Cookie Hagendorf on Zines, Restorative Justice and Trans Support

Cookie is a punk, zine maker, writer, podcaster, and restorative justice and trans support advocate based In Pittsburgh, PA. She is also my friend. I first met Cookie via their incredible fanzine about eating every slice of pizza in Manhattan, Slice Harvester, when I was a young punk living in New York City. In this episode we have different recollections of our first interaction, but either way, we've spent years collaborating and chilling since. Cookie was a member of the now-defunct Support New York, an anarchist collective that developed methods for facilitating community-based accountability processes around sexual violence. Cookie is now active with Trans Buddy Pittsburgh, a community peer-support organization that helps trans and non-binary people navigate healthcare. They continue their great work documenting the freakier side of the American punk scene, via their Life Harvester Radio podcast and Life Harvester newsletter. We discuss all of these projects and causes, as well as what it's like to transition genders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Note: this episode was recorded before the current Black Lives Matter protests erupted around the country following the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others. We thus do not discuss the movement, or specifically a world without police, but I think some of Cookie's work and insights could be useful for imagining one. Music by Jesse Crawford, editing by Chris Pickering, photo by Colin Hagendorf.