00:00:00.000The Spirit is rising, she's rising, she's rising. The Spirit is rising, it's rising, it's rising.
00:00:10.200The Spirit is rising, they're rising, they're rising. The Spirit is rising, we're rising, we're rising.
00:00:23.380What was that about? A healthy dose of cognitive dissonance?
00:00:27.160Yeah. Yeah. I mean, let's just get into it. Like, coven, friends, family, listeners, like, I'm feeling very fucking fucked up. And part of me was like, what am I going to say to this coven?
00:00:45.120And, like, okay, so we know, like, we could point in any direction in the world, even in our own homes, and find an atrocity happening, whether it's humanitarian or, you know, environmental.
00:01:07.080And on Sunday, there was an airstrike that was timed to coincide with an ad in the Super Bowl.
00:01:37.080so you know what do we do what do i do what do we do okay so my like list of like try to get rid0.97
00:01:45.300of that overwhelming pit in my stomach is like make a donation call or email your representative
00:01:54.140i've emailed justin trudeau so many times because every time i feel sick i'm like
00:01:59.520do something like anything you know my whole philosophy has always been not nothing what do
00:02:05.380you do. Just not nothing. Anything, but not nothing. So make a donation. Email your world
00:02:12.080leaders. Get in circle and do rituals with your coven or with the Missing Witches Coven. We have0.74
00:02:20.100been doing personal rituals and prayers and tears and weeping. And then once I do all that,
00:02:28.920and if I still have the pit, which normally I do, and if you don't understand what I mean by
00:02:35.160the pit like lucky you that feeling in your stomach that's just heavy and sick and scared
00:02:41.580you know one of my girlfriends started calling it the pit and so that's you know like a pit in your
00:02:46.760stomach and so I just have adopted that because it feels like you're also like in a hole in the
00:02:51.760ground you know and so after all that after I've I've tried magic and I've tried practicality I
00:03:00.700just, I turned to my record collection. And again, if you know me, you know that since I'm a kid,
00:03:08.300this is my safe place. Like my childhood home wasn't the safest place, you know, but like my
00:03:16.220record collection, my music was where I could go to just like disappear and feel safe. And
00:03:22.220And so that's, like, why the prescription, honestly, is, like, usually music, because that's where I go to be, like, okay, look at what humanity can also do.
00:03:35.100Like, look at the destruction and the hate and the greed, but also, like, you know, Kurt Vonnegut said, like, music was the only proof he needed of the existence of God.
00:03:45.500And so I sort of, like, cling to that.
00:03:47.940Like, this is whatever you believe is sending messages through us that come out in music.0.87
00:03:56.000And there's something really fucking beautiful about that for me.0.91
00:04:14.060Because Backwash gets me fucking riled up.1.00
00:04:16.680This is like a black trans woman from Nambia who's like, you're going to see me for who I am and I'm not going to shut up and I'm going to be fucking pissed off.1.00
00:04:26.880And so, you know, I get into backwash and I get riled up and even if it doesn't make me feel more peaceful, it makes me feel like I at least have some agency in the world.1.00
00:04:37.000so there's this one song called burn me at the stake and it starts ever since i started rapping
00:04:46.500i put a target on my back i just thought i should be smarter than i am for every bullet that they0.98
00:04:53.180shoot i'll take it harder as i can i thought this shit was much harder than i planned and then0.99
00:05:00.840backwash raps. Fuck it. I'll tell these bitches, burn me at the stake. Fuck it. I am this witch,1.00
00:05:10.520and I'm not going to stop being this witch. But what's really, as a musicologist,0.68
00:05:16.300the bonus of this backwash track for me is that the sample that backwash uses in this song
00:05:25.340comes from Almost Cut My Hair by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, which is a song about, I mean,
00:05:32.840back in the 60s, having long hair for a man was like a very rebellious act. Like, it hit a lot
00:05:38.200differently in the 60s than it does now. It was sort of like the visual indicator of rebellion
00:05:44.800was long hair on a man. And part of that, I think, is because it takes a long time. You have to be
00:05:51.480committed. You can't grow your hair long in a week. This is something that I'm committed to
00:05:57.740my freakdom, right? And so the lyrics in that are like, almost cut my hair. And then, but I didn't.
00:06:09.020And I wonder why. I feel like letting my freak flag fry. I feel like letting my freak flag fly.
00:06:18.460yes i feel like i owe it to someone and that's the bit that really sticks with me like0.95
00:06:27.020we could say fuck it but we feel like we owe it to someone you know this survivor's guilt that0.77
00:06:37.580we're all kind of feeling right now is like obviously preferable to actually being in0.99
00:06:44.240physical danger you know i would i would take my survivor's remorse or guilt over over being
00:06:50.960in in that in that place again whether it's sudan or gaza or ukraine like i'm not weeping for my
00:07:00.000survivor's guilt i don't expect any sympathy i but i i imagine that most of you who are listening to0.95
00:07:06.300this or get what I'm fucking talking about. But I feel like I owe it to someone to keep caring.
00:07:19.140Does that make sense, Risa? And I don't even know who. You know, I don't have kids. My only sister
00:07:26.700does not have kids. And sometimes the little devil on my shoulder is like, you got no skin in this
00:07:31.900game fuck it burn it at the stake you know but i feel like i owe it to someone to not cut my hair0.99
00:07:39.580to accept the metaphor does that make sense it does it does make sense you know i'm just editing1.00
00:07:45.900our conversation with the witches featured in the witch hunt documentary and we'll share that
00:07:52.000soon but i've been thinking so much about beautiful wise witch nick dickinson saying
00:07:59.980that he begins by calling calling common cause calling allegiance with all the innocent flora
00:08:07.680and fauna and I really have felt like so rooted in that those are the someones you know I have0.93
00:08:18.180to do it for fucking someone I have to survive for someone also it's funny I so I heard this song
00:08:25.500go by tv or something this week and um it's a really strange sound it's so it's like old0.98
00:08:36.140r&b but with these weird layers of auto-tune and the voice is just singing i'm so lonely
00:08:45.980and i felt it you know i felt that loneliness for me somehow that's tied to the pit it's
00:08:54.540how can this be like how can people think this is okay how can how can people be celebrating
00:09:03.820and and throwing Super Bowl parties how do these things exist at the same time I know the world is
00:09:10.660vast but how how can this be I'm so lonely in this world when it feels like no one else
00:09:17.680feels this um so i went looking and it's swamp dog and swamp dog okay in like his 70s starts
00:09:30.740playing with autotune with like bonnie bear inspired by the kanye west album that amy and
00:09:37.740i used to get together and scream sing for hours on end which we won't link to because
00:09:42.760he's a nazi now but um but you know his creation story so he's like he starts making music by the
00:09:54.020time he's like 12 and he's making music in like 1952 um and he's producing all these incredible
00:10:00.760r&b records his name is jerry williams jr he's i mean he produced and did all kinds of writing0.88
00:10:09.700and performing on like 50 tracks and then but it's at the time when like especially black men0.97
00:10:16.240black people were being cut out of their royalties and his heart was fucking broken like he was just0.98
00:10:22.060devastated to have put in so much work and to have his name left off tracks to not be getting paid0.99
00:10:28.580and then he writes i became swamp dog in 1970 in order to have an alter ego and someone to occupy
00:10:37.860the body while the search party was out looking for jerry williams who was mentally missing in
00:10:43.340action due to certain pressures maltreatments and failure to get paid royalties on over 50 single
00:10:49.740records and in 1970 he makes this strange album swamp dog that is as swamp dog um
00:11:03.160that is so beautiful and so weird and the song that i sat on a lot this week is called these
00:11:14.600are not my people he says you find yourself naked in the world with no place to hide
00:11:20.680you felt the pulse of your god and he had died your rebels have got no cause and your tigers
00:11:27.600have no claws they promised you the world on a string but you know they lied
00:11:31.620you said you'd be back in a black cadillac limousine but you know i'm inclined to think
00:11:36.720it's not the kind that you mean because when you fall down off your cloud and you're just another
00:11:41.660face in the crowd they're gonna throw you away like last week's magazine it's been a gas but
00:11:47.220i'm gonna have to pass these are not my people these are not1.00
00:11:57.460swamp dog i was like these are not my fucking people either swamp dog1.00
00:12:02.940but but there's a thing that happens when you hear someone say that that makes you feel less0.97
00:12:10.300alone because like if he feels like that then then there are people out there that feel like me
00:12:17.420maybe swamp dog is our people i mean i wouldn't presume but
00:12:22.920and then he goes on to find his people like that record and then so many more are recorded at
00:12:30.200muscle shoals and it's with that same incredible group of musicians just supporting each other's
00:12:37.040weird you know supporting each other's work and he makes like 10 albums and then yeah it's like
00:12:43.6401920s he starts fucking around with autotune and finally it's like then that that first strange0.78
00:12:51.420swamp dog album goes goes gold and the the one of his records after that is like i'm just trying0.64
00:12:58.260to make some more money to buy more autotune or something the whole record is called
00:13:02.660truth in advertising you know and he says i also am like totally entranced by this idea that like
00:13:11.300I created this alter ego to fill the body that was empty by being broken hearted. I'm paraphrasing,
00:13:18.200but I really, I think there's such an interesting way. I mean, it's a kind of magic, right? Like
00:13:25.580if I am gutted and I am in the pit, then what can I craft and conjure and give her a name0.63
00:13:32.900and give her garments that fill her with power and let her live somehow while I tend to this
00:13:41.920other version of me that can't right now because she's so lonely and so broken-hearted by the
00:13:48.180world. I will also say my other personal prescription this week is my kid pulled this
00:13:55.860pink fluffy sweater with like really poofy sleeves out of my drawer the other day. I've
00:14:02.020owned it since I thrifted it like five years ago and have never worn it and she was like you must
00:14:06.920wear this immediately and like gotta layer it with your red long dress which was my wedding dress
00:14:12.960and so all week I've been wearing I told her it's my it's my February uniform it's my love witch
00:14:19.840uniform and she's obsessed with it and so am I and Mark's a little confused but he's on board
00:14:25.300i really feel like part of me is is broken and part of me is numb and part of me is putting on0.80
00:14:34.080an armature of fierce fucking love to say i don't know those people those aren't my people but i am0.57
00:14:42.380reaching into the universe in my love witch uniform to call to all of the innocent flora0.97
00:14:49.680and fauna and children and insist insist upon our connection to each other insist upon the
00:14:57.620liberation of the world whether we see it in our lifetime or not I refuse to be left in the pit
00:15:03.700not believing that it's possible yeah and this ties back to backwash too because if you meet
00:15:09.520the person behind backwash Ashanti is sweet and humble and giggling and can't believe that you're
00:15:17.760saying nice things about her and just, like, in a little cotton dress, you know?1.00
00:15:22.760And then you see backwash, and backwash is, you know, fierce and fuck you0.99
00:15:28.040and courageous and loud, and it's a completely different, you know, persona.0.99
00:15:36.740And so maybe we can have that as part of our prescription.
00:15:40.720Like, if you can't, like, if the you part of you can't handle it,
00:15:47.760Maybe we can create a persona that can, you know, maybe we can be Swamp Dog, we can be Backwash, you know, we can put on a piece of clothing or pieces of clothing that make us feel powerful and try to bring that into both of our personas, you know.
00:16:10.840And also, I do want to say that we had a little meeting last night where it just ended up being like a group of women reading poetry to each other.
00:16:26.960And maybe that's not world healing magic, but maybe it is.
00:18:59.980so much violence so much accumulating trauma and hatred and people who have good reason
00:19:10.640to be angry and rageful and protective how do you unwind from that how do you
00:19:18.400how do you come back how is ceasefire imagined how is it possible and i know there are people
00:19:25.160who will sit and work and map and craft and stitch that together but i also know like on
00:19:32.220some of those negotiating teams there are no women at all you know and so i do like i i don't know i
00:19:39.780want to lean into imagining those grandmothers being able to come together to tell the stories
00:19:45.140of their parents and their grandparents and their kids the people they've lost and to cry together0.98
00:19:50.700and eat their each other's food and and and map a future possible i mean it's so hard to fucking0.95
00:20:00.200imagine but I can't give up on it no and like you coven your willingness to fly your witch flag0.87
00:20:11.200is means something to someone you know like I was one of the biggest freaks at my high school but0.88
00:20:17.980like I talked to a younger kid who was like I'd never seen anybody with purple hair and it really
00:20:24.380Like, and that was kind of my idea was to be this like person who shows you that you don't have to, you know, that you don't have the laws of man are not the same as the laws of physics is what I always come back to.
00:20:38.720You know, like gravity. I can't fight gravity. I can fly in an airplane or whatever. You know, there are ways of getting around it. But like, if someone tells you how to cut your hair or to cut your hair and you keep it long, that's like showing the world that, you know, you can be who you want to be and you can do what you want to do.
00:21:06.560And you don't have to be a world leader, but maybe you can inspire a future world leader.
00:24:25.080We really, really want to meet you there.
00:24:28.320Yeah, we're all a bunch of swamp dogs feeling lonely.
00:24:31.500But we have an option, you know, because we have a coven and a coven is very fucking serious, you know, like it's all casual and whatever, but like having a place where you can unmask and be wrong or ask questions or just weep or again, brag, you know, we're.
00:25:01.500And it's been life-saving magic, for sure, for me.
00:25:07.040And I think for a lot of people in the coven, it has been.
00:25:11.080So if you're a swamp dog and you're so lonely, you're not alone.0.94