Poptarts

Diamanda Galás is the living definition of what it means to be avant-garde. An extraordinary and genre-bending vocalist, composer, pianist, performance artist, and activist, she has been creating uncompromising work that cries out against injustice for over 40 years. Her 12 studio albums include the classic 1986 collection “The Divine Punishment”—a masterwork created in response to the AIDS crisis—that was just remastered and re-released in June. And her brand new album “Broken Gargoyles,” inspired by the isolation of maimed WWI veterans, is coming out August 26. In this episode of BUST's “Poptarts” podcast, she reveals details about her reclusive life, teaches us how to shame our enemies into submission, and surprises us with her deep love of borscht belt comedians. (We didn't see that one coming!)

Netta Barzilai, better known by her one-word rockstar moniker Netta, is an Israeli pop singer, songwriter, and looping artist who rocketed to international fame in 2018 when she won the Eurovision Song Contest with her song "Toy." Since then, she has released two albums, “Goody Bag” and “The Best of Netta's Office Volume One.” And her new single “I Love My Nails” has been racking up hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube since the official video debuted May 12. She has a very busy Summer coming up here in the U.S. and in this episode of “Poptarts,” she reveals the secrets behind her incredible plus-size style, how her entire life changed after Eurovision, and how music helped her “love me for me.”

Peaches, is a feminist rock star, producer, director, visual artist, and performance artist who rose to fame in the electroclash era of the early 2000s. Her solo albums include the terrifically transgressive “Fancypants Hoodlum,” “The Teaches of Peaches,” “Fatherfucker,” “Impeach My Bush,” “I Feel Cream,” and “Rub.” And she's about to embark on her first International tour since 2017 in celebration of the 20th Anniversary of “The Teaches of Peaches.” Her work has meant so much to so many for so long and in this episode of “Poptarts,” she reveals how she kicked her conservative Jewish upbringing to the curb, found her completely original voice, and became a foremother of feminist filth!

Patricia Williams, better known as Ms. Pat, is a hilarious stand-up comedian, actor, author, and podcast host who has been making audiences flip with her totally original storytelling style for over 20 years. Her one-hour standup special "Y'All Wanna Hear Something Crazy?"—directed by Robert Townsend and Produced by Wanda Sykes—premiered on Netflix in February to critical acclaim, her 2017 memoir "Rabbit" was named one of Amazon's best biographies of the year, and now she's gearing up for season two of her BET+ sitcom "The Ms. Pat Show!" In this episode of Poptarts, she reveals how she found success turning observations on poverty into comedy, she shares the secrets to her incredible resiliency, and we read Lane Bryant's menagerie of plus-size, animal-print monstrosities to filth!

Nina Bunjevac is an incredible comic book artist, author, illustrator, and educator. She spent her formative years in the former Yugoslavia, where she began studying art. But when war broke out in the 1990s, she returned to Canada where she studied graphic design, drawing, and painting and eventually branched out into making sculptural installations and writing and illustrating absolutely incredible books of comic art, including Heartless, Fatherland, Bezimena, and, An Alchemical Journey Through the Major Arcana of the Tarot. In this episode of Poptarts, she reveals how esoteric philosophy helped shape her practice, and we take a deep dive into Bunjevac's deeply symbolic visual universe.

Leah McSweeney is a legendary New York designer, an entrepreneur, a cast member on one of the biggest reality shows on the planet, and now, she's an author as well. She founded the women's streetwear line Married to the Mob in 2004, and she has been starring on Bravo's hit series "The Real Housewives of New York City" since 2020 where she she's been introducing a much-needed dose of relatability into a show that has been criticized for becoming increasingly out of touch with the city it claims to represent. On April 5, Leah will be releasing her new memoir, "Chaos Theory: Finding Meaning in the Madness, One Bad Decision at a Time" and on BUST's latest “Poptarts” podcast, she talks teenage fearlessness, finding Judaism, and freaking out on Bravo.

Debbie Gibson is a singing-dancing-songwriting-producing-composing musical prodigy who has been serenading the world for 35 years, ever since her self-penned hit “Only In My Dreams” arrived on the Billboard charts when she was just 16 in the summer of 1987. Since then, she has sold more than 16 million albums, released 10 studio albums, toured all over the world, and starred in 17 musicals. Her first album of new songs in 20 years, The Body Remembers, came out this past summer on her own label, Stargirl Records, and it's as surprising as it is satisfying for long-time fans. On BUST's latest “Poptarts” podcast, she talks about shedding her squeaky-clean image, she honors her late mother—the original “momager,” and she pushes back against an industry that routinely discounts artists who appeal to teenage girls.

One of the most influential designers working today, Debbie Millman is an artist, an educator, a curator, and the host of Design Matters—one of the world's longest running podcasts. Millman also co-owns Print, the oldest design magazine in America, and she co-founded the Masters in Branding program at the School of Visual Arts. She's the author of seven books, including How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer and Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits which have both been published in over 10 languages. And her latest book, the new anthology Why Design Matters: Conversations With the World's Most Creative People, is coming out in February. She also happens to be one half of one of today's greatest intellectual power couples alongside her amazingly talented wife Roxane Gay. On BUST's latest “Poptarts” podcast, Millman explains why there's really no such thing as a “personal brand,” looks back on her favorite interviews, and reveals the details of her whirlwind elopement at the height of COVID lockdown.

Julia Cameron is known around the world for helping her readers tap into their creativity. She is the best-selling author of more than 40 books, most notably The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity (which has sold over five million copies since 1992) and her newest title, Seeking Wisdom: A Spiritual Path to Creative Connection, which came out January 5. In Seeking Wisdom, Cameron explains how cultivating a personal prayer practice can sustain creative growth in artists of all beliefs and backgrounds. And on BUST's latest “Poptarts” podcast, Cameron talks sobriety, seeking inspiration, and saying yes to our creative dreams.

Tori Amos is a virtuoso musician whose searingly honest, wildly creative, piano-forward pop music changed the entire recording industry forever. She had her breakthrough moment in 1992 with the release of her iconic solo debut, Little Earthquakes—a record named by Rolling Stone as one of the greatest albums of all time. And she's spent the almost 30 years since then perpetually experimenting, innovating, and expanding the boundaries of what popular music can be. Now, she's back with her 16th studio album, Ocean to Ocean, an emotional meditation on loss and renewal that's perfect for this COVID-ravaged time. She's been so important and influential to so many music fans over the years, but especially to women. On BUST's latest “Poptarts” podcast, Amos talks fairies, feminism, and female empowerment.

Melissa Etheridge is an unparalleled singer-songwriter, guitarist, author, and activist who has been making irresistible blues-rock albums for over 30 years. She was a bit of an underground sensation when she first got started in the late ‘80s, but in 1993, everything changed when she released her breakthrough fourth album Yes I Am. It spent 138 weeks on the Billboard charts thanks to the monster hits “I'm The Only One,” and “Come To My Window,” it went Platinum, and then it went on to sell more than 6 Million copies. Now, the Oscar-and-Grammy winner is back and touring with her 17th album, One Way Out, a collection of songs from her early life that are finally getting to see the light of day. On BUST's latest “Poptarts” podcast, Etheridge recalls her coming out story, celebrates her intergenerational fandom, and gives sage advice on how to keep the show going when fans keep showering the stage with panties and bras.

Dr. Brittney Cooper is an incredibly engaging and insightful feminist author, professor, activist, and cultural critic currently teaching at Rutgers University. She is also cofounder of the Crunk Feminist Collective, a scholar-activist group for feminists of color that began as a super-popular blog and has now evolved into the thriving Substack newsletter, The Remix. In 2017, she co-authored and edited The Crunk Feminist Collection anthology and also released Beyond Respectability: The Intellectual Thought of Race Women, which she followed up with her acclaimed 2018 book Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower. Now, she's back with a helpful handbook called Feminist AF: A Guide to Crushing Girlhood. A treasure trove of resources for young activists—out now, from Norton Young Readers—the book uses intersectional feminist frameworks to help teens grapple with the most pressing challenges they face today. On BUST's latest “Poptarts” podcast, Cooper explores her “cool auntie” persona, tackles her breakups with pop-culture baddies, and predicts the future of feminism.

Danielle Macdonald has been lighting up screens large and small with her plucky personality and big-girl badassery for the last decade. She's Australian, but you'd never know it based on her spot-on 2017 performance as Jersey rapper Patti Dombrowski in the indie hit “Patti Cake$,” or by her star turn in 2018 as a Dolly Parton-obsessed Texas teen in “Dumplin'.” She's also had notable roles in “Bird Box,” “Skin,” and “Unbelievable” just to name a few. And now, she's back with another starring role as a gal with a dream in the IFC film Falling for Figaro, a romantic comedy set in the world of competitive opera singing that just opened in theaters and on demand October 1. On BUST's latest “Poptarts” podcast, Danielle shares how she rejected “fat friend” roles for years to become a plus-size leading lady and much, much, more.

Lydia Lunch is a true radical in every sense of the word. A high priestess of punk, she arrived in New York when she was just 16 in the mid-'70s and made a name for herself downtown with her band Teenage Jesus and the Jerks. That band became synonymous with the hugely influential No Wave movement and launched Lunch's multifaceted career of over 40 years as an actor, performance poet, writer, public speaker, solo artist, and frontwoman for her subsequent bands 8-Eyed Spy, 13.13, Shotgun Wedding, Big Sexy Noise, and Retrovirus. Now, her life and career are being celebrated in a new documentary by director Beth B called Lydia Lunch: The War is Never Over—currently making the rounds at festivals and art house cinemas nationwide. On Lunch's provocative episode of BUST's Poptarts podcast, she makes extremely controversial comments concerning Harvey Weinstein, Andrew Cuomo, R. Kelly, and much, much, more.

Natalie Morales is an accomplished actor best known for her work on Dead to Me, The Little Things, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Abby's, and Parks & Rec among her many credits. But this year, she also emerged as an exciting feature film director with an incredibly relatable and undeniably feminist point of view. First, she released the teen road trip comedy Plan B in May on Hulu, about two high school girls who have a wild adventure trying to get their hands on the morning-after pill in South Dakota. And on September 10, she released the astonishingly poignant drama Language Lessons in theaters, about an unusual relationship between a lonely man and his online Spanish teacher. On Morales' excellent episode of BUST's Poptarts podcast, she shares how being marginalized as a queer Latina in Hollywood inspired her to blossom into the emerging auteur she is today.

Lauren Fensterstock is a sculptor and installation artist whose sparkling, intricate creations look like secret treasures stolen from a gothic witches' cathedral or like the charred remains of a fairy swamp. Made from materials including glass, vintage crystal, quartz, obsidian, onyx, hematite, shells, sand, plexiglass, paper, charcoal, and wood, her most recent installations—like the one on display at the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery in D.C. earlier this year—are enormous, completely black, and suck all the surrounding light into the curves and edges of thousands of individual objects assembled in patterns that both imitate nature and take nature to dramatic new heights with architectural precision. Other pieces—like some of the seven crystal encrusted suns that were featured in Fensterstock's show Impermanent Conditions, at the Claire Oliver Gallery in New York this summer—play similar visual tricks with all-white palettes of light-reflecting glass and quartz. Both her imagination and the objects she produces are precious and rare and on her excellent episode of BUST's Poptarts podcast, we discuss the occult, the apocalypse, and the enduring magic of female friendship.

Gates McFadden has been sci-fi royalty for over 30 years. Best known for playing Dr. Beverly Crusher on Star Trek: The Next Generation—both on TV from 1987 through 1994, and in four feature films—she also worked with Jim Henson as a choreographer and director of puppet movement, most notably on Labyrinth with David Bowie. For many years, she taught in university theater departments across the country and was the Artistic Director of the Ensemble Studio Theatre in Los Angeles. And now, she‘s hosting the riveting podcast, Gates McFadden Investigates: Who Do You Think You Are?, in which he has totally unexpected conversations with members of her Star Trek family. On her out-of-this-world episode of BUST's Poptarts podcast, she spills the tea about getting fired—and re-hired!—on Star Trek for speaking her mind, maintaining her decades-long relationship with her “space son” Wil Wheaton, and how Whoopie Goldberg made the Enterprise a better place for women.

Jessica Hopper is one the most insightful rock critics working today. A long-time contributor to the Chicago Reader; she's been a columnist for The Village Voice, Chicago Tribune, and Punk Planet; the music consultant for This American Life; the editorial director for MTV News; and a senior editor at Pitchfork and Rookie. For over 20 years, she has consistently been covering women in music who women care deeply about through a feminist lens, from Liz Phair to M.I.A. to Janelle Monae to Hole to Bjork just to name a few. Her knowledge is deep, her opinions are surprising, and her writing style is fearless which is why so many music fans return to her work again and again. The extensively updated and expanded new edition of her career-spanning book, The First Collection of Criticism by a Living Female Rock Critic came out July 6, and on BUST's latest Poptarts podcast, she explains what being “first” really means, how she helped wake the world up the crimes of R. Kelly, and the challenge of “making people care.”

Ann Wilson is lead singer and songwriter of the band Heart, which she has fronted for over 40 years with her sister Nancy, earning them a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The first hard rock band fronted by women, Heart has sold over 35 million albums, and their hits, including “Barracuda,” “Crazy On You,” and “Magic Man,” are undisputed classics. As a solo artist, Ann released the 2007 album HOPE & GLORY and 2018's IMMORTAL, along with multiple singles. And this past May, she released a surprising and beautiful EP from the archives of the band she was in before Heart. The Daybreaks was a band Ann fronted in the late 1960s and now four tracks of her flower-child pop from1969 are available on all streaming platforms for the first time. Throughout the pandemic, WIlson has been writing and recording. And on BUST's latest Poptarts podcast, she talks body image, healing a very public rift with her sister Nancy, and why she's a feminist “constantly.”

Iliza Shlesinger is an award-winning comedian, actor, writer, producer, and author who earned her massive fan base by doing tons of touring all over the world. In 2008, she became the first woman to ever win NBC's Last Comic Standing, she's had five Netflix comedy specials and her own Netflix sketch show, and she's currently finishing her second book, hosting the podcast Ask Iliza Anything, and developing multiple TV projects while traveling once more on her new “Back In Action” tour. On June 23, she debuted the hilarious “anti-rom-com” Good On Paper, on Netflix, a film based on her life which she stars in and also wrote. And on BUST's latest Poptarts podcast, she describes writing her first feature film script about a lying ex, navigating sexism in standup, and why she's “a real feminist.”

Adrianne Wortzel is a groundbreaking pioneer in the field of robotic art who has been making and exhibiting her futuristic pieces for over 50 years. Her amazing genre-hopping projects include films, drawings, texts, robotic and telerobotic performance productions, artist's books, photography, and online pieces. Her writing includes articles, fiction, and scripts. And her international collaborations with other artists, scientists, and engineers made her an important resource in her years as a Professor Emeritus in Emerging Media and Entertainment Technologies at New York City College of Technology. Currently, she's working on an art book called See No Evil, and on BUST's latest Poptarts podcast, Wortzel describes how the birth of the Internet was like the “Wild West,” explains why the most realistic machines are also the creepiest, and recalls the strategy she employed at the Whitney Museum to save a suicidal robot.

Few reality shows are as popular or as divisive as Bravo's Real Housewives, a franchise that has included casts in Orange County, New Jersey, New York, Atlanta, Beverly Hills, DC, Miami, Potomac, Dallas, and Salt Lake City over the past 15 years. Feminist icon Gloria Steinem once criticized this pop cultural phenomenon on E!, saying, "It is women, all dressed up and inflated and plastic surgeried and false bosomed with incredible amounts of money spent, not getting along with each other. Fighting with each other. It is a minstrel show for women. I don't believe it. I feel like it's manufactured, that the fights between them are manufactured and they're supposed to go after each other in a kind of conflicting way." Nonetheless, some feminists like BUST’s Poptarts podcast hosts Emily Rems and Callie Watts are intrigued by the women being relentlessly documented on these shows. And even “Bad Feminist” Roxane Gay bonded with BUST in March over the antics of the new Salt Lake City cast. On the latest Poptarts podcast, Callie and Emily discuss the series’ cultural impact with Housewives superfan Sean Anthony, and provide an introductory crash course in “Housewives 101,” for the Bravo-curious.

Linda Perry first made waves in music as the lead singer and songwriter of 4 Non Blondes, a band that hit it big in 1992 with their platinum-selling song, “What’s Up?” But today, she is best known for writing and producing hits for the biggest names in pop music—she wrote "Beautiful" for Christina Aguilera; "What You Waiting For?" for Gwen Stefani; "Get the Party Started" for P!nk, and so many more bangers it’s impossible to count. Linda was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2015, and recently, she’s written scores to accompany the new documentaries Kid 90 and Citizen Penn. For the Kid 90 soundtrack, Linda released her own music for the first time in over 15 years, recording the song and new video for “The Letter” based on a letter the film’s director Soleil Moon Frye wrote as a teen to her older self. In her intriguing interview on BUST’s “Poptarts” podcast, Linda opens up about how she knows “how to be a rock star,” but “it hurts too much to be an artist.”

Soleil Moon Frye first became a star at eight years old in the hit sitcom, PUNKY BREWSTER. That show, about a tiny, street-smart girl abandoned by her mother and fostered by an elderly man, ran from 1984 to 1988, making Soleil one of the most famous children in America. In the time since, Soleil continued to act, started directing, and started a family. But in the 1990s, no matter what she was up to, she always carried a video camera, carefully documenting her young life. Now, all that footage has been made into a riveting documentary Soleil directed called Kid 90 that’s available on Hulu. Raising her profile even higher, Soleil is also starring in a new 10-episode Punky Brewster reboot on Peacock. On this nostalgic episode of BUST’s Poptarts podcast, she describes her real-life bond with TV bestie Cherry Johnson, shares her fascination with metaphysics, and tells us how she “found her inner balls.”

Kandi Burruss is a singer, songwriter, actor, entrepreneur, and the longest-running cast member on Bravo’s The Real Housewives of Atlanta. She first rose to fame in 1993 in the R&B group Xscape, she won a Grammy for co-writing the TLC hit "No Scrubs" and she even won the third season of The Masked Singer dressed as the dark and lovely Night Angel. These days, she’s flexing her acting muscles on the Showtime drama The Chi and on the new Lifetime Movie Envy which premieres April 17. On her juicy episode of BUST’s Poptarts podcast, Kandi tells all about how The Masked Singer actually works, why she needed a stunt double on Envy, and why she loves Kenya Moore despite her slut-shaming shenanigans.

Veteran journalist Brooke Baldwin has been kicking ass in the male-dominated TV news industry for over 20 years, most famously at CNN, where she hosts "CNN Newsroom with Brooke Baldwin." During her 13 year tenure at CNN which is about to end in mid-April, Baldwin has unflinchingly held power to account while covering the most consequential issues of our day, from politics to protests to pressing social issues like gun violence. On April 6, she will be releasing her first book, "HUDDLE: How Women Unlock Their Collective Power." And on her inspiring episode of BUST’s "Poptarts" podcast, she talks candidly about her personal journey towards feminism, navigating around women with “sharp elbows,” and how her new book inspired her to leave CNN.

Margo Price is a remarkable country singer/songwriter and producer based in Nashville whose timeless anthems and crystal clear tone send shivers up spines all over the world. In the last five years, she has put out three gorgeous albums, Midwest Farmer’s Daughter, All American Made, and That’s How Rumors Get Started. And most recently, she put out an absolutely devastating video in January for her song “Hey Child” and is planning to headline her first concert since 2019—a socially distanced show at The Caverns Above Ground Amphitheater in Tennessee—this May. On her riveting episode of BUST’s Poptarts podcast, Price talks candidly about her efforts to diversify country music, the painful story behind her new video, and about developing her own strain of weed for Willie Nelson.

A modern feminist icon, Roxane Gay is a brilliant writer of essays, fiction, comic books, newspaper editorials for The New York Times, and a fantastic newsletter called The Audacity. She is also a writing professor—most recently at Yale— and an editor of anthologies and collected works. Her many books include the celebrated collections Bad Feminist and Difficult Women, and the deeply personal memoir Hunger. And now, Gay has her own course on the streaming platform MasterClass where she’s teaching Writing for Social Change. On her illuminating episode of BUST’s Poptarts podcast, she shares strategies for writing about trauma, tackles the topic of fat liberation, and opens up about first-time puppy parenthood.

Consummate New Yorker Kyra Sedgwick started off in showbiz in 1982 on the classic soap Another World and quickly became a bonafide movie star in films including Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July, Cameron Crowe's Singles, and 2012’s The Possession. She is perhaps best known for her starring role as Deputy Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson on the TNT crime drama The Closer—for which she won a Golden Globe and an Emmy—and now, she’s lighting up the new ABC sit-com Call Your Mother. On her A-List episode of BUST’s Poptarts podcast, she describes decades of rejecting “girlfriend roles,” shares how she creates gender equity in her household with Kevin Bacon, and makes us all want to take a turn in the director’s chair.

Michaela Watkins is a brilliant comic actor who has been cracking audiences up since she joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 2008. In the decade since she left the show in 2009, she has been in a bevy of beloved indie films and delightfully weird TV shows, including Joey Soloway’s Afternoon Delight and Transparent, Nicole Holofcener’s Enough Said, the acclaimed hulu show Casual, and the Sundance hit Brittany Runs a Marathon. Most recently, she’s been lighting up the ensemble cast of the CBS comedy series The Unicorn and she has a role in the upcoming horror film Werewolves Within. In this awesome episode of BUST’s Poptarts podcast, she gives us the inside scoop on SNL, reminds us of the healing power of sit-coms, and reflects on the night Joan Rivers was so funny—she actually peed her pants.

Mayim Bialik is a multi talented actor, producer, director, educator, neuroscientist, and author who got her start in classic 80s TV series including “Beauty and the Beast” and “Facts of Life” before landing her breakout role at age 12 as a young Bette Middler in the 1988 film “Beaches.” Two years later, she nabbed the lead role in the super popular teen sit-com “Blossom” which ran from 1990 through 1995 and once that series ended, she went to UCLA for 12 years where she earned a PhD in Neuroscience and completed her doctorate in 2007. Bialik returned to TV in a big way in 2010 when she joined the cast of “The Big Bang Theory” where she was a fan favorite and was nominated for four Emmys before the series ended in 2019. And now, together with her “Big Bang Theory” co-star Jim Parsons, she’s executive producing the new Fox show “Call Me Kat,” which she also stars in as a single woman in her late 30s who runs a cat cafe. In this very special 100th episode of BUST’s Poptarts podcast, she rejects Spanx, embraces feminism, and reflects on a past that includes Woody Allen.

Michelle Gomez is a riveting Scottish actor who first started turning heads for her comedy roles in series including “The Book Group,” “Green Wing,” and “Bad Education,” before her international breakout moment in 2014 when she started playing Missy on the landmark British sci-fi series “Doctor Who.” Many Americans discovered her when she started playing Madame Satan on the Netflix series “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,” which premiered in 2018 and which just kicked off its fourth and final season. She also plays a pivotal role on the new HBO Max series “The Flight Attendant,” and in this epic episode of BUST’s Poptarts podcast, she parses her evolving relationship with feminism, she reveals the new sides of herself she discovered during quarantine, and she cheekily declares “I’m not a Satan worshipper...I AM Satan!”

Electronica musician, artist and activist Kiran Gandhi, better known by her stage name Madame Gandhi, got her start in music performing as the drummer for M.I.A and Thievery Corporation and got her Bachelor’s in Mathematics and Gender Studies from Georgetown and an MBA from Harvard before deciding to become a full-time rock star in 2016 with her breakout EP “Voices.” Since then, she’s also released the 2019 album Visions and during quarantine, she took on a special new project. Gandhi launched a contest to see who could create the best remix of her 2019 song “Young Indian,” and she personally listened to over 500 submissions from producers around the world before choosing her fave five for a remix album called Young Indian Reimagined, which just came out in October. In this awesome episode of BUST’s Poptarts podcast, she reflects on bad habits, recalls free bleeding while running the London Marathon, and explains why “The Future Is Female” really means “The Future Is Feminine.”

Rachel Bloom is a comedian, actor, writer, singer, dancer, and all-around incredible performer who created, produced, and starred in the hit musical comedy series Crazy Ex-Girlfriend on the CW for which she earned a Golden Globe a Critics’ Choice Award and an Emmy. She’s currently working on the music and lyrics for "The Nanny" which will open on Broadway once COVID lets up and her hilarious new book of essays “I Want To Be Where The Normal People Are,” just came out November 17. In this awesome episode of BUST’s Poptarts podcast, she reflects on losing her songwriting partner to COVD, describes giving birth during a pandemic, and we read some erotic poetry from her pre-teen diary.

iO Tillett Wright is a multitalented artist, author, activist, and storyteller. He created the hit true crime podcast The Ballad of Billy Balls last year and is also the author of the 2017 memoir Darling Days that documented Wright’s wild upbringing in downtown New York in the 1980s and the seeds that eventually blossomed into his awakening as a trans man. His TED Talk 50 Shades of Gay about sexuality and gender has been viewed over three million times and his new photography book, Self Evident Truths, just came out in September. It’s a collection of 10,000 portraits of Americans who identify as anything other than 100 percent straight, and in this awesome episode of BUST’s Poptarts podcast, he describes his inspiration for using photography as a form of activism, opens up about coming out as trans while in the public eye, and explains why he decided to testify against Johnny Depp at the actor’s recent defamation trial.

You probably know Ann Dowd from her terrifying portrayal of Aunt Lydia on Hulu’s feminist masterpiece The Handmaid’s Tale. But she’s been popping up in multiple roles on all the Law & Order shows for years and she also starred in the incredible 2012 suspense film Compliance. She finally became a household name in 2017 for her riveting performance as Aunt Lydia for which she won a well-deserved Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series. And her latest film, a new adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier’s classic novel Rebecca, just premiered on Netflix October 2. In this awesome episode of BUST’s Poptarts podcast, she describes what it has been like becoming a fictional symbol for a real-life resistance movement and we explore how pop culture can be a powerful instrument for social change.

Dulcé Sloan has been a correspondent on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah since 2017 and her segments frequently go viral and get millions of views. In 2019, she got her own Comedy Central Presents stand-up special, and in 2020, she launched her podcast, That Black Ass Show on Starburns Audio. Coming up on November 13, she’s co-starring in a new comedy called Chick Fight that’s basically a girl version of Fight Club. She literally steals every scene she’s in and I predict many more films will be in her future. In this awesome episode of BUST’s Poptarts podcast, she delivers real talk about America’s racism problem, we dish about boys (...boys all types of boys), and we learn about the passing of judicial icon The Notorious R.B.G. in real time.

Professor Bettany Hughes is a historian, author, and broadcaster who was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) for her services to history, which makes her the first Dame to ever appear on our BUST’s Poptarts podcast. She is currently professor of history at the New College of the Humanities and a research fellow at King’s College. Her first book, Helen of Troy: Goddess, Princess, Whore has been translated into ten languages. Her second book, The Hemlock Cup: Socrates, Athens and the Search for the Good Life was a New York Times bestseller, and her third book, Istanbul –A Tale of Three Cities has been translated into 12 languages. Most fans know her from the over 50 historical radio and tv documentaries she has written and starred in for the past 20 years that have aired on the BBC, Channel 4, Netflix, Discovery, PBS, The History Channel, National Geographic, BBC World, ITV and more, covering everything from the mysteries of the ancient world to the philosophers whose ideas shaped modern culture. Her new book, Venus and Aphrodite: A Biography of Desire, liberates the goddess of love from all the tired romantic cliches that she’s been saddled with over the centuries and reveals how her radical feminine energy continues to influence us today. In this fascinating podcast episode, Hughes talks about inhaling the intoxicating fragrance of the storied blue lotus flower, challenging the male whitewashing of history, and how historically speaking, global pandemics have been surprisingly advantageous for women.

Miranda July is a filmmaker, artist, and writer whose feminist, DIY, punk style evolved out of the same riot grrrl era that birthed BUST. She appeared on our cover in the Fall of 2007 and her books include "No One Belongs Here More Than You" "The First Bad Man," and a new, huge, career-spanning retrospective of her work called “Miranda July” that just came out in April. She also wrote and directed the incredibly weird and wonderful movies “Me and You and Everyone We Know” and “The Future,” and in this episode of BUST’s “Poptarts” podcast, she gives us behind-the-scenes insight into her latest film, “Kajillionaire” (out September 25). The film centers on a con-artist couple (Debra Winger and Richard Jenkins) who have raised their 26 -year-old daughter (Evan Rachel Wood), to join them in their desperate life of pathetically petty crimes and scams. It’s the only life she’s ever known, until one day, on a flight to their next scheme, the family meets a gorgeous young woman (Gina Rodriguez) and all of their lives change forever. Listen in as July opens up about going mainstream, division of labor in a household with two famous directors, and pooping back and forth...forever.

Caitlin Moran is a London-based columnist, author, and broadcaster, who is one of the funniest feminist writers working today. Her first book, the 2011 memoir, How to Be a Woman, was an instant New York Times bestseller. And her 2014 autobiographical coming-of-age novel, How to Build a Girl, was adapted into a film starring Beanie Feldstein that premiered in 2019. When Caitlin finished How to Be a Woman in her mid-30s, she thought she had everything figured out. But now, 10 years later, she’s debuting a whole new memoir, More Than a Woman, that asks probing mid-life questions including, Can feminists have Botox? And, Who’s looking after the children? In this LOL episode of BUST’s Poptarts podcast, we talk a LOT about vaginas and vulvas (and the difference between the two), and we get real about the unpaid labor shitshow so many women find themselves in once their 30s are in the rear-view.

Feminist electropunk artist JD Samson has been a favorite of ours here at BUST Magazine since she first appeared on our cover with her band Le Tigre in 2002. Since then, she has traveled the world both with that band and with her other band MEN, creating socially conscious anthems we can all dance to and proving to fans and skeptics alike that feminism can actually be fun. Her new band, Crickets—which she formed with her pals Michael O'Neill (MEN, Princess) and Roddy Bottum (Faith No More, Imperial Teen/Nastie Band)—has released a series of singles and a multimedia collaborative art project leading up to the release of their self-titled debut full length which came out July 17 on Muddguts Records. It is weird and stripped down and moody and bouncy and perfect for your next socially distant dance party. In this episode of BUST’s Poptarts Podcast, JD reveals how becoming a queer sex symbol made her grapple with her own “toxic masculinity,” she gets real about money, and we parse the power of her iconic stache.

Bob the Drag Queen first rose to prominence as the winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 8 and since that time, he has been using his huge platform to not only become a major name in standup comedy but also to become a powerful voice for LGBTQ rights and the Black Lives Matter movement. His HBO series We’re Here features Bob alongside fellow Drag Race alums Shangela and Eureka traveling to small towns across America to help create support systems and communities for isolated queer folks by putting on drag shows. And during pride month, Bob organized a massive online event called the Black Queer Town Hall and made headlines by encouraging other members of the drag community to stand up as allies for the protest movement that emerged in the wake of George Floyd’s death. Bob’s HBO show and new comedy special Bob the Drag Queen: Live at Caroline’s, have been so uplifting to so many during quarantine and in this inspiring episode of BUST’s Poptarts Podcast, he talks about his rise to fame, fills us in on his activism, and advises us on how to relate to our Republican elders.

A legendary stand-up comedian, Judy Gold was one of the first out lesbians in the business and she has been making people laugh on stage, on TV, and as an author for almost 40 years. She won two Daytime Emmys for her work as a writer and producer on The Rosie O'Donnell Show, she’s had stand-up specials on HBO, Comedy Central, and LOGO, and she’s had two hit Off-Broadway shows. Now, Gold is hosting the podcast Kill Me Now and her new book, YES, I CAN SAY THAT: When They Come for the Comedians We Are All In Trouble comes out July 28, 2020. In this hilarious episode of BUST’s Poptarts Podcast, she takes on cancel culture, gets real about sexism in comedy, and we compare our Jewish mothers.

As a founding member of the chart-topping ‘90s R&B girl group En Vogue, Terry Ellis and her three bandmates are recognized as being among the highest grossing American girl groups in history, selling over 20 million albums and racking up over 30 million streams. Their hits, “Hold On,” “Free Your Mind,” “Never Gonna Get It,” “Giving Him Something He Can Feel,” “Don’t Let Go,” and “Whatta Man featuring Salt-N-Pepa” are instant portals to whatever lives we were living in the 1990s and have all become karaoke classics. More recently, Ellis made headlines this past Juneteenth when she released a solo single, “Angry Black Woman,” a powerful protest anthem that articulates the pain and rage Americans feel after decades of seeing Black citizens being victimized by racist police officers. In this episode of BUST’s Poptarts podcast, Ellis talks about her new song “Angry Black Woman,” reveals why Luther Vandross spent months torturing En Vogue in 1993, shares her passion for paper crafts, and more!

As bassist for iconic band The Go-Go’s, Kathy Valentine and her girl gang became the first multi-platinum-selling, all-female band to play their own instruments, write their own songs, and have a number one album. Their 1981 debut Beauty and the Beat, spent six weeks at the top of the Billboard charts and featured the hit songs “We Got the Beat,” and “ Our Lips are Sealed,” and Valentine wrote the band’s subsequent hits “Vacation” and “Head Over Heels.” This past April, she debuted All I Ever Wanted: A Rock and Roll Memoir as well as a supercool original soundtrack based on the book. The book is bursting with raucous girl-powered sex, drugs, and rock and roll, but is also heroically honest, with chapters detailing childhood trauma, sexual assault, and struggles with addiction. In this episode of BUST’s Poptarts podcast she describes the rise and fall of her boundary-breaking band in riveting detail, answers all our probing questions about groupies, and shares her memory from touring that remains her “biggest regret.”

A seasoned character actor with impeccable comic timing, Judy Greer is probably best known for her role as Kitty Sanchez on "Arrested Development." (“Say goodbye to these!”) She’s also appeared in plenty of girl-culture classics, including "13 Going on 30," "27 Dresses," and the very feminist 2018 reboot of "Halloween." Her latest project—which she both executive produced and stars in—is an episode of "Into The Dark," a Blumhouse produced horror anthology series that premieres a feature-film-length episode every month tied to a holiday. The show is now in its second season, and Greer anchors a film called "Good Boy" tied to Pet Appreciation Week that airs June 12 on Hulu. On this episode of BUST’s "Poptarts" podcast, Greer discusses her extensive history of being flashed, shares our love of woman-centric horror, and shares how hard it currently is to get a copy of "White Fragility" in L.A.

In solidarity with #BlackLivesMatter and in the effort to #AmplifyMelanatedVoices , this special episode of the Poptarts podcast is a deep dive led by Black BUST staffers into the recent activist uprising taking place around the country in the wake of the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. BUST’s Digital Editorial Director Bry’onna Mention (@radsadblackbry) and Poptarts Producer Logan del Fuego (@lusciouslogan13) shape the discussion while addressing sources for reliable news, explaining the realities of being Black in America, and debating their hopes and fears for what will come about as a result of this watershed moment. The theme music for this episode is a remix by Logan del Fuego of a song posted online by 12-year-old @KeedronBryant.

Comedian and actor Yvonne Orji is best known for her role as Molly on HBO’s “Insecure” and her film credits include “Night School” and the upcoming “Vacation Friends.” She co-hosts the critically acclaimed podcast “Jesus and Jollof,” with her pal Luvvie Ajayi, and her upcoming book “Bamboozled by Jesus: How God Tricked Me Into the Life of My Dreams” will hit shelves next year. Her first hour-long HBO comedy special, “MOMMA, I MADE IT,” comes out June 6 and it is super funny and touching and women in particular will love it. In this episode of BUST’s “Poptarts” podcast, she gets real about her immigrant identity, her decision to save sex for marriage, and that BIG fight between Molly and Issa on “Insecure.”

As the legendary front-woman of the Runaways, Cherie Currie and her teen bandmates Joan Jett, Lita Ford, Sandy West, and Jackie Fox exploded out of L.A. in 1975 and became the first American, all-girl rock band to make it big. She put out two studio albums and one live album with the Runaways and created an absolute frenzy in Japan before calling it quits in 1977. Since then, Currie has never stopped creating, putting out seven more studio albums as a solo artist, with her twin sister Marie, and more recently with Brie Darling from Fanny. And now, her new album, Blvds of Splendor—a tour de force featuring collabs with Billy Corgan, Slash, Matt Sorum, Duff McKagan, Juliette Lewis, Brody Dalle, and the Veronicas— is being unleashed on a world that desperately needs to rock and it’s a total winner. On this episode of BUST’s Poptarts podcast, she opens up about celibacy, chainsaws, communicating with ghosts, and more!

Jessamyn Stanley is an award-winning yoga instructor, intersectional activist, and founder of The Underbelly virtual yoga studio app who first rose to fame in 2012 through her Instagram posts showing her doing high-level yoga as a plus-size woman of color. Self-identifiying online as a "queer fat femme," she’s helped coax legions of women who previously felt alienated by the privileged, skinny, white world of yoga into the practice along with her. And now she’s one of the most influential yoga personalities working today. We featured Jessamyn in BUST in 2017 when her book Every Body Yoga: Let Go of Fear, Get On the Mat, Love Your Body came out, and now we’re thrilled to have her on BUST’s Poptarts podcast, where she talks about overcoming crass commercialization, bias, and fitness industry fuckery to become the star she is today.

Since The Bachelor debuted in 2002 on ABC, the relationship reality show hosted by Chris Harrison has grown into a huge pop cultural phenomenon. The show is now responsible for tons of watch parties, relentless watercooler talk, and a surprising number spin-offs. For over 15 years, feminists far and wide have sneered at and ignored this show. But last year, BUST’s digital editor Lydia Wang and BUST digital contributor Emma Davey started talking about it at BUST HQ so much that BUST’s Poptarts Podcast co-host Emily Rems started tuning in. In this episode, Lydia and Emma explain why even feminists are watching, and Emily and Callie weigh the pros and cons of taking up residence in Bachelor Nation. *Please Note: This is the first episode we’ve attempted to record remotely from home since our office closed due to Corona Virus. The quality is not quite where we want it to be yet, but we’re working on our setup all the time to make it better. Thanks for your understanding.* Guess what? This podcast now has a Patreon page with great thank-you gifts! Check it out at patreon.com/poptartspodcast !