggested a hand

This week, we’re traveling back to one of our favorite sites for curiosity: the ancient Mediterranean. Professors Sarah Derbew and Nandini Pandey join Jonathan to discuss how people across the region experienced cultural diversity; how they related to—and set themselves apart from—their neighbors; and what it looks like to approach the ancient past on its own terms rather than filtered through contemporary assumptions.   Sarah Derbew is an assistant professor of Classics at Stanford University. She writes, teaches, and speaks widely about ancient Greece’s literary and visual heritage, considering its representations of black people that nimbly provoke - and cut through - modern hierarchies.    You can follow her on Twitter @BlackAntiquity, and at www.sarahderbew.com. Her new book Untangling Blackness in Greek Antiquity is out now, and you can purchase it using the coupon code UBGA2022.    Nandini Pandey is an associate professor of classics at Johns Hopkins University who writes and teaches about Roman

Treat this episode like a spritz of your favorite fragrance. Let the beauty talk consume you. Linger on the film industry stories. Stay for the base notes of Jonathan in disbelief that our guest is literally Michelle Pfeiffer. Michelle Pfeiffer joins Jonathan to discuss the science of scent, the trade secrets harming people’s health, and how she’s modeling transparency with her company Henry Rose.    Need more Jonathan and Michelle in your life? Check out their Instagram Live from earlier this year. And stay tuned for an episode later this fall with an amazing sociologist that explores how consumer choice in beauty and other goods has become our go-to defense against toxic products—and how the US government has designed the system this way.   Michelle Pfeiffer is a three-time Academy Award nominee, Golden Globe Award winner, and Emmy nominee who has captivated film audiences with her compelling performances for over three decades. She is also the Founder and Creative Director of Henry Rose, a line of fine

Each year, more than 250,000 children in America are removed from their families by judicial means—and more than 3.5 million children are investigated by child welfare agencies. Most of these children are Black, Indigenous, queer, disabled, and / or otherwise marginalized. And much of the tens of billions of dollars allotted each year to so-called “child welfare” is spent on separating families. This week’s guest Dorothy Roberts joins Jonathan to discuss how this system operates; who it most harms; and what it has to do with mass incarceration, police brutality, and centuries’ worth of inequities in this country.   Dorothy Roberts is the George A. Weiss University Professor of Law and Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a contributor to the 1619 Project book and the author of four books, including the best-selling Killing the Black Body. Her path breaking work in law and public policy focuses on urgent social justice issues in policing, family regulation, science, medicine, and bioethics.  S

If Getting Curious were a magazine, this week’s episode would be the “September Issue,” and this week’s guest would be the cover star of our dreams. British Vogue’s Editor-in-Chief Edward Enninful, OBE, joins Jonathan to discuss how he’s transformed your favorite magazines over the last three decades; how he’s leading the way for a more diverse, welcoming fashion world; and what it was like to get vulnerable for his new memoir A Visible Man.   Edward Enninful is Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue and the European Editorial Director for Vogue. As a lifelong advocate for diverse voices, Edward spearheaded “The Black Issue” at Italian Vogue which featured only Black models. He eventually rose to become the fashion and style director of W Magazine. In 2017, Edward became editor-in-chief of British Vogue, making him the only Black person to serve in this role in the history of Vogue. Born in Ghana, he currently resides in London. You can follow Edward on Instagram and Twitter @edward_enninful. His new memoir A Vi

In 1871, Germany adopted an anti-sodomy statute called Paragraph 175. Sixty years later, the Nazis broadened that law—and it quickly became the basis for persecuting Germany’s queer population. When World War II ended, Paragraph 175 remained on the books. Dr. W. Jake Newsome joins Jonathan to discuss queer Germans’ experiences of Nazi rule and its aftermaths, the history and legacy of the pink triangle, and how this pivotal moment in queer history bears on today.   CW: This episode references racist, anti-Semitic, and homophobic ideology, and bodily harm.   W. Jake Newsome, Ph.D. is an award-winning scholar of German and American LGBTQ+ history whose work educates global audiences. His new book Pink Triangle Legacies: Coming Out in the Shadow of the Holocaust chronicles the dynamic and inspiring history of the LGBTQ+ community's first international pride symbol: the pink triangle.  For more of Dr. Newsome’s work, visit his website or follow him on Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok @wjnewsome.  You can find

It's a beautiful night—the sky is clear, the stars are twinkling. You see a shooting star! Or is it a comet! Maybe a meteor? Whatever it is, it’s gone in an instant. But what if that whirring bit of space were headed... straight towards the Earth, not past it? Yeah, not so cute. This week, Christina Hernández and Terik Daly of NASA join Jonathan to talk about asteroids, what they’re made of, and how we could protect the planet if one came hurtling towards the place we call home.   Christina Hernández (she/her/hers) is a systems engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She currently works on Psyche, NASA’s mission to a metal world, as a flight systems engineer. She previously spent over 6 years working on NASA’s Perseverance rover mission as a payload systems engineer. You can follow Christina on Twitter @estrellasycafe.  Dr. Terik Daly is a planetary scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He is the deputy instrument scientist for NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (

We’re spending this week cooking up some incredible fall programming. To tide you over, here’s a re-air of our episode with Sohla El-Waylly, all about cooking basics, ancient recipes, and Sohla and Jonathan’s shared affinity for a certain Taco Bell classic that was discontinued at the time of this recording and is now BACK!    Sohla El-Waylly is a culinary creator, writer, and community advocate. She’s the guest editor of the forthcoming collection The Best American Food Writing 2022, available for pre-order now. She can also be seen starring in The HISTORY® Channel’s online series Ancient Recipes with Sohla.    You can keep up with Sohla’s work on Instagram @sohlae and at www.hellosohla.com.   Join the conversation, and find out what former guests are up to, by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN.    Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook.   Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com.   Love listening to Getting C

There are more than 62 million Latine people living in the United States. Some are US-born, others are recent immigrants, and still more have had family members here for centuries—living on land that was once part of Mexico. This week, Mónica Ramírez returns to Getting Curious to discuss how the Latine community is “deeply rooted” in the US, what it looks like to protect the humanity and dignity of these 62 million people, and why advocates like Mónica aren’t simply showing up at spaces of consequence to address systemic issues—they’re creating spaces of consequence. CW: This episode discusses bodily harm and hateful rhetoric. Mónica Ramírez is an attorney, author, and activist fighting for the rights of farmworkers, migrant women workers, and the Latine(x) community. She is the founder of Justice for Migrant Women and co-founder of Alianza Nacional de Campesinas, The Latinx House, and Poderistas. Mónica has received numerous awards, including Harvard Kennedy School’s first Gender Equity Changemaker Award,

Gossip Galaxy here, your one and only source into the scandalous lives of the universe’s elite. I have it on *expert* authority that the Milky Way is stirring up cosmic drama. Has this Local Group galaxy had enough of its central black hole? Will they or won’t they with Andromeda? And is spaghettification the real dish of the summer? Dr. Moiya McTier and Jonathan tell all in this week’s stellar episode.   Dr. Moiya McTier is an astrophysicist, folklorist, and science communicator based in New York City. Her new book The Milky Way: An Autobiography of our Galaxy is out now.   After graduating from Harvard as the first person in the school’s history to study both astronomy and mythology, Moiya earned her PhD in astrophysics at Columbia University where she was selected as a National Science Foundation research fellow. Moiya has consulted with companies like Disney and PBS on their fictional worlds, helped design exhibits for the New York Hall of Science, and given hundreds of talks about science around the

You want LGBTQIA+ rights? You want reproductive justice? You want to end mass incarceration? You want environmental protections? You want living wages? You better vote for state legislature, b**ch. Sister District co-founders Gaby Goldstein and Lala Wu return to Getting Curious for a conversation all about the upcoming midterm elections, and specifically what’s in store for state legislative races. Listen in as they discuss what it’ll take for Democrats and progressives to hold their ground; how we can invest in year-round, state-level organizing; and why we need to think in a timeline of decades, not just election cycles.  Gaby Goldstein is an attorney and political strategist who focuses on the growing importance of state legislatures. She is co-founder at Sister District, whose mission is to build progressive power in state legislatures and co-moderator of the State Power Series, a virtual event series co-sponsored by Vote Save America/Crooked Media and Sister District. Lala Wu is a co-founder and the E

A note from Jonathan and team Getting Curious: we recorded this episode in May, the same day the first case of monkeypox was documented in the US. Today there are nearly 6000 confirmed cases—and counting—across the country. If you’re a member of the queer community or an ally, we implore you to make the spread of monkeypox a personal problem—and to put pressure on elected leaders to take this outbreak seriously. Dr. Thrasher's work is central to understanding how and why this virus is spreading, so we'll be posting updated commentary from him, and other resources, to our @CuriouswithJVN social media pages in the coming days. Viral spread, this week’s guest reminds us, “happens through very normative life activities: sex, breathing, handshaking, hugging, just being. The things that we have to do to stay alive.” So what happens when we encounter viruses through these activities? The answer often depends on who “we” are. Listen in as Dr. Steven W. Thrasher and Jonathan explore how social inequalities in the US

Jonathan is a guest on one of our favorite podcasts this week: Scam Goddess. And we’re releasing that episode on our Getting Curious feed, too. Did we scam host Laci Mosley and her team into producing an episode of Getting Curious for us? Perhaps. Will you love what you hear? Absolutely. Listen in as Laci and Jonathan discuss an iconic scam from art history, and get a feel for how Jonathan gets curious from the guest seat.   Head to the Scam Goddess podcast feed for notes and sources from this episode, and make sure to subscribe. You can follow Laci on Instagram and Twitter @divalaci, and Scam Goddess on Instagram and Twitter @scamgoddesspod.   “Scam Goddess” is a podcast dedicated to fraud and all those who practice it! Each week host Laci Mosley (aka Scam Goddess) digs deep into the latest scams alongside some of your favorite comedians! It’s like true crime only without all the death! True fun ass crime!  Scam Goddess was featured in the top 10 comedy podcasts of 2020 by Vulture magazine. It’s been pr

In 2015, Senator Jim Inhofe brought a snowball to Congress to “prove” that climate change wasn’t real. Only God, he claimed, could change the climate. He was wrong on two fronts: one, climate change is real. And two, faith and climate science are *not* incompatible. This week, Dekila Chungyalpa joins Jonathan to discuss her work collaborating with faith leaders on climate efforts, how she confronts climate change disinterest and skepticism, and why she’s bringing the sacred back into science.    Dekila Chungyalpa is the founder and director of the Loka Initiative, a capacity building and outreach platform at the University of Wisconsin – Madison for faith leaders and culture keepers of Indigenous traditions who work on environmental and climate issues. She received the prestigious Yale McCluskey Award in 2014 for her work and moved to the Yale School of Environmental Studies as an associate research scientist, where she researched, lectured and designed the prototype for what is now the Loka Initiative. Dek

Well, here we are. Roe v. Wade has been overturned, and it’s more urgent than ever to rally for reproductive rights across the country—and understand how we got to this point. This week, Professor Jacki Antonovich joins Jonathan to explore the history of abortion care and forced sterilization in the US, how white supremacy has shaped reproductive politics, and why Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman isn’t the historical fiction we may think it is. CW: This episode includes descriptions of bodily harm and discussion of racist ideologies. Jacqueline Antonovich is an Assistant Professor of History at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, PA. She is the author of the article, “White Coats, White Hoods: The Medical Politics of the Ku Klux Klan in 1920s America,” and she is currently working on a book on the history of women physicians and medical imperialism in the American West. Jacqueline is the creator and co-founder of Nursing Clio, a collaborative blog project that examines the historical roots of present-day issues surro