
Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff
As long as there’s been oppression, there’ve been people fighting it. This weekly podcast dives into history to drag up the wildest rebels, the most beautiful revolts, and all the people who long to be—and fight to be—free. It explores complex stories of resistance that offer lessons and inspiration for us today, focusing on the ensemble casts that make up each act of history. That is to say, this podcast focuses on Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff.
Latest episodes

Apr 16, 2025 • 53min
Part Two: Black Antifascists In the Spanish Civil War
Jordan from The Dugout continues teaching Margaret about the long history of Black antifascism that brought people to fight in the Spanish Civil War. James Yates, Mississippi to MadridSalaria Kea, “Doing Christ’s Duty”Canute Frankson’s letter from Spain (1937)“The Good Fight” (Documentary)Peter N. Carroll, The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln BrigadeALBA-Valb.org archivesTrussel.com, “The Peekskill Riots”National Archives & Harlem Oral History ProjectKuykendall, Ronald A. "African Blood Brotherhood: Independent Marxism During the Harlem Renaissance." Western Journal of Black Studies 26 (Spring 2002): African Blood Brotherhood. The Principles of the African Blood Brotherhood. New York: African Blood Brotherhood, David Motadel, Islam and the European Empires (2014)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Apr 14, 2025 • 1h 2min
Part One: Black Antifascists In the Spanish Civil War
Jordan from The Dugout teaches Margaret about the long history of Black antifascism that brought people to fight in the Spanish Civil War. James Yates, Mississippi to MadridSalaria Kea, “Doing Christ’s Duty”Canute Frankson’s letter from Spain (1937)“The Good Fight” (Documentary)Peter N. Carroll, The Odyssey of the Abraham Lincoln BrigadeALBA-Valb.org archivesTrussel.com, “The Peekskill Riots”National Archives & Harlem Oral History ProjectKuykendall, Ronald A. "African Blood Brotherhood: Independent Marxism During the Harlem Renaissance." Western Journal of Black Studies 26 (Spring 2002): African Blood Brotherhood. The Principles of the African Blood Brotherhood. New York: African Blood Brotherhood, David Motadel, Islam and the European Empires (2014)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Apr 13, 2025 • 26min
CZM Book Club: The Barrow Will Send What it May, Chapter Four
Margaret reads another chapter from the second book in her Danielle Cain series.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Apr 9, 2025 • 1h 11min
Part Two: A Madhouse Against the Nazis: the Story of François Tosquelles and Saint-Albans
Margaret continues talking with Allison Raskin about the antifascist asylum in France that armed partisans and reinvented psychiatry.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Apr 7, 2025 • 1h 10min
Part One: A Madhouse Against the Nazis: the Story of François Tosquelles and Saint-Albans
Margaret talks with Allison Raskin about the antifascist asylum in France that armed partisans and reinvented psychiatry.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Apr 6, 2025 • 55min
CZM Book Club: Escape, part two
Margaret reads the second half of an anonymously authored speculative fiction story about what people could do if large scale roundups began, and discusses it with an anarchist technology enthusiast.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Apr 2, 2025 • 1h 2min
Part Two: Samizdat: How to Self-Publish During a Dictatorship
Margaret continues talking to Katy Stoll about how the Soviet people evaded censors and kept poetry, literature, and political critique alive. The Material Existence of Soviet Samizdat, Ann Komaromihttps://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/books/04solzhenitsyn.html HG Skilling, Samizdat and an Indepedent Society in Central and Eastern Europe https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/nikolai-gumilev https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/anna-akhmatova https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/osip-mandelstam https://libcom.org/article/1962-novocherkassk-tragedy https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-09284-0_1See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mar 31, 2025 • 47min
Part One: Samizdat: How to Self-Publish During a Dictatorship
Margaret talks to Katy Stoll about how the Soviet people evaded censors and kept poetry, literature, and political critique alive. The Material Existence of Soviet Samizdat, Ann Komaromihttps://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/04/books/04solzhenitsyn.html HG Skilling, Samizdat and an Indepedent Society in Central and Eastern Europe https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/nikolai-gumilev https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/anna-akhmatova https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/osip-mandelstam https://libcom.org/article/1962-novocherkassk-tragedy https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-349-09284-0_1See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mar 30, 2025 • 1h 1min
CZM Book Club: Escape, part one
Margaret reads an anonymously authored speculative fiction story about what people could do if large scale roundups began, and discusses it with an anarchist technology enthusiast.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mar 26, 2025 • 58min
CZM Rewind: Part Two: Gay Resistance to the Nazis
In this second rewind episode, Margaret continues to tell the story of gay artists and street gangs that fought the Nazis.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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