With Donald Trump officially back in office, and a flood of abhorrent executive orders and public displays of fascism already grabbing our attention, we couldn’t focus on anything else this week. We decided to check back in — with each other and with Sami Sage (co-founder of Betches, host of The Morning Announcements and American Fever Dream, and author of Democracy in Retrograde) — to discuss how we’re filtering through the firehose of bad news, how to avoid expending energy on endless outrage consumption and anxiety wheel-spinning, and what is worth putting our energy toward.

In part, this has meant reevaluating how we approached Trump’s last administration, trying to learn from what was effective and what was self-indulgent. As individuals, we don’t want to use up all our mental space or political will on Instagram posting or fruitless doomscrolling; instead, we’re thinking about building in-person communities and targeting our involvement locally or towards narrow, winnable national debates.

But we’re also thinking about what role we play as writers and podcasters who, unlike in the last Trump administration, aren’t affiliated with a news organization. In this episode, we discuss our roots in feminist critique of “The Bachelor” franchise, how that has evolved along with our political context over the past decade, and the value of pop cultural commentary with a left-wing, feminist point of view.

We also touch on the inauguration itself, particularly Elon Musk’s unapologetic Nazi salute and the infuriating discourse that followed.

In this episode, we discuss all of this, along with the hope that we’re holding on to. We hope you’re finding ways to hope, and to help, as well. xo

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