S02E09: WWI --> TikTok, A journey through media literacy and freedom of speech (+romance subgenres)

S03E2: Original Sin: Apples and Butter

What does it look like to change our relationship to food and nourishing ourselves over time? Can we love characters we hate in fiction? Are we all manifestations of the same consciousness living simultaneously across all humans? Casual questions as always! This week we tackle women characters in fiction--including the Bible as literature, because Olivia is reading Paradise Lost (yes the one from high school English class and the 17th century) and Jessie is reading Butter. It's a fun discussion with only the most mild spoilers for both plots.

S03E01: We Who Have Never Known Chill

Jessie and Olivia are BACK for season three! We started with a book we both read, 'I Who Have Never Known Men,' and discuss its themes, genre, and the nature of freedom and existence (we know, super light topics). The conversation explores the impact of relationships on personal growth and the importance of community. It’s really fun! Some light plot spoilers between around 8 minutes and 20 minutes, but we hope small spoilers will make you even more interested in reading this book we both loved. Also: is sending six women to space in a Blue Origin ship feminist? https://bookshop.org/a/81323/9781945492600 [https://bookshop.org/a/81323/9781945492600]

S02E10: The horrors persist, yet so do we

After an unintentional break, we're back to discuss what's been going on in the world -- really, not a lot, right?! The U.S. presidential election gives us yet more opportunity to talk through a key feminist ideal, that the personal is political. Jessie's also kept reading in the ACOTAR series. In true form, she also brings us the story of some everyday women who lived in a neighborhood that happened to be built on a chemical waste landfill (turns out, this is not good!) The book follows the actions they and allies in Congress and the New York health department took to stand up to corporations, many of them experiencing activist awakenings in the process. When it's families' lives and health on the line, women truly show UP. Jessie's book: Paradise Falls: The True Story of an Environmental Catastrophe by Keith O'Brien [https://bookshop.org/p/books/paradise-falls-the-true-story-of-an-environmental-catastrophe-keith-o-brien/17175841?ean=9780593312094]. Also published with the subtitle "A Deadly Secret, a Cover-Up, and the Women Who Forged the Modern Environmental Movement."

S02E09: WWI --> TikTok, A journey through media literacy and freedom of speech (+romance subgenres)

If there was a way to connect WWI to the Blake Lively PR controversy, you know Jessie and Olivia will find it. Today, a robust conversation about media literacy, freedom of the press, and how many of our issues with access to accurate information and using essential critical thinking skills are not new problems. Jessie talks about one postmaster general's single-minded mission to prevent sharing any minority opinions, even after wartime (ostensibly the justification) ended. Olivia talks about her personal journey through recognizing the motives that can be at play in cultural drama. Then we go on a whole tangent into the things we distract ourselves with when life is overwhelming. Jessie has discovered the wide world of racecar-driving-themed romance novels, which Olivia points out has always been the way of thriving spaces for publishing and reading the stories we love. We discuss the ways we engage(d) with stories as fledgling writers. Demure, mindful: Jools Lebron [https://www.tiktok.com/@joolieannie?lang=en] on TikTok Books Jessie talks about: American Midnight [https://bookshop.org/a/81323/9780063278523] by Adam Hochschild; Getting Lost [https://bookshop.org/a/81323/9781644212196] by Annie Ernaux; Drive Me Crazy [https://bookshop.org/a/81323/9798989072224] by Carly Robyn

S02E08: Everything on social media is real and satire at once: TradsWives and Politics in 2024

Today Olivia and Jessie talk about the surreality of #tradwives on social media. They have a massive following, but the audiences are there for as many different reasons as we can imagine--to stare, to envy, to learn, to be infuriated, to be sad, to look at beauty, to feel human, to feel inhuman. We talk about @ballerinafarm (on Instagram and TikTok) and Nara Smith (@naraazizasmith on TikTok). We also get into the Kamala Harris of it all, and yes, Jessie brings it back to rhetoric (all humanity is centered around stories, and stories are some of the best rhetorical means!). Jessie briefly discusses one of the most important books she ever read, and it's MORE RELEVANT THAN EVER: Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World [https://bookshop.org/a/81323/9780374537838] by Suzy Hansen