Podcast
Punkast
Jessica Schwartz, Associate Professor of Musicology and Music Industry at UCLA, sets out to explore the meaning of punk through conversations with the people who shape, live, and remix it—musicians, videographers, cultural producers, and the academics who study it—while animating punk’s DIY creativity, resistance, and sense of possibility. Schwartz also co-hosts the Punk Scholars Podcast.
Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Episodes
- 92
- Releases
- Weekly
- Typical length
- 55 min
- On air since
- 2020
- Latest episode
- 4 days ago
Episodes
92 episodes, newest first
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35 min
Josh Andujo (Gabrielino Tongva) (SGV Ska Punk) with Kristy Martinez
Show notes
“Few shows I've been to, like in East LA Boyle Heights, same thing. You have a taqueria right there. It could be somebody's tía or tío making food for the community. They're not charging, but, like, you know, people still show love.”
Continuing Punkast's guest-hosted conversations celebrating Indigenous creativity and looking ahead to Native American Heritage Month, Kristy Martinez, UCLA PhD candidate, musician, and archivist, speaks with Josh Andujo (Gabrielino Tongva), a community activist, cultural educator, skater, and participant in Southern California's punk, ska, goth, and emo scenes.
Growing up in Montebello, Josh developed connections to music through family members involved in punk, ska, lowrider, and other subcultures. Kristy and Josh discuss the San Gabriel Valley's Indigenous histories, its diverse musical communities, and the relationships between punk, skating, and cultural identity. From backyard shows and mosh pits to neighborhood gatherings where families prepare food and look after one another, Josh reflects on music as a space for belonging, mutual care, and community expression.
Their conversation also explores Josh's work with Tongva cultural education, land acknowledgments, youth mentorship, and environmental stewardship across the San Gabriel and San Fernando Valleys. Through workshops, educational hikes, and community events, he helps young people understand the histories of the places they inhabit and their responsibilities toward the land. Kristy and Josh discuss Latinx and Indigenous participation in punk and ska, the importance of local scenes, and the ways music and skateboarding can support confidence, connection, and healing.
Looking toward future generations, Josh calls for greater inclusion of women, LGBTQ+ participants, and young musicians in punk communities. The conversation closes with reflections on the ongoing importance of cultural recognition, local organizing, and creating spaces where people can participate, learn, and care for one another.
About the guest
Josh Andujo is a Gabrielino Tongva cultural educator, community advocate, and Montebello native with deep roots in Los Angeles punk and ska. Through cultural workshops, land acknowledgments, outdoor education, and youth mentorship, he promotes recognition of Tongva histories and stewardship of the San Gabriel Valley and surrounding lands. His work connects Indigenous cultural preservation with music, skating, and community organizing.
Guest host and producer
Kristy Martinez is a UCLA PhD candidate in Musicology, vocalist, and archivist researching punk, emo, and subcultures in Southern California through music, ephemera, placemaking, and visual culture. Raised in the San Gabriel Valley, with family roots in Sonora, Mexico, she founded the DIY Indigenous Punx Archive, documenting Indigenous punk through flyers, photographs, videos, and band histories. The archive has been featured at the Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas and the Denver Art Museum.
Recorded October 2026.
Links + References
Instagram: Josh Andujo
Instagram: Indigenous Punks Archive
Credits
Punkast is hosted and produced by Jessica Schwartz.
Guest hosting, production, and audio editing: Kristy Martinez.
Transcript:
Theme Music:
Lady Bits, "Bitch-a-thon,"https://lady-bits.bandcamp.com/album/lady-bitsLady Bits.
Related:
Jessica Schwartz co-hosts the Punk Scholars Podcast.
About Punkast:
Punkast is a weekly podcast exploring punk in the historical present through critical conversations, inquiry, and collaboration.
Connect with Punkast:
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/punkastucla/punkastucla
Email: punkastucla@gmail.com
Stay tapped in. New episodes every Friday.
Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.
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55 min
Gabe Colhoff (Northern Cheyenne · Blackfeet) (Pow Wow Punk Rock) with Kristy Martinez
Show notes
“If someone in the sweat goes down, you pick them up. Well, then I'd go to these punk shows ... you're shoulder to shoulder with your people.”
“So us walking into clubs with like hats and braids and stuff and everyone's just like, where's your mohawk, bro? And like, I don't, I don't, I have braids dog.”
Continuing Punkast's guest-hosted conversations highlighting Indigenous creativity and music, guest host and producer Kristy Martinez, UCLA PhD candidate, musician, and archivist, speaks with Gabe Colhoff of 1876, an Indigenous punk band based in Portland, Oregon. Gabe traces his musical upbringing through powwow music, hip-hop, punk, ska, and two-tone, recalling the connections he found between Northern Cheyenne ceremonial life and punk shows through singing, community, and mutual care. They discuss forming 1876 during the pandemic, DIY recording, and the Pow Wow Punk Rock EP series, which brings powwow drumming, traditional languages, and experimental sounds into punk.
Kristy and Gabe also discuss the women who shaped his life and music, from relatives featured on the band's album covers to “Narcissa,” a song on which Kristy collaborated. Their conversation explores songwriting, Indigenous representation, resistance, censorship, and the contradictions of punk scenes that don't always live up to their stated commitments. Moving through touring, festival politics, and community organizing, they consider the relationships and responsibilities that sustain 1876's music across Turtle Island.
About the guest
1876 is an Indigenous punk band founded by Gabe Colhoff in Portland, Oregon, in 2020. The band proudly represents the Northern Cheyenne, Blackfeet, Comanche, Kanaka Maoli, Pikanii, Siksika, and Tsitsitsas nations. Playing across Turtle Island, from sweat lodges to punk clubs, 1876 infuses rebellious, aggressive punk rock with powwow drumming, traditional languages, and experimental sounds, drawing on ska, hip-hop, and hardcore. Through music, visual art, and community work, the band brings attention to Indigenous experiences and narratives often neglected by the music industry while giving back to its communities. They have performed and collaborated with Lo Ca$h Ninjas, Subhumans, Total Chaos, the Casualties, Patrick Stump, and others.
Guest host and producer
Kristy Martinez is a UCLA PhD candidate in Musicology, vocalist, and archivist researching punk, emo, and subcultures in Southern California through music, ephemera, placemaking, and visual culture. Raised in the San Gabriel Valley, with family roots in Sonora, Mexico, she founded the DIY Indigenous Punx Archive, documenting Indigenous punk through flyers, photographs, videos, and band histories. The archive has been featured at the Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas and the Denver Art Museum.
Recorded September 2026.
Content note: This episode includes discussion of violence against women, the Highway of Tears, police brutality, and political conflict.
Links + References
Credits
Punkast is hosted and produced by Jessica Schwartz.
Guest hosting, production, and audio editing: Kristy Martinez.
Transcript:
Theme Music:
Lady Bits, "Bitch-a-thon,"Lady Bits.
Related:
Jessica Schwartz co-hosts the Punk Scholars Podcast.
About Punkast:
Punkast is a weekly podcast exploring punk in the historical present through critical conversations, inquiry, and collaboration.
Connect with Punkast:
Instagram:punkastucla
Email: punkastucla@gmail.com
Stay tapped in. New episodes every Friday.
Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.
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1 hr 13 min
Viki Eagle (Sicangu Lakota) (Rez Metal) with Kristy Martinez (Guest Host)
Show notes
“And she wore this Iron Maiden T-shirt and she wore these Navajo moccasins. And I was like, wow, that's like the coolest picture to this day that I think I've ever taken.”
In recognition of Indigenous Peoples' Day and the upcoming Native American Heritage Month, Punkast welcomes Kristy Martinez, UCLA PhD candidate and researcher, as guest host and producer for conversations with Indigenous scholars, musicians, and community organizers across punk and adjacent scenes.
Kristy speaks with Viki Eagle (Sicangu Lakota), a photographer, anthropologist, and educator whose work explores Indigenous creativity, alternative music, and community. Growing up in Denver's urban Native community, Viki found belonging in the punk, emo, and metal scenes along Colfax Avenue. These experiences inform her research documenting rez metal in the American Southwest through photography, ethnography, and community engagement.
Kristy and Viki discuss how journalists, filmmakers, and academics represent Indigenous metal communities. While acknowledging hardship, loss, and resistance, Viki challenges narratives that overshadow musicians' artistry, joy, and community. They explore Indigenous visibility, media stereotypes, and Viki's photography project Real Life Indian, which challenges conventional images of Native identity. From an Iron Maiden T-shirt paired with Navajo moccasins to everyday portraits, Viki emphasizes self-representation, consent, and community relationships.
The conversation also moves through Indigenous punk, metal, and emo; academic research; and the importance of creating spaces for musicians, students, and communities to connect. Kristy and Viki discuss rez metal concerts, the UCLA symposium, all-ages shows, DIY organizing, and bringing Indigenous music and knowledge into university spaces. They consider everyday acts of resistance and close with recommendations for Indigenous punk and metal bands worth discovering.
Content note: This episode includes brief discussions of Indian boarding schools, forced relocation, school shootings (including Columbine), mental health, suicide, and stereotypes linking emo and metal to self-harm.
About the guest
Viki Eagle is a Sicangu Lakota and Japanese photographer, anthropologist, and educator from Denver, Colorado. Her project Real Life Indian documents contemporary Indigenous lives and challenges stereotypes of Native identity. Her research explores rez metal through photography and ethnography, and she organizes concerts and community programs connecting Indigenous musicians, scholars, and audiences.
Guest host and producer
Kristy Martinez is a UCLA PhD candidate researching Indigenous punk, alternative music cultures, and BIPOC emo communities in Southern California. As guest host and producer, she brings her research, musical knowledge, and relationships with Indigenous scholars and artists to Punkast.
Links + References:
Native Bruins: Viki Eagle - UCLA American Indian Studies Center
Ancestor's Rez Metal: (Re)Mapping an Indigenous Sonic Resistance
Credits:
Punkast is hosted and produced by Jessica Schwartz.
This episode is guest-hosted, produced, and edited by Kristy Martinez.
Transcript:
Theme Music:
Lady Bits, "Bitch-a-thon,"https://lady-bits.bandcamp.com/album/lady-bitsLady Bits.
Related:
Jessica Schwartz co-hosts the Punk Scholars Podcast.
About Punkast:
Punkast is a weekly podcast exploring punk in the historical present through critical conversations, inquiry, and collaboration.
Connect with Punkast:
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/punkastucla/punkastucla
Email: punkastucla@gmail.com
Stay tapped in. New episodes every Friday.
Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.
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44 min
"Women in Punk" Part 2 (Punk@50)
Show notes
“Because it was a do-it-yourself thing where we just rejected the norm and did our own thing.”
In Part 2 of the Women in Punk panel, recorded live at the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles as part of Alle gegen Alles. Punk@50, Jessica Schwartz continues the conversation with Pleasant Gehman, Jula Bell Liebi, and Tequila Mockingbird, with additional contributions from Cloudia Wintermute of Die Schlaflosen (Sleepless) and Stella Stray Pop of KXLU. Moving through stories of music, friendship, touring, and artistic influences, the participants reflect on the relationships and creative encounters that shaped their experiences of punk.
The conversation turns toward women’s experiences in bands, the artists who inspired them, and the ongoing work of making things. From Bowie, Exene Cervenka, Chrissie Hynde, Nina Hagen, and Lydia Lunch to stories of touring, performing, writing, dancing, and recording, the panelists consider what punk made possible and how those experiences continue to inform their creative lives. Tequila discusses Punk School and her work preserving punk histories, while the conversation opens onto the possibilities of contemporary tools for independent music-making.
As the discussion moves toward archives, ephemera, and intergenerational exchange, the panelists reflect on what they saved, what they learned, and what younger artists are making possible today. Stella Stray Pop joins the conversation near its conclusion, sharing memories of KXLU, independent radio, and the freedom to play music outside commercial formats. Collectively, these stories return to punk as an ongoing practice of creativity, community, and doing things for oneself—together.
“Women in Punk” is part ofhttps://goethe.de/usa/punk50Alle gegen Alles. Punk@50, a project of the Goethe-Institutes in the United States and Mexico marking the 50th anniversary of punk through a series of exhibitions, concerts, film screenings, and discussions that focus on punk as a subculture, protest movement, and catalyst for self-determination.
Featuring:
Additional participants:
Cloudia Wintermute — Die Schlaflosen / Sleepless
Stella Stray Pop — KXLU 88.9 FM Los Angeles
Moderated by Jessica Schwartz.
Introduced by Luisa Rath-John, Director, Goethe-Institut Los Angeles (Part 1).
Recorded live at the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles, September 2026.
Links + References:
Women in Punk — Goethe-Institut Los Angeles
Die Schlaflosen / Sleepless — Official Website
Credits:
Punkast is hosted and produced by Jessica Schwartz.
Editorial support: Arrow Menendez– audio editing and audio-synced transcript.
Panel photograph by Gary Leonard @tmpgaryleonard.
Transcript:
Theme Music:
Lady Bits, "Bitch-a-thon,"https://lady-bits.bandcamp.com/album/lady-bitsLady Bits.
Related:
Jessica Schwartz co-hosts the Punk Scholars Podcast.
About Punkast:
Punkast is a weekly podcast exploring punk in the historical present through critical conversations, inquiry, and collaboration.
Connect with Punkast:
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/punkastucla/punkastucla
Email: punkastucla@gmail.com
Stay tapped in. New episodes every Friday.
Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.
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45 min
"Women in Punk" Part 1 (Punk@50)
Show notes
“It changed everything. All sorts of different art came out of it—the people that made the flyers, the people that wrote the fanzines, not just the bands.”
Recorded live at the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles as part of Alle gegen Alles. Punk@50, Jessica Schwartz moderates a Women in Punk conversation with Jula Bell Liebi, Pleasant Gehman, and Tequila Mockingbird. Following an introduction by Goethe-Institut Los Angeles director Luisa Rath-John and an archival clip from Tequila's collection, the panel begins with memory: what remains when the people, places, images, and absurdities of an earlier punk scene are encountered decades later.
Moving through freedom, surveillance, silliness, anger, friendship, nightlife, touring, fashion, film, clubs, shared houses, and the informal networks through which people found one another, the panelists remember punk less as a fixed genre than as a social world. Their stories foreground the creative practices surrounding bands—from flyers and fanzines to performance, writing, casting, clothing, and art—and the forms of mutual recognition and support through which scenes traveled well beyond Los Angeles.
The conversation repeatedly returns to women’s experiences within those worlds: what early punk made possible, what remained difficult, and how women built friendships and creative lives alongside one another. Rather than offering a tidy history of “women in punk,” Part 1 unfolds through stories—ridiculous, intimate, sometimes unruly accounts of finding one another, making things, getting by, and learning how to become comfortable in one’s own skin.
“Women in Punk” is part ofhttps://goethe.de/usa/punk50Alle gegen Alles. Punk@50, a project of the Goethe-Institutes in the United States and Mexico marking the 50th anniversary of punk through a series of exhibitions, concerts, film screenings, and discussions that focus on punk as a subculture, protest movement, and catalyst for self-determination.
Featuring:
Moderated by Jessica Schwartz.
Introduced by Luisa Rath-John, Director, Goethe-Institut Los Angeles.
Recorded September 2026.
Archival media:
Excerpts from Tequila TV, courtesy of the Tequila Mockingbird L.A. Punk Museum Collection, UCLA Library Special Collections Punk Archive.
Links + References:
Discussion : Women in Punk @ Tequila Mockingbird's Punk Museum - Goethe-Institut USA
Credits:
Punkast is hosted and produced by Jessica Schwartz.
Editorial support: Arrow Menendez– audio editing and audio-synced transcript.
Panel photograph by Gary Leonard @tmpgaryleonard.
Transcript:
Theme Music:
Lady Bits, "Bitch-a-thon,"https://lady-bits.bandcamp.com/album/lady-bitsLady Bits.
Related:
Jessica Schwartz co-hosts the Punk Scholars Podcast.
About Punkast:
Punkast is a weekly podcast exploring punk in the historical present through critical conversations, inquiry, and collaboration.
Connect with Punkast:
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/punkastucla/punkastucla
Email: punkastucla@gmail.com
Stay tapped in. New episodes every Friday.
Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.
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45 min
Luisa Rath-John + Ilka Erren Pardiñas (Goethe-Institut)
Show notes
“Sometimes it’s actually quite okay to let go of this control … and to trust in the process and to trust in the people that you’re working with.”
Jessica Schwartz speaks with Goethe-Institut Los Angeles director Luisa Rath-John and Ilka Erren Pardiñas about the making of Alle gegen Alles. Punk@50, a transatlantic collaborative project exploring punk’s continuing relationships to subculture, protest, and self-determination through locally rooted programs across the United States and Mexico.
The conversation moves across the project’s transatlantic structure: Berlin band CAVA’s tour through the United States and Mexico, different regional approaches to punk history and contemporary practice, DIY as a connective principle, multilingual exchange, and the challenge of recognizing punk’s history without falling into what Jessica calls a “nostalgia trap.” Luisa and Ilka describe the deliberate effort to bring younger artists, women, queer communities, and contemporary creative practices into a project concerned not simply with where punk has been, but with what punk can mean now.
Turning to Los Angeles and Tequila Mockingbird’s Punk Museum, Luisa and Ilka reflect on what the institution itself learned through the collaboration. As objects and contributors continued to arrive during installation, a planned exhibition became more fluid and community-built: walls filled through collective participation, and institutional expectations around advance planning and curatorial control gave way to trust in Tequila’s process and the people who brought the museum into being. The conversation closes by considering the relationships, collaborations, and possibilities that might continue beyond Punk@50 itself.
Luisa Rath-John is Director of the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles. She joined the Goethe-Institut in 2017 and previously served as Regional Director for Cultural Programming at the Goethe-Institut Prague before taking up her Los Angeles directorship in 2024. Growing up in East Germany, she encountered punk as part of the youth culture around her and describes her connection to punk as personal.
Ilka Erren Pardiñas is a Los Angeles–based publicist, music-industry professional, and founder of the independent publicity firm Fly PR. Her work spans music and entertainment, books and publishing, tour promotion, community organizations and events, and industry mentoring and consulting. For Alle gegen Alles. Punk@50, she brings more than three decades of music-industry experience and her longstanding involvement in punk to the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles project.
Recorded September 2026.
Links + References:
Main Alle gegenAlles. Punk@50 project page
Goethe on Demand — Gegenüber - Alle gegen Alles: Punk@50
Punk@50 Everyone against everything - Gegenüber - Goethe-Institut
Neighborhood Interpretive Center – entire project plus short info on Survive, Thrive or Die: LA Punk and The Poor Kids on LSDGoethe-Institut USA | Los Angeles
Tequila Mockingbird's Punk Museum
Credits:
Punkast is hosted and produced by Jessica Schwartz.
Editorial support: Arrow Menendez– audio-synced transcript.
Transcript:
Theme Music:
Lady Bits, "Bitch-a-thon,"Lady Bits.
Related:
Jessica Schwartz co-hosts the Punk Scholars Podcast.
About Punkast:
Punkast is a weekly podcast exploring punk in the historical present through critical conversations, inquiry, and collaboration.
Connect with Punkast:
Instagram:punkastucla
Email: punkastucla@gmail.com
Stay tapped in. New episodes every Friday.
Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.
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23 min
Tequila Mockingbird (Punk@50)
Show notes
“For me, it’s always going to be about making sure that our legacies are honored and protected.”
Tequila Mockingbird joins Jessica Schwartz for a conversation about bringing her Punk Museum into the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles as part of Alle gegen Alles. Punk@50. Tequila traces the relationships that brought the collaboration into being and reflects on what institutional recognition means for a project she continues to describe not as her museum but as “our punk museum”—a community-built space shaped through the objects, artworks, memories, and stories people entrust to one another.
Moving through art, ephemera, music, friendship, Punk School, and her own approach to historical preservation, Tequila considers what happens when punk’s DIY practices enter institutional spaces. Rather than treating punk as a fixed collection of relics, she describes the museum as a living “show and tell”: artists and friends bring their own materials, tell the histories attached to them, and collectively build a record of a scene that was never made by one person alone.
The conversation also turns toward punk as a way of thinking—one grounded, for Tequila, in learning to say no, thinking for oneself, and preserving histories for future generations. Looking beyond the current exhibition, she reflects on Punk School, books and film projects, archives, and her commitment to building a “time capsule” whose materials can remain accessible and cared for long after the present moment.
Tequila Mockingbird is an artist, journalist, producer, curator, and cultural archivist whose work has documented and preserved Los Angeles underground music and art for decades. A seminal figure in the Los Angeles punk scene, she is the founder of the Punk Museum, an immersive, community-centered project dedicated to punk history, and Punk School, an educational platform focused on punk’s histories, practices, and values. Her work across television, music, journalism, visual art, archives, and public pedagogy connects the lived histories of early Los Angeles punk with contemporary approaches to preservation and scholarship.
Recorded September 2026.
Links + References:
Tequila Mockingbird's Punk Museum (at the Goethe Institut)
Tequila Mockingbird L.A. Punk Museum Collection — UCLA Library Special Collections
Main Alle gegenAlles. Punk@50 project page
The Year Was: 1982 — Tequila Mockingbird + Annett Scheffel / dublab
Credits:
Punkast is hosted and produced by Jessica Schwartz.
Editorial support: Arrow Menedez - audio-synced transcript.
Transcript:
Theme Music:
Lady Bits, "Bitch-a-thon,"Lady Bits.
Related:
Jessica Schwartz co-hosts the Punk Scholars Podcast.
About Punkast:
Punkast is a weekly podcast exploring punk in the historical present through critical conversations, inquiry, and collaboration.
Connect with Punkast:
Instagram:punkastucla
Email: punkastucla@gmail.com
Stay tapped in. New episodes every Friday.
Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.
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1 hr 10 min
Stella Stray Pop (KXLU)
Show notes
In this episode:
“Radio…really is a labor of love.”
Jessica Schwartz and Tequila Mockingbird sit down with Stella of KXLU’s Stray Pop for a conversation spanning nearly five decades of independent radio, punk, and underground music in Los Angeles. Stella traces her beginnings at Loyola Marymount University in 1977 and the launch of Stray Pop in 1980, when playing punk and new wave on KXLU could still get her in trouble. From D. Boon singing an impromptu fundraiser song in the studio to the changing cultural status of music once treated as threatening or disposable, Stella reflects on what it means to remain behind the same microphone while both punk and Los Angeles change around her.
The conversation moves through radio as vocation and “punk rock salvation,” the mainstreaming and commercialization of punk, Janet Cunningham’s punk casting archive, and the musicians, artists, DJs, record stores, clubs, and neighborhoods that formed Stella’s Los Angeles. Along the way, Stella considers what the city has forgotten, how underground culture moves into institutions and everyday life, and why punk remains less a fixed musical genre than an attitude—something she recognizes through a visceral response to music rather than a formula for what it should sound like.
At the center of the episode is Stella’s practice of radio itself: hauling physical music into the station, annotating CDs and playlists, improvising connections live on air, and navigating the increasingly elaborate relationship between analog collections and digital systems. From reel-to-reel tapes and paper playlists to smartphones, streaming, automation, and algorithms, Stella reflects on the labor, accidents, memory, and intuition behind Stray Pop’s “eclectic disarray”—and on what live radio can still offer that an algorithmically generated playlist cannot.
Stella has been part of KXLU 88.9 FM since 1977 and has hosted Stray Pop since February 5, 1980. Her decades in Los Angeles underground music also include work as an L.A. correspondent for ZigZag magazine and as a senior editor at RIP magazine. Drawing on a vast personal collection and archive, Stella continues to broadcast Stray Pop live from KXLU, where her self-described “eclectic disarray” moves across punk and far beyond it.
Recorded September 2026.
Links + References:
Stray Pop
Fridays 11 PM–3 AM (Pacific Time) – LIVE
Mondays 2–6 AM (Pacific Time) – encores from the Stray Pop archives
KXLU 88.9 FM Los Angeles
Live stream: https://www.kxlu.com
Spinitron playlists: https://spinitron.com/KXLU/show/190234/Stray-Pop
Listen to recent Stray Pop broadcasts:
Recent episodes remain available to stream for two weeks after broadcast. Select a playlist with the speaker icon. Because the show crosses midnight, the first hour appears under Friday’s date and the remaining three hours under Saturday’s date.
Social Media
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/stella.kxlu
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stella_kxlu/
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@stella_kxlu
X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/StellaKXLU
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@stella_kxlu
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/stellakxlu.bsky.social
Credits:
Punkast is hosted and produced by Jessica Schwartz.
Co-hosted and guest produced by Tequila Mockingbird.
Photo Credit: Cathy Metcalf
Transcript:
Theme Music:
Lady Bits, "Bitch-a-thon,"Lady Bits.
Related:
Jessica Schwartz co-hosts the Punk Scholars Podcast.
About Punkast:
Punkast is a weekly podcast exploring punk in the historical present through critical conversations, inquiry, and collaboration.
Connect with Punkast:
Instagram:punkastucla
Email: punkastucla@gmail.com
Stay tapped in. New episodes every Friday.
Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.
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1 hr 10 min
Marie Arleth Skov and Maria Buszek (Unruly: The Body in Punk)
Show notes
In this episode:
We need to respect the scene and shine a spotlight on folks who were, in fact, laying the foundation.
Jessica Schwartz speaks with art historians Marie Arleth Skov and Maria Buszek about Unruly: The Body in Punk, curated by Marie and currently on view at ARoS in Aarhus, Denmark. Taking the exhibition and its catalogue as a starting point, they ask what becomes visible when the body moves to the center of punk history—exploring unruliness, feminism, sexuality, beauty and ugliness, movement, vulnerability, and the many ways bodies refuse expectations about how they should look, behave, and belong.
The conversation considers women’s often-marginalized contributions to punk histories and moves beyond familiar musicians and canonical figures toward what Maria describes through Brian Eno’s concept of “scenius”: the collective creativity of scenes, including fans, artists, photographers, designers, organizers, and others whose everyday practices helped make punk possible. Marie and Maria also reflect on the productive tensions involved in bringing punk into museums and art history without freezing, sanitizing, or separating it from the communities and forms of resistance from which it emerged.
Moving through sexuality, feminist histories, disability, institutionalization, collective spaces, and embodied forms of resistance and care, the conversation ultimately turns toward vulnerability and joy. Marie and Maria consider how punk bodies can be aggressive, sexual, ugly, intimate, soft, frightened, joyful, or deliberately difficult—and how showing vulnerability itself can become an unruly act, sustained through communities in which people protect and create alongside one another.
Marie Arleth Skov is a Danish art historian, curator, and author based in Berlin. She is the author of Punk Art History: Artworks from the European No Future Generation (Intellect Books, 2023) and has curated several exhibitions, most recently Unruly: The Body in Punk at ARoS Art Museum in Aarhus, Denmark. The accompanying catalogue was published by Marrow Press in 2026.
Maria Buszek is Professor of Art History at the University of Colorado Denver and an independent curator whose research and teaching focus on modern and contemporary art and design. She is the author of Pin-Up Grrrls: Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture and has written extensively on feminism, craft, art, and punk, including contributions to Punkademics and Punk & Post-Punk Journal, where she is an Associate Editor. Her current book project, Punk Feminisms: No Style But Strength, explores the relationships among feminist art, activism, and punk scenes in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Recorded September 2026.
Links + References:
Marie
Marrow Press – UNRULY. The Body in Punk – Marie Arleth Skov
Maria
Further links/collabs:
Punk Scholars Network International: Instagram
Marrow Press: Instagram
Credits:
Punkast is hosted and produced by Jessica Schwartz.
Editorial support: Arrow Menendez - audio editing and audio-synced transcript.
Transcript:
Theme Music:
Lady Bits, "Bitch-a-thon,"Lady Bits.
Related:
Jessica Schwartz co-hosts the Punk Scholars Podcast.
About Punkast:
Punkast is a weekly podcast exploring punk in the historical present through critical conversations, inquiry, and collaboration.
Connect with Punkast:
Instagram:punkastucla
Stay tapped in. New episodes every Friday.
Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.
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56 min
James Spooner (Afro-Punk)
Show notes
In this episode:
“A big part of finding your voice is being willing to be vulnerable and honest.”
Jessica Schwartz speaks with filmmaker, artist, and writer James Spooner about Black punk, belonging, vulnerability, and the complicated work of finding—and trusting—one’s own voice. Beginning with Spooner’s experiences as one of few Black punks in the Southern California desert and later within New York punk and hardcore scenes, the conversation considers what punk can make possible while remaining attentive to racism, exclusion, and inequality within the scenes themselves.
James reflects on the teenage manifesto and organizing project Earthwell, the unexpected afterlives of DIY ideas, and the making and continuing relevance of his documentary Afro-Punk. Moving through The High Desert and Black Punk Now, Jessica and James discuss racial ambiguity, passing, vulnerability, family, historical erasure, and the ways personal storytelling can create recognition across experiences without collapsing their differences.
The conversation also turns toward Black contributions to rock and punk history, intergenerational experiences of belonging, and the complicated relationship between underground and mainstream culture. Tequila Mockingbird joins the conversation to reflect on punk preservation and her work developing the Punk Museum, opening a broader discussion about archives, institutions, access, and what happens when DIY histories move into institutional spaces. James ultimately returns to DIY not as a credential or aesthetic category, but as the confidence to learn a form, find an audience, and make the work anyway.
This episode was recorded live with students from Jessica Schwartz’s UCLA Music Industry course, “DIY: Punk Organizing as Social Justice,” whose questions and contributions extend the conversation around access, cultural institutions, creative practice, and the relationships between mainstream and underground cultural spaces.
Editor’s note: This conversation was recorded in 2023, around the publication of Black Punk Now. James Spooner’s new memoir, It Starts with Anger, was published in August 2026 and extends many of the questions explored here around Black punk, belonging, DIY culture, Afro-Punk, and the relationship between underground movements and institutional power.
James Spooner is an award-winning graphic novelist, filmmaker, tattoo artist, and co-founder of the Afropunk Festival. He directed the landmark 2003 documentary Afro-Punk, is the author and illustrator of The High Desert, and co-edited Black Punk Now with Chris L. Terry. His newest book, It Starts with Anger, was published in August 2026.
Recorded November 2023.
Links + References:
James Spooner / Spooner’s No Fun
Credits:
Punkast is hosted and produced by Jessica Schwartz.
Conversation participant: Tequila Mockingbird.
This episode includes questions and contributions from students in the UCLA Music Industry course “DIY: Punk Organizing as Social Justice,” facilitated by Jessica Schwartz.
Editorial support: Melanie Hui – audio editing and audio-synced transcript.
Transcript:
Theme Music:
Lady Bits, "Bitch-a-thon,"Lady Bits.
Related:
Jessica Schwartz co-hosts the Punk Scholars Podcast.
Connect with Punkast:
Instagram:punkastucla
Stay tapped in. New episodes every Friday.
Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.
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56 min
Chris Desjardins (The Flesh Eaters) | Part 2
Show notes
In this episode:
“We’ve turned out something I think that’s even stronger than what we did when we were younger.”
In Part 2 of this conversation, Chris Desjardins (Chris D.) joins Jessica Schwartz and Tequila Mockingbird to reflect on creativity across a lifetime—moving among music, poetry, politics, film, recovery, and the ongoing work of making meaning through art.
Chris discusses his relationship to the Gun Club and Jeffrey Lee Pierce, the possibilities and limitations of political art, and why he increasingly understands punk less as a musical category than as an attitude grounded in honesty. From protest songs and cut-up poetry to the evolving sound of Divine Horsemen, the conversation considers how artists can respond to their historical moment without allowing their work to become trapped within it.
The conversation then turns toward recovery, aging, depression, persistence, and creative renewal. Chris reflects on refusing to be demoralized, returning repeatedly to music and writing, publishing books, and finding ways to keep working without becoming overwhelmed by what remains unfinished. Tequila joins the conversation to discuss writing, self-publishing, film, technology—and, eventually, the value of having a pet.
Chris Desjardins, also known as Chris D., is a writer, musician, poet, critic, and filmmaker best known as the founder, vocalist, songwriter, and driving creative force behind the influential Los Angeles punk band the Flesh Eaters. Deeply connected to the first wave of the L.A. punk scene, he contributed to Slash magazine and has worked across music, poetry, prose, film criticism, and programming. His musical work has moved among punk, blues, roots music, and darker strains of American music, and he has also led and recorded with Divine Horsemen.
Recorded October 2020.
Content note: This episode includes discussion of addiction and suicide.
Links + References:
Perfect Sound Forever: Chris D, Flesh Eaters, Divine Horsemen
The Flesh Eaters - Superior Viaduct
Credits:
Punkast is hosted and produced by Jessica Schwartz.
Co-hosted and guest produced by Tequila Mockingbird
Editorial support: Arrow Menendez– audio editing, episode notes, and audio-synced transcript.
Transcript:
Theme Music:
Lady Bits, "Bitch-a-thon,"Lady Bits.
Related:
Jessica Schwartz co-hosts the Punk Scholars Podcast.
Connect with Punkast:
Email: punkastucla@gmail.com
Instagram:punkastucla
Stay tapped in. New episodes every Friday.
Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.
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1 hr 5 min
Chris Desjardins (The Flesh Eaters) | Part 1
Show notes
In this episode:
“The punk stuff that was coming out of England really excited me.”
In Part 1 of this conversation, Chris Desjardins (Chris D.) traces the evolution of the Flesh Eaters from the earliest days of Los Angeles punk through the band’s many incarnations. Moving through his encounters with the Stooges, MC5, British punk, blues and R&B, poetry, surrealism, genre film, and other musical and cultural influences, Chris reflects on the eclectic materials and relationships that shaped his creative practice.
Along the way, Chris discusses writing for Slash, friendships and collaborations with John Doe, Exene Cervenka, Dave Alvin, Keith Morris, and others, and the changing lineups and musical approaches behind A Minute to Pray, a Second to Die, Forever Came Today, and A Hard Road to Follow. His recollections offer a window into the shifting sounds and social worlds of early Los Angeles punk and the rise of hardcore, as well as the blues, roots music, and other traditions that continued to inform his work.
Chris also speaks candidly about addiction, recovery, relationships, and the ways these experiences intersected with his musical life. Looking back across different iterations of the Flesh Eaters and Divine Horsemen, he reflects on returning to music, writing with greater discipline after getting sober, and the long, complicated path that eventually brought earlier collaborators together again decades later.
Chris Desjardins, also known as Chris D., is a writer, musician, poet, critic, and filmmaker best known as the founder, vocalist, songwriter, and driving creative force behind the influential Los Angeles punk band the Flesh Eaters. Deeply connected to the first wave of the L.A. punk scene, he contributed to Slash magazine and has worked across music, poetry, prose, film criticism, and programming. His musical work has moved among punk, blues, roots music, and darker strains of American music, and he has also led and recorded with Divine Horsemen.
Recorded October 2020.
Links + References:
Perfect Sound Forever: Chris D, Flesh Eaters, Divine Horsemen
The Flesh Eaters - Superior Viaduct
https://grokipedia.com/page/The_Flesh_Eaters
Slash Magazine (Download via Brooklyn Vegan)
Credits:
Punkast is hosted and produced by Jessica Schwartz.
Co-hosted and guest produced by Tequila Mockingbird
Editorial support: Arrow Menendez– audio editing, episode notes, and audio-synced transcript.
Transcript:
Theme Music:
Lady Bits, "Bitch-a-thon,"Lady Bits.
Related:
Jessica Schwartz co-hosts the Punk Scholars Podcast.
Connect with Punkast:
Instagram:punkastucla
Stay tapped in. New episodes every Friday.
Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
46 min
Ellen Bernhard (PSN US)
Show notes
Punkast is a weekly podcast exploring punk in the historical present through critical conversations, inquiry, and collaboration.
>>> Follow the show to stay tapped in. New episodes every Friday.
In this episode:
“It’s an interdisciplinary space where we all get together and talk about a variety of experiences within punk.”
Jessica Schwartz and Ellen Bernhard discuss punk scholarship, popular culture, and the importance of building communities around critical inquiry. Drawing on their different experiences coming to punk in the 1990s, they reflect on MTV, record stores, compilations, early internet rabbit holes, and what it meant to find punk outside the scenes of major cities.
The conversation moves from personal punk histories to Ellen’s research on humor, satire, media, and punk rhetoric, as well as her work with the Punk Scholars Network US. Together, Jessica and Ellen consider how punk becomes something we not only listen to and participate in, but also study, teach, write about, organize around—and occasionally turn into plans for a Times Square billboard.
Ellen Bernhard is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Georgian Court University and President of the Punk Scholars Network US. Her research explores punk, popular culture, rhetoric, humor, and satire. She is the author of Contemporary Punk Rock Communities: Scenes of Inclusion and Dedication and co-editor of scholarly collections examining punk bands, politics, culture, and provocation.
Recorded July 2026.
Links + References:
Links: ellenbernhard@gmail.com
IG: @dr.elliesoho, @punkscholarsnetwork.us
Credits:
Punkast is hosted and produced by Jessica Schwartz.
Editorial support: Melanie Hui – audio editing, episode notes, and audio-synced transcript.
Transcript:
Theme Music:
Lady Bits, "Bitch-a-thon,"Lady Bits.
Related:
Jessica Schwartz co-hosts the Punk Scholars Podcast.
Connect with Punkast:
Instagram:punkastucla
Stay tapped in.
Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
1 hr 15 min
Caroline Collett (Writer)
Show notes
Punkast is a weekly podcast exploring punk in the historical present through critical conversations, inquiry, and collaboration.
>>> Follow the show to stay tapped in. New episodes every Friday.
In this episode:
Jessica Schwartz speaks with writer Caroline Collett about the ways lived experience, memory, and writing shape how punk becomes cultural history. Drawing from Caroline's teenage diaries, they revisit the people, places, politics, and everyday details of first-generation punk while considering what firsthand accounts can reveal that later histories sometimes leave behind.
Moving between intimate memories of punk gigs in late-1970s Britain and Caroline's contemporary reflections on the early UK and US scenes, they explore punk's different cultural and political roots, the exchange of ideas across the Atlantic, and the tension between individual experience and collective memory. The conversation ultimately asks not only how we remember punk, but what its DIY, subversive, and liberatory impulses can still offer the present and future.
Caroline Collett grew up in the North of England and studied languages at Oxford University before beginning a career in television, where she wrote music news for MTV Europe and worked as a presenter and producer. She later worked as a publicist and copywriter for artists, designers, and architects and is now focused on her own writing. Her manuscript, What Do I Get?, brings together original teenage diary entries with contemporary reflections on first-generation punk, its politics, style, culture, and continuing significance.
Recorded June 2026.
Links + References:
X - https://x.com/CollettWriter
Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/collettwriter.bsky.social
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/caroline_r_collett/
Website -
https://www.carolinecollettwriter.com/
Caroline Collett on Punk Scholars Podcast:
Credits:
Punkast is hosted and produced by Jessica Schwartz.
Editorial support: Melanie Hui – audio editing, episode notes, and audio-synced transcript.
Transcript:
Theme Music:
Lady Bits, "Bitch-a-thon,"Lady Bits.
Related:
Jessica Schwartz co-hosts the Punk Scholars Podcast.
Connect with Punkast:
Instagram:punkastucla
Stay tapped in.
Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
53 min
Tequila Mockingbird (Punk Museum)
Show notes
Punkast is a weekly podcast exploring punk in the historical present through critical conversations, inquiry, and collaboration.
>>> Follow the show to stay tapped in. New episodes every Friday.
In this episode:
"To me, punk isn't just about a specific style. It's about a way of being."
Jessica Schwartz is joined by Tequila Mockingbird for a conversation exploring punk as a creative practice, a form of cultural preservation, and a way of moving through the world. Together, they discuss the early Los Angeles punk scene, New Wave Theatre, the Punk Museum, the UCLA Punk Archive, and the ongoing work of documenting local histories that might otherwise be lost.
The conversation explores DIY culture, archives, fashion, activism, underground media, and the ways punk continues to evolve across generations and communities. Reflecting on her decades of work as a musician, writer, curator, and cultural organizer, Tequila argues that punk is less a genre than a way of creating, questioning, and living on your own terms.
Tequila Mockingbird is a writer, musician, curator, and founder of the Punk Museum. For more than four decades, she has documented, performed in, and championed underground culture through journalism, film, music, exhibitions, and community archives while helping preserve the histories of the Los Angeles punk scene.
This conversation includes questions and contributions from students in a UCLA musicology course facilitated by Jessica Schwartz and was recorded in February 2024.
Links + References:
https://substack.com/@tequilamockingbird1
https://shotgunseamstress.blogspot.com/2013/10/taquila-mockingbird-queen-behind-scene.html
https://www.instagram.com/taquilamockingbird/
https://pleasekillme.com/taquila-mockingbird/
Credits:
Punkast is hosted and produced by Jessica Schwartz.
Editorial support: Arrow Menendez – audio editing, episode notes, and audio-synced transcript.
Transcript:
Theme Music:
Lady Bits, "Bitch-a-thon,"Lady Bits.
Related:
Jessica Schwartz co-hosts the Punk Scholars Podcast.
Connect with Punkast:
Instagram:punkastucla
Stay tapped in.
Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
54 min
Jack Grisham (TSOL)
Show notes
Punkast is a weekly podcast exploring punk in the historical present through critical conversations, inquiry, and collaboration.
>>> Follow the show to stay tapped in. New episodes every Friday.
In this episode:
"I used to think that saying 'I don't have it' was a sign of weakness. When in reality, the weakness was not having it and thinking you do."
Jessica Schwartz is joined by Jack Grisham of TSOL and co-host Tequila Mockingbird for a candid conversation about creativity, accountability, recovery, and the enduring spirit of DIY. Moving beyond familiar punk origin stories, they reflect on writing, criticism, sobriety, violence, vulnerability, and the lifelong work of learning how to make—and remake—yourself.
Together, they discuss the early Southern California punk scene, the formation of TSOL, punk's myths and realities, gender expression, authorship, and what it means to continue creating across music, literature, and film. Throughout the conversation, Grisham offers an unflinching look at personal responsibility while reflecting on the ways punk both challenged and reproduced the worlds it sought to resist.
Jack Grisham is the vocalist and founding member of TSOL and has spent more than four decades writing, performing, and creating across music, literature, and film. He is the author of several books, including An American Demon and A Principle of Recovery, and continues to write fiction and create new work across multiple media.
Recorded April 2021.
Links + References:
Jack Grisham (@jackgrisham) • Facebook
Jack Grisham (@jackgrishamphoto) • Instagram photos and videos
Credits:
Punkast is hosted and produced by Jessica Schwartz.
Co-hosted and guest produced by Tequila Mockingbird.
Editorial support: Arrow Avalon– audio editing, episode notes, and audio-synced transcript.
Transcript:
Theme Music:
Lady Bits, "Bitch-a-thon,"Lady Bits.
Related:
Jessica Schwartz co-hosts the Punk Scholars Podcast.
Connect with Punkast:
Instagram:punkastucla
Stay tapped in.
Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
37 min
Jennifer Finch & Fat Mike — Live from the Punk Rock Museum (Punk Scholars Podcast)
Show notes
Editor's Note (July 2026)
Today we learned of the passing of Jennifer Finch.
Rather than simply share the news, I wanted to make this conversation available again. Recorded live at the Punk Rock Museum during the 2025 Punk Scholars Network US conference, it captures Jennifer exactly as I remember her: generous, thoughtful, funny, and deeply curious. Throughout our conversation, she challenged assumptions, connected punk to larger social questions, and reminded us that museums, archives, and community spaces are places where we imagine different futures together.
I'm grateful to have shared this conversation with her, and I hope others will enjoy hearing her voice and ideas again.
—Jessica Schwartz
————
Original Episode Notes.
Live from Las Vegas, it’s the Punk Scholars Podcast! What happens at the Punk Scholars Network conference in Vegas is now available for your listening (dis)pleasure as Jessica Schwartz interviews Fat Mike (NOFX, Punk Rock Museum) and Jennifer Precious Finch (L7, Sh!t My Rockstar Says!) with a never before heard musical collaboration to close this one of a kind interview out. Thank you to the Punk Rock Museum for hosting us. Enjoy.
Links
–
We’d love to hear from you and are soliciting episode ideas and guests.
Contact us at: punkscholarspodcast@gmail.com
The PSP theme music is excerpted from “Crows” byWatch You Drown. All rights reserved.
Season 1, Episode 10 was recorded on March 3, 2025 “Live in Las Vegas” at the Punk Rock Museum as part of the Punk Scholars Network US and Canada Third Annual Conference. Ellen Bernhard produced the episode and gave the pre-podcast acknowledgments. Jessica Schwartz hosted the episode, and edited the audio and transcript, availablehttps://sonix.ai/share/q1ksEs9DyQpa5ReUrp1h2P8Qhere.
Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
1 hr 19 min
Peter Ekman (Architecture)
Show notes
Punkast is a weekly podcast exploring punk in the historical present through critical conversations, inquiry, and collaboration.
>>> Follow the show to stay tapped in. New episodes every Friday.
In this episode:
"There is this specter of demolition that, in some ways, haunts the American city."
Jessica Schwartz is joined by urban historian and geographer Peter Ekman for a conversation exploring how architecture, urban renewal, and the built environment have shaped the sounds, spaces, and histories of punk. Drawing from his article Corner, Garage, and Basement: Reused Spaces and Vernacular Sounds Since the Bulldozer, Ekman traces the relationships between postwar urban redevelopment, street-corner singing, garage rock, and hardcore punk.
Together, they discuss the politics of urban renewal, the sonic histories of doo-wop, garage rock, and hardcore, and the ways everyday spaces—including street corners, garages, and basements—became sites of creativity, resistance, and DIY cultural production. The conversation also considers Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., race, segregation, automobility, and the critical possibilities that emerge when architecture and sound are understood together.
Peter Ekman is on the faculty of the USC School of Architecture and holds a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Timing the Future Metropolis: Foresight, Knowledge, and Doubt in America's Postwar Urbanism (Cornell University Press). His research explores the history and theory of cities, landscapes, architecture, and the built environment, with particular attention to sound, urbanism, and everyday spatial practice.
Recorded June 2026.
Links + References:
USC faculty website:Peter Ekman | USC School of Architecture
Link to book, Timing the Future Metropolis: https://cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501778391/timing-the-future-metropolis/#bookTabs=1
Link to article, “Corner, Garage, and Basement”:https://read.dukeupress.edu/qui-parle/article-abstract/34/2/379/407908/Corner-Garage-and-BasementReused-Spaces-and
Credits:
Punkast is hosted and produced by Jessica Schwartz.
Editorial support: Melanie Hui – audio editing, episode notes, and audio-synced transcript.
Transcript:
Theme Music:
Lady Bits, "Bitch-a-thon,"Lady Bits.
Related:
Jessica Schwartz co-hosts the Punk Scholars Podcast.
Connect with Punkast:
Instagram:punkastucla
Stay tapped in.
Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
1 hr 42 min
Liz Mason (Zines)
Show notes
Punkast is a weekly podcast exploring punk in the historical present through critical conversations, inquiry, and collaboration.
>>> Follow the show to stay tapped in. New episodes every Friday.
In this episode:
"I make zines and jokes and have thoughts."
Jessica Schwartz is joined by zinester, archivist, and independent scholar Liz Mason for a conversation exploring DIY publishing, archives, humor, and the enduring cultural life of zines. Together, they discuss independent publishing as a creative practice, a form of community building, and a form of cultural research, while reflecting on libraries, radio, oral history, fandom, and the evolving relationships among memory, documentation, and punk.
The conversation centers on Mason's Most Unwanted Zine, a research-driven publication built from surveys of zinesters and readers that playfully transforms qualitative data into satire. Along the way, they discuss fax-machine funerals, collaborative storytelling, aging in DIY culture, creative curiosity, and the ways zines continue to document everyday life while preserving voices often left out of traditional archives.
Liz Mason has been publishing zines since the 1990s. Her work has appeared in Punk Planet, The Zine Yearbook, and the backs of her friends' toilets. She managed Chicago's legendary zine hub, Quimby's Bookstore, for more than two decades and is currently pursuing a Master's in Information Science with a specialization in Archives and Records Management at Chicago State University. Mason is also the creator of Caboose, co-host of the Rough Draft podcast, and a DJ at CHIRP Radio.
Recorded June 2026.
Links + References:
Rough Draft with Keidra and Liz Podcast
Liz Mason Official: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter | Linktree
https://www.facebook.com/LizMasonIsAwesome
https://www.linkedin.com/in/liz-mason-caboose-zine/
Instagram: @caboosezine
Bluesky: @caboosezine.bsky.social
Credits:
Punkast is hosted and produced by Jessica Schwartz.
Editorial support: Arrow Avalon – audio editing, episode notes, and audio-synced transcript.
Transcript:
Theme Music:
Lady Bits, "Bitch-a-thon,"Lady Bits.
Related:
Jessica Schwartz co-hosts the Punk Scholars Podcast.
Connect with Punkast:
Instagram:punkastucla
Stay tapped in.
Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
45 min
Johnny Indovina (Human Drama)
Show notes
Punkast is a weekly podcast exploring punk in the historical present through critical conversations, inquiry, and collaboration.
>>> Follow the show to stay tapped in. New episodes every Friday.
In this episode:
"Fulfill your purpose, do what you love…"
Jessica Schwartz and co-host Tequila Mockingbird are joined by Johnny Indovina, singer, songwriter, and founder of Human Drama, in a conversation exploring songwriting, artistic purpose, and the communities that sustain creative life. Together, they reflect on the legendary Scream scene in Los Angeles, Human Drama's evolution from The Models, and the collaborative spirit that shaped one of the city's most influential underground music communities.
Johnny also discusses his documentary 7 Days in Mexico, the unexpected journey that rekindled his relationship with music, and the enduring connections between artists and audiences across Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Mexico City. Throughout, the conversation reflects on authenticity, creative perseverance, and the importance of continuing to do the work that gives life meaning.
Johnny Indovina is the singer, songwriter, and founder of Human Drama, an influential band whose emotionally resonant music has shaped gothic rock, post-punk, and alternative music for more than four decades. Through Human Drama and his solo work, Indovina has built an international following grounded in deeply personal songwriting, artistic honesty, and enduring connections with audiences across the United States, Latin America, and beyond.
Recorded July 2023.
Links + References:
Credits:
Punkast is hosted and produced by Jessica Schwartz.
Co-hosted by Tequila Mockingbird.
Guest produced by Tequila Mockingbird.
Editorial support: Arrow Avalon – audio editing, episode notes, and audio-synced transcript.
Transcript:
Theme Music:
Lady Bits, "Bitch-a-thon,"Lady Bits.
Related:
Jessica Schwartz co-hosts the Punk Scholars Podcast.
Connect with Punkast:
Instagram:punkastucla
Stay tapped in.
Hosted on Acast. See https://acast.com/privacy for more information.
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