Episode Notes

The guest Gregg can be found on twitter at @greggawatt.

The host Margaret Killjoy can be found on twitter @magpiekilljoy or instagram at @margaretkilljoy. You can support her and this show on Patreon at patreon.com/margaretkilljoy.

Transcript

Live Like The World is Dying: Suburban Organizing

Margaretkilljoy Hello and welcome to Live Like The World Is Dying, your podcast for what feels like the end times. I'm your host Margaret Kiljoy, and I use she or they pronouns and this week I'll be talking to a friend of mine named Gregg about suburban organizing and suburban preparedness because we've had a bunch of episodes on urban stuff and we've had some episodes on rural stuff and those aren't the only places that people live. Some people live in the intersection between the rural and the urban or the sub-urban as it is sometimes referred to. In fact, a lot of people live there. I grew up there. Which, I guess I should just own. I think I say that in the episode, so you know it's like supposed to be this like dirty secret, but the suburbs are are far more interesting and complex than people give them credit for in media. And so here is going to be Gregg talking about that, and I think you'll get a lot out of it, even if it's not where you live. This podcast is a proud member of the Channel Zero network of anarchist podcasts and here's a jingle from another show on the network. Da da duh duuuh.

00:00.00 Margaretkilljoy Okay if you could introduce yourself with your name, your pronouns, and then I guess kind of a little bit about your story. How did you come into suburban organizing?

00:53.82 Gregg Yeah, my name's Gregg. I go by Greggawatt on the internet, most places. My pronouns are he/him, and yeah, I have been a lifelong anarchist. I don't want to call myself an organizer, but I have been somebody who is always...I cannot stand still and I always have to be doing something and getting involved in some project, and during the pandemic I decided to move out to a little bit further out from the the city and move into the suburbs, mainly to get more space, to garden, and of course it didn't last long until I was trying to figure out like, “Okay, how do I find people I can connect with to work on stuff.”

01:38.60 Margaretkilljoy Yeah, and and I mean it's it's funny because one of the main questions I get asked all the time at my show I'm always talking about the importance of community and and for the most part I mean my neighbors know who I am, but I don't like hang out with them all that much. You know, I'm sort of a shy, introverted transgirl in a rural environment personally, and and so people always ask “How do you talk to the people around you?” and there's it's sort of an implied difference between the sort of the political radical and then the people around you. And, everyone no matter your environment, you always think it's sort of unique to your environment. You know the, the main concern people have in rural environments is, you know the Trump supporters who live around you or something like that and and my rude assumption is that what you have around you would be like sort of do-good-er liberals who are on like Next Door too much or something, and so I guess I'm wondering, what is the political environment that you're around and and how does that influence talking to people and how do you deal with that?

02:43.89 Gregg Yeah, so I'm in the Bay area so that makes the the conversation a little bit different than it might be in in some other areas, but it's it's definitely it's