Coffee & Cocktails® Podcast Dr Ann Wand

In this final episode of our ‘Controversies and Contraband’ series, we sit down with yoga specialist, Dr Patrick McCartney to discuss the somewhat surprising historical origins of yoga and mallakhamb (the wrester’s pole). What originally started as a general interest in postural yoga due to a sustained growth spurt during his teens, by university he became somewhat of a ‘yoga fundamentalist’ and eventually moved to India. After a decade of teaching yoga and meditation around the world Dr McCartney’s research began to shift towards questioning the way yoga is branded and sold to the global consumer. Advertised as a form of ‘social justice’ through critical race theory, McCartney explores how yoga has been able to transcend boundaries and caste systems, while at the same time overlook its potential origins linking it to nomadic street performers and prostitution.

The concept of ‘dark food’, like ‘dark tourism’, is directly linked to consumption and how identities are forged by making sense of the past through present-day cultural memories. In this bonus episode with Alessandra Pino, co-author of A Gothic Cookbook, we discuss her research on understanding dark food through the Cuban legacies of slavery and sugar plantations. And how the ‘recreation of traumatic memories through the medium of food’ provide a face for the historically oppressed, exiled, and diasporic communities originating from Cuba.

If you'd like to access Dr Pino's newest book, A Gothic Book, head to: https://unbound.com/books/a-gothic-cookbook/

Discount code is: GOTHICPOD10

#cuba #coffeeandcocktailspodcast #darktourism #darkfood #tourism #food #oppression #exiled #diaspora #trauma #memory #representation #agothiccookbook

The history of Western feminism has had a tendency to impose its own world views on non-western women at the expense of allowing other female voices to express their thoughts on freedoms, rights, and religion. In this bonus episode with Sonia Gulzeb Abbasi we discuss concerns surrounding (white) Western feminism and its (un)intentional imposition on Muslim women’s identity in Pakistani and Afghani culture.

#feminism #coffeeandcocktailspodcast #thewest #pakistan #afghanistan #women #culture #anthropology #podcast

*Apologies for the sound quality of this episode. We were having some difficulties with the mic, but the content is absolutely fine! Just make sure to keep the volume slightly quieter than usual.

When Dr Heather Munro initially approached me about her research on Haredi and Hasidic identity in London, New York, and Israel, I completely underestimated the complex web that makes up the ultra-orthodox community. To ‘simplify’ her work (although I use that term lightly) we decided to break apart her research into two parts with this first part examining the background history of the Haredi and Hasidic communities.

The goal with this episode is to better understand the roles that Haredi/Hasidic men and women play within their own environment so that we can discuss in Part II some members’ responses to the anti-vaxx movement within the Haredi community.

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How do we deal with preserving memory when the historical past can be so controversial?

In this Patreon-only special release (recorded in August 2021), Dr Hannes Obermair from EURAC Research gives us his perspectives on the role of statues and how South Tyrol’s decision to preserve its Fascist (and Nazi) past led to the creation of a documentation centre located in the basement vault underneath Bozen-Bolzano, Italy’s giant monument dedicated to none other than Mussolini.

For further reading, check out Prof Ruth Ben-Ghiat’s article in The New Yorker, ‘Why are so many Fascist monuments still standing in Italy?’ (2017):

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/why-are-so-many-fascist-monuments-still-standing-in-italy

Note: If you are not familiar with the history of South Tyrol, Italy, I highly suggest you listen to ‘Episode 30: Italy’s segregated schools’ before checking out this episode.

*PPT images from Hannes’ talk are available on Patreon*
https://patreon.com/coffeeandcocktailspodcast

When Pompeii was first excavated in the 18th century, the individuals involved in the re-discovery of this coastal town were surprised (or dare I say ‘shocked’) to discover the massive array of erotic male (and female) genitalia scattered throughout the ancient establishment. Considered taboo and eventually locked away into Pompeii’s now famous, ‘Secret Cabinet’, this museum of wonders was closed off to women until the 1980s.

In this fascinating episode, I talk with Australia’s favourite Ancient Historians and hosts of The Partial Historians podcast, Dr Peta Greenfield and Dr Fiona Radford, about the history of sexuality in Ancient Rome and how Roman society’s concepts of ‘gender’, agency, and sexual acts were largely linked to the Roman citizen’s understanding of social status and political power.