Since most of this section was focused on education and not everyone has the ability to find a mythical professor willing to play Plato and Socrates for, here is a list of resources I’ve used in the past to help expand on things that had not been fully explained the first time around.

Ted Talks

This is one of the most viewed Ted Talks and it was the one that Travis showed me to convince me of how awesome this website was. He was right! For an entire month I scrolled through the hundreds of roughly 20 minute talks they have available on a wide range of topics, from physics to flash mobs. At the time I was preparing for my colloquium paper and what would be my first “real” public speaking in front of experts in their field (profs at my school) and then have to deal with a question and answer period. I suck at speaking because I tend to get anxious very easily, so watching these talks and noticing how they projected their voices, moved their bodies, and integrated humour really helped. They are also just fantastic, short, and usually quite entertaining pieces that are good to watch as you eat or do something like paint that doesn’t require full attention.

Khan Academy

Similar to Ted Talks in that they usually use youtube and subtle visual prompts to convey their message, the Khan academy requires more attention since their ultimate goal is to teach you something. There are portals on the site where you can do math problems or answer questions and slowly work through the concept and move through the videos chronologically, or you can pick at random and just listen. Seriously, this is a fantastic site, especially if you’re like me and have forgotten a lot of the math or grammar that you learned early on in life. This particular site focuses a lot on math, economics, and other more political topics, but you’ll notice that they also have a large selection of art lectures.

Smarthistory.com is a partner site to the Khan academy and contains their entire art history selection of videos. I love this website so much and I spend so much time there. They have a lot of different art and some lesser known pieces in addition to the big names. The videos are short and easily digested; sometimes the narrator isn’t the best, and you can get into tedious question and answer periods between two “experts” but for the most part, I enjoy this. As someone who doesn’t have the chance to go back and do another undergrad in art history, this fills in some of those perceived gaps.

This one is on Giacometti’s Palace at 4am made in 1932. This particular piece is also mentioned in a Ted talk that discusses why 4am seems to be a big deal for artists.

Yale Open Courses 

This is far more heavy-duty than the previous two. Yale has recorded some of their classes for their open education system and then uploads them for people to listen to and engage with for free. You don’t write essays or exams or talk to the prof, clearly, but you get the benefit of hearing what is being taught at a fairly good post-secondary institution. While you can watch youtube videos of the class you choose to take, it’s never that riveting, especially if you’re more focused in the humanities. When I realized how much I was missing from my English degree (like theory! I had never done an English theory class before, but I had done a ton of gender theory), I went here and downloaded their entire course and listened to all 26 lectures in a month. They have science, economics, history, and sociology, too. It’s a good eclectic mix and you don’t necessarily have to go and download an entire course to get something out of it. Even just brushing up with one or two lectures on a specific topic can be good. I would recommend reading the books that they talk about in their lectures, but if they are not available to you, these lectures can act as a good summary point.

Hoax

Being in women’s studies, I’ve seen a lot of zines. A lot of very, very badly done zines. In my first semester, I used to lurk around etsy and find zines that talked about topics I was interested in (sobriety, crafts, gender, feminism, veganism, etc) and I would order a couple here and there. One of the best ones I found was definitely Hoax.

Hoax is a collaborative project that is put together by Rachel and Sari, it ranges in topics and is very adamant about having a lot of different perspectives. Sari identifies as trans as well, so they are really good with following trans issues and the ways in which things intersect with facets of sexism, classism, etc. Their personal zine is You’ve Got A Friend In Pennsylvania and it is also worth reading, though it is more personal and anecdotal vs the critically engaging pieces that come from Hoax.

I’ve submitted a section of my thesis to them and hopefully they end up publishing it for their Mythologies issue, which you can still submit to if you want. You should also order an issue if you can or browse their shop here.

The Radical Uprise

I appreciate Jetta’s motivation so much. She works really hard and is dedicated to her craft, as her website The Radical Uprise, displays. Her PMA philosophy – positive mental attitude – is something that I appreciate because it allows for very little time for wallowing in self-pity. Don’t get me wrong – feelings are good and okay. Even negative ones. I think anger and sadness are important and need to be expressed and felt (safely, obviously and with respect to others), but there is a limit. Embodying a negative attitude means that you will attract negativity and negative people. PMA clearly doesn’t work for everything and in every situation – no life philosophy should be dogmatic – but it is a good general frame of reference.

Jetta’s zines are okay, but her writing, I feel, is not as strong as it could be. It is clear and to the point, but I tend to want more substance and text in zines and less images. Her website is a fantastic upbeat thing to breeze through in the morning and her tumblr is can be nice to follow as well. Not all of her ideas I agree with and not everything she embodies I admire – but her hard work, dedication, and determination to not pity herself is utterly fantastic and needs to happen more. She does make good merch, though, which you should check out. She’s another independent artist/writer like the wonderful people at Hoax and we should help them out where we can.

The Post Punk Kitchen

I’m putting the Post Punk Kitchen on here because food is so important. I don’t care what diet you have – whether you eat meat, vegetarian, or vegan, but I really hope you cook your own food. It’s so much fun to learn about and engage with. I originally went vegan because I thought it would be an interesting experience and something I could learn from. Kind of like a game, too, to figure out in some situations. But any cooking that can provide a challenge can be a good activity to engage in. I love Isa’s food a lot and so many of the meals they eat in the sequel (pad thai, banana bread, scones) are from her work or derivations of them.

On that note, I want to direct you to Breeze Harper’s website called Sistah Vegan. She has a lot of interesting videos and commentary on the intersection of race and diet and does a lot of good work with identity politics. One thing that she said really stuck with me, and that’s that our idea of who is vegan is usually someone who is white. Typically the thin, white, twenty-something woman with dread locks who is studying gender. Like Jasmine! Hah, that was unintentional, but I still think it’s really funny and interesting, though, how stereotypes end up manifesting. Again, I’ve discussed this before in this post about Lydia, and how our consciousness is shaped by our culture. Breeze was one of the first people who made the race and diet and identity equation so explicitly for me, and I really appreciate her commentary. Since she also blogs a lot about being a mother, she embodies other elements of Lydia, too.

For now, this is it! I will possibly do another post dealing with more specific resources, like I did for Essays on Art, for gender and sexuality, but in good time. :)