It Is Complicated

Thank you for your listening and support - 2025 has been a year - we are back in mid-2026 We love you, we appreciate you, we thank you for your support. Love - Dr J and Josephine Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A very short update - recorded in one take and un-editedby Dr J - so it makes some sense. 1) We are still here 2) We appreciate our listeners 3) We are planning a move to SubStack - we'll be doing that in coming weeks We will record episodes possibly talking about the break (or not) - and publish the backlog - see you soon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this special episode of It Is Complicated , we remember Suzanne Osten, who died on the 24th October 2024  This interview was recorded a year ago, we are releasing it now as a tribute to her. We do have a backlog of episodes, this one felt important to put out first.  Josephine met Suzanne in 2005 after Suzanne saw one of her performances and invited her to be in an opera, even though...

Dr J, Josephine and CN Lester discuss their multi-hyphenate, portfolio working lives. Even for those with salaried jobs, there is always the side gig (or two or three) and projects.  Performers, academics, scientists, consultants, photographers, authors - there is not a single role that defines them. This was recorded in March 2023 - since then - Josephine's book is available at Where it all...

This episode comes with a content warning - it is dark! Some of the darker places ended up on the cutting room floor, and it is still dark. Be safe when you listen to this. An apology to Brianna Ghey and her family. Dr J managed to mispronounce their surname all the way through. We picked this up in the final edit.  In this episode we tackle the level of transphobia that is now so entrenched...

In the fifth in our Queer Voices series we talk with Samantha Béart, actor, currently known for playing Karlach in Baldur’s Gate 3. We talked about how games and performances and performing in and for games, allowed us to explore, examine and find ourselves. We get into the ways games have allowed us to understand the world and ourselves, the joy of the “Fuck around and Find out” nature of some ga...

In the fourth in our Queer Voices series we talk with Laura Kate Dale, games journalist, author, and accessibility consultant. We started on how some of our narratives are routed in negativity, and how that can be turned into talking about Joy and Euphoria, small or large. This leads into us talking about how the little things can fight back against the system every day, challenging how we see our...

In the third in our Queer Voices series we talk with novelist, poet and performer Rosie Garland. We set off talking about what we all have on (and sadly some of the opportunities to see Rosie are now in the past due to our slowness to release this due to 2023). We talk about performing and writing. We move onto what feeds us, the activities that we do every day, or maybe only sometimes, that feed...

This is a special episode where we have Dr J on the Mind the Product podcast - https://www.mindtheproduct.com/business-analysts-in-product-dr-j-harrison/   Dr J also talks about 2023 and why they haven’t had a chance to watch any Keanu Reeves recenlty We have a transcript for this episode - IIC Special Complicated Complicated Transcript Our Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/itiscomplicated Gi...

Released on Trans Day Of Visibility. This episode we talk about the way you can tell if a space is safe, the flags we see, both green and red, how they can co-exist, and that we can spot duplicity and performative actions.  We also talk about being here - for each other. That simple notion of being here, as someone to talk to, as someone to step up, as someone who takes the blows so you don’t...

In the second in our Queer Voices series we talk with Dr Joe Parslow -  Lecturer in Popular and Queer Performance and Hashtag Doctor Husband Boyfriend Joe - about drag and queer performance, breathing and togetherness - and the complications around making space and getting to breathe in those spaces.  The queer notion of breathing together, coming together, and aspiration. Reflecting ene...

This is a special episode of a panel discussion recorded at eNBy City with Dr J, malakai, Haz and Lilly. We are talking to a room of mostly students.  The event focussed on Queer Joy. This is the third part of a three part recording. We have done our best with the recording to clean up the sound during this last part of the panel discussion. This was recorded for the Hear & Queer Podcast...

This is a special episode of a panel discussion recorded at eNBy City with Dr J, malakai, Haz and Lilly. We are talking to a room of mostly students.    The event focussed on Queer Joy.   This is the second part of a three part recording.   Be aware about half way through we pulled the recording equipment apart - and it means the audio quality drops - I’ve done my best to equal...

This is a special episode of a panel discussion recorded at eNBy City with Dr J, malakai, Haz and Lilly.    The event focussed on Queer Joy.   This is the first part of a two (or more) part recording.   This was recorded for the Hear & Queer Podcast - https://www.youtube.com/@hearqueer5656     We have a transcript for this episode - IIC Special eNBy City Transcrip...

When asked the question “where do you want to be in ten years?” we break down - why? We spend so much time surviving, how do we then look towards a future? Our futures we see are not chrononormative, and we often step outside of the standard expectations. How do we see ambition, and its link to opportunity? Can you be ambitious when you can’t believe you can achieve it? What does ambition mean whe...

In the first in our Queer Voices series we talk with queer legend, writer and performer Kate Bornstein. We set off talking about Hope, flow through ideas of gender expression and authenticity, the nature of being authentic. If Hope and Fear are a binary, or can co-exist in a moment.   We enter the realms of superheroes and secret identities, why Batman is an Elon Musk wank fantasy, and why Ne...

We’re back in a rare in the room together recording - We touch on the last six months for both of us - covid features prominently, as does fatigue and mental health.    Talking about plans, having one, and ambition, or appearing not to have some. Why we want to keep doing this podcast and what plans we have into 2025.   How does it feel to have a three year plan? Well as queers, thi...

Well 2022 has been a right nightmare already!! This time we talk (in Dr J’s case very excitedly) about the words we need to hear and what it means to hear them.   Dr J has four things they always wanted to hear - and by saying them to another person - they get to also hear them for themselves: - I am proud of you - I love you - I think you are an amazing person - I can’t wait to see your bril...

This time we celebrate creating 50 podcast episodes - or 51, or 52 depending on how you count. We are excited about this - and there are moments when Dr J is obviously super excited. Josephine maintains some sort of dignity.    When we started the podcast we were both locked down in our spaces without structure from our day jobs (Dr J was furloughed, Josephine was between work), and 18 m...

Being in the room and taking up space is difficult. It takes a lifetime to believe that we should be in *this* room having *this* conversation, having self faith, self belief and humility is a challenge. Saying “I am here” is the hardest thing. It is simply correct that it is this way - I am here is sufficient. It is right that I am included.    Lack of self belief is a structural proble...

Performance changes your life, it changes how you think about things, it changes how you feel about yourself.    This is a favourite theory of Dr J’s, and in our case it is true. We met over performance, we found ourselves and identity through performance, and we find ourselves and our experiences reflected in performance.    We tell the tale of workshopping J’s gender identity...

This week we cover two topics - Working full time and creating a podcast, and the movie Constantine starring Keanu Reeves.  We have gone from a time when we had less restrictions on our time (lockdown, combined with furlough/unemployment was good for podcasting) and we both now have very full on full time jobs, one of us has a partner, and a child they want to spend time with, the other has h...

Based on a listener request for a discussion on working from home in the current culture environment from a perspective that is not a middle class straight white cis man - we touch on the advantages we have as queers that’s made this easier, and what advantages that others within our community might not have.    We cover the way work has changed, and how output in academia has increased...

How did covid change how we do this politeness thing? Is there queer etiquette? What happens when we rub against people’s expectations when we state our boundaries?   Is our queer etiquette a reaction to the hypocrisy of the middle-class “polite”? How can we be respectful, equitable, and inclusive? What is the height of “good manners”? Is making people comfortable where we should be aiming? I...

Recorded during Pride Month, when everything has a rainbow slapped on it, what is allyship? When is it performative? What is the context that Allyship can happen within? When does the allyship have an investment? When is it solidarity? When will people stand between their LGBTQ+ employees and harm? How can we tell the difference? Is there a macro level and a micro level set of actions? Can we alwa...