Bubble and Squeak

What do the anthracite coal towns of Central Pennsylvania have in common with the historic slate quarry towns of North Wales? Both are places where the earth was cut open, wealth traveled elsewhere, and the people who stayed were left to explain why their home still matters.
In this long-form episode of Bubble and Squeak, host Peterson Toscano travels across the Atlantic to Gwynedd, North Wales, to explore GwyrddNi—a uniquely local, community-led climate action movement. This isn't a typical environmental project focused purely on carbon footprints. It is an initiative grounded in the rugged landscape, grassroots community assemblies, and the fierce preservation of the Welsh language.
Together with four local organizers, we unpack the complicated intersections of migration, economic hollowing out, and the uncomfortable question: when a place changes, who gets to decide what the future sounds like?
In this episode, we explore:
The Legacy of Extraction: How communities scarred by the coal and slate industries are redefining their worth.
Language and Belonging: The systemic friction between the native Welsh language and English migration, and why cultural preservation is deeply tied to community resilience.
Community Assemblies: How 100 hours of grassroots listening sessions across five "left-behind" communities sparked tangible, local change.
Hyper-Local Solutions: From school uniform swaps to a community pickling shed (cwtsh piclo), discover how good, honest, and kind community work naturally leads to effective climate adaptation.
Featured Guests:
Nina Bentley: A GwyrddNi facilitator based in Blaenau Ffestiniog who explains the beauty of the slate landscape and the power of everyday community sharing.
Phil McGrath: A Caernarfon resident who highlights the deep connection between the Welsh people, their language, and their role as protectors of the land.
Trey McCain: A Mississippi native living in Dyffryn Nantlle, working on food resilience, community gardening, and preserving local food traditions.
Gwyneth Jones: GwyrddNi’s second Communications Manager, who grounds the conversation in the slow, patient, and trust-based reality of community organizing.
Learn more about GwyrddNi by visiting https://www.gwyrddni.cymru/en/

 
This episode of Bubble & Squeak comes in three parts: a joke Peterson almost told at an open mic in Sunbury, PA, a true story from Santiago, Chile, and a sound slice from the past.
Peterson begins with one of his father’s best jokes—or at least the story of why he nearly told it in public and then thought better of it. His mother, Anita Toscano, had a crisp, dry wit. His father, Pete Toscano, told jokes that were risky, bawdy, and barroom-ready. That family comic inheritance sets the stage for the main story.
In “Shell Game,” Peterson remembers a 1994 trip to Santiago, Chile. At the time, he was closeted, married to a woman, working for a Christian mission, and trying very hard to become a straight man. From his hotel window, he watches three black Mercedes limousines move through the city, one of them likely carrying former dictator Augusto Pinochet. What follows is a story about power, performance, masculinity, repression, and the strange masks people wear in order to survive.
The episode closes with a brief sound slice from Peterson’s past, connecting memory, family, and voice.
Featured story:“Shell Game” was first published in Unlikely Stories. You can read the journal for free at:https://unlikelystories.com/
Bubble & Squeak is written and produced by Peterson Toscano. It features uncanny sounds, funny interludes, and stories—most weird, many true.
Find Peterson online:https://www.peterson-toscano.com/
You can also find him on TikTok, Instagram, and Bluesky.
 

Recorded live at the Accidental Theatre for the Imagine Belfast Festival, this special episode of Bubble & Squeak. Peterson Toscano guides the audience through a four-part journey that is playful but deeply serious beneath the surface, exploring faith, politics, identity, and the power of storytelling.
In This Episode
Part One: A Performance to Relax Peterson opens the show with a scene from his one-person play, Queer 101—Now I Know my Gay, B, C’s. Meet Chad, an over-enthusiastic graduate student and sub-lecturer who imagines a date with the Spanish poet, Federico Garcia Lorca.
Part Two: Resilience and Rights with The Rainbow Project Peterson is joined by Alexa Moore and Simon Carmichael from The Rainbow Project, Northern Ireland’s largest LGBTQIA+ organization. They discuss:
The evolution of the project from a 1994 HIV volunteer effort to a full-spectrum support and advocacy center.
Current battles for dignity, including campaigning against "conversion therapy" and advocating for trans healthcare rights.
The importance of co-cultural counseling and creating safe, affirmative spaces for the community.
Part Three: The Poetry of Memory with Damian Gorman Acclaimed poet and playwright Damian Gorman (Head of Peacebuilding at Children in Crossfire) shares his work and reflects on the intersection of art and memory. He discusses his recent projects, WITNESS and B O Y, which tackle difficult histories with grace and profound honesty.
Part Four: The "Mighty Men of God." The show takes a satirical turn with a solo sketch featuring a "Christian Men’s Support and Accountability Group." Peterson inhabits multiple characters to promote vulnerability among men. What starts as a simple exercise to share habits takes a quick turn when a surprise visitor arrives.
Guest and Event Links
The Rainbow Project: https://www.rainbow-project.org
Damian Gorman (Children in Crossfire): https://www.childrenincrossfire.org
Imagine Belfast Festival of Ideas & Politics: https://imaginebelfast.com
About the Guests
Alexa Moore (she/her): Policy, Campaigns and Communications Manager at The Rainbow Project and co-founder of TransgenderNI. She is also a queer set dancing instructor at The MAC.
Simon Carmichael (they/them): Co-Cultural Counseling Manager at The Rainbow Project with a background in psychology and workplace mental health.
Damian Gorman: A renowned poet and playwright whose work has long been woven into the cultural and political life of Northern Ireland.
Episode Credits
Host & Producer: Peterson Toscano.
Sound & Lighting: Martin Price
Music from Epidemic Sound: Walk Tall by Johannes Bornlöf, Late Night Madrid (Adua Blaize Remix) by Alysha Sheldon, Dirty Feet by Andreas Dahlback, In America by Badskum, Last Laugh by White Bones, and Horseback by QTE
Venue: Accidental Theatre, Shaftesbury Square, Belfast.
 

Part One: Queer author Ryan La Sala and the queer horror story, The Dead of Summer
Part Two: A message from the evil spirit that lives inside Donald Trump
Part Three: A Sound Slice from a political rally in Richmond, Virginia. 
You can see a video version of this podcast over at https://www.youtube.com/@p2son
Ryan LaSala is a bestselling and award-winning queer author. He writes about surreal things happening to queer people. He is the author of BEHOLDER, REVERIE, and BE DAZZLED. Their debut horror novel, THE HONEYS, is in development to become a major motion picture. He joined me in the studio to talk about his most recent book, THE DEAD OF SUMMER. 
Cnidarians are a diverse phylum of over 11,000 aquatic, mostly marine, invertebrates—including jellyfish, corals, and sea anemones—characterized by radial symmetry, a simple gastrovascular cavity, and specialized stinging cells called nematocysts (cnidocytes). They possess a decentralized nerve net, lack true organs, and exist in two main body forms: sessile polyps and free-swimming medusae.
Music on today's show comes from EpidemicSound.com. Bubble and Squeak is produced by me, Peterson. I mostly make this show for myself, oh, and for Harlan, who listens, smiling while he walks. 

S4E3 — Personal Connections: Period Products, Climate Poetry, and a Ritual for the Next North Star
In this episode, the threads of community, justice, climate imagination, and art weave through three distinct yet deeply connected stories.
Today’s show comes in three parts:Part One: The Secret World of Diapers and Period ProductsPart Two: Anthropocene Pastoral — climate-change poetry by Catherine PiercePart Three: Jump!Star — a leap 1,000 years into the future, live from Abner Clay Park in Richmond, VA
PART ONE — Menstrual Cups & Community Action
What begins with a surprise email from my sister’s childhood classmate becomes a chain reaction of connection—stretching from a tiny town along the Delaware River to Zambia, Kenya, Hartford CT, and back to my cousin Mona over breakfast.
I speak with four remarkable women whose lives, work, and generosity intersect through period poverty, community organizing, youth empowerment, and a simple but world-changing tool: the menstrual cup.
Featured Guests
⭐ Christine Garde DenningFounder of Could You? — a global nonprofit providing menstrual cups, malaria prevention tools, and practical pathways out of extreme poverty.Website → https://couldyou.orgLinkedIn → https://www.linkedin.com/in/christine-garde-denning-2780179/
⭐ Mary Maker (Mary Nyeriak)Actor, speaker, educator, youth advocate, refugee leader, and the force behind Could You?’s community work across Africa.Profile → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-maker/
⭐ Fran Stoffer (she/her)Chair of the Northwest CT Community Foundation Women & Girls Fund.Fran shares how her regional distribution project for free period products grew into a warehouse of boxes stacked to the ceiling.Women & Girls Fund → www.yournccf.org/womenandgirlsInstagram → @nccfwomenandgirlsfundX/Twitter → @northwestctcommunityfoundationwomenandgirls
⭐ Mona NorfleetCommunity advocate, YMCA leader, equity organizer, and member of local anti-racist initiatives. Mona jumps in with stories of her own efforts to support women in her region.She also enjoys mixed martial arts, good bourbon, and the occasional cigar — sometimes all at the same time.
PART TWO — Anthropocene Pastoral by Catherine Pierce
Climate dread meets unsettling beauty in Catherine Pierce’s celebrated poem Anthropocene Pastoral.
The poem first appeared in Poetry Magazine and later in her collection Danger Days.For this episode, I remastered Catherine’s reading with a new sound design.
About Catherine Pierce
Former Poet Laureate of Mississippi (2021–2025), author of Danger Days, with two new books coming in 2026:
Foxes for Everybody (memoir, Northwestern University Press)
Dear Beast (poetry, Saturnalia Books)
Find her work:Website → https://catherinepiercepoet.comStudio & Craft (her poetry community) → https://studioandcraft.com
PART THREE — Jump!Star in Richmond, VA
I travel to Abner Clay Park in Richmond’s historic Jackson Ward neighborhood for the “Axial Precession Procession,” part of Jump!Star, the ritual welcoming of Earth’s next North Star: Gamma Cephei (“Ceph”), due to rise in about 1,000 years.
The park is transformed with illuminated sculptures, movement choruses, and hundreds of volunteers known as “Dark Matter.”
This segment features a SoundSlice recorded live as time folds—past, present, and future converging for one luminous ritual.
About George Ferrandi & Jump!Star
Artist, director, collaborator, and visionary behind Jump!Star.Website → https://www.georgeferrandi.comPhotos from the event are also on my Instagram → @petersontoscano
Mirah (NYC)Beloved indie-pop musician Mirah contributed three original songs to Jump!Star, including the anthem that drives our Axial Precession Procession of the Future North Star Sculptures. Her music guides us through the project’s unfolding story: Hello Star, Axial Precession and Goodbye Song.
LINKS & RESOURCES FROM THE EPISODE
Could You? — Menstrual Cups & Global Health
CouldYou? → https://couldyou.orgPeriod Poverty Program Info → https://couldyou.org/menstrual-cups/Could You? Africa (with Mary Maker) → https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-maker/
Women & Girls Fund (Northwest CT Community Foundation)
Website → www.yournccf.org/womenandgirlsInstagram → @nccfwomenandgirlsfundX → @northwestctcommunityfoundationwomenandgirls
Poet Catherine Pierce
Poems, books, events → https://catherinepiercepoet.comStudio & Craft community → https://studioandcraft.comDanger Days → Available wherever books are sold
Jump!Star & George Ferrandi
Jump!Star info → https://www.georgeferrandi.comPhotos from the event → Instagram @petersontoscano
ABOUT THE SHOW
Bubble & Squeak is written and produced by me, Peterson Toscano.I mostly make this show for myself — and for people like Ted Heck and Levi Goren who keep making their dreams a reality.
Find more episodes, images, and strange audio bits at:🌐 https://www.petersontoscano.com📸 Instagram → @petersontoscano
 

What do pasta, polar bears, and the Pope have in common? They all show up in this episode about climate change. Peterson Toscano refuses to preach doom or guilt—instead, you’ll hear Jewish wisdom on acting fast in a crisis, Christian takes on food justice, and a Bronx guy who’s had it with polar bears. Also: coffee is under threat, so now you’re paying attention. And we end on a diesel-fumed bus ride through Quito, Ecuador, where the future smells like electricity.
Juicy Quotes
“The climate crisis calls our bluff about being individuals—we are interdependent, whether we like it or not.” —Joelle Novey
“We’re the first generation to live through the climate crisis—and the last generation that can do anything about it.” —Derek Weston
“Polar bears? They’re the raccoons of Alaska. Coffee going extinct? Now that’s the apocalypse.” —Tony Buffuzio
“Combustion cars will be remembered like typewriters—legacy tech we finally grew out of.” —Peterson Toscano
Guest Links
Joelle Novey – Interfaith Power & Light DC/MD/VA: http://www.ipldmv.org
National Interfaith Power & Light: https://interfaithpowerandlight.org
Derek Weston – Creation Justice Ministries: https://www.creationjustice.org
Derek Weston’s book (The Just Kitchen): https://broadleafbooks.com/products/the-just-kitchen
Food and Faith Podcast: https://www.foodandfaithpodcast.org

This episode is about sex, gender, and Jesus—and what happens when our bodies get wrapped in shame, pleasure, politics, and power. It comes in four parts:
🧕 Part One – Tina Beardsley
Revd Dr. Tina Beardsley is a priest, a theologian, and a trans woman who’s been quietly transforming the Church of England from the inside out. Co-author of Trans Affirming Churches and Transfaith, Tina sees transition as a spiritual act.
Learn more: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Beardsley
👑 Part Two – Panda Dulce
Kyle Casey Chu, aka Panda Dulce, is a drag queen, writer, and survivor of a Proud Boys ambush at Drag Story Hour. We talk about sacred drag, queer disappointment, and how to live when the fantasy of queer community doesn’t match reality.
Website: www.kylecaseychu.com
✝️ Part Three – Rev. Bev
Rev. Dr. Beverly Dale—Rev. Bev to her friends—is a poet, preacher, and the founder of the Incarnation Institute for Sex & Faith. She challenges purity culture and insists that pleasure is holy. She also reads from her new book, Who Told You That You Were Naked?
Website: www.beverlydale.org
💃 Part Four – Sound Slice
Let me set the scene for you: I’m at a Quaker gathering in Florida. After the silent worship, the serious talks, and the ice cream debates—we push the tables aside and start square dancing. Boys in skirts. Grandmothers in wheelchairs. Men dancing with men. The Spirit moves.
🎙️ Bubble and Squeak is written and produced by me, Peterson Toscano. I mostly make this show for myself. Oh—and for John Casey, who taught me how to journal again.
Thank you for listening. Until next time—stay curious. Be weird. And make room for yourself to shimmer, sparkle, and shine.

We kick off Season 4 with a deep, layered look at resurrection, queer liberation, and spiritual unbinding. Host Peterson Toscano brings together three unique stories—tied together by one enduring biblical moment: Jesus calling Lazarus out of the tomb.
🕊️ Part One: Peterson talks with Fr. James Martin, SJ, about his new book Come Forth: The Promise of Jesus’s Greatest Miracle. They explore how the Lazarus story still speaks to us today—through art, personal growth, and the quest for freedom.
📖 Buy the book
📱 @jamesmartinsj on Instagram | FrJamesMartin on Facebook
🎭 Part Two: Peterson shares an excerpt from his acclaimed solo performance Doin’ Time in the Homo No Mo Halfway House, a comedic and deeply honest reflection on his own years in conversion therapy.
📺 Watch on YouTube www.youtube.com/p2son
📚 Part Three: Scholar and writer Lucas Wilson discusses his new anthology Shame, Sex, Attraction: Survivors’ Stories of Conversion Therapy. These unflinching, sometimes humorous, often raw narratives expose the long-term effects of these practices—and the courage it takes to reclaim life afterward.
📖 Buy the book
📱 @lukeslamdunkwilson on Instagram | @wilson_fw on X
🌴 Part Four: In a haunting sound slice from María la Gorda on the western edge of Cuba, Peterson reflects on Che Guevara’s early forced labor camp there—an ideological prelude to the UMAP camps that targeted gay men, Jehovah’s Witnesses, artists, and others during the Cuban Revolution.
Whether you're LGBTQ+ and faith-rooted, someone recovering from religious trauma, or simply curious about stories of survival and transformation—this episode offers depth, humor, and insight.
🕯️ "Take off the grave clothes, and let him go."
It’s not just a command—it’s a calling.

Our show today comes in three parts.
Part one: J Mase III, a Black/Trans/queer poet & educator, talks about collaboration, reparations, art, and a trans-Bible character.
"Art is the imagination tool that allows you to see and make things possible that weren't before."
Part two: Mase performing Josephine
And Part Three: A Sound Slice of Orthodox Christians from Cathedral of the Holy Virgin Protection and Chapel of St Innocent of Irkutsk, in a Good Friday procession on East Second Street in NYC.
Learn more about J Mase III at his website www.jmaseiii.com.
The Bubble&Squeak theme song is Worthless by The jellyrox from the album Bang and Whimper.
To find more great music and new podcasts visit www.rockcandyrecordings.com

Part one: A conversation with public Bible scholar and trouble maker, Dr. Jennifer Bird
Part two: Marvin gets a job at a born-again online store
Part three: A sound slice from Norway
Learn more about Dr. Jennifer Bird at her website www.jennifergracebird.com. You will also find her on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and she is killing it on TikTok. She co-hosts the podcast Wild Olive. It is available wherever you get podcasts.
The Bubble&Squeak theme song is Worthless by The jellyrox from the album Bang and Whimper.
To find more great music and new podcasts visit www.rockcandyrecordings.com