Call Your Girlfriend

We’re reading fiction, nonfiction, essays and anxiety-producing novels.

The Eagles of Heart Mountain: a True Story of Football, Incarceration, and Resistance in World War II America by Bradford Pearson

Red Pill by Hari Kunzru

The Resisters by Gish Jen

Black Futures by Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham

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The new year has already been more of a lot. Amid so many challenges, here are the practices, advice, and rituals we're bringing with us into 2021. CYG producer Jordan Bailey shares her rituals for letting go of the old year and welcoming a new one. Sabrina Hersi Issa, whose personal inventory days may have already changed your life when she last spoke to us in 2018, is back to teach us about coming home to ourselves. Beth Pickens is keeping a death journal while hosting a new podcast and Homework Club for artists. Plus, Aminatou's decision matrix and Ann's daily writing practice. 

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Crawling to the finish line of 2020, we catch up and reflect on what parts of our pandemic routines we may keep as we move into 2021. 

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As cases spike in the U.S., we talk to one of our favorite consent experts, sex and dating coach Myisha Battle, about how to have the COVID talk with friends, family, and potential romantic prospects. 

The first season of Myisha's podcast, Dating White, is out now. 

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How do you get more deeply involved in a cause you care about? Especially when it's an issue as challenging as homelessness? We talk with Melissa Acedera who practices mutual aid through Polo's Pantry, a mobile food bank in Los Angeles. 

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We are enjoying this slow season, grateful for what we have and opening our wallets for those who experience food insecurity. In the first of two episodes about food justice, we discuss our Thanksgiving feels and talk with Ebony Derr, financial manager at the Okra Project, which nourishes Black trans people with meals and community. Plus, our favorite Thanksgiving movies, what we're eating, and flashpoint feelings around okra (the food itself). 

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Purging our archives, mailing care packages in lieu of clothing swaps, confronting our own consumerism, who we imagine perusing our estate sales, secret talents, and some delightful things we're watching (including cults and sexy chess of course).

Watch List:

• The Queen’s Gambit (Netflix)
• Both versions of The Thomas Crown Affair
• The Vow (HBO Max)
• Seduced (Hulu)
• The Great British Bake Off (Netflix)
• My Octopus Teacher (Netflix)
• Golden Girls (Hulu)
• The Host (Hulu)
• Kramer vs. Kramer
• Everything on Criterion

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Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won. We break away from our stress puzzling to celebrate this win. While there's so much work to be done, seeing Kamala on stage Saturday night was very moving. We revisit our 2018 interview with then Senator, now VP-elect Harris. And we are pleased to announce this officially breaks the CYG curse of only highlighting candidates who do not ultimately win!

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As we await final results, we share our election week feels and discuss some of the racist scams that undergird the American electoral system - like the Electoral College itself - with Heather McGhee, author of the forthcoming book, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together. Plus, the local gains, newly minted officials and old timers (like Nebraska's Ernie Chambers) who are giving us hope. 

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The Guerrilla Girls have been resisting sexism and racism through art for the last 30 years. An anonymous collective of gorilla-mask bedecked agitators, their campaigns have ranged from protests to posters, billboards, and museum interventions. With style, humor, and collective action, they call attention to issues rich and powerful institutions would rather side-step. All the members take pseudonyms after dead women artists. We talked with founding members Frida Kahlo and Käthe Kollwitz about the body of work collected in a new book: Guerrilla Girls: The Art of Behaving Badly. 

As we all grit our teeth for Election Day, we wanted to hear from people who have been deeply engaged in changing systems, for the long haul. 

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