Our Elphaba Era

I am wrapping up season one of Our Elphaba Era with my very own power ballad finale: a poetic protest and meditative celebration of the power of diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. Join me in voicing and amplifying the words, ideas, and identities which are being erased, censored, restricted, and banned. In an Elphaba spirit, join me in this act of resistance in support of the marginalised and oppressed because “no one should be scorned or laughed at or looked down upon or told to keep quiet”. Like Elphaba challenges us, we can’t just sit here in silence because our existence matters. Thank you for joining me in season one of this feminist-rights-based podcast inspired by Elphaba. Season two will start up in early autumn, just in time for the second film, Wicked: For Good! Searching for an easy, no cost way to support the podcast and use your voice for good like Elphaba? Simply leave a nice rating and review wherever you listen to the podcast!Follow the podcast @OurElphabaEra on Instagram and Threads. Or you can get in touch w/ Michelle at [email protected] Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/ourelphabaeraIf you’re a fan of this podcast and want to show support with even just a one-time donation on Buy Me a Coffee, that would mean the world. Truly anything helps! You can help me continue peeling back the curtain by buying a virtual coffee (or some green elixir or whatever kind of swankified drink you prefer in the land of Oz).They’re never gonna bring us down babes. It’s time to smash some patriarchy and defy some gravity.CIVICUS Monitor — https://monitor.civicus.org/watchlist-march-2025/ “Here are all the ways people are disappearing from government websites” -- NPR - By Huo Jingnan, Quil Lawrence — https://www.npr.org/2025/03/19/nx-s1-5317567/federal-websites-lgbtq-diversity-erased New York Times investigation — https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/07/us/trump-federal-agencies-websites-words-dei.html Feminist Instagram account — https://www.instagram.com/feminist/?hl=en Mental Health toolkit — feminists.co/mental-health-help 

Join me for a special Galentine’s episode with Ritika Pillai (she/her), a human rights advisor and legal expert I had the wonderful opportunity to study with and befriend during our LL.M. course at the Irish Centre for Human Rights. We talk about the beauty and power of female friendship and the supportive bonds between women, and how the people in our lives shape us for good. Ri dives into her experience of racism in India, her journey of self-acceptance, learning to love her voice, identity, and being in her own skin, becoming the woman she is today because of her time in Ireland.  Searching for an easy, no cost way to support the podcast and use your voice for good like Elphaba? Simply leave a nice rating and review wherever you listen to the podcast!Follow the podcast @OurElphabaEra on Instagram and Threads. Or you can get in touch w/ Michelle [email protected] Buy Me a Coffee:https://buymeacoffee.com/ourelphabaeraIf you’re a fan of this podcast and want to show support with even just a one-time donation on Buy Me a Coffee, that would mean the world. Truly anything helps! You can help me continue peeling back the curtain by buying a virtual coffee (or some green elixir or whatever kind of swankified drink you prefer in the land of Oz).They’re never gonna bring us down babes. It’s time to smash some patriarchy and defy some gravity.

I’m devoting a special episode to hold space for the Defying Gravity scene in the Wicked film. Journey with me in exploring why it’s so powerful, weaving in some wisdom from the magnificent black feminist civil rights activists Audre Lorde and Maya Angelou to inspire us to see our differences as forces for social change & seek a world in which we can all flourish and rise. Searching for an easy, no cost way to support the podcast and use your voice for good like Elphaba? Simply leave a nice rating and review wherever you listen to the podcast! Follow the podcast @OurElphabaEra on Instagram and Threads. Or you can get in touch w/ Michelle at [email protected]  Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/ourelphabaera If you’re a fan of this podcast and want to show support with even just a one-time donation on Buy Me a Coffee, that would mean the world. Truly anything helps! You can help me continue peeling back the curtain by buying a virtual coffee (or some green elixir or whatever kind of swankified drink you prefer in the land of Oz). They’re never gonna bring us down babes. It’s time to smash some patriarchy and defy some gravity. Links to creators and creative work mentioned: Audre Lorde — “The Master’s Tools will Never Dismantle the Master’s House” — https://collectiveliberation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Lorde_The_Masters_Tools.pdf  Maya Angelou — “And Still I Rise” — https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46446/still-i-rise  …and a brilliant live performance by Maya Angelou of this poem — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qviM_GnJbOM  The Holistic Psychologist (I misspoke in saying therapist in the episode) — https://www.instagram.com/the.holistic.psychologist/?hl=en 

Those times when life truly humbles us, when the days feel dark, when circumstances make us feel like everything is falling apart — those are the best times for a deep awakening. I’m shining some light on: how at its core Wicked is about a fight for human rights and justice, how the wizard resembles the corrupt politicians of our world, and how Elphaba teaches us to be strategic in our resistance. In this episode I open up about what it’s looked like for me to rise up from my dark days.  Searching for an easy, no cost way to support the podcast and use your voice for good like Elphaba? Simply leave a nice rating and review wherever you listen to the podcast! Follow the podcast @OurElphabaEra on Instagram and Twitter. Or you can get in touch w/ Michelle at [email protected]  Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/ourelphabaera If you’re a fan of this podcast and want to show support with even just a one-time donation on Buy Me a Coffee, that would mean the world. Truly anything helps! You can help me continue peeling back the curtain by buying a virtual coffee (or some green elixir or whatever kind of swankified drink you prefer in the land of Oz). They’re never gonna bring us down babes. It’s time to smash some patriarchy and defy some gravity.

Just like Wicked is a retelling of The Wizard of Oz, giving more substance, depth, and nuance to the characters of Glinda and the Wicked Witch, writer and theatre artist Rena Bryson (she/her) has created a new play Ruffled Feathers, a radical retelling of the Children of Lir. Why has it always been about Lir? Highlighting voices in Ireland who have traditionally not had their stories heard (particularly w/ issues of women & queers), Eva's Echo wanted to give full lives and tell the stories of the three sisters in this Irish mythology - Eva, Aoife, & Ailbhe. The play centers around their relationships with each other and how each one tries to survive the patriarchy. Is it possible? And how can we live joyful, delicious lives in the midst of it? Get tickets now for Eva’s Echo Theatre’s last production Ruffled Feathers at the Mick Lally Theatre the 22nd and 23rd November 2024 — https://www.druid.ie/the-mick-lally-theatre/whats-on/ruffled-feathers Connect with this week’s guest @renabryson and @evasecho on Instagram, Tik Tok, and Facebook. Searching for an easy, no cost way to support the podcast and use your voice for good like Elphaba? Simply leave a nice rating and review wherever you listen to the podcast! Follow the podcast @OurElphabaEra on Instagram and Twitter. Or you can get in touch w/ Michelle at [email protected]  Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/ourelphabaera If you’re a fan of this podcast and want to show support with even just a one-time donation on Buy Me a Coffee, that would mean the world. Truly anything helps! You can help me continue peeling back the curtain by buying a virtual coffee (or some green elixir or whatever kind of swankified drink you prefer in the land of Oz). They’re never gonna bring us down babes. It’s time to smash some patriarchy and defy some gravity.

Is it any surprise that theatre has once again changed my life for good? I’m weaving together core messages and learnings from three different plays - Wicked (of course), Stephen Sondheim’s musical Company, and my one-woman show Au Naturel. Listen in to find out how these all connect and how they’ve all journeyed with me in some major life processing over the past 6 months. I’m exploring deep raw relationships with our bodies, with others, and with the environment, and opening up about my experiences with Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder, mental health, and fear of rejection. What would life and our relationships look like if we stopped only showing the best, the most attractive versions of ourselves? If we instead let people in to see our beautiful messes deep below the surface? Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/ourelphabaera You can help me continue peeling back the curtain to see and call out the ways patriarchy and other systems manifest in our world today by buying a virtual coffee (or some green elixir or whatever kind of swankified drink you prefer in the land of Oz).  Searching for an easy, no cost way to support the podcast and use your voice for good like Elphaba? Simply leave a nice rating and review wherever you listen to the podcast! Follow the podcast @OurElphabaEra on Instagram and Twitter. Or you can get in touch w/ Michelle at [email protected]

Lorrie Hayman (she/her), doctoral researcher in Global Women’s Studies at the University of Galway, talks through her feminist activism and research in the area of cyber violence and technology facilitated violence. Lorrie dives into the significance of human connections and holding space for people to share their lived experiences. In true Elphaba spirit, we discuss the importance in speaking out and not ignoring issues - rising above shame and fear perpetuated by internalized patriarchy, and calling out behaviors that harm people. In a rant about toilets, we explore intersecting systems of power, accessibility, discriminations and gender binaries which you most likely have never heard in a podcast before. Our Elphaba Era is for everyone to claim, not just those obsessed with Wicked. It’s communal. It’s time to defy some gravity. Connect with this week’s guest on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorriehayman  Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/ourelphabaera You can help Michelle continue peeling back the curtain to see and call out the ways patriarchy and other systems manifest in our world today by buying a virtual coffee (or some green elixir or whatever kind of swankified drink you prefer in the land of Oz).  Searching for an easy, no cost way to support the podcast and use your voice for good like Elphaba? Simply leave a nice rating and review wherever you listen to the podcast! Follow the podcast @OurElphabaEra on Instagram and Twitter. Or you can get in touch w/ Michelle at [email protected] 

What inspired me to coin the phrase “Big Cleopatra Energy”? What does it mean and how does it relate to Elphaba in Wicked? Join me in processing my learning of the value and power of a righteous rage. It’s time to trust our instinctual nature and intuitive wisdom. It’s time to stop dimming the light of our gifts, our cleverness, confidence, magnetism, and bravery.  I hope you know that you are powerful, bold, and strong. I firmly believe that we all can awaken a Big Cleopatra Energy and an Elphaba spirit from deep within and let it rise up.  What have been some of your own Big Cleopatra Energy moments? Feel free to leave a comment here or share on Instagram @ourelphabaera or [email protected]  Links to books mentioned: Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff — https://stacyschiff.com/cleopatra-a-life.html  Women Who Run with the Wolves: Contacting the Power of the Wild Woman by Clarissa Pinkola Estès — https://www.amazon.co.uk/Women-Who-Run-Wolves-Contacting/dp/1846041090 Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/ourelphabaera You can help Michelle continue peeling back the curtain to see and call out the ways patriarchy and other systems manifest in our world today by buying a virtual coffee (or some green elixir or whatever kind of swankified drink you prefer in the land of Oz).  Searching for an easy, no cost way to support the podcast and use your voice for good like Elphaba? Simply leave a nice rating and review wherever you listen to the podcast!

Emer Lyons (she/they), Doctor/Queen/Short King of lesbian poetry, talks through a sense of self blossoming and belonging in a place outside of where we are from, and the challenges of growing into someone people didn’t expect us to be. In between loads of laughter, Emer discusses what it was like to be queer working class Catholic growing up in rural Ireland, what feminism means to her and how they were inspired to speak up, question, show up fully and disrupt social norms from lesbians. Elphaba is a queer icon, but why are Wicked and Elphaba so meaningful to the LGBT+ community? What does Emer want to live into in their Elphaba era? But the important questions — Who will give Emer a cat? And is Our Elphaba Era the same as Brat girl summer? Our Elphaba Era is for everyone to claim, not just for those obsessed with Wicked. It’s communal. It’s time to defy some gravity. Follow this week’s guest at @emerlyons on Instagram. Follow the podcast @OurElphabaEra on Instagram and Twitter. Reach out to Michelle at [email protected] Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/ourelphabaera You can help Michelle continue peeling back the curtain to see and call out the ways patriarchy and other systems manifest in our world today by buying a virtual coffee (or some green elixir or whatever kind of swankified drink you prefer in the land of Oz).  Searching for an easy, no cost way to support the podcast and use your voice for good like Elphaba? Simply leave a nice rating and review wherever you listen to the podcast!

The Wicked movie trailer impacted Michelle so much she had to start a podcast and a movement claiming Our Elphaba Era. But how did a rainy, lazy Sunday seeing Inside Out 2 in the cinema inspire the very first episode? Join me in exploring why the embodied experience of the menstrual cycle needs to be a part of the stories we see…and how that’s an act of resistance to the patriarchy. It’s time to defy some gravity. Period.  Connect w/ Michelle at [email protected] and @OurElphabaEra on Instagram and Twitter Links to books mentioned: Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way — https://juliacameronlive.com/books-by-julia/the-artists-way-uk/  Petra Kuppers Eco Soma: Pain and Joy in Speculative Performance Encounters — https://www.upress.umn.edu/9781517911898/eco-soma/  Buy Me a Coffee: https://buymeacoffee.com/ourelphabaera You can help Michelle continue peeling back the curtain to see and call out the ways patriarchy and other systems manifest in our world today by buying a virtual coffee (or some green elixir or whatever kind of swankified drink you prefer in the land of Oz).  Searching for an easy, no cost way to support the podcast and use your voice for good like Elphaba? Simply leave a nice rating and review wherever you listen to the podcast!

Introducing OUR ELPHABA ERA, a powerful new podcast in which Michelle, a performing artist, researcher, human rights and climate activist, explores the subtle and radical ways ordinary people are resisting patriarchal social norms in their everyday lives. Taking inspiration from the fierce, fiery character in the musical Wicked, this podcast is for those who are no longer accepting the limits society puts on them. They stand firm in their values, integrity, and authenticity. Like Elphaba, they’re passionate about fighting against injustices and making the world a better place for all. It’s time to embrace all of who you are and cultivate your gifts for good. It’s time to smash some patriarchy and defy some gravity.