Hello, and welcome to the Physics World Stories
podcast. I'm Andre Glesser. And in October
2025,
Queer Quest, a journey to self discovery, took
place in Chicago.
The event was recognized by UNESCO
as officially part of the International Year of
Quantum Science and Technology. In this episode, we're
joined by Jessica and Emily Esquivel, who have
come together to create this innovative event.
And
it is, of course, in Chicago
where recent increased immigration enforcement operations have created
a heightened sense of tension and uncertainty across
many communities.
It's within this atmosphere
that QueerQuest
was forged
with a view to build connection and resilience,
offering as a reminder that science is not
separate
from the lives of those who do it.
I'm doctor Jessica Esquivel. I'm a particle physicist
and cofounder of Oya Nova Enterprises.
I am Emily Esquivel.
I am a licensed clinical
professional counselor,
and I'm the other cofounder, the mental health
side of Oya Nova Enterprises,
and I own my own,
private practice called Oya Nova Healing. So Oya
Nova is really us, I would say, in
business form.
The mission of Oya Nova is to forge
innovative social initiatives through the power of community,
and QueerQuest is one of those initiatives.
We realized that
as we were going through
the ivory tower of academia,
we saw a lot of, like, professional development
spaces
that were really focused only on the career
progression
of us in both of our fields.
But when you're marginalized
in STEAM, when you're marginalized in,
mental health practice,
leaving that holistic approach
to career progression
was was lacking.
And that's where we thought Olinova could really
find that niche. Mhmm. I think through our
conversations, we were really realizing,
that,
yes,
higher education
is important,
but at what cost Mhmm. To our bodies,
to our mental health, to our well-being.
And I think we both
had firsthand
experiences
of struggling to maintain
our bodies,
our minds
as we moved through the
education system.
Yeah. In a lot of ways,
for marginalized
people,
academia
can be like a toxic relationship
Mhmm. That you just can't kick. Right?
I have
a a passion for for physics and for
studying,
you know, the building blocks of our universe,
but that came at a cost to
my well-being
and and being high cost. Yeah. And being
in spaces that
truly affected,
like, my mental health.
And when talking to
specifically other black women in the field of
physics,
this,
depression after PhD
was
a norm and not an anomaly.
And we weren't talking about how it kind
of ravaged our bodies and our minds.
And while it's a huge accomplishment, like,
I know
that I'm only one of a 150 black
women with a PhD in physics. Like, that's
huge. But
the weight of it, right, was also huge.
And, yeah, we really just wanted to create
a safe space to have conversations like that.
And it wasn't until,
like, 2020
that
even the conversation around mental health
was bubbling up to the surface in our,
like, science
fields. It was these conversations
between Jessica and Emily around the time of
the COVID nineteen pandemic
that led them to see the critical need
for connections
and support networks within higher education,
especially for marginalized groups. And these conversations
were the start of a journey that led
to the creation of QueerQuest,
an event that blended the boundaries of science,
healing, and community
to celebrate black, brown, and queer identities.
When Em and I were having these late
night conversations,
having the the
the understanding of, like, what it means to
be
black,
brown, queer,
marginalized
in STEAM,
and and
how therapy and therapists can help support that
journey.
Like, that was also kind of, like, a
an a part of that puzzle.
Yeah. And I would say from the mental
health perspective, it was through those conversations too
that you start realizing,
oh, there are serious limitations to,
just one on one talk therapy.
And
while it's great and amazing and I'm a
therapist and that's what I do,
it has its limitations.
And
we were
the more we started having these conversations, the
more,
we started recognizing
how many people were also having the same
experience in higher education,
where it was taking a toll on their
mental health, on their bodies, and the sacrifices
being made to do this. So,
yeah, this is part of, I think,
what
got me thinking more about the limitations
of
white westernized
theories
for mental health and really leaning into more,
like, holistic practices,
to address the whole person,
not just the individual. Yeah. And I think
that's where, one, QueerQuest was born, right, out
of those late night conversations,
and, two,
how quantum mechanics
became like our
North Star.
And we use these concepts of superposition,
of being in many states, of entanglement,
of, understanding that
healing in community
is better than, you know, isolated kind of,
healing.
Mhmm.
And and we kind of
framed QueerQuest,
with quantum mechanics and use quantum as, like,
a framework for liberation.
So all of our our workshops
and our,
questions,
they they hit upon
really
complex concepts
for, like, the general audience. Right?
But what we saw
was that
there's language
in the mental health space
that mirrors a lot of the quantum mechanical
concepts. It was so cool. It really
was.
And it wouldn't have like, those
really awesome cross pollination
conversations
wouldn't have happened if we didn't have both
therapists and scientists in the room. Mhmm. And
I think,
like, we've grown
together
because of those conversations,
and it was just wild to see that
kind of mirrored back
to us. Mhmm.
And one of I think the one of
the, like, most meaningful
meaningful feedback that I got was from
sisters.
One of them is a physicist, and the
other one is a mental health therapist.
And they said that their relationship
was changed because of QueerQuest.
Yeah. They they said that
they weren't able to talk to each other,
that the languages that each were using within
their careers
were, like, isolated and separate.
But QueerQuest was able to give them language
to shared language. Shared language.
And now they're discussing. So,
the physicist
is a science communicator and educator, and she
teaches teachers to teach science.
And now they're having conversations about, like, let's
expand that and use language, like science
communication language to help mental health therapists expand
how they
help with healing and and therapy. Okay. It
was wild. It was just wild. Like
And I think that was also that was
part of the hope for us in bringing
together these two communities at an event like
this. I mean, it's us. Right? We have
come
to an understanding
of each other
throughout the last fifteen years and have a
shared language about how we talk about science
and mental health.
And,
I think just destigmatizing
the conversations
Both on both ends. On both ends. Right?
We had therapists saying, I'm just, quote, unquote,
a therapist. Like, what am I doing with
these scientists? Mhmm. And then we had scientists
being like,
woah. My mind is blown about what you
just said about, like, mental health, like, in
the context of what I just explained with
regards to quantum physics.
And so it really it was so cool
to see
these communities come together and create and demystify,
destigmatize
both fields and create a shared language,
where,
just the connections were amazing. Yeah. Yeah.
Most of the people who listen to this
probably won't have been to QueerQuest. So can
can you tell me what people would experience
when they were there? Oh, man. It was
magical.
So QueerQuest,
we wanted it to be a space where
black, brown, queer folk were centered and prioritized,
where
we we kind of said it was like
a unconference conference.
So we baked in
time for rest and regulation.
We baked in time for community building,
and
baked in those, like, spaces
for conversation.
So our days both days started out with
a cosmic awakening
slash grounding ceremony.
So well, it started out with breakfast because
food is important.
In our communities
in in our cultures,
we build community around food. So that was
also a very intentional space that we created.
Yeah. We had so many people. We we
had a local chef from Chicago,
black, queer owned,
and,
he just pulled out all the stops for
breakfast. And we got so many comments talking
about, oh, we thought this was just gonna
be, like, a sad continental breakfast,
both, like, with bagels and cream cheese.
He invited us into his home. It felt
like we were sitting around his family kitchen
table, and that that's what we wanted. That's
what started off our event. Yes. And then
we moved into to our morning ritual, which
was a thirty minute grounding
ceremony. One day, we had yoga, and the
other day, I think, we had reflections,
and intention setting. So that started
Those two things started off the day. Then
we moved into a keynote,
where on day one, we had Jessica
and,
Desiree Whitmore, our laser physicist.
Who weaved or who both set the stage
for
quantum mechanics,
mental health, nonbinariness,
and,
yeah, really just looking
into the, like, fabric of our universe
to highlight
and uplift the experiences and journeys that we
as queer people are taking and really just
kind of showing that
in the quantum realm,
our nonbinariness,
our weirdness, our queerness is actually more integrated
into the fabric of space time than society
is letting on, than society is telling us.
And then we moved into the really cool
part of the day, which was the multiverse.
And we transformed,
the gym at the center on Halsted here
in Chicago,
which is three full sized volleyball courts. So
it is massive.
We transformed that into our, quote, unquote, multiverse,
and you just walked in, and there were
just these huge arches
that said you belong here. They were purple.
They had all of our branding.
Anyways, we had our,
we had Galaxy on the Go, which is
a mobile
Planetary.
Planetarium
and just designed a really amazing
Visual video film,
that kind of walk through
our past,
queer ancestors,
moved into our modern
movement builders,
where we highlighted,
scientists core scientists from 500 core scientists,
and then we moved into what the future
could be,
all in five minutes.
And then we had our resource village, which
had community partners from all around Chicago Both
in STEAM and in mental health. That our
attendees could engage with, talk with, get resources
Yeah. Adler port planetarium
was,
in attendance. We had the Chicago
Science and Technology,
c two s t,
Chicago Therapy Collective.
The Depth Collective Yeah. Which is an amazing
small group practice here in Chicago, mental health.
And then we had our rest and regulation
lounge, which I think was probably the highlight
for a lot of people. Mhmm. That's where
we had our cosmic awakenings in the morning.
And then we had hammocks. We had
biofeedback
pods, which was really like a four foot
beanbag
inside of a pod we created. Mhmm.
And each
pod, we had three, had a different
tech inspired
Biofeedback tool Yeah. To really show I mean,
we as scientists
I can speak for myself that the journey
towards
recognizing and and understanding and validating my mental
health journey has been hard.
Not only because I'm part of the black
and Mexican community where, like, mental health, we're
still working through shame. Right? But also in
physics,
like, there is shame around
recognizing your mental health. Like, I am a
late stage,
ADHD
diagnosed person.
And I've talked to scientists that say I
also have ADHD, but I don't talk about
it because I don't want people to think
any less of me as a scientist.
So I really wanted to,
have technology
that we're comfortable with that we probably help
develop in some way or fashion
to show that
meditation
and and calmness really does affect our nervous
system,
for the better. So it was real time
biofeedback to show. And people were so proud.
They were quoting their numbers back to us.
Like, you go in and you start with
the meditation app, and,
it gives you your number of, like, where
your heart rate, your
all of your resting stuff is at. And
then,
it walks you through the meditation.
And, I mean, the numbers were
significant
decrease. Yeah.
And the other thing I'll say about the
rest and regulation lounge was we had people
falling asleep in the in our hammock.
And, you know, I thought in the moment
that was amazing
and and what we wanted,
but it took another therapist,
like, reflecting back to me how meaningful that
was. And they said, like, you don't understand
what it takes
to get someone to feel safe enough
to feel like they can fall asleep in
a public place with people they don't know
around them. Mhmm. So you need to
kind of, like, let that sink in about
the space y'all have created here. And I
also want to kind of underscore that because
center on Halsted is fifteen minutes away from
Broadview
where there's an ice camp.
When we were doing, you know,
walk throughs and tech checks and meeting, you
know, with vendors at the center on Halsted,
we're going back and forth
in a very,
like, high tension area.
We were scared of driving.
And the fact that we were able to
create a a sanctuary, a space for people
to feel safe enough to rest,
right,
As marginalized
people
who are scared of the current climate, who
are scared of the current environment that we
are living in,
that was Yeah. Alright.
That was deep. That's a lovely, lovely, lovely
thing.
What isn't a lovely thing that you just
mentioned is the current climate. Can you tell
me a bit about how it feels living
in
where you're living now? Or I mean, we're
probably
20 miles outside of Chicago where we live,
and ice has made its way
to lots of pockets around us.
And I would say that I know Chicago
gets a bad rap and has a bad
rap,
but being this sort of war torn
city that media is making it out to
be,
it's just not. It's so
I mean, Chicago loves Chicago,
and we are gonna take care of each
other always.
And and you can't push Chicagoans
around.
Like, the fact that
they have come
that we have come together,
and
I don't even know how to explain it.
I mean,
go ahead.
What breaks my heart is that it's
we are all
everything not everything was fine, but we did
not have the government
we did not have
the violence
that the government is
Dropping in. Dropping into
our state,
our cities.
Like, they are aggravating
the people.
We were just fine. And then they brought
the national guard, and then they brought ICE.
And they
are intentionally
creating conflict and causing harm. And it just
it breaks my heart because what is the
reason? Yeah. There's no reason for this.
Yeah. I think in 2020, in 2021,
I lost my dad. We had the peak
civil unrest in our country,
and I threw myself into work, and I
threw myself into,
like, movement building and activism. And I was
consuming
and consuming and consuming
every aspect of media
because I felt like I just needed to
be
in it. I needed to see what was
going on.
And
this time
around,
for my mental health because that broke me.
Like,
my body shut down.
This time around,
I recognized the need to have boundaries,
like, around my
my peace
and focus on creating spaces
that I had
the power to create. And I think that's
where QueerQuest comes in. And it was hard.
It was it has been hard this whole
year
to kind of keep our eyes on QueerQuest
when
there's so much going on around us on
a day to day that it feels like
what is the point.
So many times I was there throughout the
process of what is the point of this
silly event.
And then the event happens, and you hear
from everyone how much they needed this.
And you're like, oh, that's why we did
it. So you did create QueerQuest. It happened.
There's a few things about it which I
don't know what they mean, and perhaps Emily
can help me with this. What what's liberation?
That's a good
question.
Liberation
for me,
I
think, means
just feeling like we are free from the
systems
that we
are forced to exist in.
I think it's feeling free to be creative,
to build our own systems, to live outside
of the systems that we're forced to live
in. It means deciding, like,
okay. Yes. I live in The United States.
There are systems I must, like, I keep
saying live in, but that doesn't mean I
can't do anything about it. That doesn't mean
I'm powerless. That means
I there are choices. I have agency,
and
I can
use my autonomy to build something new and
different.
Yeah. I totally agree that it it
it comes down to autonomy and agency.
And
in some of these
in the in this climate
Mhmm. Sometimes it feels like we have no
agency over ourselves.
The kind of beautiful moments of of realizing
the common language between the this kind of
healing and and quantum world. But is there
are there tensions there as well that you
have to be aware of? Yes. Probably.
But
when you
bring together
black, brown, and queer folk
who are used
to world building
to create
spaces
of comfort, of safety. Mhmm.
The creativity
and the innovation
and the resilience
is baked into that community already.
Mhmm.
So, like, I mean, I'm a science communicator.
Right?
And I've had conversations
where I'm using QueerQuest as a QueerQuest. Quantum
mechanics as a framework for liberation or quantum
mechanics as,
kind of a mirror to queerness
in
predominantly white spaces. And there is pushback. There
is
but hold on. Or, you know, you didn't
accurately represent what superposition
actually is. And there isn't a one to
one, you know,
mirror to, you know,
whatever. Like, you do get that pushback. Right?
There is this, like, pontification
and and,
academic,
rigor that, like, bubbles up to the surface
more so than when you're in
community
with folks that look like you. I don't
know how to explain it, but there is
just so much more
willingness
to receive
this complex,
intricate
entanglement
of
different languages and different Mhmm. Career
and Trajectory. I really hate to state the
obvious, but I think there is something about
being in non white spaces
that allows that to happen because I think
there
there's something true for that about mental health
therapists as well.
The way that we are able to talk
and engage differently without the pontificating
and the holding on to theory, we are
so like,
therapists can be very
Rigid. Rigid about us scientists.
About.
And
in
this space,
it was just
learning for learning's sake. Mhmm. Trying something new
or thinking about something in a new way
for fun. Just playing. Without being like, oh,
well, you you got that theory wrong, or
how dare you say
mental health is x y z. Or
there's just
without
what feels like without the oversight of white
folks,
black and brown people can just create
create.
Speaking of liberation,
that's is kind of what it felt like.
Yeah. The keynote speeches that you're having, are
they
predominantly about the science So day one, we
opened up with quantum mechanics
and what it meant
and how it maps onto
our lives as queer folk,
and really just kind of setting the stage
for what was to come in the,
the event.
And then Desiree Whitmore,
she's the director of education
at the Exploratorium in San Francisco,
really took
what I said
and made it real.
And we had hands on activities,
where we were seeing kind of, like, superposition
and entanglement
in real time.
And
we got feedback
where, like,
people were in the room
being like, oh, I don't know what the
hell this is.
I I don't know if I'm in the
right space. I don't know if I can
understand quantum. Right?
And Desiree, like, solidified that for them. And
throughout the rest of the the events,
they
it clicked. They got why therapists and scientists
were hanging out together. Mhmm.
And then for day two, we moved into
kind of theory to practice,
really. And we had doctor Raquel Martin, who
is,
a
educator,
psychologist,
scientist.
She's in the social
media streets as she likes to say.
And she's the well known kind of,
voice for,
she calls it mental
wealth. Not health, wealth,
and specifically for for black women's mental wealth.
And, again, she just took some of the
concepts that we talked about on day one
and showed how they can be leveraged and
used, when we're talking about our mental health.
I think I'm just thinking because
from a science communication point of view,
quite apart from anything else, for just from
the science communication point of view, having
the space
after you've had talks about and demonstrations of
quantum mechanics, having the space to just
think be, it's just a a really beautiful
I'm just remembering when we spoke,
several years ago, Jessica, when you you were
talking to me about quantum foam and all
these kind of things, I was like, wow.
This is amazing.
And what I could have done immediately after
that conversation
was, you know, go back to the day
job and do some research into something else,
but I didn't. I went for a walk,
you know, amongst nature.
And it just
it it the
the the concepts
and,
well, the experiments that are in, quantum mechanics
are
they deserve that time. So I think it's
brilliant. Just from a science communication point of
view,
that that's how you designed it. Were you
thinking about that as well from a science
communication point of view when you were putting
it together?
I I think so. It's such a difficult
concept even for me
as a scientist who spends all my time
in the quantum realm to, like, grasp. Right?
And I think having space where
you can, like, Rubik's cube it, right, and
look at these concepts in such a different
way and situate them in your day to
day lives
Mhmm. Makes it so that
you
under like, you you grasp it better. And
to me,
the, like,
we did the damn thing for me was
our videographer.
On the last day, on the last interview
that we had with him was saying, okay.
Now tell me about the quantum mechanics and
nonbinariness
and and the superposition of states and how
that wraps into what you created here at
QueerQuest.
He was mirroring
back to us
the quantum mechanical
aspects of the of
the conference
that we had been talking about for two
days. Yeah. You could really tell he had
been listening. We did an interview on day
one and day two.
And at the end of day two, when
the whole thing was over, you could just
tell by the questions he was prompting us
with Mhmm. That he had been listening
to everything that had been happening, and that,
like, that's it for us. Yeah. We want
we want science and mental health to be
accessible
and a tool people can use and
have fun with. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And we
were also really intentional with all of our,
like, parallel sessions,
and our panels.
There was a scientist
and a mental health expert
on each
parallel,
session. And,
oh, man, the conversations
that were happening
were
wild. Mhmm. So I'm just remembering one at
the decolonizing
therapy and science session.
And our our therapist
was talking about
anxiety,
I think. Right? Mhmm. And and and how
difficult it is
to meditate and to regulate
the, like, anxious thoughts in your brain. Mhmm.
And she stated something like,
it starts with being able to observe
the thoughts that are happening in your brain.
And once you're able to observe them,
you can essentially quiet them.
And our scientist was like, holy shit.
You just described the observer effect.
You collapsed
superposition of states
in your brain
by observe I know. I'm getting chills. Blow
my mind.
So those are the types of conversations that
were happening
all throughout
the the event. Mhmm. And it was just
like and and you should have seen how
geeked out
our panelists were. They were like
and then after the session, they talked for
over an hour just, I think, swapping
languages,
right, and
building that shared language of let me, you
just explained this, and holy crap. This is
what you just explained. Mhmm. That and so
much of the time and and at the
beginning of the conference, the therapists were kind
of like, oh, we're
just therapists. This is all we do.
Like, put next to a scientist. We we
just do this. Mhmm. But by the end
of it, it was so cool to see,
like, oh,
science actually isn't that hard. No. Yeah.
Like, the concepts
seem difficult. Yeah. Yeah. And there's and we
all know that there's a hierarchy,
right, of of science, right, and behavior science,
especially in
in western
realms,
it is deemed lesser than
more objective or, quote, unquote, hard sciences.
But
the same
concepts, the same tools,
of, like, cracking open things
and understanding
complex,
beings, whether that be particles
or people.
They're the same tools that are that are
being leveraged and they're that are being developed
in these
careers Mhmm. In these professions. Who are the
people who are walking the floors at QueerQuest?
Who are they? Where where where do they
come from? Are they all from Chicago? The
furthest place we had someone come from was
California,
which is the
opposite coast Yeah.
From where we live. And then we had
people from Michigan, from Tennessee,
but it was largely Chicago. But we were
so stoked that we even had out of
town visitors. Mhmm.
That was pretty wild. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,
we built it with Chicago for Chicago. That
was first and foremost. And when I say
we built it with Chicago,
it was small businesses.
It was nonprofits.
It was, you know, black and brown,
queer,
people
that said we need this space. What do
you need from us? Mhmm. And we could
not have built it without them. Because
here in The States, probably similar over there,
anything DEI related, nobody wants to touch with
a 10 foot pole. So
we had, you know, plans of of of
having
sponsorships,
having corporations,
like, help fund this with us,
But no one took our call from major
corporations, and it was really small businesses
and black, brown, queer owned community
organizations who said, hell, yeah. Like, we don't
have money, but we have people power. Yeah.
We didn't have a production company. It was
largely us and volunteers that built it. And
when you see what it looks like, that
in and of itself is gonna blow you
away.
We'll send the video. Yeah.
Like, this was community built through and through,
and I think it's a testament
to
us. Chicago Yeah. Not being a war zone.
Exactly. And just showing, like,
you can
you can try to keep us down,
but we are so much powerful when we
come together. Yeah.
The other side of it now, maybe it's
the same advice you would have given before,
but what what advice would you give to,
you know, queer people who are in academia
or stamina
and are feeling isolated?
I would start off with saying
the feelings that you're feeling
are valid.
And
I know that it feels
isolating
and that you're the only one going through
that
journey.
But finding
language
to identify,
like, the microaggressions
and the traumas that you're going through
is very,
powerful.
And then being able to share that language
with others
and seeing that there's shared experiences
across
your field and across other fields, that is
also, like, really powerful. And I think that
for like,
the system is working as designed. Mhmm. It's
trying to keep us apart. It's trying to
make us feel like we're crazy. It's trying
to make us feel alone.
That is the way it was designed.
So anything that we can do
to counteract
the feelings of isolation,
the feelings of feeling crazy,
the feelings of not belonging.
That's how we break the system. Mhmm. So
community is, like, one of the biggest ones,
and
developing
language
to, like,
validate those experiences is really important.
Yeah. And I would say
just to remember that it's them, not you.
Classic
classic breakup advice. It's them, not you.
It is the system.
And
I would also add on as a mental
health therapist that no degree,
no job is worth
your well-being.
That's a hard one even for me. That
is a hard one for Jess. She She
didn't listen to it in grad school, and
that's fine.
But she found out the hard way on
the other side when it took a toll
on her body.
And I I believe that. I believe that
nothing is worth
nothing is more important than your well-being,
the job, the degree.
So if it's not serving you,
you're not a tree. Move.
Oh,
you're not stuck anywhere.
The system is designed
to make you feel isolated.
Talk to me about that.
How is it designed in that way?
The system,
all
systems, were designed
by white men,
colonial systems.
And
I don't believe that colonial systems
want
black and brown queer folks, anything that is
different,
working in those systems. Because as we saw
with Pure Quest, when we have these folks
come together, oh, we get new ideas. Oh,
we get innovation.
Oh, we're gonna be like, you're not gonna
push us around. Mhmm.
There is so much power
in community. But if you keep us siloed,
the system wants us siloed.
Because when we come together, when we realize
that we are not each other's enemies, that
we're actually
our
sisters, brothers, people's keepers,
then we link arms,
and and then they're scared and then they're
scared.
Right? Because now we're together.
Mhmm. But so long as we're siloed,
we stay feeling crazy,
and we stay feeling like we are not
welcome. Yeah. Like, it's our problem. Like, we're
the problem. That's that's it. Right? Like, once
you start having the conversation
with somebody that looks like you, that's going
through the same journey, and you start seeing
these, like,
the the same things that you went through,
they went through too.
Now it's like, okay. Well,
it wasn't my fault.
Like, this person across the country in a
different physics department
dealt with the same
issues, the same barriers,
the same,
traumas
that I did.
Now now it's not a it's not a
coincidence.
Sorry. It's a trend. Mhmm. It's not a
me problem. It's a you problem. Yeah.
Yeah. And
so long as the system keeps us focused
and siloed on believing it is our problem,
everything is our fault,
Guess what? We don't succeed because
all we're doing in our spare time is
spending so much time and energy and resources
and mental capacity
figuring out why the teacher looked at me
like like that. Why did the teacher ask
only me why I haven't been in class
for weeks
when maybe I have been in class every
single week, but they didn't see me Mhmm.
Because I didn't raise my hand? Or, like,
the system keeps us in our head believing
we have done something wrong.
Yeah.
And when you're spending all that mental capacity
on anxious
thoughts about
why shouldn't be here. What did I do?
What did I was I too aggressive?
You don't have enough space
to innovate,
to be creative,
to see the world in Rubik's cube quantum
mechanics. Like
and and
and I say that
knowing that
we, as black and brown people, are still
so
I almost cussed.
Freaking
resilient in these spaces.
We are still
innovating
and driving change and creating new systems and
and ways of being.
Just imagine
if we didn't have to deal with
this white
capitalist
system
overbearing on us.
Right?
Like, woah.
Yep.
Yeah. I I see I'm I'm
it's tempting to think it would be really
nice if there was a world where you
didn't have to have QueerQuest.
But that would be a real shame because
you wouldn't have all of this collaboration.
I don't believe that. I just think it
would be different. Like, the need would be
different. Yeah. It wouldn't be to escape.
It wouldn't it would be to come together.
That's
true. Was, but the the framing, the jumping
off point would be different. Yeah. Yeah.
Brilliant.
What what's next for Queer Quest? Does it
come back? Are you doing it again?
Em's not ready. I'm not ready.
It's coming back.
There will be a Queer Quest to the
year two. The timing
is
we will have to discuss that. People also
asked us at the event, will we be
taking the show on the road?
And that's probably not gonna happen
quite yet. Yeah. We gotta do it do
it in Chicago. Do it with Chicago, our
city.
Make sure we we got it all all
the kinks ironed out, and then maybe This
is where we wanna build our community. Yeah.
Then it can go forth from there.
But
Chicago showed up for us, and we're gonna
show up for Chicago next next year Mhmm.
The year after.
But if if people were sort of thinking,
oh, we we if we had that in
our town, would would you be happy talk
to people if they wanted to get in
touch with you and and talk to them
about
it? Absolutely.
Yeah. Because these spaces are needed. And one
of the things that we learned at QueerQuest
is
every single person has the power to build
a community. Mhmm. It doesn't have to be
on the scale of QueerQuest because I'm
crazy.
And my vision like, I'm a crazy visionary.
Visionary. I I I have a specific way
of things that I want
to create and anyways, it doesn't matter.
But a group chat. I mean, we have
a group chat, and it's soul filling. Just
being able to have that space where we
can
build community is It really just takes the
intention, the desire to do it, and then
the intention
to to bring it to life. Yep. Yep.
We're happy to have that conversation.
A 100%. Yeah.
If you would like to get in touch
with Jessica and Emily about that and maybe
see if they can help you arrange a
similar sort of event where you are, then
you can get in touch with them via
the iNova website or indeed the Quick West
website. I'd like to thank them both for
joining me for this episode of the Physics
World Stories podcast. If you'd like to hear
more from Jessica, and I don't know why
you wouldn't, then I would recommend going back
to the previous conversation we had on this
podcast
all about the muon mania. I'll post a
link to that, of course, on the Physics
World website alongside the article with this episode.
And if this has whetted your appetite for
even more quantum science and technology, this is,
of course, the international year of just that.
And at Physics World, we have a smorgasbord
of coverage spanning the history, mystery,
and industry of quantum mechanics. We'll be back
next month with something else from this wonderful
world of physics, and thank you very much
for listening.