Caroline Collett (Writer)

Punkast is a weekly podcast exploring punk in the historical present through critical conversations, inquiry, and collaboration.

>>> Follow the show to stay tapped in. New episodes every Friday.

In this episode:

Jessica Schwartz speaks with writer Caroline Collett about the ways lived experience, memory, and writing shape how punk becomes cultural history. Drawing from Caroline's teenage diaries, they revisit the people, places, politics, and everyday details of first-generation punk while considering what firsthand accounts can reveal that later histories sometimes leave behind.

Moving between intimate memories of punk gigs in late-1970s Britain and Caroline's contemporary reflections on the early UK and US scenes, they explore punk's different cultural and political roots, the exchange of ideas across the Atlantic, and the tension between individual experience and collective memory. The conversation ultimately asks not only how we remember punk, but what its DIY, subversive, and liberatory impulses can still offer the present and future.

Caroline Collett grew up in the North of England and studied languages at Oxford University before beginning a career in television, where she wrote music news for MTV Europe and worked as a presenter and producer. She later worked as a publicist and copywriter for artists, designers, and architects and is now focused on her own writing. Her manuscript, What Do I Get?, brings together original teenage diary entries with contemporary reflections on first-generation punk, its politics, style, culture, and continuing significance.

Recorded June 2026.

Links + References:

X - https://x.com/CollettWriter

Bluesky - https://bsky.app/profile/collettwriter.bsky.social

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/caroline_r_collett/

Website -

https://www.carolinecollettwriter.com/

Caroline Collett on Punk Scholars Podcast:

Part 1

Part 2

Credits:

Punkast is hosted and produced by Jessica Schwartz.

Editorial support: Melanie Hui – audio editing, episode notes, and audio-synced transcript.

Transcript:

Audio-synced transcript

Theme Music:

Lady Bits, "Bitch-a-thon," Lady Bits.

Related:

Jessica Schwartz co-hosts the Punk Scholars Podcast.

Connect with Punkast:

Spotify

Instagram: punkastucla

Stay tapped in.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(93)

Alliance (Apache) (Apache Core) with Kristy Martinez

“It doesn't matter where you're from, like you can still be a part of our quote-unquote alliance, you know?”Closing Punkast's guest-hosted series celebrating Indigenous creativity and Native American ...

6 Nov 1h 35min

Josh Andujo (Gabrielino Tongva) (SGV Ska Punk) with Kristy Martinez

“Few shows I've been to, like in East LA Boyle Heights, same thing. You have a taqueria right there. It could be somebody's tía or tío making food for the community. They're not charging, but, like, y...

30 Okt 34min

Gabe Colhoff (Northern Cheyenne · Blackfeet) (Pow Wow Punk Rock) with Kristy Martinez

“If someone in the sweat goes down, you pick them up. Well, then I'd go to these punk shows ... you're shoulder to shoulder with your people.”“So us walking into clubs with like hats and braids and st...

23 Okt 54min

Viki Eagle (Sicangu Lakota) (Rez Metal) with Kristy Martinez (Guest Host)

“And she wore this Iron Maiden T-shirt and she wore these Navajo moccasins. And I was like, wow, that's like the coolest picture to this day that I think I've ever taken.”In recognition of Indigenous ...

16 Okt 1h 13min

"Women in Punk" Part 2 (Punk@50)

“Because it was a do-it-yourself thing where we just rejected the norm and did our own thing.” In Part 2 of the Women in Punk panel, recorded live at the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles as part of Alle ge...

9 Okt 44min

"Women in Punk" Part 1 (Punk@50)

“It changed everything. All sorts of different art came out of it—the people that made the flyers, the people that wrote the fanzines, not just the bands.”Recorded live at the Goethe-Institut Los Ange...

2 Okt 45min

Luisa Rath-John + Ilka Erren Pardiñas (Goethe-Institut)

“Sometimes it’s actually quite okay to let go of this control … and to trust in the process and to trust in the people that you’re working with.”Jessica Schwartz speaks with Goethe-Institut Los Angele...

25 Sep 45min

Tequila Mockingbird (Punk@50)

“For me, it’s always going to be about making sure that our legacies are honored and protected.”Tequila Mockingbird joins Jessica Schwartz for a conversation about bringing her Punk Museum into the Go...

25 Sep 22min