On Theme is a production of iHeartRadio and fair Weather Friends Media.
You are stars, and now it's time for roll credits.
We're doing roll credits this early episode.
Yes, we have an announcement, drum roll please, but a bit, a bit, a bit, a bit, a bit, a bit a bit. The announcement is that the episode you just heard about, Black Muses, is going to be our last episode. We have loved creating this show and sharing black stories with y'all, and we wanted to tap in with y'all and let y'all know.
Yeah, it seems a little abrupt, but I do think an abrupt ending is the blackest thing we can do, because if you recall a second family matters, Okay, what happened my wife and kids?
Okay, girlfriend, I feel like you have a deeper historical knowledge of abrupt endings than I do.
That break it down for me.
They didn't get good endings. You got they're coming back. You know, somebody went upstairs and just they.
Went up the stairs to nowhere.
Yeah, so I feel like, you know, we are part of a true, storied tradition of ending black shows abruptly, and I just think it's really appropriate and.
Yeah, well We did start our show with the episode about first episodes, so.
We're very very on the very meta here.
How do you feel about endings in general? I.
You know, feel different ways about different endings, you know. I think any work ending I'm okay with. Yeah, life ending I'm more sad about. So I feel good about what we did it. On theme, There's definitely more stories that I would love to tell. But the thing about stories, they find their way into the world. It doesn't have to be a podcast. It can be just me sharing something with someone personally. It could be written down, I could take up collage. There's so many ways to get
stories out there. So excited about that.
What about you?
How do you feel?
I'm cool with endings too, Like I have had to work my way into contentment with some endings. But I like change, and I know when like I'm ready for a change in things, and also when I'm not ready for a change in things. I think the work that I've done over the years, like for my mental self, has really helped me get comfortable with like not freaking out over those things.
So yeah, I think I'm good with endings.
You know, since this is a very special role. Credits the segment where we give credit to a person, place, or thing. What would you like to give credit to in regards to this podcast.
I like to give credit to you.
I think that it's a blessing to be able to work with somebody you've known for a really long time, and I admire the work that you do, Like I think that you are very meticulous in your work. I think that you care a lot about your work, and I think that it's like, that's cool, but also it's about black stories, and black stories are cool, and the
stories we were telling were cool. So having a thing that will exist in the world forever, like as a representation of the things that you and I care about in our shared relationship. We did an episode on diaries personal narratives. We've talked about on the show, and those are like individual narratives, but I think it's interesting to think about this show as a shared personal narrative and one that will be able to exist for ever. I mean, as long as the technologies that we have.
As long as they don't turn off the internet, turn off the Internet machine, which they might be knowing pretty soon, we have both I think brought very different things to the show and I know, the long list of ideas.
That we have, like those aren't going anywhere, Like I know if anybody wanted to come up to you and talk to you about some of those things, that you.
Are still very invested in those ideas.
It's not like just because the show isn't there to carry them as a vessel, that doesn't mean that you don't still love and care about and want to nurture those ideas about black storytelling.
So yeah, that's what I'll say today.
Yeah, I think when one thing that stands out about what you just said is you made the comment that a good thing about podcast is that people can discover them at any time. And I found myself discovering podcasts that Laura ended in twenty sixteen, and I'm like, yeah.
So that's a cool thing.
And like people like you said, can go through the catalog. We got what forty six episodes, Yeah, you know, you can run through the catalog. We've been on other people's shows too, talking about different aspects of black storytelling.
So that's fun.
It's like a snapshot of you know, where we were during this time, what we were thinking about, what we cared about. So you know, I think it'll be interesting to look back, like, you know, when we fifty, like, oh look at us.
I'm going to be cringing, cringing from wherever I am in the future, listening to myself. Just so I don't like listening to myself. I have There are hundreds of episodes of me out there, maybe over a thousand at this point, and that's going to be an.
Experience kind of like that you go to see what was I talking about, burn it all, what was said, And on that note, I'd like to give credit to like all the moving parts that made this happen. I know when we were first talking about starting this podcast, you were like, I heart just doesn't give podcasts to you know, non famous black women, and kind of like sitting in that and being like what does that mean? And like how are we going to you know, stewart
this into the world. So you know, I heart ate that one little thing, okay, you know, just being able to have this platform. We had so many people who helped us like get it started. You know, bridget Todd gave us a lot of advice. Christian from unladylike she's really cool, met with us, still keeps up with us. Sees how we're doing, and you know, she'll give you down to the set on how much stuff costs and
how much she spent and who's charging what. So you know, just like Tari our producer, and all the people who stepped in to produce the show, and you know, Tari might have been out, Like those people have been really cool and it's like you hear us talking and you know a lot of time it is like in the first person, but it's not a it's not a two women.
Show at all.
Even the people we've researched, you know, the people who made their archives available, the people who did research before us so that we could just you know, do research for the podcast.
Yeah, shout out to all of those people.
Yeah, because it's like we're all in conversation with each other, and I hope this podcast, this show is a testament to just the ongoingness of blackness, of black stories in that conversation that we have with each other, and hopefully we'll be in conversation with you know, other art forms in the future, people who maybe want to know, like what were people thinking about copsidy in the twenty twenties, They'll be able to go back and listen to our
show and then you know, maybe do a retrospective of like.
Yeah, that shit wasn't built the fuck.
Yeah.
You know, we occupy this space in this time, and we've been in conversation with people in places of the past, and we'll be in conversation with people and places in the future and that's exciting for me.
And shout out to all of the guests that have come on the show as well, Yeah, that have generously.
Who's your favorite guests?
Oh, don't do that for me.
I got my fave.
I got my fa Donovan. Oh.
I was gonna say Michael Eigenzalas.
Oh, I liked him too. I really liked Donovan. I mean he hit us up with the archival material that.
Was enjoying to go through on all the sound design in that episode would not have happened without Donovan.
Because he had the files. He had the fire files. So I really appreciated that. But I also like, just like how that was an earlier episode for an interview, but it was like so rich. I felt like, like, I appreciate that you brought that idea. I know that it was like a collaborative effort because it's his book that came out into the world, but also like thinking about it from a black storytelling perspective of like how people were crafting narratives in the media. I went in
my live in a crack era. Okay, I've heard plenty of stories, but I didn't know what it was like to like live during that time.
So it was pretty heavy.
It's heavy subject material, but I think it didn't feel like that when we were having that conversation. I know that the seriousness, the way, the gravity of course all of those things that exist, and of course the stories in there. The book could get pretty dark, but at the same time there were still levity in moments speaking of what black people are good at beyond endings, we are good at making things funny when they ain't funny.
It's always a little funny. It's always a little funny. If we gonna find that little.
Inkling, we're gonna find that mustard seed of funniness. Yeah, So where can people find you? Now that on theme is done?
So y'all can find me in many places. I think one of the best catchalls to go to first is probably Eves Jeffcoat dot com. And if you don't know how to spell my name. That's why v E S j E F F co A T. That is my website, Evesjeffcoat dot com and you can get two other things
from there. There's a contact form on there. You can sign up for my newsletter on there, and you'll get information about the things that I have going on in the yoga yoga teaching space because I'm a yoga teacher, about things I have going on in the post space, and about things that I have going on in the writing space and the travel space. So if you sign
up for a newsletter you can get that information. You could also if you're on Instagram, go to Instagram at not Apologizing and I post stuff on there as well. You can keep up with what I'm doing there, and you can also hear me on podcast. I'm pretty regular on stuff Mom never told you, so if you want to go there, once a months, I host a monthly series that we do there called Female First, and often talking about some similar things that we would talk about
on this show. It's not all about black people, but if you're interested in people in history who had pioneering accomplishments, then you can go there. But those are some of the spaces you can go to to keep up with me, and I have new adventures coming up. So if you're interested in all of those things, then keep it up with me and travel and yoga and podcast life, then those might be good places for you.
I love it.
What about you? How can people keep up with you? Uh?
You know, I just be on the block for real.
If you see a little Honda Civic which one girl, great skirt, don't tell people.
That with my personalized say.
Well, my book is coming out in February, pros to the People. It's available for pre order now, but I have been sending the link for pre order because we don't have the cover on it, and I feel like it's not cute right now, but you know you still pre ordered. Okay, but you know what I'm saying, Like, I feel like it's cute when you can be like pre order. You can see the cover, you can see the t you can see the you know, the little images on the inside.
Okay, but how can people pre order it? Though? Where did they go?
They can go anywhere anywhere that sells books.
Then pre orders.
You can just google pro to the People by Katie Mitchell and all the pre order links will show up, So whoever you want to support, whether you want to support it indy.
So yeah, that's the that's the main thing, pro to the people.
I'll be talking about that a lot, hopefully on other people's podcasts, talking about that.
People who listen to one theme, why would they like pros to the people.
So people is celebrating black bookstores, and I'm profiling over sixty black bookstores. And one thing about profiling a very specific type of thing over and over again, you gotta find what makes it different. So there's a lot of funny stories, little known or never before told stories in there. Y'all know, I like drama. Y'all know I like mess I kept be cute.
Though that it was a complete contradiction to what between the lines.
But if you can't, I kept it cute. And that's all I'm gonna say on that.
She said she's telling y'all to DM her.
However, y'all can find Katie ask her about that.
What she preordered a book and then read it, read.
It, then you gotta sign an NDA because don't play with me, y'all ain't gonna have folks.
Coming at me.
It's also like a very heavily designed book. I think it's interesting you said, like, I'm meticulous. I didn't know that about myself. I think before start this podcast and working on the book, I didn't know that I was meticulous. I always thought I was a slacker, and I always thought I was like very type B personality.
I mean, did we know each other in middle school.
I think I got it from from college. I went to an engineering school, and I just like, did not care about engineering. So I was just chilling All through college.
I was chilling.
And then I go into the workplace and I'm like, I also do not care about this. So I was never doing anything I cared about, I think, and so I was just like, oh, I just don't care about anything.
But that's not true.
So now that I'm working on these projects that I really care about, I think you'll see a lot of the details.
It's very rich in epemera.
You'll see things that I've gotten from the archives that are in the book, whether it's pictures that I've sourced from people who snapped a picture in nineteen ninety five and I tracked them down.
Or FBI files letters.
There's a lot of cool stuff in there. And going back to the ongoingness of black history and our stories. A lot of the bookstores blend into each other in a really beautiful way. DC there's Sankofa, and the owner of that used to go to Vaughn's when she lived in Detroit because she's from Detroit and being at Vaughn showed her that there could be a bookstore like that that focused on Black power and Pan Africanism. So now
Sankofa still exists, but Vonn doesn't exist. And mister Vaughn, who just turned ninety, lives in Atlanta, and you know, me and him and his sons hang out and talk and you know, talk about what it was like to be ran up on by the Detroit police and the FBI because they don't like you selling black power stuff to niggas in Detroit, Like why these niggas.
Wanted to learn how to read so man suspicions.
So there's things like that, And I keep it at a register that's not so stuffy because I'm not so stuffy, and I want people to actually read it and get something out of it. So it's not a textbook. It's me translating the oral history and the history found and you know, primary documents, So I'm excited about it too.
And with that, it's a right.
That's it. That's all, y'all.
So with that said, you heard all the lovely stuff we just talked about. Keep up with us. Don't stop being black if you're black, don't stop enjoying black stories.
Because this continues.
Yes, thank you, Bye bye.
On Theme is a production of iHeartRadio and Fairweather Friends Media. This episode was written by Eves Jeffco and Katie Mitchell. It was edited and produced by Tari Harrison. Follow us on Instagram at on Themeshow. You can also send us an email at hello at on Theme dot Show. Head to on Theme dot show to check out the show notes for episodes. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows well