Binchtopia

This week, the girlies are in a place of tour, reporting live from Binchicago! From the technical difficulties and gonjus gowns of live shows to meeting all the insanely impressive binchies (and their radicalized family members), they reflect on whether or not alcohol is poison, the beauty of Zanies, and the haunting image of a backpack hiked to the TOP! Digressions include: twin ethics, binchie-submitted icks, and the emotional significance of a backyard.

We're on tour!!!! Find tickets at (https://linktr.ee/binchtopia)

This is a teaser for a Patreon-exclusive episode. To listen to the full episode and access over 50 bonus episodes, mediasodes, and monthly zoom hangs visit patreon.com/binchtopia and become a patron today.

This episode was originally released on December 31, 2024 as a Patreon exclusive, and we're unlocking it for you to make the most of the extra week in July. Become a patron today to support the show, keep us ad-free and unlock our backlog of over 50 bonus episodes and mediasodes at patreon.com/binchtopia.

We're on tour!!!! Find tickets at (https://linktr.ee/binchtopia)

BOOKS

Rouge by Mona Awad

Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

The Searcher by Tana French

The Hunter by Tana French

Existential Kink by Carolyn Elliott

Long Bright River by Liz Moore

Freedom by Jonathan Franzen

TV

Say Nothing

Monsters: The Lyle and Eric Menendez Story

The Jinx

Breaking Bad

MOVIES

Subservience

Tangerine

Sugarcane

Hanna

My Old Ass

Sweethearts

How to Survive a Plague

ARTICLES

The Invisible Man

Bad Influence

The Despair of the Young

JULIA'S BEST OF THE YEAR

Book - Rabbit Heart by Kristine S. Ervin

Movie - When the Levees Broke

TV - Baby Reindeer, Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders

Album - Charm by Clairo

ELIZA'S BEST OF THE YEAR

Book - The Door by Magda Szabo

Movie - Problemista

TV - Breaking Bad

Album - Manning Fireworks by MJ Lenderman, Power by Illuminati Hotties

This week, the girlies are hairy on main to address the question: why are we so obsessed with being smooth? From ancient sugaring practices to TikTok lasers, they trace the cultural history of body hair and explore how whiteness, misogyny, hygiene myths, and beauty marketing all converged to make your stubble a moral failing. Digressions include Eliza's ongoing war with air travel, Lena Dunham's latest press tour, and non-qualified med spas that will definitely leave you botched.

This episode was produced by Julia Hava and Eliza McLamb and edited by Allison Hagan. Research assistance from Kylie Finnigan.

To support the podcast on Patreon and access 50+ bonus episodes, mediasodes, zoom hangouts and more, visit patreon.com/binchtopia and become a patron today.

SOURCES:

A full Brazilian or all natural: understanding the influences on young women's decision to remove their pubic hair

ASU professor encourages students to defy body hair norms

Body Hair Removal: The 'Mundane' Production of Normative Femininity.

Caucasian Female Body Hair and American Culture

Darker-skinned people urged to take extra precautions as laser hair removal industry booms

From flint razors to lasers: a timeline of hair removal methods

Hair or Bare?: The History of American Women and Hair Removal, 1914-1934

History of Hair Removal

How the beauty industry convinced women to shave their legs

How Much A Beauty Editor's Hair Removal Routine Actually Costs

Male Stigmatization of Female Body Hair

Mapping 'Gross' Bodies: The Regulatory Politics of Disgust

Plucked: A History of Hair Removal by Rebecca Herzig

'Plucked': Race, gender, science, medicine converge in history of hair removal

Pubic Hair Grooming Prevalence and Motivation Among Women in the United States

Shaving and fashion: A storied history

The Casualties of Women's War on Body Hair

The Hair-Raising History of Women's Body Hair

The History of Female Hair Removal

The Naked Truth: Why Humans Have No Fur

The Strange Secret History Of Hair Removal Will Blow Your Mind

Trends in body hair removal as depicted through art

UNSHAVED resistance & revolution in women's body hair politics

Why women feel pressured to shave

This week, the girlies are joined by writer, cultural critic, and internet princess Rayne Fisher-Quann for a bonus follow-up to our literacy episode. We unpack Rayne's recent essay on "poser ethics" and ask: is pretending to have read Dostoevsky really that bad? Are there different kinds of reading, and is one better than the other? Have we fully reckoned with the cultural impact of a generation of men raised on Diary of a Wimpy Kid? Digressions include everyday activities that bring us closer to lead poisoning, a crucial Nerds Gummy Cluster taste test, and a deep dive into our personal neuroses.

Check out some of Rayne's work here: https://internetprincess.substack.com/

This is a teaser for a Patreon-exclusive episode. To listen to the full episode and access over 50 bonus episodes, mediasodes, and monthly zoom hangs visit patreon.com/binchtopia and become a patron today.

We're going on tour!!!! Find tickets at https://linktr.ee/binchtopia

This week, the girlies are armed with their No. 2 pencils to ask: what's the current state of literacy, how did we get here, and are the kids okay??? They unpack how we went from clay tablets to BookTok fairy smut and trace how phonics, poverty, and the policy failures of the Bush administration shaped how we learn to read. Digressions include Zohran Mamdani socialist prom, the power of drawing portals, and empathy for Travis Kelce.

This episode was produced by Julia Hava and Eliza McLamb and edited by Allison Hagan. Research assistance from Kylie Finnigan.

We're going on tour!!!! Find tickets at https://linktr.ee/binchtopia

SOURCES:

A Brief History of Summer Reading

A Chapter a Day – Association of Book Reading with Longevity

A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel

American Children's Reading Skills Reach New Lows

America's literacy crisis isn't what you think

Ancient customer-feedback technology lasts millennia

Are men's reading habits truly a national crisis?

BookTok: A new era in the history of reading

BookTok Statistics

BookTok: The Dark Horse of the Economy

Can Reading Make You Happier?

Children and young people's reading in 2025

Exploring BookTok's impact on literature

How BookTok is Reviving the Era of Physical Bookselling

How is the popularity of BookTok impacting the publishing industry?

How Literacy Became a Powerful Weapon in the Fight to End Slavery

How One Woman Became the Scapegoat for America's Reading Crisis

How the Second World War Made America Literate

How TikTok Became a Best-Seller Machine

Introduction to the Original Edition Literacy and History

Illiteracy: "Another form of slavery"

Literacy Rate in the US 2025: Top Picks

National Reading Panel - Teaching Children to Read

No Child Left Behind Act of 2001

No Child Left Behind: An Overview

Paulo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed at Fifty

PEDAGOGY of the OPPRESSED by Paolo Freire

Report finds 'shocking and dispiriting' fall in children reading for pleasure

Share of TikTok users reading more books because of #BookTok in the United States as of May 2023, by state

School Summer Reading Lists: A Brief and Nerdy History

Sold a Story

Soldiers Literacy Training Collection

The History of Summer Reading

The Influence of BookTok on Literary Criticisms and Diversity

The Invention of Summer Reading and the Birth of the Beach Read

The Literacy Crisis in the U.S. is Deeply Concerning—and Totally Preventable

The Nation's Report Card

The Rise and Fall of Vibes-Based Literacy

The Subversive Joy of BookTok

This is how much the global literacy rate grew over 200 years

Why I Won't Quit BookTok

This week, the girlies are cozied up in their Barbie sleeping bags, reflecting on the innocent beauty, brutal hierarchy, and core memories of sleepovers past in honor of the upcoming Summer Sleepover Tour. From the absolute shame of calling your mom to pick you up early to aspiring to be THAT girl with a basement, they unpack everything that made sleepovers a defining girlhood ritual. Digressions include: nerds rope slander, the power of children writing letters, and an immersive Bat Mitzvah experience.

We're going on tour!!!! Find tickets at https://linktr.ee/binchtopia

This is a teaser for a Patreon-exclusive episode. To listen to the full episode and access over 50 bonus episodes, mediasodes, and monthly zoom hangs visit patreon.com/binchtopia and become a patron today.

For pride month, the girlies mount a defense against one of the largest threats to queer people today: transphobia. They trace the long history of trans existence and its erasure, unpack how moral panic is used to justify control, why transphobia exists on both the right and the left, and how the freedom to live outside the binary can liberate us from other systems of oppression. Digressions include: the highs and lows of plant parenthood, our no-phone summer so far, and a new candy shaking up the scene.

This episode was produced by Julia Hava and Eliza McLamb and edited by Livi Burdette. Research assistance from Kylie Finnigan.

To support the podcast on Patreon and access 50+ bonus episodes, mediasodes, zoom hangouts and more, visit patreon.com/binchtopia and become a patron today.

RESOURCES:

https://transharmreduction.org/

https://www.thetrevorproject.org/

https://translifeline.org/

https://transequality.org/

https://transgenderlawcenter.org

https://pflag.org/get-support/

https://transreads.org/

https://www.elevatedaccess.org/

https://www.pointofpride.org/resource-library

SOURCES:

2025 anti-trans bills tracker

A History of Transphobia in the Medical Establishment

A Lost Piece of Trans History

A systematic review of TERF behaviour online in relation to sociopsychological group dynamics

Advancing Transgender Justice: Illuminating Trans Lives Behind and Beyond Bars

Anti-trans legislation has never been about protecting children'

Anti-Trans Moral Panics Endanger All Young People

Better mental health found among transgender people who started hormones as teens

Beyond Gender: Indigenous Perspectives, Muxe

Beyond moral panic: how governments are ignoring centuries of trans history

Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity by C. Riley Snorton

Clayman Conversations: Three scholars examine the TERF Industrial Complex

Fact Sheet: Transgender Participation in Sports

Gender Identity in Weimar Germany

Gender-Affirming Hormone Therapy and Depressive Symptoms Among Transgender Adults

Impact of Ban on Gender-Affirming Care on Transgender Minors

India's Relationship with the Third Gender

Introduction: TERFs, Gender-Critical Movements, and Postfascist Feminisms

Mental health benefits associated with gender-affirming surgery

Mental Health Outcomes in Transgender and Nonbinary Youths Receiving Gender-Affirming Care

Marxism, moral panic and the war on trans people

"Moving Towards the Ugly"

My Words to Victor Frankenstein by Susan Stryker

Online Anti-LGBTQ Hate Terms Defined: "Transvestigation"

On Liking Women by Andrea Long-Chu

Othering, peaking, populism and moral panics: The reactionary strategies of organised transphobia

Responses to Janice G. Raymond's The Transsexual Empire

The "Empire" Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto

The Epidemic of Violence Against the Transgender & Gender-Expansive Community in the U.S.

The Forgotten History of the World's First Trans Clinic How historians are documenting the lives of transgender people

The History of Two-Spirit Folks

The Institute of Sexology and the Erasure of Transgender History

The semi-sacred 'third gender' of South Asia

The Supreme Court's incoherent new attack on trans rights, explained

Theorist Susan Stryker on One of Her Most Groundbreaking Essays, 25 Years Later

The rise of anti-trans "radical" feminists, explained

To protect gender-affirming care, we must learn from trans history

Transgender History by Susan Stryker

Transgender Lives in the Middle Ages through Art, Literature, and Medicine

TV and films have long taught audiences transphobia

What science tells us about transgender athletes

Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law - More than 40% of transgender adults in the US have attempted suicide

Woman says she was brutally attacked in Carpentersville, Illinois because she's a lesbian

The girlies return from their summer break with a chatty episode recapping their travels, including our bodies yet again keeping the score, a shocking Alec Baldwin sighting, and the transcendent beauty of Nerds Gummy Clusters. Digressions include: Aura ring-induced health spirals, the evilness of snoring, and Baskin-Robbins' haunting Trolli milkshake.

This is a teaser for a Patreon-exclusive episode. To listen to the full episode and access over 50 bonus episodes, mediasodes, and monthly zoom hangs visit patreon.com/binchtopia and become a patron today.

Eliza welcomes back bestie of the pod and religious scholar Kate Twomey for a tender, sprawling conversation shaped by your questions about religion and spirituality. They discuss the alchemical origins of "soulmates," the fine line between manifesting and spiritual psychosis, coming back to community, and much more. Check out some of Kate's work here: https://kyoteworld.substack.com/

This is a teaser for a Patreon-exclusive episode. To listen to the full episode and access over 50 bonus episodes, mediasodes, and monthly zoom hangs visit patreon.com/binchtopia and become a patron today.

We're going on tour!!!! Find tickets at https://linktr.ee/binchtopia

This week, the girlies tackle rage bait: the content that's engineered to make you mad and keep you scrolling. From gutting historic homes to incendiary Republican rhetoric, they explore how anger became a content strategy and why we keep falling for it. They trace the long history of provocation, once a way to challenge power and now just another feature of your FYP, breaking down how rage bait works, who benefits from it, and why nothing feels shocking anymore. Digressions include the beauty of riding a train, knowing conservative content creators in real life, and the age-old question: does being a woman count as rage bait?

We're going on tour!!!! Find tickets at https://linktr.ee/binchtopia

This episode was produced by Julia Hava and Eliza McLamb and edited by Allison Hagan. Research assistance from Kylie Finnigan.

To support the podcast on Patreon and access 50+ bonus episodes, mediasodes, zoom hangouts and more, visit patreon.com/binchtopia and become a patron today.

SOURCES

$5.2m for a duct-taped banana: has the buyer of Maurizio Cattelan's artwork slipped up?

10 Works of Art That Made People Really Mad

100 years later Duchamp's 'Fountain' still influential

Against Empathy by Paul Bloom

Anger is an approach-related affect: Evidence and implications.

Antisocial Behavior in Online Discussion Communities

Ape and Human Cognition: What's the Difference?

Chris Ofili: Can art still shock us?

Chris Ofili, The Holy Virgin Mary

Emotion Shapes the Diffusion of Moral Content

Facebook Manipulated User News Feeds To Create Emotional Responses

How A Urinal Changed Art History: The Duchamp Fountain

How Upton Sinclair's 'The Jungle' Led to US Food Safety Reforms

How (and where) does moral judgment work?

How the Shock Jock Became the Outrage Jock

Marcel Duchamp: The Forefather of Conceptual Art

More Transparency and Less Spin

Movement, Affect, Sensation

Musk's Political Posts

Online hate speech victimization: consequences for victims' feelings of insecurity

Piss Christ by Andres Serrano

Social Influence Bias: A Randomized Experiment

Still Amusing Ourselves

The Art of Absurdity: Resurgence of Dadaism through Gen-Z memes.

The Attention Merchants: The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads

The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind By Gustave Le Bon

The Cultural Politics of Emotion by Sara Ahmed

The Dada Era of Internet Memes

The Disinformation Dozen

The Emotional Dog and Its Rational Tail: A Social Intuitionist Approach to Moral Judgment

"The Great Moon Hoax" is published in the "New York Sun"

The Shock Of The New: Art And The Century Of Change

The urinal that changed how we think

These Influencers Are Making Content to Make You Angry — And It's Working

Understanding Media - The Extensions of Man

Walter Lippmann and Public Opinion

What is rage-baiting and why is it profitable?

Yellow Journalism

YouTube, the Great Radicalizer