The Captain’s Log entry: Weeks of April 21 through July 21, the year of our Lord 2024 🙀

Childless Cat Lady - ya don’t say? It's a CAT BRAT SUMMER! Playlist, special episode and new opportunities within!

Friends!!

Welcome if you’re new to The Captain’s Log, a companion newsletter for the world’s #1 (and only) cat-themed culture, history and science podcast, 6 Degrees of Cats 👋🏽

We typically publish twice a month but were blown off course after our scheduled production break due to some MAJOR HAPPENINGS for Captain Kitty and co-executive producers Binky and Snuggles are abound, hence the slightly prolonged summer break on this here newsletter. Here is a sneak peek!

More below :) But first!

🗳️ VOTE FOR 6 DEGREES OF CATS 🗳️

We have been nominated for a Podcast Award by the People’s Choice Podcast Awards! Please vote for us HERE under these two categories! 

• People’s Choice

• History

Yes, you do have to sign up for an account. It’s five clicks and likely your browser can pre-populate your spam email (the one you use for discount codes, amirite?) address to participate. The whole she-bang is 3 minutes.

Once you sign up, just look for the People’s Choice and History categories and we should be near the top, since the number 6 prioritizes us alphabetically. That’s nice!

Go to https://www.podcastawards.com - we thank you!

🏆 6 DEGREES OF CATS WINS EAR WORTHY BEST PET PODCAST 🏆

Thank you to Ear Worthy and Frank Racioppi for naming 6 Degrees of Cats a Best Pet Podcast in the 2024 Indie Podcast Awards!

Announcing The 2024 Ear Worthy Indie Podcast Awards

Ear Worthy featured 6 Degrees of Cats as part of the award benefits - we are so honored! Check it out here!

🔔 Become a STREET KITTEN!🔔

Love 6 Degrees of Cats? Do you, too, believe it’s a better world when we celebrate the misunderstood, the marginalized, the resilient and the weird? Have you compulsively recommended our pod whenever someone says “cat?” - but have then found yourself tongue tied when trying to describe us? Do you wish you had people in YOUR life to chuckle at the little quip that your ol’ buddy Captain Kitty or a guest dropped, if only someone nearby was also listening?

WELL.

We love you - AND we got you!! Go here and check out the README! document!

https://tinyurl.com/streetkittens

🎙️ CAPTAIN KITTY ON THE AIRWAVES 🎧

Thank you La Vida Mås Chėvere, the best podcast IN THE UNIVERSE helping childfree Latinas y Latines navigate a life free from the toxicity and BS within our culture, and live their best lives. Captain Kitty was a guest in this fun conversation and interview with friend and host Paulette Erato’s two-part series exploring the overlaps of childfree AAPI folks and, of course, the connection to being a cat steward! Listen now to Part 1 and Part 2!

Captain Kitty also dished out tips and tricks on producing a podcast on the season 2 finale of Shelter Cats, a chat podcast celebrating people who love and work with cats - you can listen to the 60+ minute conversation here. Thanks to co-hosts Dan and Michelle 💫

Now, onto the slightly belated log from our Season 2 finale, er, a few months back!!

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AT OUR LAST PORT OF DISEMBARKATION

In which the editorial director of this newsletter, Captain Kitty reports on our past destinations.

In our season 2 finale, we talked about Our Feline Fictive Kin - and how pets, while not able to appreciate or exercise the rights and privileges afforded to human family members - are regarded and counted by millions as fully fledged members of the domestic household.

And for good reason. If you didn’t notice, there are certain humorless and some might say, heartless individuals in the public eye who have made a whole personality out of saying that being a childless cat lady is a bad thing. 

Which y’all know is the second, or maybe third, greatest lie the devil ever told. (Hmm, does that metaphor work? Cats being seen by The Church, Inc. back in the day as his consorts?)

This stereotype, like most, extrapolates huge, sweeping statements from scattershot anecdotes informed and amplified by bias, rumor and plain old gossip. And here at 6 Degrees of Cat HQ, we love to get real curious about them and sniff out all those impossibly dark and hidden corners where the dustballs of…ok we’re taking this metaphor too far. Anyway - it doesn’t take a Ph.D. in common sense to notice a few obvious counterpoints to this sadly lost individual’s seriously misinformed opine against the “childless cat lady”. Such as -  

1. The childless cat lady trope - there is zero evidence that childless cat ladies have done anything bad to the world. Seriously, NONE. NONE. But it’s SO common. Gee, where did that come from again? Intrepid listeners will recall that Egypt’s head cat lady was the goddess of fertility and had two kids herself. Same for Freya, the Norse cat lady goddess. AND will remember who really got this all going - as discussed in Witches, Whiskers and Whisky, our Season 2 launch episode!

2. On that note - if we’re going to play by their “no winners” game of “what about” -ism - well, what about childless dog ladies? In the U.S., per the American Pet Products Association via Forbes*, by household count, dog ownership leads the pack. This means that it’s quite possible there are more childless women with dogs, than childless women with cats. These brave souls, too, have full lives without human children in their legal care. 

3. Why just the women? What about childless men with dogs or cats? I think we should be more concerned about single men with pets. Why? Well, according to mental health statistics, there is a massive loneliness and mental health crisis that remains under addressed. There is a robust archive of research that shows a high correlation between stable mental health and strong connections to others (that is, having friends and being close to family). Um, there are lots of things happening in this world by lonely childless men (who may or may not have pets) that I think could be solved if our systems invested more in the root causes and solutions, to an extent. (TO AN EXTENT. To cause harm includes intent AND means. The U.S. has a BIG easy fix for the means. But I’ll save that for another day.) We did discuss how cats connect to this in our season one finale, Felines & Fatherhood: Exploring Masculinity, Father’s Day, and the Unique Bond Between Men and Cats!

4. Cats are the 21st Century mascot! Cats have saved lives! Seriously!

* = this source is clearly not a great metric of pet ownership. We’re going to be exploring why in Season 3.

And as you can see, they also are CRITICAL members of our production team. It is now time for…

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NEWS FROM THE CREW

Here is where my team will share their updates.

Aww.

Let’s take a look at this picture again.

(I know, right?) 

Here’s the team report:

Binky: I DID NOT CONSENT TO THIS. UNCLE WHISKERS IS ANGRY. CHICKEN.

Snuggles: AHH! Hide hide hide hide…wait, who is that? She…something makes me feel warm and fuzzy, go closer, closer, can she see me? So small, so vulnerable, should I protec—AHH! SHE IS BACK! THE LOUD ONE! THE ONE WITH THE HANDS! Can’t…squeeze…into…crevice…OK I’m safe now. The hands, they come, but they cannot touch me.

Binky: HISS! HISS!

Ahem.

As you can see, we’re in the early change management phase of our team expansion.

It’s time to announce that our mighty team of 3.5 - that would be yours truly, Binky, Snuggles and half of logo designer and audience proxy Eddie (@itsmyunzii on Instagram) - has grown!

Meet Peanut, our newest team member. Peanut is currently an associate producer until Binky and Snuggles have managed to train her at the board. We’re taking it slow, you know - ice breakers, team retreats, one to ones to help Peanut and the team adjust to each other.

Peanut is a great example of the CAT DISTRIBUTION PROGRAM in motion! Peanut’s story will be told in due time, but this is an ample opportunity to remind all of us how wonderful it is to ADOPT and RESCUE kitties, rather than purchase from pet shops or breeders. There are millions of cats of all breeds, ages, shapes and sizes in great need of your love. You need only post on your own social media, or do a quick Google search to find a rescue team near you who has likely vaccinated and neutered/spayed a friendly, socialized kitten or adult cat (the best kept secret!) waiting for a FUR-ever home. 

Ahem, anyway!

Folks, we got some…

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CAPTAIN’S BOOTY!

When I have sponsors, they’ll be named here too with special links. For now, two things for you!

A PLAYLIST OF 🎶INSPIRED BY 🐈‍⬛ 

This was promised last month and has been published on Spotify!

Cat Songs A Playlist by 6 Degrees of Cats

For reasons touched on in our Cool Cat: How Cats Are the Soul of Rock ‘N’ Roll episode, cats have been embedded in pop music since the beginning of recorded audio. For this playlist, we feature songs that meet the following criteria:

• Name or reference a real cat, or

• Thematically infuse the likeness, image and behaviors of the actual animal, or

• Tell the story of a fictional cat

You’ll notice there are some songs missing, which either means they didn’t meet that criteria (for example, lots of songs reference “pussy” but they aren’t talking about felis catus or their cousins if you know what I mean) or aren’t licensed to Spotify, which - good. Only already profiting artists like Taylor Swift (a childless cat lady!) see any revenue from a company that reported record-high profits - please use direct purchase vendors (like the artist’s direct website, or Bandcamp, for example) to support your favorite underpaid artists (*cough* LEATHERED *cough*) to pay for the music you consume!

I digress. Onward!

🍬 A LITTLE SWEET TREAT! 🍭

In this off season during which we are furiously producing episodes for Season 3 while recovering from PRK surgery and starting up new gigs* we entered into a contest called Audio Flux that invited folks to submit a 3-minute clip focused on pets, with the color blue and a “!” moment. While ours was not a finalist (congratulations to the winners!), we share it here for your listening enjoyment 🙂

Here is “All Cats Are Blue” [soundcloud]

Enjoy!

* = Captain Kitty is open for business! If you need a learning designer or facilitator, or audio producer or sound designer for your quirky or niche podcast or audio project, here’s my e-form!

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Ok folks.

This was a long overdue update. We’ve run into some exi$tential challenge$, so if you have extra cash and would like to see the next season of your favorite cat-themed culture, history and science podcast sooner rather than later AND help us grow, please consider pledging to this newsletter! We also are working on a Patreon and merch! And most of all, we appreciate all your support as listeners. It means the world to us when we see your comments on Spotify and your emails, reviews and recommendations across various social media channels. 

And if you’d like to spread the word, please recommend 6 Degrees of Cats to your nearest, dearest online and in person! We are 6degreesofcats.com and @6degreesofcats on all social platforms!

🛟 We appreciate you! It’s hot out there, and things are beyond bonkers. So as always, stay whole, spread love, and remember - everything is connected. 🛟

Captain Kitty, Binky, Snuggles and Peanut! (and Eddie)

To support the team, one last reminder to pledge! You’ll receive CAT ASTROLOGY, special recommendations from a guest (is it YOU?) and the first to know about PIRATE’S BOOTY, with special discounts or sponsor treats.