WTF: The Other F Word Podcast

About WTF: The Other F Word Podcast

We’re Dra. Leslie C. Sotomayor II and Dr. Katy Ballard, and this podcast grows out of conversations we’ve been having with each other about teaching, learning, identity, care, resistance, and the many ways we show up in our work and in our communities. At its heart, this podcast is about making room for honest conversations. It’s about the things we carry, the questions we keep returning to, and the experiences that shape how we move through the world as educators, researchers, and human beings. We want this to be a space that feels thoughtful, real, and maybe even a little bit unruly in the best way. We also think of this as a space of femtorship — a place where we can offer care, wisdom, honesty, and mutual learning, not from a distance, but in a relationship. For us, femtorship means creating space for each other and for our listeners to grow, reflect, and feel less alone in the work we do and the lives we live. RSSVERIFY

Publisher

Dra. Leslie C. Sotomayor II & Dr. Katy Ballard

Category

arts · education · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

13 Jul 2026

Latest episode

9 Nov 2026

Latest episodes

13 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   9 Nov 2026

   Episode #14: Feminist Self-Care

2. 

   3 Nov 2026

   Episode #12: How Feminism Changed Me

3. 

   27 Oct 2026

   Episode #11: Spooky

   In Episode 11, Katy and Leslie move through Halloween memories, witch and curandera traditions, ancestral karma, and the histories that tried to silence women’s and Indigenous wisdom. As the season shifts and the veil thins, they explore colonial legacies, reclaimed feminist identity, rest, ritual, and the beginnings of the WTF book club with _Witches, Sluts, Feminists_ by Samhita Mukhopadhyay.

4. 

   27 Oct 2026

   Episode #10: Altars

5. 

   13 Oct 2026

   Episode #9: Jacklyn Downing

   In this episode of WTF, The Other F Word, Leslie C. Sotomayor II and Katy Ballard talk with textile artist Jacklyn Downing about wondering, listening, and becoming through creative practice, decolonial thought, community care, and femtorship. Jacklyn reflects on textile art as a way to hold memory, nature, women’s work, rites of passage, written words, and found objects while honoring the seen and unseen labor of women. Together, they explore art as connection, spiritual practice, and identity as an unfolding practice, and the courage it takes to keep learning new language around gender, sexuality, and belonging.

6. 

   6 Oct 2026

   Episode #8: How Feminism Changed Me

   In episode #8: How Feminism Changed Me, WTF: The Other F Word, Dra. Leslie C. Sotomayor II and Dr. Katy Ballard initiate a conversation about how feminism shapes the way we see, teach, research, relate, and live. The episode begins with a question: How did I become a feminist? At its heart, this episode explores feminism as more than theory. It is a lens that moves beyond the classroom and into relationships, families, work, cultural institutions, and community life. Feminism is not only something we study. It is something we practice. It gives us language for what we have felt, frameworks for what we have noticed, and community for what we are still becoming. It can change how we teach, research, love, listen, question, and show up for one another. Questions to consider: - When did you first begin to recognize feminism in your own life? - Was there a class, mentor, femtor, conversation, or experience that helped you find language for something you already knew? - Who has seen possibility in you before you could see it in yourself? - How has feminism changed the way you think about your work, relationships, family, or community? - Where do you notice emotional labor being carried unevenly? - Whose voices are heard in the spaces you move through? Whose voices are interrupted, overlooked, or left out? - What would equity look like in practice in one relationship, classroom, workplace, or institution you are part of? Sources mentioned in this episode: Collins, G. (2009). When everything changed: The amazing journey of American women from 1960 to the present. Hachette UK. Gay, R. (2019). Bad feminist: essays. btb Verlag.

7. 

   29 Sept 2026

   Episode #7: Myth or Fact?

   Episode #7: Myth or Fact? In this episode of WTF: The Other F Word, Dra. Leslie C. Sotomayor II and Dr. Katy Ballard begins with a question that is both simple and layered: What is feminism... really? Together, they move through working definitions of feminism, beginning with bell hooks’s understanding of feminism as “a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.” From there, they reflect on feminism as a liberatory practice that names sexism as the problem, not men, and makes room for people of all genders in the work of transformation. This conversation considers Black feminism, BIPOC feminism, intersectionality through Kimberlé Crenshaw, Chicana feminist thought, Latine feminism, Chicana/Latina feminism, and queer feminism. It also gestures toward gender performativity, compulsory heterosexuality, and Audre Lorde’s insistence that liberation must include the whole self. Rather than offering one final answer, this episode invites listeners into feminism as plural, evolving, anti-racist, decolonial, class-conscious, queer-inclusive, and rooted in lived experience. As you listen, reflect: What definitions of feminism have shaped you, challenged you, or asked you to grow?

8. 

   22 Sept 2026

   Episode #6: Allowing Ourselves to Slow Down

   In this reflective episode of WTF: The Other F Word, Katy and Leslie explore slowing down, burnout, rest, productivity, and joy. From scheduled naps to spoons, opera, mindfulness, and community care, they ask what it means to reclaim rest in a culture that rewards exhaustion. Listener reflection: Where are you being invited to slow down and be more present? Sources mentioned in this episode: Hersey, T. (2022). Rest is resistance: A manifesto (Vol. 1). Hachette UK. @thenapministry

9. 

   15 Sept 2026

   Episode #5: What is Femtorship? with BJ Weaver

   Femtorship, sister friendship, and the everyday practice of care In this episode of WTF: The Other F Word, Dra. Leslie C. Sotomayor II and Dr. Katy Ballard welcome **BJ Weaver** for a grounded conversation on femtorship, long-term friendship, feminist relationship, and becoming through care. Episode #5 of WTF: The Other F Word centers on femtorship, sister friendship, and the everyday practices that shape feminist becoming. Leslie introduces BJ Weaver as a beloved friend of more than 20 years and names their relationship as part of her own feminist formation. Together with Katy, they explore how femtorship is lived not only as an idea, but as a daily practice of listening, texting, showing up, caring, and growing alongside one another. About This Episode What does it mean to be formed by friendship? In this episode, Leslie and Katy welcome BJ Weaver into a conversation rooted in wondering, listening, and becoming. The umbrella theme is femtorship, with attention to how it is practiced in ordinary, intimate, relational ways. Leslie and BJ reflect on more than two decades of friendship, including the daily rhythms of talking, texting, and naming one another as sister friends. Leslie shares that her self-identification as a feminist began through her friendship and relationship with BJ, opening a conversation about feminist relationship as something lived, practiced, and sustained over time. BJ introduces herself as a 55-year-old social worker by trade who currently manages money for people on disability through Social Security. She also shares pieces of her life as someone who has worked with single mothers facing homelessness, spent 10 years as a stay-at-home mom, raised two grown children, and lives as a partner, wife, friend, and sister friend. Together, they consider femtorship, mentorship, community, care, and the ways long-term friendship can become a site of feminist practice. Key Themes - Femtorship and mentorship - Sister friendship as feminist practice - Centership in everyday relationships - Long-term friendship and becoming - Care, community, and mutual support - Feminism as something lived in relationship - The daily practices of talking, texting, listening, and showing up - Motherhood, partnership, work, & friendship as interconnected parts of life - Wondering, listening, and becoming through one another Guest Bio BJ Weaver is a social worker by trade who currently manages money for people on disability through Social Security. Her past work includes supporting single mothers facing homelessness. She was also a stay-at-home mom for 10 years and is the mother of two grown children. BJ identifies as a partner, wife, friend, and sister friend. She takes friendship and sisterhood seriously as guiding forces in her life, and brings a grounded, relational perspective to conversations about care, community, and feminist practice. - Listen to Episode #5: Femtorship with BJ Weaver Subscribe to **WTF: The Other F Word** for more conversations shaped by feminism, creative practices, decolonial thought, community, care, and centership. Reflection Questions - Who has helped shape your feminist becoming? - What friendships have taught you how to listen, care, or show up differently? - How do you practice femtorship in everyday relationships? - Where does femtorship appear in your life, formally or informally? - What daily practices help sustain your sister friendships or chosen family relationships? - How might friendship be understood as a serious site of knowledge, care, and transformation? Related Links Go to ⁠wtftheotherfword.com⁠ and download the FREE episode #5 discussion guide.

10. 

    8 Sept 2026

    A Note on Language: Naming Feminism with Dani Cervantes: 4

    In this episode of **WTF: The Other F Word**, Dra. Leslie C. Sotomayor II and Dr. Katy Ballard welcome Dani Cervantes for a warm, reflective conversation on language, feminism, and the words we use to understand ourselves and each other. This conversation began with a question from Dani: not what these words mean in a dictionary or textbook, but what they mean to the people using them. Together, Leslie, Katy, and Dani open up terms that often move through academic, artistic, activist, and community spaces, including **feminist**, **patriarchy**, **queer**, **intersectionality**, **BIPOC**, **Latina**, **Latinx**, and **Dra.** Rather than arriving at perfect definitions, this episode makes space for curiosity, complexity, and care. The conversation explores how language can invite people into deeper understanding, and how it can also create distance when meanings are assumed or left unspoken. **In this episode, we explore:** - Why language matters in feminist, creative, and decolonial spaces - How words can carry history, identity, tension, and contradiction - The difference between intention and impact when using shared language - Why terms like feminist, BIPOC, queer, and Latinx can mean different things across communities - How language can include, exclude, clarify, or complicate - The responsibility of using words with care, openness, and humility - Why language is something we revisit, not something we fix once and for all At its heart, this episode is about relationship: to words, to histories, to ourselves, and to one another. It is an invitation to slow down, listen closely, and stay open to being challenged, corrected, and changed. If this conversation resonates, subscribe or follow **WTF: The Other F Word** wherever you listen. To stay connected between episodes, join the **WTF Dispatch** for reflections, updates, and invitations into feminist creative practice.

11. 

    25 Aug 2026

    Creative Practice Supports Transformation: 3

    What counts as creative practice? In this episode, Dra. Leslie C. Sotomayor II and Dr. Katy Ballard open up a spacious conversation about creativity, transformation, and the many ways we come into being through what we make, tend, share, and imagine. Creativity is often treated as something reserved for artists, experts, performers, or people with the right training. But this conversation pushes back on that narrow view. Creative practice is not limited to visual art, gallery walls, polished outcomes, or public recognition. It can live in the body, in the kitchen, in a classroom, in a garden, in a story, in a song, in a neighborhood space, in a mother’s radical care, or in the quiet act of listening deeply to what is becoming. The episode draws from Gloria Anzaldúa’s idea that creative acts extend far beyond what is usually named as art. Creativity can be a way of surviving, healing, making meaning, and crossing borders. It can help us live in nepantla, the in-between spaces where old ways no longer fit and new possibilities have not fully arrived. Dra. Sotomayor and Dr. Ballard reflect on the messages that often interrupt creative practice. Many people stop creating because they were told they were not artistic, not talented, not disciplined, or not good enough. Some were taught to stay inside the lines, to produce perfect results, or to wait for permission before making anything. These messages can disconnect us from creative parts of ourselves that are essential to our growth, our joy, and our liberation. This episode offers another way to understand creativity. Creative practice can be a feminist practice. It can be a decolonial practice. It can be a practice of care, femtorship, community, and self-creation. It can help us ask better questions, listen more fully, and become more honest with ourselves and each other. Creativity belongs to everyone. You do not need a degree, a gallery show, an audience, a perfect result, or anyone’s permission to create. The act itself can be meaningful. The practice itself can transform us. Key Themes Creativity as a practice of wondering, listening, and becoming Creative acts as more than traditional visual art. Gloria Anzaldúa’s influence on understanding creativity, borders, and transformation. Nepantla as an in-between space where creativity can emerge. Feminism, decolonial thought, care, femtorship, and community as creative practices. Creativity as embodied survival, healing, meaning-making, and self-creation. Everyday creative practices, including writing, dancing, music, performance, cooking, gardening, storytelling, teaching, curating, and community building. Why people stop creating after being told they are not artistic or should stay inside the lines. Reclaiming creativity without needing permission, credentials, an audience, or a perfect outcome. Creative practice as a way to imagine new possibilities and build more life-giving worlds. Reflection Questions: What messages did you receive about creativity when you were growing up? When did you first start to believe you were, or were not, creative? What creative practices already exist in your everyday life, even if you have not named them that way? Where are you living in an in-between space right now? What form of creative practice helps you listen to yourself more deeply? What would you make, try, tend, write, move, or share if you did not need permission? How might creativity become part of your care practice, community practice, or healing practice? Who has femtored, encouraged, witnessed, or made space for your becoming? Resources and References Mentioned: Gloria Anzaldúa and her expansive understanding of creative acts Nepantla, the in-between space of transition, tension, and transformation Feminist and decolonial approaches to creativity, care, and community. Anzaldúa, G. (2015). Light in the Dark/Luz en lo oscuro (p. 9). Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Creative practices such as writing, dancing, music, performance, cooking, gardening, storytelling, teaching, curating, and community building.García, C. S., & Sotomayor II, L. C. (2025). Art borderlands in theory, practice, and teaching. Taylor & Francis. Everyday examples of creative community care, such as neighborhood art spaces, radical mothering, or madres radicales, where relevant to lived experience. Call to Action: Listen to the episode, then choose one small creative act that does not require permission. Write a few lines. Move your body. Cook something with intention. Tell a story. Tend a plant. Make space for someone else’s voice. Begin where you are. If this conversation resonates, share the episode with someone who needs to remember that creativity belongs to them too. Special thanks to Daniela Cervantes for editing our episodes. Photo Credit: Daniela Cervantes & Gabriel Chaile. Podcast cover design by: Sterling Zoebisch Follow us and subscribe to our newsletter, **WTF: The Other F Word Dispatch**: https://www.wtftheotherfword.com/start-here (https://www.wtftheotherfword.com/start-here) **Social Media** Instagram: @wtf.theotherfword https://www.instagram.com/wtf.theotherfword/?hl=en (https://www.instagram.com/wtf.theotherfword/?hl=en) Facebook: WTF: The Other F Word https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61591628218191 (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61591628218191)

12. 

    11 Aug 2026

    WTF: The Other F Word Introductions: 2

    In episode 2 of **WTF: The Other F Word Podcast**, Leslie and Katy offer a deeper introduction to who they are and how they came into feminism and femtorship. Together, they reflect on the vulnerability it takes to do inner work, prioritize ourselves, and build a creative practice rooted in care, conversation, and self-trust. Special thanks to Daniela Cervantes for editing our episodes. Photo Credit: Daniela Cervantes & Gabriel Chaile. Podcast cover design by: Sterling Zoebisch Follow us and subscribe to our newsletter, **WTF: The Other F Word Dispatch**: https://www.wtftheotherfword.com/start-here (https://www.wtftheotherfword.com/start-here) **Social Media** Instagram: @wtf.theotherfword https://www.instagram.com/wtf.theotherfword/?hl=en (https://www.instagram.com/wtf.theotherfword/?hl=en) Facebook: WTF: The Other F Word https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61591628218191 (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61591628218191)

13. 

    13 Jul 2026

    Welcome to WTF the Other F Word: 1

    This is the first episode of WTF: The Other F Word Podcast, and we wanted to begin by simply introducing ourselves and sharing a little bit about what this space is and why we felt called to create it. WTF Podcast Introduction Meeting Leslie and Katy introduced their new podcast "WTF, the other F-word," which focuses on teaching, learning, identity, care, and resistance in education and communities. They explained that the podcast aims to create a space for honest conversations about feminism and femtorship, where they can offer care, wisdom, and mutual learning to each other and their listeners. The hosts discussed the meaning behind the podcast's title and concept, emphasizing their intention to address stereotypes around feminism and expand conversations to be more inclusive. Femtorship Podcast Launch Episode Leslie and Katy recorded the first episode of their podcast about femtorship and feminism, where they introduced themselves and discussed their backgrounds in art education, activism, and academia. They explained how their personal experiences shaped their work and the importance of creating spaces to discuss feminist topics that are often avoided. The episode concluded with plans for future discussions on themes like pedagogy, art-making, identity, and community engagement, with new episodes releasing every two weeks. Photo Credit: Daniela Cervantes & Gabriel Chaile. Social Media: Instagram: @wtf.theotherfword https://www.instagram.com/wtf.theotherfword/?hl=en (https://www.instagram.com/wtf.theotherfword/?hl=en) Facebook: WTF: The Other F Word (https://www.instagram.com/wtf.theotherfword/?hl=en)https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61591628218191 (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61591628218191)

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Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.0 / 5

4 ratings

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Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.