Current Episode
pee-wee as himself
Fascism trains us to shrink. Pee-wee shows another path: bold, maximal, unashamed. What can Paul Reubens teach us about refusing to comply in advance?
In this episode, hosts Shannon Perez-Darby and Tashmica Torok discuss the pressure to get small under rising Fascism—and how Paul Reubens, through Pee-wee Herman, modeled color, camp, and audacity anyway. From 70s/80s performance-art roots to TV fame, we trace what it means when a persona eclipses a person, how moral panic + policing criminalize marginalized people, and why maximalist self-expression is not a luxury but a practice of selfhood as resistance.
