Happy To Be Here

We talk with New York Magazine advice columnist Heather Havrilesky about quarantine madness, cinnamon rolls and making friends during a pandemic.

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What better way to remember a simpler decade than by watching some of the biggest films from 30 years ago?

Join Greta Johnsen, Tricia Bobeda and Peter Sagal of NPR’s Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me! as they dissect movies from the ‘90s. (And yes, we’re totally gonna do Dazed and Confused.)

Listen to this new trailer, then come back here on Wednesday, August 12 for fresh recap all about a classic film from 1995,Clueless.

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More women are running for political office this year than ever before, but men still disproportionally represent the American populace.

We talk with Erin Vilardi, the founder of VoteRunLead, an organization that encourages and trains women to run for office -- and win. 

Are YOU considering a run for office? Vilardi explains why women are well-suited for leadership and why you should take the plunge. 

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Welcome to the Nerdette Book Club! Each month, we read a book and chat about it with a rotating group of panelists. This month’s pick is Last Tang Standing by Lauren Ho.

It tells the story of Andrea Tang, a thirtysomething Malaysian woman who lives and works in Singapore. Her love life is a mess and she’s vying for partner at her law firm, all while drinking a lot and somehow spending many hours playing Candy Crush.

Listen along as Nerdette host Greta Johnsen discusses the book with podcast expert and Servant of Pod host Nick Quah.

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As you'll soon find out, Emily Graslie has a contagious enthusiasm for science and discovery. She holds the very real title of “Chief Curiosity Correspondent” at the Field Museum here in Chicago. She hosts a YouTube series called The Brain Scoop. And she’s also the host of a series on PBS called Prehistoric Road Trip, where she travels across the western United States to examine the history of our planet.

We talk with Emily about exploration and discovery, how loving art and science does not have to be mutually exclusive, and then she drops more clam facts on us than we thought was possible.

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When you hit a rough spot with a good friend, what do you do about it? Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman are longtime friends and business partners. Their fans also know them as the hosts and creators of 'Call Your Girlfriend,' a podcast “for long-distance besties everywhere.”

When they recently hit a rough patch, the pair took what might be considered an unusual step to save a friendship: they went to therapy together. Their new book is called Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close. They talked with Greta about writing it together, the scholarship of friendship, and where their relationship is today.

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This is a weird year for [insert almost anything] and also summer blockbusters. But even though the theaters remain (mostly) closed, there's still plenty of great new movies to stream from the comfort of your own home. We talk with Eliana Dockterman, staff writer at Time, about the uncertain future for new movies, a few great films you can watch right now, and a few more that you'll have to wait for.

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It’s the Nerdette Book Club! And today we're talking with Lauren Ho, the author of this month’s selection, Last Tang Standing.

It's a wonderful summer romance that follows the story of Andrea Tang, a 33-year-old Chinese-Malaysian lawyer, as she tries to make partner at her Singaporean law firm while fending off the unhealthy interest her relatives have in her love life.

Before she wrote this novel, Lauren herself was a Chinese-Malaysian lawyer living in Singapore. So ahead of our panel discussion later this month, we talked with Lauren about the reasons behind her huge career change, where the similarities between her and Andrea begin and end, and how Andrea was born “from the ashes of a comedy set where I bombed. Badly.”

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Kate Stayman-London loves reality TV. But even though shows like The Bachelorette and Love Island bring her joy, “we should also hold those things accountable to our values,” she said.

Stayman-London’s debut novel, One To Watch, puts a plus-size woman as the star of a Bachelorette-style reality TV show. It’s both a lovely summer read and also a critical assessment of reality TV tropes.

Greta talks with Kate about the impetus for the novel, what it means to see stories about large women, and whether or not any reality TV shows might take her lead.

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Sheyna Gifford spent a year living on a volcano in Hawaii with just five other people as part of a NASA project to simulate life on Mars. Living in a biodome the size of a two-bedroom apartment, the crew studied the psychological effects and group dynamics that could be at play when astronauts eventually make it to Mars.

This interview — about relationships, food and free time while in isolation — originally aired on Nerdette back in 2017, but it also has a few interesting parallels to our collective situation during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. Plus, Sheyna assigns us some truly excellent homework, about why you should think very carefully about who and what you want on your spaceship.

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