The Radiant Badass with Elizabeth Holmes

Radiant Badass
  • 4.5 (17)
  • Personal Journals
  • Updated Weekly

The Radiant Badass with Elizabeth Holmes is the podcast you need if you miss sitting around your best friend’s basement riffing on whatever comes to mind. Elizabeth’s perspective as a GenXer raised by pop culture and a curious person influences her view on the world whether she’s talking books, music or how to keep your sanity in a rapidly changing world – and she’s happy to talk about all of those subjects. www.radiantbadass.com

  1. Sep 25

    invisible to whom, exactly?

    Elizabeth showed up to this one running on fumes (maybe it was the equinox?), so she led with book recs instead of righteous fury: The Correspondent, a Cannon Beach impulse buy called Sipsworth that apparently defrosted something in her chest, and Ann Patchett’s Whistler, devoured in a single 24-hour fugue state. Then she got to the actual reason you’re here. A woman on Threads posted her list of everything she no longer gives a f**k about now that she’s in her 60s — DNF-ing bad books was a highlight — and Elizabeth loved it, stole it, made her own version, and then had the audacity to actually think about it for five seconds. Which ruined everything. Because every one of these lists, hers included, is secretly the same tired plotline as “passing the torch”: you get old, you get tired, you gracefully fade into a beige cardigan and stop taking up space. Congratulations on your subtraction era. So she goes to war with the words “invisible” and “irrelevant,” asking the extremely reasonable question of invisible to whom, exactly, because her kids see her fine, her clients pay her actual money to see her, and the neighborhood dogs are big fans. Turns out the whole invisibility thing was never a law of nature — it was marketing, aimed at an audience that was never worth auditioning for in the first place. There’s also a detour into the grandmother hypothesis, which is a real anthropological theory about women in Tanzania whose foraging may have single-handedly kept humanity alive, deployed here as evidence that older women aren’t fading extras, they’re the load-bearing wall of the whole operation. She wraps by flipping the script entirely: instead of another list of what she’s given up, she runs through everything she’s making more room for now that she’s stopped performing for an audience that was never real — opinions, pleasure, ambition, curiosity, her own intuition — and asks you to send yours. Sign up. No audition required. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.radiantbadass.com

    invisible to whom, exactly?

  2. Sep 18

    Keep Your Torch

    Elizabeth is still basking in the verdict from last episode: crying while singing along to Bikini Kill is, per popular vote, the most punk rock thing she’s ever done. She’ll take it. But that same day at Bumbershoot left a second souvenir: an offhand comment from her husband about “passing the torch,” which she responded to by kinda biting his head off and now she’s spending an entire episode explaining why. (Sorry, babe. Also — thank you, babe.) The comment sent her spiraling back to 2023 and the Barbie movie, specifically the scene where Ruth Handler tells Barbie that motherhood is a self-sacrificing relay race, one generation shoving the next one forward forever, never getting to see the finish line. Elizabeth finds this... a lot. Very Sisyphean. Not exactly marketing material for motherhood. From there she goes on a tear about how “pass the torch” gets said to every woman who’s ever accomplished anything — feminists, activists, pop stars, anyone who’s cracked (not shattered, that thing is basically Kevlar) a glass ceiling — while men just quietly keep their torches until they’re holding a smoking nub and a Senate seat. Exhibit A, straight from her old career in the legal field: law firms that let male partners “retire” into cushy of-counsel status, keeping the office, the letterhead, and everyone’s undying respect, indefinitely. Her official ruling: nobody’s torch is getting passed. You keep yours. You can just illuminate somewhere new. She lands the plane on something personal — the ongoing tug-of-war in her own head about whether it’s time to slow down since there’s been a retirement in her household, and the flash of rage his comment set off that told her, in no uncertain terms, absolutely not yet. get more torch-hoarding, patriarchy-side-eyeing, occasionally-crying-at-punk-shows content in your inbox. Subscribe. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.radiantbadass.com

    Keep Your Torch

  3. Sep 11

    there’s no crying at a bikini kill show

    Second summer showed up in the Pacific Northwest this week, which — fine, we all know the drill by now. Rain, then one last blast of heat before the cardigans come out. Elizabeth is ready for the cardigans. But before fall officially lands, there was Bumbershoot. Elizabeth’s youngest texted to ask if she wanted to go see Bikini Kill together, and the answer was obviously yes, even though Elizabeth hasn’t set foot in a music festival crowd in roughly two decades. She reports back: the festival is smaller than its wild ‘90s self, but well-run, clean, and safe, with a full weekend (she went for the day, gotta ease back in) of music, vintage fashion, comedy, wrestling, and — yes — a cat circus. Highlights from the day include a band called XCOMM that made Elizabeth want to punch someone (a compliment, from her), and Joey Valence & Brae, who she assumed from the name alone would be a Christian rap duo and who turned out to be gloriously Beastie Boys–coded instead. Then Bikini Kill took the stage, her kid disappeared into the pit to make their own memories, and Elizabeth — planted safely halfway back with a couple of women her own age — started crying while singing along. Not exactly punk. Except it kind of was. She gets into why: the girl-punk bands of her youth weren’t singing from the guy’s point of view, they were singing her whole messy experience back to her, and hearing it again cracked something open about the person she used to be before “the warm blanket of conformity” settled over her shoulders. She closes with a small, sincere thank-you to her kid for the reminder that Bikini Kill heals — and a quick, weary aside about sharing a name with a certain notorious tech founder. This Elizabeth is currently not in prison, actually. join the mosh pit (email edition). crowd surf this to a friend - it’s free This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.radiantbadass.com

    there’s no crying at a bikini kill show

  4. Sep 4

    9 to 5 was a documentary

    Rewatched 9 to 5 this weekend for the first time since I was a kid. Turns out I only remembered the pot-smoking revenge fantasy part. The actual radical bit — equal pay, job sharing, on-site daycare — is still fiction 46 years later. New episode on that, plus why Warner Bros shelving the Coyote vs. Acme movie is basically a real-life sequel to the plot. Subscribe for the rants the HR department would flag. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.radiantbadass.com

    9 to 5 was a documentary

  5. Aug 28

    remembering the OG Radiant Badass

    We lost Dolly Parton this week, and then Tim Curry followed right behind her. It’s the kind of loss that makes you feel the eclipse energy in your bones — a little bit 2016, a little bit too much all at once. This episode starts there: the grief, the parasocial ache of losing someone you never met but somehow knew, and a genuine send-off for the woman who refused to stay in her lane. Then, because sad doesn’t cancel out good things happening, a couple of glimmers: a wonderfully un-heckled night watching Chelsea Peretti work out new material at Solaris Hall, and a surprise new favorite album from an artist recommendation that actually stuck. And because sometimes the best way through sad is mad, the episode closes on a rant. Cory Doctorow’s new book has confirmed every suspicion about the tech and finance sectors being built on inflated valuations and borrowed credibility, and there’s a real conversation here about pedestals, participation, and what happens when we stop supplying both. In honor of Dolly: be kind, wear what you want, and think for yourself. Vince Staples - Cry Baby Free therapy, minus the couch and the copay. Subscribe. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.radiantbadass.com

    remembering the OG Radiant Badass

  6. Aug 21

    Kinda Chic, Actually Cooked

    Okay so one of my friends suggested maybe I might want to rant about social medial’s “kinda chic” trend (thank Jesus if you don’t know what I’m talking about) and I felt an Aries rage rise up my spine like a fire alarm going off in my soul. She was right. You know the trend — “kinda chic to know your barista’s name,” kind of stuff. Ma’am. That’s not chic. That’s a caption generator having a stroke. New episode is me working out why this specific flavor of online garbage got under my skin, and it turns into a whole thing about the fourth guy at the party who tries to add one more joke to a bit that already died a natural death. RIP that joke. Let it rest. Anyway I have thoughts. If you've ever wanted to cc yourself on my internal monologue, this is the button for that. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.radiantbadass.com

    Kinda Chic, Actually Cooked

  7. Aug 14

    Relatable Is a Scam

    Black Diamond watermelon gets the hero's welcome it deserves, and then things get real. This week Elizabeth serves up a summer check-in — the watermelon, an HBO show she refuses to synopsize, an analog-life manifesto — before pivoting hard into a real-time dispatch from the enshittification files: apartment-hunting hellscapes, a rent algorithm that smells suspiciously like price fixing, and a Nordstrom Anniversary Sale that has lost the plot entirely. It ends where it should: with a mic drop on the word "relatable" and an order to keep shining anyway. New episodes land in your inbox instead of some app's algorithm deciding you deserve them. Subscribe to the Radiant Badass — free, no cashier's check required. 🍉 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.radiantbadass.com

    Relatable Is a Scam

  8. Aug 7

    Flipping the Channel

    This week Elizabeth is riding out oppressive heat and apocalyptic wildfire smoke with real 2020 Flashback Energy, also included: a heroic 31-movies-in-31-days finish (two on the last day, no regrets), and the triumphant return of “cable,” which is not cable, but she’ll take it. Turns out the real prize isn’t the shows — it’s getting to flip mindlessly between them again instead of Committing to a Title, our girl finds her rebellion in unique ways these days. Don’t try to tell her what to watch in what order. Then she opens an unofficial case file on House Hunters and Beachfront Bargain Hunt: the couples who narrate their own house tours like they’ve never seen a bathroom before, and the husbands who will torch a family’s actual bedroom count for a fancy grill they can “see themselves” using. The wives are holding it together by a thread and Elizabeth is, frankly, here for the drama. Wraps up getting the ick from our weird celebrity culture and making the call now: cable’s coming back, baby. doom-loop weather, chaotic cable, and zero patience left for celebrities. subscribe because it’s likely going to get weirder. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.radiantbadass.com

    Flipping the Channel
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4.5
out of 5
17 Ratings

About

The Radiant Badass with Elizabeth Holmes is the podcast you need if you miss sitting around your best friend’s basement riffing on whatever comes to mind. Elizabeth’s perspective as a GenXer raised by pop culture and a curious person influences her view on the world whether she’s talking books, music or how to keep your sanity in a rapidly changing world – and she’s happy to talk about all of those subjects. www.radiantbadass.com

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