Binchtopia
This week Julia and Nick bring you a holiday horrors episode full of festive chaos! They unpack their own holiday traditions and react to cursed listener stories including a dad who got too kooky, a dramatic dog on a mission, and a girl who received heartbreaking news about her dentist. Digressions include the tooth fairy’s terrible work life balance, the beautiful lives of leaf cutter ants, and Oil. This is a teaser for a Patreon-exclusive episode. To listen to the full episode and access over 50 bonus episodes, mediasodes, and our monthly news broadcast What the...
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Julia and Eliza are back in the stu for a deep dive into hostile architecture, unpacking the spikes, slopes, bars, and billion-dollar “design choices” that quietly shape our cities and public spaces. In analyzing bisected benches, shadeless streets, and the Evil of Robert Moses, the girlies consider what it means to live in a world built to restrict movement and community. Digressions include the sacred magic of knitting tutorials, NYC’s food poisoning themed Erewhon, and Eliza staying bricked up. This episode was produced by Julia Hava and Kylie Finnigan and edited by Livi...
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Julia cozies up in her childhood bedroom for her first-ever solo episode, providing a little life update from the trenches of her PhD program and giving the binchies some sage advice. Digressions include whatever the hell is going on with the Wicked cast, New York apartment vermin, and the strange comfort of magical thinking. This is a teaser for a Patreon-exclusive episode. To listen to the full episode and access over 50 bonus episodes, mediasodes, and our monthly news broadcast What the Hell Sure NEWS, visit patreon.com/binchtopia and become a patron today.
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Julia is joined by artist and candlelight devotee Roxy Jamin for an illuminating episode examining The Big Light. Together, the girlies explore how modern LED lighting and the death of neon have slowly divorced us from nature, mystery, and the romance of the hearth, while keeping us trapped in a world of endless noon. Digressions include the shame of using an Instagram Reel as a flashlight, the false promise of a pink drill, and the occasional need to admire the Amish. This episode was produced by Julia Hava and edited by Livi Burdette. To support the podcast on Patreon and access 50+ bonus...
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In this truly chaotic Thanksgiving-themed episode, Julia and Nick celebrate the holiday the only way that makes sense: unpacking the LIES and encasing everything in jello. Course by course, the binchies revisit the original feast of 1621, the one 19th century lady who kept trying to make Thanksgiving happen, and your insane family stories and recipes. Digressions include the French winning the IDGAF war, Kim Kardashian’s ChatGPT induced academic failure, and a surprise attack in the stu. This is a teaser for a Patreon-exclusive episode. To listen to the full episode and access over 50 bonus...
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Reporting live from the newly DIY’ed stu, Julia is joined by beautiful Nick, the king of DIY, to chart the chaotic history of “doing it yourself.” From ancient Greeks assembling Ikea-style furniture to TikTokers accidentally creating mustard gas in their homes, they uncover how the urge to DIY is fundamentally human. Along the way, they discuss Victorian men who couldn’t do shit, 1950s dads working through PTSD by tinkering in their garages, the health benefits of working with your hands, and the scientific proof that gay people are superior at home improvement. Digressions include...
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This week, Julia is joined by internet advicestress Eli Rallo to chart the history of the advice column. From Victorian agony aunts to the iconic twin-sister rivals Ann Landers and Dear Abby, they follow how advice became both moral instruction and mass entertainment. Plus, the girlies weigh in on history’s biggest dilemmas, like: is a ginger man doomed to be single forever? Is my dog gay? And is my hot wife allowed to be naked in our own home? Digressions include crowdfunding therapy for trauma candy salad victims, the female urge to visit a psychic, and advice for living your most slayful...
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BOO! It’s time for another binchtacular Halloween episode! Join Julia and Nick in costume as they explore humanity’s pettiest tradition: CURSES! From blighted crops and ancient binding spells to Etsy witches who can hex your ex, they unpack the storied history of transforming rage into ritual — while cackling hysterically along the way. Digressions include sad crab facts, the burden of being bald, and a Halloween abortion story with a happy ending. This episode was produced by Julia Hava and Kylie Finnigan and edited by Livi Burdette. To support the podcast on Patreon and access...
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In a long-awaited episode, Julia is joined by her PhD bestina Jewish Aliza for a multifaceted discussion about mental illness, psychology programs, and the hell of grad school. The girlies differentiate between the many ways to become a therapist, affirm psychodynamic supremacy, navigate how to practice with an online presence, and unpack how they try (and fail) to maintain their sanity. Digressions include the need for bipolar lesbian representation, Aliza’s Catherine Zeta-Jones themed Bat Mitzvah, and the importance of reaching out to randos. This is a teaser...
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This week on Binchtopia, Eliza returns from her off-grid era to dive into the history and evolution of body technology, from ancient tracking rituals to Silicon Valley’s quantified self movement. The girlies break down Fitbits, Oura Rings, Prenuvo scans, and sleep apps to examine how our obsession with optimizing the body blurs the line between health, surveillance, and control. Digressions include Taylor Swift’s public clowning, Nicki Minaj and Cardi B beefing with each other’s kids, and the biological necessity of annihilation anxiety. This episode was produced by Julia Hava and...
info_outlineFor pride month, the girlies mount a defense against one of the largest threats to queer people today: transphobia. They trace the long history of trans existence and its erasure, unpack how moral panic is used to justify control, why transphobia exists on both the right and the left, and how the freedom to live outside the binary can liberate us from other systems of oppression. Digressions include: the highs and lows of plant parenthood, our no-phone summer so far, and a new candy shaking up the scene.
This episode was produced by Julia Hava and Eliza McLamb and edited by Livi Burdette. Research assistance from Kylie Finnigan.
To support the podcast on Patreon and access 50+ bonus episodes, mediasodes, zoom hangouts and more, visit patreon.com/binchtopia and become a patron today.
RESOURCES:
https://transharmreduction.org/
https://www.thetrevorproject.org/
https://transgenderlawcenter.org
https://pflag.org/get-support/
https://www.elevatedaccess.org/
https://www.pointofpride.org/resource-library
SOURCES:
A History of Transphobia in the Medical Establishment
A systematic review of TERF behaviour online in relation to sociopsychological group dynamics
Advancing Transgender Justice: Illuminating Trans Lives Behind and Beyond Bars
Anti-trans legislation has never been about protecting children’
Anti-Trans Moral Panics Endanger All Young People
Better mental health found among transgender people who started hormones as teens
Beyond Gender: Indigenous Perspectives, Muxe
Beyond moral panic: how governments are ignoring centuries of trans history
Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity by C. Riley Snorton
Clayman Conversations: Three scholars examine the TERF Industrial Complex
Fact Sheet: Transgender Participation in Sports
Gender Identity in Weimar Germany
Gender-Affirming Hormone Therapy and Depressive Symptoms Among Transgender Adults
Impact of Ban on Gender-Affirming Care on Transgender Minors
India’s Relationship with the Third Gender
Introduction: TERFs, Gender-Critical Movements, and Postfascist Feminisms
Mental health benefits associated with gender-affirming surgery
Mental Health Outcomes in Transgender and Nonbinary Youths Receiving Gender-Affirming Care
Marxism, moral panic and the war on trans people
My Words to Victor Frankenstein by Susan Stryker
Online Anti-LGBTQ Hate Terms Defined: “Transvestigation”
On Liking Women by Andrea Long-Chu
Othering, peaking, populism and moral panics: The reactionary strategies of organised transphobia
Responses to Janice G. Raymond's The Transsexual Empire
The “Empire” Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto
The Epidemic of Violence Against the Transgender & Gender-Expansive Community in the U.S.
The Forgotten History of the World's First Trans Clinic How historians are documenting the lives of transgender people
The History of Two-Spirit Folks
The Institute of Sexology and the Erasure of Transgender History
The semi-sacred ‘third gender’ of South Asia
The Supreme Court’s incoherent new attack on trans rights, explained
Theorist Susan Stryker on One of Her Most Groundbreaking Essays, 25 Years Later
The rise of anti-trans “radical” feminists, explained
To protect gender-affirming care, we must learn from trans history
Transgender History by Susan Stryker
Transgender Lives in the Middle Ages through Art, Literature, and Medicine
TV and films have long taught audiences transphobia
What science tells us about transgender athletes
Woman says she was brutally attacked in Carpentersville, Illinois because she's a lesbian