We're back!
The 2026 - 2027 season is here and we start off with paeans to the goddesses from returning guest and Make Matriarchy Great Again friend, Mary Mackey.
Mary Mackey, a graduate of Harvard, who also received a Ph.D from the University of Michigan, was an Emeritus Professor of English, taught Creative Writing and Film at the graduate and undergraduate levels at California State University, Sacramento. She is a bestselling author and award-winning poet who has written fourteen novels, some of which have appeared on the New York Times and San Francisco Chronicle Bestseller Lists. She is also the author of ten volumes of poetry. Her work has always touched upon subjects such as the feminine divine, ecology and, of course, matriarchy. Her novels such as The Last Warrior Queen and The Year The Horses Came, use matriarchal history specifically, as their backdrop.
Her latest work, The Goddess of Burning Hair, is the first complete collection of Ms. Mackey's goddess poems and it spans more than fifty years. Written from 1972 to 2025, the thirty-seven poems in this book emerge from a lifetime spent studying, listing to, respecting, and giving voice to the spirit of Gaia the Great Mother in all her forms. In this wonderful work you will find poems about goddesses from Europe, like Medusa and Aphrodite, Afro-Brazilian goddesses like Iemanjá, and Yansã, and goddesses Ms. Mackey has invented, like The Goddess of Burning Hair.
We talk with Ms. Mackey about these amazing poems, her fabulous career and the matriarchal and goddess inspirations that have shaped both.
We think it's a beautiful way to start a new season dedicated to making matriarchy great again!
Sean Marlon Newcombe and Dawn "Sam" Alden co-host.