Grounded Futures Show

18. Liberated Care, with Zena Sharman

“I think about care as a process, as an ongoing act of weaving — that it is this active thing that we do, that happens in relationships, that happens in communities.”

Zena Sharman joins the show to talk casting spells and weaving webs of care beyond institutions. This episode is all about intergenerational solidarity, and queering kinship and care in the everyday. Zena is a writer, speaker, strategist and LGBTQ+ health advocate and our conversation goes deep into the radical possibilities for care as an ongoing, consensual process — from grief care to ageing and dying, to gender open parenting, to centring pleasure and disability justice in health care.

A black and white photo of Zena -- a white femme with curly, chin-length silver hair grins widely, her teeth visible. She’s wearing a black short-sleeved dress with a blue, red and green floral pattern and bold fuchsia lipstick. Her eyes are crinkled with happiness. She’s standing on a beach; the background behind her is blurred but you can make out the colours and shapes of the light brown sand, blue water and green trees behind her. There’s a landscape of snow-capped mountains in the distance.

Bio

Zena Sharman is a writer, speaker, strategist and LGBTQ+ health advocate. She’s the author of three books, including The Care We Dream Of: Liberatory and Transformative Approaches to LGBTQ+ Health (published by Arsenal Pulp Press in the fall of 2021). Zena edited the Lambda Literary award-winning anthology The Remedy: Queer and Trans Voices on Health and Health Care. She’s also an engaging speaker who brings her passion for LGBTQ+ health to audiences of health care providers, students and community members at universities and conferences across North America. You can learn more about Zena and her work at https://zenasharman.com/

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About the Grounded Futures Show:

The show discusses topics that are important to our collective survival and thrival… We also dig into ways youth (and anyone really) can gain new skills to thrive amid current and ongoing disasters. The show will take a deep dive on these issues, and be in conversations with incredible guests! The hosts are Uilliam (Liam) Joy and carla joy bergman.

Music for the show by: Sour Gout

Logo art by Robin Carrico

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