

Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff
Cool Zone Media and iHeartPodcasts
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.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Aug 18, 2025 • 1h 19min
CZM Rewind: Part One: The Jane Collective: Direct Action Abortion Access Works
Margaret talks with Samantha McVey about the more than a hundred women who provided safe, affordable abortion in pre- Roe v Wade Chicago. Original Air Date: 5.9.2022See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Aug 17, 2025 • 32min
CZM Book Club: Hermetica, by Alan Lea, Part Three
Margaret brings you further along into the tale of Hermetica, the generation ship. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Aug 11, 2025 • 30min
Part One: Alter-globalization Continues: How the Movement of Movements Used Carnivals and Riots to Fight Neoliberalism
Margaret talks about how people confronted trade summit after trade summit, fighting tooth, nail, and pom-pom against unelected world governance. Sources: https://crimethinc.com/2021/11/30/epilogue-on-the-movement-against-capitalist-globalization-22-years-after-n30-what-it-can-teach-us-today http://www.ainfos.ca/99/jun/ainfos00181.html https://crimethinc.com/2017/06/18/flashback-to-june-18-1999-the-carnival-against-capital-a-retrospective-video-and-comic https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/j18.htmSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Aug 10, 2025 • 27min
CZM Book Club: Hermetica, by Alan Lea, Part Two
Margaret continues with Hermetica and our protagonist discovers... a clue!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Aug 6, 2025 • 1h 3min
Part Two: Indymedia: How Lefty Techies and Journalists Reinvented the Internet
Margaret continues talking to Sarah Marshall about the Independent Media Centers that helped protesters build movements and changed how online communication happens. Sources: https://daily.jstor.org/the-invention-of-journalistic-objectivity/ https://daily.jstor.org/to-fix-fake-news-look-to-yellow-journalism/ https://web.archive.org/web/20200304071058/http://www.infoshop.org/about-us/ https://dl.acm.org/doi/fullHtml/10.1145/3485447.3512282#fig3See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Aug 4, 2025 • 54min
Part One: Indymedia: How Lefty Techies and Journalists Reinvented the Internet
Margaret talks to Sarah Marshall about the Independent Media Centers that helped protesters build movements and changed how online communication happens. Sources: https://daily.jstor.org/the-invention-of-journalistic-objectivity/ https://daily.jstor.org/to-fix-fake-news-look-to-yellow-journalism/ https://web.archive.org/web/20200304071058/http://www.infoshop.org/about-us/ https://dl.acm.org/doi/fullHtml/10.1145/3485447.3512282#fig3 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0163443720926039 https://www.academia.edu/21814073/Indymedia_Journalism_A_Radical_Way_of_Making_Selecting_and_Sharing_News https://www.academia.edu/45052617/Indymedia_and_Media_Activism_at_the_Turn_of_the_Millennium https://crimethinc.com/2017/08/25/german-government-shuts-down-indymedia-what-it-means-and-what-to-do https://crimethinc.com/2022/10/28/the-billionaire-and-the-anarchists-tracing-twitter-from-its-roots-as-a-protest-tool-to-elon-musks-acquisition https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeldelcastillo/2022/09/11/jack-dorseys-former-boss-is-building-a-decentralized-twitter/ https://libcom.org/article/sources-and-police-raid-bristol-indymedia https://www.cjr.org/business_of_news/local-news-indymedia-network-25-anniversary.phpSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Aug 3, 2025 • 33min
CZM Book Club: Hermetica, by Alan Lea, Part One
Margaret reads you a modern speculative fiction novella written in the classic style that she thinks you'll like.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jul 30, 2025 • 46min
CZM Rewind: The Japanese Anarchists Part Two
We're once again joined by Margaret Killjoy, host of the new podcast Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff, to talk about the history of anarchism in Japan. Original Air Date: 4.29.22 on It Could Happen HereSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jul 28, 2025 • 52min
CZM Rewind: The Japanese Anarchists Part 1
We're joined by Margaret Killjoy, host of the new podcast Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff, to talk about the history of anarchism in Japan. Original Air Date: 4.28.22 on It Could Happen HereSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jul 27, 2025 • 31min
CZM Book Club: How to Live Like the World is Ending by Margaret Killoy
Margaret reads you an essay about how to think about living during what feels like apocalyptic times. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.


