You are about to listen to an episode of the podcast Two Assholes in a Bookmobile. Created by two French librarians, this podcast explores the profession through a critical and resolutely anti-fascist lens.

The upcoming episode features a conversation we had with Stacie Ledden, whom we’ve known for quite a few years now. With Stacie, we talked about life journeys, reinventing libraries, how to resist fascism, the fact that sometimes you just have to stay in bed and cry, and then we talked about joy: how to cultivate it, preserve it, and use it in our daily lives.

One last thing: we recorded this episode in December 2025. December 2025, which is to say, shortly before the murder of Renée Good in Minneapolis by ICE, and perhaps before the rest of the world finally woke up to the reality of the United States’ descent into fascism. A few days after our call, Stacie sent me a message feeling that she might have come across as very naive in our conversation; that while joy is certainly important, she now also has a lot of anger to contend with. Please keep that in mind as you listen. And to quote her: "I still remain hopeful, because we Don't have a Fucking choice. We have to keep the hope."

Musics

Art Flower - Burner Hip Hop by Art Flower is licensed under a CC0 1.0 Universal License.
Art Flower - Dobro HipHop by Art Flower is licensed under a CC0 1.0 Universal License.
Dissidence by Joint C Beat Laboratory is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Kindness by JCBL is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.