Uganda and Ghana have the harshest laws against LGBTQ+ people in the world. Despite the threats, podcasters in both countries are fighting back by creating a space where people can have sex-positive conversations and gender inclusivity. IDEAS contributor Nana aba Duncan was in Uganda and Ghana to find out how the safety, privacy, and independence of the medium offer a path to understanding, validation and community.

Laws in some African countries make it illegal for anyone to advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. What role should the international community play in nudging human rights on the continent. Listen to The unforgivable crime of being queer in Africa.

When Jay Pitter was eight years old and out shopping with her mother, she began swaying to the music at the mall. Her mother scolded her for it — signalling that it was undignified for a Black person to act that way in public. That incident was the genesis for Black Public Joy: No Permit Or Permission Required. In her book, she addresses the self-policing Black people can internalise, and reveals how culture, urban planning, and memory shape the way people can access joy in parks, streets, transit, and neighbourhoods.

Guest in this episode:

Jay Pitter is an award-winning placemaker focused on creating joyful public spaces that foster belonging, prosperity, and cultural memory. She advances this work through cultural planning, policy frameworks, and storytelling. Pitter is also an adjunct urban planning professor and has engaged students at Cornell, Princeton, and MIT, advancing new theories of public joy that connect practice, policy, and pedagogy.

Mae West shocked audiences and infuriated censors for more than 70 years. She was pop culture’s original blonde bombshell sex-symbol comedienne provocateur. But she was more than just a corseted sex pot with an affinity for word play. She was a trailblazer, transgressive, funny, smart, sassy, lively, a genius. And she got away with all of it. IDEAS contributor Lynda Shorten explores the legacy of the eccentric Mae West.

Guests in this episode:

Linda Hutcheon is a professor emerita of English and comparative literature at The University of Toronto.

Ramona Curry is an associate professor emerita of English at The University of Illinois.

Pamela Wojeck is a professor of film studies at The University of Notre Dame

Scott C. Miller is a make-up artist and retired undertaker