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SHHH: The Poopcast (aka S**t and Shame with Shawn)

Join Shawn Shafner (The Puru), performer, activist, and educator for serious but entertaining talk about poop, fecal matters, LGBT shame and other unnameable taboos that clog our bodies, minds, and communities. Shawn and his esteemed guests talk (and might even sing) about taking responsibility for our literal shit and our metaphorical shit, to transform them from waste to resource. It’s time to get our shit together, before it hits the fan.
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Now displaying: 2015
Dec 15, 2015

The Puru may have finally met his match. Jibril is an extraordinary five year-old living in the Bronx who just happens to be obsessed with digestion. In this episode of SHHH, Jibril schools Shawn on why poop should resemble bananas instead of asteroids, explains the genesis of the pyloric sphincter, and meditates on the difference between half-digested food and poop. Joined by his mother Fatima and a league of lego models, Jibril will refresh your knowledge of basic biology and redefine cuteness while saying words like "penis," "gallbladder," and "hepatopancreatic duct" in all innocent earnestness.

 

Mentioned in podcast: Shawn Shafner, early childhood, poop, digestion, sphincters, reproduction, vagina, ureter, bolus, chyme, pancreas, duodenum, pharynx, larynx, teeth, tongue, saliva, stomach, large and small intestine, rectum, anus, Bronx Museum of Art, Boogie on the Boulevard, NYC, YouTube, Magic Schoolbus, taboo.  

Nov 17, 2015

The Puru, Shawn Shafner, is gearing up for November 19, when the United Nations and people around the globe will celebrate World Toilet Day. And where better to celebrate than Atlanta, Georgia with Tom Keating of Project CLEAN? A self-pronounced “toileteer,” Tom tells us how school bathrooms can be key to building global citizenship, why sanitation is key to nutrition (this year’s World Toilet Day theme), and where The Puru will be raising a stink in Atlanta this year.


Mentioned in Podcast: Shawn Shafner, Tom Keating, Jack Sim, World Toilet Organization, Thilo Panzerbieter, German Toilet Organization, Bindeshwar Pathak, Sulabh, India, United Nations, sanitation crisis, clean water, hygiene, WASH, citizenship, World Toilet Summit, ASPE, ICC, plumbing code, International Student Center, Druid Hills High School, Atlanta, Georgia.

Oct 20, 2015

Shawn, The Puru, sits down with Dave Praeger, whose book “Poop Culture: How America Is Shaped by Its Grossest National Product,” catalyzed The POOP Project. Creator of Poop Report, the web’s first intellectual hub for scatology, Praeger details how a humorous side project became a full-fledged (and highly researched) book, how poop’s contaminating effect has led him to create a secret identity, and why he eventually got out of the “business.”


Mentioned in Podcast: Shawn Shafner, Dave Praeger, Poop, S**t, Shame, Taboos, Potty, Squatty Potty, Poop Report, Poop Culture, Marketing, Contamination Theory, Aurora, Denver, Colorado, Jamie Benson, Drudge Report, Dominique LaPorte, History of S**t, Francois Rabelais, Geoffrey Chaucer, Jonathan Swift, Le Petomaine, Fartiste, Moulin Rouge

Sep 12, 2015

Shawn is thrilled to talk to Squatty Potty creator Bobby Edwards about the undeniable anatomical superiority of squatting over sitting to poop,  and how shameful Victorian taboos have all but erased the practice for 'modern' Americans. They also touch on the constipation which plagued Bobby’s mom (and business partner) eventually giving rise to the SquattyPotty,  and the parallel overcoming of Gay shame and repression that have enabled Shawn and Bobby to go proud in more ways than one.  Finally Bobby shares his branding secrets for getting a poop-themed product in Bed, Bath & Beyond, thanks to his recent appearance on Shark Tank. Mentioned in the podcast: Shawn Shafner, Bobby Edwards, Judy Edwards, poop, shit, shame, taboo, potty, culture, squat, squatting, Gay, homosexual, LGBT, incontinence, constipation, recovering Mormon, Mormonism, Mimi Imfirst, Rachel Erickson, The Loo Lady, Shark Tank, Barbara Corcoran, Milorganite Biosolids Fertilizer, Butterfly Body Liners, Shinichiro Ishikawa

Sep 12, 2015

Shawn, our Puru, talks to Jamie Benson, dancer, choreographer,  and maker of shows such as the satire-drenched 'Bowel Movement', and 'Bathroom Follies', among others.  In addition,  Jamie’s partner,  fashion designer Andrae Gonzalo joins this lively conversation focusing on shame,  fear of contamination, and even damnation,  from long-held taboos around homosexuality, non-conformity, and of course poop - in culture, fashion, dance and language.

Sep 12, 2015

Shawn 'The Puru' Shafner is interviewed by  friend, musician,  and this podcast producer,  Josh Sitron,   on serious issues surrounding poop,  and the inherent humor that arises automatically from such conversation.  We get a  background about Shawn's Poop Project (The People's Own Organic Power), his hit one-man show 'An Inconvenient Poop' and  a general history of fecal matters and societal taboos around poop. By the end of the interview,  Josh is so interested (and disgusted, but in a good way)  that he proposes that Shawn and he produce an ongoing series of Poop casts.  And here we are.  WARNING: Eating oatmeal while listening to this podcast is strongly discouraged.

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