Menstrual Pads

Episode notes

Alex Schmidt is joined by comedian/podcaster Negin Farsad (‘Fake The Nation’ podcast, ‘Birdgirl’ on Adult Swim) and comedy writer Hana Michels (Reductress, The Devastator) for a look at why menstrual pads are secretly incredibly fascinating.

Visit http://sifpod.fun/ for research sources, handy links, and this week’s bonus episode.

LINKS FOR THE GUESTS:

• ‘Fake The Nation’ podcast (Headgum & Negin Farsad)
• Birdgirl (Adult Swim)
• Negin Farsad on Twitter
• Hana Michels on Twitter
• Hana’s Etsy store “CatButtBoutique”
• Hana Michels’s writing for Reductress.com
• Hana Michels’s writing for BunnyEars.com
• Hana Michels’s writing for 1900HOTDOG
• “Mom Presents: I Think These Guys Are Hot Stuff” (Devastator Press)

RESOURCES USED TO INFORM THE EPISODE’S LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

• native-land.ca
• U.S. Department Of Arts And Culture
• The True Native New Yorkers Can Never Truly Reclaim Their Homeland (Smithsonian)
• Mapping Manahatta: 10 Lenape sites in New York City (6sqft)

RESEARCH SOURCES:

• Flow: The Cultural Story Of Menstruation by Elissa Stein and Susan Kim
• The Curse: A Cultural History Of Menstruation by Janice Delaney, Mary Jane Lupton, and Emily Toth
• How tampons and pads became so unsustainable (National Geographic)
• Reduce single-use plastic, period (Royal Society Of Chemistry)
• Period poverty: Scotland first in world to make period products free (BBC News)
• New California Law Will Require Period Products to be Free In All Public Schools and Colleges Beginning in 2022 (Mental Floss)
• ‘The Macarena’ and the History of Viral Dance Music That Predicted TikTok (Jezebel) — here’s more information on the Macarena! One inspiration for the dance is flamenco instructor Diana Patricia Cubillán Herrera. Black American choreographer Mia Frye created the eventual music video dance.  And there’s lots of intermediate steps too.
• Period Drama: That Time of the Month in Victorian America (National Museum of Civil War Medicine)
• 7 Things Historical Women Wore Under Their Skirts (Mental Floss)
• I Wore An Old-Fashioned Sanitary Belt (Bustle)
• The Surprising Origins of Kotex Pads (Smithsonian Magazine)
• Sfag-Na-Kins – the Sphagnum Moss Sanitary Napkins (Smithsonian National Museum of American History)
• WW1 — 100 Years, 100 Legacies: Sanitary Products (The Wall Street Journal)
• A Glimpse at Women’s Periods in the Roaring Twenties (JStor Daily)
• Mary Beatrice Davidson Kenner (Lemelson Center at MIT)
• Facebook video upload of sanitary belt joke from ‘The Great North’ S1E6
• Judy Blume’s Blogspot: “Margaret & Menstroo-ation”