![StarkMarkings](https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/anchor-generated-image-bank/production/podcast_uploaded_nologo400/26630596/26630596-1685039774189-1a6c87d1b8892.jpg)
StarkMarkings
By Victoria Chen
Subscribe to our newsletter: starkmarkings.substack.com/
Intro/Outro Music Credits: Andres Alfonso
![Currently playing episode](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded_nologo/26630596/26630596-1659649828058-24fc32d099454.jpg)
StarkMarkingsFeb 18, 2023
![Asking our future selves questions: Season Two Wrap-Up (S2. Ep 7)](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded_nologo400/26630596/26630596-1685039774189-1a6c87d1b8892.jpg)
Asking our future selves questions: Season Two Wrap-Up (S2. Ep 7)
As the school year comes to a close so does StarkMarkings Season 2! With school behind (actually not yet, we both still have finals...) and summer ahead, listen as Angelena and Victoria reflect on this past SM season and the year at large. (PS. If you get far enough, Victoria will explain why her life is like a cartoon... the story involves a puppy and a bagel).
Announcement: We will be taking a summer break (although there might be sporadic, bonus summer uploads)! We'll be back in the fall with Season 3... stay tuned. In the meantime, subscribe to our newsletter, which will continue to run all throughout the off-season.
We hope you enjoy this episode! (If you end up liking it, consider leaving us a rating!)
Link to our monthly newsletter: https://starkmarkings.substack.com/
Link to our website: https://starkmarkings.com/
![Do you think I’m pretty? (S2 Ep. 6)](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded_nologo400/26630596/26630596-1685039774189-1a6c87d1b8892.jpg)
Do you think I’m pretty? (S2 Ep. 6)
How are the people online so perfect? Will the boys at school like me? How do I prevent wrinkles? Growing up means change. And the change you go through on the outside can be just as dramatic and as perspective-altering as the change you go through on the inside.
In this episode, Victoria talks to Sara Amar, a junior in college who exudes self-assurance, to discover her secret to seemingly unwavering confidence and Rebecca Boylan, an English professor who incidentally assigned The Picture of Dorian Gray, sparking the inspiration for this episode. If you're not familiar, the novel by Oscar Wilde is about a young man who switches places with a portrait of himself, allowing his physical being to remain young while the painting grows old. Would you wish to stay forever young? Are beauty and youth inherently intertwined? In this episode, Victoria poses these questions, and both Sara and Professor Boylan take their shots at answering. Listen as both guests discuss their relationships with their physical appearances, the role of beauty standards in their lives, and their thoughts on aging.
We hope you enjoy! (If you end up liking the episode, consider leaving us a rating!)
Link to our monthly newsletter: https://starkmarkings.substack.com/
Link to our website: https://starkmarkings.com/
We release episodes every other Friday; growing up is timeless.
!["BFFs:" We called our childhood best friends [Common Nonsense] (S2 Ep. 5)](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded_nologo400/26630596/26630596-1685039774189-1a6c87d1b8892.jpg)
"BFFs:" We called our childhood best friends [Common Nonsense] (S2 Ep. 5)
Can we really be best friends with anyone forever? In this episode of Common Nonsense, Victoria and Angelena call up their childhood BFFs to find out. Whether you move away, like Victoria did from Madison, or simply grow apart as people, some friendships have a natural end. Others stand the test of time for reasons both in and out of our control, like Angelena and Anna. Either way, it is difficult for the fondness cultivated between two people who, past or present, ever called each other “best friend” to fade. Maybe best friends forever isn’t total nonsense.
P.S. (Hidden in the episode is a dramatic reading of a cringey email chain and an unsent apology letter)
Link to our monthly newsletter: https://starkmarkings.substack.com/ Link to our website: https://starkmarkings.com/ Instagram, TikTok, Twitter We release episodes every other Friday; growing up is timeless.
![Stalemates and Standstills: Why Getting Stuck Moves Us Forward (S2 Ep. 4)](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded_nologo400/26630596/26630596-1685039774189-1a6c87d1b8892.jpg)
Stalemates and Standstills: Why Getting Stuck Moves Us Forward (S2 Ep. 4)
It takes time to think through our past and come to conclusions about our present. As we grow up, the simple black and white nature of our youth slowly breaks down. As a result, we get stuck in stalemates with familiar people and familiar ideas alike. Conflicting experiences beg the question: what is the right way to make sense of the world? There’s that cliché rom-com line, “I need some time to figure things out.” So, with the request for time, we often come to a standstill in our personal growth. But, a standstill isn’t a plateau; it’s a moment of recalibration. A pause when we might not be moving forward, but our minds are racing in a million different directions, unweaving the simplicity with which we used to characterize our surroundings.
This episode, we interview Brandon Wu, a junior in college, and Korean-American poet Eugenia Leigh. In our conversations, notice how, in both coming of age stories, our guests find themselves in moments of stillness. Once we discover the simplicity we took for granted as children is counterfeit, stalemates and standstills give use continuous opportunities to pause and reconstruct our perspectives anew.
(content warning: this episode deals with themes of abuse)
Link to our monthly newsletter: https://starkmarkings.substack.com/
Link to our website: https://starkmarkings.com/
Order Eugenia's new poetry collection Bianca here
We release episodes every other Friday; growing up is timeless.
!["Don't Talk to Strangers" [Common Nonsense] (S2 Ep. 3)](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded_nologo/26630596/26630596-1659649828058-24fc32d099454.jpg)
"Don't Talk to Strangers" [Common Nonsense] (S2 Ep. 3)
“Don’t talk to strangers” is a mandate for every child issued before trips to the grocery store, on school playgrounds, and basically anywhere in public. But as we grow older, should we still take this advice to heart? In the first episode of StarkMarkings’ Season Two sub-series “Common Nonsense,” listen to Victoria and Angelena talk about their run-ins with strangers: people they’ve never met before and haven’t seen since the wholesome, worrisome, or awkward interaction that brought them together. Among other anecdotes, hear about the time Angelena confessed her love to someone she didn't know and Victoria’s connection with a stranger in a graveyard. In this new series, you might realize that the common sayings we've heard over and over again aren't common sense at all, rather they’re nonsense. Enjoy the first episode of “Common Nonsense.” Growing up is timeless.
Link to our NEW MONTHLY NEWSLETTER: https://starkmarkings.substack.com/
Link to our website: https://starkmarkings.com/
We release episodes every other Friday; growing up is timeless.
![Choices: The Scariest Wager is Yourself (S2 Ep. 2)](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded_nologo/26630596/26630596-1659649828058-24fc32d099454.jpg)
Choices: The Scariest Wager is Yourself (S2 Ep. 2)
It’s easy to forget that everyone is doing life for the first time. We all start out with no knowledge of the world, and as a result, we’re reliant on stories, ambitions and explanations that other people give us—until we experience things for ourselves.
What happens when your new experiences give you no choice but to question who you’ve been up until that point? What do you do when you start to feel like old habits, interests or even people don’t suit you anymore?
This episode’s stories show the power of making your own choices in the face of these questions. While trusting your judgment for the first time can be scary, it’s necessary for understanding who you want to be and forging who you are.
We interview Adriana Termeer, a former ballet dancer turned whale enthusiast and a junior in college and Dr. Joseph Hartman, a DC-area native who teaches constitutional law at Georgetown University and holds a PhD in Political Theory. Both share stories of how they learned to carve out who they are from the environment they grew up in, navigating which parts to keep and which to let go.
Link to our NEW MONTHLY NEWSLETTER: https://starkmarkings.substack.com/
Link to our website: https://starkmarkings.com/
We release episodes every other Friday; growing up is timeless.
![Purpose: You’re Wrong About What You Want to Be When You Grow Up (S2 Ep. 1)](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded_nologo/26630596/26630596-1659649828058-24fc32d099454.jpg)
Purpose: You’re Wrong About What You Want to Be When You Grow Up (S2 Ep. 1)
"What do you want to be when you grow up?"
John Lennon answered “happy.” Maybe he had the right idea.
The way the question is phrased, the typical answer is a noun: astronaut, pop-star, president. Some of us, like Lennon, may opt for adjectives. But is it possible —maybe even smart— to answer with a verb?
And what happens when life forces you to deviate from your planned out answer? What happens when what you thought was true about yourself or what you thought was true about a profession, crumbles? Do you change your answer?
This episode we interview Emily Hardy, a senior in college from Vancouver, Canada and Professor Shareen Joshi, a faculty member at Georgetown University from Jaipur, India. Although both women have grown up in separate generations with contrasting backgrounds, they both have had to grapple with these questions about finding one’s purpose. Growing up is timeless.
Link to our NEW MONTHLY NEWSLETTER: https://starkmarkings.substack.com/
Link to our website: https://starkmarkings.com/
We release episodes every other Friday; growing up is timeless.
![Season Two: Trailer](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded_nologo/26630596/26630596-1659649828058-24fc32d099454.jpg)
Season Two: Trailer
WE'RE BACK! STARKMARKINGS SEASON TWO (a shift from Season One): “At StarkMarkings, we recognize our world’s constant metamorphosis; no two decades, years, or even days ever look the same. Despite changing times, we are all bound together by our never-ending journeys of growth as we encounter love, identity, tragedy and other markers of a life fully lived. Each episode features two interviews, one coming of age story from the past and one from the present. By placing these narratives in conversation, our mission is to bring people together by celebrating the notion that growing up is timeless.
New episodes will drop every other Friday starting on February 17, 2023
Subscribe to our NEW monthly newsletter
Visit our website
![Final Bow for Yellowface ft. Phil Chan](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded_nologo/26630596/26630596-1659649828058-24fc32d099454.jpg)
Final Bow for Yellowface ft. Phil Chan
A Holiday Surprise! Ending the year —and Season One— with a bang! With Nutcracker in full swing, what is the difference between character and caricature? How do you reconcile conservative artistic integrity and ever-evolving social movements? This bonus episode features Phil Chan, a co-founder of Final Bow for Yellowface, an initiative aimed at updating outdated depictions of Asian people and Asian culture in ballet. As a ballet dancer for nearly a decade, I first read about Phil’s work in 2018, in an article published by the New York Times, which mentioned his role in helping revamp New York City Ballet’s rendition of the Chinese Variation in The Nutcracker. Reading the article at sixteen, I was surprised (and maybe a little confused) at how much the changes made to the sixty second dance meant to me. It’s needless to say, I was thrilled when Phil said yes to chatting on the podcast. From separating emotion and solution to grounding his mission in his love for ballet as an art form, listen as Phil and I discuss his approach to advocacy work in his book Final Bow for Yellowface: Dancing Between Intention and Impact. Who would have thought the holiday season might just be the perfect time to talk about racial representation? So, start a conversation, support your local ballet, and get in the holiday spirit; go watch the Nutcracker!
To learn more about the initiative Final Bow for Yellowface (led by Phil and his co-founder Georgina Pazcoguin), the pledge it centers around, and the book Final Bow for Yellowface: Dancing Between Intention and Impact, follow this link: https://www.yellowface.org/our-vision
![Season 1 Wrap-Up!](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded_nologo/26630596/26630596-1659649828058-24fc32d099454.jpg)
Season 1 Wrap-Up!
As 2022 comes to an end, I spend a few minutes reflecting on Season 1 and teasing Season 2! We are going on break but will resume January 20th, 2023! Enjoy the holiday season, listen to some music, read a few books, and stay tuned for several big changes in the new year. With love, Victoria
![Love in the Time of Cholera ft. Andres Alfonso](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded_nologo/26630596/26630596-1659649828058-24fc32d099454.jpg)
Love in the Time of Cholera ft. Andres Alfonso
From joy to anger to jealousy and more, love refracts almost every conceivable emotion. Why is young love thought of as dramatic and intoxicating? Through the lens of Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez, a novel published in 1985 about the lives of two people (Fermina Daza and Florentino Ariza) who fall in love and then drift apart, Andres Alfonso, a junior in college and musician, and I sit down to discuss why love is such a compelling topic for music. Andres Alfonso (he/they) is a musician who goes by ARAUJIA. They bridge their Salvadoran and Cuban heritage through language in his music, creating in the indie and alternative rock genres. Click here for more information on his work: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7jjxND0ZjxZsOEEX6pWr7A?si=SrTdshjkQs-S_n1JKRXUsg
![My Year of Rest and Relaxation (BOSSIER MINI-ZINE EVENT)](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded_nologo/26630596/26630596-1659649828058-24fc32d099454.jpg)
My Year of Rest and Relaxation (BOSSIER MINI-ZINE EVENT)
Playlist of our life, library of our growth; we, as human beings, inevitably experience literature and music within the context of our lives. Our experiences shape our taste. A character we one day think is justified, a specific experience later we realize isn’t. A lyric which helped us heal, one day we don't need anymore. Taking on this semester's Mini-Zine within Bossier, Georgetown University's Intersectional Feminist Magazine, I wanted to further explore the concept behind StarkMarkings --how are books and music indicative of our past, present, and future selves?
When merging StarkMarkings with Bossier in a Mini-Zine Event, we chose My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh with participants selecting relevant songs. Our discussion began with each of the four student panelists, including myself as moderator, discussing how we’ve seen feminism change over the course of our young lives. With the audio from the live event recorded, fusing music tracks and conversation together, listen to the three other panelists and me discuss, in front of an audience, where see feminism going in the future.
In addition to this event, if you are interested in seeing the written and artistic submissions to the print Mini-Zine, check out the Bossier website where Issue 12 is officially, digitally displayed: http://www.bossiermag.com/
![WIBR #2: The Bell Jar, Malibu Rising, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded_nologo/26630596/26630596-1659649828058-24fc32d099454.jpg)
WIBR #2: The Bell Jar, Malibu Rising, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?
What I've Been Reading Part 2: From fun to serious, as I slip back into my bookworm-self, I'm remembering the innate grounding force of books. Today's episode is a relaxing reflection on how my definition of "good writing" has changed over time as well as how the role of books in my life currently compares to the role they played in my childhood. Listen as I discuss The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid, and Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling to the music of Taylor Swift and Prince.
![The Haunting of Hill House ft. Elizabeth Dillon](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded_nologo/26630596/26630596-1659649828058-24fc32d099454.jpg)
The Haunting of Hill House ft. Elizabeth Dillon
Happy Halloween! What's scarier than the supernatural? Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House infuses traditional spine-chilling fear with piercing sadness. Praised as near perfect gothic horror, the novel faces head on the frightening thought that you can be yourself, and, for no particular reason, others will simply not like you. More terrifying than the bloody writing on the walls, the horror in our main character Eleanor's loneliness lies in its plausibility, its relatability. Listen as my friend from English class Elizabeth Dillon and I discuss, to the tracks of Nat King Cole, Aly & AJ, Matt Maeson, and John Barnes Chance, this specific type of loneliness as well as the value of horror as a literary genre at large. (As a bonus, we also suggest a couple unique Halloween activities!)
![The Sandman ft. Jo Swenson](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded_nologo/26630596/26630596-1659649828058-24fc32d099454.jpg)
The Sandman ft. Jo Swenson
Dreams are fantasies woven into reality: places where we unwillingly forfeit control, left at the mercy of our own minds. In the chaos of night, we become vulnerable to our rawest insecurities, unable to reason a way out of our fears. And, when the order of daylight comes, so often we are left reeling, forced to forget or confront who we really are without the supervision of consciousness watching our every move. The dreamland is a setting for horror. Listen as Jo Swenson, a bookseller at Gibson's Bookstore in Concord, NH and a podcast host of Gibson's The Laydown, and I discuss the horror-adjacent, fantasy-esque comic book series The Sandman by Neil Gaiman. With music from The Velvet Underground, David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, and Iggy Pop, join us as Jo and I poke at the nature of dreams.
![She’s Eleven, She’s Me, She Dreams ft. Erica Bodwell](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded_nologo/26630596/26630596-1659649828058-24fc32d099454.jpg)
She’s Eleven, She’s Me, She Dreams ft. Erica Bodwell
Why do our younger selves continually haunt us? How do we make peace with former versions of who we are? Whether it's physical puberty, a creative awakening, or overcoming trauma, we are constantly splitting ourselves into past and present. With a million "before's" and "after's," listen as poet Erica Bodwell and I discuss, to the tracks of Cowboy Junkies, Beyoncé, PJ Harvey, and Dar Williams, how to reconcile these old versions of ourselves --and, ultimately, how to move on from the past. If you're interested in more of Erica's work, here is the link to her website: https://www.ericasoferbodwell.com/
![Little Women ft. Sky Byrd](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded_nologo/26630596/26630596-1659649828058-24fc32d099454.jpg)
Little Women ft. Sky Byrd
Not little girls nor young women; it's the hazy in-between. Hopeful and nostalgic, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott is the quintessential coming-of-age novel, portraying the startling moment when one looks around and realizes every one they know has grown up, including themselves. Both the youngest in our families, listen as my friend Sky, a professional ballet dancer, and I discuss how we see ourselves in the four March girls.
![The Doors of Perception ft. Jennifer Jean](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded_nologo/26630596/26630596-1659649828058-24fc32d099454.jpg)
The Doors of Perception ft. Jennifer Jean
One generation's pain is often another generation's problem. How does a fractured perception ricochet across time? A child of parents who came of age in the sixties, poet Jennifer Jean and I discuss, in conjunction with music from the sixties rock band the Doors, her poem "the Doors of Perception" from her forthcoming poetry collection VOZ. Jennifer has several other works of poetry, all of which can be found on her website: https://www.jenniferjeanwriter.com/
![A Wrinkle in Time](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded_nologo/26630596/26630596-1659649828058-24fc32d099454.jpg)
A Wrinkle in Time
A disembodied brain, wings made of poetry, and the fight for individuality. Angelique Herring, a visual storyteller for the NASA Langley Research Center, and I sit down to discuss the genre-defying children's classic A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle.
![The Summer Day](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded_nologo/26630596/26630596-1659649828058-24fc32d099454.jpg)
The Summer Day
Becoming your own person isn't easy. I sat down with Mr. Matthew Hicks, the principal of Shaker Road School where I attended eighth grade, to discuss the anxieties of middle-school from an educator's point of view. Listen as we use Mr.Matt's music taste and "The Summer Day" by Mary Oliver to dissect middle-school problems and chat life philosophy.
![WIBR #1 - Nightbitch, Judas, Late Migrations](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded_nologo/26630596/26630596-1659649828058-24fc32d099454.jpg)
WIBR #1 - Nightbitch, Judas, Late Migrations
A book for each: rage, betrayal, peace. Listen as I discuss modern manifestations of age-old emotions within the contexts of Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder, Judas by Amos Oz, and Late Migrations by Margaret Renkl.
![Normal People by Sally Rooney](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded_nologo/26630596/26630596-1659649828058-24fc32d099454.jpg)
Normal People by Sally Rooney
My friend from high school Margaret and I discuss what it means to be a "normal person."
![Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded_nologo/26630596/26630596-1659649828058-24fc32d099454.jpg)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Composer, professional musician, and educator Mr. Nicholas White and I discuss the finicky role luck plays in success.
![StarkMarkings Season One: Trailer](https://d3t3ozftmdmh3i.cloudfront.net/production/podcast_uploaded_episode400/26630596/26630596-1659648579809-7327ebbd7ae11.jpg)
StarkMarkings Season One: Trailer
A guest, a book, a conversation, and a mini playlist.
StarkMarkings aims to explore the assertion that we, as human beings, inevitably experience literature and music within the context of our lives. Like a bookmark, we are placed in the timelines of our lives, only knowing the past, clueless about the plot twists to come. The past versions of ourselves layer over each other to inform who we are throughout time, carving our likes and dislikes, and determining which pieces of literature we reach for, which songs we play. The words we consume are manifestations of who we are: our upbringing, the era in which we’re born, the struggles we’ve endured. With an infinite combination of experiences, we reach for a finite number of books and songs, yet somehow, these finite, unchanging words still manage to whisper unwavering truths to each of us. StarkMarkings embarks on a journey to mesh the dynamic nature of personal growth and the static nature of literature and music together. The pod releases every ten days, so the 10th, 20th, and 30th of each month. Stay tuned for upcoming episodes, the first of which will be released on August 10th, 2022!
Email us: starkmarkings@gmail.com
Follow us on Instagram: @starkmarkings
Music Credits: Andres Alfonso