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Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff — History
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.

Copyright: 2024 iHeartMedia, Inc. © Any use of this intellectual property for text and data mining or computational analysis including as training material for artificial intelligence systems is strictly prohibited without express written consent from iHeartMedia

Latest Episodes:

Part Two: Cory Doctorow on Speculative Fiction for Social Change Aug 12, 2026

Show notes

Margaret continues her interview with author and activist Cory Doctorow about the role of fiction in making a better world

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Part One: Cory Doctorow on Speculative Fiction for Social Change Aug 10, 2026

Show notes

Margaret interviews the author and activist Cory Doctorow about the role of fiction in making a better world

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

CZM Book Club: What We Want, What We Believe, by Alex Smith, Part Two Aug 09, 2026

Show notes

Prince Shakur returns to finish reading Margaret a story about revolution, repression, and survival for Black August

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CZM Rewind: Part Two: Crisis Hotlines: Of Course Queers Invented Them Aug 05, 2026

Show notes

Margaret continues talking to you about the history of suicide prevention hotlines and the complications of state intervention in emergency mental health care

Original Air Date: 10.22.2025

Sources:

https://translifeline.org/about/history/
https://translifeline.org/response-to-988-cuts/
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/10/27/359434925/bernard-mayes-nprs-first-chairman-founder-of-suicide-hotline-dies
https://www.sfgate.com/living/article/Bernard-Mayes-to-be-honored-as-lifeline-to-3516576.php
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/11447250/Bernard-Mayes-priest-obituary.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20141026134947/http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/10/24/bernard-mayes-kqed-fms-first-general-manager-dies-at-85
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45106/sonnet-116-let-me-not-to-the-marriage-of-true-minds
https://www.sfsuicide.org/about/
https://translifeline.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/The-Problem-With-988-Report-November-2024-Text.pdf
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11733462/
https://www.cdc.gov/suicide/facts/data.html

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6978712/

https://www.psychiatry.org/News-room/APA-Blogs/Marking-Two-Years-of-988-The-Suicide-and-Crisis-Li

https://behavioralhealthlink.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/988-History-Journal-Article_JohnDraper.pdf

https://www.inclusivetherapists.com/blog/suicide-mental-health-crisis-resources-not-police

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/her-death-sparked-transgender-day-remembrance-22-years-later-still-n1233809

https://www.them.us/story/rita-hester-trans-remembrance-visibility-memorial

https://translifeline.org/why-no-non-consensual-intervention/

https://www.them.us/story/trans-lifeline-report-988-police-interventions

https://madattheinternet.substack.com/p/online-censorships-institutional

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32121226

https://glaad.org/tdor/

https://web.archive.org/web/20250107195548/https://cohost.org/lizthegrey/post/1520523-some-philanthropy-th

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CZM Rewind: Part One: Crisis Hotlines: Of Course Queers Invented Them Aug 03, 2026

Show notes

Margaret talks to you about the history of suicide prevention hotlines and the complications of state intervention in emergency mental health care

Original Air Date: 10.20.2025

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

CZM Book Club: What We Want, What We Believe by Alex Smith, Part One Aug 02, 2026

Show notes

Prince Shakur reads Margaret a story about revolution, repression, and survival for Black August

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Part Two: Charlotta Bass: The Black Journalist Who Refused the Red Scare Jul 29, 2026

Show notes

Margaret finishes her talk with Cristen Conger about an organizer who was the first Black American woman to own a newspaper and once scared off the Klan

Sources:

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-may-20-op-anderson20-story.html
https://www.npr.org/2021/05/04/993605428/beneath-the-santa-monica-freeway-lies-the-erasure-of-sugar-hill
https://americacomesalive.com/california-eagle-newspaper-black-readership-ahead-time/
https://www.pbs.org/blackpress/news_bios/ca_eagle.html
https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf6c60052d
The Untold Story of Charlotta Spears Bass, Groundbreaking Politician, Nicole A. Mansfield
https://www.history.com/articles/nat-turner-rebellion-literacy-slavery
https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2021/02/brown-s-first-black-female-graduate-ethel-robinson-s-legacy-on-college-hill
https://ncph.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Redlining-and-Racial-Covenants_pdfversion.pdf
https://www.segregationbydesign.com/los-angeles/sugar-hill
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/progressive-party-platform-1948
https://mutterhood.com/charlotta-bass/
https://www.blackwomenradicals.com/blog-feed/charlotta-spears-bass
https://lamag.com/lahistory/charlotta-bass-kkk/
https://web.archive.org/web/20090819013517/http://www.socallib.org/SCLWebsite/hiseagle.htm
https://www.myblackhistory.net/Charlotta_Bass.htm
https://www.aaihs.org/charlotta-bass-and-the-cold-war-peace-movement/

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Part One: Charlotta Bass: The Black Journalist Who Refused the Red Scare Jul 27, 2026

Show notes

Margaret talks to Cristen Conger about an organizer who was the first Black American woman to own a newspaper and once scared off the Klan.

Source:

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-may-20-op-anderson20-story.html
https://www.npr.org/2021/05/04/993605428/beneath-the-santa-monica-freeway-lies-the-erasure-of-sugar-hill
https://americacomesalive.com/california-eagle-newspaper-black-readership-ahead-time/
https://www.pbs.org/blackpress/news_bios/ca_eagle.html
https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf6c60052d
The Untold Story of Charlotta Spears Bass, Groundbreaking Politician, Nicole A. Mansfield
https://www.history.com/articles/nat-turner-rebellion-literacy-slavery
https://www.browndailyherald.com/article/2021/02/brown-s-first-black-female-graduate-ethel-robinson-s-legacy-on-college-hill
https://ncph.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Redlining-and-Racial-Covenants_pdfversion.pdf
https://www.segregationbydesign.com/los-angeles/sugar-hill
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/progressive-party-platform-1948
https://mutterhood.com/charlotta-bass/
https://www.blackwomenradicals.com/blog-feed/charlotta-spears-bass
https://lamag.com/lahistory/charlotta-bass-kkk/
https://web.archive.org/web/20090819013517/http://www.socallib.org/SCLWebsite/hiseagle.htm
https://www.myblackhistory.net/Charlotta_Bass.htm
https://www.aaihs.org/charlotta-bass-and-the-cold-war-peace-movement/

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CZM Book Club: Locust House, by Adam Gnade (Part Four of Four) Jul 26, 2026

Show notes

Margaret finishes up reading you a story about punks, growing up, and refusing to lose your edge

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Part Two: Robin Hood and the Legacy of Outlaws in Medieval England Jul 22, 2026

Show notes

Margaret continuing talking to Joe Kassabian about how Robin Hood might not have been real, but bandits who supported the peasantry was.

Sources:

https://mercian-as.co.uk/chester.html
https://entertablementabroad.com/2026/06/sheriffs-and-shires-the-geography-of-governance/
https://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/culture-leisure/country-parks/history-of-sherwood-forest-robin-hood-and-major-oak
https://mercian-as.co.uk/about_sherwood.html
https://www.etymonline.com/word/tithe
https://www.etymonline.com/word/tour
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3678889
https://mercian-as.co.uk/outlaws.html
https://sites.nd.edu/manuscript-studies/tag/sloth/
https://www.medievalists.net/2021/05/piers-plowman-great-uprising-1381/
https://robinhoodlegend.com/the-legend/
https://web.archive.org/web/20201116124922/https://d.lib.rochester.edu/teams/text/gest-of-robyn-hode
https://traditionalbritain.org/blog/walter-scott-as-a-conservative-thinker/
https://web.archive.org/web/20201115204031/https://d.lib.rochester.edu/robin-hood/text/chandler-robin-hood-development-of-a-popular-hero
https://www.academia.edu/6274298/Robin_Hood_and_the_Social_Context_of_Late_Medieval_Archery
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Robin_Hood

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