🎉 You're Invited to Queuesday 🎉
🍭 👂I'M OBSESSED WITH THIS 🌈 🤸♀️
Bonjour.
Today is Monday July 7, 2025, and this is not a normal issue of Podcast the Newsletter. I’m handing the reins over to my friend Keelin…right after an interview with I Feel That Way Too’s Michelle MiJung Kim. Have fun and see you next week!
xoxo
lauren
Podcast Tink ❤️ s: What If We Get It Right?
What does Andrade have to say about it?
Instead of the common doom and gloom of climate conversations, what if we act as if we love the future? What if climate solutions are beautiful? These aren't my questions, they're the questions that Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson focuses on teaching us about on What If We Get It Right? The best thing about the show is that every episode and guest isn't focused on one topic. It's about how every industry and every type of expertise can implement a climate solution to help better our tomorrows. Everything from fashion and finance, to movies and politics. If you love podcast lore as much as I do, you should start with the episode with Alex Blumberg. Ayana and Alex hosted Spotify's flagship climate show How to Save a Planet and they talk about how they met and became co-hosts! Plus, Alex shares his new venture since leaving Gimlet/Spotify and hints at the climate show he wishes existed. His new project is a perfect example of figuring out a solution that can affect somebody beyond you and keep growing to make change. It's a fun time!
You will love this show if you like the science and fun of Unexplainable
You will love this show if you like climate optimism that is actually helpful
You will love this show if you like sneaking away from the city for a lakeside weekend with friends.
👋q & a & q & a & q & a👋
Michelle MiJung Kim
Michelle MiJung Kim is one of today’s most compelling voices on courage, complexity, and connection. She is the award-winning author of The Wake Up, a globally recognized speaker, and the producer and host of I Feel That Way Too, a podcast that dares to ask life’s trickiest questions so we can feel less alone—and more alive—together. As a queer Korean American woman and former CEO of Awaken, Michelle has spent years supporting people and organizations move with greater honesty, alignment, and intention. Whether on stage, on the page, or behind the mic, Michelle’s presence is a mirror and a call to courage—to live our lives more fully, to build resilient relationships, and to believe in the possibility of our personal transformation and collective liberation.
Describe I Feel That Way Too in ten words or less.
A narrative podcast exploring life’s trickiest questions with courage and vulnerability.
What made you want to start a podcast, and why now?
When I started the project, I was in deep grief and longing. I felt untethered, floating around trying to understand my place in this world and where I'm headed next amidst the world falling apart. I craved a space where I can be truly honest—not the kind we perform, but the real, unfiltered, raw, scary kind. A space where I can be messy and unfinished. I wanted to feel less alone. And I wanted to create something that I can be proud of.
In a time marked by so much collective despair, trauma, and fear, this podcast has been a source of light and refuge for me. A place to exhale. Hope in practice. And maybe, it will be for you too.
How do you choose the topics for each episode?
The topics are real life questions I’ve asked myself over and over. The ones that keep me up at night. The ones that have me spiraling and ruminating for hours—or years—on end. Whether it’s about our sense of identity tied to our careers or questioning whether a friendship can withstand evolving political values, these topics are existential and shape the way we connect to ourselves and each other.
What’s something about you people are usually surprised to learn?
That I’m funny!? You guyz, just because I talk about social justice it doesn’t mean I’m serious all the time. I think I’m hilarious and I think people are surprised to learn that about me. Oh, and that I immigrated to the US when I was a teenager. .
What motivated you to co-found Awaken?
I was tired of seeing surface level DEI work that was so often whitewashed and white-led. So much of corporate DEI work was marketing, hyper-intellectualized, and performative. I wanted to change that by creating workshops that breathed social justice values and humanity back into the work. I wanted to remind people that this is human work. This is trauma work.
What narratives about queerness are you hoping to expand with your podcast?
That to be queer is to be expansive—being daring about reimagining and creating the kind of world we all deserve. Being queer is not just about who we love, but how we live—building resilient relationships, practicing community care, defying oppressive systems, and fiercely protecting each other and the most marginalized among us.
How have your queer identity and Korean heritage intersected?
Being queer and being Korean, I carry so much ancestral trauma, grief, and memory. Much of our histories of oppression mirror each other. But this also means that I carry all of the ancestral wisdom, love, and the embodied knowing that I am worthy of fighting for too. We all are.
What’s something that gets missed or ignored about Korean rights and representation in overall queer rights activism?
That we exist and have always existed. Most people can’t name 5 Asian American civil rights activists, let alone queer Korean activists. I hope to change that by existing and being visible in all of my queer Korean femme glory 🦄
Hello everyone! Lauren is off today so we get to experience me, Keelin, taking over Podcast the Newsletter this week.
If you don't know me, I write podcast criticism. I founded Mentally? A Magpie where I focus on reviewing podcasts for the average person. I want to write for those who may have never listened to a podcast before. Or that type of podcast. If you’ve only listened to non fiction, an audio drama may be daunting for you. I’m here to help!
While I am proud to be a critic, I don't love the word. When I introduce myself as one, there often are a lot of cartoon question marks behind people's eyes. One word easily excludes people from a conversation because they don't know what criticism can be, or they think criticism is only negative. Which is valid. There are a lot of super intelligent, high minded critics that don't reach out to the general public. On the other hand, some critics are popular because they're negative, and can be mean about it. Not everyone likes that.
Criticism is a word that has two definitions, and one is the obvious, negative one. The other definition is "the analysis and judgement of the merits and faults of a literary or artistic work". Merits and faults. What are merits and faults to art? Especially one that encompasses so many styles like podcasting does? It's a big question that I'm working out a part of. There are a number of us writing, so I encourage everyone to look around and find us (GreatPods is a solid place to start). I, for one, tend to avoid writing negative podcast reviews. They’re still necessary, just not the place I want to be.
My happy place is connecting people to great podcasts they will like - while also being reasonable if those podcasts have faults. Some critics writing are getting deep into the meat of things, and some are skimming the surface for their own purposes. Match with the writers whose voices you like, it's why there are a few of us.
I did have a dilemma in this, though. I listen to a lot of podcasts, and a lot of them don't make the website, but I still want to share them. It was hard to figure out what to do about this. I want to be celebratory and uplifting. I want to make people feel more comfortable with the medium and helping others to find new podcasts. I want everyone to talk about podcasts out in the open, but not everyone needs to take on the mantle of critic. I want this joy I feel to spill out into the regular world in a bigger way.
So I’m making it happen.
I am here on PTN not to tell you about criticism, but to invite you to my new favourite day of the week.
Tuesday. In my corner of the world, we call it Queuesday. This is your special, exclusive, invitation.
Queuesday is my love letter to podcast listening. It's a weekly space where we don't have to be critics or creators. Didn't we all start as a listener somewhere, somehow?
Plus there are a ton of people with little to no desire to create their own podcast. They deserve to shout outside the confines of comment sections and message boards. Let's all come out of the niche corners and into regular social media, as proud podcast listeners.
Every Tuesday, we hop on social media to share our queues. How we share is not a hard and fast rule. It doesn't have to be a queue. Do you pre-download episodes? Screenshot that. Do you know how to find your listening history? Give it to me. Or fake a queue if you want, how would we know?
Screenshot your queue, post it on your Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, or X account - however you want. Tag me (iamkeelinit, just not on X) and hashtag Queuesday. Bonus points if you make it pretty, extra credit if you figure out a video version. Are you not on these sites? Try it in a Discord or appropriate Slack channel.
Did you find a show on someone else's queue? Guess what, you stole it. Shout out the person who you stole it from, and see what happens. Have a podcast you're really looking forward to down the queue?
Shout that one out too.
The point is to share what you're listening to. I can say from experience, those of us participating have had a lot of great conversations around our queues. It's a new avenue of discovery and connection.
What if you found out that someone that you look up to in these spaces is listening to your podcast? What if that sparks a connection, a collaboration, or more?
This isn't about podcasting meet-cutes, but there's a world of possibility if you decide to join us. (If you do have a super successful meet-cute, I would like to be acknowledged in the wedding vows...)
Your first Queuesday is tomorrow. I'm thrilled you can make it! No need to bring anything but you and your queue!
A NOTE FROM LAUREN
Here’s a screenshot of my listening history, you MAY OR MAY NOT see some of these shows in next week’s newsletter. I do not make anything fancy but you want fancy? I’ll give you fancy follow fancy.anne on IG—they do Queuesday right.
 | A guest post by
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Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is the best. Highly recommend her book!
Happy Queuesday!