The Beautiful and Banned
A weekly conversational podcast with Christine Renee Miller and Jessica Goudeau about banned books, plays, and films now and throughout history--with occasional guests.
The Beautiful and Banned
S4, E1: Heated Rivalry with Special Guest Nisha Sharma
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
We're back and we have missed you! Is it even a podcast if we haven't talked about Heated Rivalry? In the first episode of Season 4, we are joined by special guest Nisha Sharma: a lawyer, award-wining writer, former corporate culture executive, scholar and author of over ten published books for teens and adults--and, more importantly for us, our dear colleague at Wilkes University! We're delighted to have one of the smartest women we know join us to talk all things Heated Rivalry, including why it's been banned in Russia, what exactly that means in a country where it's illegal to be LGBTQIA+, and what Russian young people are telling the world about what it's like to finally see a joyful depiction of a queer relationship. Also: even in the midst of everything going on right now, we're still finding hope!
Join the conversation on Substack! If you'd prefer to be a Patreon subscriber, you can join now for just $3 a month. Thank you for your support! The success of this podcast depends on you!
"The Beautiful and Banned" is produced by Jessica Goudeau and Christine Renee Miller. Follow us on social media: @beautifulandbannedpod, @christinereneemiller, and @jessica_goudeau.
If you have questions for us, visit the "Contact Us" page on our website. If you liked our show, please rate and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you listen to podcasts. The best way to support our podcast is to share it with your friends!
Our co-producer, Rob Heath, wrote and performed our theme music. Kalin Siegwald designed our logo. This is A Sisters By Different Misters Production.
Episode 1 links:
- Rachel Reid's website with the books from Carina Press
- NBC News article about HR as a "word-of-mouth hit" in Russia that could lead to prison
- Reuters article about the Russian Supreme Court's banning of the "LGBTQ movement" as "extremist"
- The ramifications of that law, according to Coming Out
- The Moscow Times overview of the HR phenomenon in Russia
Nisha's recs for writers to read if you liked HR:
- Meryl Wilsner (they/them)
- Cat Sebastian (she/her) [Jessica seconds; I'm obsessed with Cat Sebastian]
