Introducing Take the Last Bite

Show Notes

Introducing Take the Last Bite, a new podcast from the Midwest Institute for Sexuality and Gender Diversity. Season one launches August 31, 2021 with new episodes bi-weekly. In the meantime, learn more about our intentions for this podcast and listen to a sneak peak of episode one.

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What is Take the Last Bite?

Take the Last Bite is a direct counter to the Midwest Nice mentality— highlighting advocacy & activism by queer/trans communities in the Midwest region. Each episode unearths the often disregarded and unacknowledged contributions of queer & trans folks to social change through interviews, casual conversations and reflections on Midwest queer time, space, and place.

For questions, comments and feedback: [e-mail]

To support this podcast and the Institute, please visit sgdinstitute.org/giving

Host: R.B. Brooks, they/them, director of programs for the Midwest Institute for Sexuality & Gender Diversity

Cover Art: Adrienne McCormick

R.B.:
Hey. Hi. Hello. My name is R.B. and if you're listening to the sultry sound of my voice, it means that you've stumbled upon the Take the Last Bite podcast, and hopefully you’ve already clicked that follow or subscribe button so you can hear more of me in future episodes of Take the Last Bite. On today's small bite teaser, I'm going to talk a bit about the intentions behind Take the Last Bite, what you can expect from us in future episodes, and end with a sneak peek of our first full-length episode due to drop on Tuesday, August 31.

[Music Playing]

Y'all we cannot do this. We cannot be these stereotypical Midwesterners. Please eat the rest of this food.

We just have these conversations every day with people like this is exhausting. I don't want to do this anymore.

Why can't we be in space with hundreds of other queer and trans folks and having these necessary conversations?

I don't know who you are, but we're going to talk by the potatoes for five minutes

Because aesthetic is the only thing keeping my dysphoria at bay. I'm broke all the time, but I look amazing.

Definitely going to talk about Midwest Nice and if that's as real as it wants to think it is.

Midwest nice is white aggression. That's what it is.

[End Music]

R.B.:
All right, so, Take The Last Bite is a play on a very Midwest culturalism that hopefully is not news to folks who have experienced the Midwest. I want you to think about a time where you've been at a meal or a gathering where there's food and there's containers or trays of things and you get towards the end of the event or the end of that meal. And there's a piece of this, a bite of that, a slice of that, something that's been cut down into a micro piece of itself, right, left on all of the trays and containers. And that is the last bite that for some reason everybody refuses to take. And so we've taken that concept of the last bite, the thing that no one dareth touch, no one dare acknowledge. Right. And we've turned that into an extended metaphor for the things that no one wants to talk about, the things that everybody wants to ignore, the things that go unacknowledged in the room and how that interplays with movement, work, social change work, creating change. Right. And being queer and trans folks in the Midwest region, we experience a lot of instances of feeling like we cannot exist without it being interpreted as inappropriate or problematic or interruptive. We often feel like we are the people who will say the thing that no one else wants to say. And we felt like that was a really opportune and apt name for this podcast, Take The Last Bite, as an encouragement and invitation for listeners, especially Midwest queer and trans folks, to take that kind of punny concept and turn that into action. Turn that into a challenge to self to be the person that says the thing, to be the person that takes the risk to do the actions and do the work that needs to be done to create gender justice and sexual liberation. So it didn't take us too long to land on this name and feel really animated around it. And so we're excited to be offering this podcast with the name Take the Last Bite.

The idea to even start a podcast has been a longer standing wish on our programming intentions and ideas list. And what better time to launch a podcast than during a global pandemic where we are isolated from each other, we have limited means by which we can be in space, where there's still plenty going on that needs our attention and needs our labor. And there are many things that are creating this pang of obligation to really dive back in and continue to do the necessary work of ensuring that queer and trans people are affirmed and secure and safe. So it all kind of melded together into this possibility in this last year with the pandemic to be able to dedicate some time to crafting a podcast that centers and focuses on Midwest queer and trans communities, specifically. The work of the Midwest Institute for Sexuality and Gender Diversity always centers around queer and trans folks in the Midwest, and we can certainly have a conversation, and we probably will in future episodes about what the Midwest technically is and also fully acknowledging that borders are fake and there's social norms, there's categorical realities, there's financial and resource and capital realities based on these allocations of geographical location and the Midwest region in our interpretation has historically been unacknowledged and not included in larger rhetorical conversations about gender justice, sexual liberation, the freedom of LGBTQ people in general. And we've dedicated our work as folks who are from the Midwest to ensuring that we are challenging the national conversations to include the work of Midwest queer and trans communities. And so through this podcast, we fully intend to do that uplifting and pedestalizing of folks doing amazing work in the Midwest region, especially in spaces where there's fewer resources, there's less attention, there's some scarcity, there's some lack of opportunity by means of just not being invested in. Right?

To quote adrienne maree brown, what you pay attention to grows. And so we will definitely be watering and investing and hoping to flourish the work that's happening in this region, that we know is happening in this region and putting it in this virtual space for folks to be able to listen to and extract lessons and understand that our coastal counterparts and more urban areas aren't necessarily the only places that the work is happening. It just happens to be where maybe more political focus is taking place.

Some of the upcoming episodes that we have slated to come out in the coming months, we're really excited about and feature some of the brilliance and wisdom of the Midwest Institute for Sexuality and Gender Diversity team. We start off by talking a bit more about the work of the Institute and a bit more in depth about the intentions and aspirations of the Take the Last Bite podcast. We're most certainly going to have a conversation about the concept of Midwest nice and how that truly translates into antiquated notions of professionalism, respectability politics, and how that creates restrictions and parameters around how Midwest queer and trans folks, especially black and Brown queer and trans folks in space to function in certain ways that are maintained by white supremacy culture. We're going to have a conversation about gay death. Some of us turned 30 this year and we're having some existential crises moments. Maybe I'm just projecting and speaking for myself, but talking about queer and trans folks' relationship with aging, with death, with messaging that we've received about, throughout our lifetime and are growing into our queerness about what our life prospects look like and how that motivates the work that we're doing now to ensure that folks material needs are met and that our life prospects and opportunities are abundant. We're going to have a conversation about the complexities of rural queerness versus urban queerness, and folks in our team will be in conversation about some of the dynamics that are experienced across different geographical settings. And we're going to also be featuring a conversation with some queer craft brewers based out of Minneapolis, where we will be talking about some of the opportunities that exist in the service industry that transcend some of the rigid gendered and sexualized norms that we often find in the service industry, and talking about some of the amazing work that those folks are doing on a localized level to contribute to some of the social change work that's happening in that municipality.

Looking towards the future, we're going to be bringing in many folks to be talking about some amazing work going on in different areas of the Midwest region, with our sites set on focusing on spaces that are also not even particularly concentrated on in conversations among Midwest folks, talking about spaces that maybe are more historically red or places that seem really ominous and maybe historically unsafe for queer and trans folks. But the reality is queer and trans folks live there anyway, and we're going to be ensuring that those folks are uplifted and catered to and that we are in conversation with them because we have to lift everybody up to get where we're trying to go.

So we're really excited about this project. We don't really know exactly where it's going to go. This again has been kind of a dream that we've been scheming for many years now, and this seemed like the prime time to get us into conversation with ourselves, to really reconcile with what does it mean to be doing queer and trans justice work in the Midwest region? Who else do we need to be in conversation with that are kind of creating models for the future of creating change and hearing from you all. Right. We definitely want some feedback, and we want to be held accountable for really focusing on what we say we're going to focus on and being in conversation with people that are really setting the stage for what we need to be thinking about and what we need to be talking about. So this is just the beginning. You can give us any thoughts, feedback, riots or boycotts in our inbox at [e-mail]. You can learn more about all of our programs, including the podcast on our website at sgdinstitute.org. And, you can also find us on social media at sgdinstitute, on Twitter, Instagram, and on Facebook. We're looking forward to going on this journey together with all of you and really making Midwest queer and trans communities matter, making sure that we are not forgotten and that we are not left out of conversation and just really hyping up the fact that there's some really awesome shit happening in our communities and that it is due time that that be acknowledged outside of some of the mainstream conversations that often prioritize the coasts. So, looking forward to this project, moving forward and being in conversation with you all once again, if you've not clicked that subscribe or follow button, please do that so that you can get more from us in the future, especially that first episode that is coming up real real soon. So without further ado, this is a sneak peek of our first episode between the executive director of the Midwest Institute for Sexuality and Gender Diversity, Justin Drwencke, and I. Let's go.

R.B.
So, we were both together when we collectively acknowledged what happens when a group of Midwest folks get together for a meal. And so do you remember where were we? Because it was in your neck of the woods.

Justin:
Was that when we were at Zoobies?

R.B.:
The pizza place.

Justin:
Yeah. Okay. Right. You sit a group of queer Midwesterners down to a table, split a couple of pizzas and some appetizers. Oh, yeah. Some appetizers, some Buffalo cauliflower dip, super yummy. Right. Anything with Buffalo sauce, chef kiss.

So we're sitting at this table with, I don't know, five or six Midwest queers and have some appetizers, have some pizza. And then we're getting to the end of the meal and we just look down at the table and on every single plate, there's one slice of pizza left of this one. There's one slice left of this pizza and there's like a smidge of Buffalo cauliflower dip left. And it's just like an acknowledgement. I think RB you and I just looked at each other in the eyes and was like, this is the most Midwest. And I think that anybody who has spent some time in the Midwest might have had a similar experience where out of politeness, I guess one does not take the last bite of food. Right. And I don't know where that originated, right. But it's a thing that I just have all of these vivid memories of whether it's family reunion potlucks or whatever picnic at the Lake, whatever the idyllic Midwest situation is. Right. All of those experiences are tied together by looking at the pizza tray or the casserole dish, and there being one bite remaining, the last bite. But it's not even enough to call a bite, right? Like there's that last piece of pizza. You still want some pizza, so you cut it in half and then the next person comes along and they're like, I would like some more pizza, but I don't want to take the last of it. I don't want to be rude. So they take a smidge of that. And so by the time you get down to it, there's like a quarter of the crust. But you didn't take the last of the pizza.

R.B.:
No. And maybe that's not strictly a Midwestism, but it certainly is common among folks getting together at all of the locations in which you described. And I don't know why we do that, right? Like, there's a whole Facebook group dedicated to people posting pictures of business meetings like, get togethers of any variety. And folks are like, why is this happening? Please take the last piece of this because it also means you're not the person throwing away the container, which is possibly also related to labor and work. But we'll set that aside for now. It's probably related, though, and yeah, I remember just sitting at that table. We were sitting outside once upon a time, and it was acceptable to sit outside without having to sit outside, pre-pandemic, and just being like, y'all, we cannot do this. We cannot be these stereotypical Midwesterners. Please eat the rest of this food.

And so how that applies to what we want to do with this podcast is that kind of idea that you can't take the last bite. It's either impolite or it's rude, or you're trying to give courtesy to other folks in the space to also have a bite of whatever is being taken. So you slice it down to this tiny mouth sized crumb, thinking that you're doing right by all these other people. Right? Just so it is this taboo, ominous thing, apparently, to take the last bite. And so our podcast Take the Last Bite is inviting folks and encouraging folks to talk about the things no one wants to talk about, to explore things that would otherwise be continued to be covered up or not really engaged with. Right. That is part of the Midwest culture is just not being the person who says the thing or just accepting things as they are or not knowing how to address them. Right. Avoiding conflicts is a very Midwest convention, and we are here, ideally, to turn that table over a little bit and take the last bite, serve the last bite and invite others to do the same, so that's our quirky play on something that is very ubiquitous and known by Midwesterners. I'm sure everybody is now realizing they've been that person at this point in the conversation and also thinking about other types of spaces and conversations where other things besides pieces of food are not being touched or considered or acknowledged, and that flavors the work that I think is done in what we consider the Midwest region and impacts how we do the work that we're doing with the Midwest Institute for Sexuality and Gender Diversity.
[Music Playing]

Our inbox is open for all of your insight, feedback, questions, boycotts, memes and other forms of written correspondence. You can contact us at [e-mail]. This podcast is made possible by the labor and commitment of the Midwest Institute for Sexuality and Gender Diversity staff. Particular shout out to Justin, Andy and Nick for all of your support with editing, promotion and production. Our amazing and queer as fuck cover art was designed by Adrienne McCormick.

[End music]