Arroz Con Leche and Peppermint Ice Cream
So much happens in Episode 8 of Picard that we can hardly summarize our podcast without spoilers, so ********************************************************************SPOILERS****** Raffi puts on her detective hat and solves at least two, maybe three mysteries this episode, with the help of all five emergency Rios look alike holograms. Soji and Agnes have feelings. Seven and Elnor have ACTION SCENES. Becca and Ryan have lots of thoughts.
Content Warning: Suicide and Rape.
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Malingering and Ableism
Becca calls out the ableism inherent in Sister Incest describing Ramdha's coma as "malingering." Here's some writing on the subject:
The Able-ist Gaze: Imagining Malingering by Meadow Jones via The Feminist Wire.
Flip the Script by Calling Out Ableism First via Invisible Disability Project.
"Chronic pain is generally understood as pain that lasts much longer than it should, not necessarily or expected to stop in the near future, and it carries with it suspicions of malingering or hysteria." Using Pain, Living with Pain by Emma Sheppard via SAGE Journals, published in Feminist Review.
Ann Magnuson is pretty cool
Karen aka Admiral Clancy is played by not-afraid-to-drop-f-bombs Ann Magnuson, who is 64 years old (to Patrick Stewart's 79). Among other things, she played vampire David Bowie's victim in the 1983 film The Hunger... so we must all go watch that immediately now.
Trigger warning: discussion of suicide
We talk about the recurring theme of suicide-as-solution in this episode. Ryan mentioned that people who don't see other options - in other words, who are hopeless - become vulnerable to suicide. This is the topic of a good deal of research, for example:
Hopelessness as a predictor of attempted suicide among first admission patients with psychosis: A 10-year cohort study by E. David Klonsky, et al. via NIH.
Reasons for Living, Hopelessness, and Suicide Ideation Among Depressed Adults 50 Years or Older by Peter C. Britton, Ph.D., et al. via NIH
Hopelessness Leading to Self-harm and Suicide by Dr. Sarmad Muhammad Soomar Ranani, et al. via Journal of Neurology and Neuroscience.
What is colorism?
At the end of the episode, Becca briefly mentions colorism. Lori L. Tharps, author of Same Family, Different Colors, writes about this form of discrimination in The Difference Between Racism and Colorism via TIME. The National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ) has assembled this bulletin on Colorism which includes a powerful set of videos and statistics.
