Phoenix (born Jennifer Mitchell) grew up in a aggressively moderate household in Prairie Village where dinner conversations were fact-checked in real-time and both sides of every argument were considered to death. They legally changed their name in college after a particularly intense philosophy seminar at UMKC on existential authenticity.


Rebelling against their diplomatic suburb upbringing, Phoenix became professionally argumentative. They were captain of their Shawnee Mission East debate team, editor of the UMKC newspaper (fired for "editorial aggression"), and have strong opinions about everything from the streetcar extension to font choices (Times New Roman is fascist propaganda). Their undergraduate thesis, "The Socio-Political Implications of Pineapple Pizza: A Treatise on Culinary Colonialism," was simultaneously praised and mocked.


Phoenix works part-time at Rainy Day Books in Fairway, where they recommend novels based on customers' political affiliations and argue with customers about book classifications. They've been banned from three different social media platforms for "excessive truth-telling" and once got into a six-month legal battle with a local BBQ joint over their "misleading" use of "authentic" in their marketing. Their apartment near 39th Street is 60% houseplants and 40% annotated political theory books. They're lactose intolerant but refuse to give up Kansas City's legendary ice cream on principle, leading to what they call "digestive activism."