Punkast

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:MarieUnruly - The Body in Punk Marrow Press – UNRULY. The Body in Punk – Marie Arleth Skov Instagram Mariamariabuszek.com InstagramFurther 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:Audio-synced transcriptTheme 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:SpotifyInstagram: punkastuclaStay tapped in. New episodes every Friday.

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 FunIt Starts with AngerAfro-PunkThe High DesertBlack Punk NowCurrent events + screeningsCredits: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:Audio-synced transcriptTheme Music:Lady Bits, "Bitch-a-thon," Lady Bits.Related:Jessica Schwartz co-hosts the Punk Scholars Podcast. Connect with Punkast:SpotifyInstagram: punkastuclaStay tapped in. New episodes every Friday.

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 HorsemenThe Flesh Eaters - Superior ViaductSlash Magazine ArchiveCredits:Punkast is hosted and produced by Jessica Schwartz.Co-hosted and guest produced by Tequila MockingbirdEditorial support: Arrow Menendez– audio editing, episode notes, and audio-synced transcript.Transcript:Audio-synced transcriptTheme Music:Lady Bits, "Bitch-a-thon," Lady Bits.Related:Jessica Schwartz co-hosts the Punk Scholars Podcast. Connect with Punkast:SpotifyEmail: punkastucla@gmail.comInstagram: punkastuclaStay tapped in. New episodes every Friday.

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.comIG: @dr.elliesoho, @punkscholarsnetwork.usCredits:Punkast is hosted and produced by Jessica Schwartz.Editorial support: Melanie Hui – audio editing, episode notes, and audio-synced transcript.Transcript:Audio-synced transcriptTheme Music:Lady Bits, "Bitch-a-thon," Lady Bits.Related:Jessica Schwartz co-hosts the Punk Scholars Podcast.Connect with Punkast:SpotifyInstagram: punkastuclaStay tapped in.

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:Part 1Part 2Credits:Punkast is hosted and produced by Jessica Schwartz.Editorial support: Melanie Hui – audio editing, episode notes, and audio-synced transcript.Transcript:Audio-synced transcriptTheme Music:Lady Bits, "Bitch-a-thon," Lady Bits.Related:Jessica Schwartz co-hosts the Punk Scholars Podcast.Connect with Punkast:SpotifyInstagram: punkastuclaStay tapped in.

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/@tequilamockingbird1https://shotgunseamstress.blogspot.com/2013/10/taquila-mockingbird-queen-behind-scene.htmlhttps://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:Audio-synced transcriptTheme Music:Lady Bits, "Bitch-a-thon," Lady Bits.Related:Jessica Schwartz co-hosts the Punk Scholars Podcast. Connect with Punkast:SpotifyInstagram: punkastuclaStay tapped in.

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 GrishamJack Grisham (@jackgrisham) • FacebookJack Grisham (@jackgrishamphoto) • Instagram photos and videosCredits: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:Audio-synced transcriptTheme Music:Lady Bits, "Bitch-a-thon," Lady Bits.Related:Jessica Schwartz co-hosts the Punk Scholars Podcast. Connect with Punkast:SpotifyInstagram: punkastuclaStay tapped in.

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. LinksThe Punk Rock MuseumJennifer Precious FinchFat Mike –We’d love to hear from you and are soliciting episode ideas and guests. Contact us at: punkscholarspodcast@gmail.comThe PSP theme music is excerpted from “Crows” by Watch 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, available here.