Romanistan
The authors of Secrets of Romani Fortune Telling present: Romanistan! Do you love rebels? Do you want to live in a place where outcasts shine their brightest? Welcome to Romanistan! We're your friendly neighborhood Gypsies, celebrating Romani identity and outcast culture, and practicing good diplomatic relations with other marginalized communities.
We love the rebels who are living their truth, even if it clashes with tradition. We also love tradition and honoring our roots. This podcast is for everyone who loves and supports Roma & related groups, and anyone who feels like a misfit and wants to uplift others to create a beautiful community.
We feature pioneers in culture, fashion, art, literature, music, activism, cuisine, and everything good. We adore the intersections of gender, sexuality, spirituality, ability, and identity. We cover all topics, from the difficult to the glorious. Let's sit crooked and talk straight.
Hosted by Paulina Stevens and Jezmina Von Thiele. We reclaim the slur Gypsy, but if you aren’t Romani, we prefer you don't use it. xoxo.
P.S. The Romani people are a diasporic ethnic group originally from northwest India, circa the 10th century. Now, Roma live all over the globe, and due to centuries of oppression, slavery, genocide, and other atrocities, Roma are still fighting for basic human rights. We seek to raise awareness of who Roma are, and highlight Romani resilience, creativity, & culture.
Romanistan
Dead Scared Entertainment: A Romani Horror Media Company
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Paulina and Jez had a terrifying good time chatting with Pierce and Raquel Horvath of Dead Scared Entertainment, a Romani-run horror media company.
Detroit born and living in Chicago, Pierce and Raquel Horvath are Hungarian Slovak Bashalde Romungre raised within Roma tradition with a modern twist.
Growing up, Pierce was a passionate bat biologist-to-be, but as he fostered his love for Roma music, mid-century modern art, and classic horror films while studying animation at DePaul University he found he’d be fusing these elements into the nostalgic, spooky, Roma production company that is never short of his favorite nocturnal animal.
When it came to Raquel, where there was music, she was dancing. Throughout her formative years, she would go on to learn many styles of dance while performing and competing. During her time at DePaul University as well, she decided to learn business and entrepreneurship, making her ready to tackle everything necessary to concoct the perfect monster that became Dead Scared Entertainment.
You can follow Dead Scared Entertainment at https://www.deadscaredentertainment.com/ and listen to their podcast O Verda Darano (The Wagon of Fear) wherever you find podcasts. Follow them on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Twitter.
The crushes this episode are Rita Hayworth and Fairuza Balk.
Thank you for listening to Romanistan podcast.
You can find us on Instagram @romanistanpodcast, and on Facebook under the same name, and on Twitter @romanistanpod
We started a Ko-fi fundraiser to help us expand. Our goal is to continue releasing 2 episodes a month, including our advice column, and we would eventually like to expand so we can produce content by other Romani & Sinti creators. We are hoping to cover production costs, like paying for our hosting site, website, editing and producing, and all the rest. We would love it if you could contribute and spread the word. The link, Ko-fi.com/romanistan, is in our bio on Instagram, and will be in the show notes
Please rate, review, and subscribe. It helps us so much.
If you would like to advertise with us, email us at romanistanpodcast@gmail.com. We offer sliding-scale for Romani, Sinti & related businesses, so reach out!
You can find Jess on Instagram @jezmina.vonthiele, and you can find Jess’ vintage and curiosities shop Evil Eye Edit on Instagram @evileyeedit & Etsy.
You can find Paulina Verminski on Instagram @_paulina_v_ and at https://romaniholistic.com/. Follow Paulina’s store, Romani Holistic, in Corona Del Mar, CA, on Instagram @romaniholistic
Romanistan is hosted by Jessica Reidy and Paulina Verminski
Conceived of by Paulina Verminski
Edited by Cherub
With Music by Viktor Pachas