Geek Herring

Geek Girl in the News looks at the awesome or not so awesome news that will make you go either: "YAY" or "OMG I can't believe that." The latest and greatest geek girl news from October 2020 covers the US Election (that we hopefully have results of by now!), AOC streaming Among Us, the Nobel Chemistry Prize, 2020's Gender Breakdown in Games, 1UP, Batwoman, Uncharted, Marvel, and Barbie being a damn role model!October was a wild month.With the US Presidential election being a looming presence in our mind's all month, it's so easy for us all to think there wasn't much good to the spooky month.But looking back on our geeky news, you know what? October was fucking badass for women in geekdom!We start off at the intersection of politics and video games, celebrating US Representative, AOC, meeting her constituents where they hang out most: getting sus on Twitch. We love this story so much and hope to see more of AOC rocking the emergency meeting!Our pal Henrik dropped the next article in our laps: the Nobel Chemistr

Okay, but can we talk about Enola Holmes!? Of course we can, it's Geek Herring! And this week, we are geeking the FUCK out of Enola Fucking Holmes.This film is EVERYTHING.(Okay, everything but super historically accurate but sure that's okay!)First things first - Enola Holmes has an all-star cast going for it. Millie Bobby Brown, Henry Cavill, Helena Bonham Carter, and Sam Claflin - yes, please! Talent exudes here.Then we have Enola Holmes. Unconventional, badass, confident, intriguing, loving, mischievous, and all around incredible. She is a feminist ICON.Seriously, Enola Holmes is absolute goals and we definitely wish we had film role models like this when we were growing up.Is this movie perfect? Well, no. There's a whole bunch of historical inaccuracies, a silly (yet cute) love story that is pretty unnecessary, and a few other disgruntling things. Our friend Mel wrote about what she didn't like over on her blog!But on the overall whole, Enola Holmes is fucking amazing and we think everyone should watch it

Amanda lost these notes after writing them, so this rewrite is definitely not going to be as good - but holy shitballs, y'all! We're 100 episodes deep!If you'd have told us 100 episodes ago that we'd still be here, creating geek feminist content week upon week, 100 episodes later, we would not have believed you.Yet, here we are! 100 episodes deep, a growing Twitch channel, new book club, incredible Discord community, monthly challenges, and MORE. Woah.You know what this really means? That this shit is WORTH IT. Every single minute we spend making Geek Herring and sharing it with our community is important, it matters, and it's hella FUN.We wouldn't be here without you! Your support is incredible and we feel so loved - and also love YOU SO MUCH.Join us for this 100 episode banterous celebratory shitshow! We say vibe WAY TOO MUCH, have all the laughts, reflect on what we've learned after 100 episodes, read out comments from our amazing community, share voice clips from Frazley and Thom, and have an all around j

Justin Williams from Super Tangent podcast joins us to get into the nitty gritty of being Black, being nerdy, living in Alaska, and raising a biracial daughter in a racist society. We talk all things politics, pop culture, and the all-important intersection of the two.About Justin WilliamsJustin Williams is the host of Super Tangent podcast, a podcast about politics and nerd culture, freelance audio engineer, and dad to the cutest daughter in the world (and she's named Diana - after our awesome Diana Prince!? Probably!) He's from the Alaskan north which had a huge influence on his obsession with nerd culture... sure, what else can you do when it's dark half the year?!About Being Black & NerdyWe start off by getting the important news out of the way: pens suck, nerds are awesome. And on this [super] tangent, we get into the nitty gritty of being Black, being nerdy, living in Alaska, and raising a biracial daughter in a racist society.Justin nails it on the head when he says we're getting angry at the wrong

Ever wondered what video games made us who we are? Well, your curiosity is hereby sated! In this episode, we're deep-diving into our gaming past, present, and future!We start back in our early 90s humble Nintendo and Super Nintendo days. These consoles and games, especially Mario (obviously) and Donkey Kong. These games absolutely SHAPED us.This episode is really just a wonderful reminiscent one that reminds us of all the good times and all the damn comfort we get from playing our favourite games.Tomb Raider? YUP. Zelda? Uh-huh. Elder Scrolls? You're damn RIGHT.Want to know more? You've GOT to listen!What are some of the games that defined you? Let us know in the comments!Follow Geek Herring on Twitch!! | Join the Geek Herring Book ClubLove Geek Herring, please hop over to Apple Podcasts and leave us a review!Support Geek Herring on Patreon!If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please check out some of our others! Geek Interview: Life as a Professional Feminist with Virginia Mendez from The Feminist Shop Geek Inter

Geek Girl in the News looks at the awesome or not so awesome news that will make you go either: "YAY" or "OMG I can't believe that." The latest and greatest geek girl news from September 2020 covers the sad passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Trump's awful nomination to the Supreme Court, the NFL making HERstory, Mike Morhaime's new company: Dreamhaven, WandaVision, American Girl's latest doll, and saying so long to the Nintendo 3DS.While Monika's off celebrating 10 years with her Weirdo, Thom from Three Extra Lives joins us to talk about this month's news that matters.We start this month's episode by recognising and celebrating the incomparable Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg who sadly passed away mid September. This is a tragic loss of a woman who has done more for women's rights than anyone else, ever. Her death is a blow to a nation in crisis, but we honour her the only way we know how.May her memory be a revolution.Even in death, the Notorious RBG is making waves! She is not only the first

Disney's live action Mulan is out! And oh wow has it caused a controversy. We took one for the team, gave it a complete watch, and come armed and ready to discuss it all: the good, the bad, and the terrible.Unless you've been living under a rock (or off Twitter, kind of the same thing), you'll know that when Mulan was first announced - just about this time last year - there was a lot of controversy! It was announced just about the same time as the Hong Kong protests we covered in episode 53: Geek Discussion: Hong Kong Protests, Blizzard Entertainment, & Cancel Culture.Lead actress, American-raised Yifei Liu, shared a post on Weibo (a Chinese social media site) that she supports the Hong Kong police. To sum up, what she shared said, "I also support Hong Kong police. You can beat me up now. What a shame for Hong Kong.”Okay, we have two ways of looking at this statement. Either she's pro-China and doesn't support Hong Kong's protests for independence or as a fairly prominent Chinese actress, she's being very

Serial killers and murder clowns? Nah. The real fear is sexual assault and living with trauma. We're joined by New York Times bestselling novelist, Madeleine Roux, who's redefining the horror genre one fear at a time.About Madeleine RouxMadeleine Roux is the New York Times Bestselling author of the ASYLUM series. She received her BA in Creative Writing and Acting from Beloit College in 2008. In the spring of 2009, Madeleine completed an Honors Term at Beloit College, proposing, writing, and presenting a full-length historical fiction novel. Shortly after, she began the experimental fiction blog Allison Hewitt Is Trapped. Allison Hewitt Is Trapped quickly spread throughout the blogosphere, bringing a unique serial fiction experience to readers.Madeleine's most recent release is Shadows Rising, a World of Warcraft novel preceding the latest expansion, Shadowlands.We're so excited to have Madeleine with us on this episode! It is literally full of the most incredible knowledge bombs (kinda hate that phrase but we

To clothe or not to clothe, that is the question. There's been such a conversation lately about whether some female streamers are only gaining popularity because of the amount of clothes they're wearing or not. In this episode, we attempt to answer the question and give our personal views!First... we sent out a request the day we recorded this episode on Twitter that just said: SEND NUDES. Guess what? We didn't get ONE NUDE DMd to us. How rude! (But also, THANKS FOR NOT SHOWING US YOUR DICKS!)While we do have slightly differing personal opinions on how we view streamers who wear less clothing, the ultimate point is that so long as what someone's wearing isn't against Twitch's ToS, then it's fair game.Amanda doesn't have a big problem with it. Unless someone is wearing less clothes because they feel like they're expected to (because that's way uncool) or they're feeling peer pressured into showing off their body (because that's even way more uncool!), freedom of expression can be really empowering.Of course, t

Geek Girl in the News looks at the awesome or not so awesome news that will make you go either: "YAY" or "OMG I can't believe that." The latest and greatest geek girl news from August 2020 covers the heartbreaking passing of Chadwick Boseman, an absolutely quintessential list of the top 25 games women play (shame on you, E3!), Warcraft's Shadowland's release date, Kelly Marie Tran donning her Disney Princess crown, and us absolutely losing our SHIT about the Enola Holmes trailer.We open this episode with a tribute to the late Chadwick Boseman. The devasting news of his death came just last week, revealing that he lost his four year long battle with bowel cancer. Chadwick brought so much to the world, especially the Black community, and will live on in our memories and on our big screens. Chadwick is one of the most inspirational men we've ever seen (and no, we're not talking about cancer - get your inspiration porn elsewhere, kthanks). His tenacity, character, and genuine love and desire to support others has

The leading ladies of horror have developed quite the reputation of being strong, independed, badass, and, usually, ALIVE by the end of the journey they're on! We're joined by horror expert and host of AllHallowScream Podcast, Michael Skarzynske, to preach it out to the Scream Queens we know and love!About Our GuestMichael Skarzynske is the host of brand new podcast, AllHallowScream, and the co-host of Two Nerds, Maybe More. You may know him from other podcasts such as Nerd This (RIP but thanks for the inspiration to start Geek Herring) and The Blue Recluse.Mike is an absolute horror fanatic! So we knew we HAD to have him on Geek Herring to chat about how horror is actually a pretty damn feminist genre!Not only do we talk about our favourite Scream Queens, we talk about the trope that the leading women in horror movies tend to be the most badass.We want to know - what do you love about horror movies? Hate? Maybe you're too scared to even pop The Ring in your VCR in case she comes crawling out of your TV at yo

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've heard, or at least heard OF, the new Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion song, WAP. Woah, geeks. What a dang bop this one is!But of course, with every song about women's sexual empowerment, middle aged white men like to shake their finger of disapproval. -BO-RING-This time, Ben Shapiro weighs in on why wet ass pussys are, well, a medical problem. ...Scuse me, say what? We feel pretty damn sorry for your wife, Ben.So let's unpack this, k?Rap music is no stranger to sexually explicit subjects and lyrics. Ludacris even has a song dedicated to all the places he wants to bang his lady friends! -insert Amanda rapping here-Is there an uproar over songs like this? Nah. Why? They dudes.This episode is dedicated to sex. To WAP. To women owning and celebrating our sexuality and freaking enjoyment of sex. To the powerful women in mainstream music talking about doing the deed, whether alone or with someone fun. To Cardi B, to Megan Thee Stallion, to Pink, to Rhiannah, to Missy El

Combining a love of art and geekiness, Molly O'Riley creates a live of beauty, passion, and expression. This episode is the ultimate wake-up call you need to be you, own your weirdness, and honestly just create something every damn day.Molly is the founder of The Darling Revolution. She creates stunning abstracts for bold humans, and considers herself an emotional doula, making space for the process and teaching people how to trust themselves through creative practices. She believes in the power of creativity and that we’re all #ResilientAF. Molly shares with us how she came to create art inspired by her favourite comic book heroes. Being surrounded by the colours and vibrancy of comics all her life, it was such a natural step for her. Her geek-driven art is so cool, so colourful, and, bonus, you can ask for custom art based on YOUR fave character!We talk about art and beauty and individualism in creativity. Molly explains why you should start creating every damn day, even if it's something small, as this hel

Geek Girl in the News looks at the awesome or not so awesome news that will make you go either: "YAY" or "OMG I can't believe that." The latest and greatest geek girl news from July 2020 covers the girls who outnumber the boys at a national STEM competition, The Witcher's prequel, rising video gamer stats, that awful trailer for Gamer Girl we all puked at, Assassin's Creed minimising female protagonists (LAME), the first female Fortnite pro taking 1st place, and Warcraft dropping the £13 fee for gender change.Welcome to Geek Girl in the News! You might notice a different voice this week - we have the honourable Mx Frazley joining Monika to cover these news stories that matter to YOU.Girls are leading over boys in a national STEM competition for the second time ever... and the first in TWENTY YEARS. Oh wow! Love to see this fab increase - girls showing what power there is in seeing other women in male-dominated fields. So here for this STEM equality!And, of course, what kind of geek girl in the news episode wo

We all know the world is kind of an intense place right now. This episoded started with the intention of our geeky highs and lows... but very swiftly descended into a conversation about life, the Universe, and everything. We had a lot on our chests!Okay, so we start out chattinga bout our geek highs and lows. Amandan's high was definitely when she was in Edinburgh for the midnight release of Harry Potter and Half Blood Prince. Despite everything going on with the series' author, that evil can't take our happy memories away from us!We chatted about how we think representation should be done in video games and other forms of pop culture. It's all about making our differences part of the story and totally normalising it rather than any kind of bullshit and pointing it out and making it an othering statement.That's one reason we loved The Last of Us Part 2! (Don't worry, no spoilers!) People were so upset about some of the diversity in this game, but like, why??? What's with this mob? Is the mob the majority or j

We had the immense pleasure of chatting with Professor Taliep about growing up in the 50s and getting involved in the feminist movement of the 60s and 70s. This episode is epic and we hope you enjoy it!Taliep is co-host of The Halfhill Report, a fictional World of Warcraft podcast. She started gaming later in life and credits her love of Warcraft to her co-host, Toshmifune. Taliep is a fully fledged and super proud geek - and she's also one of the most wonderful women we've had the chance to chat with!Why poodles are the best dogs ever - Moni and Taliep definitely talk about this for like, 5 whole minutes. And it's the conversation you didn't know you needed in your life.Taliep chats with us about what it life was like growing up in the 1950s. Like most women at the time, she was married young and had her first baby before she turned 19. Such a different culture to the one we grew up in!! But Taliep didn't stay in her marriage. She talks about how The Feminist Mystique, a novel by Betty Friedan, opened her up

It's not every day that you get to hang out with one of Twitch's loveliest partners on your podcast, but here we are with the one and only BiggusBennus! He joins us to talk about his recent Twitch accomplishments and the recent outpouring of sexual abuse reports on the streaming platform.Not sure who BiggusBennus is? Well, you are in for a treat!Ben is a UK based streamer who mainly plays Animal Crossing. He hosts regular game shows, including Blind Date, Snitch Game, Come Isle With Me, and Family Fortunes (which we had the pleasure of being on!). He's fresh off 100 days IN A ROW of streaming live on Twitch, just raised over £8k for The Trevor Project, and recently made Twitch Partner.When we say this guy is amazing, like, legit. Ok? Okay.We learn all the background of who Ben is, why he games, and how he's curated one of the most wonderful and welcoming communities on Twitch. There's something to be said for building such a loyal following - it's all in the personality. And for Ben, that's some Family Friend

To celebrate Love Indies week in June, we interviewed the remarkable Kitty Crawford about her life as an indie game's producer! Kitty joins us with a wealth of experience, knowledge, and perspective on the industry.Kitty is born and raised in Northern Ireland but now lives and works from Montreal - but most of her games clients live back over here in Europe. She shares with us how she started in the indie game industry after leaving television for physical and mental health reasons. Such an awesome transitio to make, though, right!? Before Kitty left us over here in NI, she spent 2 years as the Games NI Chairperson - head of a group dedicated to indie game developers in the country.For Kitty, the key to her success in the indie game industry has been the two incredible mentors she has and her talent at networking. Because the industry is so competitive, building those relationships with other industry professionals is vital.What's it been like for Kitty as a women in the industry? We always hear horror storie

Geek Girl in the News looks at the awesome or not so awesome news that will make you go either: "YAY" or "OMG I can't believe that." The latest and greatest geek girl news from June 2020 covers Rowling's publishing company employees not wanting to work with her, Mixer's racist culture and sudden demise, Twitch's history of not taking abuse reports seriously, the calls for a Twitch Blackout, Tina Fey call for 30 Rock's removal of blackface episodes, an FDA approved prescription video game, and TikTok Teens and K-Pop Stans living their best lives for all our futures.June was some month! We recorded this episode a week early, so this isn't even a full account of June. But even at what it is, so much happened in June it's pretty overwhelming. Honestly, it's like two years worth of huge news and upheaval and movement and fighting was smooshed into a puny 30 days.Phew.First of all, we want to make it clear our stance. Trans women are women. Trans men are men. Love is love. Fuck hate. We've been absolutely disgusted

June 2020 has been a month! But, even though Pride was delayed a bit, for very obvious and very good reasons, we are celebrating now. So plug in your earphones and get ready to join the Pride Party!This episode starts a bit heavy with the pretty shitty news about our former favourite author. We've already talked about this pretty extensively in our episode with The Gayly Prophet, but we dunno about you, we're finding it harder to reclaim Hogwarts as our home again. We just need to take a minute and regroup on this one.We've had some set backs come out of the White House (as usual -insert major eye roll here, amirite?-) but then we got some surprise news from the Supreme Court who ruled that LGBTQIA+ folk can't be discriminated against at work! Finally, in the month of all years, we get some good news and something worth celebrating!Leading up to this episode, we polled Twitter and Discord for people's fave queer characters and were not disappointed! From Will and Robin (Stranger Things) to Cosima (Orphan Blac