Dispatch from the winter doldrums

Welcome back to The Monthly Hoot: Witch, Please Productions' Newsletter!

Hey lovely people!

We’re back! We had a nice winter break where we didn’t open Slack at all! Now, I (Gaby) write to you from under a blanket after finishing up at my day job. It’s dark and I have some sort of cold and I hate January because I hate this part of winter. Do you have tips for beating the winter sads? If so, please leave a comment. I’d love to hear them.

That all said, I am really excited about what Witch, Please Productions is cooking up at the start of this new year. In fact, I’m going to keep it short so you can scroll down and get the sneakiest of peeks!

Stay warm,

Gaby, Hannah, Marcelle, Coach, and Zoe

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We released two very special and fun episodes over the past month!

First, Marcelle led us through a brilliant conversation about one of her favorite books, The Night Circus. It’s hard to think critically about what you love, but she was so brave. She started with a quick chat about how the book was set up for success in 2011, followed by some theory about reading ecosystems from Book Was There: Reading in Electronic Times by Andrew Piper.

Next, we had a VERY special guest, our friend

Leena Norms

! Leena joined us to talk all about Wonka! Marcelle dove deep into Netflix's collaboration with the Roald Dahl Story Company (and Taika Waititi's connection!), Dahl's legacy in Britain's cultural imagination, and the lengths studios go to keep his work relevant to new audiences despite the rampant fat phobia and antisemitism within his texts. They talk Noodle, the odd absence of chocolate from the film's marketing, the Jewish writers behind the script, and, of course, larvae that makes a person fly! If you don't understand that last part, good for you, stay innocent.

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Mark Your Calendars… Making Worlds is Coming!

You’re some of the first folks to know…. We’re launching a new show!

Making Worlds, a video podcast about imagining otherwise, begins January 25th.

This show will be released monthly to Patreon and hosted by Hannah McGregor (maybe you know them?!?). In each 30ish-minute episode, a guest will bring Hannah a text that has helped them imagine the liberatory possibilities of another world. We’re talking sci-fi, fantasy and speculative fiction! Hot!!!!

The episodes we’ve recorded so far have been full of passion, enthusiasm, and genuine joy and we can’t wait for you to see them. Audio-only versions will be available on Patreon as well, but you should tune into the video versions if you’re able. Hannah’s makeup is worth it.

Want to hear the trailer?

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An Update on Gender Playground from Coach

Gender Playground is coming back baby! And this time? It’ll be available to the public.

For those of you following closely, we began this project in spring 2022 (wow), launched a pilot episode in summer 2022, reworked the show based on listener feedback, began a fundraising campaign through our Patreon summer 2023, considered the most sustainable way to make the podcast all fall, and now, here we are: It’s January 2024 and Gender Playground will be in your feeds next month.

Some Questions You May Have, Along With Some Answers I Have:

1. Why has this journey taken this long?

In short, because we’re all busy with our full-time jobs and we don’t make enough money on our Patreon to sustain two bi-weekly shows. And because we really wanted to do our best by this podcast and needed to gather a lot of information before we felt like we could properly do that.

2. Why now? What’s changed?

The biggest thing is that Material Girls is launched and you all, our listeners, stuck with us through the transition from Witch, Please. That was huge and not at all a given. We had to know that our income would not be changing super dramatically with the change in our flagship show. You all continue to patronize our work and we’re taking it as the vote of confidence (and the material conditions) we need to commit to Gender Playground.

3. How are you making the show?

Through sponsorships! We’re inviting companies, individuals, artists, etc., to sponsor individual episodes. We realized that, while Patreon is great for many things, the income we make from it is simply too piece-meal to sustain consistent production on a second show. More on this soon, as we’ll be calling on you to spread the word once we’ve officially launched.

In the meantime, if you’re interested in hearing more about sponsorships, click here and we’ll follow up with details.

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January vibe, imo

New year, new tunes! There’s a time and place for sad music; January is neither that time nor place. We’ve got a boppy mix of ass-throwing jams, upbeat indie tunes, and hopefully some songs that make you feel like the warm weather is going to come again.

Get your tuneage on Spotify here or Apple Music here.

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Have a topic you want us to tackle? Feel free to submit to this form!

Something else you want us to know? You can always email us at ohwitchplease@gmail.com.

Want to talk to us all the time? Join our $30 Patreon tier and find us on Slack, where we live.

Have a strongly worded comment about this newsletter? You can now reply right on Substack and we’ll be able to see it and even reply! Just be nice to us.

rt if Zoe’s designs also get you hot!

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I just got home from a visit with beloved friend-of-the-pod Zena Sharman during which she made an extremely delicious soup that I will be adding to my winter meal rotation, and probably you should do. It was a hit with the entire household, including one of the babies (picture of soup-covered baby not included). Plus it's vegan and gluten free and nightshade free so you can make it for almost anyone unless they hate lentils or coziness. Serve with crusty bread, as you do every meal.

I don't know about you, but I feel like I've been waiting my whole life for quality mainstream representation of cis parents supporting their trans kids. Not deep dives into the emotional turmoil we (cis parents) might face; not bleak cautionary tales of how we might let our kids down; just a totally normal cis mom and cis dad with a trans kid whom they respect, admire, and adore. Well. If you follow me on instagram you may have noticed that I am OBSESSED with the David Tennant/Catherine Tate Doctor Who Christmas Specials. In the Specials, Tennant and Tate reprise their beloved roles from the early aughts in order to (let's be honest here) reassure fans that the forthcoming queer Black Doctor (Ncuti Gatwa) is a legitimate transformation for this notoriously white character. It would be so cool if we lived in a world where we didn't need white stars like David Tennant to tell us that Black Excellence is real, but I thank you for your service, Sir. Donna Noble's (Tate) character arc throughout her original time on the show is a gift. She starts out so basic, really demonstrating the limits of imagination imposed on lower middleclass women (get a job to meet a man to get married). And even though she never changes, her capacity to imagine her role in the universe does. So now, in 2023/2024, take that extremely regular woman and re-introduce her as the mom of a teenage trans girl: you get an extremely regular mom who is able to imagine a world where her brilliant, beautiful daughter belongs, and who has the fierce (also extremely regular) mama bear energy to create it. At one point Donna is talking to her own mother about mothering and about discovering her child is a daughter and you, if you're me, might be thinking "Ok here we go with the 'it was so hard'" narrative, and instead Donna just says "How lucky am I?" And reader, I SOBBED. If you've never watched Doctor Who, it can be a bit intimidating to jump in. It's an old show! But if you're watching for some cis mama role modeling, it's totally ok to start with the Christmas Special "The Star Beast." If you'd like a bit more context, Donna's first full episode is "The Runaway Bride," and then she becomes the Doctor's official companion in the episode "Partners in Crime," one of my all-time favourites.

I am who I am and who I am is someone who listens to one song on repeat until another one replaces it. Currently, that song is Immortal from Thy Slaughter. I really like Caroline Polachek because she's an alien and her voice has been in my head since this song scored both this iconic iPod commercial and also my sophomore year of high school. I would argue this current fave is a natural progression from my previous fixation, adore u, which, naturally, followed party 4 u. I guess I will follow these little British producer boys into whatever genre they want to take my pandemic-altered brain so long as they offer a melody I can hum weeks on end. 

This month I’ve been reading Plain Bad Heroines by emily m danforth, which was originally recommended to me by none other than Hannah McGregor herself. I bought it in the summer because it was also recommended at my favorite anarchist book co-op (shout out Orca Books Cooperative in Olympia, WA), but I hadn’t cracked it open until last month. I felt ready for this tome, finally, after all this time. And let me tell you, are these heroines so deliciously bad! It’s chock full of sapphic love stories, problematic faves, Hollywood satire, and the magical, mystical, Mary MacLane! If like me, you like to stew in a story for a long time, you will likely enjoy this tale about young love and curses, and many many wasps (both kinds). 

Ugh, guys, I don’t know, I really fucking hate January. I’m trying to save money, I’m trying to go outside even when it’s cold and miserable, etc. Instead of recommending you a cheap thing if you have an extra $10, I’m going to recommend you purchase something that is expensive for $10. I’m talking pricy butter. Fancy cheese. The good tomato sauce. (I’m writing this around dinner time and clearly I just want to eat pasta). Coach got me started on buying Kerrygold butter as a treat for myself sometime last year, and I’m afraid it really does improve the quality of my life. I’ve started shelling out a little more for a fresh block of grana padano cheese every week because it makes me happy. If you have the means, sometimes you can spend $10 on something you would normally buy for less if it’s going to bring you joy.

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Okay, bye! xoxo