Happy Halloween, beloved Listeners!

Host Molly here. Today I’m celebrating by eating even more sour gummies than I usually do. To pregame for tonight’s festivities, Matthew, Abby, and I have been swapping memories of stuff from movies that scared us when we were kids. Matthew was terrorized by Large Marge in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, while I spent literal years expecting to be murdered by Chucky after I was forced to watch Child’s Play at a friend’s slumber party at the tender age of ten. But Abby was perhaps the most tender of us all: she was afraid of the entire Wizard of Oz. What are the spookiest stops on your memory lane, dear Listener? What nightmares are on your Elm Street? Tell us on reddit, if you dare.

WHAT’S NEW

On Saturday, October 9, 2021, Matthew laughed until he cried. It was his first time. The incident occurred while he and his family were watching Ted Lasso, and he immediately texted Molly with the good news. “[E]veryone thought I might need serious help for a second there,” he wrote. “It veered very slightly into actual crying.” But, he concluded, “It was very satisfying. I hope to do it again.”

WHAT ELSE IS NEW?

We’ve been taping in-person since June! The first time, we were so excited that we hugged. After that we went back to being awkward. But it’s been fun to taste things together again, after fifteen months of eating alone in our closets. 

Also, the pledge drive happened! Thank you to everyone who subscribed or upgraded, and welcome to the exclusive club of people who get this newsletter. We love you, even if this email is a weird way of showing it.

Here’s a better way: we’ve dropped a new subscriber-only bonus episode! We finally did what we’ve been promising to do: I gave Matthew a driving lesson. It wasn’t nearly as terrifying as I expected, but that’s only because I didn’t let him drive on an actual road. The scariest part of the day, actually, was the notion of drinking “plain slush,” an item we encountered on the menu at Sonic when we went there to fortify ourselves with onion rings before the lesson. So, did we order a plain slush? To find out, and to access all of our previous bonus episodes, visit magnumbonus.com, and enter the password magnumbonum. (Here’s the RSS feed, for your podcast player: https://www.magnumbonus.com/feed/podcast/ ).

WHAT’S COMING UP

In the regular feed, we’ll be talking about apéro, or French cocktail hour, on November 4th with guest Sutanya Dacres, host of the podcast Dinner for One. Sutanya is an American expat living in Paris, and we very much hope to apéro IRL with her one day. In the meantime, Matthew will be drinking kir royales like the old lady he is.

Also in upcoming episodes: American cheese, boxed soup, pears, and cinnamon sticks! (Doesn’t this sound like the start of one of those stunts where you have to cook a meal using only a handful of random ingredients that no one would otherwise dream of putting on the same plate? Thankfully, this is only a feast for the ears…)

WHAT WE’RE INTO

In addition to everything we’ve mentioned on Now But Wow…

Producer Abby says:

Books: I’ve read and loved a few fairy tale revamps recently: Bryony and Roses and Nettle and Bone, both by T. Kingfisher; and A Spindle Splintered, by Alix E Harrow

Shows: “Only Murders in the Building,” which is super fun. Always love a Steve Martin and Martin Short team-up.

Matthew says:

Song: Mitski, “Working for the Knife”

Book: Raquel Vasquez Gilliland, How Moon Fuentez Fell in Love with the Universe

Molly says:

Book: Priestdaddy, by Patricia Lockwood. I don’t laugh often when reading, even when reading funny things, but this has made me LOL.

Shows: “Midnight Mass,” on Netflix. So spooky. Also, Matt Saracen! I (still) have a crush.

Trick or treat,
Host Molly