A.K. 47 year in review

This is the first time I have noticed this “backtrack” feature of my podcast host, Buzzsprout. It’s nice to have an overview of these things sometimes, especially since I post new episodes so sporadically. January will be the 5th year anniversary of A.K. 47. Although I only recorded, edited, and published 20 episodes in 2023, I am quite pleased that they have reached listeners in 99 countries.

Kollontai on abortion

“As long as women or men live under the pressure of unemployment, as long as the level of wages is not sufficient for a family, as long as housing conditions are unfavourable, and as long as the state does not make motherhood easier for every woman in various ways and does not provide social services for mother and child, it is clear that the women must stand up for free abortions.”
— Alexandra Kollontai 1936

New podcast episode with Rebecca Amsellem →

After completely failing to post a podcast in the month of September, I finally had the opportunity to record one spontaneously last night with the wonderful French-Canadian feminist activist, Rebecca Amsellem. We were basically fan-girling about Kollontai and I asked if we could record a podcast on my phone. It was a fun conversation!

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In this episode, Kristen Ghodsee interviews the French-Canadian feminist activist and fellow Kollontai aficionado, Rebecca Amsellem in Paris, France. Rebecca is the editor of a well-known feminist newsletter in France, Les Glorieuses, and she has contributed an essay a forthcoming edited volume about the impact Alexandra Kollontai has had on her life and work. In this conversation, Ansellem discusses Kollontai's views on love and revolution as well as why Kollontai is not better known in France.

The edited collection is called: Une bibliothèque féministe, out in October 2021

Rebecca will be speaking at 18:30 at the librairie à République in Paris: "Lancement et rencontre avec Agathe le Tailandier pour son livre " Ma bibliothèque féminite" + invitées surprises!"

The Les Glorieuses newsletter is a great way to practice your French! Rebecca also publishes two newsletter in English. If you want to keep abreast of French feminist politics and economics, look no further:

Impact: https://lesglorieuses.fr/les-newsletters/impact-eng/
Economics: https://lesglorieuses.fr/les-newsletters/economics/

Summer Reading–Red Love: A Reader on Alexandra Kollontai

Finally, the semester is over and I have some time to catch up on my reading. I literally have 17 books on my nightstand (or on the floor near it) waiting to be read or reread. I started off with this 2020 reader from an art project done in Sweden in the 2017-2018 academic year. It’s an eclectic collection of essays and interviews reflecting on the importance and relevance of Kollontai and her work today.

Anatomy of a Zoom background

So now that I am teaching again and appearing on a lot of podcasts with video components, I have had a lot of questions about the room (my home office) that I sit in when I am in front of my computer’s camera. I will have to admit that I thought about buying one of those room dividers or a green screen, but in the end I decided to clean up the space and decorate my bookshelves with some of my favorite things. A few notable items in the background:

Two of my favorite typewriters on top of the bookshelves: my 1930s Urania QWETZ typewriter from Dresden on the right and my 1950s Model T Groma typewriter (from the former GDR) on the left. There is a bust of David on the floor (who will beat the Goliath of capitalism eventually), hiding some storage boxes hidden between the corners of the bookshelves. There is a framed and signed photo of the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, given to me by the late Elena Lagadinova, as well as an unframed photo of Alexandra Kollontai. I still have my original Rubik’s Cube from the 1980s (designed by a Hungarian architect during the Cold War) and a variety of books on various utopian movements and ideologies. On my walls are a poster of the Acropolis in Athens and the Oxford Cartographers World History Timeline that I have often lectured and written about. The big plant behind me is a fake one that adds a little depth to the room.

It’s not the most exciting background, but I feel like it is at least visually more interesting than a paper screen.

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Free Stickers! Celebrating the Two Year Anniversary of the Alexandra Kollontai Podcast

January 2021 will be the two year anniversary of the A.K. 47 podcast. To honor this anniversary, my daughter designed the nice three-inch matte stickers seen below.

She explained to me that podcasts are recommended by the algorithms based on the number of reviews they have. She thought it would be a good idea to encourage listeners to review the podcast in places like Apple Podcasts and Podcast Addict in order to increase its future visibility.

So if you leave a review, you can send a screenshot of that review and your mailing address to this email address: Alexandra.Kollontai.Podcast@gmail.com.

We will send one of each of the four stickers below to the first 200 listeners who send in their reviews. International listeners are also welcome to submit reviews, and will we do our best to get the stickers out to you in a timely fashion (considering the inevitable postal delays).

Let’s Celebrate Alexandra Kollontai and Keep up the good fight!

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Finished reading "Make Way for Winged Eros"

For those of you interested in the works of Alexandra Kollontai and her views on sexuality, I finally finished reading the final part of her 1923 essay, "Make Way for Winged Eros: A Letter to Working Youth" for my A.K. 47 podcast. I’ll be discussing it in depth during my next episode, but make sure you listen to the whole essay before you listen to the discussion.