Roxane Gay Says Cancel Culture Does Not Exist
The Mother Jones Podcast
Mother Jones
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 5 March 2021
⏱️ 18 minutes
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Summary
Roxane Gay is one of the most prolific and versatile writers of our generation. She’s written a best-selling collection of essays (Bad Feminist), a blockbuster memoir (Hunger), Black Panther comics, and countless essays of cultural criticism. That’s not to mention her New York Times advice column, her book of writing advice coming out in November called How to Be Heard, a YA novel, and a screenplay for Hunger. Oh, and don’t forget her podcast. Or the TV show that she runs.
How does she do it? How has she cultivated her voice over the years? How does she write things that make a difference?
Gay has distilled these lessons into a new MasterClass series called Writing for Social Change, and she joined host Jamilah King for a conversation about the project in late February. You can read a lightly edited and condensed transcript at MotherJones.com.
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| 0:00.0 | This is the Mother Jones podcast. I'm Jamila King in Brooklyn. As you know, in |
| 0:05.7 | addition to our big Wednesday show, every so often, we bring you bonus episodes |
| 0:10.8 | to spice up your week. Conversations with folks who we think you'll find |
| 0:14.7 | interesting. This week, we have someone who I personally love reading. Her name is |
| 0:19.9 | Roxanne Gaye. She's a writer, a professor, a teacher, and a feminist. I first |
| 0:24.9 | encountered her work in her book Bad Feminist, which was an incredible look at |
| 0:29.5 | her personal journey with feminism, what it means to her, what it's meant to |
| 0:34.0 | people around her, her family, her observations. She's also written an incredible |
| 0:38.9 | memoir called Hunger, short stories, world of Wakanda comics. It's really, |
| 0:43.6 | really good stuff. She's so versatile, and it's been really great to see |
| 0:46.9 | her career trajectory. So definitely got me wondering, like, how could I |
| 0:51.1 | learn some stuff from her as a writer in the profession of writing? |
| 0:55.4 | That's the reason why we're talking to her now. She has a new series out on masterclass |
| 1:00.7 | about how to write for social change. It's really fun stuff, and you know, |
| 1:04.7 | a little treat for me that I want to share with you. So I hope you enjoy listening to it as much |
| 1:09.6 | as I did having it. Enjoy our conversation. Here it is. |
| 1:17.2 | Roxanne Gaye is a writer, editor, professor, and cultural critic. Roxanne, welcome to the show. |
| 1:23.1 | Tamila, thank you for having me. It's great to be here. So I watched your masterclass series. |
| 1:28.4 | I'm so excited. I'm geeked out. My dog is scratching at the door right now because she's excited too. |
| 1:34.6 | I wanted to... My dog is scratching too. |
| 1:38.9 | I wanted to start by asking you about something that you said in the course about cultural |
| 1:44.0 | criticism, which is that cultural criticism brought about the revolution we're experiencing |
... |
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