Episode
#8 - Fire breathing, sharehouse dreams, and building our own safety nets
- Podcast
- Queers with Accents
- Published
- May 8, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2527
- Processing state
not_requested
Actions
POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/queers-with-accents-7747041/episodes/8-fire-breathing-sharehouse-dreams-and-building-our-own-safety-nets/transcription-requests
Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/queers-with-accents-7747041/8-fire-breathing-sharehouse-dreams-and-building-our-own-safety-nets.md
Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.
Summary
Kinoko is one of my ESL students and the author of I Have Two Partners: Living the Polyamorous Life , a ground-breaking book in Japanese about polyamory, as well as the organizer of Poly Lounge , a series of events for polyamorous and questioning people and allies. We publish archived videos of our lessons as a podcast. Today, our conversation covered the following topics: * Kinoko’s three-day fire performance workshop in Gunma, including fire eating, fire breathing, vapor tricks, contact staff, sword fighting, and a burnout competition, with about 100 participants and top performers from Japan. * The physical exhaustion from the workshop and the mental exhaustion from searching for a new house to use as a sharehouse, including the possibility of buying a property and starting a proper business (with all the dreaded paperwork). * Language tips: avoiding jargon by paraphrasing (e.g., “monolingual” → “speak only one language”), and the usage of “twice as big” vs. “twice bigger.” * Masaki’s restaurant business growth, the consideration of forming a company for tax reasons, and the frustration of tax money funding wars and being invested in Israeli companies via pension funds. * The idea of peer-supported alternatives: microfinance systems used by Zainichi Koreans, a proposed queer event transportation reimbursement system, and an “activism scholarship” to help people attend events outside major cities. Tip: Turn on the automatic transcript feature if you’d like to read along. Connect with Kinoko-san * Kinoko-san’s X: https://x.com/kinoko1027 * Kinoko-san’s blog: https://ameblo.jp/kinoko1027ameba/ * Her book: https://amzn.asia/d/0gusbsvA * Her interview: https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/ad17531bef6f9307a429f45f450a9fb2817f8196