Romanistan

Romanistan

The authors of Secrets of Romani Fortune Telling present: Romanistan! Do you love rebels? Do you want to live in a place where outcasts shine their brightest? Welcome to Romanistan! We're your friendly neighborhood Gypsies, celebrating Romani identity and outcast culture, and practicing good diplomatic relations with other marginalized communities. We love the rebels who are living their truth, even if it clashes with tradition. We also love tradition and honoring our roots. This podcast is for everyone who loves and supports Roma & related groups, and anyone who feels like a misfit and wants to uplift others to create a beautiful community. We feature pioneers in culture, fashion, art, literature, music, activism, cuisine, and everything good. We adore the intersections of gender, sexuality, spirituality, ability, and identity. We cover all topics, from the difficult to the glorious. Let's sit crooked and talk straight. Hosted by Paulina Stevens and Jezmina Von Thiele. We reclaim the slur Gypsy, but if you aren’t Romani, we prefer you don't use it. xoxo. P.S. The Romani people are a diasporic ethnic group originally from northwest India, circa the 10th century. Now, Roma live all over the globe, and due to centuries of oppression, slavery, genocide, and other atrocities, Roma are still fighting for basic human rights. We seek to raise awareness of who Roma are, and highlight Romani resilience, creativity, & culture.

Episodes

August 24, 2025 13 mins

Join us for our tarot reading for the week of August 25th, 2025! We pull a card for love, money, & guidance. 

Visit Bustle for Jezmina’s monthly tarot reading! 

Thank you for listening to Romanistan podcast.

You can find us on Instagram, TikTok, BlueSky, and Facebook @romanistanpodcast, and on Twitter @romanistanpod. To support us, Join our Patreon for extra content or donate to Ko-fi.com/romanistan, and please rate, review, and s...

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Check the weekly cosmic weather with Paulina and Jez with a tarot spread for this week ahead.

Thank you for listening to Romanistan podcast.

You can find us on Instagram, TikTok, BlueSky, and Facebook @romanistanpodcast, and on Twitter @romanistanpod. To support us, Join our Patreon for extra content or donate to Ko-fi.com/romanistan, and please rate, review, and subscribe. It helps us so much. 

Follow Jez on Instagram @jezmina.vonthi...

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Cecilia Woloch is an American poet, writer, teacher, and performer. She’s published seven collections of poems, a novel, and numerous essays and reviews. Her honors include three fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, CEC/ArtsLink International, the Center for International Theatre Development, and others, as well as a Pushcart Prize. Her writing has been published in tra...

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Heres our tarot reading for the week of August 11, 2025! Feel free to write in with any divination questions!

Thank you for listening to Romanistan podcast.

You can find us on Instagram, TikTok, BlueSky, and Facebook @romanistanpodcast, and on Twitter @romanistanpod. To support us, Join our Patreon for extra content or donate to Ko-fi.com/romanistan, and please rate, review, and subscribe. It helps us so much. 

Follow Jez on Instagram...

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August 3, 2025 10 mins

We're trying a new thing! Do you want us to share week ahead tarot readings? What else do you want to hear from us in these weekly short episodes? Do you have any questions for us about divination, fortune telling, or anything else? 

Thank you for listening to Romanistan podcast.

You can find us on Instagram, TikTok, BlueSky, and Facebook @romanistanpodcast, and on Twitter @romanistanpod. To support us, Join our Patreon for extr...

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We're releasing it from the vault! It's the Weiser Books' Stewarding Traditions Panel, which we recorded on 3/29/25 at Cottage Magick as part of our Welcome to Romanistan Festival tour in New Orleans for our book, Secrets of Romani Fortune Telling. Lilith Dorsey joined us for the discussion and Bimbo Yaga moderated. What a wonderful evening!

Since 1991, Lilith Dorsey has been doing successful magick for patrons of her...

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Alexian Santino Spinelli, musician, composer, writer, poet and university professor. The first Italian Roma to be appointed Commendatore of the Italian Republic for artistic and cultural merits. Spinelli with the Alexian Group holds numerous concerts in Italy and abroad. With his son Gennaro, he is the first Roma to have played at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan and at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples with the soloists of the Scala, t...

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Daughter of printmakers and painters – an English Romany father and Scottish-English-Irish mother – Lynn Hutchinson Lee is a multidisciplinary artist and writer based in Toronto, Canada. Lynn spent her childhood summers in a forest surrounded by marshes and bogs, and their lush beauty and magic haunt her writing. She was first place winner of the 2022 Joy Kogawa Award for Fiction. Her writing is published in Room; Weird Horror; Nor...

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Here's the edited release of Tales from Romanistan: A Night of Romani Storytelling, our first live show, in New Orleans, LA at Cafe Istanbul, 3/28/2025!

Hosted by Paulina Stevens and Jezmina Von Thiele, Produced by Bimbo Yaga, Cast includes Tsarina Hellfire, Moonbear, Milly Raccoon, Bimbo Yaga, and our editor and musician, Viktor! Photos by Arian Aragon. Special thanks to our cast, crew, and everyone who attended! Special shout...

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Welcome to our teaser for our first live show recording, and a recap! We hosted our first Welcome to Romanistan Festival in New Orleans, featuring six events that brought together incredible queer and trans Romani performers from across the country. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO CAME! The festival showcased Romani culture through academic panels, live performances, fortune telling, ancestral rituals, and traditional cuisine. It also ce...

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Orhan Tahir is a Romani lawyer, scholar and journalist, originally from Bulgaria, who has lived in Western Europe for the past 10 years. He is currently engaged as a PhD researcher in Political Science at the Heidelberg University in Germany. Orhan's focus is on the construction of "Gypsies" as an outcast "Pariah people" in European imagination in line with the Orientalist narratives of colonial India, and ...

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Klaudia Farkas is a Romani woman, Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA) since 2010, a self-taught herbalist since 2014, and an esthetician since 2020. She is the founder and owner of Romani Roots and Romani Roots Skincare and Herbal Remedies, based in the heart of Noe Valley, San Francisco. With a passion for holistic wellness, Klaudia blends her extensive knowledge in healthcare, natural remedies, and skincare to empower others on their...

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"Seeking Warmth," an art exhibit curated by artist Sharon Svec, held at Art At The Cave in Vancouver, WA running March 4-29, 2025, aims to explore humanity's need for emotional and physical warmth, especially during times of extreme circumstances such as those caused by genocide, war, oppression and neglect. Ceija Stojka (1933-2013) was a child survivor of the Romani Holocaust (Samudaripen) who began sharing her expe...

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February 8, 2025 40 mins

Sejnur Memisi is a journalist & Roma activist from Germany. He is originally from Kosovo, and escaped 1999 with his family to Germany because of the Kosovo war. He studied Media Management and since April 2020 has produced Podcasts about Sinti & Roma. He began the podcast (Sinti Roma News, formerly RYMEcast) in the German language. 3 of his German speaking Podcast episodes were nominated for media prizes, CIVIS Media Prize ...

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In this episode, we dive into Romani representation in Robert Eggers' Nosferatu with Madeline Potter, Romani scholar of 19th century Gothic literature! We also get into vampire lore, Romani folklore, mulo, strigoi, and Romani tropes in Gothic literature and media. 

Madeline Potter is a research and teaching fellow at the University of Edinburgh, in the literature of the long 19th century (Romanticism to Victorianism). At Edinbu...

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Nancy Black is the alter ego of the journalist and activist Gilda-Nancy Horvath, a Romni from Vienna, Austria. She writes poems in Romanes, English and German which are sometimes translated to music, mainly rap music. Her rap-poem "Trushula" (Crosses) states clearly that the danger of dark history repeating is always present - and that even people from marginalized groups are not safe from being seduced by the very simple...

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January 3, 2025 11 mins

Welcome to season 5! This mini-episode starts with a tarot reading for the year ahead. There’s personal growth and healing in 2025 with the Hermit and the Ace of Cups. Listeners are encouraged to embrace introspection, nurture emotional well-being, and prioritize love in their lives and communities. 
• Time for reflection and introspection inspired by the Hermit card 
• Healing journey through the lens of the Ace of Cups 

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This episode explores the inclusion of the Romani language on Google Translate, featuring Rowena Marin's insights on the intersection of technology and culture. We discuss the journey from grassroots initiatives to digital recognition, the complexities of language preservation, and the opportunities technology can create for the Romani community.

• The journey of Rowena Marin from Romania to Google
• Discussion on...

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We spoke with Ylva Mara Radziszewski about Water Always Wanders, a multimedia theatre production of queer and trans Romani artists at the Mudlark Theatre in New Orleans, Louisiana December 6th & 7th from 6:30-9:00 pm cst. Our book, Secrets of Romani Fortune Telling will be for sale along with Loly scarves, and other vendors. This performance will also be a fundraiser for our Welcome to Romanistan Festival in spring 2025, sponso...

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What if spirits could communicate through a simple hair comb? And what role do children play in spiritual practices? Join us as we uncover these mysteries and more, during our vibrant journey on the Good Morning Romanistan book tour. From Portland to Portsmouth, we’ve been embraced by amazing communities and experienced transformative events like our ancestral tarot workshop with Chagall PAC. Listen in as we recount our delightful ...

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