Transcript for Hope This Finds Me Well Episode 9. Nataya: Harnessing Your Rage
Nataya Throughout all my life, I’ve played dumb, because it makes people comfortable. And honestly, I’m kind of done. It, it hurts. It hurts! Holding back who I really am. And I don’t want to do it anymore.
[music]
Steph Colbourn You’re listening to Hope This Finds Me Well — a podcast about the past & future versions of ourselves and what we want to tell them. I’m Steph and Sophie and Maria are here too!
Maria Passingham Hiya!
Sophie Shin Hello!
SC Together we talk to people who in the past, sent messages to their future selves. We want to get the story behind what they were writing about, and find out how they feel about it all now. Today’s letter is around a topic that I’m pretty sure is close to all of our hearts…It centres around feminism, intersectionality and gender equality. And I think we all have our own experiences of coming up against biases, especially in this industry. But in life in general. How do you think about those things? How does it play out in your life?
[music fades]
SS I feel like it’s something that is constantly on my mind, but I’m not thinking about it all the time, either. I don’t know if that makes sense. It’s just something that kind of like looms over all of my opinions on thing. All of my experiences, and it’s just kind of ingrained in me at this point. I don’t know. Does that make sense?
SC Yeah, no, I think it makes sense and affects your life, even if you’re not thinking about it or not.
SS Yeah, it’s not like something will happen to me. And I’ll be like, well, that’s feminism. It’s like, you know, it’s interesting Nataya’s letter, you can kind of tell like, maybe this was kind of like, an epiphany moment for her.
MP A ‘that’s feminism!’ moment.
SS ‘That’s feminism!’ But I’m trying to think and I don’t really know when that kind of happened for me. I think that was probably when I was in high school like she was and learning more about the world. And then it really like solidified in university.
SC Yeah, did you have like a moment like that Maria?
MP So I don’t remember a sort of epiphany moment either. But I do remember, I think my mom and I had always kind of talked about the extra barriers for women and things like that. And, and my best friend came to stay one time and she said something that was derogatory about feminism. And my mom called her out on and then tried to, like, educate her. And it was honestly probably a bit heavy handed and a bit patronizing. But from that moment on, my friend kind of lessened her, her weird views, which I think she had probably just got from her old fashioned parents, honestly. And a couple years later, came back and said to my mom, ‘You actually have really changed my mind. And I’ve realized that feminism isn’t like this crazy extreme thing. It’s actually just wanting like people to you know, have the same respect and the given the same opportunities, and not sexualized and all of these things.’ And honestly, it was like, beautiful. It wasn’t my moment, but I was witnessing it. And you know, when you when you’re so entwined with somebody, it’s life, like a best friend or a partner, you kind of feel things like with them anyway. And yeah, I was just really proud of her. I hope that’s not condescending.
SC No, I have goosebumps!
SS Aw.
SC I don’t think I had like a feminist moment. I think most of the oppression that I face when I was younger was because I was queer, not because I was a woman. And so I never really, like I don’t think I had a feminist moment. I think I had, I mean, I guess if you think about feminism intersectionally, like queer politics are also part of that. But like, I think I I had all of those aha moments more in reference to being gay.
SS Yeah, I think there was a light switch for me when it came to intersectionality. And how feminism affects different groups of populations differently. My feminism is different than a Black woman’s feminism, you know, like it, it’s just inherently different based on lived experiences. So that probably happened in like later in university, to be honest.
MP That kind of realization that these things that you’ve been aware of, but actually are inherently linked, and like merged is kind of what Nataya is going through when she wrote this letter. And it’s still kind of developing now. I mean, we all still developing right? You’re not just suddenly you just don’t know everything. So it’s kinda nice to see everywhere reflective of our own experiences, but it’s kind of also nice to see someone else’s journey through that too.
SC Yeah, our letter today talks about that, but also talks about education, access to information, dating, our favorite teachers, local news, I think, you know, let’s just, let’s just, let’s just roll the tape.
SC So yes, our conversation with today’s guest Nataya is broadly around feminism, but also covers education, access to information, dating, our favourite teachers, local news. I think basically we just need to roll the tape!
Nataya My name is Nataya. I’m 22. I’m at Washington State University right now, like, I’m studying communications, which I got into because I was doing journalism at the community college I went to, and yeah, I’ve been writing letters to future me, like for a while, like, probably since I was 16 or something. And so it’s super funny that this one, like, I didn’t even realise, I like dated this, like four years in the future to myself, right, which is so funny, like, because the ones that are like longer term are kind of cooler. You know what I mean?
SS Yeah, oh yeah.
Nataya Because you really forget.
[music]
Nataya So [paper rustle] it says:
“The following is an email from the past composed on May 13 2016. It is being delivered from the past or futureme.org.
Dear future Nataya, on this day, May 13 2016, you truly learned the importance of reading and you distance yourself entirely from biassed media and news. Today, you felt outraged that the western curriculum never taught you shit about the Middle East and the struggles of other women who are living in those regions. Today, you finally understood how much bigger feminism is than the mainstream Tumblr feminism we have in the US and that you have subscribed to for quite some time, though not anymore, since a lot of them started being assholes to you for your beliefs that don’t perfectly align with theirs [coughs] veganism.
I’m currently reading 2000 Splendid Suns a book that forever changed you. It is about Afghanistan in the 1960s, the 1980s ish-when the Soviet afghanistan war was present and the country was in turmoil. You asked Miss Smith, I hope you keep in contact with, because she’s an amazing, extraordinary woman about the conflict of the Afghan war, and you receive far more insight than you ever thought imaginable about the world around you. It details the war and the violence and sexism against Afghanistan women because of the Mujahideen. Anyway, CultureGrams is an incredible, unbiased source for history. Never forget about it. It’s incredible and life changing. You were so angry after Miss Smith showed you the truth about the Middle East and Arabic women, so you asked, How do I learn about this stuff? You were so genuinely angry and horrified, and Miss Smith replied, You just have to keep reading, babe. You have to keep reading.
I’m forever changed, you are forever changed. never stop reading. Never give up when your brain fails you, literacy is power and freedom. And then in all caps LITERACY IS POWER AND FREEDOM. Sincerely 18 year old you. P.S. American literacy for women is 99%. Afghanistan literacy for women is 26%. Just let that sink in, again.”
MP Thank you.
Nataya Yeah. It’s a crazy letter for sure to like, look back on.
And what was really funny as I was reading this, because I was just like, reading it to my mom reading it over a couple times. And I was like, wow, like, I really see like, my perspectives now and how this was like the beginning of like, who I am today, if that makes sense.
SS Oh, I love that.
SC Yeah, that’s so cool!
Nataya This led into like, the major I ended up choosing and like, all the feelings that I have about like media and like being really frustrated with like, the political system and things like that, so yeah.
SS Wow, that’s so cool, I love that. Was there a reason that you wanted to write it that day? Because I think you say in it. You’re like today…
Nataya (clip) “Today you felt outrage that the western curriculum never taught you shit about the middle…”
SS …and today, you finally…
Nataya Yeah.
SS So like, was there something about that day? Can you remember that day? Or is it just kind of like you’re like, fuck it I’ve had enough.
Nataya Yeah, there was this website that we were using for class called CultureGram[s]. And I don’t remember exactly what it is. I just know it has like, a lot of facts and statistics about different countries like Afghanistan, for instance, I chose because I was reading this book. And I was like, wow, like, I wonder, you know, what their literacy rate is? And I wonder like, I wish I could remember exactly, but um, CultureGram[s] is super dope. And I haven’t used it in a long time. It just kind of made me realise like wow, you know, like, what a way to reinforce cultural stereotypes, but also like systems, you know, of oppression in like Afghanistan or anywhere by keeping like, an entire like half the population is illiterate almost, you know what I mean?
SC Oh, totally. Yeah. I mean, all oppression is about like access to information. You know, there are all these sort of like tokens that look like people are trying to oppress others through, you know, siloing people and stuff but really it’s about access to the outside, that is inherent to all systems of oppression if you like keep people away from information and then also don’t give them access to get in touch with people with power. It’s impossible to get out of an oppressive system.
Nataya Absolutely. Exactly.
SS Yeah. I feel like it… it’s interesting reading this letter too, during these times when you know, we’re really starting to like talk about it. Also, I’m sure just right now in the States as a young person is, is hard for you. I don’t know, or is it hard? Or?
Nataya Yeah. I mean, definitely, for sure. Like, a lot of my friends and peers, like people are just coming around to something I’ve been known. You know what I mean? Like, like, I’ve been frustrated, I’ve been like, over it. I’ve been like, done with just the whole political system as a whole. I mean, it kind of started here. But this letter, I was really into Bernie and I still had hope at this point of like, we’re gonna change the system and Bernie’s gonna win, and there’s no way he’s not gonna win or whatever.
SC I’m so sorry.
Nataya Yeah, well, it’s okay.
SC I guess I should just cut in here, and say for full transparency — we spoke to Nataya a little bit before the 2020 presidential election in the US, so at the time we recorded this we didn’t know how that was going to play out.
Nataya What’s crazy is like, I have conservative people in my life, that like, are supportive of Medicare for All. And like, also think, you know, education should be free, or whatever we should support like education. Like, it’s not just a socialist thing. It’s like a very normal, like, common thing like actually 60% I think of Americans- and that’s all people, support Medicare for all you know what I mean?
SC [bell noise] 69% according to a 2020 poll by The Hill newspaper in conjunction with market research company HarrisX. There’s a link the shownotes if you want to read more about it.
Nataya And that’s, like, outright, like support Medicare for All. That’s not even people that like, just haven’t been convinced yet or haven’t seen, like, it’s basically just like, Social Security or whatever.
And anyway, it’s like, you would never know that from watching the mainstream news. You would never know that from reading like the New York Times, for instance, like no hate, I mean, a little bit of hate because like low-key they do…. they do censor a lot, but like, you know, they just, they don’t talk about this stuff. And part of it is because like, they’re in their own little bubble dude, in like DC and all that, like, I don’t know.
SS I feel like the media positions, these like Bernie or AOC, or, you know, anyone who’s like, just asking for, like, you know, just like, you know, basic,
Nataya — basic human rights!
SS They position them as like radicalists when it’s like, it’s not radical to want people to just have health care, or have free education. That shouldn’t be a radical thought, that’s just you know, human beings caring for each other. But the media does do this thing where they just like they want to just polarise everything. So to put the radical left or the radical right.
Nataya Exactly.
SC Well, it’s polarising. But it also is, when you deem something as radical, you’re deeming it as other, right? So if you say that something is radical, it’s not seen as a majority. And that is like, that is on purpose. Like people do that, so that these systems of people gathering and like collective action, and all these things have less power? Because really, it’s not radical, but labelling it as radical makes it seem to people that are on the fringe of supporting it or not, like it’s not the norm, and so it doesn’t gain more power.
SS Totally.
MP I think it also makes it look like, unachievable, right? Because it’s like, ‘whoa, that’s radical!’ It’s like, I have to do so much work. You’re like, ‘uh, I don’t know if we can if we can do that right now’. Whereas actually, yeah, it’s not…. it doesn’t mean that.
Nataya Yeah, and actually one thing that I think is crazy and that I’ve learned over the years is like… It’s not about what we care about. It’s not about what we want. It’s about what these top like, 1% jerks, you know, to put it lightly like want and, and how it’s going to benefit them or whatever. And I don’t know, I just find that really frustrating. And that is one thing that like, I’m trying to get over, because I’m like, well, what’s the point? What’s the point of fighting for anything, nothing that we do we say, makes a difference. But that’s not entirely true, you know?
SC The point is that the people at the top are trying to make you feel that way by telling you that you’re radical and that your voice doesn’t matter. So the point is to push against that, because you’re part of the 99% that can recognise that that’s a tool of oppression.
Nataya Yeah.
SC That’s my point. That’s what keeps me going.
Nataya Agreed. It’s not something that people think about immediately, for instance, in school, that’s another thing that has really frustrated me is like, I felt like I didn’t learn any history at all. Like, I hardly learned anything about China, I hardly learned anything about Russia. And I really didn’t learn like anything about the Middle East, like at all, in K through 12. Like, basically just K through 12 sucks, like so much like public school’s just the worst man, they just, they don’t really teach you anything of value, because they don’t want you to question the system. They don’t want you to like, learn to genuinely think critically, they don’t want to give you any reason to distrust a system that you should distrust, like, you know what I mean?
It’s all about creating conformity, and, like, I don’t know what the word would be, but just like falling in line and being a worker and listening to what you’re told and whatever. And that’s never worked for me. Like I was not a good student. Yeah, middle school and high school. Like, I just didn’t go to school.
SS Was Miss Smith your catalyst to an epiphany? Like, was Miss Smith, the reason you had this, kind of like, social justice epiphany, and you’re like, ‘wait, what the fuck are we doing’? Or was it a slow build up to….
Nataya It was like more of a slow build up. And then my senior years when I had like, three different teachers that were dope, like, so dope, like, the dopest teachers, because I had been so frustrated, because, I was, this poor kid, and I was kind of, rebellious , I didn’t like, listen, always, like, I didn’t just do what I was told. I’d be like, ‘why are we doing this? What does this mean?’ Or blah, blah, blah, like, ask questions and a lot of my teachers like, did not like tha, it pissed them off.
SS It might be because they didn’t have the answers. And they just like didn’t want to admit that.
Nataya Totally. Yeah. And it forced them to realise like, wow, like, I’m teaching, like, really stupid stuff that doesn’t have any value for these kids. You know what I mean? Because that’s what it was. I felt like a lot of classes I had in high school were just lazy, you know. And they just they did what they were told, and they didn’t challenge it. And they didn’t bring in other perspectives.
SS I think there is a thing to that, though, that it’s, it’s a little bit bigger than that. Because, because of the way like teachers are paid. And how little resources they have, I think a lot of the time they get burnt out. I do feel like it is that like, larger system that we were just talking about that kind of like burns people out, and then they just don’t have the energy to like, want to, help kids understand these
Nataya Absolutely. Like I wish we could like, totally overhaul like school boards, I just think they’re the worst. When I went to college, and every class was a different book, you could take the same, technically the same English 101 class, and every teacher would choose a different book because it resonated with them differently. And they would have different assignments and force you to read that book, as opposed to high school where it’s like, okay, we’re all going to read Romeo and Juliet, we’re all going to read, you know, Hamlet, our sophomore year, or whatever. And I just hate that because it’s like, personally like I’m gonna be straight up, I looked up Cliff Notes. I did not read books.
SS Oh yeah.
SC We all did.
SS Maybe not Maria, maybe not Maria.
MP No, I was a geek.
Nataya Dammit, Maria.
MP I love Shakespeare.
Nataya Okay, whatever, fine.
SC So what was the role of this teacher though, like, have you kept in touch?
Nataya She was one of three teachers my senior year that was just like, so supportive of me, like saw my worth for like the first time saw how actually like I was deep down and that it, I wasn’t being a rebellious kid. I wasn’t like just challenging my teacher. I was challenging systems. And I was asking why? I was critically thinking about the material we were engaging with, you know,
SS Mm hmm.
Nataya And I only had like three teachers my senior year, finally, that really saw my worth in that way, and would take the time to have conversations with me.
SS Do you still keep in touch with her?
Nataya I haven’t. I’ve never actually like talked to any of my high school teachers. And I, I kind of regret it, but I don’t know.
SC I will say I had a teacher like this. I was a terrible student, like, horrific. I never went to school, like ever. I had a teacher who wasn’t even my teacher. She was just a teacher at the school. Her name was Monica D’Souza. And I would sit and have lunch with her because I hated everyone. I hated everything. I thought school was fucking stupid. I just wanted to, like, be drunk and like, read my own books and learn about my own stuff. This teacher was really awesome. She was never my teacher. I just like thought she was interesting. And she, you know, paid attention to me. But I regret not talking to her because I, I don’t think she knows that she like helped me and I waited too long after high school that it got to a point where I was like, ‘oh, I don’t know if she’s gonna remember me anymore. And like, Is it gonna be weird?’
SS I guarantee you she does. I feel like good teachers remember all of their kids.
SC But she was never my teacher!
MP Yeah but you spent some quality time with her.
SC Like we talked about periods, like she just like, would talk to me about any, like, she just treated me like an adult.
Nataya And that, okay, so I think what you’re saying, right there, being treated like an adult, like when adults finally treat you like an adult and talk to you like an adult, that was like the switch for me. Like, I was like, wow, you know, like, she recognises that I am like, just a real person with real thoughts, and I have my own opinions that really, genuinely are my own. You know,
SC I do feel like something that you, you kind of, like allude to, in this letter is that like, you can, you know, look at other countries and, and see, oh, there’s problems with feminism. And there’s unfair treatment, and there’s these systems of oppression, but then you can even look inside your own, like, you reflect on your own, feminism practice and the community of feminists that you’re, among here, and there are still those systems of oppression working and, you know, being mean to each other, and people belittling each other and like, they work in different ways. And I’m absolutely not equating them but like, there is an interesting thing where you’re like, looking outward to look inward.
Nataya Totally. Yeah.
[music]
SS When you read the letter now, do you, because I read the letter as like, I don’t know about an angry letter. Were you angry when you wrote it?
Nataya I was actually pretty pissed. Yeah.
SS Do you… Do you feel angry now? Is that your general feeling? Because I don’t know. I feel like these days it’s so easy to be angry. I’m angry all the time. But sometimes I need to check myself and I’m like, is anger the best way to be like spending my energy? Like…
SC Am I wrecking myself?
Nataya Yeah, I’m kind of at a point in my life, again, where I am really frustrated with, like sexism, and I feel its grip on me in so many ways. Lately, I’m really trying to work on not objectifying other women, because I also find that it causes me to objectify myself. if that makes sense. Yeah. And that’s one thing I’m working on, because I have like, male friends and males in my life. I realised, I pretend to be dumb, because I find that it’s easier than, being this strong, like having these strong opinions and then potentially getting made fun of for it or whatever. And I mean, like, and, you know, because sometimes it’s just hard.
SC Yeah, it’s scary to be a woman and be opinionated.
Nataya It actually really is. Like, it’s very difficult to socialise. And actually, what I’ve been thinking about a lot is… I feel like confident, like smart women are really intimidating, to everyone.
SS Mm hmm.
Nataya You know, in a college setting, it’s a little bit different, in my opinion, because, I feel like I’m really respected, because in college, a lot of people have really liberal opinions. So it’s kind of this, nice little bubble, where you kind of get to, say crazy radical things and they’re not really that radical. But then when you’re outside of the educational setting, it just is different.
When I wrote this letter the whole year before, like, I had just gotten into feminism, and it like freed me, because I grew up really religious and just had a lot of internalised sexism, and saw myself almost as like, okay, like, I need long hair, and I need to look like this so that boys like me, and if boys don’t like me, I must not be worth anything or whatever. And those were really deeply embedded, thoughts, you know, it’s not like I thought that on a daily basis.
Anyway, so like, yeah, I was really into feminism, andthis was the beginning of like, realising wow, there are way bigger systems of oppression, in this world, like the media, like when I began to realise, wow, the media censors so much, that was, when I was like, you know, I kind of stopped being so much into just the social justice warrior, almost where I just cared about like, social issues. And I began to be frustrated with the system as a whole, and seeing where those systems of oppression are coming from. And also, that, a lot of the social politics, in my opinion, are kind of a distraction from really the uniting issue, which is that we are all getting screwed over by the top 1%. You know?
SS Is that why you’ve gotten into communications? So you can, you can change that from the inside? Do an inside job?
Nataya Yeah. Yeah. That was a big part of why I chose journalism. And why I ended up loving it, because I just, I’m obsessed with like, hyper local news, because I feel like that’s where the truth is, like,
SS Which is dying.
Nataya It is dying! It sucks. Oh my gosh, this is like all my like, like, yeah, things that I’m frustrated about in this world, you know.
SC Do you think that there is more hope? Like when you look at 30 year olds, and you look at 40 year olds, you look at 50 year olds or whatever… Do you see the people around you… Because to me when you say that you still have to pretend to be dumb, so that boys are not ass-, more assholes? To me that like breaks my heart because I have this, false idea that, you know, things are somehow getting better for, you know, people coming up.
Nataya Yeah.
SC But, if you’re still doing that, then obviously, it’s, it’s not. And not to say that you are representative of your entire generation. How do you see that working in your like peers and friend group?
Nataya Yeah, I mean, for sure, things have gotten so much better, like 100%. Because my mom, for instance, when she goes on dates with, you know, guys that are her age, usually I’m just like, ‘uh, these men are horrible Mom, they do not see how fucking smart you are’. You know? Because my mom is like, seriously, both my parents are like, genius, like, really, really smart. And care so much about the world, and so, you know, what I think is that what’s hard for guys that I’ve dated or just that are in my life as my friends or whatever, is when I like, I am smart. When my intelligence comes out, unapologetically, it’s very intimidating, because they’re like, ‘wow, like, I don’t know if I’m good enough for this woman’, you know, kind of thing, in my opinion, I mean, that probably sounds very conceited. But, I think it just can be really intimidating when they’re like, wow, like, I really don’t know this, but I think she’s right.
SC Yeah, I wish that instead,the thought of ‘am I not good enough for this girl’ was an immediate thought, because that is a thought that I think every woman or like, gender non conforming person has every single day of their life, every single moment of their life. And if you’re a cisgendered dude, you probably don’t ever think of that. And so like, yeah, you should walk into the room thinking that you’re not good enough for any of us. And that should be your baseline because that’s our fucking baseline.
SS I totally agree with that.
MP And you should keep telling your mum that like the guys aren’t good enough for her and she should say that back to you. Like we should, you know, lift each other up and teach us to have expectations, and like not lower ourselves right?
Nataya Totally. Yeah, I’ve realised in my life that’s one of the things that’s the most important is, like my, like a guy that I date needs to think I’m a genius. You know what I mean?
SS And love that!
Nataya Exactly.
SS And not resent it in any way. Be like, ‘yeah, I’m gonna bring out my partner because she’s a fucking genius’ and not be intimidated by it.
Nataya Exactly. Exactly. Yeah, she’s not not better than me. She’s not anything. She’s just that’s my woman, and she’s amazing, you know? When I write this next letter, like, I’m gonna really tell myself to have higher standards like for myself for how I’m treated, and not playing dumb, because it’s so not worth it, it really doesn’t help anyone, you know, by being unapologetically intelligent and true to myself and like, caring about the issues that I care about, when I’m true to that, like, that’s sexy. Not only is that sexy, but it forces other people to be their highest selves. You know what I mean?
That’s, that’s what I’m going to tell myself because it’s really, it’s very hard. And I’ve done it throughout all my life. I’ve played dumb, because it makes people comfortable. And honestly, I’m kind of done. It, it hurts. It hurts! Holding back who I really am. And I don’t want to do it anymore. So that’s what I’m going to tell myself is no more.
SC You are a cool boss of a human and-
SS Write that in your letter
SC — you can be whatever version of that self you want to be.
Nataya Totally, yeah. I wish we could have more like conversations because this was amazing. For real.
SS We’re here.
SC We can!
[music]
Wait, can I ask one more question?
Nataya Yes.
SC What is the, what is the veganism thing?
Nataya (clip) “…to you for your beliefs that don’t perfectly align with theirs? [cough] veganism”
SC They wanted you to be vegan, or they wanted you to not be vegan?
Nataya [Sighs] I should have explained that. Um, I’ve been vegan for like, seven and a half years. And so what was really frustrating was, at this time, I was in a lot of like, a lot of like feminism Instagram pages and Tumblr pages. And they were so rude about me being vegan, like, they just didn’t understand it. They took it as a personal attack on them. It was not as normal as it is now. Like, people were really threatened by it. And it made people really uncomfortable. So I don’t know, I I felt really like alienated from, my feminist groups that were important to me, and that I believed so much in because they were like, ‘you’re stupid, and cows aren’t a part of feminism, like female cows, how, you’re such an idiot, blah, blah, blah, like, you’re so ridiculous for including like, veganism and animal rights into your feminism, like, how stupid can you be blah blah blah’.
SS Oh wow.
Nataya The thing is, is that in a lot of these, like, mainstream feminism that I’m talking about, everybody has the same views. And you conform or you kind of don’t.
SC Have you taken a history of like feminism or queer…
Nataya No. I haven’t [sighs].
SC Because you’re so interested in history and like what you’re saying are like, literally stages of feminism, like the concept of like, absolute feminism, or like absolutism, and then like the idea of intersectionality like, that didn’t become mainstream until like, in the US, frankly, like last year, which is like depressing but as a movement of feminism it actually happened a long time ago. But the idea that like veganism or like that systems of oppression are tied together, and that you can’t be a feminist without being also like, for animal rights or for like, you know, black lives or trans lives or whatever, that is, like a new wave of feminism that is, like only recently becoming mainstream.
Nataya Yeah, totally.
SC And I think you would love a class because it would just help you… [gestures]
Nataya I know! I’m really like, seriously you guys. I’m like, pissed that I have a year left. And I’m like, I’m in the like, Fast Track lane of like communications where every class is like PR marketing that kind of stuff, which isn’t like my jam, but whatever.
Sorry — Hey, Mom — Sorry, my mom’s like bringing me a smoothie
HOSTS Mom!
Nataya They’re so excited.
SC Come in the window mom!
SS Hi mom!
SC Hi mom!
MOM Did I raise a great daughter?
SS Oh, yeah, the best daughter.
SC She’s so good!
Nataya Oh, they said the best daughter.
MOM Cool! You guys rock. Bye!
Nataya She’s going to work.
SS Aw that is so cute!
SC I want your mom, my mom has never dropped me off a coffee in my life!
Nataya Actually it’s a smoothie.
SC Mmmmmm, even better.
SS I love that this ended with the mom, the mom is here.
Nataya Just peeking in real quick.
SS Okay, this has been so lovely.
MP Yeah so good to talk to you.
Nataya So amazing to have this conversation like, seriously.
[music]
SC Oh my gosh.
SS That mom appearance.
SC Yeah, special credits to Nataya’s mom. ’Cause like, so good.
MP You’re raising a good kid and you’re keeping her fed with smoothies.
SC Yes, it was such a perfect, perfect moment for this episode, too.
MP Yeah. Especially because we touched on intersectionality at the start of the episode and also in our conversation, but I think we kind of forgot or I definitely forgot about like generations as part of that. Right? And her mom is passing on the knowledge and being a role model for her. So I love that she she also made an appearance.
SC ‘Did I raise a good kid?’ Like I think that’s so cute. Like she’s obviously cognizant of like, you know, how she’s raising her kid and yeah, I don’t know. I also I thought it was so nice that like, you know, the two people that Natalia talked about in this interview were both the generation above her, like women role models in her life that are like teaching her one in a teacher context and then the other is being her mom. And I thought that was really special and nice. I wanted to talk to Nataya in like five years and see, just know her thoughts.
MP Yeah, well, you know what, you should do stuff you should write yourself a letter for five years time so you don’t forget.
SC Yeah, just write a letter ‘get in touch with Nataya’
MP Yeah. What does this mean?
SS What I loved about Nataya and her letter was that you can tell that it was kind of coming from a place of anger, but I think it was well placed anger and it’s kind of like fueling her rage to make change and to keep learning and keep growing.
SC And I love that about listening to the younger generation because I think, I think it’s hard as you get older to stay enraged in things because you get so defeated over and over and over again. And so it’s nice to feel someone else’s well placed anger and let it reignite your own.
SS Yeah.
SC Thank you Nataya for this conversation, we all felt so ignited and inspired by you, and, to echo Miss Smith’s words — keep reading! Earlier we mentioned a study on support for Medicare For All, you can find a link to read more in the show notes for this episode, where we’ve also included updated stats for literacy rates in Afghanistan. This podcast is an Edit Audio original production, hosted and produced by Steph Colbourn, Maria Passingham, and Sophie Shin, with support from our whole team. A lot of the music in this episode is from Audio Network, and thanks to Matt for creating FutureMe, and collaborating with us on this show by getting us in touch with letter writers! If you want to write your own letter you can do so at FutureMe.org and tell us if you have recently received one you sent a while back! We’d love to hear from you. You can find the email address in the shownotes.
[music]
