A Room of Our Own: A Very Deep Dive Into Bedroom Culture with Rachel Moss

A Room of Our Own: A Very Deep Dive Into Bedroom Culture with Rachel Moss

Bedrooms have always been sacred ground for girls; the one square footage where you got to decide who you were before anyone else weighed in. This week I'm talking to Rachel Moss, author of In the Girls' Room: Essays on Bedroom Culture from the 90s to Now, about the long, weird, footnote-worthy history of what girls actually do behind a closed door: making zines, starting bands, papering walls with posters of their heroes, filling notebooks with genuinely bad poetry. We go from the Riot Grrrl scene in 90s Olympia and Kathleen Hanna's outsized (and under-credited) cultural footprint, to the moral panic of Reviving Ophelia and the Cassie Bernall myth, to Tavi Gevinson and Rookie Mag, all the way up to "bed rotting" as bedroom culture's more depressed, more online cousin. It's a conversation about privacy, creativity, and what happens to a private space once the internet — and your own phone — starts listening in. Grab your zine scissors, we're getting into it. Become a Patreon member → https://www.patreon.com/cw/MaryMahoney [https://www.patreon.com/cw/MaryMahoney]  TIMESTAMPS 00:08 — Intro: what "bedroom culture" is, and welcoming Rachel Moss 02:28 — Rachel's zine shelf and the joy of meeting a fellow zine person 03:04 — Making zines in secret in rural Ohio, and the Courtney Love conspiracy zine detour 05:26 — Defining bedroom culture: making, consuming, and archiving 09:21 — Where it starts: the 1950s "invention" of the American teenager 10:40 — Riot Grrrl 101: Olympia, Kathleen Hanna, and Bikini Kill 14:18 — Sadie Benning's bedroom video diaries and the tangled Riot Grrrl web (Le Tigre, etc.) 17:26 — The dark side: Prozac Nation, Reviving Ophelia, and the Cassie Bernall myth 22:51 — Shared family computers, Net Chick, and the first wave of girls building websites 28:35 — Rookie Mag, Tavi Gevinson, and Petra Collins' uncredited influence 36:00 — Bed rotting, depression, and Qualeasha Wood's 2025 gallery performance 44:44 — Building Internet Bedroom, staying independent, and resisting the algorithm 53:32 — Where to find Rachel's book, Substack, and Instagram TRANSCRIPT Full episode transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/19mENoNtmGvp4XVh_7MELEsh1laxpvIVMx-meN9-OaZk/edit?usp=sharing [https://docs.google.com/document/d/19mENoNtmGvp4XVh_7MELEsh1laxpvIVMx-meN9-OaZk/edit?usp=sharing]  Connect with Mary: * Website: www.marymmahoney.com [http://www.marymmahoney.com] * Instagram: @mimimahoney [https://www.instagram.com/mimimahoney/?hl=en] * Email: MaryMargaret.Mahoney@gmail.com [MaryMargaret.Mahoney@gmail.com] Connect with Rachel Moss: * Order Rachel’s books here: https://www.internetbedroom777.com [https://www.internetbedroom777.com/?utm_source=ig&utm_medium=social&utm_content=link_in_bio&fbclid=PAZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQPOTM2NjE5NzQzMzkyNDU5AAGnZTWu-CofGIC6byrBD4AxbEVWZ1BPXub-LGfHAINSl1Bgf5nu4ISjt-onOtg_aem_l101iO75BAasVCaVtKK1TQ] * YouTube: Rachel Moss (@internetbedroom)  [https://www.youtube.com/@InternetBedroom] * Instagram: @girlgutters [https://www.instagram.com/girlgutters/] * Substack: https://internetbedroom.substack.com [https://internetbedroom.substack.com] Love the show? Please leave a rating and review! It helps other listeners find Landline. Sponsor Message:  Landline is sponsored by Libro.Fm [http://libro.fm]. Listen to your favorite books and support your local bookstores! (Link: https://tidd.ly/40tPrKb [https://tidd.ly/40tPrKb] ) ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Little House on the Prairie, The Bicentennial, and How History Came Alive in the 1970s with M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska,

I sat down with historian M.J. Rymsza-Pawlowska, author of History Comes Alive, to figure out why America decided to throw itself a birthday party in the middle of Watergate, and what that has to do with the strange, sputtering rollout of the 250th happening right now. We get into Nixon hijacking a nonpartisan commission, a very wagon train crossing the country to meet Gerald Ford, and the queer and Black history organizers who used the bicentennial's grant money to build the public history field as we know it. It turns out nostalgia isn't good or bad, it just is, and the receipts are more interesting than the fireworks. This month’s patreon episode is a 411 episode on the bicentennial. Join the $5/month tier to hear it now.  Become a Patreon member → https://www.patreon.com/cw/MaryMahoney [https://www.patreon.com/cw/MaryMahoney]  Suggest a future episode topic here: https://www.patreon.com/MaryMahoney/posts/running-list-of-159302658?collection=1744255 [https://www.patreon.com/MaryMahoney/posts/running-list-of-159302658?collection=1744255]  Timestamps * 00:08 – Welcome, and why the bicentennial matters for America 250 * 02:05 – MJ on stumbling into a dissertation topic nobody else wanted * 06:32 – How Americans went from watching history to living inside it * 14:23 – Reenactment, Reagan's Oval Office for kids, and "Hippies Living History" * 20:37 – 1966: Johnson forms the first bicentennial commission * 29:12 – Nixon takes over and wants fireworks, not history * 32:56 – Philadelphia's World's Fair collapses under its own weight * 34:33 – The People's Bicentennial Commission crashes the Boston Tea Party * 38:26 – The Afro-American Bicentennial Corporation and the fight for historic sites * 1:04:05 – MJ's hot take: the 250th is just the 1893 World's Fair with worse merch TRANSCRIPT Full episode transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nuDQ8GbcGKv4DmoAJ3jkPUutO8dpuDzq2oFO3SCnWpY/edit?usp=sharing [https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nuDQ8GbcGKv4DmoAJ3jkPUutO8dpuDzq2oFO3SCnWpY/edit?usp=sharing]  Connect with Mary: * Website: www.marymmahoney.com [http://www.marymmahoney.com] * Instagram: @mimimahoney [https://www.instagram.com/mimimahoney/?hl=en] * Email: MaryMargaret.Mahoney@gmail.com [MaryMargaret.Mahoney@gmail.com] Connect with M.J. Rymsza-Pavlovska: * Website: https://mjrymszapawlowska.com/ [https://mjrymszapawlowska.com/]  * Book: History Comes Alive: Public History and Popular Culture in the 1970s [https://bookshop.org/a/102042/9781469633862] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Vanilla Ice, the Queen, and 8,000 Alphabet Noodles: The 411 on the Bicentennial

America is turning 250 this year, and to make sense of the chaos of America 250 (Vanilla Ice on the National Mall, a Confederate flag at the Great American State Fair) I had to go back to the last time we tried this. The Bicentennial, 1976. LBJ started with an earnest planning commission. Nixon gutted it and replaced them with his buddies. Sound familiar? The country was exhausted by Watergate, Vietnam, and inflation, so we reached for nostalgia instead. Little House on the Prairie, anyone? On this episode, I take you on what The Bachelor would call "a journey" through the highs, lows, and huhs? of the bicentennial. On tap: why America is so obsessed with celebrating itself and what that's looked like in the past, the mission and merch of the bicentennial, the protests, and, inexplicably, the queen.  ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The Field Guide to Nepo Babies with Fran Hoepfner

This episode, I chat with Fran Hoepfner — critic, Vulture writer, and author of The Field Guide to Nepo Babies — to trace nepotism from the medieval Catholic Church all the way to Bronny James and Kai Trump. They get into who's doing it right (Ben Platt's Rachel Zegler solidarity era, Romy Mars booking a helicopter and owning it on TikTok), who's doing it wrong (Jack Schlossberg, reheating his family's nachos), and whether Jesus Christ is technically a nepo baby. Spoiler: it depends on your theology (but it’s also making me want to rewatch Jesus Christ Superstar). Become a Patreon member → https://www.patreon.com/cw/MaryMahoney [https://www.patreon.com/cw/MaryMahoney]  TIMESTAMPS * (00:00) Cold open / Fran's cat Bandit joins the show * (03:10) The meritocracy myth and why nepo babies make us angry * (08:08) Ben Platt's PR redemption arc * (12:29) How nepotism started in the Catholic Church (hi, Borgias) * (15:10) Was Jesus a nepo baby? * (20:00) Emeril Lagasse IV and the "no seriously he earned it" profile * (28:21) Bronny James and the tragedy of an impossible legacy * (32:06) Chet Hanks: performance art or just vibes? * (35:24) Jack Schlossberg, least favorite nepo baby, explained * (43:38) Fran's favorites: Laura Dern, Jason Schwartzmann, the Gummers * (48:18) Kai Trump's "just a regular girly" era and Tiffany Trump's strange tragedy * (53:23) The takeaway: don't apologize, don't be boring, and if you have money, do something good TRANSCRIPT Full episode transcript here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/11ghO5c8muWn77GzbPfNGP84l06ixrr8RNt4URRQDdn8/edit?usp=sharing [https://docs.google.com/document/d/11ghO5c8muWn77GzbPfNGP84l06ixrr8RNt4URRQDdn8/edit?usp=sharing]  Connect with Mary: * Website: www.marymmahoney.com [http://www.marymmahoney.com] * Instagram: @mimimahoney [https://www.instagram.com/mimimahoney/?hl=en] * Email: MaryMargaret.Mahoney@gmail.com [MaryMargaret.Mahoney@gmail.com] Connect with Fran: * Read Fran’s Book! [https://bookshop.org/a/102042/9781523530465] The Field Guide to Nepo Babies (https://bookshop.org/a/102042/9781523530465 [https://bookshop.org/a/102042/9781523530465] )  * Subscribe to Fran Magazine: https://franmagazine.substack.com/ [https://franmagazine.substack.com/]  * Website: https://www.franhoepfner.fyi/ [https://www.franhoepfner.fyi/]  * Instagram: @franhoepfner [https://www.instagram.com/franhoepfner/?hl=en#]   Love the show? Please leave a rating and review! It helps other listeners find Landline. Sponsor Message:  Landline is sponsored by Libro.Fm [http://libro.fm]. Listen to your favorite books and support your local bookstores! (Link: https://tidd.ly/40tPrKb [https://tidd.ly/40tPrKb] )  ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

Anne of Green Gables: The One and Only (A Love Letter to the Miniseries starring Megan Follows)

Is your life a perfect graveyard of buried hopes? Have I got the episode for you! This month, I sit down with fellow historian and lifelong Anne devotee Samantha to talk about the thing that started it all: Kevin Sullivan's 1985 miniseries adaptation of Anne of Green Gables, starring Megan Follows. They get into what it meant to find Anne as a girl, why it still hits different as an adult, the queerness you can absolutely read into it if you're paying attention, the absolutely wild copyright drama that shaped the whole Kevin Sullivan universe, and what Lucy Maud Montgomery's own life might tell us about why she wrote the story she did. Plus: trivia, a trip to PEI, a lunch with Lucy Maud Montgomery's actual granddaughter (and what it's like to attend a conference with her descendants), and a very firm stance on Part Three. Long episode. Worth every minute. Become a Patreon member → https://www.patreon.com/cw/MaryMahoney [https://www.patreon.com/cw/MaryMahoney] ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.