What Is This Hot Mess?

What Is This Hot Mess? is a fun yet insightful podcast that merges the personal and political to look at the running joke that is our world. In a world where we constantly feel like every major event feels like a bad punchline, the podcast seeks to have in-depth conversations with those who are trying to make sure the punchline doesn’t end us all.

The podcast features conversations with feminists, freedom fighters and front-line defenders that dive deep into the world of ‘superheroes who do not wear capes’ exploring the ways in which these amazing people are fierce and fantastic but also flawed. A fun and engaging look into the work (and lives) of feminists around the globe, the podcast will sit down with feminists from around the world and ask them not only about their incredible work but for a more personal take on their politics.

This notion of What Is This Hot Mess? speaks not only to the cruel joke that is reality at the moment but also challenges the idea that feminists are chronically serious killjoys. The podcast is a time for guests to not only speak on things important to them but also have a relaxed conversation where guests can bring a holistic version of themselves to the space. Tackling everything from fighting oppression to fighting fatigue, the podcast will be a light-hearted but in-depth look at how feminists and front-line defenders who are pushing back against a wave of anti-rights, fascism and general destruction.

It is an (un)serious look at the people trying to help us through this time, where you do not know whether to laugh or cry. 

Sitting with people from all corners of the globe, your host Tiffany Kagure Mugo,  is the curator of HOLAAfrica, speaker, author and ex menace-at-large.

Follow Tiffany on Instagram: @kagsmugo and HOLAAfrica: @holaafrica_org

This podcast series is done in collaboration between the Global Unit for Feminism and Gender Democracy of the Heinrich Böll Foundation, and Tiffany Kagure Mugo as the host and co-creator, mixed and mastered by Racheal Wamoto and Sheldon Mutei.

What Is This Hot Mess?

Latest episodes

 A mess of a mental health flavoured climate crisis, vulnerability during emergency and the power of community

A mess of a mental health flavoured climate crisis, vulnerability during emergency and the power of community

25m 45s

In this messy episode we sit down to discuss the (unlikely) collaboration between the climate crisis and mental health with Raj Mariwala who boldly states that they ‘put the mental in mental health’. In this episode we explore how the climate crisis affects different groups in different ways, how the most vulnerable are usually left out of the conversations around solutions and how this climate crisis is not a plot twist. It has been around for ages.

A mess of witches or doctors, femme pain, birthing on your back and Uniting Nations with Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng aka Dr. T.

A mess of witches or doctors, femme pain, birthing on your back and Uniting Nations with Dr Tlaleng Mofokeng aka Dr. T.

47m 56s

In this messy episode we return for season II and sit down THE Dr Tlaleng to help Tiff unpack her obsession with misogyny in medicine, because as Dr T says 'medicine is not a sterile practice'.

The two of them discuss women being pushed out of birthing and gynaecology, the gender pain gap, navigating difficult times in high level roles, the systemic violence that rains down on our bodies within the medical fraternity and being the most special and magical of rapporteurs.