Definitely Not Famous (DNF) is a podcast where I, Rebecca J. Hogue, interview memoir authors about their books and how they came to write them. It focuses on memoirs and memoir authors who are not famous, rather, they are everyday people with a story worth telling.
The first part of the title speaks to my intent to interview authors who are not famous, that is, this is not about memoirs about the lives of privilege and how those lives are not perfect. Those who are already famous don’t need me to interview them, and I don’t need to be interviewing them.
The title came during a podcasting workshop when I was asked “Will you interview famous people [about their memoirs]?” My immediate response was “Absolutely not famous”. That became my working title. With a little more reflection, I liked the word definitely better than absolutely, and that is how the title came about.
Now, that doesn’t mean that people who I interview might not become famous, just that they are not famous when I interview them and their stories are not stories about famous people.
The second part of the title is a play on words. Originally, I had Extraordinary True Stories from Ordinary People, which is descriptive my not catching. When I did my first interview with Janet Lee, when describing herself the words More Extra than Ordinary slipped out of her mouth and I knew the moment I heard it, that it was the right phrase to describe the podcast.
Land Acknowledgement
Definitely Not Famous is produced in Sin So’sepe’katik (sin-SO-say’bay-a-tik), known today as Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, which is on the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq people.
The Covenant Chain of Peace and Friendship Treaties between the Wabanaki Confederacy (that included the Mi’kmaq nation) and the British Crown was created throughout the eighteenth century; the first was signed in 1725, and the last in 1779.
Treaty rights were recognized and affirmed in the 1982 Constitution Act. We are all treaty people.
These agreements were fundamentally different from land cession treaties, instead establishing principles of coexistence, mutual recognition, and ongoing nation-to-nation relationships that the Mi’kmaq maintain were never surrendered or extinguished. The contemporary significance of these treaties has been repeatedly affirmed by Canadian courts, most notably in the 1999 Marshall decision, which recognized constitutionally protected commercial fishing rights based on 18th-century treaty provisions, demonstrating the living nature of these historical agreements and their continued relevance to contemporary Indigenous rights and sovereignty.
As a podcaster, I am committed to honouring this relationship. I will actively work with our Mi’kmaq friends and neighbours to create a space for learning, share stories, and support the work of reconciliation. By understanding our shared history, we can help build a better future together.