Margin Notes

In the first episode of Season 2, we chat all things body hair - when it is and isn't deemed socially acceptable on queer and culturally diverse bodies, and how it shapes our identities.

We talk about microaggressions - when racism, homophobia and other prejudice is experienced, even in 'small doses', it builds up and corrodes our sense of self and belonging. 

In this episode, we feature guest writer, Gemma Killen. Gem and Yen share their experience of losing their son to stillbirth. Trigger warning - we talk about grief, infant death, and loss. 

What's it like being in an interracial relationship? How do we navigate the expectations of our families, and society at large? And when does cultural difference become a challenge?

This episode, we talk animals and culture. How do we treat animals? And how does our culture inform this? 

Ah, our twenties. We remember those years fondly - full of sexual awakening, poor decision making, and riotous fun. We get nostalgic, talk love and sex, and our halcyon days of youth.

We hear from guest writer, Phi Phi Nguyen, who shares her story of growing up as the child of migrants on the NSW South Coast. Watching her family work incredibly hard to make a life in their new home shaped Phi Phi's attitude towards work, which we explore alongside what it's like to grow up in a majority white town as a migrant, and more!

In the final episode of Season 1 of Margin Notes, guest artists Naomi Barnbaum shares her memoir of living with chronic illness. How do our experiences of pain define who we are? And how do we come to terms with our bodies being forever changed by illness?

In this episode, Yen and Zoya explore the unique experience of travelling as a migrant, and the phenomenon of migrant guilt. How do we reconcile our privilege as immigrants with the simultaneous experience of alienation? 

When you've grown up in worlds that are wildly apart, can migrant parents ever truly understand their children who are more a product of their adopted country than their parents' birthplace? And how does migrant identity intersect with sexuality? This episode of Margin Notes is about family, identity, and understanding each other despite the distances between our experiences. Yen Eriksen shares their memoir of visiting China with their mother, and the process of coming out as queer to migrant parents. 

Migrant workers are everywhere - your local 7-Eleven, pushing trolleys at Coles, in your Doctor's surgery and in front of the university lecture podium. So is it true what they say about the migrant work ethic? And what does that do to the generations that come after them? Yen and Zoya discuss the reality of living as the children of hardworking migrants. 

In this episode, Yen Eriksen shares an evocative piece of memoir about cultural legacy, family and making sticky rice. How does food create a connection to culture, and how do we maintain this link as migrants?

In our pilot episode, author Zoya Patel shares her reflections on finding herself in pop culture through watching Bend It Like Beckham. Together with co-host Yen Eriksen, she explores what it means to be represented in media as a person of colour, and on the flipside, what the impact is of not being able to see yourself in the television, books or media you consume.