Today: A repost! Our guest is Michelle C. Smith, stuntwoman, stunt performer, and professional bad-ass, who worked in shows like Supergirl, Motherland, Helstrom, The Magicians, Arrow, Smallville, and Deadpool, among others. The list is long. If you get a chance, check out her videos on TikTok. The things she does are amazing. Today she’ll talk about how she became a stuntwoman, the path she’d taken, some of her experiences on the sets, and how she empowered herself by taking her own path. You can find Michelle here: Website: www.freestylestaffspinning.com/ TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@michelle.c.smith YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Z8eTFtiyP88XylvO-lBHw Instagram: www.instagram.com/michelle.c.smith/ Geekdom Empowers comes out every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. You can find us here: Website: www.geekdomeempowers.com Instagram: www.instagram.com/geekdomempowers/ Twitter: twitter.com/GeekdomEmpowers Facebook: www.facebook.com/geekdomempowers TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@geekdomempowers

Today’s guest is Erica Friedman, the author of ‘By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime and Manga, the Untold Story of Lesbian Love in Japanese Animation and Comics'. It is an amazing power of following through on the thing you love for decades. Take a listen! You can find Erica here: Website: https://www.yuricon.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/OkazuYuri By Your Side: The First 100 Years of Yuri Anime and Manga: https://www.yuricon.com/product/bys/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/okazuyuri/ Geekdom Empowers comes out every Thursday. You can find us here: Website: www.geekdomeempowers.com Instagram: www.instagram.com/geekdomempowers/ Twitter: twitter.com/GeekdomEmpowers Facebook: www.facebook.com/geekdomempowers TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@geekdomempowers YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCvrEwgBdrHuQ29V80A7zSXg

Today’s guest is Natalie Devitt, geek, fan, and contributor to the Galactic Journey website. She has interesting geek stories to tell! Take a listen! Geekdom Empowers comes out every Tuesday and Thursday. You can find us here: Website: www.geekdomeempowers.com Instagram: www.instagram.com/geekdomempowers/ Twitter: twitter.com/GeekdomEmpowers Facebook: www.facebook.com/geekdomempowers TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@geekdomempowers YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCvrEwgBdrHuQ29V80A7zSXg

Our guest today is Dylan Goss, American indie comic book creator who lives in Taiwan and writes about a Native American heroine. Check it out! You can find Dylan here: Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/stuffedrock Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rosiwoo/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/stuffedrock Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/461165116/mara-chapter-1 Geekdom Empowers comes out every Tuesday and Thursday. You can find us here: Website: www.geekdomeempowers.com Instagram: www.instagram.com/geekdomempowers/ Twitter: twitter.com/GeekdomEmpowers Facebook: www.facebook.com/geekdomempowers TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@geekdomempowers YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCvrEwgBdrHuQ29V80A7zSXg

Today’s guest is Hector Rodriguez, American creator of the El Peso Hero comic book. This conversation is emotional. El Peso Hero is a powerful attempt to empower children and adults through the power of the superhero. Do listen! You can find Hector here: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elpesohero/ Website: http://riobravocomics.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/el_peso_hero/ Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/elpesohero Geekdom Empowers comes out every Tuesday and Thursday. You can find us here: Website: www.geekdomeempowers.com Instagram: www.instagram.com/geekdomempowers/ Twitter: twitter.com/GeekdomEmpowers Facebook: www.facebook.com/geekdomempowers TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@geekdomempowers YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCvrEwgBdrHuQ29V80A7zSXg

Our guest today is Gerimi Burleigh, an American indie comic book artist and writer. His comic book Morningstar is amazing. There’s so much to tell you about this conversation, but I don’t want to spoil it. So just listen. You can find Gerimi here: Website: www.gerimi.net Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gerimib/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Gerimi Linktree: https://linktr.ee/gerimi YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/gerimi Geekdom Empowers comes out every Tuesday and Thursday. You can find us here: Website: www.geekdomeempowers.com Instagram: www.instagram.com/geekdomempowers/ Twitter: twitter.com/GeekdomEmpowers Facebook: www.facebook.com/geekdomempowers TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@geekdomempowers YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCvrEwgBdrHuQ29V80A7zSXg

Today's guest is Gwyn Conaway. She is an American costume designer, a costume concept artist for film and TV shows (specifically science fiction), a fashion historian, and a professor of design. We will talk with her about so many things we never talked about on the show, from working on Star Trek Discovery to how people’s biases are reflected in their choice of clothes, the difference between concept artists and costume designers, the difference between how Russian cosmonauts dressed and how American astronauts dressed, and so many other things. In addition to all this, she writes for Galactic Journey, the creator of which, Gideon Marcus, was a previous guest on the show. This episode’s riveting. You should listen. You can find Gwyn here: Website: http://gwynconawayart.com/ Instagram: http://instagram.com/gwynethcb Twitter: https://twitter.com/GwynConawayArt Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rgwyneth.art Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/gwynethcb Gwyn’s book Talking Threads: https://www.amazon.com/Talking-Threads-Costume-Animation-Illustration/dp/1624650481/ Geekdom Empowers comes out every Tuesday and Thursday. You can find us here: Website: www.geekdomeempowers.com Instagram: www.instagram.com/geekdomempowers/ Twitter: twitter.com/GeekdomEmpowers Facebook: www.facebook.com/geekdomempowers TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@geekdomempowers YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCvrEwgBdrHuQ29V80A7zSXg

Today’s guest is Serena Sanchez, creator of the indie Black Rhapsody comic book. You can find her here: Black Rhapsody: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/black-rhapsody-part-1/coming_soon/x/23117639 Twitter: twitter.com/MagicGalMedia Geekdom Empowers comes out every Tuesday and Thursday. You can find us here: Website: www.geekdomeempowers.com Instagram: www.instagram.com/geekdomempowers/ Twitter: twitter.com/GeekdomEmpowers Facebook: www.facebook.com/geekdomempowers TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@geekdomempowers YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCvrEwgBdrHuQ29V80A7zSXg

Today’s episode is a repost, but not of Geekdom Empowers. I had interviewed Lavie Tidhar for the Blind Panels podcast years ago, and his story is so on-point for Geekdom Empowers, I had to repost it here. Lavie Tidhar is a fantasy/horror/sf author, winner of the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel, John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, and many more awards, big and small. His short stories and books have been translated to countless languages. We’re going to be tracing his path from being a complete, unpublished unknown up to being a well-regarded published science fiction author.talked-about and influential authors today. You can find Lavie here: Homepage: https://lavietidhar.wordpress.com/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/lavietidhar Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lavietidhar/ Geekdom Empowers comes out every Tuesday and Thursday. You can find us here: Website: www.geekdomeempowers.com Instagram: www.instagram.com/geekdomempowers/ Twitter: twitter.com/GeekdomEmpowers Facebook: www.facebook.com/geekdomempowers TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@geekdomempowers YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCvrEwgBdrHuQ29V80A7zSXg

This week, we're reposting two awesome interviews with authors who were just nominated for the Hugo Award. Our guest today was nominated 3 times for best short story, best novelette, and best novella. Today’s guest is fantasy and science fiction author Catherynne Valente. Catherynne Valente is the writer of The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making (and the four books that followed it), Palimpsest, the Orphan’s Tales series and so many books you’ve probably read or heard about. She’s a New York Times bestselling author, winner of the Andre Norton, Tiptree, Sturgeon, Eugie Foster Memorial, Mythopoeic, Rhysling, Lambda, Locus, Hugo awards, and more. Usually, in Geekdom Empowers we follow the paths of the geeks around the world who are not highlighted. And yet, Cat’s path is exactly the path we talk about. She talks about how, with the power of social media, before it was called social media, she got from knowing no one to what she is today. Social media helped her every stage of the way, including today where her Patreon gives her financial independence from the publishers. It is the story of a rise to success of an author who came from nothing, knowing no one. It is the story of an author who made her own niche, who kept her style and authenticity, and who has withstood, as we’ll see, quite a bit of terrible pushback from science fiction and fantasy fans. I think you’ll enjoy this interview. It’s fascinating. You can find Catherynne Valente here: Website: catherynnemvalente.com/ Twitter: twitter.com/catvalente Instagram: www.instagram.com/catvalente Geekdom Empowers comes out Tuesdays and Thursdays. You can find us here: Website: www.geekdomeempowers.com Instagram: www.instagram.com/geekdomempowers/ Twitter: twitter.com/GeekdomEmpowers Facebook: www.facebook.com/geekdomempowers TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@geekdomempowers