“The White Lotus” is one of those shows that sticks with you.

Mike White’s masterful series, which follows a new group of wealthy Americans (and locals) each season as they travel to a different White Lotus hotel, wrapped its second season in mid-December, but we’ve both been thinking about it ever since. So by popular demand, we finally got our act together to podcast about it.

White loves a Big Juicy Theme, and this season it was sex, specifically of the transactional variety. As Jen Chaney put it in her Vulture review,  “Season one established that practically every relationship is transactional, and season two goes a step further by suggesting that satisfaction can only be achieved when one understands that essential truth.”

In this week’s episode, we get into the power of transactional sex, what it takes to sustain a longterm sexual partnership, Tanya’s dramatic exit, and the most gorgeous (Valentina’s suits, Daphne’s dresses, and all of Harper’s wardrobe) and chaotic (cough, Portia, cough) fashion moments. Hope you enjoy! xo

We’ve been watching…

The new all-singles season of “The Circle.” I took a break on this Netflix reality show for the last few seasons, but I came back to it in the new year and I find this season totally delightful. They made every player on this season play as a single, and it really creates some great and cringe-worthy opportunities for text-based flirting / mayhem. -Emma

“I Hate Suzie Too,” a British show starring Billie Pieper as a somewhat washed-up actor — still working, but seemingly with her glory days in the rearview mirror — who is about to score a huge new role when hackers obtain sexual photos of her and leak them. Her marriage and career immediately veer into freefall as she desperately tries to manage the fallout. It can be a bit woozy to watch, with camera and sound effects layered onto panicky moments to induce the same wobbly, unsteady feelings in the audience, so I’m taking it in smaller doses. Pieper is outstanding as Suzie, a highly strung ball of energy forever trying to find the right balance between gregarious fun and self-destructive intensity. -Claire

We’ve been reading…

Jana Casale’s novel, “How To Fall Out Of Love Madly.” It follows three women in their early 30s, all struggling to navigate romantic relationships and the failures of the men they have put their trust in, but all in different ways. The writing is fun and the perspectives are sharp. The perfect book to get me back into the swing of reading novels. -Emma

P.G. Wodehouse’s “The Inimitable Jeeves”! Wodehouse and Agatha Christie were my gateway-to-adulthood authors, the writers of non-children’s books who eased my transition to grownup literature. When we were at my family’s home for Christmas, I spied a whole shelf of their books on my childhood bookcase, and idly found myself rereading some of them. It’s absolutely corking stuff, as Bertie might say; Wodehouse is a shining example of a writer who knows his groove and has found ingenious ways to reuse and refresh the same story template and tropes to equally hilarious effect each time. -Claire

We’ve been listening to…

The four-part “Shameless” series on the inner circle of NXIVM, hosted by Vanessa Grigoriadis, who does a lot of reflecting on the reporting she did on NXIVM back in 2017 after the first explosive NYTimes story was published. I just cannot seem to get enough cult content in my life. -Emma

So much nostalgic music. We were profoundly blessed that our toddler chilled out with his iPad and a bunch of Disney movies for the better part of our 12-hour drives to and from Indiana, which allowed me to put in my earbuds, eat candy, and zone out to all the corniest emo shit I used to love in high school: Jack’s Mannequin, Dashboard Confessional, The Starting Line. Jimmy Eat World still slaps, and so do sour gummy worms. -Claire

We’ve been buying…

A high-waisted faux leather skirt designed by an influencer whose style content I genuinely love. I have been trying to focus my clothing purchases on versatile pieces that can be worn with multiple other pieces I already own and this fits the bill. -Emma

I can’t believe I’ve become this person, but: the Dyson Supersonic hairdryer. Winter has made my hair so limp and sad, and nothing was helping, so when I saw a rare post-Christmas discount on the fuschia dryer at Best Buy, I bought a hairdryer that cost about three times as much as I ever believed I’d spend on a grooming appliance.

And it was worth it. I’m so sorry to report this. I wish it weren’t true. For years I’ve used a pro Babyliss dryer with a diffuser for my wavy-curly hair, and I chose to believe that a pricier dryer would not be meaningfully better. But the results were always pretty frizzy, as the excess airflow from the diffuser whipped my flyaways around my head like gale-force winds, and the heat damage to my hair added up. With the Dyson diffuser (on low heat and speed), I get dry, bouncy, almost glossy curls in 25 minutes — even better than the results I get from air-drying on a beautiful summer day. A thousand apologies for this recommendation. (I’ve since read that the cheaper Shark knockoff is also a curly girl favorite.) -Claire

The idea of love as the perfect Christmas gift from Santa – whisked down the chimney and tucked underneath a fragrant, be-tinseled Scotch pine, “all my own in a big red bow” as Britney Spears memorably envisioned – is at the heart of most holiday romantic comedies. And yet, we’d argue, most don’t go far enough in bringing Britney’s vision to life. What sort of man actually can be produced from Santa’s big toy sack and given to you as a holiday gift, flawless and utterly devoted to you? Well, one who pretty much wasn’t real to begin with, and was merely summoned into being to ensure a happy holiday for one lucky woman. 

And “The Spirit of Christmas” goes there, summoning a soulmate for one hardened Boston lawyer (Jen Lilley) from the realm of ghosts. 

Much like “White Lotus,” “The Spirit of Christmas” is hard to pin down on the genre front. Is it a romantic comedy? A romantic… drama? A murder mystery? A ghost story? A costume drama? Honestly, all of the above. It ticks more genre boxes than any made-for-TV flick has any right to attempt. 

For Emma, this is an old favorite. For Claire, it was always a tough sell – for one, the concept sounded like sheer chaos, not the neat and tidy romcom she typically sought out, and also, ghost romances are annoying. But we finally came together for a “Spirit of Christmas” viewing and discussion this holiday season, and soon the film had minted a new fan. It’s not that it handles the chaos by executing everything it attempts well – the costumed flashbacks, set in the Prohibition era, are only slightly less brutal to watch than a high school play – but rather that it plunges into everything with gusto and a pretty charming cast. It’s never boring, rarely completely incompetent, and always utterly off-the-wall. 

In this episode, we recap “The Spirit of Christmas,” rate it out of 10 doors mysteriously swinging open, and revel in the most romantic haunting ever committed to the Lifetime Channel.

This is our last podcast of 2022! We will be back with more pods in January. Happy holidays, everyone!

We’ve been reading…

This New York Times report on how pricey daycare chains have figured out how to make big money from providing childcare, while undermining political efforts to subsidize costs for parents. It’s bleak reading, a look inside the process by which something that should be a public good (like libraries or the post office, or at least the subway) has been not only privatized, but kept private for the benefit of for-profit companies and their investors, to the detriment of the people who most need the services they offer. -Claire

Amy Kaufman’s recent L.A. Times investigation into 15-year-old YouTuber’s media empire and the abuses her mother allegedly committed against the other minor YouTube talent who worked with her in her “squad.” This investigation raises a lot of interesting and important questions about the burgeoning social media celebrity industry, and specifically “kidfluencers,” who have operated in a gray area of child labor laws for years. -Emma

We’ve been watching…

In my free moments lately, I’ve been catching up on season 2 of “Abbot Elementary,” which is just such a delightful, perfect network comedy.

Greg and I have also, belatedly, started the newest season of “The Crown,” and are so far a bit perturbed at how well Prince Philip, Prince Charles, and Prince Andrew (three of the worst British men) are coming off. A kind of astonishing number of “isn’t Prince Philip terribly wise?” B-plots this season. Odd! -Claire

“Something From Tiffany’s,” a charming, well-executed modern holiday rom com directed by Daryl Wein, which recently was released on Prime. It stars Zoey Deutch as a (Jewish!) bakery owner named Rachel Meyer and Kendrick Sampson as handsome writer Ethan. After Rachel’s boyfriend is hit by a taxi exiting Tiffany’s and helped by Ethan, who has just purchased an engagement ring at the store, the two end up accidentally switching gift bags. Hijinks ensue, romantic connections are made, the holiday season is bright and merry. This is the best new movie in this genre I have seen in quite awhile and I am so grateful to my dear friend Alison for bringing its existence to my attention. Absolutely recommend. -Emma

We’ve been listening to…

The “Beanie Babies” episode of “You’re Wrong About” with Jamie Loftus, which was bountiful with weird nuggets about the truly strange and unpleasant man behind Beanie Babies, Ty Warner, and also informed me that I was the only kid who, like, played with her Beanie Babies. (I had maybe three of them, and I thought they were so cuddly and fun. I have always lacked the entrepreneurship gene, and occasionally — very occasionally — it saves me from bad investment ideas.) -Claire

The latest episode (#50) of “Heavyweight,” about a man named Nick, grief, music, and the bonds that tie even the most unlikely of friends together. Jonathan Goldstein is just so very good at what he does. -Emma

We’ve been buying…

Leggings and sweaters, as cozy season is here to stay. After several weeks of feeling that none of my sweaters were truly snuggly enough, I just impulsively bought this enormous Everlane cloud turtleneck. For years I’ve gone for lightly cropped sweaters, but I’m honestly tired of trying to make them work with wide-leg jeans for everyday wear: it’s time for leggings and long, blanket-like sweaters. -Claire

I have never been a statement earrings person, in large part because they are heavy and my ears are very sensitive. But my friend Liv turned me on to Hair Candy by Han’s rainbow (shaped) earrings, and I am officially obsessed. Just bought them in Cobalt Black and Champagne, and can’t wait to use these accessories to dress up otherwise casual outfits. -Emma

Why is it so hard to make a decent holiday rom-com that centers Jews?

That is the topic we are exploring on this week’s podcast as we dive into the absolute student-film-esque mayhem of Hulu’s “Menorah In The Middle.” This Hanukkah romantic comedy follows Sarah (Lucy DeVito, daughter of Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman), as she returns to her hometown of Sol Viejo, California for Hanukkah with her goyishe supervillain boyfriend Chad (inexplicably played by Chilean-American actor Cristián de la Fuente). Her parents’ adorable local bakery is struggling, her cute neighbor Ben (Jonah Platt) is hanging around, and oh, did we mention the intermittent troubadour singing? And the Sarah Silverman cameo?

We were hoping “Menorah In The Middle” would be wacky in a fun and highly watchable way. Unfortunately… it was more of a total mess. Virtually none of the characters act remotely like actual human beings, and the wackiness is more distracting than delightful.

But we still appreciate what the movie was trying to do: create a “holiday time” (i.e. Christmastime) movie that centered Jews as full human beings with their own cultural identity. Hallmark and Lifetime have both tried in the last few years to integrate Jews into their Christmas movie content, with mixed results. It’s hard to do well, in large part because the way we as secular Americans think about “the holidays” is, at its core, centered around Christianity.

And yet, some of the most iconic American Christmas cultural content was created by Jews. Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer? A Jewish creation. Jewish composers and songwriters also brought us “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree,” “Holly Jolly Christmas,” “Let It Snow,” “It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” and “White Christmas.” (Composer Irving Berlin wrote all of the music for the film “Holiday Inn,” and “White Christmas” was such a breakout that a whole movie was crafted around it.) More recently, Rob Reiner and Nora Ephron, both Jewish, created iconic holiday-centric rom-coms like “When Harry Met Sally,” “Sleepless In Seattle,” and “You’ve Got Mail.”

The point is that Jews have long brought their Jewishness — themes of community, of otherness, of isolation and the ways in which that isolation can be solved by forming new connections — to the entertainment we associate with the holiday season. That’s why we want more (and better!) than “Menorah In The Middle.”

In this episode, we go through all of “Menorah In The Middle’s” completely unhinged details, as well as the bigger themes it brings up. And we rate it out of 10 flaky pieces of rugelach. Hope you enjoy!

Stay tuned: Next week we will be watching and recapping “The Spirit of Christmas,” Emma’s absolute favorite made-for-TV Christmas rom-com.

We’ve been reading…

We’ve been recording so much in preparation for taking a holiday break that my reading has seriously been lacking. I have however found time to read all of the chatter about Something Navy founder Arielle Charnas and the (somewhat unexciting) Business Insider piece that recently published about her seemingly failing business. Even when I’m exhausted, I love some gossip. -Emma

Like Emma said, it’s been a weirdly hectic month. Holiday movies don’t take exhaustive notes on themselves, as I had imagined! So I am another week closer to self-inflicted illiteracy. I did read some coverage of the dreadful “Twitter Files” threads from the hacks Elon Musk hired to comb through his own company’s internal documents, and Eric Levitz’s New York Mag piece was clarifying and appropriately withering. -Claire

We’ve been watching…

I finally started Netflix’s “Wednesday” after my friend Laura Bassett described it to me as “perfect.” I’m about halfway through and I can attest that it is a very good time. Jenna Ortega is a god damn delight as Wednesday Addams, and I love that Christina Ricci (our OG Wednesday) has a supporting role. It’s creepy and funny and has some of that great teen romance I love. Plus… a murder mystery. What could be more fun? -Emma

I’ve been deep in screener-land (did you know “You” returns to Netflix in February? And “Emily in Paris” in just a couple weeks? *eyes emoji*) whenever I’m not plowing through holiday movies, and boy, is it a festive mixture. I’ve also now reached the point of “Sister Wives” hysteria where I pore through sneak peeks of each episode for signs that Janelle will leave Kody come Sunday. I just want Kody’s dream of being a polygamist patriarch to finally be crushed! -Claire

We’ve been listening to…

The latest season of “Articles of Interest,” which is focused on the history and cultural impact of Ivy style, the forefather of preppy. Avery Trufelman does a fascinating deep dive on the origins and iterations of this style, taking listeners from the docks of New York City to 1960s Japan. She deftly argues that Ivy style, once the uniform of elite male college students at Princeton, has become so ubiquitous that today we simply see these pieces as basics that transcend trend. If you like clothes and history, this pod is absolutely worth a listen. -Emma

I saw that the “If Books Could Kill” pod had launched a Patreon for paywalled episodes about Substacks, so I obviously hit “subscribe” so fast I almost broke a nail. The first episode, about Bari Weiss’s Substack, was a delightfully illuminating conversation about a pundit I had almost managed to forget about, until her abysmal installment of the Twitter Files dropped. -Claire

We’ve been buying…

My favorite wintertime candle, the Apotheke Charcoal candle, which is currently on sale at J.Crew. Trust me, it makes your home smell HEAVENLY. Also, I bought a refill of my favorite concealer, the Ilia True Skin Serum concealer, which I absolutely love for covering up minor blemishes and brightening my under eyes. -Emma

My son celebrates his birthday, Hanukkah, AND Christmas every December, so allow me to recommend the Melissa and Doug tabletop easel, which has made him a very happy almost-three-year-old. I also just replenished the whole family’s winter socks with a shipment from Bombas, and they really do live up to the hype. -Claire

Our wonderful friend Esmé Weijun Wang, a brilliant writer and teacher, is offering a webinar for writers on December 17 that will help you reflect on 2022 and get ready for 2023 (something we all desperately need right now) and we’re spreading the word! Here’s info about the event:

What’s the difference between stepping into 2023 with a confident, step-by-step, and flexible plan for how to approach your writing life… and spending the new year tangled up in worries about your limitations and tied up in The State of the World Today?

I’m Esmé Weijun Wang and I’m teaching a webinar next month called Looking Back & Intention-Setting for 2023: A Workshop for Writers, and the best thing about it is that it untangles the knots of your weird and wild 2022—and smooths out the confusion about approaching 2023—in one actionable, clearly defined get-together with me and other writers with limitations like you. (Because it’s heart-healing to spend time with other people who understand what it’s like to be overly aware of your body and/or mind.)

You’ll be answering questions about the last year, defining your limitations, and making clear your goals for 2023 so that you can approach the new year with a step-by-step plan that can adjust to flares of illness, unexpected health crises, and… well, the situations that happen in life that make you set up an autoresponder that says, “Due to this thing that I wasn’t expecting, I’m being much slower about emails right now.” And you’ll feel more certain and confident about the year to come, while being sure to look back at exactly what happened in 2022. Because it was a lot!

Whether you’re a successful working writer or someone who wants to write more than you currently do, you’ll reflect and plan for 2022 in a way that hits goals that make sense for your life—and feels as good as a cozy, beautifully knitted shawl.

This workshop taught by Esmé will be at 11 AM PT, December 17, 2022. Learn more, and sign up, right here (https://bit.ly/writers2023).

Bio: Esmé Weijun Wang is a novelist and essayist. She is the author of the New York Times-bestselling essay collection, The Collected Schizophrenias (2019), and a debut novel, The Border of Paradise. She was named by Granta as one of the “Best of Young American Novelists” on its decennial list in 2017 and won the Whiting Award in 2018. Born in the Midwest to Taiwanese parents, she is the founder of The Unexpected Shape™ Writing Academy for ambitious writers living with limitations. She can be found at esmewang.com.

Another week, another Netflix holiday movie with two dead moms, a daughter who desperately longs for her hot dad to find her a new mom, a privileged princess who learns to be domestic stepmother goddess material… and a former teen idol playing a starring role.

In “Falling for Christmas,” Lindsay Lohan swept us off our feet, reminding us why she was a star to begin with. In “Christmas With You,” ex-heartthrob Freddie Prinze Jr. steps into the crimson glow of the Netflix spotlight. And it’s… fine. It’s really fine. But he’s not really the star. Instead, it’s Aimee Garcia, playing the glamorous (but lonely) pop icon Angelina Costa, who grabs the eye whenever she’s onscreen.

Angelina, a J.Lo-esque diva who hasn’t had a hit — or much inspiration — in a few years, is stunned when her label director Barry insists that she produce a Christmas single in a matter of days. At a creative standstill and humiliated by her rapid fall from grace at the label, Angelina decides she needs to connect with her fans. So she and her manager spontaneously visit a young fan, Christina, who made a video tribute to Angelina and her own late mother. And, believe it or not, they get snowed in! Forced to spend the night with Christina and her adorable music teacher father Miguel (Freddie Prinze Jr.), she quickly connects with Miguel over songwriting and asks him to collaborate on her Christmas track. And maybe… fall in love? Only her PR fauxmance with a hot telenovela star and the demands of her fast-paced entertainment career could possibly stand in the way!

In this episode, we recap every beat of this holiday flick, assess Freddie Prinze Jr.’s hot dad energy (final ruling: let him be dapper before the big gala scene! you’re leaving way too much dapperness on the shelf here!), review Angelina’s music, contemplate how hard it would be to write a pop hit ourselves, and rate the movie out of 10 original holiday bops. Hope you enjoy!

Stay tuned: Next week we will be watching and recapping the Hulu flick “Menorah in the Middle.”

We’ve been reading…

It has been a truly fallow period in my reading life. I have to admit the thing I’ve spent the most time reading lately is the Sister Wives subreddit, because Kody (the most prominent polygamist follower of the Curly Girl Method) is such a consummate reality TV villain this season that I have succumbed to the troubling urge to read endless threads of people ripping him a new one. Also, the holidays are not a calm time when you have a toddler who was born in December and who celebrates both Hanukkah AND Christmas. Please send me enough focus to read literally five pages of a book this week. -Claire

I just started my bud Kase Wickman’s new book about the history and cultural impact of “Bring It On,” and it is truly so much fun! The title gives you a hint at the upbeat, cheeky and sharp tone of the book: “Bring It On: The Complete Story of the Cheerleading Movie That Changed, Like, Everything (No, Seriously).” -Emma

We’ve been watching…

Now that the election is (mostly) over, my husband and I are occasionally able to squeeze in some TV over dinner. We’ve been alternating “White Lotus” and “Fleishman Is In Trouble,” one of which I feel has grown almost alarmingly lurid (and very impressed with its own freshman-seminar-level insights on gender) and the other of which I find weirdly boring, and yet both of which I absolutely love devouring with a sleeve of cookies. -Claire

It will come as a surprise likely to no one that my boyfriend and I are also watching these same two shows. I am thoroughly enjoying both. I also watched Hallmark’s “Ghosts of Christmas Always,” at the suggestion of Davita in our Substack subscriber chat. It was, as she said it would be, “bewilderingly delightful.” -Emma

We’ve been listening to…

“Crooked City: The Emerald Triangle,” a podcast by a journalist who began investigating after he heard that his high school friend was the main suspect in a brutal murder. The crime took place in a stretch of rural Northern California where massive amounts of marijuana are produced, and the victim and suspects were all involved in the as-yet illegal industry. It’s packed with true crime pod tropes — the purple descriptions, folksy needle drops, even wishful references to being like Hunter S. Thompson — but I have found myself sucked in despite it. -Claire

The “If Books Could Kill” episode about Neil Strauss’ The Game, the book that permanently made “neg” a part of our mainstream vernacular. I continue to love Peter and Michael’s wry observations, and though I would not have immediately thought of The Game as a classic airport book, the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. -Emma

We’ve been buying…

The Black Friday sales really did me in… so many purchases, and now so many returns of things that didn’t work. But two pant-set purchases (formal and bedroom casual) made the cut: The posy navy pant and buttondown set from Hill House, and these patterned waffle-knit PJs from Madewell. (Per reviews, I sized up one, and I’m glad I did.) It’s pants season, and I’m ready to have all my limbs covered and cozy. -Claire

I too have been in a frenzy of sorting through deliveries and inevitable returns from my Black Friday blackout. But I did buy two beauty tools that I feel very excited about and will *not* be returning. First, the Shark FlexStyle has truly changed my life. If you haven’t heard about this magical hair tool, it is essentially just the Shark version of the Dyson Airwrap, except instead of $600, it’s between $250 and $280, depending on how many attachments you need. I went with the pick 3 option and got the paddle brush, round brush and curling attachments and holy shit this thing works so well! My hair takes forever to dry and curl, and doesn’t hold a curl well, and this product solves for both of those issues. Of course there’s still a bit of a learning curve involved, and it’s not a 5-minute process, but it dries my hair way faster than other hair dryers and allows me to add some really salon-worthy waves if I want to without using any product.

My second rec for the week is the Solawave. My skin is super reactive, and I have long struggled with adult cystic acne, especially around my periods, so I am always up to try anything that might help me calm that shit down. I got the red light therapy wand which is supposed to target minor wrinkles, fine lines, dark circles, blemishes, and dark spots, and the Bye Acne tool which lets you target small areas on your face where you get frequent breakouts. I have only been using them for about a week, and skin stuff is so hard to review because everyone’s skin is different / I am not an expert, but I do think it’s made a difference. I’ve seen my cystic bumps recede more quickly, and I have also just enjoyed adding something quick and relaxing to my skincare routine. -Emma

The Lohanaissance has arrived and it feels so good.

For the two of us, Lindsay Lohan was synonymous with the best parts of girlhood when we were growing up. Her bright red hair and visible freckles were icons in their own right. She was there with us navigating sibling relationships (“The Parent Trap”), parental relationships (“Freaky Friday”), and friendships (“Mean Girls”). We grew up alongside Lindsay, and then watched as the media delighted in her fall from grace, her struggles with addiction, her difficult transition from child star to whatever comes next.

But now it’s 2022, and a lot has changed for the women of the “Bimbo Summit.” Britney is free, Paris is bringing awareness to abuses in the “troubled teen industry,” and Lindsay is back on our screens, charming as ever. And we are *extremely* here for it.

“Falling For Christmas” is a delicious candy cane of a movie. It’s the first of Lindsay Lohan’s multi-film deal with Netflix. Lindsay plays spoiled hotel heiress Sierra Belmont, who gets into a ski accident after an engagement shoot with her influencer boyfriend goes very wrong, and wakes up with amnesia. A down-on-his-luck local lodge owner, Jake, takes her in and (duh!) sparks fly as Sierra learns to appreciate the less luxurious things in life.

Is it formulaic? For sure. Full of completely absurd plot holes and details? Absolutely. Is it a whole lot of fun, thanks in large part to Lindsay? Also yes. We had so much fun watching “Falling For Christmas” and discussing it, and we hope you enjoy our chat just as much. Xo

Programming note: We will be taking the week off for Thanksgiving, so no episode next week! We will be back in two weeks.

We’ve been reading…

Jessica Valenti’s terrifying and essential newsletter, Abortion, Every Day by Jessica Valenti. So much is going on in this country that it can be easy to just tune it out for our own self-preservation. Jessica's newsletter tells us not to do that, to stare at the ugliness right in the face, and then figure out what the hell to do about it. -Emma

In what marks a real low point for my reading trajectory, I can’t remember reading anything this week. I must have, right? I’ll read when cold and flue season is over. -Claire

We’ve been watching…

Finally started season two of “White Lotus.” (It is one of the few shows that my boyfriend will happily watch with me, so I like to save it for us to enjoy together.) Sometimes the sophomore season of a buzzy show disappoints. But so far, this season slaps. Some of the themes (like the class divide) remain, but it feels like this season is diving deeper into gender and sexuality. I’m especially loving Meghann Fahy (shout out to my “Bold Type” stans!) and Aubrey Plaza as Daphne and Harper, respectively. Anyone else feel like one of them is going to murder someone? -Emma

“Turning Red,” the 2022 animated movie about Mei Lee, a Chinese-Canadian 13-year-old who has spent her life as the perfect daughter and student — until she starts transforming into a red panda whenever she she feels a strong emotion. The strong aughts energy (it’s 2002 and Mei is a boy band stan) really brings me back to my own adolescence, and it’s a sweet, heartfelt exploration of growing up and exploring your independence. Also, the toddler is home sick again so I’ve watched it around seven times, conservatively. -Claire

We’ve been listening to…

I’ve been really enjoying the first two episodes of the “Infamous” podcast, about Girls Gone Wild and its predatory founder, Joe Francis. Hosted by journalist Vanessa Grigoriadis, who covered Francis in the early aughts, it’s fascinating. -Emma

Nothing new this week, but I do have all the boy band songs from “Turning Red” seared into my brain now. -Claire

We’ve been buying…

Yes, it is the one time a year when all of Hill House goes on a 30% off sale, and yes of course I did purchase this tartan Tatiana skirt and this navy Sylvie sweater dress as a result. (Also… I’ve been *swooning* over their new party platforms.) -Emma

Ugh, yeah, I got the whole family matching PJs, which I guess means I’m now the Instamommy I never dreamed of becoming. I promise not to hire a photographer to take pictures of us having a pillow fight in them. -Claire

“Love Is Blind” came to a crashing conclusion on Wednesday, with a dramatic finale and a still-more dramatic reunion. Some people said no, some people said yes; some couples showed up to the reunion looking relaxed and happy while others showed up with more of a “blink twice if you need help” vibe. Accusations were made about clementines and lies. Deleted footage was aired out. The Cole and Zanab storyline, in particular, has polarized the audience, with each garnering floods of passionate defenders and haters. We’re passionately in favor of everyone going to therapy after this, especially Cole and Zanab. (And Colleen. Love you, girl.)

It was the most dramatic “Love Is Blind” yet, which is saying something after a season that featured ultimate reality show villain Shake. We’re conflicted about what that means for the show: the more compelling it is, the more it leans into conflict that demoralizes real people, and leads to their real demonization. With “Love Is Blind” ascendant in the space, its major players are reaping the social platform boosts, but also the overwhelming hate and harassment, that “Bachelor” franchise contestants long have.

There was a lot to digest, and so this recap is objectively our most unwieldy pod yet — we almost released it in two more wieldy parts, but ultimately decided we couldn’t wait with our reunion takes. It’s a long pod, but we enjoyed every minute of taping it, and we hope you enjoy our hot takes, slightly petty jokes, and lively debates. Happy “LIB” finale week! xo

We’ve been watching…

I started “Buying Beverly Hills,” which is sort of like “Selling Sunset” except about The Agency. The Agency is another LA-headquartered luxury real estate firm founded by Mauricio Umansky, best known as Kyle Richards’ husband from RHOBH. You really just love to see rich reality stars out here building their empire. I can already tell I’m going to binge all of it. -Emma

Netflix’s latest cult/scam documentary, “Orgasm Inc: The Story of OneTaste.” It tracks the rise and fall of the self-anointed sexual healer Nicole Daedone and her company OneTaste, which promised people better living through better sex. The organization offered workshops, classes, and gatherings centered around what Daedone called “stroking” or "OMing” (short for orgasmic meditation) — essentially a standardized, ritualistic approach to stimulating a woman’s clitoris. The company, and the charismatic Daedone, attracted a fervent community, media buzz, and floods of investment dollars. But beneath the girl-power, sex-positive gloss, OneTaste was, according to some ex-followers, turning into a sexually coercive space that, despite its focus on the female orgasm, actually urged women to cater to men’s sexual desires — even violent and nonconsensual ones.

It was a disturbing watch, with some fair if not entirely groundbreaking points about how female leadership doesn’t necessarily prevent toxic power dynamics and sexual exploitation within an organization. It also contains a fair amount of sexually explicit material drawn from footage of OneTaste events, which prompted a lawsuit from some former members. It was compelling, and I hope that the victims who told their stories in the documentary felt that it properly honored their stories, but at times it did feel ethically questionable that film itself made lurid use of the same sexually titillating experiences that it purported to critique. -Claire

We’ve been reading…

My reading has really fallen off this week. There was simply too much “Love is Blind” and too much election anxiety. I have however, been unable to stop thinking about this The Cut piece I read recently, “Could Thin Be In Again?” Michelle Santiago Cortés explores the resurgence of an online culture most millennial women are probably painfully aware of: the fetishization of extreme thinness and extreme weight loss. I found it to be a deeply stressful and depressing read, but also a deeply important one. I kept asking myself, how do we stop this shit from wreaking havoc on us all…. again? -Emma

Who has time to read a book these days? Not me, I’m afraid! Once again I’m resorting to reading about books instead. Last week I recommended Brandon Taylor’s great essay on “character vapor,” and this week, an essay from the excellent writer Lincoln Michel digging into what Taylor called “trite physicality” a bit more deeply. The clichéd physical details they discuss — Taylor often, hilariously, bemoans characters “toeing off their shoes”; I also loathe the needless outfit descriptions Michel mentions — are one of my great pet peeves in fiction, and Michel has some great points about why this may happen. -Claire

We’ve been listening to…

“If Books Could Kill,” a fab new pod from our former colleague Michael Hobbes, who also co-hosts “Maintenance Phase.” In this new show, which only has one episode out so far, but I devoured it, Michael and his co-host, Peter Shamshiri, dissect the pop science “airport books” that topped bestsellers lists and proliferated some pretty fucking terrible ideas in the process! First up? “Freakonomics.” -Emma

I also immediately listened to the first episode of “If Books Could Kill”!! In addition to Michael’s resumé, I wanted to note that Peter Shamshiri is one of the cohosts of the lacerating Supreme Court pod “5-4,” making this a kind of dream collab of two of my favorite podcasters. Not to mention a dream topic: overhyped nonfiction. I never read “Freakonomics,” despite the best efforts of my high school econ teacher. But its cultural impact was so profound that I found I was familiar with a lot of the concepts it peddled, in which Michael and Peter delightfully poke holes. -Claire

We’ve been buying…

I made two fun and frivolous purchases recently: A Fenty Beauty Gloss Bomb lip gloss in Fenty Glow (it’s Sephora sale time and I had seen this gloss recommended all over the internet!), and this silk corset top from Abercrombie, which is a great dupe for a more pricey Reformation one. -Emma

My brother-in-law’s wedding is approaching, so obviously a tiny H&M suit for our toddler to wear in some family photos! I also snagged a navy tulle Ellie secondhand to wear to the wedding, and I can’t wait to wear it with some burgundy heels and a bold lip. (I will NEVER participate in the dark-liner-shiny-gloss lip trend.) -Claire

It’s the (not quite) end of the road for the couples of “Love Is Blind” season 3.

Episodes 8, 9 and 10 follow our five couples through the last 10 days leading up to their weddings. It’s always fascinating to watch how the Love Is Blind relationships often find an equilibrium at this point. The couples have been together for a month. They know what they love about their partners and what annoys the crap out of them. They know how to push each other’s buttons, and they have been confronted by the opinions of their closest friends and family members.

For some, it seems like this final stretch provides the chance to exhale and just enjoy. Bartise and Nancy turn a corner (though we suspect that doesn’t mean anything for their longevity as a couple), and SK and Raven have some of their easiest and most romantic moments. Alexa and Brennon continue to be the epitome of stability, while Cole and Zanab and Colleen and Matt seem to be the most overtly conflicted about whether to move forward with a marriage.

A lot of action is packed into this penultimate batch of episodes: We get some forced romantic outings (permanent bracelets! love locks!) and last-chance dates, as well as some pre-wedding rituals. They all go wedding clothes shopping, have group bachelor and bachelorette parties, and, of course, we get to see SK and Raven’s wedding, and half of Bartise and Nancy’s. As always, we had a *lot* to say about it all.

It’s hard to watch some of these couples struggle with what seems like fundamental incompatibilities; the type of things that are simply impossible to know about a person when you are just having deep conversations through the pod walls. Yes, an emotional connection is important to the health of a longterm relationship, but so are so many other things. Will your partner’s family members embrace you? Do you have opposite communication styles when in conflict? Does your partner insist on shooting a Nerf gun while chicken is cooking in hot oil on the stovetop?

We explore all of these questions (and much more) on this week’s LIB3 recap. Hope you enjoy! Xo

We’ve been reading…

My new thing apparently is reading half of a book and then putting it down for a month and then going back to it? So finally into the latter half of Sloane Crosley’s Cult Classic, and I continue to REALLY enjoy it. Love me some magical realism in New York City. -Emma

I am stalled out right now. The pace of Bachelor in Paradise and Love Is Blind, plus Tell Me Lies, two toddler sick days last week, and a Halloween half-day for a daycare parade and trick-or-treating have left me perpetually scrambling. In lieu of reading any books, I read Brandon Taylor’s latest essay for Sweater Weather, “Against Character Vapor,” which examines how contemporary and modernist fiction engage (or don’t) with characters’ physical forms. Though I like a lot of the novels he critiques, it’s a compelling read, puts words to some writing tics that irritate me as well, and maybe even persuaded me a little bit. -Claire

We’ve been watching…

In honor of Halloween, I watched “The Craft” all the way through for the first time in… decades? The perfect ‘90s aesthetics! The grunge soundtrack! A perfect, dark, twisty, witchy rewatch. -Emma

The premiere of “White Lotus,” season 2 (Italian edition)! Jennifer Coolidge is back as Tanya, an unfulfilled heiress, now rather unhappily married to Greg, her fling from season 1; Aubrey Plaza and Meghann Fahy are also here as the wildly dissimilar wives of two old college friends, one of whom is now a tech billionaire. I’m obsessed with the casting, and I only hope the rest of the season is as fun as the first episode. -Claire

We’ve been listening to…

Friend of the pod (and IRL friend) Jacqueline Trumbull’s raw, honest, compassionate episode of “A Little Help For Our Friends” about her decision to end her engagement. It takes a lot of maturity and bravery to be so open about such a difficult and personal decision, and it was a beautiful listen. -Emma

I have been catching up on some more politically geared podcasts in my queue, and with the midterms rapidly approaching (and in some cases, already taking place!), it’s a stark reminder of how much is at stake in this election, and how likely it is that Republicans will make consequential gains. I’ve been listening to Supreme Court pod “Five Four” on the independent state legislature theory, a once-fringe legal theory conservatives are diligently working to leverage in order to overturn future elections, and “Know Your Enemy” on the crucial importance of winning political battles at the state level to preserve democracy across the country. Abortion is on the ballot; trans lives are on the ballot; democracy is on the ballot. Please vote! -Claire

We’ve been buying…

Shoes! I caved and decided to get back into Uggs after seeing my boyfriend’s sister wearing a particularly cute pair, the Neumel Suede Platform booties. They are so cozy and give you some height, which as a short lady, I very much appreciate. I also have been on a search for a not-wildly-expensive pair of lug sole loafers, and I finally bit the bullet and ordered these Massimo Dutti ones. (I love that they have a gold accent, a nice dupe for the Gucci ones.) They’re gorgeous, and although they’re a little wide for my narrow feet, a simple shoe insert did the trick. Can’t wait to rock them with some visible white socks. -Emma

Some new fall gels from Color Camp! I kind of love the warm, orangey browns that are everywhere this fall, so I’m obsessed with my new caramel nails, but also this crochet-inspired design.

I was (full disclosure) having some issues with my gel press-ons for a bit this summer: I’d remove them to find that I had green under one or two of my nails. This is apparently a kind of fungal infection (ahhhh!), and though it was painless and went away once I left my nails bare, it was obviously disgusting and bad. No one seemed to be talking about this!! No warnings, nothing!! But I did some research and made some changes (dry prep instead of soaking nails before pushing back my cuticles, using nail dehydrator before applying, getting a good nail glue with a brush applicator for even glue coverage) and haven’t had a problem since. If you’re still reading this and want to try at-home gel press-ons, bear in mind that ANY water trapped under a fake nail for a couple weeks can lead to infections. Dehydrate those nails! -Claire

Happy Halloween, beloveds! Gather round the campfire, because we sure have a spooky story for you: a tale of a sweet, naive college freshman who stumbles into an entanglement with the wrong man. A man with a dark past and a penchant for seduction. A man so addicted to fucking around, he’s driving his life straight into a ditch.

In short, we both ripped through Hulu’s sordid series “Tell Me Lies,” based on the 2018 novel by Carola Lovering, which wrapped up this week with a shocking finale that already has us clamoring for a second season. As a TV show, it’s far from perfect; as a period piece set in 2007 (our own college days!) it sadly leaves much to be desired. As a creepy, steamy binge, it fits the bill, as long as you don’t worry too much about the details.

The series follows Lucy (Grace Van Patten), a freshman at an upstate NY liberal arts college in 2007, who falls hard and fast for Stephen (Jackson White), a junior with “bad boy” oozing from his pores. Stephen pursues Lucy diligently, but he also withholds commitment and seems to be hiding things from her, which only makes her work harder to keep him interested. Meanwhile, her roommate Macy dies in a tragic car accident before classes even begin, and it soon emerges that some people on campus know more about the circumstances of her death than it initially seemed. Is Stephen a wounded but worthy soul, or a fuckboy beyond redemption? Will their relationship bring out Lucy’s best, or drag her down to the depths?

On this episode, we discuss the aesthetic of 2007 (side parts and flat-irons, dark eyeliner and tunics) and what appears to be the show’s choice not to embrace it. We also unpack the show’s exploration of emotional abuse both in families and between romantic partners, and its lurid depiction of the evils of hook-up culture. We hope you enjoy, and remember: stay safe out there. Fuckboys are everywhere.

P.S. Remember to vote!! Look up your early voting polling place and get out there. Even scarier than an FBoy is a racist, xenophobic, misogynist nutjob running your state and local government.

Toto, we’re not in Malibu anymore!

That’s right y’all, it’s time for our 5 (moderately) happy, newly-engaged couples to head back to Dallas, move into their show-appointed neutrally-decorated apartments, and commence the grueling labor of coupledom.

This week’s batch of episodes was so meaty that we found it difficult to discuss them in a concise and coherent manner. Some scenes felt like they needed entire podcast episodes, like the knotty conversation that Bartise and Nancy have about abortion rights, or the massive blow-up fight that Matt and Colleen have and then quickly try to paper over. Plus, predictably, both Bartise and Cole continued to act a fool after realizing that the other women they had pursued in the pods, were in fact, also hot.

Luckily for our cold dead hearts, which have been beaten down even further by this season of Bachelor In Paradise, we also got some sweetness in these episodes. Alexa and Brennon continue their reign as the golden couple, even as their differences become more pronounced, and SK and Raven’s slow burn has turned into a moderately hot flame.

Who are our top 3 enemies? Who rose up the ranks in our should-they-get-married ratings? Listen and enjoy! xo

We’ve been reading…

After a break, I went back to Gabrielle Zevin’s “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” and read the last two-thirds of it on one rainy Sunday afternoon. I couldn’t put it down, and I spent the last 100-ish pages weeping. It’s so very beautiful. Don’t let the gaming premise turn you off, this is a must-read. -Emma

I’m still reading “Nevada” by Imogen Binnie, though I’ve been on something of an enforced break. Max has had a bad cold, so not only was our weekend more chaotic than usual (postnasal drip does not put toddlers in a good mood any more than it does adults, and they can’t use decongestants) but he missed a couple days of daycare. My fun reading is the first thing to drop off the agenda, but I’m hoping to get back to it soon!

I also read Lila Shapiro on the lawsuit Moira Donegan is facing over the Shitty Media Men list, which disturbingly appears poised to go to trial. -Claire

We’ve been listening to…

Taylor Swift’s “Midnights.” Duh. I’ve been especially obsessed with the 3am tracks, specifically in “Could’ve Would’ve Should’ve,” her musical excoriation of John Mayer, who she dated at 19 when he was 32. “Give me my back my girlhood / It was mine first.” Devastating. -Emma

We’ve all been listening to “Midnights,” which for some reason has emerged as the Taylor album I am least likely to skip tracks on. Maybe I’m just becoming more patient in my old age and letting her quieter tracks have a chance to creep up on me, or maybe I love the blend of indie rock influences and synthy pop — somehow I even enjoy the cringe tracks like “Vigilante Shit.” (It’s because I, like Taylor, am cringe.) -Claire

We’ve been watching…

Honestly haven’t had time to watch anything this week other than BIP, Love Is Blind and a little bit of Tell Me Lies. Pretty cool that I got to do all of that for work. -Emma

The upside of Max’s cold is that we’ve all had a chance to get into “Encanto.” The first couple times we tried it, he found it pretty overstimulating, but now he is obsessed. And so am I. He gets to watch chunks of it while he does his many inhaler sessions, or when he’s too miserable to play with toys, and I think I enjoy it as much as he does. The plot holes are starting to get to me a bit (why does Tia Pepa affect the weather easily enough to summon a whole hurricane on her wedding day, but in the actual movie we only see tiny little clouds directly over her? Mostly I have a lot of questions about Tia Pepa) but it’s just so fun and packed with earworms. -Claire

We’ve been buying…

It will come to absolutely no one’s surprise that I indulged in a little Hill House holiday-wear. I love this soft blackwatch tartan pattern, and got the Louisa dress and the Evelyn, both perfect for taking a fall stroll / grabbing a meal out / podcasting from your bedroom. All the versatility I need for my current lifestyle. (LOL.) -Emma

Ugh, same. I wear my tartan Ellies around the house constantly in the winter, so it was easy to convince myself that I needed more. I got a Caroline, and it’s like being swaddled in a soft, light blanket. For those who need to look nice outside of their homes, perhaps at parties or even a fashion-forward office, I recommend the mod Araminta — I’ve never felt more beautiful in a statement sleeve or a shift dress. (I never need to dress up, so mine is going back, but not without a pang!)

I also saw that Rifle Paper Co. was having a sale on 2023 planners, so I went ahead and got the 2023 version of my current planner, which I love. The promotion appears to be over, but a few individual planners are still discounted. I’m more an organizational aspirant than a rigorous organizer, but this planner has just the right balance of calendar space, general note-taking space, and to-do list space for my fairly basic needs. -Claire

We love a pod love pod here at Rich Text, so we were ready as hell for season 3 of “Love Is Blind” to kick off this week and we’re already back on our bullshit (making pods about pods).

Season 3: Dallas edition, which is dropping just a month after the season 2 “Love Is Blind: After the Altar” special and associated divorce announcements proved the Chicago experiment a bust, hopes to restore our faith in blind speed dating. Can Vanessa Lachey and her statement sleeves (and, less importantly, her husband Nick) help these lonely hearts find love sight unseen?

The first four episodes introduce us to our main daters (e.g. the ones who end up getting engaged and participating in the rest of the show), follow a few love triangle clusters, and see our newly betrothed couples head off to Malibu for a luxury getaway.

At this stage, season 3 might be the least dramatic season yet, with no apparent second-choice engagements, love triangles that linger past the pod stage, or interpersonal drama. That doesn’t mean people don’t find ways to act foolish (doing a loud set of jumping jacks while a potential fiancé shares a painful family story, for example) or say gross things (“I’m gonna pump a couple kids in you,” FOR EXAMPLE), but the season feels a bit gentler and more mature.

One thing was a particularly refreshing change after a season 2 fraught with fatphobia, negative body talk, and weight loss backstories: not only are the contestants presented as less fixated on thinness, we actually see a plus-size woman, Alexa Alfia, who embraces her own body and its beauty and who has a blissful love story in the pods.

If you’ve watched already or if you just want to hear the breakdown, here’s our full recap. Hope you enjoy! xo

We’ve been reading…

“Nevada,” by Imogen Binnie. I’ve been listening to the Missing Pages podcast Emma mentioned a few newsletters ago, and while it hasn’t necessarily been my favorite podcast ever (for one thing, I’m already pretty familiar with all the big literary scandals and mysteries from covering the book world for half a decade and writing innumerable listicles about the industry), I enjoyed Binnie’s interview on an episode about J.T. Leroy. It got me curious about Binnie’s own cult classic, which was recently reissued by FSG. The novel follows Maria, an almost-30 trans woman who has a miserable job at a Very Famous Indie Bookstore in New York, a rapidly imploding relationship with a long-term girlfriend she used to love, and a brewing internal crisis over her inability to connect with her own feelings and needs. It’s provocative, scathing, and deeply jaded — Maria is even bored with her own traumas and vulnerable places. It’s often uncomfortable reading, in the best possible way. -Claire

Jamelle Bouie’s NYTimes op-ed, “Jim Crow Should Have Made One Thing Clear,” about lessons we all need to take on board from our own nation’s history as we head closer and closer towards terrifying authoritarianism. The whole column is a must read, but this paragraph stopped me in my tracks:

As we look to a November in which a number of vocal election deniers are poised to win powerful positions in key swing states, I think that the great degree to which authoritarianism is tied up in the American experience — and the extent to which we’ve been trained not to see it, in accordance with our national myths and sense of exceptionalism — makes it difficult for many Americans to really believe that democracy as we know it could be in serious danger. In other words, too many Americans still think it can’t happen here, when the truth is that it already has and may well again.

Please please please make sure you are registered to vote, and get yourself and your communities to the polls in November. Our lives and our democracy depends on it. -Emma

We’ve been watching…

I finished “Partner Track” this week. It was a treasure trove of memes for me, given that the villain has exactly the same name as my brother (who is not villainous at all) and the script is littered with gems like “I just want to punch Dan Fallon in his smug, pretentious face,” so I had to see it through. But genuinely, to me, “Partner Track” is an “Emily in Paris”-level binge: so much is going badly (the acting, the writing, the corny plot twists, the often clunky if well-meaning treatment of social justice issues) that it’s impossible to look away. Honestly, get me another season of “Partner Track” to watch alongside Emily’s Parisian adventures — but also, maybe some more actually good shows with quirky female leads. -Claire

The first episode of the new season of “The Vow.” Did this NXIVM docu-series need a season 2? Probably not. Does it lack interrogation of things like the money that went in and out of the self-help cult? Yes. Will I still be watching it all? Also a yes. -Emma

We’ve been listening to…

“Normal Gossip,” because I always save the new episodes to have as a little treat later and then forget I have them stashed away. This week my absent-mindedness paid off because I got to binge, like, six episodes of “Normal Gossip” and I was LIVING, my friends. Boy band fandom gossip! Family Secret Santa gossip! Gay kickball league gossip! This week I was just swimming around in it, letting it sink into my pores. The Telephone Game episode, a time-lapse compilation of the weekly guests playing an extended game of telephone with an anonymized piece of gossip, was perhaps my favorite, just because it is SO INSTRUCTIVE about not just the fact that gossip DOES get twisted with each retelling, but how and why those changes happen. -Claire

The first episode of a new pod series about the rise and fall of pop famous church Hillsong. “Hillsong: A Megachurch Shattered” is an investigative seven-part series which is a companion piece to a discovery+ docu-series. So far, it’s gripping. -Emma

We’ve been buying…

The Emilia velvet rose platform heels from the recent Antonio Melani X Nicola Bathie Dillard’s drop. I am planning to wear a certain lilac tulle dress to an upcoming wedding, and they seemed to call for some striking platform heels. I went with the cabernet color to darken my look up for fall, and I love them. However, I am slightly terrified of falling over and/or injuring myself?? Women who wear high high heels are so brave. -Claire

These brown leather knee-high Vince Camuto boots. They have been having a major fall sale, so I got them at a discount and I am so excited to enter my flowy dress / tall boots era! As someone with ~shapely~ calves I thought I simply couldn’t wear knee-high and over-the-knee boots, but it turns out that some brands (like Vince Camuto!) make a ton of their taller boots in wide-calf sizes too. #Bless. -Emma